Optimal Incentives for Customer Satisfaction in Multi-channel Setting

멀티채널에서의 고객만족제고 인센티브 연구

CS is one of the major concerns of managers in the world because it is well known to be a key medium construct for firms' superior outcome. One of the major agents for CS management is retailers. Firms try to manage not only employees but also retailers to promote CS behaviors. And so diverse incentives are used to promote their CS behaviors under diverse channel setting such as multi-channel. However in spite of the rising needs there has been scarce studies on the optimal incentive structure for a manufacturer to offer competing retailers at the multi-channel. In this paper, we try to find better way for a manufacturer to promote the competing retailers' CS behaviors. We investigated how to promote the retailers' CS behavior via game-theoretic modeling. Especially, we focus on the possible incentive, CS bonus type reward introduced in the studies of Hauser, Simester, and Wernerfelt(1994) and Chu and Desai(1995). We build up a multi stage complete information game and derive a subgame perfect equilibrium using backward induction. Stages of the game are as following. (Stage 1) Manufacturer sets wholesale price(w) and CS bonus($\eta$). (Stage 2) Both retailers in competition set CS effort level($e_i$) and retail price($p_i$) simultaneously. (Stage 3) Consumers make purchasing decisions based on the manufacturer's initial reputation and retailers' CS efforts.

Structure of the Model We investigated four issues about the topic as following: (1) How much total incentive is adequate for a firm of a specific level of reputation to promote retailers' CS behavior under multi-channel setting ?, (2) How much total incentive is adequate under diverse level of complimentary externalities between the retailers' CS efforts to promote retailers' CS behavior?, (3) How much total incentive is adequate under diverse level of cost to make CS efforts to promote retailers' CS behavior?, (4) How much total incentive is adequate under diverse level of competition between retailers to promote retailers' CS behavior? Our findings are as following. (1) The higher reputation has the manufacturer, the higher incentives for retailers at multi-channel are required in the equilibrium.

shows the increasing pattern of optimal incentive level along the manufacturer's reputation level(a) under some parameter conditions(b=1/2;c=0;$\beta$=1/2). (2) The bigger complimentary externalities exists between the retailers' CS efforts, the higher incentives are required in the equilibrium.

shows the increasing pattern of optimal incentive level along the complimentary externalities level($\beta$) under some parameter conditions(a=1;b=1/2;c=0). (3) The higher is the retailers' cost, the lower incentives are required in the equilibrium.

shows the decreasing pattern of optimal incentive level along the cost level(c) under some parameter conditions(a=1;b=1/2;$\beta$=1/2). (4) The more competitive gets those two retailers, the higher incentives for retailers at multi-channel are required in the equilibrium.

shows the increasing pattern of optimal incentive level along the competition level(b) under some parameter conditions(c=0;a=1;$\beta$=1/2). One of the major contribution points of this study is the fact that this study is the first to investigate the optimal CS incentive system under multi-channel setting.

고객만족제고에 관심을 기울이고 노력을 경주하는 기업이 늘어나면서, 유통업자들에게 고객만족제고 인센티브를 제공함으로써 그들의 고객만족노력을 불러일으키고자 하는 노력 역시 활발해 지고 있다. 이러한 노력은 상호 경쟁하는 멀티채널을 운용하는 기업들 역시 마찬가지이다. 그러나 지금까지의 고객만족제고방안에 관한 연구는 종업원이나 단일유통업자 등단일주체에 초점을 두고 진행되어 왔을 뿐 경쟁이 발생하는 멀티채널 상황에서의 고객만족제고 인센티브에 대해서는 별다른 연구가 이루어지지 않고 있다. 이러한 문제의식에서 출발하여, 본 연구에서는 게임이론에 기반한 수리경제학적 분석을 통해 멀티채널을 운용하는 기업의 고객만족제고방안에 주안점을 두어 제조업자가 두 유통업자를 운용하는 멀티채널 모형을 상정하여 고객만족제고 인센티브를 어떻게 제시하는 것이 바람직한지 규명하였다. 본 연구의 주요결과는 다음과 같다: (1)명성수준이 높을수록 고객만족제고 인센티브 수준을 높이는 것이 바람직하다. (2)멀티채널 사이의 보완적 외부효과가 클수록 고객만족제고 인센티브 수준을 높이는 것이 바람직하다. (3)유통비용이 클수록 멀티채널에서의 고객만족제고 인센티브의 수준은 낮게 제시하는 것이 바람직하다. (4)채널간 경쟁강도가 높을수록 고객만족제고 인센티브 수준을 높이는 것이 바람직하다.