High Level Of Customer Service Research Articles

Supply planning for single-level assembly system with stochastic component delivery times and service-level constraint

A problem of inventory control for assembly systems is considered where the component lead times are random. A periodic “lot-for-lot” policy for component supply is studied. The decision variables are component planned lead times. The aim is to minimize the average holding cost for components while keeping a high customer service level for the finished product. When the lead times of the different types of components follow the same distribution probability, and unit holding costs are identical for all components, an efficient algorithm is proposed. For a more general case with arbitrary distribution and holding costs, some properties and a lower bound on the cost function are proved. These results can be useful for the development of efficient exact optimization algorithms as Branch and Bound. This article's models can be employed for MRP parameterization, more precisely for safety lead time or safety stock calculation for each component under component lead time uncertainty.

Pooling Restaurant Reservations to Increase Service Efficiency

This article examines whether restaurant reservations should be locked to specific tables at the time the reservation is made or whether the reservations should be pooled and assigned to tables in real time. In two motivating studies, the authors find that there is a lack of consensus in the restaurant industry on handling reservations. Contrary to what might be expected based on research that shows the benefits of resource pooling in other contexts, a survey of 425 restaurants indicated that more than 80% lock reservations to tables. In two simulation studies, the authors determine that pooling reservations enables a 15-minute reduction in table turn times more than 15% of the time, which consequently increases service efficiency and enables a restaurant to serve more customers during peak periods. Pooling had the most consistent advantage with higher customer service levels, larger restaurants, customers who arrive late, and larger variation in customer arrival time.

Successful strategies for e‐commerce

PurposeThe paper aims to review the latest management development across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsThere is no e‐commerce success in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SME) without the strategic commitment of managers. The internet provides an extensive source for marketing intelligence and can enable SMEs to reach further markets. It allows high level of customer service and support and reinforces SME's natural advantage of speed and flexibility. Following an overview of the conditions required to take advantage of the internet, the Pandora case study shows a small book retailer becoming the largest bookstore in Turkey through successful e‐commerce utilization.Practical implicationsThe paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

Taxi! Role-Play Three

Sold as a set, this role-playing series encourages students to clarify different points of view when in leadership roles (UVA-OB-0921, 0922, and 0923). Before seeking solutions, students must get a clear, comprehensive picture of the problems at hand. Using the want-got-gap model works well. The material affords students an opportunity to develop persuasion techniques. The exercise involves three roles: 1) An executive with the Metropolitan Airports Commission at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who must ensure that taxi companies maintain a high level of quality customer service; within the past year the commission has received close to 4,800 complaints about taxi drivers who refused to transport passengers carrying alcohol; 2) One of 900 Islamic Somali taxi drivers whose mosque leader ruled it was against Islamic law to carry passengers with alcohol; 3) A passenger who, after a long journey, just wants to get home with a few bottles of wine, but struggles to find a taxi driver who will take him or her home.

Taxi! Role-Play One

Sold as a set, this role-playing series encourages students to clarify different points of view when in leadership roles (UVA-OB-0921, 0922, and 0923). Before seeking solutions, students must get a clear, comprehensive picture of the problems at hand. Using the want-got-gap model works well. The material affords students an opportunity to develop persuasion techniques. The exercise involves three roles: 1) An executive with the Metropolitan Airports Commission at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who must ensure that taxi companies maintain a high level of quality customer service; within the past year the commission has received close to 4,800 complaints about taxi drivers who refused to transport passengers carrying alcohol; 2) One of 900 Islamic Somali taxi drivers whose mosque leader ruled it was against Islamic law to carry passengers with alcohol; 3) A passenger who, after a long journey, just wants to get home with a few bottles of wine, but struggles to find a taxi driver who will take him or her home.

Building Efficient Product Portfolios at John Deere and Company

John Deere & Company (Deere), one of the world’s leading producers of machinery, manufactures products composed of various features, within which a customer may select one of a number of possible options. On any given Deere product line, there may be tens of thousands of combinations of options (configurations) that are feasible. Maintaining such a large number of configurations inflates overhead costs; consequently, Deere wishes to reduce the number of configurations from their product lines without upsetting customers or sacrificing profits. In this paper, we provide a detailed explanation of the marketing and operational methodology used, and tools built, to evaluate the potential for streamlining two product lines at Deere. We illustrate our work with computational results from Deere, highlighting important customer behavior characteristics that impact product line diversity. For the two very different studied product lines, a potential increase in profit from 8% to 18% has been identified, possible through reducing the number of configurations by 20% to 50% from present levels, while maintaining the current high customer service levels. Based on our analysis and the insights it generated, Deere recently implemented a new product line strategy. We briefly detail this strategy, which has thus far increased profits by tens of millions of dollars.

The balancing of work and life

In this paper, balancing of work and life is discussed. Based upon considerable research a model was developed to better understand to achieve and maintain WLB. The model is modified and applied to WLB with the establishment of four life accounts that describe the essence of are: emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical. Other commitments could include family, fitness, politics, and education. The companies which had implemented WLB programs in the workplace: 1) Improved recruitment and retention. 2) Higher levels of customer service. 3) Improved workforce productivity. 4) Increased employee satisfaction. 5) Reduced employee absenteeism due to stress-related absences. These benefits make the employees enjoy better working relationships, improved self-esteem, health, concentration, and confidence.

Consistency

Consistency is a reflection of having the right model, the right systems and the right implementation. As Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, once said, "You don't do things right once in a while. You do them right all the time." To provide the ultimate level of patient care, reduce stress for the dentist and staff members and ensure high practice profitability, consistency is key.

An effective integrated inventory model to coordinate inventory replenishment and shipment consolidation

This paper proposed a quantity-based integrated model to coordinate inventory replenishment and outbound shipment consolidation for vendor-managed inventory system. An analytical model is developed to derive the optimum replenishment quantity and economic shipment quantity simultaneously. The quantity-based integrated model is a more effective integration of the different logistical activities. It results in a total cost less than that of the time-based integrated model. In the vendor-managed inventory (VMI) system we developed, a supplier can simultaneously reduce the logistical costs and provide a high customer service level. This result can help a supplier to obtain substantial benefits from the integrated model.

Indian Banking Sector: Challenges and Opportunities

A distinguished panel of managing directors and chief executive officers of some of the well-known banks in the country responded to the theme on the challenges and opportunities faced by the Indian banking sector in the liberalized environment. The contributors addressed the following issues: Financial reforms with specific reference to Indian banking industry focusing on implications to the existing players, new entrants, multinationals, and consumer behaviour. New and emerging opportunities: consumer and commercial banking. Competition: players, intensity, market size, profitability, and growth. Responses to challenges with reference to restructuring, automation, product delivery, and process reengineering. Issues related to governance, regulation, and audit. Product engineering, product design, and product delivery. Consumer expectations, feedback, cross-selling, customer relationship management(CRM), market segmentation, marketing, branding, and new products introduction. HR related issues: VR5, compensation, education and training, empowerment, and career plan. Future scenario: Broad trends in the next five years and the expected position. E-banking and its importance. Salient features of the responses included: The Indian banking sector is at an exciting point in its evolution. The opportu- nities to enter new business and new markets and to deliver higher levels of customer service are immense. As the Indian banks position themselves as financial service providers, banking business is getting redefined. Technology is unsettling the earlier business processes and customer behaviour is undergoing change. These have enhanced the forces of competition. Competitive advantage can be achieved through harnessing the potentialavailable in the employees by creating a positive work culture and enlisting the support of all the employees to the organizational goals. Indian banks have adopted better operational strategies and upgraded their skills. They have withstood the initial challenges and have become more adaptive to the changing environment. In the complex and fast changing environment, the only sustainable competitive advantage for banks is to give the customer an optimum blend of technology and traditional service. Four trends are fundamentally altering the banking industry: consolidation, globalization of operations, development of new technologies, and universali- zation of banking.

Future practice risks: obstacles with opportunities.

The encouragement of a consumer-directed insurance market and the involvement of corporate America have led to a transformation of the healthcare system that will redefine patient expectations and the role of the physician. The expectation of a higher level of customer service, the role of electronic media, and an earnest regard for healthcare by the patient will impact the physician. Consumer-directed healthcare will call for a reprioritization, focusing on service, convenience, competency, quality, and low cost. Indifference to patient courtesies or failure to become involved in modern technology may cause the physician to be bypassed from this new healthcare system. As the business world integrates the business model into the medical profession, healthcare organizations will restructure themselves into well-organized business enterprises employing physicians. The singular physician may no longer be competitive with such business enterprises, leading to consolidation of organizations and a significant decision for the physician. The physician will have the unusual opportunity to either remain exclusively a medical professional or to also venture into the business world as an equity investor, participating in financial growth possibilities of those medical practice organizations that are for-profit. With the emergence of these new equity models of healthcare, the primary focus will be on profit, production, and service efficiencies. It is the responsibility of the physician to maintain professionalism and the commitment to quality and appropriateness of patient care. However, at the same time, the physician has the unique opportunity to participate in the distribution, economics, and subsequent financial profit of healthcare. The medical experience of the physician, coupled with business acumen, will be an unbeatable combination.

Advanced Resource Planning

Advanced Resources Planning hits the bottom of what we know as aggregate planning. This approach differs from other approaches in that it explicitly recognizes the stochastic nature of manufacturing systems. Therefore, it is an ideal high-level tuning and planning tool which can be used in various planning environments like MRP, ERP, JIT, Load-Oriented Planning, Theory of Constraints, Finite Scheduling, POLCA systems, and perhaps many more. The main purpose is to set aggregate planning parameters right before diving into any other operational planning decision. In this sense, we opt to offer realistic lead time estimations, lot sizes, utilization levels, customer service levels and quoted delivery times. The underlying approach is a waiting line network, which is heavily adapted in order to make it useful for planning purposes. The main feature is that both input parameters and output parameters are considered as stochastic variables. In this way it allows us to model manufacturing environments in a more realistic and intuitive way, including all kinds of uncertainty and variability. As a consequence, the output of the planning effort is also a stochastic variable: it has an average, a variance and the entire lead time distribution. The latter makes it possible to obtain high customer service levels or to establish realistic delivery times, which can be met with a high probability. This mathematical approach as such is not suited for people operating a manufacturing system. We illustrate the approach with software, named i-CLIPS, and we review some implementations and their results.

Retail performance measures for seasonal fashion

Retail success can be defined as achieving high gross margins and customer service levels (i.e. being in‐stock) with as little inventory as possible. Forecast accuracy, process lead‐time, offshore/local sourcing mix and up‐front/replenishment buying mix can have a significant impact on success in connection with sourcing seasonal products with a fashion content. Forecast accuracy depends on the characteristics of the product and supply lead‐time. Lead‐times are traditionally long and buying decisions are often made seven to eight months prior to the start of the selling season. Forecast errors lead to some of the items being liquidated at clearance prices while others stockout and lead to lost sales. As a result retailers often resort to higher mark‐up prices with fashion products. However, typical retail performance measures such as service level, lost sales, product substitute percentage, gross margin, gross margin return on inventory, sell‐through percentage and mark‐down rate mask the source of the problems. In this paper, we discuss these performance measures and propose a new one. Additionally, case study analysis of a group of Finnish department stores is presented.

The use of multiple export channels by small knowledge‐intensive firms

A transaction cost analysis model of the situations in which small knowledge‐intensive firms use multiple distribution channels to serve a foreign market is developed. The central argument is that integrated modes are generally preferred, as they facilitate protection of knowledge‐based assets and the provision of high levels of customer service and support. However, it is hypothesised that either plural or hybrid selling may be used, if assets can be protected in other ways, as a response to environmental diversity, when sales volumes are sufficient to support multiple channels, and in relatively mature markets, where sales growth has started to plateau. Data gathered from Canadian software developers generally support these propositions. The results help the managers of knowledge‐intensive firms to identify some of the circumstances in which multiple export channels might be deployed to enhance sales performance in a foreign market.

Practitioner Perspectives on Arts Tourism Marketing

Abstract Public sector organizations in the UK, especially those responsible for tourism and leisure services, have embraced the private (business/commercial enterprise) sector paradigm apparently in order to improve efficiency, increase usage and provide higher levels of customer service. This paper presents the findings of an initial study of UK arts and leisure managers responsible for the marketing of their venues and services. Applying an interpretivist methodology, the study identifies perceptions and applications of marketing concepts to this highly sensitive area of cultural development and expression. Key marketing tools are identified and their suitability for use in achieving sponsor, provider and customer objectives evaluated, as is the impact of marketing activity. The rationale for (marketing) decision‐making is explored. The methodology developed and employed in this research is transportable to other marketing applications and is therefore significant in terms of research development. The ...

Practitioner perspectives on arts tourism marketing

Public sector organizations in the UK, especially those responsible for tourism and leisure services, have embraced the private (business/commercial enterprise) sector paradigm apparently in order to improve efficiency, increase usage and provide higher levels of customer service. This paper presents the findings of an initial study of UK arts and leisure managers responsible for the marketing of their venues and services. Applying an interpretivist methodology, the study identifies perceptions and applications of marketing concepts to this highly sensitive area of cultural development and expression. Key marketing tools are identified and their suitability for use in achieving sponsor, provider and customer objectives evaluated, as is the impact of marketing activity. The rationale for (marketing) decision‐making is explored. The methodology developed and employed in this research is transportable to other marketing applications and is therefore significant in terms of research development. The discussion and conclusions show the way forward to this end, particularly within the tourism and leisure field, which is the immediate focus of this study.

An Inventory Control Model for MRP Parameterization

This paper is devoted to find optimal inventory control policies in the supply system under random lead time. The objective is to minimize the holding cost while keeping a high customer service level. The method mostly used in practice is MRP, but the problem of minimization of the total cost in the case of a random lead time is usually not considered. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a dynamic multi-item inventory control model for MRP parameterization under random lead time. The approach is based on a Markov chain. It is supposed that demand is constant, and lead times are random variables. The finish models give the optimal value for "planned lead times" for MRP method, in single item and multi-items cases.

Premium Public Parking Services: A Way to Improve Parking Operations at Airports

Premium public parking services, such as valet, reserved, and business parking, are becoming increasingly popular at U.S. airports. They offer an enhanced level of customer service; are important business opportunities and sources of revenue for airports; contribute to reduction of curbside congestion, thereby encouraging travelers to park instead of being dropped off or picked up; and improve an airport’s ability to compete with privately operated, off-airport parking facilities. A study was conducted at more than 14 U.S. airports and demonstrated that successful premium public parking services provide a good combination of location, parking capacity, rate structure, quality of service, and business arrangements. Although these factors are very specific to each airport, general guidelines for parking managers who wish to optimize existing parking facilities, maximize net parking revenues, and provide a high level of customer service are outlined.

'Fun and surveillance': the paradox of high commitment management in call centres

Much of the research into telephone call centres has focused on the coercive employment systems which are adopted in these organizations. This appears to contrast with the high levels of customer service and satisfaction which are often required for them to be successful. Our research, which is based on two case studies of call centres studied in depth, challenges this 'satanic mills' image. We explore the ways in which both companies sought to balance the pressures in the product and labour markets and employee needs to develop strategies which combined elements of commitment and control. They developed sophisticated human resource practices, which resembled the high commitment management approach, while, at the same time, maintaining a highly controlled and measured work environment. Consequently, there was a greater alignment between their HR practices and control systems, the needs of employees and the high quality of interactions with customers expected. This suggests that high commitment practices are not automatically associated with extensive employee discretion, as has been argued in the manufacturing sector. HR practices of this kind can be used to offset some of the worst features of call centre working. These findings illustrate the variety of HR practices in call centres and suggest some possible reasons for this diversity.

Best practices in customer service

Why should my employees and I care about delivering great service? How can I learn more about customer needs and desires? How do other companies deliver superior service? How do I build long-term relationships with customers? The litany of customer service questions goes on and on...Best Practices in Customer Service is a one-stop resource designed to help anyone involved in customer service answer these questions and more. With 35 chapters written by customer service experts, it illustrates best practices in customer service and provides the tools readers need to implement those practices in their own companies. From classic issues like customer retention to contemporary concerns like providing customer service on the Internet, it helps readers: fully understand the connection between excellent customer service and organizational performance; deliver a higher level of customer service at a lower cost; and, develop a customer base that fuels growth and profitability.