Service level objective

About: Service level objective is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7894 publications have been published within this topic receiving 218701 citations.

Professional service relationships: a multi‐context study of factors impacting satisfaction, re‐patronization, and recommendations

Abstract: Distinct difference between professional services and other types of service may increase customer reliance on social aspects of the relationship as a means to increase satisfaction with the service encounter. These services are characterized by one‐on‐one interactions involving repeated, frequent encounters with the same professional service provider and contain differences including: complexity, the intimate nature of exchange, and co‐production of service outcomes by both the client and the service provider. This study investigates the relative impact of technical and functional (social) aspects of professional service relationships on client satisfaction in four different professional services contexts. Findings support the positive impact of social aspects of the relationship on satisfaction in all four contexts, however, the strength of the association varies with context. The more classically professional occupations, like medicine, show a stronger relationship between social aspects of the relationship and satisfaction than less professional occupations, such as hairstyling. Social aspects also affect positive organizational outcomes, specifically positive word‐of‐mouth and re‐patronization intentions, in three of the four contexts.

QoS-Aware Web Service Configuration

Abstract: With the development of enterprise-wide and cross-enterprise application integration and interoperation toward Web service, Web service providers try to not only fulfill the functional requirements of Web service users but also satisfy their nonfunctional conditions in order to survive in the competitive market. A hot research topic is how to configure Web services to meet their demand when the diversity of user requirements, distinction of service components' performance, and limitation of resources are considered. This paper builds a Web service configuration net based on Petri nets in order to exhibit Web service configurations in a formal way. Then, an optimal algorithm is presented to help choose the best configuration with the highest quality of service to meet users' nonfunctional requirements. Finally, the simulation results and related analysis prove the soundness and correctness of our model and algorithm.

Mobile data service fuels the desire for uniqueness

Abstract: Mobile content creators and service providers can leverage users' desire to be unique to expand revenue.

A Framework for Determining and Prioritizing Critical Factors in Delivering Quality Services

Abstract: The constantly changing environment forces enterprises to identify new opportunities for claiming competitive advantages and to adapt these changes into their overall strategy. Therefore a respected number of service organisations have identified the need for understanding and implementing tools and methods for economic development. Businesses now see service quality as an important way to differentiate their products from those of competitors. As a result much academic effort is given over to the measurement of service quality. The search for reliable method of measuring service quality has produced an extensive literature. However, there has been little consensus on a methodology, which is of general applicability in all situations. In the absence of any other objective measure, disconfirmation models came to dominate the literature on service quality from the early 1980s. Disconfirmation models have sought to define quality in terms of the difference between an individual’ s expectation of a service and their perceptions of actual service delivery. Pre-eminent among these studies have been the work of Parasuraman et al. and the development of their SERVQUAL instrument. Their research has concentrated on the belief that service quality is measurable but only in the eyes of the consumer because they are the lifeblood of any business. They take the view that service is deemed to be of high quality when consumer’ s expectations are confirmed by subsequent service delivery. Service quality can win and keep customers. A service organisation is likely to face difficult obstacles in its attempt to improve service quality. The key ingredients of service quality improvements are: market and consumer focus ; motivated and well-trained frontline staff ; well-designed process ; development of responsibility and authority to the frontline staff ; clear definition of quality ; effective internal and external communications ; and measurement. Quality problems in service organisations are the result of the mismatch between prior expectations and perceived service quality. Although the gap between expectations and experience is widely considered to be the primary source of service quality problems, it is not clear how the evaluations of expectations and experience occur. This paper has started with the concept of service quality and has demonstrated the model of service quality gaps. SERVQUAL as an effective approach has been studied and its role in the analysis of the difference between customer expectations and perceptions has been highlighted with support of an example. Outcome of the study outline the fact that although SERVQUAL could close one of the important service quality gaps associated with external customer services, it could be extended to close other major gaps and therefore, it could be developed in order to be applied for internal customers, i.e. employees and service providers.

A re‐assessment and refinement of RECOVSAT: An instrument to measure satisfaction with transaction‐specific service recovery

Abstract: Purpose – To do an empirical assessment of the psychometric properties of an instrument that captures the multi‐dimensional nature of satisfaction with service recovery (RECOVSAT) using data (post‐recovery satisfaction ratings) from customers who have actually complained to a service firm.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is a survey of bank clients who have lodged complaints with a retail bank.Findings – The empirical results suggest that a refined and shorter version of RECOVSAT demonstrates excellent construct validity when used to measure the post‐recovery satisfaction of complaining customers.Research limitations/implications – RECOVSAT is a valid and reliable instrument that can and should be used by service managers to assess customer satisfaction with their service recovery efforts. Failure to ensure that complaining customers are satisfied with the firm's service recovery efforts, can only lead to serious problems, as the service firm will be letting the customer down for the second t...