This thesis investigates customer-to-customer roles and impacts in the context of service encounters. This topic is studied from two angles: customer interactions during group service encounters and customer perceptions post service encounters. The first angle is a focus on group service encounters that addresses the lack of research on customer-to-customer interactions that occur in customer-to-customer interaction-intensive contexts. These are contexts where the interactions between customers are not peripheral to the service, where there can be an expectation to interact with the other customers, and are common in tourism and hospitality, recreation, and education. The second angle is a focus on service outcomes after the service encounter, including satisfaction, intention to recommend, and online word-of-mouth. Paper 1 explores how firms view and manage customer-to-customer interactions during group service encounters. It finds that the differences in attitude and conduct of firms create four possible stances toward customer-to-customer interaction. Paper 2 delves deeper into how customer-to-customer interactions impact the design and delivery of group service encounters, develops a typology of customer cohort climates (CCCs), and identifies how each CCC can be created through four elements of group service encounters. Paper 3  investigates how positive and negative customer-to-customer interactions impact service outcomes and finds that customer-to-customer interaction is a dissatisfier. Paper 4 examines how customers produce online hotel reviews and finds that content analysis of online reviews yields similar findings to more traditional quantitative research methods. This thesis advances research on the impact of customers on each other and provides evidence that other customers can and should be managed to achieve desired service outcomes. It further proposes how these interactions can be managed to further enhance service firm offerings. / <p>QC 20160516</p>

<p>Title: Strategies for competition – a study of the Swedish contact lenses market.</p><p>Authors: Pernilla AArskog and Annika Lange.</p><p>Background: As a market gets more mature and the competition increases, it is more important for a company to apply the right strategic perspective. There are four fundamental strategic perspectives for a service-oriented business: a core product-, a price-, an image- and a service perspective. This study is a about service management and take its point from the theories from the Nordic School about strategies for competition, customer value, perceived customer quality and customer loyalty.</p><p>Purpose: The main purpose with this study is to analyze and evaluate how the actors at the Swedish market of contact lenses should compete to gain further competitive advantages.</p><p>Method: The study includes four qualitative interviews with two traditional opticians and two Internet based businesses, but also a survey with 106 contact lens users is included.</p><p>Analysis: In the analyse part of this thesis it was concluded that the traditional opticians conception about their customer not agrees with what the customer evaluate as important. Many of the customers have thought about changing their optician, and besides that do not recommend their optician, and can there for not be categorize as loyal customers. The Internet based businesses conception about their customer is more in line with the customer groups about the company and their service. These customers do recommend their optician.</p><p>Result: In the result it can be concluded that the traditional opticians should change to a service perspective as their comprehensive strategic perspective, which means that the relation with the customer is the most important for the company. The Internet bases businesses should continue working from a price perspective since they have huge economy of scales.</p><p>Keywords: Customer value, strategies for competition, perceived customer quality and customer loyalty.</p> / <p>Bakgrund: Allteftersom en marknad mognar och konkurrensen ökar blir det än viktigare för ett företag att välja rätt strategiskt perspektiv. Det finns fyra grundläggande strategiska perspektiv för ett tjänsteföretag, kärnprodukt-, pris-, image- och tjänsteperspektivet. Detta arbete handlar om service management och utgår från den nordiska skolan med teorier kring konkurrensstrategier, kundvärde, kundupplevd kvalitet och kundlojalitet.</p><p>Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att analysera och utvärdera hur företag på den svenska kontaktlinsmarknaden bör agera för bli vara konkurrenskraftiga.</p><p>Metod: Undersökningen bygger på fyra kvalitativa intervjuer med två traditionella optiker och två företag verksamma på Internet samt en enkätundersökning där 106 kontaktlinsanvändare medverkade.</p><p>Analys: I analysen framkom att de traditionella optikernas uppfattning om sina kunder inte överensstämmer med vad kunderna uppfattar som viktigt. Många av dessa kunder har funderat på att byta optiker och de rekommenderar heller inte sin optiker, de kan därför inte heller anses lojala. Nätföretagens uppfattning om sina kunder överensstämmer bättre med vad kunderna tycker om företaget och dess service. Dessa kunder rekommenderar sin optiker.</p><p>Resultat: I resultatet framkom att de traditionella optikerna bör ändra till ett tjänsteperspektiv som sitt övergripande strategiska perspektiv som innebär att relationen med kunden sätts i fokus. Nätföretagen bör fortsätta arbeta utifrån ett prisperspektiv eftersom de har stora skalfördelar.</p>

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-07-08T14:56:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Henrique Horst da Silva.pdf: 2337183 bytes, checksum: cf073a3f2f72937932fd761ed33e195a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-08T14:56:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Henrique Horst da Silva.pdf: 2337183 bytes, checksum: cf073a3f2f72937932fd761ed33e195a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-24 / Nenhuma / Esta dissertação tem como objetivo aprofundar a relação existente entre o Customer Equity (CE) e o Shareholder Value (SHV) utilizando como base o modelo teórico desenvolvido no artigo Linking Customer and Financial Metrics to Shareholder Value: The Leverage Effect in Customer- Based Valuation. Os Drivers de Valor Internos e Externos das organizações foram acrescentados ao modelo, de modo a explicar as variações no CE, bem como a alocação dos recursos de marketing foi estudada, de modo a maximizar o retorno dos valores investidos. Como resultados, confirmando o trabalho base, o estudo da alocação das despesas de marketing ressaltou a aquisição de clientes como uma estratégia chave para a maximização do CE e, por consequência, no SHV. As despesas de marketing também apresentaram um elevado impacto negativo no SHV, ressaltando a importância do seu correto gerenciamento para as empresas. Neste ponto, os Drivers de Valor mostraram-se uteis, possibilitando a segmentação e a identificação dos clientes mais valiosos para a empresa. / This dissertation aims to study the relationship between the metrics of Customer Equity (CE) and the Shareholder Value (SHV) using as a basis the theoretical model developed in article Linking Customer and Financial Metrics to Shareholder Value: The Leverage Effect in Customer-Based Valuation. Internal and External Drivers of Value of organizations were added to the model in order to explain variations in the CE as well as the allocation of marketing resources was studied in order to maximize the return on invested amounts. As results, the study of the allocation of marketing expenses underscored customer acquisition as a key strategy for maximizing to CE and, consequently, to SHV. Marketing expenses also showed a high negative impact on SHV, emphasizing the importance of their proper management for the companies. At this point, the Drivers of Value proved useful enabling the segmentation and identification of the most valuable customers for the company.

The goal of this thesis is to propose strategies that profitably stimulate repeat purchase behaviour of Solosso's customers, Solosso being an e-commerce start-up producing custom made dress shirts. In order to accomplish the stated goal, research has been conducted into the existing body of literature about the subject, models for managing customers for value have been presented and applied on Solosso's customer database. Additionally, customer survey has been conducted to better understand customers' behaviour. Based on the applied models and the findings from the survey, the thesis delivers a set of recommendations on how to improve the product, what customers to acquire and, finally, what strategies to employ in order to profitably stimulate repeat purchase behaviour of the four main groups of Solosso's customers. The methods and strategies are expected to generate substantial incremental profits and may be implemented in other businesses as well.

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é investigar o impacto da interação entre consumidores no valor da experiência e na satisfação do consumidor, nos ambientes de varejo off-line e on-line, considerando o papel da ansiedade social. Para alcançar este objetivo, três estudos experimentais foram conduzidos. Os resultados indicam que a interação entre consumidores aumenta o valor da experiência e a sua satisfação tanto no ambiente de varejo off-line (estudos 1 e 3) como no on-line (estudos 2 e 3). Entretanto, no ambiente de varejo off-line, o impacto da interação entre consumidores na satisfação é moderado pela ansiedade social (estudos 1 e 3). Assim, quanto maior a ansiedade social do indivíduo, menor é o impacto da interação entre consumidores na satisfação do consumidor. Para a relação entre interação entre consumidores e valor da experiência, não foi encontrada essa moderação. No ambiente de varejo on-line, a ansiedade social não modera nenhuma destas relações, conforme previsto (estudos 2 e 3). Adicionalmente, o estudo 3 busca fornecer uma possível explicação da razão pela qual não há moderação no ambiente on-line, demonstrando que o controle da autoapresentação é maior neste ambiente, mas somente para consumidores com alta ansiedade social. / The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of customer-to-customer interaction on experience value and customer satisfaction, in the off-line and on-line retail environments, considering the role of social anxiety. To achieve this objective, three experimental studies were conducted. The results indicate that the customer-to-customer interaction increases the experience value and satisfaction in both the offline retail environment (studies 1 and 3) and the online (studies 2 and 3). However, in the offline retail environment, the impact of the customer-to-customer interaction on customer satisfaction is moderated by social anxiety (studies 1 and 3). Thus, the higher the social anxiety of the individual, the lower the impact of the customer-to-customer interaction on customer satisfaction. For the relationship between customer-to-customer interaction and experience value, this moderation was not found. In the online retail environment, social anxiety does not moderate any of these relationships, as predicted (studies 2 and 3). Additionally, study 3 seeks to provide a possible explanation of there is not such moderation in the online environment, and demonstrates that the self-presentation control is higher in this environment, but only for consumers with high social anxiety.

Hoy en día el empresariado pone énfasis en el manejo de las herramientas tecnológicas para poder lograr sus objetivos estratégicos y ser competitivas en el mercado. En este contexto, se hace imperante considerar la inserción de las TICs en los procesos organizacionales pues sabemos las ventajas competitivas que esto supone, sin embargo, es importante considerar que en la implementación de un sistema de información intervienen muchos factores, siendo uno de los principales el factor humano. Es así como en esta investigación se pretende analizar el impacto de las TICs en la satisfacción del cliente interno (colaborador) y el cliente externo en un rubro específico como son las empresas que brindan servicios dentales en nuestro país, pues este sector de salud en el Perú ha ido en franco crecimiento especialmente los servicios médicos especializados que crecieron hasta un 20% al 2018 (MINSA, 2018). La técnica que se utilizó fue la encuesta, tipo Likert, y el diseño de investigación es descriptivo, correlacional causal, con un enfoque cuantitativo. La población estuvo compuesta por 125 colaboradores de una clínica dental y 300 clientes en las clínicas dentales las cuales fueron elegidas de manera aleatoria siguiendo criterios de inclusión específicos. Finalmente se concluye que las TIC tienen un impacto significativo en la satisfacción del cliente interno y externo en las empresas dentales en Lima Metropolitana y el Callao. La correlación de Spearman 0.696, tiene signo positivo, por lo tanto, se puede afirmar que la relación es directa; es decir, a mayor puntaje de TIC, mayor es el puntaje de satisfacción. / Nowadays, entrepreneurship emphasizes the use of technological tools to achieve their strategic objectives and be competitive in the market. In this context, it is imperative to consider the insertion of ICTs in organizational processes because we know the competitive advantages that this implies, however, it is important to consider that in the implementation of an information system many factors intervene, being one of the main the human factor. This is how this research aims to analyze the impact of ICTs on the satisfaction of the internal client (collaborator) and the external client in a specific area such as the companies that provide dental services in our country, as this health sector in the Peru has been growing rapidly, especially specialized medical services that grew by 20% to 2018 (MINSA, 2018). The technique that was used was the survey, Likert type, and the research design is descriptive, causal correlational, with a quantitative approach. The population consisted of 125 collaborators of a dental clinic and 300 clients in the dental clinics, which were chosen randomly according to specific inclusion criteria. Finally, it is concluded that ICT have a significant impact on internal and external client satisfaction in dental companies in Metropolitan Lima and Callao. The correlation of Spearman 0.696 has a positive sign, therefore, it can be affirmed that the relationship is direct; that is, the higher the ICT score, the higher the satisfaction score. / Tesis

<p>The main purpose of this study was to investigate which enter- and exit barriers that exist on the banking market for small enterprises located within the region of Gotland. The reason was to examine and identify which barriers that could affect the mobility among small enterprise bank customers on the bank market. To identify the barriers, the study was carried out partly by a quantitative survey with 33 small business owners respondents located at three different concentrated small enterprise areas within the region of Gotland. And partly by qualitative interviews that were conducted with two employees at Länsförsäkringar Gotland Bank.The result indicated that the enter barrier mostly depended on the aspect that business owners of small enterprises believed that bank switching were complicated. The business owners did also consider bank switching as time demanding. These two aspects created a kind of behavior loyalty towards the business owners present bank regardless if they are satisfied or truly loyal. Therefore according to us the banks should focus of removing the business owners thought of complication. The exit barrier we believe banks on Gotland should contemplate to preserve their current customers is satisfaction and relation which creates a loyalty towards the bank.The main purpose of this study was to investigate which enter- and exit barriers that exist on the banking market for small enterprises located within the region of Gotland. The reason was to examine and identify which barriers that could affect the mobility among small enterprise bank customers on the bank market. To identify the barriers, the study was carried out partly by a quantitative survey with 33 small business owners respondents located at three different concentrated small enterprise areas within the region of Gotland. And partly by qualitative interviews that were conducted with two employees at Länsförsäkringar Gotland Bank.The result indicated that the enter barrier mostly depended on the aspect that business owners of small enterprises believed that bank switching were complicated. The business owners did also consider bank switching as time demanding. These two aspects created a kind of behavior loyalty towards the business owners present bank regardless if they are satisfied or truly loyal. Therefore according to us the banks should focus of removing the business owners thought of complication. The exit barrier we believe banks on Gotland should contemplate to preserve their current customers is satisfaction and relation which creates a loyalty towards the bank.</p> / <p>Problemet vi undersökte var vilka barriärer banker kan utnyttja för att öka tillflödet av nya småföretagskunder men samtidigt behålla befintliga småföretagskunder. Syftet med studien har varit att urskilja vilka inträdes- och utträdesbarriärer som existerar för småföretagare på gotländska bankmarknaden. En enkätundersökning genomfördes som innehöll både slutna och öppna frågor. Intervjuer genomfördes med anställda på Länsförsäkringar Gotland med avsikt att undersöka en banks perspektiv avseende existerande barriärer. Den teoretiska referensramen baseras på befintliga teorier som behandlar finansiella och icke- finansiella barriärer där de icke- finansiella baserades på faktorerna; kundnöjdhet, kundrelation och kundlojalitet. Utifrån den teoretiska ramen och det empiriska materialet genomfördes en analys.Analysen visade att de existerande inträdesbarriärerna främst beror på uppfattningen bland småföretagsbankkunder att bankbyten är komplicerade. Tillsammans med att gotländska småföretagare anser att det är tidskrävande att genomföra ett bankbyte renderar i en beteendelojalitet vilket baseras på att småföretagare stannar kvar hos deras nuvarande bank oavsett omfattning av nöjdhet och lojalitet. Den identifierade inträdesbarriären borde åtgärdas då den hindrar småföretagarna att utvärdera andra bankaktörer.Priset lokaliserades som viktigt bland de undersökta gotländska småföretagarna, både för att attrahera och behålla bankens småföretagskunder. Utträdesbarriärer som vi anser banker ska fokusera på för behållandet av befintliga småföretagskunder är kundnöjdhet och kundrelation, vilka båda resulterar i kundlojalitet.Problemet vi undersökte var vilka barriärer banker kan utnyttja för att öka tillflödet av nya småföretagskunder men samtidigt behålla befintliga småföretagskunder. Syftet med studien har varit att urskilja vilka inträdes- och utträdesbarriärer som existerar för småföretagare på gotländska bankmarknaden. En enkätundersökning genomfördes som innehöll både slutna och öppna frågor. Intervjuer genomfördes med anställda på Länsförsäkringar Gotland med avsikt att undersöka en banks perspektiv avseende existerande barriärer. Den teoretiska referensramen baseras på befintliga teorier som behandlar finansiella och icke- finansiella barriärer där de icke- finansiella baserades på faktorerna; kundnöjdhet, kundrelation och kundlojalitet. Utifrån den teoretiska ramen och det empiriska materialet genomfördes en analys.Analysen visade att de existerande inträdesbarriärerna främst beror på uppfattningen bland småföretagsbankkunder att bankbyten är komplicerade. Tillsammans med att gotländska småföretagare anser att det är tidskrävande att genomföra ett bankbyte renderar i en beteendelojalitet vilket baseras på att småföretagare stannar kvar hos deras nuvarande bank oavsett omfattning av nöjdhet och lojalitet. Den identifierade inträdesbarriären borde åtgärdas då den hindrar småföretagarna att utvärdera andra bankaktörer.Priset lokaliserades som viktigt bland de undersökta gotländska småföretagarna, både för att attrahera och behålla bankens småföretagskunder. Utträdesbarriärer som vi anser banker ska fokusera på för behållandet av befintliga småföretagskunder är kundnöjdhet och kundrelation, vilka båda resulterar i kundlojalitet.</p>

Title: Strategies for competition – a study of the Swedish contact lenses market. Authors: Pernilla AArskog and Annika Lange. Background: As a market gets more mature and the competition increases, it is more important for a company to apply the right strategic perspective. There are four fundamental strategic perspectives for a service-oriented business: a core product-, a price-, an image- and a service perspective. This study is a about service management and take its point from the theories from the Nordic School about strategies for competition, customer value, perceived customer quality and customer loyalty. Purpose: The main purpose with this study is to analyze and evaluate how the actors at the Swedish market of contact lenses should compete to gain further competitive advantages. Method: The study includes four qualitative interviews with two traditional opticians and two Internet based businesses, but also a survey with 106 contact lens users is included. Analysis: In the analyse part of this thesis it was concluded that the traditional opticians conception about their customer not agrees with what the customer evaluate as important. Many of the customers have thought about changing their optician, and besides that do not recommend their optician, and can there for not be categorize as loyal customers. The Internet based businesses conception about their customer is more in line with the customer groups about the company and their service. These customers do recommend their optician. Result: In the result it can be concluded that the traditional opticians should change to a service perspective as their comprehensive strategic perspective, which means that the relation with the customer is the most important for the company. The Internet bases businesses should continue working from a price perspective since they have huge economy of scales. Keywords: Customer value, strategies for competition, perceived customer quality and customer loyalty. / Bakgrund: Allteftersom en marknad mognar och konkurrensen ökar blir det än viktigare för ett företag att välja rätt strategiskt perspektiv. Det finns fyra grundläggande strategiska perspektiv för ett tjänsteföretag, kärnprodukt-, pris-, image- och tjänsteperspektivet. Detta arbete handlar om service management och utgår från den nordiska skolan med teorier kring konkurrensstrategier, kundvärde, kundupplevd kvalitet och kundlojalitet. Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att analysera och utvärdera hur företag på den svenska kontaktlinsmarknaden bör agera för bli vara konkurrenskraftiga. Metod: Undersökningen bygger på fyra kvalitativa intervjuer med två traditionella optiker och två företag verksamma på Internet samt en enkätundersökning där 106 kontaktlinsanvändare medverkade. Analys: I analysen framkom att de traditionella optikernas uppfattning om sina kunder inte överensstämmer med vad kunderna uppfattar som viktigt. Många av dessa kunder har funderat på att byta optiker och de rekommenderar heller inte sin optiker, de kan därför inte heller anses lojala. Nätföretagens uppfattning om sina kunder överensstämmer bättre med vad kunderna tycker om företaget och dess service. Dessa kunder rekommenderar sin optiker. Resultat: I resultatet framkom att de traditionella optikerna bör ändra till ett tjänsteperspektiv som sitt övergripande strategiska perspektiv som innebär att relationen med kunden sätts i fokus. Nätföretagen bör fortsätta arbeta utifrån ett prisperspektiv eftersom de har stora skalfördelar.

Under the four forces of opening up of domestic telecommunication market, breakthroughs in information and communication technology, changes in consumer demand, and supplier¡¦s race for economic efficiency, industry structures have transformed. What used to be three distinct industries of divergent directions of development ¡V network service (computers), telecommunication (telephones) and cable television (television), are interacting. The market is growing rapidly with combined digital flow of the three industries. Broadband internet played a key role in such transformation. ADSL broadband internet service has prospered in recent years. As the internet population approach maturity, the market has changed focus from quantity to quality. There are two major challenges to fixed network internet service providers are: To increase market share by attracting more customers to its service base, and retain customers to minimize loss of customers. Telecommunication service providers attract new customers by offering special prices with gifts, they retain customers by elevating switching cost and long term contracts. But the result of price-cutting competition was erosion of profit margin. Customer loyalty is also swayed by low prices met by competitors. Under such intense competitive environment, service providers are actively developing digital content and making investment in fiber optic broadband to mitigate loss. It is hoped that richer internet content and faster speed broadband can attract more customers and increase customer revenue contribution. The subject of this study are ADSL broadband internet users in the greater Kaohsiung area, the regions surveyed include Kaohsiung County and Kaohsiung City. A questionnaire was used as the data collection tool. The survey was conducted on a convenient sample. Data was analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The influence of customer¡¦s expected future benefits, overall customer satisfaction and marketing strategies on customer retention were investigated. Furthermore, the interaction effects were also reviewed. The results of the study are: I.The most important factor in influencing customer retention is overall customer satisfaction, followed by marketing strategy and customer¡¦s expected future use. Further results are derived from analysis: 1.Overall customer satisfaction, customer¡¦s expected future use and marketing strategy showed significant positive influence on customer retention. 2.The influence of overall customer satisfaction, customer¡¦s expected future use and marketing strategy on customer retention vary in strength. 3.Marketing strategy showed significant positive influence on overall customer satisfaction and customer¡¦s expected future use. 4.With respect to the degree of influence on customer retention, overall customer satisfaction showed greater influence than marketing strategy and customer¡¦s expected future use. II.Customers exhibit high expectations for future use¡C Telecommunication service provider satisfying the following ¡§customer¡¦s expected future use¡¨ will significantly enhance customer retention. 1.Provide value-adding services. 2.Provide more value-adding application content. 3.Offer better prices. 4.Exchange fiber optic with ADSL in the future at free of charge

This study starts with the review of the literature in customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction methods and models. After selecting a proper customer satisfaction method and model, the study conducts a survey and a questionnaire among the customers and professionals in the modular kitchen sector. The aim of the study is to analyze the factors affecting customer satisfaction and finding out the ones related with the modular kitchen sector. After applying the survey, the relations between the inputs and outputs of the satisfaction are analyzed with the overall satisfaction itself. The strong and weak factors are determined and a proper CRM tool is build-up to realize a decision-support and forecast tool in the study, which can be seen as a beginning for the companies in the real sector in this business to build a much more detailed and ERP integrated software and to use them. The results of the survey are compared with the similar studies from the literature.