Author: Kathrin Mössler Publisher: GRIN Verlag ISBN: 3638129667 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 12
Book Description
Essay from the year 2002 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: A-, University of Otago (Marketing department), course: Service Marketing, language: English, abstract: Companies today are faced with a highly competitive environment. For this reason it has become a challenge to differentiate a company′s product from that of competitors, to maintain and/or expand the customer base, increase outcomes, and ultimately to enhance firm performance. Creating a product (good or service) that is unique in the eyes of the customer is becoming increasingly difficult. In order to achieve this goal, the company has to develop a good strategy. Reducing costs, and offering lower rates, or other pricing options may be only a partial answer. Meeting customer expectations for quality of service will also be an important key factor to maintain customer loyalty or to lure in new customers. [...]
Author: Raul Pupo Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: 031338603X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 193
Book Description
In this book, an entrepreneur and CEO of a major technology company shares original service concepts that will enable any company to keep customers coming back. What distinguishes America's Service Meltdown: Restoring Service Excellence in the Age of the Customer is its striking originality and applicability to businesses of nearly every type and size. Based on the author's extensive personal and professional experience, the book offers a straightforward, no nonsense model that clearly explains how to organize the modern enterprise for the delivery of service excellence. Customer-oriented companies can operate more effectively, Raul Pupo argues, by focusing on the critical success factors of service: leadership that unequivocally believes they are in business to serve the customer; a business-planning process centered around the customer; an organizational ethic of service up and down the ranks; and an empowered, motivated, and competent frontline organization. Readers will discover what it takes to serve customers superbly, how excellent customer service profoundly improves profitability, and how to identify the biggest obstacles to good service. Most importantly, they will be rewarded with concrete instructions that will enable them to deliver topnotch customer service every step of the way.
Author: James L. Heskett Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1439108307 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 345
Book Description
In this pathbreaking book, world-renowned Harvard Business School service firm experts James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger reveal that leading companies stay on top by managing the service profit chain. Why are a select few service firms better at what they do -- year in and year out -- than their competitors? For most senior managers, the profusion of anecdotal "service excellence" books fails to address this key question. Based on five years of painstaking research, the authors show how managers at American Express, Southwest Airlines, Banc One, Waste Management, USAA, MBNA, Intuit, British Airways, Taco Bell, Fairfield Inns, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the Merry Maids subsidiary of ServiceMaster employ a quantifiable set of relationships that directly links profit and growth to not only customer loyalty and satisfaction, but to employee loyalty, satisfaction, and productivity. The strongest relationships the authors discovered are those between (1) profit and customer loyalty; (2) employee loyalty and customer loyalty; and (3) employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Moreover, these relationships are mutually reinforcing; that is, satisfied customers contribute to employee satisfaction and vice versa. Here, finally, is the foundation for a powerful strategic service vision, a model on which any manager can build more focused operations and marketing capabilities. For example, the authors demonstrate how, in Banc One's operating divisions, a direct relationship between customer loyalty measured by the "depth" of a relationship, the number of banking services a customer utilizes, and profitability led the bank to encourage existing customers to further extend the bank services they use. Taco Bell has found that their stores in the top quadrant of customer satisfaction ratings outperform their other stores on all measures. At American Express Travel Services, offices that ticket quickly and accurately are more profitable than those which don't. With hundreds of examples like these, the authors show how to manage the customer-employee "satisfaction mirror" and the customer value equation to achieve a "customer's eye view" of goods and services. They describe how companies in any service industry can (1) measure service profit chain relationships across operating units; (2) communicate the resulting self-appraisal; (3) develop a "balanced scorecard" of performance; (4) develop a recognitions and rewards system tied to established measures; (5) communicate results company-wide; (6) develop an internal "best practice" information exchange; and (7) improve overall service profit chain performance. What difference can service profit chain management make? A lot. Between 1986 and 1995, the common stock prices of the companies studied by the authors increased 147%, nearly twice as fast as the price of the stocks of their closest competitors. The proven success and high-yielding results from these high-achieving companies will make The Service Profit Chain required reading for senior, division, and business unit managers in all service companies, as well as for students of service management.
Author: Henry Chang Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Customer satisfaction and cost saving are the benefits of quality service, whether in private sector firms or public sector organisations. Since customer-facing employees are supported by a chain of internal work units, quality improvement in internal services has a positive influence on external customers. Better management of critical success factors is believed to yield direct improvements in service quality. The identification of critical success factors for quality internal IT services would, therefore, be an important step towards public sector improvements in Hong Kong. The methodology used in this research was an exploratory case study with three Delphi cycles. A list of 13 critical success factors identified in prior private sector research was presented to participants to rank according to these factors' criticality and relevance in the public sector. Participants were interviewed to ensure that their views were understood. The results were then presented to a smaller group of participants in the first Delphi cycle to explore the meaning of the displayed patterns and for possible classification according to criticality. The proposed criticality was presented in the second Delphi cycle to form coherent views. The results suggest that some of the 13 critical success factors are transferable from private sector firms to public sector organisations, namely Management Commitment, Customer Management and Corporate Culture. The results also reveal that the two factors of Organisational Structure and Employee Empowerment are incompatible with public sector culture and therefore non-critical. The criticality of the other eight factors was found to be inconclusive as participants generally agreed that the number of critical success factors should be kept low to be manageable. In addition, participants agreed that whether internal quality service was required by the management of public sector organisations should also be considered as a critical success factor. This is in contrast with the private sector where quality would normally be considered as a key objective by default. The question of finding an alternative to the traditional cost model of internal service, where those who receive the services are not those who pay for them, was debated extensively between participants. This controversial issue was found to warrant further study. Finally a model for how to apply critical success factors is proposed for further investigation. The results of this research are significant because there was no prior research into the identification of critical success factors in internal services of the public sector. The results provide first-time insights and will help administrators to better understand critical success factors and quality internal services for improving and delivering public services.
Author: DAVID L. ELWOOD Publisher: AuthorHouse ISBN: 1491844434 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
In the Two Factor Theory of Customer Service, author David L. Elwood nudges the entire field of customer service toward becoming a professional discipline. Customer service is not a casual, do-it-if-you-think-of-it aspect of business; customer service is a real business product that stands beside the primary product of every business enterprise; it is inescapable and it is inextricably tied to profits. Elwood uses easy to follow ideas that open the door to fresh, persuasive perceptions of the fundamental dimensions of customer service events: accessible, emotional, temporal, informational, solutional, aptitudinal, and relational. The essence of Elwoods message is that the more clearly and deeply one understands customer service events, the more effective he or she will become at delivering customer service straight to the customer. And, as powerful, empirical research findings have shown, delivery of Superior Customer Service goes hand in hand with superior profits. The Two Factor Theory of Customer Service will delight everyone looking for a systematic approach to understanding and classifying the seemingly unending differences found in published examples of Superior Customer Service, and it will brighten the pathway for each provider seeking to increase profits. Without question, you ARE in the customer service business --- the only question is whether you are doing it well. Want a quick read at the airport terminal thatll entertain more than transform? Two Factor Theory of Customer Service isnt it! Elwood skips the clichs while delivering a perfect balance of theory and immediate application that will change how you see your customers, and more importantly how your customers will see you (again and again and again...). Jay Martinson, Ph.D. Chair, Communications Department, Olivet Nazarene University
Author: E. W. Lawrimore Publisher: Lulu.com ISBN: 1257156543 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 53
Book Description
A total system for business success, based on a 25-year study and testing of the most effective success factors for any business, from small to large. Includes practical action steps that, taken together, will lead to significant success increases for your business or organization.
Author: Robert E. Hinson Publisher: IAP ISBN: 1641136871 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 253
Book Description
Customer Service Essentials is a must-read and a definitive source of information on effective management of customer service in Africa and beyond. Leveraging on unique concepts and practices developed in the field of customer service management, this book uses case studies and vignettes to reinforce learnings, drawing parallels to real life experiences. The book is a valuable resource for individuals and organizations, in the quest to achieve excellent customer service, increased productivity and enhanced employee satisfaction. It explores the practical challenges of customer service in Africa, examines critical success factors and provides guidelines for effective customer engagement in this evolving highly networked digital era. Policy makers, directors, managers and students will gain valuable and actionable insights on service management as they navigate the chapters. Praise for Customer Service Essentials: Lessons for Africa and Beyond "This book captures service excellence by detailing out in a most explicit manner essential services dynamics of Responsiveness, Accessibility, Tangibles, Empathy and Reliability. I highly recommend it!" Esi Elliot Assistant Professor, Marketing Suffolk University, Boston, MA "I am very impressed with this book and excited to see the topics being discussed in the Chapters are geared toward quality customer service in Africa. All the chapters are superbly written, relevant to the African context and above all, the authors cover incredibly interesting topics and support them with pertinent cases. Bringing together such fine minds in the field, this book is useful and a must for anyone serious about customer service, service branding and the need to respect the customer." Charles Blankson Professor of Marketing College of Business University of North Texas "Hinson and colleagues have skillfully put together a useful collection of new perspectives on modern customer service essentials with an African and global perspective. This is a highly recommended text for students and practitioners." Ellis L.C. Osabutey Reader Roehampton University Business School United Kingdom
Author: Valarie A. Zeithaml Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1439137471 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 185
Book Description
Excellence in customer service is the hallmark of success in service industries and among manufacturers of products that require reliable service. But what exactly is excellent service? It is the ability to deliver what you promise, say the authors, but first you must determine what you can promise. Building on seven years of research on service quality, they construct a model that, by balancing a customer's perceptions of the value of a particular service with the customer's need for that service, provides brilliant theoretical insight into customer expectations and service delivery. For example, Florida Power & Light has developed a sophisticated, computer-based lightening tracking system to anticipate where weather-related service interruptions might occur and strategically position crews at these locations to quicken recovery response time. Offering a service that customers expect to be available at all times and that they will miss only when the lights go out, FPL focuses its energies on matching customer perceptions with potential need. Deluxe Corporation, America's highly successful check printer, regularly exceeds its customers' expectations by shipping nearly 95% of all orders by the day after the orders were received. Deluxe even put U.S. Postal Service stations inside its plants to speed up delivery time. Customer expectations change over time. To anticipate these changes, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company regularly monitors the expectations and perceptions of their customers, using focus group interviews and the authors' 22-item generic SERVQUAL questionnaire, which is customized by adding questions covering specific aspects of service they wish to track. The authors' groundbreaking model, which tracks the five attributes of quality service -- reliability, empathy, assurance, responsiveness, and tangibles -- goes right to the heart of the tendency to overpromise. By comparing customer perceptions with expectations, the model provides marketing managers with a two-part measure of perceived quality that, for the first time, enables them to segment a market into groups with different service expectations.
Author: Dr Ralf Lisch Publisher: Gower Publishing, Ltd. ISBN: 1472411935 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 215
Book Description
In service societies, the tertiary sector has long become the primary sector in terms of GDP and employment. Quality research and testing means better service, and success in the service industries demands quality. Nonetheless, complaints about insufficient, inconsistent or bad service abound. Quality decides on success and failure. Where so much is at stake, management decisions call for systematic research and consumers look for relevant results that provide guidance in complex markets. Research into quality and customer satisfaction gets to the core of a business. However, many so-called studies hardly meet essential criteria of empirical research and deliver artefacts rather than facts. This book puts an end to common misconceptions of quality studies. Measuring Service Performance is an appeal for an approach to quality research that meets quality criteria itself. It is a compelling argument against widespread but rather dubious dealings with measurement, data and statistics. Ralf Lisch calls for a reconsideration of the research process, focussing on content instead of method and adding meaning to results. Because service excellence deserves research excellence. Written in a practical, accessible style, the book offers practitioners as well as market researchers, MBA students and others involved in the service sector a critical analysis and discussion of the essentials of 'Practical Research for Better Quality'.
Author: Roland T. Rust Publisher: SAGE Publications ISBN: 1506332676 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 201
Book Description
The importance of service and service quality has been growing in the world economy since the late 1970s. Establishing new levels of sophistication and rigor, as well as a broad set of approaches, Service Quality presents the latest research and theory in customer satisfaction and services marketing. Designed to advance the practice of delivering superior service, the field′s leading scholars and practitioners present a wealth of ideas that include measuring the managerial impact of service quality improvement, new methods of assessing the various elements of service quality, and philosophies about the nature of customer value. Presenting diverse points of view and revealing a variety of emerging ideas, the editors conclude with a look toward the future of service quality. An exhilarating--and sometimes demanding--change of pace, Service Quality is essential for professionals, researchers, scholars, and students in marketing studies.
Author: Kathrin Mössler
Author: Raul Pupo
Author: James L. Heskett
Author: Henry Chang
Author: DAVID L. ELWOOD
Author: E. W. Lawrimore
Author: Robert E. Hinson
Author: Valarie A. Zeithaml
Author: Dr Ralf Lisch
Author: Roland T. Rust