For years, classical marketing concepts have been providing concepts and methods that help companies to better align their own product and service offerings with the needs of their customers. However, experience and business practice show that the classical approaches of CRM are only partially focused on the perception of the service by the customer. As a result, a new management approach has developed that focuses on the holistic customer experience from the customer's perspective: Customer Experience Management (CEM). Since CEM has been the subject of current discussion in science and requires interdisciplinary thinking, it is still a research strand in the early stages of development. In this context, the chair DLM investigates dominant determinants of customer experience as well as the design of employee-customer interactions with the goal of positively influencing the overall customer experience.

Topic-related publications:

• Wünderlich, N. / Hogreve, J. (2019): Configuring Customer Touchpoints: A Fuzzy-Set Analysis of Service Encounter Satisfaction, in: Journal of Service Management Research, Jg. 3, Nr. 1, 3-11.

• Mandl, L. / Hogreve, J. (2020): Buffering Effects of Brand Community Identification in Service Failures: The Role of Customer Citizenship Behaviors, in: Journal of Business Research, 107. Jg., S. 130-137.

The internal and external service quality has been discussed for many years in science and practice as a central variable for the success of service companies. At the center of the discussion is the connection between the quality of the services offered by a service company and the desired economic success. In this context, the Chair of Business Administration and Service Management investigates the chain of effects of the service profit chain and researches how internal company processes such as changes in working conditions, job requirements or employee rewards affect external service quality and long-term company success.

Topic-related publications:

• Hogreve, J. / Iseke, A. / Derfuss, K. / Eller, T. F. (2017): The Service Profit Chain: A Meta-Analytic Test of a Comprehensive Theoretical Framework, in: Journal of Marketing, Jg. 81, Nr. 3, 41-61.

         - 2017 AMA SERVSIG Best Service Article Award
         - 2017 Shelby D. Hunt/Harold H. Maynard Award Finalist

As human beings and consumers, we spend much of our time on a range of services (e.g. education, finance or healthcare) that affect almost every aspect of our lives. The constant connection and use of services and their impact on our lives goes far beyond issues related to traditional service-dependent measures such as service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. "Transformative Service Research" is a new research direction within service research, and is still in its infancy. Within this framework, the Chair of Business Administration and Service Management investigates the influence of transformative services on the individual well-being of an individual as well as the interactions on well-being within groups such as families, communities or society.

Topic-related publications

• Wünderlich, N. V. / Hogreve J. / Chowdhury I. N. / Fleischer H. / Mousavi S. / Rötzmeier-Keuper J. / Sousa R. (2020): Overcoming vulnerability: Channel design strategies to alleviate vulnerability perceptions in customer journeys, in: Journal of Business Research, Jg. 116, S. 377-386.

• Brüggen, E. C. / Hogreve, J. / Holmlund, M. / Kabadayi, S. / Löfgren, M. (2017): Financial well-being: a conceptualization and research agenda, in: Journal of Business Research, Vol. 79, 228-237.

Recovery Management (Recovery: "Recovery") deals with the restoration of customer satisfaction and customer relations after product or service failures. Recovery Management goes beyond pure complaint management. It is not only reactive but also proactive and optimally takes into account all phases of the service provision process. Recovery Management thus enables the provider company to recognize product or service errors early on, to handle them effectively and to eliminate them effectively. The Chair of ABWL and Service Management focuses on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of complaint management. On the one hand, it analyzes which strategies companies should implement and redesign in order to reduce the costs of complaint management. On the other hand, new questions arise regarding the adequate corporate response to complaints in order to elicit beneficial customer reactions.

Topic-related publications:

• Hogreve, J. / Bilstein, N. / Hörner, K. (2019): Service Recovery on Stage: Effects of Social Media Recovery on Virtually Present Others, in: Journal of Service Research, Jg. 22, Nr. 4, S. 421-439.
• Hogreve, J. / Bilstein, N. / Mandl, L. (2017): Unveiling the Recovery Time Zone of Tolerance: When Time Matters in Service Recovery, in: Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Jg. 45, Nr. 6, 866-883.

In order to increase the profitability and value creation potential of existing or new service processes, the Chair of Business Administration and Service Management is investigating possibilities for optimizing customer integration processes. This involves not only the analysis of company-customer contact points and customer-oriented quality management, but also the investigation of innovative customer integration concepts with regard to customer-customer interactions, co-production and social dynamics within communities.

Topic-related publications:

• Benoit, S. / Hogreve, J. / Sichtmann, C. / Bilstein, N. (2019): Profesionalism Kills the Trading Star: Explaining Member Participation in Trading Communities, in: Journal of Service Management Research, forthcoming.

• Benoit (née Moeller), S. / Bilstein, N. / Hogreve, J. / Sichtmann, Ch. (2016): Explaining Social Exchanges in Information-Based Online Communities (IBOCs), in: Journal of Service Management, Jg. 27, Nr. 4, 460-480.

In recent years, many industrial companies have found that it is not so much the technical superiority of their products that determines their market success, but rather the range of services they offer. In this context, the Chair of ABWL and Service Management investigates the effects of industrial services and solutions on the turnover and profit of B2B companies. In addition, the effective design and communication of customer-oriented value propositions and their influence on the sales success of industrial services and solutions, as well as the formation of long-term customer relationships, are researched.

Topic-related publications:

• Eggert, A. / Hogreve, J. / Ulaga, U. / Münkhoff, E. (2014): Revenue and Profit Implications of Industrial Service Strategies, in: Journal of Service Research, Jg. 17, Nr. 1, 23-39.

• Hogreve, J. / Velleuer, M. (2015): Industrial Service Networks erfolgreich steuern, in: Schmalenbachs Zeitschrift für betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung, Jg. 69, Sonderheft 15,  35-59.