IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v58y2015i1p99-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rethinking customer relationships

Author

Listed:
  • Bettencourt, Lance A.
  • Blocker, Christopher P.
  • Houston, Mark B.
  • Flint, Daniel J.

Abstract

Success in business markets demands going beyond satisfactory exchanges with customers. Conventional wisdom therefore dictates that firms must build close customer relationships. Yet, unfortunately, the meaning of a close relationship from the customer's viewpoint can get lost in translation. We find that, contrary to the widely held use of the relationship metaphor in business, customers do not actually want interpersonally meaningful relationships; in fact, these are often viewed with cynicism and are seen as a burden. Rather, customers seek value creation attuned to their particular contexts to drive instrumental objectives. This article highlights the thorny, often veiled aspects of customer relationships and re-directs attention to the essential connections that help suppliers successfully co-create value with customers.

Suggested Citation

  • Bettencourt, Lance A. & Blocker, Christopher P. & Houston, Mark B. & Flint, Daniel J., 2015. "Rethinking customer relationships," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 99-108.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:1:p:99-108
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2014.09.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681314001414
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2014.09.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sergio G. Lazzarini & Gary J. Miller & Todd R. Zenger, 2008. "Dealing with the Paradox of Embeddedness: The Role of Contracts and Trust in Facilitating Movement Out of Committed Relationships," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(5), pages 709-728, October.
    2. Thompson, Craig J & Locander, William B & Pollio, Howard R, 1989. "Putting Consumer Experience Back into Consumer Research: The Philosophy and Method of Existential-Phenomenology," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(2), pages 133-146, September.
    3. Sandy D. Jap & Erin Anderson, 2007. "Testing a Life-Cycle Theory of Cooperative Interorganizational Relationships: Movement Across Stages and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(2), pages 260-275, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dalsace, Frédéric & Jap, Sandy, 2017. "The friend or foe fallacy: Why your best customers may not need your friendship," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 483-493.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:oup:jecgeo:v:50:y:2023:i:2:p:282-302. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Jarratt, Denise & Ceric, Arnela, 2015. "The complexity of trust in business collaborations," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 2-12.
    3. Dietrich, Daniel, 2018. "Digital Brand Disruption - How Opinion Leaders Evoke Unexpected Brand Meanings," Marketing Review St.Gallen, Universität St.Gallen, Institut für Marketing und Customer Insight, vol. 35(2), pages 66-72.
    4. Zins, Andreas H. & Ponocny, Ivo, 2022. "On the importance of leisure travel for psychosocial wellbeing," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    5. Gatignon, Aline & Gatignon, Hubert, 2010. "Erin Anderson and the Path Breaking Work of TCE in New Areas of Business Research: Transaction Costs in Action," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 232-247.
    6. George Rossolatos, 2021. "So near, so far, so what is social distancing? A fundamental ontological account of a mobile place brand," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(4), pages 397-407, December.
    7. Travis Tae Oh & Michel Tuan Pham, 2022. "A Liberating-Engagement Theory of Consumer Fun [Pleasure Principles: A Review of Research on Hedonic Consumption]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 46-73.
    8. Merchant, Altaf & Rose, Gregory & Martin, Drew & Choi, Sunmee & Gour, Mohit, 2017. "Cross-cultural folk-tale-elicitation research on the perceived power, humanistic and religious symbolisms, and use of money," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 113-119.
    9. Pilar Rojas Gaviria, 2012. "Three essays on how sharing and consuming support home place reconnection in contemporary liquid times," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/209597, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    10. Compeau, Larry D. & Monroe, Kent B. & Grewal, Dhruv & Reynolds, Kristy, 2016. "Expressing and defining self and relationships through everyday shopping experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 1035-1042.
    11. Fullerton, R. A. & Punj, G., 2004. "Repercussions of promoting an ideology of consumption: consumer misbehavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(11), pages 1239-1249, November.
    12. McKeever, Edward & Jack, Sarah & Anderson, Alistair, 2015. "Embedded entrepreneurship in the creative re-construction of place," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 50-65.
    13. Gary F. Gebhardt & François A. Carrillat & Robert J. Riggle & William B. Locander, 2020. "A Market-Based Procedure for Assessing and Improving Content Validity," Customer Needs and Solutions, Springer;Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth (iSIG), vol. 7(1), pages 19-41, June.
    14. Ibarra-Cantu, Cecilia & Cheetham, Dr Fiona, 2021. "Consumer multiculturation in multicultural marketplaces: Mexican immigrants’ responses to the global consumer culture construction of Tex-Mex as Mexican food," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 70-77.
    15. Jonas Holmqvist & Luca Visconti & Christian Grönroos & Blandine Guais & Aurélie Kessous, 2020. "Understanding the value process: Value creation in a luxury service context," Post-Print hal-03511392, HAL.
    16. Mikkel Nøjgaard & Cristiano Smaniotto & Søren Askegaard & Ciprian Cimpan & Dmitry Zhilyaev & Henrik Wenzel, 2020. "How the Dead Storage of Consumer Electronics Creates Consumer Value," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-16, July.
    17. Paraskevas, Alexandros & Altinay, Levent, 2013. "Signal detection as the first line of defence in tourism crisis management," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 158-171.
    18. Hu, Xiao & Wang, Jiayi & Wu, Banggang, 2022. "Venture capital firms’ lead orientation, network position, and selection of familiar syndicate partners," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    19. Rémy Park, 2021. "Causes du comportement de consommation des citoyens nord-coréens au sein des économies capitalistes : une articulation entre idéologie et ethnie," Post-Print hal-03627814, HAL.
    20. Elad Granot, 2012. "Creative managers and managing creativity: a hermeneutic exploration," American Journal of Business, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(2), pages 161-182.
    21. Kreuzer, Maria & Cado, Vesna & Raïes, Karine, 2020. "Moments of care: How interpersonal interactions contribute to luxury experiences of healthcare consumers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 482-490.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:1:p:99-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.