Showing papers on "Customer relationship management published in 1994"

Principles of Services Marketing

Abstract: Chapter One: What Is Services Marketing? Chapter Two: The Service Offer Chapter Three: The Service Encounter Chapter Four: Services Buying Processes Chapter Five: Relationship Marketing And Customer Loyalty Chapter Six: Managing Knowledge Chapter Seven: Service Positioning And Targeting Chapter Eight: Service Quality Chapter Nine: Making Services Accessible To Consumers Chapter Ten: The Pricing Of Services Chapter Eleven: Promoting Services Chapter Twelve: The Marketing Impacts Of Services Employees Chapter Thirteen: Managing Capacity Chapter Fourteen: International Marketing Of Services Chapter Fifteen: Full iength case study: Circular Distributors Marketing Services Case list Old MacDonald had a farm-and a service business too New line in marketing mobile phones Creating a drama at TGI Fridays Coffee to go is no go for Israell consumers Is there credit in a relationship? Click here for visitors to Carmarthenshire Will 3G phone promoters learn from Telepoint? To guarantee or not to guarantee? Dominos cooks up millionaire franchisees: Manchester to London for [pound]19 - or [pound]286: Co-op bank smiles with ethical promotion Direkt Anlage Bank AG Cultural change needed to manage hotel yields more effectively Call centres and data create hope for new service economy in less developed countries

Relational Exchange in Services

Abstract: Using primary care physicians, automobile mechanics and hairstylists as the analysed industries, highlights the importance of relationships in the marketing of services. Two key relationship variables, trust and affective commitment, are the focal points for the empirical study. The data suggest that the higher the level of trust and affective commitment in a customer service‐provider relationship, the greater the probability that the consumer will continue the relationship, and the lower the level of perceived risk inherent in the relationship. Also, the findings suggest that females seek more trust and commitment than do males within the service‐provider/customer relationship, and consumers in general place more trust in and are more committed to their doctor and their hairstylist than to their mechanic.

Technology-based firms : Critical aspects of their early development

Abstract: The founding and early development of a firm are crucial events. Despite this fact, most research is aimed at problems existing in firms that are established and have passed the early development. Consequently, knowledge of the early development process in a business firm is limited, particularly where technology-based firms are concerned. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the early development processes of technology-based firms. The research questions are: What aspects are important in the early development of a technology-based firm? Are some of these aspects more difficult to develop than others and, if so, why? A case study approach is used. Three technology-based firms have over a period of five years been studied in detail, using interviews and sources such as minutes of board meetings, business and market plans and other documents. From a review of the literature, eight essential aspects (business idea, product, market, organization, expertise, prime mover, customer relations and other corporate relations) of the early development have been chosen. The results show that the degree of difficulty to develop the aspects vary. A particularly difficult aspect is to define the market.

The Power of Relationship Marketing: How to Keep Customers for Life

Abstract: Tony Cram's first book, published 1994 and reprinted 1996, addresses a priority issue: how you leverage the benefit of relationships to create superior customer retention. More and more organisations are recognising that succcess depends above all, on getting and keeping the right customers. To do this marketing efforts should be centred on lasting relationships rather than closing the one-off sale. Seeing the importance of long-term customer retention is easy - but putting it into practice is more difficult. The Power of Relationship Marketing meets the need for a practical guide to the implementation of relationship marketing. Packed with examples and advice it follows a pattern of seven steps * Loyal staff - the 6 benefits of staff continuity plus a practical approach to inspiring and harnessing staff loyalty * Loyal customers - a new customer segmentation based on predisposition to loyalty with 12 key indicators * Learning organisation - understanding, responding to needs plus three ways to anticipte market trends * Relationship pricing - customer based pricing: three golden rules for relationshp pricing * Interactive communications - contact strategies including 14 strategies to boost word of mouth marketing * Staff training - service excellence through role models and legends, how to create lasting impressions * Relationship management - five skills to build commitment and strategies keep on track These seven steps help marketers understand, plan and execute their relationship strategies

Are British Universities in a Position to Consider Implementing Total Quality Management

Abstract: Accompanying the removal of the binary divide between polytechnics and universities, the Department of Education and Science (DES) also specified the requirement that the British higher education sector should give more emphasis to the effective management of quality. Some writers have suggested that this can be achieved by institutions introducing the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM). A vital aspect of TQM is the integration of multiple functions across the organization with the objective of establishing a quality conscious workforce. A recommended practice is to use the concept of internal marketing as a mechanism to persuade departments to work together in the creation of internal customer chains. To determine the current status of internal customer management practices in British Universities, a survey of academics was undertaken using a modified version of the Parasuraman SERVQUAL model. The majority of respondents indicated the existence of Type 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Gaps in the internal customer management process within their institution. Major influencers of these service gaps include minimal effort to gain further understanding of internal customer requirements and a lack of formal quality standards for managing internal customer relations. Respondents consider their faculties are unable to enhance internal quality if the issue was given higher priority by senior management. Identified obstacles to greater emphasis on an internal customer philosophy include insufficient trust between departments and low confidence levels of ability to manage the process. Under these circumstances, it does not appear that for the foreseeable future, British universities are in a position to adopt TQM philosophy. Hence it seems more advisable that these institutions should restrict their quality management activities to the simpler assessment-based approach recommended by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals (CVCP) Academic Audit Unit.

Redefining NHS complaint handling--the real challenge.

Abstract: More and more organizations find that a constructive and open dialogue with their customers can be an effective strategy for building long‐term customer relations. In this context, it has been recognized that effective complaint/contact handling can make a significant contribution to organizations’ attempts to maximize customer satisfaction and loyalty. Within the NHS, an intellectual awareness exists that effective complaint/contact handling can contribute to making services more efficient and cost‐effective by developing customer‐oriented improvement initiatives. Recent efforts have focused on redefining NHS complaint‐handling procedures to make them more user‐friendly and effective for both NHS employees and customers. Discusses the challenges associated with opening up the NHS to customer feedback. Highlights potential weaknesses in the current approach and argues that the real challenge is for NHS managers to facilitate a culture change that moves the NHS away from a long‐established defensive compla...

A comparative study of internal customer management practices within service sector firms and the National Health Service

Abstract: In responding to the UK government's market forces model, some National Health Service (NHS) managers have introduced private sector concepts such as 'customer care' and 'total quality management' (TQM). Private sector firms find that success of these techniques is dependent upon creating an internal marketing orientation across the entire organization. To determine how internal marketing is being applied, a comparative survey of UK service sector firms and NHS units was undertaken using a modified version of Parasuraman's SERVQUAL model. All respondents indicated existence of type 1, 2, 3 and 4 gaps in the internal customer management process within their organizations. Major influencers of service gaps include departments placing internal efficiency ahead of internal customers and insufficient understanding of internal customer requirements. The survey indicated that, in certain areas of managing service quality, the NHS is performing better than its private sector counterparts. Nevertheless, opportunity for enhancing service quality in the NHS is possible through improving the flow of information between departments, stronger orientation towards meeting customer needs, upgrading provision systems and changing intradepartmental culture. The constraint facing the NHS manager is the limited availability of resources. One solution is to allocate resources in relation to service priorities. A directional planning matrix is presented as a tool for developing an optimum internal customer management strategy within an NHS unit.

John Commons on Customer Goodwill and the Economic Value of Business Ethics: Response to Professor Sen

Abstract: This paper shows how John R. Commons’ analysis of a firm’s goodwill value gives analytical support to Professor Amartya Sen’s contention (BEQ, 1993) that business ethics makes economic sense. A firm’s market value consists of the value of both tangible and intangible capital, including the goodwill value of ongoing customer relations. If a firm is to defend its goodwill value, it needs to have the protection of the courts and to pursue ethical practices. The courts defend fair competition by giving protection from unethical competitors while the firm defends its reputation with honest dealings. By implication, firms which depend on ongoing customer relations will tend to engage in more ethical business practices than firms which do not. Even a firm which makes a mistake that compromises its product’s safety may reduce the loss of goodwill value over time by admitting the mistake early rather than hiding it. Also by implication, the transition from a command socialist economy to a market economy cannot be made instantaneously since trust, reputation, and these ongoing customer relations—key institutions of market economies—cannot be generated instantaneously.

Learners as authors: helping ESL employees in a Canadian bank prepare customer relations and documentation material

Abstract: Our paper raises several issues in the development of online documentation and its use by some three hundred employees in the eleven processing centres of a large Canadiau bank. We will outline the technology we have used in the process but our emphasis is on learning, information exchange and user empowerment across a number of linguistic groups, several career fields and several thousand miles of a large, thriving business. We are implementing a user-based documentation process in which employees themselves augment and modify the online database of procedures by which they learn and carry out their work. We want users to write procedures and documentation which conform to the terminology and understanding of their workplace routines and practices. Further, we expect them to adapt these to conditions of their various locations and to develop ‘best practices’

Terminal device, method, and medium for customer management

Abstract: PURPOSE:To complete the contents of services to customers by speeding up operator's processing operation and improving a customer management function while suppressing an increase in cost with simple constitution as to the terminal device for customer management, customer management method, and medium for customer management which are suitably used to manage information regarding the customers. CONSTITUTION:The terminal device which performs transaction processing with customers on the basis of customer discrimination information and transaction information on the customer corresponding to the customer discrimination information is equipped with a 1st conversion means 2 which converts customer information including the customer discrimination information and transaction information into two-dimensional bar code information and a two-dimensional bar code issue means 3 which issues a two-dimensional bar code 6 on the basis of the two-dimensional bar code information from the 1st conversion means 2.

Customer management system using automatic data entry device

Abstract: PURPOSE:To provide a customer management system capable of speedily performing the registration of application for the attendance reservation to the meeting such as seminars and the reception register processing at the time of the attendance and efficiently performing a series of management job such as issuance of the participant card, the hall reservation, and the analysis of the participant. CONSTITUTION:A customer code is mechanically read to be acquired by an automatic data entry device using the optical reading method and the method for extracting the customer code in software from a facsimile reception signal, etc., by printing a bar code or a customer code, which can be mechanically read by a machine such as OCR, on an application 31 to be issued and delivered based on a customer master 21 and using the application 31 to be returned from the person who desires to attend. The application of the customer concerned is registered in the customer master 21. At the time of attendance the customer code of a participant card 51 is mechanically read and is registered. Since the registration processing can be speedily and mechanically performed, the issuing of the participant card 51 and a meeting schedule list which is usable for the reservation of hall or the analysis processing of the participant can be performed timely based on the registered customer master 21.

User involvement in customization projects: the case of voice networks .

Abstract: This paper addresses the role of customer involvement in customization projects. The case of voice networks is examined. Findings provide evidence that user involvement and supplier efficacy for service to the client are positively related to project effectiveness. Furthermore, user inexperience and supplier efficacy are positively related to user involvement.

High Performance Customer Management

Abstract: Research shows that customer management is seen as a problem contributing to increased complexity, yet its benefits are understood. Discusses specific measures to reinvigorate innovative processes and streamline management.

Customer management system

Abstract: PURPOSE:To grant a similar previlege even to a customer who has bought more than the specific amount of money without using facilities when the customer utilizes the facilities in the future by providing a charge payment processing means which performs processing by decreasing a service point information accumulated value corresponding to customer identification information. CONSTITUTION:The total sales amounts of customers are found by accounting terminals 3a and 3e where sales registration is performed to generate customer sales report messages, which are sent to a host computer 1. The host computer 1 once receiving the customer sales report messages generate transaction history data every store on the basis of the received messages and stores them in a customer file, customer by customer. If there is unprocessed data on a customer up to the previous day in the customer-classified file, a parking service point calculating process is performed to calculate the total sales amount of money of articles of the unprocessed data up to the previous day, and parking service points are found from it. The parking service points are accumulated, customer by customer, in a customer-classified file parking service point accumulation area.