Customer engagement and the true value of a lost customer

Ruhnau, Robin-Christopher ; Harz, Nathalie

URL:	https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcijar0b8mawxrp/AACr5tw...
Additional URL:	https://www.emac-2019.org/proceedings/
Document Type:	Conference or workshop publication
Year of publication:	2019
Book title:	48th EMAC Annual Conference : May 28-31, 2019, Universität Hamburg, Germany : Proceedings
The title of a journal, publication series:	Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy Conference, 2019
Page range:	486
Conference title:	48th EMAC Annual Conference
Location of the conference venue:	Hamburg, Germany
Date of the conference:	28.-31.5.2019
Place of publication:	Hamburg
Publishing house:	European Marketing Academy
ISBN:	978-3-9821146-0-6
Publication language:	English
Institution:	Business School > Business-to-Business Marketing, Sales & Pricing (Homburg 1998-)
Subject:	650 Management
Keywords (English):	customer engagement , customer reacquisition , engagement value
Abstract:	Customer engagement (CE) is an essential evolving theory to capture today’s well-connected and empowered customers. CE acknowledges that customers can both create and destroy firm value through a variety of behaviors without even making any purchases, e.g., by word of mouth. Specifically, this setting also applies to lost customers. Therefore, the authors introduce CE valuation to reacquisition management, aiming to answer the research question: what is the true value of a lost customer, beyond purchases? Employing a combination of field and laboratory experiments, the authors identify the most valuable customers in terms of engagement value and their likelihood of reacquisition. Therefore, the research provides valuable insights to the research areas of customer reacquisition and CE. For firms, the research provides guidelines for managing lost customers, resulting in higher success rates in reacquisition, lower defection rates, and improved accountability.