Managing customer expectations: a study of two four-star hotels in Malaysia and Singapore

Successful management of customer expectations is an extremely important factor in achieving customer satisfaction. A hospitable culture and user-friendly technology are required to meet customers' expectations. While technology can have a major impact on customer satisfaction, the various cultural backgrounds of guests also have a significant influence. In the paper, the hotel guests’ cultural backgrounds were studied to understand this aspect's influence on their expectations and satisfaction. Three major cultural factors, namely brand identity (domestic vs. foreign), customers’ native language, and their country of residence, were observed and analyzed to determine guests' expectations. The research study used a qualitative design to analyze the data, collected from field observations at two hotels: a Singapore hotel and another in Malaysia. Reviews were also collected from hotel booking websites, in order to understand how the hotels satisfy guest expectations

Methods to assess in vivo insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion

The assessments of insulin sensitivity/resistance and of insulin secretion/beta cell function in humans are still significant challenges. The interest for these traits stems from their proved, or presumed, implications in a great number of pathological conditions, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), Alzheimer\u2019s disease. A wide number of tests and surrogate indexes have been developed and applied in many experimental and observational settings to gauge exact values for each of these two traits. In this chapter the general principles underlying the assessments of insulin sensitivity and of beta cell function are reviewed, and the most popular tests are described with their pros and cons