Hotel and Restaurant Management Research free essay sample

An executive sum m ary for m anagers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article Customer satisfaction measurement in a business-to-business context: a conceptual framework Jeanne Rossomme Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration, University of Miami, Florida, USA Keywords Customer satisfaction, Business-to-business marketing, Industrial marketing, Relationship marketing, Organizational behaviour, Market research Abstract In practice, firms measure customer satisfaction using models and theory developed for evaluating the perceptions of individual consumers rather than entire organizations. This paper develops an integrated model of customer satisfaction measurement specific to a business-to-business context and addresses the unique challenges inherent in this context by incorporating learnings from the fields of customer satisfaction, organizational buying behavior and relationship marketing. After presenting the model and its rationale, the paper illustrates practical uses of the model as a managerial tool for framing a system of customer satisfaction measurement. Introduction Customer satisfaction measurement (CSM) is the principal tool by which marketers assess the health of their relationships with their customers. We will write a custom essay sample on Hotel and Restaurant Management Research or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Extensive research has been dedicated to this topic in leading marketing journals over the past decade. Relatively few of these articles, however, have addressed customer satisfaction in a business-to-business context. Academic researchers have noted a predominant focus on consumer measurements with near complete disregard for customer satisfaction research between businesses (Morris and Davis, 1992; Moore and Schlegelmilch, 1994; Swan and Trawick, 1993; Swan et al. 1995; Patterson et al. , 1997; Homburg and Rudolph, 2001). In addition to the psychographic complexities of measuring the satisfaction of individuals, industrial companies also need to wrestle with the added complexities of multiple respondents, complex product/service attributes and a diverse customer base. The challenges facing marketers in this area, therefore, need to be more fully understood and efficiently addressed. Knowledge base Fortunately, the context of business-to-business relationships also has a rich knowl edge base. Beginning in the 1950s many researchers and practitioners saw the need to create and confirm models of organizational buying behavior as distinct from consumer purchasing behavior. This research created an overall framework to explain how organizational buying occurs, who is involved in the buying process, and what environmental, organizational, The author would like to express her gratitude to Jim Gouveia, Betsy Balderston, Dr Julie Lee, Dr Arun Sharma, the editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. The author also extends special thanks to Dr A. Measures for satisfaction elements Each customer role may incorporate different variables in framing their overall satisfaction judgements. The final step is to develop measures for the satisfaction elements that can be combined in a survey instrument appropriate to each identified key client. Supplier management can look at quantitatively aggregate results for user and buyer groups to gain insights into key strengths and weaknesses within their post-sales service and support and customer service and supply chain.