Showing papers on "Service system published in 2004"
TL;DR: In this paper, a service productivity model is developed, which is a function of how effectively input resources into the service (production) process are transformed to outputs in the form of services (internal efficiency), how well the quality of the service process and its outcome is perceived (external efficiency or effectiveness), and how effectively the capacity of service process is utilized.
616 citations
TL;DR: This article addresses dynamic service selection via an agent framework coupled with a QoS ontology with the aim of enabling participants to collaborate to determine each other's service quality and trustworthiness.
Abstract: Current Web services standards lack the means for expressing a service's nonfunctional attributes - namely, its quality of service. QoS can be objective (encompassing reliability, availability, and request-to-response time) or subjective (focusing on user experience). QoS attributes are key to dynamically selecting the services that best meet user needs. This article addresses dynamic service selection via an agent framework coupled with a QoS ontology. With this approach, participants can collaborate to determine each other's service quality and trustworthiness.
615 citations
TL;DR: This article defines family-centered service and outlines a conceptual framework of the premises and principles underlying this approach to service delivery, with a focus on community-based rehabilitation or health care services.
420 citations
TL;DR: An analysis of WebGA, a bricks-and-clicks dotcom, highlights how the use of the self-serve technology made it more difficult for sales reps to build and maintain embedded relationships with their customers.
Abstract: Embedded relationships with customers have been key in generating repeat business and economic advantage, especially in business-to-business settings. Such relationships are typically maintained through interpersonal interactions between customers and their providers. Lately, however, firms have been seeking to make their service operations more scalable by offering customers access to Internet-based, self-serve technology. This raises questions about the implications of inserting self-serve technology into embedded relationships. Recent research on the role of information technology (IT) within interfirm network relations suggests that relationships and the use of IT are complementary. However, most of this research focuses on the organizational level and fails to consider the instantiation of these interfirm relations by the actions and interactions of individual actors (e.g., customers and salespeople) representing their respective firms. In this paper, we explore the implications of using IT within interfirm relations through an analysis of customers' and sales representatives' (reps) work activities and interpersonal relationships. We apply a practice perspective that highlights how macrolevel phenomena such as interfirm relations are created and recreated through the microlevel actions taken by firm members. This analysis reveals that managing the complementarity between relationships and IT in practice is fraught with considerable tension. This study of WebGA, a bricks-and-clicks dotcom, highlights how the use of the self-serve technology made it more difficult for sales reps to build and maintain embedded relationships with their customers. The use of IT altered the nature and quality of information shared by the participants, undermined the ability of sales reps to provide consulting services to customers, reduced the frequency of their interaction, and prompted sales reps to expend social capital to promote customers' technology adoption. These changes produced intended and unintended shifts in the network relations enacted by WebGA and its customers, and raised serious challenges to the viability of WebGA's business model.
403 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce two new spatial optimization models called the r-interdiction median problem and the rinterdictation covering problem, which identify for a given service/supply system, that set of facilities that, if lost, would affect service delivery the most.
Abstract: Facilities and their services can be lost due to natural disasters as well as to intentional strikes, either by terrorism or an army. An intentional strike against a system is called interdiction. The geographical distribution of facilities in a supply or service system may be particularly vulnerable to interdiction, and the resulting impacts of the loss of one or more facilities may be substantial. Critical infrastructure can be defined as those elements of infrastructure that, if lost, could pose a significant threat to needed supplies (e.g., food, energy, medicines), services (e.g., police, fire, and EMS), and communication or a significant loss of service coverage or efficiency. In this article we introduce two new spatial optimization models called the r-interdiction median problem and the r-interdiction covering problem. Both models identify for a given service/supply system, that set of facilities that, if lost, would affect service delivery the most, depending upon the type of service protocol. These models can then be used to identify the most critical facility assets in a service/supply system. Results of both models applied to spatial data are also presented. Several solutions derived from these two interdiction models are presented in greater detail and demonstrate the degree to which the loss of one or more facilities disrupts system efficiencies or coverage. Recommendations for further research are also made.
380 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the dimensions of the service brand that influence consumers at time of service consumption and examined post-consumption evaluations, finding that the core service, employee service and servicescape make a significant contribution to the service consumption experience.
Abstract: The impact of the service experience on consumers' feelings, satisfaction and service brand attitudes are of vital importance to service marketers. In an attempt to understand how consumers evaluate service performances this study seeks to explore the dimensions of the service brand that influence consumers at time of service consumption. In addition, the study also examines post‐consumption evaluations. A study of 254 bank consumers revealed that the core service, employee service and servicescape make a significant contribution to the service consumption experience. Furthermore, the service experience was found to significantly effect feelings, satisfaction and brand attitudes.
301 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative study between manufacturing and service processes from the Six Sigma application perspective is presented, and the results of a pilot survey carried out in the UK service organisations to understand the status of Six Sigma are presented.
Abstract: Six Sigma is now increasingly applied to a variety of processes ranging from manufacturing to service and variegated transactional processes. Six Sigma has been proved to be a rigorous pursuit of the reduction of process variation and defect rate in all critical business processes to achieve breakthrough improvements in process performance that generates significant savings to the bottom line of an organisation. The paper begins with a simple comparative study between manufacturing and service processes from the Six Sigma application perspective. The paper then presents the results of a pilot survey carried out in the UK service organisations to understand the status of Six Sigma. The paper finally reports the essential ingredients which are required for the successful deployment of Six Sigma in the service sector.
282 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a battery of measures that can be used to measure customer service quality in e-banking services, including access, website interface, trust, attention and credibility.
Abstract: Service quality measurement in Internet banking services is an area of growing interest to researchers and managers. Building on a synthesis of the extant literature on service quality in traditional services and that of Internet delivered services, this study develops a battery of measures that can be used to measure customer service quality in e-banking services. The study shows that service quality in e-banking can be measured using twenty-one parsimonious measures spread across five dimensions, namely, access, Website interface, trust, attention and credibility. The article discusses the importance of these findings for practitioners and for future research on service quality in Internet delivered services.
243 citations
TL;DR: The redefinition of the axes of this matrix and of the resulting diagonal leads to enhanced understanding of productivity for service operations and helps to explain how some leading service companies have been able to sustain their competitive positions for decades.
Abstract: The records of superior performance of selected service firms over many years suggest that they may be more productive than others. This article uses the Theory of Swift, Even Flow to explain why that might be true. In the process, this article improves Schmenner's 1986 service process matrix. The redefinition of the axes of this matrix and of the resulting diagonal leads to enhanced understanding of productivity for service operations and helps to explain how some leading service companies have been able to sustain their competitive positions for decades.
242 citations
TL;DR: A model of library success that shows how information service quality relates to other variables associated with success is proposed and tested and indicates that service quality is best measured with a performance-based version of SERVQUAL.
200 citations
Patent•
07 Dec 2004
TL;DR: A method and system for telephone-based service utilization and control in conjunction with interactive, real-time, voice transmission of information to a user is disclosed in this article, where a voice service system provides creation and automatic deployment of personalized, dynamic and interactive voice services, including information derived from on-line analytical processing (OLAP) systems and other data repositories.
Abstract: A method and system for telephone-based service utilization and control in conjunction with interactive, real-time, voice transmission of information to a user is disclosed. A voice service system provides creation and automatic deployment of personalized, dynamic and interactive voice services, including information derived from on-line analytical processing (OLAP) systems and other data repositories. In conjunction with such services, a user may use a telephone to control such services. For example, the user may subscribe and unsubscribe to a service using the telephone, be notified of new services via the telephone, and retrieve sound files via the telephone.
Patent•
08 Nov 2004
TL;DR: In this article, a method for providing add-on services responsive to an email transferred via a distributed computer network is proposed, which includes receiving via the distributed computer networks the email at an addon service system and ascertaining from the email whether a recipient of the email subscribes to at least one of the addon services.
Abstract: A method for providing add-on services responsive to an email transferred via a distributed computer network The method includes receiving via the distributed computer network the email at an add-on service system The method further includes ascertaining from the email whether a recipient of the email subscribes to at least one of the add-on services If the recipient subscribes to the at least one of the add-on services, the method includes forming a post add-on service email, which includes performing, using the add-on service system, the at least one of the add-on services on at least a first portion of the email Furthermore, the method includes forwarding the post add-on service email, after the performing, to the email system, thereby rendering the post add-on service email accessible to the recipient through the email system
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the impact of two factors that are prominent in the service literature: customer participation and service expectation, and found that the participative roles adopted by customers in service specification and delivery and their pre-encounter service expectations influence how customers attribute the causes of service failure.
Abstract: This study explores the impact of two factors that are prominent in the service literature: customer participation and service expectation. Owing to the interactive nature of services, customers often participate in the co‐production of the service. In addition, customers normally enter into the service with certain expectations regarding the level of service they are likely to receive. The survey argues that the participative roles adopted by customers in service specification and delivery and their pre‐encounter service expectations influence how customers attribute the causes of service failure. Finally, the implications from the findings are discussed and directions for future research are provided. The effect of emotional response caused by a service failure on locus attributions remains to be further investigated.
Book•
10 Apr 2004
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the nature of services and define the service concept, defining the role of human resources practices in Service Organisations, and defining a service strategy, as well as defining a Service Guarantee and Service-level Agreements.
Abstract: PART ONE: THE NATURE OF SERVICES. 1. The Nature of Services. 2. Defining the Service Concept. 3. Servitisation: The Blurring Boundaries Between Manufacturing and Services. 4. Services in a World Economy. PART TWO: CUSTOMER LOGIC. 5. Relationship Marketing. 6. Promoting Services. 7. Pricing Services. 8. Measuring Customer Satisfaction. 9. Service Guarantees and Service-level Agreements. 10. Complaint Management. PART THREE: HUMAN RESOURCES IN SERVICE ORGANISATIONS. 11. The Role of Human Resource Practices in Service Organisations. 12. Competencies and Service Organisations. 13. Collaboration: Integrating Work and Learning. 14. The Role of Empowerment in Service Organisations. PART FOUR: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN SERVICE ORGANISATIONS. 15. Capacity Management. 16. Facilities Management. 17. IT Developments and their Impact on Services. PART FIVE: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH. 18. Performance Measurement Systems in Service Firms. 19. Managing Innovation in a Service Environment. 20. Managing Services Across National Boundaries. 21. Defining a Service Strategy. 22. Technical Notes.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the drivers of the customers' cross-buying intentions for services and found that the cross-buy intentions are primarily associated with image conflicts about the provider's abilities to deliver high-quality services from different service activities, and the perceived convenience of crossbuying from the same provider.
Abstract: Why do some customers cross‐buy different services from the same provider while others are less disposed to do so? The present research examines the drivers of the customers’ cross‐buying intentions for services Cross‐buying refers to the customer's practice of buying additional products and services from the existing service provider in addition to the ones s/he currently has The results obtained from two samples of service consumers indicate that the customers’ cross‐buying intentions are primarily associated with image conflicts about the provider's abilities to deliver high‐quality services from different service activities, and the perceived convenience of cross‐buying from the same provider Customers’ experiences with the service provider have a weaker or marginal effect on cross‐buying
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study focused on a hotel group in UK, where service quality was measured at six different locations and the findings from the research revealed significant variations for service quality between the six hotels.
Abstract: Service quality is a growing concern for many service firms in the UK. Today service firms are paying more attention than ever to the needs and expectations of the customers by consistently improving the quality of service provided to their customers. This paper briefly explores the relation between service quality and business performance followed by an assessment of service quality as a framework. The case study focuses on a hotel group in UK, where service quality was measured at six different locations. The findings from the research unveiled that there were significant variations for service quality between the six hotels.
TL;DR: In this paper, a framework for lean production is described and translated into service companies, using an empirical base consisting of descriptions of lean production applications in the service sector, made by practitioners from service companies.
Abstract: One common theme throughout the lean production literature is the focus on manufacturing companies. This paper begins the investigation into the contingencies to the applicability of lean production to service companies. A framework for lean production is described and translated into service companies, using an empirical base consisting of descriptions of lean production applications in the service sector, made by practitioners from service companies. The findings indicate that lean production is applicable to service operations, although there are contingencies to the application. The contingencies stem from the characteristics of services. There are also instances where lean production is perhaps more applicable to services than manufacturing, again due to the nature of services. The conclusions indicate a need to make operations more general, avoiding making clear differentiation between manufacturing and services, and instead focusing on the similarities between the two and thus the possibility to learn from each other.
Patent•
14 Oct 2004
TL;DR: In this article, an improved automotive vehicle service system incorporating an RFID interrogator to exchange data with one or more RFID transponders or tags associated with a vehicle undergoing service, or with a component of an undergoing service.
Abstract: An improved automotive vehicle service system incorporating an RFID interrogator to exchange data with one or more RFID transponders or tags associated with a vehicle undergoing service, or with a component of a vehicle undergoing service. The automotive vehicle service system is configured to utilize data received through the RFID interrogator from the RFID transponders or tags during a vehicle service procedure. Optionally, the automotive vehicle service system is configured to store data associated with a vehicle service procedure in an RFID transponder or tag associated with a vehicle undergoing service, or with a component of a vehicle undergoing service.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors contribute to greater understanding of the new service development process by conceptually developing and integrating two themes: the development of new services and the innovation process within networks.
Abstract: This paper generates a network perspective of the development of new services. Service development within a network environment is at an early stage of understanding and has received little attention. The authors contribute to greater understanding of the new service development process by conceptually developing and integrating two themes: the development of new services and the innovation process within networks, rooted in the study of industrial networks. The conceptual discussion is further strengthened by a case study of network‐based new service development in the financial services sector.
01 Apr 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose the concept of service component that packages together complex services and presents their interfaces and operations in a consistent and uniform manner in the form of an abstract class definition, Service components are internally synthesized out of reused, specialized or extended complex web services and just like normal web services are published and can thus be invoked by any service-based application.
Abstract: Web services are becoming the prominent paradigm for distributed computing and electronic business. This has raised the opportunity for service providers and application developers to develop value-added services by combining existing web services. However, current web service composition solutions do not address software engineering principles for raising the level of abstraction in web-services by providing facilities for packaging, re-using, specializing and customizing service compositions.In this paper we propose the concept of service component that packages together complex services and presents their interfaces and operations in a consistent and uniform manner in the form of an abstract class definition, Service components are internally synthesized out of reused, specialized, or extended complex web services and just like normal web services are published and can thus be invoked by any service-based application. In addition, we present an integrated framework and prototype system that manage the entire life-cycle of service components ranging from abstract service component definition, scheduling, and construction to execution.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take the supplier's view on the task of providing industrial services; i.e., the supply of after-sales services, including tangibles such as spare parts and consumables, related to the maintenance of industrial goods.
Patent•
02 Dec 2004
TL;DR: In this article, a location system is enabled to automatically fall back to a message tunneling mechanism to ensure the security of a communication path between the location service system and the target wireless device, ensuring that the communication path is uninterrupted as the wireless device travels.
Abstract: An improved User Plane location based service (LBS) architecture and message flow, enabling seamless User Plane location based services even when a mobile or wireless device has roamed among different carrier networks. The present invention overcomes constraints inherent in the current protocol for roaming support defined by the Secure User Plane Location Service specification. A location system is enabled to automatically fall back to a message tunneling mechanism to ensure the security of a communication path between the location service system and the target wireless device, ensuring that the communication path is uninterrupted as the wireless device travels.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated self-service technology (SST) encounters among Canadian B2B (business-to-business) customers and provided an understanding of key determinants of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and explored issues relating to service recovery in case of SST failure and effects of favorable/ unfavorable SST encounters on business relationships.
Abstract: This paper investigates self‐service technology (SST) encounters among Canadian B2B (business‐to‐business) customers It provides an understanding of key determinants of satisfaction and dissatisfaction This research also explores issues relating to service recovery in case of SST failure and effects of favorable/ unfavorable SST encounters on business relationships The study finds that B2B customers experience satisfaction from different sources as compared to B2C customers These sources include speed, process efficiency and cost savings Service recovery has been found to be a critical problem with regards to SST
TL;DR: Some of the key issues, including modelling and planning a manufacturing chain, selecting feasible collaborative manufacturers, queuing a manufacturing task, using the synchronously collaborative work environment, and constructing a suitable running platform are described in detail.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors demonstrate the use of the importance-performance analysis framework to assist management of a campus food service organization to improve its services, and study the relative effects of implicit and explicit weighting methods on importance ranking as well as the grid-classification of service quality attributes.
Abstract: Managing service operations has continued to assume greater importance in most developed economies. This is in view of the ubiquity of service organizations and operations, the associated large workforce, and the substantial contribution of the service sector to the gross domestic product of most of these countries. In order to be successful, it is extremely important for service managers to be able to appraise their activities over time by using pertinent information derived from their customers. This paper demonstrates the use of the importance‐performance analysis framework to assist management of a campus food service organization to improve its services. It also studies the relative effects of implicit and explicit weighting methods on importance ranking as well as the grid‐classification of service quality attributes. Furthermore, analysis of the factor structure of the attributes indicates, like some other reported studies, that the five‐dimensional factor structure postulated for services in the literature was not confirmed for the campus food service scenario studied.
TL;DR: High lifetime rates of mental health service use were found in a representative sample of youths identified as receiving services in at least one sector of care in a publicly funded service system of a large, metropolitan area.
Abstract: The present paper examined the lifetime rates of mental health service use in a representative sample of youths identified as receiving services in at least one sector of care in a publicly funded service system of a large, metropolitan area. Service use was examined in relation to age, gender, mental health diagnostic status, and service sector involvement. Participants were 1706 youths ages 6-17 years who were active in at least one of the following service sectors: alcohol and drug services, child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health, and special education services for serious emotional disturbance. Structured service use and diagnostic interviews were administered to youths and their caregivers. High lifetime rates of mental health service use were found. Eighty-seven percent of the sample used at least one outpatient service, 45% used at least one inpatient service, and 71% reported use of a school-based service. Youths involved with the mental health and special education sectors had the highest rates of service use. In contrast, youths enumerated from the juvenile justice system tended to have the lowest rates of use. Additional research is needed to refine our understanding of the factors associated with the observed patterns of service use.
Patent•
07 Jun 2004
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a system and methods of facilitating interaction between service consumers and services providers based on service contracts, which are established by considering preferences, capabilities or limitations of each service consumer and at least one characteristic of a service provider.
Abstract: The invention includes systems and methods of facilitating interaction between service consumers and services providers based on service contracts. These service contracts are established by considering preferences, capabilities or limitations of each service consumer and at least one characteristic of each service provider. Once the preferences, capabilities or limitations of a service consumer are determined these may be used to automatically established individualized service contracts with a variety of service providers. The services contracts may include contract terms relating to data format, communication protocol, security, data logging, load balancing, service level agreements, service quality, performance requirements, or the like.
TL;DR: It is found that service inducement is a means to dynamically skim customer surplus with state-independent prices and provision of slower service to customers that arrive when the expert is idle.
Abstract: We consider a monopolist expert offering a service with a 'credence' characteristic. A credence service is one where the customer cannot verify, even after purchase, whether the amount of prescribed service was appropriate or not; examples include legal, medical or consultancy services and car repair. This creates an incentive for the expert to 'induce service', that is, to provide unnecessary services that add no value to the customer, but that allow the expert to increase his revenues. We focus on the impact of an operations phenomenon on service inducement - workload dynamics due to the stochasticity of interarrival and service times. To this end, we model the expert's service operation as a single-server queue. The expert determines the service price within a fixed- and variable-rate structure and decides whether to induce service or not. We characterize the expert's combined optimal pricing and service inducement strategy as a function of service capacity, potential market size, value of service and waiting cost. We conclude with design implications of our results in limiting service inducement.
TL;DR: In this article, a list of 28 potential service skills was developed and placed into a questionnaire format, and experienced service representatives rated the importance of these skills for job success, yielding a complex ability profile.
Abstract: This research documents the requisite skills for business‐to‐business service representatives. Using job observation and group interviews, a list of 28 potential service skills was developed and placed into a questionnaire format. Experienced service representatives rated the importance of these skills for job success, yielding a complex ability profile. These abilities dovetail with previous work discussing service provider characteristics, yet offer a more detailed and behaviorally oriented view of the worker skills that ensure effective service encounters. Implications for understanding service demands and staffing a workforce with the skills needed to deliver quality service are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors conducted a survey to elicit the views of personal bank customers, business customers and bank staff with respect to the use of different banking technologies, finding that the need for a balanced approach that avoids over use of technology at the expense of the personal approach to service delivery and towards the need to provide customers with some technological training rather than assuming they will automatically accept technology and make use of it.
Abstract: This paper sheds some light on the debate about the extent of use of IT in services, in this case in banking. In such a competitive sector where quality of service can be a differentiator in the marketplace, the balance between personal interaction and technologically delivered services must be right if customers are to be retained over time. Research was carried out in Scotland to elicit the views of personal bank customers, business customers and bank staff with respect to the use of different banking technologies. Findings point towards the need for a balanced approach that avoids over use of technology at the expense of the personal approach to service delivery and towards the need to provide customers with some technological training rather than assuming they will automatically accept technology and make use of it.