Abstract:
Complementing the service vision in organisations leads to the development of best practice initiatives, often adopted by innovative firms in competitive industries and environments. Such initiatives are regarded as pivotal for survival and achieving competitive advantage (Porter 1998). The Video Software Dealers Association of America (VSDA 2001) described best practice in the home entertainment industry, as identified by Arthur Andersen Business consultants. This covered wide-ranging aspects, including understanding customers and markets, developing vision and strategy, refining store product offerings, implementing the marketing plan, creating promotions and in-store merchandising and clear in-store operations. Customer service findings included that best customer service is one-to-one, and that strong relationships and loyalty are developed between staff and customers through consistency of management and staff and by personalising customer service. The study evaluates the best practice relationship with service quality (SERVQUAL), using descriptive and inferential statistics. The techniques include Surveypro, SPSS, Kruskal-Wallis, and Cronbach's alpha as a reliability measure. We accept the hypothesis that best practice initiatives are positively associated with service quality. Recommendations for implementation are suggested, together with future research alternatives.
