Catering to Older Consumers’ Customer Service Needs

ABSTRACTWorldwide, populations are ageing and consequently so are the consumer profiles for most organisations. Understanding how best to ensure satisfaction in interactions with older customers, patients, members of organisations, and so on is therefore increasingly important. This paper examines two research questions: (a) How satisfied or dissatisfied are older people with their customer service experience, and what are the factors associated with dissatisfaction? and (b) What prompts older people to want to change service providers? The research questions are addressed using a mixed-methods approach – quantitative analysis of observation logs, supported by illustrative quotes from focus groups. We find that on the whole older people are generally satisfied with their interactions with organisations, although a substantial minority of interactions lead to dissatisfaction or lower-than-expected satisfaction. Dissatisfaction with interactions is mostly associated with impersonal communications, including interactions that are not conducted face to face, and those that are one-off interactions rather than repeated interactions. Media and communications firms prompted the greatest levels of dissatisfaction among older consumers. Dissatisfied older consumers from our sample are more than 12 times more likely to report an intention to switch providers than satisfied consumers. This highlights the potential costs to organisations of poor customer interactions with older people.

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Using ATMs as Workload Relievers for Ghanaian Bank Tellers: The Customer Behavioral Challenge

Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies ◽

10.22610/jebs.v3i1.251 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 13-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mohammed-Aminu Sanda

Keyword(s):

Service Delivery ◽

Customer Service ◽

Developing Economies ◽

Full Potential ◽

Service Needs ◽

African Countries ◽

Behavioral Challenges ◽

Human Resource Capacity ◽

And Performance ◽

Bank Tellers

This study explored the issue of whether the use of the Automated Teller Machines (ATM) as a service delivery tool in the banking industry of many developing countries has achieved its intended objective of increasing the effectiveness of customer service provision and reducing the workload of bank tellers. The purpose is to understand customersâ€™ behaviour towards the use of ATM as a banking service delivery tool, and the influence of such customer-usage behaviour on the banksâ€™ human resource capacity building, in terms of employee workload relief and performance. This is because most banks in subSaharan African countries have introduced the ATM in bids to satisfying customersâ€™ service needs and making the work of employees easier. Data was collected using questionnaires that were administered to bank customers who use the ATM facility, as well as bank managers. The findings showed that though most bank customers who use the ATM services perceive the ATM as a convenient, reliable, accurate and suitable service delivery tool for their banking transactions; they still underutilize the ATMâ€™s service capacity by choosing to go to the banking halls to make cash withdrawals of amounts that could be obtained from the ATMs. It is also found that by virtue of this customer behaviour of not using the ATMâ€™s to their full potential, the relief that it is expected to provide bank tellers is not realized. It is concluded that because of customer behavioral challenges to the effective utilization of the ATM technology, banks in developing economies not benefiting from its full potential as a customer service delivery tool, and also as a strategic workload reliever for tellers who service customers inside the banking halls.

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INTERNATIONAL HOTEL BUSINESS IN A CONDITION OF GLOBAL INSTABILITY

Intellect XXІ ◽

10.32782/2415-8801/2021-1.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Oksana Novostavska

Keyword(s):

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Customer Service ◽

Hotel Industry ◽

Service Needs ◽

Global Instability ◽

European Continent ◽

Global Trends ◽

The World ◽

Information And Communication ◽

Hotel Chains

The article considers the international hotel business in the conditions of global instability. It is noted that the functioning of the hotel business and the economy as a whole directly depends on the state of tourism development in a country. An analysis of the TOP-20 countries whose economies depend on the development of tourism is presented. It is determined that the leading place in the world hotel industry is occupied by the European continent, the hotel fund makes more than 55% of all world hotel fund (171 thousand hotels). The hotel fund in European countries, without losing leadership throughout history, is growing annually by an average of 2-2.5%. Thus, the European market is of strategic importance for both leading international and national hotel companies. For example, their activities in the region form the main trends in the hotel services market. The hotel chains of Europe are also presented according to the list of TOP-100 hotel brands of Europe. It is noted that if you combine the mega brand Ibis hotel brands – Ibis, Ibis Styles and Ibis Budget, they will take first place even in the number of chain hotels in Europe. Based on the analysis, a number of key factors have been identified that force hotel facilities to constantly increase the efficiency of their activities. However, world practice shows that even against the background of global instability, the hotel industry remains a reliable source of revenue for the budgets of countries, including Ukraine. Also identified global trends in the development of the hotel business, the main of which are: the development of the hotel business in the context of close cooperation with enterprises in other industries; intensification of the hotel business, which will increase the availability of hotel services for consumers; strengthening the specialization of the hotel business, which allows a clearer focus on certain segments of consumers, taking into account various characteristics; integration and globalization of the hotel industry; individual approach to customer service needs; wide introduction of new forms of information and communication technologies, which allows mobile integration into the world space.

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Writing Funding Proposals for Speech-Language Staff Development Projects

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/0161-1461.1303.163 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 163-171

Author(s):

Carol A. Esterreicher ◽

Ralph J. Haws

Keyword(s):

Staff Development ◽

Development Project ◽

Project Manager ◽

State Funding ◽

Service Needs ◽

School Environments ◽

Speech Language Pathologists ◽

Service Programs ◽

Speech Language Pathologist ◽

Special Programs

Speech-language pathologists providing services to handicapped children have pointed out that special education in-service programs in their public school environments frequently do not satisfy the need for updating specific diagnostic and therapy skills. It is the purpose of this article to alert speech-language pathologists to PL 94-142 regulations providing for personnel development, and to inform them of ways to seek state funding for projects to meet their specialized in-service needs. Although a brief project summary is included, primarily the article outlines a procedure whereby the project manager (a speech-language pathologist) and the project director (an administrator in charge of special programs in a Utah school district) collaborated successfully to propose a staff development project which was funded.

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