Standard practice dictates that mobile telephone service providers remain accurately aligned with the dynamic expectations structure of the target mobile telephone service users they serve. To comply with this requirement, literature sources assert that service providers need to adopt a candid marketing research orientation to understand what the users expect and in-build it in their service designs. Theory further contends that if such a business stance is diligently applied, any service provider is bound to gain a competitive edge in the market place. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, service providers continue design services without sufficient understanding of what users expect. This mindset has led to disparities in both the designed and the recieved service. Despite the pioneering works of earlier reserachers on the Gaps model, evidence shows that no research had been carried out to measure users' and providers' service quality perceptions in the mobile telephone branch of industry in Uganda. Much remains unknown as regards users' perceptions of expected and actual service quality and any potential disparity thereof. In the same spirit, much remains unknown as regards providers' perceptions of users' expectations and users' real expectations and potential disparity thereof. In order to measure the aforementioned disparities, the Gaps model was used in which Gaps 1 and 5 were measured for providers and users of mobile telephone services in the branch industry in Uganda.

The business environment and the economy of the society today are continuously witnessing the impact of globalisation. Telecommunication advancement and transportation has greatly made the impact of globalisation to be felt. Globalisation though argued to have its merits and its demerits have resulted in fierce competition amongst businesses. The banking industry is not isolated from these competitions. Any business wishing to survive and stay profitable in the recent world must be able to compete in the global economy. Hence, for any bank to sustain itself and remain profitable it must be able to withstand the competition in the environment it operates. To be able to compete in the banking industry means delivering better services to customers than competitors. This study presents how the South African banks can satisfy their customers and remain profitable in the face of competition. The South African banking industry consists of local and foreign banks and these banks compete for customers in the environment in which they are located. Increase in different branches by different banks has made the competition even fierce. In other to suggest recommendations for the South African banks to satisfy their customers and become profitable, the researcher identified some problem areas that need to be improved upon. These include customer loyalty, relationship banking and electronic banking. These variables were researched to understand how they affect the banks and the customers and where tested using both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis to ascertain if the customers were satisfied with the banks‟ approach of managing these variables. The results indicated that the customers were satisfied to a lesser extent. Any bank wishing to satisfy its customers and remain profitable in other to compete in the industry needs to satisfy the customer to a large extent. Therefore, recommendations where suggested based on the empirical results to help improve the banking industry‟s ways of attracting and retaining customers. The former will lead to customer satisfaction which again will lead to increased profitability.

The increasing attention to the provision of accessible, decent, safe and academically appropriate student housing in South Africa has led to a closer investigation of the nature and levels of quality in both on-campus and off-campus student accommodation. Nationwide, student housing management recognises that quality student housing is of great importance to both the quality of the higher education system and the success of students. In recent years, many studies in the field of service quality have been conducted within higher education. However, fewer studies have focused specifically on service quality in student housing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of students with regard to service quality levels in on-campus and off-campus student housing at NMMU, and to identify those service quality dimensions that need attention. A literature review was conducted to explore the meaning and nature of service and quality in student housing. It was concluded that from the different facets of service that quality, customer expectations, customer perception and customer satisfaction are important constructs in evaluating fully the levels of service quality. An amended SERVQUAL instrument comprising 41 items was used for students, in order to evaluate the service quality at on-campus and accredited off-campus student housing at NMMU. The results showed that there are significant differences in the service quality dimensions of on-campus student housing and off-campus student housing. Oncampus student housing gleaned a positive assessment for the dimensions of reliability, responsiveness, empathy and assurance. However, negative perceptions prevail with regard to on-campus infrastructural/tangible issues. The off-campus student housing fell short in a number of service-quality dimensions, including reliability, empathy, responsiveness and infrastructural/tangible issues. The assurance dimension received positive assessments for both on-campus and off-campus student housing. The study proposes that the NMMU student housing management pay attention to the shortcomings and make the desired improvements. The findings of this treatise have practical implications for student-housing managers, as they could direct their resources to improving poor service dimensions, and similarly refine marketing strategies, so that students’ needs are met in an exceptional and satisfactory manner.

The search for service and product quality has come to the forefront of business studies as the most important consumer trend of the past two decades. Studies conducted indicate that the 1990s saw a dramatic change in customer expectations concerning service quality and standards with a corresponding increase in the number of complaints from disgruntled customers. In response to this, many organisations have established customer care and complaints management services to respond to the need of customers. A substantial amount of literature exists on the subject of complaints management and its role in service quality, however, the focus has been on organisations in the private sector. The research undertaken in this paper aimed to investigate the role of complaints management systems (CMS) to evaluate service quality. The focus of this research was on local government with special attention on George Municipality. A literature review was done to establish the importance of service quality for local government as well as to investigate the link between an effective complaints management system and improvement in service quality. Furthermore, it was necessary to investigate the characteristics, design and implementation of an effective complaints management system. A questionnaire was developed in order to obtain primary data from a selected sample group. The data obtained from the questionnaire was statistically analysed and interpreted. The core findings from the analysed questionnaire indicated the following:  service quality is relevant in local government;  there is no clear method to measure service quality;  no formal and structured complaints management system exist, and  the implementation of an effective complaints management system will both improve service delivery and provide benefits to all involved. iv This study recommends that:  service quality standards and measurement be of strategic importance to local government;  customers should be consulted and involved when determining the service quality standards and measurement, and  an organised and structured complaints management system that seeks to address all complaints in order to improve the level of service quality to customers be developed. Finally, the success of the CMS will depend on management’s commitment to change on a continuous basis as well as the degree to which management proactively resolves customer complaint through the involvement of the customer.

Healthcare today has become a competitive industry, not only locally, but on a global level as well. In the South African economy the healthcare sector presently offers healthcare seekers two options to satisfy their healthcare needs – either through private business enterprises in the private sector or public enterprises in the public sector. Likewise, in the healthcare sector's hospital environment, patients can receive treatment from either private or public hospitals. As private business enterprises offering a relatively 'pure', but generally unsought-after service, private hospitals compete aggressively to attract patients. Patients are a hospital's lifeblood and they rightfully expect a high standard of customer service throughout the stay. With today's consumers being better informed, more sophisticated and more demanding than in the past, experts agree that the key to survival in the service industry today, almost without exception, is the quality of the service. The cornerstone of the service industry is without doubt the ability to deliver superior service quality that results in customer satisfaction. And the healthcare industry is no exception. Most consumers will experience a need for healthcare services at some time in their lives, but in South Africa, escalating medical costs in general and private hospitals in particular, have made private healthcare increasingly more expensive for the majority of the country's healthcare seekers. This situation raises the question of customer service in the private hospital industry and how patients' perceive service quality and evaluate customer satisfaction after a hospital stay. There is a growing body of empirical evidence from United States studies to show that service quality and customer (patient) satisfaction positively influence patients' behavioural intentions to reuse the hospital or recommend it to others (word-of-mouth endorsements). However, in South Africa, empirical studies to investigate these relationships have not been adequately addressed. This study was therefore an attempt to address the lack of scientific evidence and debate in the area of patient satisfaction. Against this background, the primary objective of this study was to measure patients' perceptions of service quality and customer satisfaction with a private hospital experience and to estimate the effect that each of these constructs will have on future behavioural intentions. More specifically, the present study was an attempt to assess empirically the most important dimensions of service quality and transaction-specific customer satisfaction dimensions that drive both patient loyalty and ‘overall’ or cumulative satisfaction in the South African private hospital industry. For the purpose of this study, buying intentions was used as a surrogate measure of loyalty as measured by willingness to reuse the hospital and/or willingness to recommend it to others (word-of-mouth endorsements). Initial exploratory research was conducted with the aim of assessing the views of three private hospital stakeholder groups, namely former patients, doctors and management about what the quality of service and customer satisfaction meant to each individual interviewed. A service enterprise that specialises in patient satisfaction surveys in the US provided particularly useful information during this phase of the study. Several case studies of patient satisfaction programmes, mostly at US hospitals, provided additional insights in this area. The study was conducted nationally at private hospitals owned by one of South Africa's three major hospital groups. Five private hospitals in four major centres were selected on a non-probability convenience basis to participate in the study. The hospital group's senior management and the management at each selected hospital gave their full commitment to ensure that the survey was successfully conducted in their hospital wards. Data were collected by means of a quantitative study using a selfadministered, structured questionnaire. Patients had to meet certain qualifying criteria which included being of adult age, in the hospital for an operation and at least one overnight stay. A total of 3 800 questionnaires was distributed to patients on a random basis in selected wards at the five hospitals by senior hospital staff designated for this task. From this distribution, 425 questionnaires were returned of which a final sample of 323 could be statistically analysed. To confirm the internal reliability of the measuring instrument, Cronbach alpha coefficients were calculated for each of the factors identified by the exploratory factor analysis. In order to assess the discriminant validity of the measuring instrument used to measure both service quality and customer satisfaction, the items were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis. The factors that emerged after the exploratory factor analysis were then used as independent variables in the four subsequent multiple regression analyses to assess the study's four hypothesised relationships. The findings revealed that the service quality dimensions that impact positively on both loyalty and cumulative satisfaction are Empathy of nursing staff and Assurance. The customer satisfaction dimensions to impact positively on both loyalty and cumulative satisfaction are Satisfaction with the nursing staff, Satisfaction with meals, and Satisfaction with fees charged.

The aim of this thesis is to suggest optimizations for Triola Plc. loyalty program based on theoretical understanding of loyalty and its role in success of a company, as well as numer-ous practical analyses. The thesis is divided into two main parts. The first part overviews the theoretical knowledge about consumer loyalty and how loyalty program can be an ef-fective tool in building said loyalty. The second part is formed of variety of practical anal-yses, including analysis of Triola sales data, data mining analysis using MML-TGI data ana-lyser, consumer survey and lastly benchmarking analysis. The last chapter is a synthesis of the theoretical and practical parts and suggest recommendations for Triola loyalty program based on the insights gathered throughout the whole thesis.

O setor varejista vem passando por profundas mudanças com o intuito de se adequar a uma realidade cada vez mais competitiva, e os serviços vêm ocupando lugares de destaque por sua contribuição no processo de agregar valores aos consumidores. A satisfação dos consumidores em relação a esses serviços também é fundamental para que os varejistas alcancem suas realizações. Assim, torna-se essencial entender como certos conceitos como a qualidade do serviço e a imagem da loja influenciam na formação da satisfação desses consumidores. Embora existam muitas pesquisas relacionadas a esses conceitos, pouco se tem estudado sobre a relação entre eles. Esses estudos se tornam ainda mais raros quando inseridos no contexto dos serviços automotivos ainda que este represente um setor em desenvolvimento. A importância do setor automotivo e dos relacionamentos entre os conceitos acima mencionados foram estímulos para o objetivo deste trabalho que foi analisar o papel da qualidade do serviço e da imagem da loja na satisfação dos consumidores de serviços automotivos. Para que esse objetivo pudesse ser alcançado, foram realizadas revisões da literatura sobre a qualidade dos serviços, a imagem da loja, a satisfação dos consumidores, o setor automobilístico no Brasil e a relação entre a satisfação dos consumidores, a qualidade dos serviços e a imagem da loja. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada em duas etapas: num primeiro momento, foram coletados dados através da aplicação de questionários enviados por correio eletrônico e também aplicados a estudantes de graduação. Para a confirmação desses dados, realizou-se um grupo focado com consumidores de serviços automotivos. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que, além dos aspectos da qualidade do serviço, os aspectos relacionados à imagem da loja também desempenham um importante papel na formação da satisfação dos consumidores de serviços automotivos. / The retail store has been going through deep changes in order to fit into a reality which is becoming more and more competitive, and the services have been more important to add value to consumers. Consumer satisfaction related to these services is also fundamental for retailers to reach their goals. Therefore, it is essential to understand how certain concepts such as service quality and retail store image influence consumer satisfaction building. Even though there are many researches related to these concepts, there are few studies about their relationship. These studies are even more rare when it comes to the automotive service context, yet it is a developing sector. The importance of the automotive sector and the relationship between the concepts mentioned before led to the objective of this dissertation which is to analyze the service quality role and the retail store image role in the process of consumers satisfaction building related to automotive services. In order to achieve this goal, a literature review about service quality, store retail image, consumer satisfaction, the automotive sector in Brazil, and the relationship among consumer satisfaction, service quality, and retail store image was made. The research was divided in two steps: questionnaires were both sent by E-mail and also answered by undergraduate students. To confirm these data, a focused group of automotive service consumers was formed. The results showed that not only the service quality aspect but also the retail store image aspects have an important role in the process of building consumers satisfaction related to automotive services.

This study examines the use of True Fit® technology by millennial consumers and its impact on consumer confidence and satisfaction with respect to online sizing. In the apparel industry, there is a lack of size standards among retailers, and as a result consumers will encounter frequent size variations in their clothing size. Difference sizing technology has been developed to address the sizing issue. One is True Fit® which unlike other sizing technologies, uses mathematical algorithms to compile large amounts of data from designers. The purpose of this study was to analyze consumer confidence and satisfaction after True Fit® has been used to make a sizing decision while online shopping. The technology acceptance model (TAM) was used as the basis for the theoretical framework for this study. TAM explores how current advances in technology are influencing consumers' behaviors and attitudes. The variables studies included perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude, intent to use True Fit®, confidence and satisfaction. The methodology used in the study is a quantitative method consisting of an online survey and a True Fit® task, where consumers were exposed to True Fit® prior to answering questions about the use of sizing technology. The results of the study suggest the dependent variable of confidence and satisfaction with the sizing technology was positively affected by the intent to use True Fit®. Thus, it can be inferred that consumers felt positively about adopting apparel size technology and that technology such as this would have wide application in the future.

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The growth of direct broadcast satellite television distribution to the home as a viable competitor to cable and terrestrial broadcast has fostered the availability of special interest or niche channels and therefore provided greater choice to the viewer. This study, based on uses and gratifications theory, examined the relationships among ritual and instrumental viewing motivations and satisfactions, viewer religiosity, and viewing attentiveness as they related to the selection of a niche television channel, Brigham Young University Television. The uses and gratification approach provides an appropriate framework for studying "media consumption, the interrelated nature of television user motives, and the relationships among viewing motives and viewing patterns" (Abelman, 1989, p. 57). Data was gathered by way of an online survey of non-random, self-selected BYU Television viewers. Participants answered 67 questions about their motives for choosing to view BYU Television and the gratifications they received from their viewing. The 596 valid responses to the survey were analyzed. The study results are in harmony with previous uses and gratifications studies examining ritual and instrumental viewing patterns. The data found positive relationships between instrumental viewing motives and instrumental viewing satisfactions, as well as instrumental viewing motives and viewing selectivity. There was no support for those hypotheses that dealt with the level of viewing attention as it related to religiosity or instrumental viewing motives. Future topics of study are suggested including the opportunity an expanded media universe provides to increase the depth and breadth of uses and gratification theory, as well as to study the role of niche television services in community building.