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Relationship marketing has received a great deal of attention within the marketing profession, but how do consumer affairs professionals really treat consumers who seem ripe for entrenched relationships? Consumers who send unsolicited complaints or compliments to mass marketers have well-established traits that make them naturals for ongoing relationships. Complimenters, in particular, are likely to be brand-loyal and highly motivated. This study explores whether such consumers are treated in a manner consistent with relationship marketing concepts and whether complainers and complimenters are treated similarly or differently. Given a lack of real cultivation of these consumers, marketers may wish to give more attention to consumer affairs units and how they handle unsolicited consumer correspondence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Education enhances the knowledge of a child, allows exploring his potentials and living as a respected citizen of civilised nations. Lacking in basic education narrow down the human mind and leads to poverty, hunger and crime. The government of India has made education compulsory for 6 to 14 years age group children. In this backdrop, government of India has launched Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) to address the most critical problems of the society. Presently, the scheme is being implemented in lower primary (LP) and upper primary (UP) classes. The study is an attempt to analyse effectiveness of MDMS in LP and UP schools of Golaghat district in Assam. The study covers both primary and secondary data. Secondary data collected from newspapers, research articles and published documents of government departments to support the research objectives. A qualitative open ended questionnaire was prepared to measure the effectiveness of MDMS in three schools. A set of questionnaires were prepared for the survey of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCSCA) department of district, headmaster/mistress and primary school students. Collected data was analysed using MS Excel tools to get the conclusions. The findings of research can be categorised in three different areas such as Department of FCSCA; headmaster/mistress of UP and LP schools; Students of UP and LP Schools. The study concludes with few recommendations such as continuing of MDMS, focus on hygiene environment, monitoring mechanism and suggested for a complete education package for school students. Continuing of MDMS will prevent child labour and children's from poor family backgrounds will get educated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, based upon a limited survey, summarizes the job functions, satisfactions, and problems of the newly designated heads of consumer affairs departments. It focuses on the need to meet certain long-term responsibilities, as well as the need to improve corporate day-to-day operations. Special attention is given to the conceptual problems faced by the new consumer affairs person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges and problems encountered in evaluating consumer education programs are discussed. This article focuses on the evaluation research literature and the experiences of the authors in attempting to evaluate a major consumer education program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A framework for evaluating alternative consumer information regulations is developed by integrating economic, consumer behavior, and legal theory. This "Remedies Continuum" which classifies regulations from least to most restrictive of marketplace forces, is used to select the most appropriate regulatory approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental claims in marketing are subject to review by a variety of government and self-regulatory bodies. Although some of these bodies have issued guidelines, the most important precedents have been set in case-by-case actions. We discuss cases brought by the state attorneys general and the New York City Division of Consumer Affairs, and examine in detail cases brought by the Federal Trade Commission and the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus between 1990 and the end of 1994. Similarities and differences among the cases brought by these bodies are analyzed in relation to the goals and powers of the various review bodies. We conclude with observations about the adequacy with which issues involving environmental issues (e.g., degradability, recyclability, ozone impact, life cycle assessments) have been addressed in case-by-case action and provide some suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, business has formed the consumer affairs department in answer to government and consumer demands for greater responsiveness to its public. The increase in government regulation indicates that the consumer affairs department has not been sufficient. Business must take new initiatives to anticipate consumers' total needs and develop marketing strategies that will prevent excessive government regulation. This article proposes "quality control" of marketing practices as an alternative that allows business to retain control of its future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer affairs offices are one response of business to bridge the gap between management perceptions of customer satisfaction and actual customer satisfaction. This article outlines the major functions of such offices: assessment of existing levels of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with company products and services, audits of company's actual response to consumers' recommendations for specific programs, and communication between the comany and the public. The importance of such offices and their performance is emphasized, and the experience of the consumer affairs office at Western Union is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major positive responses of corporations to the consumerism movement is the increasing attention to the consumer affairs functions of the organization. This article presents the concept of a consumer affairs audit as a formal, comprehensive and objective method by which to ascertain and evaluate the performance of consumer affairs. It focuses on the consumer affairs system as a relevant area to be measured and improved, and offers a specific methodology to plan, conduct, and report the audit to top management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By discussing current varieties of the consumer/federal contact, quantities of consumer federal contact, federal efforts to cope with consumers' problems, consumer influences on federal decisions, and new federal decision-making modes for consumers, the author covers the role of consumers in the federal decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of the first BSE case in Japan in 2001 triggered far-reaching changes in the regulatory framework of food safety. This article focuses on three major institutional developments since that first mad cow, namely the establishment of the Food Safety Commission (2003), theShokuikuor Food Education program (2005), and the Consumer Affairs Agency (2009). Through a focus on the concept of self-responsibility, the politicized role of science, and the Japanese rhetoric ofanzen anshin(safety–peace of mind), this study analyses the political efforts in reinstalling consumer trust. Regulatory changes gradually initiated a risk analysis approach into Japan’s food safety governance, combining consumer education and consumer protection essentials. Focusing on educating the consumer about new roles and responsibilities, the reforms shift the accountability for food risk to the individual, thereby strongly and increasingly relying on the ambiguous concept ofanzen anshin. However, I argue that issues such as independence, accountability, and fragmentation in food safety monitoring must be continuously addressed instead of hiding them behind a rhetoric ofanzen anshinand calling upon the consumer’s self-responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-six Consumer Affairs (CA) internship supervisors were surveyed to identify critical knowledge and skills demonstrated by interns and to examine the importance of knowledge and skills needed in the workplace from the supervisors' perspectives.The knowledge and skills measured were identified through program goals. Results revealed that CA graduates demonstrated technology skills, service, and respect for workplace diversity at a higher level than they did for the other 14 program goals. Employers felt problem solving, oral communication, and ethics were the most important skills to succeed in the workplace. The findings of this study may inform faculties in consumer sciences considering development of new and existing curriculum to meet the professional needs of today's students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer education empowers consumers with skills that enable them to protect themselves from deceptive and unethical practices in the marketplace. The effectiveness of consumer education depends on the quality of the programmes and availability of resources. Due to rapid changes in today's global markets, consumer education needs to be assessed regularly to embrace consumer issues that suit the needs of learners. The objectives of this study were to examine the quality and assess the availability of teaching resources for consumer education modules taught in senior secondary schools in Botswana. Participants were home economics teachers from 20 senior secondary schools randomly sampled from a list of 27 senior secondary schools. The results revealed that consumer education modules taught in secondary schools were perceived to be of quality and that most of the resources for teaching consumer education were needed but they were not available in most of the schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of health-related websites has proliferated over the past few years. Health information consumers confront a myriad of health related resources on the internet that have varying levels of quality and are not always easy to comprehend. There is thus a need to help health information consumers to bridge the gap between access to information and information understanding-i.e. to help consumers understand health related web-based resources so that they can act upon it. At the same time health information consumers are becoming not only more involved in their own health care but also more information technology minded. One way to address this issue is to provide consumers with tailored information that is contextualized and personalized e.g. directly relevant and easily comprehensible to the person's own health situation. This paper presents a current trend in Consumer Health Informatics which focuses on theory-based design and development of contextualized and personalized tools to allow the evolving consumer with varying backgrounds and interests to use online health information efficiently. The proposed approach uses a theoretical framework of communication in order to support the consumer's capacity to understand health-related web-based resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The study is motivated by business'' mixed response to increasing demand for customer service, leaving the question as to its impact on performance open. The study is concerned with the impact of customers'' perception of customer service (bad/good) on variables that are known to drive revenue, i.e. customer satisfaction, perceived relative attractiveness, and commitment. Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected through a survey among bank customers. Two groups were sampled: customers who have experienced good or bad customer service. The hypotheses were tested by applying structural equation modeling and running two group analysis using the PLS and LISREL softwares. Findings - Customers that experience bad customer service do take into account the same variables in their evaluation as do customers that experience good customer service. They do however, put different weights on every factor in the evaluation process. Also the strength of the relationships between the variables seems to differ. Typically, analyses showed that customers experiencing bad customer service tend to consider more thoroughly all aspects of the service; the relationships between the variables were stronger and the explained variance of each construct higher, than in the group of customers experiencing good customer service. However, the paths are not different across the groups. Research limitations/implications - The paper has only tested the model and hypotheses in one industry. Future research should test the same model using different industries reflecting different customer involvement levels. Practical implications - From this study, service managers can learn that investing in customer service in ongoing customer relations is "the right thing to do" as it is linked to customer equity through customers'' commitment to the firm. Second, as customer service in such relationships drives perceived relative attractiveness, saving the bottom line by cutting back on the human side of the customer interaction, may harm the firm''s competitive position in the marketplace. Originality/value - The impact of customer service on key performance variables in ongoing relations has to the knowledge never been studied before. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the results of a study involving 142 tax professionals designed to investigate the effects of decision aid design on information search (i.e., tax research) and confirmation bias. Results indicate that the participants exhibited confirmation bias when conducting tax research for clients. That is, participants showed a tendency to preferentially select information in support of their earlier recommendations to the client, even when the recommendation disagreed with the client's subsequent tax position. Results also indicate that while some decision aid features can reduce confirmation bias during tax research, others do not and may even enhance this bias. Specifically, a justification requirement decision aid reduced confirmation bias in terms of both the number and perceived importance of selected confirmatory cases, whereas a factor evaluation checklist decision aid either increased the bias (i.e., increased the perceived importance of cases) or had no effect on the bias (i.e., no effect on the number of cases). We suggest several decision aid design features for reducing confirmation bias in tax research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are three key dimensions by which revealed preference bounds on consumer demand responses can be improved. The first relates to the improvements that arise from using expansion paths for given relative prices, E-bounds. The second concerns the addition of new price information. Thirdly, there are improvements due to assuming separability. Our previous research has examined the first two cases. In this article, we show how to impose separability assumptions within a fully nonparametric analysis and distinguish between weak and homothetic separability. We also apply these ideas to the analysis of demand responses using United Kingdom household level data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research increasingly suggests the importance of switching costs in customer retention strategies. However, research on the downstream effects of different types of switching costs is lacking. This study seeks to address this issue by proposing and testing a framework for examining the alternative routes through which different types of switching costs (i.e., procedural, social, and lost benefits) operate in affecting relational outcomes. Consistent with our hypotheses, social switching costs, and lost benefits costs appear to bolster affective commitment, which subsequently increases positive emotions and repurchase intentions and decreases negative word of mouth. Furthermore, and again consistent with our hypotheses, procedural switching costs appear to bolster calculative commitment, which subsequently increases repurchase intentions in some instances but also increases negative emotions and negative word of mouth. Overall, this study's findings suggest that service firms should use caution when utilizing procedural switching costs as a retention strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To enable the development of appropriate diagnostics and treatment for occupational voice disorders, this study addresses connections between subjective voice complaints and objective observations. The subjects of this study were 24 female customer advisors, who mainly use the telephone during their working hours. During one working day, at four different times, speech samples covering 20 minutes of telephone conversation by the customer service advisors (CSAs) were recorded. In addition, the CSAs filled in a questionnaire (visual analogue scale) concerning their voice problems. To represent the vocal symptoms three variables were used: vocal fatigue, hoarseness and a general sum-variable. A 5-minute sample was taken from recordings for further analyses. This included fundamental frequency, sound pressure level, alpha ratio (the ratio between the spectral energy below and above 1000 Hz) and number of vocal fold vibrations. In the objective acoustic measurements, it was found that fundamental frequency (F0) rose significantly during the working day. Also the self-reported voice symptoms increased significantly during the working day. However, correlations between vocal symptoms and acoustic measures were not found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent findings suggest that established psychological treatments for PTSD are effective for diverse populations, including war refugees who have experienced multiple and severe losses, deprivations, hardships, and atrocities. Treating non-English-speaking traumatized refugees requires the clinician to overcome linguistic and various cultural dissimilarities with clients that complicate effective engagement. Examples of clinical adaptations for Bosnian clients are presented along with a discussion of the client’s and therapist’s relationship to the larger service delivery system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article discusses customer-centric organization structures. Supplier firms must employ executives who know the importance of customer-oriented management to hold the relationships with their key accounts. Strategic customers perception of an organization with successful customer-oriented executives will give favorable edge in sustaining a company's competitiveness. Systematic and replicable executive engagement process can boost sales and profit growth. This paper presents how Siemens Information and Communications (IC) successfully implemented and transformed its organization from an engineering-driven firm to a customer-centric and responsive global economy.

In today's environment, companies of all sizes need to practice customer relationship marketing to gain a competitive edge. This is feasible if CRM becomes an integrated part of the marketing management paradigm. The paper suggests adding a fifth P to the marketing mix framework to seek such integration. The fifth P refers to profiling the customer. A managerial model of CRM is presented with propositions for future research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A typical pattern in markets featuring long-term consumer-firm relationships is for departure probabilities to decline with tenure. A crucial question is whether this actually implies increasing consumer preference for firms. If so, firms should actively try to convince consumers to remain through the early periods of the relationship and should enter new markets quickly. However, the pattern can also be explained by selection on unobserved heterogeneity. The challenge is to use the data available in these markets—generally details on the consumers of one firm—to distinguish between these explanations. I rely on individual price histories in auto insurance. Findings include an economically relevant level of both relationship effects and heterogeneity, but a much more important role for heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a case study from recent innovations in the Swedish white- collar union, Sif, this article introduces and develops the concept of membership interface unionism (MIU). The concept, it is argued, captures similar trends in trade unionism as that noted in the UK by Heery and Kelly in their concept of managerial unionism. Both these recent forms of unionism are signified by closer relations between the professional organization and individual members. Membership interface unionism, however, has distinctive features that signal an explicit embrace of the practices of customer relationship management (CRM): member involvement in service development and utilization of market research; new individually tailored, proactive enabling services, often offered through Internet solutions; and more responsibilities for lay members at the company level. The first and third of these features, it is argued, are somewhat contradictory in that company-level representation has weakened. The article concludes by acknowledging the threats towards participative unionism in the apparent move towards individual service provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often said that the cost to acquire a new customer is five times (5X) the cost of retaining an existing one, and therefore firms should spend more money on customer retention. The purpose of this paper is explore whether, in fact, a firm should spend more money on customer retention if its cost to acquire a new customer is 5X the cost of retaining an existing one. Under the assumptions of the Blattberg and Deighton model, the answer depends on whether the costs in question are average or marginal. If the 5X ratio refers to average costs, then a 5X ratio does not necessarily imply the firm should spend more on retention. If the 5X ratio refers to marginal costs, the firm should either spend more on retention, less on acquisition or both. The optimality conditions of the Blattberg and Deighton model require that the marginal cost to acquire a customer equal the marginal cost to retain a customer and that both will equal the expected customer lifetime value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of cognitive trust and the potential for relationship dissolution when consumers perceive themselves to be in a hostage relationship with their retail banking service provider. This study reviews current literature on relationship continuance intentions, hostage relationships and transaction-based cognitive trust to develop testable hypothesis on the affect of cognitive trust in hostage relationships. Quantitative data gathered via a cross-sectional survey is then analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that consumers who perceive themselves to be in a hostage relationship with their bank indicate significant cognitive trust in the transactional ability of their bank and are deterred from dissolving the relationship, regardless of their perception of the undesirability of the relationship. This paper provides evidence of the effect of cognitive trust as a deterrent of relationship dissolution in hostage relationships. Also provided are managerial and theoretical implications and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses findings from an exploratory study concerning internal marketing in the UK retail bank industry. In order to enhance efficiency and provide motivation to employees many UK banks have adopted internal marketing. The paper adopts the approach of first defining the generic research area, and then describing the research approach. It is concerned with first identifying the rhetoric of internal marketing as employed in UK banks, and second with exploring the practice of reality of internal marketing as practiced within UK banks. The paper is grounded in Mason's view that theoretical positions or data explanations move from the particular context of internal marketing views and expand within banks to the general theoretical contribution to be made. Findings are explored via two extant relationships and three anomalies based on the data analysis. Evidence from the study suggests that internal marketing is being taken seriously but in such a way as to be managerially, not employee, oriented. At best, internal marketing within this industry is regarded as a form of window dressing or part of the trappings of marketing, rather than having any substantive base or rationale insofar as employees are concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is one in a series that offers a fresh look at the paradigmatic shifts being experienced by the traditional, government supported banking establishments, especially those in the erstwhile socialist and mixed economies, in the newly embraced context of liberalization- privatization-globolization. It attempts to fill a great void in debates that consistently neglected every voice except that of the triumphant customer by giving some room for the managerial viewpoint as well. This mission is undertaken in the context of customer complaints regarding failure in the delivery of banking services. The article makes a case for the delicate aspect of employees' attitudes, their satisfaction and motivation, which are posited as prerequisites for customer satisfaction, which is, again, sine qua non for the competitive sustenance of the organization. It argues that sustainable advantage is possible only through people and any normative proposal to rework the "apprehension" traditionally attached to complaints should begin with a radical shift away from perceiving service production and consumption as isolated systems to an altogether new conception of the product as symbolic of a network relationship defined among the stakeholders and co-evolved in an environment whose parameters are potentially altered through recurrent inter-party negotiations involved in the contract. Everything, including the formation of appropriate policies and training for the frontline personnel to cope up with the "irate" customers, should be properly informed from this perspective, it advocates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the significance of customer relations management (CRM) in achieving profitability for the company in the U.S. Definition of CRM; Contention of the author that the challenge in CRM is the evaluation of the good and bad customers; Emergence of data mining and profiling programs in enhancing the efficacy of CRM; Growth of CRM industry in the country.

Recent years have witnessed a growth in the number of studies relating to service organisations. This steady stream of literature could be attributed to the continuous expansion of the service sector and its increasing contribution to the advancement of many economies. In this context, issues associated with marketing and performance outcomes which managers can influence directly have received a great deal of attention. This research focuses on an empirical investigation of the relationship between marketing effectiveness and customer retention performance in an attempt to contribute to the growing body of conceptual and empirical knowledge on the links between marketing and performance among service firms. Drawing on our results which indicate a significant and positive association between marketing effectiveness and customer retention, implications of the findings for service firm managers as well as future research directions are subsequently discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Describes a procedure to evaluate the performance of customer service departments in the United States. Utilization of importance-performance analysis to examine customer perceptions of customer service departments' efforts; Comparison of customer satisfaction data; Significance of the process to improve customer service departments.