An investigation into the link between service quality dimensionality and positive word-of-mouth intention in Mainland China

The purpose of current study is to investigate the relationship between SERVQUAL dimensions and positive word-of-mouth intention in a Chinese context. A survey was carried out with a sample of 241 customers of China Mobile, the biggest telecommunications company in China. A structural equation model was created. It was found that Reliability and Assurance encouraged more positive word-of-mouth intention, while Tangibles, Responsiveness, and Empathy did not have a significant effect on word-of-mouth intention. In addition, age was negatively correlated to positive word-of-mouth intention. These findings have useful implications to international service companies, particularly those operating in a Chinese environment, by identifying factors that are salient for the generation of positive word-of-mouth.     

Operationalizing the Service Quality Construct

ABSTRACT

Previous research works have suggested that, for it to have practical utility, the service quality construct should not only be industry specific, but also be operational (non-global) in nature. This paper builds on that premise and utilizes a methodology suitable to produce operational measures for the service quality construct in the lodging industry. Of the four dimensions (Responsiveness, Recovery, Tangibles, and “Reliability/Trust mixed with Accessibility/Flexibility”) identified by an exploratory factor analysis, the present study finds that the first three appear to be distinct in the minds of the customers. Further confirming the above, regression analyses suggest that the overall perceived service quality in the lodging industry is significantly and positively associated with three dimensions: (1) Responsiveness, (2) Recovery, and (3) Tangibles, in that decreasing order of importance.     

Nonprofit Board Members’ Reasons to Join and Continue Serving on a Volunteer Board of Directors

By expanding understanding of individuals’ reasons to serve on nonprofit boards, practitioners will be able to improve recruitment and retention of quality board members. This study explores board members’ reasons for joining and continuing to serve on a volunteer nonprofit board of directors. A survey of nonprofit board members shows similarities in reasons for initially serving and continuing to serve on a board, but analysis of group means reveals significant differences on 20 of 27 dimensions examined. Organizational-level reasons are reported as more important as a result of board service, whereas individual- and community-level items decline in importance after board service. Latent factors that appear to be important for both joining and continuing to serve on a nonprofit board include organizational commitment, personal growth, recognition, and socialness.     

An Empirical Study of Servqual's Dimensionality

This paper describes a scale, called SERVQUAL, which measures Service Quality. First, the scale's conceptual framework and the steps of its development are described. Second, criticisms arising from several replication studies of SERVQUAL are reviewed. The last part focuses on the dimensionality of the scale. Do the 22 items of the SERVQUAL scale clearly evoke, in the clients’ mind, the five Service Quality dimensions defined by Parasuraman et al. [1988]? An empirical study shows that one dimension, ‘Tangibles’, is clearly perceived followed by ‘Empathy’. The three other dimensions, ‘Reliability’, ‘Insurance’ and ‘Responsiveness ', are confused in the client's mind.     

The effects of service quality,perceived value and trust in home delivery service personnel on customer satisfaction: Evidence from a developing country

The rapid growth of online purchasing in recent years has emphasized the accompanying role of home delivery service provided by delivery personnel in ensuring customer satisfaction. On-time delivery, better service, generating positive customer perceived value, and trust towards service providers are influential factors that contribute to customer satisfaction. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of service quality of home delivery personnel and perceived value on customer satisfaction, with trust playing an intervening role. It was conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a less developed country with a new but rapidly growing digital sector. Data was collected from 259 respondents who received home delivery service, using a structured questionnaire. The conceptual model was analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS tool. The findings revealed that service quality, customer perceived value, and trust influenced customer satisfaction. The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction and the relationship between customer perceived value and satisfaction were both partially mediated by trust. The findings contribute to the development and validation of a trust-based satisfaction model by extending the SERVQUAL model to incorporate perceived value in the presence of trust, while complying with expectation disconfirmation theory This study provides insights for managers to develop reliability and build trust in their service delivery personnel.     

Credibility and Staff Conduct Make or Break Bank Customer Service Quality

ABSTRACT

Service quality is assessed by customers along the dimensions of staff conduct, credibility, communication, and access to teller services. Credibility and staff conduct emerge as the highest loading first-order factors. This highlights the significance of rectifying mistakes while keeping customers informed, and employing branch staff that are responsive and civilized in their conduct. Discovery of a valid second-order factor, namely, overall customer service quality, underscores the importance of providing quality service across all its dimensions. For example, if the bank fails to rectify mistakes and keep customers informed but excels in all other dimensions, its overall customer service quality can still be rated poorly.     

Marketing Management in Nonprofit Organizations: A Customer Analysis of Church Volunteers

ABSTRACT

Volunteers who work in nonprofit organizations serve an important role in our society, as evidenced by their economic impact. Nonprofit organizations which rely on volunteers are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of volunteers to fulfill their missions. Faced with this situation, managers need to become more marketing oriented in their approach of dealing with their volunteers. A manager's first step in becoming more marketing oriented is obtaining a better understanding of the organization's volunteers. This article presents an example of a customer analysis of a specific group of volunteers–church volunteers, to test the efficacy of this approach in better understanding a target group of volunteers. Collecting data from survey respondents, comparisons are made between church volunteers and non-volunteers, between church volunteers and secular volunteers, and between church members who volunteer in their churches and church members who volunteer in secular organizations. The findings support the utility of such a customer analysis in helping a manager develop a more accurate mental model of the organization's volunteers.     

服务质量构成要素对顾客满意影响力差异研究--现有顾客同潜在顾客间的比较

本研究通过对银行服务业现有顾客样本和潜在顾客样本的比较分析发现:两种不同类型的顾客样本分析结果都显示服务互动质量和结果质量要素对顾客满意都有显著正影响,顾客满意对(重复)购买或口头传播等行为意向有积极效应。物理环境质量对顾客满意的显著影响效应只是在潜在顾客样本中发现,而在现有顾客样本中并不显著。现有顾客样本的分析结果显示三方面服务质量要素对顾客满意的影响力是有显著差异的,而对于潜在顾客样本,三方面的服务质量要素对顾客满意的形成所起的作用没有显著差别。     

Quality Assurance Certification for Hospitality Marketing,Sales and Customer Services

The article proposes that there is a need to extend quality assurance schemes to encompass marketing and customer services. The hospitality industry's involvement in the consideration of quality assurance schemes is discussed and the degree to which they have been accepted. An explanation of the Marketing Quality Assurance Scheme (MQA) is presented with detailed examples of the objectives to be met in assuring the quality of marketing, sales plans and customer service. The study concludes that quality assurance schemes for services and marketing are essential for the hospitality industry, in order to guarantee the quality of provision and to offer a bridge from quality assurance to the concept of Total Quality Management.     

Convenience and satisfaction: mediation of fairness and quality

This study investigates the role of service fairness and service quality in the relationship between service convenience types (decision, access, transaction, benefit and post-benefit) and customer satisfaction. Results show that service convenience has a significant positive impact on service fairness. Both service fairness and service quality mediate the relationship between service convenience and customer satisfaction. This study provides useful insights to both researchers and practitioners on the role of service convenience in improving service fairness, service quality and customer satisfaction. Findings of this study contribute to the literature by empirically investigating the impact of service convenience types on service fairness, service quality and customer satisfaction; and by examining the mediating role of service fairness and service quality between convenience types and customer satisfaction.     

服务质量衡量及其客户满意度评价系统研究

CRM体现了以客户为中心的管理思想,是提高服务质量的重要手段。客户满意度评价则是CRM特别是分析CRM的关键。基于此,提出了用客户满意度来评价企业服务质量的理念,建立了客户满意度评价系统结构,重点论述了该系统中的综合评判子系统;分析客户满意指标、级度综合评价法,提出了客户满意度的多层次模糊综合评价方法及其实现算法。服务质量衡量及客户满意度评价系统将有助于企业客观评价自身的服务质量,及时作出改进服务的决策。     

Feelings of ownership and volunteering: Examining psychological ownership as a volunteering motivation for nonprofit service organisations

Given many nonprofit service organisations rely on volunteers to provide valued services to their communities, examining the factors that impact the retention and recruitment of volunteers is of central importance for the success and longevity of many community-based services. Psychological ownership is a phenomenon whereby objects that are not physically or legally possessed can be the target of ownership feelings. While such psychological ownership has been examined in the paid-employment literature as an antecedent for prosocial behaviours, there has been no examination of psychological ownership within the volunteering literature. As such, this paper examines the role of psychological ownership as a factor in volunteer retention for predominantly community-based nonprofit service organisations by examining how the sense of ownership over the nonprofit service provider affects volunteering attitudes and intentions. Alongside ownership, previous volunteering behaviours, and time pressures are also examined as contributing factors. Results indicate that volunteering does increase ownership perceptions, and those ownership perceptions have positive outcomes for volunteering behaviours. However, time pressure is a significant moderator of these relationships and different volunteering behaviours can be observed for high and low time-pressured volunteers.     

The Carryover Effect of Customer Satisfaction on Service Quality Focused on Moderating Effect of Customer Trust and Cooperative Orientation

The current study is intended to provide a novel contribution in regards to the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction by focusing on carryover effects of satisfaction judgment on perceived service quality of the subsequent transaction. In addition, we probe the role of customer trust in the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality. The results indicate a cycle of customer satisfaction and perceived quality over time, which validates the concept of cycle of satisfaction. The results also indicate trust toward a service provider has a moderating role on the relationship between customer satisfaction and perceived service quality.     

Linking service climate to customer loyalty

The present study evaluates the effect of service climate on customer loyalty by incorporating resident perceptions of service quality regarding their interaction with staff members in a nursing home. The study also explores the mediating role of service quality between service climate and customer loyalty. A conceptual two-level model linking service climate to customer loyalty was developed and analyzed using data collected from 197 nursing staff members and 477 residents in 44 nursing homes in Taiwan. The results show that service climate improves service quality and customer loyalty and provide empirical support for the mediating role of service quality between service climate and customer loyalty. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as future research directions.     

Marketing Culture in an Australian Public Sector Service Organisation

ABSTRACT

This paper measured the marketing culture of an Australian public sector organisation using the instrument developed by Webster (1990). The perceptions of 1,400 employees working in the Western Australian operations of this organisation were sought. Respondents indicated their ideal marketing culture and their perceptions of the actual marketing culture of the organisation across 34 variables. Organisational performance was rated highest for items pertaining to service quality and innovativeness. The six dimensions of marketing culture identified by Webster (1990) were found to be reliable within this context and the gap between perceptions of ideal culture and actual organisational culture was computed for each of the dimensions. The organisation was found to have room for improvement in all six dimensions with particular areas for future attention being interpersonal relationships, internal communications and selling task. Recommendations for future initiatives were made.     

The impact of online customer satisfaction on the yahoo auction in Taiwan

In this article, the authors develop a conceptual model that links website quality, trust, merchandising, customer service, and online satisfaction for yahoo auction in Taiwan. The research objective is to provide initial evidence for the determinants of e-satisfaction (online satisfaction). We examine the role of web quality, trust, merchandising, and customer service in consumer online satisfaction assessments. This conceptual model is empirically tested from 350 consumers across a broader group of online shoppers on yahoo auction by means of internet surveys and structural equation analysis. The results show that the determinants of online trust are website quality, merchandising, and customer service. Website quality, trust, merchandising, and customer service have positive effects on online satisfaction for auction sites. The research findings were reported by discussing the implications of the findings and directions for future research.     

The antecedents of customer loyalty: A moderated mediation model of customer relationship management quality and brand image

This study examines the mediating role of customer relationship management (CRM) quality to better explain the effects of service evaluation variables (service quality, customer satisfaction and customer value) on customer loyalty. The study also investigates the moderating effect of brand image on these mediated relationships. The mediating role of CRM quality on the relationship between the service evaluation variables and customer loyalty is supported. Further, it is found that the indirect effect of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty via CRM quality is stronger when perceived brand image is high than when it is low. The results have implications for relationship managers, brand managers and scholars who use service evaluation and relational metrics to predict customer loyalty.     

Antecedents and consequences of role stress of retail sales persons

Given the central proposition in services marketing that service excellence is largely determined by the interaction between customer contact personnel and customers, we examine the antecedents and consequences of role stress in a retail context both from the employee and the customer perspective. We investigate the impact of the service control versus the empowerment model on role ambiguity and role conflict and we look at the effect of these role stressor on commitment towards the organization and to delivering service quality by retail sales persons. Finally, we explore the impact on customer perceived service quality. Empirical findings reveal, among other things, that both formalization and empowerment reduce role ambiguity. Role ambiguity in turn is negatively associated with both organizational commitment and commitment to quality. The latter type of commitment has a positive impact on customer perceived quality.     

物业服务质量对顾客价值及顾客忠诚的影响:居住档次的调节作用

在竞争日益加剧的市场环境中如何提供高质量的服务,提升顾客感知价值以及顾客忠诚度是企业获取竞争优势的关键所在.本文以物业服务行业为研究背景,建构服务质量各维度对顾客价值和顾客忠诚的影响机制模型,并检验居住档次对该模型的调节效应.研究结果表明:与其他行业的服务质量维度构成不同,物业服务质量由实体环境、专业保障、服务效率和人文关怀四个维度构成;实体环境对顾客忠诚产生正向显著影响,而专业保障、服务效率、人文关怀三个服务维度虽然对顾客忠诚没有显著的直接影响,但均通过顾客价值对其产生间接影响;顾客价值是解释服务质量影响顾客忠诚的重要中介变量;居住档次部分调节了实体环境、专业保障、服务效率和人文关怀对顾客价值及顾客忠诚的影响.     

The Impact of Chinese Culture on Service Predisposition

376 service employees at 27 Hong Kong food service outlets were surveyed using Lee-Ross's Service Predisposition Index instrument together with the cultural values questionnaire of the Chinese Culture Connection. The objective was to examine the influence of Chinese culture upon employees’ willingness to deliver service. Results suggested that cultural values influence service predisposition through specific job attitudes. Respondents perceived humbleness, loyalty to superiors and tolerance of others to have the greatest positive effect on their job attitudes. This influence was most pronounced for the service dimensions disposition and communication and the moderator deference. The cultural values that had the most negative influence on service predisposition were protecting face, conservatism and repayment of good/evil. Respondents interpreted delivering service in terms of personal deference, to the customer or their employer, rather than as a relationship with the customer. There seemed also to be a cultural reluctance to accord (unknown) customers status and hence to perceive them as worthy recipients of service.