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.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Berry, Leonard L.
(1983), “Relationship Marketing”, in Emerging Perspectives on Services Marketing, Leonard L. Berry, G. Lynn Shostack, and Gregory D. Upah, eds. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 25-28.
2.
Bitner, Mary Jo
(1990), “Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surroundings and Employee Responses”, Journal of Marketing, 54 (April), 69-82.
3.
Cadotte, Ernest R.
and Normand Turgeon (1988a), “Dissatisfiers and Satisfiers: Suggestions from Consumer Complaints and Compliments”, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 1, 74-79.
4.
Cadotte, Ernest R.
and Normand Turgeon (1988b), “Key Factors in Guest Satisfaction”, The Cornell H.R.A Quarterly, February, 45-51.
5.
Edvardsson, Bo
(1988), “Service Quality in Customer Relationships: A Study of Critical Incidents in Mechanical Engineering Companies”, The Service Industries Journal, 8 (July), 427-445.
6.
Edvardsson, Bo
(1992), “Service Breakdowns, A Study of Critical Incidents in an Airline”, International Journal of Service Industry Management,3 (4), 17-29.
7.
Edvardsson, Bo and Margareta Luukkonen (1996), Kritiska händelser. En studie inom Göteborgsregionens Lokaltrafik Ab. CTF, Centrum för tjänsteforskning, Högskolan i Karlstad Sweden. Forskningsrapport 96:1, Samhällsvetenskap.
8.
Edvardsson, Bo
, and Inger Roos (forthcoming), “Customer Complaints and Switching Behavior—A Study of Relationship Dynamics in a Telecommunication Company”, Journal of Relationship Marketing.
9.
Edvardsson, Bo
, and Inger Roos (2001), “Critical Incident Techniques—Towards a Framework for Analyzing the Criticality of Critical Incidents”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, 12, 251-268.
10.
Edvardsson, Bo
, and Tore Strandvik (2000), “Is a Critical Incident Critical for a Customer Relationship?”Managing Service Quality, 10 (2), 82-91.
11.
Flanagan, John C.
(1954), “The Critical Incident Technique”, Psychological Bulletin, 51, 327-358.
12.
Gremler, Dwayne D.
(2000), “Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success”, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, 28, 311-312.
13.
Grönroos, Christian
(1996), “The Rise and Fall of Modern Marketing— And Its Rebirth”, in Marketing in Evolution: Essays in Honour of Michel J. Baker, S. A. Shaw and N. Hood, eds. London: Macmillan, 14-35.
14.
Gummesson, Evert
(1995), Relationsmarknadsföring: Från 4P till 30R [Relationship Marketing: From 4Ps to 30 Rs]. Malmö, Sweden: Liber-Hermods.
15.
Guo, Meihui
and Y. K. Tseng (1997), “A Comparison between Linear and Nonlinear Forecasts for Nonlinear AR Models”, Journal of Forecasting, 16, 491-508.
16.
Hastie, Reid
and Bernadette Park (1986), “The Relationship between Memory and Judgment Depends on Whether the Judgment Task Is Memory-Based or On-Line”, Psychological Review, 93, 258-268.
17.
Jackson, Barbara Bund
(1985), “Build Customer Relationships That Last”, Harvard Business Review, November-December, 135-143.
18.
Johnston, Robert
(1995), “The Determinants of Service Quality: Satisfiers and Dissatisfiers”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, 6 (5), 53-71.
19.
Keaveney, Susan M.
(1995), “Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study”, Journal of Marketing, 59 (April), 71-82.
20.
Licata, Maureen
(2000), “Retailers Urged to Improve Preparedness for In-Store Critical Incidents”, Stores, 82 (9), 116-118.
21.
Liljander, Veronica
and Tore Strandvik (1995), “The Nature of Customer Relationships in Services”, in Advances in Services Marketing and Management, Vol. 4, T. A. Swartz, D. E. Bowen, and S. W. Brown, eds. London: JAI Press, 141-167.
22.
Lucas, James
(1999), “The Critical Shopping Experience”, Marketing Management, 8 (1), 60-72.
23.
Mattsson, Jan
(2000), “Learning How to Manage Technology in Services Internationalisation”, The Service Industries Journal, 20 (1), 22-39.
24.
Meuter, Matthew L.
, Amy L. Ostrom, Robert I. Roundtree, and Mary Jo Bitner (2000), “Self-Service Technologies: Understanding Customer Satisfaction with Technology-Based Service Encounters”, Journal of Marketing, 64 (3), 50-64.
25.
Olsen, Morten J. S. (1992), “Kvalitet i Banktjänster: Privatkunders Upplevda Problem med Banktjänster—en Studie med Hjälp av Kritisk-Händelse-Metoden” [Quality in Retail Banking: Customers Perceived Problems with Bank Services—A Study Using Critical-Incident-Method], doctoral thesis, University of Stockholm and Center for Service Research (CTF), Karlstad, Sweden.
26.
Olsen, Morten J. S.
(1996), “The Critical Episode Model as a Tool for Organizational Learning in Service Organizations”, in Service Management, Bo Edvardsson and Sven Modell, eds. Stockholm: Nerenius & Santérus Förlag Ab.
27.
Pulakos, Elaine D.
, Sharon Arad, Michelle A. Donovan, and Kevin E. Plamondon (2000), “Adaptability in the Workplace: Development of a Taxonomy of Adaptive Performance”, Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 612-624.
28.
Ravald, Annika
and Christian Grönroos (1996), “The Value Concept and Relationship Marketing”, European Journal of Marketing, 30 (2), 19-30.
29.
Reichheld, Frederick F.
(1996), The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
30.
Reichheld, Frederick F.
and Phil Schefter (2000), “E-Loyalty”, Harvard Business Review, 78 (4), 105-114.
31.
Roos, Inger (1996), “Customer Switching Behavior in Retailing”, working paper no. 327, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland.
32.
Roos, Inger (1999a), “Switching Paths in Customer Relationships”, doctoral dissertation, Publications of the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, No. 78, Helsinki.
33.
Roos, Inger
(1999b), “Switching Processes in Customer Relationships”, Journal of Service Research, 2 (1), 68-85.
34.
Rust, Roland T.
and Richard L. Oliver, (2000), “Should We Delight the Customer?”Academy of Marketing Science, 28 (1), 86-94.
35.
Silvestro, Rhian
and Robert Johnston (1992), “The Determinants of Service Quality: Hygiene and Enhancing Factors”, in Quality in Service Conference, Selected Papers Vol. 2, E. E. Scheuing, E. Gummesson, and C. H. Little, eds. New York: St. Johns University and International Service Quality Association.
36.
Stauss, Bernd
(1993), “Using the Critical Incident Technique in Measuring and Managing Service Quality”, in The Service Quality Handbook, E. Scheuing and William F. Christopher, eds. New York: American Management Association, 408-427.
37.
Stauss, Bernd
and Bernhard Weinlich (1995), “Process-Oriented Measurement of Service Quality by Applying the Sequential Incident Method”, in Proceedings from a Workshop on Quality Management in Service V, May 11-12, Tilburg, the Netherlands.
38.
Stauss, Bernd
and Bernhard Weinlich (1997), “Process-Oriented Measurement of Service Quality. Applying the Sequential Incident Method”, European Journal of Marketing, 31 (1), 33-55.
39.
Stauss, Bernd
and Bert Hentschel (1992), “Attribute-Based versus Incident-Based Measurement of Service Quality: Results of an Empirical Study Within the German Car Service Industry”, in Quality Management in Service, Paul Kunst and Jos Lemmink, eds. Assen/Maastricht, the Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 59-78.
40.
Storbacka, Kaj
, Tore Strandvik, and Christian Grönroos (1994), “Managing Customer Relationship for Profit: The Dynamics of Relationship Quality”, International Journal of Service Industry Management, 5 (5), 21-38.
41.
Strandvik, Tore
and Veronica Liljander (1994), “Relationship Strength in Bank Services”, in Proceedings from the 1994 Research Conference on Relationship Marketing: Theory, Methods and Applications, Jagdish N. Sheth and Atul Parvatiyar, eds. June 11-13, Atlanta, Georgia.
42.
Sumner-Smith, David
and Ian Sumner (1999), “The Free-Access Revolution”, Marketing, 4 (March), 29-30.
43.
Taylor, A. Gail
, Harvir S. Bansal, Mark Colgate, Lawrence Hamer, Darren Meister, Inger Roos, and Shirley Taylor (2001), “Emerging Issues in Services Switching”, special session on switching behavior at SERVSIG 2001: New Horizons in Services Marketing, May 26-28, Sydney, Australia.
44.
Taylor, Shelley E.
(1991), “Asymmetrical Effects of Positive and Negative Incidents: The Mobilization-Minimization Hypothesis”, Psychological Bulletin, 110 (1), 67-85.
