Since 1983, United has maintained a continuous tracking survey for measuring customer satisfaction. In 1990, United began serving European markets and this program was extended to our European flights. This paper describes how United uses this consumer data to ensure quality service in Europe. Methodology for the survey program will be described in detail. Case histories will be presented demonstrating four uses of the data in maintaining Uniteds service level: monthly reviews of trends in customer service ratings, ad hoc analyses, service concept testing, and ongoing custom analysis. With United's ongoing tracking system United can test new concepts, monitor trends in service, and analyze the success of any product changes. This system allows United to monitor and improve our service to the customer which should ultimately lead to increased market share and higher profits.
This paper is divided into three parts. The first part describes the background to British Telecoms Customer Satisfaction Measures Programme (CSM), with a description of the history of its predecessor (Telcare). The second part discusses the evolution of the program. And the third part discusses its uses and applications.
This paper will cover true Customer Satisfaction Research, and the many distinct steps that are needed to achieve the goal - understanding what makes your client's customers loyal. These techniques can give a Market Research organisation dramatic new services, services which are every bit as important to their clients as their Market Research services.
This case-study describes some of the problems that are encountered when trying to integrate customer survey data in a total quality management process.
Expanding customer satisfaction measurement to the broader concept of Reference Group Management - to include customer satisfaction, employee orientation and image measurement, where appropriate - ensures that the correct decisions to improve customer satisfaction are taken, and that they can be implemented. Introducing the concept of Customer Retention enables the effect of customer satisfaction to be quantified in profit potential terms, providing a link between the 'soft' data of customer satisfaction measurement and the 'hard' data required for business management. The two together can have very substantial implications for the way a business manages the environment in which it operates, and consequently for the way it manages itself.
The purpose of this article, then, is to help bring marketing back into the "mainstream" of the customer satisfaction movement by first describing the evolution of customer satisfaction measurement into the unique technology that it is today. Second, an attempt will be made to characterise some of the differences between customer satisfaction measurement and traditional marketing research. This includes a review of the necessary training and skill sets of company personnel (and outside consultants) who participate in running these programs. Finally, one of the newest trends in customer satisfaction measurement will be discussed, namely the efforts to globalise these programs.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a process for using measures of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction to focus and direct internal service quality improvements. The paper attempts to build upon the conceptual model of service quality and customer satisfaction proposed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985). It also embodies "lessons learned" by the authors from designing and implementing numerous customer satisfaction measurement programs during the past decade.
In June/July 1990 a sample survey using a single questionnaire was conducted simultaneously In all 12 Member States of the European Community to assess the attitudes and behaviour of the younger generation with regard to tobacco. The survey formed part of the "Europe against Cancer" Programme launched by the Community In 1987. The survey was conducted orally by professional Interviewers at the respondents' homes, parents not being present at the Interviews but having first given their consent. A total of 9 312 young people were questioned (4 778 boys and 4 534 girls), or about 800 per country (250 In the case of Luxembourg). -1 From the age of 15 onwards, approximately 15% of these young people are "regular smokers" (l.e. they smoke at least once a week). The principal aim of the survey was to Investigate the factors which had taken them from the Initiation stage to that of acquiring the smoking habit. Analysis shows that the peer group environment plays a more Important role than the family or school: having a best friend who smokes, frequenting discotheques and according Importance to the social function of smoking all contribute towards the personality make-up of the young smoker. The cigarette represents the Instrument and the symbol of a rite of passage, a means of self-affirmation and of friendly and Informal communication. These are precisely the "arguments" put forward, directly or Indirectly, by the majority of advertIsements for cigarettes. The conclusion Is that health promotion campaigns, of which the fight against smoking constitutes a major element, should fight at the same level as the advertisers by emphasising the quality of life of the non- smoker rather than the dangers of tobacco and by seeking to alter the stereotype Image of the role of smoking In personality development and In social Interaction among friends.
In June/July 1990 a sample survey using a single questionnaire was conducted simultaneously In all 12 Member States of the European Community to assess the attitudes and behaviour of the younger generation with regard to tobacco. The survey formed part of the "Europe against Cancer" Programme launched by the Community In 1987. The survey was conducted orally by professional Interviewers at the respondents' homes, parents not being present at the Interviews but having first given their consent. A total of 9 312 young people were questioned (4 778 boys and 4 534 girls), or about 800 per country (250 In the case of Luxembourg). -1 From the age of 15 onwards, approximately 15% of these young people are "regular smokers" (l.e. they smoke at least once a week). The principal aim of the survey was to Investigate the factors which had taken them from the Initiation stage to that of acquiring the smoking habit. Analysis shows that the peer group environment plays a more Important role than the family or school: having a best friend who smokes, frequenting discotheques and according Importance to the social function of smoking all contribute towards the personality make-up of the young smoker. The cigarette represents the Instrument and the symbol of a rite of passage, a means of self-affirmation and of friendly and Informal communication. These are precisely the "arguments" put forward, directly or Indirectly, by the majority of advertIsements for cigarettes. The conclusion Is that health promotion campaigns, of which the fight against smoking constitutes a major element, should fight at the same level as the advertisers by emphasising the quality of life of the non- smoker rather than the dangers of tobacco and by seeking to alter the stereotype Image of the role of smoking In personality development and In social Interaction among friends.
A case history showing how a multifacetated methodology along with a close relation between research and marketing can contribute to strategic marketing decisions in the case of the salvation of a brand in an increasing competitive and changing market, as it is the case of the margarine and butter market in Portugal. The step by step, creative and flexible methodologies used to meet the several stages of the marketing decisions allowed the identification and diagnosis of the causes for the declining tendency and the research recommendations along with the marketing strategies succeeded in waking up and giving a new life to the brand Flora. This case history stems out from a set of five sequential research studies conducted between December 89 and May 90 that allowed the relaunch of the brand by the Autumn of 90. Combined efforts that imply a TRUE involvement of research in the marketing process and an open and confident attitude from marketing towards research can, at the proper time, find the best solution for a "condemned" brand.
Industrial organizations are increasingly being faced with the challenge of deciding how best to communicate - on a European-wide basis - not just with their customers, suppliers, and shareholders, but with a wider audience of stakeholders. These include authorities and bodies involved with the environment, and others whose individual or corporate lives are linked to the fortunes of the company in question. In this paper the authors provide guidance on the role survey research can play in helping international organisations shape an effective communications strategy to meet the needs and expectations of different audiences. This is achieved by drawing on the authors' experience of conducting a major European survey among different target audiences on behalf of Dow Europe, one of the world's leading chemicals and plastics companies. The aim of the survey, which involved 444 telephone interviews, was to help Dow position itself in the plastics industry and develop an appropriate communications strategy: who should Dow be talking to; what should they be saying; how should they be saying it; how much should they invest in the communications process? In this paper the authors summarise the main findings of the survey, including the fact that there is interest from a number of quarters in the plastics industry in more actively addressing various environmental issues. The authors then review the way the survey findings have helped guide Dow's positioning strategy, before providing a number of more general observations about the role research can play in the development of European-wide communications. The central message is that research can help identify, and understand the needs of, the expanding audience for corporate communications.
Under this somewhat iconoclastic title, referring to the equally and deliberately iconoclastic statements from McLuhan, we want to show that good intellection of an advertising message often depends not so much on the actual message, more on the context of the message, the prime component of which is the medium that carries it. So our purpose is not to build a new theory of communication, rather to base our professional experience on proven theoretical grounds, or again to establish the link between fundamental and applied research in the specific field of advertising efficacy.