Customer service in industrial marketing: a comparative study

Abstract

<p>In the Spring 1974 issue of this journal, M. T. Cunningham and D. A. Roberts reported the results of a study they had conducted in the United Kingdom to identify what constitutes service as perceived by industrial buyers, and to measure the performance of suppliers of industrial raw materials against key facets of service[!]. The industrial buyers they selected for study consisted of twenty-five manufacturers of pumps and valves, and the products of interest were steel castings and forgings used in pump and valve production.</p> <p>This article reports the findings of a similar study of seventy-three manufacturers of pumps and valves conducted by the author in Canada [2]. This research was inspired by the UK study. Consequently, it was designed in such a way that the results could be compared with those in the Cunningham and Roberts report.</p> <p>The overall research question investigated is: How do Canadian pump and valve manufacturers' perceptions of customer service offered by their metals suppliers compare with the service perceptions of their UK counterparts?</p>