Stephen S. Tax

CUSTOMER EVALUATIONS OF SERVICE COMPLAINT EXPERIENCES: IMPLICATION FOR RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Many companies consider investments in complaint handling as means of increasing customer commitment and building customer loyalty. Firms are not well informed, however, on how to deal successfully...

Designing and implementing new services: The challenges of integrating service systems

Abstract The design and implementation of new services is a poorly understood process. The limited prior research has been characterized by the adoption of models that fail to consider important aspects of service planning, notably the impact that a new service may have on the existing service system. This article addresses many of these deficiencies by: (a) providing an alternate conceptualization of what constitutes a new service, (b) analyzing three case studies to gain additional insights into design challenges, (c) developing frameworks for assessing service design and (d) presenting and discussing a planning cycle for the integration of new services into an operating service system. Limitations of the study and suggested avenues for research are presented.

The Service Delivery Network (SDN): A Customer-Centric Perspective of the Customer Journey

In this article, we introduce the concept of the service delivery network (SDN) defined as two or more organizations that, in the eyes of the customer, are responsible for the provision of a connected overall service experience. This responds to calls for frameworks recognizing that dyadic service encounters are embedded in the series of experiences customers have with complementary providers as part of the journey to achieve their desired goals. Adopting an SDN perspective presents a dramatically different set of challenges for managers and provides research opportunities challenging the current view of established service concepts. Managers must recognize that to better serve the customer they need to understand the role that they play in the customer-defined service journey and be prepared to coordinate their activities with complementary providers. Participating in helping build and manage the SDN for the customer, or understanding how they fit into customer’s self-designed SDN, becomes a central challenge, often requiring firms to develop a new set of capabilities. The SDN also challenges the way we view many of the core concepts in service research, which are anchored in the dyadic view. This provides considerable opportunity for future inquiry. We present a series of research questions, inspired by the SDN, organized into categories including building cooperative and collaborative networks, customer cocreation, systems thinking, customer relationship management, managing service failure and recovery, building capabilities, and customer-to-customer interactions.

Planning for service quality: an integrative approach

Studies focusing on service quality management suggest that service firms spend too little effort on planning for service quality. The ensuing costs associated with poor service quality planning lead to lower profitability as part of the “cycle of service failures”. Examines how a quality planning technique (quality function deployment) (QFD) can be modified and adapted for use in a service environment to help prevent service failures. Illustrates the potential for the quality function deployment process as an effective tool at both the strategic planning level and the tactical level using the front‐desk activities in a hotel as an example. Also discusses the potential application of the QFD process to other design and planning challenges.

Growing Existing Customers' Revenue Streams Through Customer Referral Programs

Customer referral programs are an effective means of customer acquisition. By assessing a large-scale customer data set from a global cellular telecommunications provider, the authors show that participation in a referral program also increases existing customers’ loyalty. In a field experiment, recommenders’ defection rates fell from 19% to 7% within a year, and their average monthly revenue grew by 11.4% compared with a matched control group. A negative interaction between referral program participation and customer tenure reveals that the loyalty effect of voicing a recommendation is particularly pronounced for newer customer–firm relationships. A laboratory experiment further demonstrates that referral programs with larger rewards strengthen attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, whereas smaller rewards affect only the behavioral dimension. This article contributes to our theoretical understanding of the roles played by the commitment–consistency principle and positive reinforcement theory as mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of customer referral programs.

Managing the industrial salesforce culture

The concept of culture has been an important subject of managerial interest over the past decade, yet little has been written about how culture can be managed within the industrial salesforce. Describes the key components of a salesforce culture and explains the characteristics of a well‐managed salesforce culture. Finally, develops suggestions for managing the industrial salesforce culture around three strategic factors: planning, implementation and control. Concludes by providing some guidelines for further research in this important area.