An extended approach for service innovation study: an empirical research

Initially, service sector was defined as complementary to manufacturing sector. This situation has changed in recent times; services growth has resulted in a dominance of employment and economic activity in most developed nations and is becoming a key process for the competitiveness of their industrial sectors. New services related to commodities have become a strategy to differentiate their value proposition (Robinson et al., 2002). The service sector's importance is evident when evaluating its share in the gross domestic product. According to the World Bank (2011), in 2009, 74.8% of GDP in the euro area and 77.5% in United States were attributed to services. Globalization and use of information and communication technology has accelerated dissemination of knowledge and increasing customer expectations about services available worldwide. Innovation becomes essential to ensure that service organizations respond with appropriate products and services for each market segment. Customized and placed on time-tomarket new services require a more developed innovation process. Service innovation and new service development process are cited as one of the priorities for academic research in the following years (Karniouchina et al., 2005) This paper has the following objectives: -To present a model for the analysis of innovation process through the service value network, -To verify its applicability through an empirical research, and -To identify the path and mode of innovation for a group of studied organizations and to compare it with previous studies.

Service needs forecasting: an approach for the automotive industry using analogies with medical ER management models.

During the past years, the industry has shifted position and moved towards “the luxury universe” whose customers are demanding, treating individuals as unique and valued customer for the business, offering vehicles produced with the state of the art technologies and implementing the highest finishing standards. Due to the competitive level in the market, car makers enable processes which equalizes customer services to E.R. management, being dealt with the maximum urgency that allows the comparison between both, car workshops and emergency rooms, where workshop bays or ramps will be equal to emergency boxes and skilled technicians are equivalent to the health care specialist, who will carry out tests and checks prior to afford any final operation, keeping the “patient” under control before it is back to normal utilization. This paper establishes a valid model for the automotive industry to estimate customer service demand forecasting under variable demand conditions using analogies with patient demand models used for the medical ER.

SERVICE NEEDS FORECASTING: An Approach for the Motor Industry Using Analogies with Medical ER Management Models.

During the past years, the industry has shifted position and moved towards “the luxury universe” whose customers are demanding, treating individuals as unique and valued customer for the business, offering vehicles produced with the state of the art technologies and implementing the highest finishing standards. Due to the competitive level in the market, motor makers enable processes which equalizes customer services to E.R. management, being dealt with the maximum urgency that allows the comparison between both, car workshops and emergency rooms, where workshop bays or ramps will be equal to emergency boxes and skilled technicians are equivalent to the health care specialist, who will carry out tests and checks prior to afford any final operation, keeping the “patient” under control before it is back to normal utilization. This paper ratify a valid model for the automotive industry to estimate customer service demand forecasting under variable demand conditions using analogies with patient demand models used for the medical ER

Some insights for a relationship marketing model integrating SERVQUAL and customer loyalty in dental clinics

The demand of new services, the emergence of new business models, insufficient innovation, underestimation of customer loyalty and reluctance to adopt new management are evidence of the deficiencies and the lack of research about the relations between patients and dental clinics. In this article we propose the structure of a model of Relationship Marketing (RM) in the dental clinic that integrates information from SERVQUAL, Customer Loyalty (CL) and activities of RM and combines the vision of dentist and patient. The first pilot study on dentists showed that: they recognize the value of maintaining better patients however they don't perform RM actions to retain them. They have databases of patients but not sophisticated enough as compared to RM tools. They perceive that the patients value "Assurance" and "Empathy" (two dimensions of service quality). Finally, they indicate that a loyal patient not necessarily pays more by the service. The proposed model will be validated using Fuzzy Logic simulation and the ultimate goal of this research line is contributing a new definition of CL.

Customer loyalty plan at Residencia Gómez-Pardo, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Accommodation is a first need and one of the most important decisions that university students have to decide taking into account their limited budget. The satisfaction grade of these students is the relevant aspect for the administrators and managers of the university residences, because it allows assuring the viability and sustainability of this kind of accommodation. In a situation of decline in rate of retention of students into the residence, coupled with an environment of economic crisis. Hence, of disposable income reduction, it seems essential to get to know what factors affect the motivation to remain into the university residence more than others when it comes to the final choice. The offer?s increase of different kind of accommodation is another variable to be considered when taking the decision related to the management of this kind of accommodation. Thus, there is the need to know which are the key factors and to obtain information about these variables in order to go deep into the relevance grade with the aim to pursue the strategic objectives, that will allow to improve the relationship with the customer and to respond to his accommodation? needs. This article researches the motivation elements that lead the students to remain in a university residence or to abandon it in exchange or a different accommodation, as per example shared flats or individual apartments. This research work intends to be useful for the university residence?s managers in order to increase its incomes, to raise the satisfaction degree among its residents and to obtain better end results in the management of these properties. The fieldwork conducted in the Residencia Universitaria Gómez Pardo (RUGP), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), for four semesters, which means students from 27 different grades (undergraduates) and 81 surveys finished, shows the following conclusions. Not only the relation with the residence?s personnel but also the quality and quantity of the feeding and the availability and quality of the internet service, constitute key factors when it comes to make the decision of remaining or of abandoning the residence when the semester comes to its end.

Customer Relationship Management-PeopleSoft CRM

1 RESUMEN 1.1 Resumen (español) El intercambio y comercio tanto de bienes como servicios se remonta a tiempos inmemoriales dentro de la historia de la humanidad. Desde sus inicios tempranos con el intercambio o trueque de productos en el Neolítico hasta nuestra época híper globalizada, en la que existen clientes potenciales en el otro extremo del mundo, podemos decir que se ha recorrido un largo camino. Con el paso del tiempo y la evolución de la sociedad y la tecnología, así como la evolución empresarial, se ha visto necesario la implementación de estrategias para lograr la fidelización y satisfacción de los clientes. De esta forma entendimos que ya no valía simplemente con vender un producto a un cliente, si no que si queríamos establecer una relación continúa con el mismo, debíamos lograr su satisfacción y por tanto su fidelización. Como forma de extender la relación más allá de una simple venta, las empresas modernas empezaron a implementar diversas estrategias. De esta forma aparecieron los primeros centros de atención al cliente, las primeras aplicaciones hechas a medida para dar soporte a los clientes y por fin los sistemas CRM tal y como los concebimos hoy día. El presente proyecto fin de carrera da una explicación de dichos sistemas indicando cuáles son sus objetos fundamentales y cómo implementan la estrategia CRM y profundiza en uno de los sistemas CRM más utilizados: PeopleSoft CRM, dando una explicación detallada de dicho sistemas así como de los conceptos y lenguaje de programación de dicho sistema CRM. 1.2 SUMMARY (ENGLISH) The exchange and trade of goods as well and services goes back to ancient times in the history of mankind. Since its early beginning with the bartering of products in the Neolithic to our globalized hyper era, in which there are potential customers on the other side of the world, we can say that it has come a long way. After a certain length of time, the society and technology evolution, and also the enterprise development, has been necessary to implement strategies to achieve customer loyalty and satisfaction. We understood in this way that it no longer simply worth to sell a product to a customer, otherwise if we wanted to establish a relationship continues with the same, we should ensure their satisfaction and thus their loyalty. As a way to extend the relationship beyond a simple sale, modern enterprises began to implement several strategies. Therefore appeared the first customer service centers, the first applications tailored to support customers and finally the CRM systems as we know it today. This final project gives an explanation of such systems by indicating what the core objects are and how to implement the CRM strategy, deeping into one of the most widely used CRM systems: PeopleSoft CRM, and also giving a detailed explanation of this system and its programming language.

Inter-organizational information systems adoption for service innovation in building sector

The building sector has experienced a significant decline in recent years in Spain and Europe as a result of the financial crisis that began in 2007. This drop accompanies a low penetration of information and communication technologies in inter-organizational oriented business processes. The market decrease is causing a slowdown in the building sector, where only flexible small and medium enterprises (SMEs) survive thanks to specialization and innovation in services, which allow them to face new market demands. Inter-organizational information systems (IOISs) support innovation in services, and are thus a strategic tool for SMEs to obtain competitive advantage. Because of the inherent complexity of IOIS adoption, this research extends Kurnia and Johnston's (2000) theoretical model of IOIS adoption with an empirical model of IOIS characterization. The resultant model identifies the factors influencing IOIS adoption in SMEs in the building sector, to promote further service innovation for competitive and collaborative advantages. An empirical longitudinal study over six consecutive years using data from Spanish SMEs in the building sector validates the model, using the partial least squares technique and analyzing temporal stability. The main findings of this research are the four ways an IOIS might contribute to service innovation in the building sector. Namely: a) improving client interfaces and the link between service providers and end users; b) defining a specific market where SMEs can develop new service concepts; c) enhancing the service delivery system in traditional customer?supplier relationships; and d) introducing information and communication technologies and tools to improve information management.

New QR Survey Methodologies to Analyze User Perception of Service Quality in Public Transport: The Experience of Madrid

Customer Satisfaction Surveys (CSS) have become an important tool for public transport planners, as improvements in the perceived quality of service lead to greater use of public transport and lower traffic pollution. Until now, Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) enhancements in public transport have traditionally included fleet management systems based on Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) technologies, which can be used to optimize routing and scheduling, and to feed real-time information into passenger information channels. However, surveys of public transport users could also benefit from the new information technologies. As most customers carry their smartphones when traveling, Quick Response (QR) codes open up the possibility of conducting these surveys at a lower cost.This paper contributes to the limited existing literature by developing the analysis of QR codes applied to CSS in public transport and highlighting their importance in reducing the cost of data collection and processing. The added value of this research is that it provides the first assessment of a real case study in Madrid (Spain) using QR codes for this purpose. This pilot experience was part of a research project analyzing bus service quality in the same case study, so the QR code survey (155 valid questionnaires) was validated using a conventional face-to-face survey (520 valid questionnaires). The results show clearly that, after overcoming a few teething troubles, this QR code application will ultimately provide transport management with a useful tool to reduce survey costs

Service Capacity Reserve under Uncertainty by Hospital’s ER Analogies: A Practical Model for Car Services

We define a capacity reserve model to dimension passenger car service installations according to the demographic distribution of the area to be serviced by using hospital?s emergency room analogies. Usually, service facilities are designed applying empirical methods, but customers arrive under uncertain conditions not included in the original estimations, and there is a gap between customer?s real demand and the service?s capacity. Our research establishes a valid methodology and covers the absence of recent researches and the lack of statistical techniques implementation, integrating demand uncertainty in a unique model built in stages by implementing ARIMA forecasting, queuing theory, and Monte Carlo simulation to optimize the service capacity and occupancy, minimizing the implicit cost of the capacity that must be reserved to service unexpected customers. Our model has proved to be a useful tool for optimal decision making under uncertainty integrating the prediction of the cost implicit in the reserve capacity to serve unexpected demand and defining a set of new process indicators, such us capacity, occupancy, and cost of capacity reserve never studied before. The new indicators are intended to optimize the service operation. This set of new indicators could be implemented in the information systems used in the passenger car services.