Browsing by Author "Clark, Moira"

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    Achieving Excellence in Customer Relationship Management
    (School of Management, Cranfield University, 2002-12) Clark, Moira; McDonald, Malcolm; Smith, Brian
    This report covers the work of the Cranfield CRM Research Formn for the first year of its operation Directed and funded by a group of organisations across many sectors, the goals of the Forum are to enable excellence in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) by defining and understanding this important management process.
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    Consumer-to-consumer interpersonal relationships in electronic community : a 'digital' exploration of conceptions, attributes, consequences and personal values in a major UK sporting organisation
    (Cranfield University, 2004-10) Hair , N; Clark, Moira
    This doctoral thesis examines the conceptions of interpersonal relationships in a major UK sporting organization's electronic community (MUSO). Focusing on one text-based bulletin board, the research explores the meanings a sample of25 heavy users (insiders) attribute to their interactions with fellow members. Adopting an interpretivist / social constructionist perspective and a virtual ethnographic research strategy this research draws from George Kelly's Personal Construct Theory and Means-End-Chain analysis to explore these meanings as expressed in attributes of interactions, consequences and personal values. The research is split into two main sections, community and sample selection, and the main study. Working with one of the UK's leading moderating organizations, construct elicitation techniques revealed the means by which a sample of electronic communities could be differentiated on the basis of relational activity. Hinde's (1979) model of describing relationships together with a number of practical and ethical considerations were used as a means of identifying a suitable electronic community for the main study. Using a three stage electronic Delphi process, Moderators with experience in managing MUSO were canvassed for their opinions on heavy users (insiders). The main study comprises two approaches. The first involves a wider community interview drawing responses from over 500 members and identifying seven key themes of electronic community use. These are; conflict within the community, debates, entertainment, friendship, interaction, sharing and support. The second involves a number of in-depth electronic interviews exploring the conceptions of meanings of interpersonal relationships amongst insiders. Using a web based construct elicitation software package (WebGridIII) over 400 constructs from 25 participants on relational activity are identified. These are then explored using laddering and pyramiding techniques over instant messenger and email, revealing central attributes, consequences and personal values associated with their use of electronic community. The study identifies over 600 ladders comprising 1800 data points which are used to create hierarchical value maps for electronic community use across the seven key themes previously identified. The thesis makes several contributions to knowledge. To theory, it demonstrates the application of the means-end chain model to interpersonal relationships in electronic environments. It identifies the core values underpinning electronic community use of heavy users and the dominant perceptual pathways connecting the attributes of community use with personal values across the seven key themes. A contribution is further made in the categorization and selection process of electronic communities on the basis of relational activity, practical and ethical considerations. To methodology, the thesis explores the process of conducting virtual ethnography and presents a first hand day by day reflexive account of its activities and experience. The thesis also demonstrates the richness and abundance of data that can be collected using electronic research methods alone. Further contributions are made in the field of ethics identifying the means of safeguarding the integrity of the research process and the safety of participants. Finally practical managerial contributions are made in identifying the role and importance of interpersonal relationships in electronic community in the perceptions of its heavy users.
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    Customer experience quality: an exploration in business and consumer contexts using repertory grid technique
    (Springer Science Business Media, 2011-09-08T00:00:00Z) Lemke, Fred; Clark, Moira; Wilson, Hugh
    This study proposes a conceptual model for customer experience quality and its impact on customer relationship outcomes. Customer experience is conceptualized as the customer's subjective response to the holistic direct and indirect encounter with the firm, and customer experience quality as its perceived excellence or superiority. Using the repertory grid technique in 40 interviews in B2B and B2C contexts, the authors find that customer experience quality is judged with respect to its contribution to value-in-use, and hence propose that value-in-use mediates between experience quality and relationship outcomes. Experience quality includes evaluations not just of the firm's products and services but also of peer-to-peer and complementary supplier encounters. In assessing experience quality in B2B contexts, customers place a greater emphasis on firm practices that focus on understanding and delivering value-in-use than is generally the case in B2C contexts. Implications for practitioners' customer insight processes and future research directions are suggested.
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    How companies use customer insight to drive customer acquisition, development and retention
    (Cranfield University, 2008-06) Bailey, Christine R.; Wilson, Hugh; Clark, Moira
    In theory, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology and processes should help firms to identify the ‘right’ customers, understand their needs, predict their behaviour and develop tailored propositions. Yet numerous studies have found that CRM projects have failed to deliver the expected benefits. Academics and practitioners have begun to refer to a key resource required to fulfil the promise of CRM as ‘customer insight’. Project one explores how companies use customer insight to drive customer acquisition, retention and development and proposes a theoretical framework for actioning customer insight. Five case studies with UK-based large companies were undertaken, involving 25 in-depth interviews. Companies were found to be synthesising data from five areas: competitors, customers, markets, employees and channel partners. From this data they are generating four types of customer insight: market predictions, customer segments, propensity models and customer analytics. This insight is guiding strategy, operations, marketing, sales, product portfolio management and customer service. Project two explores a particularly promising area of practice uncovered in project one, namely how customer insight is used in inbound service call centres to drive crossselling, up-selling and retention. Empirical research into this practice of sales through service is sparse. A cross-sector multiple-case exploratory study of six UK-based organisations was undertaken, using interviews and agent observation. Customer insight in the form of predictive models delivered to agents’ screens appears to improve the effectiveness of sales through service. Contrary to common practitioner concerns, insight-based sales offers can have a positive impact on satisfaction, and introducing sales through service does not necessarily increase average handling time. Agents are more likely to make successful offers if they believe that they are ‘doing the right thing’ for the customer. A balanced set of targets covering productivity, satisfaction and sales seems important for agents combining sales and service roles. Further research is needed to validate and refine the seven propositions generated.
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    The relationship between employees' perceptions of organisational climate and customer retention rates in a major UK retail bank
    (Cranfield University, 2000-06) Clark, Moira; Payne, Adrian
    There has been increasing interest in the field of customer retention in the last two decades. Much of that interest has focused on the economics of customer retention and developing plans and strategies for companies to follow to improve customer retention. There has been little research into what determines customer retention, particularly from the perspective of organisational climate. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the relationship between employees' perceptions of organisational climate and customer retention in a specific service setting. The methodology adopted for this study is a 'within method' triangulation approach, which uses predominantly qualitative research techniques, supported by quantitative research methods. The foundation of the research design is a set of six case studies of bank branches selected from the network of a major UK retail bank. The branches are similar to each other in every respect, except that three have high customer retention rates and three have low retention rates. The main source of data is semi-structured interviews with a representative sample of six employees from each bank branch. This data is supported by survey data from a questionnaire that was completed by an the staff in all six branches. This questionnaire was also used as a platform from which to conduct the semi-structured interviews. Cross-case analysis between the two sets of branches is undertaken using the 'stacking comparable cases' approach, in order to systematically compare and contrast the differences between the high and low retairuing branches. The findings from the study show that there is a relationship between employees' perceptions of organisational climate and customer retention at a micro-organisational level. It shows that organisational climate can be sub-divided into five climate themes and that within each climate theme there are dimensions which are critical to customer retention and others which are less critical or irrelevant. Finally, the study highlights that it is the climate themes and dimensions taken together that form the climate for 6customer care' and not the individual themes and dimensions.
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    The relationship of personal values to management behaviours and performance in the tenanted pub estate of a UK Regional Brewer
    (Cranfield University, 2007-09) Wood, A.; Clark, Moira
    The aim of this research was to explore the role of personal values and their relationship to the management behaviour and performance outcomes of multiple small, UK licensed on-trade, businesses. Few studies of this nature exist that explore personal values and relate them to management behaviour in this way, in this specific context. Project I develops its contribution through the identification of seven core personal values, the inconsistency of language and meaning around these values and highlights five owner/manager types based upon the ways in which values are interpreted and operationalised. A series of typologies and role ordered matrix is developed to assist practical application. Project II identifies two ‘most valuable’ categories and deepens the understanding of their intrinsic motivators and the values they deploy. Personal values combined with risk, momentum and tangible outputs are found to underpin entrepreneurial and enterprising behaviours to varying degrees. Both projects used semi-structured interviews (n = 33) and textual analysis to arrive at their findings. Having identified five owner/manager groups project III establishes new approaches to working with entrepreneurial and enterprising people and builds a new relationship model and potential to strengthen the psychological contract. Support and momentum for change are developed using an Action Research method, specifically, Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The research has engaged participants in ways not previously undertaken through making extensive use of their preferred communication method. The work supports the notion of instrumental and end-state values in human behaviour and relates these to management behaviours in the small/medium sized business setting. The work challenges the idea of value congruence between organisations’ and the individual at anything more than a superficial level and proposes individual meaning and interpretation as critical dimensions in values communication. The work also contests popular and academic definitions of the entrepreneur as a fiercely independent individual who is unlikely to work well and cooperate with others. The study adopts a critical realist perspective using appropriate and differing methods of research within its overall scope. The marriage of semi-structured interviews with individuals followed by the bringing together of owner/manager groups in an appreciative inquiry environment proved to be a valuable in terms of sharing findings, creating a positive framework for discussion and achieving commitment to change. The research has developed an intervention for bigger businesses that have arms length relationships with multiple small/medium businesses and provides indications as to how the psychological contract within such relationships might be further strengthened.
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    Segmentation and customer insight in contemporary services marketing practice: why grouping customers is no longer enough
    (Westburn Publishers, 2009-04-10T00:00:00Z) Bailey, Christine R.; Baines, Paul R.; Wilson, Hugh; Clark, Moira
    The bulk of market segmentation literature has concerned the generation of segments, with far less attention on what segmentation is used for - particularly surprising given the common speculations that the role of segmentation is changing due to CRM practices and the wider range of forms of customer insight which they enable. We explore market segmentation in the services and product-service systems context through twenty-five interviews in five UK-based companies, highlighting practical considerations in implementing market segmentation programs (see Young, Ott and Feigin 1978, for a similar early approach). Within this case set, market segmentation, using a variety of segmentation bases, is still regarded as essential for customer selection, proposition development and mass communication. Addressable and interactive communications with individual customers, though, are increasingly based on individualised customer analytics and propensity modelling, which aid the determination of the likelihood of uptake of specific propositions. Events and triggers informing companies of how to deal with customers individually are also considered to be particularly effective rather than simple allocation of the customer to a particular characteristic segment. Implications for theory and practice in market segmentation are outlined and further research is called for to explore this important area further.