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The household plays an important role in behavior change in many lifestyle areas. Various intervention programshave been implemented in order to change travel behavior and it is well known that tra ...

PurposeThis study aims to focus on the switching path analysis technique (SPAT) application to enlarge the understanding of customer switching from the business to consumer (B‐to‐C) context to the processes of business‐to‐business (B‐to‐B) supplier switches.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a theory extension of SPAT, with nine (9) supplier switching cases in different B‐to‐B settings. The cases shed light also on the actual triggers and determinants of the B‐to‐B switches.FindingsThe study proves the applicability of SPAT in B‐to‐B settings. The B‐to‐B context adds complexity, forming a relationship flow where many driving factors act for switching. Thus, the findings suggest that a comprehensive analysis of the triggers and determinants is required to understand the switching processes. In particular, the characteristics of the active/passive behaviour should be analysed separately in the customer and in the old and new suppliers.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical findings are exploratory in nature. Further research should refine the characteristics of active and passive behaviour at the levels of the relationship, the companies and the individuals to comprehend the notion of the influential trigger in SPAT. Further research should also address the wider topic of the patterns of certain triggers and determinants that actually lead to unstable supplier relationships.Practical implicationsThe B‐to‐B supplier switches appear to be complex processes. The supplier should be able to be constantly aware of the major changes in the customer's business. Based on this awareness, the supplier may actively affect the development of the relationship to avoid unwanted switches.Originality/valueThe paper combines the relatively mature research stream of B‐to‐C supplier switches and access to B‐to‐B supplier‐switching cases. The theory contribution of the paper is the extension of the theory to the B‐to‐B context, with relevant research implications.

Customer-support service in companies has existed for a long time. Today, customer support in companies is differently outlined in comparison to the situation one decade ago; still phone calls or messages over Internet are most common. Customers may phone the companies and ask questions, they can complain and they can ask for support regarding technical devises. However, most research on the topic show customers being dissatisfied with the service they receive under the label of customer-support. One frequently mentioned reason is long queues for customers when they search for help and support on different issues, which again may be caused by the fact that companies in their attempts to renovate the function mostly seem to have focused on cost reducing, which has resulted in unsuccessful solutions seen from the customers’ perspective. The purpose of the study is to find out the best-practice for customer-support service in the telecom industry; from the customers’ perspective when the relationship strength is considered. The study maintains a relationship perspective on the best practice for customer-support in telecom. Customers are asked to recall their customer-support experiences from different services and to include the consequences of the customer-support contact and handling. In order to apply the content analysis, innovative principles by Downe-Wamboldt (1992) and Granheim and Lundman (2004) are followed. When customers’ experiences are related to actual behavior in customer relationships the results reveal five important areas for the innovation focus: (1) Identification of customers in connection to customer support, (2) Availability of Internet customer support, (3) Pro-activeness, (4) Inter-activeness for full understanding and (5) Queues.

It is clearly recognized that service providers often have an incomplete and fragmentary understanding of their customers' relationship behaviors. Although it is clear that this incomplete understanding has serious implications for customer relationship management, and might even constitute a strategic risk, there have been no explicit attempts to analyze the phenomenon. The authors therefore introduce and develop the concept of the blind spot as a metaphor referring to situations where a service provider’s visual field is obscured. The authors examine the phenomenon of blind spots in a temporal and a relational context, determine their consequences, and outline the implications for customer relationship management. A number of blind spot scenarios are presented in order to illustrate how blind spots obstruct the service provider’s ability to make correct interpretations of customer relationships, and thereby also correct estimations of relationship stability. The conceptualization of blind spots as outlined in this article sheds light on the underlying mechanisms that drive customer behavior in terms of relationship stability and hence offers a deeper understanding of the dynamic nature of customer relationships. From a managerial point of view, proper monitoring systems and routines for analyzing relevant customer information play essential roles in understanding and managing blind spots.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between active/passive customer behavior and loyalty (responses to switching triggers) in customer relationships.Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal study (seven years) is undertaken of the roles of various triggers and active/passive customers in analyzing the processes that lead to customers changing their service provider in the context of the Swedish telecommunications retail industry.Findings – Triggers affect customers' evaluations of service in different ways and cause varying kinds of behavior, depending on whether the customers are active or passive in their customer relationships.Originality/value – The study offers new insights into the difference between active and passive customers, which facilitates the design of loyalty‐enhancing communications between providers and their customers.

The literature on how customers make their service-provider choices largely distinguishes between private and business customers, and companies’ offerings have been separated accordingly. This study takes a closer look at the possible differences between these two customer categories. The results are explorative and based on both qualitative and quantitative studies focusing on customers’ actual behavior. The findings show that it is not only job-related aspects such as “being able to work” that influence business travel, and that private matters such as “time with the family” are clearly of equal significance in the choice situation. Price perception is important, but only when it is set against the appropriate social costs. The contradiction appears in the airlines’ offers to these customers, which are generally specifically job related. The results of the present study show that most business customers are, in fact, “private customers”.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether or not emotions experienced in customer relationships – linked to actual behavior – could enhance understanding of their future development.Design/methodology/approachA number of individual‐level relationships between customers and telecom operators are investigated. The empirical data consist of 113 switching stories reported during 81 interviews with telecom customers.FindingsIn the analysis, emotional experiences are related to customers' activity or passivity and to the stability (switching or not) in the relationships. The most important research contribution is the identification of different emotions related to actual behavior. Less stable customers are pessimistic about the operators and show nervousness, while stable customers may have initially been depressed in their relationships, becoming more relaxed and optimistic over time. Emotions do not seem to have the capacity in themselves to cause stability or instability, but they confirm through their connection to different types of trigger whether the relationship will be stable or unstable.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the present study are based on a longitudinal empirical study, but only in one industry. Although, the telecom industry may provide a very fruitful context for the longitudinal study of stability in customer relationships because of the turbulence it has experienced during the last decade, the industry representation is narrow.Practical implicationsCustomers do not sever their emotional ties with the previous relationship when they enter the new one. On the contrary, they linger in the switched‐from relationship at least at first, which is indicated in the various emotional expressions they use. The present study takes some initial steps towards enhancing understanding of the dynamism in providing an insight into customers' differing emotional reactions connected to triggers during one and the same relationship.Originality/valueTaking a longitudinal approach from the customers' perspective produces a set boundaries of customer relationships that may not coincide with the set boundaries seen from the service providers' perspective. According to the findings of the present study, it seems almost impossible to understand customer relationships without following customers on an individual level in both previous and current relationships. Despite the fact that dynamism in customer relationships is widely discussed in previous research, few studies have applied such a perspective.

PurposeThis study aims at deepening understanding of the role of emotion in customer switching processes and identifying the relative frequency of negative discrete emotions in terms of different triggers.Design/methodology/approachCustomers of Swedish telecommunications services were interviewed about their switching processes. The interviews were analyzed according to switching path analysis technique, which divides relationships into different stages in accordance with their relevance to the relationship strength. The ultimate focus is on self‐reported emotions embedded in the switching process.FindingsThe main finding was that the identified emotions were located in the trigger part of the relationship, and was expressed by the respondents during the switching process in form of annoyance, anxiety, disappointment, dissatisfaction, distress, depression, rage, stress and tension.Research limitations/implicationsThe empirical study is conducted within the telecom industry which may influence the switching frequency because of the deregulations in the beginning of this decade. This interpretation of valence and activation was based on theoretical assumptions about where various discrete emotions are located on a continuum.Originality/valueThe paper offers insight into the role of emotion in customer relationship.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe customers' perception of customer support service related to the core service in telecomminucations customer relationships. The customers' perceptions of the support‐service stem from their contacts with the support service and are related to the importance for the relationship with the telecommunications provider.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a modified version of Switching Path Analysis Technique (SPAT) in its analysis to create the necessary data for carrying out a dynamic analysis – in other words customers' experiences of the customer‐support service over time in their relationship with the service provider. The modification, called the SPAT mechanism, only focused on the difference between driving and non‐driving factors related to the relationship strength.FindingsFrom the service perspective it was found that some of the customers in the present study were particularly focused on the customer‐support, which made it dominate the relationships. At that special time, their telecommunications service predominantly comprised customer support, which was more important than the core service. At other times, when the support‐service focus was not as strong, the priority was likely to be different. Consequently, the composition of the telecommunications service and the core service is according to customers' expressions dynamic and only the customer perspective has the authority to define it.Research limitations/implicationsResearch on service has been going on for several decades, and thus offers a great variety of findings from cross‐sectional studies. Therefore, the present study's presentation of only one kind of service could be considered limited.Originality/valueThe paper provides useful information on customers' perception of customer support service related to the core service in telecommunications customer relationships.

Given the growing competition in the global market, it is becoming increasingly important for companies to retain their existing customers, that is, to preempt frequent switching. A fruitful way of gaining knowledge about customers' switching behavior is to examine the role of various factors in their switching processes. This qualitative study, based on data from telecom operators, offers new insights by identifying and defining the role of prejudice in customers' rationale for leaving one telecom operator in favor of another. The research also identifies whether the customers are actively or passively engaged in the switching process, which seems to be important in terms of linking prejudice to frequent switching. The findings have important implications for the successful management of customer relationships because they point to instability in customer populations.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to compare the company's perception of their business to the customers' dynamic view of their relationships with the same company.Design/methodology/approachCustomers are interviewed about their perceptions of the relationships. The interviews are analyzed by using SPAT (switching path analysis technique) that divides the relationships into different parts with priority to their relevance for the strength of the relationships.FindingsCustomers who experience triggers in their relationships evaluate their mortgage provider differently than those who do not. The construct that influences the dynamism and the differing evaluations is defined as the trigger function. Three trigger categories are identified and described: the situational, the influential, and the reactional. In order to further verify the dynamic aspect of the customer relationship, evidence of customers' dynamic evaluations and of how the company's own perceptions of the business differ from those of its customers is provided.Research limitations/implicationsRegarding the generalization of the results for services the findings are limited to one industry; the financial.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the understanding of the dynamism in the customer relationships of a housing‐mortgage company.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to enhance understanding of the club's role in the customer relationships of a telecommunications company by re‐considering the concepts of frequency and commitment in a telecom‐customer club.Design/methodology/approachWe interviewed telecom customers that were members of a Swedish telecom company's customer club. The approach was to understand the customer evaluation of the customer club. We conducted 44 in‐depth interviews with members of the loyalty club.FindingsWe found an umbrella concept for the club regarding loyalty: a keeping function, which divided the customer club in two ways: the affective role makes the customer stay with the company and the calculative role with a more inferred loyalty function. The expressions that were not connected to loyalty is the attracting function.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of our qualitative study include the small sample size, and it represents only one kind of industry and one company.Originality/valueThe first contribution of this study is the new perspective of customer clubs in the telecommunications industry on customer relationships. The implication is that customers do not always consider all parts of the club when they stay loyal, and not always think about it when they plan future behaviour.The second contribution is the result regarding re‐consideration of the frequency concept. Bearing in mind the delimitations, the calculative role dominated the affective role. Thirty‐three of the 44 members said that their club was of minor importance in terms of relationship continuation. The calculative role is, accordingly, dominant.

In a study of telecommunications services, the authors examine the effects of customer satisfaction, affective commitment, and calculative commitment on retention. The study further examines the potential for situational and reactional trigger conditions to moderate the satisfaction–retention relationship. The results support consistent effects of customer satisfaction, calculative commitment, and prior churn on retention. Prior churn also moderates the satisfaction–retention relationship. The results have implications for both customer relationship managers and researchers who use satisfaction surveys to predict behavior.

PurposeFocusing on one main research question: how is the phenomenon “service” portrayed within service research?, the aim is to describe and analyze how the concept of service is defined, how service characteristics express the concept, the relevance of the existing “service portraits”, and to suggest a new way of portraying service.Design/methodology/approachA literature search was carried out in order to find definitions of the service concept and expressions about the service characteristics. Databases were searched and 34 articles were used for further analysis. The same procedure was carried out for service characteristics. The articles that were chosen by the databases were reviewed thoroughly and those most relevant to the search topic were chosen. Sixteen leading scholars who had been shaping the service research field were also asked two basic questions.FindingsThe analysis of the concept of service and service characteristics shows that the definitions are too narrow and the characteristics are outdated as generic service characteristics. It is suggested that service is used as a perspective. When service is portrayed as a perspective, the approach is clear: it depends on who is portraying the service and on the purpose. If service characteristics are outdated, when will they stop being used in teaching? It is no longer necessary to defend services as being different from goods. Service is a research area in its own right.Research limitations/implicationsThe number of articles and books used in the analysis can be criticized for not including enough relevant literature. The keywords used when searching in databases should also have included other words to capture the concept of service and service characteristics.Practical implicationsThe practical implications are not so clear since this article is a contribution to the ongoing discussion about future directions of service research. However, it is suggested that service is a perspective on value creation and that value creation is best understood from the lens of the customer based on value in use.Originality/valueThis paper contributes with a literature review, a discussion on what service portraits are, and describes service as a perspective on value creation through the lens of the customer.

Companies in the telecom industry – and in many other consumer markets – have introduced customer or loyalty clubs over a number of years. Customer clubs have been used as a loyalty‐building measure following the deregulation of telecom markets in Europe. They were introduced as a strategic instrument intended to foster customer retention and to contribute to increased sales and profitability. These clubs are the most recognizable part of many CRM strategies. Their short‐ and long‐term effects on loyalty are not obvious, however. The aim of this article is to explore the effects of the customer club on customer relationships in telecommunications by presenting results from two qualitative studies, which are quantified and reported in terms of responses to the club. The results of this empirical study in a Swedish telecom company reveal that the majority of customer‐club members do not perceive their membership as adding value or contributing to higher commitment and improved loyalty. Nevertheless, there are differences between non‐members and members regarding their perceptions of the service provider. The target group of club members has significantly higher satisfaction with the company than the non‐member customers.

This article is about behavioral change in customer relationships. Changes in customer switching behavior are compared in five different service industries. Switching barriers and the competitive industrial situations in the comparison between industries also revealed changes in behavior in an industrial monopoly in which switching to alternative external service providers was not an option. This kind of switching was articulated as internal switching. The behavioral change was therefore assessed in terms not only of frequency but also of type of change. The switching ability to cause change, called configuration energy, even caused a change in behavior at the highest level in a noncompetitive industry in which there was a lack of switching alternatives. Total change was considered to be a result of the higher energy level driving the switching configuration than when the change was partial.

Data on customer complaints and switching behavior provide us with important information about customer relationship dynamics. Studying customer complaints and switching behavior, i.e., crossroads in a relationship, will help us better understand the consequences of customer dissatisfaction and what erodes loyalty and has a negative impact on profitability. This understanding will help manage complaints proactively rather than reactively and help prevent switching. It will also improve quality and support service development.

Relationship marketing (RM) has been widely accepted as an important determinant of long‐term business success and is believed to be especially well suited for services because of the personal contact between customers and service providers. Past research has focused mainly on the advantages of RM for companies, while less attention has been paid to relationships from the customer’s point of view. We suggest that relationships may be described as ranging from spurious to true, depending on customer‐perceived relationship benefits, trust and commitment. A qualitative study of customer relationships was conducted in a car dealership, where profitability depends on customer commitment to both after‐sales services and the car brand. Customer relationships were found to be more spurious than true. The study revealed that behavioural commitment to after‐sales services was high, but that affective commitment was low to moderate. Customers were satisfied but did not perceive the services to be superior to the competitors’ service offerings. They trusted authorised repair in general and did not feel that after‐sales service would have more than a minor influence on their future car purchases.

The methods used for analyzing customer relationships have traditionally focused exclusively on service encounters. Recently, researchers have presented these service encounters as a flow or process, although without taking time into account. Both of these perspectives on customer relationships have provided the means for developing a process-based method that does take time into account. This makes it possible to analyze and describe a customer relationship in which effects and consequences can be represented and the influenced and influencing factors prioritized. Given that the domain for analyzing the customer relationship is a switch from one service provider to another, the consequence is clear. The switch is identical to the consequence. The consequence, again, defines the criticality. Criticality and context are key concepts in the search for a deeper understanding of customer relationships, and efforts are made to include them in the development of the methods put forward in this article.

The traditional critical incident technique (CIT) and variants of the same have frequently been applied in service research for several decades. The technique has often been used to capture data on and analyse both negative and positive critical incidents. While one technique displays hosts of critical incidents in benchmark‐type series (SIT), another variant describes the dynamism in one discrete critical incident and a third the dynamism of the configuration of critical incidents (SPAT). In this article the different variants are discussed in relation to psychological theory focusing on the concepts of time, history and memory. To be able to analyse the criticality from the individual customer’s perspective, we argue that one must understand the significance of critical incidents in the light of human memory mechanisms and judgement processes. The discussion forms the basis for suggesting a new, tentative framework for analysing the criticality of critical incidents. We call this criticality critical incident technique (CCIT).

The importance and difficulty of keeping customers constantly features in the marketing literature. However, customer studies have generally focused on loyal customers and loyalty rather than on reasons for switching service providers. The aim of this article is to present a model for studying customers’ switching behavior as processes by extending the Critical Incident Technique in a relationship direction. By using the new technique, an analytic framework was developed that identifies three different kinds of switching determinants: pushing determinants, pulling determinant, and swayers. The new technique captures the configurations of the underlying factors that lead to revocable or irrevocable switching decisions. The study shows that these configurations are signals of switching, which provide useful knowledge for management and staff for policy and training purposes.

So far the focus in research on service quality has been mainly on the cognitive dimensions and on quality factors linked to service episodes and critical incidents. However, there is a need to go beyond cognitive assessment (Edvardsson 2005). Quality of service has been defined and measured as the outcome of expected service compared to perceived service as delivered (Brady/Cronin 2001; Parasuraman et al. 1991). “According to the customer-oriented point of view, high service quality is given and received if the expectations of the customers, with respect to the relevant quality attributes, are fulfilled or more than fulfilled. In the supplier-oriented point of view, quality is given if the expectations of the supplier, regarding the fulfillment of defined performance standards, are met” (Stauss/Mang 1999, p. 331). This approach emphasizes cognitive assessment but does not explicitly pay attention to emotions. Furthermore, it is not clear what is meant by service, nor is the relationship context emphasized.