The use of digital channels to create customer relationships

Abstract

The interest in relationship marketing and especially relationship dynamics among academics and practitioners is growing. The focus is on expanding maintaining relationships to the whole relationship life cycle, including relationship initiation. However, research concerning relationships in a digital context or in a context where customer-company interactions occur through technology interfaces is scarce. To our knowledge there is no research on how the relationships begin in such a context. This paper explores the role of digital channels in the creation of customer relationships. Digital channels denote methods for customer-company interactions through technology interfaces such as e-mail, Short Message Service (SMS), and webpages. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted with business executives. The findings indicate that identifying relationship initiation is challenging and that the initiation differs between Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Customer (B2C) relationships. Digital and interpersonal contacts are frequently used simultaneously in creating customer relationships. Digital marketing activities such as search engine advertisements and direct e-mails are important. The paper integrates a digital perspective to relationship dynamics research. It contributes to e-service research by focusing on relationship dynamics. It also extends relationship marketing research by exploring relationship initiation.

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