Noraini Nasirun

Role of Management and Employees in Customer Focused Organizations

Customer focus is vital for every organization in delivering a superior customer experience. Several studies found that an effective communication, strong management commitment, and opportunity to learn are factors that affect employees’ ability to provide satisfactory services. In addition, customer focus is one of the pillars under quality management that lead into customer satisfaction. Customers’ needs are typically being neglected in the study of the quality movement. Therefore, this research was conducted at three private service providers to ascertain the relationship among management commitment, quality improvement, and employee’s skill toward customer focus initiatives. A set of questionnaires was administered to 162 workers in these service sectors. Results indicate that management commitment and quality improvement have a significant relationship with a customer focus. However, only management commitment and quality improvement explain customer focus in these firms. This research concludes with several suggestions for the improvement of private service providers, especially in their effort to focus more on customer’s satisfaction.

Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in a Natural Monopoly Company

One of the parameters used by businesses to measure their performance is through quality of services. Many studies were conducted in this area; however, few have investigated the situations in a natural monopoly organization. This study intends to determine the level of service quality at a government-linked company that provides electricity to Malaysian consumers. In addition, this study also looks at the service quality factors that contribute in explaining the customer satisfaction at the particular organization. Using a combined dimension that investigated the service delivery process, a survey was conducted to 385 customers in the northern state of Malaysia. Results indicate an average level of service quality was administered to the customer. However, there is a high predictive power among the studied variables with customer satisfaction. The result suggests training for employees must involve elements of respecting and acknowledging customers as their main shareholders.