Truong Quang Trung – IBM16

BACKGROUND AND STATEMENT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT IN NGOs

Name Truong Quang Trung

Lecturer Dr. Nguyen Thi My Huong
Broad topic  Marketing  
Restricted Topic   Customer Relationship Management in Business Networks
Narrowed Topic   NGO’s Key Stakeholders
Research Question  Factors determining renewal of membership at Business
Network - The British Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam
Keywords  Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, NGO,
Chamber of Commerce

1. Background of research
Earlier, customers were simple person and were happy at whatever product or service offered
to them. Marketing is no longer just about developing, selling and delivering products. It is
increasingly more concerned with the development and maintenance of mutually satisfying
long-term relationships with customers. Over a period of time with the competition and
technological improvements customers have become fully aware of their rights and
augmented offer soon become an expected one. This changing business environment is
characterized by economic liberalization increasing competition, high consumer choice, well-
informed and demanding customer who care about quality and value purchase (Kotler, 2002).
Thus, relationship should be the major goal of every business. A dissatisfied customer causes
market damage because they are more likely to persuade others to defect. And it shows that
customer relations is one of the most important term that an organisation will engage with its
customers to improve the customer experience, customer satisfaction and customer
engagement[ CITATION Hub19 \l 1066 ]. It is therefore no surprise that Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) is an important topic of conversation in business world (Feinberg et.al,
2002). According to the Principles of Marketing, written by Kotler and Armstrong (2014),
customer relationship management is “the overall process of building and maintaining
profitable customer relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction. It
deals with all aspects of acquiring, keeping, and growing customers”.

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2. Research Problem
Non-government organizations (NGOs) form the ‘third sector’ of the society, as they are
institutions and bodies which are neither governmental nor related to the business sector.
They work towards addressing the social problems which remain largely unaddressed by the
state and market, thus become the ‘voice’ of the citizens on various platforms [ CITATION
Fun16 \l 1066 ]. In the case of a regular for-profit organization, the customer is someone for
whom the corporate produces the product (or provides the service) and who in return pays for
the product or service in which there could be an intermediary customer. In the NGO case,
the products/services are tailored towards the end-beneficiaries, but are paid for by the
donors. Beneficiaries are their primary customers and donors are their secondary customers,
it cannot be one or the other, but an NGO has to satisfy both these customer groups. For
Brithcham - a membership-based organisation and members are considered as customers.

One of the most important challenges mentioned for any organization above is to serve and
maintain good relations with the customer. The British Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam
(BritCham) main activities are concentrated to serve over 500 representatives (their primary
customers - coming from over 200 companies), there are 76 SME and 117 Corporates
FY2018/2019. According to BBGV statistics FY2018/2019, the decision to renew
membership with BBGV increased significantly from 89% in total at the end of 2018 to 93%
in total at the end 2019. On the other hand, in the total number of members, there are up to
8% registered short-term membership in 2018, but only 5% of them decided to extend
membership in 2019.

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Renewal of Membership in BBGV FY2018/2019

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2018 2019

Renew Members Membership Withdrawal

Therefore, the statistic shows that there are factors that prevent membership renewal at the
BrithCham members. However, as one of the main focuses suggested in the 2017 Annual
General Meeting (The British Business Group Vietnam, 2017), the BritCham was trying to be
an opened business association that representing the voice of British in Vietnam and raising
the awareness of British’s expertise in different sector, at the same time, maintain great
relationships with members who have joined and expand the link to potential members.

As the actual situation, this report will focus on giving “Factors determining renewal of
membership at The British Chamber of Commer in Vietnam”. To the best of my
knowledge, the study on the impact of CRM in terms of renewal of membership behavior has
never been studied in the BritCham. In order to complete this statement, the author came up
with some analysis and recommendations for future improvement at the BritCham in this
dissertation.

Bibliography
ACCE. (2015, January 1). Chambers of Commerce. Retrieved from ACCE:
https://secure.acce.org/about/chambers-of-commerce/
Auscham. (2015). Membership Types. Retrieved from Auschamvn:
https://auschamvn.org/membership/membership-types/
BBGV. (2018). Home Page Secretariat - Live Update. Retrieved from British Business
Group Vietnam: https://bbgv.org/secretariat

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Folger, J. (2018, January 8). What is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization)? Retrieved

from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/13/what-is-non-
government-organization.asp
FundsforNGOs. (2016, February). How Marketing and Communication Strategies can help
NGOs achieve Fundraising Success. Retrieved from FundsforNGOs:
https://www.fundsforngos.org/civil-society-2/how-can-marketing-communications-
strategies-help-ngos-achieve-fundraising-success/
Hubspot. (2019 , March 1). What is Customer Relations? Everything You Need to Know.
Retrieved from Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-relations
Index, J. C. (2019, March 20). HCMC Named world’s 2nd most dynamic city. Retrieved from
remoteresources: https://remoteresources.com/ho-chi-minh-city-named-worlds-2nd-
most-dynamic-city/
Levitt. (1983). Customer Relationship Management Strategies in the Digital Era.
Vietnam, B. B. (2002, March 10). About Us. Retrieved from BBGV: https://bbgv.org/about-
us/mission-visions-and-values/
Vietnam, B. B. (2019). About Us. Retrieved from British Business Group Vietnam: bbgv.org

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