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 Retention Strategies of Fast-Food Outlets in South Africa: A Focus on Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Nando's,and Steers

The primary aim of the research was to critically analyze and evaluate the different customer retention strategies being implemented by fast-food outlets such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Nando's, and Steers in South Africa. The fast-food industry in South Africa is experiencing numerous market-related changes, which range from intense globalization forces to heightening competition levels. The pressure on businesses today is further increased by a market where the customer acquisition rate is slowing, customer loyalty is decreasing, and sales cycles are lengthening. In such an environment, losing a valuable customer to a competitor can have a significant impact on profitability and growth. As a result, many companies have shifted their focus from customer acquisition to customer retention. The research was primarily concerned with assessing customer relationship management, relationship marketing, and communication through technology as strategies to maintain intimate relationships with customers. Personal interviews and in-depth interviews with the help of questionnaires were used to collect primary data in the research. The results indicated that KFC, Nando's, and Steers adopt similar marketing strategies or use the same concepts to manage their relationships with both internal and external customers and other stakeholders. These strategies and concepts include customer relationship management, relationship marketing, and technological means of communication.     

The Influence of Customer Relationship Marketing Strategies on Supply Chain Relationships: The Moderating Effects of Environmental Uncertainty and Competitive Rivalry

Purpose: A firm's customer relationship marketing strategy also may affect its attitudinal loyalty toward its main supplier. Furthermore, environmental uncertainty and competitive rivalry could moderate this relationship. This research investigates both questions.

Methodology/Approach: The empirical study involves a structured survey of 141 industrial firms. A structural equation technique with EQS 6.1 estimated the causal model. Multi-sample analysis revealed whether environmental uncertainty and/or competitive rivalry act as moderators.

Findings: The influence of customer relationship marketing on attitudinal loyalty toward the main supplier is positive but indirect, working through effective communication, satisfaction, and trust. However, when environmental uncertainty is high, the negative direct effect becomes significantly more intense, and when competitive rivalry is high, the positive indirect effect through satisfaction and trust is less intense.

Originality/Value: This study explores potential new paths in the relationship marketing field. Most scholars focus on the influence of a firm's relationship marketing strategy on customers' loyalty, but no previous works consider its potential influence on the firm's relationship with other partners in the supply chain, notably its strategic suppliers.

Research Implications: Structured academic research on this topic is lacking, even though many firms have implemented customer relationship programs. Supply-side researchers must evaluate the effects of such programs. Furthermore, this study combines different theoretical approaches.

Practical Implications: Practitioners can use the findings to segment their customer base and develop specific programs adapted to each target.     

Customer retention in sports organization marketing: examining the impact of team identification and satisfaction with team performance

Over the past two decades, relationship marketing efforts have assumed a prominent role in sports organization marketing. A sports organization that successfully implements relationship marketing programmes is able to develop long‐term relationships with its fans, thus increasing the likelihood of customer retention. This study examines customer retention in sports organization marketing by considering the impact of team identification and satisfaction with team performance on four fan consumption behaviours: in‐person attendance, media‐based attendance, purchase of team merchandise and word‐of‐mouth communication related to the team. Survey data were collected from 300 fans of more than 40 professional and collegiate teams involved in seven sports. Results suggest that both team identification and satisfaction with team performance impact multiple consumption behaviours, as represented by fans' intentions to engage in future consumption. Team identification was found to have the greater impact on consumption behaviours, suggesting that a sports organization's continuing efforts to bond with its fans may provide greater benefits than efforts to improve the team's competitive performance.     

关系营销理论与顾客关系管理

关系营销将建立和发展与相关个人、企业组织的关系作为市场营销的关键变量 ,把握了现代市场竞争的时代特点 ,体现了电子商务时代的互动性、合作性和个性化发展趋势。因特网作为一种有效的双向沟通渠道 ,使企业与顾客之间可以实现低成本、高效率的沟通和交流 ,为关系营销提供了有效的技术保障。在电子商务时代 ,抢占市场的关键已从管理营销组合转变为企业与顾客的互动关系管理 ,顾客关系管理为关系营销提供了有效的技术支持     

Improving Customer Service

Abstract

The article presents a framework for implementing a TQM-oriented management process that can enable an organization to achieve continuous quality enhancements at minimal cost while simultaneously increasing the marketability of the service. The modeled framework demonstrates how such quality improvements can be made possible by heightening employees' sensitivity towards details pertaining to the many aspects of the service delivery process. The incidence of customer dissatisfaction resulting from sheer insensitivity towards detail during the delivery of service is established through real-world examples of actual customer experiences with numerous services. The severity of the implications of customer dissatisfaction and defection on a firm's bottom line are highlighted. The role of nonverbal communication and the many relevant forms of such communication are examined. A nonverbal communication feedback-response process model is presented that can help align the service with the expectations of the customer in high-contact services. Finally, a comprehensive set of managerial requisites for the creation of an enabling service quality culture is also identified. The framework presented also shows how performance can be enhanced, and competitive advantage gained, by effectively shaping and servicing the customer satisfaction plane.     

Customer Selection and Prioritization

Abstract

That a firm benefits most when customers stick around for the long haul is a central premise of relationship marketing. This conviction has manifested itself over the past decade in the form of numerous formal loyalty programs that aim to seek and foster customer relationships. Scant evidence for the success of such programs has accrued since. This has lead firms to re-evaluate their investments in customer relationship management. Optimal resource allocation models address issues of relative investments in customer acquisition versus retention, and on managing relationships with profitable customers so that the value of a firm's customer base is maximized.     

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.     

It pays to pay attention: How firm's and competitor's marketing levers affect investor attention and firm value

Investors' attention to a firm's stock has been demonstrated to influence stock returns (Da et al., 2011). But does a firm's marketing information draw attention to a firm's stock? Research in finance, accounting, and marketing has investigated advertising as one potential driver of investors' attention to a firm's stock. How about other potential marketing drivers? The authors develop hypotheses related to the impact of the changes in four marketing levers: advertising, product development announcements, WOM, and customer satisfaction on the change in investor attention to a firm's stock. Furthermore, they investigate the moderating role of competitors' marketing levers in these relationships.To test the hypotheses, they compile a panel dataset with 349 firms covering the 2007–2017 period. The results suggest that the changes in the focal firm's advertising and WOM have a positive and significant impact on the changes in investor attention to the focal firm’s stock. Furthermore, these effects are amplified when there is an increase in competitors' advertising spending and WOM, respectively. For the customer satisfaction lever, the results suggest that the change in competitors' customer satisfaction enhances the impact of the change in focal firm's customer satisfaction on investor attention. Collectively, the results suggest that investors attend to the firm's and its competitors' marketing information in a much more nuanced manner than previously thought.     

Information Technology and Customer Orientation: A Study of Direct,Mediated, and Interactive Linkages

This study investigates whether and how information technology (IT) is linked to a firm's ability to understand and fulfil customer needs, i.e. customer orientation. IT alone or in tandem with other strategic resources may enable businesses to process market intelligence and coordinate organisational responses to meet evolving buyer preferences. Based on a survey of senior marketing managers and PLS path model analyses, we learned that greater IT capabilities are associated with higher customer orientation but in mediated and interactive ways with marketing information quality and organisational trust. These and other findings largely supported the conceptual model. An implication is that while IT capabilities can help firms be more customer-focused, other critical resources must also be present.     

The Customer Exit Process - A Review And Research Agenda

With increasing priority being given to customer relationships and customer retention, it follows more attention should be given to understanding phenomenon of customer exit. This paper brings together the available literature on exit drawing on social psychology, economics, political science, interpersonal communications and marketing. In particular, four exit issues contained in Albert Hirschman's (1970) 'Exit, Voice and Loyalty' treatise are explored. The first of these is that customer exit can be explained by quality decline, though the latter needs to be broadly defined. Secondly, customer exit by definition relies on alternatives being available to the customer who also perceives them to be different and better. Thirdly, barriers to customer exit may exist. Finally, customer exit and voice are related, but not mutually exclusive. These ideas are brought together in a tentative model of the customer exit process. The paper concludes with an outline research agenda and argues for both inductive and deductive approaches to address customer exit research problems.     

Customer Evaluation of Supply Systems: The Case of Ethiopian Seed Supply Systems

This study explores the performance of Ethiopian seed systems from a customer’s perspective. The study builds on the view that seed supply systems perform marketing functions such as developing new varieties of seed, multiplying the right quantity and quality, and distributing to the right places, at the right time, for an acceptable price. Hence, supply systems create value and satisfy customers. This study’s contribution is twofold. First, customer satisfaction theory is applied to complex chains (i.e. seed supply systems) in emerging markets, with their specific contextual challenges. Second, it identifies the criteria that farmers use to evaluate seed supply systems and evaluates Ethiopian seed supply systems from a farmer customer’s perspective, which can be used as a basis to increase customer satisfaction.     

我国通信业客户忠诚驱动因素研究

客户忠诚指客户行为的持续性,它对确立企业的核心竞争力具有重要影响。文章认为,客户忠诚是内外部环境因素共同作用的结果。而通讯服务质量、信任、转网成本、员工忠诚是影响通讯业客户忠诚的重要因素。其中,良好的通讯服务质量是维系客户忠诚的保障;信任是客户再购买行为产生的前提;转网成本对通讯业客户忠诚有着不可忽视的影响;员工忠诚有助于客户忠诚的建立。我国通讯运营商要建立客户忠诚,必须以客户导向的营销理念作为企业经营管理的主导思想;加强技术创新,为客户提供全方位的优质服务;与客户之间建立相互信任的合作关系,为长远合作奠定基础;提高转网成本和员工忠诚度,为建立客户忠诚打下坚实的内部基础。     

Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

Customer satisfaction, the cornerstone of the marketing concept, has been the subject of considerable research. Since 1970 over 15,000 academic and trade articles have been written on the subject. Salespeople, frequently the primary link between the company and the customer, have the opportunity to deliver/improve customer satisfaction. It is not surprising therefore that organizations seek to maximize salesforce performance and resolve customer complaints. However, attaining optimal performance is hindered by dysfunctional salesperson behavior and low levels of customer satisfaction. Research that improves our understanding of the critical roles salespeople and sales managers play in determining customer satisfaction is needed. A proposal that ties the theoretical gaps in the communication processes with the salesperson's role in affecting customer satisfaction is presented.     

Ownership Sentiments Towards the Customer Care Function in E-Business Situations

ABSTRACT

Effective management of customer care is critically important for successful electronic commerce. The executive in charge of the customer care function in a business based on e-commerce might have a technical IT background, a marketing background, or be from general management. This empirical study examined the degrees to which a sample of 86 marketing and IT managers responsible for customer care in e-commerce environments felt they “owned” the customer care function, and the antecedents and consequences of powerful ownership sentiments. It emerged that heads of department with marketing backgrounds reported significantly stronger feelings of ownership of customer care than heads with IT backgrounds. The level of ownership sentiment varied with respect to the extent of the personal investment a manager had devoted to developing the customer care function, the belief that he or she was an expert in customer care, the person's commitment to the organisation as a whole (rather than to a specific function within it), and the degree of centralisation of the firm's decision making. People who felt strongly that they owned their company's customer care function experienced a heavy sense of responsibility for its effective management. However, the same individuals were more likely to be in conflict with managers of other departments and to resist change.     

网络营销策略:消费者行为黑箱与客户满意度

电子商务的快速发展给网络营销提供了商业平台,同时也要求网络营销采取面向客户关系、网络营销成本与风险管理以及提升客户满意度等方面的营销策略。在分析网络营销特性基础上,通过对消费者行为模式和购买过程以及消费者行为黑箱分析,提出了相应网络营销策略。最后指出,网络营销应结合传统营销策略、虚实结合、差异营销,“一对一”客户交流等措施,以提升网络客户满意度。     

Relationship marketing in A B2C context: The moderating role of personality traits

More and more, retailers are investing in relationship building as a strategy for enhancing customer retention in the business-to-customer (B2C) context. However, some marketing scholars have expressed concern over the usefulness of relationship marketing under certain conditions. As such, this study investigates the moderating role of personality traits on the relationship between satisfaction-driven relationship quality and behavioral loyalty. Based on a sample of 158 retail shoppers, we find that customers’ overall satisfaction with the retailer leads to quality customer–firm relationships and ultimately, behavioral loyalty to the retailer. We also found that the impact of relationship quality on behavioral loyalty depends on the consumer's personality traits, i.e., consumer innovativeness, variety seeking, and relationship proneness. These findings extend the extant relationship literature by showing that the value of relationship marketing is not universal, thereby refining our understanding of the relationship between customer behavior and relationship marketing. Implications for academics and managers are discussed.     

Quality Assurance Certification for Hospitality Marketing,Sales and Customer Services

The article proposes that there is a need to extend quality assurance schemes to encompass marketing and customer services. The hospitality industry's involvement in the consideration of quality assurance schemes is discussed and the degree to which they have been accepted. An explanation of the Marketing Quality Assurance Scheme (MQA) is presented with detailed examples of the objectives to be met in assuring the quality of marketing, sales plans and customer service. The study concludes that quality assurance schemes for services and marketing are essential for the hospitality industry, in order to guarantee the quality of provision and to offer a bridge from quality assurance to the concept of Total Quality Management.     

论商业银行的顾客获取战略——关系营销视角的思考

顾客获取与顾客保持对于商业银行的客户关系管理同样重要。在关系营销的框架下,从战略层面为商业银行寻求顾客获取的基本流程,突出顾客获取与顾客保持的衔接,并确定潜在目标范围,选择顾客获取战略,保持与客户的长期关系。     

基于优质客户盈利能力的客户保持策略

当今的客户管理已经不再仅仅局限于树立"客户是上帝"的传统观念,客户也有可能成为"魔鬼",给企业带来坏账、诉讼等,导致企业经济利益流失,单纯地扩大市场份额并不一定能够确保持久的竞争优势.为更好地实现企业价值,现代企业应通过分析客户盈利率来寻找优质客户,通过理解并响应客户的需求和愿望、提升质量与品牌形象、进行感情投资及忠诚营销计划等来维系优质客户.