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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb014476. When citing the article, please cite: Norman E. Marr, (1980), “Do Managers Really Know what Service their Customers Require?”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Materials Management, Vol. 10 Iss: 7, pp. 433 - 444.

Due to deregulation, the New Zealand retail banking environment is characterized by change, especially in the area of self‐service technologies. The success of these technology projects has been mixed, and one must question whether or not the suppliers of these technologies have a true understanding of consumer needs. Draws a comparison between what the consumers see as being important influences in the adoption or non‐adoption of retail banking self‐service technologies; and what the suppliers of these technologies (i.e. banking and technology experts) perceive as being important influences in the consumer adoption or non‐adoption of self‐service retail banking technologies. To achieve this, a review was conducted of the literature relating to consumer surveys which investigated why consumers do or do not adopt the main self‐service technology in retail banking: automated telling machines. The themes from this review were identified. A Delphi study was then conducted with New Zealand′s leading experts in the area of retail banking technologies. A comparison between the themes from the literature and the results of the Delphi study indicated that the suppliers of technology do in fact have an understanding of those variables, which affect consumer adoption of self‐service technologies in retail banking.

Human tellers are still the primary means of product delivery, despite the trend towards electronic and remote banking. In New Zealand, there exists a newly deregulated environment in the financial services industry. Therefore a “customer‐oriented” approach is needed to achieve customer satisfaction. Amongst ATM card holders the majority still used human tellers, on a regular basis. This pointed to the fact that there are a number of improvements to be made in two categories; impolite/inefficient tellers; queuing difficulties.

This article outlines how one particular company sought to bring about inventory reductions, and hence cost savings, without reducing customer service levels. The author′s attention was confined to the manner by which the physical stock levels were reduced within the constraints of existing company policy that sets service levels through ability to supply customers.

The degree of association between sophistication in distribution management and service performance differs across industries. While there are significant associations with some of the indicators of management sophistication in all three industries used in this study, there was no consistency in the results. The only industry for which there was statistical support for a positive association between management sophistication and service performance is foodstuffs. Even this only indicates poor service providers were less sophisticated management. For all three industry groups there is evidence that factors, other than the level of management sophistication, have influenced the service rankings. The differences in the relevant importance of customer service and the various elements of distribution service may be one such factor. The inconclusiveness of association results may have been contributed to by the failure to take into account inter‐relationships between various subsets of management variables.

The term, customer service, covers all aspects of the transaction between the supplier and the customer, and includes elements of all major functional areas of a company. Customer service is detailed and customer priorities are identified with regard to seven types of retail outlets. It is concluded that the design of the best customer service package, whether for a particular market sector, country or product, deserves as much care as the marketing of the product itself.

This article examines the differences in the off the peg or tailor‐made approaches to customer services. It also suggests trade‐off analysis as a means of determining what is most important to customers and how they will react to changes in particular services.

Physical distribution management in New Zealand, is still, in many companies, subordinate to other functions in the corporate organisational hierarchy. In this study of three industries (Menswear, Foodstuffs and Pharmaceuticals) it was found that most distribution executives were responsible for warehousing and transport with very little involvement in setting customer service levels, the very essence of physical distribution. These results were surprising considering that it was claimed that there existed a large degree of awareness about the importance of physical distribution in terms of a company′s overall success. The actual level of adoption and successful implementation of an Integrated Physical Distribution system was around 50 per cent. Here there was considerable disagreement between top management of a company and the senior distribution executive. These conclusions were drawn from the response by the General Manager/CEO of participating companies, together with independent responses from the person in the company “responsible for the planning and control of the distribution activities”. These responses were examined in three distinct areas: attitudes towards distribution, adoption of integrated distribution concept and company organisation of distribution activities.

This paper examines product elimination in the UK's financial services sector. Specifically it considers how success is defined and measured. The literature explains that in financial services the ability to fully eliminate a product is difficult due to contractual and legislative barriers. This has resulted in the use of two forms of elimination – partial and full. An empirical study of retail banks, building societies and insurance organisations was undertaken. It was identified that success is defined by the specific objectives used in implementing either of these strategies. The study identified that success was measured by the extent to which product removal was achieved in line with the set objectives of elimination, and how removal resulted in performance gains for other business activities.

Traditionally distribution service has been viewed as an ancillary part of the product, “a necessary evil”. As a consequence service levels tended to emerge over time to meet corporate goals. In the past managers would point out the fact that they had shipped 90 per cent of cases ordered within 24 hours when answering the question “what level of customer service does your company give?” This isolation of one element of customer service as representative of the level of service offered was a very common practice.