Impact of Social Bonding on B2B Relationships

The provided assignment content consists of academic articles and online tools related to business-to-business (B2B) marketing and management. The articles explore various topics such as social bonding in B2B relationships, corporate reputation in China, integrated marketing communications, B2B buying behavior, electronic word-of-mouth, and customer satisfaction. Additionally, the articles discuss the impact of economic contractions on R&D and advertising effectiveness, innovative sustainable company management, and financial condition of construction companies before bankruptcy. The online tools provided are related to value chain proposition and customer experience management strategy.

B2B between good
company and bad
company

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................1
2. Critical analysis of Barclay Bank and Rufus Leonard in managing their customers..................1
2.1 Overview of current performance.........................................................................................1
2.2 The Value Proposition...........................................................................................................2
2.2.1 Value Proposition undertaken by Barclay Bank...........................................................2
2.2.2 Value proposition undertaken by Rufus Leonard Limited............................................3
2.3 The Customer Experience.....................................................................................................3
2.3.1 Customer Experience in Barclay Bank..........................................................................3
2.3.2 Customer Experience in Refuses Leonard....................................................................3
3. Developing a customer relationship management improvement strategy for Barclay Bank.......4
3.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................4
3.2 Use of QCI/Payne model by Barclay Bank...........................................................................5
QCI-........................................................................................................................................5
Payne model-..........................................................................................................................7
3.3 Developing a new value proposition for Barclay Bank........................................................7
3.4 Other concepts of business operations of Barclay Bank.......................................................8
3.5 Customer Experience in Barclay Bank.................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
Books and Journals...................................................................................................................12
Online........................................................................................................................................13

1. INTRODUCTION
In the present era of globalisation and hyper competition, organisations are running on
the track of achieving the leading heights of success effectively. For this all the companies
nowadays are laying its significant concern over closely accomplishing the needs and desires of
its core consumers thereby attaining the highest level of customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty.
They are constantly keeping their eyes open to gain an exotic global exposure within short span
of time. To achieve this, the corporations are focusing on engaging themselves in B2B activities
to attain the desired set of organisation's goal (Horta, Camanho and da Costa, 2012). B2B also
called as business to business model facilitates the exchange of raw materials, components and
essential parts which provides a source for additional profit through production or manufacturing
or through the final sales to its buyers. This kind of business model help the companies to
integrate their activities with other business entity to gain higher economies of scale and to beat
the tough line of core competitors in an appropriate and significant way. The recent study about
B2B marketers reveals the fact that it assist the organisation in generating lead in the vast
international economies along with developing leadership-market education in a significant way.
Also, B2B provides its customers with brand focused and premium quality products with high
profit margins to the companies (Reichheld and Markey, 2011). With this context, the present
report highlights a critical analysis of how Barclay Bank which is a bad B2B company and Rufus
Leonard, a good B2B company, have been managing their customers. Also, the report will focus
on developing an effective customer relationship management improvement strategy for the
above mentioned companies.
2. Critical analysis of Barclay Bank and Rufus Leonard in managing their
customers
2.1 Overview of current performance
Barclay Bank is a leading financial services entity headquartered in London. It is the
largest British multinational company which deals in wholesale, retail, investment banking,
wealth management, credit cards and mortgage lending. It serves approximately 48 millions
customers and has its operations in around 50 countries across the globe. The said company is
also one of the leading B2B organisation and has systematically organised its business into four
vital segments which includes Personal Banking, Wealth management, Corporate Banking and
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Investment Management (Svensson and et.al., 2012). Barclay has developed tremendous
corporate acquisitions which broadly includes London. Provincial and South Western Bank,
Mercantile Credit and the Woolwich. Currently, the company is listed on the London Stock
Exchange and is a significant part of FTSE 100Index.
The another B2B Company is Rufus Leonard Limited, which is a privately owned
organisation deals in hosting industry and website designing. It provides the companies with
B2B brands, energy suppliers, telecom, retail banking markets and children's charity. The said
organisation is headquartered in London and constitutes as one of the best and fast growing B2B
companies in UK. The company deals in providing the best customer services along with
impressive management of funds. It operates as a digital agency in a significant way. The
concerned innovative and positive brands renders creative and impressive communications to its
core high profile clients which broadly includes Bank of Scotland, British Gas and O2. Rufus
Leonard posses the strong ability to gain an exotic global exposure by combining its competitive
experience with its traditional brand developing skills (Kärkkäinen, Jussila and Väisänen, 2010).
2.2 The Value Proposition
Value Proposition refers to an innovation, feature or services which an organisation
incorporates to make its product or service attractive to its target customers. It reflects a promise
of value to be acknowledged and delivered by the companies in an appropriate and systematic
way. Considering this fact, the present report will discuss the crucial aspects of proposition
mirror adopted by Barclay Bank and Rufus Leonard Limited.
2.2.1 Value Proposition undertaken by Barclay Bank
In order to gain an understanding about what are the expectations of the customers from
the company and what are the promises being made by the Barclay Bank to attract the customers,
the company lays its significant concern over proposing an innovative and differentiated
products to attract the eyes of its potential customers thereby retaining its existing clients in a
significant and impressive way (Schakett, Gao and El-Ansary, 2011). But in the present case
scenario, Barclay bank fails to adopt such proposition which results in significant downturn of
the overall business operations. The concerned entity does not focus its attention over the capital
requirements and fails to adopt the optimal mix of capital as well as financial resources
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2.2.2 Value proposition undertaken by Rufus Leonard Limited
The concerned B2B company focuses its attention over the following value proposition
techniques-
 Getting in total compliance with the minimum regulatory capital requirements as set by
the UK FSA.
 To maintain enough capital and financial resources in order to successfully overcome the
risk appetite.
 Supporting the credit rating criteria of UK banks.
2.3 The Customer Experience
Customer experience reflects a strong interaction between a company and its consumer in
a significant way. The concerned interaction encompasses customer's awareness, attraction,
cultivation, discovery, advocacy, use and purchase of a particular service (Tools, 2016). It is a
systematic and revolutionary process that companies seeks to adopt in order to gain the highest
level of consumer's trust, loyalty, commitment and confidence towards their brand. With this
regard, the customer experiences of Barclay Bank and Refuses Leonard Limited is explained as
follows-
2.3.1 Customer Experience in Barclay Bank
Barclay Bank does not reach in attaining the level of customer satisfaction. This is due to
the fact that the company does not provide its customers with effective and knowledgable
information in an appropriate way. This results in sudden downfall of its overall business
activities (Ewing, Windisch and Newton, 2010.). Also, the company does not posses a
customized range of relationship management which negatively affects the business unit to gain
the customers' trust and loyalty. Furthermore, the wealth managers appointed in Barclay Bank
fails to give proper and appropriate information to its customers which in turn results in reducing
its clients in a significant way. All such factors makes the concerned financial entity a bad B2B
company.
2.3.2 Customer Experience in Refuses Leonard
The major reasons for being a good and one of the leading B2B company in UK is that,
Refuses Leonard lays its significant concern over providing its clients with what they want and
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not what the company have for them. It emphasises on considering the needs and requirements of
its customers and thereafter proposes a suitable investment product for them which helps them to
manage their funds. The vital activities of Refuses Leonard to gain and attract huge crowd of
audience involves the following-
 Customized focused products.
 Introducing free internet services in banking halls.
 Providing adequate and essential information to its clients in an appropriate way.
 Establishing smarter human banking services.
3. Developing a customer relationship management improvement strategy for
Barclay Bank
3.1 Introduction
With a view to develop a strong and positive customer relationship improvement
strategy, Barclay Bank is highly recommended providing its customers with suitable information
regarding to their investment decisions. It should focus on incorporating a strong customer
relationship management strategy in its workforce to overcome the major challenges which it is
facing in the vast hyper competitive environment (Kotler, 2011). Customer relationship
management (CRM), in simple terms reflects the practices, techniques, technologies and the
strategies that the organisation use in order to manage and examine the customer interactions in a
significant and appropriate way. It is considered as one of the most important tool to achieve the
organisation's success thereby building a strong and positive relationship with its target audience.
In order to incorporate a CRM improvement strategy, Barclay Bank is advised to lay its
significant concern over the following issues-
 To effectively identify the profitable prospects and customers of the company.
 To devote its maximum time in expanding the corporate relationship with its target
customers by focusing on customized service, individualised marketing, discretionary
decision making, repricing etc.
 Making friendly and positive interactions with its customers through individualization.
 To follow up in order to make sure that the customers are satisfied with the services they
availed from such company (Gligorijević and Janičić, 2011).
 To resolve the grievances of its customers in an effective and impressive way.
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Apart from this, the cited entity is also recommended to use Qci/Payne model and to
develop a new value proposition to attract huge mass of audience towards its brand.
3.2 Use of QCI/Payne model by Barclay Bank
With a view to incorporate an effective customer relationship management strategy,
Barclay Bank focuses its concern over using appropriate customer relationship management
techniques. To do this, the said firm emphasises on using QCI (Quality Competitiveness Index)
and Payne model of customer relationship management in a significant way.
QCI-
Illustration 1: QCI model
(Source : Huotari, Saraniemi and Mäläskä, 2015)
By using the above model, Barclay Bank is required to lay its concern over maintaining
effective customer proposition and measurement in order to acquire the audience satisfaction.
Also, the company should plan its business activities and provide adequate and clear picture of
the norms and policies of its organisation to its potential clients. This will allow the concerned
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entity to gain the highest level of customers trust and commitment towards its brand. By
implementing the concerned customer relationship management technique, the said firm should
focus on building such strategic measures which helps it to retain its existing customers and
attract the eyes of its new and prospective audience in an impressive way (Keshvari and et.al.,
2012). This model also assist the Barclay Bank to utilize the technologies for the overall
upliftment of its business activities.
Payne model-
This model identifies the five major process in managing customer relationship within the
workforce. By adopting this model, Barclay Bank is advised to lay its prior concern over
developing appropriate strategies along with effective value proposition. Furthermore, the said
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Illustration 2: Payne model
(Source : Hornik, J., and et.al., 2015)

financial entity is required to focus on the multichannel integration process and the performance
assessment process to gain the understanding about its customer services in a systematic and
suitable way.
3.3 Developing a new value proposition for Barclay Bank
In order to gain huge market share along with relative market growth across the globe,
the cited financial firm is highly required to propose its new value proposition in order to launch
an innovative and differentiated products to gain the customers' satisfaction. Considering this
fact, the capital management strategy of Barclay will seek to increase the value of its
shareholders by optimizing the overall mix and the level of its capital and financial resources in a
significant way (Steenkamp and Fang, 2011). The company's ability to conduct its business
operations as a financial service corporation is strongly conditional upon the adequate and
appropriate maintenance of its capital resources. Furthermore, Barclay Bank should operate its
financial activities in accordance with centralized capital management model and should lay its
significant concern over the economic and regulatory capital. Also, the said entity should
communicate to its customers the relevant information regarding their investments in an
appropriate way. This will allow the company to retain its existing clients thereby attracting new
clients towards its brans, Barclay Bank should provide its core clients with effective wealth
managers who can solve the grievances of its customers in an effective and appropriate way. All
such measures, will no doubt, help the said financial service company to make a competitive and
winning edge in the vast international economies thereby attaining a strong brand recognition in
the eyes of its core customers (Girard, 2012).
3.4 Other concepts of business operations of Barclay Bank
Besides laying its concern over developing an effective CRM and proposing a new value
proposition, Barclay Bank is also required to consider other business operations in a significant
way. The other business concepts broadly includes the following- Effective leadership- This is one of the most important aspects of conducting an effective
and successful business activities. Effective leadership acts as a backbone to the overall
organisation's activities. Failure of this, would lead the company in sudden downturn
thereby resulting its failure in the tough trading competitive environment. Therefore,
Barclay Bank should implement an effective leadership within its workforce to enhance
its productivity and performance in the vast international economies (Spicka, 2013).
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 Employment engagement techniques- Employees of the organisation plays a vital role in
achieving organisation's success. They contribute highly in the firm's profitability and
performance in the global corporate environment. It therefore, becomes mandatory for
every organisation to treat its employees as an asset for the company rather than cost.
Considering this fact, Barclay Bank should lay its significant concern over implementing
fascinating employee engagement techniques such as providing them with attractive
incentives, monetary rewards, recognition and appraisals (Kim and Baik, 2013). This will
help the firm to reduce its staff turnover and become a good B2B company in an
impressive manner.
 KAM (Key Account Management)- It is also one of the important business concept
which Barclay Bank is required to consider in its course of business operations. As per
this concept, the said entity is highly required to focus on managing its internal account
system in an effective and systematic way. This will allow the company to refer to the
issues and grievances which it is facing in the external environment and will also assist
the firm to adopt suitable techniques to overcome such problems in an appropriate and
suitable way.
3.5 Customer Experience in Barclay Bank
After implementing an effective CRM strategy and incorporating an attractive value
proposition along with considering other significant business concepts, Barclay Bank is now
recommended analysing the experiences of its core customers in a significant and appropriate
way. This reflects in analysing and examining the satisfaction level of its clients with the services
rendered by the said entity (Lord and Gupta, 2010). By monitoring the customer experience, the
company is able to gain deep knowledge and understanding about the needs and requirements of
its clients. It also assists Barclay Bank to render customized services in order to gain the highest
level of customer satisfaction thereby attaining huge market share across the globe (Model for
Customer Experience Management Strategy, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that, Barclay Bank is on the track of removing
its tag of bad B2B company in a significant way. The company is using tremendous approaches
to gain an exotic global exposure across the world (Hörndahl and Dervisevic, 2015). The report
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helped to gain in depth understanding about the crucial aspects of B2B industries in the present
competitive environment along with its increasing importance in the current scenario. The report
has effectively analyses the current performance of Barclay Bank and Refuses Leonardo Limited
(a good B2B company) and have suggested measures for Barclay Bank to develop an effective
customer relationship management strategy within its workforce. Furthermore, the report has
helped to gain deep learning about the concept of value proposition and has developed
impressive value proposition strategy for Barclay Bank to become a good B2B company and to
achieve the leading heights of organisation's success in an effective and impressive way.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Horta, I.M., Camanho, A.S. and da Costa, J.M., 2012. Performance assessment of construction
companies: A study of factors promoting financial soundness and innovation in the
industry. International Journal of Production Economics. 137(1 ). pp.84-93.
Reichheld, F.F. and Markey, R., 2011. The Ultimate Question 2.0: How net promoter companies
thrive in a customer-driven world. Harvard Business Press.
Svensson, R.B., and et.al., 2012. Quality Requirements in Industrial Practice&# x2014; An
Extended Interview Study at Eleven Companies. Software Engineering, IEEE
Transactions on. 38(4 ). pp.923-935.
Kärkkäinen, H., Jussila, J. and Väisänen, J., 2010, October. Social media use and potential in
business-to-business companies' innovation. InProceedings of the 14th international
academic mindtrek conference: Envisioning future media environments (pp. 228-236).
ACM.
Schakett, T., Flaschner, A., Gao, T. and El-Ansary, A., 2011. Effects of social bonding in
business-to-business relationships. Journal of Relationship Marketing. 10(4 ). pp.264-
280.
Ewing, M.T., Windisch, L. and Newton, F.J., 2010. Corporate reputation in the People’s
Republic of China: A B2B perspective. Industrial Marketing Management. 39(5 ).
pp.728-736.
Kotler, P., 2011. Reinventing marketing to manage the environmental imperative. Journal of
Marketing. 75(4 ). pp.132-135.
Gligorijević, M. and Janičić, R., 2011. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
IN B2B COMPANIES’BRAND BUILDING. ECONOMIC, p.261.
Huotari, L., Ulkuniemi, P., Saraniemi, S. and Mäläskä, M., 2015. Analysis of content creation in
social media by B2B companies. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. 30(6 ).
pp.761-770.
Keshvari, R.S., and et.al., 2012. The Impact of B2B Buying Behavior on Customer Satisfaction
within SHAHAB KHODRO Company. International Journal of Business and
Management. 7(7 ). p.151.
Hornik, J., and et.al., 2015. Information dissemination via electronic word-of-mouth: Good news
travels fast, bad news travels faster!. Computers in Human Behavior. 45, pp.273-280.
Steenkamp, J.B.E. and Fang, E., 2011. The impact of economic contractions on the effectiveness
of R&D and advertising: evidence from US companies spanning three decades.
Marketing Science. 30(4 ). pp.628-645.
Girard, F.F., 2012. Innovative Sustainable Companies Management: The Wide Symbiosis
Strategy. INTECH Open Access Publisher.
Spicka, J., 2013. The financial condition of the construction companies before bankruptcy.
European Journal of Business and Management. 5(23 ). pp.160-169.
Kim, Y. and Baik, N., 2013. B2B evaluation framework on e financial guarantee service.
Mathematical and Computer Modelling. 58(1 ). pp.49-55.
Lord, K.R. and Gupta, P.B., 2010. Response of buying-center participants to B2B product
placements. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. 25(3 ). pp.188-195.
Hörndahl, M. and Dervisevic, S., 2015. A lens towards reality: A comparison between theory
and reality regarding employees IT-risk awareness at B2B-companies.
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Online
Tools, M., 2016. Creating a Value Chain Proposition. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ValueProposition.htm>. [Accessed on 16th May
2016].
Model for Customer Experience Management Strategy. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://clearactioncx.com/model-customer-experience-management-strategy/>.
[Accessed on 16th May 2016].
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