The notion of customer orientation is becoming a necessity rather than a choice for many companies. It is a lasting response to competitive pressure and supports the company in a renewed definition of its mission, beyond direct economic gain. Within B2B services, the manager, through proximity to their team, their market and their client, is the essential actor in the deployment of this orientation. A Customer-oriented Manager for B2B Services provides managers with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement customer orientation themselves, with the involvement of their extended team.…mehr
The notion of customer orientation is becoming a necessity rather than a choice for many companies. It is a lasting response to competitive pressure and supports the company in a renewed definition of its mission, beyond direct economic gain. Within B2B services, the manager, through proximity to their team, their market and their client, is the essential actor in the deployment of this orientation.
A Customer-oriented Manager for B2B Services provides managers with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement customer orientation themselves, with the involvement of their extended team. To this end, this book presents a four-step approach: understand the fundamentals of customer orientation in B2B services, know the customer, make the most of the offer and deliver the service.
Valerie Mathieu is Associate Professor at IAE Aix-Marseille, France, where she is Director of the Management and Service Marketing Master's and Associate Dean in charge of Corporate Relations, Graduates and Continuing Education.
Inhaltsangabe
Foreword ix
Preface xiii
Part 1. Understanding the Fundamentals of Customer Orientation in B2B Services 1
Introduction to Part 1 3
Chapter 1. Customer Orientation 5
1.1. Outlines and challenges of customer orientation 5
1.1.1. Customer orientation framework 5
1.1.2. Benefits of customer orientation 6
1.1.3. Implementing customer orientation 8
1.2. Marketing as the source of customer orientation 12
1.2.1. Marketing as a corporate culture 13
1.2.2. Strategic marketing 15
1.2.3. Operational marketing 16
1.3. The manager's customer orientation in response to marketing issues 18
1.3.1. Restricted marketing 18
1.3.2. Marketing exposure to technological challenges 20
Chapter 2. Reality and Challenges of Service 23
2.1. Economy and service: from data to discourse 23
2.1.1. The economic weight of service 23
2.1.2. Discourses on service 26
2.2. Defining the service 29
2.2.1. The organizational angle: the concept of servuction 29
2.2.2. The market angle: a process and an outcome 32
2.3. Characteristics of the service 35
2.3.1. Intangibility 35
2.3.2. Simultaneity 36
2.3.3. Heterogeneity 37
2.3.4. Perishability 38
Chapter 3. Markers of B2B 41
3.1. Reality of the market 41
3.1.1. Market option 41
3.1.2. Derived demand 45
3.2. The relational issue 49
3.2.1. Framework of the client-provider relationship 49
3.2.2. Relational excellence 51
Part 2. Knowing the Customer 57
Introduction to Part 2 59
Chapter 4. Modeling the Industrial Sector 61
4.1. Direct market 61
4.1.1. Knowing one's market in its entirety 61
4.1.2. Segmentation 64
4.1.3. Targeting 67
4.2. Indirect actors 68
4.2.1. Identifying the actors 69
4.2.2. Managers' responsibility towards indirect actors 71
Chapter 5. Understanding the Purchase 79
5.1. Buying center concept 79
5.1.1. Composition of the buying center 79
5.1.2. The buyer 82
5.2. Buying process 87
5.2.1. The launch 88
5.2.2. Call for tenders 91
5.2.3. From short list to contract 93
Chapter 6. Identifying Service Targets 97
6.1. Different types of targets 97
6.1.1. Targets within the direct client organization 97
6.1.2. Targets in the sector 101
6.2. Target satisfaction challenge 103
6.2.1. The notion of satisfaction 103
6.2.2. Measuring satisfaction 107
Part 3. Making the Most of the Offer 111
Introduction to Part 3 113
Chapter 7. Acting Against the Risk of Commoditization 115
7.1. Understanding the phenomenon of the offer commoditization 115
7.1.1. Characteristics of a commoditized market 115
7.1.2. Explanatory factors 116
7.1.3. The commoditization trap 119
7.2. Countering the commoditization of the offer 123
