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The airline industry will be going through dramatic changes in the years tocome. This is due foremost to altered customer demands and expectations butalso to deregulation of the airline business. Many airline companies havelost track of the true needs of their passengers and are trapped in outdatedviews of what airline services are all about. The paper illustrates howScandinavian Airlines System (SAS) has carried out thorough investigationsinto the concerns of the customers throughout the entire travel experience.Based on the results, SAS has developed new services and re-designed oldservices. One of the key issues in the paper is the way SAS has chosen todevelop the new services, namely to allow the passengers to define theprocess as opposed to defining it from the company perspective

I denna artikel har vi beskrivit den situation som offentlig tjänsteverksamhet befinner sig i med stora utmaningar och krav på förändring. Det handlar om att få ut mer av insatta resurser, att skapa mervärden genom en bättre totalkvalitet i relation till kostanden. För att hantera dessa förändringar har vi lyft fram tjänsteutveckling som det strategiskt viktigaste området. Området är nästan helt outvecklat inom offentlig sektor. Vi hävdar att offentliga verksamheter kan och skall jämföra sig med och lära av det som finns om tjänsteutveckling inom näringslivet och den akademiska forskningen. Vi har beskrivit tjänstelogiken och ett antal framgångsfaktorer i utvecklingen av nya tjänster. Vi har redo-visat resultat från en världsomspännande studie kring tjänsteutveckling med tyngdpunkt på telekombaserade tjänster

In the present study a survey was performed in order to investigate if the use of heuristics in decision-making has an influence on the impulse buying tendency. Another aim of the study was to see if there were any age differences with regard to the use of heuristics and the impulse buying tendency. The study was conducted with students from Göteborg University and Karlstad University in Sweden (n = 69), with different educational backgrounds. Participants filled out a booklet of questions divided in two parts. One part measured impulse buying tendencies, and the second part measured the use of heuristics in decision-making. One hypothesis was that impulse buyers would use heuristics to a higher degree than planned buyers. It was also hypothesized that young participants would be more impulsive buyers because they use heuristics more than older participants. The results gave no support to the hypothesis that impulse buyers would use heuristics to a higher degree than planned buyers. Support for the second hypothesis was received as 20-24 year old high achievers on the heuristics test were found to be significantly more impulsive buyers than low achievers in the same age group.

Not much attention has been devoted to the relationship between service culture and service strategy, including services marketing strategy. The assumption that service culture drives service strategy has not been empirically examined. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the strategic role that service culture and service strategy have for business development in a long-term perspective. The empirical basis for our discussion comes from IKEA, the largest retail furniture firm in the world. Our results clearly show the importance of a strong and dynamic service culture for market and business success

In the research literature trigger is used in several different meanings and ways. The application in relationship marketing has traditionally been connected to critical incidents with implication for relationships between customers and service providers. The behavioural consequences of triggers have accordingly had a limited and narrow association with relationships. In this article we include triggers in a switching-intention model that gives not only the connection between trigger and critical incidents, but includes also the context to the behavioural consequences of triggers. The model reflects a dynamic switching path that describes on ongoing process of customer sensitiveness for switching. In other words, the trigger divides the customers due to their sensitivity for switching into customer groups indicating differing levels regarding the strength of their relationship with a certain service provider.IntroductionIn a longer time perspective as in the relationship view customers seem to fluctuate in their evaluation of their service providers. The fluctuation may be considered as changes in their perceptions of the service providers. The reasons for the changes differ regarding factors that are important for the relationship continuation. The changed perceptions again are likely to influence the stability of the relationships regardless of the seemingly existing maintenance of the relationship. Therefore, the real state of the relationship temperature regarding true stability and thus the reasons and motivation for the change becomes essential. Recent marketing literature suggests that a discrimination of switching customers from continuers deepens the understanding concerning the matter of fluctuating perceptions in customer relationships (Ganesh et al. 2000; Keaveney and Parhasarathy 2001). The authors of those articles imply further that the effect of customer relationships history on future customer perceptions of relationships is possible to discern by d

Not much attention has been devoted to the relationship between service culture and service strategy, including services marketing strategy. The assumption that service culture drives service strategy has not been empirically examined. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the strategic role that service culture and service strategy have for business development in a long-term perspective. The empirical basis for our discussion comes from IKEA, the largest retail furniture firm in the world. Our results clearly show the importance of a strong and dynamic service culture for market and business success.

Telecommunication represents the characteristic of a fierce-competitive, dynamic and rapid-growing industry. Through merger mania in a turbulent market telecommunication companies try to improve their control over as many customers as possible (Sumner-Smith and Sumner 1999; Borna 2000; Cobbett and Matthews 2000). These companies are trying to achieve the ultimate attribute of relationship marketing, i.e. long-term relationships with their customers (Grönroos 1989; 2000; Berry 1995; Colgate and Stewart 1998), the application in this industry, however, with disloyal, frequently switching customers seems challenging. Even more difficult is the situation for the companies in the wireless part of the industry with no barriers what so ever to prevent customers from switching. One of the major challenges for the telecom companies is to identify the specific factors appealing to customers willingness to switch between different operators. A longitudinal approach to analysing customers switching processes puts forward and distinguishes the most decisive factors in terms of disloyal behavior. The emerging pattern from that mapping indicates the focus of customer perceptions. That focus is in this study defined as maturity agents. The maturity agents again form the maturing market of a specific market, here telecommunications. Maturing market is hence viewed from the customers perspective in line with the relationship logic. The indicators of the maturing market are per definition instable over time and need therefore to be supported and updated by repeated mapping of customers switching behavior.This paper is based on two empirical studies recently carried out in a large Swedish telecommunication company. The first study was a combined complaint and switching behaviour study (Edvardsson and Roos 2001). Findings of the first study are in this paper compared to findings of the second study consisting of process mapping of the customers switching behavior in the same company. Ba

Focuses on customer expectations on service guarantees. Theoretically, the basis consists of previous guidelines for service guarantee design. The empirical context is public transport, where customers that have invoked a service guarantee participate in focus groups. The results expand on prior research, which has argued that negative industry reputation is a hotbed for service guarantees and that the most preferred guarantee is unconditional; the paper’s results imply that customers prefer detailed regulations for when the guarantee is applicable, and that their general disbelief in a company with negative reputation makes the unconditional guarantee seem like a rip off. The results also indicate that the customers of a public service want the guarantee to be fair, that is, fairness in the possibility for all customers to invoke the guarantee, that all customers are familiar with the guarantee and that it cannot be misused by cheating customers. One of the contributions of the article is therefore to add “fairness” as a dimension to the previous guidelines suggested by Hart.

Purpose – The aim of this article is to contribute to widening the scope of service quality by focusing on dimensions beyond cognitive assessment. The focus is on the role of customers’ emotions in service experiences. Design/methodology/approach – The article first discusses the service concept and implications for service quality. It then focuses on the role of customer experiences, and then discusses the role of emotions in service quality. Findings – The paper presents six propositions related to service experiences when consuming services and the role of emotions in customer-perceived service quality. Originality/value – The paper contributes to widening the scope of service quality by focusing on dimensions beyond cognitive assessment.