Relative importance of service value by customer relationship stages

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically sketch the phenomenon about the nature of service value expected in different stages of relationship over time in Indian retail banking context. Design/methodology/approach Customer service value dimensions pertinent to Indian retail banking context were explored psychometrically. Later, mean factor scores of obtained service value dimensions across relationship stages (early, intermediate, and advanced) were calculated and fed into PERMAP software to graphically depict the relationship between value dimensions and relationship stages. To validate the PERMAP solution, one-way ANOVA was run for each value dimension with independent variable as a relationship level. Findings The service value dimensions pertinent to Indian banking context are customer intimacy, product leadership, service equity, perceived sacrifice, service quality, and operational excellence. The authors could empirically prove that except for operational excellence and service quality, all the other value dimensions exhibited variation in importance over time. Results reveal that customers in the early stages of relationship value tangible value dimensions and the ones in advanced stages of relationship value intangible dimensions. Practical implications Managers should formulate marketing strategies which will signal the customers, the superiority of the bank in delivering performance on tangible dimensions during the early stages of relationship, whereas understanding and addressing unique customer needs and establishing an emotional bonding with customers should be emphasized in the advanced stages of relationship. Originality/value The current research could adequately establish the essential role of tangible value dimensions in shaping service value during the early stages of relationship and intangible value dimensions in the later stages of relationship.

How customer orientation leads to customer satisfaction

“…Although it is pointed out that the value of the financial services would be assessed based on the quality of interactions between customers and financial service workers (Ponnam and Paul, 2017), the concept of service worker etiquette has been less studied in the literature on bank marketing. Customer-oriented selling pursues a good buyerseller relationship (Frambach et al, 2016), and etiquette is important for building the relationship (Post, 2007).…”

Developing a service value measurement scale in retail banking services

“…The concept of "value" in general has emerged as a buzzword of the day across academic, business, and political circles (Padilla et al, 2017;Ponnam and Paul, 2017). Value represents a consumer's overall evaluation of efficacy of a product or service in terms of perceived gains against costs of acquisition of the product or service (Zeithaml, 1988).…”

“…Marketing researchers' interests in the topic stem from the fact that customers' perceived value is widely recognized as an important determinant of marketing strategies and tactics as well as of consumers' behavioral intentions (Vera and Trujillo, 2013). The value literature has evolved over time from perceived value being considered as an uni-dimensional construct (Zeithaml, 1988;Dodds et al, 1991;Bolton andDrew, 1991 Sweeney et al, 1999;Agarwal and Teas, 2001) to a much complex multidimensional abstraction Ponnam and Paul, 2017). However, researchers often argue that a universal conceptualization of customer perceived value is difficult to attain.…”

Impact of employee job satisfaction and commitment on customer perceived value

“…Respecting costs and sacrifices, topical literature would appear to converge towards three important constituents: monetary costs (derived from price), relationship costs (associated with psychological stress or conflictual partner relations - Smith and Colgate, 2007), and time, effort and energy (a source of personal investment - Smith and Colgate, 2007). There exists less of a consensus respecting the dimensions linked to benefits but studies do generally include a few or a combination of the following: functional (derived from the perceived quality of a product or service and the latter's anticipated utilitarian performance), emotional (derived from affective states or arousal of feelings), epistemic (derived from arousal of curiosity, novelty, desire for knowledge), relationship (derived from links and networks, personal interaction, solidarity with and trust in partners/suppliers) and social (derived from enhancing social self-concept and image, status, esteem, sense of belonging) (Sheth et al, 1991;Sweeney and Soutar, 2001;Smith and Colgate, 2007;Sánchez-Fernandez et al, 2009;Ponnam and Paul, 2017). The ethical dimension, which has garnered a lesser degree of attention (Varshneya et al, 2017) and been only sparingly applied to the banking sector (Medberg and Heinonen, 2014), represents another interesting facet of value to consider.…”