Implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) system in many organizations is recognized as a transformative solution, it is not always successful, and statistics indicate a high rate of failure of CRM projects or failure to fully achieve the initial goals in the implementation of these projects. Understanding the factors affecting the success of implementing customer relationship management (CRM) in organizations is a fundamental prerequisite for the effective implementation of smart marketing. Because smart marketing not only requires accurate and analyzable data about customers, but also depends on the behavioral, organizational, and technological infrastructure that CRM provides.

Small and medium-sized businesses have always faced many challenges, especially in competition with larger companies, due to problems such as the lack of necessary scales in various aspects of capital, production and market, fluctuations in supply and demand, purchasing raw materials on a small scale, etc. Smart marketing can, by relying on successful CRM, equip small and medium-sized businesses with data-driven power for better decision-making and competition with larger brands. Therefore, the aim of this research is to identify CRM success criteria and the relationships between them in small and medium-sized companies.

This research is applied in terms of purpose and mixed with a sequential exploratory design in terms of method. First, by systematically reviewing the research literature and using the meta-synthesis method, the criteria affecting CRM success were extracted from the existing literature. Then, in the quantitative part, the DEMATEL method was used to determine the importance of the criteria and the relationships between them.

Among the 43 articles selected by meta-synthesis and their review, 12 effective criteria were identified. These criteria include: implementing global standards, providing human resources, determining strategy, training human resources, changing technology principles, updating financial systems, changing organizational culture, strong management, proper assignment of tasks, appropriate IT infrastructure, customer interaction, and holding customer relationship courses. The results of the DEMATEL technique showed that the strategy determination index has the highest priority among the indicators affecting CRM success in small and medium-sized companies. After that, the indicators of human resources training and customer interaction are ranked second and third.