This study of 79 male and 139 female university students investigated organizational recovery efforts following customer dissatisfaction. Rather than exploring recovery efforts that occur following a service failure, this study examined proactive versus reactive recovery efforts to determine implications for customer service. The purpose of this study was to determine ways in which to prevent a dissatisfying consumer experience from concluding as a complete service failure. This research extended the previous investigations of service recovery by Webster and Sundaram (1998) and Smith, Bolton, and Wagner (1999).A 4 x 3 factorial design employed four service recovery efforts and three service industries. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty served as the primary dependent variables. Results supported the hypothesis that the use of communication before a dissatisfying service event concludes increases both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The results also provided evidence that customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are positively correlated. Combination recovery efforts and implications are discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

M.Comm. / Telkom is currently busy with extensive re-engineering of its customer interface operational structures. The primary goal of this study is to measure the impact of these re-engineering processes on Telkom customers' perceptions of service quality by way of tracking the impact of the current Telkom re-engineering process on customer satisfaction. The study consists of both a literary review and an empirical survey. The literature review consist of a study of service quality, the re-engineering process required in order to improve service quality, and service quality improvement in the South African environment with specific reference to Telkom. The empirical survey consist of comparing two research reports on customer service quality in Telkom. The research reports are the result of the customer satisfaction satisfaction monitor program that Telkom initiated to track customer perceptions of service quality. The main conclusions of the study are as follows: Many organisations' transformation efforts fail because of ineffective planning and execution. Research have identified various reasons why transformation efforts fail and what steps are crucial to the success of any transformation process. The studies have shown that there are no single success recipe when it comes to organisational transformation methodology. The micro environment as well as the macro environment influencing the organisation determines the manner in which a transformation process is structured, implemented and managed. This includes the strategic intent guiding the organisation, the architecture (or design) of the organisation; and the relationships between all the organisational stakeholders. The implementation of a chosen transformation process is essentially a team effort with strong leadership crucial to its successful management. The process can succeed or fail depending on the success of this alone. Culture change within the organisation is also crucial to success. The hardest part of transformation is getting employees not only to act differently, but to think differently as well. Employee's styles (the ways they think and behave) and their attitudes (what they believe is important about their work) must be realigned to fit the new process. It appears that South African organisations are not sufficiently prepared for the opening of its markets to international competition. Especially in highly competitive environments, a lot of South African organisations have been adversely affected. These organisations have not planned sufficiently for this threat and as a result few or no transformation efforts have been initiated to improve service levels to the standards of their international competitors. Telkom will play a key role in the future competitiveness of South African businesses. Through the effective provisioning of telecommunications, businesses are provided with one of the most essential competitive tools. According to the Telecommunications Act no 103 of 1996, Telkom are excluded from competition for the largest part of its business until 2001. Telkom has until then to raise service levels to international levels so as to attain customer loyalty when the period of exclusivity expires. To be as successful as possible in this task, Telkom started on a road of transformation in order to attain maximum effectiveness. Part of this transformation includes the constant re-engineering of processes and procedures involving all levels of Telkom. Telkom's Total Quality Management initiatives together with the Customer Satisfaction Measurement programme is geared toward identifying the critical areas where customers perceive Telkom to provide ineffective service quality, implementing action plans to improve the service level standards in these areas and continuously tracking the effect of these improvement initiatives on customer satisfaction levels.

by Ng Wing Yiu. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 75-76.

Primarily, this research study was concerned with the evaluation of the brand campus concept implemented at then DaimlerChrysler South Africa in 2002, as a case study. Pretoria-based Mercedes-Benz South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (MBSA) is a subsidiary of global vehicle manufacturer Germany’s Daimler-Benz AG (DBAG). They are responsible for assembling, distributing and retailing, certain Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi vehicle brands, and spare parts. The landmark 1998 DaimlerChrysler global ‘merger of equals’ was preceded by the 1995 joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Mitsubishi Motor Corporation. Consequently, three brands (Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Mitsubishi) were retailed and marketed under DaimlerChrysler South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (DCSA), positioned next to each other in the same showroom. This report identifies key challenges stemming from this approach, namely: brand strength dilution, more than 80 multi-franchised dealers and multi-branded showrooms, service capacity problems, old working environment and infrastructure, and perceived intra-brand competition. The research evidence suggests that these problems prompted then DCSA to launch the 2000 Dealer Network Strategy (DNS). In the grand scheme of things, the DNS intervention entailed partitioning the dealer network into five brand centres in five metro regions, and eighteen market centres in the rural areas. The brand campus concept was borne out of DNS and proved to be a masterstroke since, the primary focus was on streamlining the retail facilities for DCSA vehicle sales, service and spare parts for both the passenger and commercial vehicles. This study highlights key pillars of the brand campus concept, namely: profitability, brand focus, customer orientation and diversity. The challenge was to address seven major drivers of the brand campus concept, namely: after-sales vehicle support, vehicle service capacity, lead-times, spare parts availability, sales information propagation, behavior of sales personnel and the overall vehicle dealership appearance. Semi-structured interviews constituted part of the evaluation based on the perspectives of five customers, three dealer principals and two MBSA marketing executives. The research evidence, which also came from MBSA documentation and direct observation, shows that this innovative concept has been remarkably successful.