The role of age and gender in the retail service encounter

Research typically explores the service encounter in relation to the soft and hard skills of front line staff, yet has neglected the role the visible diversity of sales staff have on the interactions between the service deliverer and receiver. This paper therefore attempts to address this gap in knowledge by reporting on how the age and gender of customer facing staff can influence customer evaluations of the retail service encounter in a health and beauty retailer. An analysis of qualitative interviews with forty customers and twenty store staff propose that customers attempt to 'match' and 'mirror' the age and gender of sales staff with their expectations of who should deliver good retail service during the retail service encounter

Service quality in alcohol treatment: a research note

Purpose - To evaluate service quality in a UK privately funded alcohol treatment clinic. Methodology - Data were gathered via interviews with two groups of participants using the SERVQUAL questionnaire. The first group comprised 32 patients and the second 15 clinic staff. The SERVQUAL instrument measures service quality expectations and perceptions across five service dimensions and identifies gaps between service expectations and perceptions of what was delivered. Findings – Patients’ service quality expectations were exceeded on four of five dimensions. However, staff members felt services fell below expectations on four of five dimensions with the ‘reliability’ service dimension emerging as the common service element falling below expectations for both participant groups. It was concluded that achieving consistent service delivery and increasing empathy between staff and patients improves overall service quality perceptions. Research limitations - Relies on self-report methods from a relatively small number of individuals. Originality - There have been limited research studies measuring alcohol treatment service quality in the private sector

Making sense of higher education: students as consumers and the value of the university experience

In the global university sector competitive funding models are progressively becoming the norm, and institutions/courses are frequently now subject to the same kind of consumerist pressures typical of a highly marketised environment. In the United Kingdom, for example, students are increasingly demonstrating customer-like behaviour and are now demanding even more ‘value’ from institutions. Value, though, is a slippery concept and has proven problematic both in terms of its conceptualisation and measurement. This article explores the relationship between student value and higher education and, via study in one United Kingdom business school, suggests how this might be better understood and operationalised. Adopting a combined qualitative/quantitative approach, this article also looks to identify which of the key value drivers has most practical meaning and, coincidentally, identifies a value-related difference between home and international students

Exploring the UK high street retail experience: is the service encounter still valued?

Purpose: The relationship between service quality, the service encounter and the retail experience is explored within a changing UK retail environment. Design: Data was gathered from forty customers and twenty staff of an established UK health and beauty retailer with a long standing reputation for personal customer service. A qualitative analysis was applied using both a service quality and a customer value template. Findings: Customers focused more on the utilitarian features of the service experience and less on ‘extraordinary’ aspects, but service staff still perceived that the customer encounter remained a key requisite for successful service delivery. Research implications: Recent environmental developments - involving customers, markets and retail platform structures - are challenging traditional service expectations. Practical Implications: Retailers may need to reassess the role of the service encounter as part of their on-going value proposition. Originality/value: There has been limited research to date on the perception of shoppers to the service encounter in a changing retail environment and to the evolving notions of effort and convenience

Multivariate Regular Variation on Cones: Application to Extreme Values, Hidden Regular Variation and Conditioned Limit Laws

Multivariate Regular Variation on Cones: Application to Extreme Values, Hidden Regular Variation and Conditioned Limit Law

The Influence of Dependence on Data Network Models of Burstiness

The Influence of Dependence on Data Network Models of Burstines

Limit Laws for Random Vectors with an Extreme Component

Limit Laws for Random Vectors with an Extreme Componen

Point processes associated with stationary stable processes

Point processes associated with stationary stable processe

Activity Rates with Very Heavy Tails

Activity Rates with Very Heavy Tail