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Customer Perceptions (customer + perception)
Selected AbstractsCustomer perceptions of justice in service transactions: the effects of strong and weak tiesJOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 7 2001Robert L. Holbrook Jr This research used a justice perspective to investigate the effects of outcome favorability, opportunity for voice, and interpersonal treatment in a service context. Results suggest that all three variables influenced customer reactions to bank loan decisions. Weak-tie customers were more sensitive to outcome favorability than strong-tie customers. Strong-tie customers were more sensitive to opportunity for voice than weak-tie customers. Implications for improving customer reactions to service transactions are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Theorizing TQM: An Austrian and Evolutionary Economics InterpretationJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 2 2000Todd H. Chiles Born out of management practice, the principles of TQM (total quality management) have had a profound and unparalleled impact on modern business history. However, as a body of practical knowledge, TQM has been largely atheoretical. As a consequence, this important management philosophy has remained amorphous and shrouded in considerable conceptual haziness and ambiguity. Recent theorizing, primarily emphasizing the application of organizational behaviour theories to TQM, has begun to provide greater clarity, but much work remains to be done. This paper attempts to contribute to this nascent theory-building literature by employing theory from market process economics (MPE), namely, Austrian and evolutionary economics, which explains how processes of dynamic change, adaptation, and learning are driven by entrepreneurial creativity. We contend that the patterns in this body of theory match, to a remarkable degree, the patterns of practical knowledge contained in the TQM literature. We demonstrate this ,pattern-matching' by showing that MPE effectively provides the theoretical underpinnings of TQM's three main principles , customer focus, continuous improvement and teamwork , as well as the respective TQM topics of customer perceptions, adaptation in dynamic environments, and knowledge creation. Having established MPE as a credible theoretical lens for interpreting TQM, it can be used to clarify fuzzy areas that have remained in the TQM literature with the potential to take us beyond what we know now. We illustrate this with three examples that show how we can resolve debates in TQM over incentive systems, recognize that TQM embraces methodological pluralism in the collection and analysis of data, and highlight hidden dangers that attend benchmarking. While MPE has no monopoly on theoretical interpretations of TQM, it is unique in its ability to comprehensively cover the incredible breadth of this practical body of knowledge, and in its interpretation of TQM as a dynamic economic endeavour. [source] Investigating customer perceptions of refillable packaging and assessing business drivers and barriers to their usePACKAGING TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, Issue 6 2009V. A. Lofthouse Abstract A collaborative UK government-funded research project drawing on the design and sustainability expertise of the Department of Design and Technology at Loughborough University and the sustainability and product bank functions at The Boots Company set out to investigate the potential that refillable packaging systems can offer the consumer and the environment. In the past, refills have generally been categorized under one general heading and often branded as a failure. However, early in the project, the team identified that by taking a creative approach to interpreting refills, there are actually a wide range of different types of refills that can be differentiated with respect to their delivery approach and level of consumer/business interaction. Once these had been identified, collated and categorized, the team set out to investigate the consumer perceptions, and the business barriers and drivers found to influence the adoption and success of a number of different types of refillable packaging. This paper reports on those findings. It concludes that differentiating between refill types holds the key to developing more suitable and more successful refillable packaging systems as positive and negative attributes can be more accurately identified and responded to. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Value-based segmentation of luxury consumption behaviorPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 7 2009Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Wiedmann Following a broader perspective in exploring customer perceptions of and motives for purchasing luxury brands, it is not sufficient to explain the whole picture of luxury consumption in terms of socially oriented consumer motives and the desire to impress others. The main contribution here is to explore a multidimensional framework of luxury value as a general basis for identifying value-based consumer segments. The empirical results can be seen as a first step toward a better understanding of consumers' luxury value perceptions as based on social, individual, functional, and financial aspects. ©2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Does service failure influence customer loyalty?JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2002Francis Buttle Abstract There is a general consensus that customer loyalty to service providers is not solely dependent upon their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. However, the identified antecedents of loyalty remain, at best, highly speculative. The aim of this extensive literature review is to give some understanding of the nature of customer loyalty and the antecedent effects of service dissatisfaction. The research reviewed suggests that customer loyalty is an attitudinal state, reflecting value, trust and commitment within supplier,customer relationships. Satisfaction is one of several antecedents of loyalty. A key influence on loyalty is the offer of unique value-delivering advantages not provided by competitors. Thus firms need to develop positive value-based exit barriers to achieve loyalty. When service failures occur, the recovery process is likely to have a greater impact on loyalty than the original service failure. The key to successful recoveries was found to be the customer's perception of ,fairness'. Recovery programmes must get it right first time. Customers who remain dissatisfied after a complaint has been handled are more dissatisfied than if no recovery attempt had been made. Dissatisfaction and customer satiation are major causes of a customer's exit. The solution to customer satiation is dynamic value creation. Collection and monitoring of customer data is needed for success and two-way communication is vital. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications. [source] Service Personnel, Technology, and Their Interaction in Influencing Customer Satisfaction,DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 1 2006Craig M. Froehle ABSTRACT Managing both the technologies and the personnel needed for providing high-quality, multichannel customer support creates a complex and persistent operational challenge. Adding to this difficulty, it is still unclear how service personnel and these new communication technologies interact to influence the customer's perceptions of the service being provided. Motivated by both practical importance and inconsistent findings in the academic literature, this exploratory research examines the interaction of media richness, represented by three different technology contexts (telephone, e-mail, and online chat), with six customer service representative (CSR) characteristics and their influences on customer satisfaction. Using a large-sample customer survey data set, the article develops a multigroup structural equation model to analyze these interactions. Results suggest that CSR characteristics influence customer service satisfaction similarly across all three technology-mediated contexts. Of the characteristics studied, service representatives contribute to customer satisfaction more when they exhibit the characteristics of thoroughness, knowledgeableness, and preparedness, regardless of the richness of the medium used. Surprisingly, while three other CSR characteristics studied (courtesy, professionalism, and attentiveness) are traditionally believed to be important in face-to-face encounters, they had no significant impact on customer satisfaction in the technology-mediated contexts studied. Implications for both practitioners and researchers are drawn from the results and future research opportunities are discussed. [source] Evaluating the Performance of Third-Party Logistics Arrangements: A Relationship Marketing PerspectiveJOURNAL OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2004A. Michael Knemeyer SUMMARY By 2005, users of third-party logistics services may be spending an average of nearly one-third of their total logistics budgets (compared to 20 percent today) to support 3PL services (Gooley 2000). Yet, very little research has examined managerial activities that might influence the performance of these logistics outsourcing relationships. Over the past several years, the management approach that views relationships as key assets of the organization has gained increased prominence in the priorities and practices of many companies (Gruen, Summers and Acito 2000). The current study utilizes this relationship marketing perspective as the basis for evaluating the perceived performance of third-party logistics arrangements. In particular, the current study examines the influence of six key relationship marketing dimensions on a customer's perceptions of their 3PL provider's performance. In so doing, the article builds on research (e.g., Goldsby and Stank 2000) that focuses on potential linkages between logistical performance metrics and managerial activities. The results suggest linkages between relationship marketing activities and the perceived performance of the 3PL arrangement. [source] Using Cpk index with fuzzy numbers to evaluate service qualityINTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 6 2002Hong Tau Lee Service quality is measured by customers' satisfaction. Traditionally, the degree of satisfaction is calculated from the data obtained from questionnaires that have been filled by customers directly. The percentile of each different level of a customer's satisfaction is employed to summarize and compare the quality of service provided by different enterprises. This approach does not consider the consistency of the customers' perceptions, thus making comparison difficult. This paper introduces the concept of a process capability index that considers both the average and the consistency of the data simultaneously. Evaluations of service quality are usually vague and linguistic. We use the fuzzy numbers of linguistic variables developed in fuzzy set theory to modify the process capability index, and then apply it to evaluate the quality of a service. The average and consistency of the data obtained from a service quality evaluation are thus considered simultaneously, making the comparison of the performance of service quality easier. Moreover, the value of the index can be applied to help to point out the direction for improving the performance of service quality whenever it is lower than some default value. [source] | ||||||||||