Search results for "ER retention"

Investigating Customer Satisfaction in a Health Club Context by an Application of the Tetraclasse Model

2006

International audience; Although customer satisfaction is recognised as a key driver for positive organisational outcomes, the nature and the role of the service attributes contributing to satisfaction are still misunderstood, and are most often evaluated by service quality dimensions. This study attempts to explore these attributes and their contribution to satisfaction in a sport service context using Llosa's Tetraclasse model which hypothesises that some service attribute weights are performance related whereas others are not. This application on a sample composed of 184 customers from five French health clubs indicated four satisfaction contribution types. The results suggest that the q…

Linking Employees’ Extra-Role Efforts to Customer Satisfaction

2017

Abstract. Our main goal was to test the moderating role of customer complaints (“presence” vs. “absence”) in the links from extra-role customer service (ERCS) to customer satisfaction. To this end, we conducted two independent survey studies in two service settings: hotels and service-centers for individuals with intellectual disability. A total of 571 hotel customers and 876 legal guardians of individuals with intellectual disability participated in the studies. We found that the magnitude of the relationship between ERCS and customer satisfaction was higher for presence of complaints than for absence in both service settings. Results are discussed in terms of compensation-seeking, recipr…

Value, supplier dependence and long‐term orientation

2011

PurposeIn organizational markets, many companies tend to reduce the number of providers to focus on establishing relationships with few of them. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of relationship value and dependence of supplier on long‐term orientation and customer loyalty in the setting of relationships between travel agencies and their main providers.Design/methodology/approachA partial least square regression is performed to test a proposed model that links several relational variables with outcomes in terms of customer loyalty.FindingsResults provide support for the positive indirect influence of relationship value on long‐term orientation, while customer dependence …

The Structure and Formation of Customer value in B-to-B Services

2017

This study investigates the hierarchical construct and the formation of customer value of b-to-b services. In-depth understanding of the construction of customer value and the effects of service quality on customer value are the key to effective development of b-to-b services. This quantitative study was conducted through the structured interview method among Finnish business organizations in early 2009. The data consisted of 90 qualified questionnaires. The customer value of b-to-b services was found to be composed of attribute and consequence levels. The dimensions of service quality influenced to differing degrees the formation of the attribute and consequence levels of the customer valu…

Predicting the water retention characteristic of Sicilian soils by pedotransfer functions.

2008

Influence of biochar on the physical, chemical and retention properties of an amended sandy soil

2017

Soil porosity plays an important role in soil-water retention and water availability to crops, potentially affecting both agricultural practices and environmental sustainability. The pore structure controls fluid flow and transport through the soil, as well as the relationship between the properties of individual minerals and plants. Moreover, the anthropogenic pressure on soil properties has produced numerous sites with extensive desertification process close to residential areas. Biochar (biologically derived charcoal) is produced by pyrolysis of biomasses under low oxygen conditions, and it can be applied for recycling organic waste in soils and increase soil fertility, improving soil st…

Analyzing the role of soil water retention curve in slope stability for differently structured soils

2016

 We analyzed the mechanical and hydrological effects of soil water retention curve (SWRC) models on the slope stability analyses of soils with unimodal and bimodal behavior.  We used three different SWRC models, two bimodal models (Ross&Smettem and Dexter) vs. the traditional van Genuchten model, to evaluate the Factor of Safety (FS) of a simple designed hillslope, based on the Bishop approach for unsaturated soils. Two formulations for term were also considered.  Results indicate that in cases of clayey soils, changes in FS obtained with different SWRC models especially at soil moisture values within the residual zone. In sandy soils the choice of formulations can be more important…

Qualitative and quantitative characterization of the in vitro dehydration process of hydrogel contact lenses

2007

Purpose: To investigate the in vitro dehydration process of conventional hydrogel and silicone-hydrogel contact lens materials. Methods: Eight conventional hydrogel and five silicone-hydrogel contact lenses were dehydrated under controlled environmental conditions on an analytical balance. Data were taken at 1-min intervals and dehydration curves of cumulative dehydration (CD), valid dehydration (VD), and dehydration rate (DR) were obtained. Several quantitative descriptors of the dehydration process were obtained by further processing of the information. Results: Duration of phase I (r 2 5 0.921), CD at end of phase I (r 2 5 0.971), time to achieve a DR of � 1%/min (r 2 5 0.946) were stron…

An assessment of the Beerkan method for determining the hydraulic properties of a sandy loam soil

2014

Abstract Establishing the ability of the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure to reproduce soil properties is necessary for specific soil types. In this investigation, the BEST predictions for a sandy loam soil were compared with water retention data obtained by a standard laboratory method and with the saturated soil hydraulic conductivity, K s , obtained by both the Wu et al. (1999) method, applied to the BEST infiltration data, and the Simplified Falling Head (SFH) technique. When the original BEST-slope algorithm with the infiltration constants fixed at β = 1.9 and γ = 0.79 was applied, the agreement between the predicted and the measured retention data was sa…

A test of the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure

2014

Abstract The Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure is attractive for a simple soil hydraulic characterization but testing the ability of this procedure to estimate soil properties is necessary. The BEST predictions were compared with soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity data measured in the laboratory and the field, respectively, at ten Sicilian field sites. Provided that BEST yielded physically possible scale parameters of the soil characteristic curves in most of the four replicated infiltration runs at a site, the measured water retention was satisfactorily predicted (i.e., not statistically significant differences between measurements and predictions…