Heidi Rasila

Customer Relationship Quality in Landlord-Tenant Relationship

Purpose – In long‐term business relationships the customer experience is affected by how the customer perceives the quality of the customer relationship. The purpose of this paper is to understand the customer relationship quality construct in landlord‐tenant relationships in a business‐to‐business environment.Desig/methodology/approach – The theoretical framework is adapted from relationship marketing literature and this framework is then applied in case study settings to five customer companies in a landlord and tenant relationship. The paper introduces a framework of 13 relationship quality attributes and applies these to the case companies.Findings – The results suggest that some of the suggested relationship quality attributes have an importance in a landlord and tenant relationship while some suggested attributes have less value.Research limitations/implications – The case studies were conducted in companies that occupy office premises in multi‐user buildings.Originality/value – This paper introduce...

Service quality in outsourced facility maintenance services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess service quality of outsourced facility maintenance services (FMS) from end‐user perspective. For this purpose, a two‐dimensional model for service quality in a FMS context is presented.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on interviews in case study organizations.Findings – The findings suggest that FMS quality may be divided into two industry‐specific dimensions – service recovery quality (response to a service failure) and observed maintenance quality (technical outcome). It seems that the main quality problems are linked to service recovery quality. These problems are caused by personalities of service personnel and lack of communication between end‐users and the service provider.Practical implications – For FMS providers and building owners it is important to understand the nature of end‐user perceived FMS quality formation. This makes it possible to assess the service provision and to improve the performance of FMS if necessary. If the ser...

Workplace experience – a journey through a business park

Purpose – This paper aims to present a methodology for assessing end‐user experiences of workplace environments and proposes an “experience sheet” as a way to illustrate the findings.Design/methodology/approach – In the theoretical part, the article combines understanding from post‐occupancy evaluations in the facilities management field with service process audits in the hospitability sector. This methodology is then tested in a case environment.Findings – The findings suggest that the methodology and the experience sheet provide a usable and interesting way of assessing user experience in the workplace environment.Practical implications – This article offers an illustrative way to understand user experience in workplace environments, and through that helps in improving existing working environments and in creating new ones.Originality/value – This article combines theoretical understanding in a cross‐disciplinary manner in a novel way, and through that introduces a usable method for workplace improvemen...

Rehabilitation Centers in Change: Participatory Methods for Managing Redesign and Renovation

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this article is to describe a set of participatory methods that we have either developed or modified for developing future work and service environments to better suit renewable rehabilitation processes. We discuss the methods in a larger framework of change process model and participatory design. BACKGROUND: Rehabilitation organizations are currently in transition; customer groups, financing, services, and the processes of rehabilitation centers are changing. The pressure for change challenges the centers to develop both their processes and facilities. There is a need for methods that support change management. METHODS: Four participatory methods were developed: future workshop, change survey, multi-method assessment tool, and participatory design generator cards. They were tested and evaluated in three rehabilitation centers at the different phases of their change process. RESULTS: The developed methods were considered useful in creating a mutual understanding of the change goals between different stakeholders, providing a good picture of the work communitys attitudes toward the change, forming an integrated overview of the built and perceived environment, inspiring new solutions, and supporting the management in steering the change process. CONCLUSIONS: The change process model described in this article serves as a practical framework that combined the viewpoints of organizational and facility development. However, participatory design continues to face challenges concerning communication between different stakeholders, and further development of the methods and processes is still needed. Intervention studies could provide data on the success factors that enhance the transformations in the rehabilitation sector.