Developing customised CRM projects: The role of industry norms, organisational context and customer expectations on CRM implementation

•We examine the effects of industry, customer and organisational context on CRM projects.•Each organisation experienced issues unique to their context, requiring customised approaches.•Access to deep CRM knowledge led to more effective project management.•Contextual approaches to CRM project assessment were closely aligned to customised solutions.

This research paper investigates the influence of industry, organisational, and customer context on customer relationship management (CRM) projects. Organisations go through four phases in their CRM projects (assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation), yet the impact of industry norms, organisational contexts, and customer expectations on each phase are rarely examined. A longitudinal case study approach with six cases was used to investigate the potential impact of contextual factors on CRM projects. The cases covered a range of industries, organisational structures, and customer types. We found that current industry conditions and customer expectations influence the reasons for undertaking CRM and the assessment stage of the project. The organisational context has a noticeable impact on the design and implementation project stages. At the evaluation level, customer responses combined with organisational expectations affect the perceived success of the projects. By understanding the impact of context, customised CRM projects can be developed.