Category: Marketing Strategy

Keeping the customer dissatisfied? How businesses can recover from service failure

Strategies for recovering from service failures can have a dramatic impact on profitability, according to research conducted at the W. P. Carey School of Business. That’s because most business profit comes from keeping current customers satisfied, not from developing new accounts. So, it’s crucial that managers and executives know how to handle service failures. But in reality, many business leaders are clueless about what to do when their best efforts come up short.

A penny for your thoughts: When customers don’t complain

When it comes to consumer contentment, managers and executives should not mistake silence for satisfaction. Most unhappy customers never say a word; they just take their business elsewhere. Consumer-complaint expert Nancy Stephens, an associate professor of marketing at the W. P. Carey School of Business, urges companies to do everything possible to encourage unhappy consumers to give businesses the chance to make things right — and to keep their customers.

What’s in a name: Cardinals Stadium seeks a partner

Arizona Cardinals Stadium, a $355 million, multi-purpose, high tech athletic entertainment facility, is considered among the top ten in the world. When it officially opened on September 10 it sported all the bells and whistles, except one: a corporate name and a lucrative naming rights contract. Naming rights are key to the success of a franchise, say ASU experts, because they provide critical cash, good will and branding opportunities. Observers are wondering: are the Cardinals asking too much money (an undisclosed amount) for naming rights; are negotiations stuck on the Cardinals negative image; is the Glendale stadium too remote; or are the Cardinals just too distracted with operational issues?

Changing channels: It’s all about what clicks with customers

When Dell Computer Corp. announced in May that it is opening two retail stores, retail industry observers took note. Dell, with $56 billion in revenue this year, was a pioneer in developing the online model of retailing. Brick-and-mortar retailers have followed, creating their own online stores. So why is Dell increasingly interested in the mall? It’s an experiment to see if the company can reach a less tech-savvy segment of the market. Marketing experts at the W. P. Carey School of Business comment that Dell’s move into a traditional retail setting, like the online ventures of the storefront retailers, is an example of a company experimenting with sales channels. Adding channels helps companies target groups of consumers. What’s not clear is whether more channels increase sales.

Beauty and the sales commission: Looks can boost performance

You wouldn’t expect to see a scrawny, spectacled, beak-nosed Chippendale dancer any more than you’d expect Hooters to hire an obese waitress. But, surely, looks don’t matter for the highly educated and trained sales professionals that pharmaceutical companies send to doctors’ offices. Or do they? As it turns out, research co-authored by a W. P. Carey School marketing professor shows that looks do make a difference — even when the salesperson is selling something as serious as medication to someone as scientifically-minded as a physician.

The transformation of IBM: Rebooting from the ground up

Service technicians once were at the helm of IBM’s support process; one group handled a client’s hardware service while another fixed software bugs. Those were the dark days of the ’90s, when IBM itself was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the warranty and service departments were part of the train wreck. Today, service is a smoothly integrated part of the product life cycle, literally built in during manufacturing, automated to the point of “self-healing” and finessed by highly trained techs. It’s an example of how service innovation can help transform an organization, according to a spokesman for today’s streamlined IBM Global Services.