Customer Service Essentials is a must-read and a definitive source of information on effective management of customer service in Africa and beyond. Leveraging on unique concepts and practices developed in the field of customer service management, this book uses case studies and vignettes to reinforce learnings, drawing parallels to real life experiences. The book is a valuable resource for individuals and organizations, in the quest to achieve excellent customer service, increased productivity and enhanced employee satisfaction. It explores the practical challenges of customer service in Africa, examines critical success factors and provides guidelines for effective customer engagement in this evolving highly networked digital era. Policy makers, directors, managers and students will gain valuable and actionable insights on service management as they navigate the chapters.

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.

The contribution of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is acknowledged as an influential engine to economic growth. However, the biggest challenge faced by these SMEs is the lack of competitive service offerings for their target customers due to unstandardized products and a lack of consumer engagement and strategies. Service Marketing Strategies for Small and Medium Enterprises: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference source that provides guidelines on how SMEs can achieve sustainability through positive marketing outcomes and effective customer services. Featuring research on the assessment of SMEs' customer service expectation, listening to customers through qualitative research, service quality model and its marketing implications, integrated marketing communications for SME environments, effective service encounters, and relationship developing strategies for SMEs, this publication provides new models for managers, industry professionals, academicians, and researchers.

Social technology is quickly becoming a vital tool in our personal, educational, and professional lives. Its use must be further examined in order to determine the role of social media technology in organizational settings to promote business development and growth. Social Network Analytics for Contemporary Business Organizations is a critical scholarly resource that analyzes the application of social media in business applications. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as business management, dynamic networks, and online interaction, this book is geared towards professionals, researchers, academics, students, managers, and practitioners actively involved in the business industry.

ESSENTIALS OF MARKETING RESEARCH, provides a concise, yet complete guide to the design, execution, analysis, and reporting of marketing research to support smart business decisions. This proven resource provides valuable business context while introducing both traditional research methods, such as designing questionnaires, and the latest technological advances, including current data collection devices, basic data analysis tools, practical approaches to data analytics, and the impact of social media and artifactual online data.

Recently, emerging economies have contributed significantly to world economic growth and output. The Research Handbook advances, synthesises and expands the hitherto sparse publications on marketing in emerging economies, investigating specific processes and requirements, as well as the consequences of conducting marketing in these challenging contexts. Addressing diverse issues from a universal as well as regional and country specific perspective, this book sheds light on general topics such as data collection procedures equivalence and marketing accountability as well as exploring specific contexts such as Central and Eastern Europe and India. Comparing the ways in which marketing is performed in emerging and advanced economies, the chapters explore various aspects including business-to-business marketing relationships, the role of multi-cultural markets in marketing, retail marketing of multinational corporations, corporate social responsibility and consumer loyalty. Timely and engaging, this Research Handbook will appeal to students and scholars interested in international business and marketing in emerging economies. Business practitioners, managers and policy makers working in emerging economies will also benefit from practical guidance on both improving approaches to serving customers as well as creating conducive environments for serving customers. Contributors include: M.Y. Ali, N. Ammar, M. Arslanagic-Kalajdzic, M.-L. Baron, V. Blagoev, A. Chidlow, A. Daviy, N. Dholakia, R.R. Dholakia, N. El-Bassiouny, A.R. Faroque, P. Ghauri, R. Hawash, G.N. Kfuri, Z. Krupka, S.R. Kumar, M.A. Marinov, S.T. Marinova, M. Minkov, A. Osmanova, D. Ozretic-Dosen, D.A. Petrovici, V. Rebiazina, V. Skare, M. Smirnova, C.A. Solberg, S. Sutyrin, I. Vorobieva, V.R. Wood, V. Zabkar