James P. Rakowski

A Critical Incident Approach to Examining the Effects of Service Failures on Customer Relationships The Case of Swedish and U.S. Airlines

This article presents the results of empirical studies of critical incidents in airline services in Sweden and the United States. The main aim is to describe and analyze service break downs from the customers point of view and thus create a basis for crisis management. The aim is also to compare Sweden, a monopoly market, with the United States, a market with keen competition in airline services. The discussion is based on personal interviews with 320 customers and 80 airline employees in Sweden and 241 customers and 100 employees in the United States. The study focuses on negative critical incidents in the relations between the service provider and business passengers.

Sporting event ridership: The forgotten public transit market

Abstract Planned consumer usage of public transit as a means of transportation to and from sporting events with the focal sporting event being professional football is examined. By developing dichotomous segments of riders and nonriders, a demographic profile of planned users and nonusers is presented. A probit analysis of these same data is presented in order to measure the joint contribution of all of the variables on the probability of use. The profiles and analysis are then discussed with regard to their policy relevance for the marketing strategies of public transit authorities. These strategies are aimed at satisfying the consuming public and thus increasing transit ridership.