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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. 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,
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. 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,