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42-487: The Kitemark is a UK product and service quality trade mark which is owned and operated by the British Standards Institution ( BSI Group ). According to BSI, Kitemark certification confirms that a product or service's claim has been independently and repeatedly tested by experts, meaning that purchasers can have trust and confidence in products and services that are BSI Kitemark certified. The Kitemark

84-730: A financial transaction or an exchange for money or some other valuable consideration . Early societies relied on a gift economy based on favours. Later, as commerce developed, less permanent human relations were formed, depending more on transitory needs rather than enduring social desires . Customers are generally said to be the purchasers of goods and services, while clients are those who receive personalized advice and solutions. Although such distinctions have no contemporary semantic weight, agencies such as law firms , film studios , and health care providers tend to prefer client , while grocery stores , banks , and restaurants tend to prefer customer instead. The term client

126-488: A Six Sigma consultant from the United Kingdom, uses the following analogy to explain the difference: A supermarket's customer is the person buying milk at that supermarket; a not-customer buys milk from a competing supermarket, whereas a non-customer does not buy milk from supermarkets at all but rather "has milk delivered to the door in the traditional British way". Tennant also categorizes customers in another way that

168-425: A crucial part in the relationship between the demand and the supply. Some of the most important characteristics of any customer are that: any customer is never in a subordination line with any supplier; any customer has equal positions with the supplier within negotiations, and any customer can accept or reject any offer for a service or a product. Peter Drucker wrote, "They are all people who can say no, people who have

210-414: A customer and a supplier. Peter Drucker considers that there are no customers inside organizations. He wrote "Inside an organization, there are only cost centers. The only profit center is a customer whose check has not bounced." In addition, William Deming advises managers, in his 9th point, to "Break down barriers between departments. They must work as a team", which means that there have to be teamwork in

252-433: A seller develop customs that allow for regular, sustained commerce that allows the seller to develop statistical models to optimize production processes (which change the nature or form of goods or services) and supply chains (which change the location or formalize the changes of ownership or entitlement transactions). An "end customer" denotes the person at the end of a supply chain who ultimately purchases or utilised

294-400: A standard against which something of a similar type can be measured or judged, i.e. as a benchmark . Common household or consumer products that are often Kitemark certified include EV chargers; domestic furniture (such as sofas and mattresses); IoT/ smart connected products such as doorbells and security cameras. A full list can be seen on BSI's Kitemark product testing webpage. The Kitemark

336-551: Is derived from Latin clients or care meaning "to incline" or "to bend", and is related to the emotive idea of closure . It is widely believed that people only change their habits when motivated by greed and fear . Winning a client is therefore a singular event, which is why professional specialists who deal with particular problems tend to attract long-term clients rather than regular customers. Unlike regular customers, who buy merely on price and value, long-term clients buy on experience and trust. Clients who habitually return to

378-436: Is employed outside the fields of marketing . While marketers, market regulation, and economists use the intermediate/ultimate categorization, the field of customer service more often categorizes customers into two classes: Before the introduction of the notion of an internal customer, external customers were, simply, customers. Quality-management writer Joseph M. Juran popularized the concept, introducing it in 1988 in

420-596: Is issued, licensees are regularly audited and are subject to surveillance visits to ensure continuing compliance. The Kitemark is not a legal requirement, but (according to BSI) is often used as a point of differentiation in competitive markets and is widely trusted. A 2006 survey demonstrated that the Kitemark is recognized by 82 per cent of the UK population, 88 per cent of whom trust the Kitemark, 93 per cent of whom believe that Kitemark products are safer, and 91 per cent of whom believe

462-419: Is most frequently used to identify products where safety is paramount, such as crash helmets, smoke alarms and flood defences. In recent years, the Kitemark has also been applied to a range of services, such as electrical installations; inclusive service provision; car servicing and accident repair; and window installations. The term kite mark is sometimes used colloquially as a level of quality that can be used as

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504-746: Is not a consumer at all. The situation is somewhat complicated in that ultimate customers of so-called industrial goods and services (who are entities such as government bodies, manufacturers, and educational and medical institutions) either themselves use up the goods and services that they buy, or incorporate them into other finished products, and so are technically consumers, too. However, they are rarely called that, but are rather called industrial customers or business-to-business customers. Similarly, customers who buy services rather than goods are rarely called consumers. Six Sigma doctrine places (active) customers in opposition to two other classes of people: not- customers and non- customers: Geoff Tennant,

546-399: Is only available from BSI Group . To obtain Kitemark certification, products and services are assessed by BSI Product Services to ensure that they meet the requirements of the relevant British, European, trade association or international specification or standard. In addition, delivery of the product or service is audited against an accredited quality management system. Once a Kitemark licence

588-435: Is relatively objective and therefore easy to measure. However, difficulties arise when trying to evaluate functional quality. A customer's expectation of a particular service is determined by factors such as recommendations, personal needs and past experiences. The expected service and the perceived service sometimes may not be equal, thus leaving a gap. The service quality model or the ‘GAP model’ developed in 1985, highlights

630-570: Is the dominant model in the consumer behaviour and marketing literature. A model of service quality, based on the expectancy-disconformation paradigm, and developed by A. Parasuraman , Valarie A. Zeithaml and Len Berry , identifies the principal dimensions (or components) of service quality and proposes a scale for measuring service quality, known as SERVQUAL . The model's developers originally identified ten dimensions of service quality that influence customer's perceptions of service quality. However, after extensive testing and retesting, some of

672-542: The SERVQUAL method); in incidents (assessed in critical incident theory ) and in problems (assessed by Frequenz Relevanz Analyse a German term. The most important and most used method with which to measure subjective elements of service quality is the Servqual method. Objective processes may be subdivided into primary processes and secondary processes. During primary processes, silent customers create test episodes of service or

714-543: The face validity of the model and whether service quality can be conceptualised as a gap . Measuring service quality may involve both subjective and objective processes. In both cases, it is often some aspect of customer satisfaction which is being assessed. However, customer satisfaction is an indirect measure of service quality. Research has also indicated that the presence of service quality leads to several outcomes including changes in perceived value, customer satisfaction and loyalty intentions with consumers. Given

756-506: The 1970s Kitemark schemes were developed in areas such as double glazing and fire safety. As of March 2021, there are more than 450 individual Kitemark schemes covering products as diverse as printed circuit boards and cattle tags, and services as disparate as financial products and flood protection. There are also currently more than 2,500 Kitemark licences, held by, amongst others, Anglian Home Improvements, Chubb Security & Fire Protection, Everest, Hygena, and Tarmac and Valor. The Kitemark

798-795: The Kitemark was independently voted a Superbrand in the Top 500 Business Superbrands in the UK. The word "Kitemark" is a registered trade mark of the British Standards Institution. Service quality A business with high service quality will meet or exceed customer expectations whilst remaining economically competitive . Evidence from empirical studies suggests that improved service quality increases profitability and long term economic competitiveness. Improvements to service quality may be achieved by improving operational processes; identifying problems quickly and systematically; establishing valid and reliable service performance measures and measuring customer satisfaction and other performance outcomes. From

840-414: The best possible achievable result becomes the ideal. The objective ideal may still be poor, in subjective terms. Service quality can be related to service potential (for example, worker's qualifications); service process (for example, the quickness of service) and service result (customer satisfaction). Individual service quality states the service quality of employees as distinct from the quality that

882-558: The case of Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces , wherein TAJ remaining the old world, luxury brand in the five-star category, the umbrella branding was diluting the image of the TAJ brand because although the different hotels such as Vivanta by Taj - the four star category, Gateway in the three star category and Ginger the two star economy brand, were positioned and categorised differently, customers still expected high quality of Taj. The measurement of subjective aspects of customer service depends on

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924-447: The choice to accept or reject what you offer." In opposition to the stated customer's characteristics, relationships between colleagues in a company are always based on subordination – direct or indirect. Company employees are obliged to follow the processes of their companies. Company employees do not have the authority to choose a unit/colleague to fulfill any task. Company employees are obliged to use an existing unit/colleague by using

966-455: The company's structure and approved processes, therefore these internal relationships are not considered as an option. Many authors in ITIL and Six Sigma methodologies define "internal customer" as an internal part of a company that uses the output of another part of a company as its input. But actually, this definition describes better a classical internal process rather than a relationship between

1008-514: The conformity of the expected benefit with the perceived result. This in turns depends upon the customer's expectation in terms of service, they might receive and the service provider's ability and talent to present this expected service. Successful companies add benefits to their offering that not only satisfy the customers but also surprise and delight them. Delighting customers is a matter of exceeding their expectations. Pre-defined objective criteria may be unattainable in practice, in which case,

1050-430: The customers perceived. Historically, scholars have treated service quality as very difficult to define and measure, due to the inherent intangible nature of services, which are often experienced subjectively. One of the earliest attempts to grapple with the service quality concept came from the so-called Nordic School . In this approach, service quality was seen as having two basic dimensions: The technical quality

1092-411: The design of service products and facilities. On the other hand, in service delivery, changes can be brought about in the service delivery processes, the environment in which the service delivery takes place and improvements in the interaction processes between customers and service providers. Various techniques can be used to make changes such as: Quality function deployment (QFD); failsafing ; moving

1134-403: The dimensions were found to be autocorrelated and the total number of dimensions was reduced to five, namely - reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness. These five dimensions are thought to represent the dimensions of service quality across a range of industries and settings. Among students of marketing, the mnemonic, RATER , an acronym formed from the first letter of each of

1176-414: The five dimensions, is often used as an aid to recall. In spite of the dominance of the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, scholars have questioned its validity. In particular scholars have pointed out the expectancy-disconfirmation approach had its roots in consumer research and was fundamentally concerned with measuring customer satisfaction rather than service quality. In other words, questions surround

1218-534: The fourth edition of his Quality Control Handbook ( Juran 1988 ). The idea has since gained wide acceptance in the literature on total quality management and service marketing; and many organizations as of 2016 recognize the customer satisfaction of internal customers as a precursor to, and a prerequisite for, external customer satisfaction, with authors such as Tansuhaj, Randall & McCullough 1991 regarding service organizations which design products for internal customer satisfaction as better able to satisfy

1260-473: The goods or services. A client paying for construction work is often referred to as an "employer". In the 21st century, customers are generally categorized into two types: A customer may or may not also be a consumer , but the two notions are distinct. A customer purchases goods; a consumer uses them. An ultimate customer may be a consumer as well, but just as equally may have purchased items for someone else to consume. An intermediate customer

1302-586: The line of visibility and the line of accessibility; and blueprinting . In order to ensure and increase the 'conformance quality' of services, that is, service delivery happening as designed, various methods are available. Some of these include guaranteeing ; mystery shopping ; recovering; setting standards and measuring; statistical process control and Customer involvement management . The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction has received considerable attention in academic literature. The results of most research studies have indicated that

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1344-435: The main requirements for delivering high service quality. It identifies five ‘gaps’ that cause unsuccessful delivery. Customers generally have a tendency to compare the service they 'experience' with the service they 'expect'. If the experience does not match the expectation, there arises a gap. Given the emphasis on expectations, this approach to measuring service quality is known as the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm and

1386-428: The needs of external customers. Research on the theory and practice of managing the internal customer continues as of 2016 in a variety of service-sector industries . Leading authors in management and marketing, like Peter Drucker , Philip Kotler , W. Edwards Deming , etc., have not used the term "internal customer" in their works. They consider the "customer" as a very specific role in society which represents

1428-427: The next few decades, the use of Kitemark was largely limited to technical and engineering applications up until the 1950s when the boom in consumer products led to increased concern about product safety. By the 1960s the Kitemark was being used to identify safe products in areas such as nightwear, domestic furniture, pressure cookers and motorcycle helmets. With the introduction of quality management systems standards in

1470-470: The oldest product quality marks in the world still in regular use. The Kitemark was initially used as a trade mark on tramway rails in 1903 and was instrumental in reducing the number of specifications for rails from 75 to 5. The first full Kitemark scheme – equivalent to today's Kitemark – came into being in 1926, when the General Electric Company was awarded a Kitemark for light fittings. For

1512-483: The product is of a better quality than similar products without the Kitemark. A 2008 YouGov poll showed that almost half (49 per cent) of UK consumers look for a Kitemark when making a purchase. In 2022, a survey of over 2000 UK consumers concluded that 1 in 4 UK citizens look for a certification symbol or logo, such as the BSI Kitemark, when making the decision to purchase a quality electrical product. In 2008 and 2009

1554-403: The service episodes of normal customers are observed. In secondary processes, quantifiable factors such as numbers of customer complaints or numbers of returned goods are analysed in order to make inferences about service quality. In general, an improvement in service design and delivery helps achieve higher levels of service quality. For example, in service design, changes can be brought about in

1596-426: The service quality and customer satisfaction are indeed independent but are closely related that and a rise in one is likely to result in an increase in another construct. Customer In sales , commerce , and economics , a customer (sometimes known as a client , buyer , or purchaser ) is the recipient of a good , service , product , or an idea , obtained from a seller , vendor , or supplier via

1638-422: The transaction including information search, website navigation, order, customer service interactions, delivery, and satisfaction with the ordered product.”. A recent paper examined research on e-service quality. The author identified four dimensions of e-service quality: website design, fulfillment, customer service, and security and privacy. Subjective processes can be assessed in characteristics (assessed be

1680-410: The viewpoint of business administration , service quality is an achievement in customer service . It reflects at each service encounter. Customers form service expectations from past experiences, word of mouth and marketing communications. In general, customers compare perceived service with expected service, and if the former falls short of the latter the customers are disappointed. For example, in

1722-406: The widespread use of internet and e-commerce , researchers have also sought to define and measure e-service quality. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Malhotra (2005, p. 5) define e-service quality as the “extent to which a website facilitates efficient and effective shopping, purchasing, and delivery.” Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003, p. 183) define e-service quality as “the beginning to the end of

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1764-401: Was originally conceived in 1903 as a symbol to identify products manufactured to meet British Standards ' specifications. "Kitemark" came from the kite shape of the graphic device which was drawn up – an uppercase B (for British) on its back, over an S (for standard), enclosed by a V (for verification). The Kitemark was subsequently registered as a trademark on 12 June 1903 and as such is among

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