Regaining a seat at the table: marketing management and the e‐service opportunity

Purpose – The study outlined in this paper seeks to deepen one's understanding of the theoretical and practical implications for marketing management where an internet component has been added to the business. Design/methodology/approach – Cases were developed primarily from individual in‐depth interviews with 30 managers from financial services. Findings – In setting up an e‐commerce capability the case study organizations have been taking strategic decisions on customer interaction. Aligning channels cost‐effectively with appropriate customers requires difficult decisions to be made in targeting and managing different customer segments. At the operational level many aspects of customer interaction can be handled centrally, moving the emphasis of customer management into customer service departments. Research limitations/implications – The question of how best to manage customers effectively, using e‐service in an integrated manner with other channels, can be seen to be complex and requires further research in order to extend theory in this area and give more meaningful guidance to marketing practitioners. Practical implications – The marketing function has the potential to play a prime role in ensuring that remote customer management is effective. Recommendations are made for practising managers on developing an integrated channel strategy; setting up processes for managing customer feedback from the new channels and responding to this feedback. Originality/value – E‐service is throwing up new and fundamental challenges for organizations and this potentially provides new opportunities for marketing practitioners to play a leading role at strategic and operational levels. However, in the cases marketing management's strategic and operational contribution to resolving these issues was limited.