通过顾客关系服务化来强化顾客价值过程--顾客关系时代的营销新命题

本文建立在这样一个全新的观念基础之上,即营销资源和活动必须与企业所面临的目标顾客相互一致,同时,顾客价值不是由制造商或服务提供者创造的,而是由顾客在其价值创造过程中创造的.企业的资源、流程和能力并不是企业的生产(如产品)、管理(如网站)、财务(如结算)、法律(如顾客申述的处理)及其它活动过程的结果,而应当被视为顾客价值创造过程的投入要素.因此,供应商的作用是通过向顾客提供恰当的资源要素,如产品、服务、信息、服务补救、个性化关怀等来支持顾客价值创造过程,并与顾客资源形成互动,惟此,顾客才会感知到价值被创造出来.要以此方式运营,企业必须将自己看作是服务企业,而且真正地为顾客服务.为强化顾客价值的生成,企业必须将其客户关系中的所有要素"服务化"(Servicizing),无论是与制造或服务相关的,还是管理、财务或者法律等常规活动.这些常规活动通常属于"隐性服务"(HiddenService),它们在价值创造中的潜力没有得到应有重视.相反,这些要素对顾客价值的生成过程常常起到破坏而不是支撑作用."服务化"意味着要将所有与顾客关系相关的要素,不管它们的类型和特性如何,转化为顾客价值创造过程中的投入要素.最后,本文还探讨了在顾客关系管理时代,如何配置企业营销资源及营销规划等问题.

Marketing Theses in the Age of Customer Relationships:Servicizing the Customer Relationship to Support Customers' Value Processes

The present paper is based on the notions that, first of all, marketing resources and activities have to be where the customers of a firm are, and secondly, value for customers is not created by a manufacturer or a service provider, but by the customers themselves in their value-creating processes. Instead of viewing the resources, processes and competencies of a firms as outputs of the supplier's productive (e.g., products), administrative (e.g., websites), financial (e.g., invoicing), legal (e.g., claims handling) and other processes, they should be considered inputs into customers' processes, where the goal is to support the value creation in those processes. Hence, the role of suppliers is to support customers' value creation by providing them with the right resources, such as products, services, information, service recovery, personal attention, etc. and when doing so interact with the customers' resources so that the customers perceive that value is indeed created. To be able to perform in such a way firms have to consider themselves service businesses and truly serve their customers. To support customers' value creation suppliers and service providers have to Servicize all elements in the customer relationships, regardless of whether they traditionally are considered goods-related and service-related, or considered administrative, financial or legal routines. Such routines are normally hidden services, the value-supporting potential of which never have been explored. Instead such hidden services easily become nuisances for customers and destroy rather than support customers' value creation. Serviciz ing can be defined as turning all elements in a customer relationship, regardless of their type and nature, into value-supporting inputs into the customers' processes. Finally, the consequences for marketing thought in the age of customer relationships are formulated in the form of theses on which the marketing resources of a firm are, how they should be mobilized, and how marketing planning should take place.