یک چارچوب تعامل مشتری برای یک بستر B2B A customer engagement framework for a B2B context

Introduction Customers are the most important asset for any firm; therefore, customer management research has evolved that displays its significant impact on the marketing discipline (Verhoef et al., 2010). There is a growing emphasis on customer centricity being considered as a critical issue for both academic researchers and marketing practitioners due to the shift to customer-centric measures to evaluate effectiveness of marketing actions (Rust el.2004; Javornik & Mandelli, 2012: Pansari & Kumar, 2017). The relationship marketing literature, especially in the B2B field, first considered customer relationships as strategic assets of the firm (Hogan et al.,2002). Buyers want to cut choices by engaging in an ongoing relationship with marketers that is identifiable and properly differentiates based on perceptions of their supplier’s treatment (Low & Johnston, 2006). The change from a product-centric to customer-centric focus in the business literature has been a subject of debate and research for more than a decade (Bompolis & Boutsouki, 2014). And the firm’s goals have changed over time from customer transaction-based viewpoints into relationship marketing and now to engaging customers by all possible means (Pansari & Kumar, 2017). Recent developments in marketing and service research emphasize the blurring boundaries between firms and customers. The concept of customer engagement aggregates the multiple ways customer behaviors beyond transactions may influence the firm (Jaakkola & Alexander, 2014). According to a Gallup study conducted in 2016, only 29% of B2B customers are engaged, while the remaining 71% were described as either indifferent or disengaged. A review of the existing literature on both customer engagement and customer equity provides insights into the reasons these concepts are crucial. Traditionally, both the need to better understand customer behavior and the interest of managers focused on achieving long-term profits changed how marketers viewed the world (Winer, 2001). Therefore, strong, enduring business relationships build on factors that buyers can rely on to develop with vendors to allow customers to make decisions, save their energy and time for other activities, and acknowledge feelings of familiarity, personal recognition, and social support (Low & Johnston, 2006). More recently, businesses today face difficult challenges that make customer engagement more important than ever due to the severe competition that is required to achieve high engagement levels (Roberts & Alpert, 2010). Besides, engaged customers become partners who act as a team with sellers in the value-adding process to better satisfy their needs as well as the needs of other customers (Sashi, 2012). Nevertheless, we found limited empirical support for a direct relationship between engagement and typical customer attitudes and behaviors (Mollen & Wilson, 2010). Engagement may also be considered as a behavioral indicator toward the brand or company that goes beyond transactions (Verhoef et al., 2010).