不了解客户的十大原因

我赞成客户满意度调查吗?你到一家宾馆,其可以俯视纽约中央公园,每个房间平均700美元一晚。他们要求你回答有35个问题的调查文卷,内容涉及你对服务生、微笑服务、大厅、餐厅、卫生间以及所有你能想到的事情的印象。这个调查还会问你一个非常可笑的问题:“从多大程度上,您认为这是一家豪华宾馆?”事实上,长期以来满意度调查已经成为一种低级笑话。其非但不能让企业了解客户真正的价值趋向,而且这些调查已经成为致使企业完全不理解客户的重要原因。这像是传统的喜剧,有十个主要原因会导致其失去作用。1.问题太多就像前面的宾馆,企业总是堆出一…     

ENROLLMENT FORECASTING: USE OF A MULTIPLE-METHOD MODEL FOR PLANNING AND BUDGETING*

A multiple-method approach is presented for making enrollment projections at the departmental, school, and university level. The various methods utilized are based on the application of a cohort model (macro level) and regression techniques (micro level). The model demonstrates its flexibility in selecting one of a number of regression techniques according to a comparison approach using historical and projected results. This multiple-method approach has proved to be highly accurate and thus useful in allocating and redistributing resources to the operating units of a university. Previous efforts have relied almost solely on a single regression technique for projections and allocation purposes rather than a method based on a measure of flexibility, adaptability, and prediction confirmation.     

Schedule Recovery: Unplanned Absences in Service Operations*

The U.S. service sector loses 2.3% of all scheduled labor hours to unplanned absences, but in some industries, the total cost of unplanned absences approaches 20% of payroll expense. The principal reasons for unscheduled absences (personal illness and family issues) are unlikely to abate anytime soon. Despite this, most labor scheduling systems continue to assume perfect attendance. This oversight masks an important but rarely addressed issue in services management: how to recover from short‐notice, short‐term reductions in planned capacity. In this article, we model optimal responses to unplanned employee absences in multi‐server queueing systems that provide discrete, pay‐per‐use services for impatient customers. Our goal is to assess the performance of alternate absence recovery strategies under various staffing and scheduling regimes. We accomplish this by first developing optimal labor schedules for hypothetical service environments with unreliable workers. We then simulate unplanned employee absences, apply an absence recovery model, and compute system profits. Our absence recovery model utilizes recovery strategies such as holdover overtime, call‐ins, and temporary workers. We find that holdover overtime is an effective absence recovery strategy provided sufficient reserve capacity (maximum allowable work hours minus scheduled hours) exists. Otherwise, less precise and more costly absence recovery methods such as call‐ins and temporary help service workers may be needed. We also find that choices for initial staffing and scheduling policies, such as planned overtime and absence anticipation, significantly influence the likelihood of successful absence recovery. To predict the effectiveness of absence recovery policies under alternate staffing/scheduling strategies and operating environments, we propose an index based on initial capacity reserves.     

THE "CONSULTING-YOUR-CONSULTANTS INTERVIEW": A FINAL NARRATIVE CONVERSATION WITH GRADUATING FAMILY THERAPY MASTERS' STUDENTS

In this article, we discuss a Masters' exit interview in which we use questions adopted from narrative therapy to celebrate the transition of Masters' students into the world of marital and family therapy professionals. We are finding that this process helps us underline our students' agency and competence. Also, since the process elevates students to the level of consultants during the interview, it invites them to see themselves as experts in their own right.     

HEURISTICS FOR INTEGER PROGRAMMING USING SURROGATE CONSTRAINTS

This paper proposes a class of surrogate constraint heuristics for obtaining approximate, near optimal solutions to integer programming problems. These heuristics are based on a simple framework that illuminates the character of several earlier heuristic proposals and provides a variety of new alternatives. The paper also proposes additional heuristics that can be used either to supplement the surrogate constraint procedures or to provide independent solution strategies. Preliminary computational results are reported for applying one of these alternatives to a class of nonlinear generalized set covering problems involving approximately 100 constraints and 300–500 integer variables. The solutions obtained by the tested procedure had objective function values twice as good as values obtained by standard approaches (e.g., reducing the best objective function values of other methods from 85 to 40 on the average. Total solution time for the tested procedure ranged from ten to twenty seconds on the CDC 6600.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Burck, C., & Daniel, G. (1995). Gender and family therapy .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Comas-Diaz, L., & Greene, B. (1994). Women of color: Integrating ethnic and gender identities in psychotherapy .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Hendrick, S. S. (1995). Close relationships: What couple therapists can learn .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Ackerman, M. J. (1995). Clinician's guide to child custody evaluations .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Andolfi, M., & Haber, R. (Eds.). (1994). Please help me with this family: Using consultants as resources in family therapy .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Shapiro, E. R. (1994). Grief as a family process: A developmental approach to clinical practice .
GENERAL INTEREST BOOK: Nichols, M. P., (1995). The lost art of listening .
SELF-HELP BOOKS: O'Hanlon, B., & Hudson, P. (1995). Love is a verb: How to stop analyzing your relationship and start making it great!
SELF-HELP BOOKS: Hall, C. M. (1994). New families: Reviving and creating meaningful bonds .