QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF TAM
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Adoption Barriers
Tazkarji and Stafford (2020) highlighted several adoption barriers for CRM technologies.
This includes managerial commitment, employee resistance, user motivations, development
issues, training issues, organizational fit, and organizational context. CES participants reported
some similar barriers, including costs and resources, training and support, perceived usefulness,
employee resistance, and integration strategy. Interestingly, Tazkarji and Stafford (2020)
emphasized that these adoption barriers can fit inside three main components of CRM
technologies: people, process, and technology. Their study concludes that challenges around
people and technology are heavily influenced by the process, and that organizations can better
manage the process through proper planning and anticipation. CES participants reported several
pre-adoption approaches aligned with this idea of focusing on processes that include strategic
organizational planning, communications across the organization, evaluations, training and
support, vendor selection, and pilot efforts. While all of these approaches are aligned with
managing the process of CRM implementation and can have an impact on both people and
technology, not all CES participants currently using CRM were able to fully invest in their
individual implementations in these areas.
Marketing Automation and Knowledge Creation
Several CES participants reported using specific CRM functions to better understand and
communicate with their clients. Client insights were regarded by CES professionals as a top
benefit of CRM technologies, along with engagement and interaction tracking, enabling them to
best deliver relevant, personalized communications to appropriate audiences. These audiences
would be segmented out in CRM systems into different contact lists based on contact behaviors.
Additionally, the CRM’s ability for personalization was noted by CES professionals as a
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