In theory, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology and processes should help firms to identify the ‘right’ customers, understand their needs, predict their behaviour and develop tailored propositions. Yet numerous studies have found that CRM projects have failed to deliver the expected benefits. Academics and practitioners have begun to refer to a key resource required to fulfil the promise of CRM as ‘customer insight’. Project one explores how companies use customer insight to drive customer acquisition, retention and development and proposes a theoretical framework for actioning customer insight. Five case studies with UK-based large companies were undertaken, involving 25 in-depth interviews. Companies were found to be synthesising data from five areas: competitors, customers, markets, employees and channel partners. From this data they are generating four types of customer insight: market predictions, customer segments, propensity models and customer analytics. This insight is guiding strategy, operations, marketing, sales, product portfolio management and customer service. Project two explores a particularly promising area of practice uncovered in project one, namely how customer insight is used in inbound service call centres to drive crossselling, up-selling and retention. Empirical research into this practice of sales through service is sparse. A cross-sector multiple-case exploratory study of six UK-based organisations was undertaken, using interviews and agent observation. Customer insight in the form of predictive models delivered to agents’ screens appears to improve the effectiveness of sales through service. Contrary to common practitioner concerns, insight-based sales offers can have a positive impact on satisfaction, and introducing sales through service does not necessarily increase average handling time. Agents are more likely to make successful offers if they believe that they are ‘doing the right thing’ for the customer. A balanced set of targets covering productivity, satisfaction and sales seems important for agents combining sales and service roles. Further research is needed to validate and refine the seven propositions generated.

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This thesis reports a study that investigated customer retention practices in four business contexts: a bank; a sales company; a chemical processing company; atid an airport. The main objective of the study is to understand the 'contextualised' phenomena associated with customer retention management and in particular the influences of contextual factors on the firms' customer retention practices, in addition, the study examined the applicability of current theory to the four firms.

Nowadays social relationships between service providers and customers are vital for their long term customer relationship management (CRM). Several scholars also believe that poor results of CRM initiatives are due to an extensive focus on technological aspects as an antecedent of CRM rather than social capital dimensions. Despite social capital and CRM concepts have attracted both academics and practitioners; the link between these two concepts is under-researched. Thus, this study examines the effect of social capital on CRM through mediating organisational perceived values. The exhaustive literature review on social capital dimensions, organisational perceived values and CRM performance leads to the development of a conceptual framework and formulation hypotheses. The proposed framework and hypotheses were empirically assessed through a positivist methodological approach: survey study and quantitative data modelling techniques. The survey study was administrated to CRM managers of 201 Egyptian fmancial service institutions (e.g. banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms) using a drop & collect method. The usable response rate of96.6 per cent was tested for non- response bias. The data analysis focused on exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling and regression models which statistically validated the proposed research model. Results of goodness of fit and statistical indices established validity and reliability of this study. The results confmned three social capital dimensions (e.g. structural, cognitive and relational) and their antecedents. The fmdings also proved a significant and positive link between social capital and CRM performance (e.g. loyalty and retention) through the mediating roles of organisational perceived values (e.g. customer satisfaction and customer commitment). Therefore, the proposed conceptual framework was validated. Thus, sixteen hypotheses were supported while only one was refuted. This study makes three main contributions: First, it remedies deficiencies in the existing social capital literature and develops an integrated model of social capital. Second, it develops and tests a comprehensive framework that integrates social capital with CRM performance in the fmancial service sector. Third, it brought in a new significant strategy for fmancial service institutions managers to improve customer-organisation relationships. It introduced social capital as an antecedent for an effective CRM performance. The implications and practice are considered in the light of the results of this study. Several limitations of the methodology are addressed and ideas for further research put forward.

Set in the Greek subsidiary of a multinational company whose products are capital goods and consumables sold through business-to-business channels, this work addresses a noticeable fall in sales over recent years from the perspective of a practitioner-researcher. A participative approach to the research work was chosen by reference to the Action Inquiry paradigm and the thesis outlines the reasons for this choice. It goes on to trace how the problem of falling sales was first explored through the literatures of customer satisfaction and customer relationship management before finding expression in the Service-Profit Chain model. The application of this model to a business-to-business environment is carefully considered throughout. From a wide client base, not all customers could be accommodated in the research and so a method of customer selection is outlined. To enable an evaluation of the progress of the work, a non-positivist process for benchmarking customer sentiment towards the subsidiary has been developed by extensive use of the Repertory Grid Technique. The thesis reports on two applications of this method, each a year apart, and on the ameliorating interventions made in the intervening period. These interventions were facilitated by the application of a key account management system in the company where the work took place. Both practical and theoretical issues concerning the KAM approach are discussed at length. The work may be seen as pursuing a gap in the literature recognized by several writers and as such it contributes to knowledge by virtue of being a rare piece of pragmatic research into customer relationships and their management. It demonstrates a practical integration of the fields of theory covered by the Service-Profit Chain, Customer Relationship Management and Key Account Management, whilst reinforcing the Service- Profit Chain model as an integrating theory within the business-to-business field. Finally, the research outlines a transferable process for the assessment of a company's standing with its customers in such an environment and for planning appropriate interventions with a view to influencing that standing on a cyclical basis.

This thesis examines the concept of empathy and whether an empathic approach to service provision can help in the building of relational strategies and improve customer loyalty. The health and fitness sector is selected as the setting for the investigation, not only because this is an industry where high customer attrition rates are experienced by the service providers, but also because within it many of the characteristics that make an industry suitable for the practive of relationship marketing exist. The sector sits squarely within the service sector with frequent interaction between the supplier and the customer. The sector is also characterised by intense rivalry and competition between firms, making customer retention an important issue. A multi-method approach was adopted for the primary research. A questionnaire was designed based on the four dimensions of empathy, cognitive, emotive moral and behavioural (Moores et al 1992). A fifth dimension was also added to measure the perception of empathy through the tangible facilities that the clubs. The results of quantitative analysis (factor analysis) show little support for the five-dimensional structure of behavioural, emotive, cognitive and moral empathy, and tangibles. Instead, users' perceptions of empathy are better structured around the process of joining and using the gym. Factor scores were calculated using the regression method, and correlation analysis was used to investigate the relationship between each dimension of empathy and overall impression of empathy. The approachability and competence of staff was the best predictor of overall impression of empathy, followed by: explanation and communication of the product, induction, and finally design and relevance of the product. Further analysis showed that the most important aspects of empathy were staff approachability, attempts to ensure understanding of exercise programme, design and maintenance of facilities. The least important aspects of empathy were staff relating to users' motives, goals and anxieties. Qualitative interviews were also carried out to shed further light on some of the quantitative research findings. The study has confirmed the emerging view within the services literature that there is spill over between dimensions of service quality by showing that empathy is not clearly distinguishable from assurance, responsiveness and reliability. Further more, the findings have helped to produce a new multi-dimensional model for examining and measuring service quality within the health and fitness sector with enmpathy as the overarching dimension, and ongoing approachability and competence of staff, induction, communication, design and customisation of the product, and maintenance of facilities as the component dimensions. The final conclusion is that while closeness to home and work maybe the most import reasons for choosing or exiting a health and fitness club, perceived service provider empathy has a positive impact in building long term relationships and customer loyalty with club members. The scale for measuring empathy which was developed for this reserarch can be modified for use in other types of sports and leisure facilities.

This thesis is concerned with how customers seek value in public health and fitness clubs. Although the study of value takes many discursive avenues, value as practices are investigated in the present research. To establish the value seeking practices of public health and fitness club customers, data was collected via an ethnographic study. This involved the researcher attempting to view the practices of the public health and fitness club customers through their lens. Therefore, the researcher immersed himself in the study context for a period of five months as a participant observer. In addition, twenty in depth interviews with public health and fitness club customers where conducted. This combination of methods provided rich and detailed data for analysis. The data was viewed from an interpretive perspective and was subsequently coded using open, axial, and selective coding principles. The findings led to the identification of three key themes: practices concerning customers joining and committing to the health club, practices relating to the facilitation of customers performances within the health club, and the customers own visible performance practices. Within each broad theme, many sub-practices are identified and explained. The empirical data suggests that customers seek particular practices that give them value however these do not always match the provider’s requirements. It is further suggested that disjuncture’s between the customers and the providers practice could be viewed as the customer proposing practice for service development. Overall, the thesis extends existing research by providing new insights into customer’s value seeking practices in public sector health and fitness clubs and proposes a new model of value practice as a means of service development.

Frontline employee (FLE) attitudes and behaviours during service encounters influence customers’ perceptions of service quality and customer satisfaction. The identification of variables that influence FLEs service behaviours is, therefore, important. Much remains unknown about the factors affecting prosocial service behaviours (PSBs). This thesis answers the following questions: What are the antecedents of PSBs in a travel service setting? It is argued that managerial strategies indirectly influence PSBs via their direct influence on job attitudes. This thesis represents an attempt towards an increased knowledge about the antecedents of PSBs by seeking answers to the question. A conceptual model was developed from the literature. Briefly stated, the hypothesised model proposed that job attitudes mediate the relationship between managerial strategies and the PSBs. In-depth interviews provided initial support for the conceptual model. Structural equation modelling techniques were then used to test these relationships on data from 179 travel service employees. Partial support for the mediational role of job attitudes was found. More specifically, the relationship between professional development and extra-role customer service is mediated by job satisfaction and organisational commitment, but not in-role customer service and cooperation. The managerial strategies influence PSBs directly. Internal communication influences extra- and in-role customer service behaviours positively. The relationship between professional development and the three PSBs constructs is negative. Empowerment influences in-role customer service and cooperative behaviours positively.

Aujourd’hui, des entreprises reconnaissent de plus en plus les avantages des communautés d'innovation en ligne (IC) pour injecter des connaissances externes dans des procédures d'innovation. Malgré les avantages des ICs, garantir la viabilité pose deux défis importants. Premièrement, les ICs sont des environnements de données volumineux qui peuvent rapidement submerger les gestionnaires de communauté lorsque les membres communiquent par messages, créant ainsi des données substantielles (volumiques), rapidement extensibles (vélocité) et non structurées pouvant contenir des combinaisons linguistiques, vidéo, image et audio (variété). Deuxièmement, la plupart des communautés en ligne ne parviennent pas à générer de bons résultats car elles sont souvent incapables de tirer de la valeur des membres individuels de l'IC en raison de la participation inférieure des membres. Cette thèse doctorale s'appuie sur des stratégies de gestion de la relation client pour relever ces défis et ajoute de la valeur en introduisant un cadre proactif de gestion de la participation inférieure des membres pour réduire de manière proactive la participation inférieure des membres tout en gérant efficacement l'environnement IC. Cela prouve que la participation inférieure des membres peut être identifiée de manière proactive en analysant le style d'écriture des acteurs de la communauté. Il montre que les dépendances entre les comportements de participation des membres peuvent être exploitées pour améliorer les performances de prédiction. À l'aide d'une expérience sur le terrain, il démontre qu'une campagne d'email ciblée proactive permet de réduire efficacement la participation inférieure des membres. / Nowadays, companies increasingly recognize the benefits of innovation communities (ICs) to inject external consumer knowledge into innovation processes. Despite the advantages of ICs, guaranteeing the viability poses two important challenges. First, ICs are big data environments that can quickly overwhelm community managers as members communicate through posts, thereby creating substantial (volume), rapidly expanding (velocity), and unstructured data that might encompass combinations of linguistic, video, image, and audio cues (variety). Second, most online communities fail to generate successful outcomes as they are often unable to derive value from individual IC members owing to members’ inferior participation. This doctoral dissertation leverages customer relationship management strategies to tackle these challenges and adds value by introducing a proactive inferior member participation management framework for community managers to proactively reduce inferior member participation, while effectively dealing with the data-rich IC environment. It proves that inferior member participation can be identified proactively by analyzing community actors’ writing style. It shows that dependencies between members’ participation behaviour can be exploited to improve prediction performance. Using a field experiment, it demonstrates that a proactive targeted email campaign allows to effectively reduce inferior member participation.

Cette recherche, appliquée au contexte du service, a pour objet de mettre la lumière sur les relations entre les différents acteurs de la relation commerciale à travers le construit de l’engagement. Notre revue de littérature s’intéresse aux concepts d’engagement organisationnel (EO) et d’engagement à la marque (EM) ainsi qu’aux concepts et mécanismes relatifs à la relation salariés-clients. Empiriquement, nous avons choisi d’étudier les relations entre l’engagement des salariés et l’engagement des clients dans le secteur bancaire. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons une modélisation structurelle pour étudier la possible influence de l’engagement des salariés sur l’engagement des clients. Les résultats montrent, qu’au sein des agences de la banque étudiée, l’influence de l’engagement global des salariés sur l’engagement global des clients est toujours vérifiée. En revanche, l’influence des composantes de l’EO sur les composantes de l’EM n’est pas toujours vérifiée. Ces résultats viennent enrichir les connaissances sur la relation client-entreprise dans le cas du marché français. Ce travail présente néanmoins certaines limites inhérentes à la méthodologie choisie et au contexte de l’étude. Enfin, cette étude propose des perspectives d’amélioration pour des recherches futures. / This research, which is applied to the service industry context, aim to highlight the relationships between the business relationship protagonists, though the commitment construct. Thus, our literature review is dedicated to organisational commitment (OC) and brand commitment (BC) concepts as well as other concepts related to employees-customers relationship. Empirically, we chose to study relationships between employees’ commitment and customers’ commitment in banking sector. To do so, we used a structural model to study the possible influence of employees’ commitment on customers’ commitment. The results of this research emphasize an influence of employees’ commitment on customers’ commitment in the context of the bank agencies of the bank we studied. Nevertheless, the influence of the OC components on the BC components is not always validated. These results contribute to the current body of knowledge on the customer-company relationship though a case in the French market. This research presents few limitations inherent to the adopted methodology and to the study context. Based upon these results, it is possible to identify several contributions. Therefore, some improvements are suggested for further research.