Thirteen consultant neurologists working in ten different towns or cities in the United Kingdom were asked to log all their encounters with patients in 1 week. The median number of encounters was 79 (range 33-144). Forty-one per cent were new patients; 85% of all new patient encounters were with National Health Service patients. In more than four-fifths of all encounters, the neurologist felt t...

Empirical studies show that emotions mediate the impact of perceived service quality on customer satisfaction. In this paper, we explore how the mediating effect of emotions differs between web and telephone encounters. In addition, we explore if this mediating effect differs across three service industries that rely heavily on telephone and web customer care: telecommunications, energy and ban...

BACKGROUND The last decade has brought significant changes to internal medicine clerkships through resident work-hour restrictions and the widespread adoption of hospitalists as medical educators. These key medical educators face competing demands for quality teaching and clinical service intensity. OBJECTIVE The study reported here was conducted to explore the relationship between clinical s...

BACKGROUND Interaction between service provider and customer is the primary core of service businesses of different natures, and the influence of trust on service quality and customer satisfaction could not be ignored in interpersonal-based service encounters. However, lack of existing literature on the correlation between service quality, patient trust, and satisfaction from the prospect of in...

The issue of language barriers is particularly critical during intercultural service encounters for ESL (English as a Second Language) customers. Customers may struggle to communicate what they want or even get necessary information regarding products or services. Through a qualitative study, based on a grounded theory approach, this study identifies issues that concern ESL customers in intercu...