Customer Support Services Research Articles

Zotero: A Product Review

Zotero is a free and open source Firefox extension that exists within the Web browser and allows one to collect, manage, store, and cite resources in a single location.1 Zotero automatically imports citation information from a number of sources, including nonsubscription, newspaper, and commercial Web sites, and Web-based databases such as PubMed and MedlinePlus. Zotero offers more options for note taking than the better-known citation management system EndNote. Sixteen citation styles are available when Zotero is initially downloaded, with many more freely available. Users can install a plug-in that allows Zotero to integrate with Microsoft Word. Even though Zotero does not have an on-demand customer support service, its Web site offers a wealth of information for users. The authors highly recommend Zotero.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

AbstractIT & Technology (MIC: SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512)Jack Henry & Associates provides integrated computer systems for in‐house as well as outsourced data processing to commercial banks, credit unions and other financial institutions. Co. also performs data conversion and software implementation services for its systems and provide continuing customer support services after the systems are implemented. For customers who prefer not to make an up‐front capital investment in software and hardware, Co. provides its products and services on an outsourced basis through its eight data centers and 23 item‐processing centers located throughout the U.S., as of June 30 2007. Co. has three marketed brands: Jack Henry Banking, Symitar and ProfitStars.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

AbstractIT & Technology (MIC: 10.2 SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512)Jack Henry & Associates provides integrated computer systems for in‐house as well as outsourced data processing to commercial banks, credit unions and other financial institutions. Co. also performs data conversion and software implementation services for its systems and provide continuing customer support services after the systems are implemented. For customers who prefer not to make an up‐front capital investment in software and hardware, Co. provides its products and services on an outsourced basis through its eight data centers and 23 item‐processing centers located throughout the U.S., as of June 30 2007. Co. has three marketed brands: Jack Henry Banking, Symitar and ProfitStars.

Customer‐support service in the relationship perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe customers' perception of customer support service related to the core service in telecomminucations customer relationships. The customers' perceptions of the support‐service stem from their contacts with the support service and are related to the importance for the relationship with the telecommunications provider.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a modified version of Switching Path Analysis Technique (SPAT) in its analysis to create the necessary data for carrying out a dynamic analysis – in other words customers' experiences of the customer‐support service over time in their relationship with the service provider. The modification, called the SPAT mechanism, only focused on the difference between driving and non‐driving factors related to the relationship strength.FindingsFrom the service perspective it was found that some of the customers in the present study were particularly focused on the customer‐support, which made it dominate the relationships. At that special time, their telecommunications service predominantly comprised customer support, which was more important than the core service. At other times, when the support‐service focus was not as strong, the priority was likely to be different. Consequently, the composition of the telecommunications service and the core service is according to customers' expressions dynamic and only the customer perspective has the authority to define it.Research limitations/implicationsResearch on service has been going on for several decades, and thus offers a great variety of findings from cross‐sectional studies. Therefore, the present study's presentation of only one kind of service could be considered limited.Originality/valueThe paper provides useful information on customers' perception of customer support service related to the core service in telecommunications customer relationships.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

AbstractIT & Technology (MIC: 10.2 SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512)Jack Henry & Associates provides integrated computer systems for in‐house as well as outsourced data processing to commercial banks, credit unions and other financial institutions. In addition, Co. performs data conversion and software implementation services for its systems and provide continuing customer support services after the systems are implemented. For Co.'s customers who prefer not to make an up‐front capital investment in software and hardware, Co. provides its products and services on an outsourced basis through its eight data centers and 23 item‐processing centers located throughout the U.S., as of June 30 2007.

Exploring Marketing Information Systems (MkIS) selection and evaluation criteria: implications for suppliers

This paper reports the findings of a research that incorporated two phases ? before and after ? the acquisition of the Marketing Information System (MkIS) product. An extensive account of the criteria in the selection and evaluation process used by a sample of Greek manufacturing companies is given to illustrate perceived benefits and critical points for suppliers. In the first phase, three main categories of criteria, namely, supplier's name and reputation, financial terms of acquisition and customer support service, were identified as elements that influence choice decisions. For triangulation purposes, a questionnaire was designed based on the qualitative results and distributed to companies in the first phase. Factor analysis validated the results provided by the qualitative exploration. In the second phase, data collected through the same questionnaire survey were employed to evaluate the findings. Results suggest that the importance placed by companies on the customer support service factor increases, while the emphasis on the cost factor diminishes.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

AbstractIT & Technology (MIC: 10.2 SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512)Jack Henry & Associates provides integrated computer systems for in‐house as well as outsourced data processing to commercial banks, credit unions and other financial institutions. In addition, Co. performs data conversion and software implementation services for its systems and provide continuing customer support services after the systems are implemented. For Co.'s customers who prefer not to make an up‐front capital investment in software and hardware, Co. provides its products and services on an outsourced basis through its eight data centers and 23 item‐processing centers located throughout the U.S., as of June 30 2007.

Exploring the Effect of Cognitive Biases on Customer Support Services

In order to meet the increasingly more complex needs of customers and respond to decreasing product margins, product‐oriented firms have developed a growing interest in extending their service business. Over the last couple of years, most product‐oriented companies have explored the numerous opportunities offered by traditional customer service and product‐related services. Currently, these opportunities have reached a certain level of maturity. A number of practitioners and theorists stress the growing importance of customer support services. However, the entry point to the theorizing is the observation that very few product‐oriented firms have already innovated customer support services successfully. In most firms, cognitive biases limit the motivation of managers to facilitate creative potential for new customer support services. In this paper, four cognitive biases are elaborated through 12 mini‐cases and 8 in‐depth cases. The results suggest that disbelief in the financial potential, risk aversion, tendency to set over‐ambitious objectives, and fundamental attribution error plays a critical role in creating customer support services. These four cognitive biases, and the key factors in overcoming them, provide guidance for managers who aim to facilitate creative potential for customer support services.

An Investigation of Antecedents for the Development of Customer Support Services in Manufacturing Companies

ABSTRACT Purpose of this paper. The existing literature remains silent on the necessary antecedents for developing customer support services (CSS). This paper constitutes an attempt to close part of this gap by addressing the following research question: What are the antecedents for developing CSS in machinery and equipment manufacturing companies? Design/methodology/Approach. The unit of analysis was a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) in both German and Swiss machinery and equipment manufacturing companies. The data collection is based on a broad survey among 212 firms. The hypothesized model was estimated by means of structural equation modeling techniques. Findings. The results suggest that the positive associations of the external environment and orientation of the business strategy towards CSS are supported in terms of significance and size of effect. The orientation of the business strategy towards CSS is also positively related with organization of development activities, service manager decision-making authority, and creation of an innovation culture in the service organization. Furthermore, the overall profitability is influenced positively by these three factors of organizational design. Research Limitations/Implications (if applicable). The study only concentrates on machinery and equipment manufacturing companies. It would be also useful to examine whether similar relationships hold in other manufacturing industries. Practical Implications (if applicable). Machinery and equipment manufacturing companies which wish to switch from being a provider of product-related services for the installed base, to being a service provider offering CSS, must confront and meet the challenge of finding an optimal alignment between external environment, business strategy and factors of organizational design. What is original/value of paper. To best of the author's knowledge, there has been no empirical research which addresses how to successfully implement a strategy for offering CS internally. Thus, the study attempts to address an important research gap. Creating sustainable competitive advantages means that machinery and equipment manufacturing firms must shift the emphasis of their business from providing only product-related services for the installed base to offer customer support services as a service provider. In this context, the research focuses on two important issues. First, it focuses on the proper alignment among external environment such as competitive intensity and customer expectations, corporate strategy's orientation towards customer support services and organizational factors to support the development of them. Second, the moderating effect of top management recognition and a service orientation which permeates corporate culture and human resource management is analyzed. Based on a survey, the paper illustrates that the business strategy for customer support services and the organizational factors such as service manager decision-making authority, organization of development activities, and creation of an innovation culture play important roles in achieving greater overall profitability in a changing external environment. The intensity of the effects depends additionally on the moderating effects of top management recognition and a service orientation which permeates corporate culture and human resource management.

KISTI 통합 HELP DESK 시스템 구축에 관한 연구

지식기반사회에 있어서 과학기술지식정보는 국가의 부존자원이며 경쟁력의 원천이라 할 수 있다. 또한 연구자의 연구 및 기술개발에 있어서 과학기술지식정보 중요성이 날로 증가하고 있으며, 고객의 요구도 다양화 되고 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 과학기술지식정보를 이용하고 있는 고객의 다양한 요구 및 의견을 적극적으로 반영하여 효율적인 고객 대응 전략을 수립하고, 이를 기반으로 상시적인 고객 서비스 응대, 고객 모니터링, 서비스 개선, 고객 만족도 제고를 위한 표준화된 통합 Helpdesk 시스템을 개발하였다. Information on and knowledge of science and technology in the knowledge-based society can be a valuable natural resource and a source of competitive advantage for a country. In addition, in conducting research and developing technologies, information on and knowledge of science and technology is becoming increasingly important and customer's needs are becoming more diverse. This study thus aims to propose appropriate strategies for effectively coping with needs of those customers who use such knowledge and information by actively reflecting a broad diversity of customer' needs and comments. Using such strategies, we developed a standardized and integrated helpdesk system to enhance the quality of customer support and other services, customer monitoring service, and customer satisfaction.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

AbstractIT & Technology (MIC: 10.2 SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512)Jack Henry & Associates is a provider of integrated computer systems providing data processing and management information to banks, credit unions, other financial and non‐financial institutions in U.S. Co. performs data conversion and hardware and software installation for the implementation of its systems and applications. Co. also provides continuing customer support services. For Co.'s customers who prefer not to acquire hardware and software, Co. provides outsourcing services through six data centers and 23 item‐processing centers. Co. develops software applications designed primarily for use on hardware supporting IBM and UNIX/NT operating systems.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

AbstractIT & Technology (MIC: 10.2 SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512)Jack Henry & Associates is a provider of integrated computer systems providing data processing and management information to banks, credit unions, other financial and non‐financial institutions in U.S. Co. performs data conversion and hardware and software installation for the implementation of its systems and applications. Co. also provides continuing customer support services. For Co.'s customers who prefer not to acquire hardware and software, Co. provides outsourcing services through six data centers and 23 item‐processing centers. Co. develops software applications designed primarily for use on hardware supporting IBM and UNIX/NT operating systems.

Finning International Inc.

AbstractMachinery Supply Retail (MIC: 12.9 SIC: 5082 NAIC: 423810)Finning International is a Canadian‐based international company which sells, rents, and provides customer support services for Caterpillar Inc.'s equipment and engines and complementary equipment on three continents around the world. Co. is the authorized dealer of Caterpillar products in its Western Canada territories, the U.K. and the southern cone of South America. Co. serves customers operating in a range of end markets, including those involved in mining and quarrying, construction (including pipeline and oil field development), forestry, power generation, agriculture, materials handling and plant hire. Co.'s customers include private enterprise and government.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

AbstractIT & Technology (MIC: 10.2 SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512)Jack Henry & Associates is a provider of integrated computer systems providing data processing and management information to banks, credit unions, other financial and non‐financial institutions in U.S. Co. performs data conversion and hardware and software installation for the implementation of its systems and applications. Co. also provides continuing customer support services. For Co.'s customers who prefer not to acquire hardware and software, Co. provides outsourcing services through six data centers and 23 item‐processing centers. Co. develops software applications designed primarily for use on hardware supporting IBM and UNIX/NT operating systems.

Automatic Fuzzy Ontology Generation for Semantic Help-Desk Support

Customer service support is an important operation for most multinational manufacturing companies. With the advancement of internet technologies, customer services nowadays are supported through web-based systems. More recently, rapid development of the semantic web and semantic web services has prompted us to develop a semantic help-desk for supporting customer services over the semantic web environment, which is presented in this paper. In particular, a fuzzy formal concept analysis (FCA)-based approach is developed for automatic generation of fuzzy machine service ontology that can deal with uncertain information. The proposed automatic fuzzy ontology generation technique consists of the following steps: fuzzy formal concept analysis, fuzzy conceptual clustering, and ontology generation. As such, the supporting machine services provided by the proposed system will potentially improve customer satisfaction in terms of reducing machine down time and increasing productivity. In this paper, an experiment has also been conducted for performance evaluation. The experimental result shows that the proposed approach has attained good performance in terms of both accuracy and efficiency when the queries are associated with appropriate membership values, and a suitable confident threshold is set.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

AbstractIT & Technology (MIC: 10.2 SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512)Jack Henry & Associates is a provider of integrated computer systems providing data processing and management information to banks, credit unions and credit unions, other financial and non‐financial institutions in U.S. Co. performs data conversion and hardware and software installation for the implementation of its systems and applications. Co. also provides continuing customer support services. For Co.'s customers who prefer not to acquire hardware and software, Co. provides outsourcing services through six data centers and twenty‐two item‐processing centers. Co. develops software applications designed primarily for use on hardware supporting IBM and UNIX/NT operating systems.

Optimal staffing policies for customer support system with uncertain demand

'Customer support' includes all value-added product services after the product sale, such as installation, maintenance and repairs, etc. A high-level of uncertainty and fluctuations accompanies the demand for customer support services. Hence, the system needs optimal field-staffing decisions with the least risk. The problem becomes all the more challenging under restricted working hour conditions. Daily working hour duration embedded with 'decision epochs' partly mitigates demand uncertainty. This research work uses this framework and assesses the volatile demand with a probability distribution. Further, this research develops a decision model using the Markov Decision Process (MDP) in a Dynamic Programmin (DP) framework to optimise the field-staffing decisions considering demand fluctuations and risk. Results of the numerical analysis show that more decision epochs reduces cost. Also, the neutral risk policies become optimal with the increase in the number of decision epochs.

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

Mergent's Dividend AchieversVolume 3, Issue 2 p. 153-153 U.S. Company Reports Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.† First published: 20 April 2006 https://doi.org/10.1002/div.3961 † Contact: : Michael E. Henry — Chmn. Address: : 663 Highway 60, P.O. Box 807, Monett, MO 65708 Web Site: : www.jackhenry.com AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Abstract IT & Technology (MIC: 10.2 SIC: 7373 NAIC: 541512) Jack Henry & Associates is a provider of integrated computer systems providing data processing and management information to banks, credit unions and credit unions, other financial and non-financial institutions in U.S. Co. performs data conversion and hardware and software installation for the implementation of its systems and applications. Co. also provides continuing customer support services. For Co.'s customers who prefer not to acquire hardware and software, Co. provides outsourcing services through six data centers and twenty-two item-processing centers. Co. develops software applications designed primarily for use on hardware supporting IBM and UNIX/NT operating systems. Volume3, Issue2Spring 2006Pages 153-153 RelatedInformation

Delivering Quality Service

ABSTRACT Quality in tourism-related services, like in services in general, are basically about balancing customer perceptions and expectations. Successful service providers are able to meet and, whenever possible, exceed consumers' needs and wants. This way, it is possible to provide memorable experiences to visitors. In delivering services, due to certain specific characteristics of services (e.g., intangibility, simultaneity, variability and perishability), the human element, in particular the ‘face-to-face’ interaction with the customer, plays a fundamental role. The study stresses the contribution of interpersonal variables for the success of service organisations. It discusses how commitment to customer service, and supportive supervisors and co-workers, influence the relationship managers' ability to satisfy customers. The main findings were as follows: (i) commitment to customer service and co-workers' support have direct and positive effects on the ability to satisfy customers; (ii) commitment to customer service is the most important determinant of the ability to satisfy customers, and works as a mediator for the other independent variables; (iii) co-workers' support, having both direct and mediated effects, is a more important predictor than supervisors' support. The available data indicates that there is a need for specific training for supervisors, in order to increase their awareness of the impact of their performance on the service delivered by contact employees. Moreover, it is important that service organisations are capable of providing employees with a holistic view of the service delivery chain. This includes not only relationship managers, but also those who are not in direct contact with external customers. Apart from these training aspects, the results of this study should also be considered in relation to other management issues, namely in human resources management. Organisations should prevent the risk of losing those employees that show more commitment to customer service and more ability to satisfy customers. Employee retention exerts a positive impact on repurchase, which, in turn, influences profitability. In light of these findings, some managerial implications are suggested.

Customer relationship management (CRM) in business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐commerce

Customer relationship management (CRM) and business‐to‐business (B2B) are essential to the success of modern business. Although they are two different modules, they share many similarities. The integration of CRM and B2B will benefit all related parties in business processes, including sales, marketing, customer service, and information support. This article discusses the characteristics, similarities, and differences of B2B and CRM. It also explores the CRM‐B2B integration strategies, the current issues and their future development trends.