Customer strategy in services industries

Abstract

Services industries are diverse, and range from the full service-only dimension through to services that support a product. In almost all cases the service involves capturing, or engaging with, the customer. A Service Value Networks (SVNs) approach offers a new way to engage with the customer. This approach moves the existing business models into the near-real-time customer tracking environment.

This paper discusses complex doorways (elucidated by a SVNs approach) through which competitive new business approaches may be better understood, and developed, in line with customer drift, and/or customer changes in sentiment. The customer decision-making process to engage in a transaction process with the business, and the specific business-customer encounter pathways that ensue, contribute to the final customer engagement decision. The 'bricks' (off-line physical) business and to 'clicks' (on-line virtual) business both fit within the SVNs approach. This approach may be applied to tertiary institutions and student monitoring.