Corporate Image
According to Lehtinen and Lehtinen (1982) study of the effect of the service company corporate image revealed that the quality of service delivered in relation to the conditions of machines, pumps and staff competence, service employees response to customers’ complaints were considered important factor for determining the quality of service. When corporate image is good, customers are likely to tolerate service defects. The corporate image is therefore quite useful in determining of service quality.
3.6.5 Gronroos’ Quality Evaluation Model
Gronroos (1982) model looked at customers’ perception of quality as being based on two categories: the technical quality aspect and functional quality aspect.
i. Technical Quality: this
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The two categories contribute to the overall service quality. In addition to the above methods of service quality evaluation, McConnell (1968), Olander (1970) and Zeithaml (1981) discovered that price was also used as important variable of service quality, especially where tangibles were insignificant e.g., in law and accounting firms. For services offered by such firms, customers place a premium on high price as an indicator of high quality of service. Despite the many factors that influence the measurement of service quality such as the nature of services and measurement criteria, quality research have come up with bases like gap analysis, complaint analysis and satisfaction levels on which assessment of quality of service can be done. Measurement of service quality has become of great concern among researchers because a quality customer services has proved to be of great benefit to business firm, as it contributes to reduced operation costs, productivity, and return on investment. Of the five methods outlined above, a conceptual model of service quality is used in this study. However, only gap five is considered in the measurement of quality delivered by …show more content…
Lower Metering Levels is a hindrance to implementation of efficient tariff systems. Flat rates imposed on consumers have no relation to the actual amount of water used or wasted. Pumping and treating of water cost money and wasting of water means a great cost to be distributed among consumers. If services are unmetered, the careful consumers bare some of the burden imposed by the careless and wasteful consumers. Therefore, if economic efficiency is to be achieved by the company it is important that households are all metered so that consumers pay on the basis of their actual consumption. This will promote efficient water use by residential consumer. According to Steel and McGhee (1979), the efficiency of the waterworks management will affect consumption by decreasing loss and waste, and that leaks in the water mains, services and unauthorized use for water can be kept to a minimum by surveys. This is critical in the water sector if sustainability is to be achieved as it helps to cut down on unnecessary operational costs. Waterworks need to have some means at the pumping plant of accurately measuring all the water that is delivered. Meters which are of the recording type, provide valuable information regarding hourly rate of consumption. And, if all services are metered then the difference between the total amount pumped and the sum of services meter readings will be known which will be the unaccounted for water. This can be traced through
According to Business Studies ‘’Customer service is one of the most important ingredients of the marketing mix for products and services. High quality customer service helps to create customer loyalty. Customers today are not only interested in the product they are being offered but all the additional elements of service that they receive from the greeting they receive when they enter a retail outlet, to the refund and help that they receive when they have a complaint about a faulty product that they have paid for’’ (Business Studies, n.d).
Measuring this satisfaction is an important element of providing better, more effective and efficient services. When customers are not satisfied with a service as provided, the service is neither effective nor efficient and can result in a loss of business. Why do we measure customer satisfaction? The level of customer satisfaction with services is an important factor in developing a system of service provisions such as the 7P's: § Product § People § Price § Physical Evidence § Place § Processes § Promotion Theses areas of any business are responsive to the customers needs while minimising costs and time requirements and maximising the impact of the services on target populations.
In other words, the company cannot be good at everything. Moreover, to achieve Service Excellence it is needed to compromise some of the service attributes, mainly by reducing the ones that the targeted group of customers values less, in order to focus on the improvement of the service’s qualities that the customers want most.
Water shortage is a growing problem for most countries in the world. For China, which has 20% of world’s population and only 7% of available water resources, this problem may become catastrophic (Hofstedt 2010, 72). Therefore some actions and measures should be performed to avoid or at least to weaken future water crisis in China. In this work the following three solutions will be proposed and analyzed in terms of efficiency and applicability: water usage efficiency improvement; adopting the local agencies on controlling water resources; reasonable water pricing.
Therefore, examining company’s capacity and being the leader in the retail industry, it is evident that the company has embraced a quality culture. The quality culture has enabled the company to remain profitable. The high customer relations have allowed the company to constantly provide and improve its product and service quality. This means that the company’s priority is quality for the products and services they offer to its clients. The quality culture has enabled the company to be successful in the retail industry with excellent customer satisfaction ratings (Pahl et al, 2007).
Quality is an important part of any business rather from a customer’s perspective or a producer’s perspective. Quality from a customer’s perspective is they “want value and quality has become a major factor in the value of products and service” (Russell & Taylor, 2013, pg. 53). “The customer is the most important part of the production line” (Russell & Taylor, 2013, pg. 53). This can be referred to as quality of design meaning “involves designing quality characteristics into a product or service” (Russell & Taylor, 2013, pg. 54). Now let’s look at the quality from a producer’s perspective. This can be referred to a quality of conformance meaning “making sure the product or service is produced according to design” (Russell & Taylor, 2013,
The Gaps Model of Service Quality was originally developed for application in the financial service sector. The model was designed to measure components of customer satisfaction by using five dimensions of real or potential gaps in service quality of a hotel (Saleh & Ryan, 1991). The model has been applied to hotels, as well as a number of service agencies, including banking, hotels, restaurants, and healthcare. Even though the services differ greatly, the model is easily adapted to any service industry (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985).
Identify three criteria you consider to be the most important in a quality system. Briefly discuss your rationale for selecting these criteria.
Customer service is valued as a competitive tool by many organisations. It gives you the ability to gain customer loyalty while meeting the customer’s expectations. Staff will have many skills and knowledge that will provide a competitive edge. Most organisations are known for the quality of their customer service. This means that they are known for good customer service or poor customer service. However, being known for good customer service will attract customers. It will also attract customers who are usually hard to reach.
It's very well known that a companies success is not only dependant on the possession of a good product or service, but the key aspect to a successful business is excellent customer service. As the market grows, now more then ever companies are emerging, they are offering very similar types of products and services. Successful customer service can be a way a business becomes original and unique, it can be the key to attracting and maintaining loyal customers. Good customer service can start-up a business while bad customer service can harm a company. An average customer that experiences an issue will complaint to 9-10 people about the problem. A customer that received support to their problem and a potential solution will tell at least five
...stomer service is essential in any organization. Its importance has positive implications on the business. Having an excellent customer service will motivate the organization’s employees. This will result in a win-win situation because a happy employee is a productive employee. When a motivated employee helps customers he/she will ensure that the customers are satisfied in a way that exceeds their expectations. These customers will then go out in to the public and share their experience with friends who will eventually patronize the business. In the long run the business gains more customers and increases its profits. Therefore, every organization should attempt to implement and preserve an excellent customer service strategy. This will give the organization a competitive edge above other organizations and establish a reputable image every business entity long for.
Quality is any aspect of the product, including the service included in the contract of sales, which influences the demand curve, R.Dorfman & P.O.Steiner (1954). For this research the researcher has used three elements that are, freshness of the product and variety & availability of the product, as these elements helps the hypermarket to server different kind of taste and preference to their
A service encounter is defined as a moment when a customer interacts with a service or product for the first time. It is the customer’s actual interaction with a service company. It is identified as a key component of the current agenda for service marketers. More than half of the world’s multinational corporations employ in providing services, thus the scrutiny of service encounters is becoming increasingly significant. Research evidence indicates that customers generally compare their expectations with the performance of service industries and they are influenced by the quality of service they receive. The scope of this essay is to discuss about the view that customers don’t buy products they focus on solutions and also about the consumer’s behaviour pattern regarding services provided. Further, it will be noted how businesses are trying to improve the service quality to attract customers leading to an increase in the economic competitiveness.
When organization always provide high-quality products and good services, customer will create their satisfaction and increased customer loyalty.
(1) efforts to improve the quality of their services, and (2) efforts to market themselves more effectively. Both service quality and services marketing have received considerable attention from researchers over the years and the application of these concepts in the service settings is therefore not surprising (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Rust and Oliver 1994; Zeithaml et al., 1990). One evidence of the importance of service quality and service