I hospitalitybranschen arbetas det intensivt med att erbjuda sina gäster så bra upplevelser som möjligt. Nya teknologiska lösningar som påverkar gästers interaktion med branschen utvecklas ständigt, samtidigt som människors levnadsvanor blir allt mer integrerade med det teknologiska. Flera undersökningar visar att just teknologi inkorporerad i hospitalitybranschen är en bidragande faktor för en förhöjd gästupplevelse, men trots det är det få inom branschen som väljer att anamma den. Tron om att den typen av investeringar är allt för kostsamma, okunskap om att teknologin finns och en allt för konservativ syn är tänkbara förklaringar till att stora delar av branschen halkar efter. I uppsatsen redogörs för några i världen pågående trender och en litteraturstudie genomförs för att undersöka hur teknologi kan användas för att förhöja gästupplevelsen inom hospitalitybranschen med hänsyn till dessa trender. Uppsatsen diskuterar hur branschen är på väg att förändras och föreslår ett par exempel för hur ditt varumärke kan hänga med i utvecklingen redan idag. / B-uppsatser

Thesis (M. Tech. (Faculty of Management Sciences, Dept. of Human Resources Management) -- Vaal University of Technology / The buzzwords in South African business today is quality service and customer satisfaction. Service quality is an important determinant of customer satisfaction. It is therefore important to measure customer satisfaction and to solicit internal customers perceptions on service received. This research was primarily undertaken to evaluate the quality of services rendered by administrators to Sasol Technology R&D employees. The research is supported by a detailed study of quality and customer service. An adapted internal service quality scale (INSERVQUAL) was used to measure service quality. A thirty item scale was developed, for the empirical study. The instrument was then subjected to a scale purification process through exploratory factor analysis. Both the expectation and perception elements were used in measuring service quality. The five dimensions of service quality namely Accessibility and Tangibility, Assurance, Empathy, Reliability and Responsiveness were identified as internal service quality dimensions. Aspects of Accessibility and Tangibility were incorporated as a single dimension in this study. A six- point Likert scale was used in the questionnaire. The low end of the scale represented a negative response, whilst the high end represented a posit,ive response. With a response rate of 63% from internal customers, the researcher was able to provide evidence that service quality dimensions may influence an employee's perception of the administrators' service quality. The finding in this study also suggests the need for further research to examine customers' expectations in other related services as well as in different culture contexts. The testing of the modified internal customer model of internal marketing developed and described in this study indicates that Access, Assurance, Empathy, Reliability and Responsiveness dimensions may be a useful approach to enhancing service quality.

By applying the Kano Model on mobile payment, the paper aims at giving an overview on thebasic, performance and excitement requirements that affect customer satisfaction. In this paper,mobile payment customer requirements are compared to former research conducted onpayment methods in general. Furthermore, each requirement is divided into two parts focusingon Business-to-Customer and Business-to-Business aspects. The findings of the paper werethat while there is still some overlapping between general payment method and mobile paymentmethod requirements, some requirements such as security, fake-proof nature, reputation andreliability of the method has transformed and became more important. Furthermore, due totechnological advancements new customer requirements occur.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand Business School, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, 2015 / Arguably the most important function a business focuses on is revenue generation, which is ultimately achieved through immediate sales and the inculcation of future customer spend. For many businesses, notably in the business-to-business realm, salespeople are still required to form relationships with key customer buyers and to achieve or facilitate sales through this “dyadic” interpersonal relationship. Understanding what makes relationships and interactions between customer buyers and salespeople successful – from a sales perspective – remains an important concern for organisations and marketing theorists. In such sales relationships, the “success” of the sale and the longer term sales relationship can depend on aspects of the interpersonal relationships such as the ability of the parties to communicate well, come to agreement, and potentially even bond socially. The ability of parties to form productive and conducive interpersonal relationships in turn depends on factors such as personality and culture. This thesis argues that there is no particular “best” personality or culture for the formation of successful sales relationships, but that match between the personality traits of salespeople and customers as well as between their respective organisation’s cultures may facilitate success in sales. As indicated above, the thesis studies two main dependent variables, namely sales success and word-of-mouth. These variables are derived from the theory of customer equity management (Rust, Lemon, & Narayandas, 2005). The thesis argues that prior to generating income through either a sale or through word-of-mouth the organisation will need to have a relationship with the customer. Relationship marketing (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) provides a framework for understanding what constitutes a relationship. The current study aligns itself with prior literature arguing that relationship quality comprises three components specifically; trust, satisfaction and commitment. Personality research has remained at the heart of industrial research and managerial practise. Voluminous literature has used the Big Five personality traits for understanding customer’s interactions. The five personality traits include Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience (Soto & John, 2012). The current study argues that it is not the personality traits themselves which are important, but rather the similarities or differences between the customer and the salesperson. Organisation culture has been shown to affect several different arenas within the management field, but has not been much examined within the context of dyadic relationships. The specific relationship that the study addresses is the customer-salesperson relationship. In this thesis I argue that both the customer and salesperson to some extent embody and reflect their respective organisational cultures, and in addition, sales systems can reflect organizational cultures, for instance where bureaucratic organizational culture creates sales systems with high levels of formality. In turn, match or mismatch in organizational cultures may affect sales or relationship outcomes in various ways. The well-known organisational culture index (Wallach, 1983) will be used to capture the cultures from both the salesperson and customer. The three elements of organisational culture measured by the index include bureaucratic cultural aspects, innovative cultural aspects, and supportive cultural aspects. To test these relationships, the thesis presents an empirical study based on a cross-sectional, quantitative, survey of the SME market in South Africa. One hundred salesperson-customer dyads participated in the study, and data from each member of the dyad was surveyed separately. Statistical techniques such as partial least squares structural equation modelling and polynomial regression were used in the analysis of the data. A response surface methodology allowed for graphical representation of the polynomial regression results. These results then acted as inputs for a Bayesian Networks analysis (Charniak, 1991), which are used to improve the understanding of causality. Results of the empirical survey indicate that trust, satisfaction and commitment affect the level of word-of-mouth while only trust and commitment have an effect on sales. The analysis indicates that matches or mismatches in the personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness do affect dependent variables of relationship quality, sales success and word-of-mouth, and do so in differing ways. This thesis provides several unique contributions to sales theory and literature. First, although the salesperson-customer dyad has been studied before, the differences in personality traits have not been included. This is particularly true within the South African context. Secondly, organisational culture literature has been reviewed and studied but has neglected the role that organisational culture plays in the sales environment, specifically when interacting with a customer. Third, several theories are used to explain why the constructs came together; however certain aspects of these theories are questioned. Lastly, several practical applications are provided that allow organisations to improve the hiring process and implement training objectives for their sales force. Key Words: Dyad, satisfaction, trust, commitment, customer lifetime value, relationship marketing, relationship quality, organisational culture, bureaucracy, innovation, supportive, response surface, polynomial regression, Bayesian network, customer equity management. / MB2016

by Chan Wai Man. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-76). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / LIST OF ILLUSTRATION --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / Chapter CHAPTER I - --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.0 --- Overview --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- The Rationale --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Purpose --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- Significance of This Study --- p.3 / Chapter 1.4 --- Outline of This Paper --- p.4 / Chapter CHAPTER II - --- REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND MODEL DEVELOPMENT --- p.5 / Chapter 2.0 --- Overview --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- What is Service Encounter --- p.5 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Role of Temporal Dimensions of Service Encounters --- p.8 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Duration and Frequency --- p.8 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Conceptual Model --- p.11 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- "The Causal Relations among Duration, Frequency and Authentic Understanding" --- p.17 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- "The Causal Relations among Duration, Frequency and Perceived Familiarity" --- p.20 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- "The Causal Relations among Duration, Frequency and Efficiency" --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- "The Causal Relations among Authentic Understanding, Familiarity, Efficiency and Service Evaluation" --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3.5 --- Summary --- p.27 / Chapter CHAPTER III - --- METHODOLOGY --- p.28 / Chapter 3.0 --- Overview --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1 --- Research Design --- p.28 / Chapter 3.2 --- Manipulations --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Sample and the Sampling Procedure --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- The Sample --- p.29 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Sampling Procedure --- p.29 / Chapter 3.4 --- Data Collection Procedures --- p.30 / Chapter 3.5 --- Operationalization of Constructs --- p.31 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Service Evaluation (EVA) --- p.31 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Authentic Understanding (UN) --- p.32 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Perceived Familiarity (FAM) --- p.32 / Chapter 3.5.4 --- Efficiency (EFF) --- p.32 / Chapter 3.6 --- Data Analysis --- p.33 / Chapter 3.6.1 --- Manipulation Checks --- p.33 / Chapter 3.6.2 --- MANOVA analysis --- p.34 / Chapter 3.6.3 --- MANOVA by Structural Equation Modeling --- p.34 / Chapter 3.7 --- Research Activities --- p.36 / Chapter 3.7.1 --- Pretest 1 --- p.36 / Chapter 3.7.2 --- Pretest 2 --- p.38 / Chapter 3.7.3 --- The Main Study --- p.39 / Chapter 3.8 --- Summary --- p.39 / Chapter CHAPTER IV - --- RESULTS AND DISCUSSION --- p.40 / Chapter 4.0 --- Overview --- p.40 / Chapter 4.1 --- Manipulation Check --- p.40 / Chapter 4.2 --- MANOVA analysis --- p.40 / Chapter 4.3 --- MANOVA by Structural Equation Modeling --- p.45 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Results --- p.47 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Model Evaluation --- p.51 / Chapter 4.4 --- Discussion --- p.55 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.58 / Chapter CHAPTER V - --- CONCLUSION --- p.59 / Chapter 5.0 --- Overview --- p.59 / Chapter 5.1 --- Summary of the Research --- p.59 / Chapter 5.2 --- Contributions of the Study --- p.61 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- The Theoretical Contributions --- p.61 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- The Managerial Implications --- p.62 / Chapter 5.3 --- The Limitations --- p.65 / Chapter 5.4 --- Future Research --- p.67 / Chapter 5.5 --- Summary --- p.68 / THE REFERENCE --- p.69 / Appendices --- p.77

The diploma thesis describes current situation of customer care in FMCG with focus on supermarkets, shops and restaurants. The thesis is based on research of customer satisfaction with current situation and proposal for improvement. Proposal is described in theoretical way and suppported by implementation on the concrete company.

Thesis (MBA.) --University of Limpopo, 2017 / The research was qualitative, where groups of restaurants managers/owners were interviewed in the three Polokwane Malls namely Limpopo Mall, Savannah Mall and Mall of the North. The purpose of the interviews was to find out what customers complain about in restaurants. To find how the customers in restaurants lodge their complaints; how the businesses deal with complaints; how customers bring forth their complaints in different ways; and to identify which groups complain the most. Further, to find out how restaurant owners handle customer complaints and to whom customers lodge those complaints, and the ways which restaurants use to respond to the customers’ complaints. The research results show that restaurant customers complain mostly verbally to the managers. Females are the ones complaining more than their male counterparts. Levels of education make no difference to how customers complain. Waiters need to render quality service as product knowledge is not the only product customers prefer; they actually value service more. The study recommends that restaurants need to pay careful attention to services such as a clean eating area to avoid complaints as most complaints come about this area; verbal and nonverbal skills of employees should be developed in order to avoid complaints from customers. Managers should be equipped to handle customers’ complaints as they are the people to whom such complaints are addressed and waiters/waitress should be made aware that customers are important and their complaints are always valued in the business in order to improve service

The continued growth of service industries and the development of the experience economy has highlighted the need for employees to have extensive social and interpersonal skills. The need for employee interpersonal skills is further emphasised by the extensive interaction between employees and customers, during the provision of customer service, in full service hotels. Despite the heterogeneous nature of the customer service environment, management expect that a consistent level of service will be maintained, while customers desire a unique experience that meets or exceeds their individual expectations. To ensure that both the needs of the organisation and customers are consistently met, management control of employee actions and behaviours is required.The aim of this study was to identify how hotel organisations and managers control employee interpersonal interactions with customers. The research also sought to identify the interpersonal and emotional capabilities employers require from employees to meet the needs of customers and present the desired corporate image. A qualitative, case study, research methodology was applied to understand the expectations of managers, the issues concerning managing employee interactions with customers, perceptions of employee capabilities, and beliefs about current management control strategies in a hotel environment. The research was conducted at four hotel properties belonging to one international hotel group. The data gathering methods included semi-structured interviews, documentation review and field notes.The research concluded that effective alignment of employee and management goal congruence first requires the alignment of managers' goals to the organisation. To ensure management's expectations, customers' expectations and employee actions and behaviours are aligned, management must also have a sound understanding of the organisation's brand and desired image. Cultural and social control mechanisms were found to be important, as they provided a consistent method of aligning employees' behaviour with the goals and expectations of management. The development of social cohesion and norms, through serial and investiture socialisation mechanisms, also helped to create self-managing teams that reinforced the goals of management. The study suggests that, due to the increasing diversity of the stakeholders' views and goals, some of the traditional management perspectives of hospitality may need to change to meet the needs of contemporary employees.

<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of this essay is to study how the hotel chain Radisson SAS works with prolonged customer relations with their business clients, with other words the clients that have business agreements with them.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study will contain an inductive approach and qualitative methods. The qualitative research method is in the shape of a deep interview with the sales manager of Radisson SAS and qualitative interviews of chosen business clients to the hotel.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The results of this investigation show that business clients are controlled by what kind of agreements their company has.</p><p>The companies sign agreements with hotels and hotel chains that are able to satisfy big parts of their needs, if not all of them.</p><p>With the help of flexible solutions, a well known brand, and good relations, Radisson SAS has made sure that their business clients have prolonged their agreements.</p><p>They are a global hotel chain near transports, and business clients feel secure with Radisson SAS.</p>

Title: Investigating factors that can have an impact on customer loyalty -an empirical study of IKEA     Level: thesis for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration   Author: Nana Wei 8502202-T141   Supervisor: Dr. Aihie Osarenkhoe   Date: 2010 – May   Aim: The aim of this thesis is to investigate which factors will have impact on customer’ loyalty strategy. And in this study, both markets of China and Sweden will be discussed. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is on the international companies.   Method: As the purposes of this thesis are descriptive and explanatory, the method used in this thesis is the qualitative method. Interview method is used in the thesis to collect data and information. Besides that, case study method is used in the thesis to analyze the data and information.   Findings: when considering how to retain customer loyalty, service quality, communication, advertisements is important for companies. Moreover, trust and commitment are also important for companies. Besides that, there are some differences between Chinese and Swedish markets, such as different attitude towards customer classifying method, and the different reasons of implementing customer loyalty strategy. Finally, some problems of customer loyalty strategy are studied.   Contribution: This research is about customer loyalty strategy and the focus of it is the comparison of Chinese and Swedish markets. Therefore, this thesis helps to better understand customer loyalty strategy in different markets.    Key words: customer loyalty, customer classifying, trust, commitment, communication