Examines the use of a non‐metric multidimensional scaling to establish the requirements of shippers, in terms of desirable characteristics for eight different types of movement. Believes that transport companies often develop marketing strategies without paying sufficiently close attention to...

Christopher Garnett, chief executive of the UK’s Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), takes a hands‐on approach to customer service. He could sit back and enjoy red‐carpet treatment aboard his own trains, but he is more likely to be found handing out newspapers to passengers and delivering...

Purpose – Describes how membership‐services company Associa has built “recreational training” into its training and development policy and allocates every employee £100 a year to learn a new skill, whether or not related to his or her job role at work. Design/methodology/approach –...

Purpose – This article discusses the process of incorporating ethnic people in organizations to enhance business goals and the company's reputation for internationalism. Design/methodology/approach – Describes the setting up and sustaining of the Asian Customer Care Centre of Telecom New...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the initiatives that have helped to place mobile‐network operator O2 in the top five Best Big Companies to Work For in the UK. Design/methodology/approach – Highlights the use of several employee‐communication tools and a new...

Purpose – this paper aims to describe how UK facility‐services company ISS has improved its human resource management and client service using a new time and attendance management system. Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines the particular HR management challenges facing ISS...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine whether individual demographic and socio-cultural factors affect actions taken by consumers in relation to ethical violations and failure (or perceived ethical violations and failure) by service operations firms. Design/methodology/approach –...

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the utility of the manufacturing biased supply chain operations reference (SCOR) tool in services and develops a reference model for use in service organisations. Design/methodology/approach – Services are considered as supply chain processes that are...

Reports on part of the findings of a broader exploratory investigation into the service elimination decision making behaviour in the UK financial services sector. The issues tackled in this paper are: the degree of planning for the service elimination decision‐making process; the formality of...

This study investigates the potential impact of organizational variables on the service recovery performance of frontline employees, and the impact of successful service recovery on frontline employees’ job satisfaction and intensions to resign. Data obtained from a survey of frontline...