State of Customer Relationship Management: The Canadian Report 2010
Customer Relationship Management Employment and Skills

The CRM process requires a diverse set of skills throughout its three stages. Approximately 502,000 people are employed in CRM occupations within CRM users and the marketing services sector. ¹⁰ When employment is assessed by CRM function, business development positions occupy the greatest share for both CRM users and the marketing services sector. Market research and marketing positions are more concentrated within the marketing services providers, while CRM users have a larger proportion of customer feedback and support positions within their organizations (Figure 10).

Skill requirements within the CRM process vary among the major business functions. The majority of positions within market research and marketing / promotion, as well as business development have medium to high skill requirements (Figure 11).^{Footnote XIII} The training focus for market research, marketing and promotion, and business development has been expanding beyond domestic and traditional CRM activities. Specific areas of emerging skill development include geographic–specific marketing, international market entry strategies, integration of domestic and international trade practices and regulations (i.e. intellectual property, competition and anti–trust laws, etc.), and global supply chain management.¹¹

Conversely, roles within the customer feedback and support business function are more operationally focused.¹⁰ Specific training within this business function varies according to the clientele — industrial / commercial or end consumer. The focus for industrial / commercial customer feedback and support skills development includes logistics and distribution knowledge to respond to replenishment queries.² End consumer feedback and support training includes multi–channel communication, language skills development and conflict resolution.¹²

Footnotes

Footnote 13

High skill defined as occupations usually requiring university education, medium skill occupations usually require college education or apprenticeship training, and low skill occupations usually require secondary—school and / or occupation–specific training.

Return to footnote XIII referrer