The Importance of Customer Engagement in Contemporary Business Environments
Customer engagement refers to the connection between the external stakeholder and the brand of a company by taking recourse to different channel of the correspondence. The connection can be in the form of a reaction, interaction consumer experience that occurs in the online and in the offline mode. It is also indicative of customer to another customer correspondence in relation to a product or a service (Hollebeek, 2015). Marketing practices help in the creation and stimulation of the customer behaviour. Customer engagement helps in targeting long-term interaction that encourages the aspect of customer loyalty. The competitive business environment of the present age necessitates that the customers are engaged at all times that can play an important role in retention of the customer. Customer engagement provides the route to that of the business objective and hence it is of crucial importance in the modern age. The act of engaging with the customers draws them closer to the brand and the organization. Customer engagement can help in representing a strategic imperative that can help in the generation of enhanced corporate performance (Lusch & Nambisan, 2015).
Dominant logic refers to the means that a company makes use of for the purpose of making a profit. It is indicative of the interpretation pertaining to the success of a company. It refers to cultural norms along with beliefs that a company has. Service dominant logic refers to the meta-theoretical framework that can help in the explanation of value creation with the help of exchange among the different actors. In the event of a service dominant logic, humans apply the competencies that helps in benefitting other people. A reciprocal relationship is created and an exchange takes place service-for-service (Suh, An & Eck, 2018). Service Dominant Logic highlights that for the creation of value it is important to increase the well-being pertaining to the service. The business and the customers engage in service exchange that is interdependent. The resource is exchanged among the various actors in the case of service dominant logic. The goods dominant logic focuses on the aspect of exchanging of the operand resources and the value becomes stated with the help of exchange. The customers in the event of goods dominant logic uses the products that are made by a business. On the other hand, in the case of a service dominant logic the customer think of the value in relation to service that is provided. In the event of goods dominant logic, economic exchange takes place by the delivery of objects that are to be sold to the customer. The production process of a company takes into cognizance the value that is put into a good that can help in providing the customers with a good experience (Jaakkola & Alexander, 2014).There is a difference between manufacturer and client in the event of goods-dominant logic and the value is created in a linear manner. In the event of goods dominant logic, the customers destroy the value and they should return to the supplier so that they have access to that of further value. In the event of service dominant logic the exchanges are on the basis of service and the goods act as service delivery vehicle. Value is created with the help of mutual effort of the companies, clients and the stakeholders but it is decided by the customer. The goods dominant logic views the clients like isolated objects and the service dominant logic views the client in relation to their own system (Hollebeek, Conduit & Brodie, 2016).The client are viewed as target in the case of goods dominant logic and the clients are viewed as resources in the event of service dominant logic. The customer brand relationship is created on the basis of price along with value in the case of goods dominant logic. Customer brand relationship is created with the help of the superiority of the service in the case of service dominant logic (Juanjuan, Wang & Liu, 2018)
Service Dominant Logic and its Perspective of Customer Engagement
Spark New Zealand refers to a telecommunication company that provides fixed line telephone service and mobile network to the different businesses in New Zealand. It has been operating like a public traded company since the year 1990 (Spark.co.nz., 2018). It is a large company on the basis of value in the New Zealand Exchange and this company forms a part of New Zealand Telecommunication Forum. The competitors of Spark New Zealand are that of 2 degrees, black and white mobile and Vodafone New Zealand. These competitors threaten the business of Spark New Zealand and the company has to innovate the services so that it can stay ahead of the competitors. The customers of Spark New Zealand are the consumer goods, financials, health care and retail companies in New Zealand.
Spark New Zealand has got access to a large amount of rich data that is envied by the other industries. The company acts as the pioneer that creates the way for the other industries. It has employed customer service of top order which is embedded within the strategic marketing that has helped it to go forward within the competitive digital climate. The rich data resources helps them in engaging with the customers in a manner that is unique. They have leveraged the customer service by adapting to the new realities that helps them in meeting the demands of the individual customer (Pansari & Kumar, 2017).The open direct line of the communication of Spark New Zealand helps in strengthening customer provider relationship. Technology helps Spark New Zealand in gaining insight into the demand of the customers (Anker et al., 2015) The customers who come near the allotted data usage are alerted with the help of text message that helps the company in the aspect of engaging with the customers. This kind of relationship with the current provider can rightly help in engaging the customers (Harmeling et al., 2017).The customers are provided with offer that they perceive to be of value that helps in the aspect engagement. Personalized solutions are provided to the clients and the customers that helps the company in the arena of customer engagement. The component manufacturers in relation to Spark New Zealand provides electrical building block for the telecommunication system. The subsystem manufacturer assemble items into that of complete network component. The network operators of Spark New Zealand manage the complete network and sell the service to the consumer that help in creating value for the company.
References:
Hollebeek, L. D. (2015). Exploring Customer Engagement: a multi-stakeholder perspective. In Customer Engagement (pp. 85-100). Routledge.
Jaakkola, E., & Alexander, M. (2014). The role of customer engagement behavior in value co-creation: a service system perspective. Journal of service research, 17(3), 247-261.
Hollebeek, L. D., Conduit, J., & Brodie, R. J. (2016). Strategic drivers, anticipated and unanticipated outcomes of customer engagement.
Pansari, A., & Kumar, V. (2017). Customer engagement: the construct, antecedents, and consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(3), 294-311.
Harmeling, C. M., Moffett, J. W., Arnold, M. J., & Carlson, B. D. (2017). Toward a theory of customer engagement marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(3), 312-335.
Lusch, R. F., & Nambisan, S. (2015). Service innovation: A service-dominant logic perspective. MIS quarterly, 39(1).
Anker, T. B., Sparks, L., Moutinho, L., & Grönroos, C. (2015). Consumer dominant value creation: A theoretical response to the recent call for a consumer dominant logic for marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 49(3/4), 532-560.
Spark.co.nz. (2018). Spark | Mobile Phones, Plans & Broadband. Retrieved from https://www.spark.co.nz/
Suh, J., An, S., & Eck, T. (2018, July). TRAVELING LIKE A LOCAL: A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT, SATISFACTION AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS OF AIRBNB USERS. In 2018 Global Marketing Conference at Tokyo (pp. 1189-1189).
Juanjuan, O., Wang, I. A., & Liu, M. T. (2018, July). CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND ITS OUTCOMES: THE ROLES OF SERVICE ENVIRONMENT AND BRAND EQUITY. In 2018 Global Marketing Conference at Tokyo (pp. 1060-1064).