Zarządzanie relacjami z klientami jako trwały czynnik przewagi konkurencyjnej na rynku turystyki biznesowej w sektorze targowym

Abstract

Business tourism is a customer related industry where providing the service that is actually needed and at a level that is required by the client is crucial to make a success. It is often taken for granted that the service providers know their clients and act according to the clients’ identified needs. In fact in many organizations there is no systematic and effective approach to manage relationships with their clients. The aim of this article is to present the concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that could be used in business tourism and particularly trade fair and exhibition industry. Nowadays there is a need for reliable sources of sustainable competitive advantage as the level of services become comparable and relatively high it is crucial to survive on the market, but is no longer a major characteristic. Also the clients’ expectations constantly rise and the service providers need to be aware of them and not only meet but exceed them on a regular basis. The trade fair and exhibition organizers should be able to maintain long-term mutual beneficial relations with the exhibitors in the first place and also with the visitors. Only by implementing the effective system of managing these relations may the organizer or venue manager gain the knowledge about the clients and at the same time, if acting according to this knowledge, the organizer may implement the solutions that the clients are looking for. Considering long-term effects, the knowledge about the needs and opinions of exhibitors may result in creating a new valuable offer for them that would not exist if the organizer and venue manager at the same time was convinced the exhibitors would be satisfied thanks to the new infrastructure only. The article presents the opinions of selected managers on the sources of competitive advantage on the market. These sources will be analysed according to four sustainability criteria of resource based theory. Finally the article presents Peppers’ and Rogers’ approach regarding the stages of implementation of CRM concept in the organization. The examples of activity the organizer may take at every stage were given for further consideration and development. It is crucial to bear in mind that the effectiveness of these solutions can only be assessed long- -term and should be monitored on a regular basis.