The Corporate Annual Report

This article develops the concept of customer com- mitment, and then deals with the frequency with which CEOs of publicly-held companies express commitment to customers in the president's letter section in their corporate annual reports. The au- thors' research findings show that only a small percentage of compa- nies take this opportunity to communicate customer commitment to customers and employees. While other CEOs thank customers or make incidental mention of customers, nearly one third fail to refer- ence the "customer(s)" at all. In addition to the benefit of promoting customer commitment to customers and prospects, the authors dis- cuss the opportunity for a company to promote customer commit- ment to its own employees in the context of internal marketing.     

The character of bridgehead relationships

A supplier's development of a foreign market can be better understood when examined in the context of bridgehead business relationships between a supplier and a foreign customer. In addition to intrarelationship factors, the network of business relationships connected with a supplier and its foreign customer is also important in understanding the supplier's bridgehead relationships. The results from a LISREL analysis of 142 international business relationships show that the supplier's bridgehead relationships are conditioned by the personal relations with the foreign customer. The supplier's bridgehead relationships are also dependent on mutual commercial dependence between the supplier and the foreign customer. The results show that the supplier views the foreign customer as a conduit for foreign market development and will commit itself to the business relationship for this reason. A further finding is that the network of business relations connected with a supplier and its foreign customer constitutes an important setting for the supplier's bridgehead relationships.     

Customer Valuation as a Driver of Relationship Dissolution Sabrina Helm Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet,Germany

Abstract

As all customers are not created equal (Hallberg & Ogilvy, 1995), the different contributions of customers to a supplier's goals have to be evaluated to grant efficient relationship marketing. Furthermore, a handling system has to be developed for unprofitable customer relationships. This is a hitherto neglected field, as marketing researchers and practitioners are generally rather interested in attaining and keeping customers, not in the ending of relationships. The article aims at integrating the concepts of customer equity and profitability with approaches of relationship dissolution, which have recently emerged in the literature. Different aspects of calculating the value of customer relationships and value-based criteria that focus on monetary and non-monetary components of a customer's value are discussed. In an exploratory study undertaken in the German mechanical engineering industry, the relevance of customer valuation to dissolution decisions is analyzed.     

Customer Orientation of Service Employees—Toward a Conceptual Framework of a Key Relationship Marketing Construct

Abstract

Although customer orientation is a core element of the marketing concept and is especially crucial to the concept of relationship marketing, no widely accepted conceptualization of the construct exists. In the context of service organizations, the fulfillment of customer needs and wishes by customer-contact employeescan be seen as crucial for gaining a high degree of customer orientation. This paper develops a conceptualization of service employee customer orientation which is presented as a three-dimensional construct, the interrelated dimensions being the employee's motivation to serve customers, his or her customer-oriented skills, and his or her self-perceived decision-making authority. Implications are drawn out for relationship marketing of services organizations and relationship marketing theory.     

Customer Service as a Strategic Weapon in International Operations

Customer service is an important competitive weapon in international markets becuase of its ability to acquire and retain overseas customers (especially intermediate firms) and, thus, enhance companies' revenues. Customer service is especially critical when foreign vendors are perceived as offering similar products at comparable prices, and purchasers have doubts about suppliers' willingness to carry out various post-purchase responsibilities. This paper reports the results of a study of the customer service programs of 151 U.S. non-service companies with international operations in five or more foreign countries. Sixty-nine firms responded to their customer service efforts in international markets and 81 addressed domestic customer service programs, allowing for comparisons to be made between international and domestic customer service operations. The study's results indicate that copmanies realize the importance of customer service in marketing to international customers, yet customer service for international markets is not considered to be appreciable more important than it is for domestic ones. Much similarity in perceptions about international and domestic customer service programs being in place. Whether this similarity occur from a careful analysis of domestic and international markets or simple expediency is uncertain.     

Managing Customer Relationships in the Social Media Era: Introducing the Social CRM House

CRM has traditionally referred to a company managing relationships with customers. The rise of social media, which has connected and empowered customers, challenges this fundamental raison d'etre. This paper examines how CRM needs to adapt to the rise of social media. The convergence of social media and CRM creates pitfalls and opportunities, which are explored. We organize this discussion around the new “social CRM house,” and discuss how social media engagement affects the house's core areas (i.e., acquisition, retention, and termination) and supporting business areas (i.e., people, IT, performance evaluation, metrics and overall marketing strategy). Pitfalls discussed include the organization's lack of control over message diffusion, big and unstructured data sets, privacy, data security, the shortage of qualified manpower, measuring the ROI of social media marketing initiatives, strategies for managing employees, integrating customer touch points, and content marketing.     

Supplier Role Conflict: An Investigation of Its Relational Implications and Impact on Supplier Accommodation

Existing research on supply chain relationships suggests that one of the underlying tensions between supply chain partners is that of opposing perspectives and goals in the customer?supplier relationship. In today's business world with requirements in constant flux, suppliers are often asked to accommodate “special” requests made by their customers, not part of the contractual agreement. Suppliers frequently fill requests to protect the relationship with the customer, even if they fall outside of what they consider their role as a supplier. Issues of supplier role conflict emerge when customers and suppliers have different views of what the supplier's role should entail. There is little research examining the potential for supplier role conflict in supply chains. Specifically, this research draws on literature from multiple disciplines to consider supplier role conflict that may stem from accommodation and the impact of this role conflict and supplier accommodation on the supply chain relationship and future accommodation behavior. Hypotheses are tested using two scenario‐based experiments. Results suggest that supplier adaptation and flexibility both have positive relational effects. If suppliers perceive accommodation requests as outside of their contracted role, supplier role conflict can have detrimental effects on the supplier's relationship perceptions and their willingness for future accommodation.     

Exploring Supply Managers' Intrapreneurial Ability and Relationship Quality

This article examined the degree to which a supply manager's intrapreneurial ability influences the quality of individual-level relationships with internal customers and the supplier's account executive. The moderating influence of the buyer's firm-level commitment to the supplier and how these relationships subsequently impact supplier performance were explored. The study assessed the supply manager's intrapreneurial ability using survey data gathered from 110 supply managers across a variety of industries. In key supplier relationships, a supply manager's intrapreneurial ability positively influences the quality of internal and external relationships. The firm's commitment to the supplier weakens the relationship between intrapreneurial ability and relationship quality. The findings highlight the value of individual skills to enhance relationships The ability to behave intrapreneurially shapes the quality of internal and supplier relationships. However, only the supply manager's relationship with the supplier's account executive is related to supplier performance. By examining the impact of intrapreneurial ability on individual-level relationships with internal customers and supplier's account executive, a more comprehensive view of business-to-business relationship management in the supply chain is gained.     

Defining the knowledge that an organisation requires to create customer capital from a customer perspective

Consumer capital is a very important asset for an organisation as it is the result of an organisation's relationship with its customers. This paper sets out to confirm that organisations need to create customer capital in SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises). As part of this study, four types of knowledge have been identified (i.e. customer knowledge, individual knowledge, collective knowledge, and machine-readable forms) and this paper investigates the relationships between the different components of knowledge and the process to obtain customer capital from the external perspective of the company. This involved an empirical study of 365 customers. Two structural equation models have been used, resulting in the conclusion that before obtaining customer capital it is necessary to convert individual knowledge, collective knowledge (C_LK), and machine-readable forms into customer knowledge.     

基于客户信任的忠诚形成机制研究

客户忠诚可以划分成客户对公司的忠诚和客户对员工的忠诚,这两种忠诚的形成机制是怎样的？哪些因素决定客户对谁忠诚？这两个问题是理论界和实务界普遍面临难题。文章从信任的角度考察了两种忠诚的形成机制,并基于我国销售企业和服务性企业进行了实证分析。研究结果表明：客户对公司的信任可以导致客户对公司的忠诚;客户对员工的信任可以直接导致客户对员工的忠诚,并通过客户对员工的忠诚的中介作用,间接影响客户对公司的忠诚;企业可以通过信任来影响客户对谁忠诚。     

The influence of service orientation and interaction orientation on consumer identification

A service orientation aims to provide professional and comprehensive service items to consumers in a sale or a non-sale situation, while an interaction orientation has the goal of creating good interaction ability with individual customers in order to maintain long-term, profitable customer relationships, and in the process obtaining valuable information about individual customers. These orientations build customer-centric operations and develop competitive advantages, thus enhancing firm performance and customer value. The main purpose of this study was to examine the relative and collective contributions of different strategic orientations on a firm's performance, with a focus on consumer–company identification. The structural equation model results indicate that (1) both service orientation and interaction orientation positively influence consumer–company identification and (2) interaction orientation results in higher perceived consumer identification.     

Explaining Market Heterogeneity in Terms of Value Perceptions

In the past decade, companies and academics have become aware of the great benefits of creating value for customers. However, little empirical research has yet been conducted in the area of services with respect to how customers may differ in their perceptions of value and what variables can explain such differences. This article provides an insight into how three relationship-based contingencies are likely to explain market heterogeneity in customers' perceptions of value. In particular, we explore how special treatment of the customer by the service provider, the level of customer involvement with the service, and the customer's accumulated experience with a particular company may act as predictors of market heterogeneity in the customer's perceptions of value within a service setting. Results offer evidence for the important role of relationships and experience in a service context mainly characterised by standard encounters, and provide interesting managerial insights to tailor strategies that effectively respond to market heterogeneity.     

Let Me Imagine That for You: Transforming the Retail Frontline Through Augmenting Customer Mental Imagery Ability

The rapid development of augmented reality (AR) is reshaping retail frontline operations by enhancing the offline and online customer experience. Drawing on mental imagery theory, this paper develops a conceptual framework to reflect how AR emulates customer’s cognitive processes offloading those to the technology. Consequently, the AR-enabled frontline improves decision comfort, motivates positive WOM and facilitates choice of higher value products. The underlying mechanism is a sequential mediation via improved processing fluency and decision comfort. The findings also demonstrate boundary conditions of customers’ visual processing styles and product contextuality. Object-visualisers benefit more from AR induced imagery processes, and the effect of processing fluency on customer decision comfort is moderated by product contextuality. The results are verified with repeat studies to control for novelty of AR, and a field study that highlights the impact of AR on customers’ choice and spending. We discuss implications for theory and practice of AR-enabled frontline retailing.     

Salesperson's listening in buyer–seller service relationships

Research has consistently shown that salesperson's active listening behavior leads to strong sales performance. Yet the influence of management policies on listening has received very limited attention, and prior research linking listening to customer retention has led to mixed findings. This study examines how listening is enhanced through control systems and the influence of listening on customer retention in a service context. Dyadic data from salespeople and their customers show that a behavior-based control system (measured as a second-order construct) positively influences listening and the salesperson's customer orientation totally mediates the influence of listening on customer commitment to the salesperson and loyalty to the service company. Our findings indicate that listening is a necessary but not sufficient condition for assuring relationship development. More specifically, customer orientation is the generative mechanism through which listening is able to influence customer retention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

物业管理企业核心竞争力的培育和提升

培育和提升核心竞争力是物业管理企业生存和发展的战略选择。以核心竞争力理论为基础,界定物业管理企业核心竞争力的概念和特征,物业管理企业要以顾客价值为导向,以文化创新为动力,以执行功能为目标,以信息化为手段,来培育和提升物业管理企业的核心竞争力。     

THE EMPOWERMENT OF FRONTLINE SERVICE STAFF IN 3PL COMPANIES

Research on third‐party logistics (3PL) service providers has focused more on managing customer relationships than on managing the frontline personnel who interact with customers on a daily basis. Thus, even though the overall need for 3PL's to be market‐oriented is well‐recognized, relatively little is known about how 3PL companies support and develop frontline service staff to provide better service. This study draws on 3PL company site managers' responses to a postal survey that examines the influences of internal communication, customer service training and managerial coaching for customer contact employees on the relationship between market orientation and frontline service recovery empowerment.     

Costco and the Aussie Shopper: a case study of the market entry of an international retailer

Retailing is a globalised industry, yet retailers must respond to local shopping habits if they are to be perceived as legitimate by the host country customers. However, some retailers may be unable or unwilling to respond to all customer requirements. Costco, the membership warehouse club retailer, has been successful in its international expansion efforts, establishing its first Australian store in Melbourne in 2009. In the first 12 months of operation, the store became one of Costco's top five stores in the world. We investigated this success by focussing on the customer and used institutional theory to analyse what concessions were made by the customer and the company. Data were collected from consumer interviews, site visits and secondary media and industry sources. Analysis revealed negotiations based on the rejection, acceptance or adaptation of the regulative, normative and cultural cognitive aspects of the Australian shopper and the Costco business model. Customers made concessions to accommodate the new business model, and Costco responded to entrenched Australian shopping habits. This case is the first to explore the outcome of retail internationalisation from the customers' perspective, revealing the concept of mutual concessions. The interaction and subsequent adaptation by both customer and retailer have resulted in the institutionalisation of new shopping norms in the host country and success for the international retailer.     

The Value of Information Integration in Meeting Delivery Dates

In this article, we consider the value of shared information within a business network. To make the problem concrete, we focus on a specific operational problem: How the final supplier to the customer determines promised delivery dates. In a traditional supply chain, the final supplier has little or no information on the delivery performance of intermediate suppliers and thus, has limited information with which to set delivery dates. On the other hand, in an information-integrated business network, the final supplier's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can interact with all the intermediate suppliers' ERP systems to determine exactly how far ahead or behind schedule the network is in meeting the needs of a specific customer. This information should improve the final supplier's ability to set realistic delivery dates. We attempt to quantify the value of this information and determine precisely why it is valuable so that management can best exploit information integration.

We use a modeling approach in this research, beginning with simple analytic models and progressing to more realistic simulation models. Our analytic model establishes an important principle: Information integration not only significantly improves the average on-time delivery performance of a business network, but also dramatically improves its worst-case performance. Because customer dissatisfaction is generally associated with worst-case performance, information integration may be highly beneficial even if its effect on average on-time delivery is small. Simulation models allow us to compare the performance of more realistic business networks. These models suggest, for example, that the value of information integration is dependent on both the structure of the network itself (whether serial or arborescent) and on the typical customer order date in the production cycle. These insights allow us to begin to identify the types of business networks in which information integration will have the highest value.     

How competent are consumers? The case of the energy sector in France

This paper discussed the notion of value co‐creation and the concept of customer competence as suggested by this notion. This led us to consider the competent customer as a social construction related to managerial representations. In order to examine this issue, a longitudinal exploratory research based on participant observation and in‐depth interviews with employees of a French energy supplier was conducted to explore whether customers are perceived as competent or incompetent market actors. The data analysis revealed four categories illustrating customers' profiles coping with the new situation of the ‘Utility X’ group in the energy sector. ‘Utility X’ employees define their customers according to four profiles: myopic, ignorant, uncreative and organizer of company resources. Even if the marketing studies that share the Service‐Dominant Logic point‐of‐view suggest that the customer would be competent at all times, our findings showed that customer competencies are in fact socially constructed and emerge partially from managerial representations. Therefore, the adoption by companies of a marketing philosophy (‘market with’ philosophy), in which the customer and supply chain partners are collaborators in the entire marketing process, seems only possible if they recognize customers' competencies and identify situations when customers do not activate their competencies or do not have the resources that enable them to develop their competencies.     

Methods for determining areas for improvement based on the design of customer surveys

Many firms conduct satisfaction surveys of their customers, with a view to using the analyzed results to identify areas of potential improvement. The weakness in this approach is that attributes with a lower satisfaction level might not be in need of improvement. They might merely be of little concern to customers. The present research develops several methods to identify areas that do require improvement. These methods include the importance–satisfaction (I–S) model, the improvement index, the quality-improvement index, the SERVQUAL survey, Kano's model, the extent of satisfaction, and the extent of dissatisfaction. An integrated model of service-quality measurement is used to cover all the customer surveys required for an international certification service company. In the case study, valuable information of various kinds is obtained from an analysis of the customer surveys. On the basis of this information, the firm can make appropriate decisions on areas for improvement, which are significantly different from those identified on the basis of a simple satisfaction survey.