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Strengthening customer retention in the service sector: Can value co-creation help? : A case study

Lammerding, L.M. (2018) Strengthening customer retention in the service sector: Can value co-creation help? : A case study.

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Abstract:The goal of this research is to explore possible ways and strategies to implement co-creation in the service industry to support companies with their customer retention. Here, value co-creation process of the service dominant logic is taken into account. Thereby, actions are investigated in order to strengthen the customer retention in the service sector. The focus lies on advertising agencies which act as the service provider in this research. In order to get an overview of the theoretical principles service dominant logic and co-creation in the service sector, a structured literature review is conducted. Advertising agencies are selected as the focus is on service providers and for the case study an agency from Münster, Germany is chosen. The case study of an advertising agency from Münster is carried out not only by means of semi-structured interviews with employees, but also with clients belonging to the existing customer base of the agency. The findings reveal that in today’s business environment customer value co-creation is increasingly important. Digitalization enables easier ways of communication between service providers and their clients. Due to that, customers want the special feeling of being in good hands at any touchpoint with the company. Nevertheless, current customer relationships with existing customers lack the relevant attributes. To keep the existing customers and to maximize the loyalty towards the company, co-creation can be integrated wisely to a certain degree. From the academic perspective, this research complements existing literature on customer retention in the service sector. Even if the existing theory implies actions for integrating co-creation in the service sector, this research further presents suggestions for customer retention within advertising agencies. Moreover, the service dominant logic acts as the main pillar in order to strengthen customer satisfaction and thereby customer retention. The resulting possibilities to integrate co-creation in the customer retention progress and recommendations to strengthen the customer retention should help service companies to keep existing customers more efficiently and to redefine their customer marketing strategy. The in-depth analysis of the chosen agency provides insights on to what extent value co-creation can help in maintaining existing customers or why the co-creation process is not applicable for some customers.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/75664
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