scholarly journals A Theoretical Perspective of Contract and Contractual Customer-Supplier Relationship in the Mobile Phone Service Sector

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Turki Alshurideh
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Marketing ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Mobile Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Supplier Relationships ◽  
Contractual Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

Both contracts and contractual relationships as concepts have been rarely discussed from scholars’ perfectives in the Relationship Marketing (RM) branch of learning. Reviewing these concepts in the customer-service sector adds value because the majority of mobile service firms are losing their current contracted customers at a significant rate despite practicing different RM activities to retain active ones. Thus, this study introduces the concept of Contractual Customer Relationship Marketing (C-CRM) for the first time to the RM field of study and discusses how to employ Contractual Relationship Marketing (C-RM) especially in the use of contractual bonds to establish, maintain and extend customer-supplier relationships.This study targets various issues that are interrelated to the use of contracts to maintain and retain valuable customers in the mobile service sector. To explore these issues, this paper focuses on extending an understanding of contracts and their use in the contractual customer-supplier relationships. This requires an overview of the study’s topic in section one, with section two outlining the study’s importance. Section three provides an overview of the contract meaning and section four explaining the main benefits of using business contracts. Section five discusses the importance of using contracts for customer retention, then section six considers the contractual use in renewable situations, section seven reviews the relationship between contract use and customer switching, section eight explains how to employ contracts in prolonging customer-supplier relationships, and, finally, the concluding remarks are made in section nine.

scholarly journals Relacionamento com Clientes em Empresas Startups: Uma Análise de Publicações em Marketing

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-86
Author(s):  
Daniela Menezes Garzaro ◽  
Luís Fernando Varotto ◽  
Samara Carvalho Pedro ◽  
Fernanda Edileuza Riccomini
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Marketing ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Business Managers ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Business To Consumer ◽  
As Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

Objective: To identify the current direction of research on relationship marketing in the business to consumer (B2C) modality at virtual environments (internet and cell phone applications), focusing on startups companies, highlighting the main constructs, the methods and the evolution of research over the recent years.Method: The research was developed by means of a systematic literature review, based on 62 articles selected from the Web of Science database, and a textual statistical analysis using the Iramuteq software.Originality/Relevance: This research is relevant for the field of relationship marketing due to the relative novelty of the theme, and the scarcity of studies in the area, with its originality in pointing out several gaps for future studies, especially in relation to brand, mobile apps and fintechs (technology finance).Results: The most prevalent themes in these studies were perceived quality, usefulness, ease of use and safety, and their relationship with customer satisfaction and loyalty.Theoretical/methodological contributions: There is a gap in the field of customer relationship at online environment, since few studies have been dealing with issues related to customer service and relationship quality, especially in the context of startups.Social contributions/to management: The deepening of the theme gives business managers from many segments, as well as relationship marketing professionals, the opportunity to get to know and reflect on the relationship between client and company and the means adopted as an interface for this relationship.

How Does Employee Infusion Use of CRM Systems Drive Customer Satisfaction? Mechanism Differences Between Face-to-Face and Virtual Channels

MIS Quarterly ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 719-754
Author(s):  
Liwei Chen ◽  
J. J. Po-An Hsieh ◽  
Arun Rai ◽  
Sean Xin Xu
Keyword(s):  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Virtual Channels ◽  
Service Channels ◽  
Expectation Confirmation

To attain customer satisfaction, service firms invest significant resources to implement customer relationship management (CRM) systems to support internal customer service (CS) employees who provide service to external customers in both face-to-face and virtual channels. How CS employees apply sophisticated CRM systems to interact with customers and how the mechanisms through which their CRM usage affects customer satisfaction vary across service channels and bear important implications. We approach these issues by investigating the concept of infusion use, defined as CS employees’ assessment of the extent to which they use a CRM system to its fullest potential to best support their work in the CRM-enabled service interaction context. Drawing on the IS success framework and expectation confirmation theory, we first formulate a baseline model that explains the direct and indirect mechanisms through which CS employees’ infusion use of CRM systems leads to customers’ expectation confirmation, which in turn affects customers’ satisfaction. We then draw on the lenses of media richness and communication adaptation to theorize why these two mechanisms exert differential influence in face-to-face and virtual channels. We test the hypotheses by collecting multiwave data from CS employees, customers, and firm archives of a Fortune 500 telecom service firm. We find that (1) CS employee infusion use can directly contribute to customer expectation confirmation and indirectly do so through CS employees’ satisfaction with the system (i.e., user satisfaction), and (2) the direct mechanism plays a more critical role in the face-to-face channel, whereas the indirect mechanism is more important in the virtual channel. Our findings inform managers of the avenues through which employees’ infusion use promotes CRM-enabled service success across face-to-face and virtual service channels.

Salesperson profitability in relationship marketing

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Said Echchakoui
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Marketing ◽  
Transaction Cost Economics ◽  
Retention Rate ◽  
Sales Force ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Critical Duration ◽  
Sales Managers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Dynamic Exchange ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – This paper aims to answer a prominent question that arises for the manager who wishes to recruit a salesperson to maintain and develop a portfolio–customer relationship: Under which condition is this decision profitable for the firm? Though several authors have underscored the importance of the salesperson's role in the creation of purchaser–salesperson relationships, in the author's knowledge, no study has focused on the salesperson's profitability in the relationship approach. This issue is significant for sales managers because the investment in sales force is greater, and the relationship profitability with customers is not guaranteed. Design/methodology/approach – Econometric model based on transaction cost economics theory and dynamic exchange between firm, salesperson and a customer. Specifically, this model links between customer life value, firm financial value, salesperson cost and relationship time. Findings – Three zones are identified that can characterize the dynamic salesperson profitability. It was shown that only one zone can be profitable to the firm. Research limitations/implications – This result is important because it can solve the equivocal posit between scholars with regard to the success or the failure of relationship marketing. This study also specifies the critical retention rate, the critical duration time in which a salesperson begins to be profitable. Originality/value – In the author's knowledge, this study is the first to use an exchange model to show in which conditions the salesperson will be profitable in relationship marketing.

Customers' relational models as determinants of customer engagement value

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Velitchka D. Kaltcheva ◽  
Anthony Patino ◽  
Michael V. Laric ◽  
Dennis A. Pitta ◽  
Nicholas Imparato
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Customer Engagement ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Relational Models ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Firm ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types

Purpose – The authors apply Alan P. Fiske's relational models framework to customers' engagement with service firms – specifically, they propose that customers who hold different relational models for the service firm are likely to engage with the firm in dissimilar ways, thus generating different types of customer engagement value for the firm. Fiske's relational models framework is eminently suitable for studying customer-service firm engagement because it is widely adopted in the social sciences as a rigorously developed framework for conceptualizing social interactions. Design/methodology/approach – The article bridges Fiske's relational models framework and Kumar et al.'s customer engagement value framework, and conceptually demonstrates that customers employing different relational models for the service firm are likely to generate different types of customer engagement value for the firm. Findings – The article demonstrates conceptually that customers' relational models, schemata, and scripts influence how consumers engage with the firm and the type of customer engagement value accruing to the firm. Research limitations/implications – This research has implications for service firms' relationship strategies. First, service marketers can determine the desired customer engagement value(s) and then craft their customer relationship strategy so that it maximizes those engagement value(s). The article suggests relationship strategies that service firms may implement for encouraging customers to adopt different relational models. Originality/value – No research has bridged relational models theories and customer engagement value theories.

FACTORS AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCE OF COURIER SERVICE INDUSTRY: A SURVEY OF COURIER COMPANIES IN KENYA

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Jacinta Wahu Nyaga
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Sampling Frame ◽  
Statistical Research ◽  
Individual Factor ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Courier Service

Purpose: The study is an assessment of the factors affecting the performance of courier companies in Kenya.Methodology: A descriptive survey study design was used. The population of this study was 134 courier firms. The sampling frame consisting of 134 firms was obtained from the CCK website.  Stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample. A sample of 68 firms was considered representative and they were selected by the use of the lottery method. The researcher opted for a questionnaire as a data collection tool. Data was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics and specifically, means, frequencies and percentages. The analysis tools were simple tabulations and presentations using spreadsheets such as excel. The data was then presented using tables, charts and narratives.Results: The study findings indicate that the companies have invested heavily into the training of their employees. Thus having in place a properly trained workforce can be said to be a factor that has contributed to the success being experienced in the courier service sector. From the study it emerged that there was high motivation among employees in courier firms as evidenced by their attitude towards work itself and promotion factors. However, they were not very happy with the pay factor. It is important to note that it would have been against logical expectation if the findings on the pay issue were different. The courier service firms come out as having in place reliable and very good customer service. The companies take into considerations suggestion made by the customer and prospective customers into the designing of products and services.  ICT is another factor that attributes to the phenomenal growth of the courier service firms. Though the current state of infrastructure is bad, it seems to favor the growth of courier service firms. The courier firms have taken the challenge of poor infrastructure and turned it into an opportunity. In so doing, they have invested in motor bikes in order to beat the traffic jam challenge. This has enabled them to meet the demands of their clients increasing their popularity and hence more business.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended that future statistical research taking into account regression and correlation analysis can be conducted on the effects of the noted factors on the various growth indicators such as market share, revenues and profits. Such a study would verify or repute the findings of this study. Future study can also be conducted on an individual factor identified in the conceptual framework of this study.

scholarly journals The drivers influencing the relationship between sales representatives and customers and the impact this relationship has on sales volume within Coca-Cola’s Western Cape region

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. J. Herbst ◽  
C. L. Forrest
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Relationship Marketing ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Sales Representative ◽  
Final Conclusion ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Sales Representatives ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Companies within the FMCG sector are continually trying to create value from their brands by increasing their margins and/or selling more of their products. Taking cost out of the value chain gives the company a competitive advantage, but this advantage is short lived as competitors also reduce costs. Differentiating a product through enhanced features and benefits also provides a competitive advantage, but is also subject to imitation by rivals. As competition increases, companies are looking for new avenues to differentiate themselves. Relationship marketing has, as a result, increased its prevalence as a competitive tool to provide that point of difference.This research investigated the factors that influence the relationships between a Coca-Cola sales representative and his/her customers within the Cape Town region.This article was developed after studying literature as it pertained to customer relationship marketing. From the literature the foundation blocks in developing buyer-seller relationships were studied. The research methodology tested the impact of certain factors on the ability to build a relationship between buyer and seller and then tested the validity of those answers using underlying determinants of a relationship. These determinants included the ability to communicate, the ability to trust, the degree of loyalty and the ability to influence a customer.The response to the questionnaires was extremely high (over 95%) and provided for a robust evaluation of data. The research showed that there was a positive correlation between the profile of a sales representative and a customer. It is easier for a sales representative to build a relationship with a customer who is a similar age. It is however easier for the sales representative to influence a younger customer. Gender plays no role in a sales representative’s ability to build a relationship. With respect to education, a stronger relationship exists between a customer and sales representative of a similar education. Again it is easier for a representative to influence a customer who has a lower level of education. Race does have an impact on the ability to build relationships. The research showed that an African sales representative should service an African customer. There was a positive link between matching sales representatives and customers who come from similar areas and have the same religion. There was no correlation between the degree of the relationship that a Coca-Cola sales representative in the Western Cape region has with a customer and the sales growth within the outlets. This final conclusion must be read in the context of the relative high market share that the Coca-Cola Company has in the Western Cape.

From In Loco Parentis to Consumerism: A Legal Analysis of the Contractual Relationship Between Institution and Student

NASPA Journal ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry B. Melear
Keyword(s):  
Contract Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Contractual Relationship ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
In Loco Parentis ◽  
Student Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

As a result of the combined influences of historical events, judicial interpretations, and governmental regulation, the relationship between institutions of higher learning and their students has shifted from the theoretical perspective of in loco parentis, in which the university wielded strict control over the lives of students, to a consumer orientation. This contemporary characterization of student-asconsumer was precipitated by the application of the lens of contract theory by the judiciary in scrutiny of the foundation of the institution-student relationship. This article addresses the evolution of the student-as-consumer philosophy through a review of the literature and analyzes the contemporary contractual relationship between colleges and students through examination of federal and state case law. The analysis and synthesis of 130 reported cases indicated that the contract theory applicable to higher education has undergone an evolutionary process through which it has become firmly ensconced as a viable legal descriptor of the relationship between institutions of higher learning and students. Guidelines for administrative practice suggesting methods for avoidance of institutional and professional liability were extrapolated from the analysis.

Customer Relationship Marketing Focusing on Providing Benefits to Students and Mobile Service Providers

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
A. H. M. Ehsanul Huda Chowdhury ◽  
Sara Sarwari ◽  
Waleed Khan Chowdhury
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Marketing ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Cellular Phone ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Simple Random Sample ◽  
Mobile Service ◽  
Student Community ◽  
Quantitative Descriptive ◽  
The University

This article investigates the extent to which communication impacts on relationship marketing and whether improved communication can result in sustainable long-term relationships. It proposes a continuing process that would not only primarily facilitate the mass student community of the university but also specifically provide aid to every individual pupil’s requirements during their term in each enrolled semesters. The solution is meant to help the student community to stay in pace with their educational calendar besides enjoying the privilege to be entertained with the most effortless and economical communicating tool within the university community. This is expected to enrich each individual’s knowledge by initiating a new route to tie with one another besides serving all other regular needs for communicating with the rest of the world. This is a quantitative descriptive study where the survey method is employed using a simple random sample by using university students of AIUB who uses cellular phone. The findings indicate that this research will enhance not only the life of its pupils but also improve the procedures and formalities that it needed to carry out to serve the students. The commencement of the service will not only ensure the simplicity of the existing students but would also facilitate those particular students who are concluding their studentship.

BPM for supporting customer relationship and profit decision

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Lau ◽  
Dilupa Nakandala ◽  
Premaratne Samaranayake ◽  
Paul K. Shum
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Marketing ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Process Management ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Customer Relationships ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Levels ◽  
Marketing Models

Purpose – As a response to increasing global market competition, companies in various industries tend to identify and manage customer relationship to increase profit performance. Companies commit more resources to identify their VIP customers and retain them by all means. The purpose of this paper is to develop a customer relationship management (CRM) business process management (BPM) model to identify airline customers with different degree of relationship and profit potential, and select the highly profitable customers for developing retention strategy and processes, and convert the less profitable into profitable corporate accounts. Design/methodology/approach – This study innovatively apply the well-known techniques including CRM and relationship marketing models, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) in the BPM research. This novel approach analyzes longer term customer profit and value potential, and prioritizes corporate accounts as the basis for setting appropriate customer service levels and improving the CRM process. This hybrid model is able to capitalize on the benefits of these methods and offset their deficiencies. Most importantly, it can be customized to various industries without complex modification. Findings – This study uses data of an airline company to validate feasibility of the proposed CRM BPM model. The results indicate that this model is able to classify the customers based on various criteria and sub-criteria, thus allowing companies to introduce appropriate service levels to deal with different categories of customers, and improve CRM process so as to maximize customer profit and value potential. Practical implications – This CRM BPM model and analysis provide managers extensive customer knowledge, more analytical and fact-based decision-making support, and a stronger focus on return on investment in sales and marketing. Knowing the profit and value potential generated by individual corporate customer makes it easier to establish the link between the CRM and the profit outcome. This model also benefits the organization and its stakeholders by allocating more resources to the targeted customer relationships that are profitable or valuable, and makes marketing more accountable in its marketing programs. Originality/value – This study makes the first move to innovatively apply the well-known techniques including CRM and relationship marketing models, FAHP, and TOPSIS in the BPM research.

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