Organización y normativas

In addition to the theoretical significance of the findings, the managerial implications of the study for the industry are threefold. First, exploring the online customer experience of current customer relationships and investigating the key components affecting the e-loyalty of customers offers a news channel an informative example of relationship value creation from the customer perspective. The first study of the thesis indicates content as the most important factor of web experience in the online news context and acknowledges the integrity of journalism, news channel brand and the net-work phenomenon of fear of missing

out as sources of competitive advantage in the fierce competition against free information in the Internet. The study under a re-launch of an online news site indicated also that there is a dif-ference between what managers believe they deliver and what customer experiences. Managing the OCE of a news channel requires cross-functional operations inside the company. As online customer experiences are heavily built on functional (technology, service-design), psychological (brand, aesthetics and communication) and content factors (editorial department), to fulfil the fluctuating expectations of online customers, experts on editorial, marketing, design, customer support and technology are all needed to work closely for the same goal: superior online customer experience. The

customer experience heavily rests on past experiences and the brand conceptions of the customer. Thus online customer experience management should begin before the customer enters the site and continue when the customer leaves the site.

Second, the work recognizes the full value potential of online customers and in the form concrete managerial framework of customer engagement, tools are provided for managers to manage the value growth of online customer relationships. A customer is considered highly engaged in the relationship if he / she visits often, spends time on site, makes purchases, has a sizeable and relevant social network, and most of all shares, comments and recommends the product or service, the brand or the content of the news channel. The study suggests that to maximize the value of customers for a company, managers should pursue all aspects of customer engagement value: the monetary, social and behavioural value of relationships. One important aspect to managing customer value in the online environment stressed here is the recognition of visitor value in terms of visit frequency and browsing behaviour. Every page view generated by the customer increases the visitor value of the customer in the form of adding value to the advertising inventory. Prior studies seem to have somewhat neglected this aspect of relationship value.

Managing customer engagement enhances the customer relationship value in terms of monetary and relational value of customers for the company. By understanding the drivers of positive customer engagement of the company, managers may direct marketing resources to measurable value-generating activities in the relationship. For example, if the customer base of an online news channel consists of high monetary value (the majority of its customers are already paying for the content), but is limited in size and in terms of traffic (low behavioural value of customers), marketing activities should focus on gaining higher user volume per customer, which would generate more inventory (page impressions) to be sold to the advertisers. A higher user volume would also be an initiative worth exploring for customer-company interactions and for customer- customer interactions. The frequency of visits, length of visits, and number of page impressions generated by a customer usually indicate high or low interest in the content of the site, and therefore, the potential or non-potential for paying for the service. Socially non-active customers, yet with high user volume, could be wheedled in to conversations and other engaging activities among customers in order to gain referral value, knowledge value and even influencer value in the relationship. Thus, in order to enhance customer engagement, even those visitors who already paid for the subscription should be further encouraged to visit more often, comment on news and share and recommend the news in their social networks. Customers who have registered to use the site but have not yet paid for the content should be continuously encouraged to visit more often, be introduced to trial periods allowing more content to be consumed, leading them towards socially engaging experience on content and eventually to purchase.

To enhance customer engagement in an online news channel, editorial managers hold the key position in acknowledging and delivering the topics and content customers prefer and in maintaining customer relationships. However, this seems inadequate when growing the value of relationships. In order to increase customer engagement and to extend the reach of news to new audiences, a news channel needs to deliver content that customers not only prefer but also want to share. From the customer perspective, “sharable” content of a news channel consists of

stand on the news in question. Understanding the behaviour and motivations of different customers becomes important in managing the production and delivery of content, and by segmenting customers based on their primary interests and online behaviour (visit frequency and recency and social activities), the editorial department would be able, based on data, to identify the influencers and those with most knowledge value (Schlesinger & Doyle, 2014). To specifically target sharable content to them with most influence, knowledge and network value would grow the social value of relationships resulting in better reach and loy-alty of customers.

Third, this work suggests customer value management (CVM) as the next strategic direction of online news channel management for gaining more value of current customer relationships, leading to more value for the business. By managing online customer experience and drivers of online customer engagement, a company can adopt the central value-enhancing mechanisms of customer value management in the online environment. Customer value management is built on the premise that managerial focus is on customers currently creating most value for the company and also on those customers holding the highest potential value for the future business. This work suggests the focus of customer value management in the online news channel context to be on customers creating the highest value, either relational or monetary, for the company. These relationships should be managed according to the engagement level and measured value of the relationship. The study shows how the total value of an online customer can be measured based on simple clickstream data, and the value managed according to the value structure of each online relationship. Furthermore, CVM would help managers in the news industry to efficiently allocate company resources according to the value potential of each customer relationship.

In summary, customers are obviously valuable for the company from many different perspectives, and this potential should be fully exploited across industries operating in the online environment. As Hodis et al., (2015) state, for marketing professionals and scholars, the changing role of consumers from passive recipients to active contributors of brand-related content (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004) is a critical turning point where the marketing strategy for the socially connected consumer is shaped. In the news industry, where companies depend on large audiences and advertising revenue, customer value is enhanced simply by activating the users of the site, to engage in conversations about the content and to share and recommend the news in their own networks. The three concepts of value, monetary, social and visitor value, presented here should help any online manager to organise the management of customer relationships in order to gain superior customer experiences and customer engagement value for the company.

Perspective of CVM Operational focus Value aspect of CVM Company and customer Monetary Visitor and Social value Content, Functional and Psychological value Monetary value Tactic Customer Relationship Management CRM Customer Experience Management CEM Enhancing Customer Engagement Value CEV Strategic Customer Company

Figure 6. From CRM to CVM in online news industry. (A modification of Ahmed Kajee, 2014).

A company in the news industry, conducting subscriber-based business, should aim at building long-lasting, loyal and profitable customer relationships. Figure 6 captures the fundamentals of customer value management in the online news business. It justifies the shift from customer relationship management towards the adoption of customer value management principles. By adopting the principles of CVM, the company focus is turned to customers that 1) bring in the most value to the company 2) hold the greatest value potential for the future of the company. This reseach suggests that customer value management in the online news channel context can be executed by systematically managing both the online customer experience and customer engagement. Customer experience management ap- proaches the relationship value from the perspective of the customer, and based on customer relationship analysis, identifies the key components of functional, content and psychological relationship value perceived by the customer. The key components of relationship value are those to be carefully managed by the company to ensure the value enhancement of the relationship for the customer and the continuity of the relationship. Managing customer engagement value in the online environment means analysing the value gained for the company of existing online customer relationships and managing the growth of value accordingly. The engagement value disposition of online customer relationships can be categorized as either monetary, social or visitor value. As CRM is based mainly on information that the company obtains regarding the customer’s purchase history, CEM adopts more of attitudinal data (Peppers & Rogers, 2011, p.120), information about customer-perceived functional, content and psychological value of online relationships. Enhancing customer engagement value denotes managing customer relationships accord-ing to value potential of relationships: social, visitor and / or monetary value. Based on the described attributes for effective relationship management, the role of CRM is seen more tactic than CEM, and CEV plays the most strategic role in relationship value growth.