This book analyzes the evolution of marketing and the ways in which marketing actions can be rendered more effective, before setting out a new approach to marketing, termed The Extra Step (TES) in recognition of the importance that it attributes to the final extra step in enhancing the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Readers will find clear description of the pathway from purchase to loyalty and the various means of developing customer loyalty. It is explained how the TES approach goes one step further by considering the consumer as a partner whose involvement during the production and fine tuning phase of products and services can help to increase the efficiency of customer loyalty actions implemented by companies. The theoretical analysis is supported by observations and empirical evidence relating to the concepts and benefits of the TES approach. These examples concern firms in Italy, Europe, and the United States, including insurance agencies, pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies, and food distribution companies. The TES approach is of wide relevance and especially valid for the service sector.

This book provides a synthesis of research perspectives on customer engagement through a collection of chapters from thought leaders. It identifies cutting-edge metrics for capturing and measuring customer engagement and highlights best practices in implementing customer engagement marketing strategies. Responding to the rapidly changing business landscape where consumers are more connected, accessible, and informed than ever before, many firms are investing in customer engagement marketing. The book will appeal to academics, practitioners, consultants, and managers looking to improve customer engagement.

"Lived Experiences of Public Consumption "brings together original research of anthropologists and sociologists whose work begins with the premise that culture and markets/commerce are inseparable. Chapters cover a range of topical areas such as authenticity in a Thai handicraft market, higgerling among women in Jamaica and global shopping in Australia. Cultures and practices from almost every continent are represented in studies addressing the ways in which the shifting landscapes of global commerce find expression in the political dynamics of marketplaces.

"Service Systems Implementation" provides the latest applications and practices aimed at improving the key performance indicators of service systems, especially those related to service quality, service productivity, regulatory compliance, and sustainable service innovation. The book presents action-oriented, application-oriented, design science-oriented (artifacts building: constructs, models, methods and instantiations) and case study-oriented research with actionable results by illustrating techniques that can be employed in large scale, real world examples. The case studies will help visualize service systems along the four key dimensions of people, information, technology and value propositions which can help enable better integration between them towards higher value propositions.

The chapters, written by leading experts in the field, examine a wide range of substantive issues and implementations related to service science in various industries. These contributions also showcase the application of an array of research methods, including surveys, experiments, design science, case studies and frameworks, providing the reader with insights and guidelines to assist in building their own service systems, and thus, moving toward a more favorable service customer and provider experience.

"Service Systems Implementation," along with its companion text, "The Science of Service Systems," is designed to present multidisciplinary and multisectoral perspectives on the nature of service systems, on research and practice in service, and on the future directions to advance service science. These two volumes compose a collection of articles from those involved in the emerging area known as service science.

Most companies treat service as a low-priority business operation, keeping it out of the spotlight until a customer complains. Then service gets to make a brief appearance -- for as long as it takes to calm the customer down and fix whatever foul-up jeopardized the relationship. In Uncommon Service, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss show how, in a volatile economy where the old rules of strategic advantage no longer hold true, service must become a competitive weapon, not a damage-control function. That means weaving service tightly into every core decision your company makes. The authors reveal a transformed view of service, presenting an operating model built on tough choices organizations must make: * How do customers define "excellence" in your offering? Is it convenience? Friendliness? Flexible choices? Price? * How will you get paid for that excellence? Will you charge customers more? Get them to handle more service tasks themselves? * How will you empower your employees to deliver excellence? What will your recruiting, selection, training, and job design practices look like? What about your organizational culture? * How will you get your customers to behave? For example, what do you need to do to get them to treat your employees with respect? Do you need to make it easier for them to use new technology? Practical and engaging, Uncommon Service makes a powerful case for a new and systematic approach to service as a means of boosting productivity, profitability, and competitive advantage.

The book addresses the concept of diversity and inclusiveness (D&I) and brings stories from the corporate, practitioners, think tanks and NGOs. It advocates the need and implementation of the D&I concept to build society of the future. It strives to bring out a focused approach in connecting "Theory to Practice". Every chapter delves into a different area and presents real-time practices as well as the challenges and the way forward. The book explains the various levels at which discrimination can occur such as demographic profiles, regional differences, religious alliances, college pedigree, marital status, sexual preferences, physical disability and health differentiation, pregnancy or returning mothers and technology competence. The book cites examples of inclusion from progressive organizations such as ABB India, Marico, TCS, PNB Metlife and Alsthom. Presenting the business case of D&I, the book emphasizes on creating a robust D&I strategy with a road map and alignment through internal and external frameworks as well as periodic audits. The Responsible, Accountable, Consultant and Informed (RACI) matrix is discussed while setting up the D&I analytics framework within the organization. The book also presents the growing role of artificial intelligence tools that can empower employees to participate in the D&I journey of an organization. It shares how tools such as Balloonr, Glint, Organization View, Planbox, Pluto and Waggl have been specially designed to allow employees to anonymously provide ideas and respond to ideas provided by others. Going forward, the D&I practices will have to be more customized than generalized, and this book brings up real evidences to make its point

This book focuses on recent developments in consumer law, specifically addressing mandatory disclosures and the topical problem of information overload. It provides a comparative analysis based on national reports from countries with common law and civil law traditions in Asia, America and Europe, and presents the reports in the form of chapters that have been drafted on the basis of a questionnaire, and which use the same structure as the questionnaire to allow them to be easily compared. The book starts with an analysis of the basic assumptions underlying the current consumer protection models and examines whether and how consumer models adapt to the new market conditions. The second part addresses the information obligations themselves, first highlighting the differences in the reported countries before narrowing the analysis down to countries with a general pre-contractual information duty, particularly the transparency requirements that often come with such a duty. The next part examines recent developments in the law on food labelling, commercial practices and unfair contract terms in order to identify whether similar traits can be found in European and non-European jurisdictions. The fourth part of the book focuses on specific information obligations in the financial services and e-commerce sectors, discussing the fact that legislators are experimenting with different forms of summary disclosures in these sectors. The final part provides a critical appraisal of the recent developments in consumer information obligations, addressing the question of whether the multiple criticisms from behavioural sciences necessitate abandonment or refinement of current consumer information models in favour of new, more adequate forms of consumer protection, and providing suggestions.

New competition, technology and economics have changed the behaviour of markets and the practice of marketing. Customers are more discerning, and demand more quality, service and choice. Established brands are under threat. New brands are tougher than ever to build. How to create business value by sustaining existing brands and building new brands is the priority of our major business leaders, the managers to whom they entrust their brands and the students who are the brand stewards of the future. In this book Stewart Pearson explains how to build your brands directly: by investing in the loyalty of your customers and explains the commercial realities behind today's marketing headlines.

This volume explores the interconnection of social, political, technological and economic challenges that impact consumer relationships, new product launches and consumer interests. Featuring contributions presented at the 2019 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) World Marketing Congress (WMC) held in Edinburgh, Scotland, the theme of this proceedings draws from the Scottish Enlightenment movement of the mid-Eighteenth Century, which centered on ideas of liberty, progress and the scientific method. The core values of this movement are being challenged by the rapidly changing, globally shifting and digitally connected world. The contributions presented in this volume reflect and reframe the roles of marketers and marketing in incorporating and advancing the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment within contemporary marketing theory and practice. Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses, and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. The series deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complementing the Academy's flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review (AMSR). Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science.

This book presents latest research on the evolution of consumer services, as these services continue to become a larger part of the economy in the world. Four core focal points lead the central message of the book: first, theconvergence of back and front offices; second, placing the client as a fundamental input of services production and delivery process, and 'industrializing'thecustomers'roletocombineefficiencyand experience; third, the constitution and role of inputs necessary for the configuration, production and delivery of the service, with the crucial roleof 'operationalizing' thecustomers' experience; and fourth, the adoption of new technologies and the appropriate transfer of manufacturing managerial practices through service industrialization.

This is a special volume of articlesbased on solid research and analysis, including conceptualization of the important issues, as well as recommendations for managers. It presents case histories and managerial practices in some key sectors, such as financial services, health care, tourism/hospitality, entertainment and media, online services and home and personal services

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Relationship management (RM) is an essential part of business, but its success as a business model can be hard to measure, with some firms embracing a model that is truly relationship-orientated, while others claim to be relationship-orientated but in fact prefer transactional short-term gain. This open access book aims to develop a mid-range theory of relationship management, examining truly relationship-orientated firms to discover not only what qualities these firms have that make them successful at the RM model, but also what benefits this model has for the firm. It addresses questions like how RM-mature companies achieve and sustain competitive advantage, and what determines the scale and scope of these firms, illustrating with case studies. This book will be of interest to scholars studying leadership and strategy, especially those interested in relationship management, business ethics and corporate social responsibility. It will also be of interest to professionals looking to develop their understanding of relationship management.

The second volume of this research monograph describes a number of applications of Artificial Intelligence in the field of Customer Relationship Management with the focus of solving customer problems. We design a system that tries to understand the customer complaint, his mood, and what can be done to resolve an issue with the product or service. To solve a customer problem efficiently, we maintain a dialogue with the customer so that the problem can be clarified and multiple ways to fix it can be sought. We introduce dialogue management based on discourse analysis: a systematic linguistic way to handle the thought process of the author of the content to be delivered. We analyze user sentiments and personal traits to tailor dialogue management to individual customers. We also design a number of dialogue scenarios for CRM with replies following certain patterns and propose virtual and social dialogues for various modalities of communication with a customer. After we learn to detect fake content, deception and hypocrisy, we examine the domain of customer complaints. We simulate mental states, attitudes and emotions of a complainant and try to predict his behavior. Having suggested graph-based formal representations of complaint scenarios, we machine-learn them to identify the best action the customer support organization can chose to retain the complainant as a customer.

This proceedings volume highlights the latest research presented at the 8th International Conference on Research on National Brand & Private Label Marketing (NB&PL2021). The topics covered include: retailing, private label portfolio and assortment management, marketing of premium store brands, using national brands to exclude (delist) and include, optimal assortment size, consumer store patronage, etc. Several contributions also focus on private label pricing and promotion, especially on the relative pricing of standard and premium private labels, and with regard to the national brands in the assortment.

1. Provides an overview of customer service principles, theories, and practices, and covers a range of classic and contemporary business theories 2. Includes case studies of business enterprises in various hospitality and service sectors including hotels, restaurants, theme parks, event management, airlines, cruises, (e-)retailers, finance 3. Suggests important considerations and design concepts for businesses to introduce technological innovations in service settings 4. Learning Objectives and Discussion Questions included in every content chapter as learning aids

A comprehensive guide to a burgeoning field, this book shows how to design and implement a future-proof post-sales service program focused on proactively addressing customers' needs in a personalized way. For too long, companies have detached from customers after the moment of purchase and done post-sales service in a way that is reactive, generic, and not scalable. Empowered by the boom in data availability and analytics, future-ready companies will offer their customers proactive personalized post-sales service and reap tangible benefits, including higher customer satisfaction and retention and less negative word of mouth - leading to increased sales and customer lifetime value. As the stories in this book demonstrate, companies like Amazon, Adobe, Garmin, and Liberty Global are leading the way, but companies do not have to be global giants to capitalize on the techniques presented in this guide. To excel at customer experience (CX) management, companies need to implement the best customer feedback and data collection and management practices, develop state-of-the-art analytical models, and have the willingness to act. This book's strong vision and actionable roadmap, illustrated with real-life success stories, make this a compelling read for CX and customer analytics leaders, practitioners, and students alike.

* Uniquely focuses on achieving customer satisfaction with the hotel and event industries, giving step-by-step practical guidance. * Integration of case studies, author voice boxes, and example forms and documents for the standardization of procedures key to achieving customer satisfaction, informed by extensive professional experience of both authors put into the context of existing theoretical frameworks. * Inclusion of underexplored areas such as employee empowerment, customer delight, over-promising, cultural implications and contractual issues in customer satisfaction.

"Using Information to Develop a Culture of Customer Centricity" sets the stage for understanding the holistic marriage of information, socialization, and process change necessary for transitioning an organization to customer centricity. The book begins with an overview list of 8-10 precepts associated with a business-focused view of the knowledge necessary for developing customer-oriented business processes that lead to excellent customer experiences resulting in increased revenues. Each chapter delves into each precept in more detail.

In this book the author brings together distinctive and cutting edge work based upon her own research and work with leading companies in the overlapping areas of strategy, marketing and innovation to provide a new and dynamic model to implement customer focus in enterprises. In an environment of falling margins the model shows how to increase value to customers and improve business results.

Dr. Rich has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, & FOX "The Smile Prescription" isn't just a book to read, it's a Smile Prescription to take and master. Real science, true stories, and fun exercises create lasting results. "The Smile Prescription" teaches you how to live a happier, healthier, and more abundant life. "Create more smiles in your life and your relationships NOW with 'The Smile Prescription'." --- Larry Benet, The Connector, Forbes 25 Professional networking Experts to Watch "Dr. Rich is the original "Smile Dr." and I recommend 'The Smile Prescription' to anyone who wants to grow professionally or personally." --- Scott Hallman, Two-Time Inc. 500 Founder & CEO and World's Leading Business Coach Rich Castellano, MD, The Smile Dr. is a double board certified facial plastic surgeon, bestselling author, scientist, and busy speaker. He is an expert on how to change the facial appearance, and also on how our facial appearance changes us. You must hear what the latest science and research shows about your greatest asset and resource, your SMILE!

Most people fail to see the correlation between "business" and "brains." For Yitzchok Saftlas, master of marketing, it seems readily transparent. During our challenging economic times, when people desperately seek to recharge themselves on various planes, Saftlas presents us with So, What's the Bottom Line? taken from his real-life experiences and knowledge from a two and a half decade career as founder and president of his own marketing consulting company, Bottom Line Marketing Group. Perfect for executives, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and marketers in the corporate and nonprofit spheres, So, What's the Bottom Line? teaches key business fundamentals, such as creative marketing initiatives, effective communication, customer retention, and strategic planning and execution. The stories, examples, and practical insight demonstrate the principles and practices leading to winning results and how to think like a savvy individual prepared for success. Ideas such as how you gain by thanking your customers and making your clients' priorities yours may seem basic. Others, such as learning from Rufus the Dog or gaining insight into the value of performing market research and demographic studies from your local dry cleaners, may not be as obvious. Wise and to the point, each of the 76 short and motivational chapters includes a concise action step, providing a clear direction of how to succeed. Prepare to be enthralled as you uncover Saftlas's acumen derived from his exposure to extraordinary people, events, and institutions. It will shed an often unseen human light on the field of marketing. Gain experience-based tactics, common-sense ideas, and principles to grow your bottom line.

Discover the secrets of world-class leadership

When it comes to refined service and exquisite hospitality, one name stands high above the rest: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. With ceaseless attention to every luxurious detail, the company has set the bar for creating memorable customer experiences in world-class settings. Now, for the first time, the leadership secrets behind the company's extraordinary success are revealed.

"The New Gold Standard" takes you on an exclusive tour behind the scenes of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. Granted unprecedented access to the company's executives, staff, and its award-winning Leadership Center training facilities, bestselling author Joseph Michelli explored every level of leadership within the organization. He emerged with the key principles leaders at any company can use to provide a customer experience unlike any other, such as: Understanding the ever-evolving needs of customers Empowering employees by treating them with the utmost respect Anticipating customers' unexpressed needs and concerns Developing and conducting an unsurpassed training regimen

Sharing engaging stories from the company's employees--from the corporate office and hotels around the globe--Michelli describes the innovative methods the company uses to create peerless guest experiences and explains how it constantly hones and improves them.

"The New Gold Standard" weaves practical how-to advice, proven leadership tools, and the wisdom of experts to help you create and embed superior customer-service principles, processes, and practices in your own organization."