Linda M. Delene

A Synthesised Service Quality Model with Managerial Implications

A synthesised service quality model with managerial implications is presented. This synthesised model is based on the works of the Nordic and the North American schools of service research. The model presents the overall service quality gap as a result of both technical and functional quality gaps. The core of the synthesised model is the idea that management must determine both what customers expect and how they expect to get it. Management must plan, implement and control the service offering to limit, reduce, or eliminate service quality gaps.

Methods of Measuring Health-Care Service Quality

Abstract Service quality is an elusive and abstract construct to measure, and extra effort is required to establish a valid measure. This study investigates the psychometric properties of three different measurements of health-care service quality as assessed by physicians. The multitrait-multimethod approach revealed that convergent validity was established for measures based on the single-item global rating method and multi-item rating method. On the other hand, almost no evidence of convergent validity was found for the measures based on the constant-sum rating method. Furthermore, discriminant validity for the seven health-care service quality dimensions measured by the three methods was not well established. The high levels of interdimensional correlations found suggested that the service quality dimensions may not be separable in a practical sense. The study suggested an ongoing effort is needed to develop a new service quality scale suitable to this unique service industry.

Student Healthcare Needs, Attitudes, and Behavior: Marketing Implications for College Health Centers

This article presents the findings of a 1987 cross-institutional study of the healthcare needs, attitudes, and behavior of college students, based on a comprehensive survey of 1,050 students at three different institutions. The paper focuses on student health concerns, use of facilities, and healthcare knowledge and outlook. For each of these topics, the authors present their findings and discuss the marketing implications of these findings for college health centers. In order to increase utilization rates, match services with student needs, and make maximum use of resources, the authors suggest that college health centers may need to develop and promote programs and services that better address student healthcare concerns; investigate media alternatives and effectiveness; develop aggressive promotion messages; consider joint interinstitutional development of healthcare advertising; and train and develop staff through internal marketing seminars.

Interactive Services Operations: The Relationships among Information, Technology and Exchange Transactions on the Quality of the Customer‐Contact Interface

The customer‐contact interface is discussed here. Defined as interactive service operations, it can be divided into two separate levels, first, the service operations interface between the firm and its customers and, secondly, the internal interactions of the firm′s operations driven by technological advancement and more demanding customer expectations. The latter is explored thoroughly with special reference to the management of delivery mechanisms and their concurrent marketing.

Relationship marketing and service quality.

The delivery of services in college health centers is improved through the use of relationship marketing and service quality advancement. Relationship marketing works to attract, maintain, and enhance customer or client relationships with the healthcare provider. The facets of relationship marketing are explored, with the greatest emphasis placed on internal marketing. Higher quality health services come from continuous improvement, a focus on process, and intensive staff development and participation, which build a service culture.

Interactive Services Marketing: The Relationships Among Information, Technology and Exchange Transactions in Services Marketing

This paper attempts to identify the impact of information and technical support systems, increased transaction standards and more cross-functional and integrated companies on the execution and quality of services marketing. The changes in several dimensions have affected services marketing, altering the way service encounters are supported and delivered. With more data and with faster exchange transactions, the overall level of customer expectations and service quality has increased. This combination of factors has led to implications for services marketing which are presented here as a theoretical framework called interactive services marketing.

The Influence of Cultural Values: The Marketing of Bank Services

The influence of cultural values on the marketing of bank services in Japan and the United States is explored. This paper provides a framework for understanding the effect of cultural attributes on nine business dimensions: work and social relationships, enterprise habit, employment and performance expectations, behavioral traits, timeframe perspective, work orientation, preferred communication form, dispute resolution and dominant company reference. Each business dimension is further explored in terms of five service quality gaps and the balanced scorecard measures of customer, financial, internal process and growth perspectives.

Success Factors for Japanese Convenience Stores

Seven Eleven Japan (SEJ) , a franchised convenience store chain, combines several factors to produce world-class strategy. SEJ’S success factors include their franchise arrangements; an intensive distribution system; computer technology supporting “Tanpin-Kanri” with Graphic Order Terminals and an Integrated Services Digital Network; and a combined marketing and promotion system. The corporation’s continuous emphasis on customers dominates their achievement of extraordinary standards with single-item product management. SEJ represents a country-specific example of an integrated service management and marketing enterprise.

For-Profit and Nonprofit Services Marketing Curricular Offerings

Following a procedure similar to that used by Delene (1981) in the late 1970s, the objectives of this research were: 1) to determine the current status of for-profit services and nonprofit marketing course offerings among marketing departments in AACSB accredited schools, 2) to identify changes that might have occurred in the past decade or so, and 3) to explore the implications for higher education in services marketing for the 1990s.