Analyzing the Powerful Impact of Touchpoints in a B2B Context: An Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to shed more light on service touchpoints in a business-to-business environment, a relevant topic in the marketing literature. Since the vast majority of the work in this area has focused on B2C service touchpoints, this study represents a starting point for research in B2B settings. To date, little is known about the topic and the current state of the literature lacks a clear representation of the B2B service touchpoints and their role in determining essential customer perceptions and outcomes over time. Specifically, this paper proposes a chain of effects path, taking into consideration provider touchpoints, customer perceptions and customer outcomes.

A panel dataset is used to test the proposed framework. Data is obtained from B2B insurance services and contains a sample of more than 2,000 companies from 2013 to 2017. The results of the study confirm there are specific touchpoints that positively influence customer’s perception with the provider and the service, which in turn have a positive effect on profitability, cross-buy and relationship strength. Study results demonstrate the importance of the sales force in B2B relationships, along with the relevance of firm expertise, service excellence and service reliability as drivers of profitability, cross-buy and relationship strength.

This paper provides empirical evidence on the role of touchpoints and customer perceptions on determining customer outcomes over time. Given its longitudinal approach, this investigation provides strong empirical evidence of the influence of touchpoints and customer perceptions on the outcomes of the interactions from one period of time to another. This is a vital issue for marketers, as firms gain a better understanding of company-customer interactions and the extent to which different factors impact decisive customer outcomes in a B2B context. As a result, these findings help broaden the narrow understanding the literature has about the topic and provide valuable implications for practitioners for a better allocation of resource when designing service touchpoints.

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The authors appreciate the financial support received from the projects ECO2017-83993-P (MICINN, FEDER), SS54_17R (Gobierno de Aragón and Fondo Social Europeo), and the grant “Ayuda para contratos predoctorales para la formación de doctores, del Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades” (PRE2018-085652) assigned to Andreea Trifu.