Customer Service Perspective Research Articles

The Trauma of Disregard

The Trauma of Disregard

Identifikasi Service Blueprint di Desa Wisata Kebontunggul (Lembah Mbencirang), Kecamatan Gondang, Kabupaten Mojokerto

This study aims to comprehend the actual conditions of business processes and to identify service blueprints in the Kebon Tunggul Tourism Village "Lembah Mbencirang" by analyzing their business activities and service flows to visitors. This research is community-based research (CBR) conducted using the Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach. It resulted in the findings that there were various internal problems related to management during 2017-2020, especially related to the accountability and transparency of budget management in addition to more fundamental issues regarding tourist attraction management, such as the absence of an organizational structure, no clear division of staff duties, and the nonappearance of a standardized service flow. We concluded that basically, the business processes in the Lembah Mbencirang can be grouped into two, the first is the package tour services, and the second is the general visitors’ services. As a tourism product which is essentially a service product, service blueprint is very significant as an effort to understand the service experience from the perspective of the customer, which in this context was not previously owned by the manager. The service blueprint generated from this study can identify the existence of various service processes so that all staff can cognize the context and conditions of their duties in a more holistic customer service perspective.

Communication Activities in the 21st Century Business Environment

Effective undergraduate instruction requires accurate knowledge of professional communication practices and employer expectations, but ongoing contradictions between academic and professional expectations reflect historical, rhetorical, and pedagogical causes for inaccurate presumptions. Taking a customer service perspective, one business faculty revised its undergraduate goals in terms of empirically determined employer expectations. Interviewing professionals familiar with expectations of entry-level business graduates, the authors identified 10 communication activities, each comprising three to nine subtasks that constitute entry-level communication competencies. The results suggest a need to reconsider traditional curricular organization and instructional focus across the business curriculum to develop relevant skills across all business majors.

A Study on the Performance Measurement for Reverse Logistics Using AHP

본 연구는 효과적인 물류관리 및 역물류관리를 위해 기업의 역물류관리에 영향을 미치는 다양한 기업 내부 및 외부 요인들을 검토하고, 역물류성과관리측정 모형을 개발하기 위해 시도되었다. 이를 위해 상대적 중요도와 우선순위를 이해할 수 있도록 추출된 요인과 측정요소를 중심으로 3단계 계층적 구조 모형을 개발하고 AHP를 적용하여 실증연구를 수행하였다. 실증분석 결과 및전략적 시사점은 다음과 같이 요약된다. 첫째, <제1단계> 최상위기준은 역물류관점에서 고려되는 기준으로, 경제적 관점, 사회적 관점, 고객서비스관점, 법적 관점의 4개 관점이 추출되었는데, 이중 법적 관점(0.667)이 가장 중요한 요인인 것으로 분석되었다. 둘째, <제2단계> 요인(상위기준)의 역물류 구성요인은 가치 창출, 관리비, 경영성과, 기술혁신, 사회 안전, 사회와 환경 활동, 고용 창출, 장기적 관계, 서비스 차별화, 법률 준수의 10개 요인으로 구성되었는데, 경제적 관점의 경우는 가치 창출(0.521)이, 사회적 관점의 경우는 기술혁신(0.372)이, 고객서비스관점의 경우는 장기적 관계(0.722)가 가장 높게 나타났다. 이와 같은 결과는 기업이 효과 적인 역물류 성과관리를 위해서는 역물류성과에 영향을 주는 다양한 요인들 중 가장 우선적으로 고려할 사항은 법적 관점 혹은 경제적 관점으로, 경영자는 이에 초점을 두어 의사결정을 해야 함을 시사한다.The purpose of this study is to examine the internal and external factors affecting the reverse logistics management and to develop the reverse logistics performance management measurement model for effective logistics management and reverse logistics management. To do this, this study conducted an empirical study using AHP to understand relative importance and priorities, and developed a three -level hierarchical structure model based on extracted factors and measurement items. Empirical results and strategic implications are summarized as follows. First, <the first level hierarchy> is to consider the four aspects of the economic, social, customer service, and legal aspects of the reverse logistics perspective. Among them, the legal perspective (0.667) was the most important factor. Second, the factors of the reverse logistics of <the second level hierarchy> factors are value creation, management cost, management performance, technology innovation, social safety, social and environmental activity, creation of employment, long term relationship and service differentiation and value creation(0.521) in the economic perspective, technological innovation (0.372) in the social perspective, and long term relationship (0.722) in the customer service perspective were the most important factors. These results suggest that for effective reverse logistics performance management, decision-making should be focused on legal or economic aspects as the most important factors to be influenced by reverse logistics performance.

Gauging the impact of knowledge management practices on organizational performance – a balanced scorecard perspective

PurposeThis paper aims to explore knowledge management (KM) literature to understand the relationships among different KM practices and organizational performance (OP) in terms of the four balanced scorecard (BSC) outcomes, i.e. learning and growth, internal process, customer satisfaction and financial performance, as a measure of OP.Design/methodology/approachA systematic review of peer-reviewed journal articles has been carried out of theoretical and empirical articles to understand the linkages between KM practices and OP, accessed mainly through sources, such as ProQuest, EBSCO host, Google Scholar and other e-databases. Measures of OP have also been extracted from the literature and grouped under the four BSC outcomes to gauge the gravity of the effect. An integrated conceptual framework helps to explore the relationship between the said variables.FindingsThis study provides a conceptual model of the effect of various KM practices on different aspects of OP measured through BSC. It contributes to organizations by helping them understand the importance of integration of the KM efforts to obtain desirable results. It will, for the first time, put the entire organization in perspective and help managers draw a bigger picture to understand the overall effect of KM practices.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the KM practices shortlisted for this research are extensive but the list may not be exhaustive. Second, the model is not empirically proved. Findings of the study would help in creating a roadmap to enhance performance by a successful implementation of KM practices.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to KM literature by adding the fact that KM practices not only affect learning and growth perspective of an organization but also have far-reaching effects on OP in terms of customer service perspective, internal process perspective and financial perspective.

Electronic Data Interchange and Demand Forecasting Implications on Supply Chain Management Collaboration: A Customer Service Perspective

Customer service is a very important aspect within the supply chain. Through collaboration, the goal of each party within the supply chain is to add value to a product, in order to accelerate good customer service. Good customer service leads to customer satisfaction and most importantly it developed customer loyalty. These are the main goal of ever firm in the supply chain, starting from raw material, production, distribution and down to the final consumer. This work is developed to investigate the impact of supply chain management collaboration activities on customer service in an inter-organizational context. This is done by examining how effective collaboration in supply chain management creating confidence and trust between vendor-customer relationships that provides benefit to both organizations; one of such benefit is improved customer service. This can be obtained through the use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), which ensures that products are delivered to customers faster with great accuracy, and demand forecasting and inventory management, which ensures that vendors maintain optimal inventory level so that they always have what customers want in stock. The method used in this work is by gathering information from several articles, journals and text books relating to this research work. There is a total of 49 including journals, books and articles used in this work, all of which are related to this study.

Freight corridor performance measurement system: A framework for South Africa

Background: On a national level, South Africa’s freight logistics industry is inefficient. The country ranks 36th out of 40 countries in terms of transport productivity (tonne kilometres as a ratio of gross domestic product, or GDP); the ratio of freight logistics costs to GDP measured 11.1% in 2013, compared to that of developed regions which measures in the order of 9%; and rail tonne-km market share on the two most dense long-distance corridors, namely, GautengDurban and Gauteng-Cape Town, is only 12.8% and 4.4%, respectively, whereas rail is globally acknowledged as a more efficient provider of long-distance freight solutions, given appropriate investments and service commitments.Objectives: A cornerstone of improved national freight logistics performance is the availability of reliable indicators to quantify the efficiency and capacity of the logistics network over the intermediate and long term, thereby enabling an evidence-based policy and investment environment. The objective of this article is to describe the foundation framework (i.e. phase 1) for South Africa’s freight corridor performance measurement system (CPMS). Once populated, the CPMS will be a key generator of indicators to facilitate the systemic management of corridors as a national production factor and thereby contributing to South Africa’s competitiveness.Method: The design of South Africa’s CPMS was informed by desktop research and refined through an extensive stakeholder consultation process. A distinction was made between South Africa’s dedicated bulk corridors and the multi-modal corridors.Results: Facilitating both stakeholder involvement and agreement on key indicators, as well as the eventual development of a system supporting the population, aggregation and dissemination of the CPMS are critical outcomes for the management of corridors as a national production factor. Three overarching corridor indicators were defined, relating to increased throughput, lower costs and optimal modal application – the key rationale to improve the competitiveness of South African industry. This is supported by three corridor measurement perspectives, that is, a policy, customer service and infrastructure perspective. The purpose of the policy perspective is to support the role of national government in facilitating logistics competitiveness and equitable access through appropriate policy instruments. The customer service perspective should track service reliability and efficiency as contracted, at costs and cycle times that facilitate the competitiveness of the freight owner. The infrastructure perspective indicates whether sufficient capacity is provided, and whether this capacity is both available when required and utilised optimally.Conclusion: Elevation of logistics to the macroeconomic realm through the development of appropriate indicators will enable the management of logistics as a national production factor, thereby contributing to reducing national freight logistics costs and improving industry competitiveness.

A Vehicle Routing Problem with Flexible Time Windows

In this paper, we introduce the Vehicle Routing Problem with Flexible Time Windows (VRPFlexTW), in which vehicles are allowed to deviate from customer time windows by a given tolerance. This flexibility enables savings in the operational costs of carriers, since customers may be served before and after the earliest and latest time window bounds, respectively. However, as time window deviations are undesired from a customer service perspective, a penalty proportional to these deviations is accounted for in the objective function. We develop a solution procedure, in which feasible vehicle routes are constructed via a tabu search algorithm. Furthermore, we propose a linear programming model to handle the detailed scheduling of customer visits for given routes. We validate our solution procedure by a number of Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (VRPTW) benchmark instances. We highlight the costs involved in integrating flexibility in time windows and underline the advantages of the VRPFlexTW, when compared to the VRPTW.

In the eye of the beholder: emotional labor in academia varies with tenure and gender

Expanding from the customer-service perspective, the present research investigated emotional labor, defined as “service with authority,” in an academic context. Drawing from previous research on display rules and power, tenure and gender were hypothesized to influence the extent to which college faculty labored to provide “service with authority” when interacting with entitled students. Survey results revealed that faculty low in power (untenured faculty) exhibited higher levels of emotional labor when interacting with students, as compared with colleagues high in power (tenured faculty). Additionally, tenure had a mitigating effect on emotional labor amongst male faculty, but heightened stress amongst female faculty. Together, the data suggest that, compared to customer-service settings, emotional performance requirements in academia are both different and dynamic.

“Every man for himself”

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the practice of teamwork in an under‐researched, yet growing industrial setting.Design/methodology/approachLongitudinal ethnographic‐styled methods of data collection were used and data was examined using the Team Dimensions Model.FindingsThe findings suggest the Team Dimensions Model, with the addition of a customer service perspective, is of use for identifying managerial objectives and organisational outcomes of teamwork. However, this does not suggest that teamworking is easy to implement in the hospitality setting.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings were obtained using unobtrusive participatory and observational methods and based on a single company.Practical implicationsThe paper allows management practitioners to reflect on realities of implementing teamworking under a corporate customer service initiative.Originality/valueThe paper takes an existing theory on teamworking and develops the theory in an under‐researched and growing industrial sector.

Exploring a new perspective on service efficiency: service culture in retail organizations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of retailer service culture. A service culture is the customer‐centric culture aimed at exceeding customer expectations and creating superior customer value through the development of service and related performance competencies.Design/methodology/approachIn this research, surveys were conducted with key decision makers in various retail positions across the USA to develop a customer service‐based measure of service culture and test it against traditional retail management performance outcomes.FindingsThe results of this research demonstrate that service culture is a unidimensional construct and is positively related to increases in market performance and customer perceptions of quality for the retailer.Practical implicationsService culture provides retailers with a new perspective to examine their service orientation internally. Additionally, service culture extends to the relationships that retailers develop with their suppliers.Originality/valueExamining retailing from a customer service perspective is becoming increasingly important as marketing research shifts its focus from being product‐centered to more service‐centered. In an increasingly turbulent economy, retailers have to create value propositions that provide customers with higher levels of customer service than ever before. This research develops a new construct that explores how retailers can incorporate service values in their overall culture. Additionally, this research validates the measure for future researchers to continue this path of study.

Marketing health care simulation modelling: towards an integrated service approach

This paper builds upon a real case to share a marketing point of view to simulation modelling and its current model of business. The case applies mainstream simulation methodologies up to the delivery of results and a success model to facilitate the analysis of the case's impact and success. With the use of modern marketing principles we extended our case model to a balanced integrated framework that encompasses good simulation modelling practice with new marketing principles. We suggest that simulation modelling should follow world market reality and become more balanced towards a customer service perspective, by working on the deficiencies of the current manufacturing-centred model.

Customer service in emergency relief chains

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore, analyse and discuss the published concepts of “the customer” and “customer service” in the context of managing international emergency relief chains.Design/methodology/approachThis is a literature‐based approach that extends concepts usually applied in a commercial context to the area of humanitarian aid and emergency relief chains in particular.FindingsBased on the most common associations of the terms in the literature, the paper proposes adopting a customer and customer‐service perspective in managing international emergency relief chains. An understanding of the various perspectives of customers described in this paper provides a starting point in the development of emergency relief chains that can deliver customer service and satisfaction to all concerned.Practical implicationsAs managers of emergency relief chains strive to improve the performance of their organizations and supply chains in a highly challenging environment, the paper provides a useful and enhanced understanding of the roles that the “customer” and “customer service” play in their operations strategies. Although it is sometimes assumed that all participants in emergency relief chains are highly co‐operative, this is often not the case. Therefore, the concept of “humanitarian competitive advantage” is also presented to enable a better practical focus for managers of emergency relief chains.Originality/valueThe paper is believed to be the first to apply the terms “customer” and “customer service” systematically in a humanitarian context and thereby propose a customer service perspective in emergency relief chains.

Accessing Patient-Centered Care Using the Advanced Access Model

Waits and delays for healthcare are legendary. These delays are not only frustrating and potentially hazardous for patients and providers but also represent significant cost to office practices. The traditional medical model that defines urgent care versus routine care is a vain and futile attempt to sort demand. This approach is at constant odds with patients' definition of urgency. Trusting patients to determine when and how they want to access care makes sense from a customer service perspective. If approached systematically using the principles of Advanced Access, patient demand patterns can be tracked to forecast demand. These demand patterns become the template for deploying the resources necessary to meet patients' needs. Although not a simple journey, the transformation to Advanced Access provides an entree to patient-centered care where patients can say, "I get exactly the care I want and need, when I want and need it."

Live Reference Chat from a Customer Service Perspective

SUMMARY Suffolk Cooperative Library System has been constructing a digital reference infrastructure predicated on the question “How will this work at the point of service?” In 2000, Suffolk added a live chat reference service in order to better assist patrons at the digital point of service. Staffing, hours, and other administrative decisions were tested against patron needs. This article describes the development process and discusses software selection and development issues with regard to patron needs.

Building a Balanced Scorecard for a burn center

The Balanced Scorecard provides a model that can be adapted to the management of any burn center, burn service or burn program. This model enables an organization to translate its mission and vision into specific strategic objectives across the four perspectives: (1) the financial perspective; (2) the customer service perspective; (3) the internal business perspective; and (4) the growth and learning perspective. Once the appropriate objectives are identified, the Balanced Scorecard guides the organization to develop reasonable performance measures and establishes targets, initiatives and alternatives to meet programmatic goals and pursue longer-term visionary improvements. We used the burn center at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center to test whether the Balanced Scorecard methodology was appropriate for the core business plan of a healthcare strategic business unit (i.e. a burn center).

Participants strengthen clinical trial research: the vital role of participant advisors in the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial.

Views regarding the rights and roles of participants in clinical trial research have changed extensively over the past several decades. Such changes have included moving from paternalistic views, in which human subjects often were totally uninformed of research participation, to a perspective that recognized certain rights of human subjects. In recent years, the consumer rights movement, a growing customer service perspective in health care, and the growth of a variety of advocacy groups have brought further change in attitudes and efforts to include consumer representatives and research participants in a variety of advisory roles. The BCPT PAB is a model for a way to involve research study participants in an expanded role. Members of the board initiate efforts to promote participation and inform potential participants about the trial. They help establish outreach efforts to recruit individuals from underrepresented populations. They serve as effective spokespersons for the trial to the media at both local and national levels, and they give highly useful guidance to the NSABP and the NCI regarding a variety of aspects of clinical trials. Beyond the formal responsibilities that were outlined when the board was established, the trial participants serving on the advisory board also have provided inspiration and motivation for other participants as well as for the clinicians, researchers, and administrators conducting the BCPT. The extensive contributions of the advisory board members confirm and add to the understanding of the variety of ways that clinical research participants can play a role in strengthening such research efforts. Further, the BCPT PAB may serve as a model strategy for drawing on the unique resource represented by the participants in clinical trial studies.

Restaurant Style Service in the Long Term Care Setting:: The Customer Service Focus of the Future

Customer feedback in a long term care and rehabilitation facility revealed dissatisfaction with existing meal service. A market survey targeting families and residents, identified dissatisfaction in variety, appearance, taste, temperature and portion size. Traditional long term care selective menu choices are made a week ahead of mealtime. As the resident population shifted toward shorter term rehabilitation with rapid health improvements, this style of menu became cumbersome and did not meet their residents’ current health needs and desires. The long term residents frequently forgot their choices leading to frustration at meal-time. This impacted on production, as often items were unavailable due to the pre-planned production schedule. To assure availability of resident choices, reduce production problems, and keep food and labor cost in control, a production and service system was implemented. It was based on a design that allowed residents to make choices from the selective menu at table side. The system included production forecasting and documentation of over and under production. Creatively redesigning employee work assignments in a non-traditional fashion, resulted in table side wait staff working within the existing labor budget. Upon program implementation, a resident satisfaction Continuous Quality Indicator tool was initiated to monitor the on-going success of the restaurant style meal service. The results showed a consistently high satisfaction with this type of service. By taking a customer service perspective, we were able to modify meal service within existing budget constraints and meet the needs of the ever changing long term care client.

Information technology and travel agency: A customer service perspective

The importance of the individual concepts of customer service and information technology (IT) in the 1990s is undisputed. Although essentially discrete concepts, increasing intertwining is apparent. Within the travel industry, this is exemplified in travel agency. By focusing on this sector, the paper examines the impact of information technology (IT) on customer service. From identifying the problems associated with defining customer service, a qualitative Impact assessment follows which highlights a range of factors distinguished according to functional and technical features. It is found that IT is having both a positive and negative impact on customer service. Significantly, there is considerable untapped potential for the travel agent to use IT to improve service to enhance its advisory role and ultimately secure its position within the chain of distribution.