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Customer Value Management

Prof. Gian Luca Marzocchi

CONTACT INFORMATION
Lead Instructor: Gian Luca Marzocchi
Affiliation: Department of Management, University of Bologna – Via Capo di Lucca, 34 – 40126 Bologna
E-Mail Address: gianluca.marzocchi@unibo.it
Office Hours: Wednesday 15.00-17.00 (check personal website - see below - for any changes)
Phone number: +39 051 2098084
Website: http://www.unibo.it/docenti/gianluca.marzocchi (italian version)
http://www.unibo.it/faculty/gianluca.marzocchi (english version)

COURSE OVERVIEW
Teaching Hours: 30

Course Content: In mature and highly competitive markets the concept of customer satisfaction as a
fundamental precursor of loyalty, profitability and customer value plays a central role in the implementation of
successful business models. While finding new customers is vital, it is important to realize that retaining current
customers is much less expensive than to finding new customers. It is therefore no surprise that a great deal of
attention has been recently brought to the issue of designing and establishing formal systems able to bring the
“voice of the customer” into the business/marketing decision-making processes. The purpose of the course is to
make participants understand and appreciate the relative strengths and weaknesses of a variety of customer
value and customer satisfaction measurement approaches and instruments available today. A key element in this
process is measuring customer satisfaction through market research. As such, the course will focus on the
understanding and the actual implementation of the customer satisfaction measurement practices currently
employed in business environment. The links existing between Customer Satisfaction scores, Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) instruments and Customer Profitability results will be explored in depth, in order
to create an understanding of how companies, service organizations and retail banks translate CS measurement
in actual commercial strategies and decisions.

Teaching Method(s): The course teaching method includes cases and extensive use of project works to allow
participants to apply to real settings the concepts and techniques that have been analysed during the course.

Course Objective: At the end of this course participants will be able to:
• Understand the meaning of (and the relations between) customer satisfaction, CRM and loyalty
• Evaluate the main techniques available to measure customer satisfaction
• Design customer satisfaction measurement processes
• Recognize how customer satisfaction impacts profitability
• Identify the main issues involved in customer satisfaction management

COURSE MATERIALS

Pre-class Required reading materials: see details below

Required Readings (for the course): see details below

Supplementary Readings (suggested): see details below

COURSE EVALUATION

Marks are intended on a numerical grade scale (0 to 30), being 18 to 30 the passing grade range. As for the
grading policy, the course evaluation is made of: 60% group assignments (10% first assignment; 20% second
assignment; 30% third assignment), and 40% final individual examination.
Group assignment’s grade will be subjected to peer evaluation by other group members: the peer evaluations can
have a maximum potential influence of ±15% on the original group grade of each individual.

GUEST LECTURERS

Andrea Marcantonio, Network development and CRM analysis - Ducati Motor Holding
Giorgio Ballotta, Senior Partner, Banking and Insurance Practice, Achieve Italia – Miller Heiman Group
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GENERAL PLAN OF CLASS MEETINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Week 1. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Customer relationship management (CRM) – Measuring CLV
Week 2. Measuring CLV (cont'd) - Measuring Customer Satisfaction: theory and methods. Designing and
implementing a CS survey.
Week 3. Designing and implementing a CS survey (cont'd)
Week 4. Measuring Customer Satisfaction: the Trim Grid approach.
Week 5. The Trim Grid at Work: cases and examples – CS project presentations

WEEK 1: CLASS MEETING 1 & 2


th
Wednesday, September 20 , 09.00 – 12.00
nd
Friday, September 22 , 09.00 – 12.00

Course introduction. The key role of relationships. Customer relationship management (CRM) as evolution of the
marketing concept. From transaction to relationship, from mass marketing to customer marketing, from market
share to customer share. CRM and Customer satisfaction. Customer Lifetime Value as key indicator of customer
profitability. Measuring Customer Lifetime Value.

Required Readings:
Ÿ Wirtz J., Chen P., Lovelock C., “Managing Relationships and Building Loyalty”, Ch. 12, from: Essentials of
Service Marketing, Pearson, 2012.
Ÿ Buttle F., Maklan S., “Understanding Relationships”, Ch. 2, from: Customer Relationship Management,
Routledge, 2015.
Ÿ Gupta S., Lehmann D.R., “Customer as Assets”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 2003
Ÿ Reinartz W.J. and V. Kumar, “The Mismanagement of Customer Loyalty”, Harvard Business Review, 2002
Ÿ CLV and CRM Powerpoint slides

Supplementary Readings (for those interested in further investigations: material not required for final
examination)
Ÿ Reinartz W.J. and V. Kumar, “On the Profitability of Long-Life Customers in a Non-contractual Setting: An
Empirical Investigation and Implications for Marketing”, Journal of Marketing, 2000.
Ÿ Payne A., Frow P., “A Strategic Framework for Customer Relationship Management”, Journal of Marketing,
2005

WEEK 2: CLASS MEETING 3


th
Monday, September 25 , 09.00 – 12.00

Measuring Customer Lifetime Value (cont'd). CLV and word of mouth: the value of referrals.
Presentation and discussion of the group project work CLV.

Pre-class Required Reading materials:


Ÿ Fader P., Hardie B.G.S., “Reconciling and Clarifying CLV Formulas”, Unpublished teaching note:
http://brucehardie.com/notes/024/, 2012.

Supplementary Readings (for those interested in further investigations: material not required for final
examination)
Ÿ Trusov M., Bodapati A.V., Bucklin R.E., “Determining Influential Users in Internet Social Networks”, Journal of
Marketing, 2010

WEEK 2: CLASS MEETING 4 & 5


th
Wednesday, September 27 , 09.00 – 12.00
th
Friday, September 29 , 09.00 – 12.00

Measuring Customer Satisfaction: theory and methods. Overall CS and key satisfaction drivers. Importance/
performance grid. Stated-importance versus derived importance scores. Analytical models of CS. Designing and
implementing a customer satisfaction survey.

Group Project work (pre-class)


Ÿ Measuring Customer Lifetime Value: an application (assignment submission deadline: Tuesday, September
th
26 , 23.00)

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Pre-class Required Reading materials:
Ÿ Martilla, James, "Importance-performance analysis", Journal of Marketing, 1977
Ÿ Herald, W., “Action Priority (Quad) Charts Point the Way to Focused Action”, CustomerSat Newsletter, 2008

Required Readings:
Ÿ Crompton J., Duray N., "An investigation of the relative efficacy of four alternative approaches ..", Academy of
Marketing Science Journal, 1985
Ÿ Peterson R.A., Wilson W.R., “Measuring Customer satisfaction: Fact and Artifact”, Journal of Marketing, 1992
Ÿ David M., “Derived Importance vs. Stated Importance”, CustomerSat Newsletter, 2006
Ÿ Correlation Powerpoint slides

WEEK 3: CLASS MEETING 6 & 7


nd
Monday, October 2 , 09.00 – 12.00
rd
Tuesday, October 3 , 08.00 – 11.00

Guest lecture: CRM and CS: lessons from the field, Andrea Marcantonio, Network development and CRM
analysis, Ducati Motor Holding.
Presentation and discussion of the group project work Alma Hotel.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction thru a (very) popular technique: the Tri*m Grid approach. The Tri*m index. The
structure of the Tri*m matrix. The relevant dimensions: stated importance of the attributes, derived importance
(impact on retention), relative performance of the attributes. Building and using the matrix.

Pre-class Required Reading materials:


Ÿ Johnson M.D., Gustaffson A., Improving Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty and Profit, Jossey-Bass, 2000, Ch.
3, 4.
Ÿ Matzler et al., "Importance-performance analysis revisited", Service Industry Journal, 2003
Ÿ Jarvis I., “The beginning of TRIM”, (from Margit Huber, Susanne O’Gorman, eds., From Customer Retention
to a Holistic Stakeholder Management System) Sperling, 2008

Required Readings:
Ÿ Trim Application: the City of Edinburgh Trim Grid
Ÿ Trim Powerpoint slides

Supplementary Readings (for those interested in further investigations: material not required for final
examination)
Ÿ Taylor Powell E. “Questionnaire Design: asking questions with a purpose”, University of Wisconsin, 1998

WEEK 4: CLASS MEETING 8 & 9


th
Wednesday, October 11 , 09.00 – 12.00
th
Friday, October 13 , 09.00 – 12.00

Guest lecture: Managing Customer Value, Giorgio Ballotta, Senior Partner, Banking and Insurance Practice,
Achieve Italia – Miller Heiman Group
The Tri*m Grid approach (cont’d).
Trim Grid: The Trim Grid at Work: cases and examples.

Group Project work (pre-class)


Ÿ Measuring customer satisfaction: the Alma Hotel project (assignment submission deadline: Monday, October
th
9 , 23.00)

Required Readings:
Ÿ Oliver, Customer satisfaction, McGraw Hill, 1997, Ch. 2
Ÿ Trim Application: the City of Edinburgh Trim Grid (continued)
Ÿ Trim Powerpoint slides (continued)

Supplementary Readings (for those interested in further investigations: material not required for final
examination)
Ÿ C. Orsingher, G.L. Marzocchi, S. Valentini, “Consumer (goal) satisfaction: A means-ends chain approach”,
Psychology and Marketing, 2011, 28
Ÿ Pizzi G., Marzocchi G.L., Orsingher C., Zammit A., “The Temporal Construal of Customer Satisfaction”,
Journal of Service Research, 2015

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WEEK 5: CLASS MEETING 10
th
Wednesday, October 20 , 09.00 – 12.00

Presentation and discussion of the CS Tri*m survey project work.

Group Project work (pre-class)


Ÿ Measuring customer satisfaction in a real setting: CS Tri*m survey project work (assignment submission
th
deadline: Thursday, October 19 , 23.00)

FINAL EXAMINATION
th
Wednesday, October 27 , 10.00 – 12.00

The final examination will consist of open-ended questions and/or short analytical exercises concerning the topics
discussed during the course.

DISCLAIMER

The information contained in this syllabus may be subject to moderate changes. The course instructor will
communicate any modifications to students.

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