Is there more to it than posting a status update?

More documents

Recommendations

Info

For an organization, applying RM means they could obtain a loyal clientele, who will choose the organization over others, if they feel it’s worth trusting and offers good quality. Museums need to raise the amount of visitors (e.g. Burton & Scott, 2003; Museo 2000, 1999, 47) and this can be done either by attracting new customers, or making the existing customers come again, in other words creating long-term relationships with loyal customers (Passebois & Aurier 2004; Gilmore 2003, 83). As services are intangible, service providers need credibility in the eyes of the customer in order for the customer to trust the organization. This level of trust can only be created through a relationship (Bendapudi & Berry 1997), it does not happen on its own no matter how satisfied the customer would be with a singular encounter with the organization. Berry (1995) lists three things for an organization to prove their trustworthiness: 1) regular and open two-way communication with the clientele 2) guaranteeing the service, giving the customers the possibility of invoking the guarantee in case the service doesn’t measure up to the expectations, and 3) a higher standard of conduct, meaning that what is required of them by law is not enough, but an organization would need to be fair in all aspects of its operations. Once the trust and the relationship have been built, an organization has, not only an active clientele, but also a competitive edge against others offering similar services; as relationships are something that can not be animated or duplicated by competitors. (Roberts, Varki & Brodie, 2003). Benefit 2) Social aspects of the relationship The variables affecting customer receptivity to relationship maintenance include expertise, social bonding and relationship specific investments. Expertise here refers to that of the customer’s; it helps a customer separate expert service providers from the others. Social bonding is further divided in two: intra- and extra-roles. The intra-role social interactions are mediate encounters, and for example giveaway items. The extra-role, then again, is social interaction that happens outside the “professional” relationship, for example meeting the organization staff members in other settings such as hobbies. Social bonding is important in the creation and maintenance of a relationship, as most relationships are based on series of decisions made by emotional grounds (Fournier, 1998). Social bonding may increase the (positive) dependence of the customer to the service provider, as it increases the uniqueness of the relationship, making it more difficult to change the provider. Also, social bonding enhances the feelings of trust, as personal encounters are involved. (Bendapudi & Berry 1997, 31
25). When the clientele of an organization is motivated and committed to an organization, they are also more likely to engage in positive WOM (Roberts et al., 2003). Social bonding means rather the same thing as the feeling of belonging. People like to feel they belong to a certain group or social setting. It increases their feelings of trust of comfort. Some museums have created “friend schemes” in order to make their customers feel they belong to some social setting that has to do with the museum. Not all museums, however, have these schemes. Again, social media can provide some answers. In the online environment, people are forming “tribes” and communities to communicate with like-minded people. Some communities are built and maintained by the customers themselves, and some are supported by the organization in question. These groups are affiliated with enthusiasm and knowledge about a specific consumption activity or group of activities. (Kozinets, 2006). Benefit 3) Financial gain for both parties For an organization RM needs to be affordable and practical, but maintaining individual relationships to every customer sounds quite the opposite. Nevertheless, the benefits of RM for an organization mostly have to do with financial arguments, as it is more cost-effective to keep the existing customers than to acquire new ones (Bendapudi & Berry, 1997; Berry, 1995; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990). Also, loyal customers, who use the services provided numerous times, bring an organization a steady flow of revenue for multiple years, instead of occasional income from single purchases. (Berry, 1995). For a cultural organization, such as a museum, most revenue from visitors will be distributed unevenly in the budget period accumulating into holiday seasons. Regular visits from loyal customers are important in spreading the demand throughout the year. (Passebois & Aurier, 2004). Also, there is indirect financial gain for an organization from sustaining relationships with their customers: customers are less sensitive to pricing if they already have co-created the relationship with a service provider (Roberts et al., 2003; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990). This means that a customer is less likely to switch to another provider, even if they would offer the same service for a smaller price, because the customer is already accustomed to dealing with the service provider in question. It is far less expensive to maintain a relationship with a customer, than it is to build a new relationship (Bendapudi & Berry, 1997; Berry, 1995; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990). Naturally 32
Page 1 and 2: Is there more to it than posting a
Page 3 and 4: Tiivistelmä Tämä tutkimus osalli
Page 5 and 6: 5 FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH ........
Page 7 and 8: 1 INTRODUCTION “Winning and keepi
Page 9 and 10: museums, are expected to outperform
Page 11 and 12: 1.1 Research questions and structur
Page 13 and 14: & Levy (1969) defined it, it is jus
Page 15 and 16: profit, and governmental. Each of t
Page 17 and 18: and the consumer of a service are t
Page 19 and 20: 3 THEORY: RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CUS
Page 21 and 22: 3.2.1 A mindset for customer relati
Page 23 and 24: depends on the customer and industr
Page 25 and 26: to understand in service organizati
Page 27 and 28: fact that a service is created at t
Page 29 and 30: RM, however, is not a new phenomeno
Page 31: step to creating a relationship. Wi
Page 35 and 36: all problems, for example, also in
Page 37 and 38: Traditionally customers have seen t
Page 39 and 40: entire process of co-creation of va
Page 41 and 42: messages received by the customers
Page 43 and 44: confused with the technology behind
Page 45 and 46: engage with the organization in soc
Page 47 and 48: media in an organization, and thus
Page 49 and 50: 3.5.1 Social media applications Soc
Page 51 and 52: & Leighton 2011). Kozinets et al. (
Page 53 and 54: approximately 30 percent of the use
Page 55 and 56: developed for the function of filte
Page 57 and 58: important, what will it give to the
Page 59 and 60: 4 METHODOLOGY In order to find out
Page 61 and 62: interviews, instead of unstructured
Page 63 and 64: The methods used for data collectio
Page 65 and 66: with regard to the number of organi
Page 67 and 68: collections, the museums spent 2,8
Page 69 and 70: using the internet, but also they a
Page 71 and 72: Registered as a user in a social ne
Page 73 and 74: does what, at least almost on case
Page 75 and 76: wise to consider the style of writi
Page 77 and 78: there is or how to behave, or what
Page 79 and 80: Even though a few museums seemed to
Page 81 and 82: …There, in the online world a mus
Page 83 and 84:
sized museum had, not only customer
Page 85 and 86:
We don’t know whether people from
Page 87 and 88:
Yes, you could day the experience i
Page 89 and 90:
inquired on whether different conte
Page 91 and 92:
6 DISCUSSION In this chapter the fi
Page 93 and 94:
Another concern the museums pointed
Page 95 and 96:
utilization, would be clear to them
Page 97 and 98:
7 CONCLUSIONS In this chapter a dis
Page 99 and 100:
that even when people do arrive int
Page 101 and 102:
large-scale interactions with exter
Page 103 and 104:
8 REFERENCES Alasuutari, P. Laadull
Page 105 and 106:
Conway Tony & Debra Leighton. ”Co
Page 107 and 108:
Grönroos Christian. ”Service Qua
Page 109 and 110:
McDaniel Clay. ”3 Key Metrics To
Page 111 and 112:
Passebois Juliette & Philippe Aurie
Page 113 and 114:
Sorav Jain. ”40 Most Popular Soci
Page 115 and 116:
APPENDIX 1: List of Finnish art mus
show all

Is there more to it than posting a status update?

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?