Service Quality Essay Example for Free

Service Quality Essay Perceived service quality has been defined as Customers’ overall impression of the relative inferiority / superiority of the organization and its services (Bitner and Hubbert, 1994, as cited by Dinuka Wijetunga et al. 2003). To gain full understanding of service quality, it is necessary to identify characteristics of services. The three major characteristics are intangibility, heterogeneity and inseparability of production and consumption (Parasuraman et al. , 1985). An extensive review of this topic (Lehtines, U. and Lehtinen, J. R. , 1982; Parasuraman et al. , 1985; Sasser, W. E. et al. , 1978) suggests three major qualitative results: 1. Service quality is more difficult to evaluate than product quality. 2. Service quality perceptions result from a gap between consumers’ expectations and perceived service performance. 3. Not only the outcome of a service but also the process of service delivery determines the evaluation. The fact that service quality perception are the result of comparisons between expected and perceived service performance implies each customer may feel differently about similar service experiences provided by a certain provider. This suggests that there is no general service measurement scheme applicable to every customer rather, service quality evaluation should be determined by the aggregate of all customers’ perceptions about a particular service provider. Therefore, managing service quality should mean managing the aggregate of all customers’ perceptions. The first attempt to describe and defined service quality was the paradigm suggested by Gronroos (1983) who distinguished between technical quality (What is done) and functional quality (how it is done). The early work of Gronroos (1983) was later extended by parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, (1985). They argued that to fully understand service must be acknowledged and that service quality can be defined as the consumer’s overall impression of the relative inferiority / superiority of the organization and its services (Bitner amp; Hubbert, 1994) or as the customer’s assessment of the overall excellence or superiority of the service (Zeithaml, 1988). In these terms service quality means conforming to customer expectations (Lewis amp; Booms, 1983) and implies, from a consumer perspective, the comparison of customer expectations with customer perceptions of actual service performance (Parasuraman et al. 1985) Importance of Service quality Despite the importance of providing a high level of quality to be successful in today’s very competitive market place, the concept of quality is an elusive construct mainly because of the presence of many intangible attributes. This difficulty gets worse when it comes to service quality. The services are concerned; marketing ca nnot operate in isolation from other functional areas. Tasks that might be considered the sole preserve of operations in a manufacturing environment need to involve marketers because customers are often xposed to even actively involved in service processes. Making service processes more efficient does not necessarily result in a better – quality experience for customers; nor does it always lead to improved benefits for them likewise, getting service employees to work faster may some times be welcomed by customers but at other times may make customers feel rushed and unwanted. Thus, marketing, operations and human resource managers need to communicate with one another to ensure that they can deliver quality experience more efficiently. An individual customer’s perception usually determines his/her future attitude and actions toward a service provider. Dissatisfied customers will eventually leave the company and may never come back. The aggregate of all the customers’ decisions regarding their service provider will determine the market share of the service provider. Another measure of performance of a service provider is each service provider’s distribution of customers in terms of length with the provider. Many recent articles underline the importance of loyal and long – term customers since they usually bring in more sales, often at increased profit margins. If loyal customers defect, the profit – making potential goes with them. Similarly, implementing marketing strategies to improve customer satisfaction with services can prove costly and disruptive for an organization if the implications for operations and human resources have not been carefully thought. Hence, quality strategies need to be considered carefully. Marketing’s interest in service quality is obvious when one thinks about it: poor quality places a firm at a competitive disadvantage. If customers perceive quality as unsatisfactory, they may be quick to take their business elsewhere. Recent years have witnessed a veritable explosion of discontent with service quality at a time when the quality of many manufactured goods seems to have improved significantly. From a marketing standpoint, a key issue is whether customers notice competing suppliers’ difference in quality. Consultant Brad Gale Puts says that â€Å"Value is simply quality, however the customer defines it, offered at the right price† (Bradley T. Gale, 1994)

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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly An Analysis on the lives of the Upper, Middle, and Lower classes during the Industrial Revolution I have fully upheld Delbarton’s Honor Code in letter and spirit. Signature: Anthony Farinacci Anthony Farinacci Feb. 12, 2014 European History Mr. Gentine Delbarton School Before the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain made minuscule changes to society and the economy was slow. Once 1750 began, Britain was on the verge of having an Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution shifted Britain from an agricultural society to an industrial society. Many other countries tried to follow Britain and have their own Industrial Revolution, but some were not as successful. Even though the peasants had a rough life during the Industrial Revolution, it did benefit the middle and upper classes. The Industrial Revolution had an everlasting effect on European society because some of the advancements that were made are still used today. During the Indu... ...onized the manufacturing of cotton and opened up new industries. Arthur Young who lived during the Industrial Revolution had a very powerful quote about Watt. He said, â€Å" In what path of life can a man be found that will not animate his pursuit from seeing the steam-engine of Watt?" James Watt changed the course of the Industrial Revolution with his invention of the Steam Engine. The upper class gained much revenue from the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain truly effected Europe in different ways. The peasants worked long hours and lived in poor conditions. The middle class lived modest lives and sometimes were promoted to the upper class. The upper class greatly benefited with the new advancements in technology. The Industrial Revolution helped make Europe a more advanced place, even though it did have some flaws.

Are Mongols Barbarians?

The strong military, organized government and religious tolerance all pointed that Mongols are civilized; therefore, they should not be called as barbarians which have no humanity, cruel, violent and are lack of managements. The Mongols were used to be small clans which often fight with each other for supplies. Around 1200, Temujin, Genghis Khan, defeated his enemies one by one and united the Mongols. He led the Mongols and found the largest connected land empire in the history, the Mongol Empire.Mongols created the Pax Mongolia and had great influenced on the later world. First of all, Mongols are not barbarians because they had well-organized government. They divided the large empire into four khanates which made them easier to control (Document 1). Also the villages were divided into two districts. For example, the village of Saint Denis had a district where the markets were and a district that were all craftsman (Document 7). Kublai granted taxes and built new capital. Besides, h e set new laws, and the crime rate decreased about half (Document 8).The Mongols ameliorated the conveyance by building canals (Document 10). They also established post office that had more than 10,000 posts and 200,000 horses to pass the message (Document 12). All the systems and reconstructions they created pointed out that Mongols aren’t barbarians. Next, the military organization proved Mongols’ good arrangement ability which lead to a result that they aren’t barbarian. Mongols knew how to use silk as a tool to practice their skills (Document 2).The ten soldiers were put into groups and had captain for each. Ten of those groups form a hundred and had another captain. Over ten captains of thousand was a captain who control a thousand men. Above those ten captains was a man. Then one or two chiefs control the whole army with highest command (Document 3). Mongols also sat traps for other cities, and made fake figures to let the army look bigger and more fearful (Document 4). The armies protected the trades and routes, too. So the trades and passengers could be safe.Mongols had shown their smart brains with great thoughts in military with civilized organizations. Last, Mongols had opened-mind and accepted different religious which revealed Mongols’ kindness and religious tolerance. Even though Mongols did not believe in Christianity, there were still Christian churches (Document 7). Mongols were opened to new ideas, Kublai wanted Marco Polo to bring a hundred Christian. However, Marco Polo didn’t, but the act showed the wide opened- mind of Mongols (Document 8). They also established society and preserved culture (Document 10).The emperor, Mongke Khan even allowed the Christians, Muslims and Buddhists to hold a council and write their true ideas about his laws and books (Document 13). Mongols are not barbarians, they respected, adopted all religious and ideas. One of the most important empire that ever exist, the Mongol Empir e, is often considered as a barbaric rulers. But, they are not. Not only because they well organized their military, government, and also religious tolerance. Mongols are educated and civilized which think when one does.

Symptoms of the Black Death

The Black Death is a plague that killed millions of people. In one particularly destructive explosion, over a third of the whole European population might have died in a few years in the mid 14th century, a process which changed history, birthing, and among other things, the start of the modern age and the Renaissance. Here is an explanation of what happens when someone contracts it. You really have to hope you never do! How You Get the Black Death Despite plenty of people trying to claim other things, the evidence comfortably points to The Black Death being Bubonic Plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia Pestis. A human being usually receives this by being bitten by a flea that has ingested the disease from the blood of a house rat. The infected flea has had its system blocked by the disease, and remains hungry, regurgitating older infected blood into a human before drinking new blood, spreading infection. The rat’s flea doesn’t usually target humans, but seeks them out as new hosts once their colony of rats dies off from the plague; other animals could also be affected. Plague carrying fleas didn’t have to come straight from a rat, as the fleas could survive for several weeks in bundles of cloth and other items humans conveniently came into contact with. On rarer occasions, a human could receive the disease from infected droplets that had been sneezed or coughed out into the air from a sufferer of a vari ation called Pneumonic Plague. Even rarer still was an infection from a cut or sore. Symptoms Once bitten, a victim experienced symptoms like headaches, chills, high temperatures, and extreme tiredness. They might have nausea and pain throughout their bodies. Within several days the bacteria had begun affecting the body’s lymph nodes, and these swelled up into painful large lumps called ‘buboes’ (from which the disease takes its popular name: Bubonic Plague). Usually, those nodes closest to the initial bite were first, which normally meant in the groin, but those under the arms and in the neck were also affected. They could reach the size of an egg. Suffering great pain, you could then die, roughly a week after you were first bitten. From the lymph nodes, the plague could spread and internal bleeding would begin. The sufferer would expel blood in their waste, and black spots could appear all over the body. Sufferers with the spots almost invariably died, and this is noted in the chronicles of the day. The disease could spread to the lungs, giving the victim Pneumonic Plague, or into the bloodstream, giving Septicaemic Plague, which killed you before the buboes appeared. Some people did recover from the Black Death – Benedictow gives a figure of 20% - but contrary to the beliefs of some survivors they did not gain an automatic immunity. Medieval Reaction Medieval doctors identified numerous symptoms of the plague, many of which correlate with modern knowledge. The process of the illness through its stages wasn’t fully understood by medieval and early modern doctors, and some interpreted the buboes as signs the body was trying to vent foul liquids. They then attempted to relieve the illness by lancing the buboes. A punishment from God was seen at the frequent underlying course, although quite how and why God was inflicting this was heatedly discussed. The situation wasnt one of total scientific blindness, as Europe has always been blessed with proto-scientists, but they were confused and unable to react like modern scientists. Even so, you can still see this confusion exist today when it comes to popular understanding of illness.