Download 1. Introduction

Dissertation Proposal
The model of communication
Between Facility Manager and End Users
for getting real satisfaction
12 March 2001
Hitoshi Kumagai
Saxion Hogeschool IJselland
European Master Facility management 2000-2001
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
······························ 1
2. Problems
······························ 2
3. Objectives of the research
······························ 3
4. Hypotheses
······························ 3
5. Study design
······························ 3
6.Setting
······························ 4
7. Measurement procedures
······························ 4
8.Analysis of data
······························ 5
9.Structure of report
······························ 5
10Work Schedule
······························ 6
11. Limitation of the research
······························ 6
Appendix 1. The control group design ·················· a-1
Appendix 2. Sample questionnaire
·················· a-2
Appendix 3. References
····················· a-3
Dissertation proposal
1.
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
Introduction
Recently, The position in organisations of facility managers has got clearer than ever before, as an
expert who supports core-business. Facility management was originally a function inside
organisations, but now a day, the relationship between core-function and facility manager has
become the one between customers and services providers. It means facility manager is expected to
provide more better services to their customers. Furthermore, total facility management contractors
have emerged; such as, Johnson Control IFM or SI-CBX. They earn money by providing services on
behalf of its facility manager. They have to guarantee good quality of services.
What is good quality of service? Friday and Cotts says in their book, ‘Quality Facility Management’,
“a measure of quality for the customer is how close we come to their expectations about service and
their perception of the way we perform.”1 Quality is defined by customers; there is no absolute
measurement of quality. The quality can be measured by the satisfaction of customers. Friday also
says, “If the perception matches the expectation, you have satisfied customers.” Therefore, how to
get the customer satisfaction is important aspect of facility managers to guarantee their performance.
How can a facility manager provide a service that meets customer expectation? It seems just he or
she knows the requirements of customer and provides a service that meets the requirements.
However, facility managers cannot always achieve it, because resources for services have limitation.
In addition, customer’s expectation is subjective. “There is never any objective measurement of a
professional services, it will always depend on individual assessments,” Barrett said2. Then, what
should facility managers do? Cook says, “customers’ expectation can often be conditioned by the
service providers themselves…in Disney attractions, the published waiting time is always 5 minutes
more than the actual waiting time.3” Information conditions customers’ expectation. For another
example, Van der Sluis, the facility manager of Schiphol group said, he explains the service level
agreed with the manager of an end user when the user requires much higher grade services than his
department do, and the user almost every time can understand his explanation4. Informing or
explaining, here a word ‘communication’ is used for them, helps to fill the gap between expectation
and perception. Or, It can be found whether the service level agreement meet real user expectation or
not from the voice of end users. In other words, communication with customer is important to
getting satisfaction.
SLA は基本。SLA がベースとなっていて、期待にマッチしたサービスを提供しているはず。
どうやって SLA を作るべきか。あるいはロングタームサティスファクションを築くために
Satisfaction is
1
2
3
4
Friday and Cotts,1995 , p12
Barrett, 1995, p45
Cook, 2000, p12
Van del Sluis, personal communication, 1st November 2000
1
Dissertation proposal
2.
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
Problems
The problem is how facility managers should communicate with customers. Here ‘customers,’ this
research focuses on each end user, whom facility manager has to satisfy and who are subjective.
How does communication support getting users’ satisfaction?
The example of Disney attractions above mentioned might show the communication can control
customers’ expectation before they perceive the services. And they would consequently satisfy after
finding the service is better than their expectation. The example of Schiphol group may show the
communication can modify customers’ expectation after they perceive the services. And they would
consequently satisfy after knowing the services level is rational. Is it true or is there any other
communication? In addition how to evaluate and improve a SLA through users’ voice if it does not
meet real users expectation. Facility manager should know relationship between communication and
satisfaction.
What kinds of ways of communication may exist between facility manager and end users?
Kokuryo, a Japanese professor at Keio Business School, categorises the communication generally in
seller and customer into three types (Fig 2-1.) 5:
-One way S-to-C: one-way from seller to customers
such as, providing product feature and availability
-Interactive S-to-C: interacting between seller and customers
such as help desks, and third
-Interactive C-to-C: interacting among customers
such as reputation and forum on the Internet.
seller
customer
One way S-to-C
seller
customer
Interactive S-to-C
seller
customer
Interactive C-to-C
Fig 2-1. Type of communication between seller and customer5
If the model is applied into facility manger and his/her users, what kind of communication may exits
in each type, or how can each type of communication be characterised according to getting
satisfaction? Facility manager should know the structure of communication with users.
5
Kokuryo, The Role of “Customer-to-Customer” Interaction on Computer Networks online the Internet
2
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
What kinds of tools are effective for each communication?
The resource of communication also has limitation. Recently, there have been many IT systems for
supporting communication with customers. The most popular system is web site on the Internet or
intranets. For instance, facility management department of Shiphol developed a web catalogue of
their services on the company’s intranet. In addition, many IT industry companies provide some
systems, called Customer Relation Management System. The most typical system of this is customer
data warehouses. The system manages the process of ordering of services, and it support for the
claim from customer. It also can record those claims, and it consequently gives data for analysing
services quality. Furthermore, Kokuryo show a platform on computer network that manages
interactive C-to-C6. For instance, The Internet auction or user’s forum of some product are regarded.
Kokuryo said that if some rules and common words are defined, C-to-C can be accelerated
Can the idea of system be specified and applied into the communication of facility management?
Facility manger should implement efficient communication support system.
3.
Objectives of the research
The objective of the research in general is to find a model of communication between facility
manager and end users to improving the end users’ satisfaction. To achieve the objective, the
research divides into follows sub-objectives,

Defining what types of communication exist between facility manager and end users:
occasion, contents, and interactivity (one-way, two-way).
4.

Defining how each type of communication support satisfaction of end users.

Defining the policy for the IT system which supports the communication.
Hypotheses

Proactive communication from facility manager to users (one way S-to-C) increases users’
perception of services level.

Interactive S-to-C communication between facility manger and users (Interactive S-to-C)
increases users’ satisfaction in special (not ordinary) events.

Interactive communication among users (Interactive C-to-C) reveals the potential
expectation of users.
5.
Study design
The research will be carried out by the way of literature search, experiment and market survey.
6
Kokuryo, The Role of “Customer-to-Customer” Interaction on Computer Networks online the Internet
3
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
First of all, the research will explore literatures mainly in the field of ‘Customer Relationship
Management (CRM),’ and define the schema for facility management communication. The field of
CRM has been well researched since an article, “Zero Defection-Quality Comes to Services7,” was
issued. It supposes to be easier to set a possible model than observing real facility management jobs.
Then, the schema will be examined by an experiment. The schema will apply into real stage. The
limitation of resources of the research, it is difficult to apply some treatments (= to change
communication way) into real stage. Therefore, the study will be examined by a the comparative
experiment design.8 The study will be carried out by following steps (Fig5-1),

Selecting several sets of facility manager and end user in an organisation. Site are regarded
as the set.

Characterizing each facility manager’s communication according to the frame by asking
them to take diaries of communication.

Collecting data of satisfaction, perception, expectation, and behaviour of each grope of end
users by questionnaires.

Finding the relation between the each case and the collected date of end users.

Define ideal character of the schema = the model of communication
The schema
One way S-C
Interactive S-C
Interactive C-C
Case A
(Site A)
Case B
(Site B)
Case C
(Site C)
Communication
way of
A
Communication
way of
B
Communication
way of
C
Perception
Perception
Perception
Satisfaction
Satisfaction
Satisfaction C
A
B
Find
from
diary
Question
for
end users
Case A
Properties
of the
schema
Case B
Case C
Satisfaction, Expectation…
Fig 5-1 comparative experiment design
The difference among the communication character of the cases are regarded as treatments applied
7
8
W. Earl Sasser. Jr. & Frederick F. Reichheld Harvard Business Review Sept.-Oct. 1990
Kumar, 1996, p94
4
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
on each site, and the level of satisfaction, perception, expectation and behaviour of each site are
regarded as results of each treatment. Finally, the study analyses the treatment and the results to find
the relationship between them.
Finally, the research will search in the markets of CRM and facility management support system.
The systems will be critically appraised. Through comparing with the model of communication, a
policy that facilities managers should have when implement this kind of system will be defined.
6.
Setting
The study will be researched in some office facility services, where the services are provided for
mainly ‘people’ who have feelings of satisfaction. The data will be collected in some organisations
where facility services are wholly outsourced to a main contractor. Because the quality guarantee
seems serious in the cases, it supposes to be easy to find the well-developed communication. To find
appropriate model, the data will gathered in the UK where the outsourcing business is well
developed.
7.
Measurement procedures
To define the communication model, generally two kinds of data will be collected. One is the
communication proportion of facility manger, the other is users’ aspect of perception, expectation
and satisfaction and the behaviour of users.
The communication proportion will be measured through counting the number and the ratio of
spending time of communication,
proportionij:
(type (sub-typei) / wayj : [number of communication], [ratio of communication])
Each property has following value,
type
;[one way S-to-C, interactive S-to-C],
sub-type
;[campaign, explanation service, notice, reply to question, reply to complain,
others]
way
;[informal face-to-face, meeting, telephone, email, web-site, paper(hard copy),
others].
The number and time will be counted by dailies of facilities managers (see appendix 1).
The perception, expectation and satisfaction are measured by questionnaire (see appendix 2) to users.
To find overall satisfaction for whole services, the question is prioritised over other questions, as
follow scale.
Satisfaction1 :
[Very Satisfied / Satisfied / Neutral / Unsatisfied / Very Unsatisfied]
5
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
In CRM field, some study showed the difference of “very satisfied” and “satisfied.” “Very satisfied”
customer tends to have loyalty for the service provider, but “satisfied” customer does not always.
Then perception and expectation are asked. The perception level is measured in four levels, such as,
Perception:
[having read SLA, knowing whole services, knowing how to find services,
not knowing]
The question shows generally three levels: knowing the services, knowing how to, and not knowing.
In addition, it will be found how SLA is been aware by users.
Expectation:
[Less than the Service Level / Equal / More than the Service Level]
expectation might be variable depending on service. Therefore, the value should be set simply.
To find the relationship satisfaction and behaviour of users, behaviour are defined as follows, (also
see appendix 2).
behaviour1:
Having contacted ?
behaviour2:
behaviour3:
why not
NO
YES
satisfaction2:
Question?
What asked
What complained
Complained?
Satisfaction
for the
response
behaviour4:
Having talked with colleagues? (interactive C-to-C)
NO
YES: ask or teach
YES: make a rumour
Fig 7-1. the measurements of communication behaviour
8.
Analysis of data
The data will be analysed generally by two ways. First one is that relationship between overall
satisfaction, as follows,
satisfaction1 = f(perception, expectation, behaviour1-4, satisfaction2)
It will be analysed how each aspect influences satisfaction1.
The other is that the other aspects of users, and relationship between communication proportion and
users aspect, as follows,
satisfaction1 = g(propotionij in each case)
perception, expectation, behaviour1-4 = h(propotionij in each case)
It will be also analysed which proportion is more affect on satisfaction1, and on each aspects. Finally,
6
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
it will be found how communication (which proportion) makes satisfaction maximum.
9.
Structure of report
Chapter 1: Introduction (5)
-
Quality of facility management
-
User satisfaction
-
Communication in facility management
-
Why now Customer Relationship Management (CRM) ?
Chapter 2: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) (5/10)
-
The research for CRM
-
Communication models of CRM
-
Tools and systems of CRM
Chapter 3: Schema of communication in facility management (3/13)
-
Structure of the communication
-
Character of the types of communication
Chapter 4: Evaluation of the models (7/20)
-
Experiment design
-
Collected data
-
Analysis of the data
Chapter 5: Facility management communication support system (5/25)
-
Market research of exiting CRM and facility management system
-
Evaluation of the system.
-
Suggestion the ideal system function of facility management communication support
system.
Chapter 6: Conclusion
-
Summary
-
Recommendation
7
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
10. Work Schedule
Dec 2000
Proposal
Jan 2001
Feb
Proposal
writing
Apr
May
Proposal
Re-writing
Literature
Study
Model
Mar
Setting
theSchema
Finding
sample organisations
Experiment
Experiment
Design
System
Evaluation
Market
reseach
Report
First
Report
0%
50%
Data Analysing
collec- the data
tion
Evaluating
systems
Report
Final
100%
Status of job(e.g. 50%)
11. Limitation of the research
The concern of the research is whether there will be enough time to do the experiment. It is not sure
how many samples will be collected. After sample organizations are decided, the research may focus
on some models (not all) depends on the size of the organisations.
8
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
Appendix 1 : The form of diary
See file: “communication diary form.xls”
a-1
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
Appendix 2 : Questionnaire for end users
See : http://home.att.ne.jp/green/sangenkai/research/Questionnaire.htm
a-2
Dissertation proposal
07 Dec 2000 Hitoshi Kumagai
Appendix 3 : References
Barrett, Peter., facilities management 1995, Backwell Science Ltd., London, UK.
Cook, Sarah., Customer Care 3rd edition 2000, Kogan Page Limited, London, UK.
Friday, Stormy and Cotts, David G., Quality Facility Management 1995, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
New York, the U.S.A.
Kokuryo, Jiro., The Role of “Customer-to-Customer” Interaction on Computer Networks
http://www.kbs.keio.ac.jp/kokuryolab/papers/1997002/c-c.htm, online The Internet 29 Nov 2000
Kumar, Ranjit., Research Methodology 1996,Addison Wesley Longman Australia Pty Limited,
London, UK
Sasser Jr., W. Earl & Reichheld, Frederick F. Zero Defection-Quality Comes to Services Harvard
Business Review Sept.-Oct. 1990
a-3