Development of sales service operations with the help of a service blueprint: case Ahlström Works
Sundell, Leila (2023)
2023
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023082925065
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023082925065
Tiivistelmä
The covid-19 pandemic started in 2020 and caused restrictions for gatherings yet in the first quarter of 2022. Companies were forced to create new ways of executing meetings and events and learned to operate remotely. After the restrictions were lifted, companies started slowly to organize face-to-face meetings again, but those new modes of operations partly remained. The case company of this thesis operates in hospitality business and their main target group is the business-to-business (B2B) customers. The sales team of the case company noticed indications that the buying behavior of B2B-customers might have changed after the pandemic, and possibly their activities need to be adjusted.
The theoretical framework of this thesis consists of B2B customer journey, buying behavior, and selling services to B2B-customers. These topics were connected to a service blueprint, which was created for the sales team of the case company. The research was a case study with elements of a constructive research. The objective of the study was to find out what kind of changes there were in B2B customer buying behavior and to provide development proposals for the case company’s sales team accordingly. The methods used for this study were document analysis, observation, semi-structured interviews, and benchmarking. Secondary data from case company’s reports were analyzed, and as a primary data, meeting reservations were observed during year 2022. B2B customers were then interviewed for the study, and at the end the findings were cross-checked by benchmarking other meeting venues.
The findings of the study showed that there were changes in customer behavior post pandemic. However, the interviewed customers preferred personal communication with service providers instead of online reservations. A service blueprint was created for the case company as a result of the research. This study also provided proposals for operations where the sales team of the case company could improve and update their processes, and which direction they should concentrate in marketing. The industry is changing constantly, and the service providers are expected to follow along.
The theoretical framework of this thesis consists of B2B customer journey, buying behavior, and selling services to B2B-customers. These topics were connected to a service blueprint, which was created for the sales team of the case company. The research was a case study with elements of a constructive research. The objective of the study was to find out what kind of changes there were in B2B customer buying behavior and to provide development proposals for the case company’s sales team accordingly. The methods used for this study were document analysis, observation, semi-structured interviews, and benchmarking. Secondary data from case company’s reports were analyzed, and as a primary data, meeting reservations were observed during year 2022. B2B customers were then interviewed for the study, and at the end the findings were cross-checked by benchmarking other meeting venues.
The findings of the study showed that there were changes in customer behavior post pandemic. However, the interviewed customers preferred personal communication with service providers instead of online reservations. A service blueprint was created for the case company as a result of the research. This study also provided proposals for operations where the sales team of the case company could improve and update their processes, and which direction they should concentrate in marketing. The industry is changing constantly, and the service providers are expected to follow along.