Clare Chow‐Chua and Raj Komaran
Presents a simple methodology for managing service quality that takes into joint consideration of what customers expect to receive and what the service provider can offer. A…
Abstract
Presents a simple methodology for managing service quality that takes into joint consideration of what customers expect to receive and what the service provider can offer. A four‐step procedure explains the derivation of the customer‐service provider matrix (CSM). Customer feedback and data on an international coffee outlet are employed to demonstrate the application of the CSM as a visual tool. Two versions of the CSM matrix are developed; one with raw data and another with an illustrative weighting procedure. Service providers can prioritize and re‐allocate resources to increase the levels of the attributes of services quality that would be valued by customers.
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Presents an exploratory field research on all hospitals in Singapore, highlighting the different routes hospitals have adopted in pursuing their corporate quality journey for the…
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Presents an exploratory field research on all hospitals in Singapore, highlighting the different routes hospitals have adopted in pursuing their corporate quality journey for the new millennium. In general, both continuous improvement and innovation‐based approaches have generated cost and time savings and helped to streamline work processes. However, the initial survey results show that innovation‐based programs require a longer time frame for implementation, are more prone to resistance to change and suffer from program failure. Also, large hospitals and public hospitals are more inclined to implement innovation based approaches while medium‐sized hospitals tend to use continuous improvement as a medium for quality improvement.
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Clare Chow‐Chua and Geraldine Lim
Faced with fierce competition, increasingly more organizations seek to audit demand in the marketplace. The same can be said for insurers. Empirical findings show that insurers…
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Faced with fierce competition, increasingly more organizations seek to audit demand in the marketplace. The same can be said for insurers. Empirical findings show that insurers are widely disliked by customers, and insurance agents talked to clients on average once every eight years. We found that approximately 44 per cent of the population does not own any form of insurance, for example life insurance and personal accidents insurance. What are the underlying reasons why the majority of people do not insure themselves against hazards? There is a need for insurers to undertake a demand audit in order to understand what the policyholder wants and needs. Information from customers plays a major role in the auditing process. Our audit checklist includes: demographic characteristics of policyholders and non‐policyholders; reasons for being insured and not insured; and critical purchasing factors. The demand audit that we surveyed will help the insurance industry design a good strategy to meet the demands of the market.
Clare Chow‐Chua, Mark Goh and Tan Boon Wan
This paper examines the issue of ISO 9000 certification and its perceived benefits for Singapore based companies. Using an empirical approach, the paper seeks to ascertain if…
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This paper examines the issue of ISO 9000 certification and its perceived benefits for Singapore based companies. Using an empirical approach, the paper seeks to ascertain if certification has indeed improved the performance for listed and non‐listed companies. The results from a survey of 146 firms suggest that while certification leads to better overall financial performance, non‐listed certified firms experience better documentation procedures, higher perceived quality of products or services, and more effective communication among employees than listed certified firms. Some problems encountered in certification include the failures to establish adequate monitoring programs, to follow set procedures and to carry out appropriate management reviews of the new system as well as unclear authorisation.
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Based on the research so far on quality improvement and performance measurement on hospitals and the health‐care sector, there appears to be a need to combine the various models…
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Based on the research so far on quality improvement and performance measurement on hospitals and the health‐care sector, there appears to be a need to combine the various models or approaches to performance and quality improvement. This paper presents a knowledge‐based framework for evaluating the performance of a hospital using a model based on the Singapore Quality Award (SQA) criteria and the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach. A specific case study of a public sector hospital in Singapore is provided to illustrate how the SQA and the BSC can be integrated to help a public sector hospital implement and manage performance‐based programs. Overall, while limitations and implementation challenges exist, the preliminary results suggest that hospitals can also use this approach to their advantage, yielding sustainable improvement in patient satisfaction and better inter‐departmental communication. Through this framework, hospitals can make better quality decisions based on structured measurement and knowledge.
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Clare F.P. Chow‐Chua and Mark Goh
This paper presents a quality roadmap of a restructured hospital. Specifically, a case study is showcased to reveal how a FOCUS‐PDCA model is applied to the Central Portering…
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This paper presents a quality roadmap of a restructured hospital. Specifically, a case study is showcased to reveal how a FOCUS‐PDCA model is applied to the Central Portering Services (CPS) within a restructured hospital, to provide better service to other departments within the hospital who can then in turn value add to the patient care delivery chain. The preliminary results suggest that implementers of quality and service improvement programmes using the FOCUS‐PDCA approach should note some of the key implementation difficulties. These difficulties occur at all levels and include issues relevant to change management, process improvement programmes, accessibility to data, communication and judicious execution of the change process.