Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008. / Title from title screen (site viewed Nov. 20, 2008). PDF text: vi, 144 p. : ill. ; 1 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3315206. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (doctoral)--Tampere University of Technology, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1995. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-214).

Employee and customer satisfaction have been widely studied and are important for business outcomes. Their relationship has primarily been researched at the organisational and departmental levels within the consumer type industries where frontline employee interaction with the customer is important. Research into the relationship at the job characteristic level and within a business-to-business context is limited and therefore the purpose of the research is to examine these relationships in a South African firm. Two data collection instruments, based on the literature review, were used to obtain the primary data for this research. A self administered job satisfaction survey was preformed as well as a telephonic customer satisfaction survey was undertaken. 67 employees and 66 customers responded to the survey. Descriptive and comparative statistics with a rank order correlation was used to examining and analyse the data. Although a weak relationship was observed between the percentages of satisfied employees and satisfied customers in the survey, a strong and significant relationship exists between the rank order of the different functions within the firm, when comparing the employees job and customers satisfaction results. The results suggest that the job satisfaction levels of the employees in a business-to-business environment influence to some degree the level of satisfaction experienced by the customer. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

M.Phil. (Engineering Management) / For over a decade, customer satisfaction has received increasing attention in marketing. Customer satisfaction is related to loyalty, which in tum is linked to increased profitability, market share, growth, and decreased costs.8 During the 1980s, Japanese firms won major market shares with their product quality and speed. As most leading western companies caught up with their Japanese competitors on quality, most Japanese firms were focusing on a new strategy to meet and exceed changing customer expectations in the 1990s.1 To produce loyalty to an organization became one of the most popular marketing trends of the last decade.1·32 However, customers remain loyal only as long as they are completely satisfied with the quality of the service or product provided? Research results show that it costs five to seven times more to recruit a new customer than it does to retain one." Numerous research studies have shown that the average customer who is happy with a product and a service tells at least three people of his satisfaction, while a dissatisfied customer tells 9 or 10 people about his dissatisfactionf Knowledge of customers' perceptions and attitudes about an organization's business will greatly enhance its opportunity to make better business decisions." More than 80 percent of innovations in high-performing companies come from customers' ideas.'

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2009. / Store layout is an important factor affecting consumer behaviour and a critical determinant towards the creation of store image. Well designed layouts are extremely important because they strongly influence in-store traffic patterns, shopping atmosphere, shopping behaviour, and operational efficiency (Vrechopoulos et al., 2004: 13). When an inconsistency occurs, some consumers will abandon that establishment in search of another one which offers fast, convenient and better services (Andersen, 1997: 118). Taking a more strategic approach to store layout can reap big rewards by boosting sales, increasing customer loyalty and ultimately increasing turnover (Clark, 2003: 42). The overall aim of the study was to ascertain if independent convenience stores in Kwa Mashu are aware of the impact of store layout on purchasing patterns of consumers. In order to accomplish the objectives of the study, a quantitative study was conducted at the convenience stores at Kwa Mashu by means of self-administered questionnaires. A sample of 400 respondents was asked questions pertaining to the study. The respondents were selected through non-probability sampling within which convenience sampling was applied. Conclusions and recommendations were thereafter drawn from the literature and the findings of the study. The results of this study show that consumers experience problems with store layout. It was found that appearance of the store, merchandise display, store atmosphere, instore service and accessibility are the major causes of this discomfort. Therefore, it is recommended that convenience retail owners in Kwa Mashu attend to those areas and see to it that necessary strategies are implemented to help customers where there is a need.

Ph.D. (Marketing Management) / As more retailers gain access to similar technologies, information and processes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to establish a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace, ensure customer satisfaction and encourage repurchase intention. This is especially true for high fashion retailers, since their higher margin customers have greater expectations to receive value from these high fashion retailers. To succeed in a highly competitive marketplace, high fashion retailers must become adept not just at providing quality products, but also at providing value to their customers. Only those businesses that truly offer the value that customers want and expect, remain competitive in the long term and are able to increase customer satisfaction levels. Higher levels of customer satisfaction leads to improved repurchase intention. It is therefore important for high fashion retailers to ensure that they offer value to their customers. Despite research undertaken in customer value, much debate still exists as to what contributes to customer value and what the relevant customer value dimensions are. Customer value is of managerial interest to high fashion retailers, as these retailers need to identify the dimensions they should focus on to increase the value they are delivering to their customers in order to obtain or retain a sustainable competitive advantage. Customer value leads to customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction in turn is a strong indicator of repurchase intention. This study therefore focuses on uncovering the concept of customer value, with specific emphasis on determining the underlying customer value dimensions from the perspective of the customer shopping at high fashion retail stores. The aim of this study is to propose a multidimensional model of customer value for high fashion retailers, including the interrelationship between customer value, customer satisfaction and repurchase intention.....

Many systems in services, manufacturing, and technology, feature users or customers sharing a limited number of resources, and which suffer some form of congestion when the number of users exceeds the number of resources. In such settings, queueing models are a common tool for describing the dynamics of the system and quantifying the congestion that results from the aggregated effects of individuals joining and leaving the system. Additionally, the customers themselves may be sensitive to congestion and react to the performance of the system, creating feedback and interaction between individual customer behavior and aggregate system dynamics.This dissertation focuses on the modeling and performance of service systems with congestion-sensitive customers using large-scale asymptotic analyses of queueing models. This work extends the theoretical literature on congestion-sensitive customers in queues in the settings of service differentiation and observational learning and abandonment. Chapter 2 considers the problem of a service provider facing a heterogeneous market of customers who differ based on their value for service and delay sensitivity. The service provider seeks to find the revenue maximizing level of service differentiation (offering different price-delay combinations). We show that the optimal policy places the system in heavy traffic, but at substantially different levels of congestion depending on the degree of service differentiation. Moreover, in a differentiated offering, the level of congestion will vary substantially between service classes. Chapter 3 presents a new model of customer abandonment in which congestion-sensitive customers observe the queue length, but do not know the service rate. Instead, they join the queue and observe their progress in order to estimate their wait times and make abandonment decisions. We show that an overloaded queue with observational learning and abandonment stabilizes at a queue length whose scale depends on the tail of the service time distribution. Methodologically, our asymptotic approach leverages stochastic limit theory to provide simple and intuitive results for optimizing or characterizing system performance. In particular, we use the analysis of deterministic fluid-type queues to provide a first-order characterization of the stochastic system dynamics, which is demonstrated by the convergence of the stochastic system to the fluid model. This also allows us to crisply illustrate and quantify the relative contributions of system or customer characteristics to overall system performance.

Thesis (M.Com.(Tourism Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Executive summary in English. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the moderating role of hedonic shopping value in shopping experience satisfaction in the context of clothing shopping. Hedonic shopping value is an emotional and hedonic appreciation of shopping. According to the existing literature, consumers' hedonic shopping value is associated with several antecedents such as involvement, variety seeking, and physical environment of stores. Involvement may heighten consumers' excitement with the shopping experience. Hedonic shoppers tend to seek variety and use exploratory buying behavior to experience the emotion of pleasant arousal in a retail setting. Emotional responses in stores can be affected by the store's environment, arguing positive mood is a significant predictor of both extra time, unplanned spending in shopping, and shopping satisfaction. To test the proposed model, a convenience sample of male and female Korean college students was employed. Pearson correlation, chi-square statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and EQS for structural equation modeling were utilized. The results of the study showed that people who, in general, enjoy clothing shopping feel more satisfied with their clothing shopping. It appears that the shopping skills acquired by consumers who are more involved in and enjoy shopping may lead to higher satisfaction. Female respondents were more involved in clothing shopping, were more satisfied with clothing shopping, and had a higher level of hedonic shopping value. Expectedly, the structural model for female subjects confirmed the existence of the mediating role of hedonic shopping value in shopping experience satisfaction whereas the model for male respondents and for all respondents in which male and female respondents combined did not. For the female group, involvement and variety seeking had no direct influences on shopping experience satisfaction. Rather, they influenced shopping experience satisfaction indirectly through hedonic shopping value. Hedonic shopping value did not play a role as an intervening variable for male consumers. This may be attributed to the fact that male respondents had considerably low levels of hedonic shopping value to be an intervening determinant. This result implies that male respondents may have greater utilitarian construct for clothing shopping satisfaction rather than hedonic constructs. / Graduation date: 2002