Banking customers’ attitudes toward complaining : their likelihood of voicing a complaint and service recovery they consider appropriate.

This paper measures the attitude of banking customers towards complaining and their likelihood to complain when a service failure is experienced at their current and another bank. Insight is also provided into the service recovery responses customers consider appropriate when a service failure is experienced. The target population included individuals in the Gauteng Province of South Africa who hold a bank account in their personal capacity. An interviewer-administered survey was used to collect data using non-probability quota sampling based upon population group and gender. A demographic profile of respondents, as well as the findings in terms of the aforementioned constructs and related hypotheses is provided. The study found that respondents have a positive attitude towards complaining, and that they are significantly more likely to voice a complaint when experiencing a service failure at their current bank than at another bank. Significant differences also exist with regard to the individual responses respondents consider appropriate when confronted with a hypothetical service failure experienced at their current bank and another bank

The influence of cell phone users' relationship intentions on expectations and perceptions of service recovery

With the first-time cell phone user market quickly shrinking, it is becoming increasingly important for South African cell phone network providers to retain customers by building long-term relationships with them and consistently offering quality service. Despite cell phone network providers' best intentions, service failures do occur. Not all customers want to build relationships with cell phone network providers, and therefore it is important to consider the influence of customers' relationship intentions within a service failure and recovery setting. The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of relationship intention on expectations and perceptions of two service recovery scenarios within the cell phone industry. Non-probability convenience sampling was used to collect data from 605 cell phone users residing in Gauteng. Results indicate that as respondents' relationship intentions increase, so do their expectations that their cell phone network providers should take service recovery action. It was also found that respondents with high and moderate relationship intentions perceived service recovery strategies of their cell phone network providers including an acknowledgement, apology, explanation and rectification of the problem more favourable, compared to a service recovery strategy only rectifying the problem, than those respondents with low relationship intentions

Young adults’ relationship intentions towards their cell phone network operators

Marketers use relationship marketing to establish mutually beneficial long-term relationships with their customers as a means to retain them in the competitive market environment. Relationship marketing should not be used to target every customer as not all customers want to build long-term relationships with organisations. In order to identify the most profitable customers for relationship marketing, organisations should consider their customers’ relationship intentions to form long-term relationships with them. The primary objective of this study was to determine young adults’ (aged 18 to 25) relationship intentions towards the South African cell phone network operators they use, namely Vodacom, MTN or Cell C. Five constructs (involvement, expectations, forgiveness, feedback and fear of relationship loss) were used to measure relationship intention. Data was collected from 315 respondents at a tertiary education institution in South Africa by means of a non-probability convenience sample. Findings indicate that a relatively high percentage of respondents have a high relationship intention towards their cell phone network operator and that respondents with high relationship intentions are more Involved with and Fear losing their relationship with their cell phone network operator than respondents with low relationship intention

The interrelationships between customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and relationship intentions of Generation Y consumers towards smart phone brands

Smart phone marketers are finding it difficult to maintain market share in a market characterised by fierce competition and continued new product development. Generation Y consumers generally have a good command of technology and engage in technology-related behaviour such as texting, tweeting and web-surfing. When it comes to the adoption of smart phone applications, it is believed that Generation Y is leading the way. To retain Generation Y consumers, it is critical for organisations to ensure that customer satisfaction is achieved, brand loyalty has to be generated and meaningful long-term relationships with these consumers should be established. In this regard, this study aims to determine the interrelationships between customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and the relationship intentions of Generation Y smart phone users. Self-administered questionnaires were fielded among 395 Generation Y smart phone users living in Gauteng, South Africa. Results indicate significant and positive interrelationships between customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and relationship intention

Cohomogeneity one manifolds and selfmaps of nontrivial degree

We construct natural selfmaps of compact cohomgeneity one manifolds with finite Weyl group and compute their degrees and Lefschetz numbers. On manifolds with simple cohomology rings this yields in certain cases relations between the order of the Weyl group and the Euler characteristic of a principal orbit. We apply our construction to the compact Lie group SU(3) where we extend identity and transposition to an infinite family of selfmaps of every odd degree. The compositions of these selfmaps with the power maps realize all possible degrees of selfmaps of SU(3).Comment: v2, v3: minor improvement

Regularity of Cauchy horizons in S2xS1 Gowdy spacetimes

We study general S2xS1 Gowdy models with a regular past Cauchy horizon and prove that a second (future) Cauchy horizon exists, provided that a particular conserved quantity $J$ is not zero. We derive an explicit expression for the metric form on the future Cauchy horizon in terms of the initial data on the past horizon and conclude the universal relation A\p A\f=(8\pi J)^2 where A\p and A\f are the areas of past and future Cauchy horizon respectively.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figur

Venous bicarbonate and creatine kinase as diagnostic and prognostic tools in the setting of acute traumatic rhabdomyolysis

Background. Myorenal or crush syndrome often develops following soft-tissue traumatic injury. It is a spectrum of disease that may result in severe renal dysfunction and kidney injury requiring renal replacement therapy.Objectives. To review a large cohort of patients with so-called myorenal or crush syndrome and assess the biochemical markers of venous bicarbonate and creatine kinase as predictors for the development of acute kidney injury (AKI).Methods. All patients with myorenal syndrome who presented to Khayelitsha District Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa (SA), and Ngwelezana Hospital, Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, SA, between January and December 2017 were identified and reviewed.Results. A total of 212 patients were included in the study. At both hospitals, 94% of the patients were male. Using the Pearson correlation coefficient, we compared creatinine kinase (CK) against serum creatinine. The mean CK level was 5 311.8 U/L and the mean creatinine level 133.457 μmol/L. The r-value was 0.2533. Although this is a technically positive correlation, the relationship between the variables is weak. Using the Pearson R Calculator, we inserted the r-value to calculate the p-value. The p-value was 0.000208. When comparing venous bicarbonate (HCO3) against creatinine, the mean HCO3 level was 22.296 mmol/L and the mean creatinine level 162.053 μmol/L. The r-value was –0.3468. Although this is a technically negative correlation, the relationship between the variables is weak. Using the Pearson R Calculator, we inserted the r-value to calculate the p-value. The p-value was 0.000013. The inverse ratio shown with HCO3 v. creatinine, although still a weak correlation, is significantly better in predicting an increase in creatinine compared with the weak positive correlation of CK v. creatinine.Conclusions. Although both venous HCO3 and CK showed a weak correlation with creatinine, the former performed significantly better in predicting AKI. In a resource-constrained system, we recommend that HCO3 be measured to assess patients with crush injury and that CK be regarded as a complementary modality

Additive generators based on generalized arithmetic operators in interval-valued fuzzy and Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy set theory

In this paper we investigate additive generators in Atanassov's intuitionistic fuzzy and interval-valued fuzzy set theory. Starting from generalized arithmetic operators satisfying some axioms we define additive generators and we characterize continuous generators which map exact elements to exact elements in terms of generators on the unit interval. We give necessary and sufficient condition under which a generator actually generates a t-nporm and we show that the generated t-norm belongs to particular classes of t-norms depending on the arithmetic operators involved in the defintion of the generator

Factors influencing time to diagnosis and treatment among pediatric oncology patients in Kenya

Early diagnosis and start of treatment are fundamental goals in cancer care. This study determines the time lag and the factors that influence the time to diagnosis and start of treatment. Study participants were parents of childhood cancer patients diagnosed between August 2013 and July 2014 in a hospital in Kenya. Patient, physician, diagnosis, treatment, health care system, and total delay were explored using a questionnaire. Demographic and medical data were collected from the patients' medical records. Parents of 99 childhood cancer patients were interviewed (response rate: 80%). Median total delay was 102 (9–1021) days. Median patient delay (4 days) was significantly shorter than health care system delay (median 87 days; P < .001). Diagnosis delay (median 94 days) was significantly longer than treatment delay (median 6 days; P < .001). days. Lack of health insurance at diagnosis and use of alternative medicine before attending conventional health services were associated with a significantly longer patient delay (P = .041 and P = .017, respectively). The type of cancer had a significant effect on treatment delay (P = .020). The type of health facility attended affected only patient delay (P = .03). Gender, age at diagnosis, stage of disease, parents' education level or income, and distance from hospital did not have a significant effect on the length of any type of delay. Training on childhood cancer should be included in the curricula for medical training institutes. In-service workshops should be held for the health workers already working. Families must be obligated to get health insurance. Families should be encourage to attend conventional health facilities and informed on symptoms of cancer through mass media