The Great Tunes of the Hough: Music and Song in Alan Garner's "The Stone Book Quartet "

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Godek, Sarah

2004-01-01

Although song and music are often elements in children's books, little critical attention has gone into examining their literary uses. Alan Garner's "The Stone Book Quartet" is an example of four texts for children in which music plays a vital role. The several snatches of traditional songs found throughout the quartet bring to life the culture of…

Are Students Customers in Finnish Higher Education?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vuori, Johanna

2013-01-01

This study examines Finnish higher education students' perceptions of whether students are customers, based on qualitative interview data. The article contributes to the discussion on students as customers by giving attention to students' own voices from a country where tuition fees are not generally collected. The data are presented and analysed…

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.

PoroTomo Subtask 3.2 Data files from the Distributed Acoustic Sensing experiment at Garner Valley, California

DOE Data Explorer

Chelsea Lancelle

2013-09-11

In September 2013, an experiment using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) was conducted at Garner Valley, a test site of the University of California Santa Barbara (Lancelle et al., 2014). This submission includes all DAS data recorded during the experiment. The sampling rate for all files is 1000 samples per second. Any files with the same filename but ending in _01, _02, etc. represent sequential files from the same test. Locations of the sources are plotted on the basemap in GDR submission 481, titled: "PoroTomo Subtask 3.2 Sample data from a Distributed Acoustic Sensing experiment at Garner Valley, California (PoroTomo Subtask 3.2)." Lancelle, C., N. Lord, H. Wang, D. Fratta, R. Nigbor, A. Chalari, R. Karaulanov, J. Baldwin, and E. Castongia (2014), Directivity and Sensitivity of Fiber-Optic Cable Measuring Ground Motion using a Distributed Acoustic Sensing Array (abstract # NS31C-3935), AGU Fall Meeting. 
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm1/meetingapp.cgi#Paper/19828 The e-poster is available at: https://agu.confex.com/data/handout/agu/fm14/Paper_19828_handout_696_0.pdf

How do prostitution customers value health and position health in their discussions? Qualitative analysis of online forums.

PubMed

Regushevskaya, Elena; Tuormaa, Tuija

2014-11-01

Information on the health values and positioning of health among prostitution customers is limited. The aim is to explore the positioning of health among prostitution customers using data from Internet forums in Finland. Qualitative study using a purposive sample of public online forums among prostitution customers in 2002-2012. Health beliefs in relation to infections and risky sexual behavior were diverse, from correct to false. Although men were aware of health risks in prostitution, it was common to have multiple sexual partners and unprotected sex. Although there were men who warned others about possible health consequences when a condom is not used, typically men were proud not to use a condom with a prostitute and found different explanations for not using a condom. Condom breakage was not an issue discussed in forums. Unexpected findings were beliefs that one fifth of the Nordic population is resistant to HIV, that the possibility of HIV transmission is exaggerated by medical specialists, and that men should control their behavior in order not to degrade prostitutes. Discussions on health service use were few. Sexual satisfaction and entertainment were the main reasons to post in the analyzed forums health discussion was not common although condom use was reported, attention to health risks was selective information on health service use was limited, which may suggest this topic was not valued among men and should be a topic of future studies. © 2014 the Nordic Societies of Public Health.

[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

The development of a qualitative dynamic attribute value model for healthcare institutes.

PubMed

Lee, Wan-I

2010-01-01

Understanding customers has become an urgent topic for increasing competitiveness. The purpopse of the study was to develop a qualitative dynamic attribute value model which provides insight into the customers' value for healthcare institute managers by conducting the initial open-ended questionnaire survey to select participants purposefully. A total number of 427 questionnaires was conducted in two hospitals in Taiwan (one district hospital with 635 beds and one academic hospital with 2495 beds) and 419 questionnaires were received in nine weeks. Then, apply qualitative in-depth interviews to explore customers' perspective of values for building a model of partial differential equations. This study concludes nine categories of value, including cost, equipment, physician background, physicain care, environment, timing arrangement, relationship, brand image and additional value, to construct objective network for customer value and qualitative dynamic attribute value model where the network shows the value process of loyalty development via its effect on customer satisfaction, customer relationship, customer loyalty and healthcare service. One set predicts the customer relationship based on comminent, including service quality, communication and empahty. As the same time, customer loyalty based on trust, involves buzz marketing, brand and image. Customer value of the current instance is useful for traversing original customer attributes and identifing customers on different service share.

An Investigation into Customer Service Policies and Practices within the Scottish College Library Sector: A Comparison between the Customer Service Exemplars from the Retail Sector with Current Scottish College Library Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paterson, Neil

2011-01-01

The aim of this research project was to investigate the customer care methods within the Scottish college library sector. The researcher sought to compare examples of the customer care and service policies and practices from the sector with exemplars of good customer service from the retail sector. A qualitative, grounded theory approach was…

The Development of a Qualitative Dynamic Attribute Value Model for Healthcare Institutes

PubMed Central

Lee, Wan-I

2010-01-01

Background: Understanding customers has become an urgent topic for increasing competitiveness. The purpopse of the study was to develop a qualitative dynamic attribute value model which provides insight into the customers’ value for healthcare institute managers by conducting the initial open-ended questionnaire survey to select participants purposefully. Methods: A total number of 427 questionnaires was conducted in two hospitals in Taiwan (one district hospital with 635 beds and one academic hospital with 2495 beds) and 419 questionnaires were received in nine weeks. Then, apply qualitative in-depth interviews to explore customers’ perspective of values for building a model of partial differential equations. Results: This study concludes nine categories of value, including cost, equipment, physician background, physicain care, environment, timing arrangement, relationship, brand image and additional value, to construct objective network for customer value and qualitative dynamic attribute value model where the network shows the value process of loyalty development via its effect on customer satisfaction, customer relationship, customer loyalty and healthcare service. Conclusion: One set predicts the customer relationship based on comminent, including service quality, communication and empahty. As the same time, customer loyalty based on trust, involves buzz marketing, brand and image. Customer value of the current instance is useful for traversing original customer attributes and identifing customers on different service share. PMID:23113034

Customer interest in and experience with various types of pharmacy counselling - a qualitative study.

PubMed

Kaae, Susanne; Traulsen, Janine M; Nørgaard, Lotte S

2014-12-01

Despite pharmacists' extensive knowledge in the optimization of patients' medical treatments, community pharmacies are still fighting to earn patients' trust with respect to medicinal counselling at the counter. The aim was to investigate how patients perceive pharmacy counselling at the present time, in order to develop the patient-pharmacy relationship for the benefit of both patients and pharmacies. Short semi-structured interviews were carried out with pharmacy customers by pharmacy internship students. One hundred and eight customers in 35 independent pharmacies across Denmark were interviewed during the spring of 2011. Customers were interviewed about their expectations of pharmacies in general and their experiences with medical counselling in particular. Customers perceive community pharmacies very differently in terms of both expectations of and positive experiences with counselling. They appear to be in favour of pharmacy counselling with respect to over-the-counter medicine and first-time prescription medicine in contrast to refills. Customers find it difficult to express the health-care role of pharmacies even when experiencing and appreciating it. Lack of appreciation of pharmacy counselling for refill prescription medicine and the difficulty in defining the role of pharmacies might stem from the difficulties that customers have in understanding medicine and thus the role of counselling services with respect to medicine. The pharmacy staff does not seem to realize these barriers. For pharmacies to encourage customer interest in pharmacy counselling, the staff should start taking the identified barriers into account when planning communication strategies. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

76 FR 44020 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for Partners and Customer Satisfaction...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-22

... surveys, which will be both quantitative and qualitative, are designed to assess the quality of services... Request; Generic Clearance for Partners and Customer Satisfaction Surveys SUMMARY: In compliance with the... Voluntary Partners and Customers Satisfaction Surveys: Extension. The information collected in these surveys...

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.

Rigor or Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Strategies, Reconceptualization, and Recommendations.

PubMed

Cypress, Brigitte S

Issues are still raised even now in the 21st century by the persistent concern with achieving rigor in qualitative research. There is also a continuing debate about the analogous terms reliability and validity in naturalistic inquiries as opposed to quantitative investigations. This article presents the concept of rigor in qualitative research using a phenomenological study as an exemplar to further illustrate the process. Elaborating on epistemological and theoretical conceptualizations by Lincoln and Guba, strategies congruent with qualitative perspective for ensuring validity to establish the credibility of the study are described. A synthesis of the historical development of validity criteria evident in the literature during the years is explored. Recommendations are made for use of the term rigor instead of trustworthiness and the reconceptualization and renewed use of the concept of reliability and validity in qualitative research, that strategies for ensuring rigor must be built into the qualitative research process rather than evaluated only after the inquiry, and that qualitative researchers and students alike must be proactive and take responsibility in ensuring the rigor of a research study. The insights garnered here will move novice researchers and doctoral students to a better conceptual grasp of the complexity of reliability and validity and its ramifications for qualitative inquiry.

Quality and customer satisfaction: A case study in Brazil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barcellos, Paulo Fernando Pinto

The dissertation deals with the case of CEEE-Companhia Estadual de Energia Eletrica, an electric power utility located in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. Customer satisfaction with the services provided by CEEE is investigated within three groups of consumers: residential, commercial, and industrial. The purpose of the dissertation is to find answers to the following research questions: (1) What is service quality in public utilities, and particularly in an electric power company? (2) What service quality dimensions do customers want to be provided and favor the most? (3) How does the market measure service quality? (4) What should be done by companies, and particularly by an electric utility monopoly, to increase the performance of the rendered service? (5) How does this impact customer satisfaction, retention, and intention to recommend? and (6) How do we start a company-wide quality program provided that the resources are scarce and therefore priorities should be set forth? To investigate the posed questions, the study begins with an exploratory survey of CEEE's Board. The survey is followed by qualitative research of the three customer groups. After qualitative analysis of the data is concluded, questionnaires for the quantitative research, as well as hypothetical models, are developed. Dillman's "Total Design Method" is used to design the questionnaires. The basic ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Model) is used to approach customer satisfaction. Data are processed by PLS (Partial Least Squares) which follows the procedure developed at the National Quality Research Center of the University of Michigan Business School. In summary, commercial customers are the most dissatisfied with the services provided by CEEE, while residential customers are the most satisfied. To improve quality, priority should be placed on commercial customers and include efforts to improve productivity gains throughout the company. Also, CEEE's image should be

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.

An Electronic Service Quality Reference Model for Designing E-Commerce Websites Which Maximizes Customer Satisfaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaheen, Amer N.

2011-01-01

This research investigated Electronic Service Quality (E-SQ) features that contribute to customer satisfaction in an online environment. The aim was to develop an approach which improves E-CRM processes and enhances online customer satisfaction. The research design adopted mixed methods involving qualitative and quantitative methods to…

[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

A qualitative study of the food-related experiences of rural village shop customers.

PubMed

Scarpello, T; Poland, F; Lambert, N; Wakeman, T

2009-04-01

In the UK, although food choice in urban contexts has been widely studied, far less empirical information has been gathered from rural settings. With the closure of local services, some rural dwellers were believed to experience difficulties in meeting healthy eating recommendations. The present study aimed to explore perceptions of village store users. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted individually with 40 adults who were frequent users of rural village shops in Norfolk, UK. Participants were purposively selected to ensure that a wide demographic cross-section of customers was obtained. Interviews focused upon food choice strategies; attitudes towards rural food retail; and the provision of healthy foods. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed qualitatively, using an established interpretative phenomenological approach. Four main themes emerged as drivers of food choice in rural villages: (1) village store as icon, which described how the perceived centrality of village shops influenced food choices; (2) village store as a service provider, which described top-up shopping behaviours; (3) alternative food sources, which described store users desires for local foods and their attitudinal conflicts towards supermarkets; and (4) lifestyle factors, which described the influence of factors such as time pressures, access to cars and family structures. Food choices were strongly influenced by the distinctive characteristics of the rural environment. Village shops were seen as important for community identity ('rural idyll'), as well as providing access to food and services. However, desires were made apparent for a greater range of healthy, fresh and locally-sourced foods.

Combining Agile and Traditional: Customer Communication in Distributed Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korkala, Mikko; Pikkarainen, Minna; Conboy, Kieran

Distributed development is a radically increasing phenomenon in modern software development environments. At the same time, traditional and agile methodologies and combinations of those are being used in the industry. Agile approaches place a large emphasis on customer communication. However, existing knowledge on customer communication in distributed agile development seems to be lacking. In order to shed light on this topic and provide practical guidelines for companies in distributed agile environments, a qualitative case study was conducted in a large globally distributed software company. The key finding was that it might be difficult for an agile organization to get relevant information from a traditional type of customer organization, even though the customer communication was indicated to be active and utilized via multiple different communication media. Several challenges discussed in this paper referred to "information blackout" indicating the importance of an environment fostering meaningful communication. In order to evaluate if this environment can be created a set of guidelines is proposed.

Research on Customer Value Based on Extension Data Mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chun-Yan, Yang; Wei-Hua, Li

Extenics is a new discipline for dealing with contradiction problems with formulize model. Extension data mining (EDM) is a product combining Extenics with data mining. It explores to acquire the knowledge based on extension transformations, which is called extension knowledge (EK), taking advantage of extension methods and data mining technology. EK includes extensible classification knowledge, conductive knowledge and so on. Extension data mining technology (EDMT) is a new data mining technology that mining EK in databases or data warehouse. Customer value (CV) can weigh the essentiality of customer relationship for an enterprise according to an enterprise as a subject of tasting value and customers as objects of tasting value at the same time. CV varies continually. Mining the changing knowledge of CV in databases using EDMT, including quantitative change knowledge and qualitative change knowledge, can provide a foundation for that an enterprise decides the strategy of customer relationship management (CRM). It can also provide a new idea for studying CV.

Survival analysis for customer satisfaction: A case study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hadiyat, M. A.; Wahyudi, R. D.; Sari, Y.

2017-11-01

Most customer satisfaction surveys are conducted periodically to track their dynamics. One of the goals of this survey was to evaluate the service design by recognizing the trend of satisfaction score. Many researchers recommended in redesigning the service when the satisfaction scores were decreasing, so that the service life cycle could be predicted qualitatively. However, these scores were usually set in Likert scale and had quantitative properties. Thus, they should also be analyzed in quantitative model so that the predicted service life cycle would be done by applying the survival analysis. This paper discussed a starting point for customer satisfaction survival analysis with a case study in healthcare service.

Customer satisfaction with patient care: "Where's the Beef?".

PubMed

Vukmir, Rade B

2006-01-01

This was an attempt 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. 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 can help to maximize efficiency, minimize subsequent medicolegal risk and improve patient care.

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.

77 FR 31616 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-29

...: Generic Clearance for the Collection Customer Satisfaction Surveys; Use: This collection of information is necessary to enable the Agency to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely manner... customers and stakeholders will help ensure that users have an effective, efficient, and satisfying...

Perceived Status and Value: The Student-Customer Relationship Inflected by the Inherent Challenges of University-Industry Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heikkinen, Juho; Isomöttönen, Ville

2017-01-01

This article examines how students in a multidisciplinary project-based learning course involving real customers perceive their interactions with their customers. The authors conducted a qualitative study and analysed students' learning reports by means of a thematic network analysis. The analysis shows how students perceive their status in…

A comparison of the male customers of female street prostitutes with national samples of men.

PubMed

Monto, Martin A; McRee, Nick

2005-10-01

Previous research on customers of prostitutes has relied on small samples and qualitative interviews. Conceptions of customers have tended toward either the "every man" perspective, which implies customers are no different than other men, or the "peculiar man" perspective, which implies customers are characterized by stark differences or psychological inadequacies. This study compares a large sample of men (N = 1672) arrested for trying to hire street prostitutes with nationally representative samples of men. Customers were less likely to be married, less likely to be happily married if married, and more likely to report being unhappy in general than men in the national samples. Customers also expressed greater sexual liberalism and reported thinking about sex, masturbating, and participating in other aspects of the sex industry more frequently than men in general. Most differences were small, indicating customers as a category differ from other men in degree rather than quality.

Do Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques Affect Qualitative or Numerical Identity?

PubMed

Liao, S Matthew

2017-01-01

Mitochondrial replacement techniques (MRTs), known in the popular media as 'three-parent' or 'three-person' IVFs, have the potential to enable women with mitochondrial diseases to have children who are genetically related to them but without such diseases. In the debate regarding whether MRTs should be made available, an issue that has garnered considerable attention is whether MRTs affect the characteristics of an existing individual or whether they result in the creation of a new individual, given that MRTs involve the genetic manipulation of the germline. In other words, do MRTs affect the qualitative identity or the numerical identity of the resulting child? For instance, a group of panelists on behalf of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has claimed that MRTs affect only the qualitative identity of the resulting child, while the Working Group of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCOB) has argued that MRTs would create a numerically distinct individual. In this article, I shall argue that MRTs do create a new and numerically distinct individual. Since my explanation is different from the NCOB's explanation, I shall also offer reasons why my explanation is preferable to the NCOB's explanation. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Drug dealers' rational choices on which customers to rip-off.

PubMed

Jacques, Scott; Allen, Andrea; Wright, Richard

2014-03-01

Drug dealers are infamous for overcharging customers and handing over less than owed. One reason rip-offs frequently occur is blackmarket participants have limited access to formal means of dispute resolution and, as such, are attractive prey. Yet drug dealers do not cheat every customer. Though this is implicitly understood in the literature, sparse theoretical attention has been given to which customers are ripped-off and why. To address that lacuna, this paper uses the rationality perspective to analyze qualitative data obtained in interviews with 25 unincarcerated drug sellers operating in disadvantaged neighborhoods of St. Louis, Missouri. We find that dealers typically rip-off six types of customers: persons who are strangers, first-time or irregular customers; do not have sufficient money on hand to make a purchase; are uninformed about going market rates; are deemed unlikely to retaliate; are offensive; or are addicted to drugs. Dealers target these groups due to perceiving them as unlikely to be repeat business; not worth the hassle of doing business with; unlikely to realize they are being ripped-off; in the wrong and thus deserving of payback; and, unwilling to retaliate or take their money elsewhere. Our findings are discussed in relation to their practical implications, including the importance of giving blackmarket participants greater access to law, and how customers may prevent being ripped-off. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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…

Sample data from a Distributed Acoustic Sensing experiment at Garner Valley, California (PoroTomo Subtask 3.2)

DOE Data Explorer

Lancelle, Chelsea

2013-09-10

In September 2013, an experiment using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) was conducted at Garner Valley, a test site of the University of California Santa Barbara (Lancelle et al., 2014). This submission includes one 45 kN shear shaker (called “large shaker” on the basemap) test for three different measurement systems. The shaker swept from a rest, up to 10 Hz, and back down to a rest over 60 seconds. Lancelle, C., N. Lord, H. Wang, D. Fratta, R. Nigbor, A. Chalari, R. Karaulanov, J. Baldwin, and E. Castongia (2014), Directivity and Sensitivity of Fiber-Optic Cable Measuring Ground Motion using a Distributed Acoustic Sensing Array (abstract # NS31C-3935), AGU Fall Meeting. https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm1/meetingapp.cgi#Paper/19828 The e-poster is available at: https://agu.confex.com/data/handout/agu/fm14/Paper_19828_handout_696_0.pdf

Fabrication of custom-shaped grafts for cartilage regeneration.

PubMed

Koo, Seungbum; Hargreaves, Brian A; Gold, Garry E; Dragoo, Jason L

2010-10-01

to create a custom-shaped graft through 3D tissue shape reconstruction and rapid-prototype molding methods using MRI data, and to test the accuracy of the custom-shaped graft against the original anatomical defect. An iatrogenic defect on the distal femur was identified with a 1.5 Tesla MRI and its shape was reconstructed into a three-dimensional (3D) computer model by processing the 3D MRI data. First, the accuracy of the MRI-derived 3D model was tested against a laser-scan based 3D model of the defect. A custom-shaped polyurethane graft was fabricated from the laser-scan based 3D model by creating custom molds through computer aided design and rapid-prototyping methods. The polyurethane tissue was laser-scanned again to calculate the accuracy of this process compared to the original defect. The volumes of the defect models from MRI and laser-scan were 537 mm3 and 405 mm3, respectively, implying that the MRI model was 33% larger than the laser-scan model. The average (±SD) distance deviation of the exterior surface of the MRI model from the laser-scan model was 0.4 ± 0.4 mm. The custom-shaped tissue created from the molds was qualitatively very similar to the original shape of the defect. The volume of the custom-shaped cartilage tissue was 463 mm3 which was 15% larger than the laser-scan model. The average (±SD) distance deviation between the two models was 0.04 ± 0.19 mm. This investigation proves the concept that custom-shaped engineered grafts can be fabricated from standard sequence 3-D MRI data with the use of CAD and rapid-prototyping technology. The accuracy of this technology may help solve the interfacial problem between native cartilage and graft, if the grafts are custom made for the specific defect. The major source of error in fabricating a 3D custom-shaped cartilage graft appears to be the accuracy of a MRI data itself; however, the precision of the model is expected to increase by the utilization of advanced MR sequences with higher magnet

A Qualitative Study of a Rural Community College Workforce Development Customized Training Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Rear, Susan

2011-01-01

Across the United States, partnerships have formed between business and industry and rural community college workforce development customize training programs to meet the demands of the 21st century labor market. For many business and industry managers, a partnership has become a necessary means to train the unskilled as well as update skills…

Properties of Noise Cross Correlation Functions Obtained from a Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) Array at Garner Valley, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeng, X.; Lancelle, C.; Thurber, C. H.; Fratta, D.; Wang, H. F.; Chalari, A.; Clarke, A.

2015-12-01

The field test of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) conducted at Garner Valley, California on September 11-12, 2013 provided a continuous overnight record of ambient noise. The DAS array recorded ground motions every one meter of optical cable that was arranged approximately in the shape of a rectangle with dimensions of 160 m by 80 m. The long dimension of the array was adjacent to a state highway. Three hours of record were used to compute noise cross-correlation functions (NCFs) in one-minute windows. The trace from each sensor channel was pre-processed by downsampling to 200 Hz, followed by normalization in the time-domain and bandpass filtering between 2 and 20 Hz (Bensen et al., 2007). The one-minute NCFs were then stacked using the time-frequency domain phase-weighted stacking method (Schimmel & Gallart, 2007). The NCFs between channels were asymmetrical reflecting the direction of traffic noise. The group velocities were found using the frequency-time analysis method. The energy was concentrated between 5 and 15 Hz, which falls into the typical traffic noise frequency band. The resulting velocities were between 100 and 300 m/s for frequencies between 10 and 20 Hz, which are in the same range as described in the results for surface-wave dispersion obtained using an active source for the same site (Lancelle et al., 2015). The group velocity starts to decrease for frequencies greater than ~10 Hz, which was expected on the basis of a previous shear-wave velocity model (Steidl et al., 1996). Then, the phase velocity was calculated using the multichannel analysis of surface wave technique (MASW - Park et al., 1999) with 114 NCFs spaced one meter apart. The resulting dispersion curve between 5 and 15 Hz gave phase velocities that ranged from approximately 170 m/s at 15 Hz to 250 m/s at 5 Hz. These results are consistent with other results of active-source DAS and seismometer records obtained at the Garner Valley site (e.g., Stokoe et al. 2004). This analysis is

Fabrication of Custom-Shaped Grafts for Cartilage Regeneration

PubMed Central

Koo, Seungbum; Hargreaves, Brian A.; Gold, Garry E.; Dragoo, Jason L.

2011-01-01

Transplantation of engineered cartilage grafts is a promising method to treat diseased articular cartilage. The interfacial areas between the graft and the native tissues play an important role in the successful integration of the graft to adjacent native tissues. The purposes of the study were to create a custom shaped graft through 3D tissue shape reconstruction and rapid-prototype molding methods using MRI data, and to test the accuracy of the custom shaped graft against the original anatomical defect. An iatrogenic defect on the distal femur was identified with a 1.5 Tesla MRI and its shape was reconstructed into a three-dimensional (3D) computer model by processing the 3D MRI data. First, the accuracy of the MRI-derived 3D model was tested against a laser-scan based 3D model of the defect. A custom-shaped polyurethane graft was fabricated from the laser-scan based 3D model by creating custom molds through computer aided design and rapid-prototyping methods. The polyurethane tissue was laser-scanned again to calculate the accuracy of this process compared to the original defect. The volumes of the defect models from MRI and laser-scan were 537 mm3 and 405 mm3, respectively, implying that the MRI model was 33% larger than the laser-scan model. The average (±SD) distance deviation of the exterior surface of the MRI model from the laser-scan model was 0.4±0.4 mm. The custom-shaped tissue created from the molds was qualitatively very similar to the original shape of the defect. The volume of the custom-shaped cartilage tissue was 463 mm3 which was 15% larger than the laser-scan model. The average (±SD) distance deviation between the two models was 0.04±0.19 mm. Custom-shaped engineered grafts can be fabricated from standard sequence 3-D MRI data with the use of CAD and rapid-prototyping technology, which may help solve the interfacial problem between native cartilage and graft, if the grafts are custom made for the specific defect. The major source of error in

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…

76 FR 58248 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; NIST Three-Year Generic Request for Customer...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-20

... of Commerce, proposes to conduct a number of surveys, both quantitative and qualitative. The surveys...-based surveys and dialog boxes that offer customers the opportunity to express their level of..., it will be completely optional for survey participants to provide their name or affiliation...

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.

Building customer capital through knowledge management processes in the health care context.

PubMed

Liu, Sandra S; Lin, Carol Yuh-Yun

2007-01-01

Customer capital is a value generated and an asset developed from customer relationships. Successfully managing these relationships is enhanced by knowledge management (KM) infrastructure that captures and transfers customer-related knowledge. The execution of such a system relies on the vision and determination of the top management team (TMT). The health care industry in today's knowledge economy encounters similar challenges of consumerism as its business sector. Developing customer capital is critical for hospitals to remain competitive in the market. This study aims to provide taxonomy for cultivating market-based organizational learning that leads to building of customer capital and attaining desirable financial performance in health care. With the advancement of technology, the KM system plays an important moderating role in the entire process. The customer capital issue has not been fully explored either in the business or the health care industry. The exploratory nature of such a pursuit calls for a qualitative approach. This study examines the proposed taxonomy with the case hospital. The lessons learned also are reflected with three US-based health networks. The TMT incorporated the knowledge process of conceptualization and transformation in their organizational mission. The market-oriented learning approach promoted by TMT helps with the accumulation and sharing of knowledge that prepares the hospital for the dynamics in the marketplace. Their key knowledge advancement relies on both the professional arena and the feedback of customers. The institutionalization of the KM system and organizational culture expands the hospital's customer capital. The implication is twofold: (1) the TMT is imperative for the success of building customer capital through KM process; and (2) the team effort should be enhanced with a learning culture and sharing spirit, in particular, active nurse participation in decision making and frontline staff's role in providing a

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…

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.

The use of data mining by private health insurance companies and customers' privacy.

PubMed

Al-Saggaf, Yeslam

2015-07-01

This article examines privacy threats arising from the use of data mining by private Australian health insurance companies. Qualitative interviews were conducted with key experts, and Australian governmental and nongovernmental websites relevant to private health insurance were searched. Using Rationale, a critical thinking tool, the themes and considerations elicited through this empirical approach were developed into an argument about the use of data mining by private health insurance companies. The argument is followed by an ethical analysis guided by classical philosophical theories-utilitarianism, Mill's harm principle, Kant's deontological theory, and Helen Nissenbaum's contextual integrity framework. Both the argument and the ethical analysis find the use of data mining by private health insurance companies in Australia to be unethical. Although private health insurance companies in Australia cannot use data mining for risk rating to cherry-pick customers and cannot use customers' personal information for unintended purposes, this article nonetheless concludes that the secondary use of customers' personal information and the absence of customers' consent still suggest that the use of data mining by private health insurance companies is wrong.

The influence of customer-medicine seller transactional dynamics on childhood diarrhoea management: a qualitative study in Ghana.

PubMed

Rosapep, Lauren; Sanders, Emily; Banke, Kathryn

2017-05-01

In 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) jointly revised the recommended treatment for acute paediatric diarrhoea to specify supplementing reduced osmolarity oral rehydration salts (ORS) with zinc. In many countries, however, a significant knowledge-practice gap persists in appropriate diarrhoea management among private healthcare providers. For example, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) project recently demonstrated that over-the-counter medicine sellers (MS) in Ghana recommended inappropriate diarrhoea treatments, despite their demonstrated knowledge of appropriate treatment protocols. To explore and explain these results, we conducted 26 focus groups with MS and their customers using an indirect elicitation approach, presenting simulated drug shop transaction scenarios for each group to analyze and discuss. Through inductive and deductive data analysis, we found that the pattern of customer-MS interactions within the transactional context plays a critical role in shaping dispensing outcomes, not only in diarrhoea management but in other contexts as well. MS who engaged and negotiated with their customers were better able to introduce and promote the appropriate diarrhoea treatment protocol. Several factors hinder optimal interactions. Although MS in fact serve as frontline medical providers, they lack the perceived status of a clinician. Moreover, the need to maintain their customer base creates a power imbalance that favours accommodating customer requests and discourages educational interaction. Finally, many MS lack a complete understanding of the recommended treatment, limiting their ability to educate and negotiate. These findings have important implications for efforts to position community-level private providers to improve outcomes across a number of health areas; the study recommends three broad approaches

Family Myths, Beliefs, and Customs as a Research/Educational Tool to Explore Identity Formation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herman, William E.

2008-01-01

This paper outlines a qualitative research tool designed to explore personal identity formation as described by Erik Erikson and offers self-reflective and anonymous evaluative comments made by college students after completing this task. Subjects compiled a list of 200 myths, customs, fables, rituals, and beliefs from their family of origin and…

Effects of customer entitlement on service workers' physical and psychological well-being: a study of waitstaff employees.

PubMed

Fisk, Glenda M; Neville, Lukas B

2011-10-01

This exploratory study examines the nature of customer entitlement and its impact on front-line service employees. In an open-ended qualitative inquiry, 56 individuals with waitstaff experience described the types of behaviors entitled customers engage in and the kinds of service-related "perks" these individuals feel deserving of. Participants explained how they responded to entitled customers, how and when managers became involved, and how their dealings with these patrons influenced their subjective physical and psychological well-being. We found that the behaviors of entitled customers negatively impacted waitstaff employees. Participants reported physiological arousal, negative affect, burnout, and feelings of dehumanization as a result of dealing with these patrons. While respondents drew on a variety of strategies to manage their encounters with entitled customers, they indicated workplace support was often informal and described feeling abandoned by management in dealing with this workplace stressor. Approaching customer entitlement as a form of microaggression, we offer recommendations for practice and suggest new directions for future research. . (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).

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)

76 FR 45573 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-29

... Technology Research Center survey. Abstract: The information collection activity will garner qualitative.... This type of generic clearance for qualitative information will not be used for quantitative... Collection; Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service...

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)

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.

One-to-one modeling and simulation: a new approach in customer relationship management for grocery retail

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baydar, Cem M.

2002-03-01

The ever-increasing competition in retail industry puts pressure on retailers to deal with their customers more efficiently. Currently most companies use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to maximize the customer satisfaction level by trying to understand more about their behaviors. However, one disadvantage of the current approaches is that they focus on the segmentation of customers into homogenous groups and they disregard examining the one-to-one relationship of each individual's behavior toward each product. Therefore, individual behavior cannot be captured in detail. Modeling individual behavior for each product enables several strategies of pricing by keeping the customer satisfaction at the maximum level. One example is offering a personal discount on a particular item to a customer who is price sensitive to that particular product. Therefore, you can still sell other products at the non-discounted level to this customer by keeping him satisfied. In this paper, individual pricing approach is discussed. The aim of this study is to develop a conceptual framework to analyze the feasibility of individual pricing. Customer behaviors can be modeled individually with respect to each product for a grocery store. Several factors can be used to determine these behaviors such as customer's need, brand loyalty and price sensitivity. Each customer can be modeled as an adaptive agent using qualitative descriptions of behaviors (i.e., highly price sensitive). Then, the overall shopping behavior can be simulated using a multi-agent Monte-Carlo simulation. It is expected that with this approach, retailers will be able to determine better strategies to obtain more profits, better sales and better customer satisfaction.

The Strategic Value and Transaction Effectiveness of HRD: A Qualitative Study of Internal Customer Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alagaraja, Meera

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to outline the role of human resource development (HRD) in Lean strategy as the context for assessing interactions with internal customers. Identifying the perceived gap in role expectations and fulfillment emphasizes important priorities and offers tangible measures for assessing HRD contributions. A focus…

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…

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.

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

Encounters in an online brand community: development and validation of a metric for value co-creation by customers.

PubMed

Hsieh, Pei-Ling

2015-05-01

Recent developments in service marketing have demonstrated the potential value co-creation by customers who participate in online brand communities (OBCs). Therefore, this study forecasts the co-created value by understanding the participation/behavior of customers in a multi-stakeholder OBC. This six-phase qualitative and quantitative investigation conceptualizes, constructs, refines, and tests a 12-item three-dimensional scale for measuring key factors that are related to the experience, interpersonal interactions, and social relationships that affect the value co-creation by customers in an OBC. The scale captures stable psychometric properties, measured using various reliability and validity tests, and can be applied across various industries. Finally, the utility implications and limitations of the proposed scale are discussed, and potential future research directions considered.

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.

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.

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...

Properties of Noise Cross-Correlation Functions Obtained from a Distributed Acoustic Sensing Array at Garner Valley, California

DOE PAGES

Zeng, Xiangfang; Lancelle, Chelsea; Thurber, Clifford; ...

2017-01-31

A field test that was conducted at Garner Valley, California, on 11 and 12 September 2013 using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) to sense ground vibrations provided a continuous overnight record of ambient noise. Furthermore, the energy of ambient noise was concentrated between 5 and 25 Hz, which falls into the typical traffic noise frequency band. A standard procedure (Bensen et al., 2007) was adopted to calculate noise cross-correlation functions (NCFs) for 1-min intervals. The 1-min-long NCFs were stacked using the time–frequency domain phase-weighted-stacking method, which significantly improves signal quality. The obtained NCFs were asymmetrical, which was a result of themore » nonuniform distributed noise sources. A precursor appeared on NCFs along one segment, which was traced to a strong localized noise source or a scatterer at a nearby road intersection. NCF for the radial component of two surface accelerometers along a DAS profile gave similar results to those from DAS channels. Here, we calculated the phase velocity dispersion from DAS NCFs using the multichannel analysis of surface waves technique, and the result agrees with active-source results. We then conclude that ambient noise sources and the high spatial sampling of DAS can provide the same subsurface information as traditional active-source methods.« less

Properties of Noise Cross-Correlation Functions Obtained from a Distributed Acoustic Sensing Array at Garner Valley, California

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

Zeng, Xiangfang; Lancelle, Chelsea; Thurber, Clifford

A field test that was conducted at Garner Valley, California, on 11 and 12 September 2013 using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) to sense ground vibrations provided a continuous overnight record of ambient noise. Furthermore, the energy of ambient noise was concentrated between 5 and 25 Hz, which falls into the typical traffic noise frequency band. A standard procedure (Bensen et al., 2007) was adopted to calculate noise cross-correlation functions (NCFs) for 1-min intervals. The 1-min-long NCFs were stacked using the time–frequency domain phase-weighted-stacking method, which significantly improves signal quality. The obtained NCFs were asymmetrical, which was a result of themore » nonuniform distributed noise sources. A precursor appeared on NCFs along one segment, which was traced to a strong localized noise source or a scatterer at a nearby road intersection. NCF for the radial component of two surface accelerometers along a DAS profile gave similar results to those from DAS channels. Here, we calculated the phase velocity dispersion from DAS NCFs using the multichannel analysis of surface waves technique, and the result agrees with active-source results. We then conclude that ambient noise sources and the high spatial sampling of DAS can provide the same subsurface information as traditional active-source methods.« less

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

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

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

Understanding Customers: The Jobs to Be Done Theory Applied in the Context of a Rural Food Pantry.

PubMed

Vaterlaus, J Mitchell; Cottle, Natalie Martineau; Patten, Emily Vaterlaus; Gibbons, Robyn

2018-04-28

Food insecurity, and particularly rural food insecurity, has unique challenges associated with it. Understanding the customer or patron needs is increasingly important in resolving this national concern. The Jobs to Be Done Theory posits that when considering customers, it is beneficial to move past demographic profiling and focus on what the customer wants to accomplish by using a particular product or service. This qualitative study aimed to determine customers' jobs to be done at a rural food pantry. In addition, it seeks to demonstrate the application of contemporary management theory to dietetics practice. A case study approach was used in this study. Case study data collection procedures included six male and six female food pantry patrons in Montana completing in-depth, audio-recorded interviews and surveys. Each person's interview and survey were constructed into individual case descriptions; the case descriptions were analyzed using uniform categories determined by researchers. To identify themes in the holistic case, word tables were created for each uniform category and assessed for key themes representing patrons' experiences. The key themes that emerged were the customer in context, customers' food relief needs, connecting with customers, and barriers to utilization. The application of Jobs to Be Done Theory to rural food pantry customers demonstrates that demographic segmentation does not capture the social, emotional, and functional dimensions for this sample. Investigation of customer experiences, circumstances, and obstacles is important for improving dietetics services. Copyright © 2018 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Garnering Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kincaid, Douglas W.; Dillinger, Eric T.; Clayton, Michael

2006-01-01

Maintenance and operations (M&O) requirements dominate the life-cycle cost of a school facility. Historically, facility managers have struggled to secure funding to meet these requirements. Many deferred-maintenance issues result directly from M&O underfunding. However, new approaches and technologies now enable facility managers to use…

Lower-fat menu items in restaurants satisfy customers.

PubMed

Fitzpatrick, M P; Chapman, G E; Barr, S I

1997-05-01

To evaluate a restaurant-based nutrition program by measuring customer satisfaction with lower-fat menu items and assessing patrons' reactions to the program. Questionnaires to assess satisfaction with menu items were administered to patrons in eight of the nine restaurants that volunteered to participate in the nutrition program. One patron from each participating restaurant was randomly selected for a semistructured interview about nutrition programming in restaurants. Persons dining in eight participating restaurants over a 1-week period (n = 686). Independent samples t tests were used to compare respondents' satisfaction with lower-fat and regular menu items. Two-way analysis of variance tests were completed using overall satisfaction as the dependent variable and menu-item classification (ie, lower fat or regular) and one of eight other menu item and respondent characteristics as independent variables. Qualitative methods were used to analyze interview transcripts. Of 1,127 menu items rated for satisfaction, 205 were lower fat, 878 were regular, and 44 were of unknown classification. Customers were significantly more satisfied with lower-fat than with regular menu items (P < .001). Overall satisfaction did not vary by any of the other independent variables. Interview results indicate the importance of restaurant during as an indulgent experience. High satisfaction with lower-fat menu items suggests that customers will support restaurant providing such choices. Dietitians can use these findings to encourage restaurateurs to include lower-fat choices on their menus, and to assure clients that their expectations of being indulged are not incompatible with these choices.

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.

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.

What Works to Reduce Unnecessary Care for Bronchiolitis? A Qualitative Analysis of a National Collaborative.

PubMed

Ralston, Shawn L; Atwood, Emily Carson; Garber, Matthew D; Holmes, Alison Volpe

2017-03-01

Unnecessary care is well established as a quality problem affecting acute viral bronchiolitis, one of the most common pediatric illnesses. Although there is an extensive quality improvement literature on the disease, published work primarily reflects the experience of freestanding children's hospitals. We sought to better understand the specific barriers and drivers for successful quality improvement in community and nonfreestanding children's facilities. We undertook a mixed methods study to identify correlates of success in a bronchiolitis quality improvement collaborative of community hospitals and children's hospitals within adult hospitals. We assessed site demographic characteristics, compliance with project interventions, and team engagement for association with end of project performance. We then used performance quartiles on a composite assessment of project measures (use of bronchodilators and steroids) to design a purposive sample of sites approached for qualitative interviews. Team engagement was the only factor quantitatively associated with better performance in the overall cohort. Fifteen sites, from the total cohort of 21, completed qualitative interviews. Qualitative themes around team engagement, including the presence of buy-in for successful sites and the inability to engage colleagues at unsuccessful sites, were important differentiating factors between top and bottom performance quartiles. Regardless of performance quartile, most programs cited intrainstitutional competition for limited resources to do quality improvement work as a specific barrier for pediatrics. The ability to overcome such barriers and specifically garner information technology (IT) resources also differentiated the top and bottom performance quartiles. Team engagement showed a consistent association with success across our quantitative and qualitative evaluations. Competition for limited resources in this cohort of nonfreestanding children's programs, particularly those in

Non-urgent accident and emergency department use as a socially shared custom: a qualitative study

PubMed Central

Keizer Beache, Simone; Guell, Cornelia

2016-01-01

Objective We explored attitudes of non-urgent accident and emergency department (AED) patients in the middle-income healthcare setting Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) in the Caribbean to understand how and why they decide to seek emergency care and resist using primary care facilities. Methods In 2013, we conducted 12 semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of non-urgent AED users from a variety of social backgrounds. Verbatim transcripts were analysed with a grounded theory approach. Results In this study, we found, first, that participants automatically chose to visit the AED and described this as a locally shared custom. Second, the healthcare system in SVG reinforced this habitual use of the AED, for example, by health professionals routinely referring non-urgent cases to the AED. Third, there was also some deliberate use; patients took convenience and the systemic encouragement into account to determine that the AED was the most appropriate choice for healthcare. Conclusions We conclude that the attitudes and habits of the Vincentian non-urgent patient are major determinants of their AED use and are intricately linked to local, socially shared practices of AED use. Findings show that health services research should reconsider rational choice behaviour models and further explore customs of health-seeking. PMID:25841166

Making it in a 'saturated' market. How the Spence Center wins women's hearts with grass-roots marketing.

PubMed

Moore, P L

1997-01-01

The Spence Centers, full-service, independent clinics for women, depend on grass-roots outreach to cultivate customers and build brand equity. The Centers have garnered national and international press coverage and made enough friends to open a fourth operation.

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

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.

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.

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.

Analysis of existing data from a Distributed Acoustic Sensing experiment at Garner Valley, California using noise correlation functions (PoroTomo Substask 3.2)

DOE Data Explorer

Zeng, Xiangfang

2015-03-26

In September 2013, an experiment using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) was conducted at Garner Valley, a test site of the University of California Santa Barbara (Lancelle et al., 2014). This submission includes noise cross-correlation functions (NCF) . Each file includes a NCF between two channels. The name of each channel denotes the distance in meters from starting point of the fiber-optic cable. Lancelle, C., N. Lord, H. Wang, D. Fratta, R. Nigbor, A. Chalari, R. Karaulanov, J. Baldwin, and E. Castongia (2014), Directivity and Sensitivity of Fiber-Optic Cable Measuring Ground Motion using a Distributed Acoustic Sensing Array (abstract # NS31C-3935), AGU Fall Meeting. https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Paper/19828 The e-poster is available at: https://agu.confex.com/data/handout/agu/fm14/Paper_19828_handout_696_0.pdf

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.

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.

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.

What matters to infrequent customers: a pragmatic approach to understanding perceived value and intention to revisit trendy coffee café.

PubMed

Ting, Hiram; Thurasamy, Ramayah

2016-01-01

Notwithstanding the rise of trendy coffee café, little is done to investigate revisit intention towards the café in the context of developing markets. In particular, there is a lack of study which provides theoretical and practical explanation to the perceptions and behaviours of infrequent customers. Hence, the study aims to look into the subject matter by using the theory of reasoned action and social exchange theory as the underpinning basis. The framework proposed by Pine and Gilmore (Strat Leadersh 28:18-23, 2000), which asserts the importance of product quality, service quality and experience quality in a progressive manner, is used to decompose perceived value in the model so as to determine their effects on intention to revisit the café. Given the importance to gain practical insights into revisit intention of infrequent customers, pragmatism stance is assumed. Explanatory sequential mixed-method design is thus adopted whereby qualitative approach is used to confirm and complement quantitative findings. Self-administered questionnaire-based survey is first administered before personal interview is carried out at various cafés. Partial least squares structural equation modelling and content analysis are appropriated successively. In the quantitative findings, although product quality, service quality and experience quality are found to have positive effect on perceived value and revisit intention towards trendy coffee café, experience quality is found to have the greater effect than the others among the infrequent customers. The qualitative findings not only confirm their importance, but most importantly explain the favourable impressions they have at trendy coffee café based on their last in-store experience. While product and service quality might not necessary stimulate them to revisit trendy coffee café, experience quality driven by purposes of visit would likely affect their intention to revisit. As retaining customers is of utmost importance to

Southwest Airlines: lessons in loyalty.

PubMed

D'Aurizio, Patricia

2008-01-01

Southwest Airlines continues to garner accolades in the areas of customer service, workforce management, and profitability. Since both the health care and airlines industries deal with a service rather than a product, the customer experience depends on the people who deliver that experience. Employees' commitment or "loyalty" to their customers, their employer, and their work translates into millions of dollars of revenue. What employee wants to work for "the worst employer in town?" Nine loyalty lessons from Southwest can be carried over to the health care setting for the benefit of employees and patients.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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.

Non-urgent accident and emergency department use as a socially shared custom: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Keizer Beache, Simone; Guell, Cornelia

2016-01-01

We explored attitudes of non-urgent accident and emergency department (AED) patients in the middle-income healthcare setting Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) in the Caribbean to understand how and why they decide to seek emergency care and resist using primary care facilities. In 2013, we conducted 12 semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of non-urgent AED users from a variety of social backgrounds. Verbatim transcripts were analysed with a grounded theory approach. In this study, we found, first, that participants automatically chose to visit the AED and described this as a locally shared custom. Second, the healthcare system in SVG reinforced this habitual use of the AED, for example, by health professionals routinely referring non-urgent cases to the AED. Third, there was also some deliberate use; patients took convenience and the systemic encouragement into account to determine that the AED was the most appropriate choice for healthcare. We conclude that the attitudes and habits of the Vincentian non-urgent patient are major determinants of their AED use and are intricately linked to local, socially shared practices of AED use. Findings show that health services research should reconsider rational choice behaviour models and further explore customs of health-seeking. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

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)

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.

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

Teaching customer-centric operations management - evidence from an experiential learning-oriented mass customisation class

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Medini, Khaled

2018-01-01

The increase of individualised customer demands and tough competition in the manufacturing sector gave rise to more customer-centric operations management such as products and services (mass) customisation. Mass customisation (MC), which inherits the 'economy of scale' from mass production (MP), aims to meet specific customer demands with near MP efficiency. Such an overarching concept has multiple impacts on operations management. This requires highly qualified and multi-skilled engineers who are well prepared for managing MC. Therefore, this concept should be properly addressed by engineering education curricula which needs to keep up with the emerging business trends. This paper introduces a novel course about MC and variety in operations management which recalls several Experiential Learning (EL) practices consistently with the principle of an active learning. The paper aims to analyse to which extent EL can improve the efficiency of the teaching methods and the retention rate in the context of operations management. The proposed course is given to engineering students whose' perceptions are collected using semi-structured questionnaires and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The paper highlights the relevance (i) of teaching MC, and (ii) of active learning in engineering education, through the specific application in the domain of MC.

The Impact of Gender on Decision Making among Customized Training Administrators within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System (MnSCU).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Barry L.

This paper presents a qualitative investigation of the impact of gender on administrator decision-making within the college environment. The research compared 5 male and 5 female college administrators from 10 different metropolitan campuses in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. All were directors of customized training…

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.

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...

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...

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...

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

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).

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...

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.

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.

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)

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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

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.

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...

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 .

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...

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…

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...

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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

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.

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...

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

DOE Zero Energy Ready Home Case Study: Caldwell and Johnson, Exeter, Rhode Island

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

none,

This house, constructed by Caldwell and Johnson, should save its owners $600 per year over the 2009 IECC with the help of efficiency measures such as walls with OSB sheathing and R-13 open cell spray foam insulation. The home garnered a 2013 Housing Innovation Award in the custom builder category.

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.

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…

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.

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...

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.

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...

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

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...

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)

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...

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…

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.

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.…

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...

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.

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.

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.

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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

Metrology of human-based and other qualitative measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pendrill, Leslie; Petersson, Niclas

2016-09-01

The metrology of human-based and other qualitative measurements is in its infancy—concepts such as traceability and uncertainty are as yet poorly developed. This paper reviews how a measurement system analysis approach, particularly invoking as performance metric the ability of a probe (such as a human being) acting as a measurement instrument to make a successful decision, can enable a more general metrological treatment of qualitative observations. Measures based on human observations are typically qualitative, not only in sectors, such as health care, services and safety, where the human factor is obvious, but also in customer perception of traditional products of all kinds. A principal challenge is that the usual tools of statistics normally employed for expressing measurement accuracy and uncertainty will probably not work reliably if relations between distances on different portions of scales are not fully known, as is typical of ordinal or other qualitative measurements. A key enabling insight is to connect the treatment of decision risks associated with measurement uncertainty to generalized linear modelling (GLM). Handling qualitative observations in this way unites information theory, the perceptive identification and choice paradigms of psychophysics. The Rasch invariant measure psychometric GLM approach in particular enables a proper treatment of ordinal data; a clear separation of probe and item attribute estimates; simple expressions for instrument sensitivity; etc. Examples include two aspects of the care of breast cancer patients, from diagnosis to rehabilitation. The Rasch approach leads in turn to opportunities of establishing metrological references for quality assurance of qualitative measurements. In psychometrics, one could imagine a certified reference for knowledge challenge, for example, a particular concept in understanding physics or for product quality of a certain health care service. Multivariate methods, such as Principal Component

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

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…

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...

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.

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Clinical and ossification outcome of custom-made hydroxyapatite prothese for large skull defect].

PubMed

Hardy, H; Tollard, E; Derrey, S; Delcampe, P; Péron, J-M; Fréger, P; Proust, F

2012-02-01

Cranioplasty is an everyday concern in neurosurgery, especially in decompressive craniectomy cases. Our surgical team uses custom-made hydroxyapatite implants for large and/or complex defects. Eight patients had a custom-made prosthesis. Each of them has been reviewed by an independent observer. Each patient described his feeling of satisfaction, using a questionnaire, graduated from "A" (really satisfied) to "D" (unsatisfied). Each of them also underwent a CT-scan (helicoidal acquisition, 0.6mm thick for multiplanar reconstruction) to evaluate qualitatively the ossification graduated from "0" (no ossification) to "5" (continuous ossification). Maximal under-prosthetic bone thickness, intra-prosthetic calcic density were also reported. Supervision delay was 43.7 months [6-99 months], average defect surface was 85.5 cm(2) [27.6-137.6 cm(2)], the craniectomy etiologies were intracranial hypertension (seven patients) and calvarial invasion (one patient). Implant tolerance was reparted in "A" score (50%) and "B" score (50%). Concerning ossification, six patients (75%) had a score of "2" or less and two patients had a score of "3" or "4". Hydroxyapatite custom-made implants for cranioplasty appear to be ideal for good aesthetic and tolerance results, but their ossification is hardly analyzed due to the prosthesis density higher than the bone's density. This is why we recommend them for children and in cases of complex defects such as pterion location. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

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.

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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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...

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…

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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…

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Garnering an In-depth Understanding of Men Who Have Sex with Men in Chennai, India: A Qualitative Analysis of Sexual Minority Status and Psychological Distress

PubMed Central

Closson, Elizabeth F.; Thomas, Beena; Mayer, Kenneth H.; Betancourt, Theresa; Menon, Sunil; Safren, Steven A.

2015-01-01

Men who have sex with men (MSM) in India are a hidden and largely understudied population, and havean HIV prevalence 17 times higher than that of the general Indian population. Experiences of social marginalization and negative psychosocial conditions occur concurrent to HIV risk among Indian MSM. To better understand the contextual variables driving HIV risk and inform intervention development, five focus groups (n = 46) and nine key informant interviews were conducted with 55 MSM in Chennai in 2010. NVivo software was used to code the transcripts, and data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis methodology. Participants described sources of psychological distress and low self-worth related to gender non-conformity and sexual minority status. These included stigma from society, pressure to marry, lack of familial acceptance, childhood sexual abuse, and the imperative to keep sexual minority status a secret. Participants' personal evaluations revealed that self-acceptance may be an important resilience factor that can shield these psychosocial and HIV risk factors. In promoting health-seeking behavioral changes for Indian MSM at an individual level, our findings point to the potential strength of strategies that focus on self-acceptance of one's sexual minority identity to foster better psychosocial and overall health. PMID:25358949

Garnering an in-depth understanding of men who have sex with men in Chennai, India: a qualitative analysis of sexual minority status and psychological distress.

PubMed

Mimiaga, Matthew J; Closson, Elizabeth F; Thomas, Beena; Mayer, Kenneth H; Betancourt, Theresa; Menon, Sunil; Safren, Steven A

2015-10-01

Men who have sex with men (MSM) in India are a hidden and largely understudied population, and have an HIV prevalence 17 times higher than that of the general Indian population. Experiences of social marginalization and negative psychosocial conditions occur concurrent to HIV risk among Indian MSM. To better understand the contextual variables driving HIV risk and inform intervention development, five focus groups (n = 46) and nine key informant interviews were conducted with 55 MSM in Chennai in 2010. NVivo software was used to code the transcripts, and data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis methodology. Participants described sources of psychological distress and low self-worth related to gender non-conformity and sexual minority status. These included stigma from society, pressure to marry, lack of familial acceptance, childhood sexual abuse, and the imperative to keep sexual minority status a secret. Participants' personal evaluations revealed that self-acceptance may be an important resilience factor that can shield these psychosocial and HIV risk factors. In promoting health-seeking behavioral changes for Indian MSM at an individual level, our findings point to the potential strength of strategies that focus on self-acceptance of one's sexual minority identity to foster better psychosocial and overall health.

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...

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...

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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…

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

Patients' perceptions of joint teleconsultations: a qualitative evaluation.

PubMed

Harrison, Robert; Macfarlane, Anne; Murray, Elizabeth; Wallace, Paul

2006-03-01

To determine patient perceptions of joint teleconsultations (JTC), with particular reference to reasons underlying, and factors contributing to, patient satisfaction and dissatisfaction with this mode of health delivery. Telemedicine has been welcomed as one way of improving health-care delivery, by improving patient access to secondary care and specialist services hence widening patient choice, particularly for patients outside major conurbations. However, a recent systematic review found currently available data on patient satisfaction with telemedicine to be methodologically flawed. Qualitative evaluations offer the opportunity to elucidate the details of patient satisfaction with this mode of health-care delivery. Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. Purposive sample of 28 participants of a major randomized controlled trial (Virtual Outreach study) of JTC conducted in one urban and one rural area in Britain. Joint teleconferenced consultations with the patient, patient's general practitioner (GP), and a hospital specialist. The patient and GP were sited in the local practice, while the hospital specialist was in the hospital outpatient department, and the two parties were connected by an ISDN2 link and video-conferencing software. Patient experiences of JTC, with particular reference to reasons underlying, and factors contributing to, overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Two major themes were identified: customer care and doctor-patient interaction. Patients appreciated the customer care aspects of JTC, particularly the enhanced convenience, reduced costs and improved punctuality associated with JTC. However, there were divergent views about the doctor-patient interactions with some patients expressing a sense of alienation arising from the use of technology, and problems with doctor-patient communication. These data add significantly to the existing literature on patient satisfaction with telemedicine, by elucidating the factors underlying

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.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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…

Adaptive and Maladaptive Means of Using Facebook: A Qualitative Pilot Study to Inform Suggestions for Development of a Future Intervention for Depression

PubMed Central

Tran, Tanya B.; Uebelacker, Lisa; Wenze, Susan J.; Collins, Caitlin; Broughton, Monica K.

2015-01-01

Existing literature examining the relation between social networking sites and mental health is primarily based on correlational methods and presents mixed findings. Many researchers neglect to examine the cognitive and behavioral processes used while online. This study’s qualitative approach strives to understand how individuals with elevated depressive symptoms may use Facebook following an interpersonal stressor. Participants’ narration of their Facebook use was coded. Common adaptive uses included using Facebook to seek social support, actively communicate, distract, recall positive memories, and reappraise negative thoughts. Maladaptive uses included engaging in social comparison, ruminating, and recalling negative memories. Feedback regarding development of a future intervention was also elicited. Suggestions included using Facebook to view positive, interesting, or meaningful information, distract, garner social support, and engage in social activities. Findings indicate that how one engages with Facebook after an interpersonal stressor may affect adjustment and may help to inform the development of a novel, Facebook-based intervention. PMID:26554330

Adaptive and Maladaptive Means of Using Facebook: A Qualitative Pilot Study to Inform Suggestions for Development of a Future Intervention for Depression.

PubMed

Tran, Tanya B; Uebelacker, Lisa; Wenze, Susan J; Collins, Caitlin; Broughton, Monica K

2015-11-01

Existing literature examining the relation between social networking sites and mental health is primarily based on correlational methods and presents mixed findings. Many researchers neglect to examine the cognitive and behavioral processes used while online. This study's qualitative approach strives to understand how individuals with elevated depressive symptoms may use Facebook following an interpersonal stressor. Participants' narration of their Facebook use was coded. Common adaptive uses included using Facebook to seek social support, actively communicate, distract, recall positive memories, and reappraise negative thoughts. Maladaptive uses included engaging in social comparison, ruminating, and recalling negative memories. Feedback regarding development of a future intervention was also elicited. Suggestions included using Facebook to view positive, interesting, or meaningful information, distract, garner social support, and engage in social activities. Findings indicate that how one engages with Facebook after an interpersonal stressor may affect adjustment and may help to inform the development of a novel, Facebook-based intervention.

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...

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.

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

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.

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...

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

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.

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…

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.

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.

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...

Evaluation of Dermatology Practice Online Reviews: Lessons From Qualitative Analysis.

PubMed

Smith, Robert J; Lipoff, Jules B

2016-02-01

Patient satisfaction is an increasingly important component of health care quality measures. Online reviews of physicians represent a promising platform for capturing patient perspectives of care. To identify qualitative themes associated with patient reviews of dermatologic care on consumer reporting websites. A qualitative analysis was conducted of patient-generated reviews of dermatology practices on 2 consumer review platforms. Yelp is an online consumer portal for users to review their experience with local businesses; ZocDoc is an online patient-scheduling portal that provides opportunity for patients to write reviews of physician practices. A total of 518 reviews from 45 dermatology practices on Yelp and 4921 reviews from 45 dermatology providers on ZocDoc were collected from 3 geographically diverse cities: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Houston, Texas; and Seattle, Washington. The study was conducted from January 15 to July 15, 2015. Reviews were separated into high-scoring and low-scoring groups. An inductive qualitative method was used to code and identify key themes associated with positive and negative patient experiences. Analysis was completed upon reaching thematic saturation. Reported as mean (95% CI), the overall Yelp score for the 45 selected practices was 3.46 of 5 stars (3.17-3.75) and overall ZocDoc score for the 45 selected practices was 4.72 of 5 stars (4.47-4.80). The proportion of individual reviews giving a score of 5.0 was significantly higher on ZocDoc (3986 [81.0%]) than on Yelp (229 [44.2%]) (P < .001). Qualitative themes centered on characteristics of the physician and the practice. Themes that emerged from the high-scoring and low-scoring reviews were similar in content but opposite in valence. Physician-specific themes included temperament, knowledge and competency, physical examination, communication abilities, and mindfulness of cost. Practice-specific themes included scheduling, staff temperament, office cleanliness, waiting

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.

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...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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…

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)

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.

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.

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.

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...

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…

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

Exercising alcohol patients don't lack motivation but struggle with structures, emotions and social context - a qualitative dropout study.

PubMed

Sari, Sengül; Muller, Ashley Elizabeth; Roessler, Kirsten K

2017-03-23

Exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle, the development of which is a relapse prevention strategy for those with alcohol use disorder. However, it is a challenge to create exercise interventions with a persistent behavioural change. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate perceived barriers to participation in an exercise intervention among alcohol use disorder patients, who dropped out of the intervention program. Furthermore, this study aims to propose possibilities for a better practice of future intervention studies based on the participants' experiences and suggestions. Qualitative interviews with 17 patients who dropped out from an exercise intervention in an outpatient treatment centre about their experiences and reasons for dropping out. Social cognitive theory informed the development of the interview guides and systematic text condensation was used for analysis. Analysis revealed three central themes: 1) Structural barriers described as the type of exercise and the timing of the intervention, 2) Social barriers described as need for accountability and unsupportive relations, and 3) Emotional barriers described as fear, guilt and shame, and negative affect of the intervention on long term. Future exercise interventions should include socio-psychological support during the first weeks, begin shortly after treatment initiation instead of concurrently, and focus on garnering social support for participants in both the intervention context and among their existing network in order to best reduce barriers to participation. This study was retrospectively registered at Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN74889852 on 11 July 2013.

[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.

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. ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

A Qualitative Exploration of the Role of Vape Shop Environments in Supporting Smoking Abstinence.

PubMed

Ward, Emma; Cox, Sharon; Dawkins, Lynne; Jakes, Sarah; Holland, Richard; Notley, Caitlin

2018-02-09

E-cigarettes are the most popular method of quitting smoking in England and most are purchased in specialist vape shops. This qualitative study explores how the vape shop environment is experienced by quitters to support smoking abstinence. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted to elicit experiences of e-cigarette use, including experiences of vape shops, in 40 people who had used e-cigarettes in a quit attempt. Observations of six shops in a range of locations were also undertaken. Interview and observation data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis and triangulated. At an individual level, smoking abstinence was supported through shop assistants' attempts to understand customers' smoking preferences in order to: (i) tailor advice about the most appropriate product; and (ii) offer an ongoing point of contact for practical help. At an interpersonal level, shops offered opportunity to socialise and reinforce a vaping identity, although the environment was perceived as intimidating for some (e.g., new and female users). At a structural level, shops ensured easy access to products perceived to be good value by customers and had adapted to legislative changes. Vape shops can provide effective behavioural support to quitters to maintain smoking abstinence. Health professionals could capitalise on this through partnership working with shops, to ensure best outcomes for clients wanting to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking.

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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.

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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)

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)

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.

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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...

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...

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

The Effect of Oral Feedback on Perceived Classroom Community in Undergraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyles, Jennifer L.

2017-01-01

The ongoing trend in research regarding feedback has been to explore quantitative assessment. Garnering support more recently is qualitative narrative feedback in support of formative assessment. This type of feedback offers insight into expectations as well as offer additional knowledge gained. It enables students to improve their performance…

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...

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…

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...

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

What influences a patient's decision to use custom-made orthopaedic shoes?

PubMed

van Netten, Jaap J; Dijkstra, Pieter U; Geertzen, Jan H B; Postema, Klaas

2012-06-08

Despite potential benefits, some patients decide not to use their custom-made orthopaedic shoes (OS). Factors are known in the domains 'usability', 'communication and service', and 'opinion of others' that influence a patient's decision to use OS. However, the interplay between these factors has never been investigated. The aim of this study was to explore the interplay between factors concerning OS, and the influences thereof on a patient's decision to use OS. A mixed-methods design was used, combining qualitative and quantitative data by means of sequential data analysis and triangulation. Priority was given to the qualitative part. Qualitative data was gathered with a semi-structured interview covering the three domains. Data was analysed using the framework approach. Quantitative data concerned the interplay between factors and determining a rank-order for the importance of factors of 'usability'. A patient's decision to use OS was influenced by various factors indicated as being important and by acceptance of their OS. Factors of 'usability' were more important than factors of 'communication'; the 'opinion of others' was of limited importance. An improvement of walking was indicated as the most important factor of 'usability'. The importance of other factors (cosmetic appearance and ease of use) was determined by reaching a compromise between these factors and an improvement of walking. A patient's decision to use OS is influenced by various factors indicated as being important and by acceptance of their OS. An improvement of walking is the most important factor of 'usability', the importance of other factors (cosmetic appearance and ease of use) is determined by reaching compromises between these factors and an improvement of walking. Communication is essential to gain insight in a patient's acceptance and in the compromises they are willing to reach. This makes communication the key for clinicians to influence a patient's decision to use OS.

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.

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

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

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...

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.

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.

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.

Atrial fibrillation screening in pharmacies using an iPhone ECG: a qualitative review of implementation.

PubMed

Lowres, Nicole; Krass, Ines; Neubeck, Lis; Redfern, Julie; McLachlan, Andrew J; Bennett, Alexandra A; Freedman, S Ben

2015-12-01

Atrial fibrillation guidelines advocate screening to identify undiagnosed atrial fibrillation. Community pharmacies may provide an opportunistic venue for such screening. To explore the experience of implementing an atrial fibrillation screening service from the pharmacist's perspective including: the process of study implementation; the perceived benefits; the barriers and enablers; and the challenges for future sustainability of atrial fibrillation screening within pharmacies. Setting Interviews were conducted face-to-face in the pharmacy or via telephone, according to pharmacist preference. The 'SEARCH-AF study' screened 1000 pharmacy customers aged ≥65 years using an iPhone electrocardiogram, identifying 1.5 % with undiagnosed atrial fibrillation. Nine pharmacists took part in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed in full and thematically analysed. Qualitative analysis of the experience of implementing an AF screening service from the pharmacist's perspective. Four broad themes relating to service provision were identified: (1) interest and engagement in atrial fibrillation screening by pharmacists, customers, and doctors with the novel, easy-to-use electrocardiogram technology serving as an incentive to undergo screening and an education tool for pharmacists to use with customers; (2) perceived benefits to the pharmacist including increased job satisfaction, improvement in customer relations and pharmacy profile by fostering enhanced customer care and the educational role of pharmacists; (3) implementation barriers including managing workflow, and enablers such as personal approaches for recruitment, and allocating time to discuss screening process and fears; and, (4) potential for sustainable future implementation including remuneration linked to government or pharmacy incentives, combined cardiovascular screening, and automating sections of risk-assessments using touch-screen technology. Atrial fibrillation screening in pharmacies is well

17 CFR 240.8c-1 - Hypothecation of customers' securities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Hypothecation of customers... Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Hypothecation of Customers' Securities § 240.8c-1 Hypothecation of customers... any customer under circumstances: (1) That will permit the commingling of securities carried for the...

12 CFR 332.5 - Annual privacy notice to customers required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... annually during the continuation of the customer relationship. Annually means at least once in any period... annual notice to that customer by December 31 of year 2. (b)(1) Termination of customer relationship. You... customer concerning that relationship or you sell the credit card receivables without retaining servicing...

12 CFR 216.5 - Annual privacy notice to customers required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... annually during the continuation of the customer relationship. Annually means at least once in any period... annual notice to that customer by December 31 of year 2. (b)(1) Termination of customer relationship. You... customer concerning that relationship or you sell the credit card receivables without retaining servicing...

17 CFR 160.5 - Annual privacy notice to customers required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... life of the customer relationship. Annually means at least once in any period of 12 consecutive months... customer by December 31 of year 2. (b)(1) Termination of customer relationship. You are not required to... customers required. 160.5 Section 160.5 Commodity and Securities Exchanges COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING...

12 CFR 40.5 - Annual privacy notice to customers required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... customer relationship. Annually means at least once in any period of 12 consecutive months during which... that customer by December 31 of year 2. (b)(1) Termination of customer relationship. A bank is not... the customer concerning that relationship or the bank sells the credit card receivables without...

78 FR 48458 - Notice of Reinstatement 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 Reinstatement of Customs Broker License AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security. ACTION...) on December 6, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, pursuant to section 641 of the Tariff Act of...

19 CFR 191.71 - Drawback on articles destroyed under Customs supervision.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... supervision. 191.71 Section 191.71 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND... articles destroyed under Customs supervision. (a) Procedure. At least 7 working days before the intended... Customs supervision. Unless Customs determines to witness the destruction, the destruction of the articles...

19 CFR 191.71 - Drawback on articles destroyed under Customs supervision.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... supervision. 191.71 Section 191.71 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND... articles destroyed under Customs supervision. (a) Procedure. At least 7 working days before the intended... Customs supervision. Unless Customs determines to witness the destruction, the destruction of the articles...

47 CFR 76.309 - Customer service obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Customer service obligations. 76.309 Section 76.309 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE General Operating Requirements § 76.309 Customer service...

47 CFR 76.309 - Customer service obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Customer service obligations. 76.309 Section 76.309 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE General Operating Requirements § 76.309 Customer service...

47 CFR 76.309 - Customer service obligations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Customer service obligations. 76.309 Section 76.309 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE General Operating Requirements § 76.309 Customer service...

Motivating Customer Service Employees to Deliver Service Quality

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-12-01

Motivating Customer Service Employees to Deliver Service Quality A Professional Paper Presented to The Faculty of the Conrad Hilton College of...AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) REPORT DATE ■W-MJl.UU MAJOR REPORT 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE MOTIVATING CUSTOMER SERVICE EMPLOYEESTO DELIVER SERVICE...DIOR, Oct 94 Motivating Customer Service Employees to Deliver Service Quality A Professional Paper Presented to The Faculty of the Conrad Hilton

49 CFR 192.359 - Customer meter installations: Operating pressure.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Customer meter installations: Operating pressure... SAFETY TRANSPORTATION OF NATURAL AND OTHER GAS BY PIPELINE: MINIMUM FEDERAL SAFETY STANDARDS Customer Meters, Service Regulators, and Service Lines § 192.359 Customer meter installations: Operating pressure...

78 FR 70065 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Customs Declaration

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-22

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency Information Collection Activities: Customs Declaration AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Homeland Security ACTION: 60-Day notice and request for comments; Extension of an existing collection of information...

16 CFR 313.5 - Annual privacy notice to customers required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... continuation of the customer relationship. Annually means at least once in any period of 12 consecutive months... customer by December 31 of year 2. (b)(1) Termination of customer relationship. You are not required to... any statements or notices to the customer concerning that relationship; (iv) In the case of mortgage...

77 FR 74201 - Customs Brokers User Fee Payment for 2013

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-13

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Customs Brokers User Fee... of the 2013 Customs Broker User Fee is due February 15, 2013. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Craig... establish that effective April 1, 2007, an annual user fee of $138 is to be assessed for each customs broker...

16 CFR 313.5 - Annual privacy notice to customers required.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... continuation of the customer relationship. Annually means at least once in any period of 12 consecutive months... customer by December 31 of year 2. (b)(1) Termination of customer relationship. You are not required to... any statements or notices to the customer concerning that relationship; (iv) In the case of mortgage...

49 CFR 192.357 - Customer meters and regulators: Installation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Customer meters and regulators: Installation. 192... SAFETY TRANSPORTATION OF NATURAL AND OTHER GAS BY PIPELINE: MINIMUM FEDERAL SAFETY STANDARDS Customer Meters, Service Regulators, and Service Lines § 192.357 Customer meters and regulators: Installation. (a...

16 CFR 240.13 - Customer's and third party liability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... brokers, perform in-store services for their grocery retailer customers, such as stocking of shelves, building of displays and checking or rotating inventory, etc. A customer operating a retail grocery... new store opening when the customer knows or should know that such allowances, or suitable...

16 CFR 240.13 - Customer's and third party liability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... brokers, perform in-store services for their grocery retailer customers, such as stocking of shelves, building of displays and checking or rotating inventory, etc. A customer operating a retail grocery... new store opening when the customer knows or should know that such allowances, or suitable...

16 CFR 240.13 - Customer's and third party liability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... brokers, perform in-store services for their grocery retailer customers, such as stocking of shelves, building of displays and checking or rotating inventory, etc. A customer operating a retail grocery... new store opening when the customer knows or should know that such allowances, or suitable...

16 CFR 240.13 - Customer's and third party liability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... brokers, perform in-store services for their grocery retailer customers, such as stocking of shelves, building of displays and checking or rotating inventory, etc. A customer operating a retail grocery... new store opening when the customer knows or should know that such allowances, or suitable...

NREL Analysis Identifies Where Commercial Customers Might Benefit from

Science.gov Websites

Battery Energy Storage | NREL | News | NREL NREL Analysis Identifies Where Commercial Customers Might Benefit from Battery Energy Storage News Release: NREL Analysis Identifies Where Commercial reduce operating costs for customers paying demand charges Commercial electricity customers who are

47 CFR 76.972 - Customer service standards.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Customer service standards. 76.972 Section 76.972 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE Cable Rate Regulation § 76.972 Customer service standards. (a...

76 FR 65741 - Customs Brokers User Fee Payment for 2012

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-24

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Customs and Border Protection Customs Brokers User Fee Payment for... 2012 in accordance with the Tax Reform Act of 1986. DATES: Payment of the 2012 Customs Broker User Fee..., an annual user fee of $138 is to be assessed for each customs broker permit and national permit held...

76 FR 1626 - Customs Brokers User Fee Payment for 2011

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-11

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Customs Brokers User Fee... in accordance with the Tax Reform Act of 1986. DATES: Payment of the 2011 Customs Broker User Fee is... annual user fee of $138 is to be assessed for each customs broker permit and national permit held by an...

A study on reliability of power customer in distribution network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Liyuan; Ouyang, Sen; Chen, Danling; Ma, Shaohua; Wang, Xin

2017-05-01

The existing power supply reliability index system is oriented to power system without considering actual electricity availability in customer side. In addition, it is unable to reflect outage or customer’s equipment shutdown caused by instantaneous interruption and power quality problem. This paper thus makes a systematic study on reliability of power customer. By comparing with power supply reliability, reliability of power customer is defined and extracted its evaluation requirements. An indexes system, consisting of seven customer indexes and two contrast indexes, are designed to describe reliability of power customer from continuity and availability. In order to comprehensively and quantitatively evaluate reliability of power customer in distribution networks, reliability evaluation method is proposed based on improved entropy method and the punishment weighting principle. Practical application has proved that reliability index system and evaluation method for power customer is reasonable and effective.

Characterizing customers at medical center farmers’ markets1

PubMed Central

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

2014-01-01

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-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 180–2000 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. PMID:24421001

The current healthcare environment: who is the customer?

PubMed

Heater, B S

1996-01-01

The customer of health care is identified in different third-party financial reimbursement periods beginning with the period before Medicare. The author speculates that the customer in a managed care system might be the corporate offices where employee healthcare decisions are made. In a discussion of managed care, nurses are cautioned about the threats to patient welfare when institutional goals become the customer and take precedence over clinical outcomes of patients.

Science and Engineering Education : Who is the Customer?

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-30

business relationships are at the heart of the negative consequences of misidentifying the student as customer [8]. Student evaluations of teachers are...Journal of Education Management , 8, 29-36. 7. Scott, S.V. (1999) The academic as service provider: is the customer ‘always right’? Journal of...Engineering Education: Who is the Customer ? 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER Michael Courtney

Generating Customized Verifiers for Automatically Generated Code

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Denney, Ewen; Fischer, Bernd

2008-01-01

Program verification using Hoare-style techniques requires many logical annotations. We have previously developed a generic annotation inference algorithm that weaves in all annotations required to certify safety properties for automatically generated code. It uses patterns to capture generator- and property-specific code idioms and property-specific meta-program fragments to construct the annotations. The algorithm is customized by specifying the code patterns and integrating them with the meta-program fragments for annotation construction. However, this is difficult since it involves tedious and error-prone low-level term manipulations. Here, we describe an annotation schema compiler that largely automates this customization task using generative techniques. It takes a collection of high-level declarative annotation schemas tailored towards a specific code generator and safety property, and generates all customized analysis functions and glue code required for interfacing with the generic algorithm core, thus effectively creating a customized annotation inference algorithm. The compiler raises the level of abstraction and simplifies schema development and maintenance. It also takes care of some more routine aspects of formulating patterns and schemas, in particular handling of irrelevant program fragments and irrelevant variance in the program structure, which reduces the size, complexity, and number of different patterns and annotation schemas that are required. The improvements described here make it easier and faster to customize the system to a new safety property or a new generator, and we demonstrate this by customizing it to certify frame safety of space flight navigation code that was automatically generated from Simulink models by MathWorks' Real-Time Workshop.

78 FR 35044 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-11

... DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency Information Collection Activities: Visa Waiver Program Carrier Agreement (CBP Form I-775) AGENCY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection... information collection: 1651-0110. SUMMARY: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of the Department of...

19 CFR 146.61 - Constructive transfer to Customs territory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... constructively transferred to Customs territory at that time, even though the merchandise remains physically in... time to be constructively transferred back into the zone in its previous zone status. ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Constructive transfer to Customs territory. 146.61...

19 CFR 146.61 - Constructive transfer to Customs territory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... constructively transferred to Customs territory at that time, even though the merchandise remains physically in... time to be constructively transferred back into the zone in its previous zone status. ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Constructive transfer to Customs territory. 146.61...

19 CFR 146.61 - Constructive transfer to Customs territory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... constructively transferred to Customs territory at that time, even though the merchandise remains physically in... time to be constructively transferred back into the zone in its previous zone status. ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Constructive transfer to Customs territory. 146.61...

19 CFR 146.61 - Constructive transfer to Customs territory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... constructively transferred to Customs territory at that time, even though the merchandise remains physically in... time to be constructively transferred back into the zone in its previous zone status. ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Constructive transfer to Customs territory. 146.61...

19 CFR 146.61 - Constructive transfer to Customs territory.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... constructively transferred to Customs territory at that time, even though the merchandise remains physically in... time to be constructively transferred back into the zone in its previous zone status. ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Constructive transfer to Customs territory. 146.61...

16 CFR 240.13 - Customer's and third party liability.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... ADVERTISING ALLOWANCES AND OTHER MERCHANDISING PAYMENTS AND SERVICES § 240.13 Customer's and third party... invoices or other similar means. Example 1: A customer should not induce or receive advertising allowances for special promotion of the seller's product in connection with the customer's anniversary sale or...

Ensuring Customer Delight: A Quality Approach to Excellence in Management Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Popli, Sapna

2005-01-01

A customer can recognise a professional institute almost immediately from the manner in which the customer is dealt with. The institute makes the customer (read student) feel special and deals with the customer as a matter of priority rather than as a secondary issue, less important than the undertaking of other activities. The customers of…

7 CFR 1767.28 - Customer accounts expenses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... Reading Expenses 903Customer Records and Collection Expenses 904Uncollectible Accounts 905Miscellaneous... the cost of labor, employee pensions and benefits, social security and other payroll taxes, injuries... Reading Expenses, or Account 903, Customer Records and Collection Expenses, as appropriate. (See § 1767.17...

7 CFR 1767.28 - Customer accounts expenses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... Reading Expenses 903Customer Records and Collection Expenses 904Uncollectible Accounts 905Miscellaneous... the cost of labor, employee pensions and benefits, social security and other payroll taxes, injuries... Reading Expenses, or Account 903, Customer Records and Collection Expenses, as appropriate. (See § 1767.17...

7 CFR 1767.28 - Customer accounts expenses.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... Reading Expenses 903Customer Records and Collection Expenses 904Uncollectible Accounts 905Miscellaneous... the cost of labor, employee pensions and benefits, social security and other payroll taxes, injuries... Reading Expenses, or Account 903, Customer Records and Collection Expenses, as appropriate. (See § 1767.17...

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

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.

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

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... from customers or retail forex customers in lieu of money to margin, purchase, guarantee, or secure the commodity interests of such customers or retail forex customers. Such record shall show separately for each customer or retail forex customer: A description of the securities or property received; the name and...

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

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... from customers or retail forex customers in lieu of money to margin, purchase, guarantee, or secure the commodity interests of such customers or retail forex customers. Such record shall show separately for each customer or retail forex customer: A description of the securities or property received; the name and...

Evaluation of customer satisfaction level of different projects.

PubMed

Das, Nandini; Samanta, Niladri

2005-01-01

Customer satisfaction as the key element for success in business is a major concern for any industry. In this paper we propose a customer satisfaction index using principal component analysis for a software solution company. This index was used as an input to the marketing division to identify their potential customers from their past experience. Since this is a very common problem for any industry, the same approach can be used in similar situations.

The Introduction of Custom Earplugs Aboard LCS-1

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-10

reports on the use of foam and custom HPDs, and provides interim recommendations. Custom-molded HPDs were judged by users to be superior in comfort...and able to be worn for longer periods of time than other devices ( foam ). Based on data from LCS and other related studies, the performance...acceptance, and cost of the custom-molded product are comparable, or better, than foam HPDs. The interim recommendation is to provide multiple types of

14 CFR 259.5 - Customer service plan.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Customer service plan. 259.5 Section 259.5 Aeronautics and Space OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS) ECONOMIC..., including during tarmac delays; (7) Meeting customers' essential needs during lengthy tarmac delays; (8...

18 CFR 367.1420 - Account 142, Customer accounts receivable.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Account 142, Customer... GAS ACT Balance Sheet Chart of Accounts Current and Accrued Assets § 367.1420 Account 142, Customer accounts receivable. (a) This account must include amounts due from customers for service, and for...

16 CFR 240.12 - Checking customer's use of payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Checking customer's use of payments. 240.12... ADVERTISING ALLOWANCES AND OTHER MERCHANDISING PAYMENTS AND SERVICES § 240.12 Checking customer's use of... are furnished and that the seller is not overpaying for them. The customer should expend the allowance...

14 CFR § 1260.63 - Customs clearance and visas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Customs clearance and visas. § 1260.63... COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS General Special Conditions § 1260.63 Customs clearance and visas. Customs Clearance and Visas (For grants or cooperative agreements with foreign organizations, this clause will be developed on...

Creating Customer Delight.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, Jim

1995-01-01

This article proposes that college admissions officers interested in improving service should focus on creating customer delight rather than simply satisfaction, studying the system when things go wrong rather than placing blame, establishing employee well-being as the highest priority of the organization, providing necessary tools and training…

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.

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

Large Customers (DR Sellers)

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

Kiliccot, Sila

2011-10-25

State of the large customers for demand response integration of solar and wind into electric grid; openADR; CAISO; DR as a pseudo generation; commercial and industrial DR strategies; California regulations

Ready: how to keep your customers coming back.

PubMed

Eliscu, A T

2000-01-01

Customer service is a major, but often overlooked, issue in health care today. While other industries and organizations recognize how good customer relations can affect long-term success, many health care providers have yet to learn this valuable lesson. The Ritz-Carlton, which won the prestigious Baldridge Award for service, has a well-earned reputation for excellent customer service. Like health care providers, this hotel industry icon hires hourly workers, puts them in uniform and has them work in teams. Unlike health care, however, The Ritz-Carlton seems to be able to generate a much higher level of customer satisfaction. How? This chapter illustrates the techniques the hotel chain uses to accomplish its goal and how these important tools can apply to the health care industry.

Basic Features of Customer Satisfaction with Train Schedules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murakoshi, Akiko; Kunimatsu, Taketoshi; Saito, Ayano

This paper aims to reveal the fundamental features of customer satisfaction with train schedules, which is one of the most basic services provided by a railway company. A customer satisfaction survey of passengers who frequently utilize three lines in the metropolitan area was conducted; we obtained the following findings: (a) out of nine factors to evaluate a train schedule from a passenger's viewpoint, the four most important ones are the frequency of trains running, punctuality, congestion rate, and time distance; (b) the ride-frequency influences the degree of satisfaction with train schedules in a particular line; and (c) it is important to set a numeric goal for the level of customer satisfaction by grasping the relationship between the transport service and a passenger's satisfaction with that service. The difference between customer satisfaction and passenger disutility is also discussed. The findings are expected to help conduct customer satisfaction surveys and also to form the basis for establishing a method by which to evaluate a train schedule from passengers' satisfaction ratings.

Bookmakers and a Duty of Care: Customers' Views in England.

PubMed

Brooks, Graham; Sparrow, Paul

2016-06-01

This paper focuses on customers' views on the extent that bookmakers and individuals are responsible for a duty of care. 72 participants from seven bookmakers in one city in England were interviewed that illustrates customers expect bookmakers to take 'reasonable steps' to avoid exploiting all customers. However, the customers' views recorded in this paper illustrate a range of views on what a duty of care should actually comprise with differences of opinion on the level of bookmakers and individuals level of responsibility, dealing with intoxicated customers, illegal gambling, prevention of excessive and problem gambling and self-exclusion.

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.

12 CFR 368.4 - Recommendations to customers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 4 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Recommendations to customers. 368.4 Section 368... POLICY GOVERNMENT SECURITIES SALES PRACTICES § 368.4 Recommendations to customers. In recommending to a... broker or dealer shall have reasonable grounds for believing that the recommendation is suitable for the...

Do Professors Have Customer-Based Brand Equity?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jillapalli, Ravi K.; Jillapalli, Regina

2014-01-01

This research endeavors to understand whether certain professors have customer-based brand equity (CBBE) in the minds of students. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to conceptualize, develop, and empirically test a model of customer-based professor brand equity. Survey data gathered from 465 undergraduate business students were used to…

Learning mechanisms in multidisciplinary teamwork with real customers and open-ended problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heikkinen, Juho; Isomöttönen, Ville

2015-11-01

Recently, there has been a trend towards adding a multidisciplinary or multicultural element to traditional monodisciplinary project courses in computing and engineering. In this article, we examine the implications of multidisciplinarity for students' learning experiences during a one-semester project course for real customers. We use a qualitative research approach and base our analysis on students' learning reports on three instances of a project course titled Multidisciplinary working life project. The main contribution of this article is the unified theoretical picture of the learning mechanisms stemming from multidisciplinarity. Our main conclusions are that (1) students generally have a positive view of multidisciplinarity; (2) multidisciplinary teams enable students to better identify their own expertise, which leads to increased occupational identity; and (3) learning experiences are not fixed, as team spirit and student attitude play an important role in how students react to challenging situations arising from introduction of the multidisciplinarity.

Students as Customers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuthbert, Rob

2010-01-01

The idea that students might be treated as customers triggers academics' antipathy, which in turn can lead to managerial irritation and political frustration. There are different discourses which barely overlap as their protagonists speak past one another. This article argues that these differences can be reconciled by re-conceiving the…

Assessing the value of customized birth weight percentiles.

PubMed

Hutcheon, Jennifer A; Walker, Mark; Platt, Robert W

2011-02-15

Customized birth weight percentiles are weight-for-gestational-age percentiles that account for the influence of maternal characteristics on fetal growth. Although intuitively appealing, the incremental value they provide in the identification of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) over conventional birth weight percentiles is controversial. The objective of this study was to assess the value of customized birth weight percentiles in a simulated cohort of 100,000 infants aged 37 weeks whose IUGR status was known. A cohort of infants with a range of healthy birth weights was first simulated on the basis of the distributions of maternal/fetal characteristics observed in births at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Canada, between 2000 and 2006. The occurrence of IUGR was re-created by reducing the observed birth weights of a small percentage of these infants. The value of customized percentiles was assessed by calculating true and false positive rates. Customizing birth weight percentiles for maternal characteristics added very little information to the identification of IUGR beyond that obtained from conventional weight-for-gestational-age percentiles (true positive rates of 61.8% and 61.1%, respectively, and false positive rates of 7.9% and 8.5%, respectively). For the process of customization to be worthwhile, maternal characteristics in the customization model were shown through simulation to require an unrealistically strong association with birth weight.

The Joker: A custom Monte Carlo sampler for binary-star and exoplanet radial velocity data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Price-Whelan, Adrian M.; Hogg, David W.; Foreman-Mackey, Daniel; Rix, Hans-Walter

2017-01-01

Given sparse or low-quality radial-velocity measurements of a star, there are often many qualitatively different stellar or exoplanet companion orbit models that are consistent with the data. The consequent multimodality of the likelihood function leads to extremely challenging search, optimization, and MCMC posterior sampling over the orbital parameters. The Joker is a custom-built Monte Carlo sampler that can produce a posterior sampling for orbital parameters given sparse or noisy radial-velocity measurements, even when the likelihood function is poorly behaved. The method produces correct samplings in orbital parameters for data that include as few as three epochs. The Joker can therefore be used to produce proper samplings of multimodal pdfs, which are still highly informative and can be used in hierarchical (population) modeling.

19 CFR 101.4 - Entry and clearance of vessels at Customs stations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 19 Customs Duties 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Entry and clearance of vessels at Customs stations. 101.4 Section 101.4 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY GENERAL PROVISIONS § 101.4 Entry and clearance of vessels at Customs stations. (a) Entry at Customs station. A vesse...

Apparel Merchandising Students Learn Customer Service Strategies while Conducting Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paulins, V, Ann

2000-01-01

Apparel merchandising students participated in a cooperative research project in which they observed customer service techniques by posing as customers in retail stores. The project taught research processes, collaboration, and principles of customer service. (SK)

Students as Customers in Higher Education: Reframing the Debate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guilbault, Melodi

2016-01-01

Even though marketing in higher education (HE) is well established, there is a continued debate about who the customer is, with many still not accepting that students should be viewed as customers in HE. The student as customer model has its opponents and proponents. This paper reframes the debate using the framework of market orientation,…

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN) customer satisfaction survey, 1997. Final report

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

Anderson, A.V.; Henderson, D.P.

the EREN Customer Satisfaction Survey 1997 was designed to follow up the results of the 1995-96 Surveys, enabling comparison to the 1995- 96 baseline, and to provide additional qualitative feedback about EREN. Both the 1995-96 and 1997 Surveys had these objectives: Identify and define actual EREN users; Determine the value or benefits derived from the use of EREN; Determine the kind and quality of services that users want; Determine the users` levels of satisfaction with existing services; Determine users` preferences in both the sources of service and means of delivery; and Establish continuous quality improvement measures. This report presents themore » methodology used, scope and limitations of the study, description of the survey instrument, and findings regarding demographics, technical capabilities, usage patterns, general use, importance of and satisfaction with resources, and additional information and comments.« less

Flexible forecasts: a key to better customer service.

PubMed

Neuhaus, C A

1997-05-01

Good customer service requires companies to keep their fingers on their customers' pulse and develop intelligent forecasts with their needs built in. As even the smallest factories today are placing at least some emphasis on lead time reductions to improve flexibility and the speed of response to customer requirements, the role of the forecast, now more than ever, is to provide at all times the best, most recent, and most accurate picture of what exactly will be required and when.

Desert Express: An Analysis on Improved Customer Service

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-09-01

Nt MARQ 3,199 Of. DESERT EXPRESS: AN ANALYSIS ON IMPROVED CUSTOMER SERVICE THESIS Thomas C Thaiheim, Majo-,r USAF AFTT/GLM/LSM,/91S-64 ?Z; W...Astq vt.: tyc a l AFIT/GLM/,LSM/91S-64 DESERT EXPRESS: AN ANALYSIS ON IMPROVED CUSTOMER SERVICE THESIS Thomas C. Thalheim, Major, USAF AFIT/GLM/LSM...91S-64 Approved for public release; distribution unlimited AFIT/GLM/LSM/91S-64 DESERT EXPRESS: AN ANALYSIS ON IMPROVED CUSTOMER SERVICE THESIS

Behavior of Internal Customer in Family Business: Strategies and Actions for Improving Their Satisfaction

PubMed Central

Gutiérrez-Broncano, Santiago; Jiménez-Estévez, Pedro; del Carmen Zabala-Baños, María

2017-01-01

Determining the relevant aspects of family businesses (FBs) that make them increasingly competitive is the main objective of researchers in this field. Despite this, there is little empirical literature on the behavior of the internal customer (IC) in FBs or how businesses increase their satisfaction. Basing our work on psychological theories and with both quantitative and qualitative information from 31 semi-structured interviews, this work establishes certain characteristics of the ICs of the FB and proposes a series of guidelines for increasing their satisfaction, thereby facilitating the continuity of this type of business. FBs that are able to understand that the motivation of their ICs is more important than other qualities, and that this requires a more comprehensive management will be able to get sustainable competitive advantages in the future. PMID:28790958

Behavior of Internal Customer in Family Business: Strategies and Actions for Improving Their Satisfaction.

PubMed

Gutiérrez-Broncano, Santiago; Jiménez-Estévez, Pedro; Del Carmen Zabala-Baños, María

2017-01-01

Determining the relevant aspects of family businesses (FBs) that make them increasingly competitive is the main objective of researchers in this field. Despite this, there is little empirical literature on the behavior of the internal customer (IC) in FBs or how businesses increase their satisfaction. Basing our work on psychological theories and with both quantitative and qualitative information from 31 semi-structured interviews, this work establishes certain characteristics of the ICs of the FB and proposes a series of guidelines for increasing their satisfaction, thereby facilitating the continuity of this type of business. FBs that are able to understand that the motivation of their ICs is more important than other qualities, and that this requires a more comprehensive management will be able to get sustainable competitive advantages in the future.

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...

Application of clustering for customer segmentation in private banking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Xuan; Chen, Jin; Hao, Pengpeng; Wang, Yanbo J.

2015-07-01

With fierce competition in banking industry, more and more banks have realised that accurate customer segmentation is of fundamental importance, especially for the identification of those high-value customers. In order to solve this problem, we collected real data about private banking customers of a commercial bank in China, conducted empirical analysis by applying K-means clustering technique. When determine the K value, we propose a mechanism that meet both academic requirements and practical needs. Through K-means clustering, we successfully segmented the customers into three categories, and features of each group have been illustrated in details.

'Have you had your bowl of rice?': a qualitative study of eating patterns in older Taiwanese adults.

PubMed

Chen, Su-Hui; Shao, Jung-Hua

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the eating patterns of older Taiwanese adults. The number of older adults in Taiwan is increasing and they have been shown to have poor nutritional status. However, little attention has been directed at uncovering eating patterns among this population as part of their aging process. To explore older Taiwanese adults' eating patterns, a qualitative research design was chosen. Eating patterns of older Taiwanese adults were explored in narrative interviews conducted from April-June 2007. Of the 156 participants who participated in a larger correlational, cross-sectional study, 58 agreed to answer one open-ended question about their eating patterns. All interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Analysis of interview data identified three major categories: 'eating and old age', 'eating and faith' and 'eating and family harmony'. Subcategories in each major category included 'achieving good health', 'upholding old customs'; 'depending on God/fate', 'enjoying later life'; and 'following the family eating rules', 'self-sacrificing for the family', respectively. Older Taiwanese people adopt eating patterns not only for health reasons, but also in keeping with their faith and the need to preserve family harmony. This research supports and contributes to understanding the eating patterns of older adults in Taiwan. Disseminating these findings may increase nurses' awareness of nutrition issues in older adults. Older Taiwanese adults' eating patterns centred on family values. Nursing intervention programmes, therefore, should address key family members involved in food preparation. Our findings also suggest that older adults followed old customs in their eating practices. Nurses are suggested to acknowledge and respect these customs as special food needs of older adults. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Customer-Specific Transaction Risk Management in E-Commerce

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruch, Markus; Sackmann, Stefan

Increasing potential for turnover in e-commerce is inextricably linked with an increase in risk. Online retailers (e-tailers), aiming for a company-wide value orientation should manage this risk. However, current approaches to risk management either use average retail prices elevated by an overall risk premium or restrict the payment methods offered to customers. Thus, they neglect customer-specific value and risk attributes and leave turnover potentials unconsidered. To close this gap, an innovative valuation model is proposed in this contribution that integrates customer-specific risk and potential turnover. The approach presented evaluates different payment methods using their risk-turnover characteristic, provides a risk-adjusted decision basis for selecting payment methods and allows e-tailers to derive automated risk management decisions per customer and transaction without reducing turnover potential.

Antecedents of Corporate Environmental Commitments: The Role of Customers.

PubMed

Afshar Jahanshahi, Asghar; Brem, Alexander

2018-06-06

The management of natural environments has become a fundamental issue for companies in recent years. A firm’s environmental commitment affects all levels of its operation. In this study, we investigated whether having an effective and constant relationship with customers over time (customer capital) makes a difference to firms with a high environmental commitment compared with less environmentally committed firms. We found support for our idea by using original survey data from 149 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Iran (2016⁻2017). Furthermore, we found that customer capital enhances environmental collaboration with customers which, in turn, has a positive impact on the firm’s environmental commitments. These findings provide empirical evidence for the important role of “getting closer to customers” as a way of enhancing corporate environmental responsibility in developing countries with weak institutional environments.

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.

10 CFR 905.22 - How does Western periodically evaluate customer actions?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false How does Western periodically evaluate customer actions... Resource Planning § 905.22 How does Western periodically evaluate customer actions? (a) Periodic review of customer actions. Western will periodically evaluate customer actions to determine whether they are...

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.

Listening to the Voice of the Customer.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schauerman, Sam; And Others

One of the major tenets of Total Quality Management (TQM) is that organizations need to adopt a strong customer focus. At El Camino College (ECC) in Torrance, California, a matrix was developed to identify and describe ECC's direct and indirect internal and external customers. ECC then applied Quality Function Deployment (QFD), a strategic tool…

AFMC Customer Satisfaction Study at the Air Logistics Centers

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-03-01

research was guided by a previous Graduate Research Project (GRP) effort, which sought to determine how customer relationship management ( CRM ...and effectively. To accomplish this, AFMC is implementing Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) as one of its initiatives. Problem Statement...for improvement. More than fifty-one percent of the participants were not aware that Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) was a transformation