Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Kevin P. Gwinner / SiteOne Landscape Supply is the largest distributor of lawn care products for professionals of the landscape industry in U.S.A. and Canada. SiteOne is aware of the importance of customer satisfaction and it is interested on increasing satisfaction by improving customer service. There is a high concentration of Latino landscapers in Texas, whom customer service needs may differ from non-Latino customers. Therefore the purpose of this project was to study customer satisfaction of Hispanic and non-Hispanic landscapers considering the following thirteen service attributes: competitive prices, available stock, cleanliness of facilities, business follow up, timely assistance, timely deliveries, accuracy of orders, helpful staff, approachable staff, knowledgeable staff, Spanish-speaking staff, training in Spanish, and labels in Spanish. The data was collected throughout a survey which was presented to SiteOne customers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. A total of 224 surveys were collected. The methods used to analyze the data were importance-performance (I-P) and regression analyses. The major differences found in the I-P grids are related to the three Spanish language attributes. Spanish-speaking staff, training in Spanish and labels in Spanish are statistically significant more important to Hispanic than non-Hispanic landscapers. Available stock is the most important attribute for non-Hispanic, and it is the second most important for Hispanic customers. SiteOne has an opportunity to improve their stock availability, especially for nursery, fertilizers and pesticides. Other factors that are very important to customers and they perceive that SiteOne is doing an excellent job are: timely assistance, timely deliveries, accuracy of orders, and approachable, knowledgeable and helpful staff. The importance of competitive prices was rated as high as the previous six service attributes, however the mean of pricing performance was not as high as that group of attributes. From the multivariate regression analyses, it was found that pricing was the only variable with statistical significance to predict changes in customer satisfaction for the non-Hispanic group. No statistical significance was found in the regression model run for Hispanic clients. Some negative coefficients with statistical significance were found for stores #199 and #220 in the models run to analyze branch performance. It is recommended that these results be compared with other measurements to determine the nature of the issues that may be present in these locations.

This research investigated the service offering in appliance sales departments of prominent retail stores in an emerging economy to ultimately indicate whether stores‟ customer service, i.e. their presentation of the marketing mix is conducive for informed, responsible buying decisions. The study was prompted by significant changes in the profile of South African consumers since 1994 when a new socio-political dispensation was introduced. A sharp increase in the middle-income group since has resulted in an increased demand for housing, electricity and consequently also major household appliances. Retail responded more than willingly. Unfortunately the consequences of limited product related consumer socialization for millions of previously disadvantaged consumers and subsequent lack of structural and transactional knowledge in terms of their ability to cope in the market place was given little attention. The research involved four phases of data collection and the participation of five prominent department stores in Tshwane, RSA that was arranged through liaison with industry. Phase 1 involved an in store survey: store managers assessed the customer service in the stores in the presence of the researcher, according to indicators that were based on the marketing mix. In phase 2, respondents (n=296) were recruited in the stores immediately after closure of a sales deal: questionnaires were completed on the spot. It involved (1) an investigation of their satisfaction with the customer service; (2) an investigation of their perception of the service quality through a SERVQUAL scale and (3) a product knowledge test that pertained to the functional and performance attributes of the appliances that they purchased. During phase 3, experienced salespeople (n=18) were involved in a projective technique that expected of them to act as the managers of their respective stores and to propose recommendations to augment their stores’ service offering to be more conducive for informed, responsible buying decisions. Finally, in phase 4, representatives from industry explained their potential contribution to augment customer service in retail stores. Findings revealed shortcomings in the customer service in retail that should be addressed to enhance informed, responsible buying decisions. In phase 1, store managers candidly admitted that in general, price was attended to more attentively than elements such as processes that could enhance informed buying decisions. In the customer survey, exploratory factor analysis revealed a collapse of the original customer service scale from six elements to three, which suggests a more integrated judgement of customer service in the context of this research. Emphasis on price and product was diminished and directed towards value for money and personnel orientations. Similarly the five dimensional SERVQUAL scale was reduced to two dimensions (Supportiveness and Impressiveness). The product knowledge test was used to indicate whether consumers’ judgement of the service offering was supported by evidence of informed, buying decisions. Consumers’ scores contradicted their apparent satisfaction with customer service and their positive perception of service quality. Sales personnel unequivocally accentuated their potential to augment customer service but revealed conditions that limit optimal performance. Representatives of industry acknowledged areas of concern and recommended concerted effort by retailers due to their direct interaction with consumers as well as personnel. The findings of this study provide invaluable evidence that consumers “not necessarily know what they do not know”. Shortcomings in the customer service in retail are revealed and guidelines are provided to augment the service offering to the benefit of the parties involved. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Consumer Science / unrestricted

This thesis provides an introduction to the subject of Delivery Performance and its measurement. The review shows that non-price factors, especially delivery performance, have become recognised as of major importance in manufacturing business success. Attention is given to the reasons why UK manufacturing companies have such a poor delivery record and the adverse effects which result.

The diploma thesis is focused on improving the functioning of business process management in the selected trading company. With the help of theoretical knowledge, based on which an analytical evaluation of the current status and a qualitative research are created, it proposes changes in the individual phases of the currently used process.

Display rules are used by organizations to define appropriate behaviors and expressions while interacting with others in the workplace. Emotional labor is a function of the effort required to adhere to these display rules and has been associated with negative outcomes such as stress and burnout which can lead to higher levels of turnover and health care costs for the organization. In addition, evidence suggests that emotional labor may come at a cognitive cost as well. Hence, reducing the amount of emotional labor should be beneficial to both employees and organizations alike. The current study used a customer service simulation to investigate the effects of emotion regulation training on cognitive, affective, and performance outcomes. Furthermore, personality display rule congruence was proposed as a moderator. Specifically, I compared the effects of training participants to use deep acting or surface acting strategies. Deep acting involves cognitively reappraising situations so that one genuinely feels the appropriate emotion whereas surface acting simply involves modifying the outward display of one's emotions. I expected deep acting to improve interpersonal performance through an affective route and to improve cognitive task performance through a reduction in emotional labor. Seventy-three participants were randomly assigned to one of the two training conditions. Performance was assessed during an interactive customer service simulation. Training participants to use deep acting strategies improved their positive mood, reduced their emotional labor, and increased their cognitive task performance. Emotional labor was negatively associated with cognitive task performance whereas positive mood was positively related to interpersonal performance. Finally, the effects of training on emotional labor, mood, and cognitive performance differed depending on the degree to which participants' personality was congruent with the display rules given to them. However, contrary to expectations, training condition had a stronger effect on negative mood (reduced it), emotional labor (reduced it), and cognitive performance (increased it) the more congruent participants' personalities were to the display rules given. These findings have implications for both employee selection and training.

The essence of this study is to measure the factors that lead to the negative perception of poor service delivery from the Supply and Demand Management (SDM) department of Company X. The Sasolburg operation was selected to pilot the study in order to determine the underlying issues that contribute to the perceived poor service delivery. Improved service delivery would contribute to the organisation’s overall strategy of functional excellence through its operations and service departments. Using a qualitative approach, this study attempts to obtain a clear insight of the perception of poor service delivery and ways of stimulating uniform approaches in order to being able to work together It is essential for the organisation to regularly assess its operational performance in order to ascertain whether progress has been made in terms of strategy changes. The purpose of the study is not to prove that the supply and demand department is not delivering to expectations, but to measure the delivery the factors that create the perception of poor service delivery. The initiative is also to identify the weaknesses, and suggest how these weaknesses can be remedied as well as to share the findings with the various stakeholders within the organisation. The findings of the study demonstrate that communication gaps exists within the organisation and communication is perceived as playing a key role in overcoming poor service delivery / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The aim of this study is to conduct a thorough theoretical study on developing a managerial framework for replacing paper based contracts with e-contracts in the agriculture environment in the North-West Province. Every business should adapt to the current economic environment, especially new technology, and need to consider the risk and reward within the industry. Businesses should analyse any new processes and investigate its impact and whether a competitive advantage is created. An extensive literature study has been conducted on the factors that could assist to develop a managerial framework. Firstly, CRM - a good CRM system will improve customer service and increase customer satisfaction, which will yield more loyalty. Secondly, improved technology will shorten the value chain by adding more value to each product or service. Thirdly, new technology, such as e-contracting, will reduce the time it takes to contract with customers and reduce the overall processing costs. Fourthly, training is crucial for any business to be successful. Fifthly, Business Process Management (BPM) system will assist a business to implement a new process. Lastly, it is important to investigate what resistance to change a business can expect. An empirical research has been conducted to investigate the effect what e-contracting has on the agriculture environment in the North-West Province in order to enable the author to develop a managerial framework to assist an agriculture business to improve customer service. It could be concluded that there is a good linkage between the results of this study and the literature. A managerial framework that can be used for the purpose of replacing paper based contracts with e-contracts in the agriculture environment in the North-West Province, has been proposed. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The mail order business was once a traditional method of selling and distributing clothes, and other commodities, to customers. Now, the e-commerce trend, with more sophisticated techniques of marketing, selling, and distributing goods, has not only challenged the traditional mail order system, it seems also that the traditional retail chain and even fashion chains are being challenged. This change not only affects how sellers compete (be they long-distance or not), it has probably affected us as consumers - our requirements and how we purchase. This work contributes to this development through extensive empirical investigations into how and why customers return what they have previously ordered. The primary conclusions are that consumer requirements tend to vary, and therefore the standard solution of delivering goods to a vast variety of consumers without engaging in discussion about the individual customer service requirements (et cetera) is most probably the central cause behind the increasing return trends seen in the business. The purpose of this thesis is to identify and to characterise important factors causing returns. Further, to assist the development of Returns Management research, the intention is to develop a theoretical model of a Supply/Demand Chain returns system that incorporates an application of avoidance and gatekeeping in a distance sale context with the aim to improve overall systems performance. The research design used in the thesis was a case study performed at one of the largest mail order organisation in Sweden, with a long tradition in the business. The main data used in the thesis has been collected from interviews, a questionnaire, and secondary data exported from the case organisation. Sales and returns data covering approximately one year of sales and returns in the Swedish market was quantitatively analysed, and the results were regularly discussed and presented to key informants at the case organisation to substantiate authenticity and trustworthiness. The overall conclusion is that the distance-sales trade is affected by the trends that are seen in other areas, namely increased competition - not only from within the distance trade but also from the traditional retail trade. This is probably due to the ease of shopping via e-commerce, and the vast supply of products that even exceeds that of the retail chains. This attracts new customer groups with new demands and requirements. This, in many ways, is an archetypal difference between today’s e-commerce business and yesterday’s mail order business, and could explain why customers from the different channels behave and return differently. The use of the Internet affects how we purchase, and therefore the result of the purchase. It is quite likely that we are far more spontaneous when purchasing over the Internet in comparison with telephone and mail orders. Key words: Returns management, customer service, demand chain management, e-commerce, avoidance, gatekeeping

The essence of this study is to measure the factors that lead to the negative perception of poor service delivery from the Supply and Demand Management (SDM) department of Company X. The Sasolburg operation was selected to pilot the study in order to determine the underlying issues that contribute to the perceived poor service delivery. Improved service delivery would contribute to the organisation’s overall strategy of functional excellence through its operations and service departments. Using a qualitative approach, this study attempts to obtain a clear insight of the perception of poor service delivery and ways of stimulating uniform approaches in order to being able to work together It is essential for the organisation to regularly assess its operational performance in order to ascertain whether progress has been made in terms of strategy changes. The purpose of the study is not to prove that the supply and demand department is not delivering to expectations, but to measure the delivery the factors that create the perception of poor service delivery. The initiative is also to identify the weaknesses, and suggest how these weaknesses can be remedied as well as to share the findings with the various stakeholders within the organisation. The findings of the study demonstrate that communication gaps exists within the organisation and communication is perceived as playing a key role in overcoming poor service delivery / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The aim of this study is to conduct a thorough theoretical study on developing a managerial framework for replacing paper based contracts with e-contracts in the agriculture environment in the North-West Province. Every business should adapt to the current economic environment, especially new technology, and need to consider the risk and reward within the industry. Businesses should analyse any new processes and investigate its impact and whether a competitive advantage is created. An extensive literature study has been conducted on the factors that could assist to develop a managerial framework. Firstly, CRM - a good CRM system will improve customer service and increase customer satisfaction, which will yield more loyalty. Secondly, improved technology will shorten the value chain by adding more value to each product or service. Thirdly, new technology, such as e-contracting, will reduce the time it takes to contract with customers and reduce the overall processing costs. Fourthly, training is crucial for any business to be successful. Fifthly, Business Process Management (BPM) system will assist a business to implement a new process. Lastly, it is important to investigate what resistance to change a business can expect. An empirical research has been conducted to investigate the effect what e-contracting has on the agriculture environment in the North-West Province in order to enable the author to develop a managerial framework to assist an agriculture business to improve customer service. It could be concluded that there is a good linkage between the results of this study and the literature. A managerial framework that can be used for the purpose of replacing paper based contracts with e-contracts in the agriculture environment in the North-West Province, has been proposed. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014