技术支持决定PC厂商成败
作者： NF
责任编辑： 阚智
来源： 《电脑商情报》
时间： 2003-11-05 05:26
A common assumption in the CRM industry -- that loyal customers make for successful companies -- often remains just that, an assumption. But two researchers at the University of Arkansas have linked the two. In a recent study, they found that customer loyalty has a strong impact on the financial performance of companies in the personal-computer industry.
"Everybody has a love/hate relationship with their PC," professor Rod Smith told CRMDaily.com. "And everybody gripes about technical support. But we were surprised that it impacts companies this much."
Of the four characteristics of business-process performance that directly impact customer loyalty, the quality of tech support after the sale is the most influential, Smith and colleague William Wright concluded. High-quality service differentiates the financial performance of firms and confers a substantial competitive advantage in the PC industry, said Smith.
Loyalty vs. Satisfaction
"We emphasize customer loyalty rather than customer satisfaction, since loyalty is more closely linked to the customers' intent to make subsequent purchases," explained Smith. "However, we expect that this research applies to customer satisfaction measures as well, since satisfied customers are more likely to be loyal."
Many in the customer-service field are surprised to learn that satisfaction does not necessarily correlate with a customer's probability of buying another product from the same company, Richard Feinberg, Director of Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality, told CRMDaily. In fact, the issue leads to many problems with research in the area, he explained.
Smith agreed, adding that the link between satisfaction and loyalty is closer in some industries than others, and that the matter needs more research.
Tech Support Predicts Loyalty
The researchers studied the financial performance of the top six personal-computer manufacturers in the United States from 1994 to 2002. They evaluated the interrelationship among the four product-value attributes that impact customer loyalty: brand image, vendor viability, product quality and the quality of post-sale customer support.
The researchers chose to examine the PC industry, because the product has a short economic life and the market is intensely competitive. In addition, a wide range of data is available, since the results of two different independent customer surveys are compiled and published in trade journals twice a year.
Loyalty Predicts Success
Smith and Wright compared customer-survey results with financial performance. During the study period, the six firms -- Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - news), Compaq, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL - news), Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) -- increased their market share from 50 percent to 65 percent. By controlling for differences in average product price, the researchers could test whether measures of customer loyalty explained differences in revenue growth and profitability.
Firm viability and the quality of tech support were found to have the strongest relationship with customer loyalty. In turn, customer loyalty had a substantial impact on both sales growth and return on assets, according to Smith.
In this study, customer loyalty explained as much as 20 percent of sales growth. With mean quarterly sales in excess of $6 billion, "one standard deviation increase in customer loyalty could reflect as much as $500 million in increased sales," Smith says. In addition, the researchers found that firms with high customer loyalty were able to maintain higher average price, which also contributed to sales growth.
"Everybody has a love/hate relationship with their PC," professor Rod Smith told CRMDaily.com. "And everybody gripes about technical support. But we were surprised that it impacts companies this much."
Of the four characteristics of business-process performance that directly impact customer loyalty, the quality of tech support after the sale is the most influential, Smith and colleague William Wright concluded. High-quality service differentiates the financial performance of firms and confers a substantial competitive advantage in the PC industry, said Smith.
Loyalty vs. Satisfaction
"We emphasize customer loyalty rather than customer satisfaction, since loyalty is more closely linked to the customers' intent to make subsequent purchases," explained Smith. "However, we expect that this research applies to customer satisfaction measures as well, since satisfied customers are more likely to be loyal."
Many in the customer-service field are surprised to learn that satisfaction does not necessarily correlate with a customer's probability of buying another product from the same company, Richard Feinberg, Director of Purdue University's Center for Customer Driven Quality, told CRMDaily. In fact, the issue leads to many problems with research in the area, he explained.
Smith agreed, adding that the link between satisfaction and loyalty is closer in some industries than others, and that the matter needs more research.
Tech Support Predicts Loyalty
The researchers studied the financial performance of the top six personal-computer manufacturers in the United States from 1994 to 2002. They evaluated the interrelationship among the four product-value attributes that impact customer loyalty: brand image, vendor viability, product quality and the quality of post-sale customer support.
The researchers chose to examine the PC industry, because the product has a short economic life and the market is intensely competitive. In addition, a wide range of data is available, since the results of two different independent customer surveys are compiled and published in trade journals twice a year.
Loyalty Predicts Success
Smith and Wright compared customer-survey results with financial performance. During the study period, the six firms -- Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - news), Compaq, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL - news), Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) -- increased their market share from 50 percent to 65 percent. By controlling for differences in average product price, the researchers could test whether measures of customer loyalty explained differences in revenue growth and profitability.
Firm viability and the quality of tech support were found to have the strongest relationship with customer loyalty. In turn, customer loyalty had a substantial impact on both sales growth and return on assets, according to Smith.
In this study, customer loyalty explained as much as 20 percent of sales growth. With mean quarterly sales in excess of $6 billion, "one standard deviation increase in customer loyalty could reflect as much as $500 million in increased sales," Smith says. In addition, the researchers found that firms with high customer loyalty were able to maintain higher average price, which also contributed to sales growth.
