
Customer retention is essential for firms in the service sector and will subsequently receive a great deal of attention in the coming years. A large majority of firms are losing their current customers at a significant rate. UK operators lose over a third of their subscribers every year in spite of incurring large customer acquisition and retention expenditures. A study of customer retention from a variety of angles, including economic, behavioural and psychological perspectives, was rigorously carried out. It has been found that a majority of scholars explain customer retention from a behavioural perspective by using unrelated or indirect factors such as trust and commitment, price terms, and loyalty terms. It has also been noted that previous studies lack a clear theoretical background and a solid empirical proof to support their findings of customer operant retention behaviour. 

This study approaches the customer retention problem in the mobile phone sector from a behavioural perspective, applying the Behavioural Perspective Model as the main analytical framework. The model includes a set of pre-behaviour and post-behaviour factors to study consumer choice and explains its relevant drivers in a viable and comprehensive way, grounded in radical behaviourism. Many data collection methods were used to collect data from the study sample, including mobile contracts content analysis techniques, customer focus groups, and, principally, a customer survey supported by interviews with a number of managers. The data were analysed using different regression measurements to test the study model, and the propositions were constructed and tested quantitatively and discussed qualitatively. Analysis revealed that a customer will buy a mobile telecommunication package and engage in a long-term relationship with a supplier whom he or she believes will honour the relationship’s functional and emotional benefits; the consumer will be expecting to obtain such benefits when he/she buys, consumes, and has a positive experience of both the purchased object and the seller.

Customer Service Retention - A Behavioural Perspective of the UK Mobile Market

Digital imaging has greatly enhanced how libraries and archives achieve their stated goals, whether it is for public or higher education. The double-barreled benefit of increased access to rare, fragile or special collections via the internet, and reduced handling of such collections by using electronic surrogates, has proven too alluring for most institutions to resist. The interest in digital imaging has been fueled by funding from both private and public funds that have been increasingly available over the past 5 years for digital library projects. The Library of Congress/ Ameritech National Digital Library Competition awarded grants from 1996-99, and did an excellent job of introducing many libraries and archives into the intricacies of digital conversion. Along with the CLIR-supported Digital Library Federation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has also been active in supporting and encouraging cooperative projects in the field. More recently, both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities have awarded digital conversion grants, and the National Science Foundation has partnered with the Library of Congress to encourage initiatives using digital libraries as a platform for research. So, clearly, the momentum is there to begin production-scale digital conversion. But there are many difficult decisions that have to be made along the road to establishing a successful digital library program. Once institutions get involved with digital capture, they find it can be a complex and daunting process. Crucial decisions have to be made in selection, benchmarking, quality control, metadata schema, systems infrastructure, web site design, and digital preservation. These determinations often require a re-thinking and re-tooling of many areas of a library's established mode of operation, including cataloging, conservation and preservation, copyrights and permissions, systems infrastructure, and personnel.

Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging for Libraries and Archives

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS Computers with dual monitor screens are being increasingly used at many workplaces. Altered screen layout and increased viewing space associated with dual monitor screens may affect head–neck working postures and the activity of neck muscles. However, this problem has not been investigated in the past, and standard guidelines based on empirical data are not available for setting up a computer workstation with dual monitor screens. The present study compared the effects of single versus dual monitor screens on 3D head–neck postures and the activity of neck muscles in computer users. The results of this study have demonstrated that working on a video display unit workstation with dual monitor screens involved more rotated, asymmetric head–neck postures and higher activation of the anterior neck muscles than a video display unit workstation with a single monitor screen. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Among workstation design factors, placement of the computer monitor screen is the m...

The Impact of Use of Dual Monitor Screens on 3D Head–Neck Posture and Activity of Neck Muscles

Purpose – From the cataloging librarians' point of view, this paper aims to present how technical services, especially the cataloging department, can play important roles in the improvement of user services.Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the practices of the University of Oklahoma Libraries.Findings – The paper identifies several aspects in which technical services can enhance the quality of user services, especially in the cataloging department. A library's online catalog becomes the first point of access to the library's information resources. Its quality can be improved and enriched in many ways to raise users’ satisfaction. Aside from the improvement in technical aspects, efforts should also be made to promote collaboration between technical and public services so as to ensure efficient processing of materials and to meet the needs of library users.Originality/value – The value of the paper is in showing that the quality of an online catalog and the cooperation between public and tec...

Technical services and user service improvement

This paper describes a comparative study of clinical coding by Archivists (also known as Clinical Coders in some other countries) using single and dual computer monitors. In the present context, processing a record corresponds to checking the available information; searching for the missing physician information; and finally, performing clinical coding. We collected data for each Archivist during her use of the single monitor for 40 hours and during her use of the dual monitor for 20 hours. During the experimental periods, Archivists did not perform other related duties, so we were able to measure the real-time processing of records. To control for the type of records and their impact on the process time required, we categorised the cases as major or minor, based on whether acute care or day surgery was involved. Overall results show that 1,234 records were processed using a single monitor and 647 records using a dual monitor. The time required to process a record was significantly higher (p= .071) with a single monitor compared to a dual monitor (19.83 vs.18.73 minutes). However, the percentage of major cases was significantly higher (p= .000) in the single monitor group compared to the dual monitor group (78% vs. 69%). As a consequence, we adjusted our results, which reduced the difference in time required to process a record between the two systems from 1.1 to 0.61 minutes. Thus, the net real-time difference was only 37 seconds in favour of the dual monitor system. Extrapolated over a 5-year period, this would represent a time savings of 3.1% and generate a net cost savings of $7,729 CAD (Canadian dollars) for each workstation that devoted 35 hours per week to the processing of records. Finally, satisfaction questionnaire responses indicated a high level of satisfaction and support for the dual-monitor system. The implementation of a dual-monitor system in a hospital archiving department is an efficient option in the context of scarce human resources and has the strong support of Archivists.

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Dual vs. Single computer monitor in a Canadian hospital archiving department: A study of efficiency and satisfaction

Dual-Screen Monitors: A Qualitative Analysis of Their Use in an Academic Library

The University of Oklahoma library's digitization of title pages project began as a result of a backlog in the History of Science Collections. Lacking sufficient staff to fully catalog 17,000 books, many of which were rare, a decision was made to scan the title page of each book and download these into Hyperion, a component of SIRSI, the University's ILS, so that author/title access to these materials could be obtained. The twenty-three month project resulted in 8,300 title pages being scanned. These images were batch loaded into Hyperion and their metadata was added to the online catalog so that the images were searchable by author and/or title.

Katherine Wong

Papers

Dual-Screen Monitors: A Qualitative Analysis of Their Use in an Academic Library

Technical services and user service improvement

The University of Oklahoma Library's Digitization of Title Pages Project