How does customer motivational orientation affect satisfaction?

This study examines the link between customer motivational orientation and customer satisfaction in the Chinese context. The customer motivational orientation–satisfaction model was tested on 349 Chinese bank customers in Macao, China. Results of structural equation modelling indicated that task-oriented and interaction-oriented customers were not equally responsive to the financial services provided. Specifically, task motivational orientation was directly and indirectly related to customer satisfaction through customer perceived service quality, whereas interaction motivational orientation only linked to customer satisfaction through customer perceived service quality as a mediator. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Price satisfaction and personnel efficiency as antecedents of overall satisfaction from consumer credit products and positive word of mouth

The paper aims to explore the potential impact of ‘bank personnel efficiency’ and ‘price satisfaction’ on overall customer satisfaction of consumer credit products and positive word of mouth (WOM). Furthermore it aims to provide bank managers with useful insights into the development of high quality relationships with customers. ‘Personnel efficiency’, is related to the human factor of service quality, while ‘price satisfaction’ refers to the customers’ subjective view of the bank's pricing policy. The research involved a review of the available literature on service quality dimensions and their effect on satisfaction and WOM. For the collection of data, a survey was designed and conducted in the greater area of Athens, Greece. The research questionnaire was administered by means of personal interviews to 750 bank customers. Data analysis, using structural equation modelling, suggests that ‘personnel efficiency’ and ‘price satisfaction’ are antecedents of overall ‘customer satisfaction’, which is a prerequisite for positive ‘word of mouth’.     

Promotional messages in multichannel banking: Attractive or annoying?

Financial service providers possess a great deal of information about their customers. Customer information is used to serve customers and deliver the right messages to the right customer groups. Owing to the nature of financial services – that is, the need for credibility, long-term commitment and involvement of sensitive personal information – the planning and implementation of suitable marketing is extremely important. Financial services are offered through multiple channels, but electronic channels have increased in importance both for customer acquisition and retention purposes. In addition, electronic channels offer personalization possibilities that did not exist before. In this study, we examine, with the help of electronic focus group interviews, the kind of channels customers prefer when promotional messages include different types of personalization. In addition, the acceptance of promotional messages in the online banking context is explored. The results indicate that the channel preferences of customers diverge depending on the type of personalization used in the message. Furthermore, based on the opinions of customers concerning several authentic online banners, a personalization matrix was developed. The findings show that preference-matching personalization with informative content is accepted by the majority of customers. The article offers financial managers new perspectives on bank marketing in general, and online bank marketing in particular.     

Creating Customer Value in Participating Life Insurance

The value of a life insurance contract may differ depending on whether it is looked at from the customer's point of view or that of the insurance company. We assume that the insurer is able to replicate the life insurance contract's cash flows via assets traded on the capital market and can hence apply risk‐neutral valuation techniques. The policyholder, on the other hand, will take risk preferences and diversification opportunities into account when placing a value on that same contract. Customer value is represented by policyholder willingness to pay and depends on the contract parameters, that is, the guaranteed interest rate and the annual and terminal surplus participation rate. The aim of this article is to analyze and compare these two perspectives. In particular, we identify contract parameter combinations that—while keeping the contract value fixed for the insurer—maximize customer value. In addition, we derive explicit expressions for a selection of specific cases. Our results suggest that a customer segmentation in this sense, that is, based on the different ways customers evaluate life insurance contracts and embedded investment guarantees while ensuring fair values, is worthwhile for insurance companies as doing so can result in substantial increases in policyholder willingness to pay.     

Survival Analysis of a Household Portfolio of Insurance Policies: How Much Time Do You Have to Stop Total Customer Defection?

Customer‐side influences on insurance have been relatively ignored in the literature. Using the household as the unit of analysis, this article focuses on the behavior of households having multiple policies of different types with the same insurance company, and who cancel their first policy. How long after the household's cancellation of the first policy does the insurer have to retain the customer and avoid customer defection on all policies to the competition? And, what customer characteristics are associated with customer loyalty? Using logistic regression and survival analysis techniques, an assessment is made of the probability of total customer withdrawal, and the length of time between first cancellation and subsequent customer withdrawal. Using a European database spanning 54 months of household multiple policyholder behavior, the results show that cancellation of one policy is a very strong indicator that other household policies will be canceled. Further, the insurer can have time to react to retain the customer after the first cancellation, however, this time is significantly dependent on the method used to contact the company, household demographics, and the nature of the household's insurance policy portfolio. Surprisingly, core customers having three or more policies in addition to the canceled policy are more vulnerable to total defection on all policies than noncore customers. Further, the potential customer repelling effects of premium increases seem to wear out after 12 months. Strategic implications of the results are presented.     

Modelling and predicting customer churn from an insurance company

Within a company's customer relationship management strategy, finding the customers most likely to leave is a central aspect. We present a dynamic modelling approach for predicting individual customers’ risk of leaving an insurance company. A logistic longitudinal regression model that incorporates time-dynamic explanatory variables and interactions is fitted to the data. As an intermediate step in the modelling procedure, we apply generalised additive models to identify non-linear relationships between the logit and the explanatory variables. Both out-of-sample and out-of-time prediction indicate that the model performs well in terms of identifying customers likely to leave the company each month. Our approach is general and may be applied to other industries as well.     

Modelling bank customer behaviour using feature engineering and classification techniques

This study investigates customer behaviour and activity in the banking sector and uses various feature transformation techniques to convert the behavioural data into different data structures. Feature selection is then performed to generate feature subsets from the transformed datasets. Several classification methods used in the literature are applied to the original and transformed feature subsets. The proposed combined knowledge mining model enable us to conduct a benchmark study on the prediction of bank customer behaviour. A real bank customer dataset, drawn from 24,000 active and inactive customers, is used for an experimental analysis, which sheds new light on the role of feature engineering in bank customer classification. This paper’s detailed systematic analysis of the modelling of bank customer behaviour can help banking institutions take the right steps to increase their customers’ activity.     

A framework for understanding the evolution of relationship quality and the customer relationship development process

This paper attempts to develop and empirically test a conceptual model of relationship quality (RQ) in the financial sector from the perspective of the individual consumer (B2C). Based on a review of RQ research, the paper proposes a model of RQ from the customer perspective using the constructs most often examined in empirical RQ research (customer satisfaction, trust and commitment) and considers the relative importance of these dimensions within the stages of the relationship development process (RDP). A survey of 150 bank customers was undertaken in Egypt and the results tested using structural equation modelling. Respondents were selected on a convenience sampling basis and administered a questionnaire instrument for completion. The findings show that there is a strong relationship between the customer’s perceived relationship development phase and the perceived RQ. An important contribution of this paper lies in the alternative conceptualization of RQ as composed of three dynamic dimensions which are dependent on the RDP phase or stage. A second contribution is methodological and relates to the development of a modified scale to identify the relationship phases of customers. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, these contributions are unique and have not been made previously to the body of knowledge on service relationship management.     

Kundenbindung in der Versicherungswirtschaft — neo-institutionenökonomische Analyse und marketingpolitische Ansatzpunkte

In the 90s a shift from a supply-driven to a demand-driven insurance market has taken place in Germany, and insurance companies have started to create customer loyalty by orientating their marketing policies towards the creation of and maintenance of long-term relationships. However, in the case of insurance services, uncertainty and the “information” factor play an important role. Therefore this article develops the characteristics of insurance services by using the paradigm of information economics and subsequently demonstrates the importance of trust in creating and maintaining long term insurer customer collaboration. Finally the economic implications of relational effects on customers and insurers are set forth. It can be shown that customer loyalty is mainly the result of successful management of customer relation.     

Customer readiness to co-production of mobile banking services: a customer-only co-production perspective

This paper aimed to identify the antecedents and corollary of customer readiness for co-production in customer-only co-production services using mobile banking services as a context. Using a structured questionnaire, data were gathered from a sample of mobile banking customers in Ghana and the UK and the data analysis was facilitated by structural equation modelling. From the findings, the antecedents were customer socialisation, customer self-efficacy and customer motivation and the corollary was service productivity. The findings provide managers of customer-only co-production or technology-based services particularly mobile banking services with the specific factors that can be managed strategically and tactically to enhance customer readiness for co-production and service productivity. This study is one of a kind to conceptualise and empirically identify the antecedents and corollary of customer readiness for co-production within the customer-only co-production context. However, as the study was limited to mobile banking services, future studies might test the research model in other customer-only technology-based services.

     

The impact of geographical factors on churn prediction: an application to an insurance company in Madrid's urban area

Geography has previously been noted as a decisive factor in business literature. This paper provides evidence of the significant role geography plays in customer lapse behaviour in an urban environment. This novel approach is based on the idea that the customers who cancel all policies and leave the company are not randomly distributed; rather, a mimetic performance of close individuals is noted. The physical proximity of the customer to the geographical focus (strategical centre, as insurance offices) and the interaction with nearby customer are spatial factors that increase (or decrease) the probability of churning. An empirical analysis using more than 7000 spatially georeferenced offline customers of a Spanish insurance company in the urban area of Madrid (Spain) demonstrated that the customer's proximity to offices of such insurance company under study decreases the probability of churning, whereas high lapse risk was detected in customers in the surroundings of the company's competitor branches. In addition, we identified spatial autocorrelation in churn probability, thus demonstrating that the probability of churn of a customer increases if nearby customers churn.     

‘Who owns the customer?’: A commentary on channel debate through the eyes of the customer

Amid intense changing competitive environments in the insurance industry, insurance manufacturers and intermediaries are preparing themselves to be closer than ever to their customers. But are they collaborating to serve the customer or are they still playing ‘tug of war’ over who owns the customer, while their customers seek greener pastures with the competition? In this paper the authors discuss six realities of customers and the insurance industry today and finish with suggestions on how collaboration between manufacturer and intermediaries will help serve the common interest of building stronger customer relationships.     

Effects of perceived cost,service quality,and customer satisfaction on health insurance service continuance

This paper aims to contribute to the universal discourse on financial services continuance behavior by examining the impact of service cost on customers’ service-quality perception and service continuance intention. It presents the results of an empirical study that has explored the impacts of service cost, service quality, and customer satisfaction on health insurance customers’ behavioral intention toward continuing or discontinuing with their service providers. Very few studies had examined the impact of service cost on service-quality perception. Our study attempts to fill that gap. A sample of 820 customers was surveyed, and 624 usable responses were analyzed with ANOVA, standard multiple regression, and logistic regression. Our findings indicate that, although highly satisfied health insurance customers will most likely retain their current service providers, customer dissatisfaction does not necessarily lead to discontinuance. Our results also provide some operational implications for health insurance managers, with strategies for reducing attrition and improving customer retention.     

Service transition strategies in service-dominant settings: Towards all finance solutions in SME markets

Intense competition and extensive customer needs are motivating companies to develop so-called ‘solution’ offerings in service industries. Building on service transition strategy literature, this article outlines the practical activities that broad-based financial service providers take in transitioning towards ‘all finance’ solutions and accentuates the inhibitors that their business customers perceive in this process. The empirical data consists of 40 semi-structured interviews among two service providers and 17 of their small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers. The results show that the service transition strategies of service extension and relationship focus are increasingly utilized in the financial industry. However, the integration of various components within a comprehensive bank and insurance offering is still in its early stages, suggesting providers rely mainly on a pure component strategy. SME customers, who seem to have taken the role of independent value creators, fail to perceive the benefits of purchasing comprehensive offerings from a single provider. Thereby, they tend to follow price-based purchase behaviour and negotiate their service offering with many different providers.     

Artificial life

E-business processes between insurance companies and their private customers allow — in comparison to conventional business processing — savings in administrative expenses up to 30 per cent. However, today’s e-business processes are often described as little transparent and stereotyped. Users, therefore, complain them being far to complex and, as a consequence, do not accept them. Relating to research in the field of customer behaviour, it has been proved that even in e-business processes customers like to be contacted and treated individually. This can be reached by corresponding to the cognitive ability and the personal involvement of each customer. By using those mechanisms information processing becomes ?hospitable‘ or even ?human-alike‘. Chatter-bots simulate human behaviour in e-business processes and will possibly replace personnel in certain areas. Therefore, chatter-bots seem a suitable instrument to introduce successfully e-business processes between insurance companies and their private customers. Two positive consequences could be reached: first, process efficiency could be raised and second, cost-savings in processing could be gained.     

The marketing cube

Today's business professional should consider three dimensions, or success drivers, when devising marketing programmes: profitability, profit potential and likelihood for retention — the ’marketing cube‘. Simply said, the margins on customers who fall into the ’right customer‘ group, as defined by this framework, are too great to ignore. Profit, widely confused with lifetime value, is a fact based on previous behaviour — and many financial service organisations are now calculating revenue minus costs for each customer to determine profit. Profit potential is an estimate of one individual customer's contribution to a company's bottom line. It emerges from a model. The modelled profit less actual is referred to as ’profit opportunity‘.Retention is the third component of the framework, and here there are ways to predict the loss of revenue from customers and implement preventive measures, before this loss even happens. A matrix of these three dimensions can help any financial service marketer build a next most logical product model and business rules that govern a successful customer relationship management (CRM) programme.     

Multi-attribute analysis of confidence,convenience and price functions of customers of financial services firms: A GLS systems model

The paper examines attributes of customers for modelling the dimensions of confidence, convenience and affordability of services offered by financial services firms (FSFs) by applying a generalised least square (GLS) systems model to a cross-section of customers in Dubai. These three dimensions have become major drivers of long-run viability and survivability in the last 15–20 years, because of dynamic and competitive macroeconomic forces faced by the FSFs. Earnings stability, longevity of relationship and liquidity attributes significantly explain the confidence level of customers across FSFs. Core, tangible and relational attributes besides ambience and ATM network, positively significantly explained the convenience level of customers in FSFs. Home loans, credit cards, savings accounts, term deposits and insurance services are significant products that are affordable and valued by customers. The systems model was validated using a holdout sample. The study findings have implications for customer relationship management, customer insight and production/transaction processing competencies of FSFs in the study area and are equally applicable to FSFs in other developed and developing economies.     

商业银行财富客户金融消费行为的统计与分析

本文分析了客户金融消费行为的影响因素和行为特征、商业银行提升高端客户拓展能力的要点.在对某分行进行调查的基础上,通过统计数据分析,发现财富客户具有以下行为特征:风险偏好多数为平衡型;稳定的客户持有基金、理财、保险、债券的比例较高;通过柜台和网银进行转账交易的比例较高;有客户经理维护时的客户稳定性高于无维护时,这些客户买...     

End-user access to multiple sources: incorporating knowledge discovery into knowledge management

The End-User Access to Multiple Sources—Eams system—integrates given information sources into a knowledge management system. It relates the world of documents with the database world using an ontology. The focus of developing the Eams system is on the acquisition and maintenance of knowledge. Hence, in both worlds, machine learning is applied. In the document world, a learning search engine adapts to user behaviour by analysing the click-through-data. This eases the personalization of selecting appropriate documents for users and does not require further maintenance. In the database world, knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) bridges the gap between the fine granularity of relational databases and the actual information needs of users. KDD extracts knowledge from data and, therefore, allows the knowledge management system to make good use of already existing company data—without further acquisition or maintenance. A graphical user interface provides users with a uniform access to document collections on the Internet (Intranet) as well as to relational databases. Since the ontology generates the items in the user interface, a change in the ontology automatically changes the user interface without further efforts. The Eams system has been applied to customer relationship management in the insurance domain. Questions to be answered by the system concern customer acquisition (e.g. direct marketing), customer up- and cross-selling (e.g. which products sell well together), and customer retention (here, which customers are likely to leave the insurance company or ask for a return of a capital life insurance). Documents about other insurance companies and demographic data published on the Internet contribute to the answers, as do the results of data analysis of the company's contracts. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the potential for Twitter to add value in retail bank relationships

It is argued that research within financial services marketing has omitted to pay sufficient attention to social media in banking contexts generally and its potential impact on retail bank relationships in particular. At a general level, this research study explores the advent of social media and the manner of its deployment in financial services. Specifically, this article reports on the deployment of Twitter in bank–customer communications. Accordingly, a content analysis of 400 Tweets sent from a range of financial service providers to their customers was conducted. A literature-based model allowed for the classification of these Tweets as either customer acquisition, engagement or retention-oriented. Findings indicate that Twitter is mainly used for customer engagement, but scope is identified for their more meaningful deployment in relation to customer acquisition and retention.