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Service provider

About: Service provider is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 55107 publications have been published within this topic receiving 894381 citations. The topic is also known as: external service provider & internal service provider.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine variation in the use of high involvement work practices in service and sales operations and argue that the relationship between the customer and front-line service provider is a central feature that distinguishes production-level service activities from manufacturing.
Abstract: This paper examines variation in the use of high involvement work practices in service and sales operations. I argue that the relationship between the customer and front-line service provider is a central feature that distinguishes production-level service activities from manufacturing. In particular, through strategic segmentation, firms are able to segment customers by their demand characteristics and to match the complexity and potential revenue stream of the customer to the skills of employees and the human resource system that shapes the customer–employee interface. Unlike manufacturing, where high involvement systems have emerged in a wide variety of product markets, therefore, service organizations are likely to use high involvement systems only to serve higher value-added customers because of the high costs of these systems and the labour-intensive nature of services. Data from a nationally random sample of 354 call centres in US telecommunications documents this pattern: from classic mass product...

259 citations

Patent
26 Nov 1997
TL;DR: In this article, a system for facilitating customer payments to creditors from a remote site includes computer systems located at respective agent, service provider and creditor sites, where the service provider or host computer system is in selective communication with the agent and creditor computer systems and processes transaction information.
Abstract: A system for facilitating customer payments to creditors from a remote site includes computer systems located at respective agent, service provider and creditor sites. The service provider or host computer system is in selective communication with the agent and creditor computer systems and processes transaction information. A customer typically visits an agent site (e.g., a retail establishment) and tenders payment, preferably manually, in response to receiving a billing statement from a creditor. The payment transaction is entered into the agent system wherein information for all payment transactions at that agent site is maintained in a transaction file. The agent system generates a receipt for the customer at the completion of the transaction. Each agent system transfers a respective transaction file to the host system daily at a specified time associated with the respective agent system, preferably at the end of a day, wherein the host system processes the transaction files to generate a closeout report and a creditor report for each creditor indicating the payment activity at the agent sites. The creditor reports are transferred to the creditor systems wherein customer accounts may be updated based on the payment information within the creditor reports. The closeout report includes information related to the payment activity at each agent site and is generated by the host system at another specified time, preferably after the transaction information has been received by the host system from each of the agent systems. The service provider typically pays the creditors via electronic fund transfer or other conventional payment methods. The agents pay the service provider in a similar fashion while remitting to the service provider a portion of a service fee charged to the customer.

258 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of postsurgical care in nine hospitals found that strong provider-provider relationships directly increase customer satisfaction and loyalty because the overall service experience is more effectively coordinated.
Abstract: Relationships between service providers and customers are important for achieving high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, service management scholars have shown. Building from existing theories, the author proposes that relationships between service providers are another important contributor to customer outcomes. When service processes are highly interdependent, uncertain, and time constrained, relationships between service providers are integral to the process of coordination and therefore are an important contributor to customer outcomes. In a study of postsurgical care in nine hospitals, the author finds that strong provider-provider relationships directly increase customer satisfaction and loyalty because the overall service experience is more effectively coordinated. Second, strong provider-provider relationships help service providers to develop more effective relationships with their customers, which further increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. Managers should therefore select, t...

258 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the importance of people and internal marketing in the changing environment of service industries, definitions and measurement of service quality, and the service quality/customer care programs presently being developed and implemented are reviewed and attention is focused on the importance and importance of human resources in the context of service industry.
Abstract: Quality in the service sector is of increasing concern to both academics and practitioners. Previously published material is reviewed and attention is focused on the importance of people and internal marketing in the changing environment of service industries, definitions and measurement of service quality, and the service quality/customer care programmes presently being developed and implemented.

257 citations

01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: This paper takes a new look at identity management, and proposes solutions that are designed to be cost effective and scalabl e from the users’ perspective, while at the same time being compatible with traditional identity manag ement systems.
Abstract: Identity management is traditionally seen from the serviceproviders’ point of view, meaning that it is an activity undertaken by the service provider to manage servi ce user identities. Traditional identity management systems are designed to be cost effective and scalab le primarily for the service providers, but not necessarily for the users, which often results in poor us ability. Users are, for example, often required to memorise multiple passwords for accessing different ser vices. This represents a minor inconvenience if users only access a few online services. However, with therapid increase in the uptake of online services, the traditional approach to identity management is a having serious negative effects on the user experience. The industry has responded by proposing ne w identity management models to improve the user experience, but in our view these proposals give lit tle relief to users at the cost of relatively high increase in server system complexity. This paper takes a new look at identity management, and proposes solutions that are designed to be cost effective and scalabl e from the users’ perspective, while at the same time being compatible with traditional identity manag ement systems.

255 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20251
20241
2023732
20221,673
20211,969
20202,684