African Journal of Business Management Vol 5(15), pp 6515-6526, August, 2011 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM DOI: 10.5897/AJBM11.605 ISSN 1993-8233 ©2011 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Comparison of customer relationship management systems perceptions among container shipping companies in Vietnam and Taiwan Yi-Chih Yang* and Hoang Hai Nguyen Department of Shipping and Transportation Management, National Kaohsiung Marine University, No 142, Haijhuan Road, Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City, 81143, Taiwan Accepted 28 April, 2011 The goal of this study is to compare perceptions of customer relationship management (CRM) among Vietnamese and Taiwanese maritime transport service providers, and specifically container shipping companies The study uses the t-test and factor analysis to analyze major differences in CRM usage between the shipping industries in Vietnam and Taiwan, and determines the perceived importance of CRM services employing Importance Performance Analysis The study finds that perceptions of CRM are clearly different in the two countries due to their divergent socioeconomic backgrounds Significant differences between the application of CRM by the shipping industries in the two countries existed in connection with four major factors (e-commerce marketing, interactive marketing, contact marketing, and customer service marketing) It is concluded that shipping companies should improve their computerized CRM systems in order to collect and analyze valuable marketing data from their customers, which will enable sales personnel and customer service staff to make appropriate decisions, improves service quality, and create greater value for customers in the highly competitive maritime transport business Key words: Maritime transport, customer relationship management, importance perfomance analysis INTRODUCTION Customer relationship management (CRM) is a concept that enables an organization to tailor specific products or services to each individual customer In its most sophisticated form, CRM may be used to create a personalized, one-to-one experience that will give the individual customer a sense of being cared for, thus opening up new marketing opportunities based on the preferences and history of the customer (Wilson et al., 2002) CRM also represents a customer-focused business strategy for increasing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty by offering more responsive and customized service to each customer A customer's relationship with a shipping company involves prices, services, scope of service, schedule, customer relations, company history, convenience, brand name, and value-added services There will be no significant differences between two shipping companies within *Corresponding author E-mail: hgyang@mail.nkmu.edu.tw the same strategic alliance group for a customer considering the factors of price, service, scope of service, schedule, and convenience As a consequence, the main distinguishing factors for customers comprise company history, brand name, customer relations, and value-added services (Wong, 2007); in particular, customer relationships are considered to be an important marketing tool facilitating customer retention, development of potential customers, and enhancement of corporate competitive advantage While Vietnam and Taiwan are both located in the AsiaPacific region, there were many significant macroeconomic differences between two nations in 2009 (JETRO, 2010) With regard to population, Vietnam had 87.2 million people, while Taiwan had 23.2 million; in terms of geographic area, Vietnam occupied 331,689 km2, while Taiwan occupied 36,191 km2; in terms of GNP, Vietnam had a GNP of 1,060 dollars, while Taiwan had a GNP of 16,432 dollars; in terms of balance of trade, Vietnam had 12.8 billon dollars, while Taiwan 30.7 billon dollars; with regard to balance of payments, Vietnam had 7.1 billon 6516 Afr J Bus Manage dollars, while Taiwan had 42.5 billion dollars; and with regard to foreign currency reserves, Vietnam held 16.4 billion dollars, while Taiwan held 348.1 billion dollars In summary, while Vietnam is larger than Taiwan in terms of both area and population, Taiwan is considerably stronger than Vietnam from a macroeconomic perspective In view of the different levels of economic development of Vietnam and Taiwan, the chief motivation of this study is to determine whether there are any significant differences in their maritime transport service providers' perceptions of CRM Thanks to its strong economic development environment and vigorous export capability, Vietnam constitutes a potential trading partner and place of investment for multinational enterprises based in the U.S.A, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore, etc However, the majority of foreign enterprises and foreigners are still unfamiliar with this socialist state thanks to the scarcity of data and documents available for reference As a consequence, CRM knowledge and information connected with maritime transport in Vietnam is a worthwhile issue for both academic researchers and practical workers There have been few recent studies concerning CRM in maritime transport The following two papers assume a shipping company perspective: Fakhredaei (2007) proposes and tests a series of hypotheses concerning factors influencing adoption of CRM technology at the organizational level in Iranian shipping companies; Wong (2007) argues that CRM and the internet, together with application systems, have impacted shipping operations in many ways In another paper from the perspective of freight forwarders, Lu and Shang (2007) evaluate the crucial dimensions of CRM from the point of view of freight forwarders in Taiwan In addition, some studies have focused on individual countries For instance, Minami and Dawson (2008), who defined CRM as the use of IT-based relationship development programs, conducted a survey project involving the retail and service industry in Japan in order to test CRM-related hypotheses The current paper makes comparisons between countries with different states of economic development, where one is an advanced country and the other is a developing country, and one of the purposes of the study is to determine whether there are any significant differences in perceptions of CRM in the shipping company arising due to economic status CRM is often associated with the use of information technology to implement relationship marketing strategies (Payne and Frow, 2004) A properly integrated IT system can significantly improve customer service by providing accurate shipment data for both the company and customer, and an integrated IT-based CRM program ensures a more efficient and effective quoting and communications system for sale departments and beyond Gander (2009) CRM systems facilitate collection and analysis of customer data, resulting in more effectively managed customer interactions For example, the Anchor CRM 1.2 software is used by Yang Ming line (YML), and has helped YML increase sales This application gathers detailed information about YML’s customers through an updating system, and also enables service units to track customer preferences and requirements This study has the following goals: first, to determine CRM assessment factors for shipping companies through a review of literature concerning CRM and interviews with managers in representative shipping companies in Vietnam and Taiwan Second, to compare the CRM systems of shipping companies in Vietnam and Taiwan, using the t-test and factor analysis to assess perceptions of CRM in the shipping industries of the two countries Third, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of CRM implementation, by employing important performance analysis (IPA), and provide strategies for enhancing strengths and remedying weaknesses REVIEW OF LITERATURE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ON CUSTOMER Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widelyimplemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects It involves the use of technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service and technical support The information and communication technology components of a comprehensive CRM strategy are integrated into CRM systems that enable the automation of business processes in the area of marketing, sales and service in order to build and maintain profitable long-term customer relations (Peppard, 2000) Effective management of customer information is increasingly crucial in CRM Customer information processes consists of two sequential aspects: customer data acquisition and data interpretation, which transforms the data into customer information (Campbell, 2003) CRM can enable a company's marketing department to identify and target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns, and generate quality leads for their sales teams Furthermore, CRM may help an organization to improve telephone sales, account, and sales management by optimizing information sharing among multiple employees and streamlining existing processes For example, the Marina Logistics Company derives much of its annual profit from logistics services provided to the Honda Vietnam Company Marina puts considerable effort into managing this customer, and examines and reviews all activities with them (including customs brokerage, consolidation, full container loads, and less than container loads, etc.,) in order to compare these activities with those of other shipping companies For liner shipping companies, CRM services can improve coordination and communication among ship management, terminal operation, vehicle arrangement, and infrastructure management Additionally, CRM Yang and Nguyen encompasses interactions and activities at all nodes in the context of policies, regulations, and contract requirements Liner carriers must deal with business items including service scope, schedules, customer relationships, company history, convenience, brand names, and value-added services Since coverage and schedule differences have been reduced by the formation of liner consortiums, a customer selecting a carrier must look at such other elements as relationships, company history, brand names, value-added services, and, most importantly, what services a carrier provides that others not and cannot CRM can thus provide a competitive advantage for carriers in the shipping industry (Wong, 2001) CRM may also seek to minimize shipping operating costs in order to generate maximum profits Overall costs for a typical shipping company chiefly consist of ship operation and corporate management costs, each of which accounts for roughly 50% of total costs (Fakhredaei, 2007) Ship operation costs include ship finance, ship crewing, insurance, ship administration, engineering, crew management, chartering, bunker costs, repair and maintenance, ship supplies, ports and dues, and inspection, etc Corporate management costs include corporate management and administration, sales and marketing, accounting, documentation, information systems and communications, public relations, legal affairs, claims, rental, and real estate, etc According to Swift (2001), the many benefits that companies can gain from CRM include lower cost of recruiting customers, no need to recruit so many customers to preserve a steady volume of business, reduced cost of sales, higher customer profitability, increased customer retention and loyalty, and evaluation of customer profitability Moreover, Zeng et al (2003) argued that internet-enabled software applications such as ERP, e-commerce applications, CRM packages, and enterprise portable applications have enabled businesses to improve their process, adopt best of breed practices, slash costs and improve efficiency To review the current status of CRM use in the shipping company, this paper conducted interviews with personnel at three representative shipping companies in Taiwan (Wanhai, Evergreen, and Yang Ming Line) and two representative shipping companies in Vietnam (Vinalines and Vosco) The study discovered that, due to the competitive and mature nature of Taiwan's maritime market, Taiwan's shipping companies use various CRM systems (including interactive marketing, sales automation, customer service and support) to communicate with their customers Banner advertisements are one of the dominant forms of online advertising For example, the Evergreen Line website contains the advertising banner “Evergreen, guarding our green earth." Customer feedback consists of customers' responses concerning service quality For example, in the "Cargo claim" section of the Yang Ming Lines website, customers can send 6517 cargo claim messages or information to the Yang Ming Lines website, and the cargo claims department will handle cargo claims cases and customer contact In summary, the CRM concept and systems already prevail at most shipping companies in Taiwan (Table 1) In contrast, both of the leading shipping companies in Vietnam only engage in banner advertising and only provide customer service at contact centers, but only limited use of CRM applications It appears that a majority of Vietnam's shipping companies neglect the importance of CRM, and, under the inflexible mechanisms dictated by state ownership, attempt to establish relationships with their customers through traditional marketing techniques, such as low-freight strategies seeking to retain existing customers and giving special service to large and loyal customers Vietnamese shipping companies must increase their use of CRM in the near future if they are to meet their customers' expectations in the highly competitive maritime shipping market, however In this regard, Vietnamese shipping companies can learn valuable and constructive CRM knowledge from their Taiwanese counterparts, including the use of CRM software to manage customer information, application of the CRM concept to management of customers and maintenance of good relations with customers, and attraction of customers using company services For instance, contact management systems can help companies and individuals to manage and organize their contacts, and manage customer details and customer interactions The “service calling information” section of the Wan Hai line website is an example of the application of contact management Vietnamese shipping companies should therefore use CRM functions to perform interactive marketing, automate sales, and provide customer service and support, allowing them to serve their customers in a more effective and efficient way RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research procedures This paper seeks to compare perceptions of CRM among Vietnamese and Taiwanese maritime transport service providers using the t-test, factor analysis, and IPA The study survey focuses specifically on shipping companies among maritime transport service providers The questionnaire design and research methods are described further Step 1: Questionnaire design To assure the appropriateness of questionnaire content, a preliminary questionnaire survey was conducted in both Vietnam and Taiwan The content of the final questionnaire was confirmed after several preliminary tests and discussion with some professional shipping industry personnel Since the purpose of this study was to assess perceptions of CRM in Vietnam and Taiwan from the perspective of maritime service providers, rather than from the perspective of customers, the respondents were therefore mainly sales representatives 6518 Afr J Bus Manage Table Comparison of CRM use at Vietnamese and Taiwanese shipping companies CRM factor Assessment factors Banner advertising Website design Online media Sales presentation Tracking of customer interaction Contact management system Order management system Sales forecasting system Contact center Help desk Call management system Customer self service Vietnam VINALINES VOSCO √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ Wan Hai √ √ √ √ √ Taiwan Evergreen √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ YML √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ means the company provides the service in question (including sale managers, directors, companies and staff) at shipping Step 2: Reliability and validity test In the process of determining the questionnaire items, it was crucial to ensure the validity of their content, which is an important measure of a survey instrument’s accuracy The assessment of content validity typically involves a systematic review of the content to ensure that it includes everything it should and does not include anything it should not A reliability test was conducted to examine whether the selected CRM factors were valid Step 3: T-test analysis The t-test is most appropriate when the values for the sample population are expected to have an approximately normal distribution (which implies that the t-distribution becomes closer to the normal distribution as degrees of freedom increase) T-values may be calculated from the values of the sample population ( Gosset, 1980) The t-test was applied in this paper to examine whether there are the significant differences in CRM factors between the shipping industries of Vietnam and Taiwan Step 4: Factor analysis Factor analysis is a technique used to reduce a large set of variables to a smaller set of underlying factors, detecting the presence of meaningful patterns among the original variables, and extracting the crucial dimensions Principle component analysis with VARIMAX rotation was employed to identify key dimensions in this paper Step 5: Importance performance analysis (IPA) The final step involved use of importance-performance analysis (IPA) IPA was proposed by Martilla (1977), and was termed action grid analysis (AGA) by Blake et al (1978) Rather than just an analytical methodology, it is an implicit theory of behavior, and was introduced as a means of understanding clients’ needs and desires so as to make good management decisions regarding how to respond to them IPA can facilitate the derivation of reasonable conclusions concerning modification of attribute performance in order to effect improvements such as increased profit or customer satisfaction IPA was constructed based on mean importance/performance values, and provides insight for management recommendations based on each attribute's position in one of the four quadrants: keep up the good work, concentrate here, low priority and possible overkill The intersection of the importance/performance axes is a critical aspect of IPA, and can potentially impact interpretation Some IPA studies determine the intersection based on the mean value of importance and performance of observed attributes (Black et al., 1978) However, another study has shown that this placement can lead to the problems with interpretation, and recommends mean centering of the importance/performance scale This paper adopts the suggestion of Black et al (1978) of locating the intersection of axes based on the mean values when setting up an IPA graph for the shipping industries in Vietnam and Taiwan Assessment factors According to Dickie (2006), customer relationship management is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with clients’ and sales prospects It involves the use of technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes, principally sales activities, but also the functions of marketing, customer service, and technical support The overall goals of CRM are to find, attract, and win new customers, nurture and retain existing customers, entice former customers back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and customer service Once simply a label for a category of software tools, CRM today generally denotes a company-wide business strategy embracing all customer-facing departments and even beyond When CRM implementation is effective, people, processes, and technologies work in synergy to increase profitability and reduce operational costs Yang and Nguyen CRM systems can provide enterprises with an integrated view of prospects and customers, and provide a channel for interactive marketing, sales automation, and customer service and support (Wilson, 2005) This study believes that the comparison of CRM functions at Vietnamese and Taiwanese shipping companies can provide some good lessons for each of these countries, and can also reveal the advantages and disadvantages of application of CRM functions by shipping companies Companies have a need for CRM functionality to support the marketing, sales, order, production, and service process Perrson (2004) stated that CRM functionality can be divided into three main categories, which are, marketing automation, sales force automation, and customer service and support Sales automation includes the support of all sales activities associated with individual contact, and the focus of so-called computer aided selling systems is on supporting the internal and external sales process (for example, tracking customer interaction, contact management system, order management system and sales forecasting system) through information and communications technology (Xu et al, 2002; Ahearne et al, 2007; Torggler, 2009) Interactive marketing refers to the evolving trend in marketing whereby marketing has moved from a transaction-based effort to a conversation The definition of interactive marketing comes from John Deighton at Harvard, who states that interactive marketing is the ability to address the customer, remember what the customer says, and address the customer again in a way that illustrates that the company remembers what the customer has told it (Deighton, 1996) Electronic commerce and catalog companies commonly make use of order management software This software facilitates the entering of orders, both via a website shopping cart or a data entry system (for orders received via phone and mail), and typically captures proprietary customer information and account level information Credit verification and payment processing is performed to check validity and/or availability of funds Once entered, valid orders are processed for warehouse fulfillment, such as picking/packing/shipping (Leeuwen, 2009) Many benefits can be derived from customer service and support, and companies are increasingly realizing that the quality of their customer support has great influence on their customer relationships (Xu et al, 2002) Customer service and support (CSS) is the part of a company's customer relationship management (CRM) department that interacts with a customer for their immediate benefit, including components such as the contact center, the help desk, call management system and the customer selfservice(Williams, 2006; Zeng et al., 2003) To identify the feasibility of CRM assessment dimensions and factors for shipping companies, this paper conducted personal interviews with several specialists involving CRM tasks in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from June to August in 2009 (these personnel were affiliated with Yang Ming Line, Wan Hai Line, Evergreen, OOCL, APL, Han Jin, OOCL logistics and Yes Logistics) The CRM assessment factors that were ultimately confirmed are shown in Table Data collection Two of the aforementioned recent articles (Fakhredaei, 2007; Lu and Shang, 2007) analyzed CRM attributes from perspective of maritime service providers, and thereby extended the scope of CRM investigation from customers to the service provider In addition, sale representatives at shipping companies are considered to be frontline personnel because they are responsible for communicating and negotiating with customers The opinions of sale representatives can therefore be considered to be a valuable means of investigating consumer behavior As a consequence, the 6519 survey questionnaires, which were distributed by mail, e-mail, and via personal interviews, were aimed at specialists in the sale departments of shipping firms Data collection from two different countries proved to be a somewhat difficult task This paper employed two methods of acquiring useful data: The first was to obtain the names of shipping companies from lists maintained by shipping organizations, and the other was to rely on personal relationships by asking experts at shipping companies and forwarders for information In particular, when surveying companies in Vietnam, since the majority of Vietnamese shipping companies were unfamiliar with CRM, it proved to be quite time-consuming to explain the definitions and characteristics of CRM to the questionnaire respondents The survey was conducted using Vietnamese- and Chineselanguage questionnaires translated by researchers who are native speakers of the respective languages The framework of the questionnaire consisted of three parts addressing demographic information, degree of importance, and degree of satisfaction respectively The respondents consisted chiefly of personnel at shipping companies We collected data from shipping organizations in Kaohsiung in Taiwan and Hanoi and Haiphong in Vietnam by mail, e-mail, and personal interviews from September to November in 2009 The respondents were selected by random sampling among the aforementioned Vietnamese and Taiwanese container shipping companies A total of 100 questionnaires were administered to 50 personnel at companies in Vietnam and Taiwan respectively by e-mail, personal interview or telephone interview The questionnaire used a five-point Likert scale to rate degree of importance and degree of satisfaction; with regard to degree of importance, possible responses ranged from “strongly disagree (1)” to “strongly agree (5)"; with regard to degree of satisfaction, responses ranged from “strongly dissatisfied (1)” to “strongly satisfied (5)." EMPIRICAL ANALYSES Basic data analysis This paper sought to discover the differences in the perception of CRM among the shipping industries in Vietnam and Taiwan by means of various methods, including literature review, personal interviews, and a questionnaire survey Comparing the different systems in the two countries was not a simple task; for example, Vietnam is a socialist country, and the majority of its shipping companies and forwarders are state-owned enterprises with conservative attitudes, which resulted in many difficulties involving data collection and questionnaire administration In contrast, because Taiwan is a democracy with free market mechanisms, we could easily obtain valuable comments and suggestions from domestic or international shipping companies located in the port of Kaohsiung The majority of company names and addresses were obtained from local shipping company associations or, and some companies were also obtained from lists of companies in shipping newspapers and magazines As shown in Table 3, a total of 54 questionnaires were received from 26 shipping companies in Vietnam and 28 shipping companies in Taiwan, hence the total response rate was 54%; the questionnaire response rates by country were 52 and 56% for Vietnam and Taiwan 6520 Afr J Bus Manage Table CRM assessment factors for shipping companies Assessment factor Banner advertising Source Deighton (1996), Perrson (2004) , Wilson (2005), Leeuwen (2009) Description Banner advertisements are one of the dominant forms of advertising online For example, the Evergreen Line website contains the advertising banner “EVERGREEN guarding our green earth.” Website design Deighton (1996), Perrson (2004) , Wilson (2005), Leeuwen (2009) Web design is the creation of content presentations that are delivered to end-users through the Internet Online media Deighton (1996), Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Leeuwen (2009) Improvement of customer satisfaction (e.g., enabling customers to share experiences online by creating a self-running community where customers can interact with and learn from their peers) Sales presentation Deighton (1996), Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Leeuwen (2009) A salesperson or a sales team presents detailed information (often including a live demonstration) about a product or product line Customer feedback Deighton (1996), Perrson(2004), Wilson (2005), Leeuwen(2009) Feedback from customers about service quality For example: the "Cargo claim" section of the Yangming Lines website Tracking of customer interaction Xu et al (2002), Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Ahearne et al (2007), Torggler (2009) Personalized customer information is retrieved from the interaction database and used while interacting with the customer Contact management system Xu et al (2002), Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Ahearne et al (2007), Torggler (2009) Helps companies and individuals to manage and organize their contacts, and manage customer details and customer interactions Example: the “service calling information” section of the Wan Hai line website Order management system Xu et al (2002), Perrson (2004), Wilson(2005), Ahearne et al (2007), Torggler (2009) Used to keep track of orders from customers, and packing and shipping to customer Sales forecasting system Xu et al (2002), Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Ahearne et al (2007), Torggler (2009) A sales forecasting systems facilitate forecasting and analysis of various sales opportunities Forecasts will help the company calculate profits, make decisions concerning investments, and launch new products and services Contact center Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Williams (2006), Zeng et al (2003) A contact center is the central point in an enterprise from which all customer contacts are managed A contact center typically includes one or more online call centers but may include other types of customer contact as well, including e-mail newsletters, postal mail catalogs, Web site inquiries and chats, and the collection of information from customers at time of in-store purchases Help desk Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Williams (2006), Zeng et al (2003) A help desk is an information and assistance resource enabling troubleshooting of problems with computers or similar products Corporations often provide help desk support to their customers via a toll-free number, website, and/or e-mail Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Williams (2006), A call management system is a database, administration, and reporting application helping businesses identify operational issues and take immediate action to solve them Perrson (2004), Wilson (2005), Williams (2006), Zeng et al (2003) Customers can check the status of their requests online, thereby reducing unnecessary follow-up calls to a help desk Call management system Customer self service Yang and Nguyen 6521 Table Questionnaire response rate Type of business Vietnam shipping company Taiwan shipping company Total Questionnaires sent 50 50 100 Questionnaires returned 26 28 54 Response rate (%) 52 56 54 Table General profile of questionnaire respondents Variable Nationality Office location Job title Working experience (Years) Frequency 26 28 Percentage 48.15 51.85 Kaohsiung Hanoi Haiphong 28 18 51.85 33.33 14.81 Staff Director Manager General Manager 14 12 20 25.93 22.22 37.04 14.81 ≤5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21-25 ≥26 17 10 16.67 31.48 14.81 7.41 18.52 11.11 Vietnam company Taiwan company respectively As shown in Table 4, the demographic characteristics of the respondents were as follows: 48.15% were at Vietnamese companies and 51.85% at Taiwanese companies Office locations included Kaohsiung (51.85%), Hanoi (33.33%), and Haiphong (14.81%) Respondents’ job titles included manager (37.04%), staff (25.93%), director (22.22%), and general manager (14.81%) In terms of working experience, 31.48% of respondents had to 10 years of experience, 18.52% had 21 to 25 years, and 16.67% had years or less The respondents’ job titles, lines of business, and working experience suggest that their opinions are informed and representative The fact that almost all the respondents worked at shipping companies may indicate that the results are representative views concerning CRM in the shipping company Validity and reliability test The term “validation” refers to the demonstration of measures’ validity and reliability (Morse et al., 2002) Validity comprises content validity, unidimensionality, and convergent validity (Mentzer et al., 2001; Steenkamp and Van Trijp, 1991) The content validity of the study questionnaire was tested through a literature review and interviews with practitioners, that is, the questions in the questionnaire were based on previous studies and discussions with a number of liner shipping and forwarder executives and experts The questionnaire items were judged to be relevant by 54 shipping executives The interviews resulted in minor modifications to the wording and examples provided in some measurement items; the modified measurement items were included in the survey questionnaire, and this questionnaire can therefore be accepted as possessing content validity Unidimensionality and convergent validity are assessed by fit indices, standardized residuals, factor loadings and t-values The measurement model involves four latent factors: 'Factor 1', 'Factor 2', 'Factor 3' and 'Factor 4' The minimum requirements for model identification were satisfied in the model All the factor loadings were greater than 0.6 and their t-values are significant at the 0.001 level Notably, the four indicators 'Online Media,' 'Contact 6522 Afr J Bus Manage Table Summary of degree of importance and satisfaction Assessment factor Banner advertising Website design Online media Sales presentation Customer feedback Tracking of customer interaction Contact management system Order management system Sales forecasting system Contact center Help desk Call management system Customer self service Code a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 a10 a11 a12 a13 Mean 4.11 4.24 4.29 4.21 4.74 4.50 4.32 4.29 4.29 4.32 4.45 4.50 4.42 Importance S.D 0.76 0.59 0.80 0.74 0.45 0.56 0.57 0.77 0.69 0.62 0.69 0.69 0.68 Rank 13 11 12 10 Mean 4.18 4.21 4.21 4.55 4.39 4.32 4.21 4.18 4.45 4.34 4.55 4.71 4.39 Satisfaction S.D Rank 0.73 12 0.74 0.78 10 0.65 0.68 0.53 0.78 11 1.04 13 0.72 0.58 0.65 0.52 0.59 The mean scores are based on a five-point scale; S.D = standard deviation Management System,' 'Order Management System,' and 'Call Management System' were deleted since their standardized residual covariance values were larger than 1.96 In addition, the fit index criteria were marginally satisfied (CMIN/df: 1.964, CFI: 0.970, GFI: 0.913, AGFI: 0.813; FRMR: 0.028 RMSEA: 0.096) Unidimensionality and convergent validity requirements were therefore satisfied In additional to reliability testing, the Cronbach's alpha reliability test yielded a value of 0.869 Since, according to the suggestion of Nunnally (1978), a Cronbach's alpha value of > 0.7 indicates good reliability, this result indicates adequate internal consistency Descriptive statistics As seen in Table 5, the factor “Customer feedback” was more important than the other factors due to its high rank In addition, the factors “Tracking of customer interaction” and “Call management system” were ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively Customer feedback plays an important role in the shipping industry since it can provide sales personnel with important information, such as the needs of existing customers, perceptions of customer service quality, ways of remedying service shortcomings comared with other competitors and new businesses models that may be adopted with potential customers, etc With regard to degree of satisfaction, the factor “Call management system” ranked highest among these questions, and was followed by “Sales presentation” and “Help desk" in that order Shipping companies can use call management systems to handle large quantities of phone calls from customers, and can thereby avoid missing any offers or requests from their customers Furthermore, call management can enable customers to obtain useful information from shipping companies before making final decisions concerning booked space, freight rate, shipment schedule, custom clearance date, and B/L issuance date, etc T-test analysis As shown in Table 6, among the assessment factors, the perception of sales automation differed significantly (P = 0.000 < 0.05) among Vietnamese and Taiwanese shipping companies In addition, the perception of the sales automation factor can be seen as the importance assigned to managing customers at a shipping company The foregoing table shows that the factors “Banner advertising” and “Order rmanagement system” are perceived differently by shipping companies in Vietnam and Taiwan Taiwan's shipping companies can support CRM’s activities with advanced high-tech software and hardware, which can help such companies to gain many advantages For example, the factor “Banner advertising” was commonly used by shipping companies in Taiwan to communicate the corporate image and services to customers in a fast and effective manner In addition, Taiwanese shipping companies also employed “Order management system” to help them manage their customers’ booking of space, shipping routes, container equipment, cargo tracking, and shipment tasks based on customer requirements In contrast, due to backward IT and budget restrictions, Vietnamese shipping companies did not use high-tech equipment to facilitate their CRM activities This makes it clear that significant differences in the implementation of CRM services exist between Taiwanese Yang and Nguyen 6523 Table T-Test of CRM assessment factors Assessment factor Bannner advertising Website design Online media Sales presentation Customer feedback Tracking of customer interaction Contact management system Order management system Sales forecasting system Contact center Help desk Call management system Customer self service Vietnamese shipping company 4.55 4.35 4.40 4.25 4.80 4.65 4.35 4.60 4.45 4.40 4.55 4.65 4.55 Taiwanese shipping company 3.50 3.95 4.00 4.18 4.63 4.31 4.22 4.04 4.13 4.22 4.27 4.27 4.27 T value P value 5.300 1.935 1.526 0.304 1.163 2.019 0.662 2.554 1.533 0.923 1.292 1.776 1.611 0.000* 0.060 0.135 0.762 0.252 0.153 0.512 0.015* 0.133 0.361 0.204 0.083 0.115 * means that the value is significant (P < 0.05) and Vietnamese shipping industries Factor analysis Factor analysis was performed via principal component analysis with Varimax rotation, and principal components analysis with Varimax rotation was employed to identify key dimensions Factor analysis results yielded eigenvalues exceeding and factor loadings exceeding 0.65 Four factors were consequently identified and defined thus: desk; contact center was the service item with the greatest load, and these factors accounted for 80% of the total variance Factor Customer service marketing, which consisted of the two items of customer self-service and sales forecasting system; sale forecasting system was the service item with the greatest load, and these factors accounted for 79% of the total variance Factor Important performance analysis E-Commerce marketing, which consisted of the four items of website design, banner advertising, online media and order management system; website design was the service item with the greatest load, and these factors accounted for 87% of total variance Factor Interacting marketing, which consisted of the four items of tracking of customer interactions, customer feedback, sales presentation and call management system; tracking of customer interactions was the service item with the greatest load, and these factors accounted for 72% of the total variance Factor Contact marketing, which consisted of the three items of contact center, contact management system and help As Table illustrates, no CRM factors appear in the area of “keep up the good work" for Vietnamese shipping companies, which implies that these companies have not really developed CRM services, and their customer not feel very satisfied with their services In fact, in comparison with foreign shipping companies, Vietnamese shipping companies provide poor transport and customer services even in the domestic market This is primarily because Vietnamese shipping companies own small fleets (mainly feeder services), and also, since transportation demand connected with international trade is increasing rapidly in the Vietnamese market, a majority of cargo in this market is handled by foreign shipping companies Moreover, Vietnamese export-import enterprises generally perform purchasing and sales transactions on the basis of buying CIF and selling FOB international trading terms Foreign trading partners consequently always have the right to choose ships, and the owners of Vietnam shipping companies not have any marketing capabilities or communication channels with which to 6524 Afr J Bus Manage Table Summary of CRM IPA for Vietnamese and Taiwanese shipping companies Area Vietnamese shipping companies Keep up the good work Overall shipping industry Call management system Help desk Taiwanese shipping companies Help desk Customer feedback Concentrate here Customer feedback Customer self service Online media Help desk Tracking of customer interaction Customer feedback Customer self service The call management system Online media Help desk Tracking of customer interaction Low priority Banner advertising Website design Online media Tracking of customer interaction Contact management system Order management system Contact center - Contact management system - Sales presentation - Banner advertising Contact management system Website design Banner advertising Possible overkill - Sales presentation - Sales forecasting system - Sales forecasting system - Website design - Contact center - Customer self service - The call management system - Order management system Sales forecasting system Contact center Sales presentation search for foreign customers In the case of the Taiwanese shipping companies, there are some CRM factors in the area of “concentrate here," which implies high importance and low satisfication The CRM factors “Online media," “Help desk,” and “Tracking of interaction system” are very important with regard to managing customers at both Taiwanese and Vietnamese shipping companies Furthermore, the CRM “customer feedback” factor is very important for Vietnamese shipping companies; these companies need to improve their rigid existing marketing systems and service qulity via the communication channel of customer feedback in order to increase market share and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage under tough market conditions In the case of Vietnamese shipping companies, almost all CRM factors are in the area of “lower priority,” which implies low importance and low satisfication While the Vietnamese shipping market currently still has great development potential, Vietnamese shipping companies are weak in the area of customer service compared with foreign shipping companies There are many reasons for the weaknesses of domestic shipping companies, including Vietnam's poor infrastructure and high inflation rate Finally, in comparison with the Taiwanese shipping companies, the Vietnamese shipping companies have many items in the area of “possible overskill," which implies that while the customers of Vietnam shipping companies are satisfied with these CRM factors, these factors are not really important As a consequence, Vietnamese shipping companies should organize and design services with distinguishing features that will enhance their profit and competitive ability While Taiwanese shipping companies have acquired considerable experience in developing their customer services, the CRM concept is just beginning to emerge at a few of the larger Vietnamese shipping companies It should be noted that Vietnamese shipping companies have only an 18% share of the market as a whole, and the large remaining portion is controlled by foreign corporations; this is because Vietnamese shipping companies have no mega container ships providing long-haul oceangoing service, and not enjoy the open-market policies of WTO members Most Vietnamese companies are therefore forced to sell FOB (free on board) and purchase CIF (cost, insurance and freight) Vietnamese companies must therefore bear the burden of chartering or renting larger vessels Yang and Nguyen from foreign corporations, which forces them to pay higher transportation costs than foreign shipping companies with their own commercial fleets Customer service management at Vietnamese companies is still a weakness, and these companies have to enhance their service quality and time efficiency to seek a competitive advantage in the fiercely competitive maritime supply chain market Conclusions Shipping is one of the major transportation industries, and consists of several segments Each of these segments is approaching the customer service revolution in different ways in order to achieve a competitive advantage CRM involves a fast-growing type of business software system that has been embraced by manufacturers and service providers in many industries, and can be used to shed light on the buying habits and preferences of customers and prospects While the employment of CRM can bring many advantages for a globally competitive industry such as shipping, contrary to what might be expected, most carriers and logistics providers have yet to formally adopt CRM programs The goal of this study is to confirm CRM assessment factors for shipping company, to compare the CRM systems of shipping companies in Vietnam and Taiwan, and finally to identify the strengths and weaknesses of CRM implementation of employing important performance analysis The main findings of this study are discussed in light of their theoretical and managerial implications: 6525 Perceived service characteristics and environmental factors can also effectively promote adoption of CRM It is often believed that companies have more tendencies to computerize their information systems under adverse environmental conditions, which will lessen their costs The study therefore fully supports the suggestion of Lu and Shang (2007) that firms oriented toward customer information processes and responsiveness have better financial performance As for managerial implications, shipping companies should reinforce their computerized CRM systems in order to collect and analyze useful marketing data from their customers, including shipping routes, trading volume, cargo categories, payment terms, and financial situations, etc This can enable sales personnel and customer service staff to make appropriate decisions, improves service quality, and create greater value for customers in the highly competitive shipping business This paper's conclusions are entirely consistent with those of Wong (2007), who argued that CRM supported by information technologies and the internet, provides a competitive advantage in the shipping company Finally, this study concludes that CRM is not merely a tool for acquiring important data and information from customers, but is also a communication platform for sharing information concerning products and services, exchanging customer knowledge, and maintaining personal relationships for the sake of customer retention, potential customer development, new business creation, and promotion of sustainable development of any company or organization in the maritime supply chain REFERENCES Perceptions of CRM are clearly different in the two countries due to their differing socioeconomic backgrounds and levels of technological development, and the discrepancy is clearest in the case of banner adverting and order management systems, where there are significant differences between Vietnamese and Taiwanese shipping companies It was discovered that major factors (including e-commerce 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e-commerce Inform Manage Comput Secur., 11(1): 39-44 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner Further reproduction prohibited without permission  ... the use of CRM software to manage customer information, application of the CRM concept to management of customers and maintenance of good relations with customers, and attraction of customers... include lower cost of recruiting customers, no need to recruit so many customers to preserve a steady volume of business, reduced cost of sales, higher customer profitability, increased customer retention... weaknesses REVIEW OF LITERATURE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ON CUSTOMER Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widelyimplemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients