Syftet med uppsatsen var att utifrån en fallstudie av ett mellanstort svenskt industriellt företag, som tillverkar kundspecifika produkter, studera etablerade kundrelationer beträffande varför de är viktiga att behålla och utveckla. En fallstudie med kvalitativa intervjuer genomfördes på Sjölanders Mekaniska samt med två av deras etablerade kunder. Frågor såsom "Vad får kunderna att bli långvariga hos Sjölanders Mekaniska?", "Hur arbetar företagen för att föra relationen framåt?" och "Vad ser företagen som viktiga faktorer i en affärsrelation?" besvarades och resultatet visade på att industriella relationer stärks och utvecklas genom att parterna för en öppen dialog och är tydliga med att framföra sina behov. Dessutom anses kvaliteten på produkterna öka då medarbetarna har lång erfarenhet av tillverkningen, vilket medför att kompetensen som finns i en etablerad relation svår och kostsam att ersätta. Vidare är det viktigt med en hållbar planeringsfunktion som aktivt håller koll på leveranssäkerheten. Slutligen kan den tillit som skapas mellan individerna i en affärsrelation ses som relationens viktigaste byggsten. / The purpose of the thesis was to perform a case study of a medium sized industrial company that produce customer specific products, and to study established customer relationships in regard of why they are important to keep and develop. The case study of Sjölanders Mekaniska and two of their established customers has been done through qualitative interviews. Questions such as "Why do the customers continue to choose Sjölanders Mekaniska?", "How do the companies work to bring their relationships forward?", and "What do the companies see as important factors in a business relationship?" were answered and the result showed that industrial relationships strengthens and develops thorough an open dialogue between the parties where clear objectives are presented. Further the quality of the products is said to increase with the employees' long experience of the production. Therefore, one can see the competence that exists within an established relationship, as difficult and expensive to replace.  Moreover, it is seen as important to maintain a sustainable planning function which actively keeps control over the reliability of delivery. Finally, the trust that is created between the individuals in a business relationship, is seen as a the most important building block of the relationship as a whole.

Datum: 2012-05-30. Studienivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi med inriktning marknadsföring, 15 HP. Lärosäte: Mälardalens Högskola, Västerås, Sverige. Institution: Akademin för Hållbar Samhälls- och Teknikutveckling, HST. Författare: Carl Lansryd, Kristian Starck & Marcus Åkergren Titel: Att stärka kundrelationer genom sociala medier: Ikano Bostad. Handledare: Finn Wiedersheim-Paul. Examinator: Cecilia Lindh. Nyckelord: Sociala medier, kundrelationer, Facebook, YouTube. Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte har varit att påvisa hur Ikano Bostad kan stärka företagets kundrelationer genom användandet av verktyget sociala medier. I syftet ingår samtidigt att påvisa potentiella möjligheter och risker med användandet av sociala medier samt en branschspecifik jämförelse mellan Ikano Bostads konkurrenter. Metod: Ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt har använts där empiriska resultat baserades på personligt genomförda intervjuer hos Ikano Bostad. Intervjuerna har legat till grund för inhämtad primärdata. Respondenterna har strategiskt valts ut, vilket resulterat i att ett icke-sannolikhetsurval applicerats. Sekundärdata har inhämtats från vetenskapliga artiklar, böcker samt internetsidor. Studien har baserats på en fallstudieansats med inriktning mot Ikano Bostad, tillika uppsatsens primära målgrupp. Analysen baserades på inhämtad data från respondenterna på Ikano Bostad, en branschspecifik jämförelse samt uppsatsens två studieområden: kundrelationer och sociala medier. Slutsats: Vi ansåg att Ikano Bostad kan stärka sina kundrelationer genom att använda de av sociala medierna Facebook och YouTube. Dessa specifika varianter av sociala medier ansåg vi innehålla särskilda egenskaper (byggstenarna: spridning, konversation och relation) som är användbara för Ikano Bostads verksamhetsområde, bostadsrätter. Vi har identifierat samband och paralleller mellan användandet av sociala medier och stärkandet av kundrelationer. Sannolikheten för att Ikano Bostad kan stärka kundrelationer genom användandet av sociala medier bedömde vi som hög. Vi ansåg att användandet av Facebook och YouTube skapar möjligheter för Ikano Bostad i form av kostnadseffektivitet, varumärkesbyggande samt ökad interaktion med specifika kundgrupper. Vi har samtidigt identifierat risker associerade med användandet av Facebook och YouTube. Slutligen ansåg vi att Ikano Bostad bör anpassa sitt användande av Facebook och YouTube i relation till vilken av faserna enligt begreppet kundrelationens livscykel företaget och kunden befinner sig i. / Date: 2012-05-30. Academic level: Bachelor thesis in business administration with focus on marketing, 15 ECTS. University: Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden. Institution: The academy of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology. Authors: Carl Lansryd, Kristian Starck & Marcus Åkergren Title: Strengthen customer relationships through social media: Ikano Bostad. Tutor: Finn Wiedersheim-Paul. Examiner: Cecilia Lindh. Keywords: Social media, customer relationships, Facebook, YouTube. Purpose: The purpose of this study has been to investigate how Ikano Bostad could strengthen their customer relationships through the use of social media. The purpose of this study has also been to prove potential possibilities and risks of using social media and present an industry-specific comparison of Ikano Bostad’s competitors.                 Methodology: A qualitative approach has been used in which the empirical findings made are based on results from personal interviews at Ikano Bostad. The interviews have formed the basis of the collected primary data. The respondents have strategically been selected, which resulted in the application of a non-probability sampling. Secondary data were collected from scientific articles, books and Internet sites. The study is based on a case study approach, with focus on this study´s primary target group, Ikano Bostad. The analysis was based on collected data from respondents, an industry-specific comparison and the two areas of study: customer relationships and social media. Conclusion: We considered that Ikano Bostad could strengthen customer relationships by adopting the social media platforms of Facebook and YouTube. These platforms contained special characteristics that could be useful for Ikano Bostad´s business, condominiums. We have identified parallels between the use of social media platforms and the strengthening of customer relationships. We showed that there was a high probability that Ikano Bostad could strengthen their customer relationships through the use of social media. The use of Facebook and YouTube likely creates opportunities for Ikano Bostad in terms of cost efficiency, branding and increased interactions with specific customer-groups. We have also identified possible risks associated with the use of Facebook and YouTube. Finally, Ikano Bostad should adapt the company´s usage of Facebook and YouTube in relation to which phase of the concept of customer-relationship lifecycle the company and the customer are involved in.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how Stockholm based travel agencies understand and use relationship marketing and how it is perceived by customers.</p><p>Relationship marketing is defined by Grönroos as a building of relationships with customers to achieve mutual benefits. Four main objectives of relationship marketing were used to contextualise the term: service quality, personalisation, differentiation, and communica-tion.In order to answer the purpose, the authors have chosen to interview three travel agen-cies that focus on offering tailor made travel for different target groups. Sampling was used to find these travel agencies, as the total number of travel agencies in the Stock-holm area is too large to interview. Also, customers who have travelled with two of the travel agencies were interviewed. Further, several theoretical frameworks are presented in order to provide the reader with a view of relationship marketing, and were used in the design and the questions asked both companies and customers.</p><p>From the interviews with the companies it was found that all of them have different views of what relationship marketing is, and that they have different ways of imple-menting it. The views of relationship marketing differ from building a strong brand im-age to managing actual relationships with customers.</p><p>The main efforts of relationship marketing that the companies are involved in are delivering personalized travel and high service quality to customers.It was found in the interviews with customers that their view on what makes good ser-vice is similar to that of company views. What is most important to customers is that the perceived quality matches, or exceeds, the experienced one. There are several things that companies can do to attract and retain customers including having rewards clubs, sending out a moderate amount of newsletters, and providing a personal seller for customers.</p>

In marketing research, customer relationship management (CRM) is often described as a strategy for collecting customer information through an IT- infrastructure in order to manage customer relationships (e.g. Boulding et al 2005; Keramati et al 2010; Nguyen and Mutum 2012). Most of the existing research within CRM has focused on IT-infrastructure and implementation issues rather than on how CRM can enable knowledge sharing among individuals and working teams. Difficulties regarding information and knowledge creation, as well as sharing knowledge in both formal and informal ways, are not particularly well addressed in CRM literature. Hence, this study adopts a holistic approach to CRM and aims to “Understand how a B2B-organisation organise for strategic CRM”, and “Investigate how organisational aspects can act as drivers or barriers for learning about customer relationships”. The holistic approach implies that organisational aspects (such as co-workers, organisational culture, internal processes and affordance, c.f. Finnegan and Currie 2010) should be captured and seen as integrated parts of strategic CRM together with the more tangible CRM- system. Besides that, this study attempts to answer the question, “How does a B2B-organisation work with CRM to learn about their customer relationships”. Previous research has shown that intra-organisational problems emerge when implementing and using CRM with both researchers and software providers approaching CRM from a technological perspective with a heavy emphasis on IT-infrastructure (e.g. Bohling et al 2006; Coltman et al 2011). Despite its importance, IT-infrastructure is just one aspect that managers have to consider when making decisions about implementing and organising for CRM. From previous research we can learn that organisational aspects, such as co-workers, internal processes, and organisational culture (e.g. Finnegan and Currie 2010; Jayachandran et al 2005) are important to consider when implementing and using CRM. Thus, discovering how B2B- companies organise for strategic CRM necessitates the use of a holistic approach to CRM, based on the philosophy of relationship marketing (e.g. Grönroos 2008a; Nguyen and Mutum 2012; Storbacka and Lehtinen 2000). The empirical context in this study is the accounting and auditing industry. During recent years Swedish accounting and auditing firms have faced changes in the macro environment due to changes in legislation, which hasviitransformed the industry to become more customer oriented and CRM has been brought to interest in many firms. Based on that, a third and more practitionary aimed aim for this study is to ”Identify for accounting and auditing industry relevant organisational aspects for use of CRM”.In the theory chapter I first review the philosophy of relationship marketing, highlights the differences between B2B- and B2C-contexts and shows the nature of B2B-relationships, where multiple parties often are involved in the relationship. The study then sheds light on current research streams in CRM-literature and identifies two major research streams, the technology- oriented one and an organisational-oriented one. The thesis proceeds to review information, knowledge and learning domains and integrates relevant theoretical frameworks from these research areas into CRM-literature. The theory chapter rounds off by presenting and discussing “communities of practice” as an organisational approach that enables and cultivates learning in organisations.The study adopts an explorative research approach connected to the research question and purposes and the empirical inquiry is conducted through an abductive approach and investigates a large auditing and consulting firm, a major actor in the Swedish audit- and accounting business, during the time period of 2,5 years. The empirical data is comprised of 44 meeting observations of key account teams, as well as a sales group and 31 in-depth interviews with members of the groups. Moreover, several meeting observations with members of a sales team and a responsible-advisor team were conducted in one of the auditing firm ́s local offices to provide an understanding of how CRM as an organizational strategy is adopted and used by different individuals and groups working with different types of customers.In the analysis I built on the theoretical framework and case findings to empirically identify relevant themes connected to the customer relationships, to the development and learning processes in working teams and among individuals, and to intra-organisational prerequisites and structures. The identified themes were then further analysed in order to find out how CRM as a strategic approach is used to learn about customer relationships. This study shows that managers have to integrate relevant intra- organisational aspects to be able to organise for and implement CRM with a purpose to generate learning about customer relationships in a successful way. While previous research have shown that the organizational aspects may vary depending on company-context, size and type of customers, this study suggests that managers should consider “strategic communities of practice” as an important strategy to enable knowledge sharing, and thusviiicultivate learning processes among individuals, groups and divisions. However, enabling and cultivating for strategic communities of practice is not suitable for all groups of individuals due to their work tasks, or what goals and objectives managers have with the particular group or team. This finding is important to address since CRM, when narrowly approached as an IT-infrastructure, does not capture all relevant information and results in a lot of important knowledge about customer relationships getting stuck in minds of smaller working groups - instead of being shared with colleagues in networks or communities of practice, and thus contributing to organisational learning about customer relationships. The study shows that if CRM is to act as an enabler for relationship-specific knowledge sharing, managers have to enable interactive knowledge sharing among co-workers through for example communities of practice. These interactions, along with traditional information collection are strongly needed, especially in the context of B2B-services companies. To conclude, CRM-literature have to be re-examined to further incorporate discussions regarding learning processes and knowledge sharing to target a deeper, as well as a more holistic, understanding of customer relationships.

The overall purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse how capital goods manufacturers can enhance their industrial service offering. The theoretical basis of this research is found in services marketing, recognising co-creation of value, that the service process is an open production system and that the customer determines value as the manufacturer can only offer value propositions. The empirical basis is a multiple case study of service management at BT Industries, Electrolux Laundry Systems, ITT Flygt, and Saab. The four companies operate within different industries, have different service offerings and they are facing different internal and external conditions, which affect their service organisation and offering. It is becoming increasingly important for capital goods manufacturers to offer services and there are further growth and profit opportunities on the market for industrial services. It is suggested that there is major improvement potential and financial gains possible to achieve if more resources are allocated to services. Moreover, utilisation of new technological means leads to increased dematerialisation and enable manufacturers to enhance existing service offerings as well as enable new ones. Depending on whether the services have a traditional product-orientated focus or a customer-centric process-orientated focus, and depending on the scope of the offering, there are different critical factors to consider. Process-orientated services require knowledge about not only how to service the installed base but also how to improve the customer’s industrial production process. Generally, bundled services require a modular structure with standardised, formalised processes and integration between local and central organisation. Extensive bundled offerings require that both customer and provider have relational intent and a long-term relationship is regarded as a condition for successful customer involvement in service development. Long-term relationships also enable the company to act proactive and develop offerings with a customer-centric approach, instead of having a product-centric approach and internally-focused innovation. To conclude, operational service processes and interfaces, internal and with the customer, are critical to manage both from a cost-efficiency and revenue-effectiveness perspective. Furthermore, it is argued that customer relationships and development of the service offering must be managed strategically. / Report code: LiU-TEK-LIC 2006:42

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Facebook activities on relationship drivers and relational benefits and the effect of relationship drivers of relational benefits perceived by customers to Pite Havsbad. To do this we have explored the relationship between a number of Facebook activities, relationship drivers and relational benefits. We developed two conceptual models, which included these relationships. We have written this degree project on commission for Pite Havsbad, which is a company that operates in the hotel industry in the county of Norrbotten in the north of Sweden. The research question that we formulated was as following:   What kind of impact does Facebook activities have on relationship drivers and relational benefits in the hospitality industry?   With this research question we aimed to make a practical contribution and to help Pite Havsbad develop their social media strategies in order to be able to build customer relationships. We also aimed to make a theoretical contribution to fill the research gap that exists in the research area on social media and customer relationship building. We used a quantitative data collection method in the form of a survey administered on Pite Havsbad’s Facebook page. Our population consist of the approximately 6 300 fans that Pite Havsbad has on Facebook. The data continuing of was 256 responses were processed in SPSS by conducting Cronbach’s alpha test, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis in order to test the hypothesized effects between our key variables.   The findings from this degree project show that Facebook activities affect both the relationship drivers and relational benefits, although they have less effect on relational benefits. The relational benefits are though highly affected by the relationship drivers. Over all, the Facebook activities of Pite Havsbad were highly valued by the respondents, which means that all of them are important to work with. Many of the activities also had positive effects on the relationship drivers, which means they can be used to build relationships with customers. By conducting this research we also helped Pite Havsbad with the starting point of creating a Social CRM strategy, which can be used for future relationship building with their fans on Facebook.

Abstract The present study develops the knowledge of industrial customer relationships by examining how multinational corporations (MNCs) make sense of global customer relationships. This study also discusses how individuals make sense of global customer relationships inside of MNC networks. Sensemaking is thus viewed as both an individual action and an organizational-level action. In this research, individual sensemaking views are combined into organizational-level understanding to offer a multilevel approach to both relationships and networks. The empirical study is a qualitative single-case study that focuses on three global customer relationships of an MNC. This research describes the sensemade views of the selected customer relationships and explores how these views are created. The discussed customer relationships are global by nature, they cross national borders, and they involve the episodic and discontinuous project level as well as global customer relationships that are managed at a more continuous organizational level, and these relationships are intertwined over time. The sensemaking of customer relationships is intertwined with relationship development. This research creates an understanding of sensemaking and operationalizes the concept by showing the different types of sensemaking and exploring how individuals make sense. This research also identifies primary sensemakers whose acting and sensemaking have contributed to developing the MNC view of global customer relationships and connected the multiple different views. This research shows that within a single corporation, multiple different understandings of the customer as well as of the type and status of customer relationship can exist. This research describes how the sensemaking process inside of a network functions and how the MNC sensemade views of the customer relationship are formed from multiple individual views. In addition, the definition of an MNC is widened in this research, and an MNC is defined as an internal network that is formed around its customer relationships. Customers constitute a key driving force of internal cooperation and create the environment in which individuals strive to make sense of their own network and of the customers with whom they are operating. / Tiivistelmä Tässä väitöskirjassa keskitytään teollisiin asiakassuhteisiin tutkimalla, miten monikansallinen yritys luo ymmärrystä globaaleista asiakassuhteistaan. Lisäksi työssä keskitytään siihen, miten yrityksen sisäisessä verkostossa työskentelevät yksilöt luovat omaa ymmärrystään globaaleista asiakassuhteista. Ymmärryksen luomista tutkitaan siis sekä yksilö- että organisaatiotason toimintana. Monikansallisessa yrityksessä eri yksilöiden näkemykset yhdistyvät organisaatiotason ymmärrykseksi asiakkaasta, minkä vuoksi suhteita ja verkostoja tutkitaan usealla analyysitasolla. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osuus toteutetaan laadullisena, yhden tapauksen tapaustutkimuksena, joka keskittyy monikansallisen yrityksen kolmeen asiakassuhteeseen. Nämä asiakassuhteet ovat luonteeltaan globaaleja ja ylittävät maantieteelliset rajat. Organisaatiotason asiakassuhde toimittajan ja asiakkaan välillä voidaan kuvata jatkuvaksi, vaikka asiakassuhde käytännössä koostuukin useista epäjatkuvista projekteista eri maantieteellisten ja teknologisten yksiköiden välillä. Organisaatio- ja projektitason suhteet kietoutuvat toisiinsa suhteen kehittyessä. Ymmärryksen luominen asiakkaasta on jatkuva prosessi ja se tapahtuu samanaikaisesti asiakassuhteen kehittymisen kanssa. Tässä tutkimuksessa kuvataan, kuinka asiakkaista luodaan ymmärrystä organisaatio- ja yksilötasolla. Tutkimuksessa tunnistetaan keskeisiä henkilöitä, joiden toiminta rakentaa monikansallisen yrityksen ymmärrystä globaaleista asiakassuhteista ja yhdistää eri yksilöiden näkemyksiä. Tutkimuksessa havaitaan, että yhden organisaation sisällä voi olla lukuisia eri ymmärryksiä asiakassuhteesta ja sen tilasta. Tutkimus kuvaakin, kuinka ymmärrystä luodaan organisaation sisäisessä verkostossa ja miten organisaatiotason ymmärrys globaaleista asiakassuhteista muodostuu useiden eri yksilöiden käsityksistä. Lisäksi tässä tutkimuksessa monikansallisen yrityksen määritelmää laajennetaan kuvaamalla se sisäiseksi verkostoksi, joka rakentuu asiakassuhteiden ympärille. Asiakas on tärkein ohjaava voima sisäisessä yhteistyössä. Toimiessaan yrityksen sisäisessä verkostossa, yksilöt pyrkivät luomaan ymmärrystä omasta ympäröivästä verkostostaan sekä asiakkaista, joiden kanssa he toimivat.

This thesis investigates how a web-hosted portal could be developed and designed in order to assist customer information updates in micro-enterprises in the ship broking business. Based on well-established system development theories and collected material, the web-hosted portal concept was developed. The development process included a case study at a ship broking company in Karlshamn, southern Sweden. Ship broking companies handle information as a mediator between other actors, thus the information becomes sensitive. In the ship broking business there is a constant need and flow of information. As the shipbrokers’ customers demand constant information 24 hours a day it is important to meet this demand in a service minded fashion. Today all customer updates are handled manually and are considered very time consuming and generate duplication of work. To solve these issues a possible solution could be to introduce information technology in the organisation. The introduction of information technology in the ship broking organisations has been slow. A contributing factor might be the widespread conservatism and resistance to changes in the ship broking business. The conclusions show the needs and demands for a web-hosted portal among shipbrokers and interested parties in the logistic chain. The result of the thesis should be considered as a foundation for further development and implementation of the concept.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how stores in the retail sector and in business to consumers´ relations, are engaged in the CRM systems use and management. The purpose is also to see if the information that is gathered by the headquarters is transferred down to the stores.   The research follows a realistic philosophy combined with an abductive approach and a qualitative method. The choice of design to this research was an exploratory research combined with a case study strategy over a cross-sectional time horizon. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with managers in the six different retail stores.      The findings from this thesis showed various results when it came to the use of the CRM system and the amount of information that the stores got access to from the headquarter/partner. None of the stores managed their CRM systems themselves, it was only managed by the headquarters or partners of the retail chains. The amount of information that was transferred down from the headquarters or partners, affected how much the stores used the CRM system. The stores that got much information had more knowledge about the CRM system and used it a lot more than stores that got less information.   The limitations that can be found in this thesis is that it is only a small amount of stores within the retail market that has been examined, this might give a misleading result for the rest of the retail market and the global market as whole.

Bakgrund: Att jordens resurser inte är oändliga är något som idag är allmänt känt, vilket ställer krav på ett gemensamt arbete för en hållbar utveckling. Företag har därmed kommit att rikta ett allt större fokus mot sociala, miljömässiga och etiska mål, snarare än en ensidig inriktning på ekonomiska mål. Tidigare forskning visar på ett positivt samband mellan kundens uppfattning av socialt ansvarsfulla företag. Forskningen är dock knapp beträffande vilken påverkan sådant arbete antas få för företags långsiktiga kundrelationer. Genom att undersöka ett försäkringsbolag och dess kunder avseende arbete med hållbarhetsfrågor bidrar studien till en kunskapsspridning gällande vilken betydelse arbete med hållbarhetsfrågor har på långsiktiga kundrelationer. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera vilka hållbarhetsaspekter företag i tjänstebranschen arbetar med för att skapa långsiktiga kundrelationer samt vilken betydelse detta arbete har för kunden. Vi avser även att nå en ökad insikt i hur arbetet med hållbarhetsfrågor kommuniceras och följs upp. Genomförande: I studien har en kvalitativ ansats som har sin grund i ett iterativt angreppssätt antagits. Empirisk data har samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med anställda på fallföretaget med kunskap inom hållbarhet, samt att kundens perspektiv fångats genom fullmäktige. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att försäkringsbolaget i studien arbetar med samtliga ansvarsområden inom hållbarhet, men socialt ansvarstagande visade sig vara vitalt för fallföretaget. Vidare indikerar resultaten på att hållbarhetsarbete med lokal förankring kan vara ett sätt för tjänsteföretag att differentiera sig. Huvudfokus inom hållbarhet varierar beroende på vilken bransch samt vilket företag det gäller och bör riktas dit företag främst kan påverka, både samhället i stort samt sitt eget resultat. Kunder har visat sig ha en positiv inställning till hållbarhetsarbete men någon definitiv slutsats avseende hur den långsiktiga kundrelationen påverkas har inte funnits. Vi har funnit indikationer på att negativ publicitet tenderar att uppmärksammas i högre grad än positiv publicitet, därmed är det viktigt för företag att agera riktigt i dessa frågor. Studiens resultat påvisar att det för försäkringskunden är svårt att förstå kopplingen till hållbarhet eftersom tjänsten har en abstrakt natur. Att involvera kunden i hållbarhetsarbetet för att öka dennes medvetenhet har därmed visat sig vara fördelaktigt. Resultaten indikerar på att kommunikation och uppföljning därför är väsentligt för att kunden ska förstå bolags hållbarhetsarbete och vilka effekter det har för denne. Hållbarhetskommunikationen bör ha en karaktär där kunden omedvetet uppfattar bolaget som hållbart. Resultaten i studien tyder på att det föreligger svårigheter i att mäta effekterna av vissa delar av hållbarhetsarbetet eftersom det är svårt att fastställa att resultaten enbart beror på hållbarhetsarbete, även om det går att få vissa indikationer. / Background: The fact that the earth’s resources are not endless is something that today is widely known, which requires joint work for sustainable development. Many companies have thus increased their focus on social, environmental and ethical goals, rather than a one-sided focus on financial goals. Previous research has showed a positive link between customers perception of socially responsible companies. The research however is scarce on the impact of such work on corporate long-term customer relations. By studying an insurance company and its customers regarding sustainability issues, the study contributes to a dissemination of knowledge about the importance of work on sustainability issues on long-term customer relationships. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify which sustainability aspects companies within the service industry work with in order to create long-term customer relationships and which importance this work has for the customer. We also intend to gain an insight into how work on sustainability issues is communicated and followed up. Completion: In this study, a qualitative approach that has its foundation in an iterative approach has been adopted. Empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with employees at the case company with knowledge within sustainability, and the customer perspective has been captured by the council. Conclusion: The study’s results show that the insurance company in the study applied all responsibilities included in sustainability, but social responsibility proved to be vital to the case company. Furthermore, the results indicate that sustainability work with a local anchoring can be a way for service companies to differentiate themselves. The main focus on sustainability varies depending on which industry and what company it is and this should be directed to areas where companies can primarily affect both the community as a whole and its own results. Customers have showed a positive attitude towards sustainability work but no definite conclusion about how the long-term customer relationships are affected have been found. We have found indications that negative publicity tends to get a lot more  attention than positive publicity showing the importance for companies to work with these issues. The study’s findings show that it is difficult for the insurance customer to understand the link to sustainability because of the abstract nature of the service. Engaging the customer in sustainability efforts in order to increase their awareness has shown to be beneficial. The results indicate that communication and follow-up therefore are essential for the customer to understand the company’s sustainability efforts and the effects they have. The sustainability communication should have a character in which the customer unconsciously perceives the company as sustainable. The results in the study indicate that there are difficulties in measuring the impact of certain aspects of sustainability work, as it is difficult to determine that results are solely due to sustainability, although some indications can be obtained.