Engineer Employee & Customer Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction (ES) and customer satisfaction (CS) levels have long been considered valuable indicators of—as well as analogous to a two-cylinder engine powering—the future financial health of a business. ES and CS measures are therefore of interest to prospective investors in the business.
     Now researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University, Singapore Management University, and University of Pittsburgh say that increases in social media usage and in ease of both publicly-held company stock purchasing and private-market investing by individual consumers are changing how businesses should optimally conduct their ES and CS initiatives and announce the results of those initiatives. The objective should be to demonstrate results which stimulate promise of greater shareholder wealth. Among the researchers’ observations is that firms with low CS ratings could accomplish this objective by increasing ES alongside broad social media visibility.
     The researchers propose, based on their inquiries, that individual investors are attracted to firms showing imbalance between ES and CS. The explanation is that the investors are particularly attracted by business prospects for explosive growth. Although high levels in ES and CS indicate healthy business operations, an imbalance signals prospects for improvement under skilled management. “Buy low, sell high” is the smart investor’s mantra.
     The researchers’ attention to social media visibility derives from how individual investors would assess a firm’s CS and ES levels. For CS, the individual could analyze product or service reviews. Those are abundantly available on social media sites. ES levels are more difficult to find in abundance, so it benefits the firm to post them prominently on their own.
     A team of researchers at Aston University, Technical University Munich, and University of Paderborn view the two cylinders—ES and CS—as firing off interdependently. The team’s model, resulting from a large-scale longitudinal study set in a multi-outlet retail chain, incorporates operational investments and operating profits as components.
     The model shows a lagged effect between operational investments and ES: It takes some time for the additional resources to produce an outcome. The researchers advise managers to exercise patience. There is also a lagged effect between CS and operating profits. A third lagged effect is in a reinforcing loop. That is, as operating profits change, operational investments are likely to change in the same direction in the future.
     Business firms can attract investors by properly managing the interdependencies, the prompt and lagged effects of the components, and the postings about CS and especially ES on social media.

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Serve People Just What They Expect 

Build Profits by Training to Serve 

Manage Employee & Customer Turnover

Cook Up Recipes for Reducing Food Waste

A recipe for meal preparation can reduce food waste.
     Reasons include what you might suspect, such as the cook being able to determine from the recipe the sufficient amount of each ingredient to purchase and prepare without excess. However, the waste reduction is also for a reason you might not suspect—cutting time and bother.
     My evidence comes from a series of University of Groningen studies primarily designed to explore the effects not of recipes, but rather of minimally processed ingredients such as washed and chopped vegetables versus vegetables requiring purchasers to wash and chop them. Note that in the studies, the researchers used semi-prepared ingredients, not fully prepared meals. If too much convenience is provided, the consumer might devalue the meal and show less hesitation in wasting some of the food.
     In one of the studies, consumers were asked to imagine they had in their refrigerator a set of items—pasta, parmesan cheese, olive oil, a leek, and so on. One group of participants were shown photos of the ingredients in a semi-prepared form. The rest were shown the ingredients in an unprepared form. Half the number of participants in each group were also given a recipe which listed steps for incorporating all the ingredients into a pasta entrée. Each participant was asked to indicate “How likely are you to not prepare the meal and therefore throw all products away?”
     For the participants who had not been provided a recipe, those considering the semi-prepared ingredients were less likely to say they’d waste the foods. But for those who had been provided the recipe, there was little difference between the two groups. Analyses of other data collected in this study and from other studies in the series indicated the explanation was degree of convenience.
     Either semi-preparation of the ingredients or availability of a recipe increased consumer convenience in a way which reduced the probability of food waste. Parallel findings came from another study of the set in which households collected their actual waste of edible food from packages the researchers had provided.
     Two implications for grocers are to post recipes for use of foods you’re selling and to offer semi-prepared ingredients. Along with reducing waste, these tactics might improve profitability: In one of their studies, the researchers concluded shoppers would be willing to pay a 13% price premium for semi-prepared foods when the waste reduction benefits are featured.

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Limit Healthy Food Purchases 

Hand Off Intended Hands-Off Items 

Cook Up Recipes for Patrons