Since companies have realised the importance of customer loyalty and since the service sector has gained higher significance in recent years, we found it interesting to study what leads to customer loyalty in service companies. The theories we have chosen to consider are customer loyalty, service quality, service guarantees, affinity marketing, loyalty programmes and customer clubs, the customer in focus and other factors that influences customer loyalty. To find out how service companies are working with cus- tomer loyalty, we have conducted a case study within three service companies. Our findings are that customer loyalty has a significant importance for the companies we studied. Quality and personnel were the factors we found had the greatest impact in service companies concerning customer loyalty.

The aim of this thesis is to describe how service companies through adjustment of the customer?s zone of tolerance can influence customer?s perception of the service during the processes of service delivery and create customer satisfaction. The method used was case study approach utilizing personal interviews, which were conducted at two service companies. The study showed that the aspects of the service that have greatest importance for the customer?s assessment of the service and customer satisfaction among others are personal treatment and that personel behave in the way that makes the customer feel itself taken good care of and unique.

Title: The impact of service quality on customer loyalty - when a service changes from being free to become surcharged Authors: Carl Johan Olsson, Marcus Johansson and Victor Carlsson Supervisor: Hans LundbergCourse: Bachelor thesis in business administration, 15 Credits (15 ECTS) Keywords: Service quality, customer loyalty, price movementPurposeThe purpose of this essay is to increase the understanding if the perceived quality by the service users correlates with a future loyalty to a service when it cease from being free, to become charged.? Does the perceived quality of a service by the service users affect a future loyalty to a service, when it cease from being free, to become charged?MethodIn this essay we have chosen to implement a quantitative research method based on a survey. This choice was made in order to reach a sufficient large amount of service users and empirical data to answer our problem.ConclusionsAccording to the theory, customer satisfaction can be expressed through a comparison between customer?s expectations and the experience of using a service, and there are also positive correlations between service quality and customer satisfaction. Additionally, loyalty is based on service quality and customer satisfaction.

The mobile jukebox is an idea for a new kind of smartphone application that would allow users to dictate the music playing at various establishments. The mobile nature of the innovation allows for the possibility of a more ubiquitous service. Conducting a quantitative as well a qualitative study, the authors have found significant interest in this innovation service among potential users and potential distributors of the service. Furthermore, it is shown what aspects are important for decision makers to make a decision on whether to integrate the service into the operation of potential distributors of the service.  .

Bakgrunden börjar med att ta upp den svenska elmarknadens historia där Vattenfall har varit den dominerande aktören. Elmarknaden är sedan 1996 avreglerad, vilket innebar att elhandelssidan och produktionssidan är utsatt för konkurrens. Elmarknaden präglas av tre stora elhandelsföretag som har ungefär hälften av marknaden. De andra elhandelsföretagen måste nyttja strategier för att konkurrera mot de stora elhandelsföretagen samtidigt som konkurrensen möjligen är orättvis. Uppsatsens frågeställningar är: Hur ser konkurrensvillkoren ut på elmarknaden? Vad har de olika elhandelsföretagen för konkurrensstrategier? Hur använder elhandelsföretagen sina konkurrensstrategier för att bemöta andra elhandelsföretag? Syftet är att jämföra likheter och skillnader mellan elhandelsföretagens strategier för att försöka förstå och diskutera vad detta beror på.

The purpose of this masters thesis is to evaluate bookmobile service as a decentralised library service. I have made a qualitative interview survey, with seven Swedish municipalities participating, all providing bookmobile service in their rural parts. The purpose with the interviews is to examine their bookmobile service. I have also studied articles on bookmobile service, and decentralisation through small library units in library journals, to get an insight into how the work with decentralised library service is done in Swedish municipalities. In this thesis answer is sought to the following questions: - Which decentralised library services are suitable for inhabitants and institutions in sparsely populated areas, considering factors such as number of inhabitants, proportion of old people and children, demographic changes, economy, possibilities to cooperate with other municipalities? - What is the current bookmobile service situation in Sweden, taking seven municipalities in the region of Småland as a starting point? My conclusions are that each municipality must decide which decentralised library services that best suites their needs.

The purpose of this study is to develop a general understanding of the areas of alliances and service quality as well as their relation to each other, through a consumer perception. Further, to discover more detailed and close up knowledge of customer perceived service quality within airline alliances. This is done by identifying particularly significant dimensions in the service process that have an influence on the perceived service quality.The thesis is based on qualitative study using a critical incident technique to explore the issue of service quality. In the research of the material the iterative approach has been used. The primary information sources are the interviews with customers-members of airline alliance.

This study concerns paratransit service in a relatively small municipality in Sweden. The aim of this study is to describe the user's experience of paratransit service. The question formulation is mainly built around the user's experience of paratransit service and their view on what impact paratransit service has on their lives. The empirical data consists of ten interviews with ten different paratransit service users with ages ranging from 25-95 years. The data has mainly been analyzed through concepts of independence, empowerment and trust. The result of this study shows that paratransit service in many ways can be described as a crucial part of the users' lives.

Title: Television in the Service of the Public - a Study of the Public Service Concept(Television i allmänhetens tjänst - en studie av public service-begreppet).Author: Daniel FärnstrandAim: To describe the ideals, or principles, that the Public Service Ideology or concept of Pub­lic Service is based upon. The two main questions the paper aims to answer are thus:· Which principles should, according to the theoretical norm, guide Public Service activity?· Which principles guide Public Service television in Sweden today, according to the actual guidelines for the Public Service organization SVT? Method / Material: A study of relevant literature is carried out. Further, the actual guidelines for SVT are summarized. The normative guidelines are then also summarized, and a compari­son is made between this summary and the actual guidelines for SVT.Main results: Although a comprehensive definition is hard to find within the theoretical frame­work, a summary of the theoretical ideal is carried out.

Business across the Internet has increased in recent years and most companies that are selling trips have increased their sales online. Many companies that are selling trips strive for customers to receive and experience a personal service online. The meeting between the client and a webpage service system on the Internet should work. Service encounters are an essential part of the contact between customer and company and play a big part in how the first impression is perceived by the customer. To understand how a service encounter works, meeting face to face, companies need to understand how customers perceive that meeting.

In today s society, services are becoming more and more important. They are however, partly because of their immaterial nature, separated from traditional merchandise, why the marketing and producing of them differs. Quality errors in a service are often difficult to discover before the service is brought to a customer, since the producing and consuming of it often takes place simultaneously. Quality errors in a service process are called service failures or in Swedish tjänstefel. Nevertheless, with an effective service recovery process, dissatisfied customers can be turned into satisfied ones.

Service Design is a relatively new, unexplored and exciting phenomenon that through an interdisciplinary work methodology designs services. A discussion has been going on for a long time regarding whether there is a difference between products and services. Services are often classified as immaterial, heterogeneous, non-storable and inseparable in relation to products. A question that arises is if something specific characterises the work methodology used regarding service design. The aim with this paper is thus to explain the work methodology when working with service design.

SammanfattningDetta examensarbete är gjort på uppdrag av Fortum Karlstad och är inriktat på att ta fram nya kategorier för indelning av de kunder som får sin elektricitet levererad genom Fortums elnät. Det ska också ta fram de villkor som ska uppfyllas för att en kund ska placeras i var och en av dessa kategorier. Villkoren ska också möjliggöra automatisering för uppdatering av Fortums kundregister.  Sista delen av arbete ska ta fram en grov mappning av typkurvor för samtliga dessa kategorier.Arbetet genomfördes genom att studera elförbrukningen baserat på månads- och årsbasis och genom analys av denna förbrukning urskilja mönster som leder till en indelning till en viss kategori. Mappningen av typkurvor utfördes dels genom att utgå från tabeller som finns för idag existerande kategorier och uppdatera och anpassa dessa till de nya kategorierna. I de fall som inga lämpliga typkurvor existerade skapades nya typkurvor.Resultatet av arbetet blev att nio stycken kundkategorier (idag finns cirka tvåhundra) skapades med villkor som möjliggör automatisk och regelbunden uppdatering av kategoriseringen av Fortums kunder.

Problemet som denna uppsats behandlar är vilka faktorer som är av betydelse för stora svenska elhandelsbolag idag, när det gäller kundnöjdhet.När man talar om elbolag idag, är det missnöjda kunder som oftast blir det främsta samtalsämnet. Allt fler elkunder tycker att det fifflas för mycket med betalfakturor och att elbolagens service fungerar dåligt.Efter avregleringen av elmarknaden 1996, har allt fler mindre elbolag försökt bryta sig in på elmarknaden för att konkurrera med de stora elbolagen, som innan avregleringen hade monopol över eldistributionen. I och med avregleringen, utsattes marknaden för hård konkurrens och kundernas krav på service ökade. Dagens kunder har blivit allt mer medvetna om att det finns fler elbolag att välja bland, än bara de tre gamla monopol företagen, Vattenfall, Sydkraft och Fortum.Någonstans på vägen, efter avregleringen, har det dock gått utför för el-jättarna. Allt fler undersökningar har visat att fler och fler av deras kunder känner missnöje och har blivit illojala till sitt elbolag.

The aim of this qualitative study of service work in the private sector is to examine how the service worker experiences his/her work. There are three dimensions of the service workers experience in focus, and they are the base of my formulation of questions. The first dimension refers to how the service worker experiences the emotional labor demands from the employer. The second dimension concerns the relation between service worker and customer, from the view of the service worker. The third dimension problematizes how service workers experience efficiency.I have interviewed three call center customer workers and two hotel receptionists, using semi-structured interview technique.