Using text-mining-assisted analysis to examine the applicability of unstructured data in the context of customer complaint management

Double Degree

Customer relationship management model - A strategic and analytical approach for Amorim Turismo

Field lab: Entrepreneurial and innovative ventures

UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER CHOICES IN SERVICE OUTSOURCING AND REVENUE MANAGEMENT

This dissertation investigates customer behavior modeling in service outsourcing and revenue management in the service sector (i.e., airline and hotel industries). In particular, it focuses on a common theme of improving firms’ strategic decisions through the understanding of customer preferences. Decisions concerning degrees of outsourcing, such as firms’ capacity choices, are important to performance outcomes. These choices are especially important in high-customer-contact services (e.g., airline industry) because of the characteristics of services: simultaneity of consumption and production, and intangibility and perishability of the offering. Essay 1 estimates how outsourcing affects customer choices and market share in the airline industry, and consequently the revenue implications from outsourcing. However, outsourcing decisions are typically endogenous. A firm may choose whether to outsource or not based on what a firm expects to be the best outcome. Essay 2 contributes to the literature by proposing a structural model which could capture a firm’s profit-maximizing decision-making behavior in a market. This makes possible the prediction of consequences (i.e., performance outcomes) of future strategic moves. Another emerging area in service operations management is revenue management. Choice-based revenue systems incorporate discrete choice models into traditional revenue management algorithms. To successfully implement a choice-based revenue system, it is necessary to estimate customer preferences as a valid input to optimization algorithms. The third essay investigates how to estimate customer preferences when part of the market is consistently unobserved. This issue is especially prominent in choice-based revenue management systems. Normally a firm only has its own observed purchases, while those customers who purchase from competitors or do not make purchases are unobserved. Most current estimation procedures depend on unrealistic assumptions about customer arriving. This study proposes a new estimation methodology, which does not require any prior knowledge about the customer arrival process and allows for arbitrary demand distributions. Compared with previous methods, this model performs superior when the true demand is highly variable.

Simulating customer experience and word-of-mouth in retail: a case study

Agents offer a new and exciting way of understanding the world of work. In this paper we describe the development of agent-based simulation models, designed to help to understand the relationship between people management practices and retail performance. We report on the current development of our simulation models which includes new features concerning the evolution of customers over time. To test the features we have conducted a series of experiments dealing with customer pool sizes, standard and noise reduction modes, and the spread of customers’ word of mouth. To validate and evaluate our model, we introduce new performance measure specific to retail operations. We show that by varying different parameters in our model we can simulate a range of customer experiences leading to significant differences in performance measures. Ultimately, we are interested in better understanding the impact of changes in staff behavior due to changes in store management practices. Our multi-disciplinary research team draws upon expertise from work psychologists and computer scientists. Despite the fact we are working within a relatively novel and complex domain, it is clear that intelligent agents offer potential for fostering sustainable organizational capabilities in the future.

Exit, voice, loyalty: a supplier’s perspective

Hirschman (1970) suggests that every member of a group can influence the group by either expressing their voice or exiting the group. Subsequent research has looked at exit-voice-loyalty from the supplier-retailer perspective (Blois, 2008). This paper takes an overview of the wholesaler-retailer relationship in the UK convenience sector; it considers how their approach to exit-voice-loyalty may be affecting the wholesalers’ turnover. The results of the research suggest that the wholesalers do not use cost of exit or enabling retailer voice exclusively; instead they now tend to combine both within their retailer relationship strategies.

Customer Engagement kontzeptuaren barnerapena C2C merkataritza elektronikoan

[EU] Hurrengo lana, Consumer to Consumer merkataritza elektronikoan (hemendik aurrera, C2C) fokatuta dagoen azterketa da. C2C merkatu elektronikoaren esparruan kontsumitzaileak erosketa burutzera bultzatzen duten faktoreak identifikatu nahi dira. Horretarako, lehendabizi C2C merkataritza elektronikoaren ingurunea aztertuko da gainetik, gaia kokatzeko asmotan. Ingurune honetan artikulu zientifikoetan, gero eta nabarmentasun handiagoa hartzen ari den Customer Engagement edo kontsumitzailearen konpromisoa kontzeptuaren azterketa bat burutuko da. Kontzeptu hau hobeto ulertzeko asmotan, autore desberdinek eskainitako definizioak eta beste definizio baliagarri batzuk aurkituko ditugu. Behin kontzeptua definiturik, honek barneratzen duen zikloa identifikatzera pasatuko gara. Horretarako, Sashik 2012 urtean argitaratutako ikerketa lana hartu da oinarri lez. Autore honek egindako zikloari, ekarpen propio gisa, kontsumitzaileen jarrera ulertzen lagunduko diguten beste hainbat kontzeptu gehitu dira. Azkenik, aipatutako eta aztertutako kontzeptuak errealitatean identifikatzeko, azterketa praktiko bat burutu da. Azterketa honetan, teorian azaldutakoa, adibide errealen bidez identifikatzeaz gain, inkesta txiki bat aurkituko dugu. Honen bitartez, lan teorikoari erabilera praktikoago bat eman nahi izan zaio.

Acceptance of smartphone-based mobile shopping:mobile benefits, customer characteristics, perceived risk and the impact of application context

Despite their generally increasing use, the adoption of mobile shopping applications often differs across purchase contexts. In order to advance our understanding of smartphone-based mobile shopping acceptance, this study integrates and extends existing approaches from technology acceptance literature by examining two previously underexplored aspects. Firstly, the study examines the impact of different mobile and personal benefits (instant connectivity, contextual value and hedonic motivation), customer characteristics (habit) and risk facets (financial, performance, and security risk) as antecedents of mobile shopping acceptance. Secondly, it is assumed that several acceptance drivers differ in relevance subject to the perception of three mobile shopping characteristics (location sensitivity, time criticality, and extent of control), while other drivers are assumed to matter independent of the context. Based on a dataset of 410 smartphone shoppers, empirical results demonstrate that several acceptance predictors are associated with ease of use and usefulness, which in turn affect intentional and behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, the extent to which risks and benefits impact ease of use and usefulness is influenced by the three contextual characteristics. From a managerial perspective, results show which factors to consider in the development of mobile shopping applications and in which different application contexts they matter.

Análisis de las variables de marketing que afectan al valor del cliente. La permanencia como variable controlable

To know how marketing variables affect customer value is essential for a company in order to be market and customer oriented, and to improve investment efficiency in both attracting and retaining customers. Thus, the assessment of the influence of marketing variables in customer value is of prime importance. This is recognized in many empirical studies of these variables, which address the impact of a single variable (or sets of a few variables) on customer value. A comprehensive, integrated assessment of all marketing variables and their interdependencies is an arduous and complex task for researchers and marketing managers. This research proposes a theoretical model of customer value that takes into account all significant marketing variables that have been partially addressed in empirical investigations of other researchers. These marketing variables include brand and reputation, point of sale, employees, price, termination fee commitment, discounts, complementarity of products, experiences, emotions, perceived value, quality, satisfaction, switching costs, and loyalty. The model incorporates the relationship between each variable with retention and with customer value as well as the relationships between them. A special focus is placed on the empirical analysis of the termination fee commitment and its relationship with customer value. This variable is widely used in the telecommunication’s industry for its influence on customer retention from the moment of purchase. However, there is strikingly little research in this topic. A large customer database of a telecommunications company containing five years information about 63.165 customers is used for this purpose. Multivariate linear regression and ANOVA method are applied...

Communication across cultures? An intercultural approach to customer service in the hotel industry: a study with globally branded hotels in the United Kingdom

In a professional and business-social context such as that of global hotel brands in the United Kingdom, intercultural communication, contacts and relationships are found at the heart of daily operations and of customer service. A large part of the clientele base of hotels in the United Kingdom is formed by individuals who belong to different cultural groups that travel in the country either for leisure or business. At the same time, the global workforce which is recruited in the hotel industry in the United Kingdom is a reality here to stay. Global travelling and labor work mobility are phenomena which have been generated by changes which occur on a socio-economic, cultural and political level due to the phenomenon of globalization. The hotel industry is therefore well acquainted with the essence of different cultures either to be accommodated within hotel premises, as in the case of external customers, or of diversity management where different cultures are recruited in the hotel industry, as in the case of internal customers. This thesis derives from research conducted on eight different global hotel brands in the United Kingdom in particular, with reference to three, four and five star categories. The research aimed to answer the question of how hotels are organized in order to address issues of intercultural communication during customer service and if intercultural barriers arise during the intercultural interaction of hotel staff and global customers. So as to understand how global hotel brands operate the research carried out focused in three main areas relating to each hotel: organizational culture, customer service–customer care and intercultural issues. The study utilized qualitative interviews with hotel management staff and non-management staff from different cultural backgrounds, public space observations between customers and staff during check-in and checkout in the reception area and during dining at the café-bar and restaurant. Thematic analysis was also applied to the official web page of each hotel and to job advertisements to enhance the findings from the interviews and the observations. For the process of analysis of the data interpretive (hermeneutic) phenomenology of Martin Heidegger has been applied. Generally, it was found that hotel staff quite often feel perplexed by how to deal with and how to overcome, for instance, language barriers and religious issues and how to interpret non verbal behaviors or matters on food culture relating to the intercultural aspect of customer service. In addition, it was interesting to find that attention to excellent customer service on the part of hotel staff is a top organizational value and customer care is a priority. Despite that, the participating hotel brands appear to have not yet, realized how intercultural barriers can affect the daily operation of the hotel, the job performance and the psychology of hotel staff. Employees indicated that they were keen to receive diversity training, provided by their organizations, so as to learn about different cultural needs and expand their intercultural skills. The notion of diversity training in global hotel brands is based on the sense that one of the multiple aims of diversity management as a practice and policy in the workplace of hotels is the better understanding of intercultural differences. Therefore global hotel brands can consider diversity training as a practice which will benefit their hotel staff and clientele base at the same time. This can have a distinctive organizational advantage for organizational affairs in the hotel industry, with potential to influence the effectiveness and performance of hotels.

Petrofac International Limited: el mercadeo interno, una estrategia efectiva en el manejo de personal

Como futuros administrados es importante recordar que nuestra función no será únicamente crear una empresa y generar constantemente ingresos. Esto es una de tantas tareas que tiene una persona que se encamina por crear o ser parte de una empresa, sea grande o pequeña siempre existirán variables que con los años se han convertido más y más indispensables en los procesos de este recorrido. El tema principal de nuestro estudio de caso es entender el concepto del endomarketing o como muchos lo conocen marketing interno; en pocas palabras es algo que por años se ha visto su efectividad en la productividad y satisfacción de los empleados. Google es una de las multinacionales más grandes del mundo, que el ultimo reconocimiento fue por parte de uno de los ranking más influyentes “The World’s Billionaries” ocupando como el CEO de la compañía Larry Page el puesto #12 , que por años ha sabido invertir en su recurso más importante que son sus empleados. En una entrevista con la revista Fortune, Larry exclama que “es importante que la empresa sea una familia, que las personas sientan que son parte de la empresa, y que la empresa es como una familia para ellos. Cuando se trata a las personas de esa manera, se obtiene una mejor productividad”. Con este pequeño ejemplo e idea de cómo una de las marcas más influyentes en el mundo ha fortalecido su mejor recurso por años el cual le ha remunerado con el éxito que tiene hoy en día. Entonces es como el mercadeo interno o endomarketing siendo uno de los conceptos tratados en el mercadeo en general hoy en día, logrando meterse como un modelo de negocio en la mayoría de empresas que existen hoy. Este es uno de los motivos que nos motivó para desarrollar este estudio de caso que verán a continuación, el cual se basa en la investigación y análisis de variables que comprenden a la empresa Petrofac, y si bien ha sabido implementar el concepto en sus procesos diarios. El estudio de caso describe como a través de los años ha sabido implementar con éxito la herramienta de evaluación y análisis del mercado interno a los empleados que constituyen hoy en día Petrofac International Limited. Abarcaremos primero con los objetivos del estudio, seguido del inicio y crecimiento de la empresa en los últimos años, en que países tiene presencia y cuáles son sus proyectos más importantes hoy en día. El estudio de caso será implementado por un tipo de investigación descriptiva, que con la recopilación de suficiente información tanto cuantitativa como cualitativa nos ira fortaleciendo la hipótesis principal, usaremos datos estadísticos que serán recopilados de encuestas, entrevistas y focus group. Al final con el análisis y a las conclusiones que lleguemos se busca demostrar el impacto positivo que ha tenido los empleados de diferentes países y de diferentes culturas que poco a poco han influenciado a la empresa para alcanzar el éxito que ha logrado hasta ahora, y de la misma forma como la empresa ha influenciado en cada una de las vidas de estas personas sin importar el lugar en el que estén laborando, siempre la empresa busca que se sientan parte de ella. Como resultados generales, se obtienen argumentos que sustentan que la implementación del mercadeo interno le permite a la empresa generar ventajas competitivas y dinámicas, que son desarrolladas internamente para un futuro reflejarlas ante los clientes externos. El estudio permitió concluir que el mercadeo interno debe ser una estrategia de comunicación dentro de una empresa convirtiéndose de primera necesidad para la compañía, pues los beneficios que genera son cada vez más necesarios para cada área que abarca el negocio.

Between service and loyalty: chancery and chancellors of Portugal in the 14th century

Estudo dos perfis e carreiras dos chancelares que serviram os reis portugueses ao longo do século XIV. Procura-se, com este estudo, reflectir sobre a evolução do papel dos eclesiásticos na construção da realeza e estabelecer tendências para a evolução dos perfis dos protagonistas do serviço régio.

Experimenting with the role of performance of hygiene and motivators on customer satisfaction: studying the temporal effect

Marketers continuously attempt to identify important attributes and innovate in order to understand how attribute performance could lead to customer satisfaction in the short term and in the long term. Understanding the impact of customer satisfaction may offer a competitive edge to companies. Researchers are discussing the importance of performance attributes in leading to satisfaction; however, there is no clear understanding of whether an attribute that leads to satisfaction at one time (e.g., short run) can cause it also in the long run, without excluding the possibility that it could lead to dissatisfaction and no satisfaction. The present research tries to understand anomalies related to asymmetric attribute performance and satisfaction over time with the help of Herzberg's (1967) Two-Factor Theory (TFT) and construal level theory (CLT). More precisely, there are main purposes of this dissertation. First, the present research tries to understand whether positive or negative hygiene attribute performance and motivator attribute factors exert different weights on overall customer satisfaction depending on the time elapsed from the service experience. Second, to test if positive or negative hygiene/motivator attribute performance affect to revisit intention and to word of mouth by considering mediating role of satisfaction. The results reveal that in the near past (NP) experience, the positive performance of hygiene concrete attributes creates a differential effect on overall satisfaction higher than the negative performance of hygiene concrete attributes. Results also confirmed mediating role of satisfaction in the relationship between attribute performance and revisit intention for near past condition but not for distant past. Likewise significant relationship was found for the mediating role of satisfaction in the relationship between attribute performance and word of mouth (WOM) for near past condition but not for distant past.

Progettazione ed Implementazione Front-End di un Sistema Integrato di Customer Assistance in ambito Industry 4.0

Al giorno d'oggi, l'industry 4.0 è un movimento sempre più prominente che induce ad equipaggiare gli impianti industriali con avanzate infrastrutture tecnologiche digitali, le quali operano sinergicamente con l'impianto, al fine di controllare ed aumentare la produttività, monitorare e prevenire i futuri guasti, ed altro ancora. In questo ambito, gli utenti sono parte integrante della struttura produttiva, in cui ricoprono ruoli strategici e flessibili, collaborano fra loro e con le macchine, con l’obiettivo di affrontare e risolvere proattivamente una vasta gamma di problemi complessi. In particolare, la customer assistance nel settore industriale può certamente variare in relazione a molteplici elementi: il tipo di produzione e le caratteristiche del prodotto; l'organizzazione ed infrastruttura aziendale interna; la quantità di risorse disponibili che possono essere impiegate; il grado di importanza ricoperto dalla customer assistance nel settore industriale di riferimento; altri eventuali fattori appartenenti ad un dominio specifico. Per queste ragioni, si è cercato di individuare e categorizzare nel modo più accurato possibile, il lavoro svolto in questo elaborato ed il contesto nel quale è stato sviluppato. In questa tesi, viene descritta un'applicazione web per erogare assistenza al cliente in ambito di industria 4.0, attraverso il paradigma di ticketing o ticket di supporto/assistenza. Questa applicazione è integrata nel sistema Mentor, il quale è attivo già da anni nel settore industriale 4.0. Il progetto Mentor è una suite di applicazioni cloud-based creata dal gruppo Bucci Industries, una multinazionale attiva nell'industria e nell'automazione con sede a Faenza. In questo caso di studio, si presenta la progettazione ed implementazione della parte front-end del suddetto sistema di assistenza, il quale è integrato ed interconnesso con un paio di applicazioni tipiche di industria 4.0, presenti nella stessa suite di applicazioni.

Customer care e inbound marketing. Il caso Golee

L'elaborato tratta la customer care, ovvero l'insieme delle attività volte a fornire cura e attenzione nei confronti del cliente. Si illustra, inoltre, l'inbound marketing, una metodologia che attira i clienti tramite una canalizzazione degli stessi verso l'impresa. Entrambi i concetti sono stati analizzati ed applicati in Golee, azienda produttrice di un software gestionale per le società sportive. Golee, impiegando una strategia di inbound marketing e focalizzandosi sulle attività di customer care, negli ultimi anni è riuscita a fidelizzare un gran numero di clienti, aumentando vigorosamente il proprio valore aziendale.

Interesses fisicos no lazer : a influencia do esporte de alto rendimento para a criança na relação lazer-escola-processo educativo

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física