اثرات خدمات مشتری، نام تجاری و قیمت بر ارزش بوجود آمده بواسطه خدمات تلفن های محلی

This study investigates the effects of customer service quality (in installation, repair, and billing), brand-advertising expenditures, and real price competitiveness (RPC, price competitiveness adjusted for consumer confidence in the economy) on customer value among residential local telephone customers. Aggregate monthly data (over a 29-month period) for a company offering local telephone service are analyzed using hierarchical Prais–Winsten AR1 regression techniques incorporating appropriate lagged values of the predictors. Each of the predictors, interpreted on the margin, significantly impact perceptions of customer value relative to the company's telephone service. Principles of incidence and centrality as related to the analysis of incidence-based vs. general population measures are introduced. Theoretical and practical implications for the study and management of customer value are discussed.

Accentuating the impact of the Bell breakup in the early 1980s, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has opened the door to deregulated competition. These changes in conjunction with increasing customer expectations and demands are impacting telephony services such as long-distance, wireless, and Internet, but also local telephone service. The formerly monopolistic local service industry is a fruitful testing ground for perspectives that have been developed in large measure on product data in more static industries. Along these lines, this manuscript investigates drivers of customer value among local telephone customers, identifies important principles governing the analysis of incidence-based vs. general population measures, introduces the concept of real price competitiveness (RPC), and assesses managerial implications for service firms over time.

Among its contributions, this study: (a) introduces the principles of incidence and centrality in time-series analysis; and (b) validates the impact of service quality, brand advertising, and perceptions of price on customer value. The principles of incidence and centrality must be considered when incidence-based measures are used to predict a general population attribute, such as customer value. In the current study, billing is the most central of the processes with a considerable incidence (approximately 13% monthly). Thus, it has the largest total impact, greatest precision, and longest lasting effect. Ultimately, installation, with lower centrality and higher incidence (approximately 13% monthly), has the lowest total impact though its precision is greater than repair (which has higher centrality but much lower incidence). In the current study, touching up to one-third of the population in a given month, the three processes can have dramatic impact on the CVI compounded by customer, corporate, and/or media communications. In sum, this speaks to the importance of incidence and centrality as well as communication in the management of service quality and customer value. Validating the general premise of Zeithaml's (1988) value model, this study produces a parsimonious fit based on three constructs (service quality, advertising, and pricing) suggesting that the key determinants of customer value for services over time may be less than her full model. This study clearly supports the effect of Bitner's (1990) encounter/transaction satisfaction on customer value being heavily influenced by interaction quality (aligning closely with Zeithaml's five intrinsic dimensions of reliability, empathy, assurance, responsiveness, and tangibles), resource allocation, and outcome. From this perspective, service quality is important to customer value for two reasons. First, customers seek to advance their self-interest in service exchanges (e.g., getting a problem resolved). This self-oriented evaluation of value (Holbrook, 1994) implies that good service quality goes with good products/services (Leung et al., 1998). Consequently, if a customer encounters a helpful and sincere problem resolution process (reflecting reliability, empathy, assurance, responsiveness and tangible commitments, effective resource allocation, and a productive outcome), he/she will tend to form favorable impressions of the service. Secondly, customers are impacted by the values manifested by the procedures and interpersonal interactions during the service encounter Lind and Tyler, 1988 and Leung et al., 1998. This other-oriented valuation looks beyond the self (Holbrook, 1994) and assesses the basis and appropriateness of the values emanating from the process. Ultimately, the level of reliability, empathy, assurance, responsiveness, and tangible commitments of the interaction; resource allocation; and outcome of the customer service encounter will reflect the social standing of the customer (Leung et al., 1998). When customers perceive themselves of lower social status as an outcome of a transaction, they will attribute negative traits to the organization and its products/services. This study supports the positive relationship between brand-advertising expenditures and customer value aligning with Nelson, 1970 and Nelson, 1975 position on product quality. As an extrinsic market signal of value, increased exposure to brand advertising (made possible through increased expenditures) facilitates consumer understanding of a company's value proposition. Thus, operating through search attributes, perceptions of value improve as expenditures increase, having profound implications for market share (Gale, 1994). The results of this study also suggest that, while there may be an immediate impact, 4 weeks of brand-advertising exposure is sufficient to positively impact customer value. Further, RPC (compared to NPC) is a significant predictor of customer value. When consumers spend more as a result of confidence in the economy (Bram and Ludvigson, 1998), price satisfaction ratings are made with reference to many potential purchases, and valuations become stricter. The end result supports a positive relationship between price and value, but not Archibald et al.'s (1983) contention that price and advertising have equal impact. The impact of RPC was sixth of seven in terms of importance (β=.24). Several potential reasons exist for this. First, the equation is based on value and not tangible product quality. Secondly, the value/quality/price relationship may be less substantial for services than products for two reasons. Services have higher proportions of credence attributes than products (which are the most difficult to evaluate), and consumer information is typically more widely available for products than for services resulting in less-informed service consumers Salop and Stiglitz, 1977 and Steenkamp and Hoffman, 1994. Finally, previous research did not consider the impact of consumer confidence on price perceptions. In all, the results of this study can be generalized to other industries. The importance of customer service quality applies to all types of companies, but particularly to former monopolies, such as electricity, posed for entry into a competitive marketplace. The managerial takeaway of this study is that it takes a balanced and holistic approach to the management of customer value. Customer service quality is a must for the management of customer value, but brand advertising and competitive pricing, especially in increasingly competitive markets, cannot be discounted.