Executive Summary
Suppliers recognize the importance of after-sales service but, in general, tend to provide it when customers contact them with problems or requests for information. This is in sharp contrast to the concept of proactive postsales service (PPS), which refers to suppliers taking the initiative to contact customers to provide PPS. The benefits of PPS include faster delivery of higher service quality to a broader cross-section of customers than customer-initiated postsales service. On the basis of nine focus group interviews with 94 managers in business-to-business and business-to-consumer settings, this research identifies three main forms of PPS: (1) proactive prevention, in which a supplier proactively averts a product-related problem; (2) proactive education, in which a supplier proactively helps customers derive more value from a product; and (3) proactive feedback seeking, in which a supplier proactively solicits customer feedback on a product. Proactive postsales service leads to favorable customer-level outcomes (e.g., customer satisfaction) and supplier-level outcomes (e.g., greater innovativeness and new product success rate) in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer settings. The authors propose that the value of PPS varies depending on the stage of the life cycle of the product involved, the frequency with which the product is transacted with customers, and the product’s network externality. In addition, the value of PPS varies depending on a customer’s usage intensity, openness to experience, and market mavenism. Some of the key challenges with PPS pertain to implementation issues, such as privacy intrusion, expectation escalation, user identification, and contact routinization. If neglected, these issues can result in PPS leading to negative rather than positive outcomes. The authors develop guidelines for addressing these challenges and implementing PPS effectively in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts.
Biography
Goutam Challagalla is Brady Family Associate Professor of Marketing in the College of Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also serves as the area coordinator for marketing. He has worked as principal at Monitor Executive Development, the learning and development unit of The Monitor Group. He served clients in the agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, semiconductor, consumer packaged goods, and chemicals industries. His research focuses on customer service, sales teams, sales management, controls, influence, and market power. His research has been published in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is a recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation Award at the University of Texas at Austin and the E. Roe Stamps Excellence in Teaching Award at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Challagalla’s MBA is from Arizona State University and his PhD is from the University of Texas at Austin.
R. Venkatesh is Associate Professor of Marketing in the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz School of Business. His research interests include pricing, product bundling, cobranding, e-commerce, and sales force management. His articles on these topics have appeared or are forthcoming in Journal of Business, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, and Marketing Science. Venkatesh serves on Journal of Marketing’s editorial review board. He has a PhD in Marketing from the University of Texas at Austin, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a B.Engg (honors) from the University of Madras.
Ajay K. Kohli is Gary T. and Elizabeth R. Jones Chair in Marketing in the College of Management at Georgia Institute of Technology. He has previously taught at Emory University, Harvard Business School, and the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Kohli has worked for more than six years in sales and distribution management and in marketing strategy consulting. He has led numerous executive education seminars in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Kohli’s research focuses on market orientation, customer solutions, market signaling, customer relationships, sales management, brand management, and organizational buying. He is the recipient of the Alpha Kappa Psi Award and the inaugural Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award. He is among the 100 most-cited authors in business and economics combined. Two of his articles are among the ten most-cited Journal of Marketing articles in a quarter century. He is also the recipient of the Jack G. Taylor Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Kohli’s undergraduate degree is in Electrical Engineering from IIT–Kharagpur, his PGDM (MBA) is from IIM–Calcutta, and his PhD is from the University of Pittsburgh.
Journal of Marketing, Volume 73, Number 2, March 2009
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