German plant protection businesses have a yearly turnover of roughly 1 thousand million EUR. Beyond the main task, i. e. the delivering of plant protection products, they offer their three customer groups "public authorities", "trade and cooperatives" and "final consumer" major auxiliary services within the scope of service management. Owing to rising costs, the companies are forced to check cost-intensive service schemes for effectiveness; nevertheless they aspire optimal contacts to their customers. Thus, an optimisation problem is encountered which calls for an explorative solution due to the poor data availability. In written samplings the three customer groups were surveyed for their experience with the service program as offered by the plant protection industry. The results have been compared with the desired spectrum of services. The nominal/actual value comparison statistically performed by use of SPSS reveals the necessity of taking uni- and multivariate actions. They can be implemented via numerous practical recommendations for the efficient rendering of services in a concrete case and, strategically, by the increased introduction of product-oriented servicing. Due to a relative homogeneity of the different customer groups, a discrimination according to structural differences may be neglegted. |