Business managers' failure to retain dissatisfied customers leads to millions of dollars in lost revenue. The purpose of this single case study was to explore managers' training strategies to teach sales associates customer service skills. The sample included 3 training managers from the mobile phone industry in Michigan who recorded a 25 % increase in customer retention after implementing customer service training. The conceptual framework for this study was human capital theory. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and training documents. Data analysis entailed using coding techniques and cluster analysis. Member checking applied to clarify the interpretation of participants' responses and reveal missing information. The 3 themes that emerged were mentoring and recruitment, training and development, and customer satisfaction. Mentoring and recruitment surfaced from the managers' need to hire qualified sales associates. Training and development grew from the need to have a strategy to train sales associates in customer service skills. Customer satisfaction emerged from the need to retain customers for a stable business environment. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by showing the training strategies managers use to teach customer service skills to sustain business and mitigate harmful effects of job loss. The data suggested a trained sales force could work to retain customers and provide customer satisfaction. Data from this study may contribute to the prosperity of mobile phone customers from well-educated sales associates that enhance the quality of using mobile phones in the local communities. The beneficiaries of this research include business managers, sales associates, and customers.

Counterproductive employee behaviors are inevitable, unpredictable, and widespread in the U.S. retail industry. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore U.S. midlevel retail leadership strategies used to prevent and correct employee behaviors that sabotage quality service encounters. Gilbert's behavior engineering model, which links employee behaviors to performance, was the framework used in this study. The data-collection process comprised 7 semistructured interviews with midlevel retail leaders, online company documentation, and researcher observations and assisted in achieving methodological triangulation. Member checking ensured the accuracy of participant responses, while Moustakas' modified van Kaam method was used to guide the data analysis process. Making the customer service experience special, employee rudeness and bad attitudes, and leading by example were the primary emergent themes. The participants revealed key behavior intervention and corrective strategies prior to termination consisted of only 2 steps: coaching or 1-on-1 discussions and formal training. The findings of this study may contribute to retail business practices by expanding existing leadership strategies to engineer employee behaviors that produce consistent quality service encounters, empower employees, improve consumer satisfaction, and increase retail profitability and competitiveness. Resultant retailers' profitability and consumer satisfaction may contribute to social change by directly impacting the U.S. gross domestic product, local communal tax base, and reinforce human civility throughout the retail industry.

The Malaysian property development industry contends with economic challenges arising from increased competition and property glut in the market. The situation is further worsen by the onslaught of world disasters for example tsunamis, earthquakes, bird flu pandemic and terrorist attacks, thus weakening the spending power of property buyers and investors. This exploratory research therefore investigated the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in enhancing customer service for sustainable competitive advantage. Guided by an analytical framework, it reviewed the key issues in the context of customer service within the Malaysian property development industry, the existing challenges faced by Malaysian property development companies, emotional intelligence (EQ) and training and development.The identified research gaps permitted the crafting of three Research Propositions. The combined outputs from the literature review, analysis of the research data and conclusions provided useful insights on the research problem. The case study methodology, supplemented by two other categories of exploratory research, namely experience surveys and one-on-one interviews, were the research techniques used to test the research propositions.The participants involved in the experience survey and one-on-one interviews included Heads of Department from the case-study company, Frontline employees, existing clients and vendors supplying goods and services to the case-study company. The procedure of data analysis consisted of examining, categorising, tabulating and recombining the evidence to address the research problem and the related research questions.The testing, by this research, yielded useful insights on the research problem.First, in order for Malaysian property developers to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, there is a need for fresh emphasis and commitment towards customer service, placing special focus on the development of employees in the area of emotional intelligence (EQ) through the reinforcement of emotional competencies. Despite efforts to enhance customer service through training programmes, the lack of effectiveness needs to be addressed and new measures should be undertaken.Second, the need for Malaysian property development companies to understand the importance of building a service culture and to begin by formulating and implementing a service strategy and it is here that leadership plays a critical role in ensuring the success of every customer service programme throughout the entire organisation. This suggests that new approaches to creating a service culture are necessary, benchmarking with best practices of service leaders around the world, even from different industries. Third, the need for the customer service training model to be reviewed and revamped. It calls for new emphasis on the development of emotional intelligence (EQ) competencies, to ensure training effectiveness and the achievement of customer service excellence through human capital.Finally, the research findings permitted the construct of a policy framework for securing sustainable competitive advantage. The research yielded useful insights for theory and model building. In respect of enhancing customer service to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the Malaysian property development market, the research findings suggested a Service Culture Development Model that will ensure that customer service excellence can be maintained and delivered consistently, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. In respect of enhancing customer service through the development of EQ competencies in every employee and throughout the organisation, the research findings suggested a new Customer Service Training Model, where EQ competencies development programme becomes the pre-requisite foundational programme for all employees, prior to the training of customer service skill-sets. In order to create a service culture throughout the entire organisation, a customer service-oriented organisation will ensure that all employees, including top management personnel, participate in the EQ development programme.Follow-up research to test a model, based on this framework should further contribute to new theory development in emotional intelligence impacting customer service in the Malaysian property development industry.

In the last decade, the ever increasing pressure of competition faced by businesses has led to the development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In short, CRM is the practice of integrating all aspects of business functions for dealing with customers, with the assistance of technology, and with the intention of boosting company profitability. CRM has been widely promoted as a critical contributor to business survival. However, the high failure rate of CRM projects has also attracted research attention and many factors have been discussed as contributing to the success or failure of CRM implementation. This research argues that CRM is not simply a software package or a computer program. CRM, instead, should be perceived as a strategic issue in order to realize its potential. In addition, this study also argues that CRM implementation is affected by organizational, strategic and cultural factors. In particular, this study was conducted within the context of Chinese small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), with company size and culture as two major focuses in this study. SMEs were chosen as this segment has been overlooked in CRM study, yet it represents a great potential for growth in CRM adoption. Chinese culture was chosen as most of CRM studies have been conducted within a western cultural background. The Chinese culture has distinctive characteristics different from western culture, and this has strong influences on business operations. A quantitative method was adopted for this study and a mailed survey was used to collect data to examine the relevance of these factors within this context. Research participants were recruited using a systematic sampling technique through a comprehensive Chinese business directory. Results suggest that there are positive associations between a company's CRM implementation and its practice of organizational, strategic, and cultural issues. In particular, four organizational issues – organizational integration, executive commitment, system readiness, and resource availability; three strategic issues – vision, planning, and customer-centric culture; and one cultural issue – networking, have an impact on a company's CRM implementation.

在現在競爭激烈的企業環境中，企業從過往以製造與低成本為競爭優勢的供應鏈管理，逐漸轉型為以顧客需求為核心之需求鏈管理，強調企業發展之策略重點需能符合顧客需求的趨勢。顧客心聲，是了解顧客需求的重要資訊。 企業客戶服務中心，能夠協助企業將顧客心聲中粹取出重要的顧客意見回饋，透過資訊轉化，傳達至企業內部功能單位，成為企業內部決策與管理改善之重要依據，讓顧客意見能夠參與企業的決策過程。本研究主要探討之內容為企業客戶服務中心之四大營運模式，包含「客戶服務中心」、「客戶關懷中心」、「行銷媒體回應中心」與「電話行銷中心」，分別收集的顧客心聲影響企業八大價值活動的深度與強度；企業八大價值活動包含「品牌認同」、「產品研發」、「製程與品管」、「行銷活動」、「通路管理」、「服務流程」、「營業收入」與「顧客經驗」。 本研究透過實務界三個研究個案的實證分析與歸納，有以下之研究發現： 一、 透過客服中心的四種營運模式，企業具體蒐集顧客心聲，轉化為對顧客需求之了解，進而針對消費者需求提供適合的產品或服務。 二、 透過客服中心所收集顧客心聲(Voice of Customer)，經過內部資訊傳遞，可驅動企業主要八大價值活動「品牌認同」、「產品研發」、「製程與品管」、「行銷活動」、「通路管理」、「服務流程」、「營業收入」、「顧客經驗」。 三、 本研究推論當企業可採取不同的客服中心營運模式以協助企業達到不同的策略目標。 本研究之結論如下： 一、 企業客服中心，可以收集重要顧客資訊，並透過跨部門之資訊交流與管理，轉化為重要策略之參考依據，影響企業需求鏈管理的八大價值活動。 二、 企業客服中心可以協助企業驅動需求鏈管理之「了解顧客需求」(Understand Demand)、「管理顧客需求」(Manage Demand)與「創造顧客需求」(Create Demand)。 / In the more and more eager competition business environment, enterprises’s competences are transformed from supply-chain management to demand chain management. Customer-oriented is an important policy and reference for enterprises to determine development strategy. Customer contact center could collect most customer data and information which could facilitate company extract important customer insight and opinions from them. There are four operation models of customer service center, which includes”Customer service center”、”Customer care center ”、”Marketing response center”、”Telemarketing Center”. The objective of the research is want to find out how the customer insight collected from these four operation center interactive the eight major company value activities. The research is analyzed and investigated through 3 real cases, and we have the research finding as following, I. Through four models of customer contact center, enterprises could collect customer insight and transform them into the understanding of customer demand and modify the business strategy accordingly. II. The voice of customer collected from customer contact center could facilitate the eight major company value activities. III. The finding of the research inferred that the four models of customer contact center could help enterprises achieve different strategic objectives accordingly. Key word：Call Center、Demand Chain Management、Customer Insight、Customer Service

<p>Företag: Midelfart Sonesson AB</p><p>Syfte: Studien skulle ge en bild av vilka kriterier som är betydelsefulla för företag vid rationalisering av lagerställen. Den skulle dessutom ge en bild av vilka tänkbara ekonomiska konsekvenser som kan följa efter en rationalisering. Genom en fallstudie av ett typföretag och genom kompletterande intervjuer med kunniga inom logistik och företagsekonomi skulle författarna undersöka vilka kriterier som företagen lägger mest vikt på när de ska starta ett så stort projekt som lagerställesrationalisering, samt förstå vad kostnadsbesparingen kan bli.</p><p>Metod: En studie av företaget Midelfart Sonesson AB har utförts. Primär- och sekundärdata har samlats in genom personliga intervjuer, litteratur, rapporter, och elektroniska källor.</p><p>Teori: Teorin består av nio olika avsnitt som kan tillämpas på ämnet i uppsatsen. Teorin används för att förstå företagets uppbyggnad, organisation och dess handlande. Det ger en förståelse av lagerhållning och lagerställesrationalisering.</p><p>Empiri: I empirin beskrivs företagets situation idag. Förslag från konsulten tas upp, angående den förändring och det val som de står inför. Material som inkommit genom intervjuer belyses även i empirin.</p><p>Slutsats: Kostnadseffektivitet med bibehållen kundservice är de viktigaste kriterierna. Stora kostnadsbesparingar kan göras vid lagerställesrationalisering.</p> / <p>Company: Midelfart Sonesson AB</p><p>Purpose: The essay should give a picture of which criteria are important to companies when rationalizing their warehouse places. It would also illustrate what the possible economic consequences could be after a rationalization. A case study of a typical company and in addition, interviews with experts in the areas of logistics and business administration should help the authors investigate which criteria the companies emphasize, when they start such a large project as warehouse place rationalizing, and also understand the cost effect.</p><p>Methodology: A study of the company Midelfart Sonesson AB has been done. Primary- and secondary data has been gathered through personal interviews, literature, reports and electronic sources.</p><p>Theoretical perspective: The theory consists of nine different sections that can be applied to the subject of this essay. The theory is used to understand a company’s build-up, organization and its action. It gives a comprehension of stock holding and warehouse place rationalization.</p><p>Empirical foundation: This is where the company’s situation of today is described. The consultant’s recommendations, concerning the transformation and the choice that has to be made, are described. Information received through interviews is also illustrated in the empirical foundation.</p><p>Conclusion: Cost efficiency with maintained customer service is the most important criteria. Large cost savings can be made through warehouse place rationalizing.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology) )--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Deregulation of the airlines in the United States spawned a free-for-all system which led to a variety of agents within the aviation system all seeking to optimize their own piece of the aviation system, and the net result was that the aviation system itself was not optimized in aggregate, frequently resulting in delays. Research on the efficiency of the system has likewise focused on the individual agents, primarily focusing on the municipalities in an economic context, and largely ignoring the consumer. This paper develops the case for a systemic efficiency measurement which incorporates the interests of the airlines and the consumers with those of the airport operating municipalities in three different Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models: traditional Charnes-Cooper-Rhodes and Banker-Charnes-Cooper models, and a Directional Output Distance Function model, devised and interpreted using quality management principles. These models were combined to allow the resulting efficiencies of the operating configurations of the given airport to predict the efficiency of the associated airport. Based upon regression models, these efficiency measurements can be used as a diagnostic for improving the efficiency of the entire United States airspace, on a systemic basis, at the individual airport configuration level. An example analysis using this diagnostic is derived in the course of the development and description of the diagnostic and two additional case studies are presented.

Företag: Midelfart Sonesson AB Syfte: Studien skulle ge en bild av vilka kriterier som är betydelsefulla för företag vid rationalisering av lagerställen. Den skulle dessutom ge en bild av vilka tänkbara ekonomiska konsekvenser som kan följa efter en rationalisering. Genom en fallstudie av ett typföretag och genom kompletterande intervjuer med kunniga inom logistik och företagsekonomi skulle författarna undersöka vilka kriterier som företagen lägger mest vikt på när de ska starta ett så stort projekt som lagerställesrationalisering, samt förstå vad kostnadsbesparingen kan bli. Metod: En studie av företaget Midelfart Sonesson AB har utförts. Primär- och sekundärdata har samlats in genom personliga intervjuer, litteratur, rapporter, och elektroniska källor. Teori: Teorin består av nio olika avsnitt som kan tillämpas på ämnet i uppsatsen. Teorin används för att förstå företagets uppbyggnad, organisation och dess handlande. Det ger en förståelse av lagerhållning och lagerställesrationalisering. Empiri: I empirin beskrivs företagets situation idag. Förslag från konsulten tas upp, angående den förändring och det val som de står inför. Material som inkommit genom intervjuer belyses även i empirin. Slutsats: Kostnadseffektivitet med bibehållen kundservice är de viktigaste kriterierna. Stora kostnadsbesparingar kan göras vid lagerställesrationalisering. / Company: Midelfart Sonesson AB Purpose: The essay should give a picture of which criteria are important to companies when rationalizing their warehouse places. It would also illustrate what the possible economic consequences could be after a rationalization. A case study of a typical company and in addition, interviews with experts in the areas of logistics and business administration should help the authors investigate which criteria the companies emphasize, when they start such a large project as warehouse place rationalizing, and also understand the cost effect. Methodology: A study of the company Midelfart Sonesson AB has been done. Primary- and secondary data has been gathered through personal interviews, literature, reports and electronic sources. Theoretical perspective: The theory consists of nine different sections that can be applied to the subject of this essay. The theory is used to understand a company’s build-up, organization and its action. It gives a comprehension of stock holding and warehouse place rationalization. Empirical foundation: This is where the company’s situation of today is described. The consultant’s recommendations, concerning the transformation and the choice that has to be made, are described. Information received through interviews is also illustrated in the empirical foundation. Conclusion: Cost efficiency with maintained customer service is the most important criteria. Large cost savings can be made through warehouse place rationalizing.

This is a dissertation about customer focus. Customer focus is a concept that can be understood in terms of giving the customer what the customer wants. It has been argued that the industrial society has transformed into a service society with the obvious consequence that services nowadays play a leading part, not at least in regard to customer focus. The customer of today is claimed to have lost interest in mass consumption and is much attracted to personalized and unique solutions, something that results in the fact that businesses must create or develop customer focus, i.e. listen to the customer’s wishes, needs, and demands. According to most researchers in this field, “service excellence” is the primary aspect one firm can use in order to successfully compete with other similar firms. According to Service Management, customer focus is much about developing a personal relationship between the service provider (employee) and the customer. In order to that, the service provider needs to adjust his or hers behaviour in accordance with the customer. This circumstance has a tendency to lead to a “master-and-servant” relation, in which the service provider must obey the various wishes, needs, and demands any customer may have. Most studies on customer focus have been undertaken in the context of low skill service work, but the results have often (implicitly) been generalized to comprise all service work in the whole service sector. As a consequence of this situation, my survey takes on high skill service work (banking and health care). The main purpose of the survey is to examine if the results and analyses, presented from service management apply when the services are not low skill. The results from this survey shows that Service Managements heavily emphasis of the personal relationship between employee and customer – in which the service provider in some meaning need to undertake the role of a servant – can be questioned. The results also show that there is a discrepancy between (bank customers’ and patients’) opinion on an abstract comprehensive level and a specific level where various situations and errands are defined. Further, the dissertation shows that the various factors that can be included in the conception of customer focus, need to be examine more carefully. Some factors integrate in a way that makes it difficult to separate them, and one specific factor can in fact hold a variety of essences.