RICERCA ITALIANA     

New multivariate statistical methods of classification and dimensionality reduction for quality assessment and customer satisfaction in public utility services

Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"

Abstract

The research group aims at defining and implementing new methodologies for the analysis of customer satisfaction and quality assessment data particularly with respect to efficiency and effectiveness issues. We will mainly focus on:
- definition of synthetic indicators;
- measurement of latent variables affecting customer satisfaction
- market segmentation;
- objective evaluation of quality for public services.
We will analyse both methodological and applied issues with the aim of providing simple, effective and flexible statistical methods to analyze customer satisfaction and quality assessment data.
After analysing the methodological approaches and solutions which have been proposed in the literature so far, we will highlight their limitations, with the aim of providing potential developments and/or innovative analysis paradigms for evaluating and measuring Customer Satisfaction such as we have proposed in the above discussed points. Efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction may be interpreted as latent variables, whose levels determine the actually observed response. In particular, the aim of the research unit of Bologna is to start building a system of statistical indices for health services performance assessment, while shifting from the univariate analysis to the multivariate approach, which represents a new, complete and methodologically sound alternative. The research unit of Bologna will mainly dedicate its research to the >>>

Principal Investigator

Maurizio VICHI Universita' degli Studi di ROMA

Research Objectives

The research group aims at defining and implementing new methodologies for the analysis of customer satisfaction and quality assessment data with particular regard to efficiency and effectiveness issues. We will mainly focus on:
- definition of synthetic indicators;
- measurement of latent variables affecting customer satisfaction (i.e. perceived quality)
- market segmentation;
- objective evaluation of public services' quality.
We will analyse both methodological and applied issues with the aim of providing simple, effective and flexible statistical methods to analyze customer satisfaction and quality assessment data.
After analysing the methodological approaches and solutions which have been proposed in the literature so far, we will highlight their limitations, with the aim of providing potential developments and/or innovative analysis paradigms.
The first goal is the development of a critical review of statistical methodologies for the assessment of customer satisfaction, ex-post effectiveness and efficiency in public services in the particular contexts of health care, environment, education and e-government.
In such contexts, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarity of public services:
a) the difficulty in measuring the satisfaction only on the basis of behaviours, sensations and benefits that are characteristics not easy to quantify;
b) the problem of defining specific targets >>>

First Results

1) Critical review of the existing literature.
This result will be obtained together with the other units of the project and it will be referred in particular to the public utility services. Within this topic we aim at analysing the methodological approaches and solutions proposed in the literature so far, producing a critical review of the statistical methods for impact analysis in health services (research unit of Bologna), for functional indicators to be implemented in the context of academic careers' assessment (research unit of Cosenza), of robust (research unit of Parma) explorative or model-based techniques for dimensionality reductions and consumers' segmentation (research units of Napoli and Rome);

2) Development of new methodologies and procedures
The research unit of Rome will pursue the aim of extending the approaches by De Soete and Carroll (1994) and Vichi and Kiers (2001) according to several lines of research. First, the aim is to analyze customer satisfaction data observed in different conditions (multiway or panel data); furthermore, we aim at exploring the possibility to extend standard semiparametric mixed effects models and latent class models handling dependence among customers' choices and within customers' choices, by considering a longitudinal observation as being generated from fixed effects, individual heterogeneity and serial dependence on past choices. In this context, a rationale choice is the specification of a >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

Customer satisfaction is the extent to which the desires and the requirements of the clients are met. A product or service is considered satisfactory if it fulfils the needs and expectations of the customers. When clients are not satisfied with a product or service as provided, it is neither effective nor efficient. The level of customer satisfaction with products and services is an important factor in developing a system of provisions that is responsive to clients' needs while minimising costs and time requirements and maximising the impact of the products or services on target populations.
In the artisan market preceding the mass distribution, producers found out very quickly how satisfied or dissatisfied their customer were in the course of their frequent interaction with the customers. The artisan readily accepted feedback from the customers and adopted the desired changes to help improve their products and to keep their customers. At this time customer satisfaction was a daily phenomenon.
The age of mass distribution of products and services has destroyed this mechanism distancing those who produce goods and services from those who consume them. In this way the direct interaction with customers has been eliminated and they became an important missing component in the producer's decision set.

The global economy is rapidly changing with fundamental shifts in performance and competitiveness between regions, nations and individual economic >>>