Legal Analysis Memorandum Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Legal Analysis Memorandum - Assignment Example As well they observed the defendant handing a bag of white powder to someone standing beside the couch. After identifying themselves, and being granted entrance into the house, the police officers explained to all present what they had observed. At that point they saw sandwiched between cushions on the couch, what appeared to be a firearm. Upon inspection they discovered a total of four firearms, none of which were registered as required by DC law. Thereafter the police then conducted a pat-down search of Mr. Blake and everyone else in the room. The officers found that Mr. Blake had on his person a large amount of suspected marijuana, suspected cocaine, and money ($400). Another occupant of the room had a baggie of suspected cocaine (white powder). Mr. Blake was then charged with possession of a controlled substance, distribution of a controlled substance, and possession of an unregistered firearm. ... II. Rule: The â€Å"reasonable expectation of privacy† is determined by the findings in Minnesota v. Carter. As well determined by the Minnesota Court is the issue of whether Blake enjoyed the right to a Commercial Business based expectation of privacy since he and the owner of the house in question conducted business out of the basement of this house. The â€Å"lawfulness of the search† in this matter is settled by the case law in Rawlings v. Kentucky, where the Court specifically held that the search that was incident to the observation of drug parts and subsequent obtaining of a warrant was lawful although the evidence was found inside a purse which the defendant had put the drugs in just before the police arrived. Due to the temporality of the placement and proximity of the evidence to the Defendant, the defendant was not allowed to prevail on his argument of an unlawful search. The issue of whether the evidence was in â€Å"plain view† to the officers is add ressed by the Court in Horton v. California, which found this term to be defined broadly enough to cover the Blake scenario. The issue of a lawful search in a more intrusive scenario was determined to be unlawful because of the close proximity and no probable cause basis in the case of Florida v. Jardines. Finally, the issue of unlawful entry and subsequent violations thereto was addressed in Mapp v. Ohio, wherein the Court imposed the standard granted in the Fourth Amendment’s right to privacy on the States and their agents, in not allowing evidence that was seized without a warrant and against the will of the occupant of the house where there was no probable cause and a

9Live strategic analysis - general environment Essay

9Live strategic analysis - general environment - Essay Example Being one of the leading innovators in the realm of interactive T.V, 9Live seems to targeting every person. Since it is primarily a quiz TV channel and can be accessed through internet therefore its demographic study includes most of those viewers who are either fond of using technology or having some tendencies to gamble. Besides, the concept was of an interactive T.V. running without advertisement revenues therefore there was an strong tendency that channel must lure people from all walks of life to constantly call in during all time of the day so that a constant flow of revenue is insured. Since It was largely believed that solving crossword puzzles, or answering quiz shows was the job of those who probably are of old age or unemployed therefore demographical factors present a different challenge to 9Live. Germany is by far the largest economy in Europe. 9Live emerged on the scene when German market was not developed for the concept of interactive T.V. however emergence of shopping channel like of H.O.T. was suggesting a change in the industry dynamics. Germany is one of the most critical and important members of the European Union as for as the economy is considered. Government deficits in budgets were virtually not existening however Germany was marred by low GDP growth i.e. 0.7% in 2001 when the channel was launched whereas unemployment level was at 9.5% suggesting strong downturns in the economy. (Ewing). Clearly, the downward turn in the business cycle is hitting Germany hard. But this is more than just a cyclical bout of bad news. It was largely believed that the economic efforts at that time were stalled as Germanys 3.9 million unemployed was heading no way. Apart from that the period of 9Live launch was marred mainly by recession in the economy of Germany and due to widening u nemployment gaps, the probability of attracting the paid callers seems to be low no matter how cheap it can be. Though German media

CAPE Industrial Services - case study Essay Example for Free

CAPE Industrial Services case study Essay 1.0 Introduction In response to the increased importance of services, numerous articles on issues related to the effective management of service operations have appeared in both academic and practitioner based publications (Chase and Hayes, 1991; Karmarker and Pitbladdo, 1995; Kellogg and Nie, 1995; Lovelock, 1992; Roth and Van Der Velde, 1991). Several of these articles present typologies of services and provide directions for improving quality, productivity and operating efficiency, however relatively little has been done to test the proposed ideas. In order to understand more of these various service management typologies, an actual business organisation that focuses on providing services will be observed and analysed. In the discussion, the design and strategies of the selected company in the Oil Industry service sector will be taken into account. Recommendations for improvement will also be provided at the end of the discussion. 2.0 Model of the Service The variety of the service sector makes it complicated to come up with useful generalisations concerning the management of service organisations. Therefore, a considerable amount of research has been focused on developing service classification schemes. For example, Judd (1964) classified services according to three categories: rented goods, owned goods and non-goods services. Similarly, Rathmell (1974) categorised services according to type of buyer, buyer motives, buying practices, type of seller, and degree of regulation. Even though these classifications show how some services are different from the others, they do not provide much useful insight into the design and management of service processes from an operational perspective. More recent classification schemes have explored the complex nature of service delivery systems with the goal of identifying differentiating characteristics, which affect quality and process improvement, as well as service design. For example, Shostack ( 1977) and Sasser, Olsen and Wyckoff (1978) developed the concept of product-service-package based on the tangible versus intangible nature of services. More recent researchers however believe in an integrated approach to service management. For example, Thomas (1978) argues that a large part of manufacturing experience is irrelevant to the management of service operations because the supply services are very different from that of manufacturing. Sullivan (1981) and Bowen and Cummings (1990) also advocate an integrated approach to service management and suggest that operations management researchers must include organisational behaviour and marketing constructs and techniques to address service operations problems adequately. The means of classifying service models are indeed varied. For this particular analysis though, the model proposed by Schmenner (1986), also known as the Service Process Matrix (SPM), will be used. The SPM expands the customer-contact model and categorises services on two dimensions. One is labour intensity, and the other is customer contact and service customisation. Schmenner (1986) proposed a two-by-two service process matrix that classifies services as service factory, service shop, mass service, and professional service. Under these models, CAPE Industrial Services can be classified under the Professional Service category. Professional service is described as the provision of services with high customer contact and or customisation and high labour intensity. Labour intensity on the other hand is defined as the ratio of the labour cost incurred to the value of the plant and equipment. A high labour intensity business involves relatively small plant and equipment investment relative to a considerable amount of worker time, effort, and cost. The second dimension in the classification scheme combines two distinct concepts: customer interaction and customisation. A service with a high level of interaction is one in which the customer can actively intervene in the service process. A service with high customisation will work to satisfy an individuals particular preferences. The joint measure has a high value when a service exhibits both a high level of interaction and a high level of customisation for the customers. In the selected business, CAPES Operations management has a high contact with customers who need to be kept informed of the service range being delivered to them. Thus, high customisation or high selection on the services occurring in this type of Industry. Also, CAPE employ a high labour intensity as the Oil Industry service sector is located globally, in short the service range offered by CAPE is readily accessible, incurring fewer costs for equipment and labour. 3.0 Service Design and Delivery The contracts that are held by CAPE require daily customer contact on a personal level, having designated Business Delivery Managers for these contracts assist the customers with what they need for their services. So as to maintain the efficiency and speed of service, there are also designated project managers. These managers have constant contact with the offshore or onshore facility, this is handled in such a way that both the customer and the CAPE Business Delivery Manager are aware of all the daily operations that are on going. The services rendered by CAPE Industrial Services are a vast range of Multi-Disciplined Fabric Maintenance and Access techniques to Oil and Gas Sector. Charges built into the contract rates cover the costs of the additional project management. At times, services are requested that are not of the norm for CAPE, to service these Third party companies are brought in under the CAPE banner. While the cost of these services may vary much from the standard contract rates, excellent service is a must. Thus, extra costs are incurred for additional time and effort put into the contract by the CAPE managers. So as to make the services offered by CAPE more affordable and viable for their customers; the company tends to work on providing innovative ideas that will improve work ethics. Typical innovative ideas are the Introduction of Industrial Rope Access; this is a benefit to the customer as it cuts out the need for Scaffold or other means of conventional access solutions. Like other service companies, one of the common strategies of CAPE is to offer a volume discount or a reduced rate if the period of the contract can be extended. 4.0 Service Strategy Service companies in the Oil and Gas Industry have numerous strategies on how their rendered services can be better than competitors. Aside from maintaining quality and safety in service, one of the aims of the CAPE Industrial Services is to provide innovative ideas to their customers that will keep them ahead of their competitors whilst at the same time providing cost savings and improvements in quality to the customer. Improvements in the equipments and materials that are available in the Oil Industry also help in achieving the quality of service. Industrial Rope Access for instance, helps in reducing time scales for accessing work sites. Hence, this reduces costs to the customer. Using the appropriate tools in the work-site also helps to improve quality and time-scales. This goal of the company does not only facilitate in serving the customer appropriately, but most importantly it shows that the Oil and Gas Industry service area prioritises its customers. This in turn results to high customer satisfaction and loyalty. 5.0 Service Encounter: People in the Service Personnel working for CAPE Operations include Operations managers, Project Managers, QA/QC and HSE Managers, Technical Clerks and Secretarys. Each of these employees has their own designated duties and responsibilities in the area. This way, efficiency of service is maintained in the Company. Of course problems might occur in any type of businesses, a company is bound to make mistakes if there are no careful observations to their businesses. One of the problems that a company like CAPE might encounter is the companys personnel or human resource mistakes. The reason for this is the lack in the training it provides for its personnel. The training and development of each employee is very significant as this does not only help in providing confidence in work performance, but it also helps in maintaining quality service. So it is advisable for CAPE Industrial Services to train their employees well to provide their customers with better satisfaction. 6.0 Managing Service Expectation and Capacity In times when demands for services increase, CAPE Industrial Services tries to cope by conducting reliable forecasts. The company so as to keep track of its activities regularly keeps records of previous business operations. This aids the managers from predicting sudden increases of service demand. In order to cope with peak months for ad-hoc services, the customers managers are advised to make their project plans ahead of time. Through this system, CAPE is able to plan ahead for availability of equipment, consumables and personnel that will be used for upcoming projects. 7.0 Recommendations One of the problems that the organisation might face is the mistake their site personnel are committing because of their lack of training and development. As previously mentioned, this is a vital factor so as to maintain efficient service in the company and lessen the number of mistakes which can be made on one of the sites. In order to remedy this problem, the managers can plan an effective and appropriate program for each employee based on their respective duties within the company. The managers can also implement a system at the sites wherein the older workers with more site experience can assist newly hired employees. This can be a more appropriate method of training as the exposure of the workers to the actual work area can help them adjust to the nature of their job. Regular evaluation of the workers can help in improving the skills of the workers and keep them up to date of their current work performance. In this way, quality of service is maintained and skills are enhanced. Overall, the performance of CAPE Industrial Services is efficient. Considering its effective strategies and significant goals for quality service, it is enough to say that the services provided by CAPE are good and successful. However, there are other factors that are to be considered in this type of service. The consideration of these factors will not only help the company in serving their customers better, but it will also help them maintain quality and service provided to existing and potential new customers. 8.0 Operational Improvement Through the Use of Technology In reality, the world of a service company in the Oil and Gas Industry is changing. The expectations of people are different than those of past generations, Safety and Quality are becoming more important features of the industry each year, cost pressures continue to mount, and new information technologies have changed operational functions (Cushman and Shanklin, 1996; Bowers, 1987). As a result, the captive market plan concept is declining and the services are being exposed to a greater amount of competition than in the past. Due to these changes, the old strategies of a service company system must also adapt. This adaptation will definitely contribute to sufficient flexibility that will meet customers needs in an ever-changing environment while retaining the beneficial aspects of a Multi-Disciplined service provider. As CAPE is focused on giving their customers a quality service, one of the possible strategies that can be employed by the company is the application of the One Stop Sh op Fabric Maintenance service provider. As information technologies have advanced, the virtual organisation concept has been promoted as an alternative too traditional, vertically integrated organisational structures (Goldman et al, 1995). In virtual organisations, a lead entity creates an alliance with a set of other organisations (Grenier Metes, 1995). The tasks performed by the virtual organisation are divided among the entities that comprise it, based upon their respective competencies. Virtual organisations can produce superior results because they harness market forces to combine competencies in ways that traditional organisations, using internal mechanisms, cannot (Chesbrough Teece, 1996). Once constituted, the lead organisation operates the virtual organisation by co-ordinating parallel tasks through the use of sophisticated information technologies and management systems, thus creating a coherent system. A virtual organisations membership changes over time as market conditions and technologies shift and the strategies and resources of the constituent organisations evolve. While virtual organisations are most often found in high technology industries such as the development of new computer systems, some characteristics of CAPE Industrial Services make it amenable to the successful operation of a company that services the needs of the Oil and gas Industry. 9.0 Conclusion While CAPES Operations may take a lot of resources to maintain the business and the quality of service provided, the benefits that it can provide outweigh the expense incurred. Aside from that, the services offered by CAPE will definitely increase in quality, hence, greatly contributing to the goals of the company. Through careful and effective planning, budgeting and implementation, CAPE Industrial Services can begin on making little changes, improving the company one step at a time. The important thing is that constant adaptation to change is being done and that the Operations management is coming up with ways on how to improve the services that are provided by the company and keeping the customer coming back. 10.0 References Bowen, D.E., and Cummings, T.G. (1990). Suppose we took service seriously. In Service Management Effectiveness, New York: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1-4 Chase, R.B., and Hayes, R.H. (1991). Beefing-up operations in service firms. Sloan Management Review, 33 (1), 15-26 Chesbrough, H. W., and Teece D. J. (1996, January-February). When is Virtual virtuous?: Organising for innovation. Harvard Business Review, 65-73 Goldman, S. L., Nagel, R. N., and Preiss, K. (1995). Agile Competitors and Virtual Organisations: Strategies for Enriching the Customer. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Grenier R., and Metes, G. (1995). Going Virtual: Moving Your Organisation Into the 21st Century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR www.soc.napier.ac.uk/module.php3?op=getlecturecloaking=nolectureid=1935516 Karmarkar, U.S., and Pitbladdo, R. (1995). Service markets and competition. Journal of Operations Management, 12 (4), 397-411 Kellogg, D.L. and Nie, W. (1995). A framework for strategic service management. Journal of Operations Management, 13, 323-337 Lovelock, C.H. (1992). A basic toolkit for service management. In Managing services: marketing, operations, and human resources 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Roth, A.V., and Van Der Velde, M. (1991). Operations as marketing: A competitive service strategy. Journal of Operations Management, 10 (3), 303-328 Judd, R.C. (1964). The case for redefining services. Journal of Marketing, 28, 1 Rathmell, J.M. (1974). Marketing in the service sector, Cambridge, MA: Winthrop Schmenner, R.W. (1986). How can service businesses survive and prosper. Sloan Management Review, 27 (3), 21-32 Shostack. G.L. (1977). Breaking free from product marketing. Journal of Marketing, 41 (4) Sullivan, R.S. (1981). The service sector: Challenges and imperatives for research in operations management. Journal of Operations Management, 2 (4), 211-214 Thomas, D.R.E (1978). Strategy is different in service businesses. Harvard Business Review, 56 (4), 158-165

Background and justification of affecting customers loyalty

Background and justification of affecting customers loyalty In todays competitive markets services and service companies within the same industry are becoming increasingly similar. Differentiation through the delivery channel (i.e. delivery of services against payment) is difficult. A growing number of service companies have embarked on a journey of positioning through the communication channel (i.e. advertising and personal selling) (Andreassen, T.   1995), with the objective of building strong corporate images in order to create relative attractiveness. This development is in line with Lovelock (1984) who claims that  «(images).. . are likely to play only a secondary role in customer choice decisions unless competing services are perceived as virtually identical on performance, price, and availability ». Recent years have shown a growing interest in customer loyalty. The globalisation of competition, saturation of markets, and development of information technology have changed customer behavior and perception and created a situation where success is no longer achieved through product price and qualities. Instead, companies build their success on a long-term customer relationship. According to former studies, it can cost as much as 6 times more to win a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. (Rosenberg L. et al. 1984: 45) Depending on the particular industry, it is possible to increase profit by up to 60% after reducing potential migration by 5%. (Reichheld F. 1993) It follows then, that the increase and holding of loyal customers has become a key factor for long-term success of the companies. The main emphasis in marketing has changed from winning new customers to the keeping of existing ones. Traditionally there are two approaches to treat customer loyalty. Some researchers have investigated the nature of different levels of loyalty, others have explored the influence of individual factors on loyalty. In this article both treatments are combined. The starting point of the paper is to test whether the list of most important factors affecting customer loyalty is dependant on the levels of loyalty of costumers. The potential for establishing loyalty depends on the object (i.e. product or vendor), on the subject (customer) or on the environment (market, other suppliers etc.). This work might be rather helpful for both students, interested in developing this field of research and people, who are working in the sphere of marketing, because it may provide with interesting information worth dwelling upon. This topic interests me personally, because to my mind, customers are the turning point of the market. They decide whether to buy a product or to use a service or not, changing the whole picture of market. That is why, I suppose it is rather necessary for industries to pay much attention to the topic of customers loyalty and satisfaction in order to be a success. Chapter 2. Statement of Objectives and Hypothesis to be Examined. This paper aims to test if the importance of each factor affecting loyalty varies in different loyalty segments described in Figure 1, presenting segmentation of customers loyalty. One possibility to investigate it is to compare the customers of different loyalty levels and examine what kind of factors influence the probability of the customers to remain on that level or to move to another loyalty level. Customer loyalty expresses an intended behavior related to the service or the company. This includes the likelihood of future renewal of service contracts, how likely it is that the customer changes his preferences, how likely the customer is to provide positive word-of-mouth opinion. If real alternatives exist or switching barriers are low management discovers the organizations inability to satisfy its customers through two feedback mechanisms: exit and voice (Hirschman A. 1970). Exit implies that the customers stop buying the companys services while voice is customer complaints expressing the consumers dissatisfaction directly to the company. Customers exit or change of patronage will have an impact on the long-term revenue of the company. Customers may be loyal due to high switching barriers or lack of real alternatives. Customers may also be loyal because they are satisfied and thus want to continue the relationship. History has proven that most barriers to exit are limited with regard to durability; companies tend to consider customer satisfaction the only viable strategy in order to keep existing customers. Several authors have found a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and loyalty (Bearden and Teel   1980;Bolton and Drew 1991; Fornell 1992; Anderson and Sullivan 1993). Based on the future discussion, the following two hypotheses are proposed: Hypothesis 1: Factors such as satisfaction, trustworthiness, importance of relationship and image have a positive influence on loyalty. Objective 1: To indicate any relationship between loyalty and such pshycological factors as satisfaction, importance of relationship and others. Hypothesis 2: The relevance of factors affecting loyalty depends on the levels of loyalty of customers. Objective 2: Define and dwell upon the levels of loyalty of customers, examin them. The limitations of my hypothesis questions were shortage of time, because I had to provide results in a relatively short period of time, and money, because true and reliable information was hard and costly to get. Chapter 3. Details of Information/ Data Collection Methods. Research on customer loyalty has a long history and has been studied using a large variety of methods. Although the study of relationship between satisfaction and loyalty of customers is a newer field of research, various methods have been applied to study this   phenomenon as well. Some studies have also been purely conceptual (Stewart 1998; Hocutt 1998). Although qualitative methods seem to dominate in studies of relationship, quantitative methods have also been used. The data used for the analysis is a secondary source. A secondary source usually contains commentary on or discussion about a primary source. The most important feature of secondary sources is that they offer an interpretation of information gathered from primary sources.   I did not use the primary source as it is an original material. It is from the time period involved, was not filtered through interpretation and need much time and knowledge to process it. Demographically, the study had some limitations. Firstly, only urban customers were targeted in the study. This group was chosen due to the fact that urban customers have more available alternativetives and are therefore potentially more active in their telecommunication choices. Methodologically a certain limitation of the study was that some of the interviews were conducted on the telephone. Despite the fact that the interviews were considered to provide a deep and accurate enough picture of the relationships and the factors affecting customer loyalty, it is obvious that interviews face-to-face have the potential to reach greater depth. The data used in our analysis originates from PacoNet Customer Satisfaction Survey carried out in November 2003 by professional market research company. PacoNet is the one of the leading telecommunication provider in Ukraine and was providing telephone and internet services for private customers at that time. There were three kinds of competitors for PacoNet: firms providing telephone services on PacoNet network; cable-TV companies providing internet services on their own networks, and mobile telephone companies. The satisfaction survey contained information about 1000 private customers. Data was collected by phone interviews. During the survey the customers were asked how important various factors were for them. The importance was measured on a 5-point scale, where â€Å"1† is â€Å"not important at all† and â€Å"5† is â€Å"very important†. Every factor listed above was divided into 3 to 7 subcategories (e.g. accounting had subcategories like the accuracy and understandability of bills, dept management, availability of different payment methods). Satisfaction with the factors reveals from the satisfaction with those subcategories. Additionally customers answered about their general satisfaction with the firm PacoNet. The satisfaction was also measured on a 5-point scale, where â€Å"1† is â€Å"not satisfied at all† and â€Å"5† is â€Å"very satisfied†. Customer loyalty was measured by following questions: What operators are the customers using right now? What operators will the customers use in 2 years? Does the customer recommend or is the customer ready to recommend PacoNet to others? Chapter 4. Details of Data Analysis Methods In the current analysis only the raw data of mentioned survey was used. Software packages MS Excel 2000 and Stata 9.2 have been used by PacoNet for data processing, because Microsoft Excel is a deep program rich in features and functionality. One of the most powerful features of Excel is the ability to write programs that run behind the worksheets to turn Excel into a calculation-oriented development tool for creating special purpose spreadsheets which can function as applications in their own right. Chapter 5. Literature Review There are multiple approaches to customer loyalty. Theories of behavioral loyalty were dominating until 1970 considering loyalty as the function of the share of total purchases (Cunningham R. 1956; Farley J. 1964), function of buying frequency or buying pattern (Tucker 1964; Sheth 1968) or function of buying probability (Harary F. et al. 1962; McConnell D. 1968; Wernerfelt B. 1991). These approaches looked at brand loyalty in terms of outcomes   rather than reasons, until Day G. (1969) introduced the two-dimensional concept of brand loyalty, which stated that loyalty should be evaluated with both behavioral and attitudinal criteria. Contemporary researches consider and accent the psychological (mostly attitudinal and emotional) factor of loyalty (Jacoby J. et al. 1973; Oliver R. 1999; Chaudury A. 1995). These different approaches allow distinguishing customers as whether behaviorally or emotionally loyal. Behaviorally loyal customers act loyal but have no emotional bond with the brand or the supplier when emotionally loyal customers do. Jones T. and Sasser W. call these two kind of loyalty accordingly false or true long-term loyalty (Jones T. et al. 1995). Hofmeyr J. and Rice B. (2000) divide customers to loyal (behavioral) or committed (emotional). Emotional loyalty is much stronger and longer lasting than behavioral loyalty. Its a lasting desire to maintain a valued relationship. The relationship is so important for the customer that he or she makes maximum efforts to keep it (Reichheld F. 2003; Moorman C. et al. 1992). Highly bonded customers will buy repeatedly from a provider to which they are bonded, recommend that provider to others, and strongly defend these choices to others insisting that they have chosen the â€Å"best† product or service. (Butz H. et al. 1996) Behaviorally loyal customers could be divided to sub-segments by the reason of acting: forced to be loyal, loyal due to passivity or functionally loyal. Customers are forced to be loyal when they have to be clients even if they do not want to. Customers may be forced to consume certain products or products/services offered by certain vendor e.g. when the company acts as a monopoly or the poor financial status of the customer is limiting his selection of goods. Gronholdt L. has found that companies with low price strategy had a much higher loyalty than expected from their customer satisfaction. On the other hand, companies that had used a lot of energy on branding indeed had a high customer satisfaction but they did not have a correspondingly high loyalty (Gronholdt L. et al. 2000). Forced loyalty could be established through creating exit barriers as well. Loyal behaviour may also result from passivity customer does not move to another vendor due to comfort or relatively low importance of operation if the choice has low importance, there is no point to spend time and effort on searching for alternatives. Thus, based on his faith in the suitability of the current product, the customer continues to use it without checking alternatives. Hofmeyr J. and Rice B. (2000) say that one of the reasons that customers dont switch brands when they are dissatisfied is that they feel that the alternatives are just as bad as the brand they are using or even worse. Passivity may be caused also by lack of information about attractive characteristics of the brands (Wernerfelt B. 1991). Functionally loyal customers are loyal because they have an objective reason to be. Wernerfelt B. (1991) points out â€Å"cost-based brand loyalty† where brand utilities have a positive influence on brand choice. Functional loyalty can be created by functional values using price, quality, distribution, usage convenience of a product or through different loyalty programs (points, coupons, games, draws etc.) giving a concrete reason to prefer certain supplier. Unfortunately competitors can most easily copy functional values. Thus, creating functional value offers a fleeting competitive advantage: functional loyalty cant be very long lasting (Barnes J. 2003). Jones T. and Sasser W. (1995) propose three measures of loyalty that could be used in segmentation by loyalty: Customers primary behavior regency, frequency and amount of purchase; Customers secondary behavior customer referrals, approval and spreading the word; Customers intent to repurchase is the customer ready to repurchase in the future. Based on the theoretical literature presented above, the customers of a certain telecommunication provider could be segmented by their loyalty as follows: Committed or emotionally loyal customers active customers who use only the certain providers services and declare that they will use only this provider in the future and recommend this provider to others; Behaviorally loyal customers active customers who use only the certain providers services and declare that they will use only this provider in the future but do not agree to recommend this provider to others (inert or functionally loyal); Contradictory or dubious customers active customers who use only the certain providers services but dont know which provider they will use in the future; Disloyal reducers- customers who have reduced or will reduce the percentage of the providers services in their usage; Leavers customers who declare, that they will certainly leave this provider. The impact of satisfaction on loyalty has been the most popular subject of studies. Several studies have revealed that there exists a direct connection between satisfaction and loyalty: satisfied customers become loyal and dissatisfied customers move to another vendor (Heskett J. et al. 1993). The primary objective of creating ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) in 1984 was to explain the development of customer loyalty. In ACSI model customer satisfaction has three antecedents: perceived quality, perceived value and customer expectations (Anderson E. et al. 2000). In the ECSI (European Customer Satisfaction Index) model perceived quality is divided into two elements: â€Å"hard ware†, which consists of the quality of the product or service attributes, and â€Å"human ware†, which represents the associated customer interactive elements in service, i.e. the personal behaviour and atmosphere of the service environment (Gronholdt L. et al. 2000). In both model increased satisfaction should increase customer loyalty. When the satisfaction is low customers have the option to exit (e.g. going to a competitor) or express their complaints. Researches have shown that 60-80% of customers who turned to a competitor said they were satisfied or very satisfied on t he survey just prior to their defection (Reichheld F. et al. 2000). So its clear that there must be also other factors beside satisfaction that have a certain impact on customer loyalty. Image of brand or supplier is one of the most complex factors. It affects loyalty at least in two ways. Firstly, customer may use his preferences to present his own image. That may occur both in conscious and subconscious level. According to the Belks theory of extended self, people define themselves by the possessions they have, manage or create (Belk R. 1988). Aaker J. has shown how consumers prefer brands with personality traits that are corresponding with the personality traits that constitute their selfschemas (Aaker J. 1999). Kim C., Han D. and Park S. have researched the link between brand personality and loyalty. They did get positive support to hypothesis that the attractiveness of the brand personality indirectly affects brand loyalty (Kim C. et al. 2001). Tidwell P. and Horgan D. (1993) have showed that people use products to enhance self-image. Secondly, according to social identity theory, people tend to classify themselves into different social categories. That leads to evaluation of objectives and values in various groups and organisations in comparison with the customers own values and objectives. They prefer partners who share similar objectives and values (Ashforth B. et al. 2001). Fournier S. (1998) states that consumer-brand relationships are more a matter of perceived goal compatibility. Brands cohere into systems that consumers create not only to aid living but also to give meanings to their lives. Oliver R. (1999) argues that for fully bonded loyalty the consumable must be part of the consumers self-identity and his or her social-identity. Trustworthiness of the partner is a factor that has certain impact on the establishment of loyalty nobody expects a long-term relation with a partner that cannot be trusted. Trustworthiness is one criterion for measuring the value of the partner (Doney P. et al. 1997). Spekman R. (1988) calls trust a cornerstone of the strategic partnership. Morgan R. and Hunt S. (1994) posit that trust is a major determinant of relationship commitment: brand trust leads to brand loyalty because trust creates exchange relationships that are highly valued. Chauduri A. and Holbrook M. (2001) have showed that brand trust is directly related to both purchase and attitudinal loyalty. Many authors have accented that trust is important in conditions of uncertainty (Moorman C. et al. 1992; Doney P. et al. 1997; Morgan R. et al. 1994). Uncertainty may be caused by dependence or large choice: people tend then to prefer popular or familiar brands or partners. Many definitions describe loyalty as a desire to retain a valuable or important relationship (Morgan R. et al 1994; Moorman C. et al. 1992). That way the establishment of loyalty is predetermined by the importance of relevant relationship or selection. Weiss A. (2001) points out three aspects that may increase the importance of the relationship: strategic importance of a product; high risks involved in the transaction or costs incurred by cancellation of contracts. Hofmeyr J. and Rice B. point out that the more important the relationship is to a person, the more willing that person is to tolerate dissatisfaction in favour of trying to fix it. By contrast, when a relationship doesnt matter, then even the perfectly satisfied consumer can switch on to another product (Hofmeyr J. et al. 2000). A relationship can also be made important by personal approach. Various authors have compared loyalty with marriage (Lewitt T. . 1983; Dwyer F. et al. 1987; Gummeson E. 1998; Hofmeyr J. et al. 2000). Marriage is one of the most personal and important relationships. That means that intimacy is one determinant for importance of relationship. Lewitt T. (1983) has considered a role of salesman in making relationship more personal. Summarising the discussion above following figure   is presenting the major groups of factors affecting customer loyalty. The present study focused purely on customer perception of the relationship and the factors that have affected it and their loyalty or disloyalty. A useful extension of the study would be to couple such a study of how the service provider perceives the relationship and factors affecting customer loyalty or disloyalty. This would add factors such as customer profitability to the study, making it possible to focus on factors affecting customers that are most attractive to the company. In such a study, the customers and providers views on the relationship would be combined. As a result, one would identify potential gaps in the companys knowledge of the customer and also be able to eliminate potential misconceptions. Chapter 6. Chapter Outline. Presented work is built up of 8 chapters, dwelling upon the customers loyalty. Each chapter gives clear information on subtopics, which are logically combined to provide the reader with sufficient facts to understand the flow of the research. The first chapter is dealing with the background and justification for selection of the topic. Since customer loyalty is something more of what an enterprise must get from the customer, it is a very productive research product for the companies. As opposed to what the name suggests, is not just something that the customer has to build towards the enterprise. It is not just the customer who is being loyal to the company in the progress but also the company that has to maintain its loyalty to the customer The second chapter presents the hypothesis questions, which are being examined through the whole work. I come out with two hypothesis, which are as follows: Hypothesis 1: Factors such as satisfaction, trustworthiness, importance of relationship and image have a positive influence on loyalty; and Hypothesis 2: The relevance of factors affecting loyalty depends on the levels of loyalty of customers. The third and forth chapters puts light on the research methodology I have used to process the data and come to conclusions. I took into consideration secondary data, which originates from PacoNet Customer Satisfaction Survey carried out in November 2003 by professional market research company. Two software packages MS Excel 2000 and Stata 9.2 have been used for data processing and presenting the results of the research. In this chapter I also dwell upon the limitations of the research, which consists of time limitation, budget limitation, as well as demographical and methodological. The fifth chapter gives perception of the theory used for the thesis. It informs us, that theories of behavioral loyalty were dominating until 1970 considering loyalty as the function of the share of total purchases (Cunningham R. 1956; Farley J. 1964), function of buying frequency or buying pattern (Tucker W. 1964) or function of buying probability (Harary F. et al. 1962;). Contemporary researches consider and accent the psychological (mostly attitudinal and emotional) factor of loyalty (Jacoby J. et al. 1973; Oliver R. 1999; Chaudury A. 1995). These and other researches were used as a base for my own research proposal. And the last, sixth chapter provides with a brief outline of the research proposal stages. Having developed the hypothesis questions, and done a literature review we come to the conclusion that the findings of the present study reveal that it is not accurate to treat all customers equally in terms of methods of increasing their loyalty. The research supports the research proposition that the list of most important factors affecting loyalty is dependant on the level of loyalty of consumers. The overall satisfaction and importance of products build the foundation of any kind of loyalty. It shows also that reliability of products or trustworthiness of the supplier is most critical for behavioral loyalists and the image creation is the main tool for getting loyal customers. Therefore many factors were derived indirectly and with certain limitations, and they may lack some qualities considered in the theoretical part. There are multiple ways for further development of the model, but first there is need to elaborate reliable questionnaires for collecting the source data. There are several factors for building a customers loyalty which I could recommend. It is very important to communicate. Whether it is an email newsletter, monthly flier, a reminder card for a tune up, or a holiday greeting card, it is nice to reach out to a steady customers.   Another pleasant way is to provide customer service, to go the extra distance and meet customer needs, because customers remember being treated well. It is also very important to provide with employee loyalty. Loyalty works from the top down. If a boss is loyal to his employees, they will feel positively about their jobs and pass that loyalty along to the customers. Employee training should also be used, training them in the manner that to interact with customers. It is also of great advice to give customers a reason to return to the industrys business. For example, because children outgrow shoes quickly, the owner of a childrens shoe store might offer a card that makes the tenth pair of shoes half price. Likewise, a dentist may give a free cleaning to anyone who has seen him regularly for five years. It is also important to have products awareness, knowing what a steady customer purchase and keep these items in stock. It is possible to add other products and/or services that accompany or compliment the products that regular customers buy regularly. The reliability of the vendor is highly appreciated. If they say a purchase will arrive on Wednesday, they should deliver it on Wednesday. If something goes wrong, they should let customers know immediately and compensate them for their inconvenience. Vendors should be flexible, trying to solve customers problems or complaints to the best of their ability.

Marijuana Should Be Legal :: Argument for Medical Marijuana

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the importance of marijuana as a medicine and to propose a possible change in the federal laws prohibiting the medical use of marijuana. At the present time, thirty-four states ha ve laws that recognize the medical properties of marijuana and allow for its use when prescribed by a doctor. In fact, USA Today polls have shown that there is anywhere from 65% to 78% voter support for marijuana's medicinal use. (1) However, these laws cannot be implemented until there is a change in the federal laws. So why have these federal laws not been changed? First, there is a great misunderstanding of marijuana. There is also a significant lack of funding for marijuana research which could p rove its efficacy as a therapeutic drug. With proper funding, studies could help people understand marijuana so the long awaited and needed change can take place. Background Information on Marijuana What is Marijuana? Marijuana comes from the dried leaves and buds of the cannabis plant. (7) Although there are three varieties of the cannabis plant, cannabis sativa (the least potent of the three) is the most common form of the plant and is the mai n source of marijuana in the United States. Marijuana contains over 400 chemicals, although less than 100 are considered psychoactive. (7) Sixty-one of the chemicals found in marijuana are of the cannabinoid family and are only found in cannabis plants. The main active ingredient in marijuana is the cannabinoid delta-9 tetrahydrocannibinol, or THC. (7) THC has been shown to have many effects such as slowed reactions, increased appetite, released inhibitions, and impaired judgments and motor skills. M any of these effects are similar to the effects of alcohol, except that while alcohol causes a short temper and a propensity towards violence, marijuana does exactly the opposite. Marijuana induces a mellow state of relaxation. History of Marijuana as Medicine Marijuana has been used for thousands of years for its therapeutic value. The first known reference to the medical use of marijuana is contained in the 15th century BC Chinese Pharmacopoeia , the Ry-Ya. While there have been m any other reports on the value of medical marijuana throughout written history, the most noteworthy are the articles contained in many 18th century U.S. medical journals. Between 1840 and 1900, over 100 articles were published detailing the th erapeutic benefits and the safety of the drug. In fact, the federal government has used many references to these articles in health reports.

Subdivisions and American Agriculture Essay -- Geography USA Essays Pa

Subdivisions and American Agriculture Across Wyoming and the West, you can see miles and miles of undeveloped land. However, in the next 100 years will that be true? This once-frontier land has had massive growths in population. For retired people, the West and Midwest are becoming more attractive due to the cheap land that is less populated. Subdivisions are moving farther and farther out into the country. From 1990 to 1995, the counties in the Rocky Mountain region increased three times faster than the rest of the United States (Theobald, Miller, and Hobbs 26). Due to this increase, other areas in the environment have been negatively affected. Numerous problems have surfaced as a result of 5 acre plots. Wildlife habitats have been disturbed through construction. In conjunction with the disturbance of wildlife, plant population and landscape have also been removed and disturbed. The recent building increases have also sparked arguments over water rights and ground water. From â€Å"Ranching the View: Subdivisions versus Agriculture,† the authors suggest subdivisions can have profound impacts on rural areas. This is primarily due to the organization of the subdivisions to gain the most housing sites possible, the subdivisions have been arranged into small plots. The houses then take up a large amount of acreage and are compacted. However, separately each individual plot is around 5 acres. And this is especially relevant if the subdivisions are located near protected areas. With an increase in human population more housing is needed. Valuable farmland, range land, and grassland have been constructed into subdivisions. Besides the subdivision layout problem, subdivisions also bring roads, fences, wells, lawns, and buildings. Ano... ...tion biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology 9.2 (1995): 459-461. Agricola. 29 March 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com. Radeloff, Volker C., Hammer, Roger B., and Susan I. Stewart. "Rural and Suburban Sprawl in the U.S. Midwest from 1940 to 2000 and Its Relation to Forest Fragmentation." Conservation Biology 19.3 (2005): 793-805. Academic Search Premier. 28 March 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com. Theobald, D.M., Miller, J.R., and N.T. Hobbs. â€Å"Estimating the cumulative effects of development on wildlife habitat.† Landscape and Urban Planning 39 (1997): 25-36. 29 March 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com. Veech, Joseph A. "A Comparison of Landscapes Occupied by Increasing and Decreasing Populations of Grassland Birds." Conservation Biology 20.5 (2006): 1422-1432. Academic Search Premier. 29 March 2007. http://search.ebscohost.com.

Facility Planning

To provide patients with quality health care services, it is important to improve health care facilities and build new facilities to accommodate the growing population. Community or facility need for the building or renovation An emergency room is an area in a hospital that provides treatment to patients with acute illness, trauma and other medical emergencies. Harlan Medical Center provided emergency care to 25,000 patients last year. This makes the facility the most experienced and busiest hospital in the area. To accommodate the growing demand of services I have decided to renovate the department. Renovating the emergency room will make a huge difference in terms of capacity for serving the community. Type of population you are serving HMC emergency department will provide quality health care services to every individual in the community. The new renovations will services the residents of Harlan, and the resident of all the surrounding counties with the population of more than 250,000. As mentioned before the emergency department provides patients with rapid treatment for sudden illnesses or trauma. The patients are made up of different races, genders and ages. Description of the facility that you have selected The proposed renovations to the new emergency room will be greatly beneficial and invaluable to the medical center. Making the renovations should not only improve treatment times but should also attract new patients to the facility. The first renovation would be the addition of 22 new private treatment rooms. These rooms will be used for patients with more serious injuries as they will be treated as VIP (very important person) guests. For some people a trip to the ER is unnerving in itself. However, if having a private room can provide a sense of calm and ease nerves, then having a private room is exactly what the patient should get. The second improvement will be the addition of 16 general treatment rooms. These treatment rooms will be geared toward patients with less serious injuries. The goal of these rooms will be to turn them over within two hours or less to keep patient census low and discharges steady. A third improvement that will help keep discharges steady will be the addition of 2 â€Å"fast-track† rooms for rapid medical evaluation. The concept â€Å"fast-track† is just what it means; fast service. The fast track rooms will be for treatment of acute illnesses such as stitches and nose bleeds, etc. The goal of the â€Å"fast-track† rooms will be to diagnose and treat the patients with minor injuries within an hour or less. However, by doing this will allow for acute treatments to be handled swiftly and more in depth cases to be handled accordingly. There will be multiple dedicated staff working in each area of the new ER. Finally, the last addition to complete the new renovation will be two new trauma rooms. This addition will allow for multiple serious cases to be treated and transported into the facility that might otherwise be treated elsewhere. Shorter wait times along with faster discharge ratios should definitely entice new patients to come to the facility and generate new revenue. Conclusion Emergency department are the busiest departments in a medical center. To cut back on wait time for patients a renovation needed to take place. With all the new addition to the emergency department patients wait time will be shorter and rapid discharge ratios will keep patients coming back. We all know the saying first impressions are everything and the same holds true with emergency departments.