Customer solutions in the capital goods industry: Examining the impact of the buying center

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• 作者：Alke T&#xf6 ; llner ; ^a ; ^{alke.toellner@tu-dortmund.de" rel="nofollow} ; Markus Blut¹ ; ^a ; ^{markus.blut@tu-dortmund.de" rel="nofollow} ; Hartmut H. Holzmü ; ller² ; ^a ; ^{hartmut.holzmueller@tu-dortmund.de" rel="nofollow} [Author vitae]
• 关键词：Customer solutions ; Buying center ; In-depth interviews
• 刊名：Industrial Marketing Management
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：July 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：40
• 期：5
• 页码：712-722
• 全文大小：409 K

文摘

Based on in-depth interviews with customers, this study explores the customers' view of relevant solution criteria in the capital goods industry. Our research examines (1) whether the initial four-process conceptualization of customer solutions also holds for this industry, or whether it has to be extended and (2) which criteria of the customer solution matter the most for each member of the buying center. This study reveals that customers purchasing solutions in the capital goods industry expect the provider to be excellent in terms of six customer/supplier relational processes, namely (1) customer requirements definition, (2) customization and integration of goods and/or services, (3) their deployment, (4) post-deployment support, (5) signaling activities, and (6) inter-process management. Moreover, we found that the relevance of these processes differs across the most important members of the buying center (users, buyers, and deciders) due to their specific organizational function.