EFFECTING FACTORS OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

To be successful in global competitive markets, many firms have responded to rapid technological change, heightened competition and shortened product life cycles by focusing customer satisfaction. It is very difficult to ensure customer satisfaction. In spite of the increasing offer, customers are more conscious, and they make purchasing decisions by evaluating multiple choices and selecting among these choices. In this paper, supplier performance was evaluated by their customers and then, effects of performance criteria factors on customer satisfaction were analyzed. To examine the role of supplier performance in customer satisfaction, a survey was conducted of 182 manufacturing companies in Turkey. Factor analysis yielded seven factors: technical capability, innovation, conformance quality, pricing, delivery, flexibility and service. Correlation analysis indicated that innovation, delivery, flexibility and service factors significantly correlated with customer satisfaction. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis suggested that delivery, flexibility, service and innovation significantly contributed to the customer satisfaction

Müşteri memnuniyet indeks modelinde yapay sinir ağları kullanımı

The concept of customer satisfaction has attracted much attention in recent years. A key motivation for the growing emphasis on customer satisfaction is that higher satisfaction can lead to a stronger competitive position resulting in higher market share and profit, reduce price elasticity, lower business cost, reduce failure cost, and reduce the cost of attracting new customers. The purpose of customer satisfaction index (CSI) models is to measure the quality of the goods and services as experienced by the customers that consume them. The independent and uniform measurement characteristics of the CSI model provide a useful tool for tracking performance and systematic benchmarking over time. A major advantage of the measurement model is the use of generic questions, which are sufficiently flexible to be used across a wide variety of products and services. In this study, a new customer satisfaction index model is developed considering the previous CSI models such as American Customer Satisfaction Index and European Customer Satisfaction Index. The proposed model was applied for Turkish mobile phone sector since the competition in this industry results a dynamic product development and an increasing demand for that products. CSI models are designed as a structural equation model (SEM) which consists of well established theories and approaches in customer behaviour. The constructs of the CSI models are latent variables indirectly described by a block of measurement variables. The structural model of the proposed CSI consists of 6 latent variables with their 23 observable variables. The latent variables of the model are company image, customer expectations, perceived quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. A survey instrument, developed to measure the manifest variables, was conducted to 700 mobile phone users. Besides the model questions, some demographic questions (e.g. age, gender, education level etc.) are also included in the survey. The structural model of the present model is analyzed using variance based Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. The main concern of the PLS is related to the explanatory power of the path model along with the significance level of standardized regression weights. An iterative scheme of simple and/or multiple regressions contingent on the particular model is performed until a solution converges on a set of weights. The general applicability of a SEM model depends on the reliability and validity of the modelling results. Reliability and validity of the proposed CSI model were assessed by checking unidimensionalty of the blocks, individual item reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity. All test results satisfy the crucial requirements for validity and reliability of structural model. In this study, a feed forward neural network model is proposed as an alternative to simple or multiple regression methods for the inner model estimation of the CSI. The use of artificial neural networks (NN) gained popularity in different fields, and some studies have demonstrated the superiority of NN over multiple regression. NN simulates human cognition by modelling the inherent parallelism of neural circuits in the brain using mathematical models of how the circuits function. However, the NN approach has been applied more recently to customer satisfaction and loyalty analysis. In this study there are 5 different inner models estimating 5 different endogenous latent variables of the CSI model. Each inner model was estimated using three-layer feed forward neural networks. A sigmoid function is used in the hidden layer, and a linear function in the output layer. The data was divided into two sets, 75 percent for training, and 25 percent for testing. Training is performed using the Levenberg Marquardt back propagation algorithm, and the weights are initialized using Nguyen Widrow algorithm. After the NN is trained it was evaluated for the test data. Root mean squared error and R square scores were used as performance criteria. The use of NN provides a powerful estimation for the inner models used in the CSI. The results of the CSI model as a whole can be a valuable guide for the managers in formulating competitive marketing strategies. Considering the results of the CSI model, the limited resources of the firms can be allocated for critical factors which have important impacts on satisfaction. In conclusion, the CSI model provides important information for the purchase decisions of the customers and lead to improvements in the quality of goods and services they consume. Keywords: Customer satisfaction index, partial least squares, neural networks. Müşteri memnuniyet indeks modelleri son yıllarda birçok ülkede yaygın olarak uygulanmaktadır. Müşteri memnuniyet indekslerinin en büyük özelliği yapısındaki ölçüm faktörlerinin ürün ve hizmet sektöründe rahatlıkla kullanılabilmesine  imkan sağlamasıdır. Bu sayede güvenilir bir ölçekle firmalar arasında, sektörler arasında ve ülke çapında karşılaştırmalı bir memnuniyet ölçümü mümkün olmaktadır. Müşteri memnuniyet indeks modelleri, müşteri memnuniyeti ile ilişkili gizli (latent) değişkenler ve bu gizli değişkenleri ölçen ölçüm değişkenleri arasındaki ilişkilerden oluşan yapısal eşitlik modelleridir. Bu çalışmada diğer ülkelerde kullanılan müşteri memnuniyet indeks modellerinden yola çıkarak ülkemiz şartlarında kullanılabilecek bir müşteri memnuniyet indeks modeli geliştirilip test edilmiştir. Model, 6 gizli değişken ve bunlara bağlı toplam 23 ölçüm değişkeninden oluşmaktadır. Modele uygun olarak hazırlanan anket formu kullanılarak, cep telefonu sektöründe 700 kullanıcı ile yüz-yüze anket uygulaması yapılmıştır. Müşteri memnuniyet indeks modelindeki gizli değişkenler ve ölçüm değişkenleri arasındaki ilişkiler kısmi en küçük kareler yöntemiyle tahmin edilmiştir. Müşteri memnuniyet indeks modelinin güvenilirlik ve geçerlilik test sonuçları modelin genel uygulanabilirliğini göstermektedir. Çalışmada ayrıca, gizli değişkenler arası ilişkilerin oluşturduğu iç modellerin tahmininde Yapay Sinir Ağları (YSA) metodu önerilmiştir. Yapısal modeller için tasarlanan YSA modeli 3 katmanlı ileri beslemeli ve geri yayılımlı bir modeldir. Gizli katmanda sigmoid transfer fonksiyonu, çıkış katmanında ise doğrusal transfer fonksiyonu kullanılmıştır. Bu şekilde 5 farklı iç modelin tahmini için yapay sinir ağları metodunun kullanımı modellerin açıklayıcılık gücünü artırmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Müşteri memnuniyet indeksi, kısmi en küçük kareler, yapay sinir ağları.&nbsp

Sac İmalatında Karşılaşılan Yapışma Probleminin Deney Tasarımı ile Çözümü

This study is carried out in a semi-integrated firm manufacturing low carbon flat steel. A new annealing furnace was engaged. This furnace performs flat steel annealing process which is one of the manufacturing processes of the firm. Nevertheless, the firm is faced with adhesion problem affecting product quality dramatically. To determine factors lead to this problem, and to find most appropriate manufacturing parameters in order to abolish this problem, design of experiment approach is used. Here, achievement objective is aimed by less experiments number and in shorter time. In application section, problem was analyzed by design of experiments approach and results were evaluated and commented.Bu çalışma düşük karbonlu yassı çelik üretimi yapan yarı entegre bir firmada gerçekleştirilmiştir. Firmanın üretim süreçlerinden biri olan yassı çelik ısıl işleminin yapıldığı yeni bir tavlama fırını devreye alınmıştır. Yeni tavlama fırını devreye alındıktan sonra, ürün kalitesini önemli ölçüde etkileyen yapışma problemi ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu problemin oluşmasına neden olan faktörleri tespit etmek ve bu problemi ortadan kaldıracak en uygun üretim parametrelerini belirlemek için kalite geliştirme araçlarından biri olan deney tasarımı yaklaşımı kullanılmıştır. Deney tasarımının kullanılması ile daha az deney sayısı ile ve daha kısa sürede hedefe ulaşmak amaçlanmıştır. Uygulama kısmında Deney Tasarımı yaklaşımıyla problem analiz edilmiş, sonuçlar değerlendirilerek yorumlanmıştır

Sac İmalatında Karşılaşılan Yapışma Probleminin Deney Tasarımı ile Çözümü

This study is carried out in a semi-integrated firm manufacturing low carbon flat steel. A new annealing furnace was engaged. This furnace performs flat steel annealing process which is one of the manufacturing processes of the firm. Nevertheless, the firm is faced with adhesion problem affecting product quality dramatically. To determine factors lead to this problem, and to find most appropriate manufacturing parameters in order to abolish this problem, design of experiment approach is used. Here, achievement objective is aimed by less experiments number and in shorter time. In application section, problem was analyzed by design of experiments approach and results were evaluated and commented.Bu çalışma düşük karbonlu yassı çelik üretimi yapan yarı entegre bir firmada gerçekleştirilmiştir. Firmanın üretim süreçlerinden biri olan yassı çelik ısıl işleminin yapıldığı yeni bir tavlama fırını devreye alınmıştır. Yeni tavlama fırını devreye alındıktan sonra, ürün kalitesini önemli ölçüde etkileyen yapışma problemi ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu problemin oluşmasına neden olan faktörleri tespit etmek ve bu problemi ortadan kaldıracak en uygun üretim parametrelerini belirlemek için kalite geliştirme araçlarından biri olan deney tasarımı yaklaşımı kullanılmıştır. Deney tasarımının kullanılması ile daha az deney sayısı ile ve daha kısa sürede hedefe ulaşmak amaçlanmıştır. Uygulama kısmında Deney Tasarımı yaklaşımıyla problem analiz edilmiş, sonuçlar değerlendirilerek yorumlanmıştır

H3B2 Scoring Validation and Comparing of the Other Scoring Systems in Patients with Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding: A Retrospective Study

Objective:We had validation of H3B2 scoring on Turkish patients in this study. In addition, it was compared with Glasgow-Blatchford and AIMS65 scoring.Method:This study was conducted retrospectively and single centered. It was continued by scanning of tertial education hospital datum in 07-2021 to 07-2022. Patients were the adults who was made endoscopic intervention during initial 24 hours. Glasgow-Blatchford, AIMS65 and H3B2 scoring were calculated according to initial parameters.Results:The study included 116 patients. Median age was 60 (45,53) years. H3B2, AIMS65 and Glasgow-Blatchford scoring were significantly higher in non-survivor group than survivor group (p=0.005, <0.001, 0.013. respectively). With the addition of lactate and albumin to H3B2, the area under the curve value reached 0.910 and gained a stronger predictive ability.Conclusion:H3B2 was successful in predicting short-term mortality in Turkish patients, we recommend adding lactate and albumin to the H3B2 for stronger predictivity

Retospective analysis of risk factors, etiological factors and treatment options in patients with cerebral venous thrombosis

PURPOSE: Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is not a common disease. It is known to have a varied clinical spectrum. There is too much cause of the etiology of disease. In this manuscript we discussed our patients initial symptoms, cause of CVT and our patients' prognosis. MATERIALS and METHODS: This study was a retrospective database analysis of 29 patients who had CVT followed from 2004 to 2010. All of the patients had cranial magnetic resonans imaging (MR) and Mr /Computarized Tomography (CT) venography. RESULTS: There were 27 female, 2 male in this study. Mean age of the patients was 34.97 ±12.79 years old. Only eight patients had abnormal neurological examination (4 patients papilloedema, 2 patients confusion, 1 patient cerebellar dysfunction, 1 patient homonymous hemianopsia). Initial symptoms of patients were headache(n=19), epileptic seizures (n=6), blurred vision (n=1), diplopia (n=2) and one of the patient had vertigo. Ten patients had only one sinus thrombosis however 19 patients had more than one sinus thrombosis. Thrombotic risk factors were found in 21 patients. Most important risc factor were pregnancy, postpartum condition, oral contraceptive usage and acquired hypercoagulable disease. CONCLUSION: CVT is rare but important condition. Sometimes non specific headache is a herald of this condition. Especially pregnancy and postpartum period are susceptibility of this condition

The Effect of Early Diuretic Treatment on Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Acute Heart Failure: Door to Diuretic

Objective:It was aimed to investigate the effect of early diuretic treatment on hospitalization and short-term mortality in patients with acute heart failure.Method:Our study was carried out as a retrospective, single-centered, observational study in the department of emergency a tertiary training and research hospital. The study population was the patients presenting with signs and symptoms of acute heart failure. The primary outcome was all-cause 30-day mortality and hospitalization. Univariant tests and ROC analysis were used for analysis.Results:A total of 325 patients were included. The median age of the patients was 76.0 years (interquartile range 69.0-83.0). The mortality rate of our study population was %14.4 (47). Systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were significantly higher in the survivor group (p=0.018, 0.033, respectively). Age, troponin-I, and pro-brain natriuretic peptide were significantly higher in the non-survivor group (p<0.001, <0.001, <0.001, respectively). For hospitalization, the area under the curve for the high door to diuretic time was 0.570, the cut-off value was 99 minutes, and the odds ratio was 1.75 (95% confidence interval: 1.09-2.82).Conclusion:Early initiation of diuretic treatment has no effect on short-term mortality. However, delayed initiation of diuretic treatment may affect hospitalization rates. According to our results, early initiation of diuretic treatment may reduce hospitalization rates

Elit altı sporcularda vücut kompozisyonu, anaerobik performans ve sırt kuvveti arasındaki ilişkinin belirlenmesi

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship among age, height, body weight, body fat percentage, long jump (standing), vertical jump, 20 meter sprint, back strength, relative strength and anaerobic power characteristics of the 80 sub-elit male athletes who are students at a physical education and sports department and participate competitions.&nbsp;&nbsp;In this study, 80 male students at 22.17 &plusmn; 1.97 average age who have been doing exercises regularly, were participate as voluntary. Firstly, their age, height, body weight and skin fold values were determined. Body fat percentage was estimated by Zorba Formula. Anaerobic performance was determined via long jump (standing), vertical jump and 20 meter sprint. Relative strength was estimated with &ldquo;back strength / body weight&rdquo; formula. Then, the relationships among body composition, anaerobic performance and back strength characteristics of the participants were determined by Pearson correlation analysis. Analyses of collected data were used by SPSS for Windows (Ver. 10) and alpha level was set as 0.05 for statistical significance.Correlation analysis&rsquo; results indicated that there were statically significant correlations among lots of physical and physiological parameters. In conclusion; it was determined that height, body weight, body fat percentage and back strength were played an explicit role on anaerobic performance of athletes.Bu &ccedil;alışmanın amacı; bir &uuml;niversitenin beden eğitimi ve spor y&uuml;ksek okulunda &ouml;ğrenim g&ouml;ren bir grup elit-altı sporcunun yaş, boy uzunluğu, v&uuml;cut ağırlığı, v&uuml;cut yağ oranı, durarak uzun atlama, dikey sı&ccedil;rama, 20 metre sprint, sırt kuvveti, relatif kuvvet ve anaerobik g&uuml;&ccedil; &ouml;zellikleri arasındaki ilişkinin belirlenmesidir. &Ccedil;alışmaya; d&uuml;zenli antrenman yapan ve m&uuml;sabakalara katılan beden eğitimi ve spor y&uuml;ksek okulu (BESYO) &ouml;ğrencisi, yaş ortalaması 22.17&plusmn;1.97 yıl olan toplam 80 erkek sporcu g&ouml;n&uuml;ll&uuml; olarak katılmıştır. &Ccedil;alışmaya katılan deneklerin boy uzunluğu, v&uuml;cut ağırlığı, deri kıvrım kalınlığı &ouml;l&ccedil;&uuml;mleri yapılmıştır. V&uuml;cut yağ y&uuml;zdesi Zorba form&uuml;l&uuml; kullanılarak belirlenmiştir. Anaerobik performans ise dikey sı&ccedil;rama, durarak uzun atlama ve 20 metre s&uuml;rat testleri ile belirlenmiştir. Relatif kuvvet, sırt kuvvetinin v&uuml;cut ağırlığına b&ouml;l&uuml;nmesi ile bulunmuştur. Katılımcıların v&uuml;cut kompozisyonu, anaerobik performans ve sırt kuvveti arasındaki ilişkinin belirlenmesi amacıyla verilerin analizinde &ldquo;Pearson &Ccedil;arpımlar Moment Korelasyon Analizi&rdquo; kullanılmıştır. Analizler Windows i&ccedil;in SPSS (ver. 10) paket programı ile yapılmış ve istatistiksel anlamlılık d&uuml;zeyi 0,05 olarak kabul edilmiştir.Korelasyon analizleri sonucunda bir&ccedil;ok fiziksel ve fizyolojik &ouml;zellik arasında anlamlı ilişki katsayıları bulunmuştur. Sonu&ccedil; olarak; sporcuların v&uuml;cut ağırlıkları, v&uuml;cut yağ y&uuml;zdeleri, boy uzunlukları ve sırt kuvvetlerinin anaerobik performanslarında belirleyici rol aldığı tespit edilmiştir

The efficacy of cinacalcet in the treatment of hyperparathyroidism in Turkish hemodialysis patient population

WOS: 000393291900012OBJECTIVE: Cinacalcet reduces parathyroid hormone levels by increasing the sensitivity of the parathyroid gland to calcium. in this study, we firstly aimed to evaluate the efficacy of cinacalcet in Turkish hemodialysis patients. MATERIAL and METHODS: 4483 hemodialysis patients were screened and 469 patients who had used cinacalcet were included in the study. the patients were divided into 4 groups according to drug usage durations (Group 1: 3 months, Group 2: 6 months, Group 3: 9 months and Group 4: 12 months). the patients' Parathormone, Ca, P and CaxP levels at the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th months were compared to the start of treatment and previous months. RESULTS: the levels of Parathormone, Ca, P and CaxP significantly decreased compared to their initial levels in all groups (from 1412 pg/ml to 1222 pg/mL for Parathormone, p< 0,001) in the 3rd month. However, this reduction was not continued in the subsequent months (Parathormone: 1381 pg/ml for the 12th month). CONCLUSION: Cinacalcet may not provide adequate benefit in control of hyperparathyroidism in Turkish hemodialysis patient population

Clinical presentations and diagnostic work-up in sarcoidosis: A series of Turkish cases (clinics and diagnosis of sarcoidosis)

Sarcoidosis is an idiopathic granulomatous disease. It usually affects the lung. The diagnosis may be problematic since the known causes of granulomatous inflammation must be excluded. This multicenter study aimed to evaluate the clinical presentations and diagnostic approaches of sarcoidosis. The study protocol was sent via internet, and the participants were asked to send the information (clinical, radiological and diagnostic) on newly diagnosed sarcoidosis cases. 293 patients were enrolled within two years. Pulmonary symptoms were found in 73.3% of the patients, and cough was the most common one (53.2%), followed by dyspnea (40.3%). Constitutional symptoms were occured in half of the patients. The most common one was fatigue (38.6%). The most common physical sign was eritema nodosum (17.1%). The most common chest radiograhical sign was bilateral hilar lymphadenomegaly (78.8%). Staging according to chest X-ray has revealed that most of the patients were in Stage I and Stage II (51.9% and 31.7%, respectively). Sarcoidosis was confirmed histopathologically in 265 (90.4%) patients. Although one-third of the bronchoscopy was revealed normal, mucosal hyperemi (19.8%) and external compression of the bronchial wall (16.8%) were common abnormal findings. The 100% success rate was obtained in mediastinoscopy among the frequently used sampling methods. Transbronchial biopsy was the most frequently used method with 48.8% success rate. Considering sarcoidosis with its most common and also rare findings in the differential diagnosis, organizing the related procedures according to the possibly effected areas, and the expertise of the team would favor multimodality diagnosis