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Ideas that increase healthcare-foodservice customer satisfaction and profitability often require ingenuity more than cash. Emory Hospitals in Atlanta is not yet ready for the transition to room service. Yet initiatives [...]

Talk about taking the market's pulse. Every month, this Texas builder surveys everyone who bought a home in San Antonio. Judging criteria for the National Housing Quality award place a [...]

When a mystery shopper informed a server at an R.J. Gator's Florida Sea Grill & Bar that no one had greeted the party immediately upon entering the restaurant--a component of [...]

The Italian-menu segment has been a steady and reliable producer and a key driver of the restaurant industry's sales growth. The 18.5% compound annual growth rate the largest Italian casual-dining [...]

No longer flying below the radar in storefront restaurants and mom-and-pop takeout shops, the sharp flavors and piquant spices of Eastern cuisine are breaking the chain barrier. Stir-fry restaurants, noodle [...]

Survey results show that purchasing professionals overwhelmingly agree that customer satisfaction is an important business goal. Many respondents noted, however, that business realities can get in the way customer satisfaction efforts. Tri-State Machine purchasing manager Harry L. Forrester, for example, said that customer satisfaction must be a secondary goal, behind making a profit. Also discussed is purchasing's role in achieving customer satisfaction., More and more these days the words 'customer satisfaction' are being invoked in purchasing departments around the country. It isn't a new phrase. In most firms it arrived at purchasing's [...]

Paul E. Teague It's not unusual for suppliers, co-workers or even editors to get emails or phone calls from Janice Stephenson at 7am--or earlier. It's no wonder: As the lone [...]

By Paul Cardis, NRS Corp. Building a SWAT team is your best defense against hostile customers. Sooner or later, every business encounters customers that are dissatisfied, even when they've received [...]

By John Rymer, New Home Knowledge John Rymer: Nationally about 1 in 5 customers will cancel their home sale before closing. While that's not an enjoyable situation for either the [...]

By Paul Cardis, NRS Corp. Why they don't have to ruin your day! Customer service is the cornerstone upon which successful businesses are built - including those in the home [...]

By Scott Sedam Five home builders that get customer satisfaction right. In the December 'Lesson's Learned' column, I described how my staff analyzed the results of the J.D. Power and [...]

Leaked McD's documents reveal a need for better service. This is news? McDonalds knows it has service issues. The trades know, the consumer media know, the customers know. So why [...]

We have all talked about customer satisfaction and JD Powers may be measuring it, but being successful in a tight economy requires it. The Consumer Confidence Index does not establish [...]

Sell new parts, service and repair contracts whenever possible Distributors of power and specialty tools throughout the industry are adding services like repairing and testing to their repertoire of sales [...]

The words that hold the key to your sales success WITH JUST ONE KEY THOUGHT TO REMEMBER, it bears repeating. To build repeat business and customer satisfaction, you must be [...]

Taking a keen interest in customer needs helps keep the relationship alive. This column reports upon the state of the buyer-seller dynamic in the graphic arts industry as revealed by [...]

In foodservice E&S (as in the rest of the world), you sell price or customers buy relationship; it's your choice. And, just to put the power of the relationship issue [...]

This is a story about decisions. Most of all, it's a story about why closing isn't as important as some people would like you to believe. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Remember when [...]

Many home builders guarantee customer satisfaction, but few really know how to deliver it. Too many home builders don their customer service hat only during the final walk-through, when there's [...]

Companies should make use of their suppliers to achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction. Suppliers can help company officials in such areas as marketing intelligence and product development. Crucial to this is a good relationship between both suppliers and companies, and an open-door policy that includes suppliers in direct communication with company officials. Suppliers, in turn, should understand their customers' needs., There are some obvious ways that suppliers can help improve end users' customer satisfaction. Steps to improve supplier product quality, such as defect-free and on-time shipments, often can carry through [...]

Unisys Corp's quality management extends to meeting customer quality demands, according to VP Edwin S. Coyle Jr. With increased use of outsourcing, the company has found that establishing quality goals and measuring performance are key steps in achieving customer satisfaction. Quality in Unisys' supplier base is achieved through strategies such as reducing the supplier base and establishing preferred technology partners., At Unisys Corporation, the quality imperative has shifted substantially in the past three decades, according to Edwin S. Coyle Jr., vice president of corporate procurement. The drive for quality began [...]

The 'Courtesy of Choice' program was presented at the 1994 International Hotel Association to show how hotels and restaurants can serve the needs of both their smoking and nonsmoking customers. The elements of the program include the evaluation of customer demands for smoking and non-smoking areas, allotting space for these areas as well as staff training and education about the program.

Ask the customer what they want. Sometimes businesses get so caught up in doing business the way it has always been done that we forget that we survive and thrive [...]

Understanding and managing customer expectation is one of the biggest factors in buyer satisfaction. Some builder are establishing customer relations programs to eliminate misunderstandings and get everyone in the process [...]

Economists suggest that the sluggish economy may be starting to rebound, but consumers and manufacturers are still cautious, and distributors are optimistically guarded at best. The economic trend during the [...]

IS CUSTOMER SERVICE A DEPARTMENT or a philosophy in your company? When I ask people in seminars to define customer service, I hear things like, 'The customer has a problem [...]

IN TODAY's BUSINESS environment, the adage, 'It's no the problem, it's how you solve it,' is more important than ever. Distributors should be empowered to solve problem so the customer [...]

Soliciting feedback from customers will provide businesses with a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. Few distributors, however, actually go out of their way to survey their clients and this can be fatal to the continued success of the business. Those who do take the time to conduct customer satisfaction surveys observe that the questionnaires are simple, ask few but pertinent questions and show clients that their input is valued., Ed Koch, the feisty former mayor of New York City, used to greet people on the street and ask them: 'How am I doing?' It wasn't the most scientific way [...]

Regular assessment of a professional building firm's performance increases customer satisfaction levels and helps the company achieve its goals. Individual departments which merely aim to improve their own financial performance suboptimize the entire firm's profitability. However, companies which reinforce high-performance strategies boost company profitability as well as customer satisfaction. For instance, the Pulte Illinois Division usesthe service department to handle customer complaints and views these criticisms as opportunities to learn about and to solve customer dis-satisfiers., UPPER MARLBORO, MD. - Performance measures designed to move associates toward business goals can be a powerful catalyst for action. Because 'you get what you measure,' it's important to think [...]

Communication is the key for distributors to gain a better understanding of their customers and be able to fulfill their needs. In light of the business community's current emphasis on saving money, end users are turning to distributors for ways to reduce costs. In turn, distributors should maximize this opportunity to give their customers a better price. They can do this by discussing with their customers the happenings in the marketplace, the ways in which their business is changing and their needs., It's no secret that buying behaviors have changed dramatically when it comes to MRO materials. But many of those changes - which are mostly related to just-in-time buying and the [...]

Rheem Manufacturing, maker of air conditioning, heating and water heating products, aims to become an industry leader in customer satisfaction. In aiming for its goal, it launches its '1x2000' initiative which, through the combined efforts of the firm's employees, suppliers, distributors and dealers, will ensure that Rheem becomes number one in customer satisfaction by the year 2000. Aside from providing the development tools and systems needed in meeting customer expectations, Rheem will also use technical training and significant capital in making its goal a reality., Rheem Manufacturing's objective is to be number one in customer satisfaction in the air conditioning, heating and water heating industries. The manufacturer this year announced its '1x2000' initiative. Simply put, [...]

Most customer surveys conducted by custom builders focus only on customer opinions about home design, materials selection and project scheduling. To accurately gauge customer satisfaction levels, however, custom builders must develop better surveys that delve deeper into home buyer attitudes. Such an in-depth customer survey will provide custom builders with a better understanding of customers and offer them more referrals., UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - What do your customers say to their friends about their builder? Their response is critical if you depend on home-buyer referrals for new business. Could you [...]

Price is no longer an issue.' That's the tagline on a recent radio ad for a computer category-killer. It could be the mantra for retailing in the latter half of [...]

Carriers must realize that their customers should want products and services as they develop pricing schemes for shipping. Shippers should attempt to create value for their customers instead of competing for market share by lowering prices. This can be achieved by improving the speed and reliability of their processing systems through the use of new technology. Such changes will also generate cost savings for the firm., I have two marketing maxims: 1) We need to understand our customers' values, not just their needs, and 2) Customers want to buy, they do not want to be sold. [...]

Communication of customer business print needs to one's own company is a very important part of the sales manager's function. This column is about sales management, but please don't tune [...]

Alex Brennan-Martin, owner of Brennan's of Houston, estimates only 5% of customer comment cards generate useful feedback. On the other hand, he says, his spying and 'fictitious marketing company' methods [...]

An executive from one top food store chain recently described Efficient Consumer Response as a jigsaw puzzle. It's possible to look at it and attempt to solve it in small [...]