The progress in the field of technology is often described as massive and its development has had a great impact on the social development (Vetenskapsrådet, 2012). As a result of the digital evolution, there has been a change in the way customer and company interact (Normann, 2011). The traditional way for players to interact with each other required an interaction human to human (ibid), a mode of interaction that now can be replaced or supplemented by todays technology and often Internet-based solutions (Salomonson et al., 2013). These technological solutions, the technical interaction, are often referred to as self-service systems. These systems enables the customer to carry out the tasks previously performed by the company (Hilton and Hughes, 2013).

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze how the mining equipment producers on a global market manage to handle the changing conditions concerning customer value. Our approach has been a comparative analysis between two different sites in order to answer the purpose. The case studies at Metso Mining have been made through interviews and visits at two geographical markets, South America and Scandinavia. The theoretical framework applied on our empirical findings is based on Blue Ocean Strategy, Customer Value and Resourced Based View. The empirical foundation is based on interviews with Metso Mining employees at Sorocaba in Brazil and Kiruna/Gällivare, Trelleborg and Staffanstorp in Sweden.

This thesis focuses on RM and customer relationships and tries to answer two research questions: how firms can retain customers and how to generate profitable customer relationships by using relationship marketing. We conducted case studies on JOB media, a company in Luleå, and Polardörren, a company in Öjebyn, Piteå. Our research has revealed that in many ways our case study companies conform in major ways to the theory in this particular area. However there are differences between how these two firms go about in regard to customer retention and establishing profitable customer relationship. We have discovered that JOB media, which is a service company is more inclined to maintaining close and long-term relationships with its customers.

The ski resort is a business unlike any other. While providing the customer with a service, it produces the service in a manner that in many respects resemble the traditional producing company. Therefore, since the challenges facing the ski resort are a mixture of what can be found in these different environments, this study aims to investigate the applicability of Lean principles in this context. With a qualitative approach based on direct observation, combined with survey data from 2819 respondents, we evaluate the expected effects on customer value of ten commonly defined Lean principles. The study finds that although Lean theory can help disseminate customers throughout the resort and provide greater transparency, the nature of the operations calls for caution.

In today?s society, there are many people who suffer from physical pains due to their work situation. To work sitting down by a desk long hours every day is quite normal but this is a problem. People that sit down and work in the same position all day long the whole week will eventually be affected by long-term work injuries.Large multinational companies around the world offer a Customer service where they serve customers who have experienced a problem with that company?s products or services.

The increased specialisation and complexity in products and services has created the need for Swedish companies to focus more on their core businesses. This has resulted in them opting to buy services and products that lie outside of their core business from consultancy businesses or other types of suppliers. When companies describe their offers in internal and external marketing it is done often in terms of company or service attributes that are not based on customer value or offered value for the customer. The reason for this is that companies have not adapted their services to the different needs of their customers. As a result of this, they run the risk of offering the same services as their competitors and communicate values that the customers either do not understand or experience as value adding. By using the theory on the data collection from the case company we have an understanding and shown how the customer values can be developed from a service company?s internal and external prerequisites and competitive advantages.

Abstract This essay is written to answer the questions of why, how and against who employees in the service sector use humour, charm and flirt in the interaction with their customers. The service management research is quite extensive, but despite this the research partly misses studies around why employees tend to act in certain ways while interacting with their customers. To understand the reasons of why they act in these particular ways, we need to know which factors that can be crucial when it comes to the employees? behaviour in these situations. By knowing the underlying reasons of using a special way to communicate with customers, it is much easier to achieve a clearer overview of the subject.

The modern beauty market is concentrated with intense competition where cosmetic brands fight to stay on top. A popular method in order to gain sales and increase margins is to influence existing customers to buy more with the use of suggestive selling. The purpose of this paper, was to further examine the different effects of suggestive selling with the use of complementary versus non- complementary goods in the form of customer satisfaction, customer view of the service encounter, as well as success in sales. In addition, the influence of the customer's purchase amount on the tendency to buy an extra product in a suggestive selling situation was examined. The study was conducted through the use of a field experiment with the support of surveys in 'The Body Shop'.

Problem formulation: What factors influence the customer?s choice of bank? How is the customer loyalty towards the customer?s current bank?Purpose: The main purpose is to see what factors are definitive to the customer?s choice of bank and how strong the customer loyalty is towards the bank. It is also interesting to see whether customers who are satisfied with their current bank may still consider switching to something else.Method: The method is both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, with main focus on a quantitative survey. The qualitative part consists of interviews with a smaller focus group to receive a deeper insight of the consumer?s thoughts regarding the main purpose and problem formulations.Conclusion: The main factor when choosing a bank is recommendations from family or friends.

Cloud Computing has taken the IT world by storm and has created new opportunities for usersto seamlessly access different services. The cloud offers a variety of different services thatsuit both large and small organizations. Cloud computing is still in development and manyorganizations are beginning to consider or have implemented a form of cloud service. Thisalso leads to a series of questions and problems, both new and old. The IT industry hashighlighted a problem in organizations confidence in cloud services, because a third party willbe handling a part of the organization that the company has previously handled themselves.This papers main focus is how to increase organizations trust in cloud service providers.

Abstract ? ?Customer relationships ? A case study on Nyby Torshälla Riding Club?Date: December 20th 2011Level: Bachelor thesis, 15 ECTSInstitution: School of Sustainable development of society and technology, Mälardalen UniversityAuthors: Linn Ericsson, Elenor Flodin, Emma Jakobsson22nd June 1987 24th April 1987 24th May 1989Title: Customer relationships ? A case study about Nyby Torshälla Riding ClubTutor: Daniel TolstoyKeywords: Relationship marketing, customer relationships, customer loyalty.Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how Nyby Torshälla Riding Club maintains their customer relationships. This is to get a deeper insight into how small service companies, in a business to consumer market on a local basis, strategically can work with their customer care.Method: The study was qualitative in its nature and was based on an inductive approach. The primary data has been collected through personal interviews and since the respondents were selected strategically, this means that a non-probability sampling was used. The secondary data that has been used for this thesis was based largely on literature, articles and the Nyby Torshälla Riding Club website.Conclusion: This study indicates how small size service companies can benefit from nurturing their customer relationships.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to clarify and analyze the servicescapes impact on brand image and customer loyalty among general dealers. The research question that we have used in the study is what characterizes the connection between the servicescape and the possibility to maintain and strengthen the customer relation among general dealers. The study is based on a qualitative approach and we have conducted eight interviews with experts and special advisers within the field. We have chosen to focus our study on the fact the market for general dealers have changed and the demands from the customers are severed throughout the years. The servicescape consists of the physical surroundings where the service is produced, examples of factors that influence the servicescape is the employees and the customers.

The purpose of this study is to develop and practically evaluate a new approach for the introduction of changes in internal and external processes in a customer front, but with the aim of maintaining or increasing customer perceived quality during insertion. A working model has been developed and is used in a qualitative research in the form of a case study carried out in a customer front, on a customer group in Telia's mobile Customer service in Sweden. There is currently little research that has studied the implementation phase.The results of the study show that the designed working model works satisfactorily, but also that it can be developed more. Employees are satisfied and the sale was a positive boost, however, declined the customer experience a little bit. Employees raises questions as leader behavior, confidence in the group ahead, everyone's different circumstances and desire for the individual choice.The biggest challenge for future leaders will be to manage and lead continuous change.

For many companies, the Internet has revolutionized the relationship they have with their customers concerning costumer service. The use of Information Technology in regard to Internet as a media has provided companies with the opportunity to build customer databases in order to target their customers individually. The airline industry was one of the first pioneers to use the full potential of Internet to improve customer relations and its profits which we aim to investigate in greater detail in our thesis.Our thesis answers the question on how Scandinavian Airlines' (SAS) Eurobonus department uses their website to create valuable and profitable relationships with SAS loyalty club members through direct marketing. In order to answer our research question, three key informants have been interviewed - each representing different sub departments at Eurobonus; service and support, IT and marketing. Our results were that the Eurobonus department use direct marketing methods by sending customized e-mail offerings to target specific customer, using their customer databases.

AbstractAttitudes towards the reference situation and the meetings between library users and librarians have become the subject of much debate in the library setting today. The aim of this two years master´s thesis has been to examine six librarian?s attitudes and apprehensions concerning the interactions between the librarian and the users in the library setting. We were also interested in knowing how a library can work to become more service oriented and customer centred. We conducted six interviews with librarians located at three different libraries in Sweden.