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Service Marketing Chapter 7

Building Customer Relationships

The Gaps Model of Service Quality

  • Central Idea: The Gaps Model helps identify and close gaps in service quality to enhance customer satisfaction.

Main Branches:

  1. Gap 1: Customer Expectations vs. Management Perceptions

    • Sub-branches:

      • Lack of market research

      • Inadequate understanding of customer needs

      • Insufficient communication between management and customers

  2. Gap 2: Management Perceptions vs. Service Quality Specifications

    • Sub-branches:

      • Lack of clear service quality standards

      • Inadequate training and empowerment of employees

      • Failure to align service delivery with customer expectations

  3. Gap 3: Service Quality Specifications vs. Service Delivery

    • Sub-branches:

      • Inconsistent service delivery

      • Poor service design and processes

      • Ineffective service recovery strategies

  4. Gap 4: Service Delivery vs. External Communications

    • Sub-branches:

      • Misleading advertising and promotion

      • Inaccurate information provided to customers

      • Failure to manage customer expectations effectively

  5. Gap 5: Customer Expectations vs. Customer Perceptions

    • Sub-branches:

      • Differences in customer expectations

      • Variations in service delivery

      • Perception biases and subjective experiences

  6. Closing the Gaps

    • Sub-branches:

      • Conducting market research and customer feedback

      • Setting clear service quality standards

      • Training and empowering employees

      • Improving service design and processes

      • Implementing effective service recovery strategies

      • Managing customer expectations through communication

Relationship Marketing: A strategic orientation that focuses on keeping and improving customer relationships with current customers rather than acquiring new customers

Evolution of Customer Relationships

  • 1. Customers as Strangers: customers are unaware of or have not had any transactions yet.

    • Goal: Attraction

      • EX: Lincoln DMV

  • 2. Customers as Acquaintances: awareness and trial have been achieved, and familiarity is established

    • Goal: Satisfaction

      • EX: UNL parking and transit

  • 3. Customers as friends: provision of a unique offering and creation of trust

    • Goal: Retention

      • EX: Medical field- doctor, dentist, etc

  • 4. Customers as Partners: provision of highly personalized and customized offerings and creation of commitment

    • Goal: Enhance Partnership

      • EX: Hairdressers

Benefits for Customers

  • Confidence Benefits

    • feelings of trust and confidence in the provider

      • EX: Hairdresser or banks

  • Social Benefits

    • Familiarity and social relationships with the service provider

    • Service providers may become part of a social support system

      • EX: Personal Trainer

  • Special Treatment Benefits

    • Being given a special deal or price

    • Getting the benefits of the doubt

      • EX: reservation in a restaurant, dry cleaner

Benefits for the Firm

  • Economic Benefits

    • Increased purchases over time

    • Lower Cost

  • Customer Behavior Benefits

    • Free Advertising through word of mouth

    • Customer voluntary performance

      • EX: Another customer recommending food choices at a restaurant

    • Customers Providing social benefits to other customers

      • EX: Bars, Medical Settings

    • Customers as mentors

  • Human Resource Management Benefits

    • Make employees’ jobs easier

    • social benefits for employees

    • Employee Retention

Relationship Drivers- switching barriers

  • Customer Inertia

    • certain effort necessary to switch providers (“it’s just not worth it”)

    • to retain customers

      • increase the perceived effort required to switch

      • Automate the switching process to attract customers from competitors

  • Switching Costs

    • monetary and nonmonetary

    • to retain customers

      • increase switching cost

      • lower switching costs to attract customers

  1. Financial bonds

  2. Social Bonds

  3. Customization Bonds

  4. Structural Bonds

  1. Level 1- Financial Bonds

    • The customer is tied to the firm primarily through financial incentives

    • Disadvantages → usually doesn’t lead to sustained competitive advantage (easy to imitate

      • EX: Hyvee fuel saver, frequent flyer program

  2. Level 2-Social Bonds

    • Customer is tied to the firm through social and interpersonal as well as financial bonds.

    • Customers become clients instead of nameless faces

      • EX: professional services (lawyer, accountants, hairdressers) and Harley Owner Groups

  3. Level 3- Customization Bonds

    • Level 1 and 2 strategies encompassed with customization strategy

      • EX: Ritz Carlton

  4. Level 4-Structural Bonds

    • Created by providing services that are frequently designed right into the service delivery system for the client

    • Most difficult to imitate

      • EX: Fidelio (Hotel Software), Otis Elevator Remote, Canvas

Relationship Challenges

  • the customer is not always right (not all customers are good relationship customers)

    • The wrong segment

      • The company cannot target its services to all customers

      • EX:

    • Not Profitable in the long run

      • Companies prefer not to have long-term relationships with unprofitable customers.

      • EX:

    • Difficult or dysfunctional customers

      • Customers that interrupt (intentionally or unintentionally) otherwise functional service encounters (also called problem customers or jay customers)

      • It can affect employees, other customers, and the organization

      • EX:

Service Marketing Chapter 7

Building Customer Relationships

The Gaps Model of Service Quality

  • Central Idea: The Gaps Model helps identify and close gaps in service quality to enhance customer satisfaction.

Main Branches:

  1. Gap 1: Customer Expectations vs. Management Perceptions

    • Sub-branches:

      • Lack of market research

      • Inadequate understanding of customer needs

      • Insufficient communication between management and customers

  2. Gap 2: Management Perceptions vs. Service Quality Specifications

    • Sub-branches:

      • Lack of clear service quality standards

      • Inadequate training and empowerment of employees

      • Failure to align service delivery with customer expectations

  3. Gap 3: Service Quality Specifications vs. Service Delivery

    • Sub-branches:

      • Inconsistent service delivery

      • Poor service design and processes

      • Ineffective service recovery strategies

  4. Gap 4: Service Delivery vs. External Communications

    • Sub-branches:

      • Misleading advertising and promotion

      • Inaccurate information provided to customers

      • Failure to manage customer expectations effectively

  5. Gap 5: Customer Expectations vs. Customer Perceptions

    • Sub-branches:

      • Differences in customer expectations

      • Variations in service delivery

      • Perception biases and subjective experiences

  6. Closing the Gaps

    • Sub-branches:

      • Conducting market research and customer feedback

      • Setting clear service quality standards

      • Training and empowering employees

      • Improving service design and processes

      • Implementing effective service recovery strategies

      • Managing customer expectations through communication

Relationship Marketing: A strategic orientation that focuses on keeping and improving customer relationships with current customers rather than acquiring new customers

Evolution of Customer Relationships

  • 1. Customers as Strangers: customers are unaware of or have not had any transactions yet.

    • Goal: Attraction

      • EX: Lincoln DMV

  • 2. Customers as Acquaintances: awareness and trial have been achieved, and familiarity is established

    • Goal: Satisfaction

      • EX: UNL parking and transit

  • 3. Customers as friends: provision of a unique offering and creation of trust

    • Goal: Retention

      • EX: Medical field- doctor, dentist, etc

  • 4. Customers as Partners: provision of highly personalized and customized offerings and creation of commitment

    • Goal: Enhance Partnership

      • EX: Hairdressers

Benefits for Customers

  • Confidence Benefits

    • feelings of trust and confidence in the provider

      • EX: Hairdresser or banks

  • Social Benefits

    • Familiarity and social relationships with the service provider

    • Service providers may become part of a social support system

      • EX: Personal Trainer

  • Special Treatment Benefits

    • Being given a special deal or price

    • Getting the benefits of the doubt

      • EX: reservation in a restaurant, dry cleaner

Benefits for the Firm

  • Economic Benefits

    • Increased purchases over time

    • Lower Cost

  • Customer Behavior Benefits

    • Free Advertising through word of mouth

    • Customer voluntary performance

      • EX: Another customer recommending food choices at a restaurant

    • Customers Providing social benefits to other customers

      • EX: Bars, Medical Settings

    • Customers as mentors

  • Human Resource Management Benefits

    • Make employees’ jobs easier

    • social benefits for employees

    • Employee Retention

Relationship Drivers- switching barriers

  • Customer Inertia

    • certain effort necessary to switch providers (“it’s just not worth it”)

    • to retain customers

      • increase the perceived effort required to switch

      • Automate the switching process to attract customers from competitors

  • Switching Costs

    • monetary and nonmonetary

    • to retain customers

      • increase switching cost

      • lower switching costs to attract customers

  1. Financial bonds

  2. Social Bonds

  3. Customization Bonds

  4. Structural Bonds

  1. Level 1- Financial Bonds

    • The customer is tied to the firm primarily through financial incentives

    • Disadvantages → usually doesn’t lead to sustained competitive advantage (easy to imitate

      • EX: Hyvee fuel saver, frequent flyer program

  2. Level 2-Social Bonds

    • Customer is tied to the firm through social and interpersonal as well as financial bonds.

    • Customers become clients instead of nameless faces

      • EX: professional services (lawyer, accountants, hairdressers) and Harley Owner Groups

  3. Level 3- Customization Bonds

    • Level 1 and 2 strategies encompassed with customization strategy

      • EX: Ritz Carlton

  4. Level 4-Structural Bonds

    • Created by providing services that are frequently designed right into the service delivery system for the client

    • Most difficult to imitate

      • EX: Fidelio (Hotel Software), Otis Elevator Remote, Canvas

Relationship Challenges

  • the customer is not always right (not all customers are good relationship customers)

    • The wrong segment

      • The company cannot target its services to all customers

      • EX:

    • Not Profitable in the long run

      • Companies prefer not to have long-term relationships with unprofitable customers.

      • EX:

    • Difficult or dysfunctional customers

      • Customers that interrupt (intentionally or unintentionally) otherwise functional service encounters (also called problem customers or jay customers)

      • It can affect employees, other customers, and the organization

      • EX:

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