Service Delivery Strategies for Alleviating Pandemic Suffering While Maintaining Profitability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omkar Palsule-Desai ◽  
Vikrant Vaze ◽  
Gang Li ◽  
Srinagesh Gavirneni
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Quantitative Model ◽  
Customer Segmentation ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Product Assortment ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Service Option ◽  
Delivery Strategies

The postpandemic world requires a renewed focus from service providers on ensuring that all customer segments receive the essential services (food, healthcare, housing, education, etc.) that they need. Philanthropic service providers are unable to cope with the increased demand caused by the social, economic, and operational challenges induced by the pandemic. For-profit service providers offering no-pay services to customers, allowing them to self-select a service option, is becoming a popular strategy in various settings. Obtaining insights into how to efficiently balance societal and financial goals is critical for a for-profit service provider. We develop and analyze a quantitative model of customer utilities, vertically differentiated product assortment, pricing, and market size to understand how service providers can effectively use customer segmentation and serve the poor in the lowest economic strata. We identify conditions under which designing the service delivery to be accessible to the poor can simultaneously benefit the for-profit service provider, customers, and the entire society. Interestingly, we observe that the increasing customer valuation of the no-pay option because of a superior quality service offered by a service provider need not benefit customers. Our work provides a framework to obtain operational, economic, and strategic insights into socially responsible service delivery strategies.

Service Delivery and Accountability of Urban Officials: Evidence from Urban-based Local Government in Bangladesh

2021 ◽  
pp. 097152312110163
Author(s):  
A. H. M. Kamrul Ahsan ◽  
Peter Walters ◽  
Md. Adil Khan
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
City Government ◽  
Quality Monitoring ◽  
Government Service ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Similar Class ◽  
Rajshahi City

This study compares the state of city government service delivery for communities living in different areas with different level of affluence in Rajshahi City in Bangladesh. Based on the results of a qualitative study, we found a significant service disparity between the affluent and the poor communities. This disparity is due to the inability of the poor to hold service providers accountable, attributable to a lack of knowledge about services and a lack of social status. Lack of quality monitoring and a marked bias in the quality of interactions between the poor and the affluent contribute to the service disparity This disparity is largely invisible to the poor who, instead of comparing themselves with the affluent citizens, compare themselves with a similar class of people.

Aggression at the service delivery interface: Do you see what I see?

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loraleigh Keashly ◽  
Joel H Neuman
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Department Of Veterans Affairs ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Us Military

AbstractAggression at the service delivery interface (the point of contact between service provider and service recipient) has become a focus of much recent research attention. However, much of what we know is based on cross-sectional survey data – which tells us little about the underlying dynamics within specific aggressive incidents. Further, these data are often collected from the perspective of the service provider alone. For this study, we focused on specific hostile interactions during the delivery of healthcare services and gathered data from the perspectives of service providers and service recipients. Drawing on interviews with US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) staff and US military veterans, we categorised and compared each party's attributions for the initiation of hostile (unpleasant) encounters. We found that staff and veterans had different perspectives on the nature of precipitating factors and that the initial attribution for the event was linked to differences in subsequent responding. These findings are discussed in terms of their insight into the temporal dynamics of aggressive events and their implications for the prevention and management of hostility at the service delivery interface.

Loyalty intentions as an outcome of customer delight in a services environment - a South African perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 71-96
Author(s):  
Mornay Roberts-Lombard ◽  
Lebogang Makola ◽  
Tholakele Nkosi ◽  
Sizakele Mabhena
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Cell Phone ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Extended Model ◽  
Value Perception ◽  
Meaningful Relationship ◽  
Customer Delight ◽  
Business To Consumer

The study explores the delight phenomenon by investigating customer delight, its antecedents and its postcedents in the cell phone industry of South Africa. Data was collected from 450 customers of cell phone companies who considered themselves satisfied overall with their cellular service provider. This study extends the model proposed by Roberts-Lombard and Petzer (2018) and attempts to substantiate their findings in South Africa through applying the extended model in a parallel industry context. The results indicate that perceived employee service delivery skills and perceived value are important antecedents of customer delight and that there is a meaningful relationship between customer delight and customer loyalty in a business-to-consumer (B2C) setting in South Africa. The study adds value by informing cellular service providers how the service delivery ability of employees and the value perception of customers influence their customer delight experience and ultimately their loyalty to the service provider.

scholarly journals Unravelling pro-poor water services: what does it mean and why is it so popular?

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akosua Sarpong Boakye-Ansah ◽  
Klaas Schwartz ◽  
Margreet Zwarteveen
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Water Services ◽  
Community Based ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Delivery Strategies ◽  
Equity Of Access

Abstract In dealing with the challenge of providing water services to urban low-income areas, the concept of ‘pro-poor water services’ is popular in the policy literature. Based on an extensive literature review, this article examines the relation between the implementation of pro-poor water services and the equity of access. Pro-poor water services comprise a set of technological, financial and organisational measures employed by utilities in developing countries to improve service provision to low-income areas. In practice, the combination of low-cost technologies which limit consumption, measures to enforce payment for services, and the use of community-based and private suppliers, means that pro-poor service often entails the utility delegating part of the responsibilities, costs and risks of providing services to those living in low-income areas. Indeed, it is by partially withdrawing from these areas that utilities succeed in reconciling the objective of improving service delivery with the realisation of their commercial objectives. Our analysis shows that in implementing pro-poor service delivery strategies, there is a risk that concerns about cost recovery and risk reduction on the part of the utility prevail over those about the quantity, quality and affordability of the service for the poor.

scholarly journals Courier Services in India: Concerns for Effective Service Delivery

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-90
Author(s):  
Sandhya Anvekar
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Critical Incidents ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Failure ◽  
Courier Service ◽  
Front Stage ◽  
Effective Service ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Efficient Distribution

The courier industry in India is like a vital link of communication between persons and corporations meant for individual and industrial benefits. It is an industry worth Rs. 50 billions and is on steady pace of development. More than 2300 courier companies operating in India, it is a challenge for the service provider of courier services to be unique, competent and provide effective service delivery. An insight into the crucial and critical incidents of service failure and strategizing by closing these failures will ensure effective service deliveries by the courier service providers. A trained and skilled front stage personnel, committed delivery boys/runners and efficient distribution networking can enable the courier service operators to provide failure free effective service delivery.

Aggression at the service delivery interface: Do you see what I see?

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loraleigh Keashly ◽  
Joel H Neuman
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Department Of Veterans Affairs ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Us Military

AbstractAggression at the service delivery interface (the point of contact between service provider and service recipient) has become a focus of much recent research attention. However, much of what we know is based on cross-sectional survey data – which tells us little about the underlying dynamics within specific aggressive incidents. Further, these data are often collected from the perspective of the service provider alone. For this study, we focused on specific hostile interactions during the delivery of healthcare services and gathered data from the perspectives of service providers and service recipients. Drawing on interviews with US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) staff and US military veterans, we categorised and compared each party's attributions for the initiation of hostile (unpleasant) encounters. We found that staff and veterans had different perspectives on the nature of precipitating factors and that the initial attribution for the event was linked to differences in subsequent responding. These findings are discussed in terms of their insight into the temporal dynamics of aggressive events and their implications for the prevention and management of hostility at the service delivery interface.

Implications of customer participation in outsourcing non-core services to third parties

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaat De Pourcq ◽  
Katrien Verleye ◽  
Bart Larivière ◽  
Jeroen Trybou ◽  
Paul Gemmel
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Waiting Time ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Third Parties ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Customer Participation ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Content Type

PurposeFocal service providers increasingly involve customers in the decision-making about outsourcing parts of the service delivery process to third parties. The present study investigates how customers' outsourcing decisions affect the formation of the waiting experience with the focal service provider, by which the objective waiting time, environmental quality and interactional quality act as focal drivers.Design/methodology/approachTo test our hypotheses in the context of cancer care, we gathered process data and experience data by means of a patient observation template (n = 640) and a patient survey (n = 487). The combined data (n = 377) were analyzed using Bayesian models.FindingsThis study shows that opting for a service triad (i.e. outsourcing non-core services to a third party) deduces customers' attention away from the objective waiting time with the focal service provider but not from the environmental and interactional quality offered by the focal service provider. When the type of service triad coordination is considered, we observe similar effects for a focal service provider-coordinated service triad while in a customer-coordinated service triad the interactional quality is the sole experience driver of waiting experiences that remains significant.Originality/valueBy investigating the implications of customer participation in the decision-making about outsourcing parts of the service delivery process to third parties, this research contributes to the service design, service triad and service operations literature. Specifically, this study shows that customer outsourcing decisions impact waiting experience formation with the focal service provider.

Making IT Visible

2010 ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Jonsson
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Mining Industry ◽  
Remote Diagnostics ◽  
Service Production

As computer devices go embedded into the environment people will be surrounded by ubiquitous computers in their everyday life. These devices can serve as a base in services where data are collected and analyzed to serve the customers. Ubiquitous services are to a great extent invisible as people can neither see the computers nor have to be involved in the data collection or the data analysis. The service provider can be located at a distance and is thus also invisible to the customers. A challenge for the parties involved in the service production is to deal with the invisibility and the distance that emerge in ubiquitous services. The aim of this paper is to address the issues of invisibility and distance in ubiquitous services by exploring the implications of using ubiquitous computing to produce services. To address this question, the paper adopts a practice perspective to analyze data from an empirical case study of a remote diagnostics service provider and one of its customers in the mining industry. The study shows that both human enactment and the technology have implications for the service. They do however, reveal a paradox: the technology is designed to enable invisible services while people’s enactment of the service strives towards making them more visible. For ubiquitous service providers it is important to cope with this paradox, otherwise it might cause unfulfilled expectations and an unsuccessful service delivery.

Systems of Oppression in Geriatric Clinical Service Delivery

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Diane L. Kendall
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Clinical Setting ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
Clinical Service ◽  
Meaningful Change ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Medical Institutions

Purpose The purpose of this article was to extend the concepts of systems of oppression in higher education to the clinical setting where communication and swallowing services are delivered to geriatric persons, and to begin a conversation as to how clinicians can disrupt oppression in their workplace. Conclusions As clinical service providers to geriatric persons, it is imperative to understand systems of oppression to affect meaningful change. As trained speech-language pathologists and audiologists, we hold power and privilege in the medical institutions in which we work and are therefore obligated to do the hard work. Suggestions offered in this article are only the start of this important work.

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