An Alternative Approach
in Service Quality:
An e-Banking Case Study
MARVIN E. GONZÁLEZ, RENE DENTISTE MUELLER, AND RHONDA W. MACK
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON, MARKETING AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Today’s consumers are increasingly rigorous in choosing
products in terms of their demands and preferences.
To be competitive, businesses must design services that
do not just satisfy customers, they must also delight
them. The quality of a product or service is judged
ultimately in terms of perceived customer satisfaction
and delight. Previous service quality researchers have
successfully used SERVQUAL and other scales to measure
and improve service quality in a variety of industries.
While these approaches have successfully conveyed the
quality philosophies of America and Europe, other
countries have approached quality differently. Japanese
quality systems such as Kansei engineering (KE) and
quality function deployment (QFD), for example, are
increasingly popular and offer an alternative way to
incorporate the customer’s voice in the development and
improvement of service quality systems. While tradition-
ally used in manufacturing sectors, these approaches
can also be applied successfully in service sectors. This
study uses data from the National Bank of Spain
(NBS) to demonstrate the KE and QFD procedures and
show how the customer’s voice can be designed into its
e-banking system.
Key words: banking services, customer satisfaction,
Kansei engineering, quality engineering, QFD, service
management, service quality
© 2008, ASQ
INTRODUCTION
The introduction of e-banking to the traditional bank-
ing industry has permanently changed the relationship
between customers and banking service suppliers. What
was once a high personal contact industry often consists
of a diverse array of impersonal services ranging from
electronic funds transfers to computer banking, online
mortgage services, and online customer bill paying.
Indeed, e-banking is rapidly becoming an essential
means for banks to sell their products and services
(Amato-McCoy 2005). In 2003, for example, about 91
percent of U.S. households held bank accounts and 93
percent of those used at least one electronic transfer of
funds option with their account (Kolodinsky and
Hogarth 2004). Online banking has also been shown to
be positively related to customer satisfaction, retention,
and reduced operational costs (Bauer, Hammerschmidt,
and Falk 2005; Polatoglu and Serap 2001).
Past research has shown that new online customer
acquisition costs are as much as 20 to 40 percent higher
than traditional customer acquisition costs (Reibstein
2002; Reichheld 1996). It is somewhat alarming then to
find that the American Banker (2000) reported that
one-third of electronic banking customers stopped
usage because of service dissatisfaction or complexity.
Reibstein (2002) argues that e-banking will be prof-
itable only if firms can retain existing customers. In
order to attain high levels of customer satisfaction, and
thus customer retention, e-banking customers’ needs
must first be understood. Yet, at present, online banking
is one of the least understood delivery channels for retail
banking services (Aladwani 2001).
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 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study
In the past, many executives simply trusted their
intuition that higher customer satisfaction would lead to
improved company performance (Homburg, Koschate,
and Hoyer 2005). Currently, there is little or no guidance
for managers on how to design and implement customer
satisfaction systems successfully (Piercy and Morgan
1995; Powaga 2002). It is not well understood, for exam-
ple, what the components of such a system should be or
how they should be managed to yield maximum benefit
to the firm (Griffin et al. 1995; Hauser and Clausing
1988; Westbrook 2000). As a result, many customer satis-
faction systems initiatives fail to reach their potential in
terms of providing the hoped-for benefits of either
increased customer satisfaction or improved financial
performance. This has resulted in a growing frustration
among managers with their firms’ consumer satisfaction
programs (Reichheld 1996).
Several researchers have produced seminal works
regarding service quality, and these have become very
useful for understanding and measuring the service
quality concept. Gronroos (1984), for example, developed
a two-dimensional model that included technical quality
(what the customer receives) and functional quality
(how the service is received). Recognizing that cus-
tomers’ evaluations of service quality operate on a much
higher level of complexity, the SERVQUAL research team
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1985; 1991; and
Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman 1996) identified (and
refined) a number of dimensions (determinants) for
measuring service quality and did so in terms of gaps
between customers’ expectations and their perceptions of
the firm’s actual performance. The researchers maintain
that a business that exceeds customer expectations has a
good quality service. More recently, Brady, Cronin, and
Brand (2002) argued that service quality is performance-
based rather than expectation-based, and the researchers
present a hierarchical three-dimensional model incor-
porating interaction (attitude, behavior, and expertise
of customers and salespeople), environmental (ambient
conditions, design, and social factors), and outcome
(social factors, waiting times, tangibles, and valence)
factors. While conceptually different, each of the
approaches acknowledges, among other things, that:
1) quality is defined best by the customers themselves;
2) service quality is multidimensional and highly
complex; 3) consumer-oriented research is essential;
42 QMJ VOL. 15, NO. 1/© 2008, ASQ
and 4) for the service to be successful, customer
requirements need to be successfully communicated to
those who design and perform the service.
Within the service industry, SERVQUAL (Parasuraman,
Zeithaml, and Berry 1985; 1991; 1994) has been the most
widely accepted and used instrument to measure the
service quality of an organization and, hence, it has been
subjected to more criticism. Van Dyke, Kappelman, and
Prybutok (1997), for example, argue that the uniform
applicability of the measure to all service industries has
created problems with reliability and validity. Based on
their recent review of SERVQUAL in e-commerce studies,
Alzola and Robaina (2005) also argue that the idiosyn-
crasies of electronic transactions require a different
measure for electronic service industries. Indeed, Teas
and Palan (1997) and Teas (1993) have argued that to
be more useful and valuable, the preciseness of the
conceptual and operational definitions of SERVQUAL
must be improved.
Another problem with previous service quality meas-
ures is that they focus on fixed quality attributes, which
leaves them with a historical orientation designed to
correct or improve the product or service. The result is that
service quality is primarily measured in terms of customer
dissatisfaction. Likewise, in the quest to develop universal
models that are context independent, the research focus
has been external to the customer in that the list of service
attributes is not a genuine reflection of the consumer’s
view (Schembri and Sandberg 2002). Most of the service
quality research has focused on the more easily measured
technical aspects of service while the more emotional
aspects, those aspects that transcend simple satisfaction
and result in consumer delight, are often overlooked.
In contrast, the Japanese have developed quality
systems such as Kansei engineering (KE) and quality
function deployment (QFD) to better understand cus-
tomer needs and then design customer pleasure and
enjoyment into the product before it is manufactured. KE
focuses research efforts on getting customers to articulate
their emotional feelings and impressions about a product
so that product designers can better understand what
delights consumers; QFD builds a system that allows the
consumer’s voice (in this case Kansei) to be heard by the
engineer. Bolt and Mazur (1999) argue that QFD differs
from traditional quality approaches that focus on zero
defects because it recognizes that “nothing goes wrong
 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study
does not mean everything is right.” While the techniques
have been widely used in manufacturing, the application
of KE in combination with QFD in the service industry
is uncommon (Gonzalez et al. 2005).
This study uses data from the National Bank of Spain
(NBS) study to demonstrate how the procedures of KE
and QFD can be used to communicate the voice of the
customer to other functional areas so that customer
satisfaction and delight can be built into e-commerce
services. This methodology offers an alternative approach
to traditional service quality initiatives and is particularly
useful for transcending solely design characteristics and
incorporating more emotionally appealing aspects into
design.
THEORY FRAMEWORK
Because of increased economic and competitive pres-
sures and rapidly changing technologies, manufactur-
ers have begun to change their production strategy
from a production orientation (product-out) to a con-
sumer orientation (market-in) in order to improve
their performance and competitiveness. A market-in
strategy implies production based on the consumer’s
desires and preferences whereas a product-out strategy
implies that production is based on design strategy
regardless of the consumer’s demands and preferences.
Traditional product-out strategy has focused on
improving reliability, functionality, usability, appearance,
and other design characteristics. Consumer satisfaction,
however, is influenced not simply by cognition (what
consumers know or believe they know about the product
or how it performs) but also by affect (how they feel about
the product). Consequently, consumers purchase products
based not only on product features (price, quality, func-
tionality, and so on), they also purchase or use products
based on emotions, that is, affection, enjoyment, impres-
sions, intuition, sensations, and so on (Nagamachi 2002).
To be truly successful, businesses need to create goods and
services that are not simply of high technical quality—
they must also have emotional appeal and be pleasing,
that is, they must elicit not simply consumer satisfaction
but also consumer delight or enjoyment.
In Japan, the term Kansei is used to describe the
feeling of harmony that derives from the overall feelings
or impressions one has about objects and the way each
individual component contributes to the overall feeling
of harmony. Nagamachi (2002) introduced KE as an
ergonomic consumer-oriented technology that incorpo-
rates the emotional aspects (Kansei) of design into new
product development in order to delight or create pleas-
ure for customers. Essentially, KE is about achieving the
feeling of harmony with one’s environment and the
human intervention needed to maximize emotional
design. Accordingly, KE is a proactive product develop-
ment methodology that translates customers’ overall
impressions, feelings, and demands on existing products
or concepts into design solutions and concrete design
parameters (Schütte et al. 2004).
The KE methodology recognizes that consumers are
not always able to articulate the emotional meanings of
objects and, therefore, a key part of KE is the exploration
of the consumers’ emotional reactions to a good or serv-
ice, trying to make sense of what consumers say, and then
designing products and services with Kansei in mind. The
KE process begins with consumers expressing Kansei with
abstract adjectives known as “Kansei words.” Kansei
words are then analytically examined and mapped in
order to visually conceptualize human feelings given by
the Kansei words. Researchers then incorporate the key
sensory attributes identified into product design. If the
consumer’s feelings can be implemented in the new
product, he or she will be more satisfied and comfort-
able with the product and enjoy it more. By using KE,
designers are able to target their customers with more
appropriate products and services and, at the same time,
reduce costs by reducing product and service diversity.
QUALITY FUNCTION
DEPLOYMENT
Akao (1990) designed QFD as a method for defining
design qualities that are in keeping with customer expec-
tations and then translating the customer requirements
into design targets and critical quality assurance points
that can be used throughout the production/service
development phase. Through a number of stages, the
QFD process is able to link the voice of the customer with
the voice of the engineer in order to build a quality prod-
uct. By placing information in a collection of matrices
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 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study
and tables, researchers build a house of quality (HOQ).
The HOQ is a useful visual aid and serves as a conceptual
map that facilitates planning and communications
between individuals who often have different problems,
responsibilities, and priorities.
By employing QFD, manufacturers and service
providers are able to deploy customer requirements into
measurable quality characteristics and create products
and services that satisfy those requirements (Hauser
and Clausing 1988). The two fundamental purposes of
QFD are: 1) to improve the communication of cus-
tomer requirements throughout the organization; and
2) to improve the completeness of specifications and to
make them traceable directly to customer requirements
and needs (González 2001). QFD helps clarify vague or
hidden customer requirements and prevents changes or
misunderstandings by systematically analyzing their
root benefits (Bolt and Mazur 1999). In recent years,
QFD has become a widely used systematic process that
helps cross-functional teams identify and resolve issues
involved in providing products, processes, services, and
strategies in order to enhance customer satisfaction
(González, Quesada, and Bahill 2003).
Several researchers have applied QFD to different
service areas (Miyoung and Oh 1998; Trappey, Trappey,
and Hwang 1996; Stuart and Tax 1996; Cadogan,
Diamantopoulos, and Mortanges 1999; Pun, Chin, and
Lau 2000; Peters 1988; González, Quesada, and Bahill
2003; Gonzalez et al. 2005); however, it was originally used
in product development and design. Benefits that arise
from these and other reported QFD applications include
fewer design and service costs, fewer and earlier design
changes, reduced product development time, fewer startup
problems, better company performance, more reliable
input for marketing strategies, improved service quality,
and, above all, increased customer satisfaction (Jae et al.
1998; Franceschini and Rossetto 1995). QFD provides
organizations with a quantitative tool that can add relia-
bility and efficiency of the translation of the customer
requirements into the service elements of an organization.
SERVICE QUALITY IN E-BANKING
Across all service industries, service quality is a key
driver of profit performance (Schoeffler, Buzzell, and
44 QMJ VOL. 15, NO. 1/© 2008, ASQ
Heany 1974) and a critical issue as businesses struggle to
maintain a comparative advantage in the marketplace
(Kandampully and Duddy 1999). Because financial
services, particularly banks, compete in the marketplace
with generally undifferentiated products, service quality
often becomes the primary competitive weapon (Stafford
1996) and the most important factor in the success of
new financial services (Easingwood and Storey 1993).
Indeed, Bennett (2003) maintains that a competitive
edge in banking originates almost exclusively from
service quality and is essential for success and survival
in today’s competitive banking environment (Trappey,
Trappey, and Hwang 1996).
Researchers have shown that banks that excel in
quality service have a distinct marketing edge and
improved levels of service quality relate to higher rev-
enues, increased cross-sell ratios, and higher customer
retention (Bennett 2003). Quality products and services
have also been shown to enhance a bank’s reputation,
improve customer retention, attract new customers,
increase financial performance and profitability (Julian
and Balasubramanian 1994; Zeithaml, Berry, and
Parasuraman 1996), and expand market share (Bowen
and Hedges 1993). Despite its importance to the banking
industry, limited research has been conducted that con-
siders customer requirements (needs and demands) and
service elements together—even though considerable
research has been conducted separately on service quality
(Bolton 1998; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1985;
1991) and product quality (Garvin 1988).
The National Bank of Spain
NBS is the oldest bank in Spain and one of its most suc-
cessful. During the last decade, however, new banking
competition has developed in Spain, making it difficult
to increase the number of NBS customers. Without
appropriate e-banking services, it will be difficult for
NBS to keep the customers it currently has. Its tradi-
tional e-banking services, like those of most banks, were
developed from the designers’ perspective with an
emphasis on high technical quality of service offerings.
To be truly competitive, NBS decided it had to put more
focus on customers’ needs and, in particular, needed to
have e-banking services that customers would actually
 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study
use. This means that regardless of the services developed,
customers have to be more than just satisfied with the
technical aspects of e-banking—they have to be com-
fortable with the services and enjoy using them. To help
NBS understand the emotional aspects of e-banking
services and ensure the voice of the customer reaches the
designers, NBS decided to employ KE and QFD. This
study used the general methodology depicted in Figure 1.
Sample Details
To obtain information on customer requirements, a sur-
vey of users of routine services of the NBS was used.
Respondents were randomly selected from the bank’s
customer records. A total of 3800 surveys were sent by
electronic mail and 1256 were returned (33.1 percent
response rate). Thirty-five percent of the respondents
were female and 65 percent were male; the average
respondent’s age was 25.2 years. Eighty-five percent of the
respondents reported using Internet financial services.
The questionnaire was divided into three sections and
included open- and closed-ended questions designed to
obtain general demographic and behaviorist information,
specifics about individual customer requirements and
demands, and benchmarking details. The questionnaire
was validated using a pre-test with a sample of 200 users.
KANSEI ENGINEERING
METHODOLOGY
The KE methodology is a three-phase process that
includes: 1) generating the consumers’ feelings and
impressions (expressed in Kansei words); 2) clustering
(reducing) the number of Kansei words by statistically
examining the correlations among Kansei words; and
3) presenting the Kansei words back to customers so
they can rate the service on the Kansei features.
With KE, Kansei words (adjectives) are generated by
consumers themselves through open-ended questioning.
During this stage of the research, customers articulate,
with their own natural language, their expectations, gen-
eral emotions, and feelings about e-banking services.
From the 1256 surveys returned, researchers manually
identified and categorized 250 feelings and emotions
using the inter-judge reliability procedure suggested by
Figure 1 General methodology applied.
Generation
Design
Kansei QFD of an
analysis Reduction analysis e-banking
service
Presentation
© 2008, ASQ
Final
Customer Operational service
demands service
Perreault and Leigh (1989) (The inter-judge reliability
index exceeded 85 percent.)
To evaluate customers’ feelings and emotions, the
Kansei words were quantitatively analyzed and the rela-
tionships among words were identified and quantified
using the dynamic analysis method (see Forrester 1961
and González, Quesada, and Bahill 2003). (Dynamic
analysis helps reduce the number of variables and finds
general correlations among observations). For example,
using the approach developed by González and Eckelman
(1999), the expectation “security” was selected as a pri-
mary expectation after the dynamic process showed that
16 Kansei words were related to this expectation (security).
Figure 2 shows the relationships of the Kansei words in the
initial screen (for the expectation identified as “security”).
Though dynamic analysis gives designers a better
understanding of the complexity of relationships
between variables, it reduces the number of items by
only 30 percent (in this research, dynamic analysis
helped reduce the number of customer expectations
from 250 to 75). To further reduce the number of
items, factor analysis (varimax rotation) was used.
Factor analysis is an interdependence technique
used to study order and structure of multivariate data
(see Thompson 2004). By using factor analysis, the
team was able to see if seemingly unrelated items (vari-
ables) were positively correlated. If the Kansei words are
related, the Kansei words can be reduced to a fewer
number of dimensions (factors), that is, collectively the
Kansei words generated may be describing a single
multidimensional feeling.
To conduct the factor analysis, researchers separated
the objective aspects from the subjective affective aspects
and analyzed them separately. The ten items with the
lowest item-to-total correlations were deleted. Using this
www.asq.org 45
 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

Figure 2 Dynamic relationships among Kansei words (based in Gonzalez 1999 approach).
Help in all transactions
– Online help Accessibility Home –
– Worldwide – + – Office
+ + service – +
Transaction warranty – + – Service location
Safe transactions + + +
+
+ – – Safe locations
+ + – Work
– + Security – Easy to find
Step-by-step explanation
+
– System reliability
+ – +
Bank reputation – Safe system
+ + + – Autodidactic system
+ +
Marketing strategy – – Confidentiality
– –
Time in market Transaction receipt
Customer expectation Direct Indirect (first level) Total value
Safe transactions 4+ 0+ 4+
Safe locations 4+ 3+ 7+
Safe systems 5+ 2+ 7+

© 2008, ASQ
Security 3+ 13+ 16+
Bank reputation 2+ 2+ 4+
Service location 3+ 3+ 6+

smaller set of 65 items and the criterion to retain factors

with values greater than 1.0, six customer expectations
factors were identified that explained 52 percent of the
variance. Keeping in mind that one of the goals at this
stage was to reduce the number of items further, the
researchers systematically deleted items that loaded
ambiguously (factor loadings greater than 0.45 on
more than one factor). Several iterations of analyses
were conducted until a stable and interpretable set of
results was obtained. The final solution contained 19
customer expectations. The original 250 Kansei words
were thus reduced to a more manageable 19 Kansei
concepts or feelings. Figure 3 depicts the reduction
process used in this study.
The second KE phase is for translating Kansei into
concrete customer expectations or needs. To do this,
researchers statistically analyzed the latent structure of
feelings (the implicit relations among adjectives and
physical attributes, that is, color size) of each component.
The third KE phase often presents the design elements
(customer expectations derived from the second phase) to
the consumer using computer graphic techniques such
as computer-aided design (CAD). For this research, the
design aspects identified in phase 2 were subsequently
presented to customers via a survey. The customers then
prioritized their expectations as per the QFD analysis
(Akao 1972). Figure 3 depicts the Kansei methodology
applied in this study.
QUALITY FUNCTION
DEPLOYMENT METHODOLOGY
QFD (also known as the House of Quality, HOQ) is a
systems engineering-type approach designed to transfer
the concepts of quality control from the service process
into the new product development process by using cus-
tomer statements (that is, the voice of the customer). The
foundation of the HOQ is the belief that products should
be designed, from the very beginning, to reflect cus-
tomers’ desires and tastes (Hauser and Clausing 1988).
Through a series of matrices documenting information
collected and analyzed, cross-functional teams are able
to plan better products or services. The HOQ, conse-
quently, is a useful visual aid that serves as a conceptual
map that facilitates planning and communications
between individuals who often have different problems,
responsibilities, and priorities.
In this case, the researchers used DecisionCapture
Software and the conventional four-phased, manu-
facturing-based QFD methodology developed by
Hauser and Clausing (1988) was modified slightly to
make it applicable to the service industry (banking).
Specifically, the four-phased methodology was trans-
formed into a three-phase action-based methodology.
The conventional terminology used in most QFD
studies also had to be modified so that it would be

46 QMJ VOL. 15, NO. 1/© 2008, ASQ

 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

relevant to the service
industry. These “stages”
included: 1) HOQ (plan-
ning matrix); 2) critical
part matrix; and 3)
action matrix:
• Stage 1: HOQ (planning
matrix). Activities in
this phase focus on
understanding cus-
tomers in the banking
business and include
the following: identify-
Figure 3 Example of reduction process of the Kansei words.
Kansei words (First and second level) Final customer
expectation
Safe transactions Multibranch
• Online help
• Help in all transactions
• Transaction warranty
• Step-by-step explanation Accessibility
• Information available
• Interaction with the bank
Safety
Safe locations
• Accessibility

ing customer require- • Service location

Standardization
• Home
ments, that is, customer
• Work
attributes (CA) or • Anyplace
words derived from KE • Worldwide service Tool tips
analysis; analyzing • Easy to find

customer requirements
in order to establish Safe system
what needs to be done • Bank reputation
to the product (also • Marketing strategy
• Time in business
known as the “whats”);
• Transaction receipt
and identifying how • Confidentiality

© 2008, ASQ
current engineering • Autodidactic system
methods and processes • System reliability

can be used to design

the product (the
“hows”). This stage also involves ranking service
elements, establishing correlations between cus-
tomer and service elements, and developing and
analyzing the HOQ.
• Stage 2 (critical part matrix). This stage corre-
sponds to parts planning of manufacturing-based
QFD and links the service elements identified in
stage 1 to service operations.
• Stage 3 (action plans matrix). In this phase, an
action plan is developed based on the information
obtained in the previous two phases.
To illustrate the methodology, results from the NBS
study were used. The application of KE and QFD
enabled the researchers to translate research findings
into actionable strategies. In the next section the
authors explain in detail each stage of the strategy.
STAGE 1: DEVELOPING
A PLANNING MATRIX
Identifying the Customers
Like most banks, NBS has many different types of cus-
tomers, and the needs of one segment are unlikely to be
the same as another. The KE and QFD processes, conse-
quently, have to be applied to each different customer
segment. In this study, NBS decided to concentrate on its
current nonbusiness, e-banking customers because:
1) NBS wants to recruit new customers with superior
e-banking services; 2) NBS wants to reduce operating
costs by increasing the number of its current customers
who use e-banking services and by redesigning or dis-
carding e-banking services that customers do not want or
need; and 3) NBS thinks that this segment of customers

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 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

Figure 4 Customer windows quadrant.

Wants
High Customer wants it Customer wants it
and does not get it and does get it
Multibranch capability User-friendly human interface
Web accessibility Browser status information
Standardization Manual focus for mouse
Tool tips Accessibility for hearing-impaired
Integration of open e-mail systems customers
Safety
Importance

A B
Does not get Gets
Customer does not want it C D Customer does not want it
and does not get it and does get it anyway
Special cards
Special codes
Summary of accounts in papers
User-friendly human interface
Openness
Special services
Saving costs
Saving time
Information updated/real time

© 2008, ASQ
Does not want
Satisfaction High

may be the most vulnerable to defection and, conse-
quently, it seeks to retain them with better e-banking
services.
Identifying Customer
Requirements and Importance
The first step in applying KE methodology is to generate
the Kansei words (feelings) and specify the domain. In
this case, customer feelings (expressed in Kansei words)
about new bank services were generated and categorized
using the techniques outlined earlier. In order to deter-
mine the customer expectations, the Kansei process was
applied to each feeling found. This was done by creating
the Kansei words and presenting them to the consumer
for ranking. They rated the same Kansei words gathered
before to determine if the resulting list matched the
Kansei identified by the customer.
The output from the factor analysis showed 19 cus-
tomer expectations remaining for further analyses. The
process continues to cycle until the people involved in the
project are satisfied with the results. Through these
processes, individual customer Kansei are grouped into
common customer requirement categories. Before this
can happen, however, further data reduction is normally
needed. This was done by using the Customer Window
Quadrant (CWQ) technique designed by Intel (2002).
Using the CWQ, customer requirements were summa-
rized, as shown in Figure 4. The CWQ is an analytical
quality tool designed to cluster and classify customer
requirements based on the level of importance and
satisfaction of each characteristic (González et al.
2005). There are four quadrants whose characteristics
and guidelines are described as follows:
• Quadrant A: The customer wants it but does not get
it. Rated as high importance/low satisfaction, it is
the critical quadrant. All customer requirements
placed here require immediate action. Companies
must set up an action plan to move the critical ones
to quadrant B as soon as possible.
• Quadrant B: The customer wants it and gets it. Rated
as high importance/high satisfaction, this is the most

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 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study
desired quadrant. All important and critical customer
requirements should be here and stay here. Companies
must improve and monitor all quality characteristics
placed here.
• Quadrant C. The customer does not want it but gets it
anyway. Rated as low importance/high satisfaction,
items found here are needless and possibly costly.
Action should be taken to remove these items if the
customer requirement being offered is expensive or
represents any other type of risk to the organization.
If the quality characteristic placed here is eliminated
or reduced, perhaps the customer will not notice it.
• Quadrant D. The customer does not want it and does
not get it. Rated as low importance/low satisfaction,
items in this quadrant are of the lowest importance
and should not be the focus for now. Companies
should not take any action unless there are changes in
the market, service strategy, or customer requirements.
The results of the application of the CWQ showed
the following clustering based on customer weighting
as described in the process-planning matrix mentioned
previously, namely:
• Quadrant A: Six customer requirements were placed
here (see Figure 4). An action plan should be set up to
describe how to move these customer requirements to
quadrant B.
• Quadrant B: Four customer requirements were
placed here (see Figure 4). A special plan should be
defined to maintain, improve, and monitor these
customer requirements.
In addition, some customer requirements were clas-
sified under quadrants C and D; however, only those
considered as critical were shown in quadrants A and B.
Assuming an attractive price structure, if these
customer-identified requirements are largely met,
providers can count on good acceptance compared to
other competitors. While electronic access to services
should always be cheaper than other distribution
channels, it should be used as an incentive to access
added-value services that induce customers to conduct
electronically based bank transactions. As obvious as
these requirements may seem, they have been ignored
frequently with the result that many individual and
joint attempts to use new Internet services have been
mothballed owing to insufficient user acceptance.
The final number of customer expectations analyzed
in this study was 10 (after all the process reduction).
Analyzing the Customer
Requirements (Whats)
In this section of the product planning stage, the number
of complaints, the different goals (targets), and the eval-
uations of the different competitors were considered.
Table 1 shows the capability of the bank to satisfy cus-
tomer requirements as compared to other banks that
provide similar services. The information is summarized
in the HOQ, such as the sales point (the areas in which
the company has the ability to sell the product, based
on how well each customer requirement is met), the
improvement ratio (which relates the goal or target to the
current performance measure in a specific requirement),
and the overall importance (a computed value relating
the importance to the customer, the improvement ratio,
and the sales point). All of this information helps deter-
mine what kind of actions must be taken in order to
improve the bank’s customer ratings for the different
customer requirements.
As can be seen in Table 1, there is a difference
between the importance assigned by the customer and
the importance assigned after the final evaluation, that
is, after analyzing the different criteria in the matrix
(overall importance). One significant aspect to note
from this table is that the overall importance (impor-
tance assigned by the customer, the improvement ratio,
and the sales point) and importance assigned by the
customer should always be in agreement. For instance,
Web accessibility (2), tool tips (4), and safety (6) are the
factors rated highest by the customers. In the NBS case,
the highest factors in overall importance are also the
same as those identified by the customers. Thus, there is
confirmation that the team listened to the customers’
feelings.
Sales points (or selling points) show those design
aspects that a company can emphasize in its marketing
message, that is, they are attributes that may generate
new business. Items are classified by the research team
www.asq.org 49
 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

Table 1 Competitive analysis of NBS.

Improvement
Competitive
Importance

importance

importance
Percentage
Santander
of whats

analysis
Current

Overall
Madrid
service

service
Future

Sales
point
ratio
Caja
Customer requirements

Multibranch capability 4.2 4.8 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.2 1.0 4.4 9.7 1.0

Web accessibility 5.0 3.2 3.5 3.4 4.1 4.0 1.1 5.5 12.3 1.0

Standardization 3.8 4.9 3.8 3.5 4.1 4.0 1.0 4.0 8.8 1.0

Tool tips 4.6 4.5 3.5 3.8 4.2 4.0 1.1 5.1 11.3 1.0

Integration in open e-mail system 4.0 3.1 3.8 4.1 4.2 4.1 1.1 4.2 9.4 1.0

Safety 4.8 3.8 3.9 3.8 4.1 4.0 1.0 4.9 10.9 1.0

User-friendly human interface 4.0 3.4 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.2 1.0 4.2 9.3 1.0

Browser status information 4.2 4.8 3.9 4.0 4.1 4.0 1.0 4.3 9.5 1.0

Manual focus for mouse 4.0 4.1 3.5 4.0 4.1 4.0 1.1 4.4 9.8 1.0

© 2008, ASQ
Accessibility for hearing-impaired customers 3.8 4.0 4.2 4.5 4.6 4.5 1.1 4.0 9.0 1.0

**Sales point column contains information characterizing the ability to sell the product or service, based on how well each customer need is met.

as sales points based how the customer prioritizes items
and how well the customers believe the firm competes
on these items. A sales point of 1.25 is used to indicate
a strong sales point (or competitive advantage), 1.2
indicates a lesser sales point, and 1.0 indicates no sales
point (González 2001). Traditionally, with QFD, there
should be no more than three major or primary sales
points and two minor or secondary sales points in order
to keep the marketing message focused. In this case,
the sales point for all requirements is 1.0, meaning
NBS has no advantage over the competition. Since NBS
does not have any sales points at this time, it needs to
improve all aspects of customer expectations in order to
be competitive in the market.
Based on overall importance, tools tips and Web
accessibility are the most critical customer requirements;
these are followed by safety and multibranch capability.
In the case of safety, the improvement ratio is less than
the other two highly rated requirements, namely, tools
tips and Web accessibility. This means that the bank
needs to dedicate more effort in these two areas (as
opposed to safety), since the difference between the future
desired value and the current value is not as high as with
the other two requirements.
One of the main reasons for employing QFD was to
develop services that delight customers and motivate
them to use NBS’s services. Table 1 shows the perception
of service requirements for NBS and two of its most
important competitors in the Spanish marketplace. NBS
does not have any sales point at this time, in comparison
with its competitors (in Table 1 the column sales point
needs to be greater than 1 to be a sales point). Also, Table
1 shows that future NBS service requires an increment of
improved performance (improvement ratio column) in
all customer requirements because the two competitors
have better results.
As previously discussed, by determining the
improvement factor, goals can be set and a general
strategy for responding to each customer requirement
can be designed. The improvement factor in all cases is
greater or equal than 1; therefore, corrective actions
must be taken in all of the customer requirements to
achieve and maintain the level of satisfaction and
importance demanded by the NBS customers.
Identification of the sale points will allow the market-
ing department to design and launch a marketing
strategy that will highlight these points as strengths
and order winners.

50 QMJ VOL. 15, NO. 1/© 2008, ASQ

 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

Table 2 Customer service requirements.

Information reformatting Bank documents (all the documents related with customers) will be provided in alternative formats at no
additional charge to the customers. Formats include large print, Braille, audiocassette, or computer disk.

Talking ATMs Talking ATMs will be located throughout the country where customers can use standard headphones to
access financial services. Compatible headphones can also be used from other banks with talking ATMs.

Raised line check Bank will provide line checks for the visually impaired. These checks are larger enough with embossed
guidelines that are easily felt.

Web accessibility The Web page design requirements recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in its
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. We will develop design practices that help customers identify,
interpret, and understand information presented on our Web site. These standards are currently being
applied to improve the accessibility of our Web site.

Account numbers For security reasons, only the last three or four digits of your account number will be revealed on our site.
Each of the remaining digits will be replaced with an nonnumerical character. All the customer will have
is an online code that will be the requirement for use of the bank Web site.

Personalizing accounts To assist in locating account information, you may change the passwords used for your accounts. Visiting
the corresponding Personalize Summary page to change your account passwords.

Auto speak tool tips Many links contain additional information that can be read by software designed for visually impaired
users. This information will be revealed as a tool tip, on the status bar, as table headings, in table
summaries, or in the title attribute.

© 2008, ASQ
Auxiliary aids and services We work to assist customers with disabilities in conducting their routine banking business with no undue
financial burden.

Identifying Current Methods team identified seven technical requirements, including

and Processes or Service
Elements (Hows)
Customer requirements (which are derived from cus-
tomers’ feelings) must be translated into specific activities
within the current methods and processes of the organi-
zation (how the bank meets the requirements of its cus-
tomers). Unfortunately, customer requirements are not
often stated in terms of the organization’s current
processes and methods. This situation is even more diffi-
cult when talking about customers’ qualitative feelings.
Therefore, customer requirements (the whats) need to be
translated into service elements (the hows). The service
elements are placed at the top of the HOQ. While tradi-
tional quality tools were developed to handle quantitative
data, a new set of tools was created to handle the more
qualitative language and relationships associated with
nonmanufacturing activities (Akao 1990).
Basically, “hows” are ways of achieving “whats.” By
answering the question: “What can we control that
allows us to meet our customers’ objectives?” the project
operational requirements, as well as customer service
requirements. Table 2 lists the final service elements
selected through this process. In the critical matrix, these
service elements are divided in two sections: operational
and customer service.
The next step was to fill out the relationship (central)
area of the matrix by correlating technical requirements
to individual customer needs in order to determine
strength of the relationship and impact on the need. To
satisfy the customer feeling provided in Table 1, a set of
operational services was designed. The research team took
into consideration customer expectations and, as a first
level of importance, the feelings about the service provided
by the Kansei word for each case. In the matrix presented
in Table 3 the operational service activities are shown.
Ranking Service Elements
The tradeoffs, located in the “roof” of the HOQ, indicate
the synergistic or detrimental impacts of changes in the
service design measures (specifications). They are used to
identify critical compromises in the design. Because these

www.asq.org 51
 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

Table 3 Operational service activities.

Raised Auto Auxiliary
Service Information Talking line Web Account Personalizing speak aids and
requirements reformatting ATM checks accessibility numbers accounts tooltips services

Information
reformatting 1 1 1 1 1 1

Talking ATM 1 -1 1

Raised line checks 1 -1

Web accessibility -1 1 1 -1 1

Account numbers 1 -1

Personalizing
accounts 1 1 1 1

Auto speak tool tips 1 -1 1

© 2008, ASQ
Auxiliary aids
and services 1 1 1 1 1

compromises are almost always necessary, they should be looking for more comfort and availability when they
examined as part of the QFD effort in order to minimize use the online service of the NBS, then satisfying the
design change expenses. service elements mentioned previously will satisfy part
of the customer comfort requirements.

Establishing Correlations Safety and standardization are two important cus-

Between the Customer and
the Service Elements
QFD requires looking at each customer requirement and
assessing how the other service design characteristics
(specifications) help to improve or worsen that customer
requirement. The direction of improvement is determined
by the research team, which assigns +1 to represent what
the team perceives to be a positive improvement, -1 to rep-
resent a negative improvement, and, if the team believes
there is no relationship, the cell is left blank. Because the
customer requirements (whats) have been translated into
service design elements (hows) using the customers’ own
words, Table 3 appears as a symmetric matrix. Table 3
essentially summarizes the relationship between customer
requirements and service design characteristics.
As can be seen, there is evidence of a positive relation-
ship between the customer requirement Web Accessibility
and also from the service requirements talking automatic
teller machines (ATM), auto speak tool-tips, and auxil-
iary aids and services. This means that if customers are
tomer requirements that the research team evaluated
as “feelings” about the incorporation of improvement
in the NBS service. Among the customer expectations
analyzed, all the service design elements were covered,
adding more consistency to the QFD solution. It is
important to remember that customer expectations and
service design elements have been evaluated by the cus-
tomers themselves by doing comparisons with the most
important e-bank Web site services available on the
Spanish market (benchmarking analysis).
Developing and Analyzing
the House of Quality
The HOQ matrix (planning matrix) depicts all the infor-
mation about the customer requirements and the service
elements and provides information that is useful in deter-
mining what service properties are important in meeting
the demands of the customers.
As can be seen in Figure 5, the NBS needs to
enhance all customer requirements because in all cases,

52 QMJ VOL. 15, NO. 1/© 2008, ASQ

 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

Figure 5 Planning matrix (HOQ).

Tradeoffs
Synergy 1.0
Compromise –1.0

1 Perceptions of our current product

Perceptions of Caja Madrid

Perceptions of Wachovia
8 Auxiliary aids and services
1 Importance to the customer

1 Information reformatting

6 Personalizing accounts

7 Auto speak tool tips

3 Raised line checks

5 Account numbers
4 Web accessibility
Direction of Improvement

2 Talking ATMs
Maximize 1.0

Max = 4.9

Min = 3.1
Target 0.0
Minimize –1.0

Direction of improvement 1
Multibranch capability 1 4.2 4.0 1
Web accessibility 2 5.0 3.5 2
Standardization 3 3.8 3.0 3
Tool tips 4 4.6 2.0 4
Integration in open e-mail systems 5 4.0 3.0 5
Safety 6 4.8 3.5 6
User-friendly interface 7 4.0 3.5 7
Browser status information 8 4.2 3.5 8
Manual focus for mouse 9 4.0 3.0 9
Accessibility for hearing-impaired customers 10 3.8 3.0 10
4.0 14.3 127.2

4.1 19.1 169.8

15.8 140.2
3.8 17.0 151.0
84.6

36.0

84.0

10.9 97.0

Importance of product attributes 1

Relative importance of product attributes 2

3.5 9.5

3.9 4.0

3.9 9.4

Wachovia performance 3
1

1
4.1

4.1

4.0

4.8

4.0

4.6

3.5

Caja Madrid performance 4

1
3.0

1.0

3.2

3.0

3.8

3.9

1.0

1.0

Our product 5
© 2008, ASQ
4.1

4.0

4.0

4.5

4.0

4.5

4.0

4.0

Target values 6
1

the customer evaluations are under the average and (3.0), tool-tips (2.0), integration in open e-mail systems
behind the competitors (performance gap). The HOQ (3.0), manual focus for mouse (3.0), and accessibility for
also provides information about the evaluation of the hearing-impaired customers. These customer require-
service elements (hows). The following hows were found ments received the lowest evaluations in the comparative
to be the most important and need to be considered in the analysis and need to be addressed in order to satisfy cus-
final action plans: talking ATMs (151.0), account num- tomer expectations. It is important to remember that
bers (169.8.0), and auto speak tool-tips (140.2). customer expectations were derived from a list of cus-
Moreover, the HOQ shows that improvements are needed tomer feelings; therefore, if these expectations are satisfied,
in the following customer requirements: standardization customer feelings will be satisfied appropriately.

www.asq.org 53
 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

Figure 6 Critical part matrix.

2 Relative importance of product attributes

1 Importance of product attributes
9 Training available for customer
4 New technology equipment

4 Caja Madrid performance

1 Direction of improvement

3 Wachovia performance
7 Information availability
5 New bank services
3 Live service (chat)
Direction of Improvement

6 Customer service
2 Web site design

8 Personal care

6 Target values
Maximize 1.0

5 Our product
1 Operational
Target 0.0
Minimize –1.0

Direction of improvement
Information reformatting
Talking ATMs
Raised line checks
Web accessibility
Account numbers
Personalizing accounts
Auto speak tool tips
Auxiliary aids and services
1
1 84.6 9.5 3.5 4.1 3.0 4.1 1
2 151.0 17.0 3.8 4.1 1.0 4.0 2
3 127.2 14.3 4.0 4.0 3.2 4.0 3
4 36.0 4.0 3.9 4.8 3.0 4.5 4
5 169.8 19.1 4.1 4.0 3.8 4.0 5
6 84.0 9.4 3.9 4.6 3.9 4.5 6
7 140.2 15.8 1 1 1.0 4.0 7
8 97.0 10.9 1 3.5 1.0 4.0 8
16.1 2242.8

15.1 2106.6

20.5 2863.6
1085.4

12.5 1744.0

24.6 3429.0

Importance of product 1
489.6

attributes Standard 9-3-1

Relative importance of 2 Strong 9.0
7.8

3.5

product attributes
Moderate 3.0

© 2008, ASQ
4.5

4.5

4.0

4.5

4.2

4.5

4.0

Target values 3 Weak 1.0

1

STAGE 2 Some interesting conclusions can be drawn from the

critical matrix. The service elements that are considered
Developing the Critical of vital importance, for example, are: 1) talking ATMs,
and 2) account numbers (ability of the bank to keep
Part Matrix account numbers safe). It is important to note that the
As can be seen in Figure 6, the critical parts for each service element “auto speak tool-tips” is highly
service element are divided into two sections: operational demanded by customers; however, none of the banks
and customer service. Several indicators are shown in currently have a solution for this problem—they are
this matrix; for example, importance of service attribute only considering for this in the future. If the NBS wants
and target values are two indicators that help determine to delight its customers, special efforts must be made in
what the bank needs to do in order to incorporate vari- these critical areas in order to meet the customer
ous elements into the services it provides. In addition, requirements shown in the HOQ matrix (see Figure 6).
the part matrix shows competitive information about the
position of NBS with respect to two other banks in Spain.
In general, the competitors show a better performance in
STAGE 3
each of the service elements (performance gap) common Developing Action Plans
to the banks in customer requirements. This study of the NBS indicates that three major action

54 QMJ VOL. 15, NO. 1/© 2008, ASQ

 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study

Table 4 Action plans.

Boundary conditions

Resources needed
Performance gap

Likely success

Measured by
Side effects

Deliverable

Indicator
Current

Action
Table IV Target

Ease
Cost

Risk
action plans

IT 3.5 4.5 1.0 O M L H M Increase Update % Reduction in Follow-up Information A

Improvements bank system customer complaints survey technology,
services using IT systems. professional
Average time of personnel
system downtime.

1-800 phone 3.0 4.5 1.5 CS M M M M Lost New % Increase in market. Phone Information B
service customers customers # of new customers. survey customer
Average time of center
response.

Updated 3.4 5.0 1.6 O H H H H Increase New % Reduction in External Information A

security confidence customers customer complaints. audit technology,
systems # of system professional
breakouts. personnel

Evaluation 3.0 4.5 1.5 O H H M H Bad Update % Reduction in Evaluation Training in C

teams service system customer complaints. form by quality and
% of new customers. Internet customer
% Reduction in cycle service
time. # new projects.

Customer 3.5 5.0 1.5 CS M M M M Increase New % Increase in Evaluation Training in B

feedback confidence customers customer involvement. form by quality and
% increase in Internet customer
customer satisfaction. service

Monitoring 3.1 4.5 1.4 CS L M H M Increase Update % Reduction in Phone Training in C

customer confidence system customer complaints. survey quality and
expectations # of customer customer
expectations moved to service
quadrant B in CWQ.

Reduce 3.5 4.5 1.0 CS L L H M none New % Reduction in Quality Information B

op. costs customers operating costs while cost technology,
keeping customer analysis professional
satisfaction high. tool personnel

Notation Description
O Operational
CS Customer service
H High
M Medium
L Low
© 2008, ASQ

A Plan A: Involves an investment in new information technology including equipment, software, and professional personnel
B Plan B: Increase the customer involvement by frequent contacts and feedback, phone interviews, surveys, etc.
C Plan C: Creation of continuous improvement teams that evaluate permanently the customer requirements and the competitor’s performance

plans should be implemented in order to satisfy the cus- customer involvement through frequent contacts and
tomer requirements identified in this study: 1) investment feedback, phone interviews, surveys, and so on; and 3) the
in new information technology including equipment, creation of continuous improvement teams that evaluate
software, and professional personnel; 2) increased customer requirements and the competitors’ performance

www.asq.org 55
 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study
(benchmarking). A summary of recommended actions
to be taken is depicted in Table 4; these have also been
coupled with selected project management issues
recommended for further information and follow up.
CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The future of service firms lies in their ability to respond
quickly to customer expectations and needs, and quality
has become a major competitive tool in the quest to
recruit and retain increasingly demanding customers.
This is particularly true in e-banking where banks
compete with relatively undifferentiated products.
Recently, Japanese methods have received a lot of atten-
tion from manufacturers interested in improving serv-
ice quality. One of the most popular methods is KE,
which defines quality in terms of the emotional appeal
products hold. According to the KE philosophy, by
incorporating consumers’ emotional feelings into
design features, products will be more pleasing and
more likely to delight customers, not simply satisfy
them. KE provides the technology for translating the
emotional voice of the customer into design character-
istics. QFD, also from Japan, provides the framework
necessary for bringing the voice of the customer to the
engineer through a systematic process.
Using these combined tools allows management to
fully understand and identify those service components
that are most important to customers as determinants of
satisfaction and, thus, use sometimes-scarce organiza-
tional resources wisely. This research project has demon-
strated how these two technologies can be applied to
e-banking services. To date, marketing strategies for
Spanish banks have been oriented around defensive tradi-
tional tactics hoping to prevent customer switching. The
results of this research present NBS’s decision makers with
valuable and detailed information on customers’ feelings
about the various aspects of bank services—information
that is needed to strategically plan online offerings to its
Spanish customers. Specific results from the study show
that most of the important objective measures gathered
from the customers is talking ATMs, safety of account
numbers, and auto speak tool-tips. NBS’s competition,
Caja Madrid, was shown to be the leader in the first two,
56 QMJ VOL. 15, NO. 1/© 2008, ASQ
which means that NBS must improve in these areas to
remain competitive. None of the banks studied, however,
showed any services related to auto speak tool-tips (which
customers said they wanted but were not getting). NBS,
consequently, should be able to gain a competitive advan-
tage by developing this component into its e-banking
services. Indeed, if they develop auto speak tool-tips
ahead of their competitors, they should gain a “first in
the market” competitive advantage.
The analysis of customer requirements and service
elements also shows that focusing on Web accessibility
will improve the critical customer requirements, since
it is highly correlated with the three other aspects of
quality service (talking ATMs, auto speak tool-tips, and
auxiliary aids). Moreover, the HOQ matrices show that
improvements are needed in the following customer
requirements: standardization, integration in open
e-mail systems, and manual focus for mouse and
accessibility for hearing-impaired customers
The use of KE and QFD tools to clarify and incorpo-
rate the voice of the customer in service design allows
organizations to provide the exact e-commerce services
desired by the customer to achieve high levels of cus-
tomer satisfaction and delight. The benefits obviously
center on customer satisfaction leading to high levels of
customer retention and thus lower costs for attracting
new customers. In addition, the cost efficiencies of
online banking further increase the value of these tools
in redirecting customers from high traditional banking
services to cost-efficient online services. As services
increasingly rely on the interaction between customers
and technology, identification and translation of the
true emotional voice of the customer is vital in captur-
ing design aspect implications that will allow the service
provider to effectively and profitably compete.
In general the results from this research provide an
excellent step-by-step case study for managers in other
service organizations. Using KE and QFD as a baseline for
the analysis of customer requirements, managers are
provided with: 1) customer-based improvement strategies
based on the specific service elements identified; and
2) action plans for the different requirements that
demand managerial action. As these results show, the
implications for competitive positioning and effective
resource allocation could be significant—with improved
ability to not only improve customer quality perceptions,
 An Alternative Approach in Service Quality: An e-Banking Case Study
but to improve those service components that are directly
tied to the organization’s success. This can be true espe-
cially in industries where technology allows for rapid
product and service duplication resulting in somewhat
homogenous brand offerings. Being responsive to the
true customer voice can be invaluable.
IMPLICATIONS
This study contributes to the marketing literature in
several ways. First, it presents two quality tools infre-
quently used in service design as options that go beyond
traditional service quality measurements. Second, it illu-
minates the opportunities to improve measurements of
customer perceptions of quality by combining existing
concepts. Finally, it makes a contribution to those service
areas where homogeneity is increasingly a problem by
illustrating the use of tools that allow service providers to
design a truly customer-centric service system reflecting
and incorporating actual consumers’ emotional reactions
to a service. This goes beyond the high technical quality
components that can today be so easily duplicated.
Future research can build upon these finds by:
1) expanding the scope from banking to other types of
industries in order to analyze the applicability of the
proposed tools; and 2) applying the same methodology
to other banking industries for developing a model for
customer-oriented banking structures.
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BIOGRAPHIES
Marvin E. González is an assistant professor of decision sciences
and MIS at the College of Charleston. He received his doctorate
from Purdue University, his master’s degree from ITESM, Mexico,
and his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from ITCR,
Costa Rica. He is the author of the book QFD: A Road for Listening
to Customer Expectations. He is currently engaged as investigator on
different projects related to advanced manufacturing technologies,
customer loyalty, e-health systems, e-banking services design, supply
chain management and quality management. He can be reached by
e-mail at GonzalezM@cofc.edu .
Rene Dentiste Mueller is a marketing professor at the College of
Charleston and director of Global Trade Initiate (GTI). She received
her doctorate from DeMontfort University (England). Her current
research interests are in the area of cross-cultural marketing. Mueller
has published in many journals including the Journal of International
Business Studies and International Marketing Review. She is the
principal investigator of several major grant projects and is working
with collaborators in Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, and Mexico.
Rhonda W. Mack is a marketing professor at the College of
Charleston. She received her doctorate from the University of
Georgia. Her current research interests are in the areas of consumer
information usage in various service industry sectors, international
services marketing, and customer loyalty. She has published in
numerous journals including the Journal of Advertising Research,
Computers in Industrial Engineering, Journal of Small Business
Management, and Managing Service Quality.