Diss.--Universität Graz, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

This report presents the summary of findings of the 2003 image and customer service-tracking survey for the Jewel bank. The overall objectives of the survey were to: -Monitor any changes which may have occurred over the past years in usage of the Jewel Bank, perceptions of the banks image, and the service delivery offered by the bank in respect of existing Jewel Bank customers, and -Obtain the perceptions of non-customers of Jewel Bank with regard to awareness of the bank, its image and service delivery Face-to-face interviews were carried out with respondents in the following categories: Respondent category' Sample size Customers who joined Jewel Bank before the transformation from CBZ to Jewel bank 30 Customers who joined Jewel Bank during the transformation from CBZ to Jewel bank 30 Customers who joined Jewel Bank after the transformation from CBZ to Jewel bank 30 Potential customers of Jewel Bank 30 Total 120 / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

In the face of increased competition compounded by globalisation, the challenge facing many South African companies is the need to develop a competitive advantage that will secure and grow its market share. This study explores the concept of customer satisfaction as the means to create that competitive advantage. Customers today are more demanding and are exposed to wider choices. The challenge facing management is to define strategies to "delight customers" - customers do not just want to be pleased they want to be delighted, they want to feel that the company exists to ensure that their expectations are not only met, but exceeded. This study further explores quality as a strategy to enhance customer satisfaction. The Six Sigma approach to quality management has been chosen as the focus. This study has been based on a medium sized South African Information Technology (IT) company, called Business Connexion. The IT industry is characterised by many challenges, the most significant being that it is currently in a slow growth phase after being in a boom in the late 1990s. The management of IT companies, today need to develop strategies to retain their customers and to attract new ones. The challenge facing Business Connexion, who is a relatively new entrant to the market, is to develop a competitive advantage that will put it ahead of its competitors who come in the form of large internationally listed companies. This study explores the option of Business Connexion defining its differentiator based on the capacity to offer its customers a superior quality service at a price lower than that of its competitors. The Six Sigma approach is suggested because it focuses on the elements such as: defining customer needs, creating processes to meet and exceed customer expectations, investigating methods to reduce costs and creating a quality-focused culture within the company. These elements are critical to achieving competitive advantage. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Autolab is a department of the South African Sugar Association, which develops and provides support services for computerised systems installed in the local sugar industry as well as one sugar mill in Zimbabwe. Autolab’s customers in South Africa were surveyed to measure their present levels of satisfaction towards the service provided by Autolab and to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses. The data collected for this formal study was through a quantitative survey research instrument called SERVQUAL. The survey was limited to Autolab’s Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) users who are in contact with the Autolab staff and who will be able to rate their quality of service. These users are mainly the senior employees of the departments that are using the Autolab’s LIMS systems. They represent the population of this study, which are 79 users. A very good response rate of 91 % percent was achieved with 72 questionnaires being completed and returned by the respondents. The results of the survey show that the respondents’ expectations exceeded their perceptions for all the service quality dimensions. However, the difference between expectations and perceptions was significant for all the service quality dimensions except the empathy dimension. This implies that Autolabs’ customers have some level of dissatisfaction with the quality of service they provide. It is hoped that the shortcomings identified in this study will help Autolab to improve the quality of service they provide. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.

The marketisation of higher and further education institutions whereby education institutions adopt commercial practices to operate has led to increased competition in the education industry. Various sources of competitive advantage are being searched for aggressively by education institutions in the hope of securing customers and remaining competitive. Service quality has become one of the biggest sources of competitive advantage for higher and further education institutions as it enables the institutions to differentiate themselves from the competition. Development and Training for Adults (DTA) College in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa also faces similar challenges of the need to be competitive in an increasingly competitive environment. The study investigated the customers‟ perceptions and expectations of service quality at DTA College in Pietermaritzburg in order to identify and assess any existing service quality gaps. The SERVQUAL instrument which consists of 22 statements on perceptions and 22 on expectations of service quality was utilised to collect data for the research study at DTA College. A sample size of 58 was used and it was selected through stratified random sampling to maximise representativeness of the sample. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data. Statistical tools that include frequencies, meanscores and tabulations were utilised to present the data from findings. The Wilcoxon signed ranks test was also utilised to further analyse the significance of the gaps. The findings from the study indicated that, a negative service quality gap exists at DTA College. Reliability was the service quality dimension that had the widest gap which indicated that the respondents do not rely on the College as it does not deliver as per promise. Assurance was the service quality dimension which had the narrowest gaps. However, 3 of the 4 assurance gaps were significant according to statistical tests conducted which mean that DTA College has to pay attention to all the service quality dimensions regardless of the gaps being small. Frequent interaction between the college and the customers is recommended for DTA College as it provides the college with important information on customer expectations and perceptions. Continuous employee training to improve the existing skills is also recommended for the college‟s employees as it can have a good impact on meeting the customers‟ expectations of the service quality dimensions. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

This research undertakes a contingency theory examination of strategy and cost system alignment based on customer retention and customer profitability analysis. Previous research and consultancy advice has promoted the benefits of a firm following a customer retention strategy. They claim that in order to support the strategy a firm should have a customer profitability analysis system in place. Yet often what is prescribed as good practice is not observed in firms. This inconsistency is explained using contingency theory. Initial qualitative evidence was collected from four industry sites to determine whether the above strategy-cost system alignment was present. An analysis of these findings suggested that the customer retention-customer profitability analysis system relationship was contingent on a range of factors. As a result, a contingent theory of this relationship was developed from the four sites, and this theory was then tested in a survey of 862 people from 431 firms. The survey results provide support for the propositions developed from the qualitative evidence. It is likely that firms will follow multiple operational marketing strategies and have cost management systems in place to support those strategies. Although customer retention is a very important operational marketing strategy, a significant number of firms do not have customer profitability analysis systems in place to support the strategy. Many contingent factors were identified. Customer profitability analysis implementation is dependent on industry type; size; the difficulties involved in determining customer costs; whether the organisation has a champion for the system; the relationship between the marketing and accounting functions in a firm; and the available labour resources to facilitate implementation. Further, it is apparent that customer profitability analysis information is not essential to support a customer retention strategy. Customer revenue information can be substituted and the firms are satisfied with the level of management accounting system support for their operational marketing strategies. However, many respondents see the value of customer revenue, customer cost and customer profitability information, providing opportunities for future design of such systems as well as research into their development.

Customer retention plays a pivotal role in contributing to the profitability of retail banks. Within this extremely competitive market it necessitates retails banks to follow a structured, data-driven approach to identify “at risk” customers and to launch proactive retention campaigns based on identified drivers of customer attrition. The following main drivers of customer attrition were identified in the retail bank:  Attrition decrease as Vertical Sales Index increase.  Attrition is lower where customers receive their salary in a BANKXX account.  Attrition decreases as duration increases.  Black and Coloured have a higher attrition rate than White and Asian. A literature review was conducted to identify the possible independent variables of customer retention and the concept of the profitable customer was addressed throughout proposed conceptual model was developed, signifying the best fit to identify drivers of customer retention in the retail bank. The analytical tool, SAS was used for data collection and statistical analyses of the data. This high-performance analytics assisted in providing the retail bank with valuable insight into how to successfully manage risk, retain profitable customers, improve operational efficiency and differentiate them in the marketplace for competitive advantage. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The study set out to investigate Customer Care in the . Pharmaceutical Industry with reference to Retail Pharmacies in the Mafikeng area. This will be achieved through the following: Highlighting any inadequacy of customer care process at retail pharmacies, determine if the current customer care tools utilised are optimal or not, determine the extent at which such tools are utilised and to determine where accountability lies for customer care within the organisation. Six out of eight pharmacies participated in the study (75%, Four of which are leaders in the market as they are big stable companies and some are franchises. The measuring instruments utilised was a questionnaire because of the descriptive nature of the study. The questionnaire was in a structured format which consisted of two parts, namely, demographics and general questions evaluating the competency of staff and the quality of service.120 respondents participated in filling in the questionnaire over a period of two weeks. Every pharmacy had twenty respondents respectively. The findings revealed that most respondents were satisfied with the service provided , with only a few who were unhappy about certain elements of the questionnaire. However, the overall responses were satisfactorily and unexpected since patients tend to complain about services. The researcher recommends that staff need to be trained on the following, how to be friendly to customers and greet them with a smile. Greet them by name if possible, as it will impress the patient to notice that staff members know him/her by name. To be polite and pleasant when talking to clients. To be trained on product knowledge as it improves competency and confidence of client in a person. Adequate training of staff is important as it ensures provision of quality service to the patients, thus reducing complaints. Even though the results of the study were satisfactorily, it is important for the management of the organisation to concentrate on Few patients who are not happy about the service so as to improve and satisfy as many customers as possible. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2003

Customer retention plays a pivotal role in contributing to the profitability of retail banks. Within this extremely competitive market it necessitates retails banks to follow a structured, data-driven approach to identify “at risk” customers and to launch proactive retention campaigns based on identified drivers of customer attrition. The following main drivers of customer attrition were identified in the retail bank:  Attrition decrease as Vertical Sales Index increase.  Attrition is lower where customers receive their salary in a BANKXX account.  Attrition decreases as duration increases.  Black and Coloured have a higher attrition rate than White and Asian. A literature review was conducted to identify the possible independent variables of customer retention and the concept of the profitable customer was addressed throughout proposed conceptual model was developed, signifying the best fit to identify drivers of customer retention in the retail bank. The analytical tool, SAS was used for data collection and statistical analyses of the data. This high-performance analytics assisted in providing the retail bank with valuable insight into how to successfully manage risk, retain profitable customers, improve operational efficiency and differentiate them in the marketplace for competitive advantage. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Firms have to constantly develop or innovate in order to stay competitive. Within the fields of marketing, product development and service development studies have examined how the customer can be a resource for development or innovation. Recently, customer value has been examined within the business model concept, which has emerged as a new unit of analysis and has steadily gained interest during the past 20 years. Linked to the concept of business model is the concept of business model development or innovation. Within this field of research there are very few studies on customer involvement. This is the starting point of our study. The few studies that exist regarding customer involvement in business model innovation have mainly focused on the customer as a resource for screening ideas. In our study, we focus on the customer as resource for idea generation. We also go in to detail and examines in what dimensions different customer groups can be a resource for business model innovation. Our theoretical framework consists of ten different studies that examine business model dimensions, from which we identify nine dimensions relevant for our context. We also use theories regarding business model innovation, business model design and customer involvement. We have conducted the study in the context of a small medical instrument firm. Our empirical data consists of fifteen interviews with customers and company representatives. The customers represent different customer groups: patients, nurses, doctors and managers.  Our analysis originates from the business model dimensions identified in the theoretical framework. We use the theoretical framework to understand in which dimensions the customer can be a resource for business model innovation. We also use the theoretical framework to look for differences and similarities within and between the customer groups.  The study concludes that the customer can be a resource for business model innovation in a number of business model dimensions. Furthermore, the majority of the ideas the customer has is similar or identical to the ideas that the company has. The ideas the customer has seem to be effected by their relationship to the business model. There are also some individuals that have substantially more ideas than others.