EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DETERMINANTS OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT PRACTICE

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an enterprise strategy that attracts, retains and elevates the clients. Proper implementation of this strategy will allow organizations to carry out tasks at a lower cost (Bavarsad & Hosseinipour, 2013). This study is undertaken to examine the determinants of the practice of customer relationship management in the hotel industry in the case of Hawassa City, Ethiopia. The study employed an explanatory research design with quantitative research approach. The required data were collected from 257 selected hotel employees by adopting a stratified random sampling technique. The collected data were analyzed using both descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics employing correlation and multiple linear regressions. The findings of the study indicated that the practice of customer relationship management at four star hotels was found to be moderate. The main determinants that influence customer relationship management practice in the study area were knowledge of customer relationship management, customer management process, technology for supporting customer relationship management, and human resource knowledge.