Citation
Magnusson, P.R. (2005), "Fundamentals of Customer‐Focused Management: Competing through Service", International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 210-212. https://doi.org/10.1108/09564230510592324
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
The primary aim of the book is to “… get the reader to think in a certain way about the firm and the way it conducts its business – with a customer focus”. The intended audience is professionals who would like to get a comprehensive feel of the customer focused perspective. The book is also intended for use in executive seminars and graduate school programs.
As indicated by the title the book is about customer focus which John defines as (p. 12):
A form of culture in a firm that directs all processes and activities of the firm toward providing superior value to the customer so as to sustain long‐term profits.
The book's core message is that successful firms are customer‐focused, resulting in a persistent delivery of customer value. Products quickly tend to become commodities. However, services can be used to differentiate even commoditized products hence enhancing the delivered customer value; “service orientation” is thus the second key concept of the book.
The book contains twelve chapters which are structured into six parts:
- 1.
Introduction and Overview,
- 2.
Understanding Customer Value and Service Orientation,
- 3.
Managing Customer Information,
- 4.
Creating and Delivering Superior Customer Value,
- 5.
Managing Customer Relationships, and
- 6.
Ensuring Customer‐Focused Culture.
As the author points out, the ideas of the book are not new and not necessarily his own. Nevertheless, the book synthesizes much of the last decays of service management research and puts it into a business context. It represents the modern way of looking at products as an integrated combination of (physical) goods and services. It is the total package of services and goods that decides whether the company succeeds in bringing customer value. John contends that it is the service part that really makes the difference in competitive advantage. He particularly discusses how modern IT can be utilized as means to manage the delivered customer value.
I would categorise the book as being about the fundamentals of contemporary strategic business development. John has, fortunately, avoided the trap of acting guru, claiming to provide all the ultimate solutions. It is thus not one of these “how‐to” books. I would rather say it is a “what‐to” book pointing out the essentials of managing a customer‐focused company. It is very much up to the reader to reflect upon and figure out how to utilize the presented concepts and techniques. The book provides the reader with a holistic framework of what is necessary to become customer‐focused. Looking for quick last minute fixes? Sorry, this is not the right book. The focus is instead on how to attain long‐term sustainable profitability.
What I really like about the book is that it bridges the old dichotomy between services and physical goods. John proves that the debate whether services should be marketed and managed in a different way than produced goods lacks relevance. For the customer it is the total solution, consisting of a combination of services and goods that matters. Customers buy products which by usage bring them value. To develop value‐creating solutions a company must understand both the tangible part (goods) as well as the intangible part (service) of the product. Despite having service orientation as a key concept, the book is not solely addressing service‐companies. On the contrary, the book is definitely also interesting for companies that traditionally have perceived services as being out of their scope of business. John contends that knowledge of service management, or a service orientation, is inevitably within the scope for all companies aspiring to become and stay customer‐focused. Companies where the core product is goods‐based commodities will perhaps have even more to learn from the book.
The distinction between business‐to‐business and business‐to‐consumer operations is made at some places in the book. I would have appreciated having this distinction and the differences discussed throughout the whole book; one of the few flaws I can remark on.
I think the book works excellent as a management introduction to the area for professionals. However, since the book contains a lot of references to different marketing concepts and techniques the reader ought to be familiar with at least the basics of marketing. The book should also be suitable for MBA students and undergraduate courses in marketing and management. The excellent structure of the book should make it quite easy to design a whole course around the book.
For the graduate student the book could work as an introduction to the subject. However, I think that some of the chapters would have benefited from providing more research references for this category of readers. In some chapters the vast majority of the references are to the business press. However, most of the chapters do provide even extensive research references.