Customers, accounting and strategy: the case of a UK SME

OpenAIRE

Pitcher, GS

2016-01-01

This paper illustrates that the linking of Customer Relationship Management, Customer Profitability Analysis and Portfolio Management can make a positive impact on the development of strategy in a SME. The integration of marketing and financial systems, inculcating a customer focused culture and encouraging and facilitating cross-functional interaction enabled the collection, dissemination and review of customer related information to become part of the organisational routines. The case study...

Investigating the Meditative Role of Innovation Orientation and Marketing Capabilities between the Competitive Intensity and Customer Relationship Performance

OpenAIRE

Marjan Mohaimani; Seyed Alireza Seyed Salehi

2014-01-01

This study aims to test a conceptual model which shows the impact of marketing capabilities and innovation orientation on customer relationship performance. This study is placed in the group of descriptive survey research. According to the fact that the expected results can be applied to the ways of dealing with customers, this research can be considered an applied study. This research is also a kind of correlative study since the relationship between variables is examined by using correlatio...

Implementation of customer relationship management and its advantages : Case company Forchem Oy

OpenAIRE

Puiseva, Maiju

2014-01-01

The purpose of this thesis was to bring out the key issues of the concept of customer relationship management and study its implementation and advantages in the case company. The topic of the thesis was assigned by the case company. Their objective was to understand customer relationship management better and to develop it to be one of the business processes. Theoretical part of the thesis studied customer service and customer relationship management and the importance of those. Theoretica...

The Impact of Interpersonal Communication toward Customer Satisfaction: The Case of Customer Service of Sari Asih Hospital

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agung W. A. Novalia

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Customer Service has a considerable role. In order to retain the loyal customer, their attitude should be friendly, courteous, patient, and willing to listen to what customer said. Good Customer Service should create customer satisfaction for it is the presence of customer determines the existence of the company. This condition is also true for hospital as it is the case of Sari Asih Hospital in Ciledug, Indonesia. Sari Asih Hospital is a private hospital whose average patients are more than 700 patients monthly. This study assume that the interpersonal communication might be the cause. In constructing the argument, this paper will use the Humanistic Perspective Theory and the Theory of Value Expectancy. Quantitative approach will be the method and the survey will use the accident sampling among customers. It was found that the Impact of Interpersonal Communication Sari Asih Hospital toward Customer Satisfaction is has possitive effect.

Dynamic capabilities and innovation capabilities: The case of the ‘Innovation Clinic’

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fred Strønen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this explorative study, we investigate the relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation capabilities. Dynamic capabilities are at the core of strategic management in terms of how firms can ensure adaptation to changing environments over time. Our paper follows two paths of argumentation. First, we review and discuss some major contributions to the theories on ordinary capabilities, dynamic capabilities, and innovation capabilities. We seek to identify different understandings of the concepts in question, in order to clarify the distinctions and relationships between dynamic capabilities and innovation capabilities. Second, we present a case study of the ’Innovation Clinic’ at a major university hospital, including four innovation projects. We use this case study to explore and discuss how dynamic capabilities can be extended, as well as to what extent innovation capabilities can be said to be dynamic. In our conclusion, we discuss the conditions for nurturing ‘dynamic innovation capabilities’ in organizations.

CASE-BASED PRODUCT CONFIGURATION AND REUSE IN MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Wang Shiwei; Tan Jianrong; Zhang Shuyou; Wang Xin; He Chenqi

2004-01-01

The increasing complexity and size of configuration knowledge bases requires the provision of advanced methods supporting the development of the actual configuration process and design reuse.A new framework to find a feasible and practical product configuration method is presented in mass customization.The basic idea of the approach is to integrate case-based reasoning (CBR) with a constraint satisfaction problem(CSP).The similarity measure between a crisp and range is also given,which is common in case retrieves.Based on the configuration model,a product platform and customer needs,case adaptation is carried out with the repair-based algorithm.Lastly,the methodology in the elevator configuration design domain is tested.

The case for customer loyalty.

Science.gov (United States)

Sturm, Arthur C

2004-09-01

How does customer loyalty grow? Through good customer experiences. Yet some organizations seem to genuinely fail to understand that they can keep or lose a customer in the proverbial blink of an eye. And in this era of increasing customer demands across all industries, it's important that healthcare financial managers understand the correlation between customer loyalty and customer experience.

Industrial global brand leadership : a capabilities view

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beverland, M.; Napoli, J.; Lindgreen, A.

2007-01-01

We examine the global branding programs of five New Zealand industrial firms and identify the salient components and capabilities underpinning these programs. The cases built their respective brand identities around adaptability to customer needs and the provision of a total solution. This identity

Stages of proceedings in violation of customs regulations cases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

С. А. Дуженко

2014-11-01

Full Text Available This article contains the analyze of scientific points of view regarding the structure of proceedings in administrative cases, particularly about determining the number of its stages. It has been proposed new criterion to determine the stages in proceedings in violation of customs regulations cases, as a kind of proceedings in administrative cases.

The Influence Of Customer Handling On Brand Image In Building Customer Loyalty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryan Kurniawan

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Complaint handling influences brand image which will influence customer loyalty in the future. This research is aimed to find out how the complaint handling is capable to influence against the brand image in building the customer loyalty of Indomaret Minimarket with the study case of Indomaret Minimarket. This research also aims to find out how the complaint handling is conducted by Indomaret Minimarket the brand image of service on Indomaret Minimarket as well as the customer loyalty of Indomaret Minimarket. This research using questionnaire as an instrument in collecting the data. The analysis type of this research is descriptive analysis and causal. The sample used as many as a 165 respondents with purposive sampling techniques. This research uses 33 indicators that will be counted with analysis technique SEM Structural Equation Modelling. The result of this research is that the complaint handling conducted by Indomaret Minimarket has been good but the aspect of speed in complaint handling is considered as not good. Besides the brand image and loyalty have been good enough. The customer loyalty is influenced by the complaint handling and the brand image by 32.7. The complaint handling has a significant influence against the customer satisfaction but the complaint handling does not influence against the customer loyalty. The brand image significantly influences against the customer loyalty. Then complaint handling influential not directly to customers trough loyalty of customer satisfaction. In addition the necessary integrated system standardization compensation and to rejuvenate issue at regular intervals to improve complaint handling that can give the effect to customer loyalty through brand image.

Standards and Customer Service: Employees Behavior towards Customers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Venelin Terziev

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Ensuring effective customer service requires targeted efforts in a number of areas, one of which is to develop service standards for each market segment. The development and implementation of standards requires the organization to accurately determine customer service types, the cost of providing alternative services, and measures for measuring and controlling the services provided. At the core of the developed and implemented standards is the development and establishment of the customer service policy, which should start with a consumer demand analysis. The definition of customer service level should allow for quantitative measurement because the vague and quantifiable policy does not provide opportunities for evaluation and control of the activities and expenses of customer service. When developing service standards, it is appropriate to apply an algorithm that focuses primarily on standards related to employee behavior towards customers. This paper explores the need and capability to develop customer service standards and provides an algorithm for developing standards for employee behavior toward customers.

How customer satisfaction changes behavior: A case study of banking industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hossein Vazifedoost

2013-06-01

Full Text Available An increase on competition industry from one side and the need for customer retention on the other side in banking industry create necessary motivation to learn more about customer behavior. This paper investigated the relationship between seven perspectives of banking services and customers’ attitude towards changing behavior. The seven perspectives included how bank employees’ treat customers, service prices, how to promote and market synergies, place and time to serve customers, products, equipment and process. The proposed study was implemented in two Iranian banks called Mellat and Tejarat in city of Tehran, Iran. The results indicated that all components except one case, which was “how to promote and market synergies” had meaningful and negative relationship with customer behavior.

Survival analysis for customer satisfaction: A case study

Science.gov (United States)

Hadiyat, M. A.; Wahyudi, R. D.; Sari, Y.

2017-11-01

Most customer satisfaction surveys are conducted periodically to track their dynamics. One of the goals of this survey was to evaluate the service design by recognizing the trend of satisfaction score. Many researchers recommended in redesigning the service when the satisfaction scores were decreasing, so that the service life cycle could be predicted qualitatively. However, these scores were usually set in Likert scale and had quantitative properties. Thus, they should also be analyzed in quantitative model so that the predicted service life cycle would be done by applying the survival analysis. This paper discussed a starting point for customer satisfaction survival analysis with a case study in healthcare service.

Customer Ranking Model for Project Businesses: A Case Study from the Automotive Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bernd Markus Zunk

2014-03-01

Full Text Available For technology-orientated enterprises that operate project-based businesses, the goal-oriented allocation of scarce marketing resources has great potential to help consolidate their competitive position. An important precondition for goal-oriented management is the identification of the most valuable customers. This enables technology-orientated enterprises to segment markets in order to make tactical marketing decisions. This theorybased paper aims to develop and test a holistic customer ranking model. By deploying the five steps presented in this paper, customer relationship managers are better able to identify and to rank their customers in project-based businesses. A case study provides an example of the application of the method from the automotive industry in Austria. The experiences derived from this case study show that using a customer ranking framework is a crucial factor for enterprises in narrow technology markets to be successful and to achieve their corporate goals.

Does Innovating Customer Relationship Management Improve Firm Performance?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Geersbro, Jens; Ritter, Thomas

Based on an empirical study of more than 400 B2B firms, this paper investigates the role of innovating a firm’s customer relationship management capability on firm performance. There is a lot of evidence for the positive impact of customer relationship management capability on firm performance....... This paper advances this stream of literature by analyzing whether or not investments into developing a firm’s customer relationship capability increase firm performance. The findings illustrate that although relationship management innovation (defined as new (to the firm) processes, systems and tools...... for relationship management) has a positive correlation with firm performance, the impact is fully mediated by the firms’ relationship management capability. The paper also identifies internal and external drivers of customer relationship management innovation. Not surprisingly customer and competitor dynamics...

ERP System for Custom Tailoring: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petr Sodomka

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The Case Study deals with the implementation and use of a global ERP system in Bernhardt Fashion CZ, which is one of the leading custom garment manufacturers in the market. The study describes the way this prestigious company has utilized a global ERP product to standardize a part of its processes as well as the areas that needed to be modified or custom adjusted. The crucial part of the study comprises a detailed description of key processes and their automation requirements that are specific in the clothing industry. Moreover, the study includes a complex evaluation of achieved benefits and significant functional improvements the company has developed by using the new system.

Customer service strategy options : a multiple case study in a B2B setting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wouters, J.P.M.

2004-01-01

This study addresses the question whether customer service actually has order winning potential in B2B situations, which customer service strategies are deployed, and what determines customer service relevance. A literature review was followed by a multiple case study, using 12 organizations from

Mass Customization Measurements Metrics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Kjeld; Brunø, Thomas Ditlev; Jørgensen, Kaj Asbjørn

2014-01-01

A recent survey has indicated that 17 % of companies have ceased mass customizing less than 1 year after initiating the effort. This paper presents measurement for a company’s mass customization performance, utilizing metrics within the three fundamental capabilities: robust process design, choice...... navigation, and solution space development. A mass customizer when assessing performance with these metrics can identify within which areas improvement would increase competitiveness the most and enable more efficient transition to mass customization....

Quality and customer satisfaction: A case study in Brazil

Science.gov (United States)

Barcellos, Paulo Fernando Pinto

The dissertation deals with the case of CEEE-Companhia Estadual de Energia Eletrica, an electric power utility located in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. Customer satisfaction with the services provided by CEEE is investigated within three groups of consumers: residential, commercial, and industrial. The purpose of the dissertation is to find answers to the following research questions: (1) What is service quality in public utilities, and particularly in an electric power company? (2) What service quality dimensions do customers want to be provided and favor the most? (3) How does the market measure service quality? (4) What should be done by companies, and particularly by an electric utility monopoly, to increase the performance of the rendered service? (5) How does this impact customer satisfaction, retention, and intention to recommend? and (6) How do we start a company-wide quality program provided that the resources are scarce and therefore priorities should be set forth? To investigate the posed questions, the study begins with an exploratory survey of CEEE's Board. The survey is followed by qualitative research of the three customer groups. After qualitative analysis of the data is concluded, questionnaires for the quantitative research, as well as hypothetical models, are developed. Dillman's "Total Design Method" is used to design the questionnaires. The basic ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Model) is used to approach customer satisfaction. Data are processed by PLS (Partial Least Squares) which follows the procedure developed at the National Quality Research Center of the University of Michigan Business School. In summary, commercial customers are the most dissatisfied with the services provided by CEEE, while residential customers are the most satisfied. To improve quality, priority should be placed on commercial customers and include efforts to improve productivity gains throughout the company. Also, CEEE's image should be

Management of Complex Industrial Supplier Relations - a Case of Customer Attractiveness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ellegaard, Chris

relationship management is proposed – the concept of Customer Attractiveness. Customer Attractiveness is founded on the revised understanding of the supplier relationship management task and focuses on influencing suppliers by being an attractive customer, hereby motivating the necessary commitment to long......Companies are increasingly relying on suppliers when developing and manufacturing industrial products. Therefore the supplier relationships of the company need to be managed. This dissertation looks at existing theoretical approaches to supplier relationship management. By studying a number...... of supplier relationships of the company Danfoss Drives, an alternative understanding of the supplier relationship management task is proposed. The case study methodology forms the basis for the applied research design. The alternative understanding sees the management task as one of influencing suppliers...

A Case Investigation of Product Structure Complexity in Mass Customization Using a Data Mining Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Peter; Brunø, Thomas Ditlev; Nielsen, Kjeld

2014-01-01

This paper presents a data mining method for analyzing historical configuration data providing a number of opportunities for improving mass customization capabilities. The overall objective of this paper is to investigate how specific quantitative analyses, more specifically the association rule...

Innovation management based on proactive engagement of customers: A case study on LEGO Group. Part II: Challenge of engaging the digital customer

Science.gov (United States)

Avasilcăi, S.; Rusu, G.

2015-11-01

To foster the development of innovative products and new technologies, nowadays companies use an open innovation system, encouraging stakeholders to contribute, using the companies’ online platforms for open innovation or social media, bringing and sharing creative solutions and ideas in order to respond to challenging needs the company directly expresses. Accordingly, the current research continues the analysis of the LEGO Group innovation efforts, aiming to provide a case study approach based on describing the most important projects and online instruments company uses to interact with customers and other external stakeholders. Thus, by analysing the experience of the company in developing projects of involving stakeholders in the innovation processes, the article emphasizes the objective of these past projects developed by LEGO Group, outlining their objectives regarding the focus on the product or process innovation, the team management and stakeholders involved in the innovation actions and the results they obtained. Moreover, the case study highlights the features of the most important online instruments LEGO Group uses at the moment for engaging LEGO fans, children, parents, and other external stakeholders in developing new LEGO sets. Thus, LEGO online instruments provide the opportunity for customers to be creative and to respond to LEGO management team challenges. Accordingly, LEGO involve customers in bringing innovative ideas for LEGO sets through LEGO Ideas instrument, which aims to engage customers in submitting projects, voting and supporting ideas and also sharing them on social media. Also, the research emphasizes the role of supporting the open dialogue and interaction with customers and other external stakeholders through LEGO.com Create & Share Galleries instrument, using their creativity to upload innovative models in the public galleries. The continuous challenges LEGO launches for their fans create a long-term connection between company and

How to strengthen customer loyalty, using customer segmentation?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MELNIC Elena Lidia

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Do you provide exceptional customer service?”, “Is the customer service in your company extraordinary?” “How to convert satis fied customers into loyal customers?” - are the most frequent questions of today’s managers and have driven the research on this article to getting the answer to a highly important marketing topic “How to strengthen customer loyalty using customer segmentation?”. Anyone who has bought a product or a service has probably suffered at least once from a company’s apparent indifference to what should be its first concern: the customer experiences. If this is the case, the company is in a wrong direction, since loyalty is the most powerful tool in today competitive market. To strengthen the bonds with these high-profit customers, innovative companies are deploying enterprise-wide strategies built on consumer segmentation.

A study on important factors influencing customer relationship management: A case study of Mobile service provider

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naser Azad

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Customers are considered as essential assets in any organizations including mobile services. During the past few years, mobile industry is growing rapidly and the competitions among business owners increases steadily. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to find important factors influencing customer relationship management. The proposed study of this paper designs a questionnaire and distributes it among 253 customers in mobile industry in city of Tehran, Iran. All questions are designed in Likert scale and Cronbach alpha is calculated as 0.816, which is relatively reliable value. There were 28 questions in this survey and the proposed study extracts five important factors including economic factors, communication skills, organizational resources, service capabilities and flexible market.

Impact Of Customer Relationship Management On Customer Retention A Case Of Private Banks Of Sialkot Punjab

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nayab Bashir

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Customer relationship management is good for banking sector to increase in any economic condition and for customers to receive quality services This research check the impact of customer relationship management activities on banks customer retention in Sialkot Punjab. For the purpose of study a sampling analysis was conducted among 330 customers of selected private banks that is Habib Bank limited United Bank limited Faysal Bank limited with the help of a structured questionnaire. 316 questionnaires were usable. Statistical answers give support on the high positive relationship between customer relationship management CRM and customer satisfaction. This study exposed that there is a important positive relationship among the variables. This study exposes that the suitable execution of CRM will increases the number of customer satisfaction or make long term healthy relations with the current or potential customers through managing information or improve the performance of services that assist customer retention. Acronyms CRM Customer relationship management CS Customer satisfaction CR Customer retention Abbreviations Customer relationship management

Effects of self-service technology on customer value and customer readiness: The case of banking industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Parviz Khadem

2013-07-01

Full Text Available The recent development on internet banking has contributed to this industry, significantly. People could do their banking transactions by clicking a bottom and transfer funds, pay bills, etc. In this paper, we present an empirical investigation to find out the effects of different factors on continuous internet banking. The proposed study of this paper has adopted a questionnaire, which was originally developed by Ho and Ko (2008 [Ho, S. H., & Ko, Y. Y. (2008. Effects of self-service technology on customer value and customer readiness: The case of Internet banking. Internet Research, 18(4, 427-446.]. We have used Pearson correlation test as well as stepwise regression techniques to verify the effect of different factors and the results of our survey show that four variables of easy implementation, usefulness, cost reduction and self-control positively influence continuous internet banking.

Analytical Chemistry Core Capability Assessment - Preliminary Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barr, Mary E.; Farish, Thomas J.

2012-01-01

The concept of 'core capability' can be nebulous one. Even at a fairly specific level, where core capability equals maintaining essential services, it is highly dependent upon the perspective of the requestor. Samples are submitted to analytical services because the requesters do not have the capability to conduct adequate analyses themselves. Some requests are for general chemical information in support of R and D, process control, or process improvement. Many analyses, however, are part of a product certification package and must comply with higher-level customer quality assurance requirements. So which services are essential to that customer - just those for product certification? Does the customer also (indirectly) need services that support process control and improvement? And what is the timeframe? Capability is often expressed in terms of the currently utilized procedures, and most programmatic customers can only plan a few years out, at best. But should core capability consider the long term where new technologies, aging facilities, and personnel replacements must be considered? These questions, and a multitude of others, explain why attempts to gain long-term consensus on the definition of core capability have consistently failed. This preliminary report will not try to define core capability for any specific program or set of programs. Instead, it will try to address the underlying concerns that drive the desire to determine core capability. Essentially, programmatic customers want to be able to call upon analytical chemistry services to provide all the assays they need, and they don't want to pay for analytical chemistry services they don't currently use (or use infrequently). This report will focus on explaining how the current analytical capabilities and methods evolved to serve a variety of needs with a focus on why some analytes have multiple analytical techniques, and what determines the infrastructure for these analyses. This information will be

The relevance of customer relationship management in the nigerian banking industry (A case study of intercontinental Bank Plc

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Babatunde B. O.

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Customers relation management (CRM is an emerging customer innovation focused on growing customers profitably by knowing, caring and delivering value to the customers in a bid to enhance customer intimacy, increase quality service levels and enhance business penetration supported by technological capabilities.The objectives of the study is to find out the relevance of CRM in the industry and the extent of the concepts adopted. Also to determine the extent to which the CRM concept assist to build up competitive advantage overtime. In order to ascertain the fact in this research work secondary data were collected and regression model technique were adopted to analyze result both in quantitatively and descriptively format. Also, the finding revealed that more resources should be invested in technology and personnel training in order to get the best out of the customer relationship management (CRM. Recommendation were equally offered for banks aiming towards crafting a niche for themselves in the turbulent industry.

Customer Integration during Innovation Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedrosa, Alex

2012-01-01

of companies’ growing interest in effectively collaborating with customers, research has investigated the importance of firm–customer interaction during innovation development. However, despite valuable insights into the performance-enhancing effects of customer integration, research has thus far overlooked......To stay viable, companies need to increase their innovation development investments over time. However, successful innovation development also cannot happen without customers, and thus companies seek opportunities to enhance their knowledge of current and future customer needs. As a result...... the activities companies should engage in when integrating customers during innovation development. Thus, this study investigates how and when customer-oriented companies engage in customer interaction during innovation development. Using a multiple case study design, this study examines four substantive cases...

Voltage sags: Their impact on the utility and industrial customers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davis, T.; Beam, G.E.; Melhorn, C.J.

1995-01-01

This paper describes the impact of voltage sags on the utility and industrial customers. Several utility measures are presented to minimize the customer's exposure to voltage sags. However, these measures cannot completely eliminate the impact of voltage sags on sensitive equipment. A case study is presented in this paper that includes measurement results that were used to characterize the voltage sags experienced on the utility system and in the industrial facility, simulation results that were used to develop area of vulnerability curves for the industrial facility, mitigation equipment that was employed to improve the sensitive equipment's ride through capability, and the lessons learned from the systems approach analysis

"Teaching Case": Who Renews? Who Leaves? Identifying Customer Churn in a Telecom Company Using Big Data Techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Asamoah, Daniel A.; Sharda, Ramesh; Kalgotra, Pankush; Ott, Mark

2016-01-01

Within the context of the telecom industry, this teaching case is an active learning analytics exercise to help students build hands-on expertise on how to utilize Big Data to solve a business problem. Particularly, the case utilizes an analytics method to help develop a customer retention strategy to mitigate against an increasing customer churn…

Customer complaints as a source of customer-focused process improvement: A constructive case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Uusitalo, K.,

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Process-based thinking commonly focuses on enhancing the efficiency of processes, while it is often criticized for not paying enough attention to the customer. This paper argues that customer complaint information can be used as a basis for customer-focused process improvement. Thus, it is not enough to make the complaining customer satisfied, but the complaint information should also feed back to the actual processes where the fault causing the complaint arose and where it can be removed. The empirical component of the study includes the development of a novel construction to utilize customer complaints for process improvements, which was implemented in a large Finnish enterprise operating in the wholesale logistics environment. The results show benefits at both operational and strategic levels.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS STRATEGIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rozitta Chittaie

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Changing in the current competitive environment, increasing simplicity of penetrating into the competitive market, and rapid growing of information technology are essential motives for performing activities in an environment. Nowadays, some companies step into rapid and instant development of their markets in order to improve customer relationship. These companies through adopting customer relationship management (CRM systems can earn and retain their customers' loyalty. As a result, designing customer relationship management strategies can lead to market protection, customer value increase, and greater customer satisfaction opportunities for continuous promotion of the enterprise. Regarding the complexity and the variety of strategies associated with managing a business, information-related capability seems to be an essential capability for earning profit from companies' activities and competition among peers. Hence, relation and information are employed for managing the firms are vital tools for seizing opportunities and tackling future issues. Giving the information only employed to support a company’s performance, making crucial decision about surrounding environment, increasing competitive ability of the enterprise will be difficult for company. Furthermore, since increase of competitive ability is accompanied by making greater profit on the deal, methods of raising competitive ability is an interesting and critical issue. Therefore, companies through information technology, cost reduction, and development of low-level relations with customers can achieve greater profitability. This paper probes into customer relationship management and business strategies. The implications of CRM strategies are discussed in detail.

Lean Customer Involvement : A Multiple Case Study on the Effects of Kanban on Customer Involvement

OpenAIRE

Lundheim, Henning

2012-01-01

Customer involvement is an important, but challenging part of software development. Delays and failures can often be attributed to a lack of customer involvement. Different development methodologies provide different strategies for customer involvement, all with their own challenges. Kanban is a new development methodology quickly gaining popularity in the software development community. This thesis aims to answer the question: How does Kanban influence customer involvement? The main prob...

Customs as Facilitation of Trade. Case of Albania.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Etleva Bajrami

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Economic cooperation and trade between countries of region is very important as a opening step for entering in big markets like EU-s. All agreements have a huge impact in customs administration for elimination of customs taxes and for facilitation of trade during customs crossing. Trade integration is seen as faster way for countries to complete all necessary condition for European Integration. This process requires fulfillment of all reforms, needed for approaches the development and integration between countries. This process is spread in time because of the feature and difference between society and their economies. Regional economic integration is considered an import component for longterm integration of South Eastern European countries in EU. Membership of Albania in WTO brings a number of free trade agreements, with the main purpose trade liberalization. The essences of these agreements have been liberalization of customs tariffs for increasing foreign trade and attract foreign investors. The loss of customs income will be compensating from imports increasing and economic development in general. The role of Customs has changed from one of a complete focus on revenue collection to a broad role encompassing components of revenue collection, trade facilitation and border security. Simplified customs procedures and documents are very important for improving relation of business and government and also improving business performance. The aim of this paper is to point out the roles, responsibilities and challenges of customs, for concluding this we have conducted a survey for analyzing the performance of customs in Albania.  

Impact Of Customer Relationship Management On Customer Retention A Case Of Private Banks Of Sialkot Punjab

OpenAIRE

Nayab Bashir

2017-01-01

Customer relationship management is good for banking sector to increase in any economic condition and for customers to receive quality services This research check the impact of customer relationship management activities on banks customer retention in Sialkot Punjab. For the purpose of study a sampling analysis was conducted among 330 customers of selected private banks that is Habib Bank limited United Bank limited Faysal Bank limited with the help of a structured questionnaire. 316 questio...

The influence of store image on customer satisfaction: a case study of a shoe store

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tarsis Souza Silva

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Knowledge of customers' image of a store is an essential factor in the management of retail outlets. This article presents a case study of the effect of the image customers have of a shoe store on their satisfaction, based on a descriptive and quantitative survey, with the application of a structured questionnaire. We then employed factor analysis to obtain seven store image factors: assortment, convenience, reputation, price, atmosphere, layout and service. The results show that the factor that most affects customer satisfaction in the store studied is service, and that atmosphere and layout have no effect in this respect. The results provide a better understanding of the role store image plays in customer satisfaction and loyalty.

ADDING VALUE TO CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA : CASE: WENZHOU WANDA CINEMA’S SINA WEIBO

OpenAIRE

Hu, Shuwei

2013-01-01

As a great invention, social media continues to play an important role of business world. Based on concepts of traditional Customer Relationship Management (CRM), customer value and service quality approach, this thesis briefly introduces social media to business and focus on Social CRM strategy. The aim of the thesis is to explore potential ways to add value to CRM through social media, and be generally on Sina Weibo by taking Wenzhou Wanda Cinema as the case company. Case study was cond...

Social Customer Relationship Management: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paliouras Konstantinos

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Social Customer Relationships Management (CRM is a current business trend providing new channels of two-way communication with customers through social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter etc. Social CRM enables companies to interact in an easy and contemporary way directly with customers as well as to track customer interactions and their social influence. In this paper we examine the importance of CRM, e-CRM and Social CRM for businesses. We provide perspectives on objectives and types of CRM, the working cycle of CRM, the stages of a CRM Strategy and technology tools that are used in CRM. Social CRM is in particularly analyzed, since this new trend requires active engagement by customers and other stakeholders. The engagement process is essential to successful Social CRM and to successful social business practices. Finally, we describe experiences from three family businesses that introduced Social CRM as a result of a project carried out as an assignment in the ‘Social Media Networking’ module of the MSc course in ‘Web Intelligence’ at the Department of Informatics of Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki. The assignment of the groups was to create a Social CRM Strategy in collaboration with a company. This study is a follow-up of the outcome of the projects carried out in the autumn semester 2014 and 2015. The results show that all three companies consider that Social CRM is an excellent tool for obtaining real time valuable data about customers and a cheap way to reach them.

A Customer Relationship Management System to Target Customers at Cisco

OpenAIRE

Rahul Bhaskar

2004-01-01

This case describes the implementation of an Internet empowered Customer Relationship Management (CRM) at Cisco Systems Inc. After describing the organizational background of Cisco, the case takes the student into the issues that the executives faced after the market crash in 2001. John Chambers, Cisco CEO, and his team decided to strengthen Cisco’s relationship with the customers so that the company could emerge stronger when the markets recovered. Questions are raised as to the implementa...

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND ITS DETERMINANTS : Case: Rex Hotel Saigon

OpenAIRE

Nguyen, Phuong-Thao

2016-01-01

Customer satisfaction is a core issue in customer services. Understanding customer satisfaction and its determinants is vital and essential in hospitality context. The aim of the thesis research was to help the commissioner – Rex Hotel Saigon to obtain a clear view of customer satisfaction and to understand characteristics of their target group. The thesis wishes to confirm whether customer satisfaction factors are similar with the results from previous researches and if there is any correlat...

Integrating Customer Intimacy Into Radiology to Improve the Patient Perspective: The Case of Breast Cancer Screening.

Science.gov (United States)

Chhor, Chloe M; Mercado, Cecilia L

2016-02-01

The customer intimacy business model has emerged as a key operational approach for health care organizations as they move toward patient-centered care. The question arises how the customer intimacy approach can be implemented in the clinical setting and whether it can help practitioners address problems and improve quality of care. Breast cancer screening and its emphasis on the patient perspective provides an interesting case study for understanding how the customer intimacy approach can be integrated into radiologic practice to improve the patient experience.

Investigating the Relationship between Corporate Reputation and Customer Behavioral Intentions through Roles of Customer Trust, Customer Commitment and Customer Recognition (Case Study: Iran Insurance Company in Iran, Isfahan City)

OpenAIRE

Fariddeddin Allameh Haery; Hassan Ghorbani; Bahram Zamani

2014-01-01

Current study entitled "Investigating therelationship between corporate reputation and customer behavioral intentions through roles of customer trust, customer commitment and customer recognition" investigates the role of corporate reputation in purchase intention and tendency to pay premiums regarding variables such as trust, commitment and recognition of customers of Iran Insurance Company in Iran, Isfahan city. In this study regarding the proposed model there is a main hypothesis (which in...

SME Customer Service Excellence: A Singaporean Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Koh Kelly Sze Wee

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In Singapore, service sectors are dominated by SMEs. This study set out to investigate customer satisfaction as a critical factor in SME survival and indeed in helping to maintain the overall health of the economy. In this study, data were collected from a Singaporean SME which supplies and installs glass for construction projects. Departments involved were Sales & Marketing, Administration, and Installation. A questionnaire survey was administered to every customer of the company in 2013 in order to evaluate the services provided by the three departments. Customers were categorized into five groups: main contractors, designers/sub-contractors, property managers, home owners and commercial owners. Data were analyzed in terms of thirteen customer service variables identified from the literature. Statistical methods were applied to data analysis and findings were arrived at. Findings were found to be sufficiently significant to permit the formulation of a Total Customer Service Excellence Model for SMEs in Singapore.

People Capability Maturity Model. SM.

Science.gov (United States)

1995-09-01

tailored so it consumes less time and resources than a traditional software process assessment or CMU/SEI-95-MM-02 People Capability Maturity Model...improved reputation or customer loyalty. CMU/SEI-95-MM-02 People Capability Maturity Model ■ L5-17 Coaching Level 5: Optimizing Activity 1...Maturity Model CMU/SEI-95-MM-62 Carnegie-Mellon University Software Engineering Institute DTIC ELECTE OCT 2 7 1995 People Capability Maturity

An analysis of vendor innovation capability in the contract electronics manufacturing industry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Perunovic, Zoran; Mefford, Robert; Christoffersen, Mads

2016-01-01

the contract, vendors can use different configurations of the competitive priorities of cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. The research aggregates the capabilities that influence the innovative capability of a vendor into the innovation-related capabilities (IRCs) of design, new product introduction......Limited academic research has been given to analysing the innovation capabilities of vendors in outsourcing contracts. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature by enhancing our understanding of how the innovation capability of vendors is deployed to win, run and renew outsourcing...... contracts with their customers. Employing the resource-based view as a theoretical basis and undertaking in-depth case study analysis of three vendors in the electronic manufacturing services industry, the research shows that to achieve the outsourcing objectives of winning, running and renewing...

Service quality that improves customer satisfaction in a university: a case study in Institut Teknologi Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Theresia, L.; Bangun, R.

2017-12-01

Universities should provide better service quality to get more customers. The purpose of this study was to find service quality which has impact on the increasing of customer satisfaction in a university. This study is a case study in Institut Teknologi Indonesia (ITI). The result of the study will help ITI to improve its service quality to increase customer satisfaction. This study employs path analysis technique. The data were collected through questionnaires developed from the literature. Questionnaires have two parts namely 1) service quality and 2) customer satisfaction. Service quality is measured through 22 questions with five service quality dimensions: 1) Tangibles, 2) Reliability, 3) Responsiveness, 4) Assurance and 5) Empathy. Customer Satisfaction is measured through 4 questions. The data then are processed by SPSS. The results showed that the students preferred to tangible quality improvement than intangible aspect.

Developing sustainable business experimentation capability : A case study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weissbrod, Ilka; Bocken, N.M.P.

2017-01-01

This research paper shows how a firm pursues innovation activities for economic, social and environmental value creation in the context of time sensitivity. We make a conceptual link between lean startup thinking, triple bottom line value creation, and organizational capabilities. The case study

KSC Technical Capabilities Website

Science.gov (United States)

Nufer, Brian; Bursian, Henry; Brown, Laurette L.

2010-01-01

This document is the website pages that review the technical capabilities that the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has for partnership opportunities. The purpose of this information is to make prospective customers aware of the capabilities and provide an opportunity to form relationships with the experts at KSC. The technical capabilities fall into these areas: (1) Ground Operations and Processing Services, (2) Design and Analysis Solutions, (3) Command and Control Systems / Services, (4) Materials and Processes, (5) Research and Technology Development and (6) Laboratories, Shops and Test Facilities.

The Link between Internal Marketing and Customer Relationship Management : A Case Study of one Nordea Call Center in Sweden

OpenAIRE

Stenbeck, Joakim; Cabander, Robin

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of the link between internal marketing and customer relationship management by conducting a case study of one Nordea call center. Background: Keeping existing customers is less expensive than acquiring new ones. Nowadays, up to sixty percent of marketing budgets are being dedicated towards retaining customers. So forth customer relationship manage-ment is slowly beginning to penetrate the banking industry as sustaina-ble rel...

IMPROVE MACHINING PROCESS CAPABILITY BY USING SIX-SIGMA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanjit Ray

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Six-Sigma is an improvement strategy for achieving customer satisfaction by reducing variation and thus producing products and services better, faster and cheaper. This study presents a Six-Sigma project of an automotive plant illustrating how the DMAIC methodology and statistical techniques were applied to resolve the issue of manufacturing process capability. This project has substantially benefit ted the organization by reducing the variation of bore size of crank case, achieving zero rejection and improving the on time delivery. By using appropriate qualitative and quantitative tools in different phases of the DMAIC methodology, the critical output, key process inputs and root causes were identified, analyzed and validated. This project methodology can be used in general to reduce process variation for any other manufacturing processes as well, which will help in improving customer satisfaction.

Packaging Solutions : Delivering customer value through Logistical Packaging: A Case Study at Stora Enso Packaging

OpenAIRE

Shan, Kun; Julius, Joezer

2015-01-01

AbstractBackground;Despite of the significant role of packaging within logistics and supply chain management, packaging is infrequently studied as focal point in supply chain. Most of the previous logistics research studies tend to explain the integration between packaging and logistics through logistical packaging. In very rare cases, the studies mentioned about customer value. Therefore the major disadvantage of these studies is that, they didn’t consider logistical packaging and customer v...

Customer satisfaction research

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tormasi, T

1987-03-01

A review of four aspects of the Gas and Fuel Corporation of Victoria's study of customer satisfaction covers: (1) corporate goals to meet its responsibility as a public utility and operate as a successful marketing organization, (2) the history of customer satisfaction research by GFC, (3) measurements of customer satisfaction through expectations research, and (4) case studies involving domestic appliance maintenance and gas mains renewal. Continuous validation of GFC's policies and procedures is the basis for future growth and success. 3 tables.

COPD case finding by spirometry in high-risk customers of urban community pharmacies: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Castillo, D; Guayta, R; Giner, J; Burgos, F; Capdevila, C; Soriano, J B; Barau, M; Casan, P

2009-06-01

COPD case finding is currently recommended at primary and tertiary care levels only. To evaluate the feasibility of a community pharmacy program for COPD case finding in high-risk customers by means of spirometry. Pilot cross-sectional descriptive study in 13 urban community pharmacies in Barcelona, Spain, from April to May 2007. Customers >40 years old with respiratory symptoms and/or a history of smoking were invited to participate in the study during pharmacists' routine work shifts. High-risk customers were identified by means of a 5-item COPD screening questionnaire based on criteria of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease, and were invited to perform spirometry accordingly. Those with an FEV(1)/FVC ratio less than 0.70 were referred to the hospital for a repeat spirometry. Of the 161 pharmacy customers studied, 100 (62%) scored 3 or more items in the COPD screening questionnaire, and after spirometry, 21 (24%) had an FEV(1)/FVC ratiocustomers of urban community pharmacies is feasible. Similarly to primary care practitioners, pharmacists have access to high-risk, middle-aged subjects who have never been tested for COPD. Pharmacists can help with early detection of COPD if they are correctly trained.

Capitalizing on capabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Ulrich, Dave; Smallwood, Norm

2004-06-01

By making the most of organizational capabilities--employees' collective skills and fields of expertise--you can dramatically improve your company's market value. Although there is no magic list of proficiencies that every organization needs in order to succeed, the authors identify 11 intangible assets that well-managed companies tend to have: talent, speed, shared mind-set and coherent brand identity, accountability, collaboration, learning, leadership, customer connectivity, strategic unity, innovation, and efficiency. Such companies typically excel in only three of these capabilities while maintaining industry parity in the other areas. Organizations that fall below the norm in any of the 11 are likely candidates for dysfunction and competitive disadvantage. So you can determine how your company fares in these categories (or others, if the generic list doesn't suit your needs), the authors explain how to conduct a "capabilities audit," describing in particular the experiences and findings of two companies that recently performed such audits. In addition to highlighting which intangible assets are most important given the organization's history and strategy, this exercise will gauge how well your company delivers on its capabilities and will guide you in developing an action plan for improvement. A capabilities audit can work for an entire organization, a business unit, or a region--indeed, for any part of a company that has a strategy to generate financial or customer-related results. It enables executives to assess overall company strengths and weaknesses, senior leaders to define strategy, midlevel managers to execute strategy, and frontline leaders to achieve tactical results. In short, it helps turn intangible assets into concrete strengths.

Customer’s Advisory, Organizational Openness and Capability: the Locus of Value Creation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Özgür GÜNGÖR

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Organizations of today are aware of the necessity to communicate with customers beyond learning about their satisfaction, loyalty or complaints. The closest way is focusing on customer involvement, a general term used for capturing the responses, advises and ideas of customers in order to better proceed with innovation ideas for product and service development in a competitive market environment. This flow, which is named as “customer’s advisory” by the authors, necessitates openness and capability. Openness requires technological focus along with responsiveness and empathy in organizational culture, creating a positive communication environment. The two variables of the capability construct are frequent and bilateral information sharing. This study was conducted to detect the level of use of these two constructs by various organizations operating in Turkey. The aim was to understand the interest in customer involvement to remain competitive, how “customer’s advisory” was used to collect customer views and responses in order to nurture creativity in innovation processes. Results reflect that organizations proved to be open; responsive to meet expectations, willing to understand the customers, and reflected empathy to encourage creative ideas. Also both variables of the capability construct proved to be strong where well-educated and trained employees help most for understanding the comments of customers. Turkish organizations’ following the customer’s advisory with openness and capability brings a new focus into Customer Relationship Management via feeding a creative process leadership focus to remain competitive.

Operational Complexity of Supplier-Customer Systems Measured by Entropy—Case Studies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ladislav Lukáš

2016-04-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses a unified entropy-based approach for the quantitative measurement of operational complexity of company supplier-customer relations. Classical Shannon entropy is utilized. Beside this quantification tool, we also explore the relations between Shannon entropy and (c,d-entropy in more details. An analytic description of so called iso-quant curves is given, too. We present five case studies, albeit in an anonymous setting, describing various details of general procedures for measuring the operational complexity of supplier-customer systems. In general, we assume a problem-oriented database exists, which contains detailed records of all product forecasts, orders and deliveries both in quantity and time, scheduled and realized, too. Data processing detects important flow variations both in volumes and times, e.g., order—forecast, delivery—order, and actual production—scheduled one. The unifying quantity used for entropy computation is the time gap between actual delivery time and order issue time, which is nothing else but a lead time in inventory control models. After data consistency checks, histograms and empirical distribution functions are constructed. Finally, the entropy, information-theoretic measure of supplier-customer operational complexity, is calculated. Basic steps of the algorithm are mentioned briefly, too. Results of supplier-customer system analysis from selected Czech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs are presented in various computational and managerial decision making details. An enterprise is ranked as SME one, if it has at most 250 employees and its turnover does not exceed 50 million USD per year, or its balance sheet total does not exceed 43 million USD per year, alternatively.

Sustained Energy Savings Achieved through Successful Industrial Customer Interaction with Ratepayer Programs: Case Studies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goldberg, Amelie [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Hedman, Bruce [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Taylor, Robert P. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Russell, Christopher [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2015-10-01

Many states have implemented ratepayer-funded programs to acquire energy efficiency as a predictable and reliable resource for meeting existing and future energy demand. These programs have become a fixture in many U.S. electricity and natural gas markets as they help postpone or eliminate the need for expensive generation and transmission investments. Industrial energy efficiency (IEE) is an energy efficiency resource that is not only a low cost option for many of these efficiency programs, but offers productivity and competitive benefits to manufacturers as it reduces their energy costs. However, some industrial customers are less enthusiastic about participating in these programs. IEE ratepayer programs suffer low participation by industries across many states today despite a continual increase in energy efficiency program spending across all types of customers, and significant energy efficiency funds can often go unused for industrial customers. This paper provides four detailed case studies of companies that benefited from participation in their utility’s energy efficiency program offerings and highlights the business value brought to them by participation in these programs. The paper is designed both for rate-payer efficiency program administrators interested in improving the attractiveness and effectiveness of industrial efficiency programs for their industrial customers and for industrial customers interested in maximizing the value of participating in efficiency programs.

Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: A Case Study from the Banking Sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rahman, Md. Hasebur

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Delivering superior service quality to customers in today’s business environment is very crucial and important due the stiff competition in the local and international markets. The ability to provide high service quality will strengthen the image, enhance retention of customers, attracting new potential customers through customer satisfaction and loyalty. This study investigates the customer satisfaction and loyalty relationship in terms of basic service, advanced service employed by Jamuna Bank Limited and customer perceptions regarding cost and prestige of receiving banking service of the concerned bank. The study reveals that there is a significant relationship observed among advanced service, cost & prestige and customer satisfaction. There is an insignificant relationship observed between basic service and customer satisfaction and finally a positive significant relationship observed between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty relationship.

Creativity and innovation by empowering the customer: The case of Mulino Bianco. Part II: The digital customer value added

Science.gov (United States)

Bujor, A.; Avasilcăi, S.

2015-11-01

Internet Toolkit and Web 2.0. by means of which customers are being invited to participate in competitions, being asked to design and share their concepts / views for new products, or to get involved in by voting those ideas they best like and would love to find them on markets. The aim of this paper is to explore and identify the involvement of stakeholders in Mullino Bianco's product development or improvement through creativity and innovation. As methodology approach, a case study about Mulino Bianco was done, and the foreseen result is highlighting the Nel Mulino Che Vorrei platform's features for consumer's engagement in the value creation and co-creation.

[Correction of congenital malformations by custom-made silicone implants: Contribution of computer-aided design. Experience of 611 cases].

Science.gov (United States)

Chavoin, J P; Chaput, B; Garrido, I; Moreno, B; Dahan, M; Grolleau, J L

2016-10-01

Modern techniques of computer-aided design and tridimensional prototyping for manufacturing silicone elastomer custom implants are growing. They have widely modified the surgical indications in our unit. By presenting their experience of 611 cases managed between 1993 and 2016, the authors describe the method of conception from CT-scans, the virtual image of the body and the manufacture of the custom-made implant perfectly adapted to the anatomy of each one. The operative techniques are described for the three main indications: the funnel chest or pectus excavatum (474 cases) according to a modified CHIN classification is corrected simply and very satisfactorily. This approach may render thoracic surgery techniques obsolete. Indeed, these operations remain risky and of doubtful functional utility; Poland syndrome (116 cases), where the use of a custom-made implant for compensation of muscle volume is frequently used, but can be improved by a transfer of adipose tissue or a classic breast implant; the leg atrophies (21 cases) receive custom elastomer implants introduced in a sub-fascial plane. The results are excellent for pectus excavatum but more difficult to optimize for the other two indications, requiring sometimes complementary techniques. Complications are rare and often benign, implants endure for life. Quality of life, psychological comfort and self-esteem have been improved with low morbidity and without having undergone a painful surgical experience. Reconstructive procedures of congenital malformations by custom-made silicone implants open a new field of activity for our surgical specialty with vast opportunities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Customer Service Analysis : Case: Sky Club Department of Yeti Airlines, Nepal

OpenAIRE

Chiluwal, Debendra

2014-01-01

In recent year, competition in business field is significantly growing and an organization cannot focus only on price but also they have to focus on customer service and satisfaction level. The objective of this thesis is to find out the level of customer service experience and satisfaction and provide suggestions for the future development. Customer service and customer satisfaction are relates to each other. Therefore, good customer service can get high level of customer satisfaction. A hig...

The Impact of Service Quality on Customer Behavioral Loyalty in the Case of Travel Agencies from Romania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ovidiu I. Moisescu

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Even though the concept of loyalty has been a key issue in tourism destination marketing for the last decades, the issue of customer loyalty in the case of travel agencies seems to be less emphasized in the specialized literature. The current research is part of a larger study directed at analyzing the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR on customer loyalty. Improving service quality is a fundamental part of the social responsibility of tourism businesses, while creating, maintaining and increasing customer loyalty is essential for the sustainability of these businesses. Starting from these assertions, the current paper tries to reveal certain correlations and to identify a model that depicts the impact of travel agencies’ service quality on their customers’ loyalty. In order to accomplish these goals, an online survey has been conducted among a sample of 286 Romanians which travelled using the services of a travel agency. In order to evaluate service quality, the SERVPERF assessment procedure was adapted to the case of travel agencies, using items related to tangibles (physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel, reliability (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately, responsiveness (willingness to help customers and provide prompt service, assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence - including competence, courtesy, credibility and security, and empathy (caring and individualized attention that the firm provides to its customers - including access, communication, understanding the customer. In what concerns customer loyalty, the paper focuses on its behavioral facet, namely on the recommendations effectively made regarding certain travel agencies. In the proposed model, the scores regarding perceptions (SERVPERF were approached as independent variables, while behavioral loyalty was depicted as dependent variable.

Governing and Managing Customer-initiated Engineering Change – An in-depth case study of a global industrial supplier

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sommer, Anita Friis; Storbjerg, Simon Haahr; Dukovska-Popovska, Iskra

2013-01-01

or externally by for instance customers. Managing initiated engineering changes is a vital source for improving product performance and radically reducing change costs. Customer-initiated engineering change is an area growing in importance decreasing product life cycles and increasing demand for customisation....... Through an in-depth case study, this paper investigates which process and what governance setup is appropriate to manage customer initiated engineering changes, referred to as request management. The paper includes a proposal for a request management framework and a task-based iterative process model...

The Impact of Customer Loyalty Program to Customer Loyalty (Study of Gaudi Clothing Store Manado)

OpenAIRE

Rumbay, Priscilla Jennifer

2014-01-01

This research is to analyze the impact of loyalty program member card to customer loyalty in Gaudi clothing store Manado. Loyalty program is one of the important marketing strategic in industries nowadays to gain customer and to retain customer. Loyalty program member card contains of discount, point reward, special treatment and privilege are influencing the customer loyalty in this case Gaudi clothing store Manado card holder. This research is a quantitative research that associative with m...

Customer response to day-ahead wholesale market electricity prices: Case study of RTP program experience in New York

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goldman, C.; Hopper, N.; Sezgen, O.; Moezzi, M.; Bharvirkar, R.; Neenan, B.; Boisvert, R.; Cappers, P.; Pratt, D.

2004-07-01

There is growing interest in policies, programs and tariffs that encourage customer loads to provide demand response (DR) to help discipline wholesale electricity markets. Proposals at the retail level range from eliminating fixed rate tariffs as the default service for some or all customer groups to reinstituting utility-sponsored load management programs with market-based inducements to curtail. Alternative rate designs include time-of-use (TOU), day-ahead real-time pricing (RTP), critical peak pricing, and even pricing usage at real-time market balancing prices. Some Independent System Operators (ISOs) have implemented their own DR programs whereby load curtailment capabilities are treated as a system resource and are paid an equivalent value. The resulting load reductions from these tariffs and programs provide a variety of benefits, including limiting the ability of suppliers to increase spot and long-term market-clearing prices above competitive levels (Neenan et al., 2002; Boren stein, 2002; Ruff, 2002). Unfortunately, there is little information in the public domain to characterize and quantify how customers actually respond to these alternative dynamic pricing schemes. A few empirical studies of large customer RTP response have shown modest results for most customers, with a few very price-responsive customers providing most of the aggregate response (Herriges et al., 1993; Schwarz et al., 2002). However, these studies examined response to voluntary, two-part RTP programs implemented by utilities in states without retail competition.1 Furthermore, the researchers had limited information on customer characteristics so they were unable to identify the drivers to price response. In the absence of a compelling characterization of why customers join RTP programs and how they respond to prices, many initiatives to modernize retail electricity rates seem to be stymied.

Customer-centered brand management.

Science.gov (United States)

Rust, Roland T; Zeithaml, Valarie A; Lemon, Katherine N

2004-09-01

Most executives today agree that their efforts should be focused on growing the lifetime value of their customers. Yet few companies have come to terms with the implications of that idea for their marketing management. Oldsmobile, for example, enjoyed outstanding brand equity with many customers through the 1980s. But as the century wore further on, the people who loved the Olds got downright old. So why did General Motors spend so many years and so much money trying to reposition and refurbish the tired,tarnished brand? Why didn't GM managers instead move younger buyers along a path of less resistance, toward another of the brands in GM's stable--or even launch a wholly new brand geared to their tastes? Catering to new customers, even at the expense of the brand, would surely have been the path to profits. The reason, argue the authors, is that in large consumer-goods companies like General Motors, brands are the raison d'etre. They are the focus of decision making and the basis of accountability. But this overwhelming focus on growing brand equity is inconsistent with the goal of growing customer equity. Drawing on a wide range of current examples, the authors offer seven tactics that will put brands in the service of growing customer equity. These include replacing traditional brand managers with a new position--the customer segment manager; targeting brands to as narrow an audience as possible; developing the capability and the mind-set to hand off customers from one brand to another within the company; and changing the way brand equity is measured by basing calculations on individual, rather than average, customer data.

Data mining for the online retail industry: A case study of RFM model-based customer segmentation using data mining

OpenAIRE

Chen, D

2012-01-01

Many small online retailers and new entrants to the online retail sector are keen to practice data mining and consumer-centric marketing in their businesses yet technically lack the necessary knowledge and expertise to do so. In this article a case study of using data mining techniques in customer-centric business intelligence for an online retailer is presented. The main purpose of this analysis is to help the business better understand its customers and therefore conduct customer-centric ma...

Evolution of a Unique Systems Engineering Capability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Robert M. Caliva; James A. Murphy; Kyle B. Oswald

2011-06-01

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is a science-based, applied engineering laboratory dedicated to supporting U.S. Department of Energy missions in nuclear and energy research, science, and national security. The INL’s Systems Engineering organization supports all of the various programs under this wide array of missions. As with any multifaceted organization, strategic planning is essential to establishing a consistent culture and a value discipline throughout all levels of the enterprise. While an organization can pursue operational excellence, product leadership or customer intimacy, it is extremely difficult to excel or achieve best-in-class at all three. In fact, trying to do so has resulted in the demise of a number of organizations given the very intricate balancing act that is necessary. The INL’s Systems Engineering Department has chosen to focus on customer intimacy where the customer’s needs are first and foremost and a more total solution is the goal. Frequently a total solution requires the employment of specialized tools to manage system complexity. However, it is only after understanding customer needs that tool selection and use would be pursued. This results in using both commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) tools and, in some cases, requires internal development of specialized tools. This paper describes how a unique systems engineering capability, through the development of customized tools, evolved as a result of this customer-focused culture. It also addresses the need for a common information model or analysis framework and presents an overview of the tools developed to manage and display relationships between entities, support trade studies through the application of utility theory, and facilitate the development of a technology roadmap to manage system risk and uncertainty.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ( CRM IN HOTEL INDUSTRY : A FRAMEWORK PROPOSAL ON THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG CRM DIMENSIONS, MARKETING CAPABILITIES, AND HOTEL PERFORMANCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdul Alem Mohammed

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Customer relationship management (CRM has a growing popularity and is becoming one of the hottest academic and practical topics in the business field. In fact, due to the competitive environment, CRM is crucial and has become a niche for firm performance. However, there is limited research that reveals the relationship between CRM dimensions and hotel performance. Therefore this study is an attempt to provide a value conceptual model that explains the theoretical linkages existing between CRM dimensions and hotel performance. This study serves not only to clarify the relationship between CRM dimensions and hotel performance, but also to explain the mediation role of marketing capabilities in this relationship.

Customer satisfaction factors for light rail: what can we learn from a successful case?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marin MARINOV

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The main goal of this paper is to analyze customer satisfaction factors for Light Rail, identify a successful case and compare the level of service of this case with another system so that improvements in terms of price, time of journey and connectivity can be elaborated and suggested. The Docklands Light Railway (London, UK has been identified as a successful case, which service levels have been compared to ‘Metro Sul do Tejo, MST’ (Almada, Portugal. As a result, a set of solutions to improve MST are proposed.

An Analysis of Port Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction: The Case of Korean Container Ports

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gi Tae Yeo

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Ports play a critical role in the economy of many countries and regions. Failure or unreliability of port services can significantly influence port customers—shipping lines and cargo owners—and result in their dissatisfaction. However, what constitutes port service quality (PSQ and its influence on the satisfaction of port customers has not been well investigated in the literature. Therefore, this study investigates the concept of PSQ and its influence on customer satisfaction in the case of Korean container ports. Following a literature review, a conceptual model of PSQ and its influence on customer satisfaction is proposed. The model was validated through a survey of 313 members of the Korean Port Logistics Association (KPLA. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM was conducted to confirm the PSQ dimensions and to examine their relationship with customer satisfaction using SmartPLS 3.2.1 software. PSQ is found to be a five-factor construct, and its management, and image and social responsibility factors have significant positive effects on customer satisfaction. In addition to its academic contribution, this study also contributes to management practices because port managers can use the PSQ scale to measure their customers’ satisfaction and justify investments in the quality management of port services.

Mass Customization as Innovation Driver of International Competitiveness in Peripheral Regional SME Subcontractors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Taps, Stig B.; Brunø, Thomas Ditlev; Nielsen, Kjeld

2014-01-01

practices that can be exploited as competitive capabilities. This paper suggests that an open network structure demands a transformation of peripheral-located SME subcontractor from traditional customized producer to mass customized producer. Mass customization as an instrument for the transformation...

True or False Customer Engagement Behaviour

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haurum, Helle; Beckmann, Suzanne C.

2014-01-01

Customers’ engagement behaviours are considered an important source of value to the company. So far, the discussion has mainly been conceptual and focused on the company’s perspective. By adopting the customer’s perspective we investigated how customers perceive their service relationship...... encounters with a company, using in-depth interviews. We found the following key factors driving and explaining customers’ engagement behaviours: (1) transactions matter and inconsistent engagement behaviours are a reality, (2) mundane products and services are still highly relevant for customers, and (3......) different degrees of customer experience alignment with services and products exist. Moreover, the distinction between true and false engagement behaviours we suggest indeed is relevant and we could establish their mediating capabilities....

A customer-focused approach to distribution: The case of SANparks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anneli Douglas

2016-08-01

Full Text Available While the importance of distribution has been recognised in tourism literature, the research has been approached mainly from the perspective of supply, with very little attention given to the customer. To date, there has been even less focus on the distribution channel requirements of the National Park customers. The purpose of this study is to examine how the various distribution channels used by South African National Parks (SANParks go towards satisfying the customers’ distribution channel requirements and identifying whether there is any relationship between certain variables, such as gender or the frequency of channel use, and the level of satisfaction that customers experience with the various channels. Web-based and paper-based questionnaires are distributed to the customers who have used the SANParks distribution channels before. The results show that, although the SANParks website is the most frequently used channel for making a booking, it is not necessarily the channel with which customers are most satisfied; in fact, they are more satisfied with the satellite walk-in reservation offices and satellite call centres. While the majority of the research studies in the context of tourism distribution channels have shown the importance and popularity of electronic distribution channels among customers, this paper cautions SANParks not to assume the distribution channel requirements of their customers and urges them to continually assess their distribution strategies and to become more customer-focused in their approach.

Capable design or designing capabilities? An exploration of service design as an emerging organizational capability in Telenor – Martinkenaite

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ieva Martinkenaite

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This empirical paper examines a process, starting with the managerial decision to make service design an organizational capability, and follows it as it unfolds over time within one organization. Service design has become an established business practice of how firms create new products and services to promote differentiation in an increasingly uncertain business landscape. Implicit in the literature on service design are assumptions about strategic implications of adopting the prescribed innovation methods and tools. However, little is known about how service design evolves into an organizational capability enabling firms to transform their existing businesses and sustain competitiveness. Through a longitudinal, exploratory case study of service design practices in one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, we explicate mechanisms through which service design evolves into an organizational capability by exploring the research question: what are the mechanisms through which service design develops into an organizational capability? Our study reveals the effect of an initial introduction of service design tools, identification of boundaryspanning actors and co-alignment of dedicated resources between internal functions, as well as through co-creation with customers. Over time, these activities lead to the adoption of service design practices, and subsequently these practices spark incremental learning throughout the organization, alter managerial decisions and influence multiple paths for the development of new capabilities. Reporting on this process, we are able to describe how service design practices were disseminated and institutionalized within the organization we observed. This study thus contributes by informing how service design can evolve into an organizational capability, as well as by bridging the emerging literature on service design and design thinking with established strategy theory. Further research will have to

Matching Value Propositions with Varied Customer Needs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heikka, Eija-Liisa; Frandsen, Thomas; Hsuan, Juliana

2018-01-01

Organizations seek to manage varied customer segments using varied value propositions. The ability of a knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) provider to formulate value propositions into attractive offerings to varied customers becomes a competitive advantage. In this specific business based...... on often highly abstract service offerings, this requires the provider to have a clear overview of its knowledge and resources and how these can be configured to obtain the desired customization of services. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how a KIBS provider can match value propositions...... with varied customer needs utilizing service modularity. To accomplish this purpose, a qualitative multiple case study is organized around 5 projects allowing within-case and cross-case comparisons. Our findings describe how through the configuration of knowledge and resources a sustainable competitive...

The intelligent customer: considerations around build-own-operate business and licensing models for small modular reactors in Canada

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, K.

2014-01-01

An organization planning a proposal for a build-own-operate business model needs to address expanded licensee responsibilities under this model, associated regulatory impacts and how this affects their role as an 'intelligent customer'. This is particularly important for cases where builder-owner-operators plan to manufacture factory-fuelled designs and ship them to a site for installation and operation. The primary responsibility for safe conduct of licensed activities rests with the licensee. A build-own-operate model expands the scope of licensed activities to include design, manufacturing, transport, construction, and operation. The licensee must be able to demonstrate they are qualified to conduct all licensed activities including sufficient competent resources within the licensee's organization to oversee('Intelligent Customer') any work it commissions externally and the subsequent flow down through of the supply chain. This paper examines aspects that organizations need to assess the suitability of approaches that it may take to maintain in-house expertise for the control and oversight of licensed activities at all times. It considers the approach to identification of: core capabilities the licensee would need to understand its safety case under a build-own-operate model to manage licensed activities in accordance with requirements under the Nuclear Safety and Control Acta licensee's 'intelligent customer' capabilities in particular around understanding, specifying, overseeing and accepting work undertaken on its behalf by contractors. While this paper is focused on small modular reactors, being an intelligent customer applies to large commercial or research reactors equally; the size of reactor is immaterial.

The intelligent customer: considerations around build-own-operate business and licensing models for small modular reactors in Canada

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jones, K., E-mail: kenneth.jones@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca [Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada)

2014-07-01

An organization planning a proposal for a build-own-operate business model needs to address expanded licensee responsibilities under this model, associated regulatory impacts and how this affects their role as an 'intelligent customer'. This is particularly important for cases where builder-owner-operators plan to manufacture factory-fuelled designs and ship them to a site for installation and operation. The primary responsibility for safe conduct of licensed activities rests with the licensee. A build-own-operate model expands the scope of licensed activities to include design, manufacturing, transport, construction, and operation. The licensee must be able to demonstrate they are qualified to conduct all licensed activities including sufficient competent resources within the licensee's organization to oversee('Intelligent Customer') any work it commissions externally and the subsequent flow down through of the supply chain. This paper examines aspects that organizations need to assess the suitability of approaches that it may take to maintain in-house expertise for the control and oversight of licensed activities at all times. It considers the approach to identification of: core capabilities the licensee would need to understand its safety case under a build-own-operate model to manage licensed activities in accordance with requirements under the Nuclear Safety and Control Acta licensee's 'intelligent customer' capabilities in particular around understanding, specifying, overseeing and accepting work undertaken on its behalf by contractors. While this paper is focused on small modular reactors, being an intelligent customer applies to large commercial or research reactors equally; the size of reactor is immaterial.

A Determination Method of Optimal Customization Degree of Logistics Service Supply Chain with Mass Customization Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weihua Liu

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Customization degree is a very important field of mass customization. Its improvement could enhance customer satisfaction and further increase customer demand while correspondingly it will increase service price and decrease customer satisfaction and demand. Therefore this paper discusses how to deal with such issues in logistics service supply chain (LSSC with a logistics service integrator (LSI and a customer. With the establishment of customer demand function for logistics services and profit functions of the LSI and the customer, three different decision modes are proposed (i.e., customization degree dominated by LSI, customization degree dominated by customer, and customization degree decided by concentrated supply chain; many interesting findings are achieved. Firstly, to achieve customization cooperation between LSI and customer, measures should be taken to make the unit increase cost of the customized logistics services lower than a certain value. Secondly, there are differences between the optimal customization degree dominated by LSI and that dominated by customer. And in both cases, the dominator could realize more profit than the follower. Thirdly, with the profit secondary distribution strategy, the modified decentralized decision mode could accomplish the maximum profit achieved in centralized decision mode and meanwhile get the optimal customization degree.

Ensuring US National Aeronautics Test Capabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, Timothy J.

2010-01-01

U.S. leadership in aeronautics depends on ready access to technologically advanced, efficient, and affordable aeronautics test capabilities. These systems include major wind tunnels and propulsion test facilities and flight test capabilities. The federal government owns the majority of the major aeronautics test capabilities in the United States, primarily through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). However, changes in the Aerospace landscape, primarily the decrease in demand for testing over the last 20 years required an overarching strategy for management of these national assets. Therefore, NASA established the Aeronautics Test Program (ATP) as a two-pronged strategic initiative to: (1) retain and invest in NASA aeronautics test capabilities considered strategically important to the agency and the nation, and (2) establish a strong, high level partnership with the DoD. Test facility utilization is a critical factor for ATP because it relies on user occupancy fees to recover a substantial part of the operations costs for its facilities. Decreasing utilization is an indicator of excess capacity and in some cases low-risk redundancy (i.e., several facilities with basically the same capability and overall low utilization). However, low utilization does not necessarily translate to lack of strategic importance. Some facilities with relatively low utilization are nonetheless vitally important because of the unique nature of the capability and the foreseeable aeronautics testing needs. Unfortunately, since its inception, the customer base for ATP has continued to shrink. Utilization of ATP wind tunnels has declined by more than 50% from the FY 2006 levels. This significant decrease in customer usage is attributable to several factors, including the overall decline in new programs and projects in the aerospace sector; the impact of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) on the design, development, and research

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT : case study Coca-Cola Company

OpenAIRE

Ling, Xiaojing

2017-01-01

The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation, a manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups with its headquarter in Atlanta, Georgia. This thesis is aimed to affirm the superiority of the Coca-Cola Company and to find out its shortcomings in managing customer relationships based on studying the customer relationship management strategy for Coca-Cola Company and discussing the comparison between Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola, then...

How Relational Capabilities Matter? Organizational Context and Performance of Internationally Oriented SMEs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariola Ciszewska-Mlinarič

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The article sheds light on the organizational context enhancing development of relational capabilities and examines the significance of relational capabilities for SMEs’ financial and non-financial performance. The firm relational capability is measured separately in customers’ and suppliers’ networks. The research results reveal that fostering internal social capital coupled with the usage of economic motivators augment a firm relational capability in a supplier network, which in turn is associated with better performance results, both financial and non-financial. The results on relational capability in a customer network with respect to performance are less conclusive, indicating that vertical ties that internationally oriented SMEs develop (with suppliers and customers are not of equal importance.

Pengaruh Customer Service Quality, Customer Perceived Value, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Trust Dan Switching Barriers Terhadap Customer Retention.

OpenAIRE

Hardjanti, Adiati; Amalia, Dinna

2014-01-01

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh customer service quality, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, customer trust dan switching barriers terhadap customer retention. Rancangan penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pengujian hipotesis (testing hypotesis). Pengambilan sampel dalam penelitian ini menggunakan teknik purposive sampling dan keseluruhan hipotesis diuji dengan metode structural equation modeling yang menggunakan Amos 7.0. Data dalam peneliti...

Product customization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lueg, Rainer

2015-01-01

This case study deals with the extension, customization, and profitability of two new product lines of a bicycle manufacturer. It can serve both as a discussion basis in class as well as an exam for advanced Master students in management, marketing, and ccounting. The case illustrates how variance...... application of financial analysis can lead to dysfunctional decisions that run counter to a company’s business model....

Improving customer satisfaction

OpenAIRE

Wei, Yu

2011-01-01

Today, the competition among enterprises is growing in intensity and organizations of all types and sizes have increasingly come to understand the importance of customer satisfaction and good services. The purpose of this study is to investigate the present level of customer satisfaction with language training institutes and find out any possible areas of improvement. This thesis will discuss and analyze the factors that influence the customer’s level of satisfaction and assist the case compa...

Custom-made silicone hand prosthesis: A case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Nayak, S; Lenka, P K; Equebal, A; Biswas, A

2016-09-01

Up to now, a cosmetic glove was the most common method for managing transmetacarpal (TMC) and carpometacarpal (CMC) amputations, but it is devoid of markings and body color. At this amputation level, it is very difficult to fit a functional prosthesis because of the short available length, unsightly shape, grafted skin, contracture and lack of functional prosthetic options. A 30-year-old male came to our clinic with amputation at the 1st to 4th carpometacarpal level and a 5th metacarpal that was projected laterally and fused with the carpal bone. The stump had grafted skin, redness, and an unhealed suture line. He complained of pain projected over the metacarpal and suture area. The clinical team members decided to fabricate a custom-made silicone hand prosthesis to accommodate the stump, protect the grafted skin, improve the hand's appearance and provide some passive function. The custom silicone hand prosthesis was fabricated with modified flexible wires to provide passive interphalangeal movement. Basic training, care and maintenance instructions for the prosthesis were given to the patient. The silicone hand prosthesis was able to restore the appearance of the lost digits and provide some passive function. His pain (VAS score) was reduced. Improvement in activities of daily living was found in the DASH questionnaire and Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function test. A silicone glove is a good option for more distal amputations, as it can accommodate any deformity, protect the skin, enhance the appearance and provide functional assistance. This case study provides a simple method to get passively movable fingers after proximal hand amputation. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Customer Satisfaction Research: A Case Study of Original Sokos Hotel Olympia Garden

OpenAIRE

Truong, Thuan

2016-01-01

This thesis research was carried out at Original Sokos Hotel Olympia Garden in summer 2016. The case company is one of three Sokos Hotels located in St. Petersburg, Russia. The hotel aims to deliver a “Cosy living, smart working” environment to all the guests. The thesis project examines customer satisfaction with different service aspects provided at Original Sokos Hotel Olympia Garden and the customers’ willingness to recommend the hotel to others. The thesis also analyzes the factors h...

Effective Social Media Marketing and Content Marketing Influence Customer Awareness and Interest in Bakery Industry The Case Study of Royal Bakery

OpenAIRE

Ha, Bich

2013-01-01

The study attempts to gain insight into the social media and content marketing, which can influence a brand’s presence among social community and methods that can increase customer awareness. As the end result, the author is proposing valuable recommendations on utilizing social media and determining content idea types effectively to the case company. For raising customer awareness, the case company’s online channels are not comprehended properly to utilize their potential effectivel...

Relationship marketing and customer loyalty:a customer service approach in nigerian companies. in nigerian companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olumoko,Tajudeen .A.

2010-12-01

Full Text Available This paper examines relationship marketing and customer loyalty from the approach of customer service-using some selected companies in Nigeria as a case study. The study clarifies the role of relationship marketing in customer services toward the achievement of customer loyalty via customer services among a sample of some selected companies in Nigeria. The study is a survey which uses a literature based research instrument [questionnaire] to measure the application of relationship marketing in customer services to achieve customer loyalty. Structured, close ended questions were used to collect primary data from the respondents. A six point likert scale ranging from “very high extent” to “no extent at all” was used to measure the level of the application of relationship marketing through customer services that aid customer loyalty. 2,400 respondents were selected based on convenience sampling method and stratified into the categories of Manufacturing, Service and Others, operating in Nigeria. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis. The research instrument shared high reliability and validity. The major findings of the study were as follows: In Nigeria, there is significant relationship between relationship marketing practice in customer service operation and customer loyalty, relationship marketing can be used to increase sales through customer loyalty via effective customer services and that relationship marketing has positive effect on customer satisfaction and organizational profitability.

The Impact of Customer Relationship Marketing by Aqaba Economic Zone "A Case Study of Five Stars Hotels"

OpenAIRE

Omar A.A. Jawabreh

2014-01-01

This paper is an attempt to find the variables factors that Influence the impact of customer relationship marketing by Aqaba Economic Zone "A case study of Five Stars Hotels. In this research, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data entry, as well as for examining the data later. Data preparation was the initial step, which aimed to convert raw data into a more structured format that is more appropriate for analysis. The hotel use specialized Customer Relation...

Measuring customer profitability through time-driven activity-based costing: a case study at hotel x Jogjakarta

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Billy Ardiansyah Garry

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Travelling intensity has been higher in the past few years making hospitality industry must be ready to provide the best service at optimum prices to customers who purchase and enjoy the services. Hotel as one of the accommodation service providers should be able to allocate resources accurately according to the actual needed capacity and thorough tariff policy for not losing the competition and obtain profit according to how much is projected. TDABC system is the most updated costing system which can assist the allocation of these resources. TDABC system is considered twice important to be applied in the service industry as service is intangible so costing system must show the exact and accurate number of resources used to provide the service. Through TDABC system, Customer Profitability Analysis is conducted with the aim of knowing the level of profitability every customer type possesses and classifying them as profitable or non-profitable customers. A case study had been conducted in a five-star hotel located in the Special Region of Jogjakarta resulting a profit recognized under TDABC system that traditional method used as the hotel’s costing system failed to do so and more proper data on costs and profitability of customers.

Are loyal customers profitable? : customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer profitability at the individual level

OpenAIRE

Helgesen, Øyvind

2000-01-01

Customer satisfaction is supposed to be positively related to profitability. This conception may be called “the paradigm of customer satisfaction”. Nevertheless, only a few studies have examined this fundamental relationship. Thus, evidence for this “much talked about relationship” is questioned. In this working paper the focus is on the individual customer with respect to the relationships between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer profitability at the customer level. The f...

Pengaruh Customer Relationship Marketing Dan Nilai Nasabah Terhadap Loyalitas Nasabah (Studi Kasus: Pada PT Bank Muamalat Cabang Jambi) the Effect of Customer Relationship Marketing and Customer Value to Customer Loyalty (Case Study: Muamalat Bank Ja

OpenAIRE

Harun, Harniza

2011-01-01

This study analyzes of the effect of customer relationship marketing  and customer value to customer loyalty. The object of this study is the Jambi branch of Bank Muamalat Indonesia. Research problem refers to the phenomenon of the business to the criticism and suggestions received from the ministry of consumer behavior refers to rumsan problem How to Influence Customer relationship marketing on customer loyalty. The research objective was formulated to seek answers to the flow that affect cu...

Beyond the retention-acquisition trade-off : capabilities of ambidextrous sales organizations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijssen, E.J.; Guenzi, P.; van der Borgh, W.

2017-01-01

Sales organizations aim to grow their firms' business by acquiring new customers while retaining their existing ones. Although customer acquisition and retention are complementary processes, they involve different sales process capabilities that often compete for investments. However, firms that

A hybrid Kano-fuzzy AHP method for measuring customer satisfaction: A case study of transportation system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Hemati

2011-07-01

Full Text Available An increase competition on today's economy has created motivation for many organizations to look for different alternatives on better serving the customers. There are always some budget limitations on any customer relationship method, which leads us to prioritize different alternatives. In this paper, we present an empirical method based on an integrated Kano and fuzzy analytical hierarchy procedure to rank suitable alternatives. The proposed model of this paper uses a questionnaire survey to gather customer's opinions and implements the method for a real-world case study of transportation planning. The questionnaire includes 37 questions distributed among 976 passengers for two trips in Iran. The results indicate that driver's physical and mental health, buss equipments with GPS functionality and familiarity of drivers with road and road's conditions play important role on choosing a transportation company.

An Empirical Study Of Service Quality Dimensions On Customer Satisfaction And Customer Loyalty In Nepalese Commercial Banking Sector

OpenAIRE

Devkota, Narendra; Dahal, Jay Raj

2016-01-01

Master thesis Business Administration - University of Agder 2016 The main purpose behind of this study is to find out the major factors that have impact in customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in case of commercial banks of Nepal. The thesis tries to explore whether there exists any relationship between service quality dimensions, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty depending upon various situational factors. Various concepts such as consumer buying behavior, buyer’s decision ...

Customer Relationship Management : Evaluating customer Relationship Management:case Lennol Oy

OpenAIRE

Ndila Mutua, Esther

2011-01-01

The objective of this thesis was to study the CRM of the Lennol Company which is a linen company situated in Finland, Jalasjärvi. The Company wanted to know if their CRM is effective and how they can make it more profitable for the company. The theoretical framework is constructed using materials on theories on Customer Relationship Management. This part consists of characteristics of effective CRM and benefit of CRM. The author also mentions the reasons for failure of CRM and also how busine...

Influence Preceived Customer Value and Customer Satisfaction Against Customer Loyality (Case Studies in the Tourism Industry Three Star Hotel in Jepara)

OpenAIRE

Istanto, Yuni

2013-01-01

Marketing in the twenty-first century experienced remarkable changes, with the inclusion of progress in the fieldof global information technology through the internet media. In this era many products / services that arepresented through the media, so that the consumer or customer before making a purchase will create aperceived value that customers (CPV) (Kotler, 2009: 134) about the product / service to be bought. The conceptof value is one of the basic elements of the theory of marketing (Am...

Managing Customer Relationships in the Social Media : Case: Diamo oy

OpenAIRE

Laakso, Heidi

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to increase the amount of new likes of Diamo Oy in the social media network site Facebook, eventually aiming for the creation of new customer relationships, increased visibility of the company and into strictly increasing purchasing of their products. The theoretical part of the study consists of the role of content production in the social media field and customer relationship management, of which particularly customer acquisition and retention are discussed mor...

Customer Value Customer Relationship And Its Effect On Reputation Of Courses In Jakarta

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguna Astuti

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The primary problem leading to this study is the limited empirical knowledge on non-formal education SMBs or known more as courses in Indonesia and especially in Jakarta Province. This makes the adapted theories and their successful implementation difficult to developt. The paper implores three specific problems reputation of courses and the impact of customer value CV as well as customer relationship CR factors on it. The issued and endorsed General Agreement of Trade in Services GATS in 1995 followed by law No. 25 of 2005 issued by the government of Indonesia and the Presidential Degree No. 76 and 76 of 2007 established the non-formal education as one of the business fields open for investment without condition. Combined with the high population density in Jakarta and the 102.6 million people of school age population in Indonesia making courses as a very lucrative business and of high level competition. The specific goals and contributions of the research include 1 identifying customers perception on customer value of courses in Jakarta 2 identifying customers perception on customer relationship of courses in Jakarta 3 identifying customers perception on reputation of courses in Jakarta and 4 analyzing the effect of customer value and customer relationship on reputation of courses in Jakarta. The research methods used are explanatory and descriptive surveys using simple random sampling technique for pulling sample. The data collecting technique used are literature studies observations and questionnaires. The result of the collected data with the primary data source was received in form of number of sample of 135 respondents in this case were students of courses in Jakarta. The findings are 1 Customer value perceived as average by customer 2 Customer relationship perceived as average by customer while 3 Reputation perceived as above than average by customer 4 The path analysis showed that customer value and customer relationship together have

Involving Customer Relations in Contextual Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Jesper

1996-01-01

This paper presents a case study in the form of a contextual design project, the aim of which was to design a system for a particular organization. The starting point in the case was a need in the organization for a specific system. The case involved an analysis of the organizations customer...... point of the design project, how the project was conducted, and which results it ended up with. This is followed by a discussion of the effects of, and lessons learned by, involving customer relations in contextual design....

Public-private partnerships. Managing organizational change for acquiring value creative capabilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Immonen, M.

2011-07-01

The objective of the dissertation is to examine organizational responses of public actors to customer requirements which drive the transformation of value networks and promote public-private partnership in the electricity distribution industry and elderly care sectors. The research bridges the concept of offering to value networks where capabilities can be acquired for novel product concepts. The research contributes to recent literature, re-examining theories on interactions of customer requirements and supply management. A critical realist case study approach is applied to this abductive the research which directs to describe causalities in the analyzed phenomena. The presented evidence is based on three sources, which are in-depth interviews, archival analysis and the Delphi method. Service provision requires awareness on technology and functionalities of offering. Moreover, service provision includes interactions of multiple partners, which suggests the importance of the co-operative orientation of actors. According to the findings, portfolio management has a key role when intelligent solutions are implemented in public service provision because its concepts involve a variety of resources from multiple suppliers. However, emergent networks are not functional if they lack leaders who have access to the customer interface, have power to steer networks and a capability to build offerings. Public procurement policies were recognized to focus on a narrow scope in which price is a key factor in decisions. In the future, the public sector has to implement technology strategies and portfolio management, which mean longterm platform development and commitment to partnerships. On the other hand, the service providers should also be more aware of offerings into which their products will be integrated in the future. This requires making the customer's voice in product development and co-operation in order to increase the interconnectivity of products. (orig.)

Case study: the health SmartLibrary experiences in web personalization and customization at the Galter health sciences library, Northwestern University.

Science.gov (United States)

Shedlock, James; Frisque, Michelle; Hunt, Steve; Walton, Linda; Handler, Jonathan; Gillam, Michael

2010-04-01

How can the user's access to health information, especially full-text articles, be improved? The solution is building and evaluating the Health SmartLibrary (HSL). The setting is the Galter Health Sciences Library, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. The HSL was built on web-based personalization and customization tools: My E-Resources, Stay Current, Quick Search, and File Cabinet. Personalization and customization data were tracked to show user activity with these value-added, online services. Registration data indicated that users were receptive to personalized resource selection and that the automated application of specialty-based, personalized HSLs was more frequently adopted than manual customization by users. Those who did customize customized My E-Resources and Stay Current more often than Quick Search and File Cabinet. Most of those who customized did so only once. Users did not always take advantage of the services designed to aid their library research experiences. When personalization is available at registration, users readily accepted it. Customization tools were used less frequently; however, more research is needed to determine why this was the case.

THE ANTECEDENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND CUSTOMER ORIENTATION

OpenAIRE

Kanten, Pelin; Kanten, Selahattin; Keceli, Munevver; Zaimoglu, Zuhal

2017-01-01

This study aims to investigate someantecedents of organizational agility. In the literature, it is seen thatstudies suggest that some organizational factors provide to maintainorganizational agility. Therefore, organizational structure, dynamic capabilitiesand customer orientation are considered as predictors of organizational agilitywithin the scope of the study. For this purpose, the data which were collectedfrom 176 employees in the retailing industry by the survey method were analyzedusin...

The role of empowering organization capabilities on efficiency of new product development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hoda Nikakhtar

2014-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an empirical investigation on the effects of empowering organizational capabilities on new product-development efficiency improvement and the proposed study is applied in one of Iranian food producers in city of Tehran, Iran. The study considers seven components including technological capabilities, marketing mix capabilities, capabilities for communication with customers, quality of new products, fast entry to market capabilities, customer satisfaction and economic success. The study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among 384 randomly selected people who regularly use different food products. Cronbach alphas for all components of the survey are within acceptable limits and it confirms the overall questionnaire in terms of various questions. The study has used t-student test as well as structural equation modeling to examine different hypotheses of the survey.

Investigating the effects of E-CRM's Functions on customer's E-satisfaction and E-loyalty (Case Study: Digikala Online Store

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

hashem aghazade

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Considering the importance of the factors affecting customer satisfaction and loyalty, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between performance and characteristic of a online stores – Digi-Kala in this particular case, as a perfect example of an electronic customer relationship system, and customer's electronic loyalty and satisfaction. As a practical-descriptive, research, electronic questionnaires were distributed among customers of Digikala , In which, functions of internet shopping system have been linked into three stages; before- purchase, during-purchase, after-purchase, and its relations with electronic loyalty and satisfaction have been estimated using structural -equations method. Based on the results, satisfaction of E-CRM's functions affected electronic loyalty and satisfaction. Also, satisfaction of during-purchase and after-purchase functions affected electronic satisfaction. However, the, effect of satisfaction in before-purchase functions in the electronic relation system has not been proven on satisfaction electronic customer's. Furthermore, the effect of satisfaction in system's functions in the whole stages has been proven on loyalty electronic.

A Rough Set Approach for Customer Segmentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prabha Dhandayudam

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Customer segmentation is a process that divides a business's total customers into groups according to their diversity of purchasing behavior and characteristics. The data mining clustering technique can be used to accomplish this customer segmentation. This technique clusters the customers in such a way that the customers in one group behave similarly when compared to the customers in other groups. The customer related data are categorical in nature. However, the clustering algorithms for categorical data are few and are unable to handle uncertainty. Rough set theory (RST is a mathematical approach that handles uncertainty and is capable of discovering knowledge from a database. This paper proposes a new clustering technique called MADO (Minimum Average Dissimilarity between Objects for categorical data based on elements of RST. The proposed algorithm is compared with other RST based clustering algorithms, such as MMR (Min-Min Roughness, MMeR (Min Mean Roughness, SDR (Standard Deviation Roughness, SSDR (Standard deviation of Standard Deviation Roughness, and MADE (Maximal Attributes DEpendency. The results show that for the real customer data considered, the MADO algorithm achieves clusters with higher cohesion, lower coupling, and less computational complexity when compared to the above mentioned algorithms. The proposed algorithm has also been tested on a synthetic data set to prove that it is also suitable for high dimensional data.

Prosthetic management of malpositioned implant using custom cast abutment

Science.gov (United States)

Chatterjee, Aishwarya; Ragher, Mallikarjuna; Patil, Sanket; Chatterjee, Debopriya; Dandekeri, Savita; Prabhu, Vishnu

2015-01-01

Two cases are reported with malpositioned implants. Both the implants were placed 6–7 months back. They had osseointegrated well with the surrounding bone. However, they presented severe facial inclination. Case I was restored with custom cast abutment with an auto polymerizing acrylic gingival veneer. Case II was restored with custom cast UCLA type plastic implant abutment. Ceramic was directly fired on the custom cast abutments. The dual treatment strategy resulted in functional and esthetic restorations despite facial malposition of the implants. PMID:26538957

Using customer-focused research and design to build a self-service online store: a case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmadi MB

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Michael B Ahmadi,1 William Trefzger,2 Rich Morey,1 Ileana Quintas31Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, 2Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Baltimore, 3IQ Solutions, Inc, Rockville, MD, USAAbstract: American government information centers need to be responsive to an increasingly customer driven information environment while ensuring the sustainability of operations. Enhanced self-service options offer one avenue for addressing both of these needs. This article presents a case study of how the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration used extensive stakeholder research and a customer-centric design to reframe its service model by building a self-service online store that integrates access to more than 1300 behavioral health publications previously housed in two separate clearinghouses. The redesigned Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Store offers users a modern e-commerce website that not only helps customers find, order, download, and share products, but also encourages serendipitous content exploration, which has led to increased orders containing both substance abuse and mental health publications.Keywords: customer research, taxonomy, usability testing, web analytics, web design

Base stock system for patient vs impatient customers with varying demand distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Fathima, Dowlath; Uduman, P. Sheik

2013-09-01

An optimal Base-Stock inventory policy for Patient and Impatient Customers using finite-horizon models is examined. The Base stock system for Patient and Impatient customers is a different type of inventory policy. In case of the model I, Base stock for Patient customer case is evaluated using the Truncated Exponential Distribution. The model II involves the study of Base-stock inventory policies for Impatient customer. A study on these systems reveals that the Customers wait until the arrival of the next order or the customers leaves the system which leads to lost sale. In both the models demand during the period [0, t] is taken to be a random variable. In this paper, Truncated Exponential Distribution satisfies the Base stock policy for the patient customer as a continuous model. So far the Base stock for Impatient Customers leaded to a discrete case but, in this paper we have modeled this condition into a continuous case. We justify this approach mathematically and also numerically.

Components of Managing the Quality of Customer Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vovk Viktoriia M.

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of the article is to clarify the essence of the concept “service quality”, identify the key criteria affecting the assessment of service quality, and find the points of intersection between the capabilities of the manufacturer and the preferences of the consumer in the process of improving the service quality. In the article the author’s interpretation of the category of service quality is proposed. The carried out research allowed to identify the stages of the service process and offer the criteria for assessing the quality of customer service. Studying the possibilities of enterprises in terms of customer service quality and the preferences of customers themselves allowed to create a model for managing the quality of customer service, which enables taking into account the interaction of the producer and the customer in the process of improving the service quality. Prospects for further research in this area are the testing of the theoretical model for managing the quality of customer service on practical material in a particular industry.

Pre-purchase customer experience : multiple case study of leading service providers in Norway

OpenAIRE

Kujala, Lisanna Carolina; Citic, Marija

2015-01-01

The theory of experience economy presents customer experience as a form of new economic offering and stresses the importance of customer experience for companies that are trying to differentiate from the competitors. Many service providers are increasing their focus on customer experience by putting the customer in the center of their business. This study investigates how experience centricity and customer centricity can be enhanced at prepurchase level. Nowadays, customer a...

Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship Management

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Pengwei; Li, Min; Jiao, Xiaojing; Zhou, Ruijin

The contemporary company attaches great importance to marketing relationship and customer relations is the core of this relationship. Further, customer satisfaction and loyalty is the core of the customer relationship management. Sometimes, high customer satisfaction causes low profit because enterprises do not realize that strengthening the loyalty of the aimed customer is the key of customer relationship management.

Applying systems engineering principles towards developing defence capabilities

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Smith, CJ

2011-09-01

Full Text Available responsibility is creating and executing an interdisciplinary process to ensure that the customer and stakeholders? needs are satisfied in a high quality, trustworthy, cost efficient and schedule compliant manner throughout a system?s entire life cycle... in the As-Is J Ops capability arising from factors such as changes in the operational environment (threat, theatres of operation, etc.), new technology insertion and obsolescence can be identified. These capability gaps are analysed in the Capability...

Focusing on customer service.

Science.gov (United States)

1996-01-01

This booklet is devoted to a consideration of how good customer service in family planning programs can generate demand for products and services, bring customers back, and reduce costs. Customer service is defined as increasing client satisfaction through continuous concern for client preferences, staff accountability to clients, and respect for the rights of clients. Issues discussed include the introduction of a customer service approach and gaining staff commitment. The experience of PROSALUD in Bolivia in recruiting appropriate staff, supervising staff, soliciting client feedback, and marketing services is offered as an example of a successful customer service approach. The key customer service functions are described as 1) establishing a welcoming atmosphere, 2) streamlining client flow, 3) personalizing client services, and 4) organizing and providing clear information to clients. The role of the manager in developing procedures is explored, and the COPE (Client-Oriented Provider-Efficient) process is presented as a good way to begin to make improvements. Techniques in staff training in customer service include brainstorming, role playing, using case studies (examples of which are provided), and engaging in practice sessions. Training also leads to the development of effective customer service attitudes, and the differences between these and organizational/staff-focused attitudes are illustrated in a chart. The use of communication skills (asking open-ended questions, helping clients express their concerns, engaging in active listening, and handling difficult situations) is considered. Good recovery skills are important when things go wrong. Gathering and using client feedback is the next topic considered. This involves identifying, recording, and discussing customer service issues as well as taking action on these issues and evaluating the results. The booklet ends by providing a sample of customer service indicators, considering the maintenance of a

Critical operations capabilities in a high cost environment: a multiple case study

Science.gov (United States)

Sansone, C.; Hilletofth, P.; Eriksson, D.

2018-04-01

Operations capabilities have been a popular research area for many years and several frameworks have been proposed in the literature. The current frameworks do not take specific contexts into consideration, for instance a high cost environment. This research gap is of particular interest since a manufacturing relocation process has been ongoing the last decades, leading to a huge amount of manufacturing being moved from high to low cost environments. The purpose of this study is to identify critical operations capabilities in a high cost environment. The two research questions were: What are the critical operations capabilities dimensions in a high cost environment? What are the critical operations capabilities in a high cost environment? A multiple case study was conducted and three Swedish manufacturing firms were selected. The study was based on the investigation of an existing framework of operations capabilities. The main dimensions of operations capabilities included in the framework were: cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, service, innovation and environment. Each of the dimensions included two or more operations capabilities. The findings confirmed the validity of the framework and its usefulness in a high cost environment and a new operations capability was revealed (employee flexibility).

Case study: the Health SmartLibrary* experiences in web personalization and customization at the Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University

Science.gov (United States)

Shedlock, James; Frisque, Michelle; Hunt, Steve; Walton, Linda; Handler, Jonathan; Gillam, Michael

2010-01-01

Question: How can the user's access to health information, especially full-text articles, be improved? The solution is building and evaluating the Health SmartLibrary (HSL). Setting: The setting is the Galter Health Sciences Library, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Method: The HSL was built on web-based personalization and customization tools: My E-Resources, Stay Current, Quick Search, and File Cabinet. Personalization and customization data were tracked to show user activity with these value-added, online services. Main Results: Registration data indicated that users were receptive to personalized resource selection and that the automated application of specialty-based, personalized HSLs was more frequently adopted than manual customization by users. Those who did customize customized My E-Resources and Stay Current more often than Quick Search and File Cabinet. Most of those who customized did so only once. Conclusion: Users did not always take advantage of the services designed to aid their library research experiences. When personalization is available at registration, users readily accepted it. Customization tools were used less frequently; however, more research is needed to determine why this was the case. PMID:20428276

Technical Knowledge and Skills Development in the Informal Sector in Kenya: The Case of Custom Tailors

Science.gov (United States)

Apunda, Edwinah Amondi; de Klerk, Helena M.; Ogina, Teresa

2017-01-01

Custom tailors working in the informal sector in Nairobi, Kenya, mainly acquire technical skills through undertaking traditional apprenticeships (TAs). However, most of these tailors are semi-skilled, produce low-quality products and are often poorer than their formally trained counterparts. This qualitative case study explores the aspects of…

Transient analysis capabilities at ABB-CE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kling, C.L.

1992-01-01

The transient capabilities at ABB-Combustion Engineering (ABB-CE) Nuclear Power are a function of the computer hardware and related network used, the computer software that has evolved over the years, and the commercial technical exchange agreements with other related organizations and customers. ABB-CEA is changing from a mainframe/personal computer network to a distributed workstation/personal computer local area network. The paper discusses computer hardware, mainframe computing, personal computers, mainframe/personal computer networks, workstations, transient analysis computer software, design/operation transient analysis codes, safety (licensed) analysis codes, cooperation with ABB-Atom, and customer support

Customer Knowledge in (CoCreation of Product. A Case Study of IKEA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grażyna Koniorczyk

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Customers knowledge is an attractive and effective source of ideas for proposals innovative products (services as well as changes in existing products (services. Contemporary firms recognize the need to co-create product (services with the participation of customers. The aim of this article is to define customer knowledge, value co-creation and customer co-creation concepts. The activities of IKEA were used to illustrate the issues presented in the article.

Customer Satisfaction Index Model on Three Level Of Socioeconomic Status In Bogor Case Study: Customer Satisfaction on Branded Cooking Oil Product

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Budi Setiawan

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Customer satisfaction index models have been developed in many countries, including Indonesia. Those models were commonly not focused on the socioeconomic status (SES of the customer, sothis condition could be a research gap. The aims of this research is to analyze the customer satisfaction index model of branded cooking oil product in Bogor, Indonesia based on SES established from the household monthly routine consumption. Questionnaires were used as primary data collection instrument in this study, while data analysis was carried out with variance based structural equation modeling (SEM which is also known as Partial Least Square (PLS model, and Kruskall Wallis nonparametric test. Perceived quality, perceived value and customer expectation as were significantly influencing the customer satisfaction construct in the structural model. This study also concluded that there is different level of overall customer satisfaction on the three levels of customer’s SES

27 CFR 28.286 - Receipt in customs bonded warehouse.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 27 Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Receipt in customs bonded... in Customs Bonded Warehouse § 28.286 Receipt in customs bonded warehouse. On receipt of the distilled spirits or wine and the related TTB Form 5100.11 or 5110.30 as the case may be, the customs officer in...

Customer journey in B2B SaaS business models

OpenAIRE

Opanasenko, Mariia

2017-01-01

In this paper customer journey for B2B SaaS business models was analyzed to study customer experience, customer success and its key performance indicators. The research method is the case study of Supplier Relationship Management SaaS solution provider. In recent years, the research in customer journey management identified the tendency of acknowledge customer journey as a differentiator and a competitive advantage. Customer journey is a complex process that entails structured customer experi...

CUSTOMS POLICY, CUSTOMS BUSINESS, CUSTOMS REGULATION: TO PROBLEM OF CONCEPTION CORRELATIONS

OpenAIRE

A. D. Molokovich; K. N. Shabeka

2010-01-01

Theoretical and methodological comprehension of customs regulation place and role in provision of trade and transport activity under conditions of world integration processes is considered in the paper.The essence of such economic categories as «customs policy», «customs regulation», «customs and tariff regulation», «customs business» is ascertained with the help of justified argumentation, clear conception approaches.

Organizational Capability Deployment Analysis for Technology Conversion into Processes, Products and Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomoe Daniela Hamanaka Gusberti

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This article discusses Organizational Capabilities as the basic components of business models that emerged under the New Product Development Process and Technological Management. In the context of the new Technology Based Companies Development, it adopts a qualitative research in order to identify, analyze and underpin the organizational capability deployment in a process of technology conversion into product and service. The analysis was carried out considering concepts from literature review, in a technology based enterprise started by an academic spin-off company. The analysis enabled the elicitation of a Business Model and the discussion of their components, and correspondent evolution hypothesis. The paper provides an example of capability deployment accordingly the established theory illustrated by a case study. The study not just enumerate the needed partners, resources, customer channels, it enabled the description of their connection, representing the logic behind the decision made to develop the conceptual model. This detailed representation of the model allows better addressed discussions.

Customer Clustering Based on Customer Purchasing Sequence Data

OpenAIRE

Yen-Chung Liu; Yen-Liang Chen

2017-01-01

Customer clustering has become a priority for enterprises because of the importance of customer relationship management. Customer clustering can improve understanding of the composition and characteristics of customers, thereby enabling the creation of appropriate marketing strategies for each customer group. Previously, different customer clustering approaches have been proposed according to data type, namely customer profile data, customer value data, customer transaction data, and customer...

Analysis of Relationship between Knowledge Management and Customer Relationship Management with Customer Knowledge Management (Case Study At Azaran Valve Co.)

OpenAIRE

Sayyed Mohsen Allameh; Arash Shahin; Babak Tabanifar

2012-01-01

Knowledge management (KM) and customer relationship management (CRM) are both emphasized on the allocation of resources to business supportive activities in order to gain competitive advantages.. Merging the two concepts of knowledge management and customer relationship management in customer knowledge management (CKM) model can promote the benefits of employing each of them and reduce the risk of implementation failure. This study sought to analyze the relationship between knowledge manageme...

SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Azman Ismail

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The capability of service providers to plan and implement the quality components in executing daily job may have a significant impact on customer loyalty. However, the role of service quality as an important determinant has been given less attention in the workplace quality research literature. Therefore, this study was undertaken to measure the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty. A survey method was employed to collect data from Malaysian soldiers who involved in peacekeeping missions at Middle Eastern country. The outcomes of SmartPLS path model analysis demonstrate that the ability of organization to appropriately implement tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy in executing daily job has been important determinants of customer loyalty. Further, this study provides discussion, implications and conclusion.

Capability maturity models in engineering companies: case study analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Titov Sergei

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In the conditions of the current economic downturn engineering companies in Russia and worldwide are searching for new approaches and frameworks to improve their strategic position, increase the efficiency of the internal business processes and enhance the quality of the final products. Capability maturity models are well-known tools used by many foreign engineering companies to assess the productivity of the processes, to elaborate the program of business process improvement and to prioritize the efforts to optimize the whole company performance. The impact of capability maturity model implementation on cost and time are documented and analyzed in the existing research. However, the potential of maturity models as tools of quality management is less known. The article attempts to analyze the impact of CMM implementation on the quality issues. The research is based on a case study methodology and investigates the real life situation in a Russian engineering company.

Recreation Demands of Customers in Thermal Tourism Establishments: Case of Balikesir Province

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehmet KAÇAR

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Evaluate recreation demand of customers who lodge in thermal hotels at Balıkesir province. Thermal tourism addresses to people who want to be healthier or aim to have sustainable health level. Parallel to the alternative tourism trend, in recent years there is an increase in number of tourists who visits to thermal facilities for daily trip or for a longer time period. In this study it is aimed to evaluate planning and developing spare time activities for customers who lodge in thermal facilities. The population of this research consist thermal hotel customers at Balikesir region from September to December in 20 13. Sample includes 400 customers who stay Asya Pamukcu Hotel Balikesir . In this research, “Customers‟ Recreational Demand Determination Survey” is applied which consists of questions related to spare time activities and questioner is developed by conside ring expert opinion and test re - test technique. The obtained data from survey is analyzed by SPSS 17 software. According to results, it is shown that, customers activities are insufficient related to spare times. Another result obtained from this researc h is that customers are willing to have recreational components in thermal facilities. Furthermore, it is shown that customers need information about thermal practices.

16 CFR 313.5 - Annual privacy notice to customers required.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... continuation of the customer relationship. Annually means at least once in any period of 12 consecutive months... customer by December 31 of year 2. (b)(1) Termination of customer relationship. You are not required to... any statements or notices to the customer concerning that relationship; (iv) In the case of mortgage...

Colorado State University: A Midscale Market Solar Customer Case Study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holm, Alison [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Chernyakhovskiy, Ilya [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-12-01

Despite substantial increases in solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment between 2005 and 2015, a large untapped market for solar PV deployment still exists in midscale market investments by universities. Recent estimates show that if all universities in the United States installed enough solar PV to meet 25% of their annual electricity consumption, this would cumulatively result in just over 16 gigawatts (GW) of additional installed PV capacity. Within this context, midscale market projects - loosely defined as solar PV installations ranging from 100 kilowatts (kW) to 2 megawatts (MW), but more broadly representing installations not captured in the residential or utility-scale sectors - could be an attractive option for universities. This case study focuses on one university solar customer, Colorado State University (CSU), to provide a detailed example of the challenges, solutions, and opportunities associated with university solar power procurement. Between 2009 and 2015, a combined 6,754 kW of both ground-mounted and rooftop solar PV was installed across multiple CSU campuses in Fort Collins, Colorado. This case study highlights CSU's decision-making process, campus engagement strategies, and relationships with state, local, and utility partners, which have culminated in significant on-campus PV deployment.

Customization and Upgrade of ERP systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dittrich, Yvonne; Vaucouleur, Sebastien

An increasing number of software systems are developed by customizing a standard product that provides the major part of the functionality. The customizations of Enterprise  Resource Planning systems are examples of such a practice. Nonetheless, little empirical research on the specific...... characteristic of this kind of software development is available. Do the recommendations for “normal” software development also apply in this case? We present an empirical study on ERP customization practices based on video recordings, interviews and a survey. The observed and reported practices challenge some...

Market orientation and innovativeness in supply chains : Supplier's impact on customer satisfaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kibbeling, M.; van der Bij, J.D.; van Weele, A.J.

As today's firms increasingly outsource their noncore activities, they not only have to manage their own resources and capabilities, but they are ever more dependent on the resources and capabilities of supplying firms to respond to customer needs. This paper explicitly examines whether and how

Market orientation and innovativeness in supply chains : supplier's impact on customer satisfaction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kibbeling, M.I.; Bij, van der J.D.; Weele, van A.J.

2013-01-01

As today's firms increasingly outsource their noncore activities, they not only have to manage their own resources and capabilities, but they are ever more dependent on the resources and capabilities of supplying firms to respond to customer needs. This paper explicitly examines whether and how

Early warning system for potential churners among mortgage customers

Science.gov (United States)

Irpan, Hamidah Muhd; Aidid, Sharifah Sakinah Syed Hassan; Mohmad, Sarahiza; Ibrahim, Noorazilah

2014-07-01

Retaining existing customer is a major task for many companies because cost to acquire new customers is higher than retaining existing customers. For mortgage business in Bank X, customer relationship management plays a big role to understand their customers' profile and churners so that suitable action can be done to retain their potential churners. Objectives of this study are (1) understanding their customers' profile and churners, (2) modeling potential churners using neural network model and (3) to deploy the model to identify potential churners. Data was divided into two parts: sampling (67,470 cases) and scoring (4,488 cases). Analysis was done using SAS Enterprise Miner. Dependent variable is churner/non churner while independent variables are balance and amount of loan, interest rate offered installment amount, loan performance, months in arrear, vintage, tenure, age, race and gender. Potential churners were identified as Malays, followed by Indian, other races and Chinese. Nonperforming loan and male customers tend to churn compared to performing loan and female customers. Younger customers with small loan amount, balance and monthly instalment, higher interest rate, have many months in arrears, longer vintage and tenure have higher tendency to churn from Bank X. Hence, Bank X should focus on the potential churners for their campaign to minimize the expenses of retaining existing customers by doing an effective campaign with high successful rate.

Do 'enabling technologies' affect customer performance in price-responsive load programs?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldman, Charles A.; Kintner-Meyer, Michael; Heffner, Grayson

2002-01-01

Price-responsive load (PRL) programs vary significantly in overall design, the complexity of relationships between program administrators, load aggregators, and customers, and the availability of ''enabling technologies''. Enabling technologies include such features as web-based power system and price monitoring, control and dispatch of curtailable loads, communications and information systems links to program participants, availability of interval metering data to customers in near real time, and building/facility/end-use automation and management capabilities. Two state agencies - NYSERDA in New York and the CEC in California - have been conspicuous leaders in the demonstration of demand response (DR) programs utilizing enabling technologies. In partnership with key stakeholders in these two states (e.g., grid operator, state energy agencies, and program administrators), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) surveyed 56 customers who worked with five contractors participating in CEC or NYSERDA-sponsored DR programs. We combined market research and actual load curtailment data when available (i.e., New York) or customer load reduction targets in order to explore the relative importance of contractor's program design features, sophistication of control strategies, and reliance on enabling technologies in predicting customer's ability to deliver load reductions in DR programs targeted to large commercial/industrial customers. We found preliminary evidence that DR enabling technology has a positive effect on load curtailment potential. Many customers indicated that web-based energy information tools were useful for facilitating demand response (e.g., assessing actual performance compared to load reduction contract commitments), that multiple notification channels facilitated timely response, and that support for and use of backup generation allowed customers to achieve significant and predictable load

Highway Expenditures and Associated Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Paz

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This study analyzes the satisfaction of the Nevadans with respect to their highway transportation system and the corresponding expenditures of Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT. A survey questionnaire was designed to capture the opinions of the Nevadans (customers about a number of characteristics of their transportation system. Data from the financial data warehouse of the NDOT was used to evaluate expenditures. Multinomial probit models were estimated to study the correlations between customers’ opinion and the government expenditures in transportation. The results indicate the customer satisfaction is decreasing with respect to traffic safety throughout Northwestern and Southern Nevada highways. In addition, users of Northwestern highways are more likely to be satisfied, compared to their counterparts, with increasing construction spending to reduce the time taken to complete construction projects. In Southern Nevada highways, customers’ satisfaction increases with the expenditures associated with reduction of congestion. These insights are examples of the conclusions that were obtained as a consequence of simultaneously considering customer satisfaction and the corresponding expenditures in transportation.

Dynamic capability in an under-researched cultural environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatemeh Rezaee

2016-02-01

Full Text Available During the past few years, dynamic capability (DC has been considered as an important issue in banking industry. This paper presents a survey on dynamic capability and its role on reaching sustainable competitive advantage (SCA within Mellat bank of Iran (MBI. A valid research instrument is utilized to conduct a survey among 150 managers from MBI. The study utilizes structural equation modelling to examine different hypotheses based on an integrated model of DC and SCA. According to literature studies, expert opinions and exploratory factor analysis, DC is classified into sensing, learning, reconfiguration, and coordination. Furthermore, SCA of the banking industry is classified into three dimensions: market, customer, and financial performance. The results indicate that DC had the greatest effect on the market centered, while it had the least influence on the customer centered.

Impact of Customer Relationship Management on Customer Loyalty, Customer Retention and Customer Profitability for Hotelier Sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandra-Dinora Orantes-Jiménez

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Since the entrance of strategies oriented to marketing relational in Hotelier Sector, the traditional way of travel agents and other representatives arranging hospitality services for hotel and travel reservations has changed. The strategies oriented to customer relationship management are a relatively new area of specialty loyalty marketing in the hotel and hotelier sector, with advancements being made constantly. The use of this type of strategy can allow hoteliers or companies to tailor special guest programs, services and promotions based on hotel guest preferences. The hotel can use the data collected in a program to identify the needs of particular customers across hotel chains to be able to use marketing that can be targeted at specific groups of people. It also gives hoteliers the opportunity to evaluate frequent guest programs, personalize their services and perform trend analysis. A program based in marketing relational is typically run by hotels and companies to collect guest information and transaction data for use and examining to allow hoteliers to see target groups that should be marketed too. Based on these transactions hotels are able to create and manage guest loyalty programs and reward schemes. This research approach is to appraise the impact of customer relationship management on customer profitability as mediated by customer loyalty and customer retention within the hotelier sector of Mexico, and specifically for those hoteliers classified like of three stars. A sample of 100 hotels three stars was interviewed as respondents in this study. The objective of the study was to find the impact relationship between effective customer relationship implementation, customer loyalty, and customer retention and customer profitability. The findings of the study add value to hotels three stars in Mexico, and provide some invaluable statistical results essential for hotel managers and owners to successfully enhance customer loyalty

Treatment of Severely Resorbed Maxilla Due to Peri-Implantitis by Guided Bone Regeneration Using a Customized Allogenic Bone Block: A Case Report

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Oliver Blume

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The objective of this case report is to introduce a customized CAD/CAM freeze-dried bone allograft (FDBA block for its use in Guided Bone Regeneration (GBR procedures for severely deficient maxillary bones. Additionally, a special newly developed remote incision technique is presented to avoid wound dehiscence. The results show optimal integration behavior of the FDBA block after six months and the formation of new vital bone. Thus, the results of the present case report confirm the use of the customized CAD/CAM bone block for augmentation of complex defects in the maxillary aesthetic zone as a successful treatment concept.

Pengaruh Customer Relationship Management (Crm) Terhadap Customer Satisfaction Dan Customer Loyalty Pada Pelanggan Matahari Department Store

OpenAIRE

Ham, Meyske

2016-01-01

This study was conducted to determine the effect Benefits of Customer Relationship Management and Customer satisfation to Customer Loyalty in Customers Matahari Department Store. Customer relationship management (CRM) is part of a marketing strategy to get satisfaction and increase customer loyalty. CRM and customer satisfaction can encourage customer loyalty where customers do not easily switch to other companies. The population is all customers Matahari Department Store, and the sample are ...

Creating a management system for customer information for a small business CASE: Botisto

OpenAIRE

Aho, Timo

2012-01-01

The purpose of this thesis project was to find and create a better solution for handling customer information at Botisto. Botisto is Spanish company selling mass customized men’s footwear. Before this thesis project, the customer information was collected manually. This information consisted, for example, of names, preferred shoe sizes and address information. During this project, it was decided that a customer information system will to be created from scratch. The system was develop...

Customer Satisfaction Index Model on Three Level Of Socioeconomic Status In Bogor Case Study: Customer Satisfaction on Branded Cooking Oil Product

OpenAIRE

Budi Setiawan

2014-01-01

Customer satisfaction index models have been developed in many countries, including Indonesia. Those models were commonly not focused on the socioeconomic status (SES) of the customer, sothis condition could be a research gap. The aims of this research is to analyze the customer satisfaction index model of branded cooking oil product in Bogor, Indonesia based on SES established from the household monthly routine consumption. Questionnaires were used as primary data collection instrument in th...

Customs unions, currency crises, and monetary policy coordination: The case of the Eurasian Economic Union

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evgeny Vinokurov

2017-09-01

Full Text Available After achieving substantial progress in establishing a common customs territory and regulations, customs unions face potential disruptions due to a lack of monetary policy coordination. These disruptions might appear in the form of currency shocks and the ensuing trade conflicts. We approach this issue by looking at the case of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU. The volatility of national currencies in 2014–2015 resulted in sizable shifts in competitiveness, culminating in a currency crisis in some member states. This raises the questions of how to gradually achieve a more coordinated monetary policy, what monetary policy options are available, and what would be their relative impact on macroeconomic stability. Using a set of modeling tools and econometric models, we review three monetary regimes, which represent moves from fully independent exchange rate policy through increased policy coordination to joint exchange rate setting.

25th Annual International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines

CERN Document Server

The IEEE Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines is the original and premier forum for presenting and discussing new research related to computing that exploits the unique features and capabilities of FPGAs and other reconfigurable hardware. Over the past two decades, FCCM has been the place to present papers on architectures, tools, and programming models for field-programmable custom computing machines as well as applications that use such systems.

Shouldn’t customers control customized product development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Smets, L.P.M.; Langerak, F.; Rijsdijk, S.A.

2013-01-01

Nowadays, customized product development (CPD) is increasingly prevalent in business-to-business settings, which has motivated manufacturers into development approaches wherein the customer plays an active role. When the customer is merely viewed as a passive receiver of the customized product, the

Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lemon, Katherine N.; Verhoef, Peter C.

2016-01-01

Understanding customer experience and the customer journey over time is critical for firms. Customers now interact with firms through myriad touch points in multiple channels and media, and customer experiences are more social in nature. These changes require firms to integrate multiple business

Customer familiarity with new industrial product technology and its influence on adoption: The case of De Beers diamond extraction equipment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nabbie, A.

2013-05-01

Full Text Available An investigation was conducted into the influence of industry customers familiarity with new technology on their decisions when purchasing discontinuous industrial products. This was done in the context where the supplier and customer organisations are entities in the same company. Even in this favourable context, continuous products remained successful despite a better solution being available. Literature on this close type of relationship is sparse, mostly because information on such internal processes is generally regarded as competitive. The case investigated was the DebTech division of De Beers, and their experience with products that they design and manufacture for the global diamond mining industry. Product developer and customer data from applicable projects was analysed, and interviews and observations were conducted. The results indicate that familiarity with the product technology favourably influences perceptions of newness, safety, and the ease of integration of a product. Familiarity increases customers propensity to recommend and purchase new-technology products.

Parallel Machine Scheduling with Batch Delivery to Two Customers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xueling Zhong

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In some make-to-order supply chains, the manufacturer needs to process and deliver products for customers at different locations. To coordinate production and distribution operations at the detailed scheduling level, we study a parallel machine scheduling model with batch delivery to two customers by vehicle routing method. In this model, the supply chain consists of a processing facility with m parallel machines and two customers. A set of jobs containing n1 jobs from customer 1 and n2 jobs from customer 2 are first processed in the processing facility and then delivered to the customers directly without intermediate inventory. The problem is to find a joint schedule of production and distribution such that the tradeoff between maximum arrival time of the jobs and total distribution cost is minimized. The distribution cost of a delivery shipment consists of a fixed charge and a variable cost proportional to the total distance of the route taken by the shipment. We provide polynomial time heuristics with worst-case performance analysis for the problem. If m=2 and (n1-b(n2-b<0, we propose a heuristic with worst-case ratio bound of 3/2, where b is the capacity of the delivery shipment. Otherwise, the worst-case ratio bound of the heuristic we propose is 2-2/(m+1.

Customer-to-customer roles and impacts in service encounters

OpenAIRE

Lee, Linda

2016-01-01

This thesis investigates customer-to-customer roles and impacts in the context of service encounters. This topic is studied from two angles: customer interactions during group service encounters and customer perceptions post service encounters. The first angle is a focus on group service encounters that addresses the lack of research on customer-to-customer interactions that occur in customer-to-customer interaction-intensive contexts. These are contexts where the interactions between custome...

An Analysis of the Influencing Factors of Customer Retention in Tourism Resort Industry: A Case Study of Lingnan Impression Park, Guangzhou, China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Li

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The customer retention is an important factor in today’s increasingly tourism competitive markets which should be concerned seriously. At present, many academic customer retention researches mostly focused on the business market research in the hotel industry. In view of the tourism resort, especially the urban cultural themes attraction, analyzing the influencing factors of customer retention in such resort has its special significance. The aim of this study is to empirically explore the relationship among the cultural attractive, attraction operation, promotion strategy and tourist costs on customer retention in the urban cultural themes attraction. A quantitative research method was adopted to collect empirical data from the case study of Lingnan Impression Park, Guangzhou, China and the analysis of the influencing factors base on the integrated research approach for the urban cultural themes resort. The results indicate what extent these individual factors can have an impact on customer retention is beneficial for the resort marketing practices and several strategies are suggested about improving the degree of the customer retention to the urban cultural themes resorts in China.

Evaluate the effect of perceived ease and usefulness,customer's ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Evaluate the effect of perceived ease and usefulness,customer's awareness and confidence by mobile bank on tendency to use (intended use) of mobile bank's system (case study of customers of Khuzestan's Tejarat bankbranches)

Assured clean power enhances customer service

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angell, D.; Venosdel, K.; Padaca, V.

1998-01-01

Steps taken by Idaho Power Co. (IPCO) in Boise, Idaho, to increase efficiency and reduce costs by installing more distribution automation capabilities were outlined. The utility monitors the quality and reliability of power supplied to hi-tech industrial customers through state-of-the-art, client-server software linked to digital meters. The digital metering was integrated into the company's existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and energy management systems (EMS). IPCO's territory covers about 51,800 sq km throughout southern Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada and consists of 79 towns and a dispersed population of 700,000. Many of the customers are farmers. Seventeen hydro and three coal-fired plants supply the diverse customer population with power through 234 substations. Box and mobile substations are used to reach the company's dispersed customer base. The digital power meters (3710 ACM) from Power Measurements Ltd. of Victoria, British Columbia, were installed about six years ago. They are used to analyze collected data and to prevent the utility from overloading its equipment and risking customer power outages. The data is also used to help farmers increase the efficiency of their water pumps. The meter is programmable, allowing IPCO to choose the information it wants to monitor, including harmonics-created problems in its distribution system. The new meters also eliminate the need for extra transducers to collect voltage, current, watts and VAR information. 2 figs

The impact of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and customer profitability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Triest, S.; Bun, M.J.G.; van Raaij, E.M.; Vernooij, M.J.A.

2009-01-01

We study the effects of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and customer profitability in a business-to-business setting. Using data from a company providing hygiene services, we look at the impact of a hitherto unstudied type of expense targeted at individual customer

MARKETING CAPABILITIES FOR INNOVATION-BASED COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE SLOVENIAN MARKET

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vojko Potocan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The primary role of marketing within the competitive advantage is innovation. The customer value-based differentiation strategies will drive the company’s market research efforts, its selection of target markets, its product development processes, its market communications programs, and its delivery processes. These processes require many specific capabilities that enable the firm to carry out activities necessary to move its products or services through the value chain. We must explore the role of distinctive marketing capabilities in competitive strategy of the company. As sources of competitive advantage, companies try to create their product or service differentiation by developing higher product or service quality, by using their knowledge to solving marketing problems, by communicating with their customers, and by satisfying customer’s needs. We also would like to confirm that superior customer service lead to company’s innovation. The paper closes with the implications of the findings and highlights promising future research avenues.

The impact of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and customer profitability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Triest, S.; van Raaij, E.M.; Bun, M.; Vernooij, M.

2007-01-01

We study the effects of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and cus-tomer profitability in a business-to-business setting. Using data from a company providing hygiene services, we look at the impact of a type of expenses targeted at individual customer relationships: the

Effective configurations of value creation and capture capabilities : extending Treacy and Wiersema’s value disciplines

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zacharias, N.; Nijssen, E.J.; Stock, R.M.

2016-01-01

This article theoretically elaborates and empirically investigates the alignment of the value creation and capture capabilities of Treacy and Wiersema’s (1993, 1995) typology of three strategies for superior customer value (product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy). Drawing

Feasibility study of using statistical process control to customized quality assurance in proton therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Rah, Jeong-Eun; Shin, Dongho; Oh, Do Hoon; Kim, Tae Hyun; Kim, Gwe-Ya

2014-09-01

To evaluate and improve the reliability of proton quality assurance (QA) processes and, to provide an optimal customized tolerance level using the statistical process control (SPC) methodology. The authors investigated the consistency check of dose per monitor unit (D/MU) and range in proton beams to see whether it was within the tolerance level of the daily QA process. This study analyzed the difference between the measured and calculated ranges along the central axis to improve the patient-specific QA process in proton beams by using process capability indices. The authors established a customized tolerance level of ±2% for D/MU and ±0.5 mm for beam range in the daily proton QA process. In the authors' analysis of the process capability indices, the patient-specific range measurements were capable of a specification limit of ±2% in clinical plans. SPC methodology is a useful tool for customizing the optimal QA tolerance levels and improving the quality of proton machine maintenance, treatment delivery, and ultimately patient safety.

Feasibility study of using statistical process control to customized quality assurance in proton therapy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rah, Jeong-Eun; Oh, Do Hoon; Shin, Dongho; Kim, Tae Hyun; Kim, Gwe-Ya

2014-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate and improve the reliability of proton quality assurance (QA) processes and, to provide an optimal customized tolerance level using the statistical process control (SPC) methodology. Methods: The authors investigated the consistency check of dose per monitor unit (D/MU) and range in proton beams to see whether it was within the tolerance level of the daily QA process. This study analyzed the difference between the measured and calculated ranges along the central axis to improve the patient-specific QA process in proton beams by using process capability indices. Results: The authors established a customized tolerance level of ±2% for D/MU and ±0.5 mm for beam range in the daily proton QA process. In the authors’ analysis of the process capability indices, the patient-specific range measurements were capable of a specification limit of ±2% in clinical plans. Conclusions: SPC methodology is a useful tool for customizing the optimal QA tolerance levels and improving the quality of proton machine maintenance, treatment delivery, and ultimately patient safety

When to "Fire" Customers: Customer Cost-Based Pricing

OpenAIRE

Jiwoong Shin; K. Sudhir; Dae-Hee Yoon

2012-01-01

The widespread adoption of activity-based costing enables firms to allocate common service costs to each customer, allowing for precise measurement of both the cost to serve a particular customer and the customer's profitability. In this paper, we investigate how pricing strategies based on customer cost information affects a firm's customer acquisition and retention dynamics, and ultimately its profit, using a two-period monopoly model with high- and low-cost customer segments. Although past...

Customized Geological Map Patterns for the Macintosh Computer.

Science.gov (United States)

Boyer, Paul Slayton

1986-01-01

Describes how the graphics capabilities of the Apple Macintosh computer can be used in geological teaching by customizing fill patterns with lithologic symbols. Presents two methods for doing this: creating a dummy document, or by changing the pattern resource resident in the operating system. Special symbols can also replace fonts. (TW)

Opinion Summarizationof CustomerComments

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Miao; Wu, Guoshi

Web 2.0 technologies have enabled more and more customers to freely comment on different kinds of entities, such as sellers, products and services. The large scale of information poses the need and challenge of automatic summarization. In many cases, each of the user-generated short comments implies the opinions which rate the target entity. In this paper, we aim to mine and to summarize all the customer comments of a product. The algorithm proposed in this researchis more reliable on opinion identification because it is unsupervised and the accuracy of the result improves as the number of comments increases. Our research is performed in four steps: (1) mining the frequent aspects of a product that have been commented on by customers; (2) mining the infrequent aspects of a product which have been commented by customers (3) identifying opinion words in each comment and deciding whether each opinion word is positive, negative or neutral; (4) summarizing the comments. This paper proposes several novel techniques to perform these tasks. Our experimental results using comments of a number of products sold online demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques.

PENGELOLAAN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY DALAM MEMEDIASI DUKUNGAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RELATEDNESS TERHADAP KINERJA PERUSAHAAN

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luluk Muhimatul Ifada

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The study examines whether or not and how information technology (IT relatedness influences corporate performance. This study proposes that knowledge management (KM is a critical organizational capability through which IT influences firm performance. Measurement of IT relatedness and KM capability uses a reflective second-order factor modeling approach for capturing complementarities among the four dimensions of IT relatedness (IT strategy making processes, IT vendor management processes, IT human resource management processes and IT infrastructure and for capturing complementarities among the three dimensions of KM capability (product KM capability, customer KM capability, and managerial KM capability. A survey was conducted among 93 branch managers of banking in Central Java. Structural Equation Model (SEM was used to analyze the data using the software program of SmartPLS (Partial Least Square. The findings support for the hypotheses of the study. IT relatedness of business units enhances the cross unit KM capability of the corporate. The KM capability creates and exploits cross-unit synergies from the product, customer, and managerial knowledge resources of the corporate. These synergies increase the corporate performance. IT relatedness of business units positively influences corporate performance. IT relatedness also has significant indirect effects on corporate performance through the mediation of KM capability.

USING CUSTOM TRIFLANGE IMPLANT IN REVISION HIP ARTHROPLASTY IN PATIENT WITH PELVIC DISCONTINUITY (CASE REPORT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. M. Tikhilov

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Revision hip arthroplasty rate is growing, and pelvic discontinuity rate ranges from 1% to 5% of acetabular component revision reasons. According to AAOS acetabular defects classification, pelvic discontinuity is fourth type defect in which cranial part of hip bone is separated from caudal part at acetabular level. Usually it occurs from bone loss secondary to osteolysis, infection, fracture or aseptic loosening. There are a lot of techniques for pelvis discontinuity treatment. Published results of bulk allografts and antiprotrusion cages have generally been poor. More preferable methods with acceptable rate of good results are cup-cage systems and custom triflange acetabular components(CTAC. CTACs are designed based on preoperative CT scans to build a custom titanium 3D-printed implant to address the patient's specific bone defect and provide secure fixation in the ilium, pubis, and ischium. We faced pelvic discontinuity, in which extensive iliac bone loss was added to caudal hip bone part medial displacement and pelvic ring deformity, in patient with multiple hip surgeries. Preoperative investigation called into question the possibility of using off-the-shelf hip implants, which could restore the biomechanics of the hip and provide reliable primary fixation at the same time. We present case report of the patient with pelvic discontinuity and massive bone loss treatment using a custom triflange component.

The quest for customer focus.

Science.gov (United States)

Gulati, Ranjay; Oldroyd, James B

2005-04-01

Companies have poured enormous amounts of money into customer relationship management, but in many cases the investment hasn't really paid off. That's because getting closer to customers isn't about building an information technology system. It's a learning journey-one that unfolds over four stages, requiring people and business units to coordinate in progressively more sophisticated ways. The journey begins with the creation of a companywide repository containing each interaction a customer has with the company, organized not by product, purchase, or location, but by customer. Communal coordination is what's called for at this stage, as each group contributes its information to the data pool separately from the others and then taps into it as needed. In the second stage, one-way serial coordination from centralized IT through analytical units and out to the operating units allows companies to go beyond just assembling data to drawing inferences. In stage three, companies shift their focus from past relationships to future behavior. Through symbiotic coordination, information flows back and forth between central analytic units and various organizational units like marketing, sales, and operations, as together they seek answers to questions like "How can we prevent customers from switching to a competitor?" and "Who would be most likely to buy a new product in the future"? In stage four, firms begin to move past discrete, formal initiatives and, through integral coordination, bring an increasingly sophisticated understanding oftheir customers to bear in all day-to-day operations. Skipping stages denies organizations the sure foundation they need to build a lasting customer-focused mind-set. Those that recognize this will invest their customer relationship dollars much more wisely-and will see their customer-focusing efforts pay offon the bottom line.

Critical processes of knowledge management: An approach toward the creation of customer value

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ignacio Cepeda-Carrion

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature by identifying and analyzing possible combinations between critical knowledge management processes (absorptive capacity, knowledge transfer and knowledge application, which will result in the creation of superior customer value. The main research question this work addresses is: given that customers are demanding each day a greater value, how can organizations create more value to customers from their knowledge management processes and the combination of them? We propose that the combination of the three knowledge management processes builds a dynamic or higher-order capability that results in the creation of superior value for customers.

King customer forever: Customer satisfaction and beyond

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Myuers James

2004-01-01

Full Text Available "King Customer!" So proclaimed the front cover of Business Week in a 1989 issue. At about the same time, "Rediscovering the Customer" was the title of a series of company vignettes in Fortune magazine. And a Wall Street Journal article asked, "For Customers, More Than Lip Service?" Combined, these three prestigious business publications reflected a new era in business firms perceptions of their customers and the role they should play in the formulation of company strategies and priorities. Had the "Era of the Customer" finally arrived in American business? .

Sustainable training for customs officer involved in illicit nuclear trafficking detection: national solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paredes Gilisman, Jorge Luis; Lopez Forteza, Yamil

2008-01-01

Full text: The illicit nuclear trafficking detection capabilities demand adequate training, cooperation and equipment. Often customs personnel changing takes place in our countries. A sustainable training strategy should be implemented for avoiding forfeit on detection capabilities. Cuba, not excluded from this particular, designed an Action Plan to provide Customs authorities with basic tools for their own training. The Nuclear Regulatory Authority developed three main addresses: initial training, development of e-tools and preparation of train-of-trainers. Experiences, outcomes and challenges are shown in the present paper. In a simple, quick and not expensive way answer has been given to a national sustainable training strategy. (author)

Applying CBR to machine tool product configuration design oriented to customer requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Pengjia; Gong, Yadong; Xie, Hualong; Liu, Yongxian; Nee, Andrew Yehching

2017-01-01

Product customization is a trend in the current market-oriented manufacturing environment. However, deduction from customer requirements to design results and evaluation of design alternatives are still heavily reliant on the designer's experience and knowledge. To solve the problem of fuzziness and uncertainty of customer requirements in product configuration, an analysis method based on the grey rough model is presented. The customer requirements can be converted into technical characteristics effectively. In addition, an optimization decision model for product planning is established to help the enterprises select the key technical characteristics under the constraints of cost and time to serve the customer to maximal satisfaction. A new case retrieval approach that combines the self-organizing map and fuzzy similarity priority ratio method is proposed in case-based design. The self-organizing map can reduce the retrieval range and increase the retrieval efficiency, and the fuzzy similarity priority ratio method can evaluate the similarity of cases comprehensively. To ensure that the final case has the best overall performance, an evaluation method of similar cases based on grey correlation analysis is proposed to evaluate similar cases to select the most suitable case. Furthermore, a computer-aided system is developed using MATLAB GUI to assist the product configuration design. The actual example and result on an ETC series machine tool product show that the proposed method is effective, rapid and accurate in the process of product configuration. The proposed methodology provides a detailed instruction for the product configuration design oriented to customer requirements.

Transforming Multidisciplinary Customer Requirements to Product Design Specifications

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Xiao-Jie; Ding, Guo-Fu; Qin, Sheng-Feng; Li, Rong; Yan, Kai-Yin; Xiao, Shou-Ne; Yang, Guang-Wu

2017-09-01

With the increasing of complexity of complex mechatronic products, it is necessary to involve multidisciplinary design teams, thus, the traditional customer requirements modeling for a single discipline team becomes difficult to be applied in a multidisciplinary team and project since team members with various disciplinary backgrounds may have different interpretations of the customers' requirements. A new synthesized multidisciplinary customer requirements modeling method is provided for obtaining and describing the common understanding of customer requirements (CRs) and more importantly transferring them into a detailed and accurate product design specifications (PDS) to interact with different team members effectively. A case study of designing a high speed train verifies the rationality and feasibility of the proposed multidisciplinary requirement modeling method for complex mechatronic product development. This proposed research offersthe instruction to realize the customer-driven personalized customization of complex mechatronic product.

Empirical research on Kano's model and customer satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Feng-Han; Tsai, Sang-Bing; Lee, Yu-Cheng; Hsiao, Cheng-Fu; Zhou, Jie; Wang, Jiangtao; Shang, Zhiwen

2017-01-01

Products are now developed based on what customers desire, and thus attractive quality creation has become crucial. In studies on customer satisfaction, methods for analyzing quality attributes and enhancing customer satisfaction have been proposed to facilitate product development. Although substantial studies have performed to assess the impact of the attributes on customer satisfaction, little research has been conducted that quantitatively calculate the odds of customer satisfaction for the Kano classification, fitting a nonlinear relationship between attribute-level performance and customer satisfaction. In the present study, the odds of customer satisfaction were determined to identify the classification of quality attributes, and took customer psychology into account to suggest how decision-makers should prioritize the allocation of resources. A novel method for quantitatively assessing quality attributes was proposed to determine classification criteria and fit the nonlinear relationship between quality attributes and customer satisfaction. Subsequently, a case study was conducted on bicycle user satisfaction to verify the novel method. The concept of customer satisfaction odds was integrated with the value function from prospect theory to understand quality attributes. The results of this study can serve as a reference for product designers to create attractive quality attributes in their products and thus enhance customer satisfaction.

Dynamic capabilities and innovation: a Multiple-Case Study

OpenAIRE

Bravo Ibarra, Edna Rocío; Mundet Hiern, Joan; Suñé Torrents, Albert

2009-01-01

After a detailed survey of the scientific literature, it was found that several characteristics of dynamic capabilities were similar to those of innovation capability. Therefore, with a deeper study of the first ones, it could be possible to design a model aimed to structure innovation capability. Thus, this work presents a conceptual model, where the innovation capability is shown as result of three processes: knowledge absorption and creation capability, knowledge integration and knowledge ...

Customer Relationship Management (Crm) Berbasis Web Untuk Meningkatkan Daya Saing Toko Online

OpenAIRE

Kholil, Ishak

2017-01-01

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a thorough business strategy of a company that enables the company to effectively manage relationships with customers. relationships with CRM information technology is very important because without good information technology capabilities in managing information within the organization, CRM will be paralyzed and has no meaning. Synergy of these two things are needed what today's technology era. To generate a reliable performance of the organization m...

Ways of radical change of the image of tax and customs officers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arutiunian V. L.

2018-03-01

Full Text Available the article discusses the problem concerning some changes in image of tax and customs officers. Tax and customs system is a multifunctional structure, therefore, in order to ensure unified application of the legislation, professional training of staff should be organized by means of guidelines, workshop discussions, qualification trainings and other instruments, which should be attended by the employees of territorial and regional tax and customs authorities. Along with implementation of legislative reforms and application of advanced technologies for increase of confidence in tax system and expansion of capabilities, the role of a professional tax officer is of high importance.

Using Research Case Studies in eCommerce Marketing Courses: Customer Satisfaction at Point-of-Purchase and Post-Purchase

Science.gov (United States)

Nawi, Noorshella Che; Fong, Michelle; Tatnall, Arthur

2014-01-01

This paper describes a research case study of Internet apparel marketing by small businesses in Malaysia which can beneficially be included in postgraduate business courses for understanding the importance of measuring customer satisfaction at point-of-purchase and post-purchase in online purchases. The sample size in this research is 154…

Dynamic Capabilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grünbaum, Niels Nolsøe; Stenger, Marianne

2013-01-01

The findings reveal a positive relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation performance in the case enterprises, as we would expect. It was, however, not possible to establish a positive relationship between innovation performance and profitability. Nor was there any positive...... relationship between dynamic capabilities and profitability....

The Impact of Customer Relationship Management to Customer Loyalty Through Customer Satisfaction in Cabal Dining Manado

OpenAIRE

Pandowo, Merinda; Pangemanan, Sifrid S.; Wattilete, Randy

2013-01-01

Customer relationship management is the one influencing customer loyalty, but to get customer loyalty we should know how to make customer satisfaction. This research is purposed to analyze the impact of customer relationship management to customer loyalty through customer satisfaction in Cabal Dining Manado. This research used the Path analysis as the method of this research. Population in this research is mainly in this research is people in Manado. The sample of this research is 100 respond...

Customer preferences using conjoint analysis: A case study of Auto industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bagher Jamali Hondori

2013-10-01

Full Text Available One of the primary concerns in product development is to meet customers’ wishes and this could be accomplished through detecting the most popular characteristics of products. In other words, the fulfillment of customers’ preferences in a profitable way needs that companies recognize which specifications of their product and service are most valued by the customer. Conjoint analysis is believed to be one of the most popular techniques for achieving this purpose. Conjoint analysis includes generating and conducting specific experiments among customers for modeling their purchasing decision. This paper presents an empirical investigation on detecting appropriate customer preferences in an auto-industry. The results of the survey indicate that price, braking system and having airbag are the most important characteristics for selling cars in Iranian market.

Analysis of Customer Loyalty through Total Quality Service, Customer Relationship Management and Customer Satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Binsar Kristian P., Feliks Anggia; Panjaitan, Hotman

2014-01-01

This research talks about total quality service and customer relationship management effects toward customer satisfaction and its impact on customer loyalty. Fast food restaurant KFC, always strives to continue to make improvements in total quality service, so that customer satisfaction can be maintained, which in turn will have an impact on…

MEASURING THE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF ISLAMIC BANKING SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hossain Shahid SHOHROWARDHY

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The banking sector has been playing a significant role in achieving the economic growth of Bangladesh, where contribution of Islamic Banking Sector is remarkable. Islamic Banking Sector shows a substantial growth position in Bangladesh. Customer satisfaction is the most significant affecting phenomenon in determining the banking growth. Thus, this study attempts to measure the existing level of customer satisfaction of Islamic Banks in Bangladesh, using the Structural Equation Model (SEM. This study uses the 22 dimensions of customer satisfaction which used in the earlier studies in different countries for measuring the customer satisfaction of Islamic Banking Sector. A total of 385 samples have been taken from six full pledged Islamic Banks in Bangladesh. It reveals form the study that Human Resources and Systemization Service Delivery is the strongest indicator of customer satisfaction of Islamic Banking Sector in Bangladesh followed by Core Product, Service Capability and Social Responsibility. The findings therefore, may be helpful for policy-makers of banking authorities who have been making serious endeavor to sustain the growth of Islamic Banking Sector in Bangladesh.

New institutional assemblages for borderless customs control in the European Union

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Naber, A.C.; Hofman, W.; Enserink, B.; Kotterink, B.

2013-01-01

This article is based on a use case proposing a Single Window implementation for borderless customs control in the European Union (EU). This EU e-Customs initiative proposes to combine trade facilitation from a customs perspective with secure trade based on supply chain risk analysis. To achieve

Application of the 2-piece orthodontic C-implant for provisional restoration with laser welded customized coping: a case report.

Science.gov (United States)

Paek, Janghyun; Ahn, Hyo-Won; Jeong, Do-Min; Shim, Jeong-Seok; Kim, Seong-Hun; Chung, Kyu-Rhim

2015-03-25

This article presents the application of laser welding technique to fabricate an orthodontic mini-implant provisional restoration in missing area after limited orthodontic treatment. A 15-year-old boy case is presented. Two-piece orthodontic C-implant was placed after regaining space for missing right mandibular central incisor. Due to angular deviation of implant, customized abutment was required. Ready-made head part was milled and lingual part of customized abutment was made with non-precious metal. Two parts then were laser welded (Master 1000, Elettrolaser Italy, Verona, Italy) and indirect lab composite (3 M ESPE Sinfony, St. Paul, MN, USA) was built up. The patient had successful result, confirmed by clinical and radiographic examinations. Before the patient is ready to get a permanent restoration later on, this provisional restoration will be used. This case shows that a two-piece orthodontic C-implant system can be used to maintain small edentulous space after orthodontic treatment.

How Healthcare Can Refocus on Its Super-Customers (Patients, n =1) and Customers (Doctors and Nurses) by Leveraging Lessons from Amazon, Uber, and Watson.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolker, Evelyne; Özdemir, Vural; Kolker, Eugene

2016-06-01

Healthcare is transforming with data-intensive omics technologies and Big Data. The "revolution" has already happened in technology, but the bottlenecks have shifted to the social domain: Who can be empowered by Big Data? Who are the users and customers? In this review and innovation field analysis, we introduce the idea of a "super-customer" versus "customer" and relate both to 21st century healthcare. A "super-customer" in healthcare is the patient, sample size of n = 1, while "customers" are the providers of healthcare (e.g., doctors and nurses). The super-customers have been patients, enabled by unprecedented social practices, such as the ability to track one's physical activities, personal genomics, patient advocacy for greater autonomy, and self-governance, to name but a few. In contrast, the originally intended customers-providers, doctors, and nurses-have relatively lagged behind. With patients as super-customers, there are valuable lessons to be learned from industry examples, such as Amazon and Uber. To offer superior quality service, healthcare organizations have to refocus on the needs, pains, and aspirations of their super-customers by enabling the customers. We propose a strategic solution to this end: the PPT-DAM (People-Process-Technology empowered by Data, Analytics, and Metrics) approach. When applied together with the classic Experiment-Execute-Evaluate iterative methodology, we suggest PPT-DAM is an extremely powerful approach to deliver quality health services to super-customers and customers. As an example, we describe the PPT-DAM implementation by the Benchmarking Improvement Program at the Seattle Children's Hospital. Finally, we forecast that cognitive systems in general and IBM Watson in particular, if properly implemented, can bring transformative and sustainable capabilities in healthcare far beyond the current ones.

Branding and Positioning to Satisfy the Customer's Appetite: An Educational Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Ham, Tim

2010-01-01

Rebranding and positioning a school district has become critical to satisfy the "customer's" appetite, enhance public relations, and advance consumer perceptions. A service design model provides a district with the framework to advance its position by identifying attributes and prompts to satisfy customer needs and increase student…

Assessment of brand values delivery by employees to customers: an internal perspective. A qualitatitive case study on the example of Norwegian Coastal Express

OpenAIRE

Murtazina, Lilia K.

2012-01-01

Master's thesis in International hotel and tourism management This research paper explores an internal perspective on employee awareness of company’s brand values and attempts to establish how employees that have direct customer contact deliver on these brand values to customers. A case study research strategy was applied to collect and analyze qualitative data. This research was conducted with participation of Norwegian Coastal Express Hurtigruten ASA. Participants of the stud...

Miniaturized radiation detector with custom synthesized diamond crystal as sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grobbelaar, J.H.; Burns, R.C.; Nam, T.L.; Keddy, R.J.

1991-01-01

A miniaturized detector consisting of three custom built hybrid circuits, a counter and a miniature high voltage power supply was designed to operate with custom synthesized Type Ib diamond crystals as sensors. Thick-film technology was incorporated in the circuit design. With a crystal having a volume of approximately 10 mm 3 and containing approximately 60 ppm paramagnetic nitrogen, the detector was capable of measuring γ-ray dose-rates as low as 7.5 μ Gy h -1 . The response characteristic was linear up to 1 cGy h -1 . (orig.)

How to Promote Customer Loyalty of Chinese Mobile Telecom Operator : Case Study of China Mobile

OpenAIRE

Hao, Yi; Yuan, Xiaoqin; Zhang, Weiqing

2009-01-01

Customer loyalty has been investigated in years, and its importance to corporate is understood by managers. The purpose of this paper is to find out what kinds of specific and concrete operational factors have an important impact on Chinese mobile telecom customer loyalty. Firstly, a model was established to represent the relationship between customer loyalty and its influencing factors (customer satisfaction, perceived quality, customer value, switching cost and corporate image). 11 specific...

The Influence of Store Atmosphere on Purchase Decision and IT's Impact on Customer's Satisfaction (Case Study on Indomaret Customers Jl. Raya Tlogomas No. 37, Malang)

OpenAIRE

Diawan, Nizar Satya; Kusumawati, Andriani; Mawardi, M. Kholid

2016-01-01

This research objectives are to: examine the influence of Store Atmosphere on Purchase Decision, examine the influence of Store Atmosphere on Customer Satisfaction, examine the influence of Purchase Decision on Customer Satisfaction. The result of path analysis showed that: Store Atmosphere has significant influence on Purchase Decision; Store Atmosphere has significant influence on Customer Satisfaction; Purchase Decision has significant influence on Customer Satisfaction. Therefore, the Man...

Space Mission Operations Ground Systems Integration Customer Service

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, Karl

2014-01-01

The facility, which is now the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, has provided continuous space mission and related services for the space industry since 1961, from Mercury Redstone through the International Space Station (ISS). Throughout the long history of the facility and mission support teams, the HOSC has developed a stellar customer support and service process. In this era, of cost cutting, and providing more capability and results with fewer resources, space missions are looking for the most efficient way to accomplish their objectives. One of the first services provided by the facility was fax transmission of documents to, then, Cape Canaveral in Florida. The headline in the Marshall Star, the newspaper for the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center, read "Exact copies of Documents sent to Cape in 4 minutes." The customer was Dr. Wernher von Braun. Currently at the HOSC we are supporting, or have recently supported, missions ranging from simple ISS payloads requiring little more than "bentpipe" telemetry access, to a low cost free-flyer Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite (FASTSAT), to a full service ISS payload Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 2 (AMS2) supporting 24/7 operations at three operations centers around the world with an investment of over 2 billion dollars. The HOSC has more need and desire than ever to provide fast and efficient customer service to support these missions. Here we will outline how our customer-centric service approach reduces the cost of providing services, makes it faster and easier than ever for new customers to get started with HOSC services, and show what the future holds for our space mission operations customers. We will discuss our philosophy concerning our responsibility and accessibility to a mission customer as well as how we deal with the following issues: initial contact with a customer, reducing customer cost, changing regulations and security

Preventing customer defection and stimulating return of the lost customers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Senić Radoslav

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Customers represent company's most valuable asset. Company can assure its survival, further growth and development by retaining existing, attracting new and returning lost customers. Retaining existing, loyal customers is the most profitable business activity, attracting new ones is the most expensive, while returning lost and frequently forgotten customers is a type of business activity that still generates modest interest among researchers and practitioners. So far, marketing strategies have been mainly directed towards the first two categories of customers. The objective of this paper is dedicated to customer defection and returning lost customers. Paper discusses customer relationship life-cycle and the significance of managing customer return within it, types of customer defections, the process of managing return, as well as, the reasons that led to customer defection.

Evolution of the Florida Launch Site Architecture: Embracing Multiple Customers, Enhancing Launch Opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Colloredo, Scott; Gray, James A.

2011-01-01

The impending conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program and the Constellation Program cancellation unveiled in the FY2011 President's budget created a large void for human spaceflight capability and specifically launch activity from the Florida launch Site (FlS). This void created an opportunity to re-architect the launch site to be more accommodating to the future NASA heavy lift and commercial space industry. The goal is to evolve the heritage capabilities into a more affordable and flexible launch complex. This case study will discuss the FlS architecture evolution from the trade studies to select primary launch site locations for future customers, to improving infrastructure; promoting environmental remediation/compliance; improving offline processing, manufacturing, & recovery; developing range interface and control services with the US Air Force, and developing modernization efforts for the launch Pad, Vehicle Assembly Building, Mobile launcher, and supporting infrastructure. The architecture studies will steer how to best invest limited modernization funding from initiatives like the 21 st elSe and other potential funding.

Supplier Value of Customer-Initiated Product Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sommer, Anita Friis; Dukovska-Popovska, Iskra; Steger-Jensen, Kenn

2013-01-01

Increased market demand and shortened product life cycles generate industrial customer requests for collaborative product development. Manufacture-to-stock suppliers struggle to manage the request process to obtain profitability. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if request management...... is profitable for suppliers, and to examine possible relations between profitability of requests and the requesting customer. Through a case study, request management is identified as a profitable process due to long-term accumulated profit from developed products. Request profitability is not identified...... as related to profitability or turnover of existing customers, and thus profitability of requests cannot be predicted based on these customer data. Results from a coupled interview study indicate that request management has a large potential for future exploitation, and an outline of the supplier value...

The impact of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and customer profitability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S. van Triest (Sander); M.J.G. Bun (Maurice); E.M. van Raaij (Erik); M.J.A. Vernooij (Maarten)

2009-01-01

textabstractWe study the effects of customer-specific marketing expenses on customer retention and customer profitability in a business-to-business setting. Using data from a company providing hygiene services, we look at the impact of a hitherto unstudied type of expense targeted at individual

OpinionSeer: interactive visualization of hotel customer feedback.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yingcai; Wei, Furu; Liu, Shixia; Au, Norman; Cui, Weiwei; Zhou, Hong; Qu, Huamin

2010-01-01

The rapid development of Web technology has resulted in an increasing number of hotel customers sharing their opinions on the hotel services. Effective visual analysis of online customer opinions is needed, as it has a significant impact on building a successful business. In this paper, we present OpinionSeer, an interactive visualization system that could visually analyze a large collection of online hotel customer reviews. The system is built on a new visualization-centric opinion mining technique that considers uncertainty for faithfully modeling and analyzing customer opinions. A new visual representation is developed to convey customer opinions by augmenting well-established scatterplots and radial visualization. To provide multiple-level exploration, we introduce subjective logic to handle and organize subjective opinions with degrees of uncertainty. Several case studies illustrate the effectiveness and usefulness of OpinionSeer on analyzing relationships among multiple data dimensions and comparing opinions of different groups. Aside from data on hotel customer feedback, OpinionSeer could also be applied to visually analyze customer opinions on other products or services.

The Effect of Relationship Marketing and Brand Image on Customer Loyalty (Case of Astinet Business Customer PT Telkom Witel Makassar)

OpenAIRE

Andi Nur Qalby; Abdul Razak Munir; Jusni Jusni

2018-01-01

Marketing is an activity that can penetrate space and time. This study aims to determine to know the influence of Relationship Marketing and Brand Image Against Customer Loyalty at PT Telkom Witel Makassar. This type of research is causal (causal relationship research), which is trying to find the relationship of influence between relationship marketing and brand image with customer satisfaction and loyalty ASTINet users. The results showed that Relationship marketing and Brand image have pos...

Pengaruh Customer Perceived Value Terhadap Customer Satisfaction PT. Xyz

OpenAIRE

Sucahyo, Martinus Wilman

2017-01-01

Penelitian ini membahas tentang Customer Perceived Value terhadap Customer Satisfaction PT. XYZ. Dalam penelitian ini, Customer Perceived Value diukur melalui dimensi Core Product Value, Service Value dan Relationship Value. Masing-masing dimensi ini akan diuji pengaruhnya terhadap Customer Satisfaction, baik secara simultan maupun secara parsial, serta dimensi mana yang paling berpengaruh terhadap Customer Satisfaction. Sampel penelitian berjumlah 100 pelanggan PT. XYZ. Data penelitian diola...

Competing on capabilities: the new rules of corporate strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Stalk, G; Evans, P; Shulman, L E

1992-01-01

In the 1980s, companies discovered time as a new source of competitive advantage. In the 1990s, they will discover that time is only one piece of a more far-reaching transformation in the logic of competition. Using examples from Wal-Mart and other highly successful companies, Stalk, Evans, and Shulman of the Boston Consulting Group provide managers with a guide to the new world of "capabilities-based competition." In today's dynamic business environment, strategy too must become dynamic. Competition is a "war of movement" in which success depends on anticipation of market trends and quick response to changing customer needs. In such an environment, the essence of strategy is not the structure of a company's products and markets but the dynamics of its behavior. To succeed, a company must weave its key business processes into hard-to-imitate strategic capabilities that distinguish it from its competitors in the eyes of customers. A capability is a set of business processes strategically understood--for example, Wal-Mart's expertise in inventory replenishment, Honda's skill at dealer management, or Banc One's ability to "out-local the national banks and out-national the local banks." Such capabilities are collective and cross-functional--a small part of many people's jobs, not a large part of a few. Finally, competing on capabilities requires strategic investments in support systems that span traditional SBUs and functions and go far beyond what traditional cost-benefit metrics can justify. A CEO's success in building and managing a company's capabilities will be the chief test of management skill in the 1990s. The prize: companies that combine scale and flexibility to outperform the competition.

Customization Issues

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Kaj Asbjørn; Brunø, Thomas Ditlev; Taps, Stig B.

2014-01-01

Implementation of mass customization and product configuration in companies requires fundamental considerations about how products can fulfil the demand from customers. In order to support such decision-making, a multi-level model for customization is developed. This model identifies four different...... levels of customization, ranging from the structure level at the bottom, through the performance level and the experience level, to the learning level at the top. The model also has a dual view with customers/demand at one side and product/supplier at the other side. It is a rather general model, which...... can be applied to many types of products, and typically, product designers must decide how far up in levels the customization should aim. In this paper, the four-level customization model is applied to wheel chairs....

Customer complaints and recovery effectiveness : A customer base approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Knox, G.; van Oest, R.D.

2014-01-01

Although customer complaints are a well-studied aspect of business, no study has measured the impact of actual complaints and recoveries on subsequent customer purchasing. The authors develop a customer base model to investigate the effectiveness of recovery in preventing customer churn. They

Determinants of Customer Satisfaction and Service Quality-The Case of Romanian Public Services-

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Horia Mihai RABOCA

2006-02-01

Full Text Available The present study portrays customer satisfaction and service quality as a multidimensional construct and investigates the link between customer satisfaction determinants and service quality determinants. Based on arguments that customer satisfaction should be operationalized along the same determinants/factors and dimensions (and the corresponding items on which service quality is operationalized, the results of study indicate that the two constructs are indeed independent but closely related, implying that an increase in one is likely to lead to an increase in another.

Customers as Partners in Radical Service Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Scupola, Ada; Nicolajsen, Hanne Westh

2009-01-01

  Purpose- The main purpose of this paper is to investigate customer involvement and related challenges in radical service innovations in engineering consulting services Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses a case study approach and so called rich descriptions to investigate customer...... involvement, roles and related challenges and conditions in radical service innovations.Findings- One main finding is that customers can engage in radical service innovations in engineering consultancy services and may play a decisive role. In doing this they most likely take on all the three user involvement...... roles defined in the literature of New Service and New Product Development. Also a number of conditions are found to be necessary in order for this collaboration to succeed. The conclusion is that another understanding and handling of the customer/supplier relation is needed along with a need...

Empirical research on Kano’s model and customer satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Feng-Han; Tsai, Sang-Bing; Lee, Yu-Cheng; Hsiao, Cheng-Fu; Zhou, Jie; Wang, Jiangtao; Shang, Zhiwen

2017-01-01

Products are now developed based on what customers desire, and thus attractive quality creation has become crucial. In studies on customer satisfaction, methods for analyzing quality attributes and enhancing customer satisfaction have been proposed to facilitate product development. Although substantial studies have performed to assess the impact of the attributes on customer satisfaction, little research has been conducted that quantitatively calculate the odds of customer satisfaction for the Kano classification, fitting a nonlinear relationship between attribute-level performance and customer satisfaction. In the present study, the odds of customer satisfaction were determined to identify the classification of quality attributes, and took customer psychology into account to suggest how decision-makers should prioritize the allocation of resources. A novel method for quantitatively assessing quality attributes was proposed to determine classification criteria and fit the nonlinear relationship between quality attributes and customer satisfaction. Subsequently, a case study was conducted on bicycle user satisfaction to verify the novel method. The concept of customer satisfaction odds was integrated with the value function from prospect theory to understand quality attributes. The results of this study can serve as a reference for product designers to create attractive quality attributes in their products and thus enhance customer satisfaction. PMID:28873418

Evaluation of the Successfulness of A Green Program through Customer Perceived Quality, Brand Image, and Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study at Surabaya Plaza Hotel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marsella Yeanette Hatane

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Every company try to build the brand image of their businesses by doing a green program as one of their strategies. This research aims to see the impacts of the implementation of a green program at Surabaya Plaza Hotel, Surabaya. 230 hotel customers were randomly chosen as the respondents. Through descriptive and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM analysis, can be seen that technical quality brings insignificant negative impacts towards customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, functional quality and brand image bring a significant positive impact toward customer satisfaction. Besides that, technical quality and functional quality bring a significant positive effect indirectly toward customer satisfaction through brand image as mediating.

Results of a Pilot Customer Satisfaction Survey of Corps of Engineers Recreation Visitors

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Kasul, Richard

2003-01-01

.... The survey was based on a sampling protocol capable of producing a national estimate of customer satisfaction and on standardized data collection methods ensuring consistency across recreation areas and projects...

Influence of Customer Focused Mission Statement on Customer Satisfaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chijioke Nwachukwu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of customer‑focused mission statements on customer satisfaction in selected cell phone manufacturing companies in the United States. The study employed content analysis for the mission statement and data from America customer satisfaction index (ACSI. In analysing our data, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression techniques were used. The result showed that product and service, technology, philosophy, self‑concept, and public image mission statement components are strongly positively correlated with customer satisfaction. Customer, survival, growth and profitability and market mission statement components are insignificantly negatively correlated with customer satisfaction. The study, therefore, recommends that companies that want to remain competitive by enhancing customer satisfaction should formulate mission statements from a customer perspective so that they include product and service, technology, philosophy, self‑concept, and public image components. The main limitation of the study represents the sample size and structure. This study empirically investigated the correlation and association of nine mission statement components with customer satisfaction.

On-site customization of silicone stents: towards optimal palliation of complex airway conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Breen, David P; Dutau, Hervé

2009-01-01

Stents may be indicated as treatment of benign and malignant conditions of the central airways. Occasionally, aberrant and/or distorted airways secondary to therapy or surgery may preclude the use of commercially manufactured stents. The customization of stents is well described for nonpulmonary diseases, but to date there are only limited data in the literature on prosthesis customization for airway disease. To review all the different techniques and indications of on-site silicone stent customizations and their related complications. A retrospective study was undertaken to identify all patients who underwent treatment with a silicone stent which was customized on site by the physician. The study included subjects treated during an 8-year period. Forty-nine on-site customizations were performed in 43 patients (34 males, mean age 63 +/- 5.2 years). Stent customization was performed in 5.4% of the cases. Stent customization was performed for malignant and benign disease in 35 (81.3%) and 8 (18.7%) cases, respectively. In all cases, the stent deployed successfully and performed well while in situ. Stent manipulation did not increase complications. Customization of airway stents by the physician can lead to successful stenting of difficult airway lesions with a good short-term safety profile. Standard commercially available stents may have resulted in suboptimal management of complex airway pathologies. A prospective study is warranted to further investigate the safety profile and complications associated with stent customization. Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

The Use of the Kano Model to Enhance Customer Satisfaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Južnik Rotar Laura

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Background/purpose: The interest of measuring customer satisfaction is reflected in its ability to gain customer loyalty, enhance favourable word of mouth, lead to repeat purchases and improve a company’s market share and profitability. The issue of integrating the Kano model of customer satisfaction with other models and tools to support development or improvement of a product, or to determine market strategies, is relatively unexplored in the Slovenian sector. This research aims to construct the Kano model in order to enhance customer satisfaction in the case of home appliances.

The effect of packaging elements on purchase intention: case study of Algerian customers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sidi Mohammed Benachenhou

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to study the impact of marketing innovation and the visual and verbal ele-ments of packaging on customers purchase intentions. After a brief literature review, an empirical study is conducted among 140 customers of Coca-Cola brand in Tlemcen city. To this end, a model of intention has been developed to be tested by structural equations modeling. The results of this study showed that marketing innovation and the visual and verbal elements of packaging directly affect the purchase intentions of the customers of this brand.

PRIORITIZATION OF CUSTOMER NEEDS IN HOUSE OF QUALITY USING CONJOINT ANALYSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K.G. Durga Prasad

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The priority structure of customer needs in House of Quality (HOQ forms the basis for the company to make the product more attractive to customers. In the traditional Quality Function Deployment (QFD approach, the priority structure of customer needs is developed through assigning different importance weights for customer needs, which are based on QFD team members' direct experience with the customers or on the results of surveys. In this paper Conjoint analysis is adopted to obtain the priority structure of customer needs. The priority ratings of customer needs may be different for different customer segments. k-means cluster method is used to cluster customers according to their main benefits. Prior to adopt the conjoint analysis, Factor analysis is employed to reduce the size of the customer needs portion of HOQ. A case study on domestic refrigerator is presented to illustrate the proposed methodology to establish priority structure of customer needs.al unit, which would significantly improve the business.

Linking Technology Capabilities to Marketing Requirements: Case of Indonesian Aircraft Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yulianto Suharto

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract. The relationship between strategic technology planning and the overall business strategy has been one of the growing fields that attract much interest both from academics and industrials point of view. The increasingly important role that technology plays in today’s business success is well established.Strategic technology planning activities--within a corporate level--are often implemented by applying integrated planning instrument, which allow firms to consider both technology-oriented and product-oriented aspects. This paper is an attempt to explore the role of strategic planning in the high tech industry using a specific case of aerospace industry in Indonesia.  In order to compete effectively inthe open global marketplace, the company must learn to integrate technology managementwith strategic planning. In other words, all top managers have to linktheir technology capabilities to marketing requirements.Keywords:  technology planning; business strategy; technology capability; marketing requirement; strategic mix 

Customer Engagement & Loyalty Cultivation Through Social Media : A Small Business Perspective

OpenAIRE

Starkenberg, Marilyn; Åman, Jacob; Magnusson, Kristin

2013-01-01

Background:  Social media is a constantly growing medium for communication that enables companies to interact with current and potential customers. It is of utmost importance that companies learn how to use social media in order to engage their customers, which will lead to greater customer loyalty. There is a large amount of literature on social media and customer loyalty separately, but not on how these subjects relate and interact. Therefore, the case study performed involving Mormor Magda...

Customer Loyalty Research : Can customer loyalty programs really build loyalty?

OpenAIRE

Romppanen, Maiju; Kellgren, Cecilia; Moradi, Ladan

2007-01-01

Background: During the last decades the efforts to foster customer relationships have become important due to increased competition in the consumer markets. One of the most popular strategies have been to introduce customer loyalty programs which are believed to enhance the customer loyalty. The popularity of the customer loyalty programs is based on the beliefs that loyal customers are lucrative and these programs would bond the customers to the company. More recently however, the discussion...

Customer relationship management : the case of a European bank

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lindgreen, A.; Antioco, M.D.J.

2005-01-01

Purpose – To convert the principle of customer relationship management (CRM) into practical guidelines for best practice in the implementation of a CRM programme in the real world. Design/methodology/approach – The findings of an extensive review of the literature provide the foundations for a

Customer Relationship Management Influence on Customer Value, Product Quality and Service Quality in Improving Customer Satisfaction and Its Implication on the Customer Loyalty

OpenAIRE

Harryani, Sri

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research is to determine the influence of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) on the Customer Value (CV), Product Quality (PQ) and Service Quality (SQ) in improving Customer Satisfaction (CS) that will have implications on the Customer Loyalty (CL). The research focuses on corporate banking, where customers serve as the research sample. The data in this research using the primary data and secondary data. Source primary data used questionnaire and source the secondary da...

The influence of customer relationship management information on customer loyalty

OpenAIRE

Ignatovič, Eva

2009-01-01

The purpose of this master thesis is to approve that customer relationship management (CRM) has influenced on customer loyalty. In order to achieve this purpose the work was divided into four main tasks: review of the relevant literature; analyze the influence of customer relationship management on customer loyalty and approve its importance for companies, research of the concrete business-to-business (B2B) Company CRM process and its customer loyalty, and the development of the customer rela...

Fabricating customized hydrogel contact lens

Science.gov (United States)

Childs, Andre; Li, Hao; Lewittes, Daniella M.; Dong, Biqin; Liu, Wenzhong; Shu, Xiao; Sun, Cheng; Zhang, Hao F.

2016-10-01

Contact lenses are increasingly used in laboratories for in vivo animal retinal imaging and pre-clinical studies. The lens shapes often need modification to optimally fit corneas of individual test subjects. However, the choices from commercially available contact lenses are rather limited. Here, we report a flexible method to fabricate customized hydrogel contact lenses. We showed that the fabricated hydrogel is highly transparent, with refractive indices ranging from 1.42 to 1.45 in the spectra range from 400 nm to 800 nm. The Young’s modulus (1.47 MPa) and hydrophobicity (with a sessile drop contact angle of 40.5°) have also been characterized experimentally. Retinal imaging using optical coherence tomography in rats wearing our customized contact lenses has the quality comparable to the control case without the contact lens. Our method could significantly reduce the cost and the lead time for fabricating soft contact lenses with customized shapes, and benefit the laboratorial-used contact lenses in pre-clinical studies.

AMR: Serving the needs of distributors and customers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Simard, C. [Hydro-Quebec, Metering and Meter-Reading Division, Montreal, PQ (Canada)

2002-10-01

To keep pace with emerging competition in the North-American energy industry, Hydro-Quebec restructured its activities into four separate divisions. Hydro-Quebec TransEnergie, established in 1977, is the division responsible for energy transmission, whereas Hydro-Quebec Distribution, established in 2001, looks after distribution services. They and the two sister divisions (Hydro-Quebec Production and Hydro-Quebec Equipement) serve 2.8 million residential, institutional and industrial customers, scattered across 587,500 square kilometres. The restructuring provided the opportunity to adapt to new market realities. Automated Meter Reading (AMR) ties in directly with the new business-oriented approach the utility has adopted in the late 1990s. In addition to solving meter accessibility problems and reducing operating costs, automated meter reading provides customers with the opportunity to benefit from new services designed to meet specific needs. To date new services made possible by automated meter reading include customized reading date selection, aggregated billing, consumption tracking and load management. AMR not only translates into greater flexibility and added value for the customer. It also provides greater reliability, accuracy and better system management. In short, AMR paves the way for the optimization of the power supply, new consumption management capabilities, rate options, real-time billing and enhanced fraud detection.

A Study to Investigate the Effect of Customer Value on Customer Satisfaction, Brand Loyalty and Customer Relationship Management Performance

OpenAIRE

Berrin Onaran,; Zeki Atil Bulut,; Alparslan Ozmen

2013-01-01

Beyond satisfying needs, customer value is the key to establish and maintain long run relationships. Hence, providing excellent customer value as a driving force of customer relationships management performance plays a key role in gaining sustainable competitive advantage. The aim of this research is to investigate the relationships among dimensions of customer value, customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and customer relationship management performance. Data obtained from customers of thermal...

Silo busting: how to execute on the promise of customer focus.

Science.gov (United States)

Gulati, Ranjay

2007-05-01

For many senior executives, shifting from selling products to selling solutions--packages of products and services--is a priority in today's increasingly commoditized markets. Companies, however, aren't always structured to make that shift. Knowledge and expertise often reside in silos, and many companies have trouble harnessing their resources across those boundaries in a way that customers value and are willing to pay for. Some companies--like GE Healthcare, Best Buy, and commercial real estate provider Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL)--have restructured themselves around customer needs to deliver true solutions. They did so by engaging in four sets of activities: COORDINATION: To deliver customer-focused solutions, three things must occur easily across boundaries: information sharing, division of labor, and decision making. Sometimes this involves replacing traditional silos with customer-focused ones, but more often it entails transcending existing boundaries. JLL has experimented with both approaches. COOPERATION: Customer-centric companies, such as Cisco Systems, develop metrics for customer satisfaction and incentives that reward customer-focused cooperation. Most also shake up the power structure so that people who are closest to customers have the authority to act on their behalf. CAPABILITY: Delivering customer-focused solutions requires some employees to be generalists instead of specialists. They need experience with more than one product or service, a deep knowledge of customer needs, and the ability to traverse internal boundaries. CONNECTION: By combining their offerings with those of a partner, companies can cut costs even as they create higher-value solutions, as Starbucks has found through its diverse partnerships. To stand out in a commoditized market, companies must understand what customers value. Ultimately, some customers may be better off purchasing products and services piecemeal.

Mass Customization of process plants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvam, Lars

2006-01-01

This case study describes how F.L.Smidth A/S, a manufacturer of large processing plants for cement production, has applied the principles of mass customisation in the area of highly complex, custom engineered products. The company has based its sales process on a configuration system to achieve...

Research on Cigarettes Customer Needs Importance Algorithm Based on KJ / RAHP / KANO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ni Xiong-Jun

2017-01-01

Full Text Available To express the ambiguity and uncertainty of customer needs importance, an algorithm was proposed. It integrated KJ method, rough analytic Hierarchy Process and KANO model. It calculated the customer needs importance in rough set. A case study of cigarettes customer needs importance illustrated the feasibility and validity of the algorithm.

Customer relationship management activities in e-banking:the case of Iranain banks

OpenAIRE

Keramati, Abbas; Salehi-Sangari, Esmail; Farshid, Mana; Toufighi Zavareh, Javad

2009-01-01

The aim of this research is to investigate customer relationship management (CRM) activities in e-banking among Iranian banks. These banks are already adopting CRM and approaching it differently, and achieving different rates of success in terms of customer satisfaction and CRM. A comparative approach of their attitudes toward CRM, therefore, will reveal important insights. Following similar approaches researchers have employed in Europe, Pakistan, Malaysia, the UK and Ireland, we investigate...

Mass Customization Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Friedrich, Gerhard

Topics of the IMCM’08 & PETO’08 and this book are: Mass customization in service, mass customizing financial services, mass customization in supply networks, implementation issues in logistics, product life cycle and mass customization. The research field of mass customization is more than 15 years...

Effects of Customer Engagement Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarzyna Żyminkowska

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Aim/purpose - Research addressing the customer engagement behavior (CEB has rapidly developed in the marketing discipline, contributing to the knowledge on network organization. However, insights into the specific outcomes of CEB remain largely nebulous. Few comprehensive conceptual frameworks of CEB effects exists in the literature to-date. The empirical verification of CEB outcomes, particularly at the firm level, is still missing. Design/methodology/approach - In this article we first provide an overview of the CEB conceptualizations and its effects. Next we develop the CEB firm-level performance outcomes framework. Finally we explore CEB process, forms and outcomes in Stanley Black & Decker, applying qualitative methodological approach (case research incl. participant observation. Findings - We propose the logically arranged CEB effects in the conceptual model integrated with marketing metrics which are related to the recent advances in customer equity and customer asset management. Research implications/limitations - In empirical research we focused on the CEB effects related to one type of customer behaviors, i.e. Stanley Black& Decker customers' involvement in the product development and innovation which is a limitation in obtain-ing the comprehensive empirical picture of all CEB forms and its outcomes. Further empirical research (incl. quantitative one is necessary to verify our conceptual model. Originality/value/contribution - Our model of firm-level performance effects of CEB extends existing proposals and contributes to the knowledge on effective CEB management process in network organizations.

IT-Driven Customer Service or Customer-Driven IT Service

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damsgaard, J.; Hørlück, J.; Jensen, Christian Søndergaard

2005-01-01

This case deals with a large European financial institution that has built an extensive IT infrastructure to serve its multi channel approach to its customers at the same time as changing into a modern financial supermarket with a large portfolio of almost all financial services. Experience has...... a strong net presence; the changing role of the IT department, from being supplier of back office systems to delivering the storefront; the challenge of transforming several hundred existing legacy systems to a coherent and multi-layered, Internet-ready IT infrastructure; and modern software development...

Value Creating Logic of Customer-Driven Product Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anders Peder; Sommer, Anita Friis

This paper focuses on how companies on business-to-business markets, characterized by complex customer problems, organize and manage the interaction process as part of the management of customer requests for new products. More specifically it is investigated how the intra-organizational activities...... the relationship between customer problems of high complexity and the organization of activities in the buyer-supplier interaction process. Building on value configuration theory and theory of problem complexity this research contributes to widen our understanding of how marketing and problem solving processes...... part of the problem solving process is configured, when taking the customer supplier interaction into consideration. The research takes an inter-and intra-organizational perspective by focusing on the dyad between a buyer and supplier. A single case study is applied in order to investigate...

Customer experience

OpenAIRE

Koperdáková, Zuzana

2016-01-01

Bachelor thesis deals with the theme of customer experience and terms related to this topic. The thesis consists of three parts. The first part explains the terms generally, as the experience or customer loyalty. The second part is dedicated to medotology used for Customer Experience Management. In the third part is described application of Customer Experience Management in practice, particularly in the context Touch Point Analyses in GE Money Bank.

Perancangan Customer Knowledge Management pada PT Pandawa Maju Perkasa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joni Suhartono

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In the era of global trade, more countries want a quality of product with optimal price. PT Pandawa Maju Perkasa engaged in export trade services requires an application that can bridge the communication between the customer and the company. It can also create appropriate knowledge to present the product to the customer. Knowledge of the product obtained will be shared to the customer as company's marketing activities. In addition, critics and suggestions are very necessary for the improvement of customer service of the company. Research in this study was done by analyzing business process, designing model of knowledge management system, and designing system model. The design of the system made consisted of making class diagrams, use case diagrams, sequence diagrams, and user interface. The design of the CKM system will help the company capture customer demand for the goods they want, the communication between the customer and the company can be well established, critics and suggestions facility made is used to improve services to customers. 

Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty as predictors of future business potential

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eskildsen, Jacob Kjær; Kristensen, Kai

2008-01-01

This paper analyses the relationship between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and the future business potential of existing customers. The data for the analysis come from the Danish Customer Satisfaction Index 2006. Here a total of approximately 2000 private customers evaluated...

Customer Relationship Management

OpenAIRE

Abdillah, Leon

2018-01-01

Contents: 1) Introduction, 2) Basic Concept of CRM, 3) The Customer Service/Sales Profile, 4) Customer Relationship, 5) Planning and implementing CRM projects, 6) Developing, managing and using customer-related databases, 7) Managing and Sharing Customer Data, 8) Tools for Capturing Customer Information, 9) E-Commerce: Customer Relationships on the Internet, 10) Information Technology for CRM, 11) Sales-force automation, 12) Marketing automation, 13) Service automation, 14) Presentations, 15)...

Analisa Customer Value dan Customer Experience terhadap Customer Loyalty dengan Customer Satisfaction sebagai Variabel Intervening (Studi pada Waroeng Spesial Sambal Cabang Purwokerto)

OpenAIRE

Ariningsih, Kuswanti; Muji Rahayu, Tri Septin

2015-01-01

This research was based on the comptitive business condition in restaurant business that was getting more competitive, therefore the corporates had to make a new marketing strategy to stay and achieve he higher market. This research aimed to test the effect of customer value and customer experience toward customer loyalty with customer satisfaction as intervening variable. The data were gained by questionnaire method to the 110 respondent of waroeng spesial sambal cabang purwok...

Product Customization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvam, Lars; Mortensen, Niels Henrik; Riis, Jesper

For the majority of industrial companies, customizing products and services is among the most critical means to deliver true customer value and achieve superior competitive advantage. The challenge is not to customize products and services in itself – but to do it in a profitable way...... from more than 40 product configuration projects in companies providing customer tailored products and services........ The implementation of a product configuration system is among the most powerful ways of achieving this in practice, offering a reduction of the lead time for products and quotations, faster and more qualified responses to customer inquiries, fewer transfers of responsibility and fewer specification mistakes...

An investigation on important factors influencing customer repurchase: A case study of Airline agencies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammadreza Rahimi Shamsabadi

2012-04-01

Full Text Available During the past few years, there has been an increase trend on purchasing via internet, which indicates a steady growth on this internet service. There are different advantages on e-purchase services such as availability of usage, fast and reliable services, etc. The purpose of this survey is to investigate on different influencing factors on customer's fidelity on purchasing air ticket from different agencies located in Tehran, Iran. The Cronbach Alpha validates our results. The proposed conceptual model of this paper is estimated using multi-variable regression model and the results indicate that direct factors influence customer satisfaction, significantly. The results indicate that while customer perception does not have any relationship with repurchase but it has direct relationship with customer's perception and trust.

Comparative study on the customization of natural language interfaces to databases.

Science.gov (United States)

Pazos R, Rodolfo A; Aguirre L, Marco A; González B, Juan J; Martínez F, José A; Pérez O, Joaquín; Verástegui O, Andrés A

2016-01-01

In the last decades the popularity of natural language interfaces to databases (NLIDBs) has increased, because in many cases information obtained from them is used for making important business decisions. Unfortunately, the complexity of their customization by database administrators make them difficult to use. In order for a NLIDB to obtain a high percentage of correctly translated queries, it is necessary that it is correctly customized for the database to be queried. In most cases the performance reported in NLIDB literature is the highest possible; i.e., the performance obtained when the interfaces were customized by the implementers. However, for end users it is more important the performance that the interface can yield when the NLIDB is customized by someone different from the implementers. Unfortunately, there exist very few articles that report NLIDB performance when the NLIDBs are not customized by the implementers. This article presents a semantically-enriched data dictionary (which permits solving many of the problems that occur when translating from natural language to SQL) and an experiment in which two groups of undergraduate students customized our NLIDB and English language frontend (ELF), considered one of the best available commercial NLIDBs. The experimental results show that, when customized by the first group, our NLIDB obtained a 44.69 % of correctly answered queries and ELF 11.83 % for the ATIS database, and when customized by the second group, our NLIDB attained 77.05 % and ELF 13.48 %. The performance attained by our NLIDB, when customized by ourselves was 90 %.

Design of customer knowledge management system for Aglaonema Nursery in South Tangerang, Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Sugiarto, D.; Mardianto, I.; Dewayana, TS; Khadafi, M.

2017-12-01

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of customer knowledge management system to support customer relationship management activities for an aglaonema nursery in South Tangerang, Indonesia. System. The steps were knowledge identification (knowledge about customer, knowledge from customer, knowledge for customer), knowledge capture, codification, analysis of system requirement and create use case and activity diagram. The result showed that some key knowledge were about supporting customer in plant care (know how) and types of aglaonema including with the prices (know what). That knowledge for customer then codified and shared in knowledge portal website integrated with social media. Knowledge about customer were about customers and their behaviour in purchasing aglaonema. Knowledge from customer were about feedback, favorite and customer experience. Codified knowledge were placed and shared using content management system based on wordpress.

Customer Touch Point Histories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Beckmann, Suzanne C.; Haurum, Helle

Customers’ engagement behaviours are considered an important source of value to the firm. So far, the discussion has mainly been conceptual and focused on the company’s perspective. By adopting the customer’s perspective we investigated what drive and explain customers’ engagement behaviours...... as reactions to their service encounters over time with a firm, using in-depth interviews. We found the following key factors driving and explaining customers’ engagement behaviours: (1) mundane product and service environment indeed drives customers’ engagement behaviours and mediating capabilities...... are identified, (2) customers produce (positive) value for the firm through engagement behaviours when perceived alignment between firm-initiated experience and product/service is present, and (3) transactions matter and drive (other) engagement behaviours....

When Does Salespeople’s Customer Orientation Lead to Customer Loyalty? : The Differential Effects of Relational and Functional Customer Orientation

OpenAIRE

Homburg, Christian; Müller, Michael; Klarmann, Martin

2010-01-01

Is a customer orientation universally effective for salespeople? Or does its effectiveness depend on the selling situation? While previous research has largely neglected this question, this study investigates contextual influences on the link between customer-oriented behaviors and customer loyalty. To do so, it takes a role theory perspective on salesperson customer orientation by distinguishing functional customer orientation and relational customer orientation. It then investigates which t...

Client-oriented Building Mass Customization (CoBMC)

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Xia Sheng; Faris Khamidi, Mohd; Kuppusamy, Sivaraman; Tuck Heng, Chin

2017-12-01

Although much later compared to other industries including aerospace, automobile, oil and gas etc., digital technology development has been cresting towards an exponential curve in the construction industry. Technological diversity and abundance change the game from “what you can” to “what you want”. Society is changing at an unprecedented rate. Consequently adaptability will be crucial. This research paper explores the integration of digital adaptive technologies that transform the construction industry from the mass production to that of a possible client-oriented mass customization. The focus on the design, construction and performance stages of a building project, currently undergoing major overhaul faces a paradigm shift globally that will impact and compel attention for the next three decades with viable solutions such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) to manage massive data cum information. Customization maximizes clients’ participation during the design process thereby achieving greater effective value and higher satisfaction. A study between customized and standardized examples will investigate how adaptive customization will shift the design paradigm from cost to value centric. This action research will explore different aspects of emerging innovative systems already in place pushing the edge of frontiers, and transforming the building industry landscape whether micro or giga, to compliment new technologies to create an unprecedented exhilaration of freshness over the mundane, routine and mediocrity. Three identified fundamental aspects that are instrumental to Client-oriented Building Mass Customization (CoBMC) are design option visualization, parametric product information and n-dimensional modelling. The study concluded that a paradigm shift is therefore inevitable for every stakeholder including clients who will need to re-examine their roles, capabilities, and competencies in preparation towards challenging future.

Space Environmental Effects Testing Capability at the Marshall Space Flight Center

Science.gov (United States)

DeWittBurns, H.; Craven, Paul; Finckenor, Miria; Nehls, Mary; Schneider, Todd; Vaughn, Jason

2012-01-01

Understanding the effects of the space environment on materials and systems is fundamental and essential for mission success. If not properly understood and designed for, the effects of the environment can lead to degradation of materials, reduction of functional lifetime, and system failure. In response to this need, the Marshall Space Flight Center has developed world class Space Environmental Effects (SEE) expertise and test facilities to simulate the space environment. Capabilities include multiple unique test systems comprising the most complete SEE testing capability available. These test capabilities include charged particle radiation (electrons, protons, ions), ultraviolet radiation (UV), vacuum ultraviolet radiation (VUV), atomic oxygen, plasma effects, space craft charging, lunar surface and planetary effects, vacuum effects, and hypervelocity impacts as well as the combination of these capabilities. In addition to the uniqueness of the individual test capabilities, MSFC is the only NASA facility where the effects of the different space environments can be tested in one location. Combined with additional analytical capabilities for pre- and post-test evaluation, MSFC is a one-stop shop for materials testing and analysis. The SEE testing and analysis are performed by a team of award winning experts nationally recognized for their contributions in the study of the effects of the space environment on materials and systems. With this broad expertise in space environmental effects and the variety of test systems and equipment available, MSFC is able to customize tests with a demonstrated ability to rapidly adapt and reconfigure systems to meet customers needs. Extensive flight experiment experience bolsters this simulation and analysis capability with a comprehensive understanding of space environmental effects.

To Customize or Not to Customize? Exploring Science Teacher Customization in an Online Lesson Portal

Science.gov (United States)

Littenberg-Tobias, Joshua; Beheshti, Elham; Staudt, Carolyn

2016-01-01

New technologies are increasingly giving science teachers the ability to access and customize science lessons. However, there is substantial debate in the literature about whether and under what conditions teacher customization benefit student learning. In this study, we examined teacher customization of inquiry-based science lessons from an…

Improvement of the customer satisfaction through Quality Assurance Matrix and QC-Story methods: A case study from automotive industry

Science.gov (United States)

Sicoe, G. M.; Belu, N.; Rachieru, N.; Nicolae, E. V.

2017-10-01

Presently, in the automotive industry, the tendency is to adapt permanently to the changes and introduce the market tendency in the new products that leads of the customer satisfaction. Many quality techniques were adopted in this field to continuous improvement of product and process quality and advantages were also gained. The present paper has focused on possibilities that offers the use of Quality Assurance Matrix (QAM) and Quality Control Story (QC Story) to provide largest protection against nonconformities in the production process, throughout a case study in the automotive industry. There is a direct relationship from the QAM to a QC Story analysis. The failures identified using QAM are treated with QC Story methodology. Using this methods, will help to decrease the PPM values and will increase the quality performance and the customer satisfaction.

Pengaruh Customer Experience Quality Terhadap Customer Satisfaction & Customer Loyalty Di Kafe Excelso Tunjungan Plaza Surabaya: Perspektif B2C

OpenAIRE

Senjaya, Vivie

2013-01-01

This study discusses about the quality of the customer experience, which is thought to affect customer satisfaction at Cafe Excelso Tunjungan Plaza Surabaya. In this study, the variable of the customer experience quality is measured through the dimensions of accessibility, competence, customer recognition, helpfulness, personalization, problem solving, promise fulfillment, and value for time. Each of these dimensions will be partially tested how it affects customer satisfaction and customer l...

Contextual Marketing Based on Customer Buying Pattern in Grocery E-Commerce: The Case of Bigbasket.com (India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nesya Vanessa

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The objectives of this research are to identify customer purchase behavior, obtain the number of customer clusters, and form customer profile in order to find situation-based customer purchase be- havior pattern. From the given data, the RFM method and K-Means clustering are used to identify the customer purchase behavior and profiles. The result of this research showed that the customer clusters are formed differently in every product category based on the RFM value and K-Means clustering. There are also differences in peak hour for each customer cluster. The best time to deliver notifica- tions and personal messages is near the peak hour. Indeed, this matter is useful to create contextual marketing and targeted advertising that is designed based on customer cluster and purchase behavior.

Analisa Pengaruh Customer Experience Terhadap Customer Loyalty Dengan Customer Engagement Dan Customer Trust Sebagai Variabel Intervening Di the Body Shop

OpenAIRE

Felita, Christina Irene

2015-01-01

Perkembangan bisnis ritel saat ini berkembang sangat pesat. Sebagai Perusahaan ritel yang bergerak di bidang beauty & personal care, The Body Shop harus memiliki keunggulan bersaing agar dapat menang dalam persaingan yang ketat. Salah satu strategi untuk menciptakan keunggulan bersaing adalah dengan memberikan customer experience yang tepat dan memuaskan sehingga dapat memanjakan mereka sebagai customer dan membuat mereka menjadi customer yang loyal. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengan...

Graphical Visualization of Human Exploration Capabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Rodgers, Erica M.; Williams-Byrd, Julie; Arney, Dale C.; Simon, Matthew A.; Williams, Phillip A.; Barsoum, Christopher; Cowan, Tyler; Larman, Kevin T.; Hay, Jason; Burg, Alex

2016-01-01

NASA's pioneering space strategy will require advanced capabilities to expand the boundaries of human exploration on the Journey to Mars (J2M). The Evolvable Mars Campaign (EMC) architecture serves as a framework to identify critical capabilities that need to be developed and tested in order to enable a range of human exploration destinations and missions. Agency-wide System Maturation Teams (SMT) are responsible for the maturation of these critical exploration capabilities and help formulate, guide and resolve performance gaps associated with the EMC-identified capabilities. Systems Capability Organization Reporting Engine boards (SCOREboards) were developed to integrate the SMT data sets into cohesive human exploration capability stories that can be used to promote dialog and communicate NASA's exploration investments. Each SCOREboard provides a graphical visualization of SMT capability development needs that enable exploration missions, and presents a comprehensive overview of data that outlines a roadmap of system maturation needs critical for the J2M. SCOREboards are generated by a computer program that extracts data from a main repository, sorts the data based on a tiered data reduction structure, and then plots the data according to specified user inputs. The ability to sort and plot varying data categories provides the flexibility to present specific SCOREboard capability roadmaps based on customer requests. This paper presents the development of the SCOREboard computer program and shows multiple complementary, yet different datasets through a unified format designed to facilitate comparison between datasets. Example SCOREboard capability roadmaps are presented followed by a discussion of how the roadmaps are used to: 1) communicate capability developments and readiness of systems for future missions, and 2) influence the definition of NASA's human exploration investment portfolio through capability-driven processes. The paper concludes with a description

Innovations in Mechatronic Products and Mass Customization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Habib, Tufail; Jørgensen, Kaj Asbjørn; Nielsen, Kjeld

2011-01-01

as a product type and new inventions have resulted in drastic changes in design and development of mechatronic products. Conventional mechanical systems are enhanced by mechatronic systems. In this paper, the particular structure and properties of mechatronic products compared to conventional mechanical......Mass Customization (MC) has been recognized as a successful strategy in the design and development of products tailored to customer needs. Global competition demands new products with added functionalities, as in the case of mechatronic products. These products are becoming more and more important...

CUSTOMER PERCEIVED QUALITY IMPROVEMENT OF SYNTHETIC FIBER USING FUZZY QFD: A CASE STUDY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Golam Kabir

2011-06-01

Full Text Available The performance of the ready-made garment (RMG industry has been one of the most notable success stories of the Bangladesh economy over two decades. To meet the growing demand of synthetic yarns, Bangladesh has to import it from foreign countries which cost a substantial amount of foreign currency for the country. It is a pressing need for local manufacturers to come forward, produce quality synthetic yarn and fulfill the demand of the local market. The purpose of this paper is to present a Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment (FQFD model to indentify customer requirements and also demonstrate how these requirements can be used to prioritize the design requirements for manufacturing of synthetic yarns. In this system, Fuzzy set theory is integrated into house of quality (HOQ to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional QFD and to capture the inherent impreciseness and vagueness of customer requirements and facilitate to prioritize QFD information. Improving high priority design requirements will ultimately increase customer satisfaction and as a result customer perceived quality will soar.

Customer retention through supplier-organization-customer relationship management

OpenAIRE

Žvirelienė, Renata; Bučiūnienė, Ilona; Škudienė, Vida; Sakalas, Algimantas

2009-01-01

The research objective was to assess the relationship marketing outputs' (internal relationship, relationship with customer, relationship with supplier) interrelationship and their relationship with customers' retention. The internal and external relationship dimensions of commitment, satisfaction, trust, communication, cooperation and empathy were used to measure supplier-organization-customer relationship strength. The survey was conducted in cargo vehicles trading industry companies in Lit...

An assessment on employees’ business intelligence and CRM on customer satisfaction: A case study of Auto industry

OpenAIRE

Somayeh Rezaei; Ali Alikhani

2014-01-01

This paper performs an empirical investigation on employees’ business intelligence and customer relationship management and their effects on customer satisfaction. The proposed study has been implemented among 625 people, 240 sales representative and 385 regular customers, who are involved with products of an Iranian automaker named Iran Khodro. The proposed study designs three questionnaires in Likert scale for business intelligence, customer relationship management and customer satisfaction...

An empirical study to determine the critical success factors on customer retention: A case study of Iranian banking sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Neda Jomehri

2011-04-01

Full Text Available One of the most important strategic issues for any enterprise is to create and deliver superior value for its customers and provide enough evidences to convince them not to choose another competitive. In this study, we study the effects of customer value, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty on customer retention. The results indicate that all aspects of the customer value have positive relationships with customer satisfaction but only emotional value has a positive and direct relationship with customer loyalty. The study confirms that while none of customer value aspects has direct and positive relationship with customer retention, both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty positively and directly affect customer retention.

Accelerator and Electrodynamics Capability Review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, Kevin W.

2010-01-01

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) uses capability reviews to assess the science, technology and engineering (STE) quality and institutional integration and to advise Laboratory Management on the current and future health of the STE. Capability reviews address the STE integration that LANL uses to meet mission requirements. The Capability Review Committees serve a dual role of providing assessment of the Laboratory's technical contributions and integration towards its missions and providing advice to Laboratory Management. The assessments and advice are documented in reports prepared by the Capability Review Committees that are delivered to the Director and to the Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology and Engineering (PADSTE). Laboratory Management will use this report for STE assessment and planning. LANL has defined fifteen STE capabilities. Electrodynamics and Accelerators is one of the seven STE capabilities that LANL Management (Director, PADSTE, technical Associate Directors) has identified for review in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010. Accelerators and electrodynamics at LANL comprise a blend of large-scale facilities and innovative small-scale research with a growing focus on national security applications. This review is organized into five topical areas: (1) Free Electron Lasers; (2) Linear Accelerator Science and Technology; (3) Advanced Electromagnetics; (4) Next Generation Accelerator Concepts; and (5) National Security Accelerator Applications. The focus is on innovative technology with an emphasis on applications relevant to Laboratory mission. The role of Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) in support of accelerators/electrodynamics will be discussed. The review provides an opportunity for interaction with early career staff. Program sponsors and customers will provide their input on the value of the accelerator and electrodynamics capability to the Laboratory mission.

Accelerator and electrodynamics capability review

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jones, Kevin W [Los Alamos National Laboratory

2010-01-01

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) uses capability reviews to assess the science, technology and engineering (STE) quality and institutional integration and to advise Laboratory Management on the current and future health of the STE. Capability reviews address the STE integration that LANL uses to meet mission requirements. The Capability Review Committees serve a dual role of providing assessment of the Laboratory's technical contributions and integration towards its missions and providing advice to Laboratory Management. The assessments and advice are documented in reports prepared by the Capability Review Committees that are delivered to the Director and to the Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology and Engineering (PADSTE). Laboratory Management will use this report for STE assessment and planning. LANL has defined fifteen STE capabilities. Electrodynamics and Accelerators is one of the seven STE capabilities that LANL Management (Director, PADSTE, technical Associate Directors) has identified for review in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010. Accelerators and electrodynamics at LANL comprise a blend of large-scale facilities and innovative small-scale research with a growing focus on national security applications. This review is organized into five topical areas: (1) Free Electron Lasers; (2) Linear Accelerator Science and Technology; (3) Advanced Electromagnetics; (4) Next Generation Accelerator Concepts; and (5) National Security Accelerator Applications. The focus is on innovative technology with an emphasis on applications relevant to Laboratory mission. The role of Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) in support of accelerators/electrodynamics will be discussed. The review provides an opportunity for interaction with early career staff. Program sponsors and customers will provide their input on the value of the accelerator and electrodynamics capability to the Laboratory mission.

Customization creates more efficient, cleaner rigs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Budd, G.

2002-08-01

Technological advances in drilling equipment are essential to improving efficiency in the oilpatch; getting the technological upper hand on the competition is no less important for drilling equipment manufacturers than for actors in other sectors of the industry. While off-the-shelf uniformity that reduces unit cost has been the trend in fabricating field gas compression modules, custom manufacturing has become very popular in the rig manufacturing sector. Examples from Crown Energy Technologies and Tesco Corporation, both of Calgary, Aecon Industrial's Edmonton operations, PCL Industrial Construction Ltd of Nisku, and Toromont Process Systems of Houston and Calgary are described to illustrate the widespread demand for customized drilling rigs, including the growing preference for electric drives. Top drive systems, as opposed to rotary drives also have become very popular; six out of ten rigs are sold with electric top drives today compared with fewer than 10 rigs a decade ago. At the same time, Tesco has recently signed a deal with Conoco Inc to construct three revolutionary drilling rigs using Tesco's proprietary Casing Drilling Technology, which uses standard oilfield casing instead of drill pipe, allowing operators to simultaneously drill, case and evaluate oil and gas wells. Aecon and PCL Industrial Construction have had much demand for customized spools and modules particularly from the oil sands industry, while Toromont Process Systems is also expanding its Calgary facilities to meet the demand for its dual gas compression equipment used by power stations for gas compression and co-generation, natural gas refrigeration and specialty gas processing.

BUILDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY THROUGH IMPROVING SERVICE QUALITY- CASE: PIZZA BRAVO, KOUVOLA, FINLAND.

OpenAIRE

Nguyen Linh, Phuong; Do Thu, May

2012-01-01

Apparently, customer loyalty is regarded as one of the most crucial factors or “key performance indicators” for any business in general to exist and stay consolingly in the competitive business world. Furthermore, due to the contentment and good service quality, the corporation could retain the faithfulness from its consumers. As a result, the objective of this thesis is to widen a better scope of customer loyalty and how it can be obtained through good service quality. The theoretical f...

Outsourcing customer support : The role of provider customer focus

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wuyts, S.H.K.; Rindfleisch, A.; Citrin, A.

An increasing number of firms are outsourcing customer support to external service providers. This creates a triadic setting in which an outsourcing provider serves end customers on behalf of its clients. While outsourcing presents an opportunity to serve customers, service providers differ in their

Customer Engagement as a New Perspective in Customer Management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verhoef, Peter C.; Reinartz, Werner J.; Krafft, Manfred

Since 2000, customer management (CM) research has evolved and has had a significant impact on the marketing discipline. In an increasingly networked society where customers can interact easily with other customers and firms through social networks and other new media, the authors propose that

Understanding Customers: The Jobs to Be Done Theory Applied in the Context of a Rural Food Pantry.

Science.gov (United States)

Vaterlaus, J Mitchell; Cottle, Natalie Martineau; Patten, Emily Vaterlaus; Gibbons, Robyn

2018-04-28

Food insecurity, and particularly rural food insecurity, has unique challenges associated with it. Understanding the customer or patron needs is increasingly important in resolving this national concern. The Jobs to Be Done Theory posits that when considering customers, it is beneficial to move past demographic profiling and focus on what the customer wants to accomplish by using a particular product or service. This qualitative study aimed to determine customers' jobs to be done at a rural food pantry. In addition, it seeks to demonstrate the application of contemporary management theory to dietetics practice. A case study approach was used in this study. Case study data collection procedures included six male and six female food pantry patrons in Montana completing in-depth, audio-recorded interviews and surveys. Each person's interview and survey were constructed into individual case descriptions; the case descriptions were analyzed using uniform categories determined by researchers. To identify themes in the holistic case, word tables were created for each uniform category and assessed for key themes representing patrons' experiences. The key themes that emerged were the customer in context, customers' food relief needs, connecting with customers, and barriers to utilization. The application of Jobs to Be Done Theory to rural food pantry customers demonstrates that demographic segmentation does not capture the social, emotional, and functional dimensions for this sample. Investigation of customer experiences, circumstances, and obstacles is important for improving dietetics services. Copyright © 2018 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Impact of Business Intelligence (BI Competence on Customer Relationship Management (CRM Process: An Empirical Investigation of the Banking Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Mortezaei

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, establishing long-term and effective relationships with customers is a key factor in understanding customers’ needs and preferences and achieving competitive advantage. In addition, companies are facing with a growing need for information and analytical knowledge about their customers, market, competitors, organizational environment, and other factors affecting their business. Business intelligence has been considered as a response to this need. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of business intelligence competence in improving customer relationship management process. Based on the literature review and the competence – capability relationship paradigm, a conceptual model was developed comprising of different dimensions of business intelligence competence and customer relationship management processes. The data were collected from the banking sector and partial least squares structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis. Empirical results showed that organizational business intelligence competence, comprising of managerial, technical, and cultural competence, has a significantly positive impact on enhancing capabilities of customer relationship management process including initiation, maintenance, and termination of the relationship.

Assessment of customer satisfaction in transportation service ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Assessment of customer satisfaction in transportation service delivery: The case of three terminals of Anbassa City Bus service enterprise. ... Fullscreen Fullscreen Off. AJOL African Journals Online. HOW TO USE AJOL... for Researchers · for ...

Customer-oriented risk assessment in network utilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gómez Fernández, Juan F.; Márquez, Adolfo Crespo; López-Campos, Mónica A.

2016-01-01

For companies that distribute services such as telecommunications, water, energy, gas, etc., quality perceived by the customers has a strong impact on the fulfillment of financial goals, positively increasing the demand and negatively increasing the risk of customer churn (loss of customers). Failures by these companies may cause customer affection in a massive way, augmenting the intention to leave the company. Therefore, maintenance performance and specifically service reliability has a strong influence on financial goals. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate the contribution of the maintenance department in economic terms, based on service unreliability by network failures. The developed methodology aims to provide an analysis of failures to facilitate decision making about maintenance (preventive/predictive and corrective) costs versus negative impacts in end-customer invoicing based on the probability of losing customers. Survival analysis of recurrent failures with the General Renewal Process distribution is used for this novel purpose with the intention to be applied as a standard procedure to calculate the expected maintenance financial impact, for a given period of time. Also, geographical areas of coverage are distinguished, enabling the comparison of different technical or management alternatives. Two case studies in a telecommunications services company are presented in order to illustrate the applicability of the methodology. - Highlights: • Reliability and reparability impact the rate of abandonment of customers. • Expected reliability and interruptions must be contemplated in services contracts. • Preventive maintenance reduces the risk of abandonment, besides corrective costs. • Analysis of investment in service reliability vs. impact on customer retention. • Reliability of services has a positive impact in business financial situation.

Molten Salt Test Loop (MSTL) system customer interface document.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gill, David Dennis; Kolb, William J.; Briggs, Ronald D.

2013-09-01

The National Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories has a unique test capability called the Molten Salt Test Loop (MSTL) system. MSTL is a test capability that allows customers and researchers to test components in flowing, molten nitrate salt. The components tested can range from materials samples, to individual components such as flex hoses, ball joints, and valves, up to full solar collecting systems such as central receiver panels, parabolic troughs, or linear Fresnel systems. MSTL provides realistic conditions similar to a portion of a concentrating solar power facility. The facility currently uses 60/40 nitrate %E2%80%9Csolar salt%E2%80%9D and can circulate the salt at pressure up to 40 bar (600psi), temperature to 585%C2%B0C, and flow rate of 44-50kg/s(400-600GPM) depending on temperature. The purpose of this document is to provide a basis for customers to evaluate the applicability to their testing needs, and to provide an outline of expectations for conducting testing on MSTL. The document can serve as the basis for testing agreements including Work for Others (WFO) and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA). While this document provides the basis for these agreements and describes some of the requirements for testing using MSTL and on the site at Sandia, the document is not sufficient by itself as a test agreement. The document, however, does provide customers with a uniform set of information to begin the test planning process.

Understanding customer experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Christopher; Schwager, Andre

2007-02-01

Anyone who has signed up for cell phone service, attempted to claim a rebate, or navigated a call center has probably suffered from a company's apparent indifference to what should be its first concern: the customer experiences that culminate in either satisfaction or disappointment and defection. Customer experience is the subjective response customers have to direct or indirect contact with a company. It encompasses every aspect of an offering: customer care, advertising, packaging, features, ease of use, reliability. Customer experience is shaped by customers' expectations, which largely reflect previous experiences. Few CEOs would argue against the significance of customer experience or against measuring and analyzing it. But many don't appreciate how those activities differ from CRM or just how illuminating the data can be. For instance, the majority of the companies in a recent survey believed they have been providing "superior" experiences to customers, but most customers disagreed. The authors describe a customer experience management (CEM) process that involves three kinds of monitoring: past patterns (evaluating completed transactions), present patterns (tracking current relationships), and potential patterns (conducting inquiries in the hope of unveiling future opportunities). Data are collected at or about touch points through such methods as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and online forums. Companies need to involve every function in the effort, not just a single customer-facing group. The authors go on to illustrate how a cross-functional CEM system is created. With such a system, companies can discover which customers are prospects for growth and which require immediate intervention.

Investigating Customers' Experiences with Their Financial Services Customer Education Programs as It Impacts Customer Loyalty to the Financial Firm

Science.gov (United States)

Islam, Kaliym A.

2017-01-01

The problem addressed in this study was that customer education programs are intended to strengthen customer loyalty; however, research on the effects of customer education on customer loyalty remains insufficient. This phenomenological study investigated how the lived experiences of customers' participating in financial services' customer…

Investigating issues and challenges for customer involvement in business services innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nicolajsen, Hanne Westh; Hugger, Ada Scupola

2011-01-01

innovation processes to different degrees. However, actively involving customers in radical services innovation require a relationship between the customer company and the service provider that might be described as a partnership in which ongoing learning takes place to develop new solutions. The findings......Purpose – The paper aims to investigate how customers may contribute to radical innovation in consultancy services and the conditions needed for customers to be involved in such radical service innovations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a qualitative case study approach including...... rich descriptions based primarily on interviews to investigate an extreme example of successful customer involvement in the development of radical service innovations at Ramboll, a leading Scandinavian engineering consultancy. Findings – The study reveals that customers may be involved in radical...

Analysis of Brand Personality on Customer Loyalty (Case Study Tablet Computer: Apple Ipad and Samsung Galaxy Tab)

OpenAIRE

Andu, Risca A.

2013-01-01

Brand personality is a potential marketing strategy to increase the customer loyalty towards the particular brand. Many customers will choose products with a brand that suitable with their personality. It also applies to tablet computer customers. The objectives of this research are to describe the effect of brand personality on customer loyalty in purchasing Apple Ipad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. This research also will analyze the difference in customer loyalty based on brand personality betwee...

Custom high-reliability radiation-hard CMOS-LSI circuit design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barnard, W.J.

1981-01-01

Sandia has developed a custom CMOS-LSI design capability to provide high reliability radiation-hardened circuits. This capability relies on (1) proven design practices to enhance reliability, (2) use of well characterized cells and logic modules, (3) computer-aided design tools to reduce design time and errors and to standardize design definition, and (4) close working relationships with the system designer and technology fabrication personnel. Trade-offs are made during the design between circuit complexity/performance and technology/producibility for high reliability and radiation-hardened designs to result. Sandia has developed and is maintaining a radiation-hardened bulk CMOS technology fabrication line for production of prototype and small production volume parts

Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty as Predictors of Future Business Potential

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eskildsen, Jacob Kjær; Kristensen, Kai

2007-01-01

This paper analyzes the relationship between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and the future business potential of existing customers. The data for the analysis comes from the Danish Customer Satisfaction Index 2006. Here a total of app. 2000 private customers evaluated their...

Managing customer knowledge

OpenAIRE

2013-01-01

M. Phil. (Information Management) Customer relationship management has been exposed as a strategic failure, unveiling only customer dissatisfaction. A new method for managing customers is consequently required. The effect of the knowledge economy has brought about a change in global orientation, in the focus on customer wants and needs to increase satisfaction. There was then a shift in focus from information to knowledge. In such an economy, the customer knowledge management strategy, as ...

Smart Automation, Customer Experience and Customer Engagement in Electric Vehicles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Asad Ullah

2018-04-01

Full Text Available A major challenge to cleaner and more sustainable transportation is the lack of adoptability of electric vehicles (EVs by customers. Therefore, most of the vehicles we see on the road use fossil fuel instead of sustainable green energy sources. One way to improve customer acceptance is to market EVs as a socially desirable product, rather than only environmentally friendly. The silver lining to promote is the potential of information and communications technology (ICT features in EVs, which can lead to a deeper connection between the EVs and their users. These engaging technologies can bring customers closer to the company, resulting in generating big data, which can lead to even deeper insights into customer preferences. Because the technology of vehicle connectivity and automation is just taking off, it is important to understand how these technologies in EVs can enhance customer experiences and result in sustainable customer engagement. Unfortunately, this important research area remains neglected. This research, therefore, is focused on building a conceptual framework for understanding the influence of electric vehicle (EV automation and connectivity on customer experience, and ultimately, customer engagement.

Creativity and innovation by empowering the customer: The case of Mulino Bianco. Part I: Organisational innovation context

Science.gov (United States)

Bujor, A.; Avasilcăi, S.

2015-11-01

The terms of creativity, co-creation, creative industries, innovation, and coinnovation are more and more used nowadays. While co-creation offers the possibility and encourages a more active involvement from the customers to create value rich experiences, innovation is responsible for the little improvements made for a better life, to grow a business, to improve products, services or company's productivity. Either customers, current and potential, or stakeholders’ involvement into innovation activities, through their creativity, represent an important way of value creation, of actions’ performance that increases the worth of goods, services, or business as a whole. More and more, different size businesses gather ideas for innovation from customers / stakeholders through their involvement into the early stages of the innovation process. Actually, it has been shown that their ideas sketch their needs and wishes, and have been described as “need information”. Customers and stakeholders, in general, also offer ideas that have been called “solution information”, which represents, not only need information, but also customer-based proposals that describe how ideas can be transformed into marketable products. The term of creative industries refers to those goods that can technically be reproduced, industrially produced, and commercially sold, this being one of the many definitions found in the literature. The classification of creative industries differs at the European Union level according to each country's development level and opening towards these industries’ perception as an engine for economic growth. To better explore and identify the importance of innovation and creativity for new products’ development or improvement a case study about Mulino Bianco was done. This methodology approach represents a part of a qualitative research approach within a broader research undertaken within the framework of the National Research Program PN II. Mulino Bianco

How dynamic capabilities drive performance in the Indian IT industry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holzweber, Markus; Mattsson, Jan; Chadee, Doren

2012-01-01

This study examines key issues and effects of capability management on a fast-growing area of knowledge-intensive global business services – IT outsourcing and offshoring. An exploratory study of Indian companies providing complex process-oriented offshore IT services to their global customers...... is undertaken. The analysis of the data related to the service provider side shows that developing dynamic capabilities is strongly driven by management and top-clients and results in the development of business processes and in establishing a strategic partnership with the client organization. Key findings...

A new methodology to study customer electrocardiogram using RFM analysis and clustering

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Reza Gholamian

2011-04-01

Full Text Available One of the primary issues on marketing planning is to know the customer's behavioral trends. A customer's purchasing interest may fluctuate for different reasons and it is important to find the declining or increasing trends whenever they happen. It is important to study these fluctuations to improve customer relationships. There are different methods to increase the customer's willingness such as planning good promotions, an increase on advertisement, etc. This paper proposes a new methodology to measure customer's behavioral trends called customer electrocardiogram. The proposed model of this paper uses K-means clustering method with RFM analysis to study customer's fluctuations over different time frames. We also apply the proposed electrocardiogram methodology for a real-world case study of food industry and the results are discussed in details.

Research on Customer Satisfaction in Marine Cultural and Sustainable Tourism—A Case Study of Shanghai

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuxiang Zheng

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In recent years, marine cultural tourism, an emerging tourism mode, has become more and more popular among tourists, and demonstrates broad market prospects. However, Chinese marine cultural tourism is still in the development and growth stage, and the level of customer satisfaction is uneven. The improvement of the customer satisfaction level is conducive to meeting customers’ demands in marine cultural tourism and enhancing the competitiveness of Chinese marine cultural tourism. Based on theoretical research and the practical situation of marine cultural tourism, this paper implements empirical investigation and research into customer satisfaction in marine cultural tourism in Shanghai, China. According to the research results, it proposes improving the level of customer satisfaction in Chinese marine cultural tourism from the perspectives of ocean culture tourism promotion, customer satisfaction evaluation, service level management and environment construction of scenic spots, tourism branding and the marine cultural accomplishments of tourists, so as to promote the sustainable development of marine cultural tourism.

An assessment on employees’ business intelligence and CRM on customer satisfaction: A case study of Auto industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Somayeh Rezaei

2014-02-01

Full Text Available This paper performs an empirical investigation on employees’ business intelligence and customer relationship management and their effects on customer satisfaction. The proposed study has been implemented among 625 people, 240 sales representative and 385 regular customers, who are involved with products of an Iranian automaker named Iran Khodro. The proposed study designs three questionnaires in Likert scale for business intelligence, customer relationship management and customer satisfaction and Cronbach alpha have been calculated for these three questionnaires as 0.85, 0.84 and 0.78, respectively. The study distributes the questionnaires among groups, employees as well as customers, and using one-way t-student test as well as regression technique the study finds that business intelligence and customer relationship management are within an acceptable limit (P< 0.01 and they positively influence on customers’ satisfaction (P < 0.01.

The customs issues of the European Union and Serbia: The customs base

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vranješ Mile

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Regulation (EC No 450/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 laying down the Community Customs Code (Modernized Customs Code, Council Regulation (EEC No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code, The Customs Law of Serbia of 26 March 2010 in a very detailed and extensive way regulate customs base. These legal documents envisage the methods of determination of customs value: the primary ones, which are based on the transaction value, but also the secondary ones, which are based on other methods for determination of customs value of goods. The customs services of the EU Member States have on their disposal six methods for determination of customs value of goods. Those methods in the mentioned acts of the EU and Serbia are transposed from the Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 and Agreement on Implementation of Article VII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. The fact that mentioned acts of the EU and Serbia request that the customs value of goods must be clearly and precisely determined, that means to be determined in the same way, is understandable because the customs base is one of the most significant elements of customs. There are many reasons for that: in a certain way, the customs base is in relation with all other elements of customs structure; from the procedure in which the customs base is determined, that means from its universality depends the amount of income which will the EU and Serbia, on that ground, collect to finance public expenditure predicted in the budget; and most of the customs on the imported goods in the EU is determined ad valorem.

Environmental Capabilities of Suppliers for Green Supply Chain Management in Construction Projects: A Case Study in Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moon Gyu Kim

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Green supply chain management (GSCM enhances a firm’s competitiveness for sustainable growth. GSCM is especially important in the construction industry, a project-based business that often results in heavy environmental pollution. For the successful implementation of GSCM in the construction industry to occur, contractors should make the best use of suppliers’ environmental capabilities based on shared understanding of the capabilities. This paper examines the shared understanding of suppliers’ environmental management capabilities between the contractor and suppliers by assessing the consistency between the contractor’s and suppliers’ evaluations of the capabilities. This explorative case study investigates a supply chain comprised of a major construction firm and 106 suppliers in Korea. The results of the case analysis show that the suppliers’ self-evaluation scores of environmental capability are higher than the contractor’s evaluation scores. Furthermore, from both evaluators, suppliers received the lowest scores in the evaluation item rating the relationship with second-tier suppliers and the highest in the evaluation item rating the relationship with the contractor. The consistency between the suppliers’ and contractor’s evaluation is related to several characteristics of suppliers, such as industry type, firm size and partnership duration with the contractor. This study contributes to the literature of GSCM and strategic alignment amongst supply chain partners for the construction industry.

Integrated Development and Maintenance of Software Products to Support Efficient Updating of Customer Configurations: A Case Study in Mass Market ERP Software

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jansen, S.R.L.; Brinkkemper, S.; Ballintijn, G.; Nieuwland, Arco van

2006-01-01

The maintenance of enterprise application software at a customer site is a potentially complex task for software vendors. This complexity can unfortunately result in a significant amount of work and risk. This paper presents a case study of a product software vendor that tries to reduce this

The Effects of Technology Entrepreneurship on Customers and Society: A Case Study of a Spanish Pharmaceutical Distribution Company.

Science.gov (United States)

Muñoz, Rosa M; Sánchez de Pablo, Jesús D; Peña, Isidro; Salinero, Yolanda

2016-01-01

The main purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding, within the field of corporate entrepreneurship, of the various factors that enable technology entrepreneurship in established firms and its principal effects on customers and society. The paper reports on a case study regarding technology entrepreneurship in a Spanish company whose activity is pharmaceutical distribution. This company has been able to overcome the consequences of the worldwide crisis and start an innovative process which includes the installation of new information technology (IT) and an investment of 6 million Euros. It is, in this respect, a model to imitate and the objective of this paper is therefore to discover the managers' entrepreneurial orientation (EO) characteristics which have made this possible, along with the organizational and social effects resulting from the process. We verify that EO is present in this company and that the development of new IT has important effects on customers and the population.

The Effects of Technology Entrepreneurship on Customers and Society: A Case Study of a Spanish Pharmaceutical Distribution Company

Science.gov (United States)

Muñoz, Rosa M.; Sánchez de Pablo, Jesús D.; Peña, Isidro; Salinero, Yolanda

2016-01-01

The main purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding, within the field of corporate entrepreneurship, of the various factors that enable technology entrepreneurship in established firms and its principal effects on customers and society. The paper reports on a case study regarding technology entrepreneurship in a Spanish company whose activity is pharmaceutical distribution. This company has been able to overcome the consequences of the worldwide crisis and start an innovative process which includes the installation of new information technology (IT) and an investment of 6 million Euros. It is, in this respect, a model to imitate and the objective of this paper is therefore to discover the managers’ entrepreneurial orientation (EO) characteristics which have made this possible, along with the organizational and social effects resulting from the process. We verify that EO is present in this company and that the development of new IT has important effects on customers and the population. PMID:27445938

EFEK CUSTOMER CUSTOMER INTERACTION TERHADAP SATISFACTION DAN WORD OF MOUTH PADA HOTEL MANDARIN ORIENTAL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Putri Hijir

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The background of this research was the effect of Customer to Customer Interaction affect satisfaction, word of mouth, in mandarin oriental hotel. The objective of this research is to examine the impact of Customer satisfaction, Service Atmosphere, Personal Interaction, Customer Customer Interaction, Word of Mouth. The design of this research applies primary data obtained by distributing questionnaires to 200 customer who are using Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Data analysis method used in this research is Structural Equation Model (SEM. The result of this research there is positive impact Personal Interaction Quality toward customer Satisfaction, there is positive impact Service Atmosphere toward Customer Satisfaction, there is positive impact Service atmosphere toward Customer Customer Interaction, there is positive impact Customer Customer Interaction toward Customer Satisfaction, there is positive impact Customer Customer Interaction toward Word of Mouth, there is positive impact Customer Satisfaction toward Word of Mouth.

Benefitting from virtual customer environments: An empirical study of customer engagement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verhagen, T.; Swen, E; Feldberg, J.F.M.; Merikivi, J.

2015-01-01

Customer engagement has been labeled as a prerequisite for the success of virtual customer environments. A key challenge for organizations serving their customers via these environments is how to stimulate customer engagement. This study is among the first to shed light on this issue by examining

Customer relationship management

OpenAIRE

Gudeliūnas, Mindaugas

2016-01-01

My name is Mindaugas Gudeliūnas. My bachelors thesis topic is "Customer Relationship Management". The main goal of my work was to investigate customers relationship management and to create modern system, which is fast, easy to use and made for small business. Customer relationship management is really beneficial for a lot of companies. It can make your relationships with a customer more reliable and loyal, it can automate a lot of processes, which are related to customer management, human re...

Case study: development of a SANDF tactical data link network enabling capability

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Smith, CJ

2011-11-01

Full Text Available stream_source_info Smith4_2011.pdf.txt stream_content_type text/plain stream_size 24788 Content-Encoding ISO-8859-1 stream_name Smith4_2011.pdf.txt Content-Type text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Case Study: Development of a...Commander/Operational Personnel Operational Doctrine/Processes C2 and Platform applications Application 1 Application 2 Application 3 Data Data Data Communications Infrastructure DataData DataData Figure 1. TDL Capability Model In relation to Figure 1, Link...

Social Media Marketing : Social media impact on brand awareness in the case of Husqvarna Sverige's customers

OpenAIRE

Kljucanin, Nermin; Shahbazi, Said; Pourjanekikhani, Pouyan

2012-01-01

The purpose of this thesis is to understand how brand awareness among customers is created and maintained through the use of social media as a marketing tool.The web does not only provide people to socialize and share and receive information among friends and family online, it is also a powerful marketing tool and marketing place where the customer can interact with other customers and firms. Social media has made it possible for customer to choose on their own when and where they want to rec...

Model-based Assessment for Balancing Privacy Requirements and Operational Capabilities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Knirsch, Fabian [Salzburg Univ. (Austria); Engel, Dominik [Salzburg Univ. (Austria); Frincu, Marc [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Prasanna, Viktor [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

2015-02-17

The smart grid changes the way energy is produced and distributed. In addition both, energy and information is exchanged bidirectionally among participating parties. Therefore heterogeneous systems have to cooperate effectively in order to achieve a common high-level use case, such as smart metering for billing or demand response for load curtailment. Furthermore, a substantial amount of personal data is often needed for achieving that goal. Capturing and processing personal data in the smart grid increases customer concerns about privacy and in addition, certain statutory and operational requirements regarding privacy aware data processing and storage have to be met. An increase of privacy constraints, however, often limits the operational capabilities of the system. In this paper, we present an approach that automates the process of finding an optimal balance between privacy requirements and operational requirements in a smart grid use case and application scenario. This is achieved by formally describing use cases in an abstract model and by finding an algorithm that determines the optimum balance by forward mapping privacy and operational impacts. For this optimal balancing algorithm both, a numeric approximation and – if feasible – an analytic assessment are presented and investigated. The system is evaluated by applying the tool to a real-world use case from the University of Southern California (USC) microgrid.

The Customer Service Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Bell, Chip R.

2001-01-01

Discusses ways to embed customer service learning and customer loyalty including making customers think, examining every aspect of customers' service encounters with staff, providing follow-up, making learning fun, and involving customers in your business. (JOW)

Customer Segmentation by Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty and Customer Involvement

OpenAIRE

Tereza Vebrová; Kateřina Venclová; Stanislav Rojík

2016-01-01

Brand loyalty and customer involvement are two important concepts that help explain and understand a significant part of consumer shopping behavior. The aim of the present work is to identify factors influencing brand loyalty and customer involvement. A further aim is to consider subsequent segmentation of customers with respect to different degrees of brand loyalty and customer involvement. The research was focused on the field of Czech telecommunication services – mobile operators. Primary ...

Enabling Mass Customization in Engineer-To-Order Industries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bonev, Martin

general capabilities to facilitate mass customization in engineer-to-order firms. The established understanding is complemented with interviews of practitioners from 18 engineering companies to obtain further insight into essential aspects of the research field. Based on the gained experience, eleven...... empirical studies have been conducted to develop relevant concepts and methods aiming at enhancing the identified capabilities. This close collaboration with industries ranging from construction to process plants and machinery applications promoted the development of a practical tool, termed Integrated...... Design Model (IDM). The IDM tool integrates adjacency matrixes, node-link diagrams and generic modelling methods, to improve the explicitness and visibility of architectures. Connected to advanced expert systems, such as product configuration systems, the tool enables a formalized procedure for managing...

Predicting multi-class customer profiles based on transactions : a case study in food sales

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Apeh, E.; Zliobaite, I.; Pechenizkiy, M.; Gabrys, B.; Bramer, M.; Petridis, M.

2012-01-01

Predicting the class of customer profiles is a key task in marketing, which enables businesses to approach the customers in a right way to satisfy the customer’s evolving needs. However, due to costs, privacy and/or data protection, only the business’ owned transactional data is typically available

Advanced customization in architectural design and construction

CERN Document Server

Naboni, Roberto

2015-01-01

This book presents the state of the art in advanced customization within the sector of architectural design and construction, explaining important new technologies that are boosting design, product and process innovation and identifying the challenges to be confronted as we move toward a mass customization construction industry. Advanced machinery and software integration are discussed, as well as an overview of the manufacturing techniques offered through digital methods that are acquiring particular significance within the field of digital architecture. CNC machining, Robotic Fabrication, and Additive Manufacturing processes are all clearly explained, highlighting their ability to produce personalized architectural forms and unique construction components. Cutting-edge case studies in digitally fabricated architectural realizations are described and, looking towards the future, a new model of 100% customized architecture for design and construction is presented. The book is an excellent guide to the profoun...

A review of the customer lifetime value as a customer profitability measure in the context of customer relationship management

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raphael Damm

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Purpose: A number of customer metrics allow estimating customer profitability with methods such as the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV. However, investments in customer relationships carry the potential risk to destroy value and reduce profitability when based on incorrect estimates of customer profitability. Therefore, estimating future customer value correctly is essential to allocate marketing expenditures in the most effective way. In this article recent literature about the CLV is reviewed in order to assess its ability as a customer profitability measure. Besides the financial perspective of the CLV, non-financial perspectives such as customer advocacy, (customer or open innovation and learning have been identified to have an impact on customer profitability. How to properly estimate a customer’s value taking all relevant value creating factors, financial as well as non-financial, into account is the underlying research question.Design/methodology/approach: This research is based on the review of a number of theoretical and empirical articles published between 1990 and 2010. The aggregation of measures, key-drivers and risks of each key-perspective of the customer relationship contributes to the development of a more systematic understanding of the value creation process and provides answers to the research question. Indirect effects of the CLV as a source of value have received increasing attention in previous research but are not sufficiently accounted for by mainstream methods for valuing customers (Ryals, 2008. Therefore, the attempt to structure available knowledge on indirect effects of the CLV in its contextual setting is made.Findings: This research is concluded providing evidence that one-dimensional calculations of the CLV deliver an incomplete picture of the customer relationship and estimate customer profitability incorrectly. This supports the idea of a multidimensional CLV approach that accounts for interrelated key

Mechanism of supply chain coordination cased on dynamic capability framework-the mediating role of manufacturing capabilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tiantian Gao

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Purpose: A critical issue has been absent from the conversation on supply chain coordination: how supply chain coordination influence the enterprise performance. This research proposes a new vision to research the performance mechanism of supply chain coordination capability as a dynamic capability. Manufacturing capabilities are existed as mediating role. Design/methodology/approach: Data from International Manufacturing Strategy Survey in 2009 is used to verify the mediating model by hierarchical regression analysis. Findings: The results show that supply chain coordination impacts the enterprise performance positively and indirect impacts the enterprise performance through quality, cost, flexibility. Research implications: This study presents an overview of the impact of supply chain coordination and manufacturing capabilities on enterprise performance, giving grasp for further research of the relationships that exist between them. Originality/value: This finding integrates insights from previous research in dynamic capability framework and supply chain management into a generalization and extension of the performance mechanism in manufacturing enterprises.

Customer relationship management captures intellectual capital for increased competitiveness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. R. Van Zyl

2005-12-01

Full Text Available Today, with regards to tangible assets, the corporate playing field has become more or less level with competing organisations producing very similar products and services. The key differentiator for an organisation's offerings now depends upon an organisation's ability to capture and leverage intellectual capital (IC, and especially customer IC. Customers are an invaluable source of two kinds of IC: transactional and innovative. An organisation must implement customer relationship management (CRM initiatives in order to develop and maintain good relationships with customers and in so doing, be able to capture IC. This IC will enable an organisation to be more responsive to new and changing customer needs and preferences and to be better able to customize products and services according to more specific customer profiles: ultimately leading to increased market share, profitability and overall strategic competitiveness. The purpose of this article is to determine how good customer relationships allow for the capture and subsequent leveraging of customer IC for increased competitiveness. In order to fulfill this purpose, the concept of CRM is explored as well as how CRM allows for the capture of both transactional and innovative capital. The strategic benefits of the application of customer IC are then explored, together with an exposition of the CRM implementation challenges facing those organisations that wish to implement a CRM program to capture and leverage customer IC for increased competitiveness. This exploration involved an examination of contemporary literature, theories and business cases and subsequently revealed that CRM is a vital discipline/philosophy that must be implemented by any organisation wishing to achieve greater market efficiency and competitiveness. This competitiveness can only be achieved through the carefully managed unlocking, sharing and leveraging of both transactional and innovative customer intellectual capital.

Prioritizing the effective factors for customers attraction: A case study of Sepah Bank

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Azim Zarei

2012-04-01

Full Text Available During the past few years, privatization has recently changed banking industry and there has been an increase competition in this industry. New banks try to present better services to absorb customers and traditional banks attempt to improve their services to retain their existing customers. In such environment and with limited amount of resources, there is a necessity to prioritize different influencing factors on the quality of the services. The proposed study of this paper presents a multi criteria decision making method along with Kano method to prioritize the most influencing factors of service quality. The proposed study of this paper is implemented for one of the oldest banks in Iran called Sepah. We have gathered different factors influencing customer satisfaction for all Sepah banks located in Semnan, Iran and using, analytical hierarchy process we provide a detailed ranking.

Why Customers Use or Do Not Use Internet Banking: A Case Study of a Community Bank

Science.gov (United States)

Beadnell, Stephen Allen

2014-01-01

The banking industry is being challenged by shareholders and consumers to provide its products in the most efficient manner, provide good customer service, and earn a fair profit. Although the infrastructure is in place to serve most customers through Internet banking, the number of customers using this channel is less than expected. The purpose…

Effect of Customer Loyalty on Nigeria Mobile Telecom Operators: Case of MTN Nigeria

OpenAIRE

Williams, Taiwo A

2012-01-01

Abstract Customer loyalty has been a subject of investigation for many years in the service industry in the more developed countries of the world and in the academic circles with its importance to business success being understood by managers. The purpose of this paper is to establish how customer satisfaction impacts loyalty amongst subscribers of telecommunications services in Nigeria specifically looking at one of the first Mobile communications companies in Nigeria (MTN Nigeria). F...

Customer Segmentation by Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty and Customer Involvement

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tereza Vebrová

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Brand loyalty and customer involvement are two important concepts that help explain and understand a significant part of consumer shopping behavior. The aim of the present work is to identify factors influencing brand loyalty and customer involvement. A further aim is to consider subsequent segmentation of customers with respect to different degrees of brand loyalty and customer involvement. The research was focused on the field of Czech telecommunication services – mobile operators. Primary data were acquired through the method of questionnaire survey. In total, the questionnaire was completed by 340 respondents, of which 319 respondents owned their mobile phones for private purposes only. For more accurate interpretation of the identified factors the Exploratory Factor Analysis method was used. Four factors of brand loyalty were extracted, which account for 75 % of the variability of the original parameters: (1 Cognitive affective loyalty, (2 Trustworthiness, (3 Attitudinal loyalty and (4 Commitment and three factors of customer involvement were found to account for 71 % variability of the original parameters: (1 Social involvement, (2 Centrality, (3 Importance. High loyalty customers mostly have only one SIM card and 73 % of them use a tariff. In a further group of highly involved customers own from 80 % only one SIM card. This study forms part of a research programme investigating the influence of customer involvement on brand loyalty.

Talking about Customer Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Talley, Mary; Axelroth, Joan

2001-01-01

Discusses customer service in information centers and how to define it. Topics include the effects of competition, that give customers more choices; defining customers, and defining services; communications; physical environment; change, in customers and in technology; measuring customer service; and evaluating policies and procedures. (LRW)

Identification with the retail organization and customer-perceived employee similarity: effects on customer spending.

Science.gov (United States)

Netemeyer, Richard G; Heilman, Carrie M; Maxham, James G

2012-09-01

Two constructs important to academicians and managers are the degree to which employees and customers identify with an organization, employee organizational identification (employee OI) and customer-company identification (customer identification), respectively. This research examines the effects of these identification constructs and the related construct of customer perceived similarity to employees on customer spending. Via a 1-year multilevel study of 12,047 customers and 1,464 store employees (sales associates) covering 212 stores of a specialty apparel retailer, our study contributes to the literature in 2 critical ways. First, we expand the theoretical network of employee OI and customer identification by examining the related construct of a customer's perceived similarity to store employees. We examine the incremental (not fully mediated) main and interaction effects of customer-perceived similarity to employees and employee OI on customer spending. Second, we examine the effect of customer identification on customer spending relative to the effect of customer satisfaction on customer spending. Thus, our study also contributes by demonstrating a potential complementary route to achieve customer spending (customer identification), a route that may be more readily affected by management than the efforts required for a sustained increase in customer satisfaction. Implications for academics and managers are offered.

Customer satisfaction and competencies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gritti, Paola; Foss, Nicolai Juul

We empirically address how customer satisfaction and loyalty in the banking industry may affect profitability. This helps to identify the strategy and competencies necessary to benefit from customer relationships which are important sources for improved performance in the banking. We do......, loyalty is a mediator between financial and not-financial customer value and two sources of customer satisfaction, namely relationships with the front office and the branch, on the one hand, and the products offered, on the other....... this by analyzing data collected on 2,105 customers of 118 branches of one of the biggest banks of an Italian banking group. We find that customer satisfaction impacts loyalty, which in turn has a direct effect on financial and non-financial customer value/total customer value/complex customer value. Moreover...

THE MEANING OF LOGISTICS CAPABILITIES IN ACHIEVING THE MARKET SUCCESS BY A COMPANY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Background: The symptom of the market success by a company is to reach the expected market effects (e.g. market share, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty as well as economic ones (e.g. profits, rentability, return on capital. As a result, the company may achieve a stable and long-term competitive advantage as well as strengthen its market position. Methods: The abilities to use existing resources, which play an important role in achieving a market success, can be divided into operational and dynamic ones. The logistics abilities are one of the most important ones for a company. The comparison of these two kinds of logistics capabilities are presented, compared and evaluated. Results: the role of logistics capabilities in achieving a market success by the company in light of the results of research carried out in the world, including Poland, was discussed, evaluated and confirmed. Conclusions: The influence of logistics capabilities on the market success of a company was confirmed. The development of an effective strategy and organization solutions in the logistics seems to be the most important process associated with the use of potentials (capabilities as well as resources and competencies and leading to achieving a market success of a company.

Customer Relationship Malevolence: A Reflection on Accounting, Marketing and Customer Valuation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenneth Weir

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Ideas centring on knowing and understanding the customer have been core concerns of business since the 1960s. As a result, several attempts to understand the customer have been devised, leading to the generation of data collection systems and calculative technologies that try to provide numerical understanding of the customer, which now lies at the heart of contemporary customer management schemes. However, these technologies can produce several social consequences. This paper discusses valuation metrics used in customer management systems and outlines the negative issues that can result from widespread usage.

Structural equation modelling of determinants of customer satisfaction of mobile network providers: Case of Kolkata, India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shibashish Chakraborty

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The Indian market of mobile network providers is growing rapidly. India is the second largest market of mobile network providers in the world and there is intense competition among existing players. In such a competitive market, customer satisfaction becomes a key issue. The objective of this paper is to develop a customer satisfaction model of mobile network providers in Kolkata. The results indicate that generic requirements (an aggregation of output quality and perceived value, flexibility, and price are the determinants of customer satisfaction. This study offers insights for mobile network providers to understand the determinants of customer satisfaction.

Customer Equity von KMUs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Biemel, Friedhelm W.; Henseler, Jörg; Meyer, Jorn-Axel

2003-01-01

Customer relationships are most important assets of many SMEs. Customer Equity is the sum of the values of all customer relationships. Customer Equity will not be found in any balance sheet, nevertheless it has strategic importance. Even if companies do not want to publish their Customer Equity for

Innovative product design based on comprehensive customer requirements of different cognitive levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xiaolong; Zhao, Wu; Zheng, Yake; Wang, Rui; Wang, Chen

2014-01-01

To improve customer satisfaction in innovative product design, a topology structure of customer requirements is established and an innovative product approach is proposed. The topology structure provides designers with reasonable guidance to capture the customer requirements comprehensively. With the aid of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), the importance of the customer requirements is evaluated. Quality function deployment (QFD) is used to translate customer requirements into product and process design demands and pick out the technical requirements which need urgent improvement. In this way, the product is developed in a more targeted way to satisfy the customers. the theory of innovative problems solving (TRIZ) is used to help designers to produce innovative solutions. Finally, a case study of automobile steering system is used to illustrate the application of the proposed approach.

Innovative Product Design Based on Comprehensive Customer Requirements of Different Cognitive Levels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaolong Li

2014-01-01

Full Text Available To improve customer satisfaction in innovative product design, a topology structure of customer requirements is established and an innovative product approach is proposed. The topology structure provides designers with reasonable guidance to capture the customer requirements comprehensively. With the aid of analytic hierarchy process (AHP, the importance of the customer requirements is evaluated. Quality function deployment (QFD is used to translate customer requirements into product and process design demands and pick out the technical requirements which need urgent improvement. In this way, the product is developed in a more targeted way to satisfy the customers. the theory of innovative problems solving (TRIZ is used to help designers to produce innovative solutions. Finally, a case study of automobile steering system is used to illustrate the application of the proposed approach.

PENGARUH SYSTEMIC FAIRNESS DARI LAYANAN INTERNET BANKING TERHADAP CUSTOMER SATISFACTION DENGAN CUSTOMER TRUST DAN CUSTOMER PERCEIVED VALUE SEBAGAI VARIABEL INTERVENING

OpenAIRE

Reza Putra Pratama

2014-01-01

The background of this research is to investigate and analyze the effect of systematic fairness from internet banking services to customer satisfaction with customer trust and customer perceived value as intervening variable. The objective of this research findings in internet banking, fairness that includes distributive fairness, procedural fairness and informational fairness is positively related to customer satisfaction. Trust is identified as the key mediator of fairness to customer sa...

The relationship marketing in the process of customer loyalty. Case large construction of Manizales

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Cristina Torres Camacho

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper is based on the model Lindgreen (2001, upholding the relationship marketing should be approached in three dimensions: objectives, definition of constructs and tools, which enable better customer management within organizations. The objective was to determine the characteristics of relationship marketing as a key factor in the process of Customer Loyalty in the big construction of Manizales Colombia. From a joint perspective, methodology relies on instruments and qualitative and quantitative analysis of court. The results tend to confirm that developers recognize the importance of Relational Marketing but not raised as a policy or have not defined in its strategic plan; additionally, expressed lack of strategies for customer retention, however, these remain loyal because the construction work on meeting your needs, based on trust, commitment and communication. To conclude, the faithful customers perceive that construction does not periodically evaluate their satisfaction with the purchased product, also claim that they show little interest in understanding the perception, make personal meetings, making constant communication through phone calls and meet their tastes and preferences.

Brand Communities in the Axis of Socializing Customers: Sample of Volkswagen Beetle Owners, Turkey

OpenAIRE

Selda Basaran ALAGOZ; Nezahat EKICI; Mahmut Sami ISLEK

2011-01-01

Alongside traditional media in which brands communicate with their customers, the platforms which provide interaction between customers and the brand come into prominence. In these platforms, mutual interaction ismore considerable customers have chance to be closer to other customers by having conversation via these platforms. One of the most significant consequences of this case is brand communities. Brand communities are a kind of social group and these are the brand communication channels ...

Improving Internal Customer Service

Science.gov (United States)

1990-09-01

34Companies are recognizing that treating customers and associates like people has a very high value" (21:20). 2 Customer service has become more that... customer service is also a strategy with the focus towards people , not product (24:1). Customers are demanding quality service for several reasons...34 (39:45). External Customers . External customers are an organization’s ultimate consumers . They purchase the end product or service an organization

Building Service Provider Capabilities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandl, Kristin; Jaura, Manya; Ørberg Jensen, Peter D.

2015-01-01

In this paper we study whether and how the interaction between clients and the service providers contributes to the development of capabilities in service provider firms. In situations where such a contribution occurs, we analyze how different types of activities in the production process...... process. We find that clients influence the development of human capital capabilities and management capabilities in reciprocally produced services. While in sequential produced services clients influence the development of organizational capital capabilities and management capital capabilities....... of the services, such as sequential or reciprocal task activities, influence the development of different types of capabilities. We study five cases of offshore-outsourced knowledge-intensive business services that are distinguished according to their reciprocal or sequential task activities in their production...

Customer interface document for the Molten Salt Test Loop (MSTL) system.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pettit, Kathleen; Kolb, William J.; Gill, David Dennis; Briggs, Ronald D.

2012-03-01

The National Solar Thermal Test Facility at Sandia National Laboratories has a unique test capability called the Molten Salt Test Loop (MSTL) system. MSTL is a test capability that allows customers and researchers to test components in flowing, molten nitrate salt. The components tested can range from materials samples, to individual components such as flex hoses, ball joints, and valves, up to full solar collecting systems such as central receiver panels, parabolic troughs, or linear Fresnel systems. MSTL provides realistic conditions similar to a portion of a concentrating solar power facility. The facility currently uses 60/40 nitrate 'solar salt' and can circulate the salt at pressure up to 600psi, temperature to 585 C, and flow rate of 400-600GPM depending on temperature. The purpose of this document is to provide a basis for customers to evaluate the applicability to their testing needs, and to provide an outline of expectations for conducting testing on MSTL. The document can serve as the basis for testing agreements including Work for Others (WFO) and Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA). While this document provides the basis for these agreements and describes some of the requirements for testing using MSTL and on the site at Sandia, the document is not sufficient by itself as a test agreement. The document, however, does provide customers with a uniform set of information to begin the test planning process.

Customer Order Decoupling Point Selection Model in Mass Customization Based on MAS

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

XU Xuanguo; LI Xiangyang

2006-01-01

Mass customization relates to the ability of providing individually designed products or services to customer with high process flexibility or integration. Literatures on mass customization have been focused on mechanism of MC, but little on customer order decoupling point selection. The aim of this paper is to present a model for customer order decoupling point selection of domain knowledge interactions between enterprises and customers in mass customization. Based on the analysis of other researchers' achievements combining the demand problems of customer and enterprise, a model of group decision for customer order decoupling point selection is constructed based on quality function deployment and multi-agent system. Considering relatively the decision makers of independent functional departments as independent decision agents, a decision agent set is added as the third dimensionality to house of quality, the cubic quality function deployment is formed. The decision-making can be consisted of two procedures: the first one is to build each plane house of quality in various functional departments to express each opinions; the other is to evaluate and gather the foregoing sub-decisions by a new plane quality function deployment. Thus, department decision-making can well use its domain knowledge by ontology, and total decision-making can keep simple by avoiding too many customer requirements.

Customer equity of Pakistani fast food restaurant: A study of attitudinal customer equity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zubair

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Customer Equity is true representative of relationship marketing. There are two major approach-es to measure Customer Equity: Transaction/sales based approach and Attitudinal Approach. This research is an effort to check customer equity of fast food restaurants of Pakistan by using attitudinal approach. Transactional customer equity is treated as criterion for attitudinal customer equity. Three drivers of Customer Equity are Value Equity, Brand equity and Relationship equity are taken as independent variables in this research. Convenient sampling technique was used and sample size was 393 respondents. The results show that attitudinal customer equity had strong association with transactional equity. Brand equity, value equity and relationship equity show positive associations with attitudinal customer equity.

Hidden foreign trade and corruption on customers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Богдан Миколайович Головкін

2017-12-01

Full Text Available According to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA, the volume of the "shadow" economy in Ukraine is 1.1 trillion hryvnias or 45.1 % of the gross domestic product. Estimates of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine show that only 50 % of payments to the state budget comes from the clearance of goods, while the rest comprise a corruption component of 40 billion UAH for a year. Much of the large companies move non-declared goods across the state border and do not pay taxes. However, at the official level in Ukraine, it is still not accepted to talk about the servicing of the shadow foreign trade by the customs administration and the collection of corrupt rents from illegal trade in the state. Understanding the essence of the problem gives grounds to assert that the corruption risks in the work of customs are laid down in imperfect customs legislation, high tariff rates of duties and taxes, discrete powers of customs inspectors, the regime of customs procedures in the customs control zone, low level of their automation and physical contact of declarants from customs officers. In the customs case, the main type of corruption is bribery and abuse of influence related to the assistance of illegal and criminal activity in the foreign economic sphere. Subjects of foreign economic activity reduce costs and receive revenues through customs fraud or smuggling. Without corruption, this activity is impossible. On the illegal movement of goods and vehicles, smuggling and counterfeiting through the customs border, a criminal corruption business was created for all bodies and services that carry out various types of state control and law enforcement activities in the customs sphere. The most profitable are corruption schemes related to the illegal import / export of three groups of highly liquid products: tobacco products, counterfeit IT products, petroleum products, cars with foreign registration. For an independent study, illegal

An investigation on loyalty formation model in e-banking customers: A case study of banking industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahmood Reza Esmaeili

2013-03-01

Full Text Available E-banking plays an important role on increasing customer satisfaction and helps industry grow faster. Most banks try to retain their customers by introducing more electronic services to facilitate banking transactions. Creating loyalty through providing better banking services is a new area of research. In fact, e-loyalty can be directly impacted by e-satisfaction, e-trust, and indirectly influenced by e-services, perceived value, reputation, and habit. Therefore, the present paper deals with designing and explanation of loyalty formation model in e-banking. The preliminary results indicate that “satisfaction” is the most influential component affecting customer loyalty formation with an 87% diagnose coefficient. In addition, trust formation in customers may impact loyalty in an electronic environment with a 70% diagnose coefficient. Moreover, the most important factors impacting customer satisfaction include “reputation” “perceived value,” “service quality,” and “habit” with relative effects coefficients of 44%, 32%, 29%, and 26%, respectively. Finally, “reputation,” “service quality,” “habit” and “perceived value” have been the most important factors influencing customer trust with influence coefficients of 37%, 32%, 31%, and 24%, respectively.

Customer-to-customer interactions : Broadening the scope of word of mouth research

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Libai, B.; Bolton, R.; Bügel, M.S.; de Ruyter, K.; Götz, O.; Risselada, H.; Stephen, A.T.

The increasing emphasis on understanding the antecedents and consequences of customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions is one of the essential developments of customer management in recent years. This interest is driven much by new online environments that enable customers to be connected in numerous

Assessing the Total cost of ownership of ERP systems : Case study analysis on the factors behind customer costs in recent minor implementations

OpenAIRE

Rydgård, Göran; Palmberg, Nils

2010-01-01

This master’s thesis presents a model for calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) of relatively small ERP implementations, including two years of running the system. The main factors affecting the cost items in the model are also analyzed, based in part on four case projects that the consultancy company Acando has carried out recently and in part on literature. The case projects were investigated through interviews with key actors in the projects from Acando and the customer, and throug...

Developing a communication model between banking services quality via mediating variables of quality of relationship with customers and satisfaction with customer loyalty: A case study of Tejarat Bank

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hossein Rahimi Koloor

2015-03-01

Full Text Available This study develops a communication model. The purpose of this research was designing a regression model and developing a structural equation modeling (SEM for earning loyalty of Tejarat Bank customers. Given this concept, a questionnaire was designed and distributed among branches of Tejarat Bank in Ardabil. The data analyzed using LISREL software within the framework of path analysis using SEM model. Research results suggested that the quality of banking services, customer satisfaction, and the quality of bank relationship with customers had the most effects on customer loyalty, respectively. The findings of the study are discussed in detail.

Non-utility generation and demand management reliability of customer delivery systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamoud, G.A.; Wang, L.

1995-01-01

A probabilistic methodology for evaluating the impact of non-utility generation (NUG) and demand management programs (DMP) on supply reliability of customer delivery systems was presented. The proposed method was based on the criteria that the supply reliability to the customers on the delivery system should not be affected by the integration of either NUG or DMPs. The method considered station load profile, load forecast, and uncertainty in size and availability of the nuio. Impacts on system reliability were expressed in terms of possible delays of the in-service date for new facilities or in terms of an increase in the system load carrying capability. Examples to illustrate the proposed methodology were provided. 10 refs., 8 tabs., 2 figs

Combining Land Capability Evaluation, Geographic Information ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Combining Land Capability Evaluation, Geographic Information Systems, AnD Indigenous Technologies for Soil Conservation in Northern Ethiopia. ... Land capability and land use status were established following the procedures of a modified treatment-oriented capability classification using GIS. The case study ...

The Relationship Between Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty in Online Environment

OpenAIRE

Leonata, Devi Rosana

2015-01-01

Many researches have already discussed about the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. However, there is only few discussing about the relationship in online environment. Thus, this research is conducted to see whether there is significant relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in online environment as well as to know which best viewpoint that may describe the relationship. This research focuses on people who have done online transactions. ...

Investigating The Effects Of Customer Perceptions Resulted From Online Shopping Sites On Customer Satisfaction

OpenAIRE

Dr. vildan ateş

2017-01-01

Customer satisfaction has an important role providing continuity, profitability of online shopping sites and in the development of customer loyalty. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of customer perceptions arising from online shopping sites’ on customers’ satisfaction and to reveal a customer satisfaction model related to customer perceptions. Firstly, the indicators of customer satisfaction about online shopping sites and the customer perceptions thought...

Utilities Power Change: Engaging Commercial Customers in Workplace Charging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lommele, Stephen; Dafoe, Wendy

2016-06-01

As stewards of an electric grid that is available almost anywhere people park, utilities that support workplace charging are uniquely positioned to help their commercial customers be a part of the rapidly expanding network of charging infrastructure. Utilities understand the distinctive challenges of their customers, have access to technical information about electrical infrastructure, and have deep experience modeling and managing demand for electricity. This case study highlights the experiences of two utilities with workplace charging programs.

Customer Retention & Customer Relationship Marketing: Strategi Pemasaran Yang Potensial

OpenAIRE

Aprilia, Ariesya

2004-01-01

The traditional marketing approach advocates the marketing mix principles and the quest for market share dominance through mass marketing techniques and a focus on new customer acquisition. This approach has guided managers for decades in planning in implementing their marketing strategies. But nowadays, traditional approach has been changed by customer retention. Customer retention, in the traditional marketing approach, is however seen as the 'end' rather than the means to delivering long-t...

customer satisfaction, customer relationship management, Fuzzy Delphi, system dynamics.

OpenAIRE

Habib A. Mirghafoori; Ali Morovati Sharifabadi; Ensiyeh Taki

2016-01-01

This paper investigates the factors which are affecting customers satisfaction of Mobarake steel complex . Since there is a wide rang of factors affecting customer satisfaction,this paper pays attention to those factors which have CRM approach. The investigation society of the research is the marketing experts of Moabarake steel complex who have direct relationship with customers.At first, the factors were identified by experts using Fuzzy Delphi method and then the relationship between facto...

Customer requirements based ERP customization using AHP technique

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Parthasarathy, S.; Daneva, Maia

2014-01-01

Purpose– Customization is a difficult task for many organizations implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The purpose of this paper is to develop a new framework based on customers’ requirements to examine the ERP customization choices for the enterprise. The analytical hierarchy

Chinese customer satisfaction survey- a quantitative research based on Chinese customers’ perspectives

OpenAIRE

Nguyen, Tung

2015-01-01

Nowadays, the competition of every business is very intense and all the company realizes that they not only have to develop their products or services but also understand their customers. The purpose of this thesis is measure the current level of customer’s satisfaction of case company in China to better understand customers as well as define and analyze the factors that might change the customer’s satisfaction. This theoretical section of thesis concentrates on services and customer sati...

THE ROLE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN MEDIATING MARKETING COMMUNICATION EFFECT ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY

OpenAIRE

Mohamad Dimyati,

2015-01-01

This study aims to test the effect of a) marketing communication on customer satisfaction; b) marketing communication on customer loyalty; c) customer satisfaction on customer loyalty; and d) to identify the role of customer satisfaction in mediating marketing communication effect on customer loyalty of the IM3 user community in Jember regency, East Java province. The study was designed in a form confirmatory research, with the whole IM3 community members in the regency as the ...

From connection to customer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Milatz, H.; Soeters, R.

2001-01-01

Energy companies can no longer be certain that a customer today will remain a customer tomorrow. They have to work hard to achieve that. They are going from thinking in terms of connections to pampering their customers. Good Customer Relationship Management is a way to achieve a competitive advantage. The whole organisation has to adapt, particularly the customer orientation of employees

Hedging customers.

Science.gov (United States)

Dhar, Ravi; Glazer, Rashi

2003-05-01

You are a marketing director with $5 million to invest in customer acquisition and retention. Which customers do you acquire, and which do you retain? Up to a point, the choice is obvious: Keep the consistent big spenders and lose the erratic small ones. But what about the erratic big spenders and the consistent small ones? It's often unclear whether you should acquire or retain them and at what cost. Businesses have begun dealing with unpredictable customer behavior by following the practices of sophisticated investors who own portfolios comprising dozens of stocks with different, indeed divergent, histories and prospects. Each portfolio is diversified so as to produce the investor's desired returns at the particular level of uncertainty he or she can tolerate. Customers, too, are assets--risky assets. As with stocks, the cost of acquiring them is supposed to reflect the cash-flow values they are likely to generate. The authors explain how to construct a portfolio based on the notion that a customer's risk-adjusted lifetime value depends on its anticipated effect on the riskiness of the group it is joining. They also show how this approach was used to identify the best prospects for Myron Corporation, a global leader in the personalized business-gift industry. The concept of risk-adjusted lifetime value has a transforming power: For companies that rely on it, product managers will be replaced by customer managers, and the current method of accounting for profit and loss--which is by product--will be replaced by one that determines each customer's P&L. Once adjusted for risk, those P&Ls will become the firm's key performance and operational metric.

Development of customer information network system. Part 3. Development of power controller (customer side equipment) for advanced customer service and remote processing of conventional customer service; Juyoka joho network no kaihatsu. 3. Juyoka taio gyomu no enkaku shori to aratana juyoka service no tame no denryoku controller no kaihatsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoshimitsu, T. [Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo (Japan)

1996-06-01

To offer remote processing of the conventional customer service and advanced customer service using information network, customer side equipment, power controller, was manufactured as a trial. For inspecting the power meter by remote processing, watt-hour meter placed outside was moved into house, to integrate an indoor distribution board consisting of a breaker for contract, earth leakage breaker and branch breaker by adding functions of communication, equipment monitoring and control and functions of display and operation. When detecting fault, installed CPU (central processing unit) or DSP (digital signal processor) stops its operation and each breaker keeps its state as before the fault. Thus, there is no problem for power supply. This system has a battery to maintain and operate at least the display function in the case of outage. Advanced customer service functions could be added without a large cost. To increase understanding of customers concerning electric power saving and electric power itself, consuming electric energy and current are displayed at each branch. Outage of the whole house can be avoided by the rapid detection and removal of the earth leakage branch line. 14 refs., 14 figs., 3 tabs.

Assesment of customer relationship development

OpenAIRE

Dagmar Lesáková

2011-01-01

The focus of this paper is customer relationship marketing and its new trends. The particular goal of the presented research study was to identify and analyse the indicators of customer relationship development in human resources recruitment / leasing companies. Nine indicators have been explored: mission statement concerning customer commitment, customer attraction, customer commitment, development of customer value, understanding customer needs, goals for customer satisfaction, after sales ...

Mass Customization: more technology, less publicity and customer satisfaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mônica Heloísa Braga Vasques

2007-11-01

Full Text Available This article refers to mass customization as an individual marketing strategy, centered on costumer's order, by means of technology, emphasizing the sensibility, the flexibility and the elasticity. Such an approach is based on the mass customization advantages and its principles of flexibility: the postponement, the resenquencing and the process standardization. Moreover, the article refers to the Hewlett-Packard, (PCs success, due to its power of integrating the designs of products, processes and supply network. We can, thus, think about the end of the advertisement. So, the old message: “Buy it now!” is not worthwhile anymore. The intelligence, nowadays, by means of technology, creates a "fatal", customized relationship with each customer. And it sells much more.

Analisa Pengaruh Customer Experience Quality Terhadap Customer Satisfaction Di Hotel Bintang 3 Surabaya

OpenAIRE

Njoto, Mellisa Oktaviani; Tjahyadi, Nency Lifia; Aprillia, Adriana

2016-01-01

Customer experience quality merupakan penilaian yang dirasakan konsumen tentang keunggulan atau superioritas dari pengalaman yang didapatkan oleh konsumen. Dalam penelitian kali ini, peneliti menetapkan customer experience quality sebagai variabel yang mempengaruhi customer satisfaction. Customer experience quality memiliki 8 dimensi, yaitu helpfulness, value for time, customer recognition, promise fulfillment, problem solving, personalization, competence, dan accessibility. Penelitian ini be...

The effects of interactive marketing, customer satisfaction and flashes on customer loyalty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tanveer ASLAM

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This study explores impact of interactive marketing impact on consumer satisfaction and loyalty. So for no specific research has been conducted to identify the process of customer loyalty in banking sector in this perspective. Customer loyalty has great importance and agonizes among connoisseur, academician and professionals in ample industries. Interactive marketing combination of relationship marketing and service marketing. This study generally focused on following dimensions commitment, trust, familiarity, quality of employees, service quality and service personalization efforts as key predictor of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Data was collected by using by pretested questionnaire through personal interviews. A representative sample of one hundred and sixty consumers was selected by using convenience sampling technique. Interactive marketing has positive significant influence customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The customer satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between interactive marketing and customer loyalty.

Customization and Customer-Product Learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Kaj Asbjørn

2011-01-01

, through the performance level and the experience level to the learning level at the top. This model has a dual view with customers/demand at one side and product/supplier at the other side. It is developed so that it can be generally applied and, typically, product designers must decide how far up...... in levels the customisation should aim. This paper sets special focus on the upper levels of customisation, especially the learning level, and it is shown that products with a large range of user-oriented functionalities often require much training to use and that customers on the other hand are sometimes...

The impact of development of customer online banking skills on customer adviser skills

OpenAIRE

Dubois, M.; Bobillier Chaumon, M.-E.; Retour, Didier

2011-01-01

International audience; The object of this article is the development of customer banking skills as a result of using online banking and its impact on the competence of customer advisers in face-to-face customer contacts. We focus on the use of software applications by customer advisers (CA) during customer contacts. The main results show that online banking enables customers to develop a range of banking skills. In order to deliver the service required by the context, advisers select the req...

Developing a gate-array capability at a research and development laboratory

Science.gov (United States)

Balch, J. W.; Current, K. W.; Magnuson, W. G., Jr.; Pocha, M. D.

1983-03-01

Experiences in developing a gate array capability for low volume applications in a research and development (R and D) laboratory are described. By purchasing unfinished wafers and doing the customization steps in-house. Turnaround time was shortened to as little as one week and the direct costs reduced to as low as $5K per design. Designs generally require fast turnaround (a few weeks to a few months) and very low volumes (1 to 25). Design costs must be kept at a minimum. After reviewing available commercial gate array design and fabrication services, it was determined that objectives would best be met by using existing internal integrated circuit fabrication facilities, the COMPUTERVISION interactive graphics layout system, and extensive computational capabilities. The reasons and the approach taken for; selection for a particular gate array wafer, adapting a particular logic simulation program, and how layout aids were enhanced are discussed. Testing of the customized chips is described. The content, schedule, and results of the internal gate array course recently completed are discussed. Finally, problem areas and near term plans are presented.

Digital Forensic Analysis Of Malware Infected Machine- Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amulya Podile

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Internet banking has created a convenient way for us to handle our business without leaving our home. Man-in-the-Browser is a special case of Man-in-the-middle attack targeted against customers of Internet banking. One of the capabilities of Man-in-the-Browser Trojan is modification of html referred to as html injection that allows the attacker to alter the html of a page before it is sent to the browser for interpretation. In this paper the authors discussed about forensic analysis of RAM Volatile data system logs and registry collected from bank customer computer infected with Trojan and confirmed the source of attack time-stamps and the behavior of the malware by using open source and commercial tools.

Innovation management based on proactive engagement of customers: A case study on LEGO Group. Part I: Innovation Management at Lego Group

Science.gov (United States)

Rusu, G.; Avasilcăi, S.

2015-11-01

Customers' proactive engagement in the innovation process represents a business priority for companies which adopt the open innovation business model. In such a context, it is of outmost importance for companies to use the online environment and social media, in order to create an interactive and open dialogue with customers and other important external stakeholders, achieving to gather creative solutions and innovative ideas by involving them in the process of co-creating value. Thus, the current paper is based on a case study approach, which aims to highlight the open innovation business model of the LEGO Group, one of the most successful and active company in engaging customers in submitting ideas and creative solutions for developing new products and new technologies, through online platforms. The study then proceeds to analyze the innovation management at LEGO Group, emphasizing the most important elements regarding the management team, the success and failures, the evolution of the LEGO products focusing on the innovation efforts of the company, its mission, vision, and values, emphasizing the innovation terms which guide the actions and objectives of the LEGO Group. Also, the research based on the case study approach, outlines the most important policies and strategies of the company, the organizational structure consisting of flat structures which facilitate the orientation of the team management on the innovation process and the proactive involvement of consumers and other external stakeholders in product development, highlighting also the most important activities developed by the management team in exploring the new opportunities which may occur on the market, involving customers in sharing their ideas at festivals, participating to discussions of adult fans on web-based platforms and establishing partnerships with the external stakeholders in order to create value. Moreover, the paper is focused on identifying the company's concerns regarding the

Assessing the performance and benefits of customer distributed generation developers under uncertainties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zangiabadi, Mansoureh; Feuillet, Rene; Lesani, Hamid; Hadj-Said, Nouredine; Kvaloy, Jan T.

2011-01-01

In this paper, the performance of customer-owned distributed generation (DG) units is quantified from different perspectives through an uncertainty study. A Monte Carlo-based method is applied to assess the stochastic operation of the customer-owned DG units in the power distribution system. Several cases are studied to analyze the impact on system performance of using such generators, with the emphasis on benefits. The results of the studied cases show that proper operation of customer-owned DG units placed close to significant consumption centers offers several benefits which lead to significant energy savings and improvement in the performance indices while maintaining the cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, based on the energy demand, different electricity price scenarios considering a cost sensitivity analysis are performed to indicate how the variations in electricity price influence each scenario's feasibility. It is concluded that implementation of a proper energy purchase policy, and allocating the benefits of DG units to the owners, improves the economic performance of their investments and encourages customer DG developers to connect DG to the distribution network. -- Research highlights: → Focusing on the main drives for customers and utilities to adopt DG solutions. → Assessing the stochastic operation of the customer-owned DG units in the power distribution system using Monte Carlo method. → Studying the technical and economic impacts of customer-owned DG units in a distribution system. → Implementing the proper power purchase policy by the utility to encourage DG owners to operate at peak load periods. → Performing different electricity price scenarios to indicate the ability of customer-owned DG units to reduce the volatility in prices.

Investing in lean to improve basic capabilities: A strategy for system supply?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inga-Lill Carlsson

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose: This paper describes the perceived effects of implementing lean production in a Swedish SME contract manufacturer. Especially focused are the effects on, and possible trade-offs between, cost-efficiency and flexibility. Design/methodology/approach: SME suppliers need basic capabilities of qualitative production performance which may then be stepping-stones to develop more system supplier capabilities for added customer value: leadership to manage systems and processes, SCM, communications and relations management. Development of stable production processes is seen as a way to reach stable basic performance, efficient and with higher resource utilization. Quality is a precursor to delivery performance as well as to cost reduction and flexibility. This is a longitudinal single case study of a SME supplier striving to become a system supplier. Two main sources of data collection are used: interviews and the main author’s presence as employee and business developer, participating in and following up the ongoing change process. Findings: Two specific findings appeared: (1 An initial effect was an important “eye-opener” for the balance between cost efficiency and flexibility in the organization. (2 Process orientation, as the basis of both lean and agile approaches, allows many improvements without any conflicts or trade-offs between these two goals. Stability in the production leads to increased controllability, initially resulting in both higher cost-efficiency and higher flexibility. As the organization develops however, strategic considerations relating to the chosen market strategy might occur: cost leadership or differentiation.    Research limitations/implications: These results reflect the experiences of one SME supplier and further studies are needed for generalizability. Originality/value: The study increases the understanding of how a SME may develop stable processes in its different supplier-customer contexts. The study

A Model to Explain Customer Loyalty Based on Customer Equity and Customer Satisfaction: A study in mobile services industry in Bushehr

OpenAIRE

manigeh Bahrainizadeh; Leila Tavasoli

2014-01-01

Abstruct: The development of telecom companies in the world and the maturity of markets of such services, the management of customer loyalty has become a major concern in the company. This research is trying to provide a model for mobile service customer loyalty considering the customer equity, value equity, brand equity, relationships equity and customer satisfaction in order to create better services for mobile operators and to increase customer loyalty. In terms of goal the research is ...

Is Mass Customization Sustainable?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Thomas Ditlev; Jørgensen, Kaj Asbjørn; Nielsen, Kjeld

2011-01-01

Mass customizers are like other companies currently experiencing an increasing customer demand for environmentally sustainable products as well as an increasingly strict legislation regarding environmental sustainability. This paper addresses the issue whether the concepts mass customization...... and sustainability are fundamentally compatible by asking the question: can a mass customized product be sustainable? Several factors could indicate that mass customized products are less sustainable than standardized products; however other factors suggest the opposite. This paper explores these factors during...... three life cycle phases for a product: Production, Use and End of Life. It is concluded that there is not an unambiguous causal relationship between mass customization and sustainability; however several factors unique to mass customized products are essential to consider during product and process...

Measuring the Efficiency of Isfahan’s Private Banks’ Brand Based on Satisfaction and Loyalty of Customers by Data Envelopment Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The concept of customer satisfaction and loyalty has attracted much attention in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to measure the efficiency of banks’ brand based on customer satisfaction and loyalty by DEA. In this research, the efficiency of 10 private banks of Isfahan have been measured in two cases with output oriented BCC model. In the first case, the inputs variables have been assumed the image and the perceived quality and output variable has been assumed the customer satisfaction and in the second case, the input variable has been assumed the customer satisfaction and the output variable has been assumed the customer loyalty. The findings show that in the first case, three banks were efficient and seven banks were inefficient and in the second case, three banks were efficient and other banks were inefficient. The results of the research imply that most of the banks do not work efficient.

Service Dominant Logic in Practice: Applying Online Customer Communities and Personas for the Creation of Service Innovations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrienne Schäfer

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Many companies try to adopt a service-oriented perspective when developing new offerings by posing the question of how the creation of value jointly with customers can be improved. This requires a holistic view of customers beyond retrospective methods such as surveys. Observations of everyday life provide a valuable complement, because they initiate innovations not explicitly based on wishes formulated by customers, but on customer practices. Drawing on a case study of the Swiss Federal Railways (SFR, it is explored how ‘value-in-context’ and ‘co-creation’ can be put into practice. Online customer communities were used in the case study as they unveil value-in-context and practices of customers, which are important sources of innovation. The findings suggest that personas that were constructed based on the results from an online customer community consolidates user behaviour and contextual data and can help managers to improve their offerings in a service-oriented way.

THE EFFECT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY AN EMPIRICAL STUDY AT BANKING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fikret GÜMÜŞBUĞA

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This study mainly focuses on customer care management and customer loyalty. Even though there are many experiential studies about customer care management and customer loyalty system, the lack of studies on customers in Karabük and Safranbolu locally, has leaded to focus on this study. Thus, this study mainly focuses on the influence of customer care treatments of banks in Karabük and Safranbolu on customer loyalty. Descriptive research type was used in the study. In this study simple random sampling method was used which is one of the probability sampling method, face to face surwey to all 726 participants was used for the study. As the result of the experiential study, the attendance and influence of customer care management and loyalty systems have been comparatively low, but it has been figured out that customer care management system influences customer loyalty level.

Optimal Electric Vehicle Scheduling: A Co-Optimized System and Customer Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Maigha

Electric vehicles provide a two pronged solution to the problems faced by the electricity and transportation sectors. They provide a green, highly efficient alternative to the internal combustion engine vehicles, thus reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Secondly, they bear the potential of supporting the grid as energy storage devices while incentivising the customers through their participation in energy markets. Despite these advantages, widespread adoption of electric vehicles faces socio-technical and economic bottleneck. This dissertation seeks to provide solutions that balance system and customer objectives under present technological capabilities. The research uses electric vehicles as controllable loads and resources. The idea is to provide the customers with required tools to make an informed decision while considering the system conditions. First, a genetic algorithm based optimal charging strategy to reduce the impact of aggregated electric vehicle load has been presented. A Monte Carlo based solution strategy studies change in the solution under different objective functions. This day-ahead scheduling is then extended to real-time coordination using a moving-horizon approach. Further, battery degradation costs have been explored with vehicle-to-grid implementations, thus accounting for customer net-revenue and vehicle utility for grid support. A Pareto front, thus obtained, provides the nexus between customer and system desired operating points. Finally, we propose a transactive business model for a smart airport parking facility. This model identifies various revenue streams and satisfaction indices that benefit the parking lot owner and the customer, thus adding value to the electric vehicle.

Cost-benefit assessment of energy storage for utility and customers: A case study in Malaysia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chua, Kein Huat; Lim, Yun Seng; Morris, Stella

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Energy storage can replace the peaking plants. • The cost of electricity for the plants with energy storage is as competitive as fossil fuel power plants. • Energy storage can reduce CO_2 emissions and defer the reinforcement of transmissions and distributions infrastructure. • Energy storage can reduce peak demand charge for customers. - Abstract: Under the existing commercial framework of electricity in Malaysia, commercial and industrial customers are required to pay for the peak power demand charge every month. Usually, the peak demand charge can contribute up to 30% to their electricity bills due to the use of open-cycle gas power plants that deliver expensive electricity to the customers. Therefore, alternative means are sought after in order to reduce the peak demand for the customers. Distributed small-scaled energy storage can offer a good option to reduce the peak. This paper aims to identify the financial benefits of the energy storage system for utility companies and customers. An energy dispatch model is developed in HOMER to determine the cost of electricity. The model considers the heat rates of power plants in calculating the costs of electricity under different regulatory frameworks of natural gas with various prices of battery components. Apart from that, the cost-benefit for the customers under various electric tariff structures is evaluated. Four battery storage technologies, namely lead acid, vanadium redox flow, zinc-bromine, and lithium-ion are considered. The simulation results show that the storage system with lead acid batteries is more cost-effective than other battery technologies. The customers can reduce their electricity bills with the payback period of 2.8 years. The generation cost for the power system with energy storage is lower than that without energy storage. Besides, the system with energy storage has lower greenhouse gas emissions than that without energy storage. The deferral of the reinforcement of

Canais de atendimento, satisfação e lucratividade de clientes em serviços: um caso bancário Customer services, customer satisfaction and profitability in services: a banking case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Émerson Adriano Fiebig

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Este trabalho tem como tema o atendimento e sua importância na satisfação e na lucratividade dos clientes no setor de serviços. Dentro de um mercado cada vez mais concorrido, o atendimento tende a ser um dos principais diferenciais para as empresas. O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar o tipo de relação existente entre a satisfação dos clientes pessoa física de um Banco com os canais de atendimento e a lucratividade desses. O estudo foi desenvolvido por meio de estudo de caso na agência do Banrisul de Dois Irmãos (RS. Foi estudada uma amostra da população dos 1000 clientes mais rentáveis da agência, visando identificar seus níveis de satisfação com o atendimento pelos canais atendimento pessoal, caixas eletrônicos e internet banking. Após a comparação dos níveis de satisfação com os da lucratividade conhecida de cada respondente, foi possível conhecer quais os atributos e canais mais determinam a satisfação do cliente e sua lucratividade. As principais ferramentas estatísticas utilizadas foram a determinação dos Coeficientes de Correlação de Spearman e a Análise de Regressão. A pesquisa destacou que as dimensões empatia e responsividade do atendimento pessoal foram as mais determinantes para a satisfação dos clientes. Ficou evidenciado também que há uma correlação positiva entre a satisfação e a lucratividade dos clientes e, ainda, que o aumento no nível de satisfação corresponde a um aumento mais que proporcional no nível de lucratividade.The subject of this paper is banking services and its importance for customer's satisfaction and profitability in the service sector. In an increasingly competitive market, costumer service tends to be one of the main differentials for organizations. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between individual customers of a bank and its service channels, and profitability. The study was developed through a case study at Banrisul, in the

Customer relationship management system

OpenAIRE

Selenis, Laimonas

2004-01-01

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of the biggest problems for many companies today. By analyzing history records (profiles) of its customers, organization can effectively adapt its business activity to users needs and create better products and services. Proper analysis of customer profiles can help to predict the behaviour of the customers. After grouping customer profiles by similar attributes, company can easier handle its interactions with similar users. Such group profiling c...

Optimization of an M/M/1/N Feedback Queue with Retention of Reneged Customers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rakesh Kumar

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Customer impatience has become a threat to the business world. Firms employ various customer retention strategies to retain their impatient (or reneged customers. Customer retention mechanisms may help to retain some or all impatient customers. Further, due to unsatisfactory service, customers may rejoin a queue immediately after departure. Such cases are referred to as feedback customers. Kumar and Sharma take this situation into account and study an M/M/1/N feedback queuing system with retention of reneged customers. They obtain only a steady-state solution for this model. In this paper, we extend the work of Kumar and Sharma by performing an economic analysis of the model. We develop a model for the costs incurred and perform the appropriate optimization. The optimum system capacity and optimum service rate are obtained. (original abstract

Assesment of customer relationship development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dagmar Lesáková

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The focus of this paper is customer relationship marketing and its new trends. The particular goal of the presented research study was to identify and analyse the indicators of customer relationship development in human resources recruitment / leasing companies. Nine indicators have been explored: mission statement concerning customer commitment, customer attraction, customer commitment, development of customer value, understanding customer needs, goals for customer satisfaction, after sales services, measurement of customer satisfaction, complaint management. The indicators were made sequentially operational in order to translate customer relationship development into specific activities designed to increase business performance. Based on a set of customer indicators four scientific hypotheses were tested. We proved that strong customer orientation has a positive impact on business performance. Out of nine indicators, seven of them have a strong impact on business outcomes. The research confirms that business performance increases with firm size and market density, and that introduction of quality management systems improves company performance. Finally, the appropriateness of the customer relationship indicators applied in human resources recruitment companies is discussed.

Investigating The Role Of Customers In Service Innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Scupola, Ada; Nicolajsen, Hanne Westh; Falch, Morten

2009-01-01

In this article, we investigate to what extent research libraries involve users in services innovation and what are these user roles. By drawing on earlier research on innovation, new product development and new service development we look at the theoretical possibilities for drawing on users...... in service innovation. Results from a case study show that libraries are making some attempts to draw on users in service innovations. We found that the library involves users in three ways:" customer as user", however mainly in an indirect form;" customers as a resource" and "customer as co......-creator; the latter is though at an infant stage. The main conclusion is that there are unexplored possibilities for user involvement in service innovations in research libraries. The explanation seems to rest on a conservative view from the library on user's visions and the methods in use for approaching...

Evaluation of the Successfulness of A Green Program through Customer Perceived Quality, Brand Image, and Customer Satisfaction: A Case Study at Surabaya Plaza Hotel

OpenAIRE

Marsella Yeanette Hatane; Adinda Yosari; Felicia Christiana Hendautomo

2012-01-01

Every company try to build the brand image of their businesses by doing a green program as one of their strategies. This research aims to see the impacts of the implementation of a green program at Surabaya Plaza Hotel, Surabaya. 230 hotel customers were randomly chosen as the respondents. Through descriptive and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis, can be seen that technical quality brings insignificant negative impacts towards customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, functional quality an...

Comparative Visual Analysis of Large Customer Feedback Based on Self-Organizing Sentiment Maps

OpenAIRE

Janetzko, Halldór; Jäckle, Dominik; Schreck, Tobias

2013-01-01

Textual customer feedback data, e.g., received by surveys or incoming customer email notifications, can be a rich source of information with many applications in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Nevertheless, to date this valuable source of information is often neglected in practice, as service managers would have to read manually through potentially large amounts of feedback text documents to extract actionable information. As in many cases, a purely manual approach is not feasible, w...

The Growth and Customer Demand of Halal Meat Industry in Finland: A case study of Hakaniemen Lihakauppa : Halal Meat

OpenAIRE

Kalam, Mohammad

2015-01-01

Abstract: The Halal meat selling concept is still quite new in the Finnish market. But it is a quite successful business nowadays. The product quality, freshness and the religious issues are the main reasons behind it. The researcher has chosen a very famous halal meat shop in Finland “Hakaniemen Lihakauppa” as a case company. The company’s business activities, customer services, product quality etc. issues will be discussed in this study. The data of Hakaniemen Lihakauppa had been col...

Challenges in Improving Customer Focus in Small-Sized House-building Companies in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos T. Formoso

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Some important changes in the business environment in several countries are forcing house-building companies to change their competitive strategies. This paper discusses a set of customer servicing practices, which have been adopted by small-sized house-building companies in Brazil that have been involved in quality management improvement programs, emphasizing customer satisfaction measurement. Such practices are referred to a model of the customer servicing process that integrates the main customer-interaction functions from product inception to building operation. Based on multiple case studies and also on a literature review, the main difficulties faced by this sector in terms of improving customer satisfaction are discussed and some improvement opportunities are pointed out.

The study of customer relationship management in Thai airline industry: A case of Thai travelers in Thailand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Colin Law

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Purpose: This paper offer marketing strategy suggestion to the airlines operating within the Thai aviation market. It identifies the recommended motivational factors that influence the airline customers’ decision to their airline choices. Airlines use different customer relationship management programs to attract returning customers.  This paper suggested the most attractive motivation factors for Thailand's air travel market. Design/methodology/approach: This research paper is an attempt to study and identify the factors, including loyalty program, distribution channel, customer services, promotions and other influence causes that affected the customer preference in the airline ticket purchasing behavior in Thailand. A questionnaire survey was conducted with the sample identified through unrestricted non probability sampling technique at four major airports in Thailand. The data collected are analyzed to identify the favorable drivers that lead to customer decision on airline choice. Findings: The result from the study has demonstrated that price, and promotion has a significant impact on customer preference and positively leads to repurchase intention for their future travel. Moreover, flight schedules are also a main factor influencing the travelers’ final decision on airline choice. However, when the promotional strategies and schedule are comparable between airlines, customers are attracted by the airline amenities and services. Loyalty program (frequent-flier program flier program is showing a less attractive motivator while distribution channel demonstrates the least important affecting the travelers’ choice of airline. Originality/value: The paper begins with an overview of previous research in the area of airlines customer relationship management and then moves on to what is currently being implemented by the airlines. The authors then propose several customer relationship strategies and identify the most attractive one that

Nuclear reactors in de-regulated markets: Integration between providers and customers?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Girard, Philippe

2006-01-01

The deregulation of electricity markets has in most cases coincided with the end of state monopolies, where financial risks were borne by customers/citizens. Today, despite an economic advantage, nuclear power development faces two main problems: public acceptance and reticence of investors (banks, utilities shareholders). The development of electricity markets provides different financial instruments in order to hedge financial risks, but it is currently difficult to fix forward contracts for more than three to four years, and this period is insufficient for the financing of a nuclear reactor. A solution could be the evolution of nuclear providers into nuclear operators selling electricity (MWh) rather than selling nuclear capacity (MW), nuclear fuel and services. In this case, their customers would be utilities and big customers aiming to hedge a part of their supplies with long-term contracts or stakes in nuclear reactors without some nuclear constraints. (author)

Factors Influencing Customer Trust in Mobile Banking: Case of Latvia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Skvarciany Viktorija

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The banking sector has developed and extended the use of its services in the past decade. In fact, nowadays mobile banking (M-banking is the most developing service offered by a bank. In order to encourage customers to use m-banking services, it is extremely important to get clients to trust the M-banking services provided by the bank. This article discusses private clients’ trust in mobile banking in Latvia. Hence, the goal of the research is to identify the key factors driving individual customer’s confidence in mobile banking. In order to determine the weight of each factor, expert evaluation method based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP was used. The results showed that the most vital factor affecting private clients’ trust in mobile banking is customer characteristics, especially customers’ computer literacy. However, after summarizing all the subfactors, it became clear that the most powerful in the trust-building process is convenience/practicality of using a mobile application. However, there is a limitation – the survey was conducted by interviewing experts, which means that the results may differ from the responses of the clients themselves.

Customer trust as mediator in the creation of customer relationship intention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dimyati Mohamad

2018-03-01

Full Text Available As in all service industries, banks need to be able to provide their customers with personalized services in order to ensure that they build and maintain long-term relationships which are mutually beneficial. As such, banks must adopt a relational marketing approach based on effective communication and the building of trust with the current customers instead of focusing on acquiring new customers. The current research provides insights into how banks can build trust and maintain their relations with existing customers by testing several predictors of customer trust and customer relationship intention. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine economic content, resource content and social content as the predictors of trust and relationship intention, and trust as a predictor of relationship intention. In addition, this study also analyzes the role of trust in mediating among economic content, resource content, and social content as a predictor of relationship intention of state owned bank customers in East Java. The sample of the study is formed of 120 customers of three state-owned banks from East Java. The research variables consist of three exogenous variables: economic content, resource content, and social content. The endogenous variables are trust and relationship intention. The data was collected using a questionnaire with multiple items measured using Likert scales. The model was analyzed using SEM with AMOS version 18.0. The result shows that economic content, resource content and social content are positive and significant predictors of trust and relationship intention. The role of economic content, resource content, social content as direct predictors is higher than the mediating role of trust of state owned bank customers.

An Assessment of Industrial Customers' Satisfaction at Ethiopian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An Assessment of Industrial Customers' Satisfaction at Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation: A Case of South Addis Ababa Region. ... up with an appropriate service delivery standards, proper complaint handling mechanisms, relevant training for its employees, and strengthening decision making power of employees.

An Investigation of the Essential Factors on Customer Loyalty in Banking Sector: A Case of Albanian Retail Bank

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yüksel KÖKSAL

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this research is to reveal essential factors that have influences on customer loyalty directly in Albanian retail banking context. In order to bring out essential factors, we have developed a questionnaire and 410 people participated in the survey. Five different factors have been described to analyze their directly impacts on customer loyalty such as Service, Security, Relationship, Reliability and Staff. The significant relations of each factor with customer loyalty have been analyzed by conducting confirmatory factor analysis. Obtained results indicate that only ‘relationship’ and ‘staff’ factors have a direct impact on customer loyalty. Determination of the essential factors on customer loyalty in banking sector will be helpful to bank managers to define priorities in order to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Developing a Customer Relationship Management Model for Better Health Examination Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lyu Jr-Jung

2014-11-01

Full Text Available People emphasize on their own health and wish to know more about their conditions. Chronic diseases now take up to 50 percent of top 10 causes of death. As a result, the health-care industry has emerged and kept thriving. This work adopts a customer-oriented business model since most clients are proactive and spontaneous in taking the “distinguished” health examination programs. We adopt the soft system dynamics methodology (SSDM to develop and to evaluate the steps of introducing customer relationship management model into a case health examination organization. Quantitative results are also presented for a case physical examination center and to assess the improved efficiency. The case study shows that the procedures developed here could provide a better service.

A survey on relationship between customer satisfaction and electronic banking features: A case study of Tejarat bank in Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan darvish

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Customer satisfaction plays an important role on the success of banking industry. A customer may switch his/her primary banking from one to another as soon as he/she is unsatisfied from the quality of services. In this paper, we study the impact of six factors on electronic banking including easy access, design, transaction speed, security, information content and customer support on customer satisfaction. The proposed study was performed in different branches located in north east of city of Tehran, Iran named Tejarat. The study selected a sample of 200 customers, designed, and distributed a questionnaire among them. The results of our survey have indicated that all six components significantly influenced on customer satisfaction. We have also investigated a linear regression between the six independent variables and customer satisfaction and using stepwise linear regression technique the most suitable regression model. The results of regression analysis have also indicated that an increase of one unit in easy access, information content and customer support will increase customer satisfaction by 0.201, 0.368 and 0.356, respectively.

Surgical pitfalls with custom-made porous hydroxyapatite cranial implants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruno Zanotti

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Aim: Cranioplasty implants are used primarily in cases of surgical cranial decompression following pathological elevations of intracranial pressure. Available bone substitutes include porous hydroxyapatite (HA and polymethylmethacrylate. Whichever material is used, however, prosthetic cranial implants are susceptible to intra- and postsurgical complications and even failure. The aim of this study was to investigate such occurrences in HA cranioplasty implants, seeking not only to determine the likely causes (whether correlated or not with the device itself but also, where possible, to suggest countermeasures. Methods: We analyzed information regarding failures or complications reported in postmarketing surveillance and clinical studies of patients treated worldwide with custom-made HA cranial implants (Custom Bone Service Fin-Ceramica Faenza, Italy in the period 1997-2013. Results: The two most common complications were implant fractures (84 cases, 2.9% of the total fitted and infections (51 cases, 1.77%. Conclusion: Although cranioplasties are superficial and not difficult types of surgery, and use of custom-made implants are often considered the "easy" option from a surgical perspective, these procedures are nonetheless plagued by potential pitfalls. If performed well they yield more than satisfactory results from the points of view of both the patient and surgeon, but lack of appropriate care can open the door to numerous potential sources of failure, which can compromise-even irreparably-the ability to heal.

The Effects of Customer Value and Switching Barrier to Customer Loyalty at PT. Telkomsel Manado

OpenAIRE

Mintje, Saniati Muliani M.

2013-01-01

Customer value is customer's perceived preference for and evaluation of those product or service. It is one of factor that can attract customers. While, switching barrier is difficult of switch product or service by a customer who is not satisfied with the existing service. It is a factor that can keep customers. so, with definition of Customer Value and Switching barrier above, it can concluded that, by creating Customer value and Switching Barrier it can create customer loyalty. The Pur...

Pengaruh Customer Satisfaction terhadap Customer Retention (Survei Pelanggan J.co Donut & Coffee Malang)

OpenAIRE

Tanjung, Andhika; Sanawiri, Brillyanes

2017-01-01

This research aims to identify influence of Customer Satisfaction, to Customer Retention. The independent varible in this research are Customer Satsisfaction (X), with the dependent variable Customer Retention (Y). The type of research is explanatory research with quantitative approach. The object of research is the customer J.Co Donut & Coffee with minimum purchase at least 2 times. The sampling after selectes by purposive sampling tehcnique is as many as 116 people of respondents. The d...

Using Customer Relationship Trajectories to Segment Customers and Predict Profitability

OpenAIRE

Mark Tanya; Niraj Rakesh; Dawar Niraj

2007-01-01

A central premise of relationship marketing theory is that economic benefits flow fromretaining customers. However, the early research focus on the duration of the relationship may obscure other important aspects of the interactions with the customer that drive profitability. Borrowing from the branding literature, where different types of customer relationships have been described (but not empirically examined), we study the patterns of business customers’ buying behavior, or trajectories th...

An approach to improving marketing campaign effectiveness and customer experience using geospatial analytics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brink, Michael Philippus

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This article discusses a case study in which a South African furniture and household goods retailer wishes to improve its marketing campaigns by employing location-based marketing insights, and also to prioritise customer satisfaction. This paper presents two methods used in an exploratory exercise with the aim of improving the retailer’s business in these ways. The methods of customer profiling and identifying geographical customer clusters summarise how the retailer’s strategic marketing strategies and customer experience can be improved. The methods presented in this article rely on the use of spatial data to solve the business problems.

Efek Customer Customer Interaction Terhadap Satisfaction Dan Word of Mouth Pada Hotel Mandarin Oriental

OpenAIRE

Hijir, Putri

2016-01-01

The background of this research was the effect of Customer to Customer Interaction affect satisfaction, word of mouth, in mandarin oriental hotel. The objective of this research is to examine the impact of Customer satisfaction, Service Atmosphere, Personal Interaction, Customer Customer Interaction, Word of Mouth. The design of this research applies primary data obtained by distributing questionnaires to 200 customer who are using Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Data analysis method used in this re...

The Addition of Spiritual Dimension on Customer Value to Investigate the Relationship of Customer Value, Customer Satisfaction and Behavior Intention on Islamic Banks Saving Products in Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adi Zakaria Afiff

2009-06-01

Full Text Available This study propose the addition of a spiritual dimension in the formation of customer value, in addition to the functional, social and emotional dimension of customer value that has already been empirically tested in previous studies, among customers who own saving products at Islamic banks in Indonesia. The study also investigate the relationship between customer value and customer satisfaction, and the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intentions among these Islamic banks customers. The results show that spiritual dimension is significantly related to the customer value together with all three other dimensions (functional, social and emotional of customer value. All dimensions have significant relationship with customer value. Finally the results also show that customer value positively influence customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction positively influence customer behavior intentions.

Customer satisfaction.

Science.gov (United States)

Vukmir, Rade B

2006-01-01

This paper seeks to present an analysis of the literature examining objective information concerning the subject of customer service, as it applies to the current medical practice. Hopefully, this information will be synthesized to generate a cogent approach to correlate customer service with quality. Articles were obtained by an English language search of MEDLINE from January 1976 to July 2005. This computerized search was supplemented with literature from the author's personal collection of peer-reviewed articles on customer service in a medical setting. This information was presented in a qualitative fashion. There is a significant lack of objective data correlating customer service objectives, patient satisfaction and quality of care. Patients present predominantly for the convenience of emergency department care. Specifics of satisfaction are directed to the timing, and amount of "caring". Demographic correlates including symptom presentation, practice style, location and physician issues directly impact on satisfaction. It is most helpful to develop a productive plan for the "difficult patient", emphasizing communication and empathy. Profiling of the customer satisfaction experience is best accomplished by examining the specifics of satisfaction, nature of the ED patient, demographic profile, symptom presentation and physician interventions emphasizing communication--especially with the difficult patient. The current emergency medicine customer service dilemmas are a complex interaction of both patient and physician factors specifically targeting both efficiency and patient satisfaction. Awareness of these issues particular to the emergency patient can help to maximize efficiency, minimize subsequent medicolegal risk and improve patient care if a tailored management plan is formulated.

UK regulatory expectations for the development of licensee organisational capability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gibson, S.; Reiersen, Craig

2011-01-01

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) is responsible for the licensing and regulatory oversight of new nuclear power reactors in the UK. NII recognises that effective licensee leadership and management for safety are instrumental in the safety of new and existing nuclear installations. NII is consequently placing considerable emphasis on seeking assurance that prospective licensees develop an adequate organisational capability to manage and deliver nuclear safety in addition to constructing a design that has passed through a rigorous assessment process. In order to make NII's expectations clear, and support a consistent approach to interactions with prospective licensees, NII has produced a suite of related guidance to help its Inspectors assess and influence the development of licensee organisational capability. This includes: 1. The safety management prospectus; 2. The 'nuclear baseline'; 3. Intelligent Customer capability and use of contractors; 4. Design Authority; 5. Licence Condition Compliance Arrangements; 6. Development of Organisational Capability

Investigating the effects of smart technology on customer dynamics and customer experience

OpenAIRE

Foroudi, Pantea; Gupta, Suraksha; Sivarajah, Uthayasankar; Broderick, Amanda

2018-01-01

Increased use of smart technologies by customers is leading to recognition of their influence on the shopping experiences of customers by practitioners. However, the academic literature fails to acknowledge the influence of smart technology usage, combined with behavioural intention of the customer, on the dynamics and experience of customers. This research utilises explanatory research at the preliminary stage to examine this phenomenon in a retail setting. A conceptual framework was created...

Perspectives of small retailers in the organic market: Customer satisfaction and customer enthusiasm

OpenAIRE

Bolten, Jan; Kennerknecht, Raphael; Spiller, Achim

2006-01-01

Abstract. In this paper we discuss the impact of customer satisfaction and enthusiasm on the performance of small retailers in the organic food market. The analysis of customer satisfaction and shop data confirm essential economic effects. The study is based on 948 customer interviews and an analysis of management ratios of 12 organic food shops in Germany. The results show that customer satisfaction is a relevant key to sales performance. Regression analysis reveals that overall customer sat...

Using alternative segmentation techniques to examine residential customer`s energy needs, wants, and preferences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hollander, C.; Kidwell, S. [Union Electric Co., St. Louis, MO (United States); Banks, J.; Taylor, E. [Cambridge Reports/Research International, MA (United States)

1994-11-01

The primary objective of this study was to examine residential customers` attitudes toward energy usage, conservation, and efficiency, and to examine the implications of these attitudes for how the utility should design and communicate about programs and services in these areas. This study combined focus groups and customer surveys, and utilized several customer segmentation schemes -- grouping customers by geodemographics, as well as customers` energy and environmental values, beliefs, and opinions -- to distinguish different segments of customers.

E-CUSTOMS PROGRAMME - NEW QUALITY OF SERVICES PROVIDED BY CUSTOMS ADMINISTRATIONS TO EUROPEAN BUSINESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Małgorzata Czermińska

2016-09-01

Full Text Available E-Customs initiative includes a number of IT projects, organizational and legal measures. They are designed to creation of a simple and paperless environment for trade and customs, to short the duration of customs clearance and to ensure an appropriate level of security of commercial transactions. Modern customs administration must operate on the basis of advanced infrastructure in the field of information and communication technologies. Only then will it be able to provide cheaper and more efficient customs services. Therefore, the greatest challenge and the main goal of the e-Customs programme is to harmonize customs procedures and systems in the 28 Member States. The article describes the assumptions and objectives of the e-Customs, presents its genesis and evolution. Particular attention was paid to the activities that are aimed at improving the quality of customs services provided to European companies.

Delivering customer solutions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bergsma, J.

1997-01-01

Convergence of the energy industries began with customer's demands for the best energy choice and value. In a converged energy market customers buy year-round home comfort, rather than gas heat or electric air conditioning. Union Gas has been facilitating cogeneration development to its customers since the mid 1980's. A brief description of the corporate context of Union Gas and Centra Gas was provided. Convergence at the retail level was discussed in detail. The essence of converge at the retail level is that an energy service provider will tailor products and services to meet a customer's specific needs for choice, value and best prices. Consequently, a residential customer will have the choice to select an environmentally preferred fuel source for home comfort, plus billing options, merchandise and repair services, all for one price, and from one utility

Profit-Based Model Selection for Customer Retention Using Individual Customer Lifetime Values.

Science.gov (United States)

Óskarsdóttir, María; Baesens, Bart; Vanthienen, Jan

2018-03-01

The goal of customer retention campaigns, by design, is to add value and enhance the operational efficiency of businesses. For organizations that strive to retain their customers in saturated, and sometimes fast moving, markets such as the telecommunication and banking industries, implementing customer churn prediction models that perform well and in accordance with the business goals is vital. The expected maximum profit (EMP) measure is tailored toward this problem by taking into account the costs and benefits of a retention campaign and estimating its worth for the organization. Unfortunately, the measure assumes fixed and equal customer lifetime value (CLV) for all customers, which has been shown to not correspond well with reality. In this article, we extend the EMP measure to take into account the variability in the lifetime values of customers, thereby basing it on individual characteristics. We demonstrate how to incorporate the heterogeneity of CLVs when CLVs are known, when their prior distribution is known, and when neither is known. By taking into account individual CLVs, our proposed approach of measuring model performance gives novel insights when deciding on a customer retention campaign. The method is dependent on the characteristics of the customer base as is compliant with modern business analytics and accommodates the data-driven culture that has manifested itself within organizations.

Influence of social media on customer experiences in restaurants: A South African study

OpenAIRE

Mhlanga, Oswald; Tichaawa, Tembi Maloney

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of social media on customers' experiences in restaurants in South Africa. Using the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality as a case study area, structured survey questionnaires were distributed at selected formal full-service restaurants to customers. The data analysis consisted of the experiences of respondents with different social media types and t-tests. The results indicated that on a 5 point Likert scale, customers who used Ins...

Evaluating Pillar Industry's Transformation Capability: A Case Study of Two Chinese Steel-Based Cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhidong; Marinova, Dora; Guo, Xiumei; Gao, Yuan

2015-01-01

Many steel-based cities in China were established between the 1950s and 1960s. After more than half a century of development and boom, these cities are starting to decline and industrial transformation is urgently needed. This paper focuses on evaluating the transformation capability of resource-based cities building an evaluation model. Using Text Mining and the Document Explorer technique as a way of extracting text features, the 200 most frequently used words are derived from 100 publications related to steel- and other resource-based cities. The Expert Evaluation Method (EEM) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques are then applied to select 53 indicators, determine their weights and establish an index system for evaluating the transformation capability of the pillar industry of China's steel-based cities. Using real data and expert reviews, the improved Fuzzy Relation Matrix (FRM) method is applied to two case studies in China, namely Panzhihua and Daye, and the evaluation model is developed using Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation (FCE). The cities' abilities to carry out industrial transformation are evaluated with concerns expressed for the case of Daye. The findings have policy implications for the potential and required industrial transformation in the two selected cities and other resource-based towns.

EVALUATING A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC APPROACH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luigi-Nicolae DUMITRESCU

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Customer focus is, at best, only one element of the relationship between a company and its customers. At worst it is a board-room buzzworld, witch makes every board member feel a little more secure. Not unlike the phrase “working towards equal opportunities”, it is showing an awareness of a need but is not addressing the issues. Customer focus must lead to something meaningful, will probably require sacrifices and is just one of the steps necessary to become truly customer-centric. A customer focus puts your customers high on your list of priorities. When you put your customers into the heart of your business, make customers part of the culture, then you to become customer-centric.

The Effect of Absorptive Capacity on Green Customer Capital under an Organizational Unlearning Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silvia Martelo-Landroguez

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Environmental management is becoming increasingly important within organizations and forms an essential part of their strategies. As customers are more concerned with the care of the environment, companies are required to be more aware of their actions. Consequently, companies must ignore their historical mindsets and assumptions to be able to adopt green-oriented practices and processes. Our specific research questions are: (i How can firms become (more green-oriented? and (ii how can knowledge-based organizational capabilities drive this shift into greener companies, which may enhance green customer capital? The research model describes how the complementary roles of absorptive capacity (direct effect and the fostering of an organizational unlearning context (moderating effect affects green customer capital within the Spanish automotive component manufacturing sector. Empirical results reveal that to create green customer capital, companies should absorb new knowledge and build a context of organizational unlearning. In today’s competitive environment, knowledge rapidly becomes obsolete, so companies need to encourage unlearning to make space for new knowledge that meets environmental needs and keeps pace with changing customer preferences. The research hypotheses were tested using partial least squares (PLS path-modeling.

Structural relationships between work environment and service quality perceptions as a function of customer contact intensity: implications for human service strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Scotti, Dennis J; Harmon, Joel; Behson, Scott J

2009-01-01

This study assesses the importance of customer-contact intensity at the service encounter level as a determinant of service quality assessments. Using data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, it shows that performance-driven human resources practices play an important role as determinants of employee customer orientation and service capability in both high-contact (outpatient healthcare) and low-contact (benefits claim processing) human service contexts. However, there existed significant differences across service delivery settings in the salience of customer orientation and the congruence between employee and customer perceptions of service quality, depending on the intensity of customer contact. In both contexts, managerial attention to high-performance work systems and customer-orientation has the potential to favorably impact perceptions of service quality, amplify consumer satisfaction, and enhance operational efficiency.

Communication and Work Development as a Change Management Tool in the In-flight Customer Service Department : Case Finnair

OpenAIRE

Hölttä, Katri

2011-01-01

The challenges and changes in the air transport sector have increased the need for radical changes also in the airlines organizations. Finnair has chosen to be a quality airline to focus on operations into customer-orientation and delivering improved customer experience to its customers. The objective of this thesis is to find development suggestions to the In-flight customer service department how to develop communication and work development to be used as a change management tool. The study...

The Influence of Service Quality toward Customer Loyalty: A Case Study at Alfamart Abdurahman Saleh Bandung

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rizki Faiz Al-Haqam

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The research objectives were to determine the correlation between service quality and customer loyalty, and also to analyze the influence of service quality on customer loyalty at Alfamart Abdurahman Saleh Bandung. Respondents of this research were 70 respondents with nonprobability sampling technique done by incidental sampling. The method used is descriptive and associative, which tested the connection using the Spearman rank correlation analysis, to test the hypothesis by t-test, and to determine the accuracy of measurement using the validity and reliability test. Results of the validity and reliability test of variables X and Y are valid and reliable. Calculations were performed using SPSS software ver. 19. The results of this research show that service quality is in the category of good and customer loyalty is also in the category of good. Results show that the correlation of service quality with customer loyalty at Alfamart Abdurahman Saleh Bandung is in the strong relation based on the interpretation of r value correlation coefficient. The hypothesis is proved that there is the influence of service quality on customer loyalty at Alfamart Abdurahman Saleh Bandung significantly.

Conflicting Interests in User Requirements for Customization and Personalization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Jannick Kirk

2015-01-01

The term 'user requirements' appears unproblematic until it is confronted with conflicting interests of who 'the user' is or should be. Customization and personalization can in this context be understood as designers' attempt to avoid or soften the conflict related to the shaping of user requirem......The term 'user requirements' appears unproblematic until it is confronted with conflicting interests of who 'the user' is or should be. Customization and personalization can in this context be understood as designers' attempt to avoid or soften the conflict related to the shaping of user...... requirements. In this chapter we argue, based in a case-study of the design-process of a customizable web-interface for a public service broadcaster, that the customization strategy does not solve the problem of the conflicting interests in defining the user....

IMPACT OF CREDENCE ATTRIBUTES OF AGRICULTURAL FOOD PRODUCTS ON CUSTOMER ATTITUDE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fareeha NISAR

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study is to enhance understanding on how a firm can generate value for its customers using a competitive advantage strategy by accumulating credible attributes to its products. There are certain product attributes that customers can only perceive. In the case of agricultural food products, the customers’ consciousness for safe, natural and organic products has enriched the perceived value of the product. To explore the relationship between the credence attributes and attitude of the customers for the agricultural food, a survey questionnaire has been administered to consumers of agricultural food products in the different regions of Punjab, Pakistan. The data analysis has been conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS to investigate the desired relationship in that particular region of the country. It can be concluded that the trust of customer is now very much depending on the presence of credence attribute that customer cannot describe but evaluate during the purchase of food items.

Customer relationships marketing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Đorđević Bojan

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Market economy terms impose on modern companies the need to change their business relationships to customers. In this way has the term "customer relationship marketing", known as CRM, come into use. Customers are the most valuable asset of a company, and the wisdom and essence of CRM can be presented in two words - profitable and long-term. Modern customer is an individual. They are smart, informed, have great expectations and want only the best, and they can change their supplier by one click of the mouse. Every one of them is characterized by specific needs, and, in that sense the company must strive to satisfy them with the right offer at the right time and through the right channel. The aim of the company is to have loyal customers who will help the company make maximized profit and competitive advantage on the market.

77 FR 67865 - Enhancing Protections Afforded Customers and Customer Funds Held by Futures Commission Merchants...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-14

... Parts 1, 3, 22 et al. Enhancing Protections Afforded Customers and Customer Funds Held by Futures... Customers and Customer Funds Held by Futures Commission Merchants and Derivatives Clearing Organizations... amend existing regulations to require enhanced customer protections, risk management programs, internal...

Transforming organizational capabilities in strategizing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Claus; Friis, Ole Uhrskov; Koch, Christian

2014-01-01

Offshored and networked enterprises are becoming an important if not leading organizational form and this development seriously challenges their organizational capabilities. More specifically, over the last years, SMEs have commenced entering these kinds of arrangements. As the organizational...... capabilities of SMEs are limited at the outset, even more emphasis is needed regarding the issues of developing relevant organizational capabilities. This paper aims at investigating how capabilities evolve during an offshoring process of more than 5 years in two Danish SMEs, i.e. not only short- but long......-term evolvements within the companies. We develop our framework of understanding organizational capabilities drawing on dynamic capability, relational capability and strategy as practice concepts, appreciating the performative aspects of developing new routines. Our two cases are taken from one author’s Ph...

Investigating the Effects of Information Technology on the Capabilities and Performance of the Supply Chain of Dairy Companies in Fars Province: A Multiple Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ali Mohammadi

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Nowadays all organizations are somehow involved with information technology revolutions and the applicable aspects of information technology are evident in any field of supply chain, from the relationship with suppliers and producers to the relationship with the customers. In other words, the application of information technology is influential in the improvement of the supply chain. In this study, the effect of information technology tools on the capabilities and performance of the supply chain in the dairy companies of Fars province is investigated. In this research, in information technology sets of tools ,supply chain communication system (SCCS, electronic data interchange (EDI, electronic mail (Email, bar-coding, and radio frequency identification (RFID, in supply chain capabilities, four dimensions including information exchange, coordination, interfirm activity integration, and supply chain responsiveness, and in performance of supply chain, two variables of performance including marketing performance and financial performance will be examined. The results indicate that using information technology tools is effective on the capabilities and hence performance of the supply chain.

The Impact of CRM System Use on Companies’ Customer Understanding: The Case of the Russian Ophthalmology Market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denis Klimanov

2015-06-01

Full Text Available As the customer relationship management process comes to play an increasingly important role in business success, a number of authors are attempting to evaluate the impact of various CRM process components on the quality of company interaction with customers and, ultimately, on company performance. This paper explores the impact of CRM systems on the quality of companies’ customer understanding. This understanding is measured in the context of an international pharmaceutical company in the Russian market. The field research is based on quantitative data from online questionnaires and telephone interviews. The sample consists of 64 company representatives and 217 ophthalmologists. The authors developed and tested a model of physician loyalty drivers and studied employees’ perceptions of the CRM system. The findings of this paper demonstrate that, despite the fact that a CRM system is actively used and perceived as a crucial part of the customer relationship management process within the company, understanding of key customer loyalty drivers needs to be significantly improved. The paper contributes to existing theory by evaluating the link between the use of CRM applications and customer relationship performance as well as by developing a physician prescription loyalty influencers framework in the context of the Russian pharmaceutical market. This research could be used by other pharmaceutical companies as well in order to understand the influence of their CRM applications on customer loyalty and also to identify the drivers of physicians’ prescriptions.

Cross-cultural communication capabilities of U.S. military trainers: host nation perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahmood, Maysaa; Alameri, Ali; Jawad, Shakir; Alani, Yasir; Zuerlein, Scott; Nakano, Gregg; Anderson, Warner; Beadling, Charles

2013-06-01

A survey was conducted to assess trainee perception of the cross-cultural communication competency of U.S. military trainers and their satisfaction with the training they received. Findings from the survey show that U.S. military trainers rely significantly on local interpreters. This indicates variability in the ability of the trainers to communicate effectively with host nation partners, the variability being dependent on the capabilities of the individual interpreter. The findings illustrate the importance of providing military health personnel with training on how to work effectively with interpreters. The use of supplementary resources such as electronic translation devises when the interpreter is not capable of conveying health-related training information with the desired level of accuracy is recommended. Expanding the availability of general cultural training, which provides baseline information on local values, traditions, and customs in addition to health-specific cultural orientation, is also recommended to help military health trainers customize their training content and methods to fit the local environment. Reprint & Copyright © 2013 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

Customized power quality service provided by converter interfaced microgrids — Voltage harmonics as a study case

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meng, Lexuan; Chaudhary, Sanjay K.; Guerrero, Josep M.

2017-01-01

Customers may have different power quality requirements, thus, the economic operational strategy can try to provide them with distinctive quality levels as customized service. An optimization based method is proposed in this paper to realize this functionality, offering the possibility...

Customer-Driven Smart and Sustainable Interactions in Conventions: The Case of Nestlé’s Smart Button Adoption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arum Park

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Services based on Internet of Things (IoT technologies have emerged in various business environments. To enhance service quality at conventions and maximize the experience of attendees, this study developed a customer-driven smart and sustainable service, applying a smart button as an IoT technology. An application of the IoT technology-based smart button was adopted by comparing advantages and disadvantages of technologies. We also identified the need for customer-driven smart and sustainable service by analyzing cases. Then, we designed, constructed and evaluated the service with the action research framework, which includes phases such as diagnosis, action planning, action taking, evaluation, and specify learning. In the first phase, various challenges and problems of the smart convention were diagnosed through interviews with organizers. In the action planning phase, service models were designed to solve the problems. In the action taking phase, which IoT technology would be the most appropriate was discussed and it was applied to the convention space. In the evaluation phase, we derived the role of IoT technology for smart conventions and summarized the results of the smart convention service. Finally, we presented implications for a business.

Pengaruh Hubungan Pelanggan (Customer Relationship) Terhadap Nilai Pelanggan (Customer Value) Pada Grosir Busana Muslim Ud. Leni

OpenAIRE

Napitupulu, Romeo Sahala

2016-01-01

Customer relationship is the company's strategy to gain profit through customer management efforts . Customer relationship is a process of changing customer behavior from time to time and learn from every customer interaction , adjust the action , and strengthen the bond between the customer and the company. This is the main principle that is important in marketing . There are two activities in a customer relationship are: consumer information and complaint handling . Customer relationship cl...

Undervalued or Overvalued Customers : Capturing Total Customer Engagement Value

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kumar, V.; Aksoy, Lerzan; Donkers, Bas; Venkatesan, Rajkumar; Wiesel, Thorsten; Tillmanns, Sebastian

Customers can interact with and create value for firms in a variety of ways. This article proposes that assessing the value of customers based solely upon their transactions with a firm may not be sufficient, and valuing this engagement correctly is crucial in avoiding undervaluation and

Decision Analysis Methods Used to Make Appropriate Investments in Human Exploration Capabilities and Technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Williams-Byrd, Julie; Arney, Dale C.; Hay, Jason; Reeves, John D.; Craig, Douglas

2016-01-01

NASA is transforming human spaceflight. The Agency is shifting from an exploration-based program with human activities in low Earth orbit (LEO) and targeted robotic missions in deep space to a more sustainable and integrated pioneering approach. Through pioneering, NASA seeks to address national goals to develop the capacity for people to work, learn, operate, live, and thrive safely beyond Earth for extended periods of time. However, pioneering space involves daunting technical challenges of transportation, maintaining health, and enabling crew productivity for long durations in remote, hostile, and alien environments. Prudent investments in capability and technology developments, based on mission need, are critical for enabling a campaign of human exploration missions. There are a wide variety of capabilities and technologies that could enable these missions, so it is a major challenge for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) to make knowledgeable portfolio decisions. It is critical for this pioneering initiative that these investment decisions are informed with a prioritization process that is robust and defensible. It is NASA's role to invest in targeted technologies and capabilities that would enable exploration missions even though specific requirements have not been identified. To inform these investments decisions, NASA's HEOMD has supported a variety of analysis activities that prioritize capabilities and technologies. These activities are often based on input from subject matter experts within the NASA community who understand the technical challenges of enabling human exploration missions. This paper will review a variety of processes and methods that NASA has used to prioritize and rank capabilities and technologies applicable to human space exploration. The paper will show the similarities in the various processes and showcase instances were customer specified priorities force modifications to the process. Specifically

From dissatisfied customers to evangelists of the firm: A study of the Spanish mobile service sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jesús Cambra Fierro

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This paper takes a closer look at factors which serve as a catalyst for transforming initially dissatisfied customers into evangelists of the firm; that is, customers who spread positive word-of-mouth about a company, its products and/or services—and recommend them to other consumers. We propose a conceptual model, rooted in relationship marketing theory, which identifies a set of factors that afford a better understanding of post-service recovery customer transformation processes. The proposed model is empirically tested in the context of mobile telecommunications services using a structural equation modeling approach. Our findings reveal that when companies are capable of designing effective service recovery processes—where customers perceive effort and justice in the outcome—initial dissatisfaction can turn to brand loyalty, long-term commitment and, above all, readiness to speak positively about the company and its products. Finally, the main implications for marketing practice are discussed.

Custom Made Pressure Appliance for Presurgical Sustained ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Among the most common complications of this therapy is ulceration due to excessive pressure. A case of presurgical size reduction for a large ear keloid with a custom made pressure appliance is presented. This novel design of the appliance allows for better control over the amount and direction of the pressure applied on ...

Impact of PT. Central Proteinaprima Customer Relationship Management Towards Customer Loyalty in Sidoarjo Area

OpenAIRE

Santoso, Ivandy

2015-01-01

Customer Relationship Management is considered as an important factor that can impact customer loyalty in purchasing a product. In Sidoarjo, PT. Central Proteinaprima, a fish feed company, also competes with other companies to attract customer loyalty. This research is conducted with the aim to find out the effect of customer relationship management on customer loyalty. The data was gathered using simple random sampling by distributing questionnaires to 150 respondents in Sidoarjo...

CUSTOMIZED PRODUCTS: THE INTEGRATING RELATIONSHIP MARKETING, AGILE MANUFACTURING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT FOR MASS CUSTOMIZATION

OpenAIRE

Süleyman BARUTCU

2007-01-01

A customized product is a special product designed and manufactured for individual customers to meet their individual needs. Managers need to understand why customers demand and how companies supply customized products. The importance of this study is to highlight business, marketing and manufacturing strategies so as to supply customized products efficiently. It is expected from a manufacturer to successfully adopt relationship marketing, mass customization, agile manufacturing and supply ch...

Analisis Pengaruh Service Quality dan Sistem Informasi Sekolah terhadap Customer Satisfaction yang Berdampak pada Customer Loyalty Studi Kasus Sekolah Xyz

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roni Kurniawan

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Education has a strategic role in preparing qualified future generations. Education has business potential that is reliable and promising, considering the timeless education, as well as the expectations of every parent to their children to have the access to the best education. Evolving world of education today isdemonstrated by the high rate of growth of established schools, especially private schools. Parents today are more savvy and critical in determining the best school for their children, taking into account various aspects, ranging from excellent schools, curriculum, learning systems, the facility to activities that make their children good personality and smart. A more selective attitude that makes private education institutions now have to be more innovative in order to compete. This study was conducted to determine how big the Service Quality and Information Systems School, affect Customer Satisfaction, which will have an impact on Customer Loyalty (Case Study at XYZ School. The study was conducted with data collection techniques in the form of questionnaires toa total of 100 respondents, using descriptive statistical calculations, where the data were analyzed by using electronic data processing methods with the support of SPSS 17.0 To measure the influence of independent variables on the dependent variable, then the path analysis (path analysis was used. The results showed that the Service Quality and Information Systems School were contributing together, and significant in Customer Satisfaction. Service Quality, Information Systems and Customer Satisfaction of school together contributesignificantly to Customer Loyalty.

Post-marketing surveillance of CustomBone Service implanted in children under 7 years old.

Science.gov (United States)

Frassanito, Paolo; Tamburrini, Gianpiero; Massimi, Luca; Di Rocco, Concezio; Nataloni, Angelo; Fabbri, Greta; Caldarelli, Massimo

2015-01-01

The CustomBone Service is a bioceramic implant suitable for cranial repair in both adults and children, although there are no clinical data about its use in children under 7 years of age. This surveillance study investigates the outcome in this age group. Twenty-eight children under 7 years old (range, 2.5-6 years) received CustomBone Service from July 2006 to May 2013 in 16 international hospitals. Data of 23 children (12 males and 11 females), harboring 24 prosthesis, were available with a minimum follow-up of 1 year. Sites of the cranial defect were frontal or parietal (20.8 % each), parieto-temporal (16.7 %), fronto-parietal or occipital (12.5 % each), fronto-parieto-temporal or fronto-temporal (8.3 % each). Initial diseases were trauma (54.2 %), malformation (37.5 %), or tumor of the bone/skin (8.3 %). Rupture of the implant occurred in a single case during the implant (1/26 surgeries, 3.8 %) and the cranial repair was achieved by means of the back-up prosthesis. Five adverse events were registered during the follow-up period consisting of three cases of fracture and two of exposure/infection of the prosthesis. All cases required the removal of the device (20.8 %). The failure rate of CustomBone Service under 7 years of age was higher than reported in adults and children over 7 years old (20.8 vs. 3.8 %), However, CustomBone Service may be considered a valid option under 7 years old since other materials are burdened by more significant rates of complications in the long-term period. Due to specific properties of this material, indication to CustomBone Service in toddlers should be carefully evaluated by the surgeon on a case-by-case basis.

TEAM SELLING AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN THE MISSION CRITICAL SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF EYP MISSION CRITICAL FACILITIES INC.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timothy J. CRADER

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This study examined the relationships between selling teams (STs and customer satisfaction within the mission critical power design industry. The literature indicates that STs, which are considered a state of the art sales model, deserved further research. The SERVQUAL survey was used to measure customer satisfaction with EYP Mission Critical’s most strategic customers. The difference in customer satisfaction for customers serviced by STs and traditional sales personnel were compared. The investigation found support indicating that a ST approach had a positive relationship to increased customer satisfaction levels. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that sales leaders within the specialized service industry consider a ST approach when formulating future revenue growth and relationship strategy.

Procuring load curtailment from local customers under uncertainty.

Science.gov (United States)

Mijatović, Aleksandar; Moriarty, John; Vogrinc, Jure

2017-08-13

Demand side response (DSR) provides a flexible approach to managing constrained power network assets. This is valuable if future asset utilization is uncertain. However there may be uncertainty over the process of procurement of DSR from customers. In this context we combine probabilistic modelling, simulation and optimization to identify economically optimal procurement policies from heterogeneous customers local to the asset, under chance constraints on the adequacy of the procured DSR. Mathematically this gives rise to a search over permutations, and we provide an illustrative example implementation and case study.This article is part of the themed issue 'Energy management: flexibility, risk and optimization'. © 2017 The Author(s).