Managing Customer-Initiated Contacts with Manufacturers: The Impact on Share of Category Requirements and Word-of-Mouth Behavior

TLDR

Prior research assumes that customer‑initiated contact factors automatically create regularity that must be controlled. The study examines how vendor performance during a customer‑initiated contact affects customers’ share of category requirements and word‑of‑mouth. The authors model share of category requirements and word‑of‑mouth using customer characteristics, context factors, and CIC‑specific variables, and test these relationships with survey data from over 1,700 contacts across more than 60 brands. The results show that firms that adapt their processing to specific CIC types gain an advantage, and the study provides guidelines for customizing responses to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Abstract

The authors examine behavioral outcomes following a customer-initiated contact (CIC) with a manufacturer and develop a framework to explain the impact of vendor performance during a CIC on a customer's share of category requirements with a focal brand and word-of-mouth incidence following contact. The authors propose customer characteristics and context-specific factors that may relate to differences in the key characteristics of the underlying source model of share of category requirements and word of mouth. The authors then assess the overall importance of the explanatory variables in the source model and simultaneously test for systematic differences related to CIC-specific factors using survey data from more than 1700 CICs that involve more than 60 brands. A key assumption in much prior research that has examined customer–firm interactions is that CIC-specific factors, if they are included at all, create an automatic regularity that must be controlled for. The authors propose and find an additional effect. The responsiveness to factors under a firm's control varies across CICs, and therefore firms that adapt their processing have an advantage. Rather than provide a uniform response to all CICs, the authors' results offer managers several guidelines on how to customize their responses to the various CIC types and how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their firms' CIC management efforts.