The Customer Activity Cycle and Its Benefits for Vekoma
The customer activity cycle is a ‘business to business’ (B2B) structure that significantly aid business in shaping its prospect while also keeping cost down and saving time (Seyedghorban, Matanda and LaPlaca 2016). It maps the entire cycle from consumers perception to purchasing to disposal to assist comprehend customer value. The organization requires communicating with consumers to comprehend their desires and wants and the similar should be done in a cooperatively advantageous approach. This cycle is the most important method in accomplishing the advantage in most efficient way (Song 2019). In the case of Vekoma, the only client is the theme park and the children, families, and riders are the clients of the theme park. The real need of roller coasters will be established with the theme park’s customers which is children and families. The theme parks would gather feedback from these consumers and send them on to project manager of Vekoma to construct personalised roller coasters based on their needs. Vandermerwe introduced customer activity cycle that is in fact the customer centred approach intended for assisting the businesses to perform more determined according to customer’s needs (B2B frameworks 2022). In order to pride quality to customers, Vandermerwe recognized 3 main phases such that the company could identify what they want from their sources. The initial phase begins with the explanation of the issue to be resolved that is the demand from customers of theme park for the roller coaster.
First and foremost, for Vekoma must ensure the manufacturing of the roller coasters and moreover require innovative and creative products to improve the experience of roller coaster. Furthermore, they could implement consumer relationship management through building a close and stable relation with the theme parks that add to the benefits for Vekoma of recognizing the trend and the altering mentality of their business clients (B2B frameworks 2022). Therefore, they could begin with product innovation as per the recognized need, for example, innovative roller coasters with added sound, images, laser projections and so on. Further, they could provide tender the theme parks in order to practise their innovative purchasing and bargaining procedure. Vekoma could also provide satisfaction to the clients by delivering routine maintenance and refurbishing activities to inspect for technical faults and quality, as well as identifying any potential issues or dangers. Lastly, Vekoma may offer safety and time assured installation and deliveries.
The method of gathering thorough data and information about the business to increase the profitability and performance and to improve sales of the business is called business research. These data significantly assist the company to identify whichever service or product will be more beneficial and will be in demand from the clients (Bell 2022). To rephrase it, the business research involves gaining of knowledge and information for commercial and professional reason in contemplation of identifying objectives and opportunities of the company. In regard of business study of Vekoma, the company will research concerning the need of the customers which is different theme parks. However, as shown in the current research, theme park research will not alleviate the actual business problem since theme park demand will be developed when visitors and actual riders will give an idea about their dissatisfaction.
Implementing a Customer-Centric Approach through Product Innovation and Maintenance
Generally, there are two different kinds of research that is utilises by companies which is quantitative and qualitative approach. The qualitative data involves focus groups and interviews; however this approach is labour intensive as well as time consuming. In addition, this approach will unable to serve a large portion of the visitors to theme parks. While quantitative approach gathers information and data which involves mathematical and statistical methods. This approach generally begins with data gathering and the proceeding to statistical analysis using different ways. Here, the participant will input their comments in quantitative manner, allowing a more accurate statistical analysis to be undertaken. Moreover this approach is relatively less time consuming and a large portion of the visitors to theme parks could be served under this approach (Hair, Page and Brunsveld 2019).
Since Vekoma is assumed to investigate theme parks because they are their primary business customers, a qualitative research approach involving an interview process could be utilised to better comprehend their requirements. Vekoma’s team could interview technical teams and owners of various theme parks. The sales team of Vekoma can interview owners and technical teams of different theme parks. Business research could be performed for everything and anything as the reason of the study is to understand that where the company must invest funds to boost market share, profit and sales. In terms of business decision making, business research is critical for the company (Quinlan et al. 2019).
Vekoma produces whole structure to function roller coaster; however there are certain non-strategic parts that are outsourced. Vekoma’s procuring of non-strategic products defines the B2B buying situation. The buying situation involves 3 ways that are new task, modified rebuy and straight rebuy (Steward et al. 2019). The first buying situation is the new task. This is when the company intends to procure the product for the initial time. Vekoma require making thorough examination of the product offered by the new vendor because there is a threat of cost and value exist in this situation. Next method is the modified rebuy. In this method, the purchaser will want to order again after making changes in products’ cost, design or other features (Marvasti et al. 2021). The purchase agent will be included in this method because the purchase agent from Vekoma will bargain and complete the purchase if the organisation is designing personalised roller coasters for which conventional products might not be appropriate. The last method, the straight rebuy is the when a company orders again without any alteration. In this case, Vekoma might place order non-strategic products without any alteration because these products are generally standardised and alike in every company.
As concerned with the individuals participate in the decision making unit or the buying centre of theme park, there are various people engaged in the buying process. They are:
|
People Involved |
Role |
Motive |
|
Directors or Owner |
They are the decider in the buying process, since they suggest need of procuring new product. In addition they also has the authority decide where to procure, how to procure, what to procure, or moreover, whether to procure or not (Sin?i? ?ori? 2021). |
Their motive is to new and innovative roller coaster to entice customers in to the theme park. |
|
Technical Personnel |
The role of the technical personnel is to offer his / her technical recommendations regarding quality of the roller coaster |
Their motive is to assure safety and reliability of the roller coaster. |
|
Creative Designer |
The role of a creative designer is to pay interest on personalisation and customisation of the roller coaster so that it could satisfy their particular requirements. |
The motive of creative designer is to design and innovate the product. |
|
Finance Officer |
Their role is to set a budget for the procurement of the roller coaster. |
Their motive is to see whether the roller coaster is profitable and valuable, and he is also concerned with the financial consequences of the acquisition to the business. |
|
Purchasing Officer |
The role is to assess the suppliers, demands propositions, adjusts bargaining, and maintains good supplier relations. They collect and filter data and information concerning the suppliers and their products (Kalinowska 2016). |
Their motive is checking the standardisation of purchased products and mechanisms. |
Vekoma has different kinds of B2B customers; therefore they require offering various alternatives for varied customers. For instance, some large customers like theme park, who frequently seeks the formation of a new item to allure more customers, they must customise to satisfy their particular demands, and establish attractive and special roller coasters in varied theme parks (Kasiri et al. 2017). While certain small parks little space and resources for coasters and their customers might not have special or elevated demands; therefore they are incline towards standardised coasters depending on the relation among value and price. Next, the production of standardised roller coasters is done on an assembly line that assures value and has low cost of production, accomplishing the general demand of customers, however their selling cost is comparatively less because there is no added value to the coasters. Conversely, the production process and personalised design are more expensive and complicated those coasters raises the value and the costs, carrying different competitiveness to B2B clients (Gremyr, Valtakoski and Witell 2019). This is the reason Vekoma requires to strive for both customization and standardisation to raise the profitability for the organization by meeting the needs of all types of clients, be it small parks or theme parks.
References
B2B frameworks, 2022. Customer Activity Cycle. [online] b2bframeworks.com. Available at: <https://www.b2bframeworks.com/customer-activity-cycle> [Accessed 8 March 2022].
Bell, E., 2022. Business research methods. Oxford university press.
Gremyr, I., Valtakoski, A. and Witell, L., 2019. Two routes of service modularization: advancing standardization and customization. Journal of Services Marketing.
Hair, J.F., Page, M. and Brunsveld, N., 2019. Essentials of business research methods. Routledge.
Kalinowska, A., 2016. Analysis and assessment of roles In B2B buying in the retailing industry and the creation of an adequate value proposition for In&Out products in collaboration with Daymon Worldwide (Doctoral dissertation).
Kasiri, L.A., Cheng, K.T.G., Sambasivan, M. and Sidin, S.M., 2017. Integration of standardization and customization: Impact on service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 35, pp.91-97.
Marvasti, N.B., Huhtala, J.P., Yousefi, Z.R., Vaniala, I., Upreti, B., Malo, P., Kaski, S. and Tikkanen, H., 2021. Is this company a lead customer? Estimating stages of B2B buying journey. Industrial Marketing Management, 97, pp.126-133.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., 2019. Business research methods. South Western Cengage.
Seyedghorban, Z., Matanda, M.J. and LaPlaca, P., 2016. Advancing theory and knowledge in the business-to-business branding literature. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), pp.2664-2677.
Sin?i? ?ori?, D., 2021. Factors Influencing Organisational Buying Decisions in the Manufacturing Industry: Are Products and Services Procurement Different?. Zagreb International Review of Economics & Business, 24(1), pp.99-111.
Song, W., 2019. Customization-oriented design of product-service system (pp. 1-19). Singapore: Springer.
Steward, M.D., Narus, J.A., Roehm, M.L. and Ritz, W., 2019. From transactions to journeys and beyond: The evolution of B2B buying process modeling. Industrial Marketing Management, 83, pp.288-300.
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