"Industrial" or "business" norms historically started with the manufacturing industry. Quite later, service industry got involved. And only rather recently, ISO 9000 and BS 5750 did arrive on our doorsteps. Progress in this area might have developed much faster in the UK and the United States. I doubt if Quality Standards is at the top of most European countries' agenda. In Germany we have just started the discussion. We might have a different tradition and a different environment there, and we might arrive at different conclusions. However, the feelings about the introduction of ISO 9000 seem to be the same all over Europe: They are mixed. There are well-founded arguments against the 'standard procedures' as well as simple misunderstandings.
The consumer satisfaction study aimed at providing the customer, Casinos Austria, with practical hints concerning necessary, or desirable, improvements. Unlike concrete products or precise services, the "casino experience" is affected by a variety of factors which can often be changed on a long-term basis only (buildings, new offers). Casinos Austria used the results to systematize their efforts to optimize the quality of the experience. With regard to the representation of the experience, the emphasis is not on the methods but on the possibilities of utilization arising for a customer who needs to achieve consumer satisfaction even though the casino guest was not "lucky at gambling".
To ensure quality at all levels requires comprehensive and continuous surveys and feedback between customers, dealers and the manufacturer. This allows strategy and action to be integrated at all levels in the meeting of customer needs. The needed benchmarking of how customer expectations are being formed is provided by parallel surveys of competitor performance. In addition, a means is provided for implementing the results. IBM Personal Systems implemented their "Customer First" programme in 14 countries in Europe in 1991 to help maintain its market leadership in personal computing systems. Though only in its first full year of operation, there are already substantial dividends for IBM and its Business Partners, the dealerships. Findings are still coming in but already they have allowed IBM to identify the key factors that drive satisfaction measure and track satisfaction identify areas of key strategic significance improve these through education and training Illustrative findings from the programme are presented to show the operation of Customer First and give a measure of its impact on IBM Personal Systems operations. A particular feature of the programme is that the means of implementing the results was designed into the project from the beginning. Customer Satisfaction consultants have been appointed in 8 countries to help interpret the customer satisfaction results for the dealers and to provide the requisite training.
This research addresses a key issue of concern to the international users of customer satisfaction measurement (CSM) information. One of the benefits of CSM is that it offers a yardstick forjudging the performance of the company in becoming customer- driven. Increasingly, multinational firms are using CSM results obtained from different countries to make allocative decisions between national or regional business units and to incentivize management. However, good decisions can be made only to the extent that the multicountry CSM information provides a TRUE "apples-to-apples" comparison. The results of this study conducted in nine countries in Europe, North America, and the Pacific Rim reveal substantial differences in the response bias toward a 5-point, perceived quality scale after controlling for perceived performance and (to some extent) expectational differences. Suggestions are made for correcting the response bias in multicountry CSM data to increase the validity of international comparisons and to facilitate the "roll-up" international results.
In the automobile market, there is a close link between user satisfaction with products and after-sales services and brand loyalty. It is therefore not surprising that besides regularly programmed tracking studies on product satisfaction and the satisfaction with after-sales servicing, a great deal of ad hoc satisfaction research is carried out by car manufacturers in order to define clientele satisfaction or dissatisfaction criteria, and their importance on overall satisfaction and brand loyalty. In this article, we have tried to draw lessons from the work carried out in this area by PSA PEUGEOT CITROENs Clientele Studies Division over the last two years. Of particular interest, were a group of about ten studies, serving either the objective of establishing future product specifications or that of providing the information necessary to implement the QFD method ("Quality Function Deployment") for guiding the development of product parts. We then continue by defining a series of relevant concepts: satisfaction, perceived performance, expected performance (both in the sense of desired performance and anticipated performance), perceived quality, importance and tolerance threshold. We then present a 4 step procedure: 1) identifying the criteria upon which satisfaction and dissatisfaction depend, 2) determining the general dimensions and tree structures underlying the criteria, 3) measuring the satisfaction with the different brands in terms of the criteria, and 4) measuring criterion importance. For this last step, in order to avoid problems with multi-collinearity among large numbers of independant variables, we propose a new procedure that we call "nested" regression, using a "tree structure" generated by a chain schema of satisfaction criteria. This approach enables us to go a long way towards reconciling statistical rigor with practical marketing concerns
In the automobile market, there is a close link between user satisfaction with products and after-sales services and brand loyalty. It is therefore not surprising that besides regularly programmed tracking studies on product satisfaction and the satisfaction with after-sales servicing, a great deal of ad hoc satisfaction research is carried out by car manufacturers in order to define clientele satisfaction or dissatisfaction criteria, and their importance on overall satisfaction and brand loyalty. In this article, we have tried to draw lessons from the work carried out in this area by PSA PEUGEOT CITROENs Clientele Studies Division over the last two years. Of particular interest, were a group of about ten studies, serving either the objective of establishing future product specifications or that of providing the information necessary to implement the QFD method ("Quality Function Deployment") for guiding the development of product parts. We then continue by defining a series of relevant concepts: satisfaction, perceived performance, expected performance (both in the sense of desired performance and anticipated performance), perceived quality, importance and tolerance threshold. We then present a 4 step procedure: 1) identifying the criteria upon which satisfaction and dissatisfaction depend, 2) determining the general dimensions and tree structures underlying the criteria, 3) measuring the satisfaction with the different brands in terms of the criteria, and 4) measuring criterion importance. For this last step, in order to avoid problems with multi-collinearity among large numbers of independant variables, we propose a new procedure that we call "nested" regression, using a "tree structure" generated by a chain schema of satisfaction criteria. This approach enables us to go a long way towards reconciling statistical rigor with practical marketing concerns.
Excellent service is a profit strategy, and it is more fun. Excellent service is a profit strategy because it results in more new customers, more business with existing customers, fewer lost customers, more insulation from price competition, fewer mistakes requiring the reperformance of services, and lower marketing costs (because extra marketing monies do not have to be spent convincing customers to buy despite the firm's poor service record). Excellent service is more fun because it requires an "achievement culture" in which people are challenged to perform to their potential and recognized and rewarded when they do so. And achieving is fun. Service is a key component of value, and it is value that drives a company's success. To the customer, value is: what I get for what I have to give up. It is benefits received for the burdens endured. Burdens include both monetary costs and non-monetary costs (for example, an inconvenient location, unfriendly employees, an unattractive service facility). The most successful companies maximize benefits to customers and minimize the burdens. Service quality is instrumental in maximizing benefits and minimizing burdens. Since 1983 my colleagues and I have been studying service quality in America through the sponsorship of the Marketing Science Institute. We have learned many lessons from this research program. Today, I share five lessons about delivering excellent service of particular interest to marketing researchers
The purpose of this talk is to reaffirm the importance of understanding how consumers use quality information in their valuation of a brand. We show information that leads us to believe that consumers combine quality, convenience and personal relevance into a larger construct we call brand merit The perception of brand merit can be managed in all forms of communication across all contacts with the brand via integrated communication programs. I urge that these programs be considered part of the total quality effort. I finish by showing four types of synergy that need to be achieved in media/message delivery to maximize consumer perceptions. Total quality is an effort which is necessary in today's global environment. It will, how- ever, not be sufficient without a program embracing the power of media/message synergy.
This case-study describes some of the problems that are encountered when trying to integrate customer survey data in a total quality management process.
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.
The development of air traffic in the 1990's is a constant factor in the future foreseen by airlines and the organizations that represent them. Already developing markets (such as Europe and the Asian Pacific), together with new markets that are ripe for development (such as those of Eastern Europe), are giving rise to an unprecedented increase in the demand for new aircrafts. Ordering a 747 or a MD11 today means taking delivery no less than five years from now. Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Airbus and Fokker - the leading producers of commercial aircraft will have no trouble meeting their sales target for the next ten years. This increase in air traffic has been boosted not only by the growth of the world's economy and by increasing international economic exchanges but also by changing lifestyles and by the fact that mankind's age-old dream of discovering and visiting never-before-seen places has become a real possibility. A fast growing market and intensified competition generate a need for a different approach to business on the part of an airline - a review of its mission of its positioning on the market and of strategies for staying on top of a changing market.
The paper focuses on the relationship between the research agency and its client and the production of client satisfaction within the context of business-to-business research. Client satisfaction and the quality of qualitative research is to a high degree dependent on the quality of the relationship established between the research agency and the client (and the respondents). Within this relationship research objectives are step by step defined and even redefined. This relationship is essentially framed as a reciprocal learning relationship with mutual responsibilities for a positive outcome. Learning experiences and research should be planned for. The occurrence of new insights and the structuring of them in models is probably the best possible outcome of qualitative research, and at least a powerful tool to ensure satisfaction on the client side. This implies creating together with him relevant and applicable knowledge schemes, action models. By doing so, one can come close to a long term consultancy relationship with the client.