This thesis was carried out as a case study for Granite Partners Ltd, where the researcher is also employed as a Marketing & Account manager. The aim of this research is to identify critical gaps in the subject company’s value creation process and to provide a framework for future value creation improvement projects.

The main research questions of this thesis are: 1) How can value creation to customers and its improvement be approached as a process? 2) What are factors specific to Granite that create value to customers? 3) How can a company conduct systematic value creation improvement projects using a process approach framework? The research was conducted as a pragmatic, mixed-method research utilizing an online survey, semi-structured interview, literature review and expert analysis as its main methods. In addition to a literature review, a customer base wide online survey was conducted and four representatives from two customer companies were interviewed. Based on the findings, the research questions were answered.

The online survey provided an overall picture of the current state of customer value creation and customer satisfaction. No major gaps in value creation was found in gap analysis of the online survey, but open ended comments revealed some issues that were further elaborated in the interviews. Customer interviews offered a more detailed picture of issues and concrete improvement areas that were related to four distinct categories: communication, service production, instructions of use and usability & feature improvement. Concrete improvement measures were develpod for each issue and an action plan to implement them. A framework for improving created value to customer was also created based on the theory and empirical results. The final version of the framework offers a systematic way to tackle all future value creation improvement projects at Granite or other companies utilizing the framework. The framework is not company or industry specific, so it can be used for projects in other companies and industries as well.