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COVID-19 and On-Site Customer-to-Customer Interactions: Opportunities and Challenges for Organizations in Times of Spatial Distance and Social Closeness

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Soziale Themen in Unternehmens- und Wirtschaftskommunikation

Part of the book series: Europäische Kulturen in der Wirtschaftskommunikation ((EKW,volume 35))

Abstract

Customers do not always attribute responsibility for negative interactions with other customers to the customer causing them but to the organization itself. Consequently, organizations should pay attention to customer-to-customer interactions and even use them to support favorable outcomes for both customers and organizations. From a marketing perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have had substantial impacts on these interactions as it demands spatial distance and social closeness between individuals. This article promotes an understanding of customer-to-customer interactions by considering on-site interactions and their significance against the background of the pandemic by use of the Kano model on a conceptual basis and from a holistic point of view. This article not only shows that during the pandemic, organizations may have been able to facilitate the creation of functional, affective, social, and network value by focusing on on-site customer-to-customer interactions but also that challenges may have arisen, such as the striking need for employee training, customer education, or customer segmentation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insb. Marketing, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    Henrietta Leonie Pilny

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Germanistik, Universität Åbo Akademi, Turku, Finland

    Christopher M. Schmidt

  2. Institut für Romanistik/Geisteswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Graz, Österreich

    Sabine Heinemann

  3. Studiengang Technikjournal/ Technik-PR, Technische Hochschule Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Deutschland

    Volker Markus Banholzer

  4. Institut für Kommunikation und Kultur Fachbereich Deutsch / Wirtschaftskommunikation, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Martin Nielsen

  5. Wirtschaftswissenschaften; Betriebswirtschaftslehre, insb. Marketing, TU Dresden, Dresden, Deutschland

    Florian U. Siems

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Pilny, H.L. (2023). COVID-19 and On-Site Customer-to-Customer Interactions: Opportunities and Challenges for Organizations in Times of Spatial Distance and Social Closeness. In: Schmidt, C.M., Heinemann, S., Banholzer, V.M., Nielsen, M., Siems, F.U. (eds) Soziale Themen in Unternehmens- und Wirtschaftskommunikation. Europäische Kulturen in der Wirtschaftskommunikation, vol 35. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40705-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-40705-6_10

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