Reinforcing Hit Rates with Utilization of Customer Stratification: A Review of the Literature
By: William G. Castillo
Introduction:
Protect Controls Incorporated (PCI) is a privately owned power control building manufacturer located in Conroe, Texas and has been in business for over 40 years. Fiscal 2014 gross sales revenue figures were nearly $49 Million (USD) however the Vice President of Sales Operations has identified that the quotation-to-job (hit) rate has incrementally decreased since 2012. Unfortunately, no precise correlation has been made as to why the decrease however this literature review will present well-documented approaches and research in the fields of customer engagement, profitability modeling and customer
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As the levels increase, the likelihood of the customer advocating the business’s product/service improves. Levels 3-5 are classified underneath the “engaged customer” and definitively, these types of customers actively promote the product/service and increase an organization’s opportunities for long-term growth and profit. Most importantly, how do we create engaged customers? The four key strategic elements to capture engagement are customer value proposition, brand, internal culture elements, and customer experience. (Alpert & Roberts, 2010) The deliverance of a formidable value proposition and superior customer experience are the two propelling factors in determining customer engagement. Aligning these strategic elements with the organization’s brand and internal culture will have immense effects on engagement. First and foremost, an organization must retrieve informative customer insight to develop a distinguishable value proposition. Secondly, through brand advertising, effectively market the value proposition. Tertiary, with engaged employees within the organization, delivering upon the promise guaranteed by the value proposition must be adhered to. Lastly, fortify the cultural foundation to effectively deliver upon promises innate to the value proposition. (Alpert and Roberts, 2010) Customer engagement and core customers
Brand equity is an important key to produce customer loyalty. It is a powerful factor in winning market share. It helps an organization or a brand to grow and defend market share. A brand with strong and positive image and productivity has the ability in driving stable customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is the combination of consistently positive consumption experience, perceived value of experience and also physical satisfaction towards products and services. Consumers always have a positive view on the brand they are supporting the most. Customer is a major key for a brand to success, therefore
To deliver a more profitable relationship with customers the importance of customer engagement cannot be ignored. According to Dave Chaffey (2016) “customer engagement is the repeated interactions that strengthen the emotional, psychological or physical investment a customer has in a brand”.
Today’s organizations fail to realize the value of their customers when it comes to the success of their business. Without customer loyalty the success of your business will always be uncertain. Organizations must sensitively tailor the designs of a successful firm to the particular challenges of understanding, attracting, and keeping valuable customers. “Having satisfied customers just aren’t good enough”. Kenneth Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, co-authors of Raving Fans, believe this concept is needed to have a successful business. I agree with this concept of customers being the focal point of any business. I would want more than just a satisfied customer; I want a “Raving Fan”.
According to James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II (1998) in their article “Welcome to the Experience Economy,” they state, “Goods are tangible, services are intangible and experiences are memorable” (pg. 98). A truly impactful memorable experience cannot be bought. Imagine someone 's most valued experience; an experience that no matter how much someone would be willing to pay for that experience, it is so impactful that the owner of the experience would be losing a part of themselves if they were to sell it. To achieve the demand of an authentic experience, companies need to stick to their core values and be transcendent beyond other companies that only strive for customer service.
Companies in all industries and of all sizes understand that customers are perhaps their most valuable assets. Improving the overall customer experience is vital for continued success and survival, and always has been.
To further appreciate the concept of value creation it’s imperative to recognize that “everything culminates into the customer experience” (Rustogi, 2015a). Customer service is not the only component of value creation, the way in which a product is advertised, packaged, and presented along with the features, ease of use, and reliability of the product or service all encompass the customer experience. As such, it is extremely important for companies to incorporate each of the above components into their strategy when deciding on what product or service to provide. A majority of companies overlook the value that goods and services afford customers and will manufacture items the company thinks the customer wants.
The strategy of a successful organization lies in attracting the right customers by differentiating themselves from competition. Customer value proposition (CVP) is the essence of that strategy (Noreen, Brewer, & Garrison, 2014) which helps the company to deliver value aligned with the organizations strategy to its targeted customers. Customers therefore infer that product as high value while purchasing and perceives that this value creates a reason for him or her to choose it over a competitor in the industry. Customer Value proposition states the reasons a customer may want to purchase a particular product or use a particular service, i.e. it emphasizes on the added value a particular brand has got that fulfills customer’s needs better. The “value” is the benefits that the company delivers to its customers through their product and service. Top level do not base their value proposition based on the promise to “deliver all the benefits” to its target customers the reason being that delivering too much benefits can dilute genuine points of difference (Anderson, A.Narus, &Rossum, 2006). Therefore successful companies have fewer elements (benefits) in their value proposition those of which that matter the most to their targeted customers.
The article fits effectively and efficiently in to the existing literature in relation to the concept of consumer engagement. The article notes that consumers and the concept of consumer engagement are more strategic means of enhancing relationship between shareholders and stakeholders within the market and industry of operation (Brodie et al, 2011). This is because of the opportunity to develop consumer interaction and participation. According to the article, consumer engagement is a multidimensional concept in the realization of the goals and objectives of an organization within the context of the market or industry of operation. It entails cognitive, emotional, and behavioural perspectives of the consumers thus enabling organizations to focus on the empowerment, satisfaction, loyalty, and trust of the consumers.
This isn’t just happening in the digital world, we’re seeing it take place across nearly every industry, from healthcare to finance.
The impact of customer advocacy on customer perceived value; written by Ying-Pin Yeh Published in The Journal of Business and Retail Management Research Vol. 8 Issue 1 October 2013, set out to research and analyze the effect of customer perceived value influences customer advocacy. Ying-Pin Yeh attempted to show the effects of customer trust, satisfaction, and perceived value in the telecom companies in Taiwan.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a model for values-based service brands grounded in values-based service management. In undertaking this task, the paper addresses two research questions: “What is the role of values in creating customer value and corporate identity?” and “How can values and corporate identity be communicated to customers and thus contribute to customer-perceived
Engagement is a term that has been explored in a wide range of academic disciplines, such as organisational behaviour, sociology, political science and psychology. In the context of marketing and business, engagement is represented through “an individual-spesific, motivational, and context-dependent variable emerging from two-way interactions between relevant engagement subject(s) and object(s)” (Hollebeek 2011). Resnick (2001), claimed that engagement is thought to reveal a development in which the intensity of the engagement may mature over time.
companies, markets, or the so-called general public. Every customer creates his or her own version of brand. While companies cannot control this process, they can influence it by communicating the qualities that make the product and service different from the others. When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand. In other words, a brand is not what a company says it is; it is what customers say it is. The customer is the most important business element for every company that wants to win in the global market. How to attract and keep customers has become a popular topic in both the industrial and academic areas. Customer experience-based brand strategy is a plan for the systematic
Customer generating marketing has become very popular nowadays given the explosion in digital and social media. Engaging customers on a more personal interactive level is key to your bottom line. The marketing concept suggests that company strategies should revolve around creating customer value by engaging customers and building profitable relationships. In order for your company to be successful, all members of the company must participate in marketing, not just the marketing department. They must want to create value for the customer in order to engage them. It is a team effort. That is why it is important to understand marketing and how you play a role or fit in it.
•USS has Customer Engagement Marketing where they receive feedbacks from customers and improve on feedback thus improving customer relation thus preventing not meeting up the customer expectation.