Contact Centre agents operate in closely monitored and highly controlled environments and their work consists of solving service requests or assisting customers with information on products or services. Consequently their work involves a great deal of emotional labour and stress. It is not surprising then, that the working environment of the Contact Centre is reported to have a negative impact on the levels of Quality of Worklife of Contact Centre agents, and that in the Contact Centre context, it is likely that low levels of Quality of Worklife exist. It is argued that it is important for organisations to be particularly aware of the Quality of Worklife perceptions of their employees should they want to address Quality of Worklife levels and benefit from the positive consequences of higher levels of the construct. Numerous variables are reported to play either an antecedent, moderating, mediating, or consequential role in relation to the Quality of Worklife construct. A systems model of Quality of Worklife is developed, which illustrates the inter-relationships of these variables and how they affect and are affected by the Quality of Worklife construct. It is argued that leadership is an important antecedent to Quality of Worklife, and this is the antecedent of interest in this study. It is proposed that it is not just any leadership that will contribute to an improved Quality of Worklife, particularly within a challenging context such as the Contact Centre environment. Rather, it is suggested that certain qualities of leaders will have a greater influence on Quality of Worklife. For example, leaders who focus on relationships and are caring - characteristics associated with servant leaders - are deemed more suitable for the Contact Centre context. The research also proposes that there are close associations between Servant Leadership and Trust, which in turn has the potential to affect Quality of Worklife positively. It is argued, therefore, that Trust mediates the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife in the customer service frontline context. While there is a broad base of literature available on servant leadership that focuses on the senior or executive level of leadership, Van Dierendonck and Nuijten (2011) have argued that it is also relevant at the middle level of management and have validated an eight dimensional measure of servant leadership that is suitable for this management level. The Van Laar, Edwards and Easton (2007) Quality of Worklife model is also argued to be an appropriate model and measure of the Quality of Worklife construct, due to the robustness of the instrument design and the appropriateness of its underlying theory to the context of this research. Research has shown that leadership can have a significant relationship with Quality of Worklife. Moreover, a review of the literature on servant leadership reveals that trust, satisfaction, general well-being, and commitment to their jobs increases when employees are exposed to leadership behaviours associated with servant leadership. There is however, no evidence in the literature of any investigation of the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife, or of research investigating the partial mediating effects of Trust between these two constructs. Research was conducted to test this relationship. A survey questionnaire was administered amongst a sample of 555 Contact Centre agents, who were employed in eight different organisations. Confirmatory factor analysis procedures were conducted in STATA (V15.0), to test and validate the factor structure of Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife models. The research also produced a Servant Leadership, Trust and Quality of Worklife structural equation model that supported the hypotheses of the relationships between the constructs. Mediation analysis confirmed Trust’s role as a mediator between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife. The structural equation model confirmed that synergies between Servant Leadership, Trust and Quality of Worklife exist, and that Trust partially mediates the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife. It is therefore argued that an increase in Servant Leadership behaviour by the manager or supervisor of frontline staff has a positive association with increases of Trust, as well as positive associations with Quality of Worklife experienced by employees in the frontline context. Moreover, it is also posited that the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife is partially mediated by Trust of the supervisor. The implications of these results are discussed, and recommendations made for management practice and further research.

abstract: With years of continuous Chinese economic growth and accelerating aging population, better serving the changing demands in wealth management has become the new market development directions. As evidenced in international experiences, the embedded nature of privacy and isolation of managed assets in the trust business have demonstrated built-in consistency with the needs of high-end wealth management and inheritance; hence, trust has become a very fitting vehicle for wealth management. By 2014, total assets under trust management have reached RMB14trillion. However, there is as yet a massive gap between the current service levels received by high net worth individuals and their requirements; a gap that is adverse in establishing a stable customer service relationship; which eventually hinders the vigorous development of the overall industry. With modeling the gaps in service levels as the basic foundation, this paper first and foremost starts with the discussion on the issues in listening to service needs. This paper conducted customer surveys in such categories as customer expected and perceived service quality, service level design and standards, service provided in accordance with the design, and service commitment actually fulfilled. By correlation and regression analyses, this paper analyzed the characteristics of high net worth population, concluding that high net worth individuals with different gender, profession, age exhibit varying needs, preferences and other determining factors in wealth management. This Paper has designed wealth management service standards and value-added asset allocation systems; the Paper has structured a systematic and disciplined framework in wealth management, which serves as a guideline in the implementation of leading wealth management and in the establishment of superior trust management services. It serves as an impetus for the trust industry to thrive as the leader in China’s wealth management domain, enhance industry brand image, accumulate stable customer segments and develop sustainable market core competencies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2015

Abstract Background Since the emergence of digital banking, the financial sector has experienced a significant transformation in both how business is conducted and how services are provided to customers. Previous literature has examined how new technologies and the digitalization of banks' customer service affect customer loyalty. Although, since virtual agents acting as service providers in the banking sector is a relatively new phenomenon, there is limited research concerning the implications it will have on the bank-customer relationship. Hence, the novelty and relevance of the topic makes it interesting for further research.    Purpose Through the identified underlying factors affecting customer loyalty, the purpose of this study is to examine how customer loyalty will be affected by the implementation of virtual agents as service providers in major Swedish banks.   Method This is a qualitative study, and the empirical data were collected from semi-structured in-depth interviews with bankers at four major Swedish banks, as well as with ten highly-educated customers who are frequent users of bank services.   Findings The findings showed that virtual agents must affect customer service to a large extent to have a profound impact on customer loyalty. Virtual agents will be able to replace human bankers regarding simpler inquiries satisfyingly. On the other hand, the demand for personal interactions regarding more complex matters is found to be important.

O processo de globalização e a revolução digital têm trazido novos desafios de competitividade às empresas. Um desses desafios é a mudança do foco da gestão organizacional para toda a cadeia na qual cada empresa se insere. A gestão da cadeia de suprimentos (supply chain management) requer, entre outros aspectos, a integração dos \"processos-chave\" de negócios ao longo dessa cadeia. Este trabalho teve como objetivo identificar a relação entre a integração de processos ao longo da cadeia de suprimentos e seu desempenho no serviço prestado ao cliente (customer service). Para tanto, a abordagem utilizada para a pesquisa de campo foi do tipo exploratória, tendo como objeto de estudo a cadeia calçadista da cidade de Franca, a qual constitui-se em um exemplo consolidado e de resultados concretos já obtidos de uma cadeia setorial, além de inserida no mercado internacional pela sua forte tradição exportadora. As evidências obtidas permitiram concluir que o desempenho da cadeia calçadista de Franca no serviço ao cliente está relacionado diretamente a integração dos processos de atendimento de pedidos, gestão da demanda e desenvolvimento de produtos ao longo da cadeia, envolvendo não apenas a integração com clientes, mas também com os fornecedores críticos a montante da empresa focal da cadeia, no caso os fabricantes de calçados estabelecidos na cidade. Pode-se constatar ainda que esse desempenho está relacionado também a existência de competências internas nas organizações estudadas, nos processos identificados. / The globalization process and digital revolution have been brought new challenges for organizations competitiveness. One of these challenges is the change from organizational management to supply chain management. The supply chain management requires, among other aspects, the key-business processes integration along the chain. This work has the aim to identify the relationship between processes integration along the supply chain and its customer service performance. In order to achieve this aim, a exploratory research was conducted, having as focus the footwear chain located in the city of Franca, that constitute itself a consolidate example of supply chain with good results and strong presence in international footwear markets. The evidences obtained allowed us to conclude that the performance of Franca footwear chain in the customer service is straight related to integration of order fulfillment, demand management and product development processes, encompassing not only the integration of shoes manufacturers with customers, but also with critical suppliers upstream the chain. It still can be concluded that this performance is related also to the existence of internal competences in the organizations studied, referring to the processes identified.

Este trabalho apresenta uma proposta de método para a melhoria de fluxos de informação em ambientes administrativos usando princípios da mentalidade enxuta e da reengenharia de processos. O método foi criado através de características encontradas em duas metodologias existentes da mentalidade enxuta e de soluções desenhadas pela reengenharia de processos com este propósito. Estas características foram identificadas, selecionadas e adaptadas para uso no método seguindo um modelo de gestão de mudança. Em seguida, o método foi aplicado em um fluxo de informação em uma empresa do interior de São Paulo, seus resultados foram medidos apresentando boas melhorias em relação à maior velocidade de processamento de informações, redução da quantidade de pessoas necessárias e maior porcentagem de tempo de agregação de valor. Por último, foram apresentadas observações sobre as limitações do método e da generalização dos resultados da aplicação apresentada. / This work presents a proposal of method for the improvement of information flows using the principles of lean thinking and solutions from business process reengineering (BPR). The method was created using characteristics encountered on two existing lean office methodologies, and with the solutions presented by business reengineering. Those characteristics were identified, sorted and adapted to be used in the method based on a change management model. The proposed method was implemented in an information flow of a company in the brazilian state of São Paulo, and its results were measured, presenting significant reduction of the information flow lead time, reduction of people needed to process the information and a larger percentage of added-value time. Finally, limitations of the method and the application results were presented.

Submitted by Priscilla Araujo (priscilla@ibict.br) on 2016-11-10T18:26:35Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) nakamura2013.pdf: 3425310 bytes, checksum: 01c3f336cbeb4e9b572111f9587255ab (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-10T18:26:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) nakamura2013.pdf: 3425310 bytes, checksum: 01c3f336cbeb4e9b572111f9587255ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-06 / A pesquisa se conduziu, em linhas gerais, para chegar a uma análise das condições de mediação entre a Câmara dos Deputados e o cidadão por meio do uso do Portal / The research was conducted, in general, to reach an analysis of the conditions of the intermediation between the Chamber of Deputies and society through the use of the web portal

Orientador: Franco Giuseppe Dedini / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-17T05:45:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Abreu_PollyannaSilva_M.pdf: 3581814 bytes, checksum: e1e25ece993ce9c23f6bbc11ec80b9f8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Neste trabalho buscou-se a utilização de instrumentos, técnicas e procedimentos da Psicologia, para auxiliar a tradução das necessidades básicas de clientes em uma forma estruturada, para o levantamento da Voz do Cliente, a fim de auxiliar na aplicação do método Desdobramento da Função Qualidade (QFD). A pesquisa foi realizada com usuários de cadeira de rodas e, por meio de questionários abertos e fechados, e análises qualitativas e quantitativas dos dados obtidos, foram levantadas as principais necessidades dos cadeirantes em relação à cadeira de rodas. As necessidades levantadas foram divididas em parâmetros, traduzidas em requisitos de engenharia e inseridas na Matriz I (Casa da Qualidade) do QFD. Os processos adotados são sugeridos para equipes com profissionais de diversas áreas, como metodologia válida, para levantamento da Voz do Cliente. A Matriz construída possibilitará estabelecer alguns requisitos para soluções possíveis de projeto de cadeira de rodas / Abstract: This work aimed to utilize instruments, techniques and procedures of the psychology science to help in the translation the basic necessities of the clients in a well arranged form, known as client voice, in order to aid in the application of the Quality Function Deployment(QFD). The research was carried out with Wheel chair users and utilizing both open and closed questionnaires and both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the obtained data, the main client necessities was raised in regard to the Wheel chairs. The necessities raised was divided in parameters which were translated in requisites of engineering and then inserted in the Matrix (House of the Quality) of the QFD. The processes taken as basis are suggested to teams with Professionals from several areas, as a valid methodology to survey the client voice. The generated Matrix will enable to establish some requisite to possible solutions of wheel chairs projects / Mestrado / Mecanica dos Sólidos e Projeto Mecanico / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Orientador: Orlando Fontes Lima Junior / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T09:13:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Simionatto_RafaelDammusTaiar_M.pdf: 2580949 bytes, checksum: 8e180eb638ca531ac4599598a7afc450 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: O serviço ao cliente, meta maior da logística, normalmente é tratado no âmbito da denominada logística de bens físicos. Seu comportamento no setor de serviços ainda não foi muito explorado na literatura. Estas constatações conduziram ao presente trabalho, cujo objetivo é identificar as dimensões do serviço ao cliente relevantes à logística no setor de serviços e também explorar a dimensão hospitalidade na visão dos clientes quanto à qualidade dos serviços. Aplicações práticas foram realizadas pesquisando-se: transporte de cargas, táxi, transporte executivo, hotel e estacionamento de veículos. Estes serviços foram escolhidos de forma que abrangessem algumas características específicas: tangibilidade e intangibilidade, padronização e não padronização, credenciamento e não credenciamento e diferentes formas de distribuição dos serviços. A metodologia utilizada foi baseada no método dos incidentes críticos. Questionários foram respondidos por clientes, imediatamente após o contato com os seryiços, e apontaram 434 incidentes críticos. As análises dos resultados permitiram identificar 11 dimensões do serviço ao cliente como relevantes à logística no setor de serviços: confiabilidade, prestabilidade, competência, acessibilidade, cortesia, comunicação, credibilidade, segurança, entendendo os clientes, tangíveis e hospitalidade. A dimensão hospitalidade teve sua importância relativa comprovada, estabelecendo-se o conceito de administração da hospitalidade em ambientes desvinculados de organizações ligadas ao turismo e à hotelaria. Análises quantitativas e qualitativas ainda proporcionaram identificar a necessidade de tratar a logística no setor de serviços decomposta em 3 sub-sistemas. A estrutura sugerida apresentou-se bastante compatível às estratégias competitivas ligadas ao serviço ao cliente e presentes na literatura / Abstract: The customer service, main goal of logistics, is normally treated in what is called physical logistics filed. Its behavior in the service sector hasn't been too much explored in the literature. Theses affirmations had lead to this work, which objective is to identify the customer services dimensions that are relevant to logistics in the service sector and explore the hospitality dimension in the quality of services based on customer' s perceptions. Practice application was performed in: load transport, taxi, executive transport, hotel and parking services. These services were chosen to fill some characteristics: tangible and intangible, standardized and non standardized, credence and non credence and different forms of service distribution. The methodology utilized was based on the critical incidents method. Questionnaires were answered by customers after contacts with the services and presented 434 critical incidents. Analysis of these results allowed identifying eleven dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding . / knowing customers, tangibles and hospitality. The hospitality dimension had its importance proved, establishing the concept of hospitality administration in environments that are not related with tourism or hotels. Quantities and qualities ana1ysis had provided identifying logistics in the service sector as decomposed in 3 subsystems. This structure was compatible with competitive strategies in customer services showed in literature / Mestrado / Transportes / Mestre em Engenharia Civil

O objetivo desta dissertação é contribuir para o entendimento do conceito de customer service e como ele pode ser uma ferramenta útil para o desenvolvimento de estratégias logísticas. Para tanto, estabeleceu-se um aprofundamento teórico do conceito, baseado na literatura sobre customer service e logística. Também estão presentes conceitos como o de valor, o de preço e qualidade, os tipos de relacionamento e os canais de distribuição. Por fim, aborda-se o setor varejista e o seu comportamento de compra. Foi conduzida uma pesquisa exploratória, mediante um estudo em uma empresa do setor de laticínios refrigerados. Nesta empresa, foi analisada apenas a logística de seus produtos refrigerados. Os resultados da pesquisa indicaram que a empresa não domina o conceito de customer service. Foi constatada, ainda, uma grande desvantagem competitiva da empresa com relação à empresa líder do mercado. Verificou-se, ainda, que a empresa deve reformular totalmente suas estratégias logísticas se ela pretende ser uma empresa competitiva e que satisfaça seus clientes e acionistas. Concluiu-se que customer service pode ser uma importante ferramenta no processo de estabelecimento de uma estratégia logística competitiva que agrega valor aos produtos da empresa. / The aim of this dissertation is to contribute for the understanding of the concept of customer service and how it can be a useful tool for the development of logistic strategies. Indeed, the theory used was based on customer service and logistics literature. Concepts of value, price, quality, type of relationship among companies and channels of distribution are also present. Moreover, the retail sector and its purchase behavior are studied. An exploratory research was conducted as a case study in a company of dairy products industry. In this company, only the logistics of its refrigerated products was analyzed. The outcome of this research pointed out that the company doesn’t have enough knowledge about the concept of customer service. It was verified that the company has a great disadvantage if compared with the leading company of the industry. Therefore, the company should enhance its logistics strategies if it intends to be a competitive company that brings satisfaction to its customers and stockholders. So, customer service could be an important tool in the process of establishing a competitive logistics strategy that adds value to its products.

Bakgrund: Företag som huvudsakligen agerar med Internet som kontaktkanal möter sällan eller aldrig sina kunder fysiskt, vilket leder till ett behov av att komplettera frånvaron av fysisk kontakt med andra former av kommunikation. Som lösning på detta problem har företag börjat tillämpa personligt anpassad e-postmarknadsföring vid kontakt med konsumenter för att bättre tillgodose kunders behov av relevant information. Samtidigt som personlig anpassning ger möjligheten att erbjuda kunden mervärde och öka kundens lojalitet kan också kunden uppfatta tekniken som falsk och konstruerad. Otillräcklig kunskap om konsumenters värderingar i frågor som berör personlig anpassning av e-post kan leda till att företag får svårt att knyta sig till potentiella kunder samt behålla befintliga kunder. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka till vilken grad e-handelskonsumenter föredrar personligt anpassade e-postutskick, hur e-postutskick bör framställas samt vilken betydelse konsumentens relation till företaget har. Detta ska resultera i rekommendationer till företag som genom personlig anpassning vill utveckla sin e-handelsstrategi. Metod: För att kunna bekräfta eller förkasta de uppsatta hypoteserna tar uppsatsen ett hypotetiskt deduktivt angreppssätt. En kvantitativ enkätundersökning används för att samla in empirisk data vilken har analyserats statistiskt med hjälp av t-test. Undersökningens population omfattar ett e-handelsföretags kunder. Resultat: Uppsatsens empiriska studie visar att e-handelskonsumenter av manligt kön föredrar personligt anpassade e-postutskick framför opersonliga e postutskick. I allmänhet uppfattas personlig anpassning som relevanshö-jande teknik, särskilt om den personliga anpassningen är genuin och om konsumenten tidigare uttryckligen angett sitt intresse för e-postutskicket. I uppsatsen studeras våra resultat närmare för att identifiera i vilka situationer som e-handlarnas värderingar skiljer sig åt. Företag bör beakta att kunden är mer öppen för personlig anpassning av e postutskick när denne har kontroll över hur företaget tillämpar den personliga anpassningen. Demografiska faktorer som utbildningsnivå och till viss del geografisk lokalisering har ock-så betydelse för hur personlig anpassning uppfattas. / Background: Companies that primarily act with Internet as channel of contact meet their customers in real life very rarely or never, which creates a need to complement the absence of physical contact with other forms of communication. As a solution to this problem companies have begun to implement personalized e-mail marketing in order to better satisfy customers’ need for relevant information. Still, as personalization gives the possibility to offer the customer added value while increasing the customer loyalty, the technology can also be perceived as deceitful and artificial. Insufficient knowledge regarding the customers’ perception of issues that concern personalization can result in difficulties for companies to attract new and retain existing customers. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to study to what extent e-consumers prefer personalized e-mail marketing, how e-mail campaigns should be created and what significance the relation has between consumers and companies. This is expected to result in recommendations to e-tailors that want to develop their business through the use of personalization in their e-mail marketing efforts. Method: In order to be able to verify or to falsify the set hypotheses, the research takes a hypothetical deductive approach. A quantitative survey has been used to collect the empirical data which has been statistically analyzed with the use of t-tests. The research population consists of the customers of an e-tailor. Conclusions: The empirical study shows that male e-consumers prefer personalized e mail marketing more than non-personalized e-mail marketing. Personalization is in general perceived as a technique to increase the level of relevance of the e-mail, thus being looked upon as added value, especially when the technique is genuine and if the consumer explicitly has given his or hers area of interest for the e-mail campaigns. In the thesis the research results are studied closer in order to investigate in which situations opinions part. Companies should also consider that customers are more open towards personalized e-mail marketing when she or he has control over how the companies apply personalization. Demographic factors such as level of education and to a certain extent geographical location also have an impact on how personalization is perceived.