Assessing the effectiveness of customer management efforts on profitability in the insurance industry

To have a strategic advantage over competitors, companies have been encouraged to adopt customer-centric, value added processes and capabilities. Firms allocate resources to train their employees in the necessary skills to build and maintain healthy relationships with their customers, yet little is understood on how investments in training impacts a firm?s performance. The objective of the proposed research is to investigate (1) Which customer management training activities have a positive impact on profitability? (2) How frequently should companies offer training to their employees? and (3) Who will benefit from more (less) training activities? To answer these questions, we will develop a model to estimate growth in profitability as a function of training efforts while controlling for economic factors. This research will help understand how investments in customer management training will enhance the firm?s overall performance and competitiveness in business markets.

Faculty Supervisor:

Tanya Mark

Student:

Shaheer Kamran

Partner:

Cooperators

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Finance, insurance and business

University:

University of Guelph