An assessment of customer service in business-to-business relationships

• Published in: The Journal of services marketing Vol. 21; no. 5; pp. 313 - 325
• Main Authors: Zolkiewski, Judy, Lewis, Barbara, Yuan, Fang, Yuan, Jing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Santa Barbara Emerald Group Publishing Limited 07.08.2007
• Subjects: Brand loyalty; Business services; Business to business commerce; Customer feedback; Customer satisfaction; Customer services; Impact analysis; Marketing; Perceptions; Profitability; Quality control; Quality of service; Retention; Studies; United Kingdom > UK; Business-to-business marketing; Customer service management; Customer services quality
• ISSN: 0887-6045; 2054-1651
• DOI: 10.1108/08876040710773624

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of customer service service quality in business-to-business contexts.Design methodology approach - An in-depth case study was used to discover the perceptions of both key individuals in the supplying company and key customers.Findings - The paper shows that that customer service service quality in a business-to-business context is a complex and multifaceted issue, the different parties in a relationship have differing perceptions of what constitutes service quality and that actors from the wider network can have an impact on perceptions of service quality.Research limitations implications - This work is tentative in nature so it is not possible to generalise the findings to a wider context. However, it suggests that this area needs much more detailed and in-depth investigation.Practical implications - Managers need to be aware of the complexity of customers' service quality perceptions in a business-to-business context. They must consider dynamics, actions of other actors and how best to demonstrate their expertise and experience.Originality value - The findings of this research, although only exploratory, are significant because they are one of the few pieces of research into business-to-business service quality in which perceptions of quality from both sides of the dyad are collected and analysed.