On-going research in recent years has shown quality of product and service, as perceived by customer, relative to competition, to be the single most important factor contributing to organizational well-being. Quality of product and service also presents one of the most significant opportunities for corporate differentiation. A major requirement for the successful management of quality is therefore effective measurement. In the case of physical goods, progress has been made over a long period. However, in the case of services, real advances have only occurred within the past decade. The importance of service quality is also highlighted by the fact that most businesses today are losing customers due to its inadequacy, rather than poor products. Indeed, from the customer's point of view, services and products probably do not exist in a dichotomy, but, rather, along a spectrum. Therefore, the measurement of service quality is critical, not only in traditional service organizations, but in manufacturing situations as well. The development of the SERVQUAL questionnaire in 1988, offered researchers, perhaps for the first time, an apparently reliable and valid instrument for the measurement of service quality. However, to date the instrument has not been subjected to rigorous testing for reliability and validity in South Africa, across a range of service organizations, within a typology. In this study, the SERVQUAL instrument was used to measure service quality across a range of firms within the Larsson-Bowen contingency framework, under South African conditions. Its main objectives were to assess its reliability and validity in these circumstances. It was found that SERVQUAL performed well across all organizations within the Larsson-Bowen framework, under South African conditions, with regard to reliability, convergent and nomological validity. Its construct validity proved to be less sound, and it was not found to possess discriminant validity. It is suggested that this is less attributable to South African circumstances than to the nature of the organizations. In cases of low diversity of demand, the instrument appears to capture the essence of service quality less effectively. Means of overcoming this in future studies are suggested, as well as other directions for research in the area of service quality measurement

National Dairy Equipment (Pty) Ltd (NDE) is a privately owned stockist and distributor of stainless steel products and is a respected player in the South African stainless steel industry. NDE operates from within all four major cities in South Africa namely, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Durban. The organisation, with its wide range of corrosion resistant products, serves industries such as the architecture and construction, automotive, catering, and food and beverage industry. With the stainless steel industry growing in terms of the number of competitors, NDE performs a number of functions in order to achieve customer satisfaction. The general purpose of the study was to indentify the attributes that would act as drivers of customer satisfaction at NDE. Five attributes were identified namely, Service quality, Trust and commitment, Product quality, Commercial aspects and Reliability. The results of this study could assist managers at NDE in improving service delivery to customers. The literature study provided an overview of overall customer satisfaction and possible measurement models for customer satisfaction. Measurement models included, SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, the Two-factor theory, the Kano model and the Three-factor model. The latter proved to be of particular importance to the study as the model was used to classify the identified drivers into basic, performance and excitement factors. Furthermore, a literature review was provided based on each of the identified potential drivers of customer satisfaction. The empirical data needed to complete the study was collected by means of a survey, using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed by sales representatives at NDE. A total of 320 useable questionnaires were received. The study revealed the following: each of the five proposed attributes had a positive relationship with overall customer satisfaction,thus all five attributes were confirmed as drivers of customer satisfaction at NDE. Commercial aspects and Reliability were classified as basic satisfiers. Trust and commitment was classified as a performance satisfier, and Service quality was identified as the only excitement satisfier. Product quality did not receive any classification. All importance mean scores were higher than the corresponding satisfaction mean scores. This study contributed to the existing body of literature and is seemingly the first of its kind in the South African stainless steel industry. The study is also the first to attempt the measurement of overall customer satisfaction levels at NDE. The methodology used in the current study can be applied to stainless steel industries internationally, in order to verify whether the confirmed drivers would also act as drivers of satisfaction in a similar industry elsewhere in the world.

The container terminals play an increasingly important role in the economy of many countries. In today’s global competitive environment delivering quality service is considered as an essential strategy for success and survival. In the very competitive container terminals, service quality is important in attracting and retaining customers. The shipping companies are interested in speed and reliability from the terminals. The time a ship stays in a port must be minimised, and, therefore, the handling of containers must be executed in a fast and reliable way. The importance of customer service as a competitive strategy in container terminal has long been recognised. The growth in container volumes and higher productivity by Ngqura Container Terminal has created greater demand than before from its customers in the shipping business. The current growth in container volumes and increased customer demand has made the situation at NCT less encouraging at times, due to additional traffic of vessels awaiting to dock at the port creating congestion problems; resulting in unplanned lengthy dock occupation by vessels and the current status quo is affecting NCT strategy in terms of arrival docking and providing a quick response to customers. The Ngqura terminal is under increasing pressure from its customers and stakeholders to demonstrate that their services are customer-focused and that continuous performance improvement is being delivered. Therefore, a literature study and questionnaire survey forms the main input for this research combined with interviews with terminal managers. The purpose of this research is to examine the service quality concepts and offer an operational approach for the measurement of the quality of Ngqura Container Terminal services. The main research problem in this study was to identify customer service strategies that could be applied by Ngqura Container Terminal in order to maintain and exceed its business growth as well as customer expectations? The study employed the SERVQUAL model as a measuring tool in establishing the customers’ general expectations of a service and their perceptions of the service received at Ngqura Container Terminal. The five elements of SERVQUAL, which are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, were used to deal with and solve the main problem. Below are the sub-problems that have been identified in order to investigate and develop a research strategy: What is the customer’s perception of service quality at NCT?; What are the specific customer service requirements of NCT’s customers?; Does NCT’s service operations performance enable it to fulfill its customer service requirements?; How can the performance gap between customer service requirements and service operations performance be bridged?; Which service quality elements are important to customers for container terminals? This study wants to concentrate on the customers’ perception and evaluation toward service performance in Ngqura Container Terminal.

This thesis deals with measurement of customer satisfaction and loyalty among health care providers with services provided by particular pharmaceutical company. The main goal of this work is to develop methodology for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty for this segment of services. The theoretical part deals with a summary of findings and approaches describing satisfaction and loyalty, and also review of the methods used for their determination. The thesis also analyzes the differences between two groups of customers and summarizes the differences identified in the primary research that was conducted. Primary research was conducted by having structured interviews with respondents from among health care providers (private versus state providers). Dissertation's conclusions correspond with professional resources and thus develop areas of knowledge about the characteristics of the examined service segment.

The results of this study provide support for the use of the SERVQUAL and market orientation instruments for evaluating agencies approach to service delivery issues in Taiwan. The results indicate that on two of the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL instrument in particular have the potential for identifying areas of concerns and facilitating focusing on specific concerns and developing mechanisms for addressing these concerns. These areas are responsiveness and reliability. The potential for improving the applicability and sophistication of the instrument also exists. There are clearly issues that can be addressed between the perceptions and expectations of both customers and managers for the advertising agencies. In particular, the results indicate that customers have a much bigger gap between expectations of service and the delivery of service than the managers. This research provides evidence that a service problem exists in advertising agency settings in Taiwan as well as a mechanism for identifying and measuring the extent of the problem. In addition, the consortium based advertising agencies had a different market orientation than the matrix or integrated organizations studied. Consortium based organizations are more likely to have a competitor orientation while matrix and integrated organizations are more likely to have a customer orientation. In addition, market orientation impacts attitudes and approaches to service quality.

Submitted by Isaac Francisco de Souza Dias (isaac.souzadias@ufpe.br) on 2016-04-15T17:36:41Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO Ricardo da Costa Soares.pdf: 1492614 bytes, checksum: 89652df3edbf09484f71658e2c3b8ebf (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-15T17:36:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO Ricardo da Costa Soares.pdf: 1492614 bytes, checksum: 89652df3edbf09484f71658e2c3b8ebf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-20 / Foi avaliada a implementação da Norma ISO 9001:2008 em uma empresa de consultoria em segurança do trabalho, através da análise em 5 (cinco) clientes do ramo da construção civil. A referida empresa implantou o Sistema de Gestão da Qualidade (SGQ), reavaliando seus processos de trabalho, sempre em busca da excelência na qualidade dos serviços prestados a esses clientes. Foi utilizada a ferramenta estatística SERVQUAL através da metodologia de pesquisa com questionários enviados a esses clientes. As pesquisas de satisfação dos clientes, parte integrante dessa metodologia, foram realizadas para os seguintes serviços: Programa de Prevenção de Riscos Ambientais (PPRA), Programa de Condições e Meio Ambiente de Trabalho na Indústria da Construção (PCMAT), Laudo Técnico das Condições Ambientais de Trabalho (LTCAT) e Laudo de Avaliação Pericial de Insalubridade e Periculosidade. Essa ferramenta foi utilizada para avaliar e tratar os dados fornecidos por esses clientes através da análise dos gaps. Essa Teoria demonstrou as diferenças existentes entre o serviço desejado por esses clientes e o serviço percebido pela Empresa, para futuras tomadas de decisão e consequente melhoria nesses serviços. / The implementation of ISO 9001:2008 standard in a work safety consulting company was evaluated by analyzing 5(five) the construction industry clients. This company implemented the Quality Management System (QMS), reviewing its work processes, always in pursuit of excellence in quality of services provided to these clients. It used statistical tool SERVQUAL through research methodology to questionnaires sent to those customers. Customer satisfaction surveys, an integral part of this methodology, were held for the following services: Program for Environmental Risk Prevention Program (PPRA), Conditions and Work Environment Program in the Construction Industry (PCMAT), Technical Report of Environmental Conditions Working (LTCAT) and Expert Evaluation Report for Unhealthy and Hazard. This tool was used to evaluate and process the data provided by these customers through gaps analysis. This theory showed the differences between the desired service for these customers and the service perceived by the Company for future decision-making and the consequent improvement in these services.

Syftet med denna studie var att ta reda på vilken betydelse mäklararvodet har för den upplevda servicekvaliteten på den svenska fastighetsmäklarbranschen. Metoden som använts för att ta reda på detta var en fallstudie av två snarlika mäklarföretag i Stockholm. Insamling av data uppnåddes genom enkäter som både mäklare och säljare fick svara på vid tillträdet. Frågorna var formulerade på ett sådant sätt att mäklarna fick svara på vad de levererat och säljarna fick svara på vad de har upplevt. Frågorna behandlade mäklarnas empati, pålitlighet, svarstid och arvode.Resultatet visade att mäklarna på dessa två mäklarfirmor ansåg sig själva leverera hög servicekvalitet, vilket dessutom säljarna bekräftade. De tog också ett högt arvode för sina tjänster. Slutsatsen författarna drog av denna studie är att mäklare som levererar hög upplevd servicekvalitet kan ta och tar ett högt arvode. / The purpose of this study was to identify what role the realtors fee has for the experienced service quality on the Swedish real estate market. The method used to achieve this was a case study between two alike real estate brokerage firms located in Stockholm. The gathering of data was achieved through surveys that both sellers and realtors answered when the admission took place in the real estate brokerages offices. The surveys were asking both sellers and realtors questions that were similar and according to their role. The realtors were asked to rank their level of quality they think the service they delivered implied. The sellers in turn ranked the level of service quality they had experienced. The questions in the surveys treated the realtors’ empathy, reliability, responsiveness and fee.The results show that the realtors on these two firms regard themselves as delivering high quality services, which the sellers also confirm. They also charge an expensive fee for their services. The conclusion of this is that realtors whose customers experience high quality service can, and also will, charge an expensive fee.

The diploma thesis deals with customers’ satisfaction analysis with service quality focus on financial services. Based on the theoretical knowledge about customer satisfaction and methods of service quality research, the aim of this diploma thesis is to analyze current level of customer satisfaction with service quality in the selected company and to recommend possible proposals for its improvement.

Utilization of World Wide Web style Web-Based Intranet Systems (W-BIS) is a rapidly expanding information delivery technique in many organizations. Published reports concerning these systems have cited return on investment values exceeding 1300% and direct payback time periods as low as six to twelve weeks. While these systems have been widely implemented, little theoretically grounded research has been conducted in relation to users' acceptance, utilization or the perceived quality of these systems. The study employed a two-site investigation of corporate Web-Based Intranet Systems, with surveys distributed via the traditional mail system. The complete survey instrument distributed to employees included the ServQual/ServPerf, User Information Satisfaction, Ease of Use/Usefulness, and Computer Playfulness instruments. In addition to these previously developed instruments, the survey instrument for this study included measures of Web-Based Intranet Systems utilization and usefulness along with respondent demographics and subordinate-reported managerial commitment. This study investigated the reliability and validity of the ServQual/ServPerf instrument in an information systems service environment. The same analysis was conducted of the more generally accepted User Information Satisfaction instrument.

Bibliographical Identification: Author`s first name and surname: Mgr. Jan Šíma Title of the doctoral thesis: Quality of sport services in Prague fitness centers from the customer perspective Department: Department of Sport Management Supervisor: doc. Ing. Eva Čáslavová, CSc. The year of presentation: 2015 Abstract: The thesis is aimed at the problems of sport service validation in the area of fitness. A review of the most used methods for sport service validation was completed. We focused on measurement according to subjective criteria, where the service quality is evaluated by the customers themselves. A practical part is dealt with using cross-cultural validation of the SERVQUAL method (PARASURAMAN, ZEITHAML, BERRY, 1988), originally validated for American customers. Our questionnaire was translated by modified direct translation and, in terms of pilot standardization, was tested on a sample of 46 participants from two fitness centres. A modified Czech version of SERVQUAL questionnaires was the main tool of our data collecting during the market research in six fitness centres chosen randomly with a sum of 697 participants. The main target of the research was to obtain Prague customers' opinions of each single feature of the quality of service. After finishing the market research, by means of SEM -...