http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/2436/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1737/ 2004-10-15T00:00:00Z Reaching service excellence through a focus on the customer, demands more than just measuring customer satisfaction by means of questionnaire surveys. Nowadays, it is not sufficient anymore to have service excellence in services, processes and relationships. Now is the time to create excellence in customer experiences, as the only way to create competitive advantage in the market. Organisational change should then be driven by a broader focus on customers’ expectations and multiple ways of measuring customers’ satisfaction. The case of a service company in The Netherlands (a temporary employment agency) illustrates the way to service excellence as an organisational change process. The case supports the need for a broad focus on measurements in order to be able to monitor and to direct organisational changes. Customer satisfaction data based on surveys are needed, however, they will not be sufficient for continuing the change process over time. To achieve that, other measurements like mystery shopping may give more stimuli to change. Therefore, this research argues that mystery shopping can be a useful instrument in addition to the more often-used survey methods. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/281/ 2003-03-10T00:00:00Z This paper will discuss the phenomenon Mystery Shopping in the field of customer satisfaction measurement techniques. By using the literature about Mystery Shopping definitions and restrictions of this instrument will be presented. Also, possible ways to present and use the gathered data will be shown. After the literature part of the paper some practical research will be presented. A Dutch Flexcompany introduced the instrument Mystery Shopping in addition to the already used measurement methods like customer satisfaction measurement with use of questionnaires. Some of the first results of the Mystery Shopping visits will be presented. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/209/ 2002-07-01T00:00:00Z The volume of temporary labour has grown very fast during the last decades in Europe, as did the number of organizations with an intermediating role in relation to temporary (contingent) labour. All over the place there are small and large intermediaries trying to find the right persons for the vacant jobs in their portfolio. In the Netherlands this has lead to a more competitive market place for temporary employment agencies or flex companies and to the need to find new ways of developing competitive advantage. A large temporary employment agency in the Netherlands, wants to develop "experience quality" in its services in Europe. This agency has introduced a service excellence programme building on the following chain of excellence: good leadership gives enthusiastic and motivated employees, which gives satisfied customers and delivers good business results. In this paper the way to implement this program will be outlined. Also some first results of the implementation of the program will be presented. One of the interesting issues from a quality management perspective in relation to temporary employment agencies is the presence of two customer groups instead of just one. Besides the paying customers, who are hiring flex workers, there is another customer group, i.e. the flex workers (or contingent workers) themselves. What is the importance of flex workers, who are satisfied with their intermediary (flex company)? This is becoming more and more relevant as the agency aims at long-term relationships with its flex workers.In the empirical part of this paper we will present the analysis of data over three years (1998, 1999, and 2000) on the satisfaction of flex workers in the context of the flex company?s service excellence programme, as an example of the use of measurements in relation to the change process. The important issues related to the specific data of the flex workers? satisfaction surveys are:(a) the relationships between perceived satisfaction of flex workers and possible behavioural consequences, like making complaints and making use of other flex companies; (b) the stability of factor constructs over time that identify the major dimensions of satisfaction of flex workers; and (c) the satisfaction dynamics over time. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/97/ 2001-06-13T00:00:00Z This paper focuses on the analysis of empirical data on customer satisfaction and the relationship with hard organisational performance data. The organisation is a Flexcompany with its headquarters in The Netherlands, but also operating in other countries in Europe. The empirical data on customer satisfaction and business performances stem from 1998 and 1999. Based on the empirical data it can be concluded that it is possible to find evidence for the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and organisational performance indicators, although the relationship is not very strong. Various factors might influence the timelag between a change in customer satisfaction and an expected effect in sales, margin, or other output indicators. However, the analyses do give answers to questions related to the quality dimensions as underlying factors behind the items in the customer satisfaction questionnaire and some indications for the changing behaviour of the customer in relation to his perception. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/68/ 2001-01-23T00:00:00Z Human resource management (HRM) does matter! Prior empirical research, summarized and classified in the work of Delery and Doty (1996), Guest (1997) and Boselie et al. (2000), suggests significant impact of HRM on the competitive advantage of organizations. The mainstream research on this topic reveals encouraging results on organizational level. Further research on the perception of the individual employee may reveal new insights in the effectiveness of HRM in organizations. Now we have the opportunity to study recent empirical data of a Dutch employment agency. These data on individual employee level provide us new insights in the perception of commitment oriented HR systems and their relationship with perceived job security and employee trust. High scores on employee participation, payment system, training and development, information sharing, and support of the direct supervisor result in employee trust and high scores on perceived job security.