Building customer relationships: an inventory of service providers’ objectives and practices
Abstract
A study of 205 US commercial service providers, representing 31 two‐digit SIC codes, identified companies’ customer relationship‐building objectives and practices. Of 42 possible relationship‐building objectives, the four rated as top priorities were: encouraging customers to think of the firm first when considering a purchase; providing better service; encouraging customers to speak favorably about the firm; and encouraging customers to trust the firm. Answers to open‐ended, exploratory questions revealed 18 categories of relationship‐building initiatives. The findings suggest that “customer relationship‐building” means different things to different people and that practices to build such relationships vary considerably. By inventorying the range of relationship‐building objectives, quantifying their priority levels, and identifying specific practices used to build customer relationships, a greater understanding of current practices was achieved. Thus, the findings promise to benefit researchers, practitioners and consumers in terms of knowledge development, prescriptions for success, and enhanced value and satisfaction, respectively.
Keywords
Citation
Claycomb, C. and Martin, C.L. (2001), "Building customer relationships: an inventory of service providers’ objectives and practices", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 19 No. 6, pp. 385-399. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000006109
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited