Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Customer service

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The applicability of 'voice of the customer' tools to an indigenous organisation in a developing country : a thesis submitted to Massey University in partial fulfilment for the degree of Masters in Philosophy (Quality Systems), Massey University of Manawatu, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Lewis, Janice Ann
    The value and applicability of western management theories and practices to the developing world is rarely discussed within the current rush to globalise the world economies, capture untapped wealth and seek to establish businesses within indigenous societies. This is especially relevant to the use of Voice of the Customer (VOC) methods and tools when applied to indigenous peoples and service organisations, where customer information is used to design or improve services. There has been limited concentration and much debate as to whether VOC tools are as effective as anticipated, and can solve the unique problems that appear when used in unfamiliar diverse cultures in developing countries. A risk when using a particular method or management technique is the desire and expectation that it will be transferable for use in similar businesses in other countries. Service quality is reliant on what the customer feels and often cannot be measured easily. This can be compounded in a developing nation scenario, by the fact that methods are usually developed, implemented, interpreted and validated through a western ‘lens’. Armstrong and Pont et al (2011, page 6 -7) describe these issues succinctly when they state… ‘a survey of the leading academic journals suggest that well over 90% of the articles published are concerned with establishing basic causality behind certain phenomena. Very few studies investigate whether a certain method used by management is effective or not …. as practitioners we are more interested in what works than the intricacies of causality’. This research specifically explored the use of VOC tools in the Bougainville Village Court (VC) to identify service elements customers considered important to the functioning of the VC in their village communities. Tools that were used included quantitative measurement tools - a combined Garvin–SERVQUAL tool, the RATER model, and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) principles, and the more qualitative New Zealand Business Excellence Criteria (NZBEC). The research demonstrated that the quantitative VOC methods used did not fully fit, or account for some service elements important to the customer in this particular context, where societal trust and continuous contact are important service elements. The methods used were thus, unable to completely capture the full humanistic elements and contributing causal factors. In this research study cultural context in the form of history, environment, tradition, community relationships and structures, played a vital role in determining what the customer considered were important service elements. It was found that these elements were more easily captured through use of the more qualitative NZBEC as it enabled collection of more diverse perspectives through its open question structure. Generic VOC ‘western developed’ quantitative tools did gather VOC information. However, they were only effective after adaptation to each VC location and after cultural input. Cultural analysis from indigenous people to interpret the data is recommended as a prerequisite and standard part of VOC methodology in a developing country scenario. This research suggests assessment and analysis based solely on ‘western’ VOC methods and statistics will not capture the VOC fully and could lead to misinterpretation or fail to acknowledge the real voice of the customer and the causal and contextual factors contributing to customer responses.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The measurement of service quality in New Zealand heritage attractions : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Quality Management at Massey University, Department of Production Technology
    (Massey University, 1998) Tan, Sin Week
    Museums and historic places are part of our national heritage, they have been consistently rated as the most popular destinations for overseas tourists to New Zealand. To attract tourists, the industry needs to understand what the tourists' needs are, what attracts them and how satisfied they are with their experience. An initial investigation into the quality management practice in the New Zealand tourist industry was carried out using a mail survey in April, 1995. It aimed at providing a better understanding of the current status of quality management practice and identify the needs of quality management of the New Zealand tourist industry. The findings of the survey identified a lack of awareness of Total Quality Management and quality management in the New Zealand tourist industry. This indicates that there could be potential for the tourist industry operators to improve their performance and competitiveness through the introduction of TQM and there is a need for a quantitative tool for measuring service quality in the tourist industry. A modified SERVQUAL tool was developed to assist heritage attraction operators to measure their service quality. The tool was tested, using visitor surveys at three heritage attractions. This research shifted the focus of performance assessment from the institution to the customer and measured the customer satisfaction instead of just the number of visitors. In the New Zealand heritage attractions, four service quality dimensions were identified: tangible, peripheral service, staff related functions and access. The importance of service quality dimensions is different from other service sectors and service quality dimensions are not generic across the service industries. The different statistical analysis techniques used in this research include factor analysis, correlation analysis, ANOVA and correspondence analysis. Valuable information was obtained from these analyses which could be used by management in assessing their performance from the customer's perspective, developing strategic plans to improve service delivery and to improve their business competitiveness.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The service-profit chain : a New Zealand retail banking example : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Palmerston North
    (Massey University, 2001) Garland, Brian Donald
    The notion of a service-profit chain has been prevalent in business for many years although only since the 1980s has academic research in services management emphasised such a chain. At its simplest, the service-profit chain implies that certain levels of service to customers will result in profitable transactions for the service provider. However, there are several other linkages in the chain between service and profit such as customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. One of the first of its kind in the public domain in New Zealand, this study presents an empirical analysis of an abbreviated form of the service-profit chain for one bank. It investigates the relationships in the service-profit chain with specific objectives that include identifying the factors that help generate profitable customers. Just over 1100 personal retail customers of a New Zealand regional bank were surveyed on such issues and these customers' contribution to the bank's profitability calculated using activity-based accounting procedures. In general, results support the concept of a service-profit chain in personal retail banking. However, a chain implies linearity, whereas the findings here suggest the links between service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer contribution may be more circular than strictly linear. The relationship between customer loyalty and customer profitability is supported, though only at the behavioural loyalty level, where customers conduct all or nearly all of their banking business with one bank. In general, the greater the share of a customer's banking business, the more profitable that customer is to the bank. Conversely, attitudinal loyalty (positive dispositions held about the bank) was not always present for profitable customers. And the study bank's most profitable customers do not always have "all their eggs in one basket" - they are both attitudinally and behaviourally ambivalent in this regard. What sets these customers apart from their peers as profitable customers is their income. They tend to be high networth customers who give the bank the chance to generate profit from their considerable funds and high transaction volume despite not having all their personal banking business consolidated in one bank. There was some support for association between customer satisfaction and profitability but no hint of a relationship between service quality issues and profitability. In general however, strong associations were common between each successive link in the service-profit chain and for an abbreviated service-satisfaction-loyalty chain. Noteworthy too is the finding that not all customers are always profitable and during this study one third of the bank's customers were unprofitable, one third hovered around breakeven and one third contributed 98% of customer profit. The study also investigated customer defection in personal retail banking and established, in agreement with other recent New Zealand research, that annual defection rates are close to 5%. From the synthesis of results and their interpretation, several issues emerged including concerns about the study's measurement of attitudinal loyalty as well as the usefulness of the family life cycle model. These, along with limitations and caveats were addressed for the benefit of future research into the service-profit chain in personal retail banking.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Why good service isn't good enough : UCOL Library's pledge to provide excellence in customer service
    (2008-01-31T01:31:43Z) Brooker, Jane
    As part of a staff-development initiative the Library staff decided to develop a customer services commitment.Jo Heslop from Impact Training facilitated a one-day workshop in January 1998, which all Library staff attended.Using a customer services document developed by a United States tertiary library, Manawatu Polytechnic Library staff (as we were then) wrote a customer services standards document, along with a service pledge. This commitment to customer service remains as our chief focus and is the foundation on which our work is based.