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This paper reports the results of a research project into the determinants of consumer evaluation of services. The research uses the healthcare context to explore consumer perceptions of the service product dimensions. Using a critical incident technique, a consumer-derived model of the relationships between core and peripheral aspects of the service is presented. The results indicate that evaluation is a function of both personal and organizational factors which comprise core and peripheral components of the service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK financial services industry has experienced a number of sharp discontinuities in its marketing environment in recent years. These have ranged from changing demand patterns to wholesale deregulation and market liberalization. International competition and new entrants exploiting technological innovations have also added to the turbulence in what has been a traditionally parochial and stable sector. Under these conditions, it is to be expected that companies would develop a much sharper customer focus and, if they are to survive and prosper, that they would adopt the core principles of the marketing concept. In this paper, the findings of research which tests this assumption amongst merchant banks, retail banks, insurance companies and building societies are presented. Conclusions are drawn which indicate that there is a growing awareness of the need for a marketing orientation and that some sectors appear to be more customer-orientated than others at this point in time. Despite this, there is also evidence that in some sectors marketing myopia may be masquerading as marketing orientation and that much work needs to be done to more fully realize the ideals of the marketing concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom, New Labour articulated a consumerist view of the relationship between the public and public services. Its view of the citizen-as-consumer was the source of considerable political controversy and debate – both within and beyond public services. In this paper, I explore four aspects of consumerism in relation to social care in the United Kingdom: the political context of the rise of the ‘citizen-consumer’; the place of the citizen-consumer in social care policy; the responses of organisations providing social care to consumerist pressures and lastly the impact of consumerism on characteristic tensions in public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written about globalisation generally and globalisation in logistics. However, the literature has focused on managing logistics in different environments according to western management techniques, examined differences between developed and less-developed nations, or explored relationships between companies and countries. There has been little discussion of different logistics management styles across global contexts. Manufacturing and quality researchers have considered these issues in benchmarking and quality improvement contexts and have investigated different attitudes towards quality initiatives. Marketers have also considered different cultural contexts that have been primarily related to consumer behaviour and intentions. Yet there is some evidence that cultural and contextual factors shape different attitudes between logistics managers and academics in the UK/Europe and the US/North America regarding management across logistical functions and environments. This evidence, stemming from the literature and an empirical study of UK customer service that highlighted management differences compared with several US empirical studies, are discussed in this paper. A framework of culture expressions adapted from Hofstede is proposed as one possible tool for research in this under-developed area of global logistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on current doctoral research in the UK, this paper discusses the benefits, challenges and dilemmas associated with adopting a collaborative approach to exploring the experiences of women offenders as consumers of community-based health and social care services. The initial focus is on the rationale for setting up an advisory group of 'expert advisers/knowers', as a means of collaborating with women with direct and personal experience of the criminal justice system. In addition, the group's role in supporting, advising and guiding the research process is explored with particular emphasis on examining the practice of building long-term relationships with 'vulnerable' groups of women. Both short and long-term ethical issues are considered, for example, the implications of adopting an approach based on reciprocity, mutual disclosure and 'friendship' and the impact of 'role reversal' where it is the researcher who ultimately feels powerless and abandoned in the relationship. A key theme that underpins the work is the notion that in this context, 'doing' collaborative research essentially embraced 'doing' what fundamentally 'felt right' and 'made sense' thus ensuring that the study was meaningful to all involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a first attempt at conceptualizing and operationalizing the notion of commitment to customer service (CCS) as part of a broader concern to explore the determinants of key aspects of service quality and of individual-level performance in service organizations. Based on an explicitly behavioural definition of commitment to customer service, we first set out a model of the antecedents of CCS. We then test it using data from a representative sample of 717 employees of a major food-retailing organization in the UK. The results suggest that commitment to customer service is primarily a non-calculative phenomenon driven above all by affective, normative and altruistic concerns, rather than by overtly instrumental considerations. Additional significant determinants of CCS were job pressure, job routinization, job competence and employees' understanding of customer service requirements. Research and policy Implications of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peck F. and Cabras I. Impacts of agglomeration on call centre operations: evidence from North West England, Regional Studies. Call centres have until fairly recently provided a significant source of employment growth in the peripheral regions of the UK. Despite the potential for locational dispersal throughout the urban hierarchy, however, call centres tend to be highly concentrated in larger urban centres and variations in wage costs between local labour markets appear to have little influence over location patterns. This paper explores the consequences of high levels of agglomeration for recruitment and retention of labour within call centres in the North West Region of England. Using survey data, various measures of labour market stress are shown to be positively correlated with urban size. The results tend to confirm that businesses are prepared to absorb the costs of concentration in order to avoid the perceived risks of labour shortages in smaller dispersed urban centres.... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK house-building industry has often been criticized for the quality of its products. Its business drivers are less focused on the needs of customers compared with much of the manufacturing sector. A recent survey revealed considerable dissatisfaction among buyers of newly built homes, particularly with the after-sales service provided by vendors. However, this cannot be viewed in isolation from the general business culture that prevails. This paper examines existing practices in the industry that act as barriers to a change in culture and discusses the steps that are being taken in a major house-building company to overcome them. Work on implementation of the policy through a balanced set of performance measures as the drivers for change and a participative programme for its deployment is presented. The objective is the development of a customer-focused culture that views service and product quality as contributing to future sales and profitability, instead of simply in terms of costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last ten years, the U.K. meetings industry has developed rapidly. Regard for the industry and competition amongst venues is growing. The industry is attracting increasing levels of attention, while an intensified incidence of venues other than hotels are competing within this sector. This progressive expansion of demand experienced by the industry heightens the importance of the quality provision for customers when differentiating between venues. The ultimate aim of the research is to determine whether gaps exist between the attributes employed to assess the quality and desirability of a U.K. conference venue-firstly by conference organizers and conference delegates and secondly between their perceptions and the characteristics of the product provided. This paper presents an approach to the development of a research instrument to measure and compare an inventory of service quality attributes as perceived by meetings organizers and delegates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many UK local authorities manage the quality of their leisure services through ISO 9002, the international quality assurance standard, and Investors in People, the UK standard for people management. However, little is known about the ability of these two standards to affect customer perceptions of service in these contexts. The paper reports primary research that compared customer perceptions of service in cases registered to these different standards. It was found that customers of the IiP registered cases scored these leisure facilities more highly as compared to customers of the ISO 9002 registered cases. This was true both for employee related service elements and for the tangibles and processes which are the focus of ISO 9002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the relationship between consumer behavior and the strategic choices facing financial services firms in Great Britain. Greater role assumed by consumer behavior in determining the strategic environment in which financial service providers operate; Interaction between form of consumer behavior and type of financial service instrument.

Programmes designed to strengthen customer orientation among front-line service workers represent one of the most common forms of culture change initiatives within service organizations. Despite their importance to contemporary management theory and practice, we know relatively little about how employees react to interventions of this kind, and why they react as they do. The paper aims to address this gap in the literature. It does this through an analysis of front line reactions to a major customer care initiative in one of the largest supermarket chains in the UK. Using data from a large-scale employee survey carried out in seven stores, we first propose a general typology of employee responses to customer care programmes. We then examine some typical employee profiles associated with the main types of response. The analysis is placed within a wider theoretical context consisting of a critical overview of the main theories which might help explain the nature of general and individual reactions to culture change programmes. To this end, we address and draw upon a variety of literatures and debates linked to various aspects of organization and management, industrial psychology, training and development and critical discourse analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a programme of exploratory research aimed at examining the role of mystery shopping in the measurement and management of the service delivery process. Mystery shopping, a form of participant observation, uses researchers to act as customers or potential customers to monitor the processes and procedures used in the delivery of a service. The research focused on the views of the senior managers responsible for commissioning mystery shopping research and the directors of market research agencies responsible for the provision of such research. The research findings identify the main uses of mystery shopping in the United Kingdom and the methods used to maximise the reliability of the technique. The study also discovers that organisations rarely integrate mystery shopping results with other measures of the service delivery process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been much emphasis in recent years, both in the service quality and customer satisfaction literature, on the need to understand customer expectations. Less attention has been given to the management o# expectations. This paper reports on a recent study of expectations management practices in British service firms and offers a checklist for service firms to use in the evaluation of their expectations management practices. It also links expectations management practices to overall customer satisfaction and market share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a comparative study of national business support programmes in design operated by National Design Centres (NDCs) in the UK and South Korea. The research identified the drivers for, and barriers to, implementing national support programmes in design and presents the recommendations for new approaches to the development and implementation of such programmes. The research findings illustrate that while there are some similarities in barriers to implementing such programmes, government support for businesses through NDCs differs in the two countries due to the different content and structure of programme delivery. The research findings also indicate that critical issues influencing national support in design are autonomy and respective organizations' perspectives and purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates inventory management issues in a distribution network. The study is motivated by examining the operation of a wholesaling car parts company. Customer service requirements are of paramount importance in this market sector. The nature of the demand facing the company is characterised. The breadth of range of stock keeping units (SKUs) held at a stocking location and the quantity of each SKU held are normally treated in isolation but in this case, the rule developed to select the range of SKU was extended to determine the level of stock to hold. It is intuitively obvious that these two factors should be linked, yet the authors have not found any other literature developing the connection in a practical context. Forecasting issues are explored as the rule on stock range depends on a forecast of the number of orders received for each SKU at each stocking unit. Some implementation issues and extensions are indicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores generic issues concerning customer satisfaction and loyalty before concentrating upon specific examples from both road and rail passenger transport sectors in Great Britain. Satisfaction of customer services in Great Britain; Significance of customer's feedback; Passenger transport industry in Great Britain.

This article is based on a paper from the Consumers' Association and looks at complaints procedures against the NHS. Complaints highlight problems with a service and so can help with long-term improvements. However, the primary purpose of a complaints procedure should be to ensure that complainants get their concerns listened to and their particular problem properly dealt with. The article examines whether existing complaints procedures are fulfilling this primary purpose, and suggests ways in which they could be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a funded survey, by Great Britain's Economic and Social Research Council, for the relationship between ethnicity, race and consumer satisfaction with local authority services in the West Midlands in England, data were collected on religious affiliation and observance along with other information on social characteristics, as of July 1, 1987. It is evident that there are fairly strong linkages between geographical or racial origin and religious affiliation, but that these linkages are not necessarily straightforward. Religious affiliation is at times a better predictor of behavior and perhaps attitude than the group membership predicated on the basis of physical attributes or visible signs. Given the significance of religion in cultural formation, friendship networks and identity, it should be regarded as incumbent upon those investigating correlates of group membership in the field of racial and ethnic relations to include consideration of the dimension of religious affiliation.

Business managers have frequently been called upon to develop relationship marketing programmes, with little guidance about what relationship marketing means or of the resulting benefits. To some, relationship marketing is seen as little more than a tactical programme of database management, while to others it is seen as an integral part of a customer care strategy which goes to the core of the marketing concept. This paper reviews alternative perspectives from which relationship marketing has been viewed and argues that not all types of relationship building activities can be expected to achieve similar returns on investment. Exploratory research is reported which seeks to evaluate the benefits resulting from different aspects of relationship development among a sample of UK travel agents. It is tentatively concluded that although relationship marketing at the tactical level may be relatively easy to implement, much greater benefits may arise where relationship marketing has been interpreted as an underlying philosophy of caring for customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the battle for future growth in saturated and post-saturated industries and markets intensifies, competitors must develop the means for ensuring that they maintain the loyalty of their existing customers, whilst seeking to attract new customers from rival firms. To this end, the present paper reports the findings of an empirical investigation which explored consumers' mental models of competitive structures in the UK grocery retail industry. A similarity tree analysis was performed in conjunction with non-metric multidimensional scaling, in order to reveal the bases on which consumers differentiate various competitors. The findings suggest that consumers distinguish two groups of competing stores, primarily on the basis of quality and convenience. The competitive structure identified through the cognitive analysis was validated using various behavioural, attitudinal, demographic and socioeconomic indicators. It is argued that the analysis of consumers' mental models of corporate-level competitive structures, potentially has much to contribute to our understanding of store choice and competition in industries and markets, thereby usefully complementing recent studies which have explored cognitive aspects of business rivalry, using the perceptions of managers and other knowledgeable actors located within the ‘supply side’ of the market-place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dental care is unusual within the UK's National Health Service (NHS) since few other services carry a money cost to consumers at the point of consumption. Despite the importance and well-established nature of dental charges, evidence about their effects on patients' and dentists' behaviour is limited, and has been the subject of much controversy.[1] In this paper their effects on dental care demand and utilization in Scotland are examined using time-series data for 1962-81. v
These maximum charges remained essentially the same until the late 1960s, but have frequently been raised since. The charging system, too, continued without substantial modifications until 1985.' Two temporary changes did, however, occur. From April 1971 to January 1976 the system was changed from one in which non-exempt patients paid the full cost of care subject to separate maximum charges for routine and specialist treatment, to one in which they paid half of the cost of care subject to one overall maximum charge. From October 1974 to January 1976 charges for all treatment items were frozen, resulting in a drop in the real average cost to patients of care.
At present, some patients are exempt from all charges: those under the age of 16, or under 19 and in full-time education, expectant and nursing mothers, and those on low incomes. Sixteen to eighteen year olds not in full-time education are exempt from all but the cost of dentures. Some services are free to all: six-monthly examinations (four-monthly for those under the age of 21 and expectant and nursing mothers), denture repairs and arrest of post-extraction bleeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a number of changes, which have occurred in the field of personal selling in industrial markets, with particular reference to Great Britain. It reviews research findings from Great Britain, Europe and the U.S. and discusses the implications for sales force management and sales training. It concludes that industrial marketing should focus upon key account relationship management, rather than the manipulation of the four marketing P's in order to create competitive advantage. It suggests that the sales force provides the primary medium for the strategic management of customer relationships. A number of models are discussed which provide insights into the effective strategic management of key accounts arid finally the paper presents a model of relational management, based upon problem resolution which may prove valuable to sales managers seeking competitive advantage with key accounts. The summary includes recommendations for future management action.

In this article, empirical research findings are presented from an investigation of consumer expectations and perceptions of service quality. Customers of banks, in the UK and US, indicated the importance of a range of elements of service quality and their perceptions of the service actually received. A number of similarities and differences between UK and US respondents are highlighted together with evidence of the success to date of the banks in their delivery of service quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the customer-orientated bureaucracy (COB) construct, this qualitative study investigates changes to the Human Resource (HR) function’s status in eight Scottish voluntary organisations delivering public services at a time of contradictory government calls for greater customer service (personalisation) and cost control (austerity). HR attempts to build and sustain social orders that encourage worker commitment to customer service, leading to business facing and ‘business partner’ strategic roles in areas of recruitment and skills. The study, however, challenges the ability of unitarist ‘business partner’ HR roles to resolve emerging organisational tensions concerning industrial relations, worker concerns over their own security, lack of opportunities to up-skill and service quality. It further questions whether the HR function can be strategic in this and other COB contexts as it can be powerless to resolve workplace tensions because its own status is undermined by budget cuts by government and it faces challenges to its expertise from internal and external actors such as consultants and customers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article draws on service operations and Lean management in considering the relationship between internal service processes and customer service in public sector organisations. It draws on extensive evidence from two case studies of large UK Government departments to illustrate that whilst public service organisations recognise that methodologies such as Lean improves their internal processes to date they have not linked this to value or customer service. This article presents a model which shows that public service organisations are driven towards internal operations improvement due to the efficiency agenda leading to a process focus, rather than a market driven approach focusing on the customer. This article argues that although this starting point is not necessarily bad in order to sustain improvement after initial gains there is a need to focus on both process and customer. This article therefore contributes and extends the discussion on the adaptation of Lean for a public sector context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the nature, antecedents and consequences of a potential service orientation discrepancy in a UK public sector setting. The quantitative and qualitative data collected suggest that: (1) similar to the private sector, employees perceive a discrepancy between their own service orientation and that of the organisation; (2) the antecedents for this discrepancy differ from the private sector: employees' commitment to help communities contrasts with Modernising Government efforts to drive efficiency while neglecting effectiveness; (3) emphasising the development of tailored and proactive services may reduce the service orientation discrepancy and thus improve service performance and job satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the development of a three-step/nine-building-block methodology and others based on published research literature to guide the evaluation of European competition policy. A methodology is structured into three stages, namely preparation, execution, and reporting, each is subdivided into three building blocks to substantiate the respective analysis. It also states that there are other periodical assessments of the full competition policy available. It cites that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) regularly hosts peer reviews to asses the competition policy of certain countries. It mentions that the British Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has started estimating the positive impact of its actions on direct benefits to consumers.

Community pharmacies play an important role in providing services to drug users, having provided needle exchange and substitution therapy services for a number of years. Previous studies of these services and the problems faced in implementing them have focused on the attitude and experiences of pharmacists. However, with the increasing use of pharmacy support staff in a range of expanded roles, it is also appropriate to consider this group. This article aims to qualitatively explore the experiences, attitudes, and training needs of pharmacy support staff involved in providing services to drug users. Copies of the questionnaire were issued to a 10% sample of community pharmacies and distributed to up to five support staff working in the pharmacy. The questionnaire asked open questions regarding training needs, personal experiences and attitudes. Data were transcribed and thematically analysed according to Grounded Theory in NVivo v7. 454 respondents made qualitative comments. The data demonstrated a strong desire among some support staff to be further involved in support services. However, many expressed negative attitudes towards drug users and some considered pharmacies as inappropriate venues for providing services to this group. Identified training needs focused on four key areas: advising and working with drug users; the nature of drug use; treatment services and their availability; and clinical and legal detail. Knowledge gaps were evident in some of the responses, most notably a misunderstanding of service aims and intended outcomes. All those involved in designing and delivering pharmacy services to drug users should ensure that they take account of and involve support staff when developing training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliance on consumer choice to drive improvements in public services is at the centre of policy debates in the UK and elsewhere. However, the discourse of consumerism occurs in the midst of a quagmire as to whether users of public services can legitimately be considered as customers, citizens or co-producers, while the existing evidence on how far they assume the role of public service consumers is largely ignored. This article discusses research on users' attitudes to choice in health, education and social services in the UK, the European Union and the USA. Provision of public services is rarely about acquiring products for pure consumption, but more about providers and users jointly addressing essential social and human needs. The author argues for an alternative conception of public service provision going beyond the limitations of consumerism, although some users are more likely to choose certain public services over others (for example schools rather than health services). However, the evidence presented disproves the view that users of public services will act as discerning consumers in the market-place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK construction sector has been challenged to adopt manufacturing concepts to improve its performance. Total Quality Management (TQM) has been suggested as one approach that could bring about benefits to the industry. However, to date, the associated literature offers little specific information relating to current practices in the UK. To determine how construction companies deal with quality issues within their processes, seven case studies were performed. The information collected shows that the industry has begun to take up the challenge and, as a result, companies have won repeat business, increased their market shares and improved their customer satisfaction levels. Nevertheless, participant companies also recognised that there are still shortcomings in their practices such as lack of internal communication, ineffective decision-making processes and poor identification of customer needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is witnessing an unprecedented expansion of electronic commerce into the global digital economy. As an enabler of new business, Web-Based Shopping Systems (WBSS) are at the heart of the major issues surrounding electronic commerce growth. Their wide use has profoundly altered the ways in which business and customers and business and business interact on the basis of digital transactions. Despite the importance of WBSS, empirical examination has been sparse. This article offers an exploratory analysis of the processes in WBSS usage in different national contexts. For that purpose, we propose a research model that emphasizes organizational and managerial aspects. Based upon the model, we surveyed firms in the UK and Korea. Results show that the major differences in the two countries are in marketing, customer related and strategy factors. Many of the factors in organizational dimensions and technology are similar across the two nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research literature reveals that there are many factors that influence the consistency of assessors' or examiners' judgements. One issue that has not been considered is whether National Vocational Qualifications assessors' consistency of judgement is affected by different types of evidence. In this article, 15 Customer Service and 12 Assessor and Verifier assessors made assessment judgements about fictitious candidates' evidence. For the Customer Service and Assessor and Verifier units the assessors made judgements about different types of evidence (assessor observations, witness testimonies, personal statements, written underpinning knowledge questions and answers, and record of professional discussions). The assessors' judgements were statistically analysed. The internal consistency reliability was high, indicating that assessors tend to respond to each assessment criterion within a set in a similar way or that each set of criteria are measuring a common trait. The results are also used to discuss the consistency of assessors' judgements and whether they are affected by different types of evidence. When absolute differences were used to measure inter-rater reliability there was a statistically significant difference for the Assessor and Verifier Award - the assessors' judgements were in less agreement when using the witness testimony than when they assessed other types of evidence. Therefore, the effect of different types of evidence on the agreement between assessors' judgements about competence cannot be dismissed as an issue. Further research is required before we can say precisely which types of evidence affect assessor judgements and in which circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role market or country towns play as rural service centres in Great Britain. Internationally these small town centres are facing serious challenges as shoppers are being diverted to larger urban centres. The leakage of expenditure out of towns means there are unlikely to be sufficient funds available to maintain the physical fabric and environment. Boarded-up shop frontages and run-down buildings have become common occurrences, further detracting from the appeal of many towns.

Service quality has become the great differentiator, the most powerful weapon for trust hospitals to use to win patient contracts from health authorities. The issue of quality became fashionable in the NHS in 1989 after the Griffiths report, which criticized the NHS for its general management practice and the lack of a quality focus. However, to this day, the majority of NHS employees still find it difficult to define what service quality means. To most, quality represents meeting the medical needs of patients within budget. This definition to most observers suggests the rationing of care. In light of this confusion, it becomes imperative to determine the service gaps that have arisen in the delivery and management of care in the NHS. The realization of the existence of these gaps and the conscious managerial effort directed at eliminating them, in the author's opinion, would move the NHS towards a more focused approach to meeting patients' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing competition from branded budget hotels and upscale, branded, corporately owned hotels suggests the future of some independent mid-market hotels is in jeopardy unless a strong and carefully thought out marketing proposition can be offered to customers. This exploratory article seeks to determine how hotels in the independent mid-market sector can achieve sustained (or long term) customer loyalty and thereby prevent switching by customers to competing budget and corporately owned hotels. From this, conclusions will be drawn on the likely current success of independent mid-market hotels in satisfying customer requirements, attaining loyal customers and limiting switching. Of fundamental importance is the question of whether these challenges can be addressed and overcome or whether the future of the independent mid-market hotelier really is at risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examines the management of customer relations and services given by Foxdenton, a local authority primary school in Great Britain. Reasons Foxdenton must aim for excellence; Customer loyalty in a climate of competition among educational institutions; Vision, mission, goal and objectives of the school; Principles by which the school works; Result of an inspection by the government on the school.

Service recovery is an important means of satisfying customers after a failure has occurred. Yet there seems to be some confusion about how to go about effecting a recovery and only limited empirical work exists. This work has not distinguished between the strategies needed to recover different types or levels of failure situations or whether the recovery should lead to delighted or merely satisfied. customers. This exploratory study was based on data collected from customers in major UK banks and evaluated responses to a frequently occurring failure scenario. It found that customers have clear expectations of service recovery. The study also succeeded in distinguishing between the. actions required in dealing with service failures (single deviation) and the situations where there was an inappropriate or inadequate response to the failure. (double deviation). Furthermore, it was found that one set of actions can restore the customer to a satisfied state whereas an enhanced set of actions will delight the customer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the development of consumer-oriented culture in Great Britain. Irrelevance of service culture for problems between users and providers; Significance of social security regulations to service culture; Importance of public support for effectiveness of public service. INSETS: Why Culture?;A Service Culture.

Presents edited versions of the proceedings of the Second World Congress for Total Quality Management in Great Britain in 1997. Effective customer complaints handling in British local government; Self-assessment; Citizen's Charter Complaints Task Force.

The article assesses the quality of customer service delivered by British government units and discusses factors affecting the ability of public employees to deliver quality services. A major factor in the delivery of an adequate level of customer service is the level of cooperation among employees. Local authority staff , when compared to their counterparts in the private sector, fail to create a working environment inducive of cooperative performance. Local authorities should undertake more activities to gain more information about the needs of their internal customers. The adoption of internal marketing philosophy is demonstrated.

In recent years there has been much emphasis on the need for service firms to develop an organisational culture which facilitates the successful implementation of marketing activities. This issue is considered critical for the delivery of services given the degree of interaction between the firm and its customers, and the proclamation by marketing academics and managers that a strong marketing culture will lead to customer satisfaction. This article reports on an empirical investigation into the relationship between UK service firms' marketing culture and performance. The results link marketing culture to customer satisfaction, customer retention and profitability. Implications of these findings for managers are subsequently discussed along with directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the findings of an investigation into issues related to product standardisation in service industries. A brief review of existing literature on the subject is followed by a presentation of the findings of parallel surveys carried out at two UK holiday villages owned and operated by a leading European leisure company. The conclusions reached were that a service product can be successfully standardised in the mind of the consumer but only if a clear positioning strategy is adhered to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Branch networks evolved to attract relatively cheap retail deposits through the convenience of branch locations and branch-based payment systems. Traditionally, they provided a highly effective mechanism for administering, collecting and delivering cash and helped to promote an extensive range of associated lending and ancillary services. However, the importance of branch networks is only tenable provided that the conditions which determined their historical position continue to apply. The most important of these conditions are that the market continues to respond to it and that it will remain the basis for existing and emerging patterns of competitive behaviour. With this consideration in mind and against a background of unprecedented change in the financial services markets, the article attempts to assess the future validity of branch networks by obtaining the opinions of customers on a range of important issues currently confronting banking institutions with comprehensive branch networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details empirical evidence to suggest that, by and large, UK life insurance salespeople fail to be client-driven in their approach to customer service. Furthermore, there is insufficient attention given to the nature of exchanges between service provider and purchaser by these staffs. Therefore, by implication, there is a deficit in relationship marketing implementation at the service encounter and workbench level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the impact of new entry on a UK domestic air route. The regulatory environment and competitive developments on the route since the entry of British Midland Airways are considered. New entry and subsequent increased competition have led to an improvement in the quality of service and consequent switching of customer allegiance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]