The role and challenges of customer data in B2B companies : A key account managers’ perspective
Simolin, Laura (2025)
2025
Kauppatieteiden maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in Business Studies
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-05-28
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202505276243
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202505276243
Tiivistelmä
This thesis investigates how key account managers (KAMs) perceive and utilize customer data in the context of managing strategic customer relationships within B2B environments. As organizations increasingly invest in data-driven tools to support decision-making and customer engagement, the practical integration of these tools into the relational work of account managers remains insufficiently understood. The study addresses this gap by exploring how KAMs experience the role of customer data in their everyday work, particularly in balancing analytical insight with personal interaction, trust-building, and intuition, and what kind of challenges they encounter when using it.
The research adopts a qualitative methodology, drawing on in-depth interviews with experienced key account managers from industrial B2B company. The findings reveal three distinct perspectives on the role of data. An essential view, where data is seen as a critical foundation for KAMs work through planning, forecasting, and service customization. A skeptical view, where data is considered less relevant than relational knowledge and experience. And a balanced view, where data is used to complement but not replace human judgment. These perspectives illustrate the heterogeneity in how data is adopted and interpreted across individuals and organizational contexts. In addition to conceptual insights, the study identifies ten practical challenges that hinder the effective use of customer data, including system inefficiencies, data fragmentation, utilization of tacit knowledge.
By integrating perspectives from relationship marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), and key account management (KAM), this thesis contributes to a more nuanced under standing of how digital tools and interpersonal engagement interact in modern account management in practice. The study underscores the need for organizations to align their technological investments with the human-centered realities of B2B relationship-building and offers implications for both theory and managerial practice in enhancing data usage among KAMs. Successful use of customer data requires not only better systems and processes but also an organizational environment that supports both data-driven decision-making and human connection. This study brings the everyday life of key account managers to a practical level how they are balancing between those two.
The research adopts a qualitative methodology, drawing on in-depth interviews with experienced key account managers from industrial B2B company. The findings reveal three distinct perspectives on the role of data. An essential view, where data is seen as a critical foundation for KAMs work through planning, forecasting, and service customization. A skeptical view, where data is considered less relevant than relational knowledge and experience. And a balanced view, where data is used to complement but not replace human judgment. These perspectives illustrate the heterogeneity in how data is adopted and interpreted across individuals and organizational contexts. In addition to conceptual insights, the study identifies ten practical challenges that hinder the effective use of customer data, including system inefficiencies, data fragmentation, utilization of tacit knowledge.
By integrating perspectives from relationship marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), and key account management (KAM), this thesis contributes to a more nuanced under standing of how digital tools and interpersonal engagement interact in modern account management in practice. The study underscores the need for organizations to align their technological investments with the human-centered realities of B2B relationship-building and offers implications for both theory and managerial practice in enhancing data usage among KAMs. Successful use of customer data requires not only better systems and processes but also an organizational environment that supports both data-driven decision-making and human connection. This study brings the everyday life of key account managers to a practical level how they are balancing between those two.