Effects of CRM on the Hospitality Industry

At a very strategic level, CRM has made the hospitality industry much more attuned to the preferences, wants and needs of guests. It has also created a more responsive industry by capturing the needs of customers more efficiently and economically than was ever possible before. Specific areas that have changed the most include more of a focus on making multichannel strategies, from websites to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, more responsive to the needs of the guest to provide feedback (Lim, Saldana, Saldana, Zegarra, 2011). There are also more effective analytics being used than ever before, creating greater insights into guest's patterns of purchasing not only accommodations but amenities as well (Phillips, Louvieris, 2005). CRM's effect on the hospitality industry is very significant, bringing a strong customer orientation to the industry and also giving hoteliers and service providers much greater insights into how they can position their brands, locations and specific services. It has revolutionized the sales, marketing and services of this industry as a result.

Ethical Implications of CRM in the Hospitality Industry

In any technology initiative that includes the capturing and use of customer data, there are ethical decisions that need to be made in the context of how the data is stored, used, analyzed and sold or not. Many companies today are looking to advanced CRM technologies to safeguard the data they use in cloud computing platforms. Salesforce.com uses a cloud platform exclusively, and has been able to successfully show that this technology is safe for customer data. Marketers who capture customer data have an ethical responsibility to manage it securely, accurately while only using it for their purposes of selling their services (Murphy, Olaru, Schegg, Frey, 2003). The unauthorized sale of customer records...

This spectrum of ethicacy is impacting the entire CRM industry in general and the hospitality industry specifically, with a code of ethics needed to make these delineations clear.
Conclusion

CRM systems are revolutionizing the development of selling, marketing, service and pricing strategies in the hospitality industry. The growing use of social media in CRM systems (Lim, Saldana, Saldana, Zegarra, 2011) and the rising adoption of analytics (Phillips, Louvieris, 2005) are giving hospitality providers even greater insights into how to improve and make their operations more profitable. These systems are making a major impact on the overall performance of the industry as more accurate and valuable customer information is gained.

References

Ivanovic, S., Mikinac, K., & Perman, L. (2011). Crm development in hospitality companies for the purpose of increasing the competitiveness in the tourist market. UTMS Journal of Economics, 2(1), 59-68.

Lim, S., Saldana, a.Z., Saldana, P.E., & Zegarra. (2011). Do market oriented firms adopt web 2.0 technologies? An empirical study in hospitality firms. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 7(4), 465-477.

Murphy, J., Olaru, D., Schegg, R., & Frey, S. (2003). The bandwagon effect: Swiss hotels web-site and e-mail management. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 44(1), 71-87.

Phillips, P., & Louvieris, P. (2005). Performance measurement systems in tourism, hospitality, and leisure small medium-sized enterprises: A balanced scorecard perspective. Journal of Travel Research, 44(2), 201-211.

Singh, a.J., & Kasavana, M.L. (2005). The impact of information technology on future management of lodging operations: A delphi study to predict key technological events in 2007 and 2027. Tourism and…