Challenges in the Implementation of Customer Relationship Management System Strategy in Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited

Abstract

The study set out to determine he challenges in the implementation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system strategy in Barclays Bank of Kenya (BBK). The research employed a cross section survey design where respondents were interviewed at a point in time. The population under study was employees of BBK who were senior leaders provide strategic insights into the challenges facing BBK in implementing the CRM strategy and middle level and lower level employees who gave hands-on details of the implementation process. The study mainly used primary data gathered face-to-face from Head of Change, Head of Card Operations (Doc Prep), Head of Contact Centre, Operations Transform Manager, Administration Team Manager, Investigations & Doc Prep Manager, Branch Manager, Complaints Handling Unit Team Manager, Premier Manager Assistant, Operations Training Advisor, Barclays Africa Project Officer, Management Information (MI) Analyst and Personal Banker, through the administration of the interview guide. Content analysis was employed in data analysis mainly because gathered data were largely qualitative and textual in nature, and the outcomes presented in prose. The key challenges identified included employees resistance to the new technological adoption; lack of real time reports to serve customers faster which was aggravated by the inability of the systems to integrate and be stable to provide centralized customer data retrieval as well as a single view of customer details. Other key concerns touched on cost constraints to effectively deal with the entire project; inadequate and ineffective classroom-type training; and incomplete well-defined, structured and documented end-to-end process. In light of the study findings, the researcher recommended that BBK needs to come up with measures aimed at countering the challenges right from the onset of any project to avoid such pitfalls. It is further recommended by the researcher that another study spanning the banking sector, public and private organizations be conducted on challenges in the CRM system strategy implementation to give a balanced look at these challenges holistically. The Study contributed greatly to the policy formulation when crafting a manual to guide delivery of a strategy. It did also add to the body of knowledge through the provision of reading literature. Importantly, the Study acts as a reference material to help organizations formulate effective strategy delivery of any project undertaken such as CRM.