Assessing the Scalability and Cost-Effectiveness of Customer Relationship Management Automation Among Registered Small Enterprises in Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Small businesses are increasingly adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) automation to enhance customer relations and support business growth. Prior research studies have, however, basically examined CRM scalability and cost-effectiveness separately and have provided limited evidence on registered small enterprises in Maharashtra, India. This study aims to do so through four objectives: (i) to examine the status of CRM adoption, (ii) to identify varieties of CRM practices in use, (iii) to examine the perceived scalability and cost-effectiveness of CRM automation, and (iv) to map major barriers to CRM adoption. A cross-sectional research design was utilized. The Structured Questionnaire was used to collect the Primary data from 400 registered Small Enterprises which is more than the calculated sample size of 382 using Cochran’s formula. The descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, Cramer’s V, the Kruskal-Wallis H test, Spearman’s rank correlation, and one-sample t-tests were used to analyse the data. The study's results reveal that firms of various types and sizes widely and consistently adopt CRM solutions. According to the findings of the article, contact/lead management was the most highly adopted CRM practice at 79.25% while the reporting and analytics functionalities were the least adopted at 46.0%. The perceived scalability of CRM automation is significantly higher (Mean=3.34, p<0.001) as compared to cost-effectiveness (Mean=2.99, p=0.791), with a moderate positive correlation (ρ=0.368, p<0.001) between the two dimensions. The main impediments to the adoption of the customer relationship management system are high implementation costs and training-related skill gaps. The research suggests that CRM automation can help scale the organization, but the long-term value of CRM automation needs effective execution. The results offer valuable guidance for small businesses, CRM providers, and lawmakers.