CRM Adoption in a Higher Education Institution

Abstract

More and more organisations, from private to public sectors, are pursuing higher levels of customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. With this intent, higher education institutions (HEI) have adopted CRM – Customer Relationship Management. In order to analyse some of the interesting aspects of this phenomenon n, we conducted an action research in a European Institute. The main research question we answered is “how to adopt a CRM strategy in a Higher Education Institution?” Some of the main findings of this study are (1) even though HEI’s main customer is the student, there are others stakeholders that a CRM project must consider; (2) universities can use their internal resources to implement a CRM project successfully; and (3) using Agile software methodology is an effective way to define clearer, more objective and more assertive technical requirements which result in a CRM software that meet send user’s expectations and organizational strategic goals. These findings can help other HEIs planning to adopt CRM as a strategic tool to improve their relationship with the stakeholders´ community and expand their student body.