Delivering Loyalty Via Customer Experience Management at DHL Freight

Abstract

The Strathprints institutional repository (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) is a digital archive of University of Strathclyde research outputs. It has been developed to disseminate open access research outputs, expose data about those outputs, and enable the management and persistent access to Strathclyde's intellectual output. [Text begins here]The importance of customer experience management (CEM) as a source of competitive advantage has been well documented in many service industries, including retailing, public transportation, hospitality and vehicle repair (Verhoef et al., 2009;Rawson, 2013;Clatworthy, 2012;Johnston and Kong, 2011;Wilson et al., 2012). In the road freight market, however, there are a multitude of companies competing with limited differentiation, resulting in an extreme 2 focus on price. Success and failure are often determined by the ability of the road freight operator to manage costs. These companies, therefore, tend to be very operationally driven, with the customer relationship frequently reduced to that of a simple discussion on price versus service delivery standards.Logistics is a highly complex undertaking. The process of comparing offers, making bookings, preparing shipments, and getting goods to their recipients at the right time is a daunting task, even for the most sophisticated and experienced shippers. Using a customer-focused approach to make this end-to-end journey simple and effective should significantly improve customers'positive perceptions of their road freight operators and engender loyalty to those that can consistently deliver not only their freight, but also a positive business experience.[H1] Customer Experience Management Defined Walter et al. (2010) defined customer experience as the customer's direct and indirect exposure to the service process, including the organization, its facilities, and interactions with the service firm's representatives and other customers. This focus on experience and interaction is also emphasised by Biedenbach and Marell (2010) who define customer experience as being the result of the customer's interpretation of his or her total interaction with the supplier and the perceived value of each encounter. Managing these interactions end-to-end over the telephone, online, in the depot, and with truck drivers to provide a seamless and consistent experience is the ultimate objective of customer experience management in the road freight industry.3 Rawson et al. (2013) discuss managing the whole customer journey from the initial inquiry to the final billing for the service. This means analyzing the various steps from the customer's or shipper's viewpoint rather than from an internal operational perspective. Verhoef et al. (2009) suggest that a company needs to know what is important to customers at each stage of the process and at each -touch point‖ that they experience. Therefore, identifying the key criteria and putting in place measurement tools to assess whether these criteria are being delivered are critical to the effective management...

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Focusing on the Critical Link Between Employee Engagement and Customer Centricity at DHL Freight

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