“Come and visit us!”: The effects of factory tour participation on customers

As part of their relationship marketing efforts, B2B manufacturers regularly invite customers for factory tours. Despite its widespread use, however, there is a lack of research on the economic consequences as well as the underlying customer relationship process. We present the results of two studies conducted in collaboration with an industrial manufacturer, allowing for detailed analyses of the effects of factory tours on B2B customers. Based on sales data spanning 23 years, we find that customer participation in a factory tour leads to economic benefits, as a substantial increase in annual revenues across multiple subsequent years is evident. A second study, using survey responses from customers before and after participation in a factory tour, not only confirms the economic benefits of factory tour participation. It also shows that customers' trust and commitment act as the underlying process variables. On a theoretical level, our research contributes by showing the applicability of commitment-trust theory for a specific and widely used instrument of relationship marketing. For B2B companies, our findings show that inviting customer representatives for a visit is an important instrument of improving the customer relationship with regards to both, customer attitudes and purchases.