Az online fogyasztói elégedettségmérés hatása a vállalatok versenyképességére (Effect of the online-customer satisfaction’s measurement to the corporate’s competitiveness)

A versenyképes működés elengedhetetlen feltétele a fogyasztói elégedettség, melynek egyik meghatározó eleme az észlelt és elvárt minőség közti kapcsolat. A minőségi elvárások az internettel, mint napjaink egyik meghatározó csatornájával kapcsolatban is megfogalmazódtak már, így kapott jelentős szerepet az online szolgáltatás minőségének meghatározása, illetve ezzel összekapcsolódva az online fogyasztói elégedettségmérés. Jelen tanulmány első része szakirodalmi áttekintést nyújt az online szolgáltatás minőségének fogyasztói érzékelésével, értékelésével kapcsolatos elméletekről, melyek az online fogyasztók elégedettségmérésének alapját képezik. Ezután kerül sor a különböző mérési módszerek bemutatására, kiemelt szerepet szánva a szakirodalomban sokat tárgyalt E-S-QUAL és E-RecS-QUAL skálának. Az áttekintés középpontjában azok az elméletek állnak, melyek az online vásárlást is nyújtó honlapokra vonatkoznak. A cikk további része két empirikus kutatást tartalmaz. Az első az elégedettségmérés hazai helyzetét tárgyalja, a másik pedig a szakirodalomból ismert E-S-QUAL és E-RecS-QUAL skálákat felhasználva részletesen elemzi az elektronikus szolgáltatásminőség dimenziói és a fogyasztói elégedettség közötti fontosabb összefüggéseket, emellett röviden vizsgálja az alkalmazott skálák megbízhatóságát és érvényességét. A kutatás fő célja a gyakorlati szakemberek számára is releváns kapcsolatok feltárása és bemutatása. _______ A company’s competitiveness significantly depends on the satisfaction of its consumers, which is influenced by the relationship between the expected and perceived quality. As over the last decade internet has become a significant channel, in parallel its customers have built some expectation about the quality of different websites and online services. Therefore the marketing literature should focus on the dimensions of e-service quality (e-sq) and online-customer satisfaction. This study first resumes with different concepts of e-sq, which are the principles of the online-customer satisfaction’s measurement. Than the different e-sq measurement methods are reviewed and the dimensions of E-S-QUAL and ERecS- QUAL scales are deeply explained. The study is focusing on concepts relating to web shops. The next part of the article includes two empirical studies. The first is about the situation of satisfaction measurement at Hungarian companies. The other one analyzes the most relevant relationships between the dimension of e-sq and customer satisfaction based on the E-S-QUAL and E-RecS-QUAL scales for measuring e-sq and briefly outlines the reliability and validity of these scales. The main purpose of this empirical research is to summarise the managerial and practical implications.

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.

How do customers of a financial services institution judge its communications

Communications are important for relationships within a marketing channel from both a theoretical and managerial perspective. Yet it is a problematic area for scholars. Thus, this research addresses the problem of how do customers of a financial services institution perceive communications with an ideal institution? This study's case research methodology used in-depth interviews with 34 carefully selected customers of a building society. The factors that make up customers' attitudes about corporate communications for an ideal financial services institution were identified and actual perceptions were compared against that ideal. The findings confirmed the importance of communications for customers in a relationship with a financial services provider and suggested communication priorities for customers in this context. In addition, the findings suggested sources of communication dissatisfaction for customers. These findings build upon the literature that speculates about customer perceptions of communications with organizations but provides little evidence to support hypotheses. The contributions arose from the emphasis on the customers' own attitudes and the patterns found within them.

The Impact of Internal Market Orientation on Staff Service Behaviours

The impact of service direction, service training and staff behaviours on perceptions of service delivery are examined. The impact of managerial behaviour in the form of internal market orientation (IMO) on the attitudes of frontline staff towards the firm and its consequent influence on their customer oriented behaviours is also examined. Frontline service staff working in the consumer transport industry were surveyed to provide subjective data about the constructs of interest in this study, and the data were analysed using structural equations modelling employing partial least squares estimation. The data indicate significant relationships between internal market orientation (IMO), the attitudes of the employees to the firm and their consequent behaviour towards customers. Customer orientation, service direction and service training are all identified as antecedents to high levels of service delivery. The study contributes to marketing theory by providing quantitative evidence to support assumptions that internal marketing has an impact on services success. For marketing practitioners, the research findings offer additional information about the management, training and motivation of service staff towards service excellence.

Exchange relationships in building services maintenance activity : a test of transaction cost economics and the resource dependency view

The firm is faced with a decision concerning the nature of intra-organizational exchange relationships with internal human resources and the nature or inter-organizational exchange relationships with market firms. In both situations, the firm can develop an exchange that ranges from a discrete exchange to a relational exchange. Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and the Resource Dependency View (RDV) represent alternative efficiency-based explanations fo the nature of the exchange relationship. The aim of the paper is to test these two theories in respect of air conditioning maintenance in retail centres. Multiple sources of information are genereated from case studies of Australian retail centres to test these theories in respoect of internalized operations management (concerning strategic aspects of air conditioning maintenance) and externalized planned routine air conditioning maintenance. The analysis of the data centres on pattern matching. It is concluded that the data supports TCE - on the basis of a development in TCE's contractual schema. Further research is suggested towards taking a pluralistic stance and developing a combined efficiency and power hypothesis - upon which Williamson has speculated. For practice, the conclusions also offer a timely cautionary note concerning the adoption of one approach in all exchange relationships.