The airline product is a standardized product and positioning in today’s highly competitive and constantly changing environment is one of the most important elements in an airline’s marketing strategy. Airlines are constantly trying to apply and implement various marketing positioning strategies in order to achieve success and growth. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the positioning strategies of the four selected Middle Eastern airlines in the South African business and leisure travel environment, based on airline performance in terms of service quality attributes that are perceived as important by passengers. The results of the study will contribute towards the air transport literature by confirming the validity of grouping a large number of service quality attributes and adding value to the role players’ understanding of their particular airlines’ influence and importance of service quality for positioning. The study also addresses the need for reliable information on attributes of service quality that are perceived by South African business and leisure passenger as crucial factors impacting on the selection of their airline. A literature review as well as empirical research was conducted to achieve the purpose of this study: the former provided a demarcation of the broad concepts of service quality and positioning. These concepts were specifically linked to the airline industry, providing a clear indication of the positioning strategies used by the selected airlines as reflected through the media and the airlines’ websites. The literature review also helped to identify the service quality attributes that were important to passengers of different airlines. These attributes were used to determine the positioning of the selected airlines as perceived by their passengers. The positioning of airlines was graphically represented using 3D Centroid plots. The data was analyzed using factor analysis, analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance. Factor analysis was used to group identified attributes of service quality important to passengers of selected Middle Eastern airlines. Analysis of variance was used to test the relationships between variables, while multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the effect of variables on each other. Databases were not available for this study: therefore non-probability sampling methods, namely convenience and quota sampling, were used. A limitation of the study within which the data analysis occurred is that the data collected was not normally distributed. The data had to be transformed and then tested for normality. The transformed data was normally distributed . The results of the research suggest that passengers are mostly concerned with the responsiveness of the airline and reliability of service, followed by consistency in the quality of service, and are less concerned about the added efforts of the airline as its main positioning component. The findings suggest the direction to be taken for the purpose of service improvement. Airlines should focus more on security measures and well-trained employees, as this will give passengers more confidence. Being responsive and prompt and willing to help, with a courteous attitude, should be a priority objective for employees as part of the service culture. The findings also suggest that more resources should be invested in customization, such as loyalty and frequent flyer programmes. The recommendations of this study could be used to improve the current process of service delivery. / Dissertation (MCom(Tourism Management))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Tourism Management / MCom / Unrestricted

The highly competitive landscape of the automotive industry places increasing pressure on automotive dealerships to continually improve the quality of services rendered to customers. Understanding customer expectations and customer perceptions is key to making improvements in areas that matter most to the customer. It is against this background that this study was conducted. The aim of this research was to measure service quality at automotive dealerships. The literature review focused on the gaps model which resulted in the SERVQUAL measuring tool. The SERVQUAL instrument is supported by literature as the optimal instrument for measuring service quality. The 22-item questionnaire was adapted and used to solicit feedback from customers on their expectations and perceptions of the service rendered by dealerships across the five SERVQUAL dimensions; namely, tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, empathy and assurance. Gaps between customer expectations and perceptions were calculated as an indication of areas where customer expectations were met, unmet or exceeded. In order to identify priorities for improvement, each of the SERVQUAL dimensions was ranked in order of importance by the customer. Convenience sampling was used as a sampling technique. A total of 142 Volkswagen owners who had their vehicles serviced or repaired at a franchised dealership were surveyed. The reliability of the SERVQUAL questionnaire was tested by calculating the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for each of the five dimensions. The calculation yielded an average coefficient of 0.83, indicating a high reliability of the measuring instrument and the data collected. The overall gap score of -0.7 indicates that customer expectations exceeded customer perceptions. The lowest customer perceptions and the largest gaps were reported in the reliability and responsiveness dimensions. These two dimensions were also rated as the most important dimensions customers use for evaluating service quality. This formed the basis for recommending that dealership employees and management focus most of their efforts on improving the reliability and responsiveness dimensions.

The aim of the paper is to render the usage possibilities overview of the marketing survey method called Mystery shopping in testing the service quality provided to customers. The outputs of the survey should provide the information about organizational process' weaknesses and qualities used in contact with the customer. Based on these findings, the entity is enabled to accept such steps as to improve the quality of the services provided.

The thesis analyses the factors of customer decision-making process by choosing a freight forwarder in the Czech Republic market. While applying factors by other relevant research studies dealing with the decision-making process of customers in non-European countries, the research examines factors characteristic for the Czech customers. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews as research methods are applied. Within the research, a new service quality instrument TARRQUAL was developed. The TARRQUAL was proved on a survey including 250 customers of freight forwarder Kühne+Nagel Czech Republic. As service quality measurement, TARRQUAL is supposed to be applied particularly in logistics business field. The project aims at providing input for empirical research in the field of service quality in container shipping, which is lacking in the Central and East European countries.

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Orientador: Maria Carolina de Azevedo Ferreira de Souza / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-31T20:49:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eleuterio_SueliAparecidaVarani_M.pdf: 5504418 bytes, checksum: 11ac464165928edb6748b99d5c569d3a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2001 / Resumo: A importância do setor de serviços na economia de diversos países desperta nas empresas o interesse pela qualidade em serviços, em busca de um melhor atendimento aos seus clientes como um fator de diferenciação competitiva. Nesse contexto, devem ser inseridos os serviços externos e os serviços internos, esses últimos caracterizados pela relação cliente-fornecedor interno. Este trabalho aborda a importância das empresas dedicarem maior atenção à qualidade na prestação dos serviços internos fornecidos aos próprios funcionários. Subsidiado por um referencial teórico e com base no Modelo Conceitual da Qualidade de Serviços (Modelo de Gap), foi realizada uma avaliação, utilizando a escala SERVQUAL, com um grupo de clientes internos, sobre a qualidade dos serviços que recebem de um departamento de apoio computacional de uma empresa da região de Campinas. A análise dos dados permitiu observar que, do ponto de vista dos usuários, não há qualidade satisfatória dos serviços prestados pelo departamento. Algumas recomendações foram apresentadas ao departamento, de forma que a empresa possa reavaliar seus processos e prestar serviços com qualidade aos seus funcionários, para que estes, conseqüentemente, possam oferecer excelente atendimento aos clientes externos / Abstract: The importance of service economy in several countries leads the companies towards to service quality, which search to improve the ability of satisfying its customers needs as a competitive differentiation factor. We can inc1ude in this context external and internal services, these last ones characterized by the internal provider-customer relationship. This work is an approach about the importance of companies in dedicate more attention to quality in internal services delivery which have been provided to its own employees. Based on theoretical references and on the Conceptual Model of Service Quality (Gap Model), was carried out an evaluation applying the SERVQUAL instrument with a internal customers group, about the service quality they receive from a technical support department of a company located in the Campinas region. Data analysis have allowed to observe that, by the internal customer point of view, the quality of services provided by the department is not good. Some recommendation were presented to the department, in order to allow it an evaluation of its processes and provide services with quality to its customers and those consequently providing good services to the external customers / Mestrado / Gestão da Qualidade Total / Mestre Profissional em Engenharia Mecanica

This research aimed to study the correlation between customer satisfaction and service quality in the hotel business. It also outlines the significance of understanding customer satisfaction and how customers distinguish service delivery. Customers have changed prospects based on their consideration of service or product quality. This factor is an indication that a customer determines the quality of service in the hotel industry. Also, the five-dimensional aspects of service quality (empathy, reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, and service assurance) impact service quality and customer satisfaction. This research empirically studied the connection between service quality and customer satisfaction in Best Western Princess Hotel in Norrköping, Sweden. Out of the 100 questionnaires sent to respondents, a total of 80 questionnaires were returned. This data, therefore, formed the basis for our analysis. The study entailed the use of qualitative descriptive research. Open-ended questionnaires were used for data collection. The statistics were coded and analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software. The study also contains appropriate recommendations similar to conclusions regarding the research problem. Evaluation of the outcomes shows that responsiveness, empathy, assurance, and reliability significantly influence customer satisfaction hence determining the nature of services provided. This research indicates a close correlation between service quality, the five-dimensional aspects, and customer satisfaction.

The aim of this thesis is to found out about what is a good treatment in the university library and what librarians can do to make the user happy. The study focused on the meeting between the doctoral student’s and the library staff, about how the doctoral student’s wanted to be treated. The study was carried out thorough a series of four qualitative interviews with doctoral student’s. The result I analyzed from the qualitative interviewers with theories. The result of this study showed that often appreciated by the user of librarians are friendly, smiles, have eye contact during the meeting and show that they are really interested in helping the user and have patience. As a result, I worked out my own model on the parts that some of them I thought were important regarding a correct user response. Then in the analysis I explain the parts in more detail.

Tax revenue forms the backbone of the South African economy. Although the tax gap in South Africa has shrunk in recent years, there is still a large tax gap in South Africa. Hence, there is an urgent need to enhance taxpayer compliance. The South African Revenue Service’s (SARS’s) image in the community is a key driver of voluntary taxpayer compliance. The quality of the services provided by SARS is therefore crucial, as service quality directly affects SARS’s image in the community and thus voluntary tax compliance. The objective of the present research was therefore to establish the perceptions that tax practitioners hold with regard to the services rendered by SARS in order to develop a service quality model that can be used to measure SARS’s service quality continuously. The development of a service quality model for the assessment of the services provided by SARS is justified, because it is an essential means to improving the services that SARS provides and therefore also voluntary compliance. The present research defined services, quality, service quality and perceived service quality on the basis of a literature review. These definitions served as a theoretical underpinning for the development of the proposed service quality model. The literature review suggested that a user-based approach to quality was the most relevant approach to this study and that it is important to build the “lens of the customer”. In order to develop the specific “lens of the customer” needed to evaluate the services of SARS, an in-depth, qualitative approach was required to identify a comprehensive range of determinants that potentially drive service quality in the revenue service industry and setting. One such qualitative method is the critical incident technique, which was chosen as the method to be used for building the “lens of the customer” to measure tax practitioners’ evaluations of the quality of the services SARS provides. The critical incident technique relies on a set of procedures to collect comments on service experiences, to perform a content analysis and to classify the observations of service experiences. The critical incident data were collected by means of open-ended questionnaires which tax practitioners registered with SARS were asked to complete, first in a focus group and then individually, using an e-mailed questionnaire. The main data collection instrument was administered by SARS to all tax practitioners registered with SARS country-wide. The data analysis of the responses provided by the tax practitioners involved three processes. The first was the identification of usable critical incidents, the second was the development of a classification scheme for the content analysis and the third was a content analysis of the critical incidents that had been identified. After a content analysis process that involved the preparation of summaries of the frequencies of the responses in accordance with a relevant classification scheme, a process of natural language argument was used to convert the data analysis results and the relevant elements of the theory from the literature survey into two proposed models, one for the traditional services and one for the electronic services provided by SARS. These service quality models can be used as a basis for studies to establish the perceptions of tax practitioners with regard to the quality of SARS’s services. The conceptual models of service quality that were proposed should also enable SARS to identify quality problems and assist SARS in planning for the launch of a quality improvement programme, and thereby improving the efficiency and overall performance of SARS. Copyright / Thesis (DCom)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Taxation / unrestricted

This thesis is a qualitative research that provides an understanding of store managers perception of internal marketing on the Swedish retail market. It also describes how the store managers use internal marketing to guide their frontline employees to deliver high quality service. This research aims to highlight the importance of service deliverance in the retail sector. Due to the changes that are taking place within retail where globalization, digitalisation and automation are changing customers' views on trade, it is becoming increasingly important to differentiate themselves. More and more physical stores are finding it difficult to survive and many are forced to shut down.  This study therefore wants to highlight the use of internal marketing to be able to deliver high quality service at the encounter between the frontline employees and the customer in physical stores. Therefore, the study will give answers to the following questions: (1) How do store managers on the Swedish retail market perceive internal marketing? (2) How are internal marketing used in physical stores to work with service quality deliverance? To answer these two questions a meticulous examination of previous studies on the concepts internal marketing, employee satisfaction and service quality was made. A conceptual framework for the study was set to classify and analyse the findings of the study. The empirical findings consis data collected through semi-structured interviews with six store managers of three different retail stores on the Swedish market.   It was concluded that the store managers perception of internal marketing is unclear but that they all believe it is important. Nevertheless, it can be seen that internal marketing is important and that the store managers work daily with activities to guide the frontline employees to deliver high quality service. However, these activities are not expressed as internal marketing among the companies and store managers. It was also concluded that the service quality delivered by the frontline employees was significant to the success of the stores in the store manager's point of view.