In-Store Information Programs:

Prior empirical investigations have found in-store information programs have little effect on sales volume. The current study examined the relationship between point-of-purchase information and consumer purchasing and satisfaction. Consumers who responded positively to the information program were found to purchase more from the relevant product category. Additionally, they were more satisfied with their purchases and with the store environment. Food marketers can reap long term direct and indirect benefits by providing information that is salient, easily assimilated and available at the point-of-decision.     

Understanding Customer Engagement and Loyalty: A Case of Mobile Devices for Shopping

This study aims at developing and validating a measurement model for customer engagement with specific focus on mobile devices for shopping. Further, role of customer engagement in building customer loyalty is explored. The research in this investigation used three studies for developing customer engagement scale and validating the proposed model. The study involved data collection from experts and users through varied methods including in-depth interviews, and surveys. Further structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Findings of this study include development and validation of customer engagement as second order construct arising out of six different customer experiences - social-facilitation, self-connect, intrinsic enjoyment, time-filler, utilitarian and monetary evaluation experiences. Further, the study established significant role of customer engagement in predicting customer loyalty in addition to existing constructs of satisfaction and convenience. This study contributes to evolving scholarly research on customer engagement. This study further provides a framework to retailers for devising matrices to track experiences and engagement of customers on mobile devices for shopping. Further, retailers may be able to use customer engagement to differentiate themselves from competition in attracting merchants and advertisers.     

Customer complaining: The role of tie strength and information control

We examine the impact of two key constructs, information control and tie strength, on consumers’ likelihood of complaining following service failures. We report convergent results from three types of studies—an experiment, a survey, and secondary data. In the first study, tie strength and information control were systematically varied in an experiment using a restaurant scenario. In a second study, survey data from patients who experienced dissatisfactory service was collected. The third study used field data from 1,470 customers of an HMO. Results from all three studies showed that, following service failure, complaining is more likely when the tendency for information control is stronger and ties are weaker.     

Customer retention and price matching: The AFPs case

Understanding the long-term price matching effects on CLV is important in evaluating the effectiveness of these policies in stimulating customer retention. In industries with low brand differentiation and low customer involvement (e.g., private pension system), it can be seen that choosing a brand is based on inertia. The objective of this article is to analyze the convenience for the firm of improving customer retention, by matching the lowest price in the Chilean private pension system. Results suggest that matching the industry's price leader reduces the firm's CLV, thus diminishing firm incentives to make this marketing effort.     

Customer participation and citizenship behavioral influences on employee performance, satisfaction, commitment, and turnover intention

Despite increasing awareness of the importance of customer behaviors in service delivery, understanding consequences relating to employees receives little attention. Therefore, using data from a large electronic firm relating to customers, employees, and managers, this study examines the effects of customer participation and citizenship behavior on employee performance, satisfaction and commitment, as well as indirect effects on turnover intention. Furthermore, the study examines how similarity and likeability moderate the effects of customer participation and citizenship behavior on employee satisfaction. The study also includes a laboratory experiment and provides further support for causal direction. The article discusses marketing implications of the results.     

Customer satisfaction and retail sales performance: an empirical investigation

We measure the links between store attribute perceptions and customer satisfaction, and between customer satisfaction and sales performance. Our data set consists of six waves of customer satisfaction and sales data for about 250 retail outlets over the period 1998-2001 for a publicly held supermarket company. We construct a statistical model to address nonlinearities and asymmetries in the satisfaction-sales performance links, and we illustrate how retailers can affect store revenues by managing customer satisfaction. Contributions of our study include the analysis of behavioral consequences of customer satisfaction in the food retail sector, the accommodation of complexities in the satisfaction-sales performance links based on an empirical model of first differences, and a discussion of how managers can employ the results for customer satisfaction policies.     

Customer Service in UK call centres: : organisational perspectives and employee perceptions

The 1990s have witnessed a dramatic rise in consumer demand for, and hence provision of, call centres in the UK. Central to the success of call centres is customer service. Although there exists an ever-expanding tranche of literature on call centres and customer service, it primarily focuses on aspects of their functionality. In contrast, this article encompasses analysis of organisational perspectives and employee perceptions in its review of the contemporary nature of customer service in UK call centres. Drawing from recent, exploratory research, the article asserts that, in general, there is significant potential for improving customer service and satisfaction through the medium of more sophisticated employee management practices.     

Market Orientation: An Iterative Process of Customer and Market Engagement

ABSTRACT

Research Purpose. The objective of this research was to examine market orientation in organisations that deliver manufacturing-based services to both client organisations and their customers.

Research Approach. The case study research method employed three data collection methods: in-depth, semi-structured interviews, document analysis and physical artefact analysis. Embedded study units comprising groups of different stakeholders with distinctly different perspectives provided a basis for replication logic to enhance validity of the findings.

Findings. The research revealed that a firm's transition toward a market-oriented state is progressive. At a given point in time, a firm may be adjusting to its markets intuitively or cognitively; market responsiveness may be occurring in specific pockets of the firm, or as an enterprise-wide strategy; and some of the conditions specified may be met, some may be partly met and others may remain to be addressed in the future. A specific customer focus was important to the conceptualisation of market orientation in the case organisation.

Research Implications. Key implications of the research are as follows:

• In conceptualising market orientation as a process as opposed to an ideal state, important issues of structural and policy alignment and senior executive vision and drive are revealed;

• in addition to customer and competitor orientations and intra-organisational co-ordination, other dimensions of a market orientation revealed in the research context are a customer focus and a new knowledge orientation; and

• both inter- and intra-organisational co-ordination facilitate the development of market driven and market driving customer value.

Practical Implications. While the senior executives were aware of the significant performance benefits to be achieved through a national, market-oriented vision, the lack of a co-ordinated plan to achieve cultural change resulted in incremental achievements towards the vision. One key factor inhibiting the envisioned cultural change was the power base of those within the organisation who perceived that a national, market focus would eliminate local autonomy. Specific policy was required to align rewards with required behavioural change.

Contribution. This research provides a unique perspective of market orientation as process of organisational development directed towards aligning the organisation with its served markets. Intervention strategies and incremental changes attempted to achieve a national market perspective, highlight the importance of aligning structure, human resource management strategy, top management commitment and leadership drive in achieving such a cultural change.     

Strategic,Operational, and Analytical Customer Relationship Management

Abstract

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) means different things to different people. For some, CRM is the term used to describe a set of IT applications that automate customer-facing processes in marketing, selling and service. For others, it is about an organizational desire to be more customer focused. Others associate CRM with the capture, analysis and exploitation of customer-related data. One distinction that has been made is between strategic, operational and analytical CRM. This paper sets out to understand, conceptualize and operationalize these terms. Our research generally supports the idea of a multi-dimensional conceptualization of CRM. We develop and present an instrument, consisting of a thirteen-item scale, which can be used to assess an organization's orientation towards one or more of these three forms of CRM.     

售后服务质量、顾客满意度及其行为意愿——基于“家电下乡”政策背景下农村顾客的实证分析

在对售后服务质量和顾客行为意愿进行维度划分的基础上,本文以我国"家电下乡"政策背景下购买过家电产品的农村顾客为研究对象对上述问题进行了深入分析。结果发现,送货质量与安装质量对顾客满意度的积极影响显著;顾客满意度高对保持关系意愿有着积极影响;保持关系意愿对顾客重购意愿和推荐意愿有着积极影响;顾客重购意愿对推荐意愿的积极影响不显著。最后,对本文的研究结论、启示与不足进行了阐述。     

市场份额、顾客忠诚与赢利能力

大量研究表明,进入20世纪80年代以后,长期被管理者看成是衡量一个企业能否获取高额利润的重要指标的市场份额与企业利润的相关度在大大降低,而顾客忠诚度则成为与企业高利润更为密切相关的因素.因此,企业要实现其利润最大化,必须重视培养顾客对企业的忠诚度.     

Customer satisfaction and brand equity

The study here examines the interaction between shareholder value and customer satisfaction, as well as the impact on a firm's brand equity. Customer satisfaction may have a positive effect on brand equity, except when managers show excessive customer orientation, in which case the effect is negative because of reductions in shareholder value. The empirical analysis uses incomplete panel data pertaining to 69 firms from 11 nations during the period 2002-2005 and supports the theoretical contentions. This result warns of the perverse effect on brand equity of implementing policies focused exclusively on satisfying customers at the expense of shareholders' interests.     

顾客忠诚的价值分析及其培养策略

在品牌竞争时代,品牌拥有的忠诚顾客群越大,其价值就越大。增加企业利润、降低交易成本、提高信息的价值含量、实现交叉销售、扩大顾客群是顾客忠诚的价值体现。由此可见,顾客忠诚的培养成了品牌制胜的关键所在,并从提升顾客价值、提高顾客满意度、加强顾客关系管理、提高转换成本以及开展信任营销五个方面来说明顾客忠诚的培养策略：     

Customer relationship management in retailing: A content analysis of retail trade journals

The purpose of this research was to increase knowledge and understanding of how retailers use business intelligence and data mining tools to implement customer relationship management (CRM) in retailing. Specific objectives were to (1) identify organization and infrastructure requirements for CRM effectiveness, (2) identify CRM objectives and goals of retail companies, (3) identify data mining tools utilized by retailers to perform CRM functions, and (4) identify CRM strategies used by retail companies. A keyword search within business databases using CRM and CRM identified publications with CRM content. Content analysis was used on articles (N=149) drawn from Stores, Chain Store Age, Harvard Business Review, and Retail Forward over a 5 year period (2000–2005). Selected articles were stored as text files in QDA Miner, a computerized qualitative analysis tool. Key organization/infrastructure needs emerged focusing on data structure, organizational systems, technology structure, and data accessibility. Retailers goals/objectives and strategies focused on marketing, customer service, understanding customers through data analysis and increasing acquisition and retention through customer loyalty programs. Data mining tools identified supported marketing and customer analysis efforts. Findings provide insight into the challenges retailers face as they implement a more customer-centric business strategy.     

The Carryover Effect of Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality Focused on Moderating Effect of Customer Trust and Cooperative Orientation

The current study is intended to provide a novel contribution in regards to the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction by focusing on carryover effects of satisfaction judgment on perceived service quality of the subsequent transaction. In addition, we probe the role of customer trust in the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality. The results indicate a cycle of customer satisfaction and perceived quality over time, which validates the concept of cycle of satisfaction. The results also indicate trust toward a service provider has a moderating role on the relationship between customer satisfaction and perceived service quality.     

Approaches to the Measurement and Management of Customer Value

SUMMARY

Determining and managing customer lifetime value is one of the most important strategic objectives of companies today. This paper critically examines some of the most popular approaches traditionally used to measure the value of customers in a company's portfolio. The methods reviewed include RFM and total revenue approaches to differentiating the value of customers. Although these methods have relative advantages, they have serious drawbacks that limit the ability of managers to accurately assess customer value. An alternative model for the measurement and management of customer value is proposed.     

旅游者参与、服务质量、消费情感对旅游者忠诚影响

旅游者参与是旅游者重要需求,通过参与达到正面的情感体验;在激烈的市场竞争中,实现旅游者忠诚是旅游地重要目标,因此对旅游者参与及相关变量对旅游者忠诚的影响研究具有重要意义。文章构建了旅游者参与对旅游者忠诚影响的整合模型,并提出若干研究假设。通过对武夷山观光旅游者调查获取基础数据,实证了旅游者参与、服务质量、消费情感、旅游者满意等变量的相互关系及其对旅游者忠诚的影响。研究发现,旅游者参与对服务质量、正面消费情感、旅游者满意具有显著直接正向影响,对负面消费情感具有显著直接负向影响,并通过服务质量、消费情感、旅游者满意三个中介变量对旅游者忠诚产生间接影响;服务质量通过旅游者满意对旅游者忠诚产生产生间接影响;消费情感对旅游者忠诚既产生直接影响,又通过旅游者满意对其产生间接影响;旅游者满意是旅游者忠诚的直接前因变量。最后指出研究局限及未来研究方向。     

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.     

从梦想到救赎——科幻影视剧的人类情感折射

随着影视制作技术的发展,影视剧越来越适合表现科幻题材。从主题上来看,科幻题材影视剧具有很大的超越性,在各种科幻题材影视剧中,对科技与人类的关系有着深层次的表现。但是长期以来,科幻影视作品内部亚类型的划分更多的是依据科幻影视的外部表现形式来进行的。如果从人类情感的发展出发,对科幻影视剧进行归类,就可以看出科幻题材影视剧所体现出来的人类情感线索：从对梦想的自信到怀疑,再到宗教的救赎。     

Customer Lifetime Value and Firm Valuation

SUMMARY

Unlike most marketing metrics, CLV provides information which is directly relevant to marketing decision makers, non-marketing executives such as CFOs, and financial analysts. This paper highlights why and how CLV is financially relevant. It explicitly compares CLV-based valuation with four finance-oriented methods (DCF, P/E ratio, customer counting, and extrapolation). We also discuss implications for marketing managers, financial executives as well as educators.