Aim: The aim of this study is to examine and compare the importance of services and products in grocery store and to study the effects of services and products on customer retention. Method: This study is quantitative and data is collected by conducting a survey. Primary data is collected through questionnaires by visiting the stores in two cities of Sweden, namely Bollnäs and Gävle. In order to study the importance of service and products, importance scale is used in the questionnaire. Comparative analysis is used to analyze the data. Results & Conclusions: The results show that customers are more concerned about the quality of products rather than quality of services. Further, it is found that among all service elements, personal interaction is considered more important whereas, among products elements, quality of products has most influence on customer decisions. After the comparison of services and products, we found out that product quality influences customer retention to a greater extent. Suggestions for future research: Research always continues and could be followed up with more perception dimensions either from customers’ perspectives or from managerial perspectives. Future research can be conducted to study managerial perception of service and product quality. Furthermore, future research can be conducted to find out other factors that determine customer retention. Customers from multiple stores and larger cities can also be the theme for future researches. Contribution of the study: This study helps retail business to build strong customer base by focusing first on quality of products and then services. Further this helps firms to know how customer’s decision making is affected. Firms with limited resources can first focus on product improvement then on services.

Due to the development of society, the rise of living standards, the increase of population, the availability of information, and the establishment of health care systems, the medical industry is not as prestigious as it was in the past. Under the economy where the market is changing from supplier-oriented to consumer-oriented, competitions between various medical facilities and patients¡¦ demands for better medical care quality grow, which then result in the rise of medical risks. Medical institutions no longer just focus on the treatment effects, but must also fully understand the conditions of the patients and effectively manage and utilize the resources at hand in order to raise the treatment quality and to stand above other competitors. The purpose of this research is to identify the various factors that prompt patients to seek medical treatments, and to raise patients¡¦ satisfaction and faithfulness towards medical institutions. The research was carried out using a survey/questionnaire approach. Patients that have been to two or more dental clinics were asked to participate in the survey, and those who were interested were chosen. The PZB service quality SERVQUAL scale was used. Out of the 150 questionnaires distributed, 123 were retrieved (82%), and 111 of those retrieved were valid for consideration (74%). The survey showed that (1) a gap exists between patients¡¦ expected treatment service and the actual service received; (2) patients hold high expectation towards the service quality; (3) patients decision to switch clinics partially depends on the received service; (4) the main factor that prompt patients to switch clinics is their concerns towards the ability of their doctors/physicians; (5) Instead of the actual service, assurance and reliability are more essential to the patients; and (6) clinics showing sincerity and making sure the patients feel secure are most important towards the patients. The research concludes that patients choose their medical institutions base on the received services. The five aspects of service all have almost equal importance, and all are influential towards patients¡¦ choices of medical institutions.

This thesis is focused on evaluation of the service quality in selected retail outlets or shops. The main goal of this thesis was to evaluate the level of customer service while engaged in the transaction of selling pre-selected goods in selected retail outlets. Based on the results of this evaluation, a sub-goal of this thesis was to either validate or to disprove the given hypotheses. As an introduction I define basic terms of service quality, customer satisfaction with a service, marketing Research and mystery shopping. . After depicting the basic theoretical principles of mystery shopping, I moved on to the practical (hands-on) portion of my thesis where I evaluate retail outlets for pre-selected company. Evaluation is carried out by using mystery shopping. After conclusion of mystery shopping, the data was analyzed and synthesized, which allowed me to evaluate the results and draw appropriate conclusions, proposal and recommendation to the pre-selected company.