Developing key account management practices for a case company
Hemminki, Jaakko (2018)
Hemminki, Jaakko
Satakunnan ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201901081127
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-201901081127
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this thesis was to introduce key account management practices for a case company that operates in marine and power plant industry. The case company sells auxiliary units, spare parts and maintenance services to customers that either own or participate building, operating and maintaining large ocean vessels and power plants. The size of customers ranges from large corporations to small and medium sized enterprises.
Key account management practices and customer categorization models were the main focus in the theoretical part. These were identified as parts of customer relationship management context. The theoretical framework was built so that customer categorization is a supportive function for key account management.
This thesis was conducted as a case study, using a mixed research method. The quantitative secondary data was collected from the case company enterprise resource planning system and from various other datasets that were in table form. The quantitative data was used in the questionnaire and as an attribute in the categorization models. The questionnaire was used to collect primary data from the case company managers and employees working in new sales and after sales departments. In the questionnaire, the respondents evaluated the ten most profitable customers of the case company from different perspectives, gave their opinions about key account management and selected three key accounts for the case company.
The result from the questionnaire and from the categorization showed that one customer was evaluated above others in each categorization model and selected by each respondent as a possible candidate to be a key account. In addition there were few other customers with similar potential.
The opinions about key account practices revealed that most the respondents are somewhat aware of what key account management and customer categorization mean. However few of the responses were lacking length, which made it difficult to analyze the answer. However most of the respondent made it clear that key account management would be a beneficial process for the case company and that the case company already employs people who could work as a key account manager. This with the fact that the respondents agreed on few possible key accounts, creates a base where the case company could start to plan its key account management operations.
Key account management practices and customer categorization models were the main focus in the theoretical part. These were identified as parts of customer relationship management context. The theoretical framework was built so that customer categorization is a supportive function for key account management.
This thesis was conducted as a case study, using a mixed research method. The quantitative secondary data was collected from the case company enterprise resource planning system and from various other datasets that were in table form. The quantitative data was used in the questionnaire and as an attribute in the categorization models. The questionnaire was used to collect primary data from the case company managers and employees working in new sales and after sales departments. In the questionnaire, the respondents evaluated the ten most profitable customers of the case company from different perspectives, gave their opinions about key account management and selected three key accounts for the case company.
The result from the questionnaire and from the categorization showed that one customer was evaluated above others in each categorization model and selected by each respondent as a possible candidate to be a key account. In addition there were few other customers with similar potential.
The opinions about key account practices revealed that most the respondents are somewhat aware of what key account management and customer categorization mean. However few of the responses were lacking length, which made it difficult to analyze the answer. However most of the respondent made it clear that key account management would be a beneficial process for the case company and that the case company already employs people who could work as a key account manager. This with the fact that the respondents agreed on few possible key accounts, creates a base where the case company could start to plan its key account management operations.