Sample records for customers main results

  1. 77 FR 43071 - MPS Customer Group v. Maine Public Service Company; Notice of Complaint

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-07-23

    ... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. EL12-84-000] MPS Customer Group v. Maine Public Service Company; Notice of Complaint Take notice that on July 13, 2012, pursuant..., MPS Customer Group (Complainant) filed a formal complaint against Maine Public Service Company (MPS or...

  2. 17 CFR 1.29 - Increment or interest resulting from investment of customer funds.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... resulting from investment of customer funds. 1.29 Section 1.29 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY..., Securities, and Property § 1.29 Increment or interest resulting from investment of customer funds. The investment of customer funds in instruments described in § 1.25 shall not prevent the futures commission...

  3. 17 CFR 1.29 - Increment or interest resulting from investment of customer funds.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... resulting from investment of customer funds. 1.29 Section 1.29 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY..., Securities, and Property § 1.29 Increment or interest resulting from investment of customer funds. The investment of customer funds in instruments described in § 1.25 shall not prevent the futures commission...

  4. Converting customer expectations into achievable results.

    PubMed

    Landis, G A

    1999-11-01

    It is not enough in today's environment to just meet customers' expectations--we must exceed them. Therefore, one must learn what constitutes expectations. These needs have expanded during the past few years from just manufacturing the product and looking at the outcome from a provincial standpoint. Now we must understand and satisfy the entire supply chain. To manage this process and satisfy the customer, the process now involves the supplier, the manufacturer, and the entire distribution system.

  5. Customer-experienced rapid prototyping

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Lijuan; Zhang, Fu; Li, Anbo

    2008-12-01

    In order to describe accurately and comprehend quickly the perfect GIS requirements, this article will integrate the ideas of QFD (Quality Function Deployment) and UML (Unified Modeling Language), and analyze the deficiency of prototype development model, and will propose the idea of the Customer-Experienced Rapid Prototyping (CE-RP) and describe in detail the process and framework of the CE-RP, from the angle of the characteristics of Modern-GIS. The CE-RP is mainly composed of Customer Tool-Sets (CTS), Developer Tool-Sets (DTS) and Barrier-Free Semantic Interpreter (BF-SI) and performed by two roles of customer and developer. The main purpose of the CE-RP is to produce the unified and authorized requirements data models between customer and software developer.

  6. Customer service providers' attitudes relating to customer service and customer satisfaction in the customer-server exchange.

    PubMed

    Susskind, Alex M; Kacmar, K Michele; Borchgrevink, Carl P

    2003-02-01

    The authors proposed and tested a model describing the relationship between customer service providers' perceptions and attitudes toward their service-related duties and their customers' perceptions of satisfaction with their service experiences. Results indicated that the perception of having standards for service delivery in an organization is strongly related to line-level employees' perceptions of support from coworkers and supervisors. Perceived support from coworkers was significantly related to service providers' customer orientation, whereas perceived support from supervisors showed a weaker relationship to a customer orientation. Ultimately, service providers' customer orientation was strongly related to customers' satisfaction with service. Finally, a set of post hoc analyses indicated that coworker and supervisory support explained a greater proportion of incremental variance in the model than did perceived organizational support alone.

  7. Identification with the retail organization and customer-perceived employee similarity: effects on customer spending.

    PubMed

    Netemeyer, Richard G; Heilman, Carrie M; Maxham, James G

    2012-09-01

    Two constructs important to academicians and managers are the degree to which employees and customers identify with an organization, employee organizational identification (employee OI) and customer-company identification (customer identification), respectively. This research examines the effects of these identification constructs and the related construct of customer perceived similarity to employees on customer spending. Via a 1-year multilevel study of 12,047 customers and 1,464 store employees (sales associates) covering 212 stores of a specialty apparel retailer, our study contributes to the literature in 2 critical ways. First, we expand the theoretical network of employee OI and customer identification by examining the related construct of a customer's perceived similarity to store employees. We examine the incremental (not fully mediated) main and interaction effects of customer-perceived similarity to employees and employee OI on customer spending. Second, we examine the effect of customer identification on customer spending relative to the effect of customer satisfaction on customer spending. Thus, our study also contributes by demonstrating a potential complementary route to achieve customer spending (customer identification), a route that may be more readily affected by management than the efforts required for a sustained increase in customer satisfaction. Implications for academics and managers are offered.

  8. Customized Hinged Covered Metallic Stents for the Treatment of Benign Main Bronchial Stenosis.

    PubMed

    Han, Xinwei; Al-Tariq, Quazi; Zhao, Yanle; Li, Lei; Cheng, Zhe; Wang, Huaqi; Liu, Chao; Jiao, Dechao; Wu, Gang

    2017-08-01

    To address the limitations of silicone stents, we designed a hinged self-expandable covered metallic stent. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the customized stents in clinical applications. This was a retrospective analysis. Under conscious sedation and local anesthesia, the stents were implanted or removed by interventional radiologists, with fluoroscopic guidance. Of 24 patients with benign main bronchial stenosis, stents were successfully placed in 21 (87.5%). The low-pressure balloon before dilation failed in 1 case (4.17%) of left main bronchial cicatricial stenosis. In 2 other cases (8.33%), stent placement was abandoned. Stents were successfully removed between 29 and 103 days after the procedure. After stent removal, the follow-up lasted for at least 12 months. Restenosis occurred only in 1 case (4.55%) owing to bronchial collapse 3 days after stent removal. Dyspnea occurred in another case (4.55%) at 2 months after retrieval; recurrence was confirmed using bronchoscopy, leading to a left pneumonectomy. The described procedure is safe and easy to be performed and avoids the use of intubation, bronchoscopy, and general anesthesia. Copyright © 2017 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Summary of Results from Space Shuttle Main Engine Off-Nominal Testing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Horton, James F.; Megivern, Jeffrey M.; McNutt, Leslie M.

    2011-01-01

    This paper is a summary of Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) off-nominal testing that occurred during 2008 and 2009. During the last two years of planned SSME testing at Stennis Space Center, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne worked with their NASA MSFC customer to systematically identify, develop, assess, and implement challenging test objectives in order to expand the knowledge of one of the world s most reliable and highly tested large rocket engine. The objectives successfully investigated three main areas of interest expanding engine performance margins, demonstrating system operational capabilities, and establishing ground work for new rocket engine technology. The testing gave the Space Shuttle Program new options to safely fly out the flight manifest and provided Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and NASA new insight into the operational capabilities of the SSME, capabilities which can be used in assessing potential future applications of the RS-25 engine.

  10. Customization of Advia 120 thresholds for canine erythrocyte volume and hemoglobin concentration, and effects on morphology flagging results.

    PubMed

    Grimes, Carolyn N; Fry, Michael M

    2014-12-01

    This study sought to develop customized morphology flagging thresholds for canine erythrocyte volume and hemoglobin concentration [Hgb] on the ADVIA 120 hematology analyzer; compare automated morphology flagging with results of microscopic blood smear evaluation; and examine effects of customized thresholds on morphology flagging results. Customized thresholds were determined using data from 52 clinically healthy dogs. Blood smear evaluation and automated morphology flagging results were correlated with mean cell volume (MCV) and cellular hemoglobin concentration mean (CHCM) in 26 dogs. Customized thresholds were applied retroactively to complete blood (cell) count (CBC) data from 5 groups of dogs, including a reference sample group, clinical cases, and animals with experimentally induced iron deficiency anemia. Automated morphology flagging correlated more highly with MCV or CHCM than did blood smear evaluation; correlation with MCV was highest using customized thresholds. Customized morphology flagging thresholds resulted in more sensitive detection of microcytosis, macrocytosis, and hypochromasia than default thresholds.

  11. Creating a comprehensive customer service program to help convey critical and acute results of radiology studies.

    PubMed

    Towbin, Alexander J; Hall, Seth; Moskovitz, Jay; Johnson, Neil D; Donnelly, Lane F

    2011-01-01

    Communication of acute or critical results between the radiology department and referring clinicians has been a deficiency of many radiology departments. The failure to perform or document these communications can lead to poor patient care, patient safety issues, medical-legal issues, and complaints from referring clinicians. To mitigate these factors, a communication and documentation tool was created and incorporated into our departmental customer service program. This article will describe the implementation of a comprehensive customer service program in a hospital-based radiology department. A comprehensive customer service program was created in the radiology department. Customer service representatives were hired to answer the telephone calls to the radiology reading rooms and to help convey radiology results. The radiologists, referring clinicians, and customer service representatives were then linked via a novel workflow management system. This workflow management system provided tools to help facilitate the communication needs of each group. The number of studies with results conveyed was recorded from the implementation of the workflow management system. Between the implementation of the workflow management system on August 1, 2005, and June 1, 2009, 116,844 radiology results were conveyed to the referring clinicians and documented in the system. This accounts for more than 14% of the 828,516 radiology cases performed in this time frame. We have been successful in creating a comprehensive customer service program to convey and document communication of radiology results. This program has been widely used by the ordering clinicians as well as radiologists since its inception.

  12. The Customer Relationship Management in Terms of Business Practice in Slovakia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Urdziková, Jana; Jakábová, Martina; Saniuk, Sebastian

    2012-12-01

    The aim of the article is to present the results of the research on focus on the customer in relation to the use of customer relationship management in selected business subjects in Slovakia. The main goal of the research is the mapping of current state to ensure the principle of customer orientation and utilizing of CRM in organizations and industrial enterprises in Slovakia. This is the mapping of the current situation of that problem in practical conditions and determines potential opportunities for improvement.

  13. 1999 Transit customer satisfaction index : final report : results of survey and conclusions

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-10-01

    The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the results and analysis of the data collected in the 1999 Florida Transit Properties Customer Satisfaction Index project, as well as to briefly review the data sources and the weighting methodo...

  14. Customer Loyalty and Customer Relationship Management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Pengwei; Li, Min; Jiao, Xiaojing; Zhou, Ruijin

    The contemporary company attaches great importance to marketing relationship and customer relations is the core of this relationship. Further, customer satisfaction and loyalty is the core of the customer relationship management. Sometimes, high customer satisfaction causes low profit because enterprises do not realize that strengthening the loyalty of the aimed customer is the key of customer relationship management.

  15. SY 2010-11 Customer Satisfaction Survey Results (Full Report). DoDEA Results

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Department of Defense Education Activity, 2011

    2011-01-01

    The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Customer Satisfaction Survey is a biennial survey administered by DoDEA to parents and students to monitor DoDEA's success in meeting students' needs. The survey is administered every other year to sponsors with children in pre-kindergarten-12th grade and to students in grades 4-12. For the…

  16. SY 2008-09 Customer Satisfaction Survey Results (Full Report). DoDEA Results

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Department of Defense Education Activity, 2009

    2009-01-01

    The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Customer Satisfaction Survey is a biennial survey administered by DoDEA to parents and students to monitor DoDEA's success in meeting students' needs. The survey is administered every other year to sponsors with children in pre-kindergarten--12th grade and to students in grades 4-12. For the…

  17. Intelligent scheduling of execution for customized physical fitness and healthcare system.

    PubMed

    Huang, Chung-Chi; Liu, Hsiao-Man; Huang, Chung-Lin

    2015-01-01

    Physical fitness and health of white collar business person is getting worse and worse in recent years. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a system which can enhance physical fitness and health for people. Although the exercise prescription can be generated after diagnosing for customized physical fitness and healthcare. It is hard to meet individual execution needs for general scheduling of physical fitness and healthcare system. So the main purpose of this research is to develop an intelligent scheduling of execution for customized physical fitness and healthcare system. The results of diagnosis and prescription for customized physical fitness and healthcare system will be generated by fuzzy logic Inference. Then the results of diagnosis and prescription for customized physical fitness and healthcare system will be scheduled and executed by intelligent computing. The scheduling of execution is generated by using genetic algorithm method. It will improve traditional scheduling of exercise prescription for physical fitness and healthcare. Finally, we will demonstrate the advantages of the intelligent scheduling of execution for customized physical fitness and healthcare system.

  18. Comparison of Aberrations After Standard and Customized Refractive Surgery

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fang, L.; He, X.; Wang, Y.

    2013-09-01

    To detect possible differences in residual wavefront aberrations between standard and customized laser refractive surgery based onmathematical modeling, the residual optical aberrations after conventional and customized laser refractive surgery were compared accordingto the ablation profile with transition zone. The results indicated that ablation profile has a significant impact on the residual aberrations.The amount of residual aberrations for conventional correction is higher than that for customized correction. Additionally, the residualaberrations for high myopia eyes are markedly larger than those for moderate myopia eyes. For a 5 mm pupil, the main residual aberrationterm is coma and yet it is spherical aberration for a 7 mm pupil. When the pupil diameter is the same as optical zone or greater, themagnitudes of residual aberrations is obviously larger than that for a smaller pupil. In addition, the magnitudes of the residual fifth orsixth order aberrations are relatively large, especially secondary coma in a 6 mm pupil and secondary spherical aberration in a 7 mm pupil.Therefore, the customized ablation profile may be superior to the conventional correction even though the transition zone and treatmentdecentration are taken into account. However, the customized ablation profile will still induce significant amount of residual aberrations.

  19. Developing customer databases.

    PubMed

    Rao, S K; Shenbaga, S

    2000-01-01

    There is a growing consensus among pharmaceutical companies that more product and customer-specific approaches to marketing and selling a new drug can result in substantial increases in sales. Marketers and researchers taking a proactive micro-marketing approach to identifying, profiling, and communicating with target customers are likely to facilitate such approaches and outcomes. This article provides a working framework for creating customer databases that can be effectively mined to achieve a variety of such marketing and sales force objectives.

  20. Customization of the Voice Prosthesis to Prevent Leakage from the Enlarged Tracheoesophageal Puncture: Results of a Prospective Trial

    PubMed Central

    Lewin, Jan S.; Hutcheson, Katherine A.; Barringer, Denise A.; Croegaert, Lindsay E.; Lisec, Asher; Chambers, Mark S.

    2014-01-01

    Background Customization of the tracheoesophageal (TE) voice prosthesis (VP) is often preferred over surgical closure to prevent aspiration around the VP in laryngectomized patients with an enlarged tracheoesophageal puncture (TEP), but has not been thoroughly evaluated. Study Design Single-institution prospective trial. Methods A prospective trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a customized VP with the addition of an enlarged tracheal and/or esophageal collar in patients with leakage around an enlarged TEP. Absence of leakage around the VP after placement defined immediate effectiveness. Long-term success was defined by the prevention of adverse events related to leakage during the study period. Events that defined failure included: permanent gastrostomy dependence, aspiration pneumonia, and/or surgical TEP closure. Results Twenty-one patients with enlarged TEP were enrolled (2003-2006). Insertion of a customized VP was unsuccessful in 1 patient; 145 customizations were performed in the remaining 20 patients (median: 3.5 customizations) during the trial period. Seventy-seven percent (112/145) of customizations prevented leakage immediately after VP insertion. The most common adverse event was dislodgement of the prosthesis (11%) or the collar alone (7%) in 18% (26/145) of customized VP placements. Six patients who died of disease were not evaluable for long-term outcomes. Long-term success was achieved in 80% (12/ 15) of evaluable patients who avoided permanent gastrostomy, aspiration pneumonia, and surgical TEP closure. Conclusions Prosthetic customization offers an effective method to prevent leakage around the VP in many patients with an enlarged TEP, thereby preserving TE voice while avoiding surgical closure in this high risk population. PMID:22753122

  1. Surgical results of cranioplasty with a polymethylmethacrylate customized cranial implant in pediatric patients: a single-center experience.

    PubMed

    Fiaschi, Pietro; Pavanello, Marco; Imperato, Alessia; Dallolio, Villiam; Accogli, Andrea; Capra, Valeria; Consales, Alessandro; Cama, Armando; Piatelli, Gianluca

    2016-06-01

    OBJECTIVE Cranioplasty is a reconstructive procedure used to restore skull anatomy and repair skull defects. Optimal skull reconstruction is a challenge for neurosurgeons, and the strategy used to achieve the best result remains a topic of debate, especially in pediatric patients for whom the continuing skull growth makes the choice of material more difficult. When the native bone flap, which is universally accepted as the preferred option in pediatric patients, is unavailable, the authors' choice of prosthetic material is a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) implant designed using a custom-made technique. In this paper the authors present the results of their clinical series of 12 custom-made PMMA implants in pediatric patients. METHODS A retrospective study of the patients who had undergone cranioplasty at Gaslini Children's Hospital between 2006 and 2013 was conducted. A total of 12 consecutive cranioplasties in 12 patients was reviewed, in which a patient-specific PMMA implant was manufactured using a virtual 3D model and then transformed into a physical model using selective laser sintering or 3D printing. All patients or parents were administered a questionnaire to assess how the patient/parent judged the aesthetic result. RESULTS Patient age at craniectomy ranged from 5 months to 12.5 years, with a mean age of 84.33 months at cranioplasty. The mean extension of the custom-made plastic was 56.83 cm(2). The mean time between craniectomy and cranioplasty was 9.25 months. The mean follow-up duration was 55.7 months. No major complications were recorded; 3 patients experienced minor/moderate complications (prosthesis dislocation, granuloma formation, and fluid collection). CONCLUSIONS In this patient series, PMMA resulted in an extremely low complication rate and the custom-made technique was associated with an excellent grade of patient or parent satisfaction on long-term follow up.

  2. Analysis of Customer Loyalty through Total Quality Service, Customer Relationship Management and Customer Satisfaction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Binsar Kristian P., Feliks Anggia; Panjaitan, Hotman

    2014-01-01

    This research talks about total quality service and customer relationship management effects toward customer satisfaction and its impact on customer loyalty. Fast food restaurant KFC, always strives to continue to make improvements in total quality service, so that customer satisfaction can be maintained, which in turn will have an impact on…

  3. Employee customer orientation in manufacturing organizations: joint influences of customer proximity and the senior leadership team.

    PubMed

    Liao, Hui; Subramony, Mahesh

    2008-03-01

    Pursuing a customer-focused strategy in manufacturing organizations requires employees across functions to embrace the importance of understanding customer needs and to align their everyday efforts with the goal of satisfying and retaining customers. Little prior research has examined what factors influence employee customer orientation in manufacturing settings. Drawing on the attraction-selection-attrition model, upper-echelons theory, and contingency theories of leadership, this study investigated the joint influences of functional roles' proximity to external customers and the senior leadership team's customer orientation on employee customer orientation. Hierarchical linear modeling results based on data obtained from 4,299 employees and 403 senior leaders from 42 facilities of a global manufacturer operating in 16 countries revealed that employees occupying customer-contact roles had the highest level of customer orientation, followed by employees occupying production roles, and then by those in support roles. In addition, there was a positive relationship between the senior leadership team's customer orientation and employee customer orientation for all 3 functional roles. The positive relationship between the senior leadership team and employee customer orientation was the strongest for employees in support roles, suggesting that lower levels of proximity to external customers may create a greater need for leadership in developing employees' customer-oriented attitudes. Copyright 2008 APA

  4. Focusing on customer service.

    PubMed

    1996-01-01

    This booklet is devoted to a consideration of how good customer service in family planning programs can generate demand for products and services, bring customers back, and reduce costs. Customer service is defined as increasing client satisfaction through continuous concern for client preferences, staff accountability to clients, and respect for the rights of clients. Issues discussed include the introduction of a customer service approach and gaining staff commitment. The experience of PROSALUD in Bolivia in recruiting appropriate staff, supervising staff, soliciting client feedback, and marketing services is offered as an example of a successful customer service approach. The key customer service functions are described as 1) establishing a welcoming atmosphere, 2) streamlining client flow, 3) personalizing client services, and 4) organizing and providing clear information to clients. The role of the manager in developing procedures is explored, and the COPE (Client-Oriented Provider-Efficient) process is presented as a good way to begin to make improvements. Techniques in staff training in customer service include brainstorming, role playing, using case studies (examples of which are provided), and engaging in practice sessions. Training also leads to the development of effective customer service attitudes, and the differences between these and organizational/staff-focused attitudes are illustrated in a chart. The use of communication skills (asking open-ended questions, helping clients express their concerns, engaging in active listening, and handling difficult situations) is considered. Good recovery skills are important when things go wrong. Gathering and using client feedback is the next topic considered. This involves identifying, recording, and discussing customer service issues as well as taking action on these issues and evaluating the results. The booklet ends by providing a sample of customer service indicators, considering the maintenance of a

  5. Insurance coverage of customers induces dishonesty of sellers in markets for credence goods.

    PubMed

    Kerschbamer, Rudolf; Neururer, Daniel; Sutter, Matthias

    2016-07-05

    Honesty is a fundamental pillar for cooperation in human societies and thus for their economic welfare. However, humans do not always act in an honest way. Here, we examine how insurance coverage affects the degree of honesty in credence goods markets. Such markets are plagued by strong incentives for fraudulent behavior of sellers, resulting in estimated annual costs of billions of dollars to customers and the society as a whole. Prime examples of credence goods are all kinds of repair services, the provision of medical treatments, the sale of software programs, and the provision of taxi rides in unfamiliar cities. We examine in a natural field experiment how computer repair shops take advantage of customers' insurance for repair costs. In a control treatment, the average repair price is about EUR 70, whereas the repair bill increases by more than 80% when the service provider is informed that an insurance would reimburse the bill. Our design allows decomposing the sources of this economically impressive difference, showing that it is mainly due to the overprovision of parts and overcharging of working time. A survey among repair shops shows that the higher bills are mainly ascribed to insured customers being less likely to be concerned about minimizing costs because a third party (the insurer) pays the bill. Overall, our results strongly suggest that insurance coverage greatly increases the extent of dishonesty in important sectors of the economy with potentially huge costs to customers and whole economies.

  6. An analytical approach to customer requirement information processing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Zude; Xiao, Zheng; Liu, Quan; Ai, Qingsong

    2013-11-01

    'Customer requirements' (CRs) management is a key component of customer relationship management (CRM). By processing customer-focused information, CRs management plays an important role in enterprise systems (ESs). Although two main CRs analysis methods, quality function deployment (QFD) and Kano model, have been applied to many fields by many enterprises in the past several decades, the limitations such as complex processes and operations make them unsuitable for online businesses among small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Currently, most SMEs do not have the resources to implement QFD or Kano model. In this article, we propose a method named customer requirement information (CRI), which provides a simpler and easier way for SMEs to run CRs analysis. The proposed method analyses CRs from the perspective of information and applies mathematical methods to the analysis process. A detailed description of CRI's acquisition, classification and processing is provided.

  7. [Analysis of on-call consultations with clinical pathologists--identification of customer's satisfaction].

    PubMed

    Yanai, M

    2000-09-01

    One aspect whereby effectiveness of clinical pathologists can be measured is customer service and satisfaction. Clinical pathologist should identify their customers, their processes and procedures to meet these needs to the customer's satisfaction. To identify customer's satisfaction, the records of on-call consultations with clinical pathologists were analyzed. Between January 1996 and December 1998, 1327 consultations were recorded, 40% of which were consultations from physicians, 50% from medical technologists. Physicians requested interpretation of laboratory data obtained, and clinical knowledge mainly concerning the microbiology and hematology during office hours. On holidays, physicians needed help performing emergency tests such as Gram stain and Wright-Giemsa stain. During office hours, medical technologists requested clinical information concerning patients in whom unreasonable data would be reported and the contact to the clinical side. Furthermore, technologists inquired about the methodology of laboratory tests during day duty on holidays. These results indicated that the clinical pathologist in our hospital could satisfy the customer(physicians and medical technologists), by providing 1) a wide range of clinical knowledge concerning not only the laboratory medicine but clinical medicine including therapeutics, 2) capability of performing emergency tests such as Gram stain and Wright-Giemsa stain, and 3) capability of interpreting the results obtained. Although these would not be adopted in every hospital, every clinical pathologist should examine his role in the hospital.

  8. Electrical service reliability: the customer perspective

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Samsa, M.E.; Hub, K.A.; Krohm, G.C.

    1978-09-01

    Electric-utility-system reliability criteria have traditionally been established as a matter of utility policy or through long-term engineering practice, generally with no supportive customer cost/benefit analysis as justification. This report presents results of an initial study of the customer perspective toward electric-utility-system reliability, based on critical review of over 20 previous and ongoing efforts to quantify the customer's value of reliable electric service. A possible structure of customer classifications is suggested as a reasonable level of disaggregation for further investigation of customer value, and these groups are characterized in terms of their electricity use patterns. The values that customers assign tomore » reliability are discussed in terms of internal and external cost components. A list of options for effecting changes in customer service reliability is set forth, and some of the many policy issues that could alter customer-service reliability are identified.« less

  9. Manage customer-centric innovation--systematically.

    PubMed

    Selden, Larry; MacMillan, Ian C

    2006-04-01

    No matter how hard companies try, their approaches to innovation often don't grow the top line in the sustained, profitable way investors expect. For many companies, there's a huge difference between what's in their business plans and the market's expectations for growth (as reflected in firms' share prices, market capitalizations, and P/E ratios). This growth gap springs from the fact that companies are pouring money into their insular R&D labs instead of working to understand what the customer wants and using that understanding to drive innovation. As a result, even companies that spend the most on R&D remain starved for both customer innovation and market-capitalization growth. In this article, the authors spell out a systematic approach to innovation that continuously fuels sustained, profitable growth. They call this approach customer-centric innovation, or CCI. At the heart of CCI is a rigorous customer R&D process that helps companies to continually improve their understanding of who their customers are and what they need. By so doing, they consistently create or improve their customer value proposition. Customer R&D also focuses on better ways of communicating value propositions and delivering the complete experience to real customers. Since so much of the learning about customers and so much of the experimentation with different segmentations, value propositions, and delivery mechanisms involve the people who regularly deal with customers, it is absolutely essential for frontline employees to be at the center of the CCI process. Simply put, customer R&D propels the innovation effort away from headquarters and the traditional R&D lab out to those closest to the customer. Using the example of the luggage manufacturer Tumi, the authors provide a step-by-step approach for achieving true customer-centric innovation.

  10. The study of the relationship between value creation and customer loyalty with the role of trust moderation and customer satisfaction in Sari hospitals

    PubMed Central

    Rahmani, Zienolabedin; Ranjbar, Mansour; Gara, Ali Asgar Nadi; gorji, Mohammad Ali Heidari

    2017-01-01

    Background Healthcare providers are competitive, owing to heightened customers’ awareness and expectations of health care services. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between customer value creation and loyalty with mediator trust and customer satisfaction. Methods This is a cross sectional survey study. Participants were 196 patients referred to private hospitals in Sari city, Iran from May to June 2014 which were selected by convenience sampling method. Data were collected using questionnaires. Data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling software Smart PLS. Results The results revealed a relationship between customer value creation and customer loyalty in a Sari city private hospital, and customer satisfaction and trust, mediate the relationship between customer value creation and customer loyalty. The results also revealed significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction and trust (p=0.000 r=0.585). Conclusion customer satisfaction and trust mediate the relationship between customer value creation and customer loyalty. PMID:28848619

  11. Exploring the impact of customer relational benefit on relationship commitment in health service sectors.

    PubMed

    Weng, Rhay-Hung; Huang, Jin-An; Huang, Ching-Yuan; Huang, Shih-Chang

    2010-01-01

    An increasing number of health service sectors have begun to implement relationship marketing to try to establish long-term relationship with customers. Customer relational benefit has been an important subject for relationship marketing researchers. This study was conducted to investigate how customer relational benefit might influence relationship commitment in health service sectors. The research used a questionnaire survey that retrieved a total number of 403 valid questionnaires. The data were collected by way of personal visits and investigations of outpatients in three regional hospitals in Taiwan. After the reliability and the validity of the questionnaire sample were examined, the data were verified by using hierarchical regression analysis. Results showed that confidence benefit constituted the most pronounced factor for hospital customers. Confidence benefit, social benefit, and special treatment benefit were perceived by customers as the key factors that have a positive influence on relationship commitment. In particular, customers placing greater emphasis on confidence benefit tended to be less willing to establish relationship commitment. When health service managers develop marketing strategies using customer relational benefit, they will still need to enhance customer confidence benefit as one of the main ways of achieving future improvements. In the event where health service managers seek to install resources for establishing and maintaining a good relationship commitment with customers, the crucial factors of social and special treatment benefits should not be ignored when seeking to enhance the customers' perception of confidence benefit.

  12. To Customize or Not to Customize? Exploring Science Teacher Customization in an Online Lesson Portal

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Littenberg-Tobias, Joshua; Beheshti, Elham; Staudt, Carolyn

    2016-01-01

    New technologies are increasingly giving science teachers the ability to access and customize science lessons. However, there is substantial debate in the literature about whether and under what conditions teacher customization benefit student learning. In this study, we examined teacher customization of inquiry-based science lessons from an…

  13. The study of the relationship between value creation and customer loyalty with the role of trust moderation and customer satisfaction in Sari hospitals.

    PubMed

    Rahmani, Zienolabedin; Ranjbar, Mansour; Gara, Ali Asgar Nadi; Gorji, Mohammad Ali Heidari

    2017-06-01

    Healthcare providers are competitive, owing to heightened customers' awareness and expectations of health care services. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between customer value creation and loyalty with mediator trust and customer satisfaction. This is a cross sectional survey study. Participants were 196 patients referred to private hospitals in Sari city, Iran from May to June 2014 which were selected by convenience sampling method. Data were collected using questionnaires. Data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling software Smart PLS. The results revealed a relationship between customer value creation and customer loyalty in a Sari city private hospital, and customer satisfaction and trust, mediate the relationship between customer value creation and customer loyalty. The results also revealed significant positive relationship between customer satisfaction and trust (p=0.000 r=0.585). customer satisfaction and trust mediate the relationship between customer value creation and customer loyalty.

  14. Small main-belt asteroid spectroscopic survey: Initial results

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Xu, Shui; Binzel, Richard P.; Burbine, Thomas H.; Bus, Schelte J.

    1995-01-01

    The spectral characterization of small asteroids is important for understanding the evolution of their compositional and mineralogical properties. We report the results of a CCD spectroscopic survey of small main-belt asteroids which we call the Small Main-belt Asteroid Spectroscopic Survey (SMASS). Spectra of 316 asteroids were obtained, with wavelength coverage ranging from 4000 to 10000 A (0.4 to 1 micrometers). More than half of the objects in our survey have diameters less than 20 km. Survey results include the identification of the first object resembling ordinary chondrite meteorites among the main-belt asteroids (Binzel, R. P., et al, 1993) and observations of more than 20 asteroids showing basaltic achondrite spectral absorption features that strongly link Vesta as the parent body for the basaltic achondrite meteorites (Binzel, R. P., and S. Xu 1993). A potential Mars-crossing asteroid analog to ordinary chondrite meteorites (H chondrites), 2078 Nanking, is reported here. Through a principal component analysis, we have assigned classifications to the members of our sample. The majority of the small main-belt asteroids belong to S and C classes, similar to large asteroids. Our analysis shows that two new classes are justified which we label as J and O. Small asteroids display more diversity in spectral absorption features than the larger ones, which may indicate a greater variation of compositions in the small asteroid population. We found a few candidates for olivine-rich asteroids within the S class. Although the total number of olivine-rich candidates is relatively small, we present evidence suggesting that such objects are more prevalent at smaller sizes.

  15. Variables contributing to an excellent customer service management profile within the regulated electric utility industry: A comparison of self-concept with customer satisfaction for customer service management

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Johnson, L.E.

    1991-01-01

    This research sought to address the relationship between self-concept and customer satisfaction: can customer satisfaction with a major electric utility be explained in terms of the self-reported, self-concept of the utility's managers The population to which the results of this study were generalized consisted of customer service managers in public electric utilities across the United States. In order to represent this population, a sample was selected consisting of customer service managers at a midwestern electric utility based in a large metropolitan area. Participants in this study were managers of four direct customer contact service organizations within six geographic division organizations.more » The methodology included comparisons of these four customer contact service organizations on twelve independent, self-concept variables and six customer satisfaction dependent variables using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Scheffe' tests, Chi-Square, and Stepwise multiple regression. The groups were found not to be significantly different and knowledge of the self-concept scores for managers will not increase the ability to predict customer satisfaction over no knowledge of self-concept scores.« less

  16. The Impact of e-Customer Relationship Marketing in Hotel Industry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Samanta, Irene

    The present research investigates the extent to which Greek hotels had developed the electronic customer relationship marketing (E-CRM). The study verifies the practices that frequently appear in relationship marketing process within online operations or whether their Internet presence mainly depends on the basic actions of "supplying information" and "reservations". Also, it investigates the effects of e-CRM system on customer loyalty and satisfaction as well as the impact of relationship marketing practices to customer retention and acquisition. They have understood the importance of using electronic channels instead of traditional ones to implement their marketing strategies. Thus, e-crm system has assisted hotel business to manage more effectively their reservations and serve their customers as fast and as effective as possible. They did not seem to apply many of the relationship marketing strategies to emphasize customer retention and continual satisfaction because of difficulties in staff training.

  17. SRS 2010 Vegetation Inventory GeoStatistical Mapping Results for Custom Reaction Intensity and Total Dead Fuels.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Edwards, Lloyd A.; Paresol, Bernard

    This report of the geostatistical analysis results of the fire fuels response variables, custom reaction intensity and total dead fuels is but a part of an SRS 2010 vegetation inventory project. For detailed description of project, theory and background including sample design, methods, and results please refer to USDA Forest Service Savannah River Site internal report “SRS 2010 Vegetation Inventory GeoStatistical Mapping Report”, (Edwards & Parresol 2013).

  18. Understanding customer experience.

    PubMed

    Meyer, Christopher; Schwager, Andre

    2007-02-01

    Anyone who has signed up for cell phone service, attempted to claim a rebate, or navigated a call center has probably suffered from a company's apparent indifference to what should be its first concern: the customer experiences that culminate in either satisfaction or disappointment and defection. Customer experience is the subjective response customers have to direct or indirect contact with a company. It encompasses every aspect of an offering: customer care, advertising, packaging, features, ease of use, reliability. Customer experience is shaped by customers' expectations, which largely reflect previous experiences. Few CEOs would argue against the significance of customer experience or against measuring and analyzing it. But many don't appreciate how those activities differ from CRM or just how illuminating the data can be. For instance, the majority of the companies in a recent survey believed they have been providing "superior" experiences to customers, but most customers disagreed. The authors describe a customer experience management (CEM) process that involves three kinds of monitoring: past patterns (evaluating completed transactions), present patterns (tracking current relationships), and potential patterns (conducting inquiries in the hope of unveiling future opportunities). Data are collected at or about touch points through such methods as surveys, interviews, focus groups, and online forums. Companies need to involve every function in the effort, not just a single customer-facing group. The authors go on to illustrate how a cross-functional CEM system is created. With such a system, companies can discover which customers are prospects for growth and which require immediate intervention.

  19. Investigating Customers' Experiences with Their Financial Services Customer Education Programs as It Impacts Customer Loyalty to the Financial Firm

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Islam, Kaliym A.

    2017-01-01

    The problem addressed in this study was that customer education programs are intended to strengthen customer loyalty; however, research on the effects of customer education on customer loyalty remains insufficient. This phenomenological study investigated how the lived experiences of customers' participating in financial services' customer…

  20. Gaining customer knowledge: obtaining and using customer judgments for hospitalwide quality improvement.

    PubMed

    Nelson, E C; Caldwell, C; Quinn, D; Rose, R

    1991-03-01

    Customer knowledge is an essential feature of hospitalwide quality improvement. All systems and processes have customers. The aim is to use customer knowledge and voice of the customer measurement to plan, design, improve, and monitor these systems and processes continuously. In this way, the hospital stands the best chance of meeting customers' needs and, hopefully, delivering services that are so outstanding that customers will be surprised and delighted. There are many methods, both soft and hard, that can be used to increase customer knowledge. One useful strategy is to use a family of quality measures that reflect the voice of the customer. These measures can generate practical and powerful customer knowledge information that is essential to performing strategic planning, deploying quality policy, designing new services, finding targets for improvements, and monitoring those continuous improvements based on customers' judgments.

  1. U.S. Customs Service : better targeting of airline passengers for personal searches could produce better results

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-03-01

    The Customs Service faces a major challenge in effectively carrying out its drug interdiction and trade enforcement missions while facilitating the flow of cargo and persons into the United States. To carry out its mission, Customs inspectors are aut...

  2. Opinion Summarizationof CustomerComments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fan, Miao; Wu, Guoshi

    Web 2.0 technologies have enabled more and more customers to freely comment on different kinds of entities, such as sellers, products and services. The large scale of information poses the need and challenge of automatic summarization. In many cases, each of the user-generated short comments implies the opinions which rate the target entity. In this paper, we aim to mine and to summarize all the customer comments of a product. The algorithm proposed in this researchis more reliable on opinion identification because it is unsupervised and the accuracy of the result improves as the number of comments increases. Our research is performed in four steps: (1) mining the frequent aspects of a product that have been commented on by customers; (2) mining the infrequent aspects of a product which have been commented by customers (3) identifying opinion words in each comment and deciding whether each opinion word is positive, negative or neutral; (4) summarizing the comments. This paper proposes several novel techniques to perform these tasks. Our experimental results using comments of a number of products sold online demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques.

  3. Customer service and practice profitability.

    PubMed

    Levin, Roger P

    2004-06-01

    Customer service, one of the major dental practice business systems, is critical to your short- and long-term success. The world will keep changing, but customer service is not a fad that can go out of style. If anything, it becomes even more important, year after year, as your customers expect more service and better treatment. Your goal is to provide extensive customer service, with 100% of patients enjoying a great experience every single time they interact with your practice. The "Wow" experience helps your practice grow. You want your patients to become your friends. Why? Because friends refer friends. When your patients become your friends, higher profitability is the inevitable result.

  4. A customer satisfaction model for a utility service industry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jamil, Jastini Mohd; Nawawi, Mohd Kamal Mohd; Ramli, Razamin

    2016-08-01

    This paper explores the effect of Image, Customer Expectation, Perceived Quality and Perceived Value on Customer Satisfaction, and to investigate the effect of Image and Customer Satisfaction on Customer Loyalty of mobile phone provider in Malaysia. The result of this research is based on data gathered online from international students in one of the public university in Malaysia. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) has been used to analyze the data that have been collected from the international students' perceptions. The results found that Image and Perceived Quality have significant impact on Customer Satisfaction. Image and Customer Satisfaction ware also found to have significantly related to Customer Loyalty. However, no significant impact has been found between Customer Expectation with Customer Satisfaction, Perceived Value with Customer Satisfaction, and Customer Expectation with Perceived Value. We hope that the findings may assist the mobile phone provider in production and promotion of their services.

  5. The customer has escaped.

    PubMed

    Nunes, Paul F; Cespedes, Frank V

    2003-11-01

    Every company makes choices about the channels it will use to go to market. Traditionally, the decision to sell through a discount superstore or a pricey boutique, for instance, was guided by customer demographics. A company would identify a target segment of buyers and go with the channel that could deliver them. It was a fair assumption that certain customer types were held captive by certain channels--if not from cradle to grave, then at least from initial consideration to purchase. The problem, the authors say, is that today's customers have become unfettered. As their channel options have proliferated, they've come to recognize that different channels serve their needs better at different points in the buying process. The result is "value poaching." For example, certain channels hope to use higher margin sales to cover the cost of providing expensive high-touch services. Potential customers use these channels to do research, then leap to a cheaper channel when it's time to buy. Customers now hunt for bargains more aggressively; they've become more sophisticated about how companies market to them; and they are better equipped with information and technology to make advantageous decisions. What does this mean for your go-to-market strategy? The authors urge companies to make a fundamental shift in mind-set toward designing for buyer behaviors, not customer segments. A company should design pathways across channels to help its customers get what they need at each stage of the buying process--through one channel or another. Customers are not mindful of channel boundaries--and you shouldn't be either. Instead, they are mindful of the value of individual components in your channels--and you should be, too.

  6. A NEW LOOK AT CUSTOMS UNION THEORY,

    DTIC Science & Technology

    is the sole source of any gain in consumers ’ welfare that might result from a customs union. It accounts for both trade creation and the consumption...In the report the following points are discussed: (1) Analytically the welfare effect of a customs union -whether trade creating, trade diverting...effect. (3) Using as a point of reference an appropriate policy of nonpreferential protection, a customs union necessarily results in pure trade

  7. The Customer Service Experience.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bell, Chip R.

    2001-01-01

    Discusses ways to embed customer service learning and customer loyalty including making customers think, examining every aspect of customers' service encounters with staff, providing follow-up, making learning fun, and involving customers in your business. (JOW)

  8. Challenges to counseling customers at the pharmacy counter--why do they exist?

    PubMed

    Kaae, Susanne; Traulsen, Janine Morgall; Nørgaard, Lotte Stig

    2012-01-01

    Challenges to engage pharmacy customers in medicine dialogues at the counter have been identified comprising a new and extended clinical role for pharmacists in the health care system. This article seeks to expand understanding of factors involved in successful interaction at the pharmacy counter between customers and pharmacy staff to develop their relationship further. Practical challenges to customer encounters experienced by community pharmacists are discussed using theory from the field of mainly inter-relational communication and particular studies on pharmacy communication. Preconceived expectation of customers, the type of question asked by pharmacy staff, and differences in perception of illness and medicines between staff and customers are discussed. Both staff and customer influence the outcome of attempts by pharmacy staff to engage customers in dialogue about their medicine use through a complex mechanism of interaction. It is recommended that practitioners and researchers begin to distinguish, both theoretically and practically, between the content of a conversation and the underlying relationship when exploring and further developing the therapeutic relationship between pharmacy personnel and customers. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Creating a successful relationship with customers.

    PubMed

    Cotton, L; Sparrow, E

    1998-01-01

    In 1997, several employers commissioned an inpatient survey for a group of businesses that included hospitals in southeast Michigan. Its results indicated that the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) needed to become more customer-focused. To meet this challenge, UMHS mandated that customer service to its patients and their families should be its first priority. A pilot project in the radiology department's pediatric division was established to recognize and reward employees for outstanding service to customers. The program is now used to reward employees throughout the radiology department, on the assumption that when employees feel special, so will their customers. Management's focus is on employees--they are the health system. The department also invested in employee development, a continuous training program that centers on customer service and teaches tools and skills for better communication. The goal of the development program at UMHS is to exceed the needs of its customers.

  10. The Impact of IT Capability on Employee Capability, Customer Value, Customer Satisfaction, and Business Performance

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chae, Ho-Chang

    2009-01-01

    This study empirically examines the impact of IT capability on firms' performance and evaluates whether firms' IT capabilities play a role in improving employee capability, customer value, customer satisfaction, and ultimately business performance. The results were based on comparing the business performance of the IT leader companies with that of…

  11. Community pharmacy customer segmentation based on factors influencing their selection of pharmacy and over-the-counter medicines.

    PubMed

    Kevrekidis, Dimitrios Phaedon; Minarikova, Daniela; Markos, Angelos; Malovecka, Ivona; Minarik, Peter

    2018-01-01

    Within the competitive pharmacy market environment, community pharmacies are required to develop efficient marketing strategies based on contemporary information about consumer behavior in order to attract clients and develop customer loyalty. This study aimed to investigate the consumers' preferences concerning the selection of pharmacy and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, and to identify customer segments in relation to these preferences. A cross-sectional study was conducted between February and March 2016 on a convenient quota sample of 300 participants recruited in the metropolitan area of Thessaloniki, Greece. The main instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire with close-ended, multiple choice questions. To identify customer segments, Two-Step cluster analysis was conducted. Three distinct pharmacy customer clusters emerged. Customers of the largest cluster (49%; 'convenience customers') were mostly younger consumers. They gave moderate to positive ratings to factors affecting the selection of pharmacy and OTCs; convenience, and previous experience and the pharmacist's opinion, received the highest ratings. Customers of the second cluster (35%; 'loyal customers') were mainly retired; most of them reported visiting a single pharmacy. They gave high ratings to all factors that influence pharmacy selection, especially the pharmacy's staff, and factors influencing the purchase of OTCs, particularly previous experience and the pharmacist's opinion. Customers of the smallest cluster (16%; 'convenience and price-sensitive customers') were mainly retired or unemployed with low to moderate education, and low personal income. They gave the lowest ratings to most of the examined factors; convenience among factors influencing pharmacy selection, whereas previous experience, the pharmacist's opinion and product price among those affecting the purchase of OTCs, received the highest ratings. The community pharmacy market comprised of distinct

  12. Talking about Customer Service.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Talley, Mary; Axelroth, Joan

    2001-01-01

    Discusses customer service in information centers and how to define it. Topics include the effects of competition, that give customers more choices; defining customers, and defining services; communications; physical environment; change, in customers and in technology; measuring customer service; and evaluating policies and procedures. (LRW)

  13. How Well Do Customers of Direct-to-Consumer Personal Genomic Testing Services Comprehend Genetic Test Results? Findings from the Impact of Personal Genomics Study

    PubMed Central

    Ostergren, Jenny E.; Gornick, Michele C.; Carere, Deanna Alexis; Kalia, Sarah S.; Uhlmann, Wendy R.; Ruffin, Mack T.; Mountain, Joanna L.; Green, Robert C.; Roberts, J. Scott

    2016-01-01

    Aim To assess customer comprehension of health-related personal genomic testing (PGT) results. Methods We presented sample reports of genetic results and examined responses to comprehension questions in 1,030 PGT customers (mean age: 46.7 years; 59.9% female; 79.0% college graduates; 14.9% non-White; 4.7% of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity). Sample reports presented a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes, carrier screening summary results for >30 conditions, results for phenylketonuria and cystic fibrosis, and drug response results for a statin drug. Logistic regression was used to identify correlates of participant comprehension. Results Participants exhibited high overall comprehension (mean score: 79.1% correct). The highest comprehension (range: 81.1–97.4% correct) was observed in the statin drug response and carrier screening summary results, and lower comprehension (range: 63.6–74.8% correct) on specific carrier screening results. Higher levels of numeracy, genetic knowledge, and education were significantly associated with greater comprehension. Older age (≥ 60 years) was associated with lower comprehension scores. Conclusions Most customers accurately interpreted the health implications of PGT results; however, comprehension varied by demographic characteristics, numeracy and genetic knowledge, and types and format of the genetic information presented. Results suggest a need to tailor the presentation of PGT results by test type and customer characteristics. PMID:26087778

  14. Do it right this time: the role of employee service recovery performance in customer-perceived justice and customer loyalty after service failures.

    PubMed

    Liao, Hui

    2007-03-01

    Integrating justice and customer service literatures, this research examines the role of customer service employees' behaviors of handling customer complaints, or service recovery performance (SRP), in conveying a just image of service organizations and achieving desirable customer outcomes. Results from a field study and a laboratory study demonstrate that the dimensions of SRP--making an apology, problem solving, being courteous, and prompt handling--positively influenced customer satisfaction and then customer repurchase intent through the mediation of customer-perceived justice. In addition, service failure severity and repeated failures reduced the positive impact of some dimensions of SRP on customer satisfaction, and customer-perceived justice again mediated these moderated effects. (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved.

  15. How Well Do Customers of Direct-to-Consumer Personal Genomic Testing Services Comprehend Genetic Test Results? Findings from the Impact of Personal Genomics Study.

    PubMed

    Ostergren, Jenny E; Gornick, Michele C; Carere, Deanna Alexis; Kalia, Sarah S; Uhlmann, Wendy R; Ruffin, Mack T; Mountain, Joanna L; Green, Robert C; Roberts, J Scott

    2015-01-01

    To assess customer comprehension of health-related personal genomic testing (PGT) results. We presented sample reports of genetic results and examined responses to comprehension questions in 1,030 PGT customers (mean age: 46.7 years; 59.9% female; 79.0% college graduates; 14.9% non-White; 4.7% of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity). Sample reports presented a genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes, carrier screening summary results for >30 conditions, results for phenylketonuria and cystic fibrosis, and drug response results for a statin drug. Logistic regression was used to identify correlates of participant comprehension. Participants exhibited high overall comprehension (mean score: 79.1% correct). The highest comprehension (range: 81.1-97.4% correct) was observed in the statin drug response and carrier screening summary results, and lower comprehension (range: 63.6-74.8% correct) on specific carrier screening results. Higher levels of numeracy, genetic knowledge, and education were significantly associated with greater comprehension. Older age (≥ 60 years) was associated with lower comprehension scores. Most customers accurately interpreted the health implications of PGT results; however, comprehension varied by demographic characteristics, numeracy and genetic knowledge, and types and format of the genetic information presented. Results suggest a need to tailor the presentation of PGT results by test type and customer characteristics. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  16. JWST-MIRI spectrometer main optics design and main results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Navarro, Ramón; Schoenmaker, Ton; Kroes, Gabby; Oudenhuysen, Ad; Jager, Rieks; Venema, Lars

    2017-11-01

    MIRI ('Mid InfraRed Instrument') is the combined imager and integral field spectrometer for the 5-29 micron wavelength range under development for the James Webb Space Telescope JWST. The flight acceptance tests of the Spectrometer Main Optics flight models (SMO), part of the MIRI spectrometer, are completed in the summer of 2008 and the system is delivered to the MIRI-JWST consortium. The two SMO arms contain 14 mirrors and form the MIRI optical system together with 12 selectable gratings on grating wheels. The entire system operates at a temperature of 7 Kelvin and is designed on the basis of a 'no adjustments' philosophy. This means that the optical alignment precision depends strongly on the design, tolerance analysis and detailed knowledge of the manufacturing process. Because in principle no corrections are needed after assembly, continuous tracking of the alignment performance during the design and manufacturing phases is important. The flight hardware is inspected with respect to performance parameters like alignment and image quality. The stability of these parameters is investigated after exposure to various vibration levels and successive cryogenic cool downs. This paper describes the philosophy behind the acceptance tests, the chosen test strategy and reports the results of these tests. In addition the paper covers the design of the optical test setup, focusing on the simulation of the optical interfaces of the SMO. Also the relation to the SMO qualification and verification program is addressed.

  17. I want products my own way, but which way? The effects of different product categories and cues on customer responses to Web-based customizations.

    PubMed

    Chang, Chia-Chi; Chen, Hui-Yun

    2009-02-01

    Mass customization is a strategy that has been adopted by companies to tailor their products in order to match customer needs more precisely. Therefore, to fully capture the value of mass customization, it is crucial to explore how customers react to mass customization. In previous studies, an implied premise has been that consumers are keen to embrace customized products, and this assumption has also been treated by firms as a prerequisite for successful mass customization strategies. However, an undesirable complexity may result from difficult configuration processes that may intimidate and confuse some customers. Hence, this study explores strategies that marketers can employ to facilitate the customization process. Specifically, this study investigates how to enhance customer satisfaction and purchase decision toward customized products by providing cues compatible with the product category. It is hypothesized that for search products, customers rely more on intrinsic cues when making configuration decisions. On the other hand, for experience products, customers perceive extrinsic cues to be more valuable in assisting them to make configuration decisions. The results suggest that consumers tend to respond more favorably toward customized search products when intrinsic cues are provided than when extrinsic or irrelevant ones are provided. In contrast, when customizing experience products, customers tend to depend more on extrinsic cues than on intrinsic or irrelevant ones.

  18. Customization of the voice prosthesis to prevent leakage from the enlarged tracheoesophageal puncture: results of a prospective trial.

    PubMed

    Lewin, Jan S; Hutcheson, Katherine A; Barringer, Denise A; Croegaert, Lindsay E; Lisec, Asher; Chambers, Mark S

    2012-08-01

    Customization of the tracheoesophageal (TE) voice prosthesis (VP) is often preferred over surgical closure to prevent aspiration around the VP in laryngectomized patients with an enlarged tracheoesophageal puncture (TEP), but it has not been thoroughly evaluated. Single-institution prospective trial. A prospective trial was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a customized VP with the addition of an enlarged tracheal and/or esophageal collar in patients with leakage around an enlarged TEP. Absence of leakage around the VP after placement defined immediate effectiveness. Long-term success was defined by the prevention of adverse events related to leakage during the study period. Events that defined failure included: permanent gastrostomy dependence, aspiration pneumonia, and/or surgical TEP closure. Twenty-one patients with enlarged TEP were enrolled (2003-2006). Insertion of a customized VP was unsuccessful in one patient; 145 customizations were performed in the remaining 20 patients (median, 3.5 customizations) during the trial period. Of the customizations, 77% (112/145) prevented leakage immediately after VP insertion. The most common adverse event was dislodgement of the prosthesis (11%) or the collar alone (7%) in 18% (26/145) of customized VP placements. Six patients who died of disease were not evaluable for long-term outcomes. Long-term success was achieved in 80% (12/15) of evaluable patients who avoided permanent gastrostomy, aspiration pneumonia, and surgical TEP closure. Prosthetic customization offers an effective method to prevent leakage around the VP in many patients with an enlarged TEP, thereby preserving TE voice while avoiding surgical closure in this high-risk population. Copyright © 2012 The American Laryngological, Rhinological, and Otological Society, Inc.

  19. Insurance coverage of customers induces dishonesty of sellers in markets for credence goods

    PubMed Central

    Kerschbamer, Rudolf; Neururer, Daniel; Sutter, Matthias

    2016-01-01

    Honesty is a fundamental pillar for cooperation in human societies and thus for their economic welfare. However, humans do not always act in an honest way. Here, we examine how insurance coverage affects the degree of honesty in credence goods markets. Such markets are plagued by strong incentives for fraudulent behavior of sellers, resulting in estimated annual costs of billions of dollars to customers and the society as a whole. Prime examples of credence goods are all kinds of repair services, the provision of medical treatments, the sale of software programs, and the provision of taxi rides in unfamiliar cities. We examine in a natural field experiment how computer repair shops take advantage of customers’ insurance for repair costs. In a control treatment, the average repair price is about EUR 70, whereas the repair bill increases by more than 80% when the service provider is informed that an insurance would reimburse the bill. Our design allows decomposing the sources of this economically impressive difference, showing that it is mainly due to the overprovision of parts and overcharging of working time. A survey among repair shops shows that the higher bills are mainly ascribed to insured customers being less likely to be concerned about minimizing costs because a third party (the insurer) pays the bill. Overall, our results strongly suggest that insurance coverage greatly increases the extent of dishonesty in important sectors of the economy with potentially huge costs to customers and whole economies. PMID:27325784

  20. What is a free customer worth? Armchair calculations of nonpaying customers' value can lead to flawed strategies.

    PubMed

    Gupta, Sunil; Mela, Carl F

    2008-11-01

    Free customers who are subsidized by paying customers are essential to a vast array of businesses, such as media companies, employment services, and even IT providers. But because they generate revenue only indirectly, figuring out the true value of those customers--and how much attention to devote them--has always been a challenge. Traditional customer-valuation models don't help; they focus exclusively on paying customers and largely ignore network effects, or how customers help draw other customers to a business. Now a new model, devised by professors Gupta, of Harvard Business School, and Mela, of Fuqua School of Business, takes into account not only direct network effects (where buyers attract more buyers or sellers more sellers) but also indirect network effects (where buyers attract more sellers or vice versa) . The model calculates the precise long-term impact of each additional free customer on a company's profits, factoring in the degree to which he or she brings in other customers--whether free or paying--and the ripple effect of those customers. The model helped an online auction house make several critical decisions. The business made its money on fees charged to sellers but recognized that its free customers--its buyers--were valuable, too. As competition heated up, the company worried that it wasn't wooing enough buyers. Using the model, the business discovered that the network effects of buyers were indeed large and that those customers were worth over $1,000 each--much more than had been assumed. Armed with that information, the firm increased its research on buyers, invested more in targeting them with ads, and improved their experience. The model also helped the company identify the effects of various pricing strategies on sellers, showing that they became less price-sensitive over time. As a result, the company raised the fees it charged them as well.

  1. Hedging customers.

    PubMed

    Dhar, Ravi; Glazer, Rashi

    2003-05-01

    You are a marketing director with $5 million to invest in customer acquisition and retention. Which customers do you acquire, and which do you retain? Up to a point, the choice is obvious: Keep the consistent big spenders and lose the erratic small ones. But what about the erratic big spenders and the consistent small ones? It's often unclear whether you should acquire or retain them and at what cost. Businesses have begun dealing with unpredictable customer behavior by following the practices of sophisticated investors who own portfolios comprising dozens of stocks with different, indeed divergent, histories and prospects. Each portfolio is diversified so as to produce the investor's desired returns at the particular level of uncertainty he or she can tolerate. Customers, too, are assets--risky assets. As with stocks, the cost of acquiring them is supposed to reflect the cash-flow values they are likely to generate. The authors explain how to construct a portfolio based on the notion that a customer's risk-adjusted lifetime value depends on its anticipated effect on the riskiness of the group it is joining. They also show how this approach was used to identify the best prospects for Myron Corporation, a global leader in the personalized business-gift industry. The concept of risk-adjusted lifetime value has a transforming power: For companies that rely on it, product managers will be replaced by customer managers, and the current method of accounting for profit and loss--which is by product--will be replaced by one that determines each customer's P&L. Once adjusted for risk, those P&Ls will become the firm's key performance and operational metric.

  2. Customer Management Skills for Effective Air Force Civil Engineering Customer Service.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1986-09-01

    advertise --competence. (1) Craftsmen working closely with customer service -doing what is promised when it’s promised -if return to job site required, tell...RD-RI74 1 4 CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE AIR FORCE / I CIVIL ENGINEERING CUST (U) AIR FORCE INST OF TECH WRIGHT-PATTERSON RFS ON...I93 -A CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT SKILLS FOR EFFECTIVE AIR FORCE CIVIL ENGINEERING CUSTOMER SERVICE THESIS Danny S.- Long Captain, USAF AFIT/GEM/DEM/86S-1 7

  3. [Customer orientation in ambulant medicine].

    PubMed

    Heinrich, M

    2014-07-01

    Due to developments of the health market, economic aspects of the health system are more relevant. In this upcoming market the patient is regarded as customer and the doctor as provider of medical services. Studies on customer orientation in the ambulant medicine lag behind this dynamic. An aim of the study is to comprehend the attitudes of the doctors referring to the customer orientation. In a second step the findings are discussed according to statements of health-care paticipants. Developments in role comprehension of doctor and patient are focused to gain results in scientific and practical applications. Guideline-supported, partly narrative interviews with n=9 gynaecologists and n=11 general practitioners in Freiburg/Germany are recorded, transcribed and reviewed in a qualitative analysis. The statements of the doctors show patient satisfaction has an incremental meaning sspecially regarding the sequence of patient relationship and economic management of the doctor's workplace. The doctor's role comprehension meets with a refusal of the role of salesman and the patient as customer. The method of interviews is suitable to gather empirical impressions of the doctors. The control sample is adequate, however a bias due to inhomogeneous thematic affinitiy and local social-demographics might be possible. The customer orientation has become an important factor in doctor-patient relationtships. The relevance of the doctor-patient conversation and the risk of misuse of the patient confidence are mentioned by the doctors. The doctor as paternalistic care provider gives way to the customer-focused service provider. The doctor's necessity of autonomyssss and dependency on patient satisfaction have potential for conflict. Intensive mention of customer orientation in medicine in the media emphasises its importance. Rational handling with the possibilities of individual health markets is a prospective challange. Further research could be established in all aspects of

  4. Assessing the Idaho Transportation Department's customer service performance.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-10-23

    This report assesses customer satisfaction with the Idaho Transportation Department. It also compares and contrasts the results of customer satisfaction surveys conducted for the Idaho Transportation Department with the results from other state trans...

  5. Store manager performance and satisfaction: effects on store employee performance and satisfaction, store customer satisfaction, and store customer spending growth.

    PubMed

    Netemeyer, Richard G; Maxham, James G; Lichtenstein, Donald R

    2010-05-01

    Based on emotional contagion theory and the value-profit chain literatures, the present study posits a number of hypotheses that show how managers in the small store, small number of employees retail context may affect store employees, customers, and potentially store performance. With data from 306 store managers, 1,615 store customer-contact employees, and 57,656 customers of a single retail chain, the authors examined relationships among store manager job satisfaction and job performance, store customer-contact employee job satisfaction and job performance, customer satisfaction with the retailer, and a customer-spending-based store performance metric (customer spending growth over a 2-year period). Via path analysis, several hypothesized direct and interaction relations among these constructs are supported. The results suggest implications for academic researchers and retail managers. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

  6. Measuring and improving customer satisfaction with government services

    Treesearch

    Glen D. Alexander

    1995-01-01

    Two years ago, Ohio State Park developed a methodology of measuring customer satisfaction, to gauge the effectiveness of our customer service. What follows is a discussion of our installation of systems to measure and improve customer satisfaction, the interpretation of the data, and the positive results we have enjoyed.

  7. Mechanisms linking employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions.

    PubMed

    Tsai, Wei-Chi; Huang, Yin-Mei

    2002-10-01

    Past empirical evidence has indicated that employee affective delivery can influence customer reactions (e.g., customer satisfaction, service quality evaluation). This study extends previous research by empirically examining mediating processes underlying the relationship between employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions. Data were collected from 352 employee-customer pairs in 169 retail shoe stores in Taiwan. Results showed that the influence of employee affective delivery on customers' willingness to return to the store and pass positive comments to friends was indirect through the mediating processes of customer in-store positive moods and perceived friendliness. The study also indicated that employee affective delivery influences customers' time spent in store, which, in turn, influences customer behavioral intentions.

  8. 47 CFR 64.2005 - Use of customer proprietary network information without customer approval.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Use of customer proprietary network information without customer approval. 64.2005 Section 64.2005 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION... Proprietary Network Information § 64.2005 Use of customer proprietary network information without customer...

  9. 47 CFR 64.2005 - Use of customer proprietary network information without customer approval.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Use of customer proprietary network information without customer approval. 64.2005 Section 64.2005 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION... Proprietary Network Information § 64.2005 Use of customer proprietary network information without customer...

  10. Preintervention analysis and improvement of customer greeting in a restaurant.

    PubMed

    Therrien, Kelly; Wilder, David A; Rodriguez, Manuel; Wine, Byron

    2005-01-01

    We examined customer greeting by employees at one location of a sandwich restaurant chain. First, a preintervention analysis was conducted to determine the conditions under which greeting a customer within 3 s of his or her entry into the restaurant did and did not occur. Results suggested that an appropriate customer greeting was most likely to occur when a door chime was used to indicate that a customer had entered the store and when the store manager was present behind the service counter. Next, a performance improvement intervention, which consisted of the combination of the use of a door chime and manager presence, was evaluated. Results showed that during baseline, a mean of 6% of customers were greeted; during intervention a mean of 63% of customers were greeted. The addition of manager-delivered verbal and graphic group feedback resulted in 100% of customers being greeted across two consecutive sessions.

  11. 17 CFR 1.36 - Record of securities and property received from customers and option customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... of all securities and property received from customers, retail forex customers or option customers in lieu of money to margin, purchase, guarantee, or secure the commodity, retail forex or commodity option transactions of such customers, retail forex customers or option customers. Such record shall show separately...

  12. 17 CFR 1.36 - Record of securities and property received from customers and option customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... of all securities and property received from customers, retail forex customers or option customers in lieu of money to margin, purchase, guarantee, or secure the commodity, retail forex or commodity option transactions of such customers, retail forex customers or option customers. Such record shall show separately...

  13. Customer satisfaction.

    PubMed

    Vukmir, Rade B

    2006-01-01

    This paper seeks to present an analysis of the literature examining objective information concerning the subject of customer service, as it applies to the current medical practice. Hopefully, this information will be synthesized to generate a cogent approach to correlate customer service with quality. Articles were obtained by an English language search of MEDLINE from January 1976 to July 2005. This computerized search was supplemented with literature from the author's personal collection of peer-reviewed articles on customer service in a medical setting. This information was presented in a qualitative fashion. There is a significant lack of objective data correlating customer service objectives, patient satisfaction and quality of care. Patients present predominantly for the convenience of emergency department care. Specifics of satisfaction are directed to the timing, and amount of "caring". Demographic correlates including symptom presentation, practice style, location and physician issues directly impact on satisfaction. It is most helpful to develop a productive plan for the "difficult patient", emphasizing communication and empathy. Profiling of the customer satisfaction experience is best accomplished by examining the specifics of satisfaction, nature of the ED patient, demographic profile, symptom presentation and physician interventions emphasizing communication--especially with the difficult patient. The current emergency medicine customer service dilemmas are a complex interaction of both patient and physician factors specifically targeting both efficiency and patient satisfaction. Awareness of these issues particular to the emergency patient can help to maximize efficiency, minimize subsequent medicolegal risk and improve patient care if a tailored management plan is formulated.

  14. The case for customer loyalty.

    PubMed

    Sturm, Arthur C

    2004-09-01

    How does customer loyalty grow? Through good customer experiences. Yet some organizations seem to genuinely fail to understand that they can keep or lose a customer in the proverbial blink of an eye. And in this era of increasing customer demands across all industries, it's important that healthcare financial managers understand the correlation between customer loyalty and customer experience.

  15. Preintervention Analysis and Improvement of Customer Greeting in A Restaurant

    PubMed Central

    2005-01-01

    We examined customer greeting by employees at one location of a sandwich restaurant chain. First, a preintervention analysis was conducted to determine the conditions under which greeting a customer within 3 s of his or her entry into the restaurant did and did not occur. Results suggested that an appropriate customer greeting was most likely to occur when a door chime was used to indicate that a customer had entered the store and when the store manager was present behind the service counter. Next, a performance improvement intervention, which consisted of the combination of the use of a door chime and manager presence, was evaluated. Results showed that during baseline, a mean of 6% of customers were greeted; during intervention a mean of 63% of customers were greeted. The addition of manager-delivered verbal and graphic group feedback resulted in 100% of customers being greeted across two consecutive sessions. PMID:16270851

  16. Empirical research on Kano's model and customer satisfaction.

    PubMed

    Lin, Feng-Han; Tsai, Sang-Bing; Lee, Yu-Cheng; Hsiao, Cheng-Fu; Zhou, Jie; Wang, Jiangtao; Shang, Zhiwen

    2017-01-01

    Products are now developed based on what customers desire, and thus attractive quality creation has become crucial. In studies on customer satisfaction, methods for analyzing quality attributes and enhancing customer satisfaction have been proposed to facilitate product development. Although substantial studies have performed to assess the impact of the attributes on customer satisfaction, little research has been conducted that quantitatively calculate the odds of customer satisfaction for the Kano classification, fitting a nonlinear relationship between attribute-level performance and customer satisfaction. In the present study, the odds of customer satisfaction were determined to identify the classification of quality attributes, and took customer psychology into account to suggest how decision-makers should prioritize the allocation of resources. A novel method for quantitatively assessing quality attributes was proposed to determine classification criteria and fit the nonlinear relationship between quality attributes and customer satisfaction. Subsequently, a case study was conducted on bicycle user satisfaction to verify the novel method. The concept of customer satisfaction odds was integrated with the value function from prospect theory to understand quality attributes. The results of this study can serve as a reference for product designers to create attractive quality attributes in their products and thus enhance customer satisfaction.

  17. How do challenges increase customer loyalty to online games?

    PubMed

    Teng, Ching-I

    2013-12-01

    Despite the design of various challenge levels in online games, exactly how these challenges increase customer loyalty to online games has seldom been examined. This study investigates how such challenges increase customer loyalty to online games. The study sample comprises 2,861 online gamers. Structural equation modeling is performed. Analytical results indicate that the relationship between challenge and loyalty intensifies when customers perceive that overcoming challenges takes a long time. Results of this study contribute to efforts to determine how challenges and challenge-related perceptions impact customer loyalty to online games.

  18. Profit-Based Model Selection for Customer Retention Using Individual Customer Lifetime Values.

    PubMed

    Óskarsdóttir, María; Baesens, Bart; Vanthienen, Jan

    2018-03-01

    The goal of customer retention campaigns, by design, is to add value and enhance the operational efficiency of businesses. For organizations that strive to retain their customers in saturated, and sometimes fast moving, markets such as the telecommunication and banking industries, implementing customer churn prediction models that perform well and in accordance with the business goals is vital. The expected maximum profit (EMP) measure is tailored toward this problem by taking into account the costs and benefits of a retention campaign and estimating its worth for the organization. Unfortunately, the measure assumes fixed and equal customer lifetime value (CLV) for all customers, which has been shown to not correspond well with reality. In this article, we extend the EMP measure to take into account the variability in the lifetime values of customers, thereby basing it on individual characteristics. We demonstrate how to incorporate the heterogeneity of CLVs when CLVs are known, when their prior distribution is known, and when neither is known. By taking into account individual CLVs, our proposed approach of measuring model performance gives novel insights when deciding on a customer retention campaign. The method is dependent on the characteristics of the customer base as is compliant with modern business analytics and accommodates the data-driven culture that has manifested itself within organizations.

  19. Laying the cornerstone: an employee-driven customer service program.

    PubMed

    Davis, Stephen M; Chinnis, Ann S; Dunmire, J Erin

    2006-01-01

    In the 21st-century healthcare environment, customer service remains critical to the fiscal viability of healthcare organizations. Continued competition for patients and diminishing reimbursements have necessitated the establishment of customer service programs to attract patients and retain outstanding employees. These programs should increase quality experiences for both internal customers (employees) and external customers (patients). This article describes a unique employee-driven customer service initiative titled Serving Together Achieving Results. Obstacles to implementing a customer service program in a multifaceted academic setting are highlighted, and the use of a novel tool, Q technique, to prioritize employee feedback is discussed.

  20. Custom blending of lamp phosphors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Klemm, R. E.

    1978-01-01

    Spectral output of fluorescent lamps can be precisely adjusted by using computer-assisted analysis for custom blending lamp phosphors. With technique, spectrum of main bank of lamps is measured and stored in computer memory along with emission characteristics of commonly available phosphors. Computer then calculates ratio of green and blue intensities for each phosphor according to manufacturer's specifications and plots them as coordinates on graph. Same ratios are calculated for measured spectrum. Once proper mix is determined, it is applied as coating to fluorescent tubing.

  1. Electricity market liberalization under the power of customer value evaluation and service model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bai, Hong Kun; Wang, Jiang Bo; Song, Da Wei

    2018-06-01

    After the power reform No. 9 was released in March 2015, the state officially released the Opinions on the Implementation of the Reform on the Power Sales Side. From this document, we can see that the openness of sales of social capital to the electricity business, the sales side of the market competition through multiple ways to train the main competitors, the result is more users have the right to choose, sales service quality and user energy levels will significantly improve. With the gradual promotion of the electricity sales market, the national electricity sales companies have been established one after another. In addition to power grid outside the power generation companies, energy-saving service companies and distributed power companies may become the main selling power, while industrial parks, commercial complex, large residential area, industrial and commercial users, large industrial users in the new electricity demand appearing The new changes, some power customers have also self-built distributed power supply, installation of energy storage devices or equipment to participate in the transformation of the electricity market. The main body of the electricity sales market has gradually evolved from the traditional electricity generation main body to the multi-unit main body and emerged new value points. Therefore, the electricity sales companies need to establish a power customer value evaluation method and service mode to adapt to the new electricity reform, Provide supportive decision support.

  2. Companies and the customers who hate them.

    PubMed

    McGovern, Gail; Moon, Youngme

    2007-06-01

    Why do companies bind customers with contracts, bleed them with fees, and baffle them with fine print? Because bewildered customers, who often make bad purchasing decisions, can be highly profitable. Most firms that profit from customers' confusion are on a slippery slope. Over time, their customer-centric strategies for delivering value have evolved into company-centric strategies for extracting it. Not surprisingly, when a rival comes along with a friendlier alternative, customers defect. Adversarial value-extracting strategies are common in such industries as cell phone service, retail banking, and health clubs. Overly complex product and pricing options, for example, may have been designed to serve various segments. But in fact they take advantage of how difficult it is for customers to predict their needs (such as how many cell phone minutes they'll use each month) and make it hard for them to choose the right product. Similarly, penalties and fees, which may have been instituted to offset the costs of undesirable customer behavior, like bouncing checks, turn out to be very profitable. As a result, companies have no incentive to help customers avoid them. Tactics like these generate bad publicity and fuel customer defections, creating opportunities for competitors. Virgin Mobile USA, for example, has lured millions of angry cell phone customers away from the incumbents by offering a straightforward plan with no hidden fees, no time-of-day restrictions, and no contracts. ING Direct, now the fourth-largest thrift bank in the United States, offers accounts with no fees, no tiered interest rates, and no minimums. In industries where squeezing value from customers is commonplace, companies that dismantle these harmful practices and design a transparent, value-creating offer can head off customer retaliation and spur rapid growth.

  3. 77 FR 67865 - Enhancing Protections Afforded Customers and Customer Funds Held by Futures Commission Merchants...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-11-14

    ... Parts 1, 3, 22 et al. Enhancing Protections Afforded Customers and Customer Funds Held by Futures... Customers and Customer Funds Held by Futures Commission Merchants and Derivatives Clearing Organizations... amend existing regulations to require enhanced customer protections, risk management programs, internal...

  4. Customer and service profitability

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ballaban, M.; Kelly, K.; Wisniewski, L.

    1996-03-01

    The rapid pace of competitive change in the generation sector has pushed electric utilities to rethink the concept of being obligated to serve all customers and with this change, the notion of measuring customer profitability is also being redefined. Traditionally, uniform services were provided to all customers. Rates were based on each customer classes` contribution to average costs, and consequently return was equally allocated across all customer segments. Profitability was defined strictly on an aggregate basis. The increasing demand for choice by electric customers will require electricity providers to redefine if not who they serve, than certainly how they providemore » differentiated services tailored to specific customer segments. Utilities are beginning to analyze the value, or profitability, of offering these services. Aggregate data no longer provides an accurate assessment of how resources should be allocated most efficiently. As services are unbundled, so too must costs be disaggregated to effectively measure the profitability of various options.« less

  5. Business cycles' correlation and systemic risk of the Japanese supplier-customer network.

    PubMed

    Krichene, Hazem; Chakraborty, Abhijit; Inoue, Hiroyasu; Fujiwara, Yoshi

    2017-01-01

    This work aims to study and explain the business cycle correlations of the Japanese production network. We consider the supplier-customer network, which is a directed network representing the trading links between Japanese firms (links from suppliers to customers). The community structure of this network is determined by applying the Infomap algorithm. Each community is defined by its GDP and its associated business cycle. Business cycle correlations between communities are estimated based on copula theory. Then, based on firms' attributes and network topology, these correlations are explained through linear econometric models. The results show strong evidence of business cycle correlations in the Japanese production network. A significant systemic risk is found for high negative or positive shocks. These correlations are explained mainly by the sector and by geographic similarities. Moreover, our results highlight the higher vulnerability of small communities and small firms, which is explained by the disassortative mixing of the production network.

  6. Business cycles’ correlation and systemic risk of the Japanese supplier-customer network

    PubMed Central

    Chakraborty, Abhijit; Inoue, Hiroyasu; Fujiwara, Yoshi

    2017-01-01

    This work aims to study and explain the business cycle correlations of the Japanese production network. We consider the supplier-customer network, which is a directed network representing the trading links between Japanese firms (links from suppliers to customers). The community structure of this network is determined by applying the Infomap algorithm. Each community is defined by its GDP and its associated business cycle. Business cycle correlations between communities are estimated based on copula theory. Then, based on firms’ attributes and network topology, these correlations are explained through linear econometric models. The results show strong evidence of business cycle correlations in the Japanese production network. A significant systemic risk is found for high negative or positive shocks. These correlations are explained mainly by the sector and by geographic similarities. Moreover, our results highlight the higher vulnerability of small communities and small firms, which is explained by the disassortative mixing of the production network. PMID:29059233

  7. Contingency Contracting Customer Guide

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1996-12-01

    I CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING CUSTOMER GUIDE PROJECT NUMBER: LC9619100 PROJECT MANAGER: CAPT TOM SNYDER TEAM MEMBERS MAJ JOHN PERRY CAPT ROBBIN VAUGHN...Report 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5. FUNDING NUMBERS Contracting Deployment Customer Guide 6. AUTHOR(S) Capt.Thomas J. Snyder, AFLMA/LGC, DSN 596-4085 7...individual customers on the process, the customer support guide provides the necessary explanations without straining valuable manpower resources. The

  8. Exploring pharmacist-customer communication: the established blood pressure measurement episode.

    PubMed

    Cavaco, Afonso Neves; Romano, João P

    2010-10-01

    a higher information search. Since the closed questioning format was prevalent, it seems that open information exchange was limited, mainly serving confirmation purposes rather than having a true exploratory nature. Although talk dominance is balanced, further analysis is required to better inform these results, which would confirm the low interactivity and the reduced information-seeking behaviour showed in the counselling episodes.

  9. Psychosocial risk factors among telephone service workers: a study of the interaction between customer and worker.

    PubMed

    Scarone, Mireya; Cedillo, Leonor A

    2007-01-01

    Many activities in the telephone industry involve interaction with customers, including both traditional (for example, client assistance) and emerging services (product sales). Interaction with customers has been reported to cause stress in workers. The study was initiated as a consequence of changes in dialing of long-distance numbers. The main sources of stress among workers in Traffic and Customer Services Departments were analyzed, together with the resulting psychological distress and other health symptoms. Information was gathered through semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire containing the Spanish version of the Job Content Questionnaire, as well as psychological strain and health symptoms items. Questions developed specifically for this study concerned emotional demands, client interactions, and mechanisms used to deal with violent or unpleasant interactions. Workers received valuable information from the study that empowered them to demand improved working conditions.

  10. Achieving excellence--creating customer passion.

    PubMed

    Scheuing, E E

    1999-08-01

    Customers are the lifeblood of any organization. Without them, it loses its meaning and purpose. Customers provide incentive, vitality, and growth. Serving them well requires a customer-focused culture and a customer-friendly system. It also requires unrelenting effort toward continuous improvement, but the rewards are well worth the effort: unflinching customer loyalty, sustainable growth, and impressive performance.

  11. The mismanagement of customer loyalty.

    PubMed

    Reinartz, Werner; Kumar, V

    2002-07-01

    Who wouldn't want loyal customers? Surely they should cost less to serve, they'd be willing to pay more than other customers, and they'd actively market your company by word of mouth, right? Maybe not. Careful study of the relationship between customer loyalty and profits plumbed from 16,000 customers in four companies' databases tells a different story. The authors found no evidence to support any of these claims. What they did find was that the link between customers and profitability was more complicated because customers fall into four groups, not two. Simply put: Not all loyal customers are profitable, and not all profitable customers are loyal. Traditional tools for segmenting customers do a poor job of identifying that latter group, causing companies to chase expensively after initially profitable customers who hold little promise of future profits. The authors suggest an alternative approach, based on well-established "event-history modeling" techniques, that more accurately predicts future buying probabilities. Armed with such a tool, marketers can correctly identify which customers belong in which category and market accordingly. The challenge in managing customers who are profitable but disloyal--the "butterflies"--is to milk them for as much as you can while they're buying from you. A softly-softly approach is more appropriate for the profitable customers who are likely to stay loyal--your "true friends." As for highly loyal but not very profitable customers--the "barnacles"--you need to find out if they have the potential to spend more than they currently do. And, of course, for the "strangers"--those who generate no loyalty and no profits--the answer is simple: Identify early and don't invest anything.

  12. Applicability of the theory of customs unions to the case of the cooperation council for the Arab States of the Gulf (The GCC)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    As-Sudais, A.A.S.

    1985-01-01

    In 1981, six Arab Gulf states formed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). These states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One of the main stated objectives of the GCC is regional economic integration. This objective was expressed in the GCC Unified Economic Agreement which called for gradual creation of the GCC common market and cooperation and coordination in all economic fields at all levels. The GCC has chosen to approach economic integration in a gradual manner. The first step taken was the formation of a customs union. This study investigates the applicability ofmore » the theory of customs unions to this particular group at this time. The economies of the GCC members exhibit similar characteristics such as reliance on the export of a single nonrenewable commodity (oil), similar large-scale industrial projects (mainly petrochemicals), lack of complementarity of economic resource endowment, and little diversity in industrial production. The main conclusion of the study is that the possible gains suggested by the theory of customs unions are not expected to be realized to a significant extent as a result of forming the GCC customs union. Trade effects (if any) will be negligible due to various factors including low-pre-union tariff levels.« less

  13. Customer service vs patient care.

    PubMed

    Khouzam, Hani Raoul

    2002-03-01

    Though hospital administrators may impose a customer satisfaction mandate, it need not alter the status of "patients" redefined as "customers." It is the duty of all health care providers to remember that the practice of medicine is not chiefly a business and is not purely a science. In its mission is the art of encouraging the individuality of each provider of medical care to interact with the individuality of his/her patients. The medical profession in antiquity was linked with religion and the treating physician with special acquired knowledge and clinical experience was often able to accomplish a "miracle" when TLC (tender loving care) was the essential element of medical practice. If TLC is reintroduced into 21st century medical practice, "customer satisfaction" will be the result rather than the goal of medical care.

  14. Case study: the Health SmartLibrary* experiences in web personalization and customization at the Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University

    PubMed Central

    Shedlock, James; Frisque, Michelle; Hunt, Steve; Walton, Linda; Handler, Jonathan; Gillam, Michael

    2010-01-01

    Question: How can the user's access to health information, especially full-text articles, be improved? The solution is building and evaluating the Health SmartLibrary (HSL). Setting: The setting is the Galter Health Sciences Library, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Method: The HSL was built on web-based personalization and customization tools: My E-Resources, Stay Current, Quick Search, and File Cabinet. Personalization and customization data were tracked to show user activity with these value-added, online services. Main Results: Registration data indicated that users were receptive to personalized resource selection and that the automated application of specialty-based, personalized HSLs was more frequently adopted than manual customization by users. Those who did customize customized My E-Resources and Stay Current more often than Quick Search and File Cabinet. Most of those who customized did so only once. Conclusion: Users did not always take advantage of the services designed to aid their library research experiences. When personalization is available at registration, users readily accepted it. Customization tools were used less frequently; however, more research is needed to determine why this was the case. PMID:20428276

  15. Customer Communication Document

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2009-01-01

    This procedure communicates to the Customers of the Automation, Robotics and Simulation Division (AR&SD) Dynamics Systems Test Branch (DSTB) how to obtain services of the Six-Degrees-Of-Freedom Dynamic Test System (SDTS). The scope includes the major communication documents between the SDTS and its Customer. It established the initial communication and contact points as well as provides the initial documentation in electronic media for the customer. Contact the SDTS Manager (SM) for the names of numbers of the current contact points.

  16. OpinionSeer: interactive visualization of hotel customer feedback.

    PubMed

    Wu, Yingcai; Wei, Furu; Liu, Shixia; Au, Norman; Cui, Weiwei; Zhou, Hong; Qu, Huamin

    2010-01-01

    The rapid development of Web technology has resulted in an increasing number of hotel customers sharing their opinions on the hotel services. Effective visual analysis of online customer opinions is needed, as it has a significant impact on building a successful business. In this paper, we present OpinionSeer, an interactive visualization system that could visually analyze a large collection of online hotel customer reviews. The system is built on a new visualization-centric opinion mining technique that considers uncertainty for faithfully modeling and analyzing customer opinions. A new visual representation is developed to convey customer opinions by augmenting well-established scatterplots and radial visualization. To provide multiple-level exploration, we introduce subjective logic to handle and organize subjective opinions with degrees of uncertainty. Several case studies illustrate the effectiveness and usefulness of OpinionSeer on analyzing relationships among multiple data dimensions and comparing opinions of different groups. Aside from data on hotel customer feedback, OpinionSeer could also be applied to visually analyze customer opinions on other products or services.

  17. Empirical research on Kano’s model and customer satisfaction

    PubMed Central

    Lin, Feng-Han; Tsai, Sang-Bing; Lee, Yu-Cheng; Hsiao, Cheng-Fu; Zhou, Jie; Wang, Jiangtao; Shang, Zhiwen

    2017-01-01

    Products are now developed based on what customers desire, and thus attractive quality creation has become crucial. In studies on customer satisfaction, methods for analyzing quality attributes and enhancing customer satisfaction have been proposed to facilitate product development. Although substantial studies have performed to assess the impact of the attributes on customer satisfaction, little research has been conducted that quantitatively calculate the odds of customer satisfaction for the Kano classification, fitting a nonlinear relationship between attribute-level performance and customer satisfaction. In the present study, the odds of customer satisfaction were determined to identify the classification of quality attributes, and took customer psychology into account to suggest how decision-makers should prioritize the allocation of resources. A novel method for quantitatively assessing quality attributes was proposed to determine classification criteria and fit the nonlinear relationship between quality attributes and customer satisfaction. Subsequently, a case study was conducted on bicycle user satisfaction to verify the novel method. The concept of customer satisfaction odds was integrated with the value function from prospect theory to understand quality attributes. The results of this study can serve as a reference for product designers to create attractive quality attributes in their products and thus enhance customer satisfaction. PMID:28873418

  18. A Data-Driven Approach to Reverse Engineering Customer Engagement Models: Towards Functional Constructs

    PubMed Central

    de Vries, Natalie Jane; Carlson, Jamie; Moscato, Pablo

    2014-01-01

    Online consumer behavior in general and online customer engagement with brands in particular, has become a major focus of research activity fuelled by the exponential increase of interactive functions of the internet and social media platforms and applications. Current research in this area is mostly hypothesis-driven and much debate about the concept of Customer Engagement and its related constructs remains existent in the literature. In this paper, we aim to propose a novel methodology for reverse engineering a consumer behavior model for online customer engagement, based on a computational and data-driven perspective. This methodology could be generalized and prove useful for future research in the fields of consumer behaviors using questionnaire data or studies investigating other types of human behaviors. The method we propose contains five main stages; symbolic regression analysis, graph building, community detection, evaluation of results and finally, investigation of directed cycles and common feedback loops. The ‘communities’ of questionnaire items that emerge from our community detection method form possible ‘functional constructs’ inferred from data rather than assumed from literature and theory. Our results show consistent partitioning of questionnaire items into such ‘functional constructs’ suggesting the method proposed here could be adopted as a new data-driven way of human behavior modeling. PMID:25036766

  19. A data-driven approach to reverse engineering customer engagement models: towards functional constructs.

    PubMed

    de Vries, Natalie Jane; Carlson, Jamie; Moscato, Pablo

    2014-01-01

    Online consumer behavior in general and online customer engagement with brands in particular, has become a major focus of research activity fuelled by the exponential increase of interactive functions of the internet and social media platforms and applications. Current research in this area is mostly hypothesis-driven and much debate about the concept of Customer Engagement and its related constructs remains existent in the literature. In this paper, we aim to propose a novel methodology for reverse engineering a consumer behavior model for online customer engagement, based on a computational and data-driven perspective. This methodology could be generalized and prove useful for future research in the fields of consumer behaviors using questionnaire data or studies investigating other types of human behaviors. The method we propose contains five main stages; symbolic regression analysis, graph building, community detection, evaluation of results and finally, investigation of directed cycles and common feedback loops. The 'communities' of questionnaire items that emerge from our community detection method form possible 'functional constructs' inferred from data rather than assumed from literature and theory. Our results show consistent partitioning of questionnaire items into such 'functional constructs' suggesting the method proposed here could be adopted as a new data-driven way of human behavior modeling.

  20. Get inside the lives of your customers.

    PubMed

    Seybold, P B

    2001-05-01

    Many companies have become adept at the art of customer relationship management. They've collected mountains of data on preferences and behavior, divided buyers into ever-finer segments, and refined their products, services, and marketing pitches. But all too often those efforts are too narrow--they concentrate only on the points where the customer comes into contact with the company. Few businesses have bothered to look at what the author calls the customer scenario--the broad context in which customers select, buy, and use products and services. As a result, consultant Patricia Seybold maintains, they've routinely missed chances to deepen loyalty and expand sales. In this article, the author shows how effective three very different companies have been at using customer scenarios as the centerpiece of their marketing plans. Chip maker National Semiconductor looked beyond the purchasing agents that buy in bulk to find ways to make it easier for engineers to design National's components into their specifications for mobile telephones. Each time they do so, it translates into millions of dollars in orders. By developing a customer scenario that describes how people actually shop for groceries, Tesco learned the importance of decentralizing its Web shopping site and how the extra costs of decentralization could be outweighed by the higher profit margins on-line customers generate. And Buzzsaw.com used customer scenarios as the basis for its entire business. It has used the Web to create a better way for the dozens of participants in a construction project to share their drawings and manage their projects. Seybold lays out the steps managers can take to develop their own customer scenarios. By thinking broadly about the challenges your customers face, she suggests, you can almost always find ways to make their lives easier--and thus earn their loyalty.

  1. Intelligent diagnosis and prescription for a customized physical fitness and healthcare system.

    PubMed

    Huang, Chung-Chi; Liu, Hsiao-Man; Huang, Chung-Lin

    2015-01-01

    With the advent of the era of global high-tech industry and commerce and its associated sedentary lifestyle, opportunities for physical activity are reduced. People's physical fitness and health is deteriorating. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a system that can enhance people's physical fitness and health. However, it is difficult for general physical fitness and healthcare systems to meet individualized needs. The main purpose of this research is to develop a method of intelligent diagnosis and prescription for a customized physical fitness and healthcare system. The proposed system records all processes of the physical fitness and healthcare system via a wireless sensor network and the results of the diagnosis and prescription will be generated by fuzzy logic inference. It will improve individualized physical fitness and healthcare. Finally, we demonstrate the advantages of intelligent diagnosis and prescription for a customized physical fitness and healthcare system.

  2. Beyond Customer Satisfaction: Reexamining Customer Loyalty to Evaluate Continuing Education Programs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hoyt, Jeff E.; Howell, Scott L.

    2011-01-01

    This article provides questionnaire items and a theoretical model of factors predictive of customer loyalty for use by administrators to determine ways to increase repeat purchasing in their continuing education programs. Prior studies in the literature are discussed followed by results of applying the model at one institution and a discussion of…

  3. Randomized controlled study of customized preventive medicine reminder letters in a community practice.

    PubMed Central

    Hogg, W. E.; Bass, M.; Calonge, N.; Crouch, H.; Satenstein, G.

    1998-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of customized, family-oriented reminder letters in activating patients to seek appropriate preventive services. DESIGN: Randomized clinical trial. One group received computer-generated, customized letters explaining recommended preventive procedures for each family member. A second group received a form letter listing recommendations for all preventive procedures for all age and sex groups. A third group (control group) received no letters. SETTING: A private medical centre, without university affiliation, in rural Quebec. PARTICIPANTS: From 8770 patients who met study criteria, 719 families were randomly selected. Data were available for 1971 of 1998 patients in these families. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The Family Received Index is the proportion of all procedures for which a family was overdue that they received. The Family End-of-study Up-to-date Index is the proportion of procedures for which the family was eligible and for which they were up-to-date at the end of the study. RESULTS: The Family Received Index for families mailed customized letters was more than double the index for patients not mailed letters (Kruskal-Wallis P = .0139). Comparison of the Family End-of-study Up-to-date indices also demonstrated that families of patients sent customized letters were more likely to be up-to-date than families not sent letters (Kruskal-Wallis P = .0054). No statistically significant difference appeared between the number of preventive measures received by the control group and the form-letter group. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates a clinically small but statistically significant value to customizing reminder letters. PMID:9481466

  4. The four faces of mass customization.

    PubMed

    Gilmore, J H; Pine, B J

    1997-01-01

    Virtually all executives today recognize the need to provide outstanding service to customers. Focusing on the customer, however, is both an imperative and a potential curse. In their desire to become customer driven, many companies have resorted to inventing new programs and procedures to meet every customer's request. But as customers and their needs grow increasingly diverse, such an approach has become a surefire way to add unnecessary cost and complexity to operations. Companies around the world have embraced mass customization in an attempt to avoid those pitfalls. Readily available information technology and flexible work processes permit them to customize goods or services for individual customers in high volumes at low cost. But many managers have discovered that mass customization itself can produce unnecessary cost and complexity. They are realizing that they did not examine thoroughly enough what kind of customization their customers would value before they plunged ahead. That is understandable. Until now, no framework has existed to help managers determine the type of customization they should pursue. James Gilmore and Joseph Pine provide managers with just such a framework. They have identified four distinct approaches to customization. When designing or redesigning a product, process, or business unit, managers should examine each approach for possible insights into how to serve their customers best. In some cases, a single approach will dominate the design. More often, however, managers will need a mix of some or all of the four approaches to serve their own particular set of customers.

  5. Tailoring the Immune Response via Customization of Pathogen Gene Expression.

    PubMed

    Runco, Lisa M; Stauft, Charles B; Coleman, J Robert

    2014-01-01

    The majority of studies focused on the construction and reengineering of bacterial pathogens have mainly relied on the knocking out of virulence factors or deletion/mutation of amino acid residues to then observe the microbe's phenotype and the resulting effect on the host immune response. These knockout bacterial strains have also been proposed as vaccines to combat bacterial disease. Theoretically, knockout strains would be unable to cause disease since their virulence factors have been removed, yet they could induce a protective memory response. While knockout strains have been valuable tools to discern the role of virulence factors in host immunity and bacterial pathogenesis, they have been unable to yield clinically relevant vaccines. The advent of synthetic biology and enhanced user-directed gene customization has altered this binary process of knockout, followed by observation. Recent studies have shown that a researcher can now tailor and customize a given microbe's gene expression to produce a desired immune response. In this commentary, we highlight these studies as a new avenue for controlling the inflammatory response as well as vaccine development.

  6. Tailoring the Immune Response via Customization of Pathogen Gene Expression

    PubMed Central

    Runco, Lisa M.; Stauft, Charles B.

    2014-01-01

    The majority of studies focused on the construction and reengineering of bacterial pathogens have mainly relied on the knocking out of virulence factors or deletion/mutation of amino acid residues to then observe the microbe's phenotype and the resulting effect on the host immune response. These knockout bacterial strains have also been proposed as vaccines to combat bacterial disease. Theoretically, knockout strains would be unable to cause disease since their virulence factors have been removed, yet they could induce a protective memory response. While knockout strains have been valuable tools to discern the role of virulence factors in host immunity and bacterial pathogenesis, they have been unable to yield clinically relevant vaccines. The advent of synthetic biology and enhanced user-directed gene customization has altered this binary process of knockout, followed by observation. Recent studies have shown that a researcher can now tailor and customize a given microbe's gene expression to produce a desired immune response. In this commentary, we highlight these studies as a new avenue for controlling the inflammatory response as well as vaccine development. PMID:24719769

  7. Managing customer service.

    PubMed

    Paget, Zoe

    2015-02-28

    Zoe Paget is the customer services manager at YourVets. Her role includes managing the company's call centre, social media marketing, working with the marketing department to develop customer care initiatives and reporting service levels to the company's directors. British Veterinary Association.

  8. A customer-friendly Space Station

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pivirotto, D. S.

    1984-01-01

    This paper discusses the relationship of customers to the Space Station Program currently being defined by NASA. Emphasis is on definition of the Program such that the Space Station will be conducive to use by customers, that is by people who utilize the services provided by the Space Station and its associated platforms and vehicles. Potential types of customers are identified. Scenarios are developed for ways in which different types of customers can utilize the Space Station. Both management and technical issues involved in making the Station 'customer friendly' are discussed.

  9. 19 CFR 19.34 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Customs supervision. 19.34 Section 19.34 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... Wheat § 19.34 Customs supervision. Port directors shall exercise such supervision and control over the...

  10. 19 CFR 19.34 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Customs supervision. 19.34 Section 19.34 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... Wheat § 19.34 Customs supervision. Port directors shall exercise such supervision and control over the...

  11. 19 CFR 19.34 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Customs supervision. 19.34 Section 19.34 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... Wheat § 19.34 Customs supervision. Port directors shall exercise such supervision and control over the...

  12. 19 CFR 19.34 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Customs supervision. 19.34 Section 19.34 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY... Wheat § 19.34 Customs supervision. Port directors shall exercise such supervision and control over the...

  13. Building brand equity and customer loyalty

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Pokorny, G.

    Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty are two different concepts, not merely two different phrases measuring a single consumer attitude. Utilities having identical customer satisfaction ratings based on performance in areas like power reliability, pricing, and quality of service differ dramatically in their levels of customer loyalty. As competitive markets establish themselves, discrepancies in customer loyalty will have profound impacts on each utility`s prospects for market retention, profitability, and ultimately, shareholder value. Meeting pre-existing consumer needs, wants and preferences is the foundation of any utility strategy for building customer loyalty and market retention. Utilities meet their underlying customer expectations by performingmore » well in three discrete areas: product, customer service programs, and customer service transactions. Brand equity is an intervening variable standing between performance and the loyalty a utility desires. It is the totality of customer perceptions about the unique extra value the utility provides above and beyond its basic product, customer service programs and customer service transactions; it is the tangible, palpable reality of a branded utility that exists in the minds of consumers. By learning to manage their brand equity as well as they manage their brand performance, utilities gain control over all the major elements in the value-creation process that creates customer loyalty. By integrating brand performance and brand equity, electric utility companies can truly become in their customers` eyes a brand - a unique, very special, value-added energy services provider that can ask for and deserve a premium price in the marketplace.« less

  14. Employee customer orientation in context: how the environment moderates the influence of customer orientation on performance outcomes.

    PubMed

    Grizzle, Jerry W; Zablah, Alex R; Brown, Tom J; Mowen, John C; Lee, James M

    2009-09-01

    This empirical study evaluated the moderating effects of unit customer orientation (CO) climate and climate strength on the relationship between service workers' level of CO and their performance of customer-oriented behaviors (COBs). In addition, the study examined whether aggregate COB performance influences unit profitability. Building on multisource, multilevel data, the study's results suggest that the influence of employee CO on employee COB performance is positive when the unit's CO climate is relatively high and that the constructs are unrelated when unit CO climate is relatively low. In addition, the data reveal that unit COB performance influences unit profitability by enhancing revenues without a concomitant increase in costs. The study's results underscore the theoretical importance of considering cross-level influencers of employee-level relationships and suggest that managers should focus on creating a climate that is supportive of COBs if their units are to profit from the recruitment, hiring, and retention of customer-oriented employees.

  15. Customer Churn Prediction for Broadband Internet Services

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, B. Q.; Kechadi, M.-T.; Buckley, B.

    Although churn prediction has been an area of research in the voice branch of telecommunications services, more focused studies on the huge growth area of Broadband Internet services are limited. Therefore, this paper presents a new set of features for broadband Internet customer churn prediction, based on Henley segments, the broadband usage, dial types, the spend of dial-up, line-information, bill and payment information, account information. Then the four prediction techniques (Logistic Regressions, Decision Trees, Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines) are applied in customer churn, based on the new features. Finally, the evaluation of new features and a comparative analysis of the predictors are made for broadband customer churn prediction. The experimental results show that the new features with these four modelling techniques are efficient for customer churn prediction in the broadband service field.

  16. Customer-centered brand management.

    PubMed

    Rust, Roland T; Zeithaml, Valarie A; Lemon, Katherine N

    2004-09-01

    Most executives today agree that their efforts should be focused on growing the lifetime value of their customers. Yet few companies have come to terms with the implications of that idea for their marketing management. Oldsmobile, for example, enjoyed outstanding brand equity with many customers through the 1980s. But as the century wore further on, the people who loved the Olds got downright old. So why did General Motors spend so many years and so much money trying to reposition and refurbish the tired,tarnished brand? Why didn't GM managers instead move younger buyers along a path of less resistance, toward another of the brands in GM's stable--or even launch a wholly new brand geared to their tastes? Catering to new customers, even at the expense of the brand, would surely have been the path to profits. The reason, argue the authors, is that in large consumer-goods companies like General Motors, brands are the raison d'etre. They are the focus of decision making and the basis of accountability. But this overwhelming focus on growing brand equity is inconsistent with the goal of growing customer equity. Drawing on a wide range of current examples, the authors offer seven tactics that will put brands in the service of growing customer equity. These include replacing traditional brand managers with a new position--the customer segment manager; targeting brands to as narrow an audience as possible; developing the capability and the mind-set to hand off customers from one brand to another within the company; and changing the way brand equity is measured by basing calculations on individual, rather than average, customer data.

  17. Nonverbal behavior of vendors in customer-vendor interaction.

    PubMed

    Amsbary, J H; Powell, L

    2007-04-01

    Two research questions were posed on the homophily theory of customer-vendor interactions: (a) do vendors show any nonverbal preference for Euro-American or African-American customers?; (b) do vendors demonstrate any nonverbal preference for customers with which they share racial homophily? The results supported the homophily theory for Euro-American customers in that there were significant interaction effects by race in facial expression (F = 5.33, p < .05), amount of speaking (F = 6.76, p < .01), tone of voice (F = 7.62, p < .01), and touching (F = 4.57, p < .05). Vendor behavior varied when the customer was Euro-American, with Euro-American vendors smiling more frequently (M = 4.05) than African-American vendors (M = 3.69), speaking more frequently (M = 3.57) than African-American vendors (M = 3.09), using a more friendly tone of voice (M = 3.59, and engaging in more touching behaviors (M = 1.81) than African-American vendors (M = 1.48). There was no significant difference in the behavior of Euro-American and African-American vendors when the customer was African-American.

  18. Customer Relationship Management.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fayerman, Michael

    2002-01-01

    Presents an approach increasingly employed by businesses to track and respond to their customers to provide better and faster services: customer relationship management. Discusses its applicability to the operations of higher education and institutional research and the role it plays in the knowledge management framework. (EV)

  19. A customer's definition of quality.

    PubMed

    Miller, T O

    1992-01-01

    What's the best way to get "close to the customer"? One company has developed a customer feedback system to drive product design, sales, service, and support functions in order to ensure better customer responsiveness.

  20. Application of text mining for customer evaluations in commercial banking

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tan, Jing; Du, Xiaojiang; Hao, Pengpeng; Wang, Yanbo J.

    2015-07-01

    Nowadays customer attrition is increasingly serious in commercial banks. To combat this problem roundly, mining customer evaluation texts is as important as mining customer structured data. In order to extract hidden information from customer evaluations, Textual Feature Selection, Classification and Association Rule Mining are necessary techniques. This paper presents all three techniques by using Chinese Word Segmentation, C5.0 and Apriori, and a set of experiments were run based on a collection of real textual data that includes 823 customer evaluations taken from a Chinese commercial bank. Results, consequent solutions, some advice for the commercial bank are given in this paper.

  1. 19 CFR 101.7 - Customs seal.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Customs seal. 101.7 Section 101.7 Customs Duties U... GENERAL PROVISIONS § 101.7 Customs seal. (a) Design. According to the design furnished by the Department of the Treasury, the Customs seal of the United States shall consist of the seal of the Department of...

  2. 19 CFR 101.7 - Customs seal.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Customs seal. 101.7 Section 101.7 Customs Duties U... GENERAL PROVISIONS § 101.7 Customs seal. (a) Design. According to the design furnished by the Department of the Treasury, the Customs seal of the United States shall consist of the seal of the Department of...

  3. Customers' perspectives on the impact of the Pathways to Work condition management programme on their health, well-being and vocational activity.

    PubMed

    Secker, Jenny; Pittam, Gail; Ford, Fiona

    2012-11-01

    Pathways to Work is a UK initiative aimed at supporting customers on incapacity benefits to return to work. This qualitative study complements previous evaluations of Pathways to Work by exploring customers' perceptions of the impact of the Condition Management Programme (CMP) offered to claimants with long-term health conditions. 39 customers took part in focus groups held at the seven sites where Pathways was originally piloted. The main focus of the discussions was on perceptions of the ways in which participation had impacted on health, well-being and return to work. The discussions were audio-recorded and fully transcribed for analysis using a text analysis framework to enable the development and refinement of categories and overarching patterns in the data. Perceived impacts on health and well-being included a more positive outlook, social contact, changed perceptions of conditions and improvements in health. Some customers also reported an increase in their vocational activity and others felt ready to embark on new activities. Factors associated with positive outcomes included the extent and quality of contact with CMP staff and practical advice about condition management. Factors impeding positive employment outcomes related mainly to obstacles to returning to work. The results indicated that CMP can assist customers to learn about and manage their health conditions and increase their vocational activity, and that CMP therefore provides a promising means of enabling people with long-term health conditions to regain a fulfilling, productive life.

  4. Space Mission Operations Ground Systems Integration Customer Service

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Roth, Karl

    2014-01-01

    The facility, which is now the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, has provided continuous space mission and related services for the space industry since 1961, from Mercury Redstone through the International Space Station (ISS). Throughout the long history of the facility and mission support teams, the HOSC has developed a stellar customer support and service process. In this era, of cost cutting, and providing more capability and results with fewer resources, space missions are looking for the most efficient way to accomplish their objectives. One of the first services provided by the facility was fax transmission of documents to, then, Cape Canaveral in Florida. The headline in the Marshall Star, the newspaper for the newly formed Marshall Space Flight Center, read "Exact copies of Documents sent to Cape in 4 minutes." The customer was Dr. Wernher von Braun. Currently at the HOSC we are supporting, or have recently supported, missions ranging from simple ISS payloads requiring little more than "bentpipe" telemetry access, to a low cost free-flyer Fast, Affordable, Science and Technology Satellite (FASTSAT), to a full service ISS payload Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 2 (AMS2) supporting 24/7 operations at three operations centers around the world with an investment of over 2 billion dollars. The HOSC has more need and desire than ever to provide fast and efficient customer service to support these missions. Here we will outline how our customer-centric service approach reduces the cost of providing services, makes it faster and easier than ever for new customers to get started with HOSC services, and show what the future holds for our space mission operations customers. We will discuss our philosophy concerning our responsibility and accessibility to a mission customer as well as how we deal with the following issues: initial contact with a customer, reducing customer cost, changing regulations and security

  5. Customer care in the NHS.

    PubMed

    Ruddick, Fred

    2015-01-20

    Viewing individuals in need of NHS care as customers has the potential to refocus the way their care is delivered. This article highlights some of the benefits of reframing the nurse-patient relationship in terms of customer care, and draws parallels between good customer care and the provision of high quality patient care in the NHS. It explores lessons to be learned from those who have studied the customer experience, which can be adapted to enhance the customer care experience within the health service. Developing professional expertise in the knowledge and skills that underpin good-quality interpersonal encounters is essential to improve the customer experience in health care and should be prioritised alongside the development of more technical skills. Creating a culture where emotional intelligence, caring and compassion are essential requirements for all nursing staff will improve patient satisfaction.

  6. Predictive Systems for Customer Interactions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vijayaraghavan, Ravi; Albert, Sam; Singh, Vinod Kumar; Kannan, Pallipuram V.

    With the coming of age of web as a mainstream customer service channel, B2C companies have invested substantial resources in enhancing their web presence. Today customers can interact with a company, not only through the traditional phone channel but also through chat, email, SMS or web self-service. Each of these channels is best suited for some services and ill-matched for others. Customer service organizations today struggle with the challenge of delivering seamlessly integrated services through these different channels. This paper will evaluate some of the key challenges in multi-channel customer service. It will address the challenge of creating the right channel mix i.e. providing the right choice of channels for a given customer/behavior/issue profile. It will also provide strategies for optimizing the performance of a given channel in creating the right customer experience.

  7. Custom-made ocular prosthesis.

    PubMed

    Gunaseelaraj, Rajkumar; Karthikeyan, Suma; Kumar, Mohan N; Balamurugan, T; Jagadeeshwaran, A R

    2012-08-01

    An ocular defect may affect a patient psychologically. An ocular prosthesis is given to uplift the patient psychologically and improve the confidence. Ocular prosthesis can be custom made or a stock shell. To improve the comfort and matching of the prosthesis with that of the adjacent natural eye an custom made ocular prosthesis is preferred. Different techniques are available to fabricate a custom ocular prosthesis, here we have used paper iris disk technique.

  8. Fuzzy Evaluating Customer Satisfaction of Jet Fuel Companies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Haiying; Fang, Guoyi

    Based on the market characters of jet fuel companies, the paper proposes an evaluation index system of jet fuel company customer satisfaction from five dimensions as time, business, security, fee and service. And a multi-level fuzzy evaluation model composing with the analytic hierarchy process approach and fuzzy evaluation approach is given. Finally a case of one jet fuel company customer satisfaction evaluation is studied and the evaluation results response the feelings of the jet fuel company customers, which shows the fuzzy evaluation model is effective and efficient.

  9. Motivating nurses' organizational citizenship behaviors by customer-oriented perception for evidence-based practice.

    PubMed

    Chang, Ching Sheng; Chang, Hae Ching

    2010-12-01

    There is a gap in the literature about the influence of customer-oriented perception on nursing personnel's organizational citizenship behaviors. Organizational citizenship behaviors are the type of contextual behaviors that are difficult to observe and measure as such behaviors are usually generated in quite subtle and unpredictable ways. This study tested the hypothesis: Customer-oriented perception is associated with increased organizational citizenship behaviors for nurses. If nursing personnel's customer-oriented perception can increase their willingness to display organizational citizenship behaviors, it may facilitate hospital operation and enhance organizational effectiveness. A cross-sectional design using a questionnaire survey of nurses in 10 medical centers was used. Five hundred copies of the questionnaire were distributed, and 232 effective copies were retrieved, with a valid response rate of 46.4%. Structural equation modeling was performed in SPSS 11.0 and Amos 7.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) statistical software packages. The main finding was that favorable customer-oriented perception is associated with increased organizational citizenship behaviors for nurses. Extensive training and customer-oriented performance evaluation are proposed in the hope of creating customer-oriented perception among nursing personnel and subsequently inspiring the display of organizational citizenship behaviors. ©2010 Sigma Theta Tau International.

  10. Preintervention Analysis and Improvement of Customer Greeting in a Restaurant

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Therrien, Kelly; Wilder, David A.; Rodriguez, Manuel; Wine, Byron

    2005-01-01

    We examined customer greeting by employees at one location of a sandwich restaurant chain. First, a preintervention analysis was conducted to determine the conditions under which greeting a customer within 3 s of his or her entry into the restaurant did and did not occur. Results suggested that an appropriate customer greeting was most likely to…

  11. 41 CFR 102-85.215 - What if another customer agency forces a GSA customer to move?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... agency forces a GSA customer to move? 102-85.215 Section 102-85.215 Public Contracts and Property... PROPERTY 85-PRICING POLICY FOR OCCUPANCY IN GSA SPACE Continued Occupancy, Relocation and Forced Moves § 102-85.215 What if another customer agency forces a GSA customer to move? If a GSA customer agency, or...

  12. 41 CFR 102-85.215 - What if another customer agency forces a GSA customer to move?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... agency forces a GSA customer to move? 102-85.215 Section 102-85.215 Public Contracts and Property... PROPERTY 85-PRICING POLICY FOR OCCUPANCY IN GSA SPACE Continued Occupancy, Relocation and Forced Moves § 102-85.215 What if another customer agency forces a GSA customer to move? If a GSA customer agency, or...

  13. 41 CFR 102-85.215 - What if another customer agency forces a GSA customer to move?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... agency forces a GSA customer to move? 102-85.215 Section 102-85.215 Public Contracts and Property... PROPERTY 85-PRICING POLICY FOR OCCUPANCY IN GSA SPACE Continued Occupancy, Relocation and Forced Moves § 102-85.215 What if another customer agency forces a GSA customer to move? If a GSA customer agency, or...

  14. Assessment of Customer Service in Academic Health Care Libraries (ACSAHL): an instrument for measuring customer service*†

    PubMed Central

    Crossno, Jon E.; Berkins, Brenda; Gotcher, Nancy; Hill, Judith L.; McConoughey, Michelle; Walters, Mitchel

    2001-01-01

    Objectives: In a pilot study, the library had good results using SERVQUAL, a respected and often-used instrument for measuring customer satisfaction. The SERVQUAL instrument itself, however, received some serious and well-founded criticism from the respondents to our survey. The purpose of this study was to test the comparability of the results of SERVQUAL with a revised and shortened instrument modeled on SERVQUAL. The revised instrument, the Assessment of Customer Service in Academic Health Care Libraries (ACSAHL), was designed to better assess customer service in academic health care libraries. Methods: Surveys were sent to clients who had used the document delivery services at three academic medical libraries in Texas over the previous twelve to eighteen months. ACSAHL surveys were sent exclusively to clients at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern, while the client pools at the two other institutions were randomly divided and provided either SERVQUAL or ACSAHL surveys. Results: Results indicated that more respondents preferred the shorter ACSAHL instrument to the longer and more complex SERVQUAL instrument. Also, comparing the scores from both surveys indicated that ACSAHL elicited comparable results. Conclusions: ACSAHL appears to measure the same type of data in similar settings, but additional testing is recommended both to confirm the survey's results through data replication and to investigate whether the instrument applies to different service areas. PMID:11337948

  15. When fellow customers behave badly: Witness reactions to employee mistreatment by customers.

    PubMed

    Hershcovis, M Sandy; Bhatnagar, Namita

    2017-11-01

    In 3 experiments, we examined how customers react after witnessing a fellow customer mistreat an employee. Drawing on the deontic model of justice, we argue that customer mistreatment of employees leads witnesses (i.e., other customers) to leave larger tips, engage in supportive employee-directed behaviors, and evaluate employees more positively (Studies 1 and 2). We also theorize that witnesses develop less positive treatment intentions and more negative retaliatory intentions toward perpetrators, with anger and empathy acting as parallel mediators of our perpetrator- and target-directed outcomes, respectively. In Study 1, we conducted a field experiment that examined real customers' target-directed reactions to witnessed mistreatment in the context of a fast-food restaurant. In Study 2, we replicated Study 1 findings in an online vignette experiment, and extended it by examining more severe mistreatment and perpetrator-directed responses. In Study 3, we demonstrated that employees who respond to mistreatment uncivilly are significantly less likely to receive the positive outcomes found in Studies 1 and 2 than those who respond neutrally. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  16. 7 CFR 1206.4 - Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Customs. 1206.4 Section 1206.4 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS... INFORMATION Mango Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1206.4 Customs. Customs means the...

  17. Mining Rare Events Data for Assessing Customer Attrition Risk

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Au, Tom; Chin, Meei-Ling Ivy; Ma, Guangqin

    Customer attrition refers to the phenomenon whereby a customer leaves a service provider. As competition intensifies, preventing customers from leaving is a major challenge to many businesses such as telecom service providers. Research has shown that retaining existing customers is more profitable than acquiring new customers due primarily to savings on acquisition costs, the higher volume of service consumption, and customer referrals. For a large enterprise, its customer base consists of tens of millions service subscribers, more often the events, such as switching to competitors or canceling services are large in absolute number, but rare in percentage, far less than 5%. Based on a simple random sample, popular statistical procedures, such as logistic regression, tree-based method and neural network, can sharply underestimate the probability of rare events, and often result a null model (no significant predictors). To improve efficiency and accuracy for event probability estimation, a case-based data collection technique is then considered. A case-based sample is formed by taking all available events and a small, but representative fraction of nonevents from a dataset of interest. In this article we showed a consistent prior correction method for events probability estimation and demonstrated the performance of the above data collection techniques in predicting customer attrition with actual telecommunications data.

  18. ATIS Data Collection Guidelines Workshop : who are ATIS customers?

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-02-09

    This workshop presents the results of a study characterizing who are ATIS customers. Metro Online customers are younger than average riders, more educated, and have access to the Internet at home and work or school. Their income, longevity and intens...

  19. Employee and customer satisfaction in healthcare.

    PubMed

    Jackson, Todd; Wood, Ben D

    2010-01-01

    There were multiple factors identified in a literature review that have a relationship to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, and links between employee and customer satisfaction. Some of the factors identified were communication, wait times, perceived value, trust, dissatisfaction with management, changes in the workplace, vision,and fun at work. Managers must identify these topics to ensure customer satisfaction, customer loyalty,and employee satisfaction which will ultimately have a positive impact on their organizations.

  20. Customer Education: The Silent Revolution.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zemke, Ron

    1985-01-01

    Discusses the marketing value and strategic necessity of planned and promoted customer education. The article examines customer training by the manufacturer as a definite trend in the microcomputer industry. Elements of a good customer training program are described along with suggestions for starting such a program. (CT)

  1. 19 CFR 146.3 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES General Provisions § 146.3 Customs supervision. (a) Assignment of Customs officers. Customs officers will be assigned or detailed to a zone as necessary to maintain appropriate Customs supervision of merchandise and records pertaining thereto in the zone, and to protect the revenue...

  2. 19 CFR 146.3 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES General Provisions § 146.3 Customs supervision. (a) Assignment of Customs officers. Customs officers will be assigned or detailed to a zone as necessary to maintain appropriate Customs supervision of merchandise and records pertaining thereto in the zone, and to protect the revenue...

  3. 19 CFR 146.3 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES General Provisions § 146.3 Customs supervision. (a) Assignment of Customs officers. Customs officers will be assigned or detailed to a zone as necessary to maintain appropriate Customs supervision of merchandise and records pertaining thereto in the zone, and to protect the revenue...

  4. 19 CFR 146.3 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES General Provisions § 146.3 Customs supervision. (a) Assignment of Customs officers. Customs officers will be assigned or detailed to a zone as necessary to maintain appropriate Customs supervision of merchandise and records pertaining thereto in the zone, and to protect the revenue...

  5. 19 CFR 146.3 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES General Provisions § 146.3 Customs supervision. (a) Assignment of Customs officers. Customs officers will be assigned or detailed to a zone as necessary to maintain appropriate Customs supervision of merchandise and records pertaining thereto in the zone, and to protect the revenue...

  6. Customized weight curves for Spanish fetuses and newborns.

    PubMed

    González González, Nieves Luisa; González Dávila, Enrique; Cabrera, Francisco; Padrón, Erika; Castro, José Ramon; García Hernández, José Angel

    2014-09-01

    To construct a model of customized birthweight curves for use in a Spanish population. Data of 20 331 newborns were used to construct a customized birthweight model. Multiple regression analysis was performed with newborn weight as the dependent variable and gestational age (GA), sex and maternal (M) weight, height, parity and ethnic origin as the independent variables. Using the new model, 27,507 newborns were classified as adequate for GA (AGA), large for GA (LGA) or small for GA (SGA). The results were compared with those of other customized and non-customized models. The resulting formula for the calculation of optimal neonatal weight was: Optimum weight (g) = 3289.681 + 135.413*GA40-14.063*GA40(2)-0.838*GA40(3) + 113.889 (if multiparous) + 165.560 (if origin = Asia) + 161.550 (South America) + 67.927 (rest of Europe) +109.265 (North Africa) + 9.392*Maternal-Height + 4.856*Maternal-Weight-0.098*Maternal-Weight(2) + 0.001*Maternal-Weight(3) + 67.188*Sex + GA40*(6.890*Sex + 9.032 (If multiparous) +0.006*Maternal-Height(3) + 0.260*Maternal-Weight) + GA40(2) (-0.378*Maternal-Height - 0.008*Maternal-Height(2)) + GA40(3) (-0.032*Maternal-Height). Weight percentiles were obtained from standard data using optimum weight variation coefficient. Agreement between our customized model and other Spanish models was "good" (κ = 0.717 and κ = 0.736; p < 0.001). Our model is comparable to other Spanish models, but offers the advantage of being customized, updated and freely available on the web. The 30.6% of infants classified as SGA using our model would be considered as AGA following a non-customized model.

  7. Turn customer input into innovation.

    PubMed

    Ulwick, Anthony W

    2002-01-01

    It's difficult to find a company these days that doesn't strive to be customer-driven. Too bad, then, that most companies go about the process of listening to customers all wrong--so wrong, in fact, that they undermine innovation and, ultimately, the bottom line. What usually happens is this: Companies ask their customers what they want. Customers offer solutions in the form of products or services. Companies then deliver these tangibles, and customers just don't buy. The reason is simple--customers aren't expert or informed enough to come up with solutions. That's what your R&D team is for. Rather, customers should be asked only for outcomes--what they want a new product or service to do for them. The form the solutions take should be up to you, and you alone. Using Cordis Corporation as an example, this article describes, in fine detail, a series of effective steps for capturing, analyzing, and utilizing customer input. First come indepth interviews, in which a moderator works with customers to deconstruct a process or activity in order to unearth "desired outcomes." Addressing participants' comments one at a time, the moderator rephrases them to be both unambiguous and measurable. Once the interviews are complete, researchers then compile a comprehensive list of outcomes that participants rank in order of importance and degree to which they are satisfied by existing products. Finally, using a simple mathematical formula called the "opportunity calculation," researchers can learn the relative attractiveness of key opportunity areas. These data can be used to uncover opportunities for product development, to properly segment markets, and to conduct competitive analysis.

  8. Customer service in equine veterinary medicine.

    PubMed

    Blach, Edward L

    2009-12-01

    This article explores customer service in equine veterinary medicine. It begins with a discussion about the differences between customers and clients in veterinary medicine. An overview of the nature of the veterinary-client-patient relationship and its effects on the veterinarian's services sheds light on how to evaluate your customer service. The author reviews a study performed in 2007 that evaluated 24 attributes of customer service and their importance to clients of equine veterinarians in their decision to select a specific veterinarian or hospital. The article concludes with an overview of how to evaluate your customer service in an effort to optimize your service to achieve customer loyalty.

  9. A CBR-Based and MAHP-Based Customer Value Prediction Model for New Product Development

    PubMed Central

    Zhao, Yu-Jie; Luo, Xin-xing; Deng, Li

    2014-01-01

    In the fierce market environment, the enterprise which wants to meet customer needs and boost its market profit and share must focus on the new product development. To overcome the limitations of previous research, Chan et al. proposed a dynamic decision support system to predict the customer lifetime value (CLV) for new product development. However, to better meet the customer needs, there are still some deficiencies in their model, so this study proposes a CBR-based and MAHP-based customer value prediction model for a new product (C&M-CVPM). CBR (case based reasoning) can reduce experts' workload and evaluation time, while MAHP (multiplicative analytic hierarchy process) can use actual but average influencing factor's effectiveness in stimulation, and at same time C&M-CVPM uses dynamic customers' transition probability which is more close to reality. This study not only introduces the realization of CBR and MAHP, but also elaborates C&M-CVPM's three main modules. The application of the proposed model is illustrated and confirmed to be sensible and convincing through a stimulation experiment. PMID:25162050

  10. A CBR-based and MAHP-based customer value prediction model for new product development.

    PubMed

    Zhao, Yu-Jie; Luo, Xin-xing; Deng, Li

    2014-01-01

    In the fierce market environment, the enterprise which wants to meet customer needs and boost its market profit and share must focus on the new product development. To overcome the limitations of previous research, Chan et al. proposed a dynamic decision support system to predict the customer lifetime value (CLV) for new product development. However, to better meet the customer needs, there are still some deficiencies in their model, so this study proposes a CBR-based and MAHP-based customer value prediction model for a new product (C&M-CVPM). CBR (case based reasoning) can reduce experts' workload and evaluation time, while MAHP (multiplicative analytic hierarchy process) can use actual but average influencing factor's effectiveness in stimulation, and at same time C&M-CVPM uses dynamic customers' transition probability which is more close to reality. This study not only introduces the realization of CBR and MAHP, but also elaborates C&M-CVPM's three main modules. The application of the proposed model is illustrated and confirmed to be sensible and convincing through a stimulation experiment.

  11. 12 CFR 13.5 - Customer information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 1 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Customer information. 13.5 Section 13.5 Banks... PRACTICES § 13.5 Customer information. Prior to the execution of a transaction recommended to a non... obtain information concerning: (a) The customer's financial status; (b) The customer's tax status; (c...

  12. Contracting Deployment Customer Guide.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1996-12-01

    functional managers from the major commands expressed the need to develop a Customer Guide for contingency deployments which would standardize, simplify, and...streamline the support our Contingency Contracting Officers (CCOs) provide to our customers .

  13. 75 FR 19654 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency Information Collection Activities: Customs-Trade...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-04-15

    ... Activities: Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection... Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). This is a proposed extension of an information collection that was... Terrorism (C-TPAT). OMB Number: 1651-0077. Form Number: None. Abstract: The Customs-Trade Partnership...

  14. A Simulation Model for Measuring Customer Satisfaction through Employee Satisfaction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zondiros, Dimitris; Konstantopoulos, Nikolaos; Tomaras, Petros

    2007-12-01

    Customer satisfaction is defined as a measure of how a firm's product or service performs compared to customer's expectations. It has long been a subject of research due to its importance for measuring marketing and business performance. A lot of models have been developed for its measurement. This paper propose a simulation model using employee satisfaction as one of the most important factors leading to customer satisfaction (the others being expectations and disconfirmation of expectations). Data obtained from a two-year survey in customers of banks in Greece were used. The application of three approaches regarding employee satisfaction resulted in greater customer satisfaction when there is serious effort to keep employees satisfied.

  15. Repeat Customer Success in Extension

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bess, Melissa M.; Traub, Sarah M.

    2013-01-01

    Four multi-session research-based programs were offered by two Extension specialist in one rural Missouri county. Eleven participants who came to multiple Extension programs could be called "repeat customers." Based on the total number of participants for all four programs, 25% could be deemed as repeat customers. Repeat customers had…

  16. Tourism guide cloud service quality: What actually delights customers?

    PubMed

    Lin, Shu-Ping; Yang, Chen-Lung; Pi, Han-Chung; Ho, Thao-Minh

    2016-01-01

    The emergence of advanced IT and cloud services has beneficially supported the information-intensive tourism industry, simultaneously caused extreme competitions in attracting customers through building efficient service platforms. On response, numerous nations have implemented cloud platforms to provide value-added sightseeing information and personal intelligent service experiences. Despite these efforts, customers' actual perspectives have yet been sufficiently understood. To bridge the gap, this study attempts to investigate what aspects of tourism cloud services actually delight customers' satisfaction and loyalty. 336 valid survey questionnaire answers were analyzed using structural equation modeling method. The results prove positive impacts of function quality, enjoyment, multiple visual aids, and information quality on customers' satisfaction as well as of enjoyment and satisfaction on use loyalty. The findings hope to provide helpful references of customer use behaviors for enhancing cloud service quality in order to achieve better organizational competitiveness.

  17. 26 CFR 801.4 - Customer satisfaction measures.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 26 Internal Revenue 20 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Customer satisfaction measures. 801.4 Section... REVENUE SERVICE § 801.4 Customer satisfaction measures. The customer satisfaction goals and... may be employed to gather data regarding customer satisfaction. Information to measure customer...

  18. Business marketing: understand what customers value.

    PubMed

    Anderson, J C; Narus, J A

    1998-01-01

    How do you define the value of your market offering? Can you measure it? Few suppliers in business markets are able to answer those questions, and yet the ability to pinpoint the value of a product or service for one's customers has never been more important. By creating and using what the authors call customer value models, suppliers are able to figure out exactly what their offerings are worth to customers. Field value assessments--the most commonly used method for building customer value models--call for suppliers to gather data about their customers firsthand whenever possible. Through these assessments, a supplier can build a value model for an individual customer or for a market segment, drawing on data gathered form several customers in that segment. Suppliers can use customer value models to create competitive advantage in several ways. First, they can capitalize on the inevitable variation in customers' requirements by providing flexible market offerings. Second, they can use value models to demonstrate how a new product or service they are offering will provide greater value. Third, they can use their knowledge of how their market offerings specifically deliver value to craft persuasive value propositions. And fourth, they can use value models to provide evidence to customers of their accomplishments. Doing business based on value delivered gives companies the means to get an equitable return for their efforts. Once suppliers truly understand value, they will be able to realize the benefits of measuring and monitoring it for their customers.

  19. Prediction of customer behaviour analysis using classification algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raju, Siva Subramanian; Dhandayudam, Prabha

    2018-04-01

    Customer Relationship management plays a crucial role in analyzing of customer behavior patterns and their values with an enterprise. Analyzing of customer data can be efficient performed using various data mining techniques, with the goal of developing business strategies and to enhance the business. In this paper, three classification models (NB, J48, and MLPNN) are studied and evaluated for our experimental purpose. The performance measures of the three classifications are compared using three different parameters (accuracy, sensitivity, specificity) and experimental results expose J48 algorithm has better accuracy with compare to NB and MLPNN algorithm.

  20. Improving The Performance of Customer Loyalty of Online Ticketing in Indonesia's Showbiz Industry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dachyar, M.; Athory, E. S.

    2015-06-01

    Currently the entertainment industry is adopting online ticketing for supporting business from main products to profitability improvement. E-loyalty needs to be examined because are deals with less loyal customer characteristic. The sample are 249 customers whom have purchased for tickets online at least once. Data was gathered by questionnaires and analyzed by Path Analysis and Importance - Performance Analysis. The findings of the research indicate that satisfaction has the strongest relationship to e-loyalty. This study provides four improvement alternatives as a form of new business development strategy for showbiz industry in Indonesia.

  1. Does employee safety influence customer satisfaction? Evidence from the electric utility industry.

    PubMed

    Willis, P Geoffrey; Brown, Karen A; Prussia, Gregory E

    2012-12-01

    Research on workplace safety has not examined implications for business performance outcomes such as customer satisfaction. In a U.S. electric utility company, we surveyed 821 employees in 20 work groups, and also had access to archival safety data and the results of a customer satisfaction survey (n=341). In geographically-based work units where there were more employee injuries (based on archival records), customers were less satisfied with the service they received. Safety climate, mediated by safety citizenship behaviors (SCBs), added to the predictive power of the group-level model, but these two constructs exerted their influence independently from actual injuries. In combination, two safety-related predictor paths (injuries and climate/SCB) explained 53% of the variance in customer satisfaction. Results offer preliminary evidence that workplace safety influences customer satisfaction, suggesting that there are likely spillover effects between the safety environment and the service environment. Additional research will be needed to assess the specific mechanisms that convert employee injuries into palpable results for customers. Better safety climate and reductions in employee injuries have the potential to offer payoffs in terms of what customers experience. Copyright © 2012 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Design of customer knowledge management system for Aglaonema Nursery in South Tangerang, Indonesia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sugiarto, D.; Mardianto, I.; Dewayana, TS; Khadafi, M.

    2017-12-01

    The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of customer knowledge management system to support customer relationship management activities for an aglaonema nursery in South Tangerang, Indonesia. System. The steps were knowledge identification (knowledge about customer, knowledge from customer, knowledge for customer), knowledge capture, codification, analysis of system requirement and create use case and activity diagram. The result showed that some key knowledge were about supporting customer in plant care (know how) and types of aglaonema including with the prices (know what). That knowledge for customer then codified and shared in knowledge portal website integrated with social media. Knowledge about customer were about customers and their behaviour in purchasing aglaonema. Knowledge from customer were about feedback, favorite and customer experience. Codified knowledge were placed and shared using content management system based on wordpress.

  3. Desktop publishing and validation of custom near visual acuity charts.

    PubMed

    Marran, Lynn; Liu, Lei; Lau, George

    2008-11-01

    Customized visual acuity (VA) assessment is an important part of basic and clinical vision research. Desktop computer based distance VA measurements have been utilized, and shown to be accurate and reliable, but computer based near VA measurements have not been attempted, mainly due to the limited spatial resolution of computer monitors. In this paper, we demonstrate how to use desktop publishing to create printed custom near VA charts. We created a set of six near VA charts in a logarithmic progression, 20/20 through 20/63, with multiple lines of the same acuity level, different letter arrangements in each line and a random noise background. This design allowed repeated measures of subjective accommodative amplitude without the potential artifact of familiarity of the optotypes. The background maintained a constant and spatial frequency rich peripheral stimulus for accommodation across the six different acuity levels. The paper describes in detail how pixel-wise accurate black and white bitmaps of Sloan optotypes were used to create the printed custom VA charts. At all acuity levels, the physical sizes of the printed custom optotypes deviated no more than 0.034 log units from that of the standard, satisfying the 0.05 log unit ISO criterion we used to demonstrate physical equivalence. Also, at all acuity levels, log unit differences in the mean target distance for which reliable recognition of letters first occurred for the printed custom optotypes compared to the standard were found to be below 0.05, satisfying the 0.05 log unit ISO criterion we used to demonstrate functional equivalence. It is possible to use desktop publishing to create custom near VA charts that are physically and functionally equivalent to standard VA charts produced by a commercial printing process.

  4. Comprehensive Family Services and customer satisfaction outcomes.

    PubMed

    Huebner, Ruth A; Jones, Blake L; Miller, Viola P; Custer, Melba; Critchfield, Becky

    2006-01-01

    Comprehensive Family Services (CFS) is a strengths-based and partnership-oriented approach to casework implemented through multiple initiatives. This study examines the relationship between the practice of CFS and satisfaction of clients, foster parents, and community partners. CFS indicators are paired with statewide customer satisfaction survey results. CFS practices are associated with significantly higher customer satisfaction that improved over time for all groups. Although causality cannot be determined, the relationship is consistent, robust, and meaningful.

  5. The quest for customer focus.

    PubMed

    Gulati, Ranjay; Oldroyd, James B

    2005-04-01

    Companies have poured enormous amounts of money into customer relationship management, but in many cases the investment hasn't really paid off. That's because getting closer to customers isn't about building an information technology system. It's a learning journey-one that unfolds over four stages, requiring people and business units to coordinate in progressively more sophisticated ways. The journey begins with the creation of a companywide repository containing each interaction a customer has with the company, organized not by product, purchase, or location, but by customer. Communal coordination is what's called for at this stage, as each group contributes its information to the data pool separately from the others and then taps into it as needed. In the second stage, one-way serial coordination from centralized IT through analytical units and out to the operating units allows companies to go beyond just assembling data to drawing inferences. In stage three, companies shift their focus from past relationships to future behavior. Through symbiotic coordination, information flows back and forth between central analytic units and various organizational units like marketing, sales, and operations, as together they seek answers to questions like "How can we prevent customers from switching to a competitor?" and "Who would be most likely to buy a new product in the future"? In stage four, firms begin to move past discrete, formal initiatives and, through integral coordination, bring an increasingly sophisticated understanding oftheir customers to bear in all day-to-day operations. Skipping stages denies organizations the sure foundation they need to build a lasting customer-focused mind-set. Those that recognize this will invest their customer relationship dollars much more wisely-and will see their customer-focusing efforts pay offon the bottom line.

  6. 12 CFR 349.16 - Customer dispute resolution.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... may enter into any agreement or understanding with a retail forex customer in which the customer... retail forex customer that the customer intends to submit a claim to arbitration, the FDIC-supervised... or counterclaims. (e) Counterclaims. A procedure for the settlement of a retail forex customer's...

  7. 12 CFR 349.16 - Customer dispute resolution.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... may enter into any agreement or understanding with a retail forex customer in which the customer... retail forex customer that the customer intends to submit a claim to arbitration, the FDIC-supervised... or counterclaims. (e) Counterclaims. A procedure for the settlement of a retail forex customer's...

  8. 12 CFR 349.16 - Customer dispute resolution.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... may enter into any agreement or understanding with a retail forex customer in which the customer... retail forex customer that the customer intends to submit a claim to arbitration, the FDIC-supervised... or counterclaims. (e) Counterclaims. A procedure for the settlement of a retail forex customer's...

  9. 19 CFR 177.13 - Inconsistent customs decisions.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Inconsistent customs decisions. 177.13 Section 177.13 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) ADMINISTRATIVE RULINGS General Ruling Procedure § 177.13 Inconsistent customs...

  10. 19 CFR 177.13 - Inconsistent customs decisions.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Inconsistent customs decisions. 177.13 Section 177.13 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) ADMINISTRATIVE RULINGS General Ruling Procedure § 177.13 Inconsistent customs...

  11. 19 CFR 177.13 - Inconsistent customs decisions.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Inconsistent customs decisions. 177.13 Section 177.13 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) ADMINISTRATIVE RULINGS General Ruling Procedure § 177.13 Inconsistent customs...

  12. Customer orientation among employees in public administration: a transnational, longitudinal study.

    PubMed

    Korunka, Christian; Scharitzer, Dieter; Carayon, Pascale; Hoonakker, Peter; Sonnek, Angelika; Sainfort, Francois

    2007-05-01

    The relation between ergonomic principles and quality management initiatives, both, in the private and public sector, has received increasing attention in the recent years. Customer orientation among employees is not only an important quality principle, but also an essential prerequisite for customer satisfaction, especially in service organizations. In this context, the objective of introducing new public management (NPM) in public-service organizations is to increase customer orientation among employees who are at the forefront of service providing. In this study, we developed a short scale to measure perceived customer orientation. In two separate longitudinal studies carried out in Austria and the US, we analyzed changes in customer orientation resulting from the introduction of NPM. In both organizations, we observed a significant increase in customer orientation. Perceived customer orientation was related to job characteristics, organizational characteristics and employee quality of working life. Creating positive influences on these characteristics within the framework of an organizational change process has positive effects on employee customer orientation.

  13. The art of customer service.

    PubMed

    Williams, Jeni

    2007-10-01

    Strategies for improving the consumer service skills of finance staff include: Hire employees who have a customer service background. Work with your human resources department to provide customer service training. Monitor new hires extensively. Offer front-end employees scripted language for situations they may face on the job. Measure the quality of customer service provided. Provide incentives for performance.

  14. Negative correlation learning for customer churn prediction: a comparison study.

    PubMed

    Rodan, Ali; Fayyoumi, Ayham; Faris, Hossam; Alsakran, Jamal; Al-Kadi, Omar

    2015-01-01

    Recently, telecommunication companies have been paying more attention toward the problem of identification of customer churn behavior. In business, it is well known for service providers that attracting new customers is much more expensive than retaining existing ones. Therefore, adopting accurate models that are able to predict customer churn can effectively help in customer retention campaigns and maximizing the profit. In this paper we will utilize an ensemble of Multilayer perceptrons (MLP) whose training is obtained using negative correlation learning (NCL) for predicting customer churn in a telecommunication company. Experiments results confirm that NCL based MLP ensemble can achieve better generalization performance (high churn rate) compared with ensemble of MLP without NCL (flat ensemble) and other common data mining techniques used for churn analysis.

  15. Negative Correlation Learning for Customer Churn Prediction: A Comparison Study

    PubMed Central

    Faris, Hossam

    2015-01-01

    Recently, telecommunication companies have been paying more attention toward the problem of identification of customer churn behavior. In business, it is well known for service providers that attracting new customers is much more expensive than retaining existing ones. Therefore, adopting accurate models that are able to predict customer churn can effectively help in customer retention campaigns and maximizing the profit. In this paper we will utilize an ensemble of Multilayer perceptrons (MLP) whose training is obtained using negative correlation learning (NCL) for predicting customer churn in a telecommunication company. Experiments results confirm that NCL based MLP ensemble can achieve better generalization performance (high churn rate) compared with ensemble of MLP without NCL (flat ensemble) and other common data mining techniques used for churn analysis. PMID:25879060

  16. ICP Corporate Customer Assessment - Sampling Plan

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1995-07-01

    CORPORATE CUSTOMER ASSESSMENT - SAMPLING PLAN JULY 1995 Lead Analyst: Lieutenant Commander William J. Wilkinson, USN Associate Analyst: Mr. Henry J...project developed a plan for conducting recurring surveys of Defense Logistics Agency customers , in support of the DLA Corporate Customer Assessment...Team. The primary product was a sampling plan, including stratification of customers by Military Service or Federal Agency and by commodity purchased

  17. Prosthetic management of malpositioned implant using custom cast abutment

    PubMed Central

    Chatterjee, Aishwarya; Ragher, Mallikarjuna; Patil, Sanket; Chatterjee, Debopriya; Dandekeri, Savita; Prabhu, Vishnu

    2015-01-01

    Two cases are reported with malpositioned implants. Both the implants were placed 6–7 months back. They had osseointegrated well with the surrounding bone. However, they presented severe facial inclination. Case I was restored with custom cast abutment with an auto polymerizing acrylic gingival veneer. Case II was restored with custom cast UCLA type plastic implant abutment. Ceramic was directly fired on the custom cast abutments. The dual treatment strategy resulted in functional and esthetic restorations despite facial malposition of the implants. PMID:26538957

  18. Method for matching customer and manufacturer positions for metal product parameters standardization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Polyakova, Marina; Rubin, Gennadij; Danilova, Yulija

    2018-04-01

    Decision making is the main stage of regulation the relations between customer and manufacturer during the design the demands of norms in standards. It is necessary to match the positions of the negotiating sides in order to gain the consensus. In order to take into consideration the differences of customer and manufacturer estimation of the object under standardization process it is obvious to use special methods of analysis. It is proposed to establish relationships between product properties and its functions using functional-target analysis. The special feature of this type of functional analysis is the consideration of the research object functions and properties. It is shown on the example of hexagonal head crew the possibility to establish links between its functions and properties. Such approach allows obtaining a quantitative assessment of the closeness the positions of customer and manufacturer at decision making during the standard norms establishment.

  19. Complaints as starting point for vicious cycles in customer-employee-interactions.

    PubMed

    Traut-Mattausch, Eva; Wagner, Sara; Pollatos, Olga; Jonas, Eva

    2015-01-01

    A ring-model of vicious cycles in customer-employee-interaction is proposed: service employees perceive complaints as a threat to their self-esteem resulting in defense responses such as an increased need for cognitive closure, a devaluation of the customer and their information and degrading service behavior. Confronted with such degrading service behavior, customers react defensively as well, by devaluing the employee for example with regard to his/her competence and by reducing repurchase and positive word-of-mouth (WOM). Three studies investigated each link in this ring-model. In study 1, participants were confronted with an aggressive or neutral customer complaint. Results show that motivated closed-mindedness (one aspect of the need for cognitive closure) increases after an aggressive complaint leading to a devaluation of the customer and their information, and in turn to a degrading service reaction. In study 2, participants were confronted with a degrading or favorable service reaction. Results show that they devaluate the employees' competence after receiving a degrading service reaction and thus reduce their intention to repurchase. In study 3, we finally examined our predictions investigating real customer-employee-interactions: we analyzed data from an evaluation study in which mystery callers tested the service hotline of an airline. Results show that the employees' competence is devaluated after degrading behavior and thus reduces positive WOM.

  20. Improving Customer Satisfaction: A People CMM Perspective

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-10-11

    customers internal service quality Employee satisfaction in turn fuels employee loyalty , which raises employee productivity. Higher productivity means...greater external service value for customers – which enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty . Internal Service Quality Employee Loyalty ...Employee Productivity Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty “A mere 5% jump in customer loyalty can boost profits 25%”…or more.

  1. 22 CFR 127.4 - Authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs.... Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. (a) U.S. Immigration and.... (b) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have the...

  2. Employee retention: a customer service approach.

    PubMed

    Gerson, Richard F

    2002-01-01

    Employee retention is a huge problem. There are staff shortages in radiology because not enough people are entering the profession; too many people are leaving the profession for retirement, higher-paying jobs or jobs with less stress; and there are not enough opportunities for career advancement. Staff shortages are exacerbated by difficulty in retaining people who enter the profession. While much work has been focused on recruitment and getting more people "in the front door," I suggest that the bulk of future efforts be focused on employee retention and "closing the back door." Employee retention must be an ongoing process, not a program. Approaches to employee retention that focus on external things, i.e., things that the company can do to or for the employee, generally are not successful. The truth is that employee retention processes must focus on what the employee gets out of the job. The process must be a benefits-based approach that helps employees answer the question, "What's in it for me?" The retention processes must be ongoing and integrated into the daily culture of the company. The best way to keep your employees is to treat them like customers. Customer service works for external customers. We treat them nicely. We work to satisfy them. We help them achieve their goals. Why not do the same for our employees? If positive customer service policies and practices can satisfy and keep external customers, why not adapt these policies and practices for employees? And, there is a service/satisfaction link between employee retention and higher levels of customer satisfaction. Customers prefer dealing with the same employees over and over again. Employee turnover destroys a customer's confidence in the company. Just like a customer does not want to have to "train and educate" a new provider, they do not want to do the same for your "revolving door" employees. So, the key is to keep employees so they in turn will help you keep your customers. Because the

  3. Customer perceived service quality, satisfaction and loyalty in Indian private healthcare.

    PubMed

    Kondasani, Rama Koteswara Rao; Panda, Rajeev Kumar

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to analyse how perceived service quality and customer satisfaction lead to loyalty towards healthcare service providers. In total, 475 hospital patients participated in a questionnaire survey in five Indian private hospitals. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis, regression and correlation statistics were employed to analyse customer perceived service quality and how it leads to loyalty towards service providers. Results indicate that the service seeker-service provider relationship, quality of facilities and the interaction with supporting staff have a positive effect on customer perception. Findings help healthcare managers to formulate effective strategies to ensure a better quality of services to the customers. This study helps healthcare managers to build customer loyalty towards healthcare services, thereby attracting and gaining more customers. This paper will help healthcare managers and service providers to analyse customer perceptions and their loyalty towards Indian private healthcare services.

  4. Customized Versus Population Approach for Evaluation of Fetal Overgrowth

    PubMed Central

    COSTANTINE, Maged M.; MELE, Lisa; LANDON, Mark B.; SPONG, Catherine Y.; RAMIN, Susan M.; CASEY, Brian; WAPNER, Ronald J.; VARNER, Michael W.; ROUSE, Dwight J.; THORP, John M.; SCISCIONE, Anthony; CATALANO, Patrick; CARITIS, Steve N.; SOROKIN, Yoram; PEACEMAN, Alan M.; TOLOSA, Jorge E.; ANDERSON, Garland D.

    2013-01-01

    Objective To compare the ability of customized versus normalized population fetal growth norms in identifying neonates at risk for adverse perinatal outcomes (APOs) associated with fetal overgrowth and gestational diabetes (GDM). Study Design Secondary analysis of a multicenter treatment trial of mild GDM. The primary outcome was a composite of neonatal outcomes associated with fetal overgrowth and GDM. Birthweight percentiles were calculated using ethnicity- & gender-specific population norms and customized norms (Gardosi). Results 203 (9.8%) and 288 (13.8%) neonates were LGA by population (LGApop) and customized (LGAcust) norms, respectively. Both LGApop and LGAcust were associated with the primary outcome and neonatal hyperinsulinemia, while neither was associated with hypoglycemia or hyperbilirubinemia. The ability of customized and population birthweight percentiles for predicting APOs were poor (receiver operating characteristic area under the curve <0.6 for 6 out of 8 APOs). Conclusion Neither customized nor normalized-population norms better identify neonates at risk of APOs related to fetal overgrowth and GDM. PMID:23147078

  5. Customization in Prescribing for Bipolar Disorder

    PubMed Central

    Hodgkin, Dominic; Volpe-Vartanian, Joanna; Merrick, Elizabeth L.; Horgan, Constance M.; Nierenberg, Andrew A.; Frank, Richard G.; Lee, Sue

    2011-01-01

    For many disorders, patient heterogeneity requires physicians to customize their treatment to each patient’s needs. We test for the existence of customization in physicians’ prescribing for bipolar disorder, using data from a naturalistic clinical effectiveness trial of bipolar disorder treatment (STEP-BD), which did not constrain physician prescribing. Multinomial logit is used to model the physician’s choice among five combinations of drug classes. We find that our observed measure of the patient’s clinical status played only a limited role in the choice among drug class combinations, even for conditions such as mania that are expected to affect class choice. However, treatment of a patient with given characteristics differed widely depending on which physician was seen. The explanatory power of the model was low. There was variation within each physician’s prescribing, but the results do not suggest a high degree of customization in physicians’ prescribing, based on our measure of clinical status. PMID:21506194

  6. Customization in prescribing for bipolar disorder.

    PubMed

    Hodgkin, Dominic; Volpe-Vartanian, Joanna; Merrick, Elizabeth L; Horgan, Constance M; Nierenberg, Andrew A; Frank, Richard G; Lee, Sue

    2012-06-01

    For many disorders, patient heterogeneity requires physicians to customize their treatment to each patient's needs. We test for the existence of customization in physicians' prescribing for bipolar disorder, using data from a naturalistic clinical effectiveness trial of bipolar disorder treatment (STEP-BD), which did not constrain physician prescribing. Multinomial logit is used to model the physician's choice among five combinations of drug classes. We find that our observed measure of the patient's clinical status played only a limited role in the choice among drug class combinations, even for conditions such as mania that are expected to affect class choice. However, treatment of a patient with given characteristics differed widely depending on which physician was seen. The explanatory power of the model was low. There was variation within each physician's prescribing, but the results do not suggest a high degree of customization in physicians' prescribing, based on our measure of clinical status. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  7. A qualitative and quantitative examination of the antecedents of customer incivility.

    PubMed

    Sliter, Michael; Jones, Morgan

    2016-04-01

    Customer incivility is known to have a negative impact on employees working in service jobs. Despite an understanding of the negative outcomes of customer incivility (e.g., burnout, disengagement, absenteeism), little research has investigated antecedents of this low-intensity deviant behavior. This is a clear oversight, given that understanding antecedents of customer incivility is essential for determining methods for reducing this stressor. As such, we conducted 2 studies examining these antecedents. For Study 1, we used a qualitative approach, assessing customer incivility from the perspective of the customer. Three overall themes (with 13 subthemes) emerged that could potentially lead to customer incivility: characteristics of the customer, characteristics of the organization/environment, and characteristics of the service employee. In Study 2, we conducted a quantitative study to investigate-from the perspective of the service employee-customer incivility antecedents that could be potentially controlled by the organization, either through changing the work environment or the employee (through training and selection). The results of a 2 time-point survey study showed that the service environment, service rep incivility, service orientation, agreeableness, and neuroticism served as antecedents to customer incivility. Practical implications are discussed, identifying options for organizational leaders interested in reducing customer incivility, and advice is provided for researchers seeking to further examine the antecedents of customer incivility. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  8. Customer value propositions in business markets.

    PubMed

    Anderson, James C; Narus, James A; van Rossum, Wouter

    2006-03-01

    Examples of consumer value propositions that resonate with customers are exceptionally difficult to find. When properly constructed, value propositions force suppliers to focus on what their offerings are really worth. Once companies become disciplined about understanding their customers, they can make smarter choices about where to allocate scarce resources. The authors illuminate the pitfalls of current approaches, then present a systematic method for developing value propositions that are meaningful to target customers and that focus suppliers' efforts on creating superior value. When managers construct a customer value proposition, they often simply list all the benefits their offering might deliver. But the relative simplicity of this all-benefits approach may have a major drawback: benefit assertion. In other words, managers may claim advantages for features their customers don't care about in the least. Other suppliers try to answer the question, Why should our firm purchase your offering instead of your competitor's? But without a detailed understanding of the customer's requirements and preferences, suppliers can end up stressing points of difference that deliver relatively little value to the target customer. The pitfall with this approach is value presumption: assuming that any favorable points of difference must be valuable for the customer. Drawing on the best practices of a handful of suppliers in business markets, the authors advocate a resonating focus approach. Suppliers can provide simple, yet powerfully captivating, consumer value propositions by making their offerings superior on the few elements that matter most to target customers, demonstrating and documenting the value of this superior performance, and communicating it in a way that conveys a sophisticated understanding of the customer's business priorities.

  9. Customized Training Marketing Plan.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lay, Ted

    This report outlines Oregon's Lane Community College's (LCC's) plan for marketing its customized training program for business, community organizations, public agencies, and their employees. Following a mission statement for the customized training program, a brief analysis is provided of the economic environment; of competition from educational…

  10. Air medical referring customer satisfaction: a valuable insight.

    PubMed

    Fultz, J H; Coyle, C B; Reynolds, P W

    1998-01-01

    To remain competitive and survive, air medical programs must have a mechanism for obtaining customer feedback, especially when alternate transport options are available. The goal of this survey was to examine the air medical service's performance as perceived by customers requesting the transport. Surveys were mailed to 400 referring customers who had contact with the flight crew during the transition of patient care. The survey consisted of 16 statements evaluating the service by using a 4-point Likert scale, three demographic questions, one statement evaluating overall satisfaction, and two open-ended questions for comments or suggestions. Two hundred forty-four surveys were returned for a 61% responses rate. Results indicated referring customers are satisfied with the service provided Written comments and suggestions were divided into two categories, positive comments and suggestions for improvement. Three common themes were identified within the suggestions for improvement: crew rapport, communications, and operations. Suggested improvements were evaluated, and selected strategies were incorporated into program operation. Customer feedback furnishes valuable insight into their needs and perception of a service. Comments and suggestions for improvement can promote critical inquiry into service operation and provide a catalyst for improvement.

  11. Innovation management based on proactive engagement of customers: A case study on LEGO Group. Part II: Challenge of engaging the digital customer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Avasilcăi, S.; Rusu, G.

    2015-11-01

    To foster the development of innovative products and new technologies, nowadays companies use an open innovation system, encouraging stakeholders to contribute, using the companies’ online platforms for open innovation or social media, bringing and sharing creative solutions and ideas in order to respond to challenging needs the company directly expresses. Accordingly, the current research continues the analysis of the LEGO Group innovation efforts, aiming to provide a case study approach based on describing the most important projects and online instruments company uses to interact with customers and other external stakeholders. Thus, by analysing the experience of the company in developing projects of involving stakeholders in the innovation processes, the article emphasizes the objective of these past projects developed by LEGO Group, outlining their objectives regarding the focus on the product or process innovation, the team management and stakeholders involved in the innovation actions and the results they obtained. Moreover, the case study highlights the features of the most important online instruments LEGO Group uses at the moment for engaging LEGO fans, children, parents, and other external stakeholders in developing new LEGO sets. Thus, LEGO online instruments provide the opportunity for customers to be creative and to respond to LEGO management team challenges. Accordingly, LEGO involve customers in bringing innovative ideas for LEGO sets through LEGO Ideas instrument, which aims to engage customers in submitting projects, voting and supporting ideas and also sharing them on social media. Also, the research emphasizes the role of supporting the open dialogue and interaction with customers and other external stakeholders through LEGO.com Create & Share Galleries instrument, using their creativity to upload innovative models in the public galleries. The continuous challenges LEGO launches for their fans create a long-term connection between company and

  12. 47 CFR 32.6623 - Customer services.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Customer services. 32.6623 Section 32.6623... FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES Instructions for Expense Accounts § 32.6623 Customer services. (a) This account shall include costs incurred in establishing and servicing customer accounts. This...

  13. Controlling the numerical Cerenkov instability in PIC simulations using a customized finite difference Maxwell solver and a local FFT based current correction

    DOE PAGES

    Li, Fei; Yu, Peicheng; Xu, Xinlu; ...

    2017-01-12

    In this study we present a customized finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) Maxwell solver for the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm. The solver is customized to effectively eliminate the numerical Cerenkov instability (NCI) which arises when a plasma (neutral or non-neutral) relativistically drifts on a grid when using the PIC algorithm. We control the EM dispersion curve in the direction of the plasma drift of a FDTD Maxwell solver by using a customized higher order finite difference operator for the spatial derivative along the direction of the drift (1ˆ direction). We show that this eliminates the main NCI modes with moderate |k 1|, while keepsmore » additional main NCI modes well outside the range of physical interest with higher |k 1|. These main NCI modes can be easily filtered out along with first spatial aliasing NCI modes which are also at the edge of the fundamental Brillouin zone. The customized solver has the possible advantage of improved parallel scalability because it can be easily partitioned along 1ˆ which typically has many more cells than other directions for the problems of interest. We show that FFTs can be performed locally to current on each partition to filter out the main and first spatial aliasing NCI modes, and to correct the current so that it satisfies the continuity equation for the customized spatial derivative. This ensures that Gauss’ Law is satisfied. Lastly, we present simulation examples of one relativistically drifting plasma, of two colliding relativistically drifting plasmas, and of nonlinear laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) in a Lorentz boosted frame that show no evidence of the NCI can be observed when using this customized Maxwell solver together with its NCI elimination scheme.« less

  14. Controlling the numerical Cerenkov instability in PIC simulations using a customized finite difference Maxwell solver and a local FFT based current correction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Fei; Yu, Peicheng; Xu, Xinlu; Fiuza, Frederico; Decyk, Viktor K.; Dalichaouch, Thamine; Davidson, Asher; Tableman, Adam; An, Weiming; Tsung, Frank S.; Fonseca, Ricardo A.; Lu, Wei; Mori, Warren B.

    2017-05-01

    In this paper we present a customized finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) Maxwell solver for the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm. The solver is customized to effectively eliminate the numerical Cerenkov instability (NCI) which arises when a plasma (neutral or non-neutral) relativistically drifts on a grid when using the PIC algorithm. We control the EM dispersion curve in the direction of the plasma drift of a FDTD Maxwell solver by using a customized higher order finite difference operator for the spatial derivative along the direction of the drift (1 ˆ direction). We show that this eliminates the main NCI modes with moderate |k1 | , while keeps additional main NCI modes well outside the range of physical interest with higher |k1 | . These main NCI modes can be easily filtered out along with first spatial aliasing NCI modes which are also at the edge of the fundamental Brillouin zone. The customized solver has the possible advantage of improved parallel scalability because it can be easily partitioned along 1 ˆ which typically has many more cells than other directions for the problems of interest. We show that FFTs can be performed locally to current on each partition to filter out the main and first spatial aliasing NCI modes, and to correct the current so that it satisfies the continuity equation for the customized spatial derivative. This ensures that Gauss' Law is satisfied. We present simulation examples of one relativistically drifting plasma, of two colliding relativistically drifting plasmas, and of nonlinear laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) in a Lorentz boosted frame that show no evidence of the NCI can be observed when using this customized Maxwell solver together with its NCI elimination scheme.

  15. Controlling the numerical Cerenkov instability in PIC simulations using a customized finite difference Maxwell solver and a local FFT based current correction

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Li, Fei; Yu, Peicheng; Xu, Xinlu

    In this study we present a customized finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) Maxwell solver for the particle-in-cell (PIC) algorithm. The solver is customized to effectively eliminate the numerical Cerenkov instability (NCI) which arises when a plasma (neutral or non-neutral) relativistically drifts on a grid when using the PIC algorithm. We control the EM dispersion curve in the direction of the plasma drift of a FDTD Maxwell solver by using a customized higher order finite difference operator for the spatial derivative along the direction of the drift (1ˆ direction). We show that this eliminates the main NCI modes with moderate |k 1|, while keepsmore » additional main NCI modes well outside the range of physical interest with higher |k 1|. These main NCI modes can be easily filtered out along with first spatial aliasing NCI modes which are also at the edge of the fundamental Brillouin zone. The customized solver has the possible advantage of improved parallel scalability because it can be easily partitioned along 1ˆ which typically has many more cells than other directions for the problems of interest. We show that FFTs can be performed locally to current on each partition to filter out the main and first spatial aliasing NCI modes, and to correct the current so that it satisfies the continuity equation for the customized spatial derivative. This ensures that Gauss’ Law is satisfied. Lastly, we present simulation examples of one relativistically drifting plasma, of two colliding relativistically drifting plasmas, and of nonlinear laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) in a Lorentz boosted frame that show no evidence of the NCI can be observed when using this customized Maxwell solver together with its NCI elimination scheme.« less

  16. Rituals, ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East.

    PubMed

    Dafni, Amots

    2007-07-09

    Tree worship is very common worldwide. This field study surveys the ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees in present-day Israel; it includes the results of interviews with 98 informants in thirty-one Arab, Bedouin, and Druze villages in the Galilee. The main results are: 1. Sacred trees were treated as another kind of sacred entity with all their metaphysical as well as physical manifestations. 2. There is not even one ceremony or custom that is peculiar only to a sacred tree and is not performed in other sacred places (such as a saint's grave or a mosque). 3. Few customs, such as: quarrel settling (= Sulkha), leaving objects to absorb the divine blessing and leaving objects for charity) seem to be characteristic of this region, only. 4. In modern times, sacred trees were never recorded, in Israel, as centres for official religious ceremonies including sacrifices, nor as places for the performing of rites of passage. 5. There is some variation among the different ethnic groups: Kissing trees and worshipping them is more common among the Druze although carrying out burials under the tree, leaving water and rain-making ceremonies under them have not been recorded in this group. Passing judgments under the tree is more typical of the Bedouin in which the sacred trees were commonly used as a public social centre. Most of the customs surveyed here are known from other parts of the world. The differences between Muslims and Druze are related to the latter's belief in the transmigration of souls.

  17. Rituals, ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees with a special reference to the Middle East

    PubMed Central

    Dafni, Amots

    2007-01-01

    Tree worship is very common worldwide. This field study surveys the ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees in present-day Israel; it includes the results of interviews with 98 informants in thirty-one Arab, Bedouin, and Druze villages in the Galilee. The main results are: 1. Sacred trees were treated as another kind of sacred entity with all their metaphysical as well as physical manifestations. 2. There is not even one ceremony or custom that is peculiar only to a sacred tree and is not performed in other sacred places (such as a saint's grave or a mosque). 3. Few customs, such as: quarrel settling (= Sulkha), leaving objects to absorb the divine blessing and leaving objects for charity) seem to be characteristic of this region, only. 4. In modern times, sacred trees were never recorded, in Israel, as centres for official religious ceremonies including sacrifices, nor as places for the performing of rites of passage. 5. There is some variation among the different ethnic groups: Kissing trees and worshipping them is more common among the Druze although carrying out burials under the tree, leaving water and rain-making ceremonies under them have not been recorded in this group. Passing judgments under the tree is more typical of the Bedouin in which the sacred trees were commonly used as a public social centre. Most of the customs surveyed here are known from other parts of the world. The differences between Muslims and Druze are related to the latter's belief in the transmigration of souls. PMID:17620122

  18. 19 CFR 19.34 - Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... Wheat § 19.34 Customs supervision. Port directors shall exercise such supervision and control over the... imported wheat and no unauthorized mixing, blending, or commingling of such imported wheat. Importers... wheat in continuous Customs custody shall maintain such records as will enable Customs officers to...

  19. Better communication makes customer service shine

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Singer, S.

    1995-01-01

    After the terrible winter last year, Robison Oil decided to expand existing telephone equipment to provide the best possible service to our 26,000 customers. We are headquartered in Elmsford, NY, and have branches in Tarrytown and Brewster. Another company, Original Consumer Oil, is headquartered in the Bronx and serves commercial customers in the metropolitan area. Our new expanded communications system gives us shorter customer response time and the ability to resolve customer issues without transferring the customer around like a ping-pong ball. By combining our telephone and computer systems, we have been able to improve customer delivery and service throughmore » faster dispatching. And by using a network of T1 telephone lines between locations with different area codes, we save money on long distance phone charges. We have 12 customer service reps who are a key part of our operation. They enter all service and oil orders as well as handle all billing and credit problems. We wanted a communication system that would help us reduce the response time for customers, as well as let us know how many calls are waiting to be answered. To make their job easier and more productive, especially during the winter months, we upgraded our AT&T System 75 to a Definity G3 System.« less

  20. Customer satisfaction in the emergency department.

    PubMed

    Worthington, Kelly

    2004-02-01

    Patient satisfaction is not merely a "smile and be nice" set of behaviors. It is a philosophy that is founded in the concept that the patient's experience of care is important and ultimately translates into their actual response to care. The improved response to care that patients exhibit makes patient satisfaction important from a clinical vantage point. That point alone is enough to justify implementation of and commitment to a customer satisfaction program. There are, however, other compelling reasons also. Customer satisfaction has profound ramifications for the financial status of the institution and for its professional reputation in the community. The caregivers who participate in a system of good customer satisfaction experience fewer malpractice suits than their counterparts. And they enjoy a work environment that is more stable and pleasant than other institutions. The implementation of a meaningful customer service program is a huge task. It is a fundamental culture change that requires vision, long-term commitment, and constant surveillance. The single most critical factor in the successful implementation of a program that produces all the gains that it promises is leadership. Leadership must set the stage, create the atmosphere,demand that staff meet expectations, reward success, provide an example,and shape the new culture. Without strong, clear leadership, any customer service initiative will be simply a hospital-wide exercise, and those staff members who harbor a cynical viewpoint will be proved right in the end.One major difference between a successful customer service initiative and an unsuccessful one is the level of sincerity the hospital and its staff have about the care they express for their patients. If the whole process is merely an exercise to improve scores, the success will be limited and without deep roots. If the push is to establish an atmosphere of genuine care and interest for patients, however, the results are more meaningful

  1. 14 CFR 1214.805 - Unforeseen customer delay.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Unforeseen customer delay. 1214.805 Section... for Spacelab Services § 1214.805 Unforeseen customer delay. Should an unforeseen customer payload..., if requested by the customer, make all reasonable efforts to prevent a delay, contingent on the...

  2. Knee arthodesis using a modular customized intramedullary nail.

    PubMed

    Letartre, R; Combes, A; Autissier, G; Bonnevialle, N; Gougeon, F

    2009-11-01

    Arthrodesis of the knee, particularly in infectious situations, can be achieved using either an external fixator or an intramedullary device. The objective of this study is to report the clinical, functional, and radiographic outcomes of a continuous series of 19 cases of knee arthrodesis using a customized modular intramedullary nailing system. The modular intramedullary nail offers a satisfactory functional result while maintaining limb length, in spite of a nonunion risk, since acting like a true endoprosthesis. In our retrospective series of 19 patients, the main source of patients were infected total knee replacements. The nail was customized from assembling a dual surface-sanded titanium component (femoral and tibial). The Lequesne Algofunctional score and the WOMAC score were recorded, as well as the length discrepancy between the lower extremities. Arthrodesis consolidation and the nail's fit in the shaft were verified on anterior-posterior (AP) and lateral radiographs. Five complications were observed: one anterior cortical break, one excessive tibial rotation, two cases of delayed union, and one nail revision due to residual nail instability. The postoperative Lequesne Algofunctional score was 13/24 and the WOMAC score 57/100. The nonunion rate was 32%. From a functional point of view, the patients who did not achieve complete union and those who did had similar scores. The subjective results were not as good in patients who did not achieve final consolidation. Modular intramedullary nailing simplifies the technique, shortens the procedure, and reduces the amount of blood loss at surgery. Our nonunion rate was high, although the functional result did not seem compromised by such nonunion. The risk of long-term implant failure was not studied and requires longer follow-up studies. Level IV therapeutic study. 2009 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

  3. Trends in Marketing: Customer Relationship Management.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Okula, Susan

    2000-01-01

    Describes the basics of Customer Relationship Management, a process whereby the customer interacts with the company, the company responds by learning to meet that individual's needs, and the customer is more likely to become loyal. Suggests how marketing students can learn the fundamentals of it. (JOW)

  4. 47 CFR 32.4040 - Customers' deposits.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Customers' deposits. 32.4040 Section 32.4040... FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES Instructions for Balance Sheet Accounts § 32.4040 Customers' deposits. (a) This account shall include the amount of cash deposited with the company by customers as security...

  5. Customer Service: Implications for Reference Practice.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Whitlatch, Jo Bell

    1995-01-01

    The past decade has seen an increasing emphasis on customer service in business research and management. Two concepts in understanding business customer service practices are discussed: the service encounter and total quality management. Highlights include customer service research and practices in business; implications for library reference…

  6. The Study on the Preferences of Customer Personal Values with Chinese Culture Background in Services

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Yi; Zhao, Hong; Yang, Yue

    Customer personal values are the important factors which affect customer behaviors, and they guide and decide the customer's attitudes and behaviors on the products or the services. The paper thinks there are only several important customer personal values to guide customer's decisions, and these values will have -strong cultural differences. This study focuses on discussing the preferences of customer personal values with Chinese culture background when customers consume service and analyzes on the customer preferences of customer personal values with the deep interview method. After interviewing 16 responders with the semi-structured questionnaires, the study finds out some interesting results: (1) Some customers have recognized the existent of customer personal values, even though customer perceived values still have the strong influences on customer behaviors. (2) As they pursue to high quality lives, customers enjoy the lives in easy and pleasure way and care about the safe of the family. Quick response, simple and professional services contribute to enhance the experiences of easy and pleasure lives. (3) Non-rational consumers need the respect from the staff and the companies seriously. In comparison, the rational customers care less about the respect. (4) The sociable requirements have become a common consuming psychology of the customers. More and more customers try to gain the friends by consuming some services. (5) The preferences of customer personal values have a close relationship with the Chinese culture, such as collective values, family conception and "face" culture. The results benefit for service companies improving service brands and service quality.

  7. Modeling the customer in electronic commerce.

    PubMed

    Helander, M G; Khalid, H M

    2000-12-01

    This paper reviews interface design of web pages for e-commerce. Different tasks in e-commerce are contrasted. A systems model is used to illustrate the information flow between three subsystems in e-commerce: store environment, customer, and web technology. A customer makes several decisions: to enter the store, to navigate, to purchase, to pay, and to keep the merchandize. This artificial environment must be designed so that it can support customer decision-making. To retain customers it must be pleasing and fun, and create a task with natural flow. Customers have different needs, competence and motivation, which affect decision-making. It may therefore be important to customize the design of the e-store environment. Future ergonomics research will have to investigate perceptual aspects, such as presentation of merchandize, and cognitive issues, such as product search and navigation, as well as decision making while considering various economic parameters. Five theories on e-commerce research are presented.

  8. The Student-Customer Orientation Questionnaire (SCOQ): Application of Customer Metaphor to Higher Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Koris, Riina; Nokelainen, Petri

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study Bayesian dependency modelling (BDM) to validate the model of educational experiences and the student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ), and to identify the categories of educatonal experience in which students expect a higher educational institutions (HEI) to be student-customer oriented.…

  9. Brand trust and image: effects on customer satisfaction.

    PubMed

    Khodadad Hosseini, Sayed Hamid; Behboudi, Leila

    2017-08-14

    Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate brand trust and brand image effects on healthcare service users. Nowadays, managers and health activists are showing increased tendency to marketing and branding to attract and satisfy customers. Design/methodology/approach The current study's design is based on a conceptual model examining brand trust and brand image effects on customer satisfaction. Data obtained from 240 questionnaires (310 respondents) were analyzed using path analysis. Findings Results revealed that the most effective items bearing the highest influence on customer satisfaction and on benefiting from healthcare services include brand image, staff sincerity to its patients, interactions with physicians and rapport. Research limitations/implications This study needs to be conducted in different hospitals and with different patients, which would lead to the model's expansion and its influence on the patient satisfaction. Originality/value Being the first study that simultaneously addresses brand trust and brand image effects on customer satisfaction, this research provides in-depth insights into healthcare marketing. Moreover, identifying significant components associated with healthcare branding helps managers and healthcare activists to create and protect their brands and, consequently, leading to an increased profitability resulting from the enhanced consumer satisfaction. Additionally, it would probably facilitate purchasing processes during the service selection.

  10. 48 CFR 225.7304 - FMS customer involvement.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false FMS customer involvement... Military Sales 225.7304 FMS customer involvement. (a) FMS customers may request that a defense article or... contract without full and open competition. The FMS customer may also request that a subcontract be placed...

  11. Customer Satisfaction with Training Programs.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mulder, Martin

    2001-01-01

    A model for evaluating customer satisfaction with training programs was tested with training purchasers. The model confirmed two types of projects: training aimed at achieving learning results and at changing job performance. The model did not fit for training intended to support organizational change. (Contains 31 references.) (SK)

  12. Custom-Made Synthetic Scaffolds for Bone Reconstruction: A Retrospective, Multicenter Clinical Study on 15 Patients

    PubMed Central

    Macchi, Aldo; Luongo, Giuseppe

    2016-01-01

    Purpose. To present a computer-assisted-design/computer-assisted-manufacturing (CAD/CAM) technique for the design, fabrication, and clinical application of custom-made synthetic scaffolds, for alveolar ridge augmentation. Methods. The CAD/CAM procedure consisted of (1) virtual planning/design of the custom-made scaffold; (2) milling of the scaffold into the exact size/shape from a preformed synthetic bone block; (3) reconstructive surgery. The main clinical/radiographic outcomes were vertical/horizontal bone gain, any biological complication, and implant survival. Results. Fifteen patients were selected who had been treated with a custom-made synthetic scaffold for ridge augmentation. The scaffolds closely matched the shape of the defects: this reduced the operation time and contributed to good healing. A few patients experienced biological complications, such as pain/swelling (2/15: 13.3%) and exposure of the scaffold (3/15: 20.0%); one of these had infection and complete graft loss. In all other patients, 8 months after reconstruction, a well-integrated newly formed bone was clinically available, and the radiographic evaluation revealed a mean vertical and horizontal bone gain of 2.1 ± 0.9 mm and 3.0 ± 1.0 mm, respectively. Fourteen implants were placed and restored with single crowns. The implant survival rate was 100%. Conclusions. Although positive outcomes have been found with custom-made synthetic scaffolds in alveolar ridge augmentation, further studies are needed to validate this technique. PMID:28070512

  13. Identifying web usage behavior of bank customers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Araya, Sandro; Silva, Mariano; Weber, Richard

    2002-03-01

    The bank Banco Credito e Inversiones (BCI) started its virtual bank in 1996 and its registered customers perform currently more than 10,000 Internet transactions daily, which typically cause les than 10% of traditional transaction costs. Since most of the customers are still not registered for online banking, one of the goals of the virtual bank is to increase then umber of registered customers. Objective of the presented work was to identify customers who are likely to perform online banking but still do not use this medium for their transactions. This objective has been reached by determining profiles of registered customers who perform many transactions online. Based on these profiles the bank's Data Warehouse is explored for twins of these heavy users that are still not registered for online banking. We applied clustering in order to group the registered customers into five classes. One of these classes contained almost 30% of all registered customers and could clearly be identified as class of heavy users. Next a neural network assigned online customers to the previously found five classes. Applying the network trained on online customers to all the bank customers identified twins of heavy users that, however had not performed online transactions so far. A mailing to these candidates informing about the advantages of online banking doubled the number of registrations compared to previous campaigns.

  14. Don't throw out the customer.

    PubMed

    Deffenbaugh, J L

    1997-01-01

    Addresses the severe criticism by the Health Service Commissioner of NHS trusts for their handling of patient complaints, particularly the attitude of managers and the new NHS trust culture, which emphasized that patients should be considered as more than just customers. Argues that the word "customer" should not be thrown out because managers are uncomfortable with it; takes the view that while they may have tried to adopt the term, they have failed to appreciate its meaning. Makes a comparison between customer and consumer and presents a case for regarding patients as customers. Concludes that lessons can be learned from private business in developing the provider-customer relationship and that attitude and behaviour changes can be brought about by a long-term cultural change programme.

  15. An empirical research on customer satisfaction study: a consideration of different levels of performance.

    PubMed

    Lee, Yu-Cheng; Wang, Yu-Che; Lu, Shu-Chiung; Hsieh, Yi-Fang; Chien, Chih-Hung; Tsai, Sang-Bing; Dong, Weiwei

    2016-01-01

    Customer satisfaction is the key factor for successful and depends highly on the behaviors of frontline service providers. Customers should be managed as assets, and that customers vary in their needs, preferences, and buying behavior. This study applied the Taiwan Customer Satisfaction Index model to a tourism factory to analyze customer satisfaction and loyalty. We surveyed 242 customers served by one tourism factory organizations in Taiwan. A partial least squares was performed to analyze and test the theoretical model. The results show that perceived quality had the greatest influence on the customer satisfaction for satisfied and dissatisfied customers. In addition, in terms of customer loyalty, the customer satisfaction is more important than image for satisfied and dissatisfied customers. The contribution of this paper is to propose two satisfaction levels of CSI models for analyzing customer satisfaction and loyalty, thereby helping tourism factory managers improve customer satisfaction effectively. Compared with traditional techniques, we believe that our method is more appropriate for making decisions about allocating resources and for assisting managers in establishing appropriate priorities in customer satisfaction management.

  16. Custom Search | ECHO | US EPA

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Custom Search allows users to search for and generate customized data downloads of pollutant loadings information. Users can select varying levels of detail for outputs: annual, monitoring period, and facility level.

  17. 19 CFR 191.37 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.37 Section 191.37 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... Customs supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain unused merchandise drawback by...

  18. 19 CFR 191.37 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.37 Section 191.37 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... Customs supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain unused merchandise drawback by...

  19. 19 CFR 191.37 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.37 Section 191.37 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... Customs supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain unused merchandise drawback by...

  20. 19 CFR 191.37 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.37 Section 191.37 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... Customs supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain unused merchandise drawback by...

  1. 19 CFR 191.37 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.37 Section 191.37 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... Customs supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain unused merchandise drawback by...

  2. Toward Customized Care

    PubMed Central

    Minvielle, Etienne

    2018-01-01

    Patients want their personal needs to be taken into account. Accordingly, the management of care has long involved some degree of personalization. In recent times, patients’ wishes have become more pressing in a moving context. As the population ages, the number of patients requiring sophisticated combinations of longterm care is rising. Moreover, we are witnessing previously unvoiced demands, preferences and expectations (eg, demand for information about treatment, for care complying with religious practices, or for choice of appointment dates). In view of the escalating costs and the concerns about quality of care, the time has now come to rethink healthcare delivery. Part of this reorganization can be related to customization: what is needed is a customized business model that is effective and sustainable. Such business model exists in different service sectors, the customization being defined as the development of tailored services to meet consumers’ diverse and changing needs at near mass production prices. Therefore, its application to the healthcare sector needs to be seriously considered. PMID:29524957

  3. Mapping High Dimensional Sparse Customer Requirements into Product Configurations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiao, Yao; Yang, Yu; Zhang, Hongshan

    2017-10-01

    Mapping customer requirements into product configurations is a crucial step for product design, while, customers express their needs ambiguously and locally due to the lack of domain knowledge. Thus the data mining process of customer requirements might result in fragmental information with high dimensional sparsity, leading the mapping procedure risk uncertainty and complexity. The Expert Judgment is widely applied against that background since there is no formal requirements for systematic or structural data. However, there are concerns on the repeatability and bias for Expert Judgment. In this study, an integrated method by adjusted Local Linear Embedding (LLE) and Naïve Bayes (NB) classifier is proposed to map high dimensional sparse customer requirements to product configurations. The integrated method adjusts classical LLE to preprocess high dimensional sparse dataset to satisfy the prerequisite of NB for classifying different customer requirements to corresponding product configurations. Compared with Expert Judgment, the adjusted LLE with NB performs much better in a real-world Tablet PC design case both in accuracy and robustness.

  4. Emotion Analysis of Telephone Complaints from Customer Based on Affective Computing.

    PubMed

    Gong, Shuangping; Dai, Yonghui; Ji, Jun; Wang, Jinzhao; Sun, Hai

    2015-01-01

    Customer complaint has been the important feedback for modern enterprises to improve their product and service quality as well as the customer's loyalty. As one of the commonly used manners in customer complaint, telephone communication carries rich emotional information of speeches, which provides valuable resources for perceiving the customer's satisfaction and studying the complaint handling skills. This paper studies the characteristics of telephone complaint speeches and proposes an analysis method based on affective computing technology, which can recognize the dynamic changes of customer emotions from the conversations between the service staff and the customer. The recognition process includes speaker recognition, emotional feature parameter extraction, and dynamic emotion recognition. Experimental results show that this method is effective and can reach high recognition rates of happy and angry states. It has been successfully applied to the operation quality and service administration in telecom and Internet service company.

  5. Emotion Analysis of Telephone Complaints from Customer Based on Affective Computing

    PubMed Central

    Gong, Shuangping; Ji, Jun; Wang, Jinzhao; Sun, Hai

    2015-01-01

    Customer complaint has been the important feedback for modern enterprises to improve their product and service quality as well as the customer's loyalty. As one of the commonly used manners in customer complaint, telephone communication carries rich emotional information of speeches, which provides valuable resources for perceiving the customer's satisfaction and studying the complaint handling skills. This paper studies the characteristics of telephone complaint speeches and proposes an analysis method based on affective computing technology, which can recognize the dynamic changes of customer emotions from the conversations between the service staff and the customer. The recognition process includes speaker recognition, emotional feature parameter extraction, and dynamic emotion recognition. Experimental results show that this method is effective and can reach high recognition rates of happy and angry states. It has been successfully applied to the operation quality and service administration in telecom and Internet service company. PMID:26633967

  6. Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Practice Guidelines: Customized for Iranian Population

    PubMed Central

    Rajavi, Zhale; Safi, Sare; Javadi, Mohammad Ali; Azarmina, Mohsen; Moradian, Siamak; Entezari, Morteza; Nourinia, Ramin; Ahmadieh, Hamid; Shirvani, Armin; Shahraz, Saeid; Ramezani, Alireza; Dehghan, Mohammad Hossein; Shahsavari, Mohsen; Soheilian, Masoud; Nikkhah, Homayoun; Ziaei, Hossein; Behboudi, Hasan; Farrahi, Fereydoun; Falavarjani, Khalil Ghasemi; Parvaresh, Mohammad Mehdi; Fesharaki, Hamid; Abrishami, Majid; Shoeibi, Nasser; Rahimi, Mansour; Javadzadeh, Alireza; Karkhaneh, Reza; Riazi-Esfahani, Mohammad; Manaviat, Masoud Reza; Maleki, Alireza; Kheiri, Bahareh; Golbafian, Faegheh

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: To customize clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for management of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in the Iranian population. Methods: Three DR CPGs (The Royal College of Ophthalmologists 2013, American Academy of Ophthalmology [Preferred Practice Pattern 2012], and Australian Diabetes Society 2008) were selected from the literature using the AGREE tool. Clinical questions were designed and summarized into four tables by the customization team. The components of the clinical questions along with pertinent recommendations extracted from the above-mentioned CPGs; details of the supporting articles and their levels of evidence; clinical recommendations considering clinical benefits, cost and side effects; and revised recommendations based on customization capability (applicability, acceptability, external validity) were recorded in 4 tables, respectively. Customized recommendations were sent to the faculty members of all universities across the country to score the recommendations from 1 to 9. Results: Agreed recommendations were accepted as the final recommendations while the non-agreed ones were approved after revision. Eventually, 29 customized recommendations under three major categories consisting of screening, diagnosis and treatment of DR were developed along with their sources and levels of evidence. Conclusion: This customized CPGs for management of DR can be used to standardize the referral pathway, diagnosis and treatment of patients with diabetic retinopathy. PMID:27994809

  7. Customization of biomedical terminologies.

    PubMed

    Homo, Julien; Dupuch, Laëtitia; Benbrahim, Allel; Grabar, Natalia; Dupuch, Marie

    2012-01-01

    Within the biomedical area over one hundred terminologies exist and are merged in the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus, which gives over 1 million concepts. When such huge terminological resources are available, the users must deal with them and specifically they must deal with irrelevant parts of these terminologies. We propose to exploit seed terms and semantic distance algorithms in order to customize the terminologies and to limit within them a semantically homogeneous space. An evaluation performed by a medical expert indicates that the proposed approach is relevant for the customization of terminologies and that the extracted terms are mostly relevant to the seeds. It also indicates that different algorithms provide with similar or identical results within a given terminology. The difference is due to the terminologies exploited. A special attention must be paid to the definition of optimal association between the semantic similarity algorithms and the thresholds specific to a given terminology.

  8. Customer Choice Would Advance Renewable Energy

    Science.gov Websites

    Customer Choice Would Advance Renewable Energy Golden, Colo., Oct. 31, 2001 Giving consumers a , but the recent suspension of customer choice in California represents a setback to the development of of market rules and public policies that support customer choice. The full report, "Forecasting

  9. An Overview of Customer Satisfaction Models.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hom, Willard

    This document is a report on how California community colleges can incorporate customer satisfaction models and theories from business to better serve students. Emphasis is given to two levels of customer satisfaction: macro- and micro-models. Macro-models look at how customer satisfaction relates to other elements or priorities of community…

  10. 12 CFR 368.5 - Customer information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Customer information. 368.5 Section 368.5 Banks... GOVERNMENT SECURITIES SALES PRACTICES § 368.5 Customer information. Prior to the execution of a transaction... make reasonable efforts to obtain information concerning: (a) The customer's financial status; (b) The...

  11. 12 CFR 13.4 - Recommendations to customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Recommendations to customers. 13.4 Section 13.4... PRACTICES § 13.4 Recommendations to customers. In recommending to a customer the purchase, sale or exchange... reasonable grounds for believing that the recommendation is suitable for the customer upon the basis of the...

  12. 12 CFR 13.4 - Recommendations to customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Recommendations to customers. 13.4 Section 13.4... PRACTICES § 13.4 Recommendations to customers. In recommending to a customer the purchase, sale or exchange... reasonable grounds for believing that the recommendation is suitable for the customer upon the basis of the...

  13. Advanced engineering tools for design and fabrication of a custom nasal prosthesis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oliveira, Inês; Leal, Nuno; Silva, Pedro; da Costa Ferreira, A.; Neto, Rui J.; Lino, F. Jorge; Reis, Ana

    2012-09-01

    Unexpected external defects resulting from neoplasms, burns, congenital malformations, trauma or other diseases, particularly when involving partial or total loss of an external organ, can be emotionally devastating. These defects can be restored with prosthesis, obtained by different techniques, materials and methods. The increase of patient numbers and cost constraints lead to the need of exploring new techniques that can increase efficiency. The main goal of this project was to develop a full engineering-based manufacturing process to obtain soft-tissue prosthesis that could provide faster and less expensive options in the manufacturing of customized prosthesis, and at the same time being able to reproduce the highest degree of details, with the maximum comfort for the patient. Design/methodology/approach - This case report describes treatment using silicone prosthesis with an anatomic retention for an 80-years-old woman with a rhinectomy. The proposed methodology integrates non-contact structured light scanning, CT and reverse engineering with CAD/CAM and additive manufacturing technology. Findings - The proposed protocol showed encouraging results since reveals being a better solution for fabricating custom-made facial prostheses for asymmetrical organs than conventional approaches. The process allows the attainment of prosthesis with the minimum contact and discomfort for the patient, disclosing excellent results in terms of aesthetic, prosthesis retention and in terms of time and resources consumed.

  14. Simultaneous Co-Clustering and Classification in Customers Insight

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anggistia, M.; Saefuddin, A.; Sartono, B.

    2017-04-01

    Building predictive model based on the heterogeneous dataset may yield many problems, such as less precise in parameter and prediction accuracy. Such problem can be solved by segmenting the data into relatively homogeneous groups and then build a predictive model for each cluster. The advantage of using this strategy usually gives result in simpler models, more interpretable, and more actionable without any loss in accuracy and reliability. This work concerns on marketing data set which recorded a customer behaviour across products. There are some variables describing customer and product as attributes. The basic idea of this approach is to combine co-clustering and classification simultaneously. The objective of this research is to analyse the customer across product characteristics, so the marketing strategy implemented precisely.

  15. 22 CFR 127.4 - Authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. 127.4 Section 127.4 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT.... Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. (a) U.S. Immigration and...

  16. 22 CFR 127.4 - Authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. 127.4 Section 127.4 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT.... Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. (a) U.S. Immigration and...

  17. 22 CFR 127.4 - Authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. 127.4 Section 127.4 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT.... Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. (a) U.S. Immigration and...

  18. Development of a custom-designed echo particle image velocimetry system for multi-component hemodynamic measurements: system characterization and initial experimental results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Lingli; Zheng, Hairong; Williams, Logan; Zhang, Fuxing; Wang, Rui; Hertzberg, Jean; Shandas, Robin

    2008-03-01

    We have recently developed an ultrasound-based velocimetry technique, termed echo particle image velocimetry (Echo PIV), to measure multi-component velocity vectors and local shear rates in arteries and opaque fluid flows by identifying and tracking flow tracers (ultrasound contrast microbubbles) within these flow fields. The original system was implemented on images obtained from a commercial echocardiography scanner. Although promising, this system was limited in spatial resolution and measurable velocity range. In this work, we propose standard rules for characterizing Echo PIV performance and report on a custom-designed Echo PIV system with increased spatial resolution and measurable velocity range. Then we employed this system for initial measurements on tube flows, rotating flows and in vitro carotid artery and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) models to acquire the local velocity and shear rate distributions in these flow fields. The experimental results verified the accuracy of this technique and indicated the promise of the custom Echo PIV system in capturing complex flow fields non-invasively.

  19. 19 CFR 122.5 - Reproduction of Customs forms.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Reproduction of Customs forms. 122.5 Section 122.5 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS General Definitions and Provisions § 122.5 Reproduction of Customs forms...

  20. 19 CFR 122.5 - Reproduction of Customs forms.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Reproduction of Customs forms. 122.5 Section 122.5 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS General Definitions and Provisions § 122.5 Reproduction of Customs forms...

  1. 19 CFR 146.51 - Customs control of merchandise.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Customs control of merchandise. 146.51 Section 146.51 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES Handling of Merchandise in a Zone § 146.51 Customs...

  2. 19 CFR 146.51 - Customs control of merchandise.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Customs control of merchandise. 146.51 Section 146.51 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES Handling of Merchandise in a Zone § 146.51 Customs...

  3. 19 CFR 146.51 - Customs control of merchandise.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Customs control of merchandise. 146.51 Section 146.51 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES Handling of Merchandise in a Zone § 146.51 Customs...

  4. 19 CFR 146.51 - Customs control of merchandise.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Customs control of merchandise. 146.51 Section 146.51 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES Handling of Merchandise in a Zone § 146.51 Customs...

  5. 19 CFR 146.51 - Customs control of merchandise.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Customs control of merchandise. 146.51 Section 146.51 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) FOREIGN TRADE ZONES Handling of Merchandise in a Zone § 146.51 Customs...

  6. Reducing pharmacy wait time to promote customer service: a follow-up study.

    PubMed

    Slowiak, Julie M; Huitema, Bradley E

    2015-01-01

    The present study had 3 objectives: (1) to evaluate the effects of 2 different interventions (feedback regarding customer satisfaction with wait time and combined feedback and goal setting) on wait time in a hospital outpatient pharmacy; (2) to assess the extent to which the previously applied interventions maintained their effects; and (3) to evaluate the differences between the effects of the original study and those of the present follow-up study. Participants were 10 employees (4 pharmacists and 6 technicians) of an outpatient pharmacy. Wait times and customer satisfaction ratings were collected for "waiting customers." An ABCB within-subjects design was used to assess the effects of the interventions on both wait time and customer satisfaction, where A was the baseline (no feedback and no goal setting); B was the customer satisfaction feedback; and C was the customer satisfaction feedback, the wait time feedback, and the goal setting for wait time reduction. Wait time decreased after baseline when the combined intervention was introduced, and wait time increased with the reintroduction of satisfaction feedback (alone). The results of the replication study confirm the pattern of the results of the original study and demonstrate high sensitivity of levels of customer satisfaction with wait time. The most impressive result of the replication is the nearly 2-year maintenance of lower wait time between the end of the original study and the beginning (baseline) of the replication.

  7. A Customized Drought Decision Support Tool for Hsinchu Science Park

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Jung; Tien, Yu-Chuan; Lin, Hsuan-Te; Liu, Tzu-Ming; Tung, Ching-Pin

    2016-04-01

    Climate change creates more challenges for water resources management. Due to the lack of sufficient precipitation in Taiwan in fall of 2014, many cities and counties suffered from water shortage during early 2015. Many companies in Hsinchu Science Park were significantly influenced and realized that they need a decision support tool to help them managing water resources. Therefore, a customized computer program was developed, which is capable of predicting the future status of public water supply system and water storage of factories when the water rationing is announced by the government. This program presented in this study for drought decision support (DDSS) is a customized model for a semiconductor company in the Hsinchu Science Park. The DDSS is programmed in Java which is a platform-independent language. System requirements are any PC with the operating system above Windows XP and an installed Java SE Runtime Environment 7. The DDSS serves two main functions. First function is to predict the future storage of Baoshan Reservoir and Second Baoshan Reservoir, so to determine the time point of water use restriction in Hsinchu Science Park. Second function is to use the results to help the company to make decisions to trigger their response plans. The DDSS can conduct real-time scenario simulations calculating the possible storage of water tank for each factory with pre-implementation and post-implementation of those response plans. In addition, DDSS can create reports in Excel to help decision makers to compare results between different scenarios.

  8. Evaluation of purchase intention of customers in two wheeler automobile segment: AHP and TOPSIS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sri Yogi, Kottala

    2018-03-01

    Winning heart of customers is preeminent main design of any business organization in global business environment. This paper explored customer’s priorities while purchasing a two wheeler automobile segment using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) as a multi criteria decision making tools to accomplish the research objectives. Study has been done to analyze different criteria to be considered during purchasing of two wheeler automobiles among respondents using structured questionnaire based on SAATY scale. Based on our previous work on empirical & fuzzy logic approach to product quality and purchase intention of customers in two wheeler- operational, performance, economic, brand value and maintenance aspects are considered as decision criteria of customers while purchasing a two wheeler. The study suggests high pick up during overtaking, petrol saving, reasonable spare parts price, unique in design and identity and easy to change gear as main criterion in purchasing process. We also found some leading two wheeler automobiles models available in Indian market using some objective function criterion in choosing some important characteristics like price, cylinder capacity, brake horse power and weight during purchasing process of two wheeler automobile in Indian market based on respondents perception.

  9. [Patients as customers? The term "customer" in the perception of medical students at the end of their university training].

    PubMed

    Zimmermann, L; Körner, M; Geppert, E; Siegel, A; Stöbel, U; Bengel, J

    2012-01-01

    In the preceding decades a new perspective on the role of patients in the health-care system has gained ground, considering patients not merely as "suffering persons" but additionally as "customers". Physicians, however, tend to disagree with this approach because of the economic connotation of the term customer. Until now, there is only poor evidence of whether students of medicine - who are going to work as physicians in the future - agree or disagree with that approach and whether they are ready to accept patients as customers. In the following study students of medicine were interviewed on their perspectives towards that approach, in particular on their attitudes towards the idea of "the patient as customer", the appropriateness of the term consumer in different clinical settings and sectors of health care, the implementation of consumer orientation in clinical routine, and their favoured model of physician-patient relationship.As the study could not build upon data of prior similar studies, a quantitative and qualitative cross-sectional study with a descriptive-explorative design was conducted. Using a semi-standardised questionnaire, 313 medical students (response rate: 95%) were interviewed in Spring 2010. At the time of the survey, the students were enrolled at the faculty of medicine at Freiburg University, Germany, and were in their last semester which immediately preceded their exam.The future physicians do not consider patients primarily as customers. More than 80% of the respondents "absolutely" or "largely" supported the idea that patients are considerably more than customers. The analysis of the qualitative data of the study shows different results. Here, more statements were made that patients could equally be seen as customers (449 students supported this idea, 298 did not). Statements contradicting the customer approach referred mostly to the asymmetry of the physician-patient relationship and the special role of the patient. The highest level of

  10. Customer concerns regarding satellite servicing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rysavy, Gordon

    1987-01-01

    The organization of orbital servicing of satellites is discussed. Provision of servicing equipment; design interfaces between the satellite and the servicing equipment; and the economic viability of the concept are discussed. The proposed solution for satisfying customer concerns is for the servicing organizations to baseline an adequate inventory of servicing equipment with standard interfaces and established servicing costs. With this knowledge, the customer can conduct tradeoff studies and make programmatic decisions regarding servicing options. A dialog procedure between customers and servicing specialists is outlined.

  11. Attitudes About Regulation Among Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing Customers

    PubMed Central

    Green, Robert C.; Kaufman, David

    2013-01-01

    Introduction: The first regulatory rulings by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing services are expected soon. As the process of regulating these and other genetic tests moves ahead, it is important to understand the preferences of DTC genetic testing customers about the regulation of these products. Methods: An online survey of customers of three DTC genetic testing companies was conducted 2–8 months after they had received their results. Participants were asked about the importance of regulating the companies selling DTC genetic tests. Results: Most of the 1,046 respondents responded that it would be important to have a nongovernmental (84%) or governmental agency (73%) monitor DTC companies' claims to ensure the consistency with scientific evidence. However, 66% also felt that it was important that DTC tests be available without governmental oversight. Nearly, all customers favored a policy to ensure that insurers and law enforcement officials could not access their information. Discussion: Although many DTC customers want access to genetic testing services without restrictions imposed by the government regulation, most also favor an organization operating alongside DTC companies that will ensure that the claims made by the companies are consistent with sound scientific evidence. This seeming contradiction may indicate that DTC customers want to ensure that they have unfettered access to high-quality information. Additionally, policies to help ensure privacy of data would be welcomed by customers, despite relatively high confidence in the companies. PMID:23560882

  12. Omori Law After Exogenous Shocks on Supplier-Customer Network

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fujiwara, Yoshi

    We study the relaxation process of a supplier-customer network after mass destruction due to two giant earthquakes, Kobe 1995 and East Japan 2011, by investigating the number of chained failures. Firstly, a mass destruction and intervention of business activities in the damaged areas can be considered as a main shock. The exogenous shock was propagated on the supplier-customer network deteriorating financial states of other firms, even if they are not located in geographical neighbors. To quantify such aftershocks, we use chained failures on the network assuming that they indicate the trace of propagation of shocks. We show that the number of chained failures in its temporal change obeys an Omori-law, a power-law relaxation. This finding implies that the relaxation is much more sluggish than one would naively expect, and that it might be possible to estimate the extent and duration of aftershocks by using the empirical law. Several issues are discussed including the origin of the long-time relaxation.

  13. Understanding customer reactions to brokered ultimatums: applying negotiation and justice theory.

    PubMed

    Humphrey, Stephen E; Ellis, Aleksander P J; Conlon, Donald E; Tinsley, Catherine H

    2004-06-01

    There has been little research examining customer reactions to brokered ultimatum game (BUG) contexts (i.e. exchanges in which 1 party offers an ultimatum price for a resource through an intermediary, and the ultimatum offer is accepted or rejected by the other party). In this study, the authors incorporated rational decision-making theory and justice theory to examine how customers' bids, recommendations, and repatronage behavior are affected by characteristics of BUG contexts (changing from an ultimatum to negotiation transaction, response timeliness, and offer acceptance or rejection). Results indicated that customers attempt to be economically efficient with their bidding behavior. However, negotiation structures, long waits for a response, and rejected bids create injustice perceptions (particularly informational and distributive injustice), negatively influencing customers' recommendations to others and their repatronage. The authors then discuss the practical and theoretical implications of their results. (c) 2004 APA

  14. From slogans to strategy: a workable approach to customer satisfaction and retention.

    PubMed

    Timm, P R

    1997-01-01

    Too many organizations confuse slogans, good intentions, or mechanical phrases with customer service. Most recognize that the most powerful way to prosper in today's economy is to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. But customer service has little to do with mottos, slogans, or mechanical phrases. The real management challenge lies in translating the slogans into employee actions that create customer satisfaction and loyalty--in creating a strategy for ensuring good service intentions and exceptional service results. This article shows a logical, theoretically sound approach to building and implementing what I call an E-Plus Customer Satisfaction strategy. Incidentally, I use the term "customer" throughout this article, but I recognize that we have different terms in various organizations. So feel free to substitute "patient", "guest", "client", or any other synonym. The principles are the same.

  15. Fracture loads and failure modes of customized and non-customized zirconia abutments.

    PubMed

    Moris, Izabela Cristina Maurício; Chen, Yung-Chung; Faria, Adriana Cláudia Lapria; Ribeiro, Ricardo Faria; Fok, Alex Sui-Lun; Rodrigues, Renata Cristina Silveira

    2018-05-05

    This study aimed to evaluate the fracture load and pattern of customized and non-customized zirconia abutments with Morse-taper connection. 18 implants were divided into 3 groups according to the abutments used: Zr - with non-customized zirconia abutments; Zrc - with customized zirconia abutments; and Ti - with titanium abutments. To test their load capacity, a universal test machine with a 500-kgf load cell and a 0.5-mm/min speed were used. After, one implant-abutment assembly from each group was analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). For fractographic analysis, the specimens were transversely sectioned above the threads of the abutment screw in order to examine their fracture surfaces using SEM. A significant difference was noted between the groups (Zr=573.7±11.66N, Zrc=768.0±8.72N and Ti=659.1±7.70N). Also, the zirconia abutments fractured while the titanium abutments deformed plastically. Zrc presented fracture loads significantly higher than Zr (p=0.009). All the zirconia abutments fractured below the implant platform, starting from the area of contact between the abutment and implant and propagating to the internal surface of the abutment. All the zirconia abutments presented complete cleavage in the mechanical test. Fractography detected differences in the position and pattern of fracture between the two groups with zirconia abutments, probably because of the different diameters in the transmucosal region. Customization of zirconia abutments did not affect their fracture loads, which were comparable to that of titanium and much higher than the maximum physiological limit for the anterior region of the maxilla. Copyright © 2018 The Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. How Customer Facing Professionals Adapt to Changing Customer Needs in a Digital Environment: A Single Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hendriks, Stefan

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative single case study explored how customer facing professionals (CFPs) adapt to changing customer needs in a digital environment. This study focuses on: (1) Changing customer needs; (2) Competencies needed in a digital environment; (3) How they learn; and (4) What factors help or hinder their success. The site is a global Human…

  17. Electricity Customers

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Residential, commercial, and industrial customers each account for roughly one-third of the nation’s electricity use. The transportation sector also accounts for a small fraction of electricity, although it could increase.

  18. The utility and its customer: A complex relationship

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Covelli, L.; Williams, M.V.

    Developing methods of tracking customer satisfaction for utilities presents major problems since the customer reacts to the utility on many different levels. The more obvious are in relation to the product (energy) and the services the company provides. More recently there has been talk of the {open_quotes}brand{close_quotes} elements of the company-customer relationship. Ontario Hydro (OH) has developed a method utilizing four separate domains for measuring and tracking customer satisfaction: product, service, competitiveness, and institutional relationships. Ontario Hydro conducted a survey of over 1200 residential customers. The respondents received a detailed in-person survey of their estimation of the importance of specificmore » aspects of customer service and their view of Ontario Hydro`s performance on those same issues. The data yielded 28 factors covered a large variety of separate concerns: customer service, and treatment of customers to export policy. OH concluded that the utility`s relationship with its customer is more complex than the susual customer-vendor interaction. A utility not only provides a product and a service, it has a institutional personality and provides an absolutely necessary product under an exclusive franchise and executes government policy as a regulated monopoly. It was found that customers are sensitive to all of these attributes.« less

  19. 29 CFR 779.340 - Out-of-State customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Out-of-State customers. 779.340 Section 779.340 Labor... State § 779.340 Out-of-State customers. Whether the sale or service is made to an out-of-State customer is a question of fact. In order for a customer to be considered an out-of-State customer, some...

  20. Smart customers, dumb companies.

    PubMed

    Locke, C

    2000-01-01

    Customers today are being bombarded with an overwhelming array of choices. To alleviate customer frustration, say Steven Cristol and Peter Sealey in Simplicity Marketing, companies should stop creating new brands and product extensions. Better to consolidate product and service functions by following a four R approach: replace, repackage, reposition, and replenish. That's an outmoded, dictatorial view of markets, says Christopher Locke. Far from being stymied by choices, customers are rapidly becoming smarter than the companies that pretend to serve them. In this networked economy, people are talking among themselves, and that changes everything. Locke predicts we'll see a growing number of well-defined micromarkets--groups of customers converging in real time around entertaining and knowledgeable voices--such as NPR's car guys and the Motley Fool investment site. "Micromedia" Web sites will replace traditional advertising because they'll provide credible user-supplied news about products and services. Locke contends that an open exchange of information solves the "problem" of choice much better than manipulative strategies like simplicity or even permission marketing. Companies can participate in micromarkets through what Locke dubs "gonzo marketing." If Ford, for example, discovers that a subset of its employees are organic gardeners, it may offer support to a big independent organic-gardening Web site with donations and employee volunteers. This marketing effort would be driven not by advertising managers but by people with genuine interest in each micromarket, so it would have credibility with customers. With gonzo marketing, both companies and their markets will benefit.

  1. Customer satisfaction measurement in emergency medical services.

    PubMed

    Kuisma, Markku; Määttä, Teuvo; Hakala, Taisto; Sivula, Tommi; Nousila-Wiik, Maria

    2003-07-01

    The annual patient volume in emergency medical services (EMS) systems is high worldwide. However, there are no comprehensive studies on customer satisfaction for EMS. The authors report how a customer satisfaction survey on EMS patients was conducted, the results, and the possible causes for dissatisfaction. Two prospective customer satisfactions surveys were conducted in an urban EMS system. Consecutive patients treated by EMS received a postal questionnaire approximately two weeks after service. Satisfaction was measured in a scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). Neither EMS personnel nor patients were made aware prospectively that patient satisfaction would be measured. Response rates to the surveys were 36.8% (432/1,175) in 2000 and 40.0% (464/1,150) in 2002. The mean general grades for the service were 4.6 and 4.5, respectively. Patients reported the highest degree of dissatisfaction when they were not taken to their hospital of choice, when they perceived that the paramedics were not able to meet their needs, and when paramedics did not introduce themselves or communicate directly with the patient's relatives. In high-volume calls (i.e., frequent chief complaints), the general satisfaction was highest in patients with arrhythmias, breathing difficulties, and hypoglycemia. Patients with drug overdose included the highest proportion of unsatisfied patients. None of the background variables (e.g., gender, transport decision, working shift) was statistically related to general patient satisfaction. This study shows that customer satisfaction surveys can be successfully conducted for EMS. EMS systems should consider routinely using customer satisfaction surveys as a tool for quality measurement and improvement.

  2. Getting even for customer mistreatment: the role of moral identity in the relationship between customer interpersonal injustice and employee sabotage.

    PubMed

    Skarlicki, Daniel P; van Jaarsveld, Danielle D; Walker, David D

    2008-11-01

    Research on the "dark side" of organizational behavior has determined that employee sabotage is most often a reaction by disgruntled employees to perceived mistreatment. To date, however, most studies on employee retaliation have focused on intra-organizational sources of (in)justice. Results from this field study of customer service representatives (N = 358) showed that interpersonal injustice from customers relates positively to customer-directed sabotage over and above intra-organizational sources of fairness. Moreover, the association between unjust treatment and sabotage was moderated by 2 dimensions of moral identity (symbolization and internalization) in the form of a 3-way interaction. The relationship between injustice and sabotage was more pronounced for employees high (vs. low) in symbolization, but this moderation effect was weaker among employees who were high (vs. low) in internalization. Last, employee sabotage was negatively related to job performance ratings.

  3. 7 CFR 1219.6 - Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Customs. 1219.6 Section 1219.6 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS..., AND INFORMATION Hass Avocado Promotion, Research, and Information Order Definitions § 1219.6 Customs...

  4. Customer Satisfaction with Public Libraries.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    D'Elia, George; Rodger, Eleanor Jo

    1996-01-01

    Surveys conducted in 142 urban public libraries examined customer satisfaction, comparisons with other libraries, and factors affecting satisfaction. Overall, customers were satisfied with their libraries but experienced different levels of satisfaction based on convenience, availability of materials and information, and services facilitating…

  5. Diffraction analysis of customized illumination technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lim, Chang-Moon; Kim, Seo-Min; Eom, Tae-Seung; Moon, Seung Chan; Shin, Ki S.

    2004-05-01

    Various enhancement techniques such as alternating PSM, chrome-less phase lithography, double exposure, etc. have been considered as driving forces to lead the production k1 factor towards below 0.35. Among them, a layer specific optimization of illumination mode, so-called customized illumination technique receives deep attentions from lithographers recently. A new approach for illumination customization based on diffraction spectrum analysis is suggested in this paper. Illumination pupil is divided into various diffraction domains by comparing the similarity of the confined diffraction spectrum. Singular imaging property of individual diffraction domain makes it easier to build and understand the customized illumination shape. By comparing the goodness of image in each domain, it was possible to achieve the customized shape of illumination. With the help from this technique, it was found that the layout change would not gives the change in the shape of customized illumination mode.

  6. Grid Data Management and Customer Demands at MeteoSwiss

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rigo, G.; Lukasczyk, Ch.

    2010-09-01

    near-real-time datasets to build up trust in the product in different applications. The implementation of a new method called RSOI for the daily production allowed to bring the daily precipitation field up to the expectations of customers. The main use of the grids were near-realtime and past event analysis in areas scarcely covered with stations, and inputs for forecast tools and models. Critical success factors of the product were speed of delivery and at the same time accuracy, temporal and spatial resolution, and configuration (coordinate system, projection). To date, grids of archived precipitation data since 1961 and daily/monthly precipitation gridsets with 4h-delivery lag of Switzerland or subareas are available.

  7. 19 CFR 12.42 - Findings of Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Findings of Commissioner of Customs. 12.42 Section 12.42 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT... Labor § 12.42 Findings of Commissioner of Customs. (a) If any port director or other principal Customs...

  8. 19 CFR 12.42 - Findings of Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Findings of Commissioner of Customs. 12.42 Section 12.42 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT... Labor § 12.42 Findings of Commissioner of Customs. (a) If any port director or other principal Customs...

  9. 19 CFR 12.42 - Findings of Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Findings of Commissioner of Customs. 12.42 Section 12.42 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT... Labor § 12.42 Findings of Commissioner of Customs. (a) If any port director or other principal Customs...

  10. 19 CFR 12.42 - Findings of Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Findings of Commissioner of Customs. 12.42 Section 12.42 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT... Labor § 12.42 Findings of Commissioner of Customs. (a) If any port director or other principal Customs...

  11. 19 CFR 12.42 - Findings of Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Findings of Commissioner of Customs. 12.42 Section 12.42 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT... Labor § 12.42 Findings of Commissioner of Customs. (a) If any port director or other principal Customs...

  12. Popularity and customer preferences for over-the-counter Chinese medicines perceived by community pharmacists in Shanghai and Guangzhou: a questionnaire survey study

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background This study interviewed community pharmacists in Shanghai and Guangzhou for their perception of the popular categories of over-the-counter (OTC) Chinese medicines and the factors affecting customer preferences for OTC Chinese medicines. Methods A cross-sectional survey was carried out in six main administrative districts in Guangzhou and eight main administrative districts in Shanghai, China. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted in this study. Results OTC Chinese medicines contributed 21–50% among all the pharmaceutical sales by the community pharmacies. The prevalent categories of OTC Chinese medicines were common cold medicines, respiratory system medicines, digestive system agents, gynecological medicines, health tonic medicines, and qing re (heat-clearing) and qu du (detoxifying) medicines. Customers were more concerned about medical factors of OTC Chinese medicines than business factors. Among the medical factors, the most important was drug safety, followed by efficacy, contraindications, indications, and side effects. Among the business factors, the most important were brand and price. Conclusions This study identified the top sales categories of OTC Chinese medicines in Shanghai and Guangzhou and the important factors such as drug safety, efficacy, period of validity, contraindications, and indications that are affecting the customer preferences for OTC Chinese medicines. PMID:25243017

  13. What results when firms implement practices: the differential relationship between specific practices, firm financial performance, customer service, and quality.

    PubMed

    Gibson, Cristina B; Porath, Christine L; Benson, George S; Lawler, Edward E

    2007-11-01

    Previous research on organizational practices is replete with contradictory evidence regarding their effects. Here, the authors argue that these contradictory findings may have occurred because researchers have often examined complex practice combinations and have failed to investigate a broad variety of firm-level outcomes. Thus, past research may obscure important differential effects of specific practices on specific firm-level outcomes. Extending this research, the authors develop hypotheses about the effects of practices that (a) enable information sharing, (b) set boundaries, and (c) enable teams on 3 different firm-level outcomes: financial performance, customer service, and quality. Relationships are tested in a sample of observations from over 200 Fortune 1000 firms. Results indicate that information-sharing practices were positively related to financial performance 1 year following implementation of the practices, boundary-setting practices were positively related to firm-level customer service, and team-enabling practices were related to firm-level quality. No single set of practices predicted all 3 firm-level outcomes, indicating practice-specific effects. These findings help resolve the theoretical tension in the literature regarding the effects of organizational practices and offer guidance as to how to best target practices to increase specific work-related outcomes. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed. (c) 2007 APA

  14. Customer service: the key to market differentiation.

    PubMed

    Stahl, D A

    1997-06-01

    Fierce competition in the subacute care environment makes customer service orientation essential. Four steps help to achieve quality customer service are: (1) institute core values; (2) identify your customers; (3) understand human resources; and (4) establish an efficient system.

  15. Integrated Main Propulsion System Performance Reconstruction Process/Models

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lopez, Eduardo; Elliott, Katie; Snell, Steven; Evans, Michael

    2013-01-01

    The Integrated Main Propulsion System (MPS) Performance Reconstruction process provides the MPS post-flight data files needed for postflight reporting to the project integration management and key customers to verify flight performance. This process/model was used as the baseline for the currently ongoing Space Launch System (SLS) work. The process utilizes several methodologies, including multiple software programs, to model integrated propulsion system performance through space shuttle ascent. It is used to evaluate integrated propulsion systems, including propellant tanks, feed systems, rocket engine, and pressurization systems performance throughout ascent based on flight pressure and temperature data. The latest revision incorporates new methods based on main engine power balance model updates to model higher mixture ratio operation at lower engine power levels.

  16. Web evaluation at the US National Institutes of Health: use of the American Customer Satisfaction Index online customer survey.

    PubMed

    Wood, Fred B; Siegel, Elliot R; Feldman, Sue; Love, Cynthia B; Rodrigues, Dennis; Malamud, Mark; Lagana, Marie; Crafts, Jennifer

    2008-02-15

    The National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), realized the need to better understand its Web users in order to help assure that websites are user friendly and well designed for effective information dissemination. A trans-NIH group proposed a trans-NIH project to implement an online customer survey, known as the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey, on a large number of NIH websites-the first "enterprise-wide" ACSI application, and probably the largest enterprise Web evaluation of any kind, in the US government. The proposal was funded by the NIH Evaluation Set-Aside Program for two years at a cost of US $1.5 million (US $1.275 million for survey licenses for 60 websites at US $18000 per website; US $225,000 for a project evaluation contractor). The overall project objectives were to assess the value added to the participating NIH websites of using the ACSI online survey, identify any NIH-wide benefits (and limitations) of the ACSI, ascertain any new understanding about the NIH Web presence based on ACSI survey results, and evaluate the effectiveness of a trans-NIH approach to Web evaluation. This was not an experimental study and was not intended to evaluate the ACSI survey methodology, per se, or the impacts of its use on customer satisfaction with NIH websites. The evaluation methodology included baseline pre-project websites profiles; before and after email surveys of participating website teams; interviews with a representative cross-section of website staff; observations of debriefing meetings with website teams; observations at quarterly trans-NIH Web staff meetings and biweekly trans-NIH leadership team meetings; and review and analysis of secondary data. Of the original 60 NIH websites signed up, 55 implemented the ACSI survey, 42 generated sufficient data for formal reporting of survey results for their sites, and 51 completed the final project survey. A broad cross-section of websites

  17. Understanding the relationship between Kano model's customer satisfaction scores and self-stated requirements importance.

    PubMed

    Mkpojiogu, Emmanuel O C; Hashim, Nor Laily

    2016-01-01

    Customer satisfaction is the result of product quality and viability. The place of the perceived satisfaction of users/customers for a software product cannot be neglected especially in today competitive market environment as it drives the loyalty of customers and promotes high profitability and return on investment. Therefore understanding the importance of requirements as it is associated with the satisfaction of users/customers when their requirements are met is worth the pain considering. It is necessary to know the relationship between customer satisfactions when their requirements are met (or their dissatisfaction when their requirements are unmet) and the importance of such requirement. So many works have been carried out on customer satisfaction in connection with the importance of requirements but the relationship between customer satisfaction scores (coefficients) of the Kano model and users/customers self-stated requirements importance have not been sufficiently explored. In this study, an attempt is made to unravel the underlying relationship existing between Kano model's customer satisfaction indexes and users/customers self reported requirements importance. The results of the study indicate some interesting associations between these considered variables. These bivariate associations reveal that customer satisfaction index (SI), and average satisfaction coefficient (ASC) and customer dissatisfaction index (DI) and average satisfaction coefficient (ASC) are highly correlated (r = 96 %) and thus ASC can be used in place of either SI or DI in representing customer satisfaction scores. Also, these Kano model's customer satisfaction variables (SI, DI, and ASC) are each associated with self-stated requirements importance (IMP). Further analysis indicates that the value customers or users place on requirements that are met or on features that are incorporated into a product influences the level of satisfaction such customers derive from the product. The

  18. 12 CFR 368.100 - Obligations concerning institutional customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... the bank and the customer regarding the nature of the relationship between the bank and the customer... consideration all the facts and circumstances of a particular bank/customer relationship, assessed in the... securities that the institutional customer has in its portfolio and/or under management. While the...

  19. 19 CFR 191.25 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.25 Section 191.25 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain manufacturing drawback by complying with the...

  20. 19 CFR 191.44 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.44 Section 191.44 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain rejected merchandise drawback by complying with the...

  1. 19 CFR 191.44 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.44 Section 191.44 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain rejected merchandise drawback by complying with the...

  2. 19 CFR 191.25 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.25 Section 191.25 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain manufacturing drawback by complying with the...

  3. 19 CFR 191.25 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.25 Section 191.25 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain manufacturing drawback by complying with the...

  4. 19 CFR 191.44 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.44 Section 191.44 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain rejected merchandise drawback by complying with the...

  5. 19 CFR 191.25 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.25 Section 191.25 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain manufacturing drawback by complying with the...

  6. 19 CFR 191.25 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.25 Section 191.25 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain manufacturing drawback by complying with the...

  7. 19 CFR 191.44 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.44 Section 191.44 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain rejected merchandise drawback by complying with the...

  8. 19 CFR 191.44 - Destruction under Customs supervision.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Destruction under Customs supervision. 191.44 Section 191.44 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... supervision. A claimant may destroy merchandise and obtain rejected merchandise drawback by complying with the...

  9. 19 CFR 151.54 - Testing by Customs laboratory.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Testing by Customs laboratory. 151.54 Section 151.54 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) EXAMINATION, SAMPLING, AND TESTING OF MERCHANDISE Metal-Bearing Ores and...

  10. 19 CFR 151.54 - Testing by Customs laboratory.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Testing by Customs laboratory. 151.54 Section 151.54 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) EXAMINATION, SAMPLING, AND TESTING OF MERCHANDISE Metal-Bearing Ores and...

  11. 19 CFR 151.54 - Testing by Customs laboratory.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Testing by Customs laboratory. 151.54 Section 151.54 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) EXAMINATION, SAMPLING, AND TESTING OF MERCHANDISE Metal-Bearing Ores and...

  12. Ontology for customer centric digital services and analytics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Keat, Ng Wai; Shahrir, Mohammad Shazri

    2017-11-01

    In computer science research, ontologies are commonly utilised to create a unified abstract across many rich and different fields. In this paper, we apply the concept to the customer centric domain of digital services analytics and present an analytics solution ontology. The essence is based from traditional Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), which then was abstracted out to cover wider areas on customer centric digital services. The ontology we developed covers both static aspects (customer identifiers) and dynamic aspects (customer's temporal interactions). The structure of the customer scape is modeled with classes that represent different types of customer touch points, ranging from digital and digital-stamps which represent physical analogies. The dynamic aspects of customer centric digital service are modeled with a set of classes, with the importance is represented in different associations involving establishment and termination of the target interaction. The realized ontology can be used in development of frameworks for customer centric applications, and for specification of common data format used by cooperating digital service applications.

  13. Fostering employee service creativity: Joint effects of customer empowering behaviors and supervisory empowering leadership.

    PubMed

    Dong, Yuntao; Liao, Hui; Chuang, Aichia; Zhou, Jing; Campbell, Elizabeth M

    2015-09-01

    Integrating insights from the literature on customers' central role in service and the literature on employee creativity, we offer theoretical and empirical account of how and when customer empowering behaviors can motivate employee creativity during service encounters and, subsequently, influence customer satisfaction with service experience. Using multilevel, multisource, experience sampling data from 380 hairstylists matched with 3550 customers in 118 hair salons, we found that customer empowering behaviors were positively related to employee creativity and subsequent customer satisfaction via employee state promotion focus. Results also showed that empowering behaviors from different agents function synergistically in shaping employee creativity: supervisory empowering leadership strengthened the indirect effect of customer empowering behaviors on employee creativity via state promotion focus. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  14. Web Evaluation at the US National Institutes of Health: Use of the American Customer Satisfaction Index Online Customer Survey

    PubMed Central

    Siegel, Elliot R; Feldman, Sue; Love, Cynthia B; Rodrigues, Dennis; Malamud, Mark; Lagana, Marie; Crafts, Jennifer

    2008-01-01

    Background The National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), realized the need to better understand its Web users in order to help assure that websites are user friendly and well designed for effective information dissemination. A trans-NIH group proposed a trans-NIH project to implement an online customer survey, known as the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey, on a large number of NIH websites—the first “enterprise-wide” ACSI application, and probably the largest enterprise Web evaluation of any kind, in the US government. The proposal was funded by the NIH Evaluation Set-Aside Program for two years at a cost of US $1.5 million (US $1.275 million for survey licenses for 60 websites at US $18,000 per website; US $225,000 for a project evaluation contractor). Objective The overall project objectives were to assess the value added to the participating NIH websites of using the ACSI online survey, identify any NIH-wide benefits (and limitations) of the ACSI, ascertain any new understanding about the NIH Web presence based on ACSI survey results, and evaluate the effectiveness of a trans-NIH approach to Web evaluation. This was not an experimental study and was not intended to evaluate the ACSI survey methodology, per se, or the impacts of its use on customer satisfaction with NIH websites. Methods The evaluation methodology included baseline pre-project websites profiles; before and after email surveys of participating website teams; interviews with a representative cross-section of website staff; observations of debriefing meetings with website teams; observations at quarterly trans-NIH Web staff meetings and biweekly trans-NIH leadership team meetings; and review and analysis of secondary data. Results Of the original 60 NIH websites signed up, 55 implemented the ACSI survey, 42 generated sufficient data for formal reporting of survey results for their sites, and 51 completed the final project survey. A

  15. 39 CFR 3055.92 - Customer Experience Measurement Surveys.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 39 Postal Service 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Customer Experience Measurement Surveys. 3055.92... SATISFACTION REPORTING Reporting of Customer Satisfaction § 3055.92 Customer Experience Measurement Surveys. (a... instrument including: (1) A description of the customer type targeted by the survey; (2) The number of...

  16. 39 CFR 3055.92 - Customer Experience Measurement Surveys.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 39 Postal Service 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Customer Experience Measurement Surveys. 3055.92... SATISFACTION REPORTING Reporting of Customer Satisfaction § 3055.92 Customer Experience Measurement Surveys. (a... instrument including: (1) A description of the customer type targeted by the survey; (2) The number of...

  17. 39 CFR 3055.92 - Customer Experience Measurement Surveys.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 39 Postal Service 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Customer Experience Measurement Surveys. 3055.92... SATISFACTION REPORTING Reporting of Customer Satisfaction § 3055.92 Customer Experience Measurement Surveys. (a... instrument including: (1) A description of the customer type targeted by the survey; (2) The number of...

  18. 39 CFR 3055.92 - Customer Experience Measurement Surveys.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 39 Postal Service 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Customer Experience Measurement Surveys. 3055.92... SATISFACTION REPORTING Reporting of Customer Satisfaction § 3055.92 Customer Experience Measurement Surveys. (a... instrument including: (1) A description of the customer type targeted by the survey; (2) The number of...

  19. 47 CFR 32.2321 - Customer premises wiring.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Customer premises wiring. 32.2321 Section 32... Customer premises wiring. (a) This account shall include all amounts transferred from the former Account 232, Station Connections, inside wiring subclass. (b) Embedded Customer Premises Wiring is that...

  20. When customers exhibit verbal aggression, employees pay cognitive costs.

    PubMed

    Rafaeli, Anat; Erez, Amir; Ravid, Shy; Derfler-Rozin, Rellie; Treister, Dorit Efrat; Scheyer, Ravit

    2012-09-01

    In 4 experimental studies, we show that customer verbal aggression impaired the cognitive performance of the targets of this aggression. In Study 1, customers' verbal aggression reduced recall of customers' requests. Study 2 extended these findings by showing that customer verbal aggression impaired recognition memory and working memory among employees of a cellular communication provider. In Study 3, the ability to take another's perspective attenuated the negative effects of customer verbal aggression on participants' cognitive performance. Study 4 linked customer verbal aggression to quality of task performance, showing a particularly negative influence of aggressive requests delivered by high-status customers. Together, these studies suggest that the effects of even minor aggression from customers can strongly affect the immediate cognitive performance of customer service employees and reduce their task performance. The implications for research on aggression and for the practice of customer service are discussed.

  1. Customizing Curriculum with Digital Resources

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Miller, Jeffrey

    2011-01-01

    To effectively use digital resources in the classroom, teachers must customize the information, merge it with pre-existing curriculum, differentiate it for diverse student populations, and still meet standards-based learning goals. This article describes a solution to these challenges: the Curriculum Customization Service, which provides access to…

  2. Complementary treatment of the common cold and flu with medicinal plants--results from two samples of pharmacy customers in Estonia.

    PubMed

    Raal, Ain; Volmer, Daisy; Sõukand, Renata; Hratkevitš, Sofia; Kalle, Raivo

    2013-01-01

    The aim of the current survey was to investigate the complementary self-treatment of the common cold and flu with medicinal plants among pharmacy customers in Estonia. A multiple-choice questionnaire listing 10 plants and posing questions on the perceived characteristics of cold and flu, the effectiveness of plants, help-seeking behaviour, self-treatment and sources of information, was distributed to a sample of participants in two medium size pharmacies. The participants were pharmacy customers: 150 in Tallinn (mostly Russian speaking) and 150 in Kuressaare (mostly Estonian speaking). The mean number of plants used by participants was 4.1. Of the respondents, 69% self-treated the common cold and flu and 28% consulted with a general practitioner. In general, medicinal plants were considered effective in the treatment of the above-mentioned illnesses and 56% of the respondents had used exclusively medicinal plants or their combination with OTC medicines and other means of folk medicine for treatment. The use of medicinal plants increased with age and was more frequent among female than male respondents. Among Estonian-speaking customers lime flowers, blackcurrant and camomile were more frequently used, and among Russian speaking customers raspberry and lemon fruits. Regardless of some statistically significant differences in preferred species among different age, education, sex and nationality groups, the general attitude towards medicinal plants for self-treatment of the common cold and flu in Estonia was very favourable.

  3. 19 CFR 151.54 - Testing by Customs laboratory.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Testing by Customs laboratory. 151.54 Section 151... Other Metal-Bearing Materials § 151.54 Testing by Customs laboratory. Samples taken in accordance with § 151.52 shall be promptly forwarded to the appropriate Customs laboratory for testing in accordance...

  4. Research on the construction of three level customer service knowledge graph

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Shi; Shen, Jiajie; Shi, Quan; Cheng, Xianyi

    2017-09-01

    With the explosion of knowledge and information of the enterprise and the growing demand for intelligent knowledge management and application and improve business performance the knowledge expression and processing of the enterprise has become a hot topic. Aim at the problems of the electric marketing customer service knowledge map (customer service knowledge map) in building theory and method, electric marketing knowledge map of three levels of customer service was discussed, and realizing knowledge reasoning based on Neo4j, achieve good results in practical application.

  5. Running Head: Improving Pharmacy Customer Satisfaction

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2006-06-29

    superior service and excellent outcomes. Nursing Management , 34, 11, 26 - 30. 71 Fairweather, A. (n.d.). Customers - hold onto what you’ve got. Retrieved...from 7http://www.customerservicemanger.com/ customers -hold-onto-what-youve-got.htm, on September 30, 2005. Fedoroff, P. (2006). 12 MANAGE Rigor and...and management fj strategies. Drug Trend Benefits, 16, 7, 380-392. 7Schueler, J. (2000). Customer service through leadership: the Disney way. Training

  6. Determining customer satisfaction in anatomic pathology.

    PubMed

    Zarbo, Richard J

    2006-05-01

    Measurement of physicians' and patients' satisfaction with laboratory services has become a standard practice in the United States, prompted by national accreditation requirements. Unlike other surveys of hospital-, outpatient care-, or physician-related activities, no ongoing, comprehensive customer satisfaction survey of anatomic pathology services is available for subscription that would allow continual benchmarking against peer laboratories. Pathologists, therefore, must often design their own local assessment tools to determine physician satisfaction in anatomic pathology. To describe satisfaction survey design that would elicit specific information from physician customers about key elements of anatomic pathology services. The author shares his experience in biannually assessing customer satisfaction in anatomic pathology with survey tools designed at the Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Mich. Benchmarks for physician satisfaction, opportunities for improvement, and characteristics that correlated with a high level of physician satisfaction were identified nationally from a standardized survey tool used by 94 laboratories in the 2001 College of American Pathologists Q-Probes quality improvement program. In general, physicians are most satisfied with professional diagnostic services and least satisfied with pathology services related to poor communication. A well-designed and conducted customer satisfaction survey is an opportunity for pathologists to periodically educate physician customers about services offered, manage unrealistic expectations, and understand the evolving needs of the physician customer. Armed with current information from physician customers, the pathologist is better able to strategically plan for resources that facilitate performance improvements in anatomic pathology laboratory services that align with evolving clinical needs in health care delivery.

  7. 78 FR 68505 - Enhancing Protections Afforded Customers and Customer Funds Held by Futures Commission Merchants...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-11-14

    ...The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is adopting new regulations and amending existing regulations to require enhanced customer protections, risk management programs, internal monitoring and controls, capital and liquidity standards, customer disclosures, and auditing and examination programs for futures commission merchants (``FCMs''). The regulations also address certain related issues concerning derivatives clearing organizations (``DCOs'') and chief compliance officers (``CCOs''). The final rules will afford greater assurances to market participants that: Customer segregated funds, secured amount funds, and cleared swaps funds are protected; customers are provided with appropriate notice of the risks of futures trading and of the FCMs with which they may choose to do business; FCMs are monitoring and managing risks in a robust manner; the capital and liquidity of FCMs are strengthened to safeguard their continued operations; and the auditing and examination programs of the Commission and the self- regulatory organizations (``SROs'') are monitoring the activities of FCMs in a prudent and thorough manner.

  8. Comparative study on the customization of natural language interfaces to databases.

    PubMed

    Pazos R, Rodolfo A; Aguirre L, Marco A; González B, Juan J; Martínez F, José A; Pérez O, Joaquín; Verástegui O, Andrés A

    2016-01-01

    In the last decades the popularity of natural language interfaces to databases (NLIDBs) has increased, because in many cases information obtained from them is used for making important business decisions. Unfortunately, the complexity of their customization by database administrators make them difficult to use. In order for a NLIDB to obtain a high percentage of correctly translated queries, it is necessary that it is correctly customized for the database to be queried. In most cases the performance reported in NLIDB literature is the highest possible; i.e., the performance obtained when the interfaces were customized by the implementers. However, for end users it is more important the performance that the interface can yield when the NLIDB is customized by someone different from the implementers. Unfortunately, there exist very few articles that report NLIDB performance when the NLIDBs are not customized by the implementers. This article presents a semantically-enriched data dictionary (which permits solving many of the problems that occur when translating from natural language to SQL) and an experiment in which two groups of undergraduate students customized our NLIDB and English language frontend (ELF), considered one of the best available commercial NLIDBs. The experimental results show that, when customized by the first group, our NLIDB obtained a 44.69 % of correctly answered queries and ELF 11.83 % for the ATIS database, and when customized by the second group, our NLIDB attained 77.05 % and ELF 13.48 %. The performance attained by our NLIDB, when customized by ourselves was 90 %.

  9. 19 CFR 115.17 - Appeal to Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Appeal to Commissioner of Customs. 115.17 Section 115.17 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  10. 19 CFR 115.17 - Appeal to Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Appeal to Commissioner of Customs. 115.17 Section 115.17 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  11. 19 CFR 115.17 - Appeal to Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Appeal to Commissioner of Customs. 115.17 Section 115.17 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  12. 19 CFR 115.17 - Appeal to Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Appeal to Commissioner of Customs. 115.17 Section 115.17 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  13. 19 CFR 115.17 - Appeal to Commissioner of Customs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Appeal to Commissioner of Customs. 115.17 Section 115.17 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  14. 76 FR 65207 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-10-20

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Notice of Cancellation of Customs Broker Licenses AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.... 1641) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations (19 CFR 111.51), the following Customs...

  15. Childbirth customs in Vietnamese traditions.

    PubMed Central

    Bodo, K.; Gibson, N.

    1999-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To examine and understand how differences in the cultural backgrounds of Canadian physicians and their Vietnamese patients can affect the quality and efficacy of prenatal and postnatal treatment. QUALITY OF EVIDENCE: The information in this paper is based on a review of the literature, supplemented by interviews with members of the Vietnamese community in Edmonton, Alta. The literature was searched with MEDLINE (1966 to present), HEALTHSTAR (1975 to present), EMBASE (1988 to present), and Social Sciences Abstracts (1984 to present). Emphasis was placed on articles and other texts that dealt with Vietnamese customs surrounding childbirth, but information on health and health care customs was also considered. Interviews focused on the accuracy of information obtained from the research and the correlation of those data with personal experiences of Vietnamese community members. MAIN MESSAGE: Information in the texts used to research this paper suggests that traditional Vietnamese beliefs and practices surrounding birth are very different from the biomedical view of the Canadian medical system. The experiences and beliefs of the members of the Vietnamese community support this finding. Such cultural differences could contribute to misunderstandings between physicians and patients and could affect the quality and efficacy of health care provided. CONCLUSIONS: A sensitive and open approach to the patient's belief system and open and frank communication are necessary to ensure effective prenatal and postnatal treatment for recent Vietnamese immigrants and refugees. Education and awareness of cultural differences are necessary for physicians to provide the best and most effective health care possible. Images p692-a PMID:10099808

  16. 7 CFR 1212.32 - United States Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false United States Customs Service. 1212.32 Section 1212... § 1212.32 United States Customs Service. “United States Customs Service” or “Customs” means the United States Customs and Border Protection, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Honey Packers and...

  17. 7 CFR 1212.32 - United States Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false United States Customs Service. 1212.32 Section 1212... § 1212.32 United States Customs Service. “United States Customs Service” or “Customs” means the United States Customs and Border Protection, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Honey Packers and...

  18. 7 CFR 1212.32 - United States Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false United States Customs Service. 1212.32 Section 1212... § 1212.32 United States Customs Service. “United States Customs Service” or “Customs” means the United States Customs and Border Protection, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. Honey Packers and...

  19. 25 CFR 141.59 - Customer complaint procedures.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Customer complaint procedures. 141.59 Section 141.59... THE NAVAJO, HOPI AND ZUNI RESERVATIONS Enforcement Powers, Procedures and Remedies § 141.59 Customer complaint procedures. (a) Any customer of a licensee may file a complaint with the Commissioner alleging...

  20. 17 CFR 242.607 - Customer account statements.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Customer account statements... (CONTINUED) REGULATIONS M, SHO, ATS, AC, AND NMS AND CUSTOMER MARGIN REQUIREMENTS FOR SECURITY FUTURES Regulation Nms-Regulation of the National Market System § 242.607 Customer account statements. (a) No broker...

  1. Data Mining Techniques for Customer Relationship Management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Feng; Qin, Huilin

    2017-10-01

    Data mining have made customer relationship management (CRM) a new area where firms can gain a competitive advantage, and play a key role in the firms’ management decision. In this paper, we first analyze the value and application fields of data mining techniques for CRM, and further explore how data mining applied to Customer churn analysis. A new business culture is developing today. The conventional production centered and sales purposed market strategy is gradually shifting to customer centered and service purposed. Customers’ value orientation is increasingly affecting the firms’. And customer resource has become one of the most important strategic resources. Therefore, understanding customers’ needs and discriminating the most contributed customers has become the driving force of most modern business.

  2. Quantity and quality benefits of in-service invasive cleaning of trunk mains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sunny, Iftekhar; Husband, Stewart; Drake, Nick; Mckenzie, Kevan; Boxall, Joby

    2017-07-01

    Trunk mains are high risk critical infrastructure where poor performance can impact on large numbers of customers. Both quantity (e.g. hydraulic capacity) and quality (e.g. discolouration) of trunk main performance are affected by asset deterioration in the form of particle accumulation at the pipe wall. Trunk main cleaning techniques are therefore desirable to remove such material. However, little is quantified regarding the efficacy of different maintenance interventions or longer-term changes following such cleaning. This paper presents an assessment of quantity and quality performance of a trunk main system pre, post and for 12 months following cleaning using pigging with ice slurry. Hydraulic calibration showed a 7 times roughness height reduction after ice slurry pigging, evidencing substantially improved hydraulic capacity and reduced headloss. Turbidity response due to carefully imposed shear stress increase remained significant after the cleaning intervention, showing that relatively loose material had not been fully removed from the pipe wall. Overall the results demonstrate that cleaning by pigging with ice slurry can be beneficial for quantity performance, but care and further assessment may be necessary to realise the full quality benefits.

  3. The descriptive epidemiology of local restaurant smoking regulations in Massachusetts: an analysis of the protection of restaurant customers and workers

    PubMed Central

    Skeer, M; Siegel, M

    2003-01-01

    Objectives: To describe the range of restaurant smoking regulations in the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, and to analyse the level of protection from secondhand smoke exposure guaranteed by these regulations. Design: We obtained the local restaurant smoking regulations for each town, analysing them in terms of the protection of restaurant workers, bar workers, and adult and youth restaurant customers. Main outcome measure: The percentage of restaurant patrons and workers and bar workers who are protected from secondhand smoke exposure by the current smoking regulations in Massachusetts. Results: As of June 2002, 225 towns had local restaurant smoking regulations. Of these, 69 (30.7%) do not allow smoking in restaurants, 10 (4.4%) restrict smoking to adult only restaurants, 64 (28.4%) restrict smoking to enclosed, separately ventilated areas, and 82 (36.4%) restrict smoking to areas that need not be enclosed and separately ventilated. Of the 174 towns that, at a minimum, restrict smoking to bar areas or separately ventilated areas, 35 (20.1%) allow variances. Overall, 60 towns, covering only 17.7% of the population, completely ban smoking in restaurants. As a result, 81.3% of adult restaurant customers, 81.2% of youth customers, 82.3% of restaurant workers, and 87.0% of bar workers are not guaranteed protection from secondhand smoke in restaurants. Conclusions: Despite the widespread adoption of local restaurant smoking regulations in Massachusetts, the majority of restaurant customers and workers remain unprotected from secondhand smoke exposure. In light of this, public health practitioners must stop compromising the protection of customers and workers from secondhand smoke exposure in restaurants. PMID:12773735

  4. 19 CFR 122.181 - Definition of Customs security area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Definition of Customs security area. 122.181 Section 122.181 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS Access to Customs Security Areas § 122.181 Definition of...

  5. 19 CFR 122.181 - Definition of Customs security area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Definition of Customs security area. 122.181 Section 122.181 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS Access to Customs Security Areas § 122.181 Definition of...

  6. 19 CFR 122.181 - Definition of Customs security area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Definition of Customs security area. 122.181 Section 122.181 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS Access to Customs Security Areas § 122.181 Definition of...

  7. 19 CFR 122.181 - Definition of Customs security area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Definition of Customs security area. 122.181 Section 122.181 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS Access to Customs Security Areas § 122.181 Definition of...

  8. 12 CFR 48.16 - Customer dispute resolution.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... procedures. No national bank may enter into any agreement or understanding with a retail forex customer in... clause or clauses. (3) The agreement advises the retail forex customer that, at such time as the customer... connection with the dispute resolution, unless it is determined in the proceeding that the retail forex...

  9. 12 CFR 48.16 - Customer dispute resolution.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... procedures. No national bank may enter into any agreement or understanding with a retail forex customer in... clause or clauses. (3) The agreement advises the retail forex customer that, at such time as the customer... connection with the dispute resolution, unless it is determined in the proceeding that the retail forex...

  10. 12 CFR 48.16 - Customer dispute resolution.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... procedures. No national bank may enter into any agreement or understanding with a retail forex customer in... clause or clauses. (3) The agreement advises the retail forex customer that, at such time as the customer... connection with the dispute resolution, unless it is determined in the proceeding that the retail forex...

  11. 48 CFR 225.7304 - FMS customer involvement.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... contract without full and open competition. The FMS customer may also request that a subcontract be placed... disclose to the FMS customer any data, including certified cost or pricing data, that is contractor... proprietary data is a subject of negotiations. (e) Do not allow representatives of the FMS customer to— (1...

  12. 48 CFR 225.7304 - FMS customer involvement.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... contract without full and open competition. The FMS customer may also request that a subcontract be placed... disclose to the FMS customer any data, including certified cost or pricing data, that is contractor... proprietary data is a subject of negotiations. (e) Do not allow representatives of the FMS customer to— (1...

  13. 12 CFR 368.4 - Recommendations to customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Recommendations to customers. 368.4 Section 368... POLICY GOVERNMENT SECURITIES SALES PRACTICES § 368.4 Recommendations to customers. In recommending to a customer the purchase, sale or exchange of a government security, a bank that is a government securities...

  14. 19 CFR 122.181 - Definition of Customs security area.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Definition of Customs security area. 122.181...; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS Access to Customs Security Areas § 122.181 Definition of Customs security area. For purposes of this section, the term “Customs security area” means the Federal...

  15. A method for determining customer requirement weights based on TFMF and TLR

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ai, Qingsong; Shu, Ting; Liu, Quan; Zhou, Zude; Xiao, Zheng

    2013-11-01

    'Customer requirements' (CRs) management plays an important role in enterprise systems (ESs) by processing customer-focused information. Quality function deployment (QFD) is one of the main CRs analysis methods. Because CR weights are crucial for the input of QFD, we developed a method for determining CR weights based on trapezoidal fuzzy membership function (TFMF) and 2-tuple linguistic representation (TLR). To improve the accuracy of CR weights, we propose to apply TFMF to describe CR weights so that they can be appropriately represented. Because the fuzzy logic is not capable of aggregating information without loss, TLR model is adopted as well. We first describe the basic concepts of TFMF and TLR and then introduce an approach to compute CR weights. Finally, an example is provided to explain and verify the proposed method.

  16. Terminally ill patients as customers: the patient's perspective.

    PubMed

    Seibel, Katharina; Valeo, Sara Celestina; Xander, Carola; Adami, Sandra; Duerk, Thorsten; Becker, Gerhild

    2014-01-01

    Consumerism in health care defines patients as self-determined, rational customers. Yet, it is questionable whether vulnerable patients, such as the terminally ill, also fulfill these criteria. Vulnerable contexts and the patient's perspective on being a customer remain relatively unexplored. The present study addresses this research gap by analyzing terminally ill patients' views on being customers. To explore the ways in which patients in palliative care refer to themselves as patients/customers, and how the patients' concepts of self-determination are related to their attitudes toward the patient/customer role. Qualitative interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed in three steps: narrative analysis, thematic content analysis, and typology construction. Researchers recruited 25 patients via the Department of Palliative Care, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany. In many ways, palliative patients contradict the image of a self-determined customer. The palliative patient role is characterized by the concept of relational self-determination rather than an unrestricted self-determination. Self-attribution as a customer still occurs when positively associated with a person-centered, individualized treatment. Thus, the customer and patient role overlap within the palliative care setting because of the focus on the individual. The idealized customer role cannot be arbitrarily applied to all medical fields. Palliative patients are dependent on the physician, regardless of whether the customer or patient role is preferred. Hence, self-determination must be understood in relational terms, and physicians must recognize their crucial role in promoting patients' self-determination in the context of shared decision-making.

  17. The silent customers: measuring customer satisfaction in nursing homes.

    PubMed

    Kleinsorge, I K; Koenig, H F

    1991-12-01

    Nursing home administrators concerned with customer satisfaction and quality of care need a tool to assess and monitor ongoing satisfaction of nursing home residents and family members. The authors report a preliminary effort to develop such a survey using focus groups.

  18. The impact of the customer relationship management on organizational productivity, customer trust and satisfaction by using the structural equation model: A study in the Iranian hospitals

    PubMed Central

    Yaghoubi, Maryam; Asgari, Hamed; Javadi, Marzieh

    2017-01-01

    Context: One of the challenges in the fiercely competitive space of health organizations is responding to customers and building trust and satisfaction in them in the shortest time, with best quality and highest productivity. Hence the aim of this study is to survey the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) on organizational productivity, customer loyalty, satisfaction and trust in selected hospitals of Isfahan (in Iran). Materials and Methods: This study is a correlation descriptive research. Study population was the nurses in selected hospitals of Isfahan and the sampling has been conducted using stratified random method. Data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire of CRM and its effects (organizational productivity, customer loyalty, satisfaction and trust) which its validity and reliability has been confirmed by researchers. Structural equation method was used to determine the impact of variables. Data analysis method was structural equation modeling and the software used was SPSS version 16 (IBM, SPSS, 2007 Microsoft Corp., Bristol, UK) and AMOS version 18 (IBM, SPSS, 2010 Microsoft Corp, Bristol, UK). Results: Among the dimensions of CRM, diversification had the highest impact (0.83) and customer acquisition had the lowest (0.57) CRM, had the lowest impact on productivity (0.59) and the highest effect on customer satisfaction (0.83). Conclusions: For the implementation of CRM, it is necessary that the studied hospitals improve strategies of acquiring information about new customers, attracting new customers and keeping them and communication with patients outside the hospital and improve the system of measuring patient satisfaction and loyalty. PMID:28546971

  19. 7 CFR 1207.313 - Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Definitions § 1207.313 Customs Service. Customs Service means.... 14, 1991] National Potato Promotion Board ...

  20. 7 CFR 1207.313 - Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Definitions § 1207.313 Customs Service. Customs Service means.... 14, 1991] National Potato Promotion Board ...

  1. 7 CFR 1207.313 - Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Definitions § 1207.313 Customs Service. Customs Service means.... 14, 1991] National Potato Promotion Board ...

  2. 7 CFR 1207.313 - Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Definitions § 1207.313 Customs Service. Customs Service means.... 14, 1991] National Potato Promotion Board ...

  3. 7 CFR 1207.313 - Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POTATO RESEARCH AND PROMOTION PLAN Potato Research and Promotion Plan Definitions § 1207.313 Customs Service. Customs Service means.... 14, 1991] National Potato Promotion Board ...

  4. Customer Service in Ontario's Colleges

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Keith, John

    2005-01-01

    No doubt there are detractors who cringe at the prospect of connecting the term customer service with an institution of higher education. Some may consider the term demeaning. However, given the college funding crisis and current economic climate, a quality customer service strategy is a prudent adjunct to any marketing activity undertaken. It is…

  5. Management of Customer Service in Terms of Logistics Information Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kampf, Rudolf; Ližbetinová, Lenka; Tišlerová, Kamila

    2017-03-01

    This paper is focused on perceiving the logistic services as the competition advantage in frame of the ecommerce. Customers consider their purchases in its complexity and all the logistic services should be designed to meet with customers' preferences as much as possible. Our aim was to identify and evaluate of customers perceiving in frame of sales proposals offered by e-shops. Collected data of research were processed with the usage of cluster analysis. The aim of this paper is to present the results and conclusions from this research with focus on the elements of logistics services within e-commerce. These outputs can be used for knowledge base of information systems through which enterprises evaluate their decisions and selection of variants. For the enterprise, it is important to appropriate decisions about resource allocation and design of the structure of logistics services were set based on real customer preferences.

  6. US Geological Survey customers speak out

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gillespie, S.; Snyder, G.

    1995-01-01

    Provides results of a customer survey carried out in 1994 by the US Geological Survey. Uses of cartographic products are classified, as are application areas, accuracy satisfaction, media, Digital Line Graph requirements in update, and frequency of product use. USGS responses and plans for the future are noted. -M.Blakemore

  7. 16 CFR 240.4 - Definition of customer.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Definition of customer. 240.4 Section 240.4... ALLOWANCES AND OTHER MERCHANDISING PAYMENTS AND SERVICES § 240.4 Definition of customer. A customer is any... “customer” is any buyer of the seller's product for resale who purchases from or through a wholesaler or...

  8. Data Mining Application in Customer Relationship Management for Hospital Inpatients

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Objectives This study aims to discover patients loyal to a hospital and model their medical service usage patterns. Consequently, this study proposes a data mining application in customer relationship management (CRM) for hospital inpatients. Methods A recency, frequency, monetary (RFM) model has been applied toward 14,072 patients discharged from a university hospital. Cluster analysis was conducted to segment customers, and it modeled the patterns of the loyal customers' medical services usage via a decision tree. Results Patients were divided into two groups according to the variables of the RFM model and the group which had significantly high frequency of medical use and expenses was defined as loyal customers, a target market. As a result of the decision tree, the predictable factors of the loyal clients were; length of stay, certainty of selectable treatment, surgery, number of accompanying treatments, kind of patient room, and department from which they were discharged. Particularly, this research showed that when a patient within the internal medicine department who did not have surgery stayed for more than 13.5 days, their probability of being a classified as a loyal customer was 70.0%. Conclusions To discover a hospital's loyal patients and model their medical usage patterns, the application of data-mining has been suggested. This paper suggests practical use of combining segmentation, targeting, positioning (STP) strategy and the RFM model with data-mining in CRM. PMID:23115740

  9. Segmentation of Natural Gas Customers in Industrial Sector Using Self-Organizing Map (SOM) Method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Masbar Rus, A. M.; Pramudita, R.; Surjandari, I.

    2018-03-01

    The usage of the natural gas which is non-renewable energy, needs to be more efficient. Therefore, customer segmentation becomes necessary to set up a marketing strategy to be right on target or to determine an appropriate fee. This research was conducted at PT PGN using one of data mining method, i.e. Self-Organizing Map (SOM). The clustering process is based on the characteristic of its customers as a reference to create the customer segmentation of natural gas customers. The input variables of this research are variable of area, type of customer, the industrial sector, the average usage, standard deviation of the usage, and the total deviation. As a result, 37 cluster and 9 segment from 838 customer data are formed. These 9 segments then employed to illustrate the general characteristic of the natural gas customer of PT PGN.

  10. A simple and valuable approach for measuring customer satisfaction.

    PubMed

    Kinney, William C

    2005-08-01

    To determine the financial impact of poor customer satisfaction and the value of information gained from using a 1-question customer-satisfaction survey in a medical setting. A single-question customer-satisfaction survey was collected from customers presenting to an academic otolaryngology head and neck surgery outpatient clinic. The overall response rate was 25%, overall net promoter score was 67.3%, lowest net promoter score occurred on Wednesday and Friday, overall net potential referrals were 872, and potential lost revenue from dissatisfied customers equaled US 2.3 million dollars. A single-question customer-satisfaction survey may help identify areas of customer dissatisfaction that lead to a significant source of lost revenue. The competitive forces in today's health care environment require medical practices to address issues related to customer satisfaction.

  11. Statistical results on restorative dentistry experiments: effect of the interaction between main variables

    PubMed Central

    CAVALCANTI, Andrea Nóbrega; MARCHI, Giselle Maria; AMBROSANO, Gláucia Maria Bovi

    2010-01-01

    Statistical analysis interpretation is a critical field in scientific research. When there is more than one main variable being studied in a research, the effect of the interaction between those variables is fundamental on experiments discussion. However, some doubts can occur when the p-value of the interaction is greater than the significance level. Objective To determine the most adequate interpretation for factorial experiments with p-values of the interaction nearly higher than the significance level. Materials and methods The p-values of the interactions found in two restorative dentistry experiments (0.053 and 0.068) were interpreted in two distinct ways: considering the interaction as not significant and as significant. Results Different findings were observed between the two analyses, and studies results became more coherent when the significant interaction was used. Conclusion The p-value of the interaction between main variables must be analyzed with caution because it can change the outcomes of research studies. Researchers are strongly advised to interpret carefully the results of their statistical analysis in order to discuss the findings of their experiments properly. PMID:20857003

  12. 18 CFR 154.111 - Index of customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Index of customers. 154... Tariff § 154.111 Index of customers. (a) If a pipeline is in compliance with the reporting requirements of § 284.13(c) of this chapter, then an index of customers need not be provided in the tariff. (b) If...

  13. Measuring Air Force Contracting Customer Satisfaction

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-12-01

    NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA MBA PROFESSIONAL REPORT MEASURING AIR FORCE CONTRACTING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ...... satisfaction elements should be included in a standardized tool that measures the level of customer satisfaction for AF Contracting’s external and

  14. History and Status of the CIS Customs Union

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lawson, T.M.; Erickson, S.A.

    1999-08-31

    This report explores the history of the CIS Customs Union and the major obstacles the Union faces in its implementation. Investigation of the Customs Union is necessary as its implementation could effect the Second Line of Defense (SLD) Program. Russian Customs contends that radiation detectors should not be installed along the Customs Union members borders of as the borders will be dissolved when the Union is implemented.

  15. Personal customizing exercise with a wearable measurement and control unit

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Zhihui; Kiryu, Tohru; Tamura, Naoki

    2005-01-01

    Background Recently, wearable technology has been used in various health-related fields to develop advanced monitoring solutions. However, the monitoring function alone cannot meet all the requirements of customizing machine-based exercise on an individual basis by relying on biosignal-based controls. We propose a new wearable unit design equipped with measurement and control functions to support the customization process. Methods The wearable unit can measure the heart rate and electromyogram signals during exercise performance and output workload control commands to the exercise machines. The workload is continuously tracked with exercise programs set according to personally customized workload patterns and estimation results from the measured biosignals by a fuzzy control method. Exercise programs are adapted by relying on a computer workstation, which communicates with the wearable unit via wireless connections. A prototype of the wearable unit was tested together with an Internet-based cycle ergometer system to demonstrate that it is possible to customize exercise on an individual basis. Results We tested the wearable unit in nine people to assess its suitability to control cycle ergometer exercise. The results confirmed that the unit could successfully control the ergometer workload and continuously support gradual changes in physical activities. Conclusion The design of wearable units equipped with measurement and control functions is an important step towards establishing a convenient and continuously supported wellness environment. PMID:15982425

  16. Applying Mass Customization Concepts to Core Courses: Increasing Student-Centered Customization and Enabling Cross-Functional Integration

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilson, Darryl D.

    2011-01-01

    This conceptual paper suggests a methodology for increasing student satisfaction in core courses by applying the principle of mass customization to increase student satisfaction. It proposes that customization can be increased by increasing course flexibility along three dimensions: content flexibility, schedule flexibility, and course length…

  17. Reinventing information services to increase customer satisfaction

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Madison, J.E.

    1993-12-01

    In this paper, the author presents her view of the role of an information service and proposes means of improving information customer service and satisfaction. The emphasis of the paper is on placing the primary value on the information customer rather than on the information itself. After receiving a request for information, the information service should strive for speed and accuracy of service to provide full-text sources in a language and format convenient to the customer. The author stresses that information professionals need to re-evaluate their roles to correctly assess and rectify customers` information deficiencies.

  18. Service quality and perceived customer value in community pharmacies.

    PubMed

    Guhl, Dennis; Blankart, Katharina E; Stargardt, Tom

    2018-01-01

    A patient's perception of the service provided by a health care provider is essential for the successful delivery of health care. This study examines the value created by community pharmacies-defined as perceived customer value-in the prescription drug market through varying elements of service quality. We develop a path model that describes the relationship between service elements and perceived customer value. We then analyze the effect of perceived customer value on customer satisfaction and loyalty. We use data obtained from 289 standardized interviews on respondents' prescription fill in the last six months in Germany. The service elements personal interaction (path coefficient: 0.31), physical aspect (0.12), store policy (0.24), and availability (0.1) have a positive significant effect on perceived customer value. Consultation and reliability have no significant influence. We further find a strong positive interdependency between perceived customer value, customer satisfaction (0.75), and customer loyalty (0.71). Thus, pharmacies may enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty if they consider the customer perspective and focus on the relevant service elements. To enhance benefit, personal interaction appears to be most important to address appropriately.

  19. Using Custom Fiber Bragg Grating-Based Sensors to Monitor Artificial Landslides.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Qinghua; Wang, Yuan; Sun, Yangyang; Gao, Lei; Zhang, Zhenglin; Zhang, Wenyuan; Zhao, Pengchong; Yue, Yin

    2016-09-02

    Four custom fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensors are developed to monitor an artificial landslide located in Nanjing, China. The sensors are composed of a rod and two FBGs. Based on the strength of the rods, two sensors are referred to as "hard sensors" (Sensor 1 and Sensor 2), the other two are referred to as "soft sensors" (Sensor 3 and Sensor 4). The two FBGs are fixed on each sensor rod at distances of 50 cm and 100 cm from the top of the rod (an upper FBG and a lower FBG). In the experiment presented in this paper, the sensors are installed on a slope on which an artificial landslide is generated through both machine-based and manual excavation. The fiber sensing system consists of the four custom FBG-based sensors, optical fiber, a static fiber grating demodulation instrument (SM125), and a PC with the necessary software. Experimental data was collected in the presence of an artificial landslide, and the results show that the lower FBGs are more sensitive than the upper FBGs for all four of the custom sensors. It was also found that Sensor 2 and Sensor 4 are more capable of monitoring small-scale landslides than Sensor 1 and Sensor 3, and this is mainly due to their placement location with respect to the landslide. The stronger rods used in the hard sensors make them more adaptable to the harsh environments of large landslides. Thus, hard sensors should be fixed near the landslide, while soft sensors should be placed farther away from the landslide. In addition, a clear tendency of strain variation can be detected by the soft sensors, which can be used to predict landslides and raise a hazard alarm.

  20. Using Custom Fiber Bragg Grating-Based Sensors to Monitor Artificial Landslides

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Qinghua; Wang, Yuan; Sun, Yangyang; Gao, Lei; Zhang, Zhenglin; Zhang, Wenyuan; Zhao, Pengchong; Yue, Yin

    2016-01-01

    Four custom fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensors are developed to monitor an artificial landslide located in Nanjing, China. The sensors are composed of a rod and two FBGs. Based on the strength of the rods, two sensors are referred to as “hard sensors” (Sensor 1 and Sensor 2), the other two are referred to as “soft sensors” (Sensor 3 and Sensor 4). The two FBGs are fixed on each sensor rod at distances of 50 cm and 100 cm from the top of the rod (an upper FBG and a lower FBG). In the experiment presented in this paper, the sensors are installed on a slope on which an artificial landslide is generated through both machine-based and manual excavation. The fiber sensing system consists of the four custom FBG-based sensors, optical fiber, a static fiber grating demodulation instrument (SM125), and a PC with the necessary software. Experimental data was collected in the presence of an artificial landslide, and the results show that the lower FBGs are more sensitive than the upper FBGs for all four of the custom sensors. It was also found that Sensor 2 and Sensor 4 are more capable of monitoring small-scale landslides than Sensor 1 and Sensor 3, and this is mainly due to their placement location with respect to the landslide. The stronger rods used in the hard sensors make them more adaptable to the harsh environments of large landslides. Thus, hard sensors should be fixed near the landslide, while soft sensors should be placed farther away from the landslide. In addition, a clear tendency of strain variation can be detected by the soft sensors, which can be used to predict landslides and raise a hazard alarm. PMID:27598163

  1. WisDOT statewide customer satisfaction survey.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2013-02-01

    The purpose of this study was to develop and initiate a new customer satisfaction tool that would establish a set of baseline : departmental performance measures and be sustainable for future use. ETC Institute completed a statewide customer : survey...

  2. Contamination control concepts for space station customer servicing

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Maruya, K. A.; Ryan, L. E.; Rosales, L. A.; Medler, E. H.

    1986-01-01

    The customer servicing operations envisioned for the space station, which include instrument repair, orbital replacement unit (ORU) changeout, and fluid replenishment for free-flying and attached payloads, are expected to create requirements for a unique contamination control subsystem for the customer servicing facility (CSF). Both the core space station and the CSF users present unique requirements/sensitivities, not all of which are currently defined with common criteria. Preliminary results from an assessment of the effects of the CSF-induced contamination environment are reported. Strategies for a comprehensive contamination control approach and a description of specific hardware devices and their applicability are discussed.

  3. Moderating effect of nurses' customer-oriented perception between organizational citizenship behaviors and satisfaction.

    PubMed

    Chang, Ching Sheng; Chang, Hae Ching

    2010-08-01

    This study investigates whether organizational citizenship behaviors enhance job satisfaction among nursing personnel, while exploring whether customer-oriented perception has a moderating effect between nursing personnel's organizational citizenship behaviors and job satisfaction.The authors used a cross-sectional survey sent to 500 nurses with 232 valid responses. According to the research findings, nurses' organizational citizenship behaviors have a positive and significant influence on job satisfaction. Results also indicated that the moderating effect of nurses' customer-oriented perception on the relationship between their organizational citizenship behaviors and job satisfaction was stronger for high customer-oriented perception than it was low customer-oriented perception.

  4. Changes in energy content of lunchtime purchases from fast food restaurants after introduction of calorie labelling: cross sectional customer surveys

    PubMed Central

    Huang, Christina Y; Nonas, Cathy A; Matte, Thomas D; Bassett, Mary T; Silver, Lynn D

    2011-01-01

    Objective To assess the impact of fast food restaurants adding calorie labelling to menu items on the energy content of individual purchases. Design Cross sectional surveys in spring 2007 and spring 2009 (one year before and nine months after full implementation of regulation requiring chain restaurants’ menus to contain details of the energy content of all menu items). Setting 168 randomly selected locations of the top 11 fast food chains in New York City during lunchtime hours. Participants 7309 adult customers interviewed in 2007 and 8489 in 2009. Main outcome measures Energy content of individual purchases, based on customers’ register receipts and on calorie information provided for all items in menus. Results For the full sample, mean calories purchased did not change from before to after regulation (828 v 846 kcal, P=0.22), though a modest decrease was shown in a regression model adjusted for restaurant chain, poverty level for the store location, sex of customers, type of purchase, and inflation adjusted cost (847 v 827 kcal, P=0.01). Three major chains, which accounted for 42% of customers surveyed, showed significant reductions in mean energy per purchase (McDonald’s 829 v 785 kcal, P=0.02; Au Bon Pain 555 v 475 kcal, P<0.001; KFC 927 v 868 kcal, P<0.01), while mean energy content increased for one chain (Subway 749 v 882 kcal, P<0.001). In the 2009 survey, 15% (1288/8489) of customers reported using the calorie information, and these customers purchased 106 fewer kilocalories than customers who did not see or use the calorie information (757 v 863 kcal, P<0.001). Conclusion Although no overall decline in calories purchased was observed for the full sample, several major chains saw significant reductions. After regulation, one in six lunchtime customers used the calorie information provided, and these customers made lower calorie choices. PMID:21791497

  5. Estimation of customer lifetime value of a health insurance with interest rates obeying uniform distribution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Widyawan, A.; Pasaribu, U. S.; Henintyas, Permana, D.

    2015-12-01

    Nowadays some firms, including insurer firms, think that customer-centric services are better than product-centric ones in terms of marketing. Insurance firms will try to attract as many new customer as possible while maintaining existing customer. This causes the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) becomes a very important thing. CLV are able to put customer into different segments and calculate the present value of a firm's relationship with its customer. Insurance customer will depend on the last service he or she can get. So if the service is bad now, then customer will not renew his contract though the service is very good at an erlier time. Because of this situation one suitable mathematical model for modeling customer's relationships and calculating their lifetime value is Markov Chain. In addition, the advantages of using Markov Chain Modeling is its high degree of flexibility. In 2000, Pfeifer and Carraway states that Markov Chain Modeling can be used for customer retention situation. In this situation, Markov Chain Modeling requires only two states, which are present customer and former ones. This paper calculates customer lifetime value in an insurance firm with two distinctive interest rates; the constant interest rate and uniform distribution of interest rates. The result shows that loyal customer and the customer who increase their contract value have the highest CLV.

  6. Service workers' chain reactions to daily customer mistreatment: Behavioral linkages, mechanisms, and boundary conditions.

    PubMed

    Chi, Nai-Wen; Yang, Jixia; Lin, Chia-Ying

    2018-01-01

    Drawing on the stressor-emotion model, we examine how customer mistreatment can evoke service workers' passive forms of deviant behaviors (i.e., work withdrawal behavior [WWB]) and negative impacts on their home life (i.e., work-family conflict [WFC]), and whether individuals' core self-evaluations and customer service training can buffer the negative effects of customer mistreatment. Using the experience sampling method, we collect daily data from 77 customer service employees for 10 consecutive working days, yielding 546 valid daily responses. The results show that daily customer mistreatment increases service workers' daily WWB and WFC through negative emotions. Furthermore, employees with high core self-evaluations and employees who received customer service training are less likely to experience negative emotions when faced with customer mistreatment, and thus are less likely to engage in WWB or provoke WFC. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  7. Short-term forecasting of turbidity in trunk main networks.

    PubMed

    Meyers, Gregory; Kapelan, Zoran; Keedwell, Edward

    2017-11-01

    Water discolouration is an increasingly important and expensive issue due to rising customer expectations, tighter regulatory demands and ageing Water Distribution Systems (WDSs) in the UK and abroad. This paper presents a new turbidity forecasting methodology capable of aiding operational staff and enabling proactive management strategies. The turbidity forecasting methodology developed here is completely data-driven and does not require hydraulic or water quality network model that is expensive to build and maintain. The methodology is tested and verified on a real trunk main network with observed turbidity measurement data. Results obtained show that the methodology can detect if discolouration material is mobilised, estimate if sufficient turbidity will be generated to exceed a preselected threshold and approximate how long the material will take to reach the downstream meter. Classification based forecasts of turbidity can be reliably made up to 5 h ahead although at the expense of increased false alarm rates. The methodology presented here could be used as an early warning system that can enable a multitude of cost beneficial proactive management strategies to be implemented as an alternative to expensive trunk mains cleaning programs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Customization in Schooling Markets: The Relationship between Curriculum and Pedagogy in a "Pop-Up" Learning Project, and the Epistemic Opportunities Afforded by Students' Interests and Backgrounds

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hayes, Debra

    2013-01-01

    Schooling markets prioritize the needs of valued "customers". In Australia, this has resulted in a proliferation of learning interventions aimed at attracting and holding students perceived to fall into this category, and managing those who don't. In this paper, I attempt two main tasks: a description of the large-scale processes…

  9. Classification of customer lifetime value models using Markov chain

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Permana, Dony; Pasaribu, Udjianna S.; Indratno, Sapto W.; Suprayogi

    2017-10-01

    A firm’s potential reward in future time from a customer can be determined by customer lifetime value (CLV). There are some mathematic methods to calculate it. One method is using Markov chain stochastic model. Here, a customer is assumed through some states. Transition inter the states follow Markovian properties. If we are given some states for a customer and the relationships inter states, then we can make some Markov models to describe the properties of the customer. As Markov models, CLV is defined as a vector contains CLV for a customer in the first state. In this paper we make a classification of Markov Models to calculate CLV. Start from two states of customer model, we make develop in many states models. The development a model is based on weaknesses in previous model. Some last models can be expected to describe how real characters of customers in a firm.

  10. 47 CFR 64.1603 - Customer notification.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Customer notification. 64.1603 Section 64.1603 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES (CONTINUED) MISCELLANEOUS RULES RELATING TO COMMON CARRIERS Calling Party Telephone Number; Privacy § 64.1603 Customer...

  11. 48 CFR 11.203 - Customer satisfaction.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Customer satisfaction. 11.203 Section 11.203 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION ACQUISITION PLANNING DESCRIBING AGENCY NEEDS Using and Maintaining Requirements Documents 11.203 Customer satisfaction...

  12. Transforming Multidisciplinary Customer Requirements to Product Design Specifications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ma, Xiao-Jie; Ding, Guo-Fu; Qin, Sheng-Feng; Li, Rong; Yan, Kai-Yin; Xiao, Shou-Ne; Yang, Guang-Wu

    2017-09-01

    With the increasing of complexity of complex mechatronic products, it is necessary to involve multidisciplinary design teams, thus, the traditional customer requirements modeling for a single discipline team becomes difficult to be applied in a multidisciplinary team and project since team members with various disciplinary backgrounds may have different interpretations of the customers' requirements. A new synthesized multidisciplinary customer requirements modeling method is provided for obtaining and describing the common understanding of customer requirements (CRs) and more importantly transferring them into a detailed and accurate product design specifications (PDS) to interact with different team members effectively. A case study of designing a high speed train verifies the rationality and feasibility of the proposed multidisciplinary requirement modeling method for complex mechatronic product development. This proposed research offersthe instruction to realize the customer-driven personalized customization of complex mechatronic product.

  13. Customer-Provider Strategic Alignment: A Maturity Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luftman, Jerry; Brown, Carol V.; Balaji, S.

    This chapter presents a new model for assessing the maturity of a ­customer-provider relationship from a collaborative service delivery perspective: the Customer-Provider Strategic Alignment Maturity (CPSAM) Model. This model builds on recent research for effectively managing the customer-provider relationship in IT service outsourcing contexts and a validated model for assessing alignment across internal IT service units and their business customers within the same organization. After reviewing relevant literature by service science and information systems researchers, the six overarching components of the maturity model are presented: value measurements, governance, partnership, communications, human resources and skills, and scope and architecture. A key assumption of the model is that all of the components need be addressed to assess and improve customer-provider alignment. Examples of specific metrics for measuring the maturity level of each component over the five levels of maturity are also presented.

  14. NPS and Online WOM: Investigating the Relationship Between Customers' Promoter Scores and eWOM Behavior.

    PubMed

    Raassens, Néomie; Haans, Hans

    2017-08-01

    The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is, according to Reichheld, the single most reliable indicator of company growth, and many companies use this recommendation-based technique for measuring customer loyalty. Despite its widespread adoption by many companies across multiple industries, the debate about NPS goes on. A major concern is that managers treat NPS as being equivalent across customers, which is often very misleading. By using a unique data set that combines customers' promoter scores and online word-of-mouth (eWOM) behavior, this research studies how individual customers' promoter scores are related to eWOM, including its relationship with the three categories of customers that are identified by the NPS paradigm (i.e., promoters, passives, and detractors). Based on a sample of 189 customers, their promoter scores and corresponding eWOM, the results show that there is a positive relationship between customers' promoter scores and the valence of online messages. Further, while detractors and promoters are homogeneous with respect to the valence of the eWOM messages they spread, passives show message valence heterogeneity. Thus, although passives, the largest group of customers, have no weight in calculating the NPS, our results reveal that companies should flag passives for further attention and action.

  15. Implementation of Custom Colors in the DECwindows Environment

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1992-01-01

    Implementation of Custom Colors in the DECwindlows Environment Program Element No 0604262 Project No 64214 6. Author(s). Task No Stephanie A. Myrick, Maura C...13. Abstract (Maximum 200 words), This paper describes the implementation of user-defined, or custom , colors in the DECwindows environmeot Custom ...colors can be used to augment the standard color set that is associated with the hardware colormap. The custom color set that is included in this paper

  16. Customer-centered problem solving.

    PubMed

    Samelson, Q B

    1999-11-01

    If there is no single best way to attract new customers and retain current customers, there is surely an easy way to lose them: fail to solve the problems that arise in nearly every buyer-supplier relationship, or solve them in an unsatisfactory manner. Yet, all too frequently, companies do just that. Either we deny that a problem exists, we exert all our efforts to pin the blame elsewhere, or we "Band-Aid" the problem instead of fixing it, almost guaranteeing that we will face it again and again.

  17. 12 CFR 208.111 - Obligations concerning institutional customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... adopting sales practice rules for the government securities market, a market with a particularly broad... on their suitability obligations when making recommendations to institutional customers. (b) The... suitability obligations in making recommendations to an institutional customer are the customer's capability...

  18. 12 CFR 208.111 - Obligations concerning institutional customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... adopting sales practice rules for the government securities market, a market with a particularly broad... on their suitability obligations when making recommendations to institutional customers. (b) The... suitability obligations in making recommendations to an institutional customer are the customer's capability...

  19. 12 CFR 208.111 - Obligations concerning institutional customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... adopting sales practice rules for the government securities market, a market with a particularly broad... on their suitability obligations when making recommendations to institutional customers. (b) The... suitability obligations in making recommendations to an institutional customer are the customer's capability...

  20. 47 CFR 32.4040 - Customers' deposits.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Customers' deposits. 32.4040 Section 32.4040 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES UNIFORM SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTS FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES Instructions for Balance Sheet Accounts § 32.4040 Customers' deposits...

  1. Employee and Customer Injury During Violent Crimes in Retail and Service Businesses

    PubMed Central

    Peek-Asa, Corinne; Casteel, Carri; Kraus, Jess F.; Whitten, Paul

    2006-01-01

    Objectives. We sought to compare the frequency and risk factors for employees and customers injured during crimes in retail (convenience, grocery, and liquor stores) and service businesses (bars, restaurants, motels). Methods. A total of 827 retail and service businesses in Los Angeles were randomly selected. Police crime reports (n=2029) from violent crimes that occurred in these businesses from January 1996 through June 2001 were individually reviewed to determine whether a customer or an employee was injured and to collect study variables. Results. A customer injury was 31% more likely (95% confidence interval [CI]=1.11, 1.51) than an employee injury during a violent crime. Customer injury was more frequent than employee injury during violent crimes in bars, restaurants, convenience stores, and motels but less likely in grocery or liquor stores. Injury risk was increased for both employees and customers when resisting the perpetrator and when the perpetrator was suspected of using alcohol. Customers had an increased risk for injury during crimes that occurred outside (relative risk [RR]=2.01; 95% CI=1.57, 2.58) and at night (RR=1.79; 95% CI=1.40, 2.29). Conclusions. Security programs should be designed to protect customers as well as employees. PMID:17008585

  2. 77 FR 55487 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Voluntary Customer Survey

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-09-10

    ... Activities; Voluntary Customer Survey AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland... (OMB) for review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act: Voluntary Customer Survey... forms of information. Title: Voluntary Customer Survey. OMB Number: 1651-0135. Abstract: Customs and...

  3. 77 FR 36566 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Voluntary Customer Survey

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-06-19

    ... Activities: Voluntary Customer Survey AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of... requirement concerning a Voluntary Customer Survey. This request for comment is being made pursuant to the... following information collection: Title: Voluntary Customer Survey. OMB Number: 1651-0135. Abstract: Customs...

  4. 78 FR 48456 - Notice of Cancellation of Customs Broker Licenses

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-08

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Notice of Cancellation of Customs Broker Licenses AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security. ACTION: Customs broker license cancellations. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the customs broker...

  5. How Does Target Know so Much about Its Customers? Utilizing Customer Analytics to Make Marketing Decisions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Corrigan, Hope B.; Craciun, Georgiana; Powell, Allison M.

    2014-01-01

    Every time shoppers make a purchase at a store or browse a Web site, customer behavior is tracked, analyzed, and perhaps shared with other businesses. Target Corporation is a leader in analyzing vast amounts of data to identify buying patterns, improve customer satisfaction, predict future trends, select promotional strategies, and increase…

  6. Attitudes about regulation among direct-to-consumer genetic testing customers.

    PubMed

    Bollinger, Juli Murphy; Green, Robert C; Kaufman, David

    2013-05-01

    The first regulatory rulings by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing services are expected soon. As the process of regulating these and other genetic tests moves ahead, it is important to understand the preferences of DTC genetic testing customers about the regulation of these products. An online survey of customers of three DTC genetic testing companies was conducted 2-8 months after they had received their results. Participants were asked about the importance of regulating the companies selling DTC genetic tests. Most of the 1,046 respondents responded that it would be important to have a nongovernmental (84%) or governmental agency (73%) monitor DTC companies' claims to ensure the consistency with scientific evidence. However, 66% also felt that it was important that DTC tests be available without governmental oversight. Nearly, all customers favored a policy to ensure that insurers and law enforcement officials could not access their information. Although many DTC customers want access to genetic testing services without restrictions imposed by the government regulation, most also favor an organization operating alongside DTC companies that will ensure that the claims made by the companies are consistent with sound scientific evidence. This seeming contradiction may indicate that DTC customers want to ensure that they have unfettered access to high-quality information. Additionally, policies to help ensure privacy of data would be welcomed by customers, despite relatively high confidence in the companies.

  7. Which Way Do You Want To Serve Your Customers?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gupta, Dinesh K.; Jambheykar, Ashok

    2002-01-01

    Discusses the need to focus on customer service in libraries. Topics include motivating factors, including the value of library services as judged by the users; attributes of customer service; categories of customer service; identifying users; and questions to ask library staff to help evaluate their customer service. (LRW)

  8. Test results of the highly instrumented Space Shuttle Main Engine

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mcconnaughey, H. V.; Leopard, J. L.; Lightfoot, R. M.

    1992-01-01

    Test results of a highly instrumented Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) are presented. The instrumented engine, when combined with instrumented high pressure turbopumps, contains over 750 special measurements, including flowrates, pressures, temperatures, and strains. To date, two different test series, accounting for a total of sixteen tests and 1,667 seconds, have been conducted with this engine. The first series, which utilized instrumented turbopumps, characterized the internal operating environment of the SSME for a variety of operating conditions. The second series provided system-level validation of a high pressure liquid oxygen turbopump that had been retrofitted with a fluid-film bearing in place of the usual pump-end ball bearings. Major findings from these two test series are highlighted in this paper. In addition, comparisons are made between model predictions and measured test data.

  9. Customer emotion regulation in the service interactions: its relationship to employee ingratiation, satisfaction and loyalty intentions.

    PubMed

    Medler-Liraz, Hana; Yagil, Dana

    2013-01-01

    Many studies have explored emotional regulation on the part of service employees, and its antecedents. However, customers' emotional regulation in general, and how it is affected by service employee behavior in particular, have received only scant attention. The present article explores a model suggesting that service employees' ingratiatory behavior relates to customer emotion regulation strategies, which in turn are related to customer satisfaction and loyalty. The model was tested with 131 service employee-customer dyads. The results show that service employee ingratiation was positively related to customers' deep acting but not related to surface acting. Customers' deep acting was positively related to their satisfaction. A positive relationship was found between customer satisfaction and loyalty.

  10. Customized Body Mapping to Facilitate the Ergonomic Design of Sportswear.

    PubMed

    Cao, Mingliang; Li, Yi; Guo, Yueping; Yao, Lei; Pan, Zhigeng

    2016-01-01

    A successful high-performance sportswear design that considers human factors should result in a significant increase in thermal comfort and reduce energy loss. The authors describe a body-mapping approach that facilitates the effective ergonomic design of sportswear. Their general framework can be customized based on the functional requirements of various sports and sportswear, the desired combination and selection of mapping areas for the human body, and customized quantitative data distribution of target physiological indicators.

  11. Characterizing customers at medical center farmers' markets.

    PubMed

    Kraschnewski, Jennifer L; George, Daniel R; Rovniak, Liza S; Monroe, Diana L; Fiordalis, Elizabeth; Bates, Erica

    2014-08-01

    Approximately 100 farmers' markets operate on medical center campuses. Although these venues can uniquely serve community health needs, little is known about customer characteristics and outreach efforts. Intercept survey of markets and market customers between August 2010 and October 2011 at three medical centers in different geographic regions of the US (Duke University Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, and Penn State Hershey Medical Center) were conducted. Markets reported serving 180-2,000 customers per week and conducting preventive medicine education sessions and community health programs. Customers (n = 585) across markets were similar in sociodemographic characteristics--most were middle-aged, white, and female, who were employees of their respective medical center. Health behaviors of customers were similar to national data. The surveyed medical center farmers' markets currently serve mostly employees; however, markets have significant potential for community outreach efforts in preventive medicine. If farmers' markets can broaden their reach to more diverse populations, they may play an important role in contributing to community health.

  12. Customer relations data aids marketing efforts.

    PubMed

    Werronen, H J

    1988-08-01

    A customer relations information system can help improve a hospital's marketing performance. With such a system, the author writes, a medical center can easily redirect its information systems away from the traditional transaction-oriented approach toward the building of long-lasting relationship with customers.

  13. 7 CFR 1230.7 - Customs Service.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Customs Service. 1230.7 Section 1230.7 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS... CONSUMER INFORMATION Pork Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Order Definitions § 1230.7 Customs...

  14. Rapid tooling method for soft customized removable oral appliances.

    PubMed

    Salmi, Mika; Tuomi, Jukka; Sirkkanen, Rauno; Ingman, Tuula; Mäkitie, Antti

    2012-01-01

    Traditionally oral appliances i.e. removable orthodontic appliances, bite splints and snoring / sleep apnea appliances are made with alginate impressions and wax registrations. Our aim was to describe the process of manufacturing customized oral appliances with a new technique i.e. rapid tooling method. The appliance should ideally be custom made to match the teeth. An orthodontic patient, scheduled for conventional orthodontic treatment, served as a study subject. After a precise clinical and radiographic examination, the approach was to digitize the patient's dental arches and then to correct them virtually by computer. Additive manufacturing was then used to fabricate a mould for a soft customized appliance. The mould was manufactured using stereolithography from Somos ProtoGen O-XT 18420 material. Casting material for the mould to obtain the final appliance was silicone. As a result we managed to create a customized soft orthodontic appliance. Also, the accuracy of the method was found to be adequate. Two versions of the described device were manufactured: one with small and one with moderate orthodontic force. The study person also gave information on the subjective patient adaptation aspects of the oral appliance.

  15. Customer Care Management. Customer Care Management Module. Operational Management Programme. Increasing Opportunities for Supervisors and Managers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray, Jennifer; Hayter, Roy

    These teacher's materials are intended to support trainers as they conduct a 1-day course on each of the following topics regarding the hotel and catering industry in Great Britain: the customer perspective, customer service standards, and quality control. The first section explains how to use the materials. The instructions for conducting each…

  16. A Measurement of Civil Engineering Customer Satisfaction.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1987-09-01

    to best represent civil engineering customers : military building managers , civilian building managers , and field grade officers. Building managers ...not know how well they are meeting the expectations of their customers . In their book on service management , 5- I8 Albrecht and Zemke fault American...Austin provide the simplest definition of a customer -- one who pays the bills .59 (2:45). In his book on service management , Richard Normann labels tile

  17. Choice, perceived control, and customer satisfaction: the psychology of online service recovery.

    PubMed

    Chang, Chia-Chi

    2008-06-01

    Service failures and consequent recoveries have been identified as critical determinants of customer retention. Therefore, effective service recovery programs warrant further exploration, particularly in the online shopping environment, where consumers can receive immediate and tangible service recovery. The results of the present study suggest that by providing a choice of recovery options, customers' sense of control is increased, as is their satisfaction with the particular recovery efforts and their overall satisfaction with the entire service experience. Also, service importance accentuated the impact of choice on perceived control. Specifically, when the service was of greater importance, giving customers a choice of recovery options augmented customers' sense of control more than when the service was of lesser importance. The implications of the findings are also discussed.

  18. 78 FR 48460 - Notice of Revocation of Customs Broker License

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-08

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Notice of Revocation of Customs Broker License AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security. ACTION: Notice of revocation of a customs broker license. SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that a customs broker...

  19. 77 FR 45647 - Notice of Cancellation of Customs Broker Licenses

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-08-01

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Notice of Cancellation of Customs Broker Licenses AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security... 1641) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection regulations (19 CFR 111.51), the following Customs...

  20. Effects of Platform Design on the Customer Experience in an Online Solar PV Marketplace

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    OShaughnessy, Eric J; Margolis, Robert M; Leibowicz, Benjamin

    Residential solar photovoltaic (PV) customers are increasingly buying PV systems in online marketplaces, where customers can compare multiple quotes from several installers on quote platforms. In this study, we use data from an online marketplace to explore how quote platform design affects customer experiences. We analyze how four design changes affected customer experiences in terms of factors such as prices. We find that three of the four design changes are associated with statistically significant and robust price reductions, even though none of the changes were implemented specifically to reduce prices. The results suggest that even seemingly small platform design changesmore » can affect PV customer experiences in online marketplaces.« less

  1. 17 CFR 1.22 - Use of customer funds restricted.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Use of customer funds... REGULATIONS UNDER THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT Customers' Money, Securities, and Property § 1.22 Use of customer funds restricted. No futures commission merchant shall use, or permit the use of, the customer funds of...

  2. 78 FR 20619 - Customer Account Registration and Maintenance

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-04-05

    ... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Customer Account Registration and... Customer Account Registration and Maintenance'' in the subject line of the message. Mail: Susan K. Fawcett... States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeks to launch ``MyUSPTO,'' an optional customer portal that...

  3. 39 CFR 501.18 - Customer information and authorization.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... Postal Service operates. (5) The customer is in possession of a Decertified Postage Evidencing System. (d... AND DISTRIBUTE POSTAGE EVIDENCING SYSTEMS § 501.18 Customer information and authorization. (a... Service to authorize a customer to use a Postage Evidencing System. Postal Service receipt and acceptance...

  4. 39 CFR 501.18 - Customer information and authorization.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... Postal Service operates. (5) The customer is in possession of a Decertified Postage Evidencing System. (d... AND DISTRIBUTE POSTAGE EVIDENCING SYSTEMS § 501.18 Customer information and authorization. (a... Service to authorize a customer to use a Postage Evidencing System. Postal Service receipt and acceptance...

  5. 39 CFR 501.18 - Customer information and authorization.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... Postal Service operates. (5) The customer is in possession of a Decertified Postage Evidencing System. (d... AND DISTRIBUTE POSTAGE EVIDENCING SYSTEMS § 501.18 Customer information and authorization. (a... Service to authorize a customer to use a Postage Evidencing System. Postal Service receipt and acceptance...

  6. Technical Note: Characterization of custom 3D printed multimodality imaging phantoms

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bieniosek, Matthew F.; Lee, Brian J.; Levin, Craig S., E-mail: cslevin@stanford.edu

    Purpose: Imaging phantoms are important tools for researchers and technicians, but they can be costly and difficult to customize. Three dimensional (3D) printing is a widely available rapid prototyping technique that enables the fabrication of objects with 3D computer generated geometries. It is ideal for quickly producing customized, low cost, multimodal, reusable imaging phantoms. This work validates the use of 3D printed phantoms by comparing CT and PET scans of a 3D printed phantom and a commercial “Micro Deluxe” phantom. This report also presents results from a customized 3D printed PET/MRI phantom, and a customized high resolution imaging phantom withmore » sub-mm features. Methods: CT and PET scans of a 3D printed phantom and a commercial Micro Deluxe (Data Spectrum Corporation, USA) phantom with 1.2, 1.6, 2.4, 3.2, 4.0, and 4.8 mm diameter hot rods were acquired. The measured PET and CT rod sizes, activities, and attenuation coefficients were compared. A PET/MRI scan of a custom 3D printed phantom with hot and cold rods was performed, with photon attenuation and normalization measurements performed with a separate 3D printed normalization phantom. X-ray transmission scans of a customized two level high resolution 3D printed phantom with sub-mm features were also performed. Results: Results show very good agreement between commercial and 3D printed micro deluxe phantoms with less than 3% difference in CT measured rod diameter, less than 5% difference in PET measured rod diameter, and a maximum of 6.2% difference in average rod activity from a 10 min, 333 kBq/ml (9 μCi/ml) Siemens Inveon (Siemens Healthcare, Germany) PET scan. In all cases, these differences were within the measurement uncertainties of our setups. PET/MRI scans successfully identified 3D printed hot and cold rods on PET and MRI modalities. X-ray projection images of a 3D printed high resolution phantom identified features as small as 350 μm wide. Conclusions: This work shows that 3D

  7. Early warning system for potential churners among mortgage customers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Irpan, Hamidah Muhd; Aidid, Sharifah Sakinah Syed Hassan; Mohmad, Sarahiza; Ibrahim, Noorazilah

    2014-07-01

    Retaining existing customer is a major task for many companies because cost to acquire new customers is higher than retaining existing customers. For mortgage business in Bank X, customer relationship management plays a big role to understand their customers' profile and churners so that suitable action can be done to retain their potential churners. Objectives of this study are (1) understanding their customers' profile and churners, (2) modeling potential churners using neural network model and (3) to deploy the model to identify potential churners. Data was divided into two parts: sampling (67,470 cases) and scoring (4,488 cases). Analysis was done using SAS Enterprise Miner. Dependent variable is churner/non churner while independent variables are balance and amount of loan, interest rate offered installment amount, loan performance, months in arrear, vintage, tenure, age, race and gender. Potential churners were identified as Malays, followed by Indian, other races and Chinese. Nonperforming loan and male customers tend to churn compared to performing loan and female customers. Younger customers with small loan amount, balance and monthly instalment, higher interest rate, have many months in arrears, longer vintage and tenure have higher tendency to churn from Bank X. Hence, Bank X should focus on the potential churners for their campaign to minimize the expenses of retaining existing customers by doing an effective campaign with high successful rate.

  8. [Responses to customer complaints at commercial laboratories].

    PubMed

    Honma, M

    1997-10-01

    For commercial laboratories, one of the routine duties involves responding to various kinds of inquiries and complaints received from customers. As causes of complaints, lack of communication between the laboratory and customer, and test errors were considered. In this paper, complaints received by our laboratory were collected and classified by content, and measures to prevent test error are reported. We think the complaints contain important information that can be used to improve the quality of our laboratory. We hope that reinforcement of communication with customers and promoting test knowledge among the customers can produce more clearly worded complaints which will provide more valuable information. We try to receive and deal with these complaints seriously.

  9. 41 CFR 101-28.302 - Mission of customer supply centers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Mission of customer... DISTRIBUTION 28.3-Customer Supply Centers § 101-28.302 Mission of customer supply centers. Customer supply... of frequently needed common-use expendable items for the accomplishment of customer agency missions. ...

  10. 19 CFR 115.18 - Decision of Commissioner of Customs final.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Decision of Commissioner of Customs final. 115.18 Section 115.18 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  11. 19 CFR 115.18 - Decision of Commissioner of Customs final.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Decision of Commissioner of Customs final. 115.18 Section 115.18 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  12. 19 CFR 115.18 - Decision of Commissioner of Customs final.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Decision of Commissioner of Customs final. 115.18 Section 115.18 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  13. 19 CFR 115.18 - Decision of Commissioner of Customs final.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Decision of Commissioner of Customs final. 115.18 Section 115.18 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  14. 19 CFR 115.18 - Decision of Commissioner of Customs final.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Decision of Commissioner of Customs final. 115.18 Section 115.18 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY CARGO CONTAINER AND ROAD VEHICLE CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMS...

  15. Financial health and customer satisfaction in private health care providers in Brazil.

    PubMed

    Schiozer, Rafael Felipe; Saito, Cristiana Checchia; Saito, Richard

    2011-11-01

    This paper analyzes the relationship between the financial health and organizational form of private health care providers in Brazil. It also examines the major determinants of customer satisfaction associated with the provider's organizational form. An adjusted Altman's z-score is used as an indicator of financial health. A proxy variable based on customer complaints filed at the Brazilian National Agency for Supplementary Health is used as an indicator for customer satisfaction. The study uses a sample of 270 private health care providers and their operations over the period 2003-2005. Panel data analysis includes control variables related to market, operations, and management. Principal results indicate that: (1) private health care providers benefit from economies of scale; (2) self-funded health plans have better financial health; (3) spending on marketing does not have a significant impact on customer satisfaction in Brazil; (4) weak empirical evidence exists showing that good financial performance enhances customer's satisfaction.

  16. The factors that influence job satisfaction among royal Malaysian customs department employee

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ammar Shafi, Muhammad; Saifullah Rusiman, Mohd; Nor, Maria Elena; Khamis, Azme; Nabilah Syuhada Abdullah, Siti; Syafiq Azmi, Mohd; Sakinah Zainal Abidin, Munirah; Ali, Maselan

    2018-04-01

    This research aims to spot the factors that influence job satisfaction among Royal Malaysian Customs Department employees. Primary data was used in this research and it was collected from the employees who work in five different departments at Royal Malaysian Customs Department Tower Johor. Those departments were customs department, Internal Taxes, Technical Services, Management and Prevention. The research used stratified random sampling to collect the sample and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to measure the relationship between variables using AMOS software. About 127 employees are selected as the respondents from five departments to represent the sample. The result showed that ‘Organizational Commitment’ (p-value = 0.001) has significant and direct effect toward job satisfaction compared to the ‘Stress Condition’ (p-value = 0.819) and ‘Motivation’ factor (p-value = 0.978). It was also concluded that ‘Organizational Commitment’ was the most influential factor toward job satisfaction among Royal Malaysian Customs Department employees at Tower Custom Johor, Johor Bahru.

  17. Outcomes study of a customer relations educational program in dialysis practice.

    PubMed

    Schmidt, Jill

    2006-01-01

    In the fall of 2003, a customer relations staff educational program was instituted for use throughout Renal Care Group. After 1 year and 4 months, an outcomes study was implemented to evaluate and revise the program. The program is taught by the dialysis social worker to the rest of the dialysis health-care team to increase customer relations skills with the patients, their families, and dialysis coworkers. Today, more than ever, patients are seeking better quality health care not only in technical skills but also in compassionate care. Pretest and posttest scores from each training session indicated the necessity of this training and knowledge gained. Through a survey of instructors, strengths of the program were identified, as well as were areas that needed revision. In addition to providing helpful information, some of the main strengths of the program indicated by instructors were team building and problem solving. Revisions consisted primarily of shortening the modules and simplifying the program's use.

  18. Effects of service provider attitudes and employment status on citizenship behaviors and customers' attitudes and loyalty behavior.

    PubMed

    Payne, Stephanie C; Webber, Sheila Simsarian

    2006-03-01

    The relationship among job satisfaction, affective commitment, service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty were examined for a sample of 249 hairstylists and 1 of their corresponding customers. Employee satisfaction was positively related to service-oriented OCBs, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty, whereas affective commitment was not related to these outcomes. The extent to which the predictor variables interacted with one another and the role of employment status on these relationships was also explored. High levels of job satisfaction or affective commitment resulted in more service-oriented OCBs for employees and self-employed workers, whereas high levels of both resulted in more service-oriented OCBs for owners.

  19. The interplay between customer participation and difficulty of design examples in the online designing process and its effect on customer satisfaction: mediational analyses.

    PubMed

    Chang, Chia-Chi; Chen, Hui-Yun; Huang, I-Chiang

    2009-04-01

    In the current consumer-centric economy, consumers increasingly desire the opportunity to design their own products in order to express more effectively their self-image. Mass customization, based on efficient and flexible modulization designs, has provided individualized products to satisfy this desire. This work presents an experiment employed to demonstrate that customer participation leads to higher satisfaction. Specifically, the increment in customer satisfaction due to participation is greater when an easy example is provided than when either no example or a difficult one is provided. Additionally, self-congruity plays a mediating role on the customer participation-satisfaction relationship, and this mediating effect varies across different levels of the design example provided in the design process. When an easy design example is present, customer participation has a direct effect on satisfaction, in addition to the indirect effect of self-congruity. When a difficult example is provided, customer participation does not have incremental effects on either self-congruity or customer satisfaction. Finally, when no design example is shown to customers, contrary to our expectation, participation still enhances customer satisfaction due to an increased sense of self-congruity.

  20. Improving Customer Satisfaction in an R and D Environment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Alexander, Anita; Liou, Y. H. Andrew

    1998-01-01

    Satisfying customer needs is critical to the sustained competitive advantage of service suppliers. It is therefore important to understand the types of customer needs which, if fulfilled or exceeded, add value and contribute to overall customer satisfaction. This study identifies the needs of various research and development (R&D) customers who contract for engineering and design support services. The Quality Function Deployment (QFD) process was used to organize and translate each customer need into performance measures that, if implemented, can improve customer satisfaction. This study also provides specific performance measures that will more accurately guide the efforts of the engineering supplier. These organizations can either implement the QFD methodology presented herein or extract a few performance measures that are specific to the quality dimensions in need of improvement. Listening to 'what' customers talk about is a good first start.

  1. 12 CFR 13.5 - Customer information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Customer information. 13.5 Section 13.5 Banks and Banking COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY GOVERNMENT SECURITIES SALES...) The customer's investment objectives; and (d) Such other information used or considered to be...

  2. 17 CFR 270.0-11 - Customer identification programs.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Customer identification... (CONTINUED) RULES AND REGULATIONS, INVESTMENT COMPANY ACT OF 1940 § 270.0-11 Customer identification programs... implementing regulation at 31 CFR 103.131, which requires a customer identification program to be implemented...

  3. Improving customer satisfaction: emerging lessons about strategy and implementation, Part 2.

    PubMed

    Morton, J

    1995-01-01

    This article describes a six-phase strategy designed to systematically improve customer satisfaction across an entire managed care system. Part 1 (Spring 1995) of this two-part series summarized the theoretical underpinnings of the approach and highlighted the first two phases of the improvement strategy. Those phases involve systematically listening to the organization's customers and using customer information to strategically target key areas for improvement. This article describes the specifics of the last four phases of the strategy; these phases involve achieving and sustaining unprecedented levels of improvement in targeted areas. Initial results and emerging lessons associated with the implementation of this strategy are summarized.

  4. 19 CFR 122.188 - Issuance of temporary Customs access seal.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Issuance of temporary Customs access seal. 122.188 Section 122.188 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS Access to Customs Security Areas § 122.188 Issuance of...

  5. 19 CFR 122.188 - Issuance of temporary Customs access seal.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Issuance of temporary Customs access seal. 122.188 Section 122.188 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS Access to Customs Security Areas § 122.188 Issuance of...

  6. 19 CFR 122.188 - Issuance of temporary Customs access seal.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Issuance of temporary Customs access seal. 122.188 Section 122.188 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY AIR COMMERCE REGULATIONS Access to Customs Security Areas § 122.188 Issuance of...

  7. Development of Custom 465® Corrosion-Resisting Steel for Landing Gear Applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Daymond, Benjamin T.; Binot, Nicolas; Schmidt, Michael L.; Preston, Steve; Collins, Richard; Shepherd, Alan

    2016-04-01

    Existing high-strength low-alloy steels have been in place on landing gear for many years owing to their superior strength and cost performance. However, there have been major advances in improving the strength of high-performance corrosion-resisting steels. These materials have superior environmental robustness and remove the need for harmful protective coatings such as chromates and cadmium now on the list for removal under REACH legislation. A UK government-funded collaborative project is underway targeting a refined specification Custom 465® precipitation hardened stainless steel to replace the current material on Airbus A320 family aircraft main landing gear, a main fitting component developed by Messier-Bugatti-Dowty. This is a collaborative project between Airbus, Messier-Bugatti-Dowty, and Carpenter Technology Corporation. An extensive series of coupon tests on four production Heats of the material have been conducted, to obtain a full range of mechanical, fatigue, and corrosion properties. Custom 465® is an excellent replacement to the current material, with comparable tensile strength and fracture toughness, better ductility, and very good general corrosion and stress corrosion cracking resistance. Fatigue performance is the only significant area of deficit with respect to incumbent materials, fatigue initiation being often related to carbo-titanium-nitride particles and cleavage zones.

  8. Investigation into some characteristics of the mass-customized production paradigm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tapper, Jerome; Sundar, Pratap S.; Kamarthi, Sagar V.

    2000-10-01

    In recent times, while markets are reaching their saturation limits and customers are becoming more demanding, a paradigm shift has been taking place from mass production to mass- customized production (MCP). The concept of mass customization (MC) focuses on satisfying a customer's unique needs with the help of new technologies such as Internet, digital product realization, and re-configurable production facilities. In MC the needs of an individual customer are translated into design, accordingly produced, and delivered to the customer. In this research three hypothesis related to MCP are investigated by the data/information collected from ten companies, which are engaged in MCP. These three hypothesis are (1) mass-customized production systems can be classified into make-to-stock MCP, assemble-to-order MCP, make-to-order MCP, engineer-to-order MC, and develop-to-order MCP, (2) in mass-customized production systems the process of customization eliminates customer sacrifice, and (3) mass-customized production systems can deliver products at mass-production cost. The preliminary study indicates that while the first hypothesis is valid, MCP companies rarely fulfill what is stated in the other two hypotheses.

  9. 17 CFR 1.20 - Customer funds to be segregated and separately accounted for.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION GENERAL REGULATIONS UNDER THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT Customers' Money... contract market, a futures commission merchant, or any depository except to purchase, margin, guarantee... money accruing to such commodity or option customers as the result of trades, contracts or commodity...

  10. 19 CFR 122.188 - Issuance of temporary Customs access seal.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Issuance of temporary Customs access seal. 122.188... temporary Customs access seal. (a) Conditions for issuance. When an approved Customs access seal is required... temporary Customs access seal for his employee. The employer must satisfy the port director that a hardship...

  11. 19 CFR 122.188 - Issuance of temporary Customs access seal.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Issuance of temporary Customs access seal. 122.188... temporary Customs access seal. (a) Conditions for issuance. When an approved Customs access seal is required... temporary Customs access seal for his employee. The employer must satisfy the port director that a hardship...

  12. The quality improvement customers didn't want.

    PubMed

    Iacobucci, D

    1996-01-01

    Is investing in new technology always the right choice for a company and its customers? Allan Moulter, the CEO of Quality Care, isn't sure he wants to invest in the computerized reception system that consultant Jack Zadow has outlined for him. But in this HBR case study, the argument Zadow makes is impossible to ignore. Quality Care's rivals have invested in similar systems or are planning to do so. The new system promises to take care of routine busywork, freeing staff up for other interactions with patients. It seems as if the competition hasn't even cut staff and is counting on increased customer retention to pay for the investment. And yet, Quality Care's surveys of its own customers show that they prefer the human touch when checking in. How would customers feel if the first ¿person¿ they met when they came in the door turned out to be a machine? Moulter prides himself on his responsiveness to customers. And with 86% of Quality Care's customers either satisfied or completely satisfied, aren't things fine as they are? Has Moulter considered all the facets of his predicament? How will Quality Care's staff be affected by a decision one way or another? What about the costs of upgrading the system? Can Quality Care maintain its standing without going high-tech? Would customers rebel when confronted with the proposed reception area or would they appreciate the increased efficiency? Six experts weigh the costs and benefits of technology in a service industry.

  13. 17 CFR 1.25 - Investment of customer funds.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Investment of customer funds... REGULATIONS UNDER THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT Customers' Money, Securities, and Property § 1.25 Investment of customer funds. (a) Permitted investments. (1) Subject to the terms and conditions set forth in this...

  14. 14 CFR 1260.63 - Customs clearance and visas.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2011-01-01 2010-01-01 true Customs clearance and visas. 1260.63 Section 1260.63 Aeronautics and Space NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION GRANTS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS General Special Conditions § 1260.63 Customs clearance and visas. Customs Clearance and Visas (For...

  15. 14 CFR 1260.63 - Customs clearance and visas.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Customs clearance and visas. 1260.63 Section 1260.63 Aeronautics and Space NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION GRANTS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS General Special Conditions § 1260.63 Customs clearance and visas. Customs Clearance and Visas (For...

  16. 14 CFR 1260.63 - Customs clearance and visas.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Customs clearance and visas. 1260.63 Section 1260.63 Aeronautics and Space NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION GRANTS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS General Special Conditions § 1260.63 Customs clearance and visas. Customs Clearance and Visas (For...

  17. 14 CFR 1260.63 - Customs clearance and visas.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Customs clearance and visas. 1260.63 Section 1260.63 Aeronautics and Space NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION GRANTS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS General Special Conditions § 1260.63 Customs clearance and visas. Customs Clearance and Visas (For...

  18. The customer-centered innovation map.

    PubMed

    Bettencourt, Lance A; Ulwick, Anthony W

    2008-05-01

    We all know that people "hire" products and services to get a job done. Surgeons hire scalpels to dissect soft tissue. Janitors hire soap dispensers and paper towels to remove grime from their hands. To find ways to innovate, it's critical to deconstruct the job the customer is trying to get done from beginning to end, to gain a complete view of all the points at which a customer might desire more help from a product or service. A methodology called job mapping helps companies analyze the biggest drawbacks of the products and services customers currently use and discover opportunities for innovation. It involves breaking down the task the customer wants to accomplish into the eight universal steps of a job: (1) defining the objectives, (2) locating the necessary inputs, (3) preparing the physical environment, (4) confirming that everything is ready, (5) executing the task, (6) monitoring its progress, (7) making modifications as necessary, and (8) concluding the job. Job mapping differs substantively from process mapping in that the goal is to identify what customers are trying to get done at every step, not what they are doing currently. For example, when an anesthesiologist checks a monitor during a surgical procedure, the action taken is just a means to the end. Detecting a change in patient vital signs is the job the doctor is trying to get done. Within each of the discrete steps lie multiple opportunities for making the job simpler, easier, or faster. By mapping out every step of the job and locating those opportunities, companies can discover new ways to differentiate their offerings.

  19. 3D printing for health & wealth: Fabrication of custom-made medical devices through additive manufacturing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Colpani, Alessandro; Fiorentino, Antonio; Ceretti, Elisabetta

    2018-05-01

    Additive Manufacturing (AM) differs from traditional manufacturing technologies by its ability to handle complex shapes with great design flexibility. These features make the technique suitable to fabricate customized components, particularly answering specific custom needs. Although AM mainly referred to prototyping, nowadays the interest in direct manufacturing of actual parts is growing. This article shows the application of AM within the project 3DP-4H&W (3D Printing for Health & Wealth) which involves engineers and physicians for developing pediatric custom-made medical devices to enhance the fulfilling of the patients specific needs. In the project, two types of devices made of a two-component biocompatible silicone are considered. The first application (dental field) consists in a device for cleft lip and palate. The second one (audiological field) consists in an acoustic prosthesis. The geometries of the devices are based on the anatomy of the patient that is obtained through a 3D body scan process. For both devices, two different approaches were planned, namely direct AM and indirect Rapid Tooling (RT). In particular, direct AM consists in the FDM processing of silicone, while RT consists in molds FDM fabrication followed by silicone casting. This paper presents the results of the RT method that is articulated in different phases: the acquisition of the geometry to be realized, the design of the molds taking into account the casting feasibility (as casting channel, vents, part extraction), the realization of molds produced through AM, molds surface chemical finishing, pouring and curing of the silicone. The fabricated devices were evaluated by the physicians team that confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed procedure in fabricating the desired devices. Moreover, the procedure can be used as a general method to extend the range of applications to any custom-made device for anatomic districts, especially where complex shapes are present (as tracheal or

  20. Effects of customization on application decisions and applicant pool characteristics in a web-based recruitment context.

    PubMed

    Dineen, Brian R; Noe, Raymond A

    2009-01-01

    The authors examined 2 forms of customization in a Web-based recruitment context. Hypotheses were tested in a controlled study in which participants viewed multiple Web-based job postings that each included information about multiple fit categories. Results indicated that customization of information regarding person-organization (PO), needs-supplies, and demands-abilities (DA) fit (fit information customization) and customization of the order in which these fit categories were presented (configural customization) had differential effects on outcomes. Specifically, (a) applicant pool PO and DA fit were greater when fit information customization was provided, (b) applicant pool fit in high- versus low-relevance fit categories was better differentiated when configural customization was provided, and (c) overall application rates were lower when either or both forms of customization were provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

  1. Determination of rate of customer focus in educational programs at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences1 based on students’ viewpoints

    PubMed Central

    Shams, Assadollah; Yarmohammadian, Mohammad Hosein; Abbarik, Hadi Hayati

    2012-01-01

    Background: Today, the challenges of quality improvement and customer focus as well as systems development are important and inevitable matters in higher education institutes. There are some highly competitive challenges among educational institutes, including accountability to social needs, increasing costs of education, diversity in educational methods and centers and their consequent increasing competition, and the need for adaptation of new information and knowledge to focus on students as the main customers. Hence, the purpose of this study was to determine the rate of costumer focus based on Isfahan University of Medical Sciences students’ viewpoints and to suggest solutions to improve this rate. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out in 2011. The statistical population included all the students of seven faculties of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. According to statistical formulae, the sample size consisted of 384 subjects. Data collection tools included researcher-made questionnaire whose reliability was found to be 87% by Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Finally, using the SPSS statistical software and statistical methods of independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Likert scale based data were analyzed. Results: The mean of overall score for customer focus (student-centered) of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences was 46.54. Finally, there was a relation between the mean of overall score for customer focus and gender, educational levels, and students’ faculties. Researcher suggest more investigation between Medical University and others. Conclusion: It is a difference between medical sciences universities and others regarding the customer focus area, since students’ gender must be considered as an effective factor in giving healthcare services quality. In order to improve the customer focus, it is essential to take facilities, field of study, faculties, and syllabus into consideration. PMID

  2. On-site customization of silicone stents: towards optimal palliation of complex airway conditions.

    PubMed

    Breen, David P; Dutau, Hervé

    2009-01-01

    Stents may be indicated as treatment of benign and malignant conditions of the central airways. Occasionally, aberrant and/or distorted airways secondary to therapy or surgery may preclude the use of commercially manufactured stents. The customization of stents is well described for nonpulmonary diseases, but to date there are only limited data in the literature on prosthesis customization for airway disease. To review all the different techniques and indications of on-site silicone stent customizations and their related complications. A retrospective study was undertaken to identify all patients who underwent treatment with a silicone stent which was customized on site by the physician. The study included subjects treated during an 8-year period. Forty-nine on-site customizations were performed in 43 patients (34 males, mean age 63 +/- 5.2 years). Stent customization was performed in 5.4% of the cases. Stent customization was performed for malignant and benign disease in 35 (81.3%) and 8 (18.7%) cases, respectively. In all cases, the stent deployed successfully and performed well while in situ. Stent manipulation did not increase complications. Customization of airway stents by the physician can lead to successful stenting of difficult airway lesions with a good short-term safety profile. Standard commercially available stents may have resulted in suboptimal management of complex airway pathologies. A prospective study is warranted to further investigate the safety profile and complications associated with stent customization. Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  3. 12 CFR 208.101 - Obligations concerning institutional customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... relationship that exists between the bank and the customer. Relevant considerations could include: (1) Any... relationship between the bank and the customer and the services to be rendered by the bank; (2) The presence or... 12 Banks and Banking 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Obligations concerning institutional customers...

  4. 18 CFR 157.218 - Changes in customer name.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Changes in customer... Act for Certain Transactions and Abandonment § 157.218 Changes in customer name. (a) Automatic... reflect the change in the name of an existing customer, if the certificate holder has filed any necessary...

  5. 16 CFR 240.5 - Definition of competing customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Definition of competing customers. 240.5... ADVERTISING ALLOWANCES AND OTHER MERCHANDISING PAYMENTS AND SERVICES § 240.5 Definition of competing customers. Competing customers are all businesses that compete in the resale of the seller's products of like grade and...

  6. 15 CFR 752.7 - Direct shipment to customers.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Direct shipment to customers. 752.7... COMPREHENSIVE LICENSE § 752.7 Direct shipment to customers. (a) General authorization. (1) Upon request by a... directly to the requesting consignee's customer in either: (i) The requesting consignee's country; or (ii...

  7. Enabling complex nanoscale pattern customization using directed self-assembly.

    PubMed

    Doerk, Gregory S; Cheng, Joy Y; Singh, Gurpreet; Rettner, Charles T; Pitera, Jed W; Balakrishnan, Srinivasan; Arellano, Noel; Sanders, Daniel P

    2014-12-16

    Block copolymer directed self-assembly is an attractive method to fabricate highly uniform nanoscale features for various technological applications, but the dense periodicity of block copolymer features limits the complexity of the resulting patterns and their potential utility. Therefore, customizability of nanoscale patterns has been a long-standing goal for using directed self-assembly in device fabrication. Here we show that a hybrid organic/inorganic chemical pattern serves as a guiding pattern for self-assembly as well as a self-aligned mask for pattern customization through cotransfer of aligned block copolymer features and an inorganic prepattern. As informed by a phenomenological model, deliberate process engineering is implemented to maintain global alignment of block copolymer features over arbitrarily shaped, 'masking' features incorporated into the chemical patterns. These hybrid chemical patterns with embedded customization information enable deterministic, complex two-dimensional nanoscale pattern customization through directed self-assembly.

  8. Effects of Platform Design on the Customer Experience in an Online Solar PV Marketplace

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    OShaughnessy, Eric J.; Margolis, Robert M.; Leibowicz, Benjamin

    We analyze a unique dataset of residential solar PV quotes offered in an online marketplace to understand how platform design changes affect customer outcomes. Three of the four design changes are associated with statistically significant and robust reductions in offer prices, though none of the policies were designed explicitly to reduce prices. The results suggest that even small changes in how prospective solar PV customers interact with installers can affect customer outcomes such as prices. Specifically, the four changes we evaluate are: 1) a customer map that shows potential new EnergySage registrants the locations of nearby customers; 2) a quotemore » cap that precludes more than seven installers from bidding on any one customer; 3) a price guidance feature that informs installers about competitive prices in the customer's market before they submit quotes; and 4) no pre-quote messaging to prohibit installers from contacting customers prior to offering quotes. We calculate descriptive statistics to investigate whether each design change accomplished its specific objectives. Then, we econometrically evaluate the impacts of the design changes on PV quote prices and purchase prices using a regression discontinuity approach.« less

  9. Customer complaints: a managed care firm's best weapon in CQI.

    PubMed

    Polonski, G J

    1995-01-01

    Encouraging customer feedback and developing an automated customer complaint system are two essential steps a health plan must take if it wishes to develop a balanced relationship with the customer. The author explores how the right attitude and appropriate action can ensure that both customers and the company reap the benefits of a comprehensive customer complaint system.

  10. The Effects of Technology Entrepreneurship on Customers and Society: A Case Study of a Spanish Pharmaceutical Distribution Company

    PubMed Central

    Muñoz, Rosa M.; Sánchez de Pablo, Jesús D.; Peña, Isidro; Salinero, Yolanda

    2016-01-01

    The main purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding, within the field of corporate entrepreneurship, of the various factors that enable technology entrepreneurship in established firms and its principal effects on customers and society. The paper reports on a case study regarding technology entrepreneurship in a Spanish company whose activity is pharmaceutical distribution. This company has been able to overcome the consequences of the worldwide crisis and start an innovative process which includes the installation of new information technology (IT) and an investment of 6 million Euros. It is, in this respect, a model to imitate and the objective of this paper is therefore to discover the managers’ entrepreneurial orientation (EO) characteristics which have made this possible, along with the organizational and social effects resulting from the process. We verify that EO is present in this company and that the development of new IT has important effects on customers and the population. PMID:27445938

  11. The Effects of Technology Entrepreneurship on Customers and Society: A Case Study of a Spanish Pharmaceutical Distribution Company.

    PubMed

    Muñoz, Rosa M; Sánchez de Pablo, Jesús D; Peña, Isidro; Salinero, Yolanda

    2016-01-01

    The main purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding, within the field of corporate entrepreneurship, of the various factors that enable technology entrepreneurship in established firms and its principal effects on customers and society. The paper reports on a case study regarding technology entrepreneurship in a Spanish company whose activity is pharmaceutical distribution. This company has been able to overcome the consequences of the worldwide crisis and start an innovative process which includes the installation of new information technology (IT) and an investment of 6 million Euros. It is, in this respect, a model to imitate and the objective of this paper is therefore to discover the managers' entrepreneurial orientation (EO) characteristics which have made this possible, along with the organizational and social effects resulting from the process. We verify that EO is present in this company and that the development of new IT has important effects on customers and the population.

  12. International Variations in Measuring Customer Expectations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Calvert, Philip J.

    2001-01-01

    Discussion of customer expectations of library service quality and SERVQUAL as a measurement tool focuses on two studies: one that compared a survey of Chinese university students' expectations of service quality to New Zealand students; and one that investigated national culture as a source of attitudes to customer service. (Author/LRW)

  13. Colorful Event Lands Off Campus Customers.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ballard, Richard E.

    1978-01-01

    To attract suburban, nonstudent customers, the Yale Cooperative Corporation held a Heirloom Discovery Day. Co-op books and materials were sold to customers who came with antique items to be appraised. Donations from the profits were made to the New Haven Symphony and the University Collection of Musical Instruments. (JMD)

  14. A vigorous approach to customer service.

    PubMed

    Pollock, E K

    1993-01-01

    PPG Industries, Inc. is the world's largest supplier of automotive original coatings. Its business-to-business customers require individualized service based on specific requirements. The company has solidified these relationships by establishing satellite supply facilities, applying the quality process to problem solving, and providing a variety of outlets for customer feedback.

  15. Retrieval of Radiology Reports Citing Critical Findings with Disease-Specific Customization

    PubMed Central

    Lacson, Ronilda; Sugarbaker, Nathanael; Prevedello, Luciano M; Ivan, IP; Mar, Wendy; Andriole, Katherine P; Khorasani, Ramin

    2012-01-01

    Background: Communication of critical results from diagnostic procedures between caregivers is a Joint Commission national patient safety goal. Evaluating critical result communication often requires manual analysis of voluminous data, especially when reviewing unstructured textual results of radiologic findings. Information retrieval (IR) tools can facilitate this process by enabling automated retrieval of radiology reports that cite critical imaging findings. However, IR tools that have been developed for one disease or imaging modality often need substantial reconfiguration before they can be utilized for another disease entity. Purpose: This paper: 1) describes the process of customizing two Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Retrieval/Extraction applications – an open-source toolkit, A Nearly New Information Extraction system (ANNIE); and an application developed in-house, Information for Searching Content with an Ontology-Utilizing Toolkit (iSCOUT) – to illustrate the varying levels of customization required for different disease entities and; 2) evaluates each application’s performance in identifying and retrieving radiology reports citing critical imaging findings for three distinct diseases, pulmonary nodule, pneumothorax, and pulmonary embolus. Results: Both applications can be utilized for retrieval. iSCOUT and ANNIE had precision values between 0.90-0.98 and recall values between 0.79 and 0.94. ANNIE had consistently higher precision but required more customization. Conclusion: Understanding the customizations involved in utilizing NLP applications for various diseases will enable users to select the most suitable tool for specific tasks. PMID:22934127

  16. Understanding customers' intention to use social network sites as complaint channel: an analysis of young customers' perspectives

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Setiawan, Retno Agus; Setyohadi, Djoko Budiyanto; Pranowo

    2018-02-01

    Social network sites (SNSs) have grown rapidly in recent years. More and more companies have used SNSs as part of their business strategy. SNSs offer numerous advantages, especially in enhancing communication. SNSs have a potential as a new complaint channel for young customers to file their complaints to companies. The objective of this study is to investigate the acceptance of SNSs as complaint channel based on TAM. A structured questionnaire was distributed to young participants, which collected 222 valid questionnaires. Furthermore, structural equation modeling was utilized to investigate the structural model. The results revealed that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have a positive correlation on the attitude towards SNSs. While the attitude plays an important role in understanding customers' intention to use SNSs to voice complaints. However perceived usefulness has no significant impact on intention to use. Limitations and further research were also discussed.

  17. 14 CFR 212.8 - Protection of customers' payments.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Protection of customers' payments. 212.8... customers' payments. (a) Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, no certificated air carrier or... payable in advance by customers for the subject charter trips shall be accepted by the carrier. (e) The...

  18. Customer service: developing a new mindset for today's instant gratification society.

    PubMed

    Stockburger, W T

    1998-01-01

    Today's society expects and demands immediate service, results and access to information. Can those of us in leadership positions say that the service we provide is equal to or exceeds what our customers expect? How can we redesign our services so they are better than those we currently provide? Some people look to advances in technology as one means to improve services and access to information, but this should not be the only means. If we are to develop a philosophy of exceptional service, we must develop a vision of those services. We must gain an understanding of our customers, plus a knowledge of products, the availability of resources and any industry constraints. In healthcare, we must look to leadership to achieve our goals. A goal of exceptional customer service must be communicated to all levels of service providers from management. Top-down action by management--leadership by example--is critical. Leadership must gain the trust of both customers and employees by actively listening to both verbal and nonverbal comments at all points of service. Without an understanding of our customers' needs, it won't be possible to deliver services at or above their expectations.

  19. ArrayInitiative - a tool that simplifies creating custom Affymetrix CDFs

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    Background Probes on a microarray represent a frozen view of a genome and are quickly outdated when new sequencing studies extend our knowledge, resulting in significant measurement error when analyzing any microarray experiment. There are several bioinformatics approaches to improve probe assignments, but without in-house programming expertise, standardizing these custom array specifications as a usable file (e.g. as Affymetrix CDFs) is difficult, owing mostly to the complexity of the specification file format. However, without correctly standardized files there is a significant barrier for testing competing analysis approaches since this file is one of the required inputs for many commonly used algorithms. The need to test combinations of probe assignments and analysis algorithms led us to develop ArrayInitiative, a tool for creating and managing custom array specifications. Results ArrayInitiative is a standalone, cross-platform, rich client desktop application for creating correctly formatted, custom versions of manufacturer-provided (default) array specifications, requiring only minimal knowledge of the array specification rules and file formats. Users can import default array specifications, import probe sequences for a default array specification, design and import a custom array specification, export any array specification to multiple output formats, export the probe sequences for any array specification and browse high-level information about the microarray, such as version and number of probes. The initial release of ArrayInitiative supports the Affymetrix 3' IVT expression arrays we currently analyze, but as an open source application, we hope that others will contribute modules for other platforms. Conclusions ArrayInitiative allows researchers to create new array specifications, in a standard format, based upon their own requirements. This makes it easier to test competing design and analysis strategies that depend on probe definitions. Since the

  20. Technical Knowledge and Skills Development in the Informal Sector in Kenya: The Case of Custom Tailors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Apunda, Edwinah Amondi; de Klerk, Helena M.; Ogina, Teresa

    2017-01-01

    Custom tailors working in the informal sector in Nairobi, Kenya, mainly acquire technical skills through undertaking traditional apprenticeships (TAs). However, most of these tailors are semi-skilled, produce low-quality products and are often poorer than their formally trained counterparts. This qualitative case study explores the aspects of…

  1. Malfunction of medical equipment as a result of mains borne interference.

    PubMed

    Railton, R; Currie, G D; Corner, G A; Evans, A L

    1993-08-01

    Medical equipment has become more intelligent as the manufacturers have incorporated the latest microprocessor based technology. Equipment malfunction can be caused at any time by inherent errors in the control program but it is particularly important that this is designed to cope with the effects of electrical interference which, in addition, may cause corruption of the software. We have considered interference found in the mains supply in the hospital environment. Using a test protocol with appropriate interference simulators, a wide range of medical equipment was removed temporarily from use and its immunity to electrical mains borne interference tested. Battery operated mains rechargeable devices were unaffected by mains voltage variations including drop-outs and sags whereas mains powered devices were affected to varying degrees of severity. In particular, repetitive drop-outs caused loss of power due to fuse blowing in some life support equipment. Impulses affected 25% and pulse bursts 50% of the equipment tested with some evidence that the more recent designs coped better. The EEC Directive on electro-medical compatibility compliance may cause the design of equipment to be improved but hospitals will have to cope with the above problems in their existing equipment for many years to come.

  2. Retrieval of radiology reports citing critical findings with disease-specific customization.

    PubMed

    Lacson, Ronilda; Sugarbaker, Nathanael; Prevedello, Luciano M; Ivan, Ip; Mar, Wendy; Andriole, Katherine P; Khorasani, Ramin

    2012-01-01

    Communication of critical results from diagnostic procedures between caregivers is a Joint Commission national patient safety goal. Evaluating critical result communication often requires manual analysis of voluminous data, especially when reviewing unstructured textual results of radiologic findings. Information retrieval (IR) tools can facilitate this process by enabling automated retrieval of radiology reports that cite critical imaging findings. However, IR tools that have been developed for one disease or imaging modality often need substantial reconfiguration before they can be utilized for another disease entity. THIS PAPER: 1) describes the process of customizing two Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Retrieval/Extraction applications - an open-source toolkit, A Nearly New Information Extraction system (ANNIE); and an application developed in-house, Information for Searching Content with an Ontology-Utilizing Toolkit (iSCOUT) - to illustrate the varying levels of customization required for different disease entities and; 2) evaluates each application's performance in identifying and retrieving radiology reports citing critical imaging findings for three distinct diseases, pulmonary nodule, pneumothorax, and pulmonary embolus. Both applications can be utilized for retrieval. iSCOUT and ANNIE had precision values between 0.90-0.98 and recall values between 0.79 and 0.94. ANNIE had consistently higher precision but required more customization. Understanding the customizations involved in utilizing NLP applications for various diseases will enable users to select the most suitable tool for specific tasks.

  3. Stiffness Customization and Patterning for Property Modulation of Silicone-Based Soft Pneumatic Actuators.

    PubMed

    Sun, Yi; Yap, Hong Kai; Liang, Xinquan; Guo, Jin; Qi, Peng; Ang, Marcelo H; Yeow, Chen-Hua

    2017-09-01

    Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs), as novel types of motion drivers for robotic devices, excel in many applications, such as rehabilitation and biomimicry, which demand compliance and softness. To further expand their scope of utilization, the SPAs should be customizable to meet the distinctive requirements of different applications. This article proposes a novel perspective on the SPA working mechanism based on stiffness distribution and then presents a versatile method called stiffness customization and patterning (SCP) for SPA body stiffness layout as a novel attempt to customize SPAs with distinctive properties. We fabricated a hybrid type of material combining unstretchable material and silicone with customizable aggregated elasticity. The tensile results showed that embedding unstretchable material directly increases the stiffness of the hybrid material sample, and our stress-strain model for SCP is able to adequately predict the elasticity of hybrid samples with specific material ratios. By applying this approach to bending-type SPAs, we are able to mitigate SPA buckling, a main failure mode of SPAs, and improve the SPA tip force by using hybrid material with globally increased stiffness. We also diversify bending modalities with different stiffness configurations in the hybrid material. SCP offers numerous ways to engineer SPAs for more applications.

  4. [A cross-level analysis of the links between service quality and disconfirmation of expectations and customer satisfaction].

    PubMed

    Sánchez-Hernández, Rosa M; Martínez-Tur, Vicente; González-Morales, M Gloria; Ramos, José; Peiró, José M

    2009-08-01

    This article examines links between disconfirmation of expectations and functional and relational service quality perceived by employees and customer satisfaction. A total of 156 employees, who were working in 52 work units, participated in the research study. In addition, 517 customers who were assisted by these work units were surveyed. Using a cross-level approach, we used a random coefficient model to test the aforementioned relationships. A strong relationship between disconfirmation of expectations and customer satisfaction was observed. Also, the results confirmed that functional service quality maintains an additional and significant association with customer satisfaction. In contrast, there were no significant relationships between relational service quality and customer satisfaction. The article concludes with a discussion of these results.

  5. A modelling framework for mitigating customers' waiting time at a vehicle inspection centre

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ahmad, Norazura; Abidin, Norhaslinda Zainal; Ilyas, Khibtiyah; Abduljabbar, Waleed Khalid

    2017-11-01

    In Malaysia, an agency that is entrusted by the Government to perform mandatory vehicle inspection for public, commercial and private vehicles, receive many customers daily. Often complaints of problems received from the customers are associated with waiting time that leads to lost of business and dissatisfied customers. To address this issue, we propose a framework for modelling a vehicle inspection system using an integration of simulation and optimization approaches. The strengths of simulation and optimization are reviewed briefly that is hoped to reveal the synergy between the established methods in determining an appropriate customer's waiting time for inspection at a vehicle inspection centre. Relevant concepts and preliminary results are also presented and discussed in this paper.

  6. Applying CBR to machine tool product configuration design oriented to customer requirements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Pengjia; Gong, Yadong; Xie, Hualong; Liu, Yongxian; Nee, Andrew Yehching

    2017-01-01

    Product customization is a trend in the current market-oriented manufacturing environment. However, deduction from customer requirements to design results and evaluation of design alternatives are still heavily reliant on the designer's experience and knowledge. To solve the problem of fuzziness and uncertainty of customer requirements in product configuration, an analysis method based on the grey rough model is presented. The customer requirements can be converted into technical characteristics effectively. In addition, an optimization decision model for product planning is established to help the enterprises select the key technical characteristics under the constraints of cost and time to serve the customer to maximal satisfaction. A new case retrieval approach that combines the self-organizing map and fuzzy similarity priority ratio method is proposed in case-based design. The self-organizing map can reduce the retrieval range and increase the retrieval efficiency, and the fuzzy similarity priority ratio method can evaluate the similarity of cases comprehensively. To ensure that the final case has the best overall performance, an evaluation method of similar cases based on grey correlation analysis is proposed to evaluate similar cases to select the most suitable case. Furthermore, a computer-aided system is developed using MATLAB GUI to assist the product configuration design. The actual example and result on an ETC series machine tool product show that the proposed method is effective, rapid and accurate in the process of product configuration. The proposed methodology provides a detailed instruction for the product configuration design oriented to customer requirements.

  7. Personal customizing exercise with a wearable measurement and control unit.

    PubMed

    Wang, Zhihui; Kiryu, Tohru; Tamura, Naoki

    2005-06-28

    Recently, wearable technology has been used in various health-related fields to develop advanced monitoring solutions. However, the monitoring function alone cannot meet all the requirements of customizing machine-based exercise on an individual basis by relying on biosignal-based controls. We propose a new wearable unit design equipped with measurement and control functions to support the customization process. The wearable unit can measure the heart rate and electromyogram signals during exercise performance and output workload control commands to the exercise machines. The workload is continuously tracked with exercise programs set according to personally customized workload patterns and estimation results from the measured biosignals by a fuzzy control method. Exercise programs are adapted by relying on a computer workstation, which communicates with the wearable unit via wireless connections. A prototype of the wearable unit was tested together with an Internet-based cycle ergometer system to demonstrate that it is possible to customize exercise on an individual basis. We tested the wearable unit in nine people to assess its suitability to control cycle ergometer exercise. The results confirmed that the unit could successfully control the ergometer workload and continuously support gradual changes in physical activities. The design of wearable units equipped with measurement and control functions is an important step towards establishing a convenient and continuously supported wellness environment.

  8. Getting the most out of all your customers.

    PubMed

    Thomas, Jacquelyn S; Reinartz, Werner; Kumar, V

    2004-01-01

    Companies spend billions of dollars on direct marketing, targeting individual customers with ever more accuracy. Yet despite the power of the myriad data-collecting and analytical tools at their disposal, they're still having trouble optimizing their direct-marketing investments. Many marketers try to minimize costs by pursuing only those customers who are cheap to find and cheap to keep. Others try to get the most customers they possibly can and keep all of them for as long as they can. But a customer need not be loyal to be highly profitable, and many loyal customers turn out to be highly unprofitable. Companies can get more out of direct marketing if they see it as a single system for generating profits than if they try to maximize performance measures at each stage of the process. This article describes a tool for doing just that. Called ARPRO (Allocating Resources for Profits), the tool is essentially a complex regression analysis that can estimate the impact of a company's direct-marketing investments on the profitability of its customer pool. With data that companies already gather, the tool can show managers how much to spend on acquisition versus retention and even what percentage of their funds they should allocate to the different direct-marketing channels. Using the model, companies can easily see that even small deviations from the optimal levels of customer profitability are expensive. Applying it to one catalog retailer showed, for instance, that a 10% reduction in marketing costs would lead to a 1.8 million dollar drop in long-term customer profits. Conversely, spending 69% less on marketing would actually increase average customer profitability at one B2B service provider by 42%. What's more, the tool can show that finding the optimal balance between investments in acquisition and retention can be more important than finding the optimum amount to invest overall.

  9. SU-F-T-313: Clinical Results of a New Customer Acceptance Test for Elekta VMAT

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Rusk, B; Fontenot, J

    Purpose: To report the results of a customer acceptance test (CAT) for VMAT treatments for two matched Elekta linear accelerators. Methods: The CAT tests were performed on two clinically matched Elekta linear accelerators equipped with a 160-leaf MLC. Functional tests included performance checks of the control system during dynamic movements of the diaphragms, MLC, and gantry. Dosimetric tests included MLC picket fence tests at static and variable dose rates and a diaphragm alignment test, all performed using the on-board EPID. Additionally, beam symmetry during arc delivery was measured at the four cardinal angles for high and low dose rate modesmore » using a 2D detector array. Results of the dosimetric tests were analyzed using the VMAT CAT analysis tool. Results: Linear accelerator 1 (LN1) met all stated CAT tolerances. Linear accelerator 2 (LN2) passed the geometric, beam symmetry, and MLC position error tests but failed the relative dose average test for the diaphragm abutment and all three picket fence fields. Though peak doses in the abutment regions were consistent, the average dose was below the stated tolerance corresponding to a leaf junction that was too narrow. Despite this, no significant differences in patient specific VMAT quality assurance measured were observed between the accelerators and both passed monthly MLC quality assurance performed with the Hancock test. Conclusion: Results from the CAT showed LN2 with relative dose averages in the abutment regions of the diaphragm and MLC tests outside the tolerances resulting from differences in leaf gap distances. Tolerances of the dose average tests from the CAT may be small enough to detect MLC errors which do not significantly affect patient QA or the routine MLC tests.« less

  10. 17 CFR 1.37 - Customer's or option customer's name, address, and occupation recorded; record of guarantor or...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ...'s name, address, and occupation recorded; record of guarantor or controller of account. 1.37 Section... UNDER THE COMMODITY EXCHANGE ACT Recordkeeping § 1.37 Customer's or option customer's name, address, and... each commodity futures or option account carried or introduced by it the true name and address of the...

  11. Custom LSI plus hybrid equals cost effectiveness

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Friedman, S. N.

    The possibility to combine various technologies, such as Bi-Polar linear and CMOS/Digital makes it feasible to create systems with a tailored performance not available on a single monolithic circuit. The custom LSI 'BLOCK', especially if it is universal in nature, is proving to be a cost effective way for the developer to improve his product. The custom LSI represents a low price part in contrast to the discrete components it will replace. In addition, the hybrid assembly can realize a savings in labor as a result of the reduced parts handling and associated wire bonds. The possibility of the use of automated system manufacturing techniques leads to greater reliability as the human factor is partly eliminated. Attention is given to reliability predictions, cost considerations, and a product comparison study.

  12. Customer Dissatisfaction Index and its Improvement Costs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lvovs, Aleksandrs; Mutule, Anna

    2010-01-01

    The paper gives description of customer dissatisfaction index (CDI) that can be used as reliability level characterizing factor. The factor is directly joined with customer satisfaction of power supply and can be used for control of reliability level of power supply for residential customers. CDI relations with other reliability indices are shown. Paper also gives a brief overview of legislation of Latvia in power industry that is the base for CDI introduction. Calculations of CDI improvement costs are performed in the paper too.

  13. Video-CRM: understanding customer behaviors in stores

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haritaoglu, Ismail; Flickner, Myron; Beymer, David

    2013-03-01

    This paper describes two real-time computer vision systems created 10 years ago that detect and track people in stores to obtain insights of customer behavior while shopping. The first system uses a single color camera to identify shopping groups in the checkout line. Shopping groups are identified by analyzing the inter-body distances coupled with the cashier's activities to detect checkout transactions start and end times. The second system uses multiple overhead narrow-baseline stereo cameras to detect and track people, their body posture and parts to understand customer interactions with products such as "customer picking a product from a shelf". In pilot studies both systems demonstrated real-time performance and sufficient accuracy to enable more detailed understanding of customer behavior and extract actionable real-time retail analytics.

  14. Data mining application in customer relationship management for hospital inpatients.

    PubMed

    Lee, Eun Whan

    2012-09-01

    This study aims to discover patients loyal to a hospital and model their medical service usage patterns. Consequently, this study proposes a data mining application in customer relationship management (CRM) for hospital inpatients. A recency, frequency, monetary (RFM) model has been applied toward 14,072 patients discharged from a university hospital. Cluster analysis was conducted to segment customers, and it modeled the patterns of the loyal customers' medical services usage via a decision tree. Patients were divided into two groups according to the variables of the RFM model and the group which had significantly high frequency of medical use and expenses was defined as loyal customers, a target market. As a result of the decision tree, the predictable factors of the loyal clients were; length of stay, certainty of selectable treatment, surgery, number of accompanying treatments, kind of patient room, and department from which they were discharged. Particularly, this research showed that when a patient within the internal medicine department who did not have surgery stayed for more than 13.5 days, their probability of being a classified as a loyal customer was 70.0%. To discover a hospital's loyal patients and model their medical usage patterns, the application of data-mining has been suggested. This paper suggests practical use of combining segmentation, targeting, positioning (STP) strategy and the RFM model with data-mining in CRM.

  15. Impact of Alternative Rate Structures on Distributed Solar Customer Electricity Bills

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    McLaren, Joyce A

    Electric utilities are increasingly proposing changes to residential rate structures, in order to address concerns about their inability to recover fixed system costs from customers with grid connected distributed generation. The most common proposals have been to increase fixed charges, set minimum bills or instigate residential demand charges. This presentation provides results of an analysis to explore how these rate design alternatives impact electricity bills for PV and non-PV customers.

  16. 75 FR 27563 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Voluntary Customer Survey

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-05-17

    ... Activities: Voluntary Customer Survey AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of... collection requirement concerning a Voluntary Customer Survey. This request for comment is being made... soliciting comments concerning the following information collection: Title: Voluntary Customer Survey. OMB...

  17. Creativity and innovation by empowering the customer: The case of Mulino Bianco. Part II: The digital customer value added

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bujor, A.; Avasilcăi, S.

    2015-11-01

    Internet Toolkit and Web 2.0. by means of which customers are being invited to participate in competitions, being asked to design and share their concepts / views for new products, or to get involved in by voting those ideas they best like and would love to find them on markets. The aim of this paper is to explore and identify the involvement of stakeholders in Mullino Bianco's product development or improvement through creativity and innovation. As methodology approach, a case study about Mulino Bianco was done, and the foreseen result is highlighting the Nel Mulino Che Vorrei platform's features for consumer's engagement in the value creation and co-creation.

  18. Characteristics of a semi-custom library development system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yancey, M.; Cannon, R.

    1990-01-01

    Standard cell and gate array macro libraries are in common use with workstation computer aided design (CAD) tools for application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) semi-custom application and have resulted in significant improvements in the overall design efficiencies as contrasted with custom design methodologies. Similar design methodology enhancements in providing for the efficient development of the library cells is an important factor in responding to the need for continuous technology improvement. The characteristics of a library development system that provides design flexibility and productivity enhancements for the library development engineer as he provides libraries in the state-of-the-art process technologies are presented. An overview of Gould's library development system ('Accolade') is also presented.

  19. The effect of proposed software products' features on the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of potential customers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hussain, Azham; Mkpojiogu, Emmanuel O. C.; Yusof, Muhammad Mat

    2016-08-01

    This paper reports the effect of proposed software products features on the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of potential customers of proposed software products. Kano model's functional and dysfunctional technique was used along with Berger et al.'s customer satisfaction coefficients. The result shows that only two features performed the most in influencing the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of would-be customers of the proposed software product. Attractive and one-dimensional features had the highest impact on the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of customers. This result will benefit requirements analysts, developers, designers, projects and sales managers in preparing for proposed products. Additional analysis showed that the Kano model's satisfaction and dissatisfaction scores were highly related to the Park et al.'s average satisfaction coefficient (r=96%), implying that these variables can be used interchangeably or in place of one another to elicit customer satisfaction. Furthermore, average satisfaction coefficients and satisfaction and dissatisfaction indexes were all positively and linearly correlated.

  20. 78 FR 48457 - Correction of Document Revoking Customs Broker Licenses

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-08

    ... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Correction of Document Revoking Customs Broker Licenses AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security. ACTION: Correction of document revoking certain customs broker licenses. SUMMARY: In a notice published...

  1. Central Inertial and GPS Test Facility (CIGTF) Customer Handbook

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2007-08-01

    capabilities offer the customer a cost-effective means to evaluate their guidance and navigation systems. The 746 TS also manages the tri-service GPS...minimum your test manager ur test or current phase of testing is complete. 4.0 Customer Feedback The 746 TS works very hard to provide its customers ... Customer Handbook August 2007 HOLLOMAN AFB, NEW MEXICO Distribution Statement A Approved for public release: distribution is

  2. The National Map Customer Requirements: Findings from Interviews and Surveys

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sugarbaker, Larry; Coray, Kevin E.; Poore, Barbara

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to receive customer feedback and to understand data and information requirements for The National Map. This report provides results and findings from interviews and surveys and will guide policy and operations decisions about data and information requirements leading to the development of a 5-year strategic plan for the National Geospatial Program. These findings are based on feedback from approximately 2,200 customers between February and August 2008. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted more than 160 interviews with 200 individuals. The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and the International Map Trade Association (IMTA) surveyed their memberships and received feedback from over 400 members. The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) received feedback from over 1,600 of its U.S.-based software users through an online survey sent to customers attending the ESRI International User Conference in the summer of 2008. The results of these surveys were shared with the USGS and have been included in this report.

  3. Service quality that improves customer satisfaction in a university: a case study in Institut Teknologi Indonesia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Theresia, L.; Bangun, R.

    2017-12-01

    Universities should provide better service quality to get more customers. The purpose of this study was to find service quality which has impact on the increasing of customer satisfaction in a university. This study is a case study in Institut Teknologi Indonesia (ITI). The result of the study will help ITI to improve its service quality to increase customer satisfaction. This study employs path analysis technique. The data were collected through questionnaires developed from the literature. Questionnaires have two parts namely 1) service quality and 2) customer satisfaction. Service quality is measured through 22 questions with five service quality dimensions: 1) Tangibles, 2) Reliability, 3) Responsiveness, 4) Assurance and 5) Empathy. Customer Satisfaction is measured through 4 questions. The data then are processed by SPSS. The results showed that the students preferred to tangible quality improvement than intangible aspect.

  4. Idaho Transportation Department 2011 customer satisfaction survey.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2011-10-01

    In the spring and summer of 2011, the Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) commissioned a statewide customer satisfaction survey of Idaho residents to assess their perception of ITDs performance in several key areas of customer service. The areas...

  5. The Customer Comes First: Implementing a Customer Service Program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Libraries

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bayer, Jerrie; Llewellyn, Steven

    2011-01-01

    Library customers have more remote information choices than ever before, so we must ensure that when they do come to the library, they experience a welcoming environment, a high standard of service, and receive equitable levels of service across campus. Developing a customer service program was a logical next step to reinforce the ongoing…

  6. 75 FR 47607 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Voluntary Customer Survey

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-08-06

    ... Activities: Voluntary Customer Survey AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland... review and approval in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act: Voluntary Customer Survey. This is a.... Title: Voluntary Customer Survey. OMB Number: Will be assigned upon approval. Form Number: None...

  7. Customer-Driven Reliability Models for Multistate Coherent Systems

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1992-01-01

    AENCYUSEONLY(Leae bank)2. RPO- COVERED 1 11992DISSERTATION 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5. FUNDING NUMBERS Customer -Driven Reliability Models For Multistate Coherent...UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE CUSTOMER -DRIVEN RELIABILITY MODELS FOR MULTISTATE COHERENT SYSTEMS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY...BOEDIGHEIMER I Norman, Oklahoma Distribution/ Av~ilability Codes 1992 A vil andior Dist Special CUSTOMER -DRIVEN RELIABILITY MODELS FOR MULTISTATE

  8. Promoting healthy choices in non-chain restaurants: effects of a simple cue to customers.

    PubMed

    Nothwehr, Faryle K; Snetselaar, Linda; Dawson, Jeffrey; Schultz, Ulrike

    2013-01-01

    This study tested a novel intervention to influence restaurant customer ordering behavior, with measurements at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months postintervention in four owner-operated restaurants in the Midwest. A sample of 141 to 370 customers was surveyed at each time point. The response rate was 70% to 84% with 59% women, 98% White, and a mean age of 53 years. Table signs listed changes customers might consider, for example, asking for meat broiled instead of fried or requesting smaller portions. Customer surveys measured program reach and effectiveness. Owner interviews measured perceptions of program burden and customer response. Order slips were analyzed for evidence of changes in ordering. Window signs were noticed by 40%, 48%, and 45% of customers at each follow-up, respectively. Table signs were noticed by 67%, 71%, and 69% of customers, respectively. Of those, 34% at each time point stated that the signs influenced their order. Examples of how orders were influenced were elicited. Order slip data not only did not show significant changes but was also found to be an inadequate measure for the intervention. Owners reported no concerns or complaints. This intervention resulted in small but positive behavior changes among a portion of customers. Because of its simplicity and acceptability, it has great potential for dissemination.

  9. How Healthcare Can Refocus on Its Super-Customers (Patients, n =1) and Customers (Doctors and Nurses) by Leveraging Lessons from Amazon, Uber, and Watson.

    PubMed

    Kolker, Evelyne; Özdemir, Vural; Kolker, Eugene

    2016-06-01

    Healthcare is transforming with data-intensive omics technologies and Big Data. The "revolution" has already happened in technology, but the bottlenecks have shifted to the social domain: Who can be empowered by Big Data? Who are the users and customers? In this review and innovation field analysis, we introduce the idea of a "super-customer" versus "customer" and relate both to 21st century healthcare. A "super-customer" in healthcare is the patient, sample size of n = 1, while "customers" are the providers of healthcare (e.g., doctors and nurses). The super-customers have been patients, enabled by unprecedented social practices, such as the ability to track one's physical activities, personal genomics, patient advocacy for greater autonomy, and self-governance, to name but a few. In contrast, the originally intended customers-providers, doctors, and nurses-have relatively lagged behind. With patients as super-customers, there are valuable lessons to be learned from industry examples, such as Amazon and Uber. To offer superior quality service, healthcare organizations have to refocus on the needs, pains, and aspirations of their super-customers by enabling the customers. We propose a strategic solution to this end: the PPT-DAM (People-Process-Technology empowered by Data, Analytics, and Metrics) approach. When applied together with the classic Experiment-Execute-Evaluate iterative methodology, we suggest PPT-DAM is an extremely powerful approach to deliver quality health services to super-customers and customers. As an example, we describe the PPT-DAM implementation by the Benchmarking Improvement Program at the Seattle Children's Hospital. Finally, we forecast that cognitive systems in general and IBM Watson in particular, if properly implemented, can bring transformative and sustainable capabilities in healthcare far beyond the current ones.

  10. Customer preferences for transit ATIS : research report

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2003-08-08

    This research report presents findings from 12 workshops in 4 metropolitan areas with 284 transit customers conducted in November 2002 to address the following questions: (1) what kinds of transit information do customers want and expect the agencies...

  11. Customized Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Adult Cataract in Iran

    PubMed Central

    Rajavi, Zhaleh; Javadi, Mohammad Ali; Daftarian, Narsis; Safi, Sare; Nejat, Farhad; Shirvani, Armin; Ahmadieh, Hamid; Shahraz, Saeid; Ziaei, Hossein; Moein, Hamidreza; Motlagh, Behzad Fallahi; Feizi, Sepehr; Foroutan, Alireza; Hashemi, Hassan; Hashemian, Seyed Javad; Jabbarvand, Mahmoud; Jafarinasab, Mohammad Reza; Karimian, Farid; Mohammad-Rabei, Hossein; Mohammadpour, Mehrdad; Nassiri, Nader; Panahi-Bazaz, Mahmoodreza; Rohani, Mohammad Reza; Sedaghat, Mohammad Reza; Sheibani, Kourosh

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: To customize clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for cataract management in the Iranian population. Methods: First, four CPGs (American Academy of Ophthalmology 2006 and 2011, Royal College of Ophthalmologists 2010, and Canadian Ophthalmological Society 2008) were selected from a number of available CPGs in the literature for cataract management. All recommendations of these guidelines, together with their references, were studied. Each recommendation was summarized in 4 tables. The first table showed the recommendation itself in clinical question components format along with its level of evidence. The second table contained structured abstracts of supporting articles related to the clinical question with their levels of evidence. The third table included the customized recommendation of the internal group respecting its clinical advantage, cost, and complications. In the fourth table, the internal group their recommendations from 1 to 9 based on the customizing capability of the recommendation (applicability, acceptability, external validity). Finally, customized recommendations were sent one month prior to a consensus session to faculty members of all universities across the country asking for their comments on recommendations. Results: The agreed recommendations were accepted as conclusive while those with no agreement were discussed at the consensus session. Finally, all customized recommendations were codified as 80 recommendations along with their sources and levels of evidence for the Iranian population. Conclusion: Customization of CPGs for management of adult cataract for the Iranian population seems to be useful for standardization of referral, diagnosis and treatment of patients. PMID:27051491

  12. How to get the customer service your practice deserves.

    PubMed

    Cavallo, Nancy

    2009-01-01

    What is good customer service, and how can office managers and others who deal with medical supply distributors get the customer service they deserve? This article covers the basics of good customer service, including examples of companies known for putting the customer first-Nordstrom, Disney, Johnson &Johnson, and VaxServe. Helpful tips on what to look for in a distributor include personalized service, cost considerations, dedication, knowledge, experience, helpfulness, openness, reliability, and compatibility.

  13. 47 CFR 36.378 - Category 2-Customer services (revenue accounting).

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Category 2-Customer services (revenue... Operating Expenses and Taxes Customer Operations Expenses § 36.378 Category 2—Customer services (revenue... expenses in Account 6620 directly assignable or allocable to the billing of customers and the accounting...

  14. Fabricating customized hydrogel contact lens

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Childs, Andre; Li, Hao; Lewittes, Daniella M.; Dong, Biqin; Liu, Wenzhong; Shu, Xiao; Sun, Cheng; Zhang, Hao F.

    2016-10-01

    Contact lenses are increasingly used in laboratories for in vivo animal retinal imaging and pre-clinical studies. The lens shapes often need modification to optimally fit corneas of individual test subjects. However, the choices from commercially available contact lenses are rather limited. Here, we report a flexible method to fabricate customized hydrogel contact lenses. We showed that the fabricated hydrogel is highly transparent, with refractive indices ranging from 1.42 to 1.45 in the spectra range from 400 nm to 800 nm. The Young’s modulus (1.47 MPa) and hydrophobicity (with a sessile drop contact angle of 40.5°) have also been characterized experimentally. Retinal imaging using optical coherence tomography in rats wearing our customized contact lenses has the quality comparable to the control case without the contact lens. Our method could significantly reduce the cost and the lead time for fabricating soft contact lenses with customized shapes, and benefit the laboratorial-used contact lenses in pre-clinical studies.

  15. Fabricating customized hydrogel contact lens

    PubMed Central

    Childs, Andre; Li, Hao; Lewittes, Daniella M.; Dong, Biqin; Liu, Wenzhong; Shu, Xiao; Sun, Cheng; Zhang, Hao F.

    2016-01-01

    Contact lenses are increasingly used in laboratories for in vivo animal retinal imaging and pre-clinical studies. The lens shapes often need modification to optimally fit corneas of individual test subjects. However, the choices from commercially available contact lenses are rather limited. Here, we report a flexible method to fabricate customized hydrogel contact lenses. We showed that the fabricated hydrogel is highly transparent, with refractive indices ranging from 1.42 to 1.45 in the spectra range from 400 nm to 800 nm. The Young’s modulus (1.47 MPa) and hydrophobicity (with a sessile drop contact angle of 40.5°) have also been characterized experimentally. Retinal imaging using optical coherence tomography in rats wearing our customized contact lenses has the quality comparable to the control case without the contact lens. Our method could significantly reduce the cost and the lead time for fabricating soft contact lenses with customized shapes, and benefit the laboratorial-used contact lenses in pre-clinical studies. PMID:27748361

  16. Comparison of custom to standard TKA instrumentation with computed tomography.

    PubMed

    Ng, Vincent Y; Arnott, Lindsay; Li, Jia; Hopkins, Ronald; Lewis, Jamie; Sutphen, Sean; Nicholson, Lisa; Reader, Douglas; McShane, Michael A

    2014-08-01

    There is conflicting evidence whether custom instrumentation for total knee arthroplasty (TKA) improves component position compared to standard instrumentation. Studies have relied on long-limb radiographs limited to two-dimensional (2D) analysis and subjected to rotational inaccuracy. We used postoperative computed tomography (CT) to evaluate preoperative three-dimensional templating and CI to facilitate accurate and efficient implantation of TKA femoral and tibial components. We prospectively evaluated a single-surgeon cohort of 78 TKA patients (51 custom, 27 standard) with postoperative CT scans using 3D reconstruction and contour-matching technology to preoperative imaging. Component alignment was measured in coronal, sagittal and axial planes. Preoperative templating for custom instrumentation was 87 and 79 % accurate for femoral and tibial component size. All custom components were within 1 size except for the tibial component in one patient (2 sizes). Tourniquet time was 5 min longer for custom (30 min) than standard (25 min). In no case was custom instrumentation aborted in favour of standard instrumentation nor was original alignment of custom instrumentation required to be adjusted intraoperatively. There were more outliers greater than 2° from intended alignment with standard instrumentation than custom for both components in all three planes. Custom instrumentation was more accurate in component position for tibial coronal alignment (custom: 1.5° ± 1.2°; standard: 3° ± 1.9°; p = 0.0001) and both tibial (custom: 1.4° ± 1.1°; standard: 16.9° ± 6.8°; p < 0.0001) and femoral (custom: 1.2° ± 0.9°; standard: 3.1° ± 2.1°; p < 0.0001) rotational alignment, and was similar to standard instrumentation in other measurements. When evaluated with CT, custom instrumentation performs similar or better to standard instrumentation in component alignment and accurately templates component size. Tourniquet time was mildly increased for custom compared

  17. 16 CFR 314.3 - Standards for safeguarding customer information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Standards for safeguarding customer... OF CONGRESS STANDARDS FOR SAFEGUARDING CUSTOMER INFORMATION § 314.3 Standards for safeguarding customer information. (a) Information security program. You shall develop, implement, and maintain a...

  18. Becoming customer-driven: one health system's story.

    PubMed

    Bagnell, A

    1998-01-01

    Market research was done by Crozer-Keystone Health System to better understand the new health care consumer. The information will assist in developing, promoting, and delivering products and services of maximum value to current and prospective consumers. The system is responding by bundling and delivering products and services around consumer-based dimensions, developing new and better ways to improve customer convenience, access, and service. Operationalizing these initiatives for change involves building an information infrastructure of extensive content and customer databases, using new technologies to customize communications and ultimately service components.

  19. Analysing Customer Opinions with Text Mining Algorithms

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Consoli, Domenico

    2009-08-01

    Knowing what the customer thinks of a particular product/service helps top management to introduce improvements in processes and products, thus differentiating the company from their competitors and gain competitive advantages. The customers, with their preferences, determine the success or failure of a company. In order to know opinions of the customers we can use technologies available from the web 2.0 (blog, wiki, forums, chat, social networking, social commerce). From these web sites, useful information must be extracted, for strategic purposes, using techniques of sentiment analysis or opinion mining.

  20. Patch testing custom isocyanate materials from the workplace.

    PubMed

    Burrows, Dianne; Houle, Marie-Claude; Holness, D Linn; DeKoven, Joel; Skotnicki, Sandy

    2015-01-01

    Patch testing with standard trays of commercially available allergens is the current practice for investigating suspected cases of isocyanate-induced allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). In some facilities, these standard trays are further supplemented with custom preparations of isocyanate-containing materials. The aim was to determine whether added value exists in patch testing patients to custom isocyanate preparations in suspected cases of ACD. We performed a retrospective analysis of 11 patients referred to our specialty clinic between January 2003 and March 2011 for suspected patients of ACD who had custom testing with isocyanate materials from their workplace. In addition to standard trays of allergens, all patients were patch tested with custom isocyanate materials from their workplaces. Three (27%) of 11 patients showed an added value in testing to custom isocyanate allergens. Of these 3 patients, one had a reaction that reinforced positive reactions to the standard isocyanate tray, but the other 2 (18%) had no reactions to any of the commercially available allergens. Because of the high proportion of reactions (27%), we recommend the use of custom testing to workplace isocyanate products as a supplement to current standard patch testing procedures.