Showing papers on "Customer relationship management published in 1989"

Organization and Customer: Managing Design and Coordination of Services

Abstract: Customer participation in the operations of service organizations can be a major source of input uncertainty. A framework for analyzing service organizations is presented in which different conditions of input uncertainty are matched with the design of different interdependence patterns which, in turn, are matched to different portfolios of coordination mechanisms. The composition of portfolios draws on both the conventional organizational literature and recent work on control mechanisms at the client/service firm interface.

When Cashiers Meet Customers: An Analysis of the Role of Supermarket Cashiers

Abstract: In a qualitative investigation of the role of supermarket cashiers, the influence of management, co-workers, and customers over cashiers was analyzed. Customers had immediate influence over cashier...

Integrating demand-side management into utility planning

Abstract: The authors review the role that customer-oriented demand-side management (DSM) can plan in utility planning, discuss its current state of application, provide a framework for incorporating uncertainty in DSM programs, and present ideas on how DSM programs can be implemented and monitored. They conclude that DSM provides a workable solution to some of the major problems confronting electric utilities today. DSM offers utility management many alternatives to improving customer satisfaction and maintaining good customer relations in the increasingly competitive area of electric supply, besides improving the utility's financial health. Decision analysis can provide a sound basis for selecting DSM alternatives in an environment of uncertainty. Finally, DSM provides an implementable mechanism to incorporate utility and customer requirements into integrated planning procedures. >

European Manufacturers Shape Up for Services

Abstract: Many companies are building on their manufacturing expertise and branching out to provide services for their customers. Here, a number of European firms demonstrate how they manage this new customer relationship and ensure that the service business is profitable.

Consumer Correspondence: An Exploratory Investigation of Consistency Between Business Policy and Practice

Abstract: Effective handling of consumer correspondence is recognized as one way for businesses to maintain and enhance relationships with consumers. Previous research has examined actual responses to consumer letters. The present study compares selected consumer packaged goods manufacturers’ responses to consumer letters with their respective customer relations directors’ descriptions of how consumer correspondence is handled. Several dimensions are examined: response rate to consumer letters, response time, personalization and standardization of response, and types of enclosures.

Transaction point settling system by magnetic card

Abstract: PURPOSE: To classify transaction relation information quickly and accurately by each customer and by each affiliated shop and to totalize and control the result by installing a magnetic card information generating transmission reception means to each affiliated shop and installing a magnetic card information accounting processing means to an information center. CONSTITUTION: The system is provided with a POS terminal equipment 2 that has functions of writing an evaluation point proportional to a transaction monetary amount to a magnetic card 1 inserted by a customer and decreasing and erasing the service point received by the customer and sending/receiving the data and with a host computer 3 that arranges the reception and output of transmitted transaction evaluation point data and service point data by each customer and each affiliated shop and calculates and records them. Thus, the practical group customer service management system is obtained, in which no limit is placed on the service time, no convenience to calculate share cost of affiliated shops and which is advantageous for not only customers and affiliated shops but also persons to manage and operate the entire system.

Customer Service: The Competitive Edge

Abstract: Pleasing the customer should be the number-one concern for professionals in the park and recreation field. Tills is a service profession and without satisfied customers, it could cease to exist. This article discusses the concept of service management and how people in the park and recreation field can use service as a strategy to ensure that the customers they serve are treated with the respect and nurturing they deserve. Administrators will learn to understand that the way they manage their relationships with their employees is the key to providing high-quality customer service. Customer relations mirror employee relations. Management of service will be the competitive arena of the 1990s.?

A customer relations strategy for health care employee relations.

Abstract: The health care organization's own employees are among its most important assets. The growth of human resources management as a profession and its elevation to positions of higher importance in the organization demonstrates that the value of these assets is being recognized. Employees are also key customers. By using a customer relations strategy, the organization can increase the value it delivers to these vital customers. A five-step process is presented for employing the concepts and techniques of customer relations to the challenge of managing these assets.

Customer Relations Standards for a Health District

Abstract: The aims of a project to introduce customer relations standards to a District Health Authority are discussed. The manner in which staff guidelines are produced and staff action programmes are developed is examined and ways in which the corporate identity of the Health Authority may be changed by improvements in customer services are explored.

Family Practitioner Committees and their customers

Abstract: This paper illustrates some of the ways in which the Family Practitioner Committee will have to change in order to being about their transformation from the ‘passive paying agency’ into the ‘active manager of customer interests’ when the proposals from the recent White Paper, ‘Working for Patients’, became law. We were asked to examine what was happening in the area of ‘consumer relations’ within the National Health Service by the Department of Health. Part of this work has involved our surveying all of the Family Practitioner Committees in England and Wales. This paper presents the results of our survey, examining some of the pioneering work carried out by a handful of FPCs to enhance consumer relations and highlighting the enormous amount of work that has yet to be done to ensure that providers and financiers really know what customers want from their local Health Service. All 98 FPCs were written to for information about customer relations’ initiatives and 60 replies were received. Of these only nine FPCs had carried out work in the area of customer relations, ten planned to do so and one had work in progress. The number of active FPCs varied notably by region. There was evidence of more work being done in the northern part of the country than in the south. The responses indicated that very little work was being undertaken to test the quality of the service provided by contractors (e.g. GPs) to FPCs. Most of the work was either a public relations exercise or surveys of accessibility. The results appeared to have little or no impact upon the policy of the FPCs. If FPCs are to become active managers of primary care services, radical changes in their practices with regard to customer relations are essential and long overdue.

Managing the market. Focusing on a select group of customers can keep an organization competitive.

Abstract: The real challenge in healthcare marketing today is managing markets, focusing on selected groups of customers rather than on the organization or its services. Market management includes three distinct but related levels: Strategic market management assesses current and potential markets and chooses those the organization can serve best; segment management focuses on the needs and wants of subsets of chosen customers; and customer management reinforces long-term commitments to the organization. The patient care experience can be broken down into specific contacts with each staff member. The key to managing the experience is to identify and achieve standards of performance for each contact by examining what each event means to the patients and how patients judge each staff member, as well as the overall care experience. Regular feedback helps. An unavoidable risk in market management is that a given segment may decline in size, in need for services, or in cohesiveness as a segment. Yet those organizations which can identify the right segments and "manage" them effectively will have an advantage in a competitive market.