How Has Physical Theatre Changed Over Time Essay

Physical theatre is a form of performance where movement and physicality of the body has the main part within a performance. There are several quite distinct traditions of performance which all describe themselves using the term â€Å"physical theatre†, which has led to a lot of confusion as to what the definition of physical theatre actually is. The term physical theatre has been applied to performances consisting mainly of mime, contemporary dance, theatrical clowning and other physical comedy (such as slapstick), puppetry and mask work and theatrical acrobatics and lifts. One of the early practitioners of physical theatre was Artaud. His ideas included total theatre, wherein actors appeal to all of the audience’s senses; he rejected the idea of the proscenium arch and directed his actors to use the space in different ways. It was also his view that in performance, all expression was physical expression. Whereas Steven Berkoff’s style incorporates actors using their whole bodies, including facial expressions to tell the audience the story, and actors using their bodies to create sound effects. He is also a great believer in Le Coq’s seven states of tension, in this exercise the actor will move through seven different body states, starting off as exhausted and lazy and finishing in an the highest state of tension. The style of physical theatre can differ widely, but generally in a performance of physical theatre the audience would expect to see: elements of contemporary dance (fluid, graceful movements), detailed mime, as there are often limited props in physical theatre performances, complex lifts sometimes with several people, acrobatics and gymnastics and many fast-paced moments where actors will be stretching the limits of their bodies. One of the first instances of physicality being used within theatres was by the Greeks, as they used a lot of mime and pantomime acts within their performances. The performance of pantomime originates from Ancient Greece, the first recorded pantomime actor being TelestÄ“s in the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus. Mime is u sed to give actors a way of portraying feelings, emotions, and entire stories through movement and expression, which helps in telling the overall story. It gives a focus on expression and movement, and it takes away speech, which makes performers use their bodies and their faces to show to the audience what is happening, therefore making it physical theatre as the body is used rather than the voice. Around the  16th century, Italian theatre developed, what they called, Commedia dell’arte, which is a form of theatre characterized by masked â€Å"types† which began in Italy in the 16th century. The Commedia dell’art characters first began to appear in English plays around 1660. This style of theatre has three important aspects to it; mask, music and costumes. The audience was able to pick up from each character’s dress the type of person he was representing. For example, loose–fitting garments alternated with very tight, and jarring color contrasts opposed monochrome outfits. Males would identify themselves with character-specific costumes and half masks and all the fixed character types, the figure s of fun or satire, wore colored leather masks. Today in Italy handcrafted theatre masks are still created in the ancient tradition of carnacialesca (carnival). Commedia dell’arte is classed as physical theatre as masks forced actors to project their characters’ emotions through the body. Leaps, tumbles, stock gags, obscene gestures and slapstick antics were incorporated into their acts. Pantomime (informally panto), is a type of musical comedy stage production, designed for family entertainment. The origins of pantomime go back to ancient Rome, and was developed in England to generally be performed during the Christmas and New Year season. Modern pantomime includes songs, slapstick comedy and dancing, employs gender-crossing actors, and combines topical humour with a story loosely based on a well-known fairy tale. It is a participatory form of theatre, in which the audience is expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers. The development of English pantomime was strongly influenced by commedia dell’arte. This was a â€Å"comedy of professional artists† travelling from province to province in Italy and then France, who improvised and told comic stories that held lessons for the crowd, changing the main character depending on where they were performing. Pantomime mainly incorperated song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, topical references, audience participation, and mild sexual innuendo. The general movement within Pantomime creates physical theatre as the storyline is presented to the audience mainly through lifts, dance and slapstick, although performers also use their voice throughout. The Theatre of the Absurd is the name for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s, as well as one  for the style of theatre which has evolved from their work. Their work expressed what happens when human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down, alerting their audiences to pursue the opposite. The Absurd in these plays takes the form of man’s reaction to a world apparently without meaning, and/or man as a puppet controlled or menaced by invisible outside forces. Theatre of the Absurd consisted of horrific or tragic images; characters caught in hopeless situations forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichà ©s, wordplay, and nonsense; plots that are cyclical or absurdly expansive. The term â€Å"Theatre of the Absurd† was coined by the critic Martin Esslin, who made it the title of a book on the subject first published in 1961. The â€Å"Absurd† or â€Å"New Theater† movement was originally a Paris-based form of theatre, tied to extremely small theatres. There are many conventions of â€Å"absurd† theatre, such as words often appearring to have lost their denotative function, thus creating misunderstanding among the characters. Instead, language gains a certain rhythmical, almost musical quality; no plot, minimal staging, babbling; abstract setting, â€Å"It is sometimes said to express the ‘human condition’ in a basic or ‘existential’ way† (Worthen 1639 ). Pirandello, one of the first experimentalists, wanted to bring down the fourth wall that was created by Realism, thus creating more physicality and a deeper connection with the audience. Modern physical theatre has grown from a variety of origins. Mime and theatrical clowning schools, such as L’Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, have had a big influence on many modern expressions of physical theatre. Practitioners such as Steven Berkoff and John Wright received their initial training at theatre schools just like this. Contemporary Dance has also had a strong influence on what is regarded as physical theatre, partly because most physical theatre requires the performers to have a level of physical control and flexibility. This is rarely found in those who do not have some sort of movement background. Modern physical theatre also has strong roots in more ancient traditions such as Commedia dell’arte and some people suggest this links to the ancient greek theatre. Eastern Theatre traditions have influenced a number of practitioners who have then influenced physical theatre. A number of Oriental traditions have a high level of physical t raining, and are visual masterpieces. Antonin Artaud was fascinated with the energy and  visual nature of Balinese theatre and wrote extensively on it. He admired Eastern theatre because of the highly ritualized and precise physicality of Balinese dance performance, and advocated what he called a â€Å"Theatre of Cruelty†, which he used to create physical theatre within performances and to describe a form of theatre that he hoped would unleash unconscious responses in audiences and performers that were normally inaccessible. Another physical theatre practioner, Steven Berkoff, used techniques such as background movement, repetitive actions, and mime to explore further the ways in which he approaches exchanges between two characters. Berkoff said that it was important â€Å"to see how I could bring mime together with the spoken word as its opposite partner, creating the form and structure of the piece†. Berkoff also used a theory he called Total Theatre, which is key to him and stemmed from Artaud’s theatre style. Total Theatre maintains that every aspect of theatre must have purpose: every movement, that is chor eographed; to each line, that is learned perfectly; to each lighting effect, that is used to convey a mood or message; to each sound effect, that enhances the audience’s experience; to each prop that has a use. The aim of Total Theatre is to create extreme moods to give the audience an overwhelming experience and to shock, amuse, scare, or amaze them. As a result of Total Theatre, performances are often minimalist, with bare stages and little language so that the focus remains on the physical movement and not on all the effects or the creation of a scene. This serves to detach the audience from the play and make them think about what was being said. However, from 1911 to 1916 Stanislavski, proposed that actors study and experience subjective emotions and feelings and perform these experiences to audiences by physical and vocal means. While in the early stages his ‘system’ focused on creating truthful emotions and embodying them, even though he later worked on the Method of Physical Actions. Its focus was on physical actions as a means to access truthful emotion, and involved improvisation. The focus remained on reaching the subconscious through the conscious. In other words, he wanted the performer to focus internally to portray a character’s emotions onstage. Later, between 1934 and 1938, this technique evolved to a method of physical actions in which emotions are produced through the use of actions. From Greek theatre to modern day, physical theatre has been used by many different practitioners and theatre  groups for one sole purpose; to impact the audience. On one hand, the mime and Commedia dell’arte that the Greeks first developed is still used widely today; mime is still an extremely popular form expression within plays, and commedia dell’arte is still extremely popular in creating humorous performances using masks, and over-exaggerated costumes. Similarly, pantomime is still one of the most popular forms of theatrical entertainment used across the world, achieving physical theatricality by including slapstick, lifts and dances, occasional mask work and costumes. This is effective as it provides the audience with the storyline in a less conventional and, arguably, more interesting way. It intrigues the audience, and makes them feel more emotionally connected with the characters involved in the performance, especially when the performers break the fourth wall, which frequently happens during pantomimes. However it can also be argued that many things have changed as time passed in regards to physical theatre. As technology advanced, the use of lighting and special fx have made creating a dramatic and intense atmosphere easier. Breaking the fourth wall is also a new idea, as the Greeks and Romans believed that the audience should not be included in the performance, and should purely be onlookers, whereas Artaud and Stanislavski believed that by bringing the audience into the performance, it would not only make it more intense and engaging, it would also achieve the â€Å"attacking the senses† criteria that Artaud believed in, by using â€Å"in yer face† theatre to scream and shout in the audience’s face. Physical theatre as it is used today, is st ill very popular with both performers and audiences, as it is both entertaining to watch and perform.

Dynamic Character Essay

In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Guy Montag, qualifies as a dynamic character. A dynamic character is, by definition, a character that undergoes important changes throughout the course of the novel. Because he goes through a metamorphosis as he struggles through internal conflict during the novel, Guy Montag is a dynamic character. In the beginning, Montag is a very normal man relative to his society. He is a city fireman and burns books and houses without regret. Montag loves everything about his job; the power, the destruction of houses and books, and even the smell of the kerosene that he churns out daily. He even feels pride and satisfaction in the jobs he carries out. His change, though, soon begins when he meets with a peculiar girl named Clarisse. Clarisse makes Montag actually think, an uncommon thing in this peculiar society. Her pure innocence brings out a different side of him; one that doesn’t involve thoughtless burnings. He then, as a result of her insight, begins to question himself and even the society he lives in. Another influence on Montag is the suicidal woman whose house he was about to burn. He ponders what in books can be important enough to die for. Her gruesome suicide pushes Montag over the edge and he forces himself to finally open a book. Montag continues his metamorphosis from a heartless book burner to a philosophical learner. Guy continues gaining information and forming his opinion about his odd society. Montag soon realizes that there is no return from his change when he is forced to burn his own house and murder Beatty. In a way he is burning his own past and all that goes with it. His subsequent fleeing of the seen also symbolizes the final step in his change. It is Montag literally leaving his past of senselessness and destruction. Guy Montag becomes a sensible, book loving educator. His metamorphosis is complete with memorizing books in a contribution to end the norm of his  society. He makes a tremendous change both mentally and physically. Because of his change, though it caused him great hardships, Guy Montag is a dynamic character.

Financial Management: Definitions Essay

Define the following terms using your text or other resources. Cite all resources consistent with APA guidelines. Term Definition Resource you used Time value of money Explaind how a dollar received today, other things being  the same, is worth more than a dollar received a year from now. Efficient market efficient market is a market in which all the available information is fully incorporated into securities prices, and the returns investors will earn on their investments cannot be predicted. Primary versus secondary market A primary market is a market in  which new, as opposed to previously issued, securities are bought and sold for the first time. The secondary market is where all subsequent trading of previously issued securities takes place. Risk-return tradeoff investment opportunities  that have different risks and different expected rates of return that reflect those risks. Agency (principal and agent problems) The conflict of interest between the firm’s managers and its stockholders is called a principal-agent problem, or agency problem, in which the firm’s common stockholders, the owners of the firm, are the principals in the relationship, and the managers act as â€Å"agents† to these owners. Market information and security prices and information asymmetry. Through Market information you can know the prices of the different commodities in the market, the supply and the demand situation. Agile and lean principles  to be responsive to changing needs. Previous teachings Return on investment A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. Cash flow and a source of value Cash flow is a revenue or expense stream that changes a cash account over a given period. A source of value is a source of worth, merit or importaince Project management The planning and organization of an organization’s resources in order to move a specific task, event or duty toward completion. Outsourcing and offshoring Offshoring means getting work done in a different country. Outsourcing refers to contracting work out to an external organization. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Offshoring_vs_Outsourcing Inventory turnover A ratio showing how many times a company’s inventory is sold and replaced over a period Investopedia Just-in-time inventory (JIT) Just in time (JIT) inventory is a management system in which materials or products are produced or acquired only as demand requires http://smallbusiness.chron.com/just-time-inventory-definition-23475.html Vender managed inventory (VMI) A means of optimizing Supply Chain performance in which the manufacturer is responsible for maintaining the distributor’s inventory levels. http://www.vendormanagedinventory.com/definition.php Forecasting and demand management Demand management and forecasting is recognizing all demand for goods and services to support the marketplace. Demand is prioritized when supply is lacking. http://www.apics.org/industry-content-research/publications/ombok/apics-ombok-framework-table-of-contents/apics-ombok-framework-5.4

The Brooklyn Arm of Starbucks Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Brooklyn Arm of Starbucks - Assignment Example Below are the proposed steps: Pre-advertising campaign Understanding the expectations of the target audience is of prime importance. We plan to conduct a random-sample research (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.phptitle=Sampling_%28statistics%29&oldid=226589926 ) on what the Brooklyn people expect at Starbucks. For example, they could want a particular flavor peculiar to them. This will help us to have a strong base on which we can build our branding. Re-branding Starbucks already has a strong brand image. We intend to capitalize on it and give it a regional twist to make the branch an instant success. For this, we plan to work on a new profile, specifically catering to Brooklyn, a new tag-line, and a new menu card. With our pre-advertising campaign, we'd also be able to suggest new flavors based on the peoples' opinions. Media Plan Ad Campaigns Prior to the launch of the branch, we plan to use modes such as flyers and pamphlets that could be given out at busy eat-outs, malls and other areas where people meet. Print Ads Print advertisements have a longer shelf life and people retain information very well. Two weeks before the launch, along-side the pamphlets and the flyers, we could advertise in the local dailies. Launch With the campaigns people will be aware of the date, time, and location of Starbucks Coffee new branch launch. Schedule This section describes the project timeline. S.No. Phase Scope Timeline 1. Phase I Conduct a pre-advertising campaign to understand the community's expectations. August 2008 - October 2008 2. Phase II Re-branding October 2008 - November 2008 3. Phase III Ad campaigns December 2008 4. Phase IV Launch January 2009 Resource Distribution This section will describe the project team... Starbucks already has a strong brand image in New York and plans to capitalize on the same in making its new branch a success. For this, Starbucks requires a local Advertising Agency to work out a complete brand building plan for its launch. We have catered to several clients at Brooklyn by researching and understanding the community. All our projects; print and electronic, have been great successes. Our strength lies in our team of brilliant advertising professionals. Understanding the expectations of the target audience is of prime importance. We plan to conduct a random-sample research (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.phptitle=Sampling_%28statistics%29&oldid=226589926 ) on what the Brooklyn people expect at Starbucks. For example, they could want a particular flavor peculiar to them. This will help us to have a strong base on which we can build our branding. Starbucks already has a strong brand image. We intend to capitalize on it and give it a regional twist to make the branch an instant success. For this, we plan to work on a new profile, specifically catering to Brooklyn, a new tag-line, and a new menu card. With our pre-advertising campaign, we'd also be able to suggest new flavors based on the peoples' opinions. We plan to outsource the pre-advertising campaign to a local marketing research co

The different views of marriage Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The different views of marriage - Essay Example The sonnets rank among the finest love lyrics in the English language. The subject of the sonnets – love and the beloved, their soft music and the occasional graceful turn of phrase earn them an elevated place in English literature. A bit more about the title of the sonnet collection, Mrs. Browning was not Portugese, but she was a pronounced brunette, which is why her husband referred to her as â€Å"my little Portugese†. When she compiled her love poems in book form, she remembered the nickname and gave them the title â€Å"Sonnets from the Portugese†. One of the sonnets, Sonnet XLIII, often called â€Å"How Do I Love Thee† is hereby reproduced: Mrs. Browning’s Sonnet XLIII has been called the greatest love lyric in English and many readers would agree. The spontaneity and extent to which the persona in the poem experiences the emotion of love is very clear and evident from the beginning. In the poem, she expresses the fact that love encompasses her whole being and her whole life. Looking into her biography, the reader discovers that she led an active child’s life until one day, in trying to saddle her pony, she fell and suffered an injury that made her a partial invalid for years. In 1816, however, she married the poet Robert Browning and went with him to live in Florence, Italy, where her health improved and where their only son was born. Apparently, marriage and a more cheerful outlook towards life agreed with her and did her a lot of good. Line 9 of the poem would attest to this: â€Å"I love with a passion put to use Not all marriages are as perfect and ecstatic as that of the Brownings. In an analysis of short story that ensues, â€Å"Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin, the negative side of marriage is presented. On the outset, however, the reader is kept guessing (Is the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, a happily-married

Writing about oaranormal such as ghost Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Writing about oaranormal such as ghost - Essay Example have had a paranormal experiences, 56% believe that those ghosts are the spirits of the dead, ad over 60% believe that Ouija boards are â€Å"bad news† (Live Science Staff, 2011). As a believer in ghosts I think that there are many instances and locations that have a great deal of activity that can be and has been captured by, both, freelance and professional television ghost seekers. Again, however, for example if a particular show went to a location and could not get a single interesting, suspicious, or peculiar thing to happen, then one has to ask would they fake when necessary in order to improve the show and provide some sort of evidence by the end of the episode? Granted there are many instances, especially in older homes, where the sounds that people are hearing can be debunked as the natural sounds of aging wood, a settling foundation, and air in the pipes. However, when all practical explanations have been considered and accounted for that leaves the unexplainable. Ultimately, when watching these shows one must decide for themselves which seem the most sincere and believable and which seems staged and set up for the benefit of the cameras. I have seen many shows where the evidence was astonishingly strong and others terribly planned and scripted. In others words, television is filled with all kinds, those based on the legitimate research and seekers of scientific proof of the afterlife and those that take advantage of people who are believers. Live Science Staff. (2011, October 11). americans beliefs in paranormal phenomena (infographic). Live Science, 1. Retrieved from

Anaesthetic nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Anaesthetic nursing - Essay Example A litre bag of Hartman was also started. The spinal anaesthesia was performed in the sitting position at L4/L5 with 2.4mls of bupivacaine 0.5% in hyperbaric dextrose solution of â€Å"Heavy Marcaine†. Immediately following the spinal block, the patient was put back in the supine position, and the operating table altered with left lateral tilt to diminish aorto-caval compression. About 3 minutes later the patient’s blood pressure fell to 103/56mmhg which was the first sign of the effect of spinal anaesthesia. As the medical team was waiting for the spinal to take full effect, the blood pressure further dropped to 86/51mmHg. The patient also complained of nausea and â€Å"not feeling well† and experienced progressive difficulty to breathe. The features that need to be considered are the increasing hypotension that she has suffered, the progressive difficulty in breathing and the nauseous feeling with general unease. sophisticated equipment along with the advantage of developed techniques. Operations are being performed on an ambulatory basis with advanced technologies to meet the demands of a busy environment (Tarkkila 2007). Providing anaesthesia without complications ensures a high degree of satisfaction. However the potential risk is a failure of spinal anaethesia due to incorrect needle placement unlike the other anaesthetic methods where the risk of failure is low. Haemodynamic complications are also possible. Hypotension is one such event which occurs due to the cardiovascular side effects (Tarkkila 1991). The hypotension is a normal physiological effect but it can turn into a complication if the level falls low enough to cause problems. The blood pressure at which interventions are necessary to correct the hypotension has not been decided yet. Clinical judgement by the anaesthesiologist is the method to decide the point to intervene (Tarkkila 2007). Spinal anaesthesia produces a fast, effective and high quality sensory and motor block of the

Medical anthropology -how political economy relates to the issue of Research Paper

Medical anthropology -how political economy relates to the issue of social suffering - Research Paper Example e an aspect that is influenced and affected by numerous interplays of social control issues, ranging from politics, economy, culture, and many more (Brown and Barrett 28). Of particular interest to this study is political economy as well as how it relates to the issue of social suffering. Numerous anthropological theories exist that postulate the relationship between health and interrelated human social environment. Therefore, this paper is arranged in two parts, which are theoretical development of medical anthropology and how political economy relates to the issue of social suffering. The objective of the paper is to clearly outline how social suffering within the perspective of anthropology can be linked to political economy of society. Numerous studies have been undertaken to investigate what causes human health problems in different societies. As a result, different but related frameworks have been developed over a period, that link human health problem to different aspects of ecology, social, cultural, economy, and many more. Donald Joralemon clearly shows how people understand social suffering brought about by presence of diseases and illness using different anthropological perspectives (307). The author develops and explains three types of anthropological perspective that can be used to explain social suffering that human undergo such as disease. The three perspectives include ecological/evolutionary perspective, political/economic perspective, and interpretive perspective (Ember and Ember 307). It becomes possible for one to explain the presence and persistence of social suffering humans go through in any given society. Of interest to this study is the political/economic perspective, which postulates that soc iety is made up of social classes that exhibit differences in terms of resource accessibility, and this particular situation leads to differential occurrence and recurrence of diseases and illness in the society (Ember and Ember 307). The influence of

RE-WRITING SWOT ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIOns Essay

RE-WRITING SWOT ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIOns - Essay Example (1) For over thirty years that Etisalat has been in operation, the company has been on the forefront in being innovative and providing reliable services. This has been possible due to its heavy investment in infrastructure which is the best within the Middle East region. Some of the services provided by Etisalat include money transfer services which are very sensitive and without a secure network, the services may be compromised thus lowering the integrity of the company. It suffices to say that the optimization of security program within Etisalat is quite quintessential in the view of the planned expansion. This notwithstanding, the company has been expanding at a phenomenal rate of the last few years which necessitates special attention to the security details. However due to the sensitive information of the whole company’s operational system it was very hard to delve deeper into more details and that’s why we had the one and only access to the security section to allow as further investigate how the security operation management that protects the whole company assets following international standards and best practices. This paper summarizes the operation of security assurance system in Etisalat, the design and strategy of new services, the difficulties associated with the security operation, and the future of Etisalat. An interview was conducted with 2 security engineers due to the tight time we had to ensure the completion of the operation management research. Collin& Roger (2003) favor qualitative methods, for example, interviewing, because these methods are considered as particularly helpful in the generation of an intensive, detailed examination of a case. First and foremost, operation management (OM) has been widely studied recently to measure the profound impact of it on the various firms around the globe. Productivity, processes, customer service, competitive

Information management system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Information management system - Essay Example ............12 Information Management System –  Google Plus Executive summary The advancements that have been made in technology over the years have led to a change in the ways that organizations conduct their business activities, with new methods and practices having been introduced in this neo modern era as a result. Whereas many functions were mostly handled manually or at least supervised thus in the past, the progress that has been made in the software and hardware industry have allowed for more mechanized responsibility to take over. This has proved to be more efficient and accurate in terms of capability and companies are beginning to realize the importance of inducting their organizations to this technological revolution. Among the various advancements that have been made in this era is the creation of Information Management Systems. These are one of the more popular inventions to enter the various industries and have proved to be a great success in the various field s in which they have been applied. A thorough study of the various models available to an organization serves to educate the company on the best strategy to implement according to their particular needs. Introduction Information management systems can be described as a collection of both hardware and software combined with the ability to receive and filter raw data and then process and use it to create new data relevant to certain organization.. The ability of Information Systems (IS) to perform these tasks has made life a whole lot easier for organizations operating on the basis of large amounts of different types of information flowing within and without the company in order for it to function efficiently. What previously took a lot of man power and hard labor can now be done in a span of minutes as the Information Systems are able to calculate needed equations at a considerably faster rate than man. As a result, these Information Systems have now occupied a strategic role in cont emporary business  Ã‚   organizations that now use them to build sustainable competitive advantages over their rivals as they try to maintain an edge above the rest of their peers in the industry. Conceptual framework Google is one such company that can be used as an example of the importance of Information Systems in the new age business (Google). As this organization started out as a search engine, it can be said that information was the forte that it dealt with and this is something that is still needed to date not only in their original business, but in their in-house activities as well. The organizational strategy of the company can thus said to be the future expansion of its influence on the social network market through the introduction of new and unique services within Google Plus to attract new clientele. Before one studies the various Information Systems that are used by the company and the various advantages that they bring to the table however, it is essential to first try and understand the strategy that they have undertaken within the market to ensure that they maintain their competitive edge and are not usurped by their rivals (McKeen & Smith 89). This can be done using the Michael Porter’

Seiler BMW London Essay Example for Free

Seiler BMW London Essay I want to include the BMW logo on the top middle and my logo on the top right so when people open a letter they can see straight away, that it is a letter from the BMW company. And after that they see my logo and know from what BMW company. compliment slips: I want to include BMW logo and my own logo beside each other on the bottom right. So you can find it straight away, when you are looking through a bunch of compliment slips. 3-folded leaflet: I want to include my and BMWs logo on the bottom, beside each other, on the last page. So when you looked through it you see what company it is from. Also I want to put a little BMW logo in the middle of the first page. These are the two logos: BMWs on the right and my one on left: Design In my design I will decide between 3 3-folded leaflets, 3 business cards, 3 headed paper and 3 compliment slips. I will design everything myself and I will produce the chosen design for my company: Seiler BMW London I will design all of my product by hand on the following pages. I will include some of the information I analysed on my collected BMW product. I also have to include the BMW logo and my logo on every product. On the following pages I will show you 3 sketches of every Item I want to produce. I will choose on of these and tell you why Ive chosen it. On the next page I will how you 3 headed paper designs. I will show every design (of the product) to people and get their opinion. They will choose with me what product I am going to produce because it is not important if I think that the product is good but the people have to tell me if it is good. So every produced product was chosen by me and the opinion of the people Ive asked. I will show now ones more the BMW logo and my logo (Seiler BMW London) so I can show the EXACT colour I have to use on my products: Dark Blue White Black Grey (letters).

Relationship of a Father and Son Essay Example for Free

Relationship of a Father and Son Essay The moment where everything changed was the day Manning finally won his first arm wrestling match, his father gained some respect towards him and they both learned valuable lessons. One was manning learned that his father was a great parent in his own way and his father learned that being rough isnt the only way you can show affection to your son. On the other hand, in Shooting Dad†, Sarah Vowell describes the political differences her and he father have. In the house she states that one was a republican and the other was a democratic (171). Every time they would try to start a normal conversation they would end up arguing, and having discussions of who beat who. In the end she matures and realizes that they both are actually very alike. Communication is not as easy as it seems but if you take the time to listen and pay attention to details in life you’ll find that your parents’ views aren’t so far off of yours. The fathers competitive side was his way of showing his communicative relationship with his son. Manning used to be able to enjoy a relaxed game of arm wrestling with his father before but as time passed everything became more real and competitive. He states, I always had to lose Want to try it again? he would ask, grinning. and with squinting eyes he would laugh at me, a high laugh, through his perfect white teeth (163). The relationship between the father and son was a physical rough relationship. The attitude of the father impedes the communication to surpass the bond of strength that they have now. The father was seen as the protector of the family. He was the tough guy, who wouldnt show emotions. The son realized that his father has been the person he was for them. He guided them and helped them in the toughest situations in life. The age difference impeded the positive communication between them. This all started when he was a teen. The mental state of a son differs from the mental state of a father. The awareness, attitude, and strength all change as he matures over the years. As he grew he started working out more and became stronger while the dad was aging. The moment he realized he had matured and now viewed life different was when his dad challenged him to what was his last arm wrestling challenge between them. He felt sorry but the power that he was gaining was too exciting to let go of. When he was small the dad was the one with the power, he was the man of the house but now that he won he has now taken the responsibility to take that next challenge and soon be the adult, the head of household the one to take care of the family. He learned a lesson that changed the communication between him and his father. In my life as Ive grown Ive noticed a difference between the communication of my father and I. Before we would talk about dolls and makeup and now we communicate by being rough. We have competitions about the smallest things like whats that color to who will win the wrestling match or soccer game. At first to me all that was boring and bland, but as he started to get older he distanced himself from me. What stopped us from being able to communicate was the fact that we both had different views in life. I was focused on school and focused on achieving my goal to graduate and his focus was on his work and sports. We would spend limited time together that we had so much to talk about yet we would stay quiet for hours. He slowly became more involved in my school and studies and I would get pointers from him on how to play the sport correctly. Now during weekends we go to baseball games, basketball games, or to the library. Our bond has grown to be a strong relationship. The love between families is always there, it’s just that people choose to show their affection in many different ways. Manning and Vowell explain how they struggled to communicate with their father’s but overall they ended up figuring out that they are similar in many way to their father’s. The form that Manning was able to communicate or interact with his father was through a physical tough relation and the Vowell was through nature as she took photos and as he killed it. Learning to communicate can be the key to life; its just the matter of finding happiness between the people.

Customer Satisfaction Towards Service Quality

Customer Satisfaction Towards Service Quality QUESTIONAIRE ABSTRACT In any business-to-customer (B2C) type ofenvironment, satisfying a customer is the ultimate goal and objective. More often than not, it can be quite an issue. This is perhaps due to the fact that organizations sometimes do not really understand of what actually goes on in a customers mind. As such, this predicament has provided as a challenging task to most business conglomerates that places strong emphasis on customer relations. Although many researches and studies were conducted on the actual working of the customers mind, till today it is a still a mystery. Therefore, this research focused on the measurement of customer satisfaction through delivery of service quality of Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. A quantitative research was used to study the relationship between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction. Assurance has positive relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Reliability has negative relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Tangibles have positive relationship and have significant impact on customer satisfaction. Empathy has positive relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Responsiveness has positive relationship but no significant impact on customer satisfaction. The study highlights implications for marketers in banking industry for improvement in delivery of service quality. CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION Service organizations play an important role for developing countries like Malaysia. Therefore, it must be good quality and competitive organization in maintaining customer satisfaction and further needs to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. At the same time, as we all know that the requirements and higher customer expectations, it is different from the past (Rogerio Zulema, 2002). This is a very great challenge to all sectors. Banking business is now driven with the introduction of new products / services and processes which are facilitated through ongoing technological advancements. In such a scenario the expectations of customers also shift to a higher platform and is usually perceived against the backdrop of the experiences gained while dealing with competitors. The gap in customer expectations many a times results in complaints and the same can be said to be inevitable, as in any service industry. To retain as also increase customer base it is absolutely essential that the bank instills confidence in its customers through satisfactory explanations and resolution of complaints and at the same time use complaints as a feed back mechanism for bringing about improvement in services. The banking sector at present has put a benchmark index that determines the performance of Customer Service in the organization. It is also consistent with the requirements of the Bank that all institutions must be able to respond positively to a more competitive among the financial liberalization and technological revolution by offering an innovative range of products that range and improve the quality of customer service on an ongoing basis. (Tan Sri Dato Dr Zeti Akhtar Azizi, 2005). The banking sector also needs quality personnel and competency. Having employees like them to provide high quality products and services is critical to build consumer confidence and good relationship, drive customer satisfaction and enhance the reputation of previous research studies, (Ndubisi Tam, 2005) has stated bind the customer is as important as when they lose will harm the institution. This will lead to a decline in revenue, increased costs to attract new customers, a bad reputation when the customer is not satisfied the problem will spread to other customers and a decline in employee retention (Colgate Norris, 2001). 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT The trend of world markets has changed noticeably from agricultural to service markets (Asian Development Outlook, 2007). All of the service businesses are trying their best to improve their service quality in order to make customers satisfied with their services. Banks now focus more on the quality standards in order to meet the basic needs and expectations of the customers. Once customers requirements are clearly identified and understood, banks are more likely to anticipate and fulfill their customers needs and wants (Juwaheer Ross, 2003). In the banking sector, the first place of destination by the customer is at the Customer Service Counter (Customer Service). Here, various questions, problems and complaints filed by customers. At the bank, customer service counter is the most important because this is where the Customer Relations Assistant job set to any direction so that customers, whether customers want to continue the operation of the counter, self-service terminals, counters open accounts, loans or financial adviser or directly to managers to make a complaint. Service quality was determined as the subjective comparison that customers make between their expectations about a service and the perception of the way the service has been run. Parasuraman (1985) defined service quality as ;a function of the differences between expectation and performance along ten major dimensions. In later research, Parasuraman (1988) revised and defined the service quality in terms of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. In the banking industry, most researchers are interested in maximizing customer Satisfaction. Hernon Whitwan (2001) defined customer satisfaction as a measure of how the customer perceives service delivery. Liu (2000) stated, for example, that customer satisfaction is a function of service performance relative to the customer expectation. For this reason, it is important to understand how customer expectation is formed in order to identify the factors of service satisfaction. As Reisig Chandek (2001) discussed the fact that different customers have different expectations, based on their knowledge of a product or service. This can be implied that a customer may estimate what the service performance will be or may think what the performance ought to be. If the service performance meets or exceeds customers expectation, the customers will be satisfied. On the other hand, customers are more likely to be dissatisfied if the service performance is less than what they have expected. A greater number of satisfied customers will make the bank business more successful and more profitable. Previous research explored customer satisfaction regarding the service quality of all areas in the bank so that the bank can assess the customer perception. This study identified five factors of service quality by focusing on the Service Counter staff (including Customer Service Counter), and explored the customers expectations and perception levels of these services at Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. The results of this quantitative assessment of service quality might provide some insights into how customers rate the overall service quality and assessed customers satisfactions at Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. The study is intended to identify customer satisfaction and retention is critical for retail banks, and investigates the major determinants of customer satisfaction and future intentions in the retail bank sector. Identifies the determinants which include service quality dimensions (e.g. getting it right the first time), service features (e.g. competitive interest rates), service problems, service recovery and products used. Banks are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the bankss products. 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To assess customers expectation and perception level towards service quality of the Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia; in five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman, 1988). To analyze the discrepancy gap between customers expectation and perception towards the service quality of the Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is the level of customers expectation and perception towards service quality of the Service Counter staff? What is the discrepancy gap between customers expectation and perception towards service quality of the Service Counter staff? 1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY Customer satisfaction relied on customer expectation and customer perception towards 5 service quality dimensions of Service Counters of 10 Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. The sampling group was 60 customers 6 customers from each bank. Definition of Terms Service quality means the difference between the customers expectation of service and their perceived service. In this study, the assessment standards of Zeithaml, Parasuraman Berry (1990) will be used, which consist of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. SERVQUAL is an instrument for measuring service quality, in terms of the discrepancy between customers expectation regarding service offered and the perception of the service received. Respondents are required to answer questions about both their expectation and their perception. Customer expectation means uncontrollable factors including past experience, personal needs, word of mouth, and external communication about the bank services. Customer perception means customers feelings of pleasure / displeasure or the reaction of the customers in relation to the performance of the bank staff in satisfying / dissatisfying the services. 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study will be as a practical guideline for the bank management to identify weaknessess and rooms for imrovement in their service quality. Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where banks compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. The study is intended to identify customer satisfaction and retention is critical for retail banks, and investigates the major determinants of customer satisfaction and future intentions in the retail bank sector. Identifies the determinants which include service quality dimensions, service features, service problems, service recovery and products used. Finds, in particular, that service problems and the banks service recovery ability have a major impact on customer satisfaction and intentions to switch. This study investigates the relationship between perceived performance, satisfaction and behavioural intention, and the extent to which each is associated with actual performance, customers attributions for problems, experience and the level of performance which customers think is possible. Perceived performance and satisfaction are significantly associated with customer standards of the best possible performance, and satisfaction is also associated with the customers attribution of the cause of performance problems. While satisfaction was significantly associated with intention to re-purchase, a significant interaction was found between customer experience and satisfaction. Banks are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organizations products. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Previous researchers have demonstrated the importance of increasing understanding of strategies to resolve customer complaints and more to study the behavior of customers, namely quality of life sex Ndubisi, 2005. Study customer behavior through the CM model to take the complaint as an opportunity to provide solutions, research studies and the Vos Huitema, 2008. As the study by Baptista, 2003 in which an organization should attempt to resolve complaints informally, taken orally and should make proper records and the complaint should be resolved as soon as possible so the problem does not persist. They have also emphasized differences in complaints against the Service Counter and self service terminals Vihtkari Snellman, 2003, is the notion that the use of self-service terminals in the bank to reduce customer complaints, but rather a circumstance where there is 40 per cent of users are not satisfied with the self-service. Researchers previously expressed understanding of customer dissatisfaction is the key to successful implementation of TQM and principals as well as the Puga Leal Pereira, 2002. Researchers say previous satisfaction is waiting to be served a major contributor to quality of service satisfaction Sulek Hensley, 2007. Researchers previously expressed satisfaction with the care, satisfaction, trust and satisfaction as a control, each dependent on each other that Beverland, 2005. Previous researchers to state that organizations need to keep employees as customers and keeping customers as employees of Bowers Martin, 2004. Researchers found that the quality of a product is dependent on the existing knowledge in the management of the Yang, 2006. Researchers say there is a strong relationship between the dimensions of service quality, performance and customer satisfaction. Previous studies have identified the benefits that customer retention delivers to an organisation (see Colgate et al., 1996; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Storbacka et al., 1994). For example, the longer a customer stays with an organisation the more utility the customer generates (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). This is an outcome of a number of factors relating to the time the customer spends with the organisation. These include the higher initial costs of introducing and attracting a new customer, increases in both the value and number of purchases, the customers better understanding of the organisation, and positive word-of-mouth promotion. Customer satisfaction has been said one of the most widely used study in marketing. The previous research has tries to identify a number of variables of customer satisfaction. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement, although a large quantity of research in this area has recently been developed. Work done by Berry (Bart Allen) and Brodeur between 1990 and 1998 defined ten Quality Values which influence satisfaction behavior, further expanded by Berry in 2002 and known as the ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access, Environment, Inter-departmental Teamwork, Front line Service Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation. These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement and organizational change measurement and are most often utilized to develop the architecture for satisfaction measurement as an integrated model. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customers expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a satisfaction gap which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the confirmation/disconfirmation theory of combining the gap described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance according to expectation. According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception of performance divided by expectation of performance. The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a study with a set of statements using a Likert scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance of the organization being measured. Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. In the net promoter framework, Promoters are viewed as valuable assets that drive profitable growth because of their repeat/increased purchases, longevity and referrals, while Detractors are seen as liabilities that destroy profitable growth because of their complaints, reduced purchases/defection and negative word-of-mouth. Companies calculate their Net Promoter Score by subtracting their % Detractors from their % Promoters. The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers. Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to questionnaires onto his model. SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer) to indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience. J.D. Power and Associates provides another measure of customer satisfaction, known for its top-box approach and automotive industry rankings. J.D. Power and Associates marketing research consists primarily of consumer surveys and is publicly known for the value of its product awards. One of the newest and most innovative customer satisfaction measurement methodologies is called Gustometria. Gustometria is real time measurement of customer and employee satisfaction. Customers are invited to answer a short survey by touching the gustometer screen with their fingers. The responses are collected immediately by the Gustometria servers which tabulate the results in real time. Management can then log into their private website and use the sophisticated business intelligence reports which are built in to the Gustometria system. The rewards to firms that establish a loyal customer base have been well documented (Armstrong and Symonds, 1991; Heskett, 1994; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). In general, increased loyalty leads to lower costs of servicing the firms customers, reduced marketing expenditures, increased business from the existing customer base and greater profits. These rewards are particularly true in the retail banking sector. By increasing loyalty, a retail bank: reduces its servicing costs (i.e. accounts do not have to be opened or closed, and credit ratings do not have to be established; gains knowledge of the financial affairs and needs of its customers (thereby allowing effective and efficient targeting); and has an opportunity to cross-sell existing and new products and services. In one case, a retail bank that increased its customer retention rates by 5 per cent increased its profits by 85 per cent (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Improving customer satisfaction, and thereby retention rates, can come from a variety of activities available to the firm. The existing evidence suggests that major gains in customer satisfaction are likely to come from improvements in: Service quality; Service features; and Customer complaint handling. Not surprisingly, there are strong linkages between service quality dimensions (e.g. courteous service providers) and overall customer satisfaction (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993). However, there has been considerable debate as to the basic dimensions of service quality (see Brown et al., 1993 and Cronin and Taylor, 1992, for reviews), the measurement of these dimensions (Brown et al., 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1993; Smith, 1995; Teas, 1993), and the components of customer satisfaction (Hausknecht, 1990; Yi, 1990). Surprisingly, little empirical research has examined the importance of service quality dimensions in determining customer satisfaction. CHAPTER 3: THEORICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 THEORICAL FRAMEWORK Independent Variables Dependent Variable SOURCES OF DISSATISFACTION Some empirical studies of service satisfaction suggest that â€Å"the human interaction component of service delivery is essential to the determination of satisfaction and dissatisfaction† (Bitner, 1990). According to Anderson and Sullivan (1993), when consumers perceived service quality performance falls short of their expectation, they become dissatisfied. Lewis and Spyrakopoulos (2001), in their research conducted on UK retail banking, categorized the causes of dissatisfaction in banking sector into five groups i.e. 1) Banking Procedures: Bureaucracy and slow banking, and Failure to keep customers fully aware of their banking situation. 2) Mistakes (i.e. wrong statement) 3) Employee behavior and training: Employees ignorant of certain banking procedures and Employees unwilling or slow to help the customer 4) Functional or technical failures: Long and/or unorganized queues ATMs out of order Limited network or branches Incomprehensible statements of accounts, terms of loans, conversions etc. 5) Action or omission of the bank that are against the sense of fair trade. Yanamandram and White (2004), in their research mentioned nine factors as main reasons ofdissatisfaction. These are lack of branch locations, high interest rates on loans etc, low interest rates on savings, long waiting periods, number of accounts fees, high account fees, poor counter fees, poor counter service, e-banking confusing, poor telephone banking service and others. Furthermore Johnston (1995), in his research demonstrated that, for personal customer of banks, the main sources of satisfaction are attentiveness, responsiveness, care and friendliness whereas the main sources of dissatisfaction are lack of integrity, reliability, responsiveness, availability and functionality. Further he argued that, all the reasons of dissatisfaction are not necessarily the other face of the sources of satisfaction though responsiveness is key component in providing satisfaction and the lack of it is a major source of dissatisfaction. Gronroos, C. (1984), cited in Panther and Farquhar (2004), argued service industry is much prone to entail greater dissatisfaction than products because both technical and functional aspects have an impact on consumer evaluation of the services. In financial services, self-service technologies (SSTs) become more wining tool to deal with customers resulting in customer dissatisfaction. To illustrate banks have adopted internet banking as service delivery tool, with a view to providing better and lowering costs, and sometimes new services to their customers. Further, they explained that presently as a regular practice banks start offering self-service technologies without having carefully studied what the true outcomes will be when customers interact with technology without a human component in the service encounter. SSTs interact with customer in a pre-designed way, rather than understanding individual customers need. Bitner (1990), found several satisfactions and dissatisfaction drivers applying criticalincident techniques. They identified key actions such as employee response to customer needs and requests, failure of service recovery action, lack of prompt and spontaneous employee actions result in both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Day and Bodur (1977) argued in their research that in most cases dissatisfaction is directly linked with quality of suppliers performance. In their research most frequently mentioned reason for dissatisfaction was, â€Å"The service was rendered in a careless, unprofessional manner.† Some researchers observe dissatisfaction drivers are determined at the time when customers directly interact with a service. Some aspects of a service may not be persuasive for customer satisfaction but can lead to strong dissatisfaction when they are under performed. On the other hand, some aspects of service lead to satisfaction if delivered properly, but may not necessarily emerge dissatisfaction if absent (Srijumpa , 2007). Furthermore, Bolfing (1989), argued that â€Å"Heterogeneity and intangible nature of services itself frequently produced situation in which customers needs are misjudged or mishandled resulting in customers dissatisfaction†. That is the nature of services itself is also a source of dissatisfaction. IMPROVEMENT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS Gummesson (1999), finds three different options that a customer can choose between when he or she feels dissatisfied with something that involves their present supplier where the first one is to exit the customers leave for a competitor, or stop buying the goods or services temporarily or permanently. This option is also pointed out by Brandt (2003), who states that if a customer is not satisfied with the product or the salesperson, he or she simply does not purchase from the company again. The second choice is called voice the customers speak their mind and demand correction, and the third option is loyalty the customers remain loyal for lack of alternative suppliers or prohibitive switching costs, inertia, ideological reasons and others, at least within limits. All these options are used by customers according to Gummesson, who continues that the feeling behind them, however, is largely a black box to suppliers. Recovery is more than settling a claim, it is the restoration and strengthening of a long-term relationship and the course of action must be constructive, not just a mechanical routine. If the recovery is successful, continues Gummesson (1999) strengthened by Brandt (2003), then a well resolved customer complaint can create a solid relationship, sometimes better than before the incident. Another aspect that can be turned into something positive according to Arnerup and Edvardsson (1992) is that although many companies consider a customer complaint as something negative, they should instead use it as a possibility to learn more about the customers needs, improve the conditions to satisfy them and strengthen the relationship with them. Nyer (2000) states that customers who were encouraged to complain reported great increase in satisfaction. The author continues that the indirect benefits occurs when an unhappy customer complains, which leads the employee to respond in a way that makes the customer less dissatisfied in the future, and therefore benefits the company as well. Research has shown that excellent complaint management and service recovery can significantly influence customer satisfaction (Johnston, 2001). Furthermore the majority of highly satisfying experiences were the result of something that went wrong and the organization making the effort to compensate the customer: â€Å"The recovery of failures can provide a major opportunity for organizations to create very satisfied customers†. The critical issue is that it is not necessarily the failure itself that leads to customer dissatisfaction; many customers accept that things can go wrong; instead, it is more likely to be the organizations response (or lack of response) to a failure that causes satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Johnston, 2001). Kahn (1995, p. 97) has similar opinions, when emphasizing that it is beneficial to companies to encourage their customer to perform complaints when they are upset or dissatisfied, since these customers can become even more loyal and satisfied customers in the future. Halstead and Page (reported in Johnston, 2001) also find that complaint handling processes shows a clear relationship with loyalty and repurchases intentions. Furthermore, customers who have been successfully recovered not only remain loyal, but can become advocates for the organization, and as such be a source of referral business because word of mouth can be very persuasive in terms of influencing customers to use an organization and its services claims Spreng et al (reviewed in Johnston, 2001). Brandt (2003) follows the same track, describing that customers who experiences a good service recovery will spread more goodwill than even your otherwise best loyal customers do. Soderlund (1999), claims that even though a customer has shown dissatisfaction and directed complaints towards the company, he or she does not necessarily has to be â€Å"lost† to the company, a pleasing reaction and action can turn the annoyance to satisfaction. In many cases, a good recovery can turn upset customers into even more loyal customers and strengthen relationships. Customer retention has been shown to have a direct impact on revenue and profitability states Loveman (reported in Johnston, 2001). Loyal customers tend to buy more, and are willing to pay premium prices, and the company needs to spend less money on marketing activities, all of which increase revenue and profitability according to Johnston (2001). Companies need to understand that even though it is possible to retain dissatisfied customers, it can be difficult since not all customer complain to the company, out of 25 per cent dissatisfied customer, only 5 per cent finds making the effort of complaining worth. While according to Kotler (2003) and out of these 5 per cent, half of the customers report a satisfactory resolution. On average, continues the author, a dissatisfied customer gripes to 11 other persons whereas the satisfied customer only tells three other people, this is also commented by Soderlund, (1997) who finds that satisfied Customer Satisfaction Towards Service Quality Customer Satisfaction Towards Service Quality QUESTIONAIRE ABSTRACT In any business-to-customer (B2C) type ofenvironment, satisfying a customer is the ultimate goal and objective. More often than not, it can be quite an issue. This is perhaps due to the fact that organizations sometimes do not really understand of what actually goes on in a customers mind. As such, this predicament has provided as a challenging task to most business conglomerates that places strong emphasis on customer relations. Although many researches and studies were conducted on the actual working of the customers mind, till today it is a still a mystery. Therefore, this research focused on the measurement of customer satisfaction through delivery of service quality of Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. A quantitative research was used to study the relationship between service quality dimensions and customer satisfaction. Assurance has positive relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Reliability has negative relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Tangibles have positive relationship and have significant impact on customer satisfaction. Empathy has positive relationship but it has no significant effect on customer satisfaction. Responsiveness has positive relationship but no significant impact on customer satisfaction. The study highlights implications for marketers in banking industry for improvement in delivery of service quality. CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION Service organizations play an important role for developing countries like Malaysia. Therefore, it must be good quality and competitive organization in maintaining customer satisfaction and further needs to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. At the same time, as we all know that the requirements and higher customer expectations, it is different from the past (Rogerio Zulema, 2002). This is a very great challenge to all sectors. Banking business is now driven with the introduction of new products / services and processes which are facilitated through ongoing technological advancements. In such a scenario the expectations of customers also shift to a higher platform and is usually perceived against the backdrop of the experiences gained while dealing with competitors. The gap in customer expectations many a times results in complaints and the same can be said to be inevitable, as in any service industry. To retain as also increase customer base it is absolutely essential that the bank instills confidence in its customers through satisfactory explanations and resolution of complaints and at the same time use complaints as a feed back mechanism for bringing about improvement in services. The banking sector at present has put a benchmark index that determines the performance of Customer Service in the organization. It is also consistent with the requirements of the Bank that all institutions must be able to respond positively to a more competitive among the financial liberalization and technological revolution by offering an innovative range of products that range and improve the quality of customer service on an ongoing basis. (Tan Sri Dato Dr Zeti Akhtar Azizi, 2005). The banking sector also needs quality personnel and competency. Having employees like them to provide high quality products and services is critical to build consumer confidence and good relationship, drive customer satisfaction and enhance the reputation of previous research studies, (Ndubisi Tam, 2005) has stated bind the customer is as important as when they lose will harm the institution. This will lead to a decline in revenue, increased costs to attract new customers, a bad reputation when the customer is not satisfied the problem will spread to other customers and a decline in employee retention (Colgate Norris, 2001). 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT The trend of world markets has changed noticeably from agricultural to service markets (Asian Development Outlook, 2007). All of the service businesses are trying their best to improve their service quality in order to make customers satisfied with their services. Banks now focus more on the quality standards in order to meet the basic needs and expectations of the customers. Once customers requirements are clearly identified and understood, banks are more likely to anticipate and fulfill their customers needs and wants (Juwaheer Ross, 2003). In the banking sector, the first place of destination by the customer is at the Customer Service Counter (Customer Service). Here, various questions, problems and complaints filed by customers. At the bank, customer service counter is the most important because this is where the Customer Relations Assistant job set to any direction so that customers, whether customers want to continue the operation of the counter, self-service terminals, counters open accounts, loans or financial adviser or directly to managers to make a complaint. Service quality was determined as the subjective comparison that customers make between their expectations about a service and the perception of the way the service has been run. Parasuraman (1985) defined service quality as ;a function of the differences between expectation and performance along ten major dimensions. In later research, Parasuraman (1988) revised and defined the service quality in terms of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. In the banking industry, most researchers are interested in maximizing customer Satisfaction. Hernon Whitwan (2001) defined customer satisfaction as a measure of how the customer perceives service delivery. Liu (2000) stated, for example, that customer satisfaction is a function of service performance relative to the customer expectation. For this reason, it is important to understand how customer expectation is formed in order to identify the factors of service satisfaction. As Reisig Chandek (2001) discussed the fact that different customers have different expectations, based on their knowledge of a product or service. This can be implied that a customer may estimate what the service performance will be or may think what the performance ought to be. If the service performance meets or exceeds customers expectation, the customers will be satisfied. On the other hand, customers are more likely to be dissatisfied if the service performance is less than what they have expected. A greater number of satisfied customers will make the bank business more successful and more profitable. Previous research explored customer satisfaction regarding the service quality of all areas in the bank so that the bank can assess the customer perception. This study identified five factors of service quality by focusing on the Service Counter staff (including Customer Service Counter), and explored the customers expectations and perception levels of these services at Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. The results of this quantitative assessment of service quality might provide some insights into how customers rate the overall service quality and assessed customers satisfactions at Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. The study is intended to identify customer satisfaction and retention is critical for retail banks, and investigates the major determinants of customer satisfaction and future intentions in the retail bank sector. Identifies the determinants which include service quality dimensions (e.g. getting it right the first time), service features (e.g. competitive interest rates), service problems, service recovery and products used. Banks are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the bankss products. 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To assess customers expectation and perception level towards service quality of the Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia; in five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy (Parasuraman, 1988). To analyze the discrepancy gap between customers expectation and perception towards the service quality of the Service Counter staff of Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS What is the level of customers expectation and perception towards service quality of the Service Counter staff? What is the discrepancy gap between customers expectation and perception towards service quality of the Service Counter staff? 1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY Customer satisfaction relied on customer expectation and customer perception towards 5 service quality dimensions of Service Counters of 10 Commercial Banks in Penang, Malaysia. The sampling group was 60 customers 6 customers from each bank. Definition of Terms Service quality means the difference between the customers expectation of service and their perceived service. In this study, the assessment standards of Zeithaml, Parasuraman Berry (1990) will be used, which consist of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. SERVQUAL is an instrument for measuring service quality, in terms of the discrepancy between customers expectation regarding service offered and the perception of the service received. Respondents are required to answer questions about both their expectation and their perception. Customer expectation means uncontrollable factors including past experience, personal needs, word of mouth, and external communication about the bank services. Customer perception means customers feelings of pleasure / displeasure or the reaction of the customers in relation to the performance of the bank staff in satisfying / dissatisfying the services. 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study will be as a practical guideline for the bank management to identify weaknessess and rooms for imrovement in their service quality. Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard. In a competitive marketplace where banks compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy. The study is intended to identify customer satisfaction and retention is critical for retail banks, and investigates the major determinants of customer satisfaction and future intentions in the retail bank sector. Identifies the determinants which include service quality dimensions, service features, service problems, service recovery and products used. Finds, in particular, that service problems and the banks service recovery ability have a major impact on customer satisfaction and intentions to switch. This study investigates the relationship between perceived performance, satisfaction and behavioural intention, and the extent to which each is associated with actual performance, customers attributions for problems, experience and the level of performance which customers think is possible. Perceived performance and satisfaction are significantly associated with customer standards of the best possible performance, and satisfaction is also associated with the customers attribution of the cause of performance problems. While satisfaction was significantly associated with intention to re-purchase, a significant interaction was found between customer experience and satisfaction. Banks are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organizations products. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Previous researchers have demonstrated the importance of increasing understanding of strategies to resolve customer complaints and more to study the behavior of customers, namely quality of life sex Ndubisi, 2005. Study customer behavior through the CM model to take the complaint as an opportunity to provide solutions, research studies and the Vos Huitema, 2008. As the study by Baptista, 2003 in which an organization should attempt to resolve complaints informally, taken orally and should make proper records and the complaint should be resolved as soon as possible so the problem does not persist. They have also emphasized differences in complaints against the Service Counter and self service terminals Vihtkari Snellman, 2003, is the notion that the use of self-service terminals in the bank to reduce customer complaints, but rather a circumstance where there is 40 per cent of users are not satisfied with the self-service. Researchers previously expressed understanding of customer dissatisfaction is the key to successful implementation of TQM and principals as well as the Puga Leal Pereira, 2002. Researchers say previous satisfaction is waiting to be served a major contributor to quality of service satisfaction Sulek Hensley, 2007. Researchers previously expressed satisfaction with the care, satisfaction, trust and satisfaction as a control, each dependent on each other that Beverland, 2005. Previous researchers to state that organizations need to keep employees as customers and keeping customers as employees of Bowers Martin, 2004. Researchers found that the quality of a product is dependent on the existing knowledge in the management of the Yang, 2006. Researchers say there is a strong relationship between the dimensions of service quality, performance and customer satisfaction. Previous studies have identified the benefits that customer retention delivers to an organisation (see Colgate et al., 1996; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Storbacka et al., 1994). For example, the longer a customer stays with an organisation the more utility the customer generates (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). This is an outcome of a number of factors relating to the time the customer spends with the organisation. These include the higher initial costs of introducing and attracting a new customer, increases in both the value and number of purchases, the customers better understanding of the organisation, and positive word-of-mouth promotion. Customer satisfaction has been said one of the most widely used study in marketing. The previous research has tries to identify a number of variables of customer satisfaction. Because satisfaction is basically a psychological state, care should be taken in the effort of quantitative measurement, although a large quantity of research in this area has recently been developed. Work done by Berry (Bart Allen) and Brodeur between 1990 and 1998 defined ten Quality Values which influence satisfaction behavior, further expanded by Berry in 2002 and known as the ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality, Value, Timeliness, Efficiency, Ease of Access, Environment, Inter-departmental Teamwork, Front line Service Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation. These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement and organizational change measurement and are most often utilized to develop the architecture for satisfaction measurement as an integrated model. Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the customers expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the measurer with a satisfaction gap which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the confirmation/disconfirmation theory of combining the gap described by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance according to expectation. According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception of performance divided by expectation of performance. The usual measures of customer satisfaction involve a study with a set of statements using a Likert scale. The customer is asked to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance of the organization being measured. Based on their responses, customers can be categorized into one of three groups: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. In the net promoter framework, Promoters are viewed as valuable assets that drive profitable growth because of their repeat/increased purchases, longevity and referrals, while Detractors are seen as liabilities that destroy profitable growth because of their complaints, reduced purchases/defection and negative word-of-mouth. Companies calculate their Net Promoter Score by subtracting their % Detractors from their % Promoters. The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to customers. Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to questionnaires onto his model. SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction Barometer) to indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience. J.D. Power and Associates provides another measure of customer satisfaction, known for its top-box approach and automotive industry rankings. J.D. Power and Associates marketing research consists primarily of consumer surveys and is publicly known for the value of its product awards. One of the newest and most innovative customer satisfaction measurement methodologies is called Gustometria. Gustometria is real time measurement of customer and employee satisfaction. Customers are invited to answer a short survey by touching the gustometer screen with their fingers. The responses are collected immediately by the Gustometria servers which tabulate the results in real time. Management can then log into their private website and use the sophisticated business intelligence reports which are built in to the Gustometria system. The rewards to firms that establish a loyal customer base have been well documented (Armstrong and Symonds, 1991; Heskett, 1994; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). In general, increased loyalty leads to lower costs of servicing the firms customers, reduced marketing expenditures, increased business from the existing customer base and greater profits. These rewards are particularly true in the retail banking sector. By increasing loyalty, a retail bank: reduces its servicing costs (i.e. accounts do not have to be opened or closed, and credit ratings do not have to be established; gains knowledge of the financial affairs and needs of its customers (thereby allowing effective and efficient targeting); and has an opportunity to cross-sell existing and new products and services. In one case, a retail bank that increased its customer retention rates by 5 per cent increased its profits by 85 per cent (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Improving customer satisfaction, and thereby retention rates, can come from a variety of activities available to the firm. The existing evidence suggests that major gains in customer satisfaction are likely to come from improvements in: Service quality; Service features; and Customer complaint handling. Not surprisingly, there are strong linkages between service quality dimensions (e.g. courteous service providers) and overall customer satisfaction (Anderson and Sullivan, 1993). However, there has been considerable debate as to the basic dimensions of service quality (see Brown et al., 1993 and Cronin and Taylor, 1992, for reviews), the measurement of these dimensions (Brown et al., 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1993; Smith, 1995; Teas, 1993), and the components of customer satisfaction (Hausknecht, 1990; Yi, 1990). Surprisingly, little empirical research has examined the importance of service quality dimensions in determining customer satisfaction. CHAPTER 3: THEORICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY 3.1 THEORICAL FRAMEWORK Independent Variables Dependent Variable SOURCES OF DISSATISFACTION Some empirical studies of service satisfaction suggest that â€Å"the human interaction component of service delivery is essential to the determination of satisfaction and dissatisfaction† (Bitner, 1990). According to Anderson and Sullivan (1993), when consumers perceived service quality performance falls short of their expectation, they become dissatisfied. Lewis and Spyrakopoulos (2001), in their research conducted on UK retail banking, categorized the causes of dissatisfaction in banking sector into five groups i.e. 1) Banking Procedures: Bureaucracy and slow banking, and Failure to keep customers fully aware of their banking situation. 2) Mistakes (i.e. wrong statement) 3) Employee behavior and training: Employees ignorant of certain banking procedures and Employees unwilling or slow to help the customer 4) Functional or technical failures: Long and/or unorganized queues ATMs out of order Limited network or branches Incomprehensible statements of accounts, terms of loans, conversions etc. 5) Action or omission of the bank that are against the sense of fair trade. Yanamandram and White (2004), in their research mentioned nine factors as main reasons ofdissatisfaction. These are lack of branch locations, high interest rates on loans etc, low interest rates on savings, long waiting periods, number of accounts fees, high account fees, poor counter fees, poor counter service, e-banking confusing, poor telephone banking service and others. Furthermore Johnston (1995), in his research demonstrated that, for personal customer of banks, the main sources of satisfaction are attentiveness, responsiveness, care and friendliness whereas the main sources of dissatisfaction are lack of integrity, reliability, responsiveness, availability and functionality. Further he argued that, all the reasons of dissatisfaction are not necessarily the other face of the sources of satisfaction though responsiveness is key component in providing satisfaction and the lack of it is a major source of dissatisfaction. Gronroos, C. (1984), cited in Panther and Farquhar (2004), argued service industry is much prone to entail greater dissatisfaction than products because both technical and functional aspects have an impact on consumer evaluation of the services. In financial services, self-service technologies (SSTs) become more wining tool to deal with customers resulting in customer dissatisfaction. To illustrate banks have adopted internet banking as service delivery tool, with a view to providing better and lowering costs, and sometimes new services to their customers. Further, they explained that presently as a regular practice banks start offering self-service technologies without having carefully studied what the true outcomes will be when customers interact with technology without a human component in the service encounter. SSTs interact with customer in a pre-designed way, rather than understanding individual customers need. Bitner (1990), found several satisfactions and dissatisfaction drivers applying criticalincident techniques. They identified key actions such as employee response to customer needs and requests, failure of service recovery action, lack of prompt and spontaneous employee actions result in both satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Day and Bodur (1977) argued in their research that in most cases dissatisfaction is directly linked with quality of suppliers performance. In their research most frequently mentioned reason for dissatisfaction was, â€Å"The service was rendered in a careless, unprofessional manner.† Some researchers observe dissatisfaction drivers are determined at the time when customers directly interact with a service. Some aspects of a service may not be persuasive for customer satisfaction but can lead to strong dissatisfaction when they are under performed. On the other hand, some aspects of service lead to satisfaction if delivered properly, but may not necessarily emerge dissatisfaction if absent (Srijumpa , 2007). Furthermore, Bolfing (1989), argued that â€Å"Heterogeneity and intangible nature of services itself frequently produced situation in which customers needs are misjudged or mishandled resulting in customers dissatisfaction†. That is the nature of services itself is also a source of dissatisfaction. IMPROVEMENT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS Gummesson (1999), finds three different options that a customer can choose between when he or she feels dissatisfied with something that involves their present supplier where the first one is to exit the customers leave for a competitor, or stop buying the goods or services temporarily or permanently. This option is also pointed out by Brandt (2003), who states that if a customer is not satisfied with the product or the salesperson, he or she simply does not purchase from the company again. The second choice is called voice the customers speak their mind and demand correction, and the third option is loyalty the customers remain loyal for lack of alternative suppliers or prohibitive switching costs, inertia, ideological reasons and others, at least within limits. All these options are used by customers according to Gummesson, who continues that the feeling behind them, however, is largely a black box to suppliers. Recovery is more than settling a claim, it is the restoration and strengthening of a long-term relationship and the course of action must be constructive, not just a mechanical routine. If the recovery is successful, continues Gummesson (1999) strengthened by Brandt (2003), then a well resolved customer complaint can create a solid relationship, sometimes better than before the incident. Another aspect that can be turned into something positive according to Arnerup and Edvardsson (1992) is that although many companies consider a customer complaint as something negative, they should instead use it as a possibility to learn more about the customers needs, improve the conditions to satisfy them and strengthen the relationship with them. Nyer (2000) states that customers who were encouraged to complain reported great increase in satisfaction. The author continues that the indirect benefits occurs when an unhappy customer complains, which leads the employee to respond in a way that makes the customer less dissatisfied in the future, and therefore benefits the company as well. Research has shown that excellent complaint management and service recovery can significantly influence customer satisfaction (Johnston, 2001). Furthermore the majority of highly satisfying experiences were the result of something that went wrong and the organization making the effort to compensate the customer: â€Å"The recovery of failures can provide a major opportunity for organizations to create very satisfied customers†. The critical issue is that it is not necessarily the failure itself that leads to customer dissatisfaction; many customers accept that things can go wrong; instead, it is more likely to be the organizations response (or lack of response) to a failure that causes satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Johnston, 2001). Kahn (1995, p. 97) has similar opinions, when emphasizing that it is beneficial to companies to encourage their customer to perform complaints when they are upset or dissatisfied, since these customers can become even more loyal and satisfied customers in the future. Halstead and Page (reported in Johnston, 2001) also find that complaint handling processes shows a clear relationship with loyalty and repurchases intentions. Furthermore, customers who have been successfully recovered not only remain loyal, but can become advocates for the organization, and as such be a source of referral business because word of mouth can be very persuasive in terms of influencing customers to use an organization and its services claims Spreng et al (reviewed in Johnston, 2001). Brandt (2003) follows the same track, describing that customers who experiences a good service recovery will spread more goodwill than even your otherwise best loyal customers do. Soderlund (1999), claims that even though a customer has shown dissatisfaction and directed complaints towards the company, he or she does not necessarily has to be â€Å"lost† to the company, a pleasing reaction and action can turn the annoyance to satisfaction. In many cases, a good recovery can turn upset customers into even more loyal customers and strengthen relationships. Customer retention has been shown to have a direct impact on revenue and profitability states Loveman (reported in Johnston, 2001). Loyal customers tend to buy more, and are willing to pay premium prices, and the company needs to spend less money on marketing activities, all of which increase revenue and profitability according to Johnston (2001). Companies need to understand that even though it is possible to retain dissatisfied customers, it can be difficult since not all customer complain to the company, out of 25 per cent dissatisfied customer, only 5 per cent finds making the effort of complaining worth. While according to Kotler (2003) and out of these 5 per cent, half of the customers report a satisfactory resolution. On average, continues the author, a dissatisfied customer gripes to 11 other persons whereas the satisfied customer only tells three other people, this is also commented by Soderlund, (1997) who finds that satisfied