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Customer Relationships (customer + relationships)
Selected AbstractsCustomer Relationships go DigitalBUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW, Issue 1 2003George S Day First page of article [source] The New Design Imperative: To Satisfy and DelightDESIGN MANAGEMENT REVIEW, Issue 1 2009Jo Davison Vice President-Creative Websites are corporate resources. Jo Davison's insights have to do with making them resources that generate real value in terms of brand, customer relationships, and sales. Design is the key to achieving these goals and, with illustrations from an industrial products company, a retailer, and a professional services firm, Davison details the elements of sites that are approachable, beautiful, and hard-working. [source] CREATING VALUE IN THE OIL INDUSTRYJOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 1 2004Nick Antill In contrast with current thinking that conglomerates are inefficient, this article begins by presenting arguments in favor of the size and structure of the large integrated oil companies, also known as "the supermajors." Among the advantages are tax efficiency, information flow, political and technological know-how, broad supplier and customer relationships, scale economies, cross-business economies of scope, brand power, and the ability to coordinate strategic initiatives across businesses. These advantages all translate into a lower cost of capital. One problem, however, is that this lower cost of capital does not seem to be reflected in the target returns on capital currently set by the supermajors. Observing that the financial goal of a corporation is to maximize not its return on capital but rather the net present value of expected future cash flows and earnings, the authors argue that the majors need to make two major changes to current practice. First, their investment hurdle rates should be reduced from their current level of 14,15% to the weighted average cost of capital, which is estimated to run about 8,9%. Second, the actual returns on capital reported in published accounts are largely meaningless; and when evaluating new investments and existing operations alike, the companies must find an annual performance measure that better reflects the economic realities of the business. This paper recommends use of a performance measurement framework based on economic profit that should serve two critical purposes: it will encourage managers to undertake all value-increasing projects (not just those that will maintain or increase reported return on capital), and it will help the companies communicate their strategy and results to the investment community. [source] Emerging perspectives on customer relationships, interactions and loyalty in Irish retail financial servicesJOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 2 2006Deirdre O'Loughlin This paper presents the key findings in relation to current consumer perspectives on the role of relationships, the nature of loyalty and types of customer interaction from an in-depth qualitative consumer study of Irish retail banking. Although the literature proposes that the RM approach is particularly applicable to the financial services sector, the research findings identify key supply and demand-related changes within Irish financial services and raise questions as to the appropriateness of general RM theory to the current nature of interaction between consumers and their financial suppliers. Key customer factors such as low involvement, apathy and dissatisfaction have resulted in much apparent customer loyalty actually being spurious. More important for customers in this study was how convenient the bank was for their lifestyle. In an age in which increased depersonalisation and automation impact upon the nature of consumer-supplier interaction and service delivery, it would appear that the concepts of relationship and loyalty need to be fundamentally re-examined and their role and relevance within current retail financial services re-appraised. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Does service failure influence customer loyalty?JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2002Francis Buttle Abstract There is a general consensus that customer loyalty to service providers is not solely dependent upon their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. However, the identified antecedents of loyalty remain, at best, highly speculative. The aim of this extensive literature review is to give some understanding of the nature of customer loyalty and the antecedent effects of service dissatisfaction. The research reviewed suggests that customer loyalty is an attitudinal state, reflecting value, trust and commitment within supplier,customer relationships. Satisfaction is one of several antecedents of loyalty. A key influence on loyalty is the offer of unique value-delivering advantages not provided by competitors. Thus firms need to develop positive value-based exit barriers to achieve loyalty. When service failures occur, the recovery process is likely to have a greater impact on loyalty than the original service failure. The key to successful recoveries was found to be the customer's perception of ,fairness'. Recovery programmes must get it right first time. Customers who remain dissatisfied after a complaint has been handled are more dissatisfied than if no recovery attempt had been made. Dissatisfaction and customer satiation are major causes of a customer's exit. The solution to customer satiation is dynamic value creation. Collection and monitoring of customer data is needed for success and two-way communication is vital. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications. [source] Trade credit and customer relationshipsMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 6-7 2003Barbara Summers Trade credit is an important economic phenomenon, and a variety of theories have been put forward to explain the decisions firms make on credit extension. The ways in which credit can be used as a strategic tool to support corporate objectives has not, however, been fully discussed. The results presented here provide some support for the extant theory on trade credit extension and for recent empirical papers in this area (e.g. Ng et al., 1999; Petersen and Rajan, 1994). However, our results suggest that trade credit granting has a set of subtle and complex motivations over and above those predicted by standard theory. In particular trade credit extension can be used as a many-faceted marketing/relationship management tool and/or as a means of signalling information to the market or to specific buyers about the firm, its products and its future prospects/commitment. Much of credit extension can be seen as customer focused; for example, encouraging frequent purchasers which offer the potential for relationship development or accommodating customers' demand for credit to help finance their production period. The requirements/bargaining power of large customers can influence a firm to extend more credit. Firms will vary terms in anticipation of capturing new business, to attract specific customers and in order to achieve specific marketing aims. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Building customer relationships in an electronic age: The role of interactivity of E-commerce Web sitesPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 7 2008Doyle Yoon This study examines the role of perceived interactivity and other marketing tactics in relationship building with customers in the online retail environment by applying a relationship investment model adapted from De Wulf, Odekerken-Schröder, and Iacobucci (2001). A proposed structure model was tested with data collected from an online survey of 571 respondents. In the model, three subdimensions of perceived interactivity and three marketing tactic variables were incorporated as the antecedents of perceived relationship investment that subsequently influenced perceived relationship quality and behavioral loyalty. Results suggest that two marketing tactics,direct mail (e-mail) and tangible rewards,and two dimensions of perceived interactivity,synchronicity and two-way communication,play as significant antecedents for the relationshipbuilding process of online retail brands. In addition, the findings confirm the relationships among perceived relationship investment, relationship quality, and behavioral loyalty, which indicates that the fundamental process of relationship building remains similar in the online environment. Reflecting the unique nature of the online retail environment, the model also clarifies the roles of interactivity as well as traditional relationship investment strategies in facilitating online retailers' relationship building with customers. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The Relative Importance of Interfirm Relationships and Knowledge Transfer for New Product Development Success,THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2007Mette Praest Knudsen The relationship and network literature has primarily focused on particular partner types, for example, buyer,supplier relationships or competitor interaction. This article explores the nature and relative importance of different types of interfirm relationships for new product development (NPD) success. The underlying premise of the study is that not only the type of interfirm relationships but also the combination of relationships are important for NPD performance. The interaction with a specific type of partner is expected to influence innovative performance by means of appropriate knowledge transfer. Varying needs for external knowledge, and thus types of relationships, are observed depending on the particular stages in the NPD process, the character of the knowledge base of the firm, and the industrial conditions. The absorption of external knowledge is discussed using the degree of redundancy in knowledge, which is defined as the degree of overlap in the knowledge base of the sender and the recipient of knowledge. Hence, the degree of redundancy has direct implications for the ease and, hence, use of knowledge shared with an external partner. The article is based on data from the Know for Innovation survey on innovative activities among European firms, which was carried out in 2000 in seven European countries covering five industries. The article explores the extent of use of external relationships in collaborative product development and finds that customers are involved more frequently in joint development efforts. Second, the industry association of the most important relationship is studied, and the results show that firms tend to partner with firms from their own industry. The danger in this approach is that firms from their own industry tend to contribute similar knowledge, which ultimately may endanger the creation of new knowledge and therefore more radical product developments. The analyses combine the finding that relationships with customers are used most frequently at both early and late stages of the product development process, with a second and more contradictory finding that at the same time customer relationships have a negative impact on innovative success. Moreover, the combination of customers, with both universities and competitors, has a significant negative effect on innovative performance. The potential causes of this apparent paradox can be narrowed down to two: (1) the average customer may be unable to articulate needs for advanced technology-based products; and (2) the average customer may be unable to conceptualize ideas beyond the realm of his or her own experience. Based on this evidence the article cautions product development managers to think explicitly about what certain customers can contribute with and, more importantly, to match this contribution directly with their own sense of what direction product development should go in the future. Finally, the role of complementary as well as supplementary knowledge is investigated for innovative success finding that sharing of supplementary knowledge with external partners in NPD leads to a positive effect on innovative performance. The article is concluded by a discussion of the implication of this finding for building knowledge within the firm and for selecting external partners for NPD. [source] Managing the environmental adaptation process in supplier,customer relationshipsBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2001Louise Canning This paper details the results and managerial implications from four case studies, which examine how the environmental adaptation process (EAP) is managed within business-to-business relationships. The research uses models of supplier,customer interaction and inter-organization cooperation in order to explore inter-firm relationships and the process of adaptation. The research findings show that either party might pursue adaptations and also establishes features of the process itself as well as identifying factors that can facilitate or hinder the introduction of environmental changes. Arriving at a satisfactory outcome to the adaptation process can be determined by individual company and relationship characteristics, as well as the behaviour and experience of those managers involved in the process. Guidelines for the management of the process of environmental adaptation are proposed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [source] | ||||||||||