Showing papers on "Service system published in 1991"

The service-driven service company.

Abstract: For more than 40 years, service companies like McDonald's prospered with organizations designed according to the principles of traditional mass-production manufacturing. Today that model is obsolete. It inevitably degrades the quality of service a company can provide by setting in motion a cycle of failure that produces dissatisfied customers, unhappy employees, high turnover among both--and so lower profits and lower productivity overall. The cycle starts with human resource policies that minimize the contributions frontline workers can make: jobs are designed to be idiot-proof. Technology is used largely for monitoring and control. Pay is poor. Training is minimal. Performance expectations are abysmally low. Today companies like Taco Bell, Dayton Hudson, and ServiceMaster are reversing the cycle of failure by putting workers with customer contact first and designing the business system around them. As a result, they are developing a model that replaces the logic of industrialization with a new service-driven logic. This logic: Values investments in people as much as investments in technology--and sometimes more. Uses technology to support the efforts of workers on the front lines, not just to monitor or replace them. Makes recruitment and training crucial for everyone. Links compensation to performance for employees at every level. To justify these investments, the new logic draws on innovative data such as the incremental profits of loyal customers and the total costs of lost employees. Its benefits are becoming clear in higher profits and higher pay--results that competitors bound to the old industrial model will not be able to match.

Success Factors in Developing New Business Services

Abstract: What factors lead to success in the development of new businesses services? By synthesising the literature on new goods development and services marketing, the results of a major empirical investigation of new service development in the business‐to‐business services sector are reported. A set of factors that describe new service projects is identified and which factors are responsible for accomplishing different forms of success are shown. Further, the findings speak to managers about how the features that distinguish services from physical goods impact on the successful development of new services. Developing new services that provide clients improved functional and experiential quality, that are innovative and truly superior to competitive offerings, and that benefit from a proficient new service development process, as well as from the unique strengths of the firm are key requirements for creating and marketing winning new services.

Total design : Managing the design process in the service sector

Abstract: Part 1 About this book and service design: introduction design management. Part 2 The stages of service design: marketing research the service design specification creativity, finding and assessing new concepts implementation innovation or incremental design in services the early stages of service design in detail. Part 3 Who does it?: design teams training for total service design. Part 4 Aspects of service design: queuing - the sign of a bad service technology transfer. Part 5 A worked example of total service design: "Come Clean. Appendix: a discussion of design definitions.

Using Organizational Culture to Design Internal Marketing Strategies

Abstract: Considers how recent concerns with service quality have led to increased awareness of the importance of the role of the front‐line employee, the service provider. Describes how internal marketing has been instrumental in raising service providers′ performance. Develops a method, drawing on organizational literature, for identifying segments of the service organization which can be targeted by internal marketing. Argues that the service marketer should view employees as “customers” who can be analysed using marketing techniques, thereby enabling the enhancement of service quality. Includes detailed recommendations and an appendix.

Implementation of Social Policy Revisited

Abstract: This article assesses the state of theory development in the study of social policy implementation and offers a political economy framework as a synthesis of current theory and research. The article reviews and classifies the major theoretical and empirical studies of implementation. On the basis of the review, a political economy model of implementation is developed, consisting of the following components: policy-making, policy instruments, critical actors, driving forces, service delivery system, and policy output. The policy output is measured by a correspondence index defined as the correspondence between eligible, processed, and served populations and between identified needs and services delivered. It is argued that policy output is determined by organizational systems which develop as a result of technological specifications, economic considerations, and power relations.

Internal Services: Gaps in Needs/Performance and Prescriptions for Effectiveness

Abstract: Internal services are fundamental to corporate competitiveness today. Not only do they support line functions but also are directly adding value to the company′s final offerings. However, the level of performance of internal service providers is not meeting the requirements of their users. The authors, continuing their research in this area, surveyed 300 executives on the importance and performance of internal services. They demonstrate the perceived gap between service users′ needs and service providers′ performance, try to understand why this gap exists, and offer some organisational diagnostics for identifying these gaps and prescriptions for redressing them.

The Different Operations Strategy Planning Process for Service Operations

Abstract: The manager who moves from manufacturing to services or the professor who wishes to research and teach service operations must recognise the key differences for developing an appropriate operations management strategy in a service business. For this process to be successful, the operations manager must participate assertively in the strategy debate. In manufacturing it is important that the functional strategy supports the corporate strategy in the marketplace and is co‐ordinated with other functional strategies. There is sufficient buffering between the manufacturing system and the customer that functional strategies can be developed within corporate strategies and then be co‐ordinated. In services, however, there are many issues where co‐ordination is not an adequate response. Virtually all strategic issues involving customer contact and front‐office operations must be the result of joint decision making involving marketing, operations, finance, and human resources. What little buffering there is occurs...

Home care for older people in Europe : a comparison of policies and practices

Abstract: Home Care in Europe: Background and aims: Age Care Research Europe Home care in the context of the ACRE framework 'Community care' or 'home care' Home Care Services in The Flanders, Belgium: Home care in Belgium Trends in policies for older people The service system in the Flemish region: funding and organization Present provision in the Flemish region Home care services in the study area of Groot-Antwerpen Allocation of home help/cleaning help The Home Help Service in Denmark: Home help for elderly people The clients of home help Decision making for home help policy implications The Home Help Service in England and Wales: The historical development of the service The provision of domiciliary help today The service in practice Ways forward Home Care Services in France: Historical development Existing home-care services for elderly people Informal support Co-ordination Home Care Services in The Federal Republic of Germany (West): The hierarchy of services and service systems The history of the home care services The role of health insurance The role of social welfare provision Bridging the health and social services systems: provisions for home care for frail people The rationale behind service priorities, service hierarchies and the inclusion or exclusion of elderly people Organization and finance of formal home care services The extent of service provision Allocation of home care in one federal state: a case study from Berlin (West): The structure of the study The functional capacity and structure of informal support as criteria of need for selected domiciliary services Service provision in Berlin Allocation and claim mechanisms Home Care Services in Israel: The development of home help services Provision of services today Issues in the delivery of adequate services Assessment and discussion and key issues Home Care Services in Italy (With Special Reference to Genoa): Italy, Genoa Home Care Services in the Netherlands: The development of home help services Present provision of home help services The home help service and the care of the elderly The home help service in practice The effects of policy Home Care from a Cross-National Perspective: Home Care Provision and Allocation: The aims of provision - the range of possibilities The formal policy aims of home care Home care in practice: patterns of provision and use of services The process of service allocation Trends in Home Care Policies: An assessment of home care measures Past and recent trends Factors affecting policies and their implementation Conclusions.

Managing Service As a Strategic Profit Center

Abstract: A Strategic View of Service. Identifying Present and Emerging Market Opportunities for Service and Support. Running Service as a Strategic Line of Business. Providing Customer with What They Want. Developing and Planning the Service Organization. Marketing Service. Pricing Service. Managing and Controlling Service. Using Systems and Technology to Improve Service Operations and Productivity. Summary: The Emerging Role of Strategic Service. Appendices: A: Economic, Legal, and Logical Arguments for Support of Independent Service Organizations. B: The State of the Art in Standard Service Management Systems Software.

Service creation technologies for the intelligent network

Abstract: An intelligent network lets a switch query a network node for help in completing a call. Such a node, for example, can translate an 800 number into a true network address. The network service provider often creates the logic in an intelligent network, but frequently that logic is written by sophisticated subscribers (business customers). Since subscribers can create their own service logic, the service creation system must ensure that such customized logic will not cause the network node to fail or in any way affect the service of other subscribers. Service creation technologies are the tools and technical infrastructure designed specifically to help create and update services. AT&T has created software tools to support application-oriented languages. Its service creation technologies are evolving to meet service provider and service subscriber demands for more control over the services they provide and use.

The Role of Rites of Integration in Service Delivery

Abstract: Rites of integration can establish the appropriate level of psychological involvement between service providers and customers during the service encounter. This facilitates customers sharing information necessary for service production and the favourable evaluation by customers of the cues they perceive during the service delivery process. The design of alternative rites that result in varying levels of involvement are described, as are the consequences associated with customers having their expectations of involvement confirmed or disconfirmed.

Practical Approaches for Evaluating the Quality Dimensions of Professional Accounting Services

Abstract: The environment of the 1990's will require more attention to the effective delivery of quality services to clients. Providers of professional accounting services must work toward establishing a strong competitive position in the marketplace and this means that they will have to understand how their customers perceive value in the services rendered. The authors offer an analysis of the underlying dimensions of service quality as these dimensions apply lo accounting services and suggest practical methods that accounting firms can use to enhance the quality of the services they provide from the customers' perspective. The marketing audit for accounting services is described and the relationship between the evaluation of service quality and the marketing audit is explained.

Expected waiting times in polling systems under priority disciplines

Abstract: In this paper, we analyse a service system which consists of several queues (stations) polled by a single server in a cyclic order with arbitrary switchover times. Customers from several priority classes arrive into each of the queues according to independent Poisson processes and require arbitrarily distributed service times. We consider the system under various priority service disciplines: head-of-the-line priority limited to one and semi-exhaustive, head-of-the-line priority limited to one with background customers, and global priority limited to one. For the first two disciplines we derive a pseudo conservation law. For the third discipline, we show how to obtain the expected waiting time of a customer from any given priority class. For the last discipline we find the expected waiting time of a customer from the highest priority class. The principal tool for our analysis is the stochastic decomposition law for a single server system with vacations.

The service management course : cases and readings

Abstract: In this companion volume to the widely acclaimed "Service Breakthroughs: Changing the Rules of the Game, " Professors Earl Sasser, Christopher Hart, and James Heskett present 37 case studies and 10 readings which focus on "breakthrough" service providers— firms which have changed the rules of the game in their industries by consistently meeting or exceeding their customers' needs and expectations. Designed for classroom adoption in business schools or as a text for in-house corporate education programs, this volume may be used in conjunction with "Service Breakthroughs" or stand alone as the basis for a service management course. Breakthrough leaders think very differently about their businesses than do their competitors, and the authors show how in distinct and well-defined ways, their accomplishments stand out from the rest. At the heart of breakthrough performance is a sometimes intuitive but thorough understanding of the "self-reinforcing service cycle" that replaces traditional management of "trade-offs." The "cycle" is a paradigm derived from the research results suggesting direct links between heightened customer satisfaction, increased customer retention, augmented sales and profit, improved quality and productivity, greater service value per unit of cost, improved satisfaction of service providers, increased employee retention, and further heightened customer satisfaction. In these dramatic case studies of Club Med, Ford Motor Company, UPS, Florida Power & Light, Federal Express, Nordstrom, Benetton, and many other companies, Sasser, Hart, and Heskett show how this self-reinforcing cycle of behavior differentiates breakthrough leaders from their "merely good"competitors. These cases describe how breakthrough managers develop counterintuitive, even contrarian, strategic service visions. These companies define their "service concept" in terms of results achieved for customers rather than services performed. They target market segments by focusing on psychographics— how customers think and behave— instead of demographics. And instead of viewing a service delivery system as a facility where the service is produced and sold, breakthrough firms see it as an opportunity to enhance the quality of the service.

Measurement of Customer Perceptions of the Retail Bank Service Delivery System

Abstract: The purpose of this research was to develop measures of concepts related to retail bank customers' perceptions of retail bank services delivery systems. The results of the research indicate four potentially important aspects of the retail bank services delivery system are (1) general bank personal service, (2) teller personal service, (3) reactton capacity , and (4) location convenience. The research results support the hypotheses that retail bank customers' perceptions of these issues may be related to customer satisfaction and intentions to do business with the bank in the future, intentions to purchase additional products and services, and intentions to give the bank a larger percentage of the customer's business.

Method of accounting fees in switching system and apparatus for performing same

Abstract: A switching system having at least an electronic exchange, a mail service system and an accounting system. When a mail service demanding subscriber requests the provision of mail service such as facsimile and voice to a plurality of other subscribers, the accounting system can issue a bill to the service demanding subscriber by employing an accounting ID coupling unit in the mail system and an accounting ID separation unit in the electronic exchange. The accounting ID indicating the service demanding subscriber is coupled to each of the terminating numbers of the service receiving subscribers, and then separated therefrom in the electronic exchange to give the same to the accounting system, while the terminating numbers are used for an exchange of calls.

A continuum of services for the deinstitutionalized, chronically mentally ill elderly

Abstract: Under a 1978 federal court consent decree, Massachusetts developed a comprehensive system of community based residential and non-residential services to minimize the utilization of one of its state hospitals. This paper describes the service system and its impact on the use of the state hospital by the chronically mentally ill elderly. The findings show that the development of a continuum of services can all but eliminate the use of the state hospital by psychiogeriatric patients. The authors suggest consideration be given to many of the system's elements in planning future services for this population.

Client satisfaction with developmental disabilities services

Abstract: Data from a representative sample of 312 developmentally disabled clients of Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services are analyzed to discover the characteristics of the clients and to determine the extent to which the clients are satisfied with various services, reasons for any dissatisfaction that exists, and the factors which are related to satisfaction with services. Clients are least likely to be satisfied with the caregiver support services and the vocational and rehabilitative services they receive. Across all categories, reasons most often given for dissatisfaction with services are inappropriateness and insufficient amount. The factors most strongly related to client satisfaction with services are age, living arrangements, and number of services received. Adolescents are less likely than persons at other ages to be satisfied with the services they receive, persons living in a family setting are less likely than persons in nonfamily settings to be satisfied with services, and the greater the number of services received the lower the likelihood of client satisfaction. Combined with information showing that most of the clients have multiple disabilities, these data suggest that the service delivery system does a better job of delivering some services than others. A “slot” oriented program such as that in Florida may pay insufficient attention to the existence of multiple needs among persons who are developmentally disabled and to providing services to the networks which form the client's economic and social support system.

A design support method for telecommunication service interactions

Abstract: The authors propose a design support method for telecommunication service interactions, using a state-event table generation function and a conflict defect function in the state transition specifications. Explanations are given using examples of interactions in multiple services. Concepts are discussed concerning design support for service interactions. A method is introduced for establishing specifications for service operations. A design support method is proposed for multiple service interactions, based on the operations method discussed. An application experiment is described using actual examples, where a large number of transitions are mechanically generated by a system prototype for design support. >

The Challenge of Establishing a National Service Delivery Program for Older Blind Persons

Abstract: Older blind persons have gotten short shrift in receiving needed services in this country. The article outlines the challenges and barriers to establishing a comprehensive service delivery system for this population. Issues such as funding, personnel shortages, lack of trained staff, negative attitudes on the part of staff, and accessibility are discussed. Several models of on-going service delivery are presented along with specific suggestions for implementation of these models nationwide.

Supply aspects of meeting demand for family planning.

Abstract: Indias service delivery system consists of a network of subcenters primary health centers (PHCs) and community health centers (CHCs). In the north Indian states of Bihar Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh population norms for each service center have not yet been fully implemented. Services provided by this network include curative services immunizations and malaria control health education and motivation for the acceptance of the small family norm. The centers also participate in the contraceptive distribution logistics. In these states prenatal care and maternal-child health care utilization have been low because of lack of knowledge inaccessibility and unwillingness to spend time. The village health guide and the multipurpose worker scheme have improved the delivery of services but the 2-child family norm still has not taken root therefore it is necessary to concentrate on quality of care. The quality of services incorporates the choice of contraceptive methods available information given to users provider competence client/provider interaction follow-up and relevance. In this region the major problem was the lack of concern for quality rather than lack of facilities. Program constraints that hindered improvement of performance in this region included the large number of vacant positions inadequate logistics support weak managerial processes poor motivation among doctors and health workers and frequent changes in top leadership. Compensation of the acceptor for wages lost incentive to the motivator and the doctor have been used however they have been problematic therefore deferred payments discounts and community incentives must be considered. Potential for improvement comprises infrastructure and management. Policy and program implications focus on strengthening the government system expanding service delivery strengthening support systems improving quality of care increasing peoples involvement appropriate compensation and program management. The government NGOs and donor agencies are also crucial in bringing about these changes.

Developing Case Managers for Chronically III Children: Florida's Registered Nurse Specialist Program

Abstract: This article describes the Florida Health and Rehabilitative Services/Children's Medical Services Nurse Specialist Program. This program is a statewide training and service delivery system designed to prepare selected nurses to provide comprehensive, family-centered case management services to children with special health care needs, within the home and community settings.

Golf information service system

Abstract: PURPOSE:To enable a player to consider a capturing method just like he or she actually plays on a course. CONSTITUTION:The handicap, mean flying distance, score result, etc., of the individual are inputted through a touch panel 2 and then the capturing method for the individual player matching the player's playing level, course conditions, and weather conditions is displayed on a CRT 13. Further, a parameter is inputted and the player swings with a specific golf club; and then an information processor 10 diagnoses the swing form corresponding to the individual playing level, generates correction data for correcting the form, and displays its ball track in a natural image on the CRT 13 graphically with a golf ball.