Literature Review

1. Overview of Customer Satisfaction

1.1 Signification of Customer satisfaction The service sector has developed considerably during the past 20 years, so far, it occupies close to three-quarters of GDP, three-quarters of employment. It leads to increase competition and customer demand for higher quality service and products have forced organisation to both examine the levels of service they presently provide and increase the quality of service provided to customers. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is one of the most important factors of customer service.

Satisfied customers who stay with a company for a long period tend to impact the profitability of the company in several ways. First, their repeat business generates income for the company. Second, because of the expenditure involved in advertising, promotion, and start-up activities, acquiring new customers can cost much more than retaining existing ones. Third, loyal (and satisfied) customers often “spread the good news” and recommend the services to several others (Anderson and Sullivan, 1990; Reicheld and Sasser, 1990; Zeithaml et al., 1996).

Jarrell (1992) views the relationship of logistics and marketing customer service to business-to-business customer satisfaction is of significance to the fields of logistics, marketing, and strategy. Variables that contribute to satisfaction, such as logistics and marketing customer service, are important because ongoing relationships between channel members are contingent on the level of satisfaction of each firm.

Customer satisfaction is always mentioned consequence of the marketing process, with many definitions of marketing incorporating this important marketing concept. Satisfaction is deemed as a common marketing benchmark of organisations‟ performance. A major US market research company show that customer satisfaction is

the key to success and makes the emphatic statement that a satisfied customer is a repeat customer (In-Touch Survey System. 2003). Lovelock et al. (2001) point out satisfaction conduces to attitudinal loyalty, defined as the intention to make future purchases. There is an assumed positive relationship between satisfaction and loyalty, it is high levels of attitudinal loyalty are an outcome of high levels of satisfaction.

High customer satisfaction has many benefits for the company, such as increased consumer loyalty, enhanced firm reputation, reduced price elasticises, lower costs of future transactions, and higher employee efficiency (Anderson et al., 1994; Fornell, 1992; Swanson and Kelley, 2001). On the other hand, dissatisfied customers may take their businesses elsewhere and disparage the firm.

1.2 Customer Satisfaction Theories In the past several decades, many definitions of customer satisfaction had been defined already. Customer satisfaction generally means customer reaction to the state of fulfilment, and customer judgment of the fulfilled state (Oliver, 1997). Brown (1992) defined customer satisfaction as: the state in which customer needs, wants and expectations throughout the product or service‟s life are net or exceeded resulting in repeat purchase, loyalty and favourable worth-of mouth. Satisfaction is a person‟s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product‟s perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations (Kotler, 1997). And, Bitner and Zeithaml (2003) pointed out satisfaction as follows: The customers‟ evaluation of a product or service in terms of whether that product or service has met their needs and expectations.

According to Expectancy Theory (Tolman, 1932), expectations represent the anticipated most likely level of performance. This theory interprets customer satisfaction as an objective outcome of the magnitude and direction of the difference existing between expectations and the perceived level of performance experienced.

The comparison by the customer of the expectations and perceptions will result in either confirmation or disconfirmation. Confirmation occurs when the customers‟ perception of the service exactly meets their expectations. Contrarily, it is disconfirmation. Disconfirmation can be of two types either positive or negative.

Disconfirmation theory, the well-known disconfirmation of expectations theory of satisfaction suggests that consumer satisfaction is a result of a comparison between company performance and customer expectations (Oliver, 1980). Disconfirmation theories are usually focused on performance of specific attributes and expectations (Bearden and Teel, 1983; Churchill and Surprenant, 1982; Tse and Wilton, 1988; Oliver, 1993). However, there is a gap in our current understanding of satisfaction in a channels context where relationship-building rather than transactional exchange assumes importance. The comparison process between actual performance and expectations may be moderated by the presence of firm and environmental variables such as customer power, customer size, rivalry, channel configuration, product line growth rate, supplier flexibility and customer service.

Many authors have further explored the notion of customer satisfaction. They identified two main types of satisfaction: the “transaction-specific” and the “overall” or cumulative satisfaction (Bolton and Drew, 1991; Boulding et al., 1993). From the transaction-specific perspective, customer satisfaction is viewed as a post-choice evaluation of a specific purchase occasion (Oliver, 1980). In contrast, the overall or cumulative perspective suggests that satisfaction accumulates across a series of experiences with the product, which results in an overall evaluation over time (Anderson et al., 1994; Fornell, 1992). In addition, recent studies claim that satisfaction should be viewed as a judgment based on the cumulative experience rather than a transaction – specific phenomenon (Anderson et al., 1994; Bayus, 1992). Cumulative satisfaction in the retail setting can be interpreted as the result of evaluating the “shopping trip” and retailer's offer in correlation to the consumers' fulfilled expectations (Sivadas and Baker-Prewitt, 2000).

Finally, throughout the literature researched, Kotler and Armstrong (2006) deem that customer satisfaction is an emotional attitude generated towards a product, resulting from the comparison of what was expected and what was received. Customers compare their expectations of a product or service with their perceptions of what they received. If perceptions meet or exceed expectations, the customer is generally satisfied. However, if expectations are not met, the customer is generally unsatisfied with the service.

1.3 Customer Satisfaction Model The customer satisfaction model from Kano (1984) is a quality management and marketing technique that can be used for measuring client happiness. Kano‟s model of customer satisfaction distinguishes six categories of quality attributes, from which the first three actually influence customer satisfaction (See Appendix 1):

1. Basic Factors. (Dissatisfiers. Must have.) –The minimum requirements which will cause dissatisfaction if they are not fulfilled but do not cause customer satisfaction if they are fulfilled (or are exceeded). The customer regards these as prerequisites and takes these for granted. Basic factors establish a market entry threshold. Threshold attributes are not typically captured in QFDs (Quality Function Deployment) or other evaluation tools as products are not rated on the degree to which a threshold attribute is met, the attribute is either satisfied or not.

2. Excitement Factors. (Satisfiers. Attractive.) – The factors that increase customer satisfaction if delivered but do not cause dissatisfaction if they are not delivered. These factors surprise the customer and generate delight. Using these factors, a company can really distinguish itself from its competitors in a positive way. Although they have followed the typical evolution to a performance then a threshold attribute, cup holders were initially excitement attributes.

3. Performance Factors. The factors that cause satisfaction if the performance is high and they cause dissatisfaction if the performance is low. Here, the attribute performance-overall satisfaction is linear and symmetric. Typically these factors are directly connected to customers‟ explicit needs and desires and a company should try to be competitive here. The price for which customer is willing to pay for a product is closely tied to performance attributes. For example, customers would be willing to pay more for a car that provides them with better fuel economy.

The additional three attributes which Kano (1984) mentions are: 4. Indifferent attributes. The customer does not care about this feature.

5. Questionable attributes. It is unclear whether this attribute is expected by the customer.

6. Reverse attributes. The reverse of this product feature was expected by the customer.

These last three attributes are often of little or no consequence to the customer, and do not factor into consumer decisions. An example of this type of attribute is a plate listing part numbers can be found under the hood on many vehicles for use by repairpersons.

1.4 Factors that influence customer satisfaction According to Wong and Sohal (2003), the greater the degree to which a consumer experiences satisfaction with a retailer, the greater the probability the consumer will revisit the retailer. In order to acquire a good understanding of customer satisfaction and distinguish which features compose successful customer satisfaction in the retail environment, the researcher has identified the following findings.

Customer aspect Customer satisfaction is strongly influenced by customer characteristics such as variety seeking, age and income. Demographics variables such as education and age have also been found to be good predictors of the level of customer satisfaction (Homburg and Giering, 2001). Satisfied customers tend to use a service more often than those not satisfied (Bolton and Lemon, 1999), they present stronger repurchase intentions, and they recommend the service to their acquaintances (Zeithaml et al, 1996). It has been suggested that satisfaction has a direct effect on repurchase intentions (Reichled and Teal, 1996).

Employee aspect Personnel affect the satisfaction level of the occasional, probably due to the aid they require from supermarket staff as they do not know the store layout and/or facilities. Wang and Netemeyer (2004) pointed out that employees‟ competence and abilities are not the only important factors, but also the employee‟s friendliness and general presentation play a particularly central role. Especially against a background of strong price orientation by some retailers and the increasing homogeneity of products and assortments, service quality is a very promising means of creating a distinctive retailer brand, not only for specialty retailers.

Service quality aspect In today‟s world of intense competition, the key to sustainable competitive advantage lies in delivering high quality service that will in turn result in satisfied customers.

Quality is one dimension on which satisfaction is based，one group of researchers upholds that satisfaction is antecedent to service quality. Another group of researchers who believe that service quality is antecedent to satisfaction argue that since service quality is a cognitive evaluation, a positive service quality perception can lead to satisfaction, which may in turn lead to favorable behavioral intentions (Brady and Robertson, 2001). A third perspective maintains that there is a non-recursive relationship between service quality and satisfaction (Taylor and Cronin, 1994). For

the service industry in general, the authors divided service quality into two categories: technical quality, primarily focused on what consumers actually receive from the service department, and functional quality, focusing on the process of rendering service.

A number of distinctions are often made between customer satisfaction and service quality. These include that satisfaction is a post-decision customer experience while quality is not (Bolton and Drew, 1991; Boulding et al., 1993; Cronin and Taylor, 1994; Oliver, 1980, 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1988). A further point concerns expectations that are defined differently in the satisfaction and quality literature. In the satisfaction literature “expectations reflect anticipated performance” (Churchill and Suprenant, 1982, p. 492) made by the customer about the levels of performance during a transaction. On the other hand, in the service quality literature, expectations are conceptualised as a normative standard of future wants (Boulding et al., 1993, p. 8). These normative or ideal standards represent enduring wants and needs that remain unaffected by the full range of marketing and competitive factors. Normative expectations are therefore more stable and can be thought of as representing the service the market oriented provider must constantly strive to offer (Zeithaml et al., 1993). However, in one of the few empirical studies of this relationship, Iacobucci et al. (1995) conclude that the key difference between service quality and customer satisfaction is that quality relates to managerial delivery of the service while satisfaction reflects customers‟ experiences with that service. They argue that quality improvements that are not based on customer needs will not lead to improved customer satisfaction.

Emotions aspect Liljander and Strandvil (1997) observed that affective reports are more highly predictive in consumer situations involving services than those involving physical products.

Darden and Babin (1994), for example, discuss the importance of emotions in retailing, and point out the need to include affective factors when studying store image and purchase behaviour. They contend that, in order to account fully for a store‟s retail personality, both its functional and emotional meaning should be assessed. Both factors influence the customer‟s perceived store image and his/her purchase behaviour. In a small empirical study, the authors found evidence of the usefulness of affective quality (items taken from Russell and Pratt, 1980) as a means of explaining consumers‟ mental representations of retail stores. Both the functional and affective meanings associated with a store are critical elements in accounting for the way it is defined in the shopper‟s mind. They argue that including affective quality would thus enable better prediction of shopping-related responses. Affective quality should not, however, be seen as a replacement for traditional measures, but as an additional, supplementary factor. They also suggest that retail affective quality segments may exist.

Store aspect White's (1996) meta-analysis of manufacturing performance defines a set of variables that influence customer satisfaction including quality, delivery speed, delivery dependability, cost, flexibility, and innovation.

Gagliano and Hathcote (1994) divide service in retailing into store service (e.g. returns/exchanges, after sales service) and sales service (helpfulness, friendliness, employees‟ competence). Darian et al. (2005) state that a retailer should avoid poor service levels for any service activity.

Furthermore, one also had to bear in mind that customers develop specific preferences for specific brands. Regardless whether such preferences are habitual or demonstrate loyalty to the brand (Gounaris and Stahakopoulos, 2004), weaken the consumer's actual involvement with the store's atmosphere and aesthetics since they enter the supermarket with a predetermined choice plan. In fact, the more the consumer visits

the store the more the store's environment becomes familiar and this strengthens the consumer's inclination to move the store's environment to the subconscious level: Unless the store environment causes a substantial (negative or positive) surprise the customer will not notice it (Spies et al., 1997).

The pricing policy is a determinant as customers compare prices of their preferred supermarket with competitors. The price-value-quality relationship is a universal combination affecting all customers in their level of satisfaction.

1.5 Argument for customer satisfaction Roger and Rolf (2002) suggest that customer satisfaction with service industry probably decrease its significance through the developed world because most people do not care it any more. In other words, the trouble is, it may be dead but it will not lie down.

In the USA, customer satisfaction with service industries is steadily degenerating and the situation in Europe is very different that is supposed by little reason. The major US measure, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), calculated every quarter by the University of Michigan Business School, has declined substantially and steadily since it started in 1994 (Financial Times, 2001). Roger and Rolf (2002) point out that the suggested explanations do not hold water. The debate is that, during the mid-90s, companies attempted to keep up with consumer spending and now service quality is being undermined again as companies look for ways to cut costs. Another reason is deemed to be increasing customer awareness, expectations and willingness to be critical. But, as opposite service, the levels of satisfaction with manufactured goods have generally been firm or have even risen since 1994. During 1980s and 1990s, advancement in manufacturing processes leads to more reliable products. This has been achieved by paying close attention to classic quality metrics such as reject rates and warranty costs, and by linking managerial pay to quality performance.

Roger and Rolf (2002) believe that the major reason is because customer satisfaction with services is now not very important to any of the major parties involved. The related parties are investors, top managers, line managers, marketers and even customers. Only the middle managers really care about it.

Investors, they do not deem customer satisfaction as one of the newly important intangible assets when they are called upon to assess a business. Investors no longer believe there is any competitive edge in satisfying customers. Because every company is measuring what customers‟ needs and wants, every company set up customer service desk and helping hot line. Otherwise, the competitive advantage leads to repeat purchases, rather than in attitudes such as satisfaction.

In Roger and Rolf (2002) view, line managers primarily struggle to meet their financial targets since this is what most of them believe dictates their bonuses and future promotion and their ability to move to other jobs. Further, for such managers, customers are potential assets that need to be managed and leveraged. So, customer relationship management is key, not customer satisfaction (Srivastava et al., 1998).

Customer satisfaction is losing its status even for marketers. It is not helping them in achieving this aim such as understanding their marketplace so that they can continually present key customers with better value offerings than the competition. There are three main reasons to cause it. Firstly, it is very difficult to measure; secondly, even when measured, it often has little relation to actual purchase behaviour; thirdly, new technology is opening up both the actual purchasing activities and the possible reasons behind them.

Finally, Roger and Rolf (2002) suggest that customer satisfaction is also relatively unimportant for customers. The economies of the western world before economy recession, it has expanded solidly. There is nothing can stop customer from buying

even bad service. On the other hand, customers are more and more rewarded for being dissatisfied. It is no wonder that research has shown that the most loyal customers are those who complain and report, subsequently, that their complaints have been well attended to by the company concerned (Goodman et al., 1993).

2 Overview of Training

2.1 Signification of Training Every organisations desire to complete their goals and to survive in an increasingly competitive world must utilise effectively and efficiently its most valuable asset- the skills of its employees. According to Ferketish and Hayden (1992), the human resource development (HRD) challenge for the next decade will be to assure a continuous improvement culture by keeping the system aligned with continuous improvement strategies.

Bramley (2003) argues that training implies learning to do something and, when it is successful, it results in things being done differently. The author believes that training should be a planned process rather than an accidental one.

As mentioned before, during the last two decades, service sector has grown considerably as that it now accounts for almost three-quarters of GDP. Providing a service is fundamentally different from manufacturing a product. Service is personal and face-to-face (Gutek, 1995). In a supermarket environment, customers are

influenced by the service provider and the quality of the experience, for instance, the language that employees are using, the understanding of the shopping guidance, the attitude and speed of cash point, the capability of providing useful information. The listed skill is the very basic capabilities for supermarket or retailing industry, but it can be vital in relation to customer satisfaction. To be more specific, Barlow and Mail (2000) suggest that receiving service is both a personal and psychological experience. There is a psychological and physical closeness between employees and customers in the service encounter, effective training done not only make supermarket sales process more efficient, also provide satisfaction to customer, which helps retain their loyalty to company‟s brand, or become an opinion leader to spread in other consumers about supermarkets‟ reputation. In addition, there is no quality control in the customer contact; service providers work alone and without supervision, fail to train service providers may lead to the consequence that dissatisfied customers may take their business elsewhere and disparage the firm.

2.2 Customer Service Training The definition of training, Heery and Noon (2001) introduce the concept of competence, explaining that training is the process of changing the skills, attitudes, and knowledge of employees with the purpose of achieving or improving their levels of competence. In other words, training is that through a designed process, management is able to change, improve employees working skill, attitude, and knowledge to suit their current position or fit higher level organisational hierarchy in the context of career development. Refer to the retailing industry, customer service training can be seen as a grass roots program, which provides employees the knowledge and skill of serving customers.

There is no surprise that Customer service training is considered as one of the most vital factors to improve the level of employees‟ capability when dealing with customers in retailing industry by market researchers and organisation management.

The very common customer training is all the activities performed to support the customer during the supplier-customer exchange, including all presale, sale, and post-sale activities (Markland, Vickery, and Davis, 1995), in order to maximize customer satisfaction. High level of customer satisfaction makes customers more dependable on retailers or suppliers, as a result, organisations build strong relationship with their customers, strength customer loyalty, which Innis and La Londe (1994) suggest that can be considered as a effective competitive advantage over rival firms. Today‟s business world, skilled labour is seen as one of the most valuable assets, human resource managers have to effectively utilise training programme, where can be crucial to company‟s success. For instance, all new employees at Disneyland and Walt Disney World must attend Disney University, where they undergo a special training program for Disney employees. The very basic customer training consists employees and customer contacts, influence the first impression of potent ional consumers and frequency or loyalty of repeat customers. For example, some Japanese department stores provide elevator operators with two months‟ customer service training. Since elevator operators have so much contact with customers, they must know how to respond to customer questions. Central to customer service is the interaction between the member of staff and the customer - and here lies a fundamental dichotomy: in service industries such as retailing, hospitality, the employee with the most important job - serving the customer - is usually the lowest paid, the least skilled and experienced, and has the highest labour turnover. It is the key for HR managers to find the best balance point and manage the issue effectively.

Although the importance of customer service training has been recognised by both HR managers and academic researchers, some arguments about this topic were also issued by scholars. Chase (1981) proposed Customer Contact Model. This model classifies service systems into „high contact,‟ „low contact‟ and „mixed‟ services based on the extent of contact between the customer and the service facility. He deems a high degree of customer contact that have an inherently smaller potential for efficiency due to the variability and uncertainty that customers introduce into the

creation of services.

Torbert (1991) mentioned, little attention has been given to the actual impact of customer service training on the organisation itself, despite the frequently heard and largely untested assertion that „well-trained employees‟ leads to „happy customers‟. There is a growing concern that training has been only partially successful, others elements also need to be taken into account in order to achieve customer satisfaction. Furthermore, there appears to have been little recognition of the impact of the process characteristics and structural issues surrounding the implementation of customer service training programmes.

However, many companies do not always support training programmes. They may be indirectly unsupportive of training programmes by not covering for that employee while they are off-the-job on a training programme. Inappropriate training programme is another issue, especially under global financial crisis, most companies are suffering from difficulties, the situation requrires firms consider cost more carefully. Formal training course is usually a big expence which management willing to cut. Furthermore, the management may concentrate on areas of training which increase productivity or efficiency, but not customer service. Moreover, the customer service programmes may emphasise areas which customers do not consider important. For example, the training may focus on how to smile, how to respond to a certain situation, rather than providing service providers with skills to enable them to foresee customer needs and wants and to be able to respond in a very personal and customised manner to that customer needs or wants (Coulter et al., 1989)

2.3 Training Process Reid and Barrington (2000) use the Training and Development National Standards to design the training process. The purpose of the standards is stated as being to “develop human potential to assist organisations and individuals to achieve their

objective”.

The following is the comprehensive lists that break down the training process into its main functional areas and sub-areas. 1. Identify training and development needs

2. Plan and design training and development

3. Deliver training and development

4. Review progress and assess achievement

5. Continuously improve the effectiveness of training and development

Evaluate the effectiveness of training and development within an organisation Evaluate the effectiveness of training and development programmes Improve own training and development practice Contribute to advances and developments Monitor and review progress Assess individual achievement

Assess individual achievement of competence

Manage the implementation of training and development Facilitate learning with individuals and groups

Design training and development strategies for organisations Design training and development programmes Design and produce learning materials

Identify organisational training and development requirements Identify learning requirements of individuals

2.4 Customer Service Training Dimensions Based on theory of Lin and Darling (1997), the customer service training process should be learned as a multidimensional issue. They segment the training process by three dimensions: 1. an analytical dimension of tasks, technique, procedure and system. 2. a behavioural dimension, concerned with attitudes, perceptions, and motivation. 3. and an organisational learning dimension, concerned with management style, corporate culture, structure and information flows.

The first dimension, analytical dimension is the most widely recognised, it means that management breaks down service tasks into several trainable steps. Typical topics include such major headings as „the customer and market knowledge‟, and „knowledge of the selling process‟ (Anderson, Hair and Bush, 1992; Ingram 1992). The training may include high service element is often made more effective by including words, photographs, drawings, video tapes, computer-based training. The purples of the analytical dimension are to concentrate the relationship between service providers and customers, based on the analytical results of service input and output. Moreover, quality and technical issues are also the concerns of management in analytical dimension.

Gist (1989) describes the second dimension as a process in which a training technique demonstrates the behaviours required for performance. Trainees imitate the model‟s behaviour in practice or work situations. Behaviour models take a number of forms. Videos can be used to begin the process of comparing right with wrong practice; trainees could then visit a competitor, observe a realistic situation and, through that experience, learn good and bad practices. Model procedures can be developed for particular transactions, such as handling customer complaints, where broad behaviour steps are identified to help the trainee. Burnard (1989) argues that we cannot learn interpersonal skills by rote, or by merely mechanically adopting a series of behaviours. In other words, we need to spend time reflecting on ourselves and on the feedback on our performance that we get from other people. Behavioural modelling was found to

be effective in a variety of training situations. The behavioural approach recommends that training programs train the teams in how to work as teams, and in how to diagnose problems and provide remedies. This type of training approach should be directed at changing behaviour. The best learning comes by doing during actual improvement projects. Moreover, the training program is employed to help the customer interface. The first training dimensions were developed as to accomplish the improvement of individual employees customer service level, and according to Bell (1985), those individual training programme should achieve two consequences: greater focus on job performance and personal enrichment. The first and more obvious benefit is the direct improvement of the skills necessary for the employee to complete his or her customer service job successfully. “Many companies have given up on any program that looks obviously ridiculous or that does not come complete with data indicative of its efficacy” (Bell, 1985). The second benefit of customer service training is that it increases an employee‟s self-efficacy, which is a person‟s expectation that he or she can successfully execute the behaviours required to produce a desired outcome (Bandura, 1977). For employees, those behaviours are work tasks and their outcome is effective service for customers, improves either their own benefit or organisation overall performance.

Above individual employees level is the organisational behaviour training, which is not any written rules or skill or knowledge that can be learned by any course, but the way of doing daily business of certain organisations. Positive and effective organisation behaviour is a valuable advantage for retailing business, which can strongly support on job training new employees and improve levels of customer service. Therefore, the third dimension also known as organisational learning was introduced by Nevis et al. (1995) it defines as the capacity or processes within an organisation to maintain or improve performance based on experience. According to information processing perspective (Garvin, 1993), organisational learning encompasses the acquisition, dissemination, interpretation, and storage of information that results in the modification of the potential range of behaviours to reflect new

knowledge and insights organisations that are responsive to customers‟ needs engage in organisational learning in a customer information context (Day, 1991). Moreover, Training should lead not only to the improvement of skills but also to change in the ways employees think and view their jobs and the company. For example, a company-wide goal of Motorola was set to reduce product-development cycle time. Motorola University then created a training course on how to do it (Leonard, 1995). This makes learning very specific and tied directly to the overall business strategy. Consequently, the organizational learning analysis should lead to a change in corporate culture. Moreover, employees‟ perceptions of customer service training are undergoing significant change: notably, from viewing such training as an indoctrination tool to seeing it as a genuine investment in the future of both the individual and the company.

3. The relationship between Customer satisfaction and Training

Because of customers are vital to business growth and success, so customer service, especially satisfying customer is the key to achieve the business growth and success. How to train staffs to satisfy customers that is big challenge need to face by organisation.

Quinn and Humble (1993) create PROMPT model that explains how to link customer satisfaction and staff training to apply customer service. PROMPT is an acronym which contains six essential service practices: P-prioritising customer need; R-reliable service delivery; O-organising for customers; M-measuring customer satisfaction; P-personnel training; T-technology focusing.

Looking first at prioritising customer need, Quinn and Humble (1993) claim the starting point that is aware of customer needs and wants. They point out that this is proved by many surveys from managers who identified customer needs and wants as a priority. But, Daly, a manager from one of these surveys of Irish hotels, he reports: “there was a tremendous eagerness to satisfy customers but I was astounded by the

lack of market research”. It would be deemed that, despite their expressed withes to understand their customers, managers are either lacking in sensitivity or remiss in conducting market research. Quinn and Humble have investigated this aspect. In a general Irish survey, they found that, when managers did set out to investigate customer needs and wants, they were most likely to make use of regular contacts between customers and senior management and discussion with sales personnel. They were sceptical about the use of more formal market research approaches. According to Quinn and Humble this contrasted with the approach adopted by Japanese managers who made extensive and effective use of a wide range of market research strategies.

In discussing the second factor of reliability, Quinn and Humble (1993) mention that it is vital concern to customer and managers. Organising for customers is the third factor in the PROMPT model, and the essential is made that too often the “red tape” which accompanies the management of an organisation can take priority over the satisfaction of the customers.

Other important factor is the measurement of customer satisfaction as fourth factor. As before mentioned, the lack of market research identified in the Irish survey, few managers represent dissatisfaction with the results of market research but an even greater number did not attempt to carry it out. To respond complaint from customer that is a method to access customer needs and wants. However, this may be a motivating factor when the loss of business is recognised but a well developed positive approach to customer demand would be likely to have more effective long-term benefits. In addition, the focus on dissatisfaction may well adversely influence future positive action of the organisation by losing the goodwill of the clients/customers.

When measurements are carrying out, few numbers of barriers arise. Good performance indicators must recline at the heart of effective measurement. The issues of validity and reliability are deemed important. Also, capacity, sensitivity and

timeliness are the factors of related to good measurement. Capacity, the extent to which changes in direction and pace can be detected; and sensitivity, the extent to which small levels of change can be detected, and timeliness refers to the extent to which the material can become available. Further more, the factor of specificity considers the relationship between variables and the extent to which they are related to each other. Ambiguity is compared with clarity, explicitness and the accuracy with which measurements are made and recorded. Finally a number of issues affect the whole process of measurement in organisations, i.e. cost-effectiveness, feasibility and the effects of being measured on the participants.

There are two aspects of significance of fifth factor, personnel training. First, if the needs and wants of the customers are to be taken into account then training in sensitivity is crucial. This is important in making use of personal contact as a means to gather information and in the devising of more formal means to acquire information. Second, there is the need for training those people who actually deal with the customers. All too often training focuses on specific skills associated with the job in question (e.g. managing a reception area) but fails to take into account the more general skills of personal relationships.

The final factor in the PROMPT model – use of technology – makes a plea for the effective use of technology for enhancing customer service. As such it relates closely to the area of organising for customers where organisation for its own sake takes precedence over customer comfort.