Customer Service Program Research Articles

Customer care in selected academic libraries in Ghana

This article reflects on a study done on the state of customer care in five selected academic libraries in Ghana. The study examined the prevailing customer care programmes – the policies, structures, practices, and the effects of customer care on the use of library products and services. Based on a pragmatic assumption, the researchers adopted a mixed-method research approach and a survey design with a sample of 3153 respondents which comprised three strata: students, faculty and library staff from the five selected academic libraries in Ghana. Data was largely collected with questionnaires and interviews were used to gather information from university librarians/heads of customer service. A document review instrument was used to confirm information provided by the respondents. The findings revealed that all five academic libraries had some form of customer care programmes. The article also established that customer care programmes contributed greatly to the improvement of skills, knowledge, experiences, and service performance of the academic library staff, which influenced the patronage of library products and services. However, the researchers identified inadequate financial resources, lack of written customer care policies, shortfalls in the customer care practices and training programmes as some of the challenges facing the implementation of customer care initiatives in academic libraries in Ghana. The article recommends developing written customer service policies and programmes specific to the provision of excellent customer services in academic libraries, adequate funding for regular customer service training of library staff and effective application of modern technology to enhance customer care in academic libraries.

Customer satisfaction in records management at Botswana Examinations Council

This paper is extracted from a master’s dissertation titled, “An evaluation of customer satisfaction at Botswana Examinations Council Records Management Unit.” The purpose of this study was to investigate customer satisfaction at Botswana Examinations Council Records Management Unit (BEC RMU) using the SERVQUAL conceptual model. The study convergent mixed methods research approach with survey, interview, participant observation and document review as data collection tools. The findings of this study revealed that: the BEC RMU has adequate facilities, equipment and human resources that enable it to serve customers; there is no disaster management plan in the RMU; the RMU rarely conducts user needs assessment surveys and its officers use face-to-face communication, telephone, and emails to communicate with customers. The study recommends training for RMU officers in good customer service, management support, introduction of ERMS, workshops to sensitise RMU officers on customer service standards or any other related document, development of a disaster management plan, customer service programme and user needs assessment. The study further recommends orientation and induction of action officers.

Research on Improved Xgboost Algorithm for Big Data Analysis of e-Commerce Customer Churn

With the increasing cost of acquiring new users for e-commerce enterprises, it has become an important task for e-commerce enterprises to actively carry out customer churn management. Therefore, based on the distributed gradient enhancement library algorithm (XGBoost), this research proposes a big data analysis study on e-commerce customer churn. First, it conducts an evaluation analysis on e-commerce customer segmentation and combines the random forest algorithm (RF) to build an RF XGBoost prediction model based on customer churn. Finally, it verifies the performance of the prediction model. The results show that the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) value, prediction accuracy, recall rate, and F1 value of the RF-XGBoost model are significantly better than those of the RF, XGBoost, and ID3 decision trees to build an e-commerce customer churn prediction model; The average output error of RF-XGBoost model is 0.42, and the average output error is relatively good, indicating that the model proposed in this study has a smaller error and higher accuracy. It can make a general assessment of the customer churn of e-commerce enterprises, and then provide data support for the customer maintenance work of e-commerce enterprises. It is helpful to analyze the relevant factors affecting customer churn, to Equationte targeted customer service programs, thus improving the economic benefits of e-commerce enterprises.

Customer service 2.0: The Effect of Ryanair's Policy Change

Customer perceptions of Ryanair and Southwest were evaluated to compare two data periods; 2012-13 and 2016-17 to determine differences in passenger perceptions between and within airlines. Quantitative data and open area comments were analyzed. A replication of a previous study for 2016-17 data indicated that customer perceptions of Ryanair improved since the implementation of a customer service program. Survey results indicated Ryanair and Southwest did not have statistically significant differences in overall ratings; a change from 2012-13 data where Southwest was rated significantly higher. Additionally, 2016-17 Ryanair customers indicated they would recommend the airline at a significantly higher rate than Southwest customers. A comparison within each airline’s data between the 2012-13 and 2016-17 collection periods indicated a significant perceived improvement of Ryanair’s customer service in the areas of seat comfort and whether they would recommend the airline to others. Southwest’s customer perceptions between 2012-13 and 2016-17 showed significant declines in overall ranking, seat comfort, value and whether they would recommend the airline. Recommendations for further research include a replication of this study comparing 2016-17 data with 2021-22 data to determine how well each airline has adapted to the Coronavirus.

Expanding the ‘Orlando experience’

Airports have been ranked by organisations such as Skytrax, ACI World (through ASQ), and J. D. Power for their customer experience for years, but no formal identification of the factors that contribute to customer experience has been established. The authors worked together over the past three years to determine the significant factors that create world-class airports offering outstanding customer experiences. Also, the methodologies, techniques, technology, benchmarks, metrics and best practices used by recognised awardwinning airports were compared with the Orlando International Airport customer experience programme. Additional training was developed for all Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) employees to reinforce the existing customer service programme and assist in individuals and departments to embrace their role in providing the ‘Orlando Experience’. A gap analysis was performed to compare the current executive leadership’s idea, and that of management and rank and file, of their role in providing improved ‘Orlando Experience’ with the traveller’s perspective. The result is improved customer experiences throughout MCO and awards by J. D. Power for the past two years for the best airport in customer satisfaction for mega airports. This paper is intended to share the results of research, meetings within the airport staff, focus groups conducted, extensive social media analysis and methodologies employed to provide an enhanced ‘Orlando Experience’, which may be employed by other airports desiring to improve their customer experiences.

Nurturing customer service culture in an experience economy: employees' assessment of the UWI, Mona Library service model

PurposeIn an experience economy, the alternative options for higher education are varied; resulting in competition and a deliberate focus on student experience to create competitive advantage. In this regard, the various constituents of the university, including the library, are required to transform the organisational culture, specifically, the service culture, to engage students in a way that creates a memorable experience. In response, The UWI, Mona Library re-launched its Customer Service programme: using an in-house inspired 10 element service model, with initiatives aimed at realising each element, the library purposed to build a service culture. This paper seeks to assess employees' perception of the impact of the initiatives of this model.Design/methodology/approachThis survey research employed individual interviews to assess employees' perception of the impact of the initiatives of the service model, with the objective of refining the model, where needed, for continued use in the Mona Library, and for use in libraries desirous of implementing the model.FindingsThe initiatives of the service model are creating the desired customer service culture and aspects have been identified for refinement.Research limitations/implicationsThe model is based on the needs, experiences, history, culture and strategic priorities of one Caribbean university library. It centres on the employees and their perception. As such, it focuses less on the product, space and the external customer; but it is hoped that by focusing on the employees (specifically creating a service culture amongst them) that this will ultimately impact product, space and the overall customer experience.Practical implicationsProvides the top priorities and considerations for a practicing Caribbean / developing country academic library manger, with an interest in a model for nurturing service culture amongst the employees.Originality/valueThis paper is of value as it centres on creating a service culture, rather than on the usual customer service satisfaction survey, offers a service model and adds to the literature on customer service in academic libraries.

No more “Magic Aprons”: Longitudinal assessment and continuous improvement of customer service at the University of North Dakota libraries

ABSTRACTThe University of North Dakota (UND) Libraries have developed a multi-award winning Customer Service Program (CSP) involving longitudinal assessment and continuous improvement. The CSP consists of iterative training modules; constant reinforcement of Customer Service Principles with multiple communication strategies and tools, and incentives that boost morale and foster not only compliance, but initiative-taking and innovation. The CSP became a widely adopted part of campus-wide assessment, beyond the libraries. Subsequent presentations at conferences led to multiple requests and implementation at other libraries.

Pandora's Digital Box: The Promise and Perils of Digital Wallets

Digital wallets, such as ApplePay and Android Pay, are “smart” payment devices that can integrate payments with two-way, real-time communications of any type of data. Integration of payments with real-time communications holds out tremendous promise for consumers and merchants alike: the combination, in a single, convenient platform, of search functions, advertising, payment, shipping, customer service, and loyalty programs. Such an integrated retail platform offers consumers a faster and easier way to transact, and offers brick-and-mortar retailers an ecommerce-type ability to identify, attract, and retain customers. At the same time, however, digital wallets present materially different risks for both consumers and merchants than traditional plastic card payments precisely because of their “smart” nature.For consumers, digital wallets can trigger an unfavorable shift in the applicable legal regime governing the transactions, increase fraud risk, create confusion regarding error resolution, expose consumers to non-FDIC-insured accounts, and substantially erode transactional privacy. These risks are often not salient to consumers, who cannot distinguish them by digital wallet. Consumers’ inability to protect against these risks points to a need for regulatory intervention by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to ensure minimum standards for digital wallets.For merchants, digital wallets can deprive them of valuable customer information used for anti-fraud, advertising, loyalty, and customer service purposes. Digital wallets can also facilitate poaching of customers by competitors, impair merchants’ customer relationship management, deprive merchants of influence over consumers’ payment choice and routing, increase fraud risk, subject merchants to patent infringement liability, and ultimately increase the costs of accepting payments. Merchants are constrained in their ability to refuse or condition payments from digital wallets based on the risks presented because of merchant rules promulgated by credit card networks. These rules raise antitrust concerns because they foreclose entry to those digital wallets that offer merchants the most attractive valuation proposition, namely those wallets that do not use the credit card networks for payments.

Critical Analysis of 'Profitable Customer Management: Reducing Costs by Influencing Customer Behaviour' (Persson, 2013)

A review and critique of the article by Persson from a Theory of Knowledge Management (TKM) perspective. The study examines not only cost containment measures, but takes a view on behavioural management as well. An overview of TKM is provided. TKM is then linked to the article’s three theories regarding costs, along with three methods for proposed reduction of direct costs related to the customer service programs of the firm. Two assumptions are made in the article: costs can be lowered while customer satisfaction ratings are maintained, and some diminution of customer retention rates is tolerable, provided a cost savings is net. These assumptions are demonstrated evidence of the cultural facets of TKM. Three case studies are presented with three qualitative examples of cost mitigation and increased customer satisfaction with the common aspect of diverting customers to self-service options over costly in-person interactions. However, it is suggested that additional and consistent quantitative evidence across the cases, especially in regards to the firms’ cost savings outcomes, would have provided further strength to the argument.

Pandora's Digital Box: Digital Wallets and the Honor All Wallets Rules

Digital wallets are poised to transform the world of retailing. These digital wallets, such as ApplePay and Android Pay, are “smart” payment devices that can integrate payments with two-way, real-time communications of any type of data. Integration of payments with real-time communications holds out tremendous promise for retailers: the combination in a single platform of search, advertising, payment, shipping, customer service, and loyalty programs. Such an integrated retail platform offers brick-and-mortar retailers a potentially superior ability to identify, attract, and retain customers, bringing eCommerce-type platforms into the brick-and-mortar environment. At the same time, however, digital wallets present materially different risks for merchants than traditional plastic card payments precisely because of their “smart” nature. Digital wallets can reallocate flows of consumer data from merchants to financial institutions, depriving merchants of valuable customer information used for anti-fraud, advertising, loyalty, and customer service purposes. Digital wallets can also facilitate poaching of customers by competitors, impair merchants’ customer relationship management, deprive merchants of influence over tender choice and payment routing, increase fraud risk, subject merchants to patent infringement liability, and ultimately increase the costs of accepting payments. All of this suggests that merchants would accept digital wallets only selectively, based on the overall package of risks and rewards offered by any particular wallet. Merchants, however, are highly constrained in their ability to refuse or condition payments from digital wallets because of “Honor All Wallets” rules promulgated by American Express, MasterCard, and Visa for merchants that accept payments with their network brands. The Honor All Wallets rules require merchants to accept all network-branded payments from any device that uses a communications technology accepted by the merchant — magnetic stripe, Near Field Communications, QR codes, Internet, etc. The Honor All Wallets rules thus tie acceptance of a card network’s payments via digital wallets to the acceptance of traditional plastic cards that use the same communications technologies. The Honor All Wallets rules force merchants to accept payments from all digital wallets utilizing a card network brand, irrespective of the wallet’s risks. Honor All Wallets presents merchants with a digital Pandora’s Box. The Honor All Wallets rules also skew the competitive landscape for digital wallets. By preventing merchants from accepting only certain brands of payments from digital wallets, the Honor All Wallets rules foreclose entry to digital wallets that offer the most attractive valuation proposition for merchants — those that make low-cost PIN-debit and ACH payments. The Honor All Wallets rules thus artificially increase the market shares of the high-cost credit and signature debt products of American Express, MasterCard, and Visa in the payment card network services market. By facilitating consumer use of high-cost wallets, the Honor All Wallets rules ironically impede the adoption of digital wallets altogether. Accordingly, this Article argues that the Honor All Wallets rules should invite serious antitrust scrutiny.

From local IT needs to global process transformation: Hilti’s customer service program

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarize an information technology (IT) initiative at Hilti Corporation that began with a local IT need and ended with the global transformation of the company’s customer service processes and infrastructures. The authors highlight 12 lessons learned from the transformation, which Hilti referred to as the Global Contact Center (GCC) program. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyze Hilti’s GCC program based on first-hand experience. Hilti applied an innovative, wave-like implementation approach that facilitated a fast roll-out, fostered peer-to-peer knowledge transfer, and helped to overcome reluctance to change. Findings – The analysis of Hilti’s approach to its new customer service management reveals a number of simple, yet, critical lessons learned regarding leveraging IT-driven business value through global process transformation. Research limitations/implications – The case report can help researchers to further theorize about IT-enabled process transformation. The GCC program resulted in significant improvements in the performance and quality of customer service processes and enabled transparent reporting and performance measurement on a global scale. Practical implications – Overall, the GCC case provides an illustrative example of successful process transformation at the global level that also demonstrates implementation challenges. As such, the case report can help practitioners in planning and executing similar projects toward customer service excellence. Originality/value – Hilti’s GCC case not only provides fresh insights into a successful process transformation. As it focusses on customer service, it also concerns an application area that has received little in the way of attention from process transformation research.

Analysis of automobile repeat-purchase behaviour on CRM

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to suggest a method of selecting efficient customer service programmes and of providing relevant customer information to dealers, based on the analysis of repeat-purchase behaviour data in the automobile industry. Design/methodology/approach – A recurrent event model is proposed and employed to determine which variables affect repurchasing behaviour in consumers' repurchase cycles. Unlike the conventional recurrent event model, the proposed model uses common variables for all strata, as well as stratum-specific variables. Findings – Empirical results show that age, price difference, change in vehicle type, and marketing promotion affect the likelihood of repeat purchase. VIP service centres and repair services are effective marketing tools, and dealers should pay more attention to existing customers having certain characteristics, depending on prior purchase behaviour. Practical implications – Though many customer service programmes are devised and implemented at great cost, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data reveal that classic car-care services are the most essential. CRM can provide dealers with essential customer information that enables real purchases. Originality/value – Collecting primary data on automobile purchase behaviour and customer service usage is difficult, and therefore, customer behaviour strategy is often formulated using basic principles alone. The paper proposes a method to construct a service strategy and formulate deal guidelines based on CRM data and statistical modelling.

Dealing with Difficult Patients: Do Customer Service Initiatives Improve Patient Satisfaction at an Interdisciplinary Pain Center?

Chronic pain patients can be difficult to manage due to complicated medical and psychiatric comorbidities. This study focused on strategies designed to improve patient treatment satisfaction within a tertiary urban hospital‐based pain management center. Information was obtained of monthly patient satisfaction and Press Ganey scores in 2009 based on patient perceptions of staff and telephone access, frequency of returned phone calls, staff empathy and responsiveness, and overall patient experience with their pain treatment. Information was also obtained of the number of formal complaints made to the Patient Relations Department of the hospital. A customer service program designed to target patient's phone access, response to phone calls, improved patient experiences, and service friendliness was initiated in March 2010. Six hundred eleven patients (n = 611) were randomly surveyed 3 months after their treatment between 2009 and 2012 and rates of formal patient complaints were monitored. Thirty‐three (n = 33) staff members were encouraged to attend monthly 1.5‐hour customer service meetings and participate in specialized work teams between March 2010 and December 2012. Patient satisfaction scores rose from a low of 80.3 (average of 83.5%) in 2009 to a high of 91.2 (average 88.9%) in 2012. Annual formal complaints to Patient Relations decreased by 40.5% over 4 years (112 in 2009 to 30 in 2012). Phone abandonment rates also decreased by 20% and the center scored 12% higher than average total practice scores in patient satisfaction based on secret shopper ratings. This study demonstrates that customer service initiatives that engage staff participation and that are designed to target specific improvements in patient satisfaction can effectively change the way pain patients perceive treatment at an interdisciplinary anesthesia‐based pain center.

Improving Customer Service in the Banking Industry-Case of Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB)-Ghana

Customer service has become so vital and significant to consider especially in the financial business sector whether locally or globally. As banks continue to provide an increasing number of financial services and products, they face the challenge of integrating these disparate systems into a coherent, efficient infrastructure, while delivering the highest level of customer service and convenience without exposing their customers to the bank’s internal system integration problems. However, banks in Ghana especially Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) needed to improve and formalize its customer service and public relations programs. A descriptive research method was used to gather data from the respective target population. Customer service at GCB from the customers’ perspective is not satisfactory but has led to the increase in number of new customers, maintenance of existing customer and increase in profitability among others.

The Customer Comes First: Implementing a Customer Service Program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Libraries

Library customers have more remote information choices than ever before, so we must ensure that when they do come to the library, they experience a welcoming environment, a high standard of service, and receive equitable levels of service across campus. Developing a customer service program was a logical next step to reinforce the ongoing commitment of our libraries to users and providing value to users who do come to the libraries. This article details the implementation of a customer service program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Libraries and offers tips on implementing a similar program at other institutions.

Creating a Comprehensive Customer Service Program to Help Convey Critical and Acute Results of Radiology Studies

Communication of acute or critical results between the radiology department and referring clinicians has been a deficiency of many radiology departments. The failure to perform or document these communications can lead to poor patient care, patient safety issues, medical-legal issues, and complaints from referring clinicians. To mitigate these factors, a communication and documentation tool was created and incorporated into our departmental customer service program. This article will describe the implementation of a comprehensive customer service program in a hospital-based radiology department. A comprehensive customer service program was created in the radiology department. Customer service representatives were hired to answer the telephone calls to the radiology reading rooms and to help convey radiology results. The radiologists, referring clinicians, and customer service representatives were then linked via a novel workflow management system. This workflow management system provided tools to help facilitate the communication needs of each group. The number of studies with results conveyed was recorded from the implementation of the workflow management system. Between the implementation of the workflow management system on August 1, 2005, and June 1, 2009, 116,844 radiology results were conveyed to the referring clinicians and documented in the system. This accounts for more than 14% of the 828,516 radiology cases performed in this time frame. We have been successful in creating a comprehensive customer service program to convey and document communication of radiology results. This program has been widely used by the ordering clinicians as well as radiologists since its inception.

The New South Wales Police Force Customer Service Programme

Catherine Burn is Assistant Commissioner of New South Wales Police Force (NSWPF), which, in late 2007, embarked on a change management programme for the organization: the Customer Service Programme (CSP). The aims of the programme were to focus the Police Force on customer service, victims of crime, and improved service delivery to increase satisfaction with the police, reduce customer service complaints, enhance interactions with the community, improve perceptions of police, and improve victim response. Research and consultation identified several areas that needed addressing including the development of a framework for the programme, concentrating on five main areas: standards and expectations, training and education, performance management, measurement, and communication and culture change. Much has been achieved, and a foundation to improve satisfaction has been laid. The CSP is now focusing on ways to improve confidence in the NSWPF. This paper describes the NSWPF CSP and proposes a model that includes renewed community engagement strategies and enhanced police visibility. It is too early in the programme to propose evidence-based findings as further empirical research and analysis is needed to measure the impact of the CSP and determine whether the programme’s aims are being achieved.

CRM technology: can adoption increase service quality and perceived value in maintenance services?

This paper investigates customer relationship management (CRM) technology's value creation potential through service quality (SERVQUAL) considerations. Few studies have looked into the impact of CRM applications on service quality, an established antecedent of successful service business relationships. A survey and interviews with maintenance service customers in Singapore affirmed that functional service quality (SERVQUAL) is a significant factor of customer perceived value. Potential CRM applications features are generally perceived to be value-adding and those that are associated with the SERVQUAL service responsiveness dimension are rated most. Systematic and accessible customer information to facilitate response to service requests and issues is highly-valued. The expeditious communication of issue resolution is another favoured CRM feature. The results provide intelligence to service providers on the design of CRM-enabled customer service programmes. Future research can investigate other industrial services categories/other markets as well as other explanatory factors for CRM value perceptions.

Developing a Typology of Perceived Communication Challenges Experienced by Frontline Employees During Organizational Change

This study sought to develop a typology of communication challenges perceived by frontline employees during the implementation of organizational change. A sample of midlevel managers (N = 166) self-reported 486 challenges they perceived encountering while implementing a new customer service program at a national textbook retailer. These perceived impediments were inductively analyzed into a five-tiered typology including (a) resistance from external stakeholders, (b) a lack of resources and decision-making authority, (c) personal management issues, (d) competing changes, and (e) staff resistance.

An Impact of Customer Service and Loyalty Program of Large Discount Store on Perceived Price and Satisfaction -Focused on Moderating Role of Monitering and Communication-

An Impact of Customer Service and Loyalty Program of Large Discount Store on Perceived Price and Satisfaction -Focused on Moderating Role of Monitering and Communication-