Customer relationship management in the COVID-19 outbreak from a salesperson perspective

Abstract

The new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has led to an unpredictable change in business and social life. Many institutions shifted to remote working to reduce the possibility of contagion in the workplace. Banks, which are among the major institutions in business life, have adopted remote working and social distancing rules in their branches and other workspaces. This change has inevitably influenced salespeople’s relationships with their customers since the ways of interacting and communicating have changed dramatically. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of flexible and remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic on customer relationship management (CRM) in retail banking. A survey was conducted on customer relationship managers, branch managers, and other sales personnel regarding their self-assessment of CRM and sales performance during the remote working conditions in the Covid-19 outbreak. The findings have shown that the outbreak period has improved salespeople’s relationships with their customers. Besides, sales performance was positively influenced by CRM. CRM and sales performance did not change significantly depending on the size of the bank’s branch network or the salesperson’s total work experience. 18% and 16% of the salespeople found themselves important and safe, as employees of banks during the outbreak, respectively. However, 51% of the participants stated that working in the banking sector in the outbreak period was hard and anxious. While 16% of the participants thought that it is possible to work from home, only 4% stated that face-to-face communication is required. This study is timely research that has focused on the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on CRM in banking and may constitute a proper base for future studies that will examine the impact of the pandemic deeper.