Correspondence: Merlin Stone, 1 Broadmead Close, Hampton, TW12 3RT, UK. e-mail: merlin@merlin-stone.com

¹is an experienced CRM and board advisor. He worked with IBM for many years and now provides independent advice for many large organisations on systems implementation and related change issues.

²is a leading author and advisor on CRM programme management and implementation. He is Professor of Marketing at Bristol Business School and a Director of Nowell Stone Ltd. and The Database Group.

³is a Reader in Marketing at Business School in Oxford Brookes University. He specialised in customer satisfaction measurement, quantitative data analysis and user satisfaction with CRM systems.

Received 7 April 2008; Revised 7 April 2008; Published online 9 June 2008.

Abstract

Although customer relationship management (CRM) has been one of the fastest growing businesses of the new millennium, critics point to the high failure rate of the CRM projects as evidenced by commercial market studies. The purpose of the study is to investigate success and failures of CRM system implementations. We found that the scope, size, complexity and duration of the CRM projects seem to vary quite significantly across firms. Poor planning, lack of clear objectives and not recognising the need for business change are the key reasons for CRM failures.