Adoption Of Order Fulfillment and Customer Service Satisfaction "Productivity trends in two retail trade industries, 1987-95." Contributors: Mark W. Dumas. Monthly Labor Review. Volume: 120. Issue: 7. 1997. Page Number:

Order fulfillment and customer satisfaction depends on the productivity of workers in the retail industries. The retail sector of the economy was to be an important provider of jobs, accounting for 29% of employment in the private service-producing sector of the economy in 1995, when investigated for this report. In view of that, the productivity of that sector is essential to continuing customer satisfaction. Mark W. Dumas is an economist in the Division of Industry Productivity Studies. Bureau of Labor Statistics. His methodology was to compile results of 17 previous investigations of the effect of productivity on fulfillment and customer satisfaction; these ranged across major U.S. industries from telephone service providers to online retailers. This was chosen for the breadth of his resources and the fact that productivity measures are vital to customer satisfaction.

2. "The future of the networked company." Remo Hacki, etc. The McKinsey Quarterly. 2001. Page Number

This report takes a look at "network orchestrators," or companies that ensure their own financial health by getting involved in many aspects of their suppliers' business as well. The authors concluded that this helped such companies avoid slowdowns that affected similar businesses. One company researched was Cisco Systems, with revenue growth of 57%, substantial even in the crowded technology field. The authors quantified financial results from major U.S. companies from Cisco to stockbroker Charles Schwab. They quantified not only financial achievement, but also customer service in each company's market. While not as specific as some reports regarding fulfillment and customer satisfaction figures, there are abundant tables and the fact that these companies are succeeding wildly in customer-service-oriented industries speaks to their assumed excellence in order fulfillment. Chosen as a good base on which to form other studies, breaking down these findings into fulfillment and customer satisfaction specifically. And, too, McKinsey has vast research on all aspects of U.S. business and operates both in and about those industries.

3. " Shopping from a list: International studies of consumer online experiences." Robert N. Mayer. Journal of Consumer Affairs. Volume: 36. Issue: 1. 2002

The author believed that an umber of serious problems, especially failure to disclose key consumer information, existed in online shopping despite its growth. During the holiday seasons of 1998 and 2000, he conducted a series of exercises to determine what these were with the intention of enhancing consumer education and informing self-regulatory bodies for greater consumer protection. The study was conducted by Consumers International in London, an umbrella group for global consumer organizations, and studied consumer experiences when buying over the Internet. Researchers from eleven nations were given a list of eight products and asked to buy each twice, once from a domestic Web site and once from one based in another country. After quantifying their results, "regulators and retailers have much work still to do before the Internet can offer a reliable environment in which consumers can shop with confidence." In eleven cases out of 151, orders were taken but delivery of the product was never made.

This was chosen because it was the first 'mystery shopping' experiment in the Internet and the results were quantified.

4. " TechMall.com: revenue recognition in the Internet economy." Robert D. Allen, David M. Cottrell, Kyle Pexton, Monte R. Swain. Issues in Accounting Education. Volume: 17. Issue: 4. 2002.

This is a case history that is meant to explore revenue treatment in ecommerce when a retailer does business under contract to an umbrella organization that handles its transactions over the Internet. The specific item under consideration is how gross or net fees for Internet services and products should be treated. IN turn, this reveals how well a company is really performing, and whether it needs to make changes in its fulfillment functions, among other factors. The methodology was to take the experience of one business operating as part of TechMall and analyze it, making recommendations for change if needed. This was chosen because it is one of the few papers dealing with revenue handling and breakdown in Internet fulfillment and giving quantified results.

5. " The Global Internet Shopper: Evidence from Shopping Tasks in Twelve Countries." Robert J. Kent, Patrick D. Lynch, Srini S. Srinivasa. Journal of Advertising Research. Volume: 41. Issue: 3. 2001. Page Number: 15.

This study was undertaken because the authors believed the characteristics of a Web site critical to increasing shopping on the site were unknown. The methodology determined, through answers from 299 repsondents to a survey in 12 countries, what contributed to quality, trust, and positive attitudes regarding purchases from each Web site. Global web sales should grow from the $8 billion realized in 1998...

The participants were asked to use the Internet to research and select a web store and personal-portable compact disk player that represented the best overall value. After 20 minutes of Internet use, participants responded to a survey concerning their opinions of the websites they had visited in shopping for the CD player. The results were examined and quantified, and the authors made theoretical and empirical conceptions that would be useful to retailers in order fulfillment and customer satisfaction. This paper was chosen because of its practical implications.
6. " Employee attitudes and customer satisfaction: making theoretical and empirical connections." Steven P. Allscheid, Mark J. Schmit. Personnel Psychology. Volume: 48. Issue: 1995.

The authors had previously found that attitudes regarding workload/stress, training/development, job/company satisfaction, and work group/teamwork were all significantly related to customer. In this study, the service-quality line of research was extended next to the issue of bottom-line outcomes resulting from improved customer satisfaction. Employee attitudes and employee and customer perceptions of service quality all had been shown to be conditionally related to the profitability of an organization by various researchers. The authors used a recently developed model of attitudes, intentions, and behavior relationships to assess the emotional response-coping link that is pertinent to the customer-service provider relationship. This study investigated the relationship between employee attitudes and customer satisfaction in a comprehensive conceptual framework. Approximately 9,000 employee attitude surveys were distributed to the employees of a large security systems company with offices nationwide. Data was then tabulated and conclusions drawn. This study was included because it quantified 'soft' material, attitudes, into a useable format.

7. " Profiles of Internet buyers in 20 countries: Evidence for region-specific strategies." John C. Beck, Patrick D. Lynch. Journal of International Business Studies. Volume: 32. Issue: 4. 2001.

This is a later Web content/presentation study. The authors believed that beliefs, attitudes, and shopping preferences of Internet buyers around the world could depend on important macro and micro-level variables. If so, then Web site content should be adjusted according to the type of individual visiting a site. (Fortin, 1999). Their research understood to developed profiles for various sorts of global Internet users. A total of 515 participants were asked to voluntarily participate in a study of Internet buying. They were randomly selected. This study was chosen because of its incredible wealth of table concerning every aspect of customer experience/satisfaction.

8. "The customer and a productive resource: a pilot study and strategic implications." Cindy Claycomb, Lawrence W. Inks, Cynthia A. Lengnick-Hall. Journal of Business Strategies. Volume: 18. Issue: 1. 2001.

The authors used the YMCA in a study to examine differences in organizational socialization of customers and outcomes experienced by customers for three levels of customer participation. "The findings indicate that there are significant differences in the (a) degree of organizational socialization across customers and (b) perceptions of service quality for the different levels of customer participation. Specifically, organizational socialization and perceptions of service quality increase as customers become more active participants in service delivery. Strategic implications are considered. The authors hypothesized that:

Customer participation levels increase as levels of organizational socialization increase.

Hypothesis

Customer satisfaction levels increase as the level of customer participation increases.

Levels of customer perceptions of service quality increase as customer participation levels increase.

The investigators drew a random sample of member and non-member activity participants, sending out 750 questionnaires and receiving 127 completed ones. The results were analyzed and abundant tables resulted. All measures were assessed on 5-point Likert scales, with responses ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). This study was chosen because of its in-depth analysis and abundant tables.

9. " The ABCs of customer-centered performance measures. Walter W. Austin, David J. Lemak, Joseph C. Montgomery, Richard Reed. SAM Advanced Management Journal. Volume: 61. Issue: 2. 1996. Page Number: 4

This paper uses cost accounting to determine whether fulfillment and customer satisfaction is being served. Their hypothesis was that the old way, manager-centered cost accounting, should be replaced by a more modern, customer-centered cost accounting process. Numerous arguments have been advanced as to why customer-centered organizations outperform manager-centered ones in such areas as innovation, quality, timeliness, cost, and customer satisfaction, according the authors, and they set out to substantiate the belief. Their methodology was to survey vast quantities of…