EXAMENSARBETE - Theseus

DEGREE THESIS
Arcada
Degree Programme: Business Economics
Identification number:
Author: Hans-Christian Fagerström
Title: Customer perceived service quality - a case study from department
store Stockmann’s perspective
Supervisor: Carl-Johan Rosenbröijer
Commissioned by:
Abstract:
The purpose of this work was to study customer perceived service quality and problems in
a logistical business network. The network consisted of a triad of businesses in Finland,
consisting of a supplier of home electronics, a shipping agent, delivering products to customers
and a customer that acts as a retailer of the finished products.
The research was carried out as a qualitative case study. Consisting theories of business
networks, logistics flow perspective and service quality was used to analytically examine
the case. The empirical evidence was collected over a ten-week period by practical work
in the customer's inventory spaces, and in the purchasing department in cooperation with
other actors of the triad.
Starting point of the work was identification of the logistical activities in the customer's
warehouse moving forward to identification of the problems in the services that the shipping
agent offers in connection with supplies. The work also consisted of preliminary negotiations
with the other parties in the network in solving customer’s perceived problems.
The perceived problems occurred when supply documentation and the way in which an
order was shipped to the customer's storage facilities did not correspond to the expected
quality. The customer’s demand of quality in deliveries was specified in the customers
purchasing terms and delivery instructions.
The result of the study was that there were insufficient practical information regarding the
customer's expected quality by the shipper and the supplier. Resource restrictions to carry
out the customer's service requirement did not exist, but adjusted activities to function as
expected would require that the customer improved the information flow to the other actors
in coordination and cooperation with purchase- and storage departments as a hole.
Keywords: customer perceived service quality, business networks, actors,
resources, activities, logistics, logistical flow, technical quality,
functional quality, expected quality
Number of pages: 64
Language: Swedish
Date of acceptance: 16.12.2009