Customer variability is a problem for service providers because it can have a significant adverse affect on service quality, and hence on customer loyalty. Drawing on the work of Frei [Breaking the trade-off between efficiency and service. <italic>Harvard Business Review</italic>, <italic>84</italic>(11), 92--101 (2006)] and...

Many firms conduct satisfaction surveys of their customers, with a view to using the analyzed results to identify areas of potential improvement. The weakness in this approach is that attributes with a lower satisfaction level might not be in need of improvement. They might merely be of little...

If a service organisation is to ensure continuous growth, long-term profitability, and ongoing competitiveness, it needs to develop new services to attract and satisfy customers. Service development is thus a key challenge for any service organisation. Such service development requires a...

The conventional method for selecting a suitable equipment supplier may have disadvantages such as failing to consider the supplier's technical experience and knowledge and inability of supplier management to make further forecast analysis to aid the decision maker in strategy optimisation. The...

Today, higher education institutions (HEIs) are realizing the significance of customer-oriented philosophies and quality management systems to help manage their operations on educational services. This paper starts with a review of some previous models and then outlines the results of a study...