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Effect Of Employee Satisfaction On Customer Satisfaction Management
Customer satisfaction is perhaps the most significant tool of assessing the performance of any company or business, as well as a reliable indicator of the likelihood of failure or success of the business. Customer satisfaction, however, is a complex interplay of various factors, such as product or service value addition, packaging, presentation and, ultimately, customer support. Customer support is usually associated with the service industry as it is in any kind of business. The image of the company that customers have is that of the employees who attend to them. This image is created through such interactions as customer queries handling, feedback time, employee courtesy, complaint management, vital consumer information provision in proper time, and the general shopping or other interaction type experience. These factors are as important to a client as a product or service value addition in their lives.
The today's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is experiencing a higher reliance on the services industry than ever before, translating to more engagement between employees and customers in different sectors. The global economy has a 62.9% reliance on services sector (International Monetary Fund, 2012). The Egypt's service sector contributes 48.6% of its GDP, which is the highest single contributor (International Monetary Fund, 2012). These facts point to a need for the industry players to re-evaluate their core objectives and realize the importance of customer satisfaction (Turban, 2002). This is besides the fact that the non-service sectors also rely on customer satisfaction through direct and indirect interactions of employees and customers in order to remain profitable and to grow. Customer service, which is directly linked with employee- customer contact, is a major contributor to overall customer satisfaction. It is, therefore, important that an employee should project a good company image to a customer. This study will quantify the effects on employee satisfaction of the employee- customer contact and, ultimately, customer satisfaction.1.1 Problem Statement
The study will seek to address the research problem, which is establishing the effects of employee satisfaction on customer satisfaction. The biggest motivation for this study is the increasing reliance on the services sector of most major economies, and the reliance of the service sector on intricate direct customer contact with employees of a company. Previous studies indicate that customers create an image of the company judging by the "moment of truth", which is that brief moment when a customer interacts with a company in a business transaction. This moment creates such a lasting impact regardless of whether prior products or services from the company had portrayed a different image (Bulgarella, 2005).1.2 Research Objective
This realization drives the research motivation to find ways in which employee-customer relation can be enhanced. Employee satisfaction is, in turn, the most significant determinant of employee-customer relation. The objective of this study is to establish the most significant factors that affect the way employees relate with customers, the employees contribution to their feelings about their work, the way their feelings about job satisfaction affects the way they handle customers, and, ultimately, how this affects customers satisfaction. The study will also aim at providing solutions to improve the important employer- employee relations with the aim of improving customer satisfaction.2.0 Background of the Study
The customer service is a core concept in any company's management. It defines whether a company will succeed or fail in its future. The currently heightened world economy's reliance on the service industry points to the importance of proper customer management principles, given that most service companies predominantly feature customer- employee interactions during the 'moments of truth.' In a moment of truth, the customer's expectations from a company get redefined as they interact verbatim with the representative of the company- or the company. This interaction may be in form of physical contact at a customer care outlet, over the phone through a call centre experience, or through correspondence, such as via e-mail. In any case, the customer gets a newer opinion and creates a new image of the company through this experience. Research indicates that moments of truth are more effective in shaping a customer's opinion regarding a company than the cumulative past experiences they had with the company, such as through previous products and services purchases. Research shows that customers who had a very successful moment of truth are at least two times more likely to place future orders with a company or refer their friends to it, regardless of their previous perceptions of the company, than customers who had an unsatisfactory experience (Hays, 1999).
While the importance of the customer service cannot be overemphasized, the following service is usually the responsibility of front line employees. It is these employees, usually lower to the middle level, who are mandated with projecting the company image to customers through direct contact (moments of truth). A problem arises if these workers are unable to project a good representation due to certain challenges, such as work strain, poor co-worker and employer relations, facilities incapacity or any other challenges. The strain in workers is likely to be transferred onto the customers, possibly damaging the client experience. Lower to the middle level workers, are, unfortunately, the most vulnerable categories to misrepresentation, workplace abuse, underpayment, and general de-motivation in their job roles. The management usually may ignore the internal phenomena arising from work-level conflicts and complaints from junior staff since, in most cases, the highest turnovers are from this category, a factor that may encourage the management to overlook lower level employees' concerns (Kosteas, 2009).
In order to serve customers better, employees need to perceive just the right internal environment. Employee conflicts may arise due to three factors: horizontal challenges, vertical challenges, and external challenges. Horizontal challenges include relationships between workers themselves, while vertical challenges involve worker relationships with immediate supervisors and senior management. External factors include the customer originated strain, type of job strain, alternative employment incentives among others. In addition, career dissatisfaction is another common challenge. Employer related strain may be associated with poor remuneration, lack of management support, unreasonable workload, poor facilities, lack of self-esteem, employer bullying, and lack of constructive challenges in the work role among others. The co-worker related strain may be as a result of bullying, mistreatment, sexual harassment among others. In order to understand factors that drive customer satisfaction, it is important to discuss how the above factors affect employee satisfaction.
Bulgarella (2005) proposed an organizational structure that affects and determines the nature of customer- employee relationship and, therefore, customer satisfaction. The figure below shows the relationship.
Figure 1: Yoon Organizational Structure
Employee service effort
Perceived organizational support
Employee service quality
Supervisory support
Job satisfaction
Customer participation
(Bulgarella, 2005)
Perceived support from the organization measures the employees feeling about the efforts the organization takes to promote their well being and better the working environment. It also incorporates the extent to which the company values the employee contribution to the success of the company. Perceived support from the supervisor level indicates the way employees feel about their immediate supervisors. It measures the overall contribution of such factors as helpfulness, level of trust between supervisor and employee, friendliness at the communication level, and general atmosphere of work. This factor emphasizes the importance of the social-emotional balance in the workplace as a necessary tool in driving employee and, hence, customer satisfaction. The Yoon model also recognizes the customer input in service delivery as an important contribution to overall customer satisfaction.
The model enlists the customer's physical, emotional and psychological participation in the product/service development. These three initial forces represent the antecedent for employee satisfaction, a necessary phenomenon for the next stage. The Yoon model identifies supervisor support as the single as well as most significant contributor to employee satisfaction, and that job satisfaction rates more significantly in determining an employee's service quality than employee service effort. Kosteas (2009) presents a variation of the Yoon model in which service climate and supportive management are the most important antecedents in employee satisfaction. In this model, these basic antecedents affect an employee's work effort and job satisfaction, which, in turn, drive the employee's service quality.2.1 Employee- Employee Strain
This strain arises between employees in the same rank, and it may sometimes arise following temporary placements of certain workers in positions in which supervisory roles give them an advantage over peers. Another possible leeway for employee conflicts arises during extended work periods, such as late hour assignments. This may be common during times when dedicated teams are assigned specific assignments requiring late hour commitments and common transportation to and from location during the following time certain employees may find it easier to bully colleagues. In addition, any such arrangements are likely to compromise employee privacy, as well as hinder private lifestyle (Hays, 1999). The cumulative effect of these off-routine practices may lower employee satisfaction with their work. Employee level conflicts may also arise due to workload management if equality is not perceived to guide each employee's contribution. It is possible, for instance, for certain workers to shun work which requires a joint effort, thereby overburdening their colleagues. Such scenarios are common in the front office where workers handle customers in queues, such as bank lobbies, customer service centers, airline booking lounges among other, similar places.
According to Alliance Training and Consulting Inc (ATC), there were 11,364 sexual harassment claims filed in 2011 where 16.3 % of those were filed by men. In addition, there were 33,956 claims filed for workplace harassment by colleagues. The total compensations handed in the same duration were worth $153.5 million according to the Equality Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The percentage of reported cases is less than 30 even in countries where worker representation is enhanced. It may, therefore, be expected that the effect of employee- employee conflicts whether directly related to harassment and discrimination or not is larger in the actual workplaces than statistics tend to show (Alliance Training and Consulting Inc., 2012). The employer is mandated with the responsibility of enhancing good relations between workers, with an aim of maintaining integrity, teamwork, and respect for co-workers. Bullying Statistics (2012) observes that, up to one third of workers are exposed to bullying, and 20 percent of this leads to actual harassment. In addition, a study documented by The New York Times stated that more than 60 percent of bullies were men, and their victims are equally distributed in gender. The website observes that common effects of workplace bullying include low productivity, absenteeism, low self-esteem, digestive problems, high blood pressure, insomnia and troubled relationships at work. All these factors are incompatible with employee satisfaction and often lead to lowered customer satisfaction.2.2 Employee-employer Conflicts
These conflicts arise in the employer-employee relationship. The first common source of dissatisfaction concerns the work expectations. In a dynamic corporate environment, employers set targets that will help the company realize its growth and profit incentives. These targets, however, fail to put into consideration fairness in worker performance expectations. Management allocates responsibilities based on the ideal situation, which is seldom ever achieved in the real life. The hindrance to idealness is born of system failures, labor force incapacity, emergencies such as work absences among other factors. The management's rigidity with throughput requirements, therefore, imposes targets that may be unachievable, leading to conflicts. When workers are overwhelmed, their loyalty is decreased (Oats & Vella-Brodrick, 2003). In a 2009 study published by the UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills (DBIS), involvement in management was a major contributor to employee satisfaction in most workplaces, with the only exception being the financial services industry where involvement in management was a stressor (Williams, 2009). In addition, the study found that working in densely populated environments lead to great stress, just as did working in dynamic environments with products whose markets are rapidly growing. In a study on the effects of employer -employee and employee-employer relationship on overall job satisfaction in worker aged 25-35 years conducted by Richard Hammer from the Australian Catholic University, School of Psychology, there was established a positive correlation in both categories (Harmer & Findlay, 2005). The table below indicates the regression values.
Table 1: Determinants of Worker Satisfaction
Mean M
S.D standard deviation
General job satisfaction
Satisfaction with co-workers
Satisfaction with supervisor
Total well being
Where *p< 0.05, ** p<0.01, ***p< 0.001
(Harmer & Findlay, 2005)
The study analyzed 69 respondents' rating for the factors on overall job satisfaction as affected by satisfaction with supervisor and satisfaction with co-workers. The mean for general job satisfaction, an externally determined factor that varies per industry, was 39.49. The study revealed that general satisfaction with co-workers achieved a weight of 36.16 across the respondents rating, while that of employee- supervisor scored 39.16. In addition, multivariate regression analysis conducted to determine the roles that co-worker and supervisor relations had on global job satisfaction revealed that relations with co-workers was the stronger determinant with a beta value of β=0.52 at p<0.001. The implication of this study is that both employee-employee relations and employee -employer relationships were instrumental for worker satisfaction, a primary determinant of customer satisfaction (Harmer & Findlay, 2005).2.3 Training and Development
Another source of conflicts regards the employee development in the modern corporate world. For instance, junior workers are required to put in between 8 and 10 hours of labor per day, sometimes opting to take overtime responsibilities to meet life challenges. In this condition, employees often lack the time to update themselves with current trends in the international labor platform, which means that in the event of job termination, they would experience major challenges securing employment in a position they qualified for a few years back. An appropriate example may be given of the mobile communication industry whose operational standards have been changed between four generations in less than three decades (1G, 2G, 3G to 4G) since 1985- 2008. Workers who enrolled in this sector in 1998 would require constant training and development at least one per year to keep up and remain competitive. However, management is sometimes unwilling to support training needs for employees, especially if the said training is not significant in their present job roles.
This hesitation is borne of three reasons. Firstly, any form of training implies the absence from the work position, meaning less gross productivity per employee and, consequently, less profitability for the company. Secondly, training goes against cost cutting policies, a common core principle in most corporate today. Training usually may take up between 20-50 percent of modern companies' resource allocations, with IT and technology related upgrades being the major cause. Finally, training and development put employees in positions in which they are more competitive and, therefore, more likely to exit employment and search for better jobs with peer companies. There is no wonder that a significant percentage of company sponsored training is subject to certain employment terms whose violation through, for instance, exit, attracts legal implications, such as compensation for the company. Constraints of this type, while sometimes genuinely protecting employer interests, greatly hinder employee satisfaction.
Another major concern in this category is remuneration and benefits. Employees will, all other factors held constant, look for the highest paying job and the one with best terms and benefits. While remuneration may not be the only, or sometimes the most significant, determinant of how an employee is willing to take or keep a job, it is, however, a most significant factor where an employee is faced with choices between two peer employers if all other factors are comparable. This factor is a significant source of employee turnover.
According to Gardner (2003), surveys have indicated that most training is carried on with an aim to enhance internal processes (more than 70%), while only less than 10% is done to achieve non-employer intended goals. The table below shows the results. The implication of this analysis is that employees are unlikely to be sufficiently equipped to perform their role even at the basic level without constant and effective training. It is worth noting that this type of training does not necessarily equip the employee with skills that could be applied outside the parent organization. In addition, employee satisfaction was found to be influenced jointly by training and development, recognition and reward. These three elements complement each other in attaining employee satisfaction.
Figure 2: Purpose of the Internal Training Survey
(Gardner, 2003)2.4 Growth in Position
Promotions are a major concern for any employee. For a job to provide satisfaction, it has to offer opportunities for growth that are significantly attractive, timely and fair. Unfortunately, employers may find it hard to secure growth for junior to middle level employees due to certain restraints. Firstly, companies wish to incur the least possible costs and achieve the maximum possible benefits. This usually implies reducing new employments, which, therefore, means that employees holding current positions, who already qualified and due for promotion, have no replacement personnel to take up their positions and, therefore, cannot be promoted. It is a rather common practice that a significant percentage of junior to middle level workers do not only fail to get promotions, but actually handle multiple roles in their current positions which are understaffed (Kosteas, 2009).
This reality is a source of dissatisfaction for employees. The second reason why companies are unwilling to give promotions is conflicts of interests in the internal environment. Usually, management is concerned that rapidly rising employees present a threat to them. This is mostly pronounced in companies where mid-level management are external employees who have no private connection with the ownership, and are, therefore ,unlikely to feel personally responsible for the overall company growth. It is, therefore, possible that such a management would hold personal interests above the genuine company growth through worker recognition and promotion, leading to such practices as non-merit promotion and unlawful termination. A study conducted in 2009 and documented in the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) found that there was a positive correlation between promotion possibility and overall job satisfaction (Kosteas, 2009). The study established that a promise for promotion was an adequate incentive for a worker to remain in the current employment (Kosteas, 2009). In addition, it was revealed that promotions effect on job satisfaction was only minimally affected by the accompanying increase in payments, and that a complete lack of payment increase was not necessarily a factor in promotion-related job satisfaction. The study also revealed that past promotions had little impact on satisfaction, and only future promotions matter.2.5 Employer Harassment
Employer harassment is common across the labor force but is more rampant in the private sector. The private sector employs more personnel than the public sector in most economies and is, therefore, more prone to worker mishandling (Bove, & Smith, 2006). In addition, the private sector is largely independent on ethics and rigorous worker rights requirements. There are lesser avenues for the formation of worker unions in private sector, and the hiring/firing processes are largely a private affair. This situation is even further aggravated by the fact that private employers carefully craft employment or contract letters in such a manner as to give the employer a legal advantage in cases of, for instance, summary termination of employment. Also, there lack a proper legal system to impose checks and standards in defining acceptable employee treatment during employment in the private sector. Thus, such practices as physical assault, worker manipulation in role performance, organizational polarization along such groupings as political, management level, race, age and gender, sexual advances and harassment among other practices are reported in employment. These factors hinder employee morale and loyalty to employer.
Human Resource Diversity limited, a company that documents research on workplace practices in the UK, states that there were 236,000 reported cases of workplace bullying in the UK employments and that 80% of managers have already been aware or participated in the bullying. Of these, 49% of managers have experienced some form of bullying themselves, and 37 % have indicated that they have lacked the proper management training needed to manage bullying in the workplace. The report indicate that 19 million sick offs are taken annually in the UK as a result of bullying, where 1 out of 4 people is a victim. The UK looses 120 million pounds each year to bullying charges, with the bulk of these in out of court settlements (Guest, 2002).2.6 Employee Background
This aspect concerns the reason why the employee is in that employment, and has a major impact on employee satisfaction, all other factors held constant. Joblessness is a major challenge for most governments in the current global economy (Sue, 1999). It is, therefore, common to find people going into employment in out of desperation, for the lack of alternative choices. When employees take up positions in the sectors that are not in their line of training or, sometimes, not in their preferred career paths, it is likely that they may not fit in those positions and may, therefore, lack the professional satisfaction that comes with a proportionate job. This factor often leads to the lack of satisfaction in the workplace, even where all other stressors are absent.
For instance, a person who was trained as a computer engineer may, out of joblessness, opt to take a front office job in a major discount store where they are expected to interact with customers, handle dissatisfied clients, and drive sales. This person is more likely to feel dissatisfied in his/ her job role than a person who has a diploma in sales and marketing, or another with background in customer management.2.7 Positive Job Challenges
This factor arises from routine employment without new role challenges. It may seem insignificant but has a far greater effect on employee satisfaction than it may be expected. The condition of the lack of motivation owing to such practices as idle sitting and routine performance can lead to hypo stress, which is the stress that results from inactivity. In contrast, overwhelmed workers may suffer from hyper stress. It is worth noting that the results may very often be the same. This scenario is even more rampant in employment where employee interaction is limited, and most workers spend most time alone or in the automated environments. A typical scenario is a position where an employee works in a factory line where his/ her job is to pick containers from a conveyor belt and pack them into boxes, all day alone. Such a worker is likely to be de-motivated for lack of challenges in work. Constructive challenges in a work scenario lead to morale boost and role satisfaction in workers.3.0 Employer Satisfaction
It is important to discuss employer satisfaction as a necessary factor in customer satisfaction because, at the end of the process, it is the employer who must decide to continue or terminate with the business. The important factor for employers is to understand how to gain the same results (profitability and sustainable growth), through different ways: the ways which satisfy both the employee and customer. Establishing these methods is the only way to attain the long term growth and development, thus adding value to the society and contributing to the national product. A standard option for employers to consider while making any policy is whether there is another method or way to achieve the same results for employers and customers to benefit too. Such an approach will invariably incorporate employee input in decision making. Employees' involvement achieves two purposes: it leads to a consensual agreement, which benefits both parties, and improves employee morale and, therefore, loyalty during their roles. This scenario improves customer satisfaction through the associated employee robustness and willingness to own up in cases of customer complaints.3.1 Employee - Customer Relationships
This factor is as significant a source of employee dissatisfaction as all the previously discussed factors. The nature of employee- customer interaction is the core focus of this study. It is the moment of truth that the customer relies on when rating a company. The nature of this relationship is supposed to be very positive. However, the interaction is not always positive due to certain conditions (Snipes, Thomson, & Oswald, 2006). Firstly, employees fail to understand the expectations of customers during the interaction. It is true that a significant percentage of customers visiting a customer service centre or otherwise seeking interaction with company representatives do this because they are dissatisfied with products or services and are, therefore, presenting a complaint.
The customer may have a complaint that concerns the top level management, and not directly in the jurisdiction of the representative with whom they interact. The employee cannot understand why the customer is unwilling to understand the issue that cannot be solved at the customer service level, while the customer cannot understand why the employee does not realize that the customer cannot directly reach the top level management in order to express his/her grievance. This scenario may often present a deadlock between customer and employee which deteriorates with time, leading to reduced customer satisfaction. The important process in such a scenario is for the employee to understand that only he / she can own up, whether the customer is unreasonable or not. To the customer, the employee is the company, and must resolve any queries arising from the product/ service usage. Consequently, a seamless link between the employee and top management is needed in order to ensure employee support, as well as practical turn-around duration for the escalated issues. If the employee fails to understand the imbalanced nature of his/ her relationship with the client and uses it to the company's benefit, there is supposed to be conflicts between him / her and the customer, leading to the latter's dissatisfaction. However, the employee is unable to take this burden unless he / she can perceive a need to do this, and the following need can only stem from a good employee- employer relationship.
Another major source of conflict in the employee- customer relationship is harassment and bullying. Even though harassment and bullying is usually more prevalent from the customer to the employee and mostly by male to female parties, it is also evident, to a smaller extent, from the staff to the client (especially in services offered by monopolistic businesses in countries where human rights are not so vigorously guarded, and situations in which the company is a public government offices or other public entity), and by female to male parties (Fischer, Gainer & Bristor, 1997).
In this light, it is important to note that significant gender disparities exist in the number of personnel employed in the customer service sector. Here, the customer service refers to the front office operations by employees of a company in direct interaction with customers. The previous discussion highlighted the growing percentage of women experiencing harassment in places of work as compared to men; this situation is even further aggravated by the fact that the customer service is a female dominated domain. Statistics supports the possibility that female employees have been a constant target of customer harassment. For instance, the Australian Commission on Human Rights has conducted the research in to employee harassment in Australian companies and established that above 10% of all harassment was initiated by a customer. The figure below represents this evidence.
Figure 3: Source of Bullying and Harassment in Australian Companies.
(Australia Human Rights Commission, 2008)
It should be noted, however, that these figures involve employees in all departments in a company. But even then, ten percent of respondents experienced harassment by clients. This means that a higher percentage of employees in the customer care division, which deals directly with customers, were likely to report harassment. In addition, surveys conducted by the commission also indicate that workers in the service based industries, such as hotel and catering, education and community services, were most likely to become targets of harassment (Snipes,Thomson, & Oswald, 2006).4.0 Customer Service
The customer service is a very significant practice in customer satisfaction. The following service, just like satisfaction, can be defined differently by different schools of thought; though, the underlying principles remain the same. Mathies & Burford (2010) define the customer service as the sum total activities that are aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction. It may also be defined as the activities that a customer care agent does before, during and after a sale of a product or service in order to boost customer satisfaction. Other than customer service, there are other factors that contribute to customer satisfaction. These factors include: product or service quality or value addition, product packaging, after sale service among other factors.
The increase in percentage of businesses directly involved in customer services, as opposed to the product, such as manufacturing, has led to the increased focus on customer service as a key element in attaining customer satisfaction (Fischer, Gainer, & Bristor, 1997). Different requirements have been set by different industry players regarding the satisfactory customer service. There is no particular customer service model held as superior to all others, certain benchmark qualities of a good customer care representative have come up. Mathies & Burford (2010) from the University of New South Wales conducted a research concerning fundamental gender differences that are in the customer service industry. The researchers noted that there were differences in expectation levels from clients to employees and employees to customers, which were aligned along gender basis. The study involved 876 workers in 20 service industries in Australia. The respondents were 44% male and 56% female. The research question was the respondents' perception of good customer service. The Leximancer text analysis tool was used to map underlying themes in different responses (Mathies & Burford, 2010). Ten key words that emerged from the analysis with regard to definition for the good customer service are given in the table below.
Table 2: Survey on Perception of Good Customer Service
(Mathies & Burford, 2010)
The table above indicates the underlying principle in a customer service as understood by customer service representatives. The relative weighting indicates the importance attached to any of these words as a marker of a good customer service. Listening, for instance, is perceived as the most important quality of a good customer care interaction, with a weight more than double that of the ability to help (help has a weight of 9.3 points). Therefore, an effective customer service, as understood by the people giving it, is a complex matrix of personality and not necessarily a satisfactory immediate help for the customer. The table brings out an important realization; that the five most highly rated attributes of a good customer service all have to do with altitude and perception of the employee, rather than to do with actual assistance for the customer.
The ability to listen to, being happy, offering good service, being friendly, and having a smile are all factors that, to the natural human, rely on internal feelings and satisfaction and that trying to feign them would be stressing to the person doing it. Therefore, employees who are genuinely unhappy and unsatisfied are unlikely to present a satisfactorily good customer service. This also points back to the management, who share the responsibility of ensuring employee satisfaction. In this research, it also emerged that good customer service practices meant different things to the different genders. Women tend to view a good customer service as one in which the service process is favorable and in which there is a good quality of interaction. Men, on the other hand, tend to view a good customer service as one in which the outcome favors the customer, that is, there is an actual problem solving for the customer.
These differences in perception may present significant conflicts between customers and employees, especially in places where there is a gender imbalance and, therefore, no harmony for the different customer gender. This is in consideration of the fact that customers will also tend to view a good customer service based on their gender, as well. Unfortunately, the average front office is likely to have more female than male workers, which means that customers who place outcome of interaction above the quality of interaction may find the moment of truth unsatisfactory. Similarly, male dominated in the customer service centers are likely to have more unsatisfied customers on the basis of the service quality, as opposed to the outcome of interaction.
Apart from the customer care centre experience, there are other avenues of customer service. Call center agents are customer care agents who resolve the customers' queries on the phone. Like employees in the physical customer care centers, call centre agents are exposed to the same management challenges as any other employees. Therefore, they are just as likely to experience dissatisfaction and lowered productivity challenges when handling customers. Other avenues include social media, with such platforms as Face book, Twitter and other social sites that are increasingly gaining popularity as customer service channels. In addition, most companies in the current domain support a customer management portal where dedicated teams can resolve the customers' queries through such services as blogs and webmail.
A call center, however, is still the preferred customer service method when compared to social media. According to the study conducted by the Customer Engagement Network (CEN), seven in ten respondents in a survey featuring 500 call centers said that calls were still the preferred mode of communication with their customers (Customer Engagement Network, 2012). Further, the study revealed that 70% of respondents stated that they expect phone calls to remain the customer service channel of choice in the foreseeable future (Customer Engagement Network, 2012). This has the implication that employers should focus on enhancing customer interactions through the current channels, in addition to investing resources into the new customer service platforms.4.1 Effect of Employee Satisfaction on Customer Satisfaction
The previous sections have discussed the foundation of employee satisfaction and the customer service experience. This section gives case studies of employee satisfaction effects on customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is considered the total experience that a client gets from a company's product/service processes, which makes them sustain a feeling of satisfaction and a need for re-use of the company's goods or services.4.1.1Measuring Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is often a deduced rather than a measured factor. The most common test for customer satisfaction is company profitability and growth, seeing that customer satisfaction is the major determinant of these two variables (Alpha Measure, 2012). However, customer satisfaction may also be measured directly through direct surveys, such as through interviews and questionnaires (Snipes, Thomson, & Oswald, 2006). Most customer satisfaction surveys utilize the following four variables; satisfaction with the company in general, satisfaction with the local branch where applicable, satisfaction with service delivery, and satisfaction with employees (Alpha Measure, 2012).4.1.2 Satisfaction with Company
This variable is measured as a customer's overall rating of a company's products and services. It is driven by the customer's direct experience with their services, as well as external factors, such as its reputation, ethical and legal history, ranking in national and international reports among other variables. This variable is jointly determined by the personal experience and other factors.4.1.3 Satisfaction with Local Branch
This applies where services are de-centralized and are likely to be derived more at a personal level. The determining micro-factors include level of service, product/service presentation, after sale service, and nature of customer service. It is differentiated from the overall company rating due to the possibility of different service levels in the different branches, for example, in a bank's branch network.4.1.4 Satisfaction with Services
This variable refers to the general rating of a company's services, not necessarily the service level at the customer's moment of truth point. While a customer is supposed to judge his/ her level of satisfaction without any reference, most customers will rate service level with a reference of another company they have visited.4.1.5 Satisfaction with Employees
The customers evaluate employee performance usually as customer service, as they may not know of other duties fulfilled by employees. Back office workers, therefore, may receive a non-realistic rating in generating customer satisfaction. Heskett et al (1994) proposed a model linking employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction in the form of a service profit chain. In the chain, employees and customers are linked by the role of management in a cyclic manner of cost and benefit. The figure below illustrates the Heskett's service- profit chain.
Figure 4: Heskett's Service Profit Chain
(Heskett et al, 1994)
Since 1994 the service profit chain has been used extensively by leading companies in enhancement of sustainable profitability trends. It starts with the internal company environment and works from inside out, with the result being happier employees and happier customers. The internal environment is evaluated using the internal service quality, which is made up of such variables as workplace design, job design, employee selection and development, reward and recognition, as well as customer service tools.4.2 Internal Service Quality
This general variable is composed of the following:4.2.1 Workplace Design
Workplace design takes consideration of such factors as spacing, lighting, comfort, temperature regulation, environment surrounding the workplace, among similar factors. The ideal or optimum workplace design should aim at providing a comfortable, relaxed environment in which employees feel motivated to work with minimal unnecessary exhaustion. The job design as a variable considers the nature of the job, specifically mini-variables, such as duration of work, strain level per employee, flexibility of work schedule and off-work days, the level of skill required and implications in the workplace, the type of work relationships between employees (teamwork versus individual roles) among other factors. The employer should provide the best combination of variables with an aim of optimizing employee comfort while not jeopardizing profit implications on the long run.
A study conducted by a University of Pretoria masters student, David Stanford, 2008, attempted to quantize the importance of each internal indicator of employee satisfaction. The study involved telephone interviews that were presented to 67 workers and 66 clients and came up with the following table.
Table 3: Importance of the Internal Environment Survey.
Standard deviation
Operating procedures
Nature of work
(Stanford, 2008)
The above table emphasizes the effect of workplace design on the overall satisfaction of an employee. It shows, for instance, that the nature of work and supervision, both attributes of the workplace, carried the highest weighting and least standard deviation as satisfaction determinants. Pay, on the contrary, had the least points but the highest standard deviation. This indicates that, while many employees disagreed more with regard to the importance of pay as a satisfaction determinant, very few workers disagreed concerning the importance of the workplace environment as a satisfaction marker. Co-workers influence in job satisfaction also received a high rating as a determinant of job satisfaction with 18.3 points. This table highlights the most important factors that employers needed to improve to generate employee, and thus customer satisfaction.4.2.3 Employee Recruitment and Development
This variable affects the general perception of the worker while performing his/ her role. Selecting the right employee for a particular position is likely to enhance employee comfort in role management and, therefore, boost productivity. Conversely, an unfit employee is likely to experience dissatisfaction in the role performance due to such factors, as incompetence, boredom or incapacity to bond with co-workers and clients. The employees' development, on the other hand, means constant upgrading of employee skills in order to enhance easy adaptability to changing technology and industry standards in any sector. Employees who are regularly trained are likely to exhibit greater optimism towards their role than non-trained ones performing the same role. In addition, the greater interactivity with customers of the front office workers requires a great deal of regular training in order to pass reliable information to the enquiring clients. The lack of this training and development will, in the least, lead to discomfort and embarrassment when dealing with customers.4.2.4 Employee Satisfaction, Retention, and Productivity
Enhancing the factors in the internal environment is expected to lead to employee retention, satisfaction, and productivity. According to Heskett et al (1994), there is a direct relationship between the three variables, with retention and productivity being the dependent variables driven by customer satisfaction. The driven variables, retention and productivity, are instrumental in shaping the external environment, which is the external service value.4.2.5 External service Value
External service value pertains to customer service, specifically all factors in the employee-customer interaction that lead to customer satisfaction. Service concept is all experience that is designed with the aim of creating a positive lasting impression in the customer regarding company's services or products. A satisfied customer is likely to be retained in the company's clientele; the customer is likely to bring repeat business to the company and to refer others to such a company. This, according to Heskett et al (1994), is the key to the company's revenue growth and profitability. The section below will discuss case studies of employee-customer satisfaction surveys.4.3 A Chinese Security Firm Service - Profit Analysis Based on Employee- Customer Satisfaction
A study carried out by Yingzi Xu and Robert Goedegebuure (2005) aimed at finding out the relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction as related to the company's profitability per employee. It should be noted that the company's profitability, especially in the long term, is a direct result of customer satisfaction. The scholars studied a group of 680 employees picked from 30 branches in the security firm. 495 customers and 426 employees took part in the study. Employee satisfaction was modeled using two variables: satisfaction with the company and satisfaction with the job. Customer satisfaction was measured using four variables of the customer- profit model: satisfaction with the company, the particular branch, services, and employees. Profit as the dependent variable was obtained from linear regression of the above variables and calculated as profit per employee (Xu & Goedegebuure, 2005). The study used Cranach's alpha rating of 0.7 and 0.89 for employee and customer satisfaction.
Figure 5: Regression Plane for Employee versus Customer Satisfaction on Profit.
(Xu & Goedegebuure, 2005)
In the table, the plane of regression was made on a three dimensional coordinate plane with customer- employee relationship versus profitability per employee. The table indicates that there, indeed, exists a relationship between customer and employee satisfaction with the company's profitability. In another survey, Sears, Roebuck and Company performed a survey in their 800 stores regarding the way employees felt about their jobs and how this affected their service delivery (Corporate Leadership Council, 2003). The company found out that a 5% increase in customer satisfaction lead to an average 1.3 % increase in customer satisfaction, which, in turn, led to a 0.5% increase in the profit growth (Rucci, Kirn, and Quinn, 1998). The study further found out that customer- employee relationship accounts for between 40 to 80% customer satisfactions, the percentage being higher in the service industry companies.
Rucci, Kirn, and Quinn (1998) conducted a study in which Sun Systems used a service- profit model that revealed a relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and profitability. The company stated that the likelihood for customers to recommend Sun as an organization with which to conduct business greatly correlated to the likelihood for employees to state that Sun was a good place to work in. Sun engages in a monthly survey in which its employees fill in a form to measure employee satisfaction, as well as performance hindrances. This system enables the company to continually review its policy to enhance good employee- employer relationship. The result of these monthly data analysis provides the company with employee quality index, which helps the company to gauge its customer delight index. This direct link between employee satisfaction and a customer delight index has helped the company maintain a trend of profitability and growth.5.0 Conclusion
The documented case studies above indicate the existence of a direct relationship between employee and customer satisfaction. This relationship is more pronounced in companies that are more service oriented than those that are product related because the employees are engaged directly with customers for longer average durations. In addition, the research has showed that companies with a higher customer satisfaction rating are those that treat their employees as internal customers, and as a precious tool for driving customer satisfaction. The increasing percentage of economies whose major GDP earner is service oriented, as well as the rapidly expanding global business platform with increasing competition should serve as a cue for any company to target personalized customer satisfaction as the next primary focus.6.0 Recommendations
Employers who wish to enhance the customer experience as a growth and profitability strategy will need to focus on the following recommendations.
Understand the reasons why employees take up jobs and help them achieve their objectives. In addition, recruit employees whose reasons for taking the job are likely to lead to a mutual benefit for the employer and employee (Alpha Measure, 2012).
Constantly hold communication with employees in order to let them know what objectives their companies want to achieve, and involve them in consultations and certain decision making in order to boost their morale and let them own up to their role responsibilities.
Put value in employee training and development. This practice will help employees to take pride in their work and feel competent in doing it, this trend is likely to enhance their relationship between workers and employees. In addition, it is likely to make employees get a sense of value addition in the employment, a trend which is likely to enhance retention and better productivity.
Let employees take initiative in at least some of their duties. Constant supervision is a de-motivator that leads to reduced productivity and lowered self-esteem, both of which contribute to poor customer service and poor customer satisfaction. In addition, challenging responsibilities help employees feel that they are useful and important in the company, which leads to the increased productivity and better customer relationships.
Cultivate a good working relationship between employees and their immediate supervisors. Such a relationship will create a free atmosphere in which workers and managers corporate in problem resolution, as well as have a common goal and perception, which will enhance customer satisfaction.
Article name: Effect Of Employee Satisfaction On Customer Satisfaction Management essay, research paper, dissertation


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Gran Via Rocafort (ref: B33600)
Large apartment with free internet and 4 bedrooms in Example
- Floor: 3rd Floor
- Square metres: 130 m²
- Up to: 10 people
- Beds:
- 1 living + dining room
- 2twin bedrooms
- 2triple bedrooms
- 1 independent kitchen
- 2bathrooms with shower
- Balcony: 4 m²
- Distance to center: 1.5 Km
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- Emergency phone 24h / 365 days
- Office in central Barcelona
- More than 10 years of experience.
Description and details
Large 130m2 apartment for up to 10 guests. There are 10 single beds in this apartment with two twin bedrooms and two triple bedrooms. A cot is also available for anyone with a baby and is included in the price of the stay. Also included in the price of the stay is WiFi Internet access, central heating and air-conditioning. There is a dining-room, fully-equipped kitchen and two bathrooms (each with shower).
The apartment is located in the Eixample district of Barcelona. It's around a 15 minute walk from the city centre and Las Ramblas. It's also just a 15 minute walk from the Montjuïc area of Barcelona that's full of attractions like the Magic Fountain, MNAC, Joan Miró Foundation, Castle of Montjuïc and more. There is a Metro station within 1 minute of the apartment that will take you beyond the city centre.
- 10 single beds
- Cot
Bathroom and Laundry
- Bedlinen
- Towels
- Washing machine
- Iron
- Ironing board
- Hairdryer
- Elevator
- Air conditioning
- Central heating
- Internet WiFi
- TV: Only national channels
- Board games
- Lots of natural light
- City views
- Balcony: 4 m²
- Dishes and kitchenware
- Dishwasher
- Refrigerator
- Freezer
- Oven
- Number of hobs on cooker: 4
- Microwave
- Toaster
- Kettle
- Coffee maker
- Orange juicer
- Year of construction: 1970
- Last renovation: 2011
Area: Eixample dret
- Rocafort: 130 m
- Urgell: 420 m
Plaza de España
770 m
Fira de Barcelona
(Building / Construction)
870 m
Mercat del Ninot
900 m
990 m
Art Contemporani
1010 m
Magic Fountain of Montjuic
1030 m
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House rules:
Pets Not allowed , Smoking: Not allowed
Age restriction: The reservation holder must be at least 18 years old.
Included in price: Air conditioning, Internet WiFi, Bedlinen, Towels.
Extras: Cot: 10 € per day .
Form of payment upon arrival: Cash.
Upon receiving the apartment keys you will be asked to pay a deposit of € 300.
Payment method: Cash. Refund: Last day in the accommodation.
Tourist Tax:
A tourism tax of 2.48 per person per night is not included in the price. Children aged 16 years or less are exempt. The tax is applicable up to 7 nights. The contact person takes the responsibility to collect and pay this tax.
Check-in and Check-out:
Arrivals from 13:00 h. Early arrivals under request (if apartment is unoccupied). Later arrivals (evening) have no extra charge if arranged in advance. Keys will be delivered in the property.
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Located in New York City, this was the first pizzeria in America and has been serving up this delightful dish for more than one hundred years. The pizzeria still uses a traditional coal over to ensure that pizza lovers get to enjoy an authentic taste and great quality. You can't order sliced here, just whole pizzas but when you taste the pizza here you'll realize why – one slice will never be enough!
Osteria is a pizzeria that is co-owned by James Beard who also happens to be the award-winning executive chef here. The restaurant offers a diverse menu with many pizza options that you won't generally find in your run of the mill pizza joint such as the Polpo Pizza made with baby octopus. You can enjoy perfectly cooked, crispy and delicious pizzas with plenty of choice when you come to this popular eatery.
The town of New Haven, Connecticut has become known for its fabulous pizza pies, and this is something that you will be able to see for yourself when you pay a visit to Frank Pepe Pizzeria. The Neapolitan style thin crust pizzas will melt in your mouth, as they have been melting in the mouths of other customers for the past ninety years. The classic pizzas have been given a modern twist with a choice of great topping to select from.
Situated in the Wynwood Arts District, Miami, Joey's has perfected the art of making an incredible classic thin crust pizza just like they do in Italy. Fabulous flavors and an excellent choice of topping will make it easy to create the perfect pizza no matter what your tastes. Fresh ingredients and pizza making expertise come together at this pizzeria to ensure that every customer gets the perfect taste.
Pizzeria Uno is actually a very well known chain, as it has locations in countries across the globe. However, it all started on East Ohio Street and today this location continues to serve up incredible pizzas that will appeal to even the most discerning of taste buds. It is also where the Chicago deep dish tradition began courtesy of Ike Sewell, the founder of this pizzeria chain. Today you can enjoy a choice of crusts and topping to create the perfect pizza made with the freshest ingredients.


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Donkey Kong Country Returns Hoodies
The smell of fun and conquest fills the air as this DK shirt steps on the scene. Be sure to go ape wherever you roam and make your own adventures in one-of-a-kind tribute to gaming's most popular ape. No video game enthusiast should be without this R-A-R-E gem!
Tags: videogames, retro, donkey-kong, donkey-kong-country-returns, donkey-kong-country-tropical-freeze
Make this your new threat of choice! House of HaHa is a small artist owned independent t-shirt brand created by artists Aaron and Melody Gardy. We started House Of HaHa hoping to use our talents in art and humor to celebrate our love for laughing and geek cultures and hopefully free us from our unhappy day jobs in the process. Being the dreamers we are, we also wanted to make the world a better place at the same time - even if we were only creating a few extra laughs in the world. Then we realized we could do so much more than that. T-shirts can start conversations, bring attention to great causes, support amazing artists, and help promote local businesses. Today we try to make sure everything we do to help our business has the potential to also help someone else. We also live nomadic, driving the scenic routes of the country, camping in as many natural wonders as possible.. So that's a little about where we're coming from and where we're going. We hope to see you along the way! Follow our nomadic travel adventures camping across America with our dog Grimbo and a camera! by searching House Of HaHa online and following us on social media. Thanks & Have A Reasonable Day (:|)
Tags: best-seller, retro, super-smash-bros, fun, mess


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Dasukigate: How it Always Happens
- NGTommorrow News
- Published in Politics
- 0 comments
Sunday, December 20, 2015
The recent revelations from the Dasukigate case shows just a little of how bad things have been in the country for decades. One would have thought that people in their right minds, who are very well informed would, at least, have a logical reasoning for not steal the huge sums been reported. But the question is, are we in our right minds?
Pointing accusing fingers and yelling at the accused is like scratching the surface of Nigeria's problems. There are millions of such people who will never be caught until they are out of a government's good books. Does it mean a fight against corruption will not "serve as a deterrent to others" – as we always say? Not exactly. But this is not the first time we see a government fight corruption; yet corruption continues to wax stronger.
Corruption is way beyond certain individuals. It runs in a system. Millions of Nigerians practically live off of it. If there are no clear strategies to go past this punitive moves, to engineer a new national perspective, we are again going round the same circle.
Everything – corruption or altruism – is first within, then without. Have civil servants not been underpaid for decades in order to make them the corruption slaves to the corruption masters? Is the government using the media for politicking or to teach our young ones how to lead honest lives? Are we practically incorporating teachings on principles of integrity in our schools' curricula? Positive reinforcement will always outperform punishment. A government can build roads, rails and skyscrapers all it wants, but if it cannot build the people's minds, it only plays to the gallery, and fails.
Monday, December 20, 2021
The words of Nigeria's newly sworn-in president reverberate in the minds of many Nigerians as a new definition of blatant truth. Unlike many of his predecessor, the new leader mince no words in declaring that the fight against corruption has to be "wiser, proactive and more strategic."
"Man is naturally wired to fight for survival when his life is threatened. Most Nigerians live in this position for decades. Only a wicked leader spends the bulk of his time and resources fighting corruption when indeed the root cause of corruption is left unattended to. Ironically, the bulk of the people that get "truly condemned" are themselves victims of corruption. What is the sense in "fighting corruption" when the loss of certain corrupt individuals is the gain of stronger corrupt ones – thereby making them, and in effect, corruption, more powerful?
"I refuse to accept that Nigerians are corrupt-minded as they make it look. Oh yes, I agree corruption is still a problem; but why should a government deliberately make corruption the first alternative, only to start sniffing for offenders.
"Am I saying corruption should be condoned? Of course, you know too well, that is not me. What I say is that this government will spend the better part of its time empowering and showing its people – through best education and reorientation - how to succeed legitimately. Then we must have won the larger part of our war against corruption. Corruption is best fought when citizens first do the fighting in their offices and shops. This is our approach," said Nigeria's new president.
You can follow us on Twitter @ngtomorrow


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[Blind Gossip] This very famous dark-haired actress is supposedly cozying up to a hunky man before the ink is even dry on her divorce to this handsome actor. [Read more…] about Golden Boyfriend
Buy Your Own Ring
[Blind Gossip] Despite the fact that she just got divorced five minutes ago, this tall female celebrity is insisting that [Read more…] about Buy Your Own Ring
Christmas Bling
[Blind Gossip] This pretty actress has been in a steady relationship with a cute show bizzy guy for over a year. [Read more…] about Christmas Bling
Mariah Carey Bathtub Mystery
[Blind Gossip] Singer Mariah Carey did a rather odd interview on Ellen recently. [Read more…] about Mariah Carey Bathtub Mystery
Diamond Exchange
[Pop Bitch] Which British TV talent judge had a special arrangement with her partner? Every time she [Read more…] about Diamond Exchange
Why He Sent Back This Luxury Gift
[New York Post] Which comedy director was gifted a $20,000 watch by [Read more…] about Why He Sent Back This Luxury Gift
Ring Flasher Just Loves The Attention
[Blind Gossip] This singer is showing off a huge new ring. While she has not confirmed her engagement, she has not denied it either.
A close friend of hers [Read more…] about Ring Flasher Just Loves The Attention
Tapering You Off The Ring
[Blind Gossip] This female celebrity was thrilled to announce her engagement last year. [Read more…] about Tapering You Off The Ring
Her Christmas Bonus
[Blind Gossip] This singer and his girlfriend were out shopping at pricey jewelry stores together. [Read more…] about Her Christmas Bonus
Singer Got Secretly Engaged
[Blind Gossip] A few days ago, a top recording artist got secretly engaged!
There are a lot of details in the mix, but we'll simply tease you with one right now: [Read more…] about Singer Got Secretly Engaged


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There are a few steps in life that we all follow on an everyday basic knowingly or unknowingly that kill our productivity. But somehow most people are way unaware of that and for that reason these habits are killing their life's growth.
Of course, you can always get rid of that unless you know where from you need to start. And without a strategy, it would be hard for you to start the progress.
Let this time find out which one of these "Don'ts" are killing your productivity. However, I would like to mention that some of these "Don'ts" may not represent you, but you can always learn something from that.
10 Don'ts of Productivity that You Must Need to Unfollow
Don't Act Before You Think: What should be the most pathetic thing we all do in our life, it would be the time when we don't think before we do any work. Let me tell you one thing about that, the task that you take in your hand without thinking would be the task you will regret the most. #Unfollow the strategy of doing work without thinking. And before you go for any work, fix that in your mind you know the basic about that.
Don't Fear Changes: Anyone who fears changes will never go to live peacefully in h/her life. Changes are constant, and you cannot hold that. It is far better to adopt ourselves in the present moment than to grief for our past. Only the present can give you the solution, nor the past nor the future. #Unfollow the fear of changes. Learn something new on an everyday basis. And make sure you are ready to adopt in any situation.
Don't Give Up: You want to go higher in your life and wish to achieve something big. Then giving up is not an option for you. Anything that is above the surface would take a long time to complete; otherwise, we will not mention it as a success. #Unfollow the desire to give up and focus only on the failures and learn how to rectify that and start moving forward.
Don't Waste Your Time: Time is as important as water in this world. Of course, only if you know the value of it, otherwise you will surely waste it. Most people waste their valuable time on social media's when they can easily spend that time to improve themselves. #Unfollow wasting of time. Spend time on those platforms only from where you can learn something new. Instead of social chats, you can watch laughter videos they are way better for your health.
Don't Criticize Others: Those who are wise never criticize others instead of that, they take the lesson and move on. Criticizing others increase the chances of falling into their point. Raise your awareness and convince yourself that there are few mistakes that we cannot change, we can only move from that. #Unfollow Criticizing Others. Focus on the positive side of every story.
Don't Take The Easy Steps: When you start something new; the chances are high that people will discourage you, and they will give you the advice to follow the traditional ways, even more, they will say it is much harder now than it was before, it has included so many completions now. But they forget the truth that success will never come from the easy ways. #Unfollow the old traditions, build something new even it seems hard at the first time.
Don't Become Angry: Anger is natural, but to get angry at the right time and for the right reason and up to the real limit would be the toughest work to do. Hold your anger to yourself and use it for your growth. However, if you cannot able to do that better would be to throw out that from your picture. #Unfollow becoming angry and break the limits you have set for yourself.
Don't Do Negative Things: Negative actions produce negative results. Don't seek for the ways through which you will get a shortcut, instead of that look for the long terms. Invest your time and energy in the long process. A success that comes from hard work will stay long, and cheating will lead you to the end. #Unfollow negative works and then take positive actions.
Don't Stop Learning: Learning is an unstoppable energy, and it is a never ending process. A person who claims that he has completed learning about a subject or a specialist on that would be foolish. The day you claim that you stop the process of learning. #Unfollow the desire to stop learning. Keep on the process and keep learning about the subject you are working on and, every day try to add something new on that.
Don't Try To Drag Down Others: There are some marketers and so-called professionals you will find on the job market who love to drag down others; moreover, they think that they can lead the ladder quickly if they do that. #Unfollow dragging down others instead of that focus on your improvement.


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As voters in Lebanon go to the polls on Sunday June 7, one issue seems to be dominating the elections more than any other: security. In the tumultuous landscape of Lebanese politics, the issue of security is of particular importance to one candidate: Nayla Tueni, whose father Gebran Tueni was assassinated six months after being elected in 2005 to the seat she now seeks.
Nayla Tueni is a candidate for parliament. A stable Lebanon matters to her more than most candidates. Her father was Gebran Tueni, a member of parliament who was assassinated in 2005.
His murder was widely seen as revenge for his criticism of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese allies. Syria, who has long lobbied for control of Lebanon, continues to deny the accusations.
Nayla Tueni believes outside forces are still a major threat to Lebanon.
"We don't know if they will continue to kill us, continue to kill those who are not with the Syrian regime, who are to with the Iranians, who are not with Hezbollah and who are not with all these people because we are asking for our freedom, sovereignty and independence, maybe they will kill us, nobody knows," she said.
Boutros Harb is Lebanese member of parliament up for re-election. He also believes that improving security in Lebanon is key and will improve other problems the country is facing.
"Building a country, a stable country without everyday war and transforming Lebanon away from continuous struggle will help Lebanon to have a better economy, a more stable economy and will help people have a better standard of life," he noted.
The desire for safety and political stability is reflected in the streets of Beirut.
MAN1: "Also long as there is safety and security everything, even the economy, will improve."
MAN2: "We want decent candidates and everything passes without any trouble."
WOMAN: "Security is the most important, but the Lebanese forces will be out for the elections so I'm not afraid."
Lebanon has suffered long periods of political violence and upheaval. In 1975 the country spiraled into civil war that lasted 15 years.
Then just 4 years ago, a number of assassinations saw the former prime minister and outspoken critic of Syria, Rafik Hariri, killed as well as Gebran Tueni.
Nayla Tueni says her father's vision of a strong and independent Lebanon is what inspired her to run for a parliamentary seat.
"For him and for my country, because I love my country, I decided to present myself for the election," she added. "I believed in what he said and what he wanted for the country."
The desire for stability in Lebanon seems one that everyone wants. The challenge for politicians will be making that dream of security into a reality.


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We'll Take Manhattan Trailer (2012)
03 March 2012 Drama, Romance 90 mins
We'll Take Manhattan explores the explosive love affair between Sixties supermodel, Jean Shrimpton, and photographer, David Bailey. Focusing on a wild and unpredictable 1962 Vogue photo shoot in New York, the drama brings to life the story of two young people falling in love, misbehaving and inadvertently defining the style of the Sixties along the way.
Watch the official We'll Take Manhattan 2012 trailer in HD below or find more We'll Take Manhattan videos on Vidimovie.


text: Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (RJPS) is the official journal of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka. It is a quarterly publication presenting the research articles and review articles depicting the present status and trends in Pharmaceutical Sciences and related disciplines including Life Sciences. Articles of particular interest, covering the areas of Pharmaceutical research, practice, teaching & learning, laboratory innovations, education technology, curriculum design, examination reforms, training and other related issues can be sent for publication in RJPS. All manuscripts should be submitted as MSword.doc or MSword.docx file as attachment, along with another MSword.doc or MSword.docx file containing Check list, covering letter, 'Authorship Responsibility Undertaking' and Copyright transfer agreement, signed by all the authors of the paper in the prescribed form (available online as well as printed in RJPS), by email to firstname.lastname@example.com Manuscripts will be subjected to preliminary editorial screening for over all content and format. Defects found in the manuscript shall be communicated to Corresponding author by email for rectification and resubmission within seven days. Manuscript thus received shall be peer reviewed to determine suitability for publication in the journal. After the review, manuscript will be mailed to the corresponding author for revision along with reviewer's and/or editor's comments. The revised manuscript should be submitted by email within seven days. Submission of a manuscript to RJPS for publication implies that the same work or any part thereof has not been either published or submitted for consideration for publication in any other journal. The authors are required to submit 'Authorship Responsibility Undertaking' signed by all the Authors of the paper along with the manuscript in a separate file as detailed above. Authors publishing results from in vivo experiments involving animals or humans must state that due approval for conduct of such experiments were obtained from the relevant authorities/Ethics committee/Institutional Review Board and append scan copy thereof in the covering letter file. Details of the approval letter must be mentioned in the MATERIALS AND METHODS section of the manuscript.


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Wedding decorations, party supplies, home décor & craft supplies up to 60% off. Save On Crafts brings you classic and trending fashions.
Use the small Glass Observation Box to create a unique centerpiece display. This glass terrarium measures 5" tall and is 8" long. The glass box is divided into two even sections and is perfect for holding mossy, woodland arrangements for your outdoor tea party. Place colorful flowers in one side, and use the other to display a floating candle nestled among natural rocks. The observation box also comes in a larger size with three compartments.


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A Bob's Towing offers a variety of services for your automobile. Anything from standard towing to transmission work. We have an impressive tow truck fleet backed by an all in one Auto Repair shop.
Our Services:
2220 Orthodox St, Philadelphia, PA 19137, USA
Tel +1 215-289-5775
A Bob's Towing 2016. All rights reserved. Website Design By Urso Web Consulting


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- Ewelina Piątczak, Angelika Talar, Łukasz Kuźma, Halina Wysokińska
- Acta Physiologiae Plantarum
- 2015
An efficient in vitro plant propagation procedure was established from the shoot tips of Rehmannia elata. Shoot proliferation was performed on Murashige and Skoog (MS) agar medium containing 0.57 µM of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and different concentrations (2–8 µM) of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), kinetin, or 2-isopentenyladenine (2iP). The highest… (More)
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Wessex FM News
Weymouth Military Event Receives Funding Boost!
7:21am 28th April 2014
The Ministry of Defense have given Weymouth £10,000 for their Armed Forces Celebrations.
Named the borough's biggest event by Weymouth & Portland Borough Council, the week in June will include a seafront veteran's parade, a beach assault and a flypast by a historic world war 2 Spitfire plane.
The celebrations are expected to welcome thousands of veterans, residents and visitors to the programme of military and veteran's commemorations and celebrations.
This year will recognise the 100th anniversary of the start of the first World War and the 70th anniversary of D-Day, and it all takes place from the 21st to the 17th of June (2014).
Sign up for the latest local news direct to your inbox


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The College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University is committed to quality education, research and professional practice.
Your comments and suggestions are welcome and will assist us in continuously improving our college. Please send us your comments in the space below. Your personal contact information is optional.
Please click on Submit to send.
Thank you!


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Paidi guilty of
Sir -- Upon an initial reading, I liked the tone of Paidi O Se's writing (Sunday Independent, November 7, 2010). It's perfectly right to draw away from the negativity which seems to pervade the media and Government. However, that does not mean that we shouldn't learn from our mistakes.
One of Paidi's laudable aspirations is to attract more tourists from the English market. It would be a pleasure to visit Kerry instead of Hadrian's Wall, the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District! You see, Paidi, the simple reality is that tourism is an extremely competitive industry and people tend to vote with their feet. Ireland remains an expensive destination, and frankly the quality of what is on offer is considerably degraded by ghost towns, rural sprawl/blitz and the retinue of empty hotels.


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. History of the NZ LPG Industry. NZ LPG History has had 4 Phases. Pre Kapuni and Maui Kapuni and Maui supply, with an emphasis on automotive use and rapid sales growth. Decline of automotive market and total annual sales. Development of non-automotive markets and reversal of sales decline.
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Port Taranaki
Wiri Depot
Christchurch Depot
Dunedin Depot
Auckland Depot
Road out from Oanui
Rail link to Seaview Depot
Christchurch Depot
Dunedin Depot


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Wrestling in the ILH started on a club basis in 1962. Teams included Farrington, Kamehameha, Iolani, Kaimuki, St. Louis and Punahou. Wrestling powers in the state, at that time, were in the rural schools (Waianae, Kahuku, Radford and Leilehua). These rural teams had been wrestling for at least five years before Punahou started to compete with them. Punahou's program began in 1962 with ninety student-athletes turning out for the team.
By 1965 the first official league championship was established with both team and individual champions designated. In 1966 the first State Championships in Wrestling were held. After winning the ILH that year, Punahou placed third in the state. In the 1966 State Tournament, Punahou crowned its first individual State Champion, and in 1967 won its first state championship.
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WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Health-care reform. Same-sex marriage. Illegal immigration. The social safety net.
When it comes to some of the top issues facing the states, it might seem that the partisan divide among the country's governors is as wide as it has ever been.
But one area where the state executives appear to have found common ground is on the issue of defense cuts – specifically, the $500 billion in automatic defense cuts set into motion by last August's bipartisan debt-reduction deal.
"There has been some conversation about governors getting together to urge a delay in when the defense and other companies have to actually send out a notice about laying people off," Markellsaid Saturday in an interview at the NGA's annual conference. "My guess is you're going to see Republicans and Democrats getting together suggesting this delay."
Markell, previously the vice-chairman of the NGA, formally takes the reins of the organization Sunday; Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) is the group's new vice-chair. On Sunday afternoon, Markell announced his new Chairman's Initiative, a program aimed at incentivizing businesses to hire people with disabilities.
Defense "sequestration" – the formal term for the bipartisan cuts called for by last year's debt-ceiling deal – has emerged as an issue on the campaign trail, particularly as President Obama campaigned last week in military-vote-rich Virginia.
The first $50 billion of cuts is set to take effect in January 2013. Some defense contractors have said that in compliance with federal law, they will be forced to issue layoff notices to workers 60 days before the cuts are enacted – a date that works out to several days before the Nov. 6 election.
Markell said the timing of such a move could prove "devastating for a lot of states" and that the governors could move soon to call for a delay in when those layoff notices would go out – for economic, not political purposes, he said.
"I can't be certain of it because I don't know that we've taken a final vote on it, but I think in that case, it's less about the politics and it's more about reducing the level of uncertainty, because to the extent that people get these notices, they stop purchasing stuff because they don't know if they're going to continue to have a paycheck," he said.
When it comes to finding a solution that would forestall the defense cuts, the governors appears to be in as much of a bind as lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"I think it would be unlikely that all the governors would get together otherwise on sequestration, because I'm not sure what we'd suggest to take its place," he said.
It remains to be seen how the governors might go about urging such a delay, whether through congressional action or some kind of state-by-state action.
It's also unclear how many governors are on board with the idea. Originally devised by Democrats as a means to pressure Republicans to agree to including tax increases as part of a "grand bargain" on the debt, the defense sequester instead has come to be used as a tool wielded by Republicans against Obama on the campaign trail.
Politically speaking, the issuing of layoff notices in the run-up to Election Day could be a boon to Republicans at the congressional and presidential level. But Republican governors — who, as Markell suggested, could see their state economies take a toll — remain a wildcard in the equation.
At Friday's opening news conference, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who is also chairman of the Republican Governors Association, did not indicate where he stood on the layoff-notice issue, but he did hit Obama hard on the defense cuts.
"I'd say it's a pox on all houses and all parties, but the president is ultimately the leader, just like we're the leaders," McDonnell said. "If we don't have a budget being done right in our states, we can't blame the legislature. We have to take responsibility."
Fact Checker responds to readers on Bain
Adviser: Romney retired 'retroactively' from Bain


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Welcome to Teach with Kate! I'm glad you're here!
I'm a credentialed, California elementary school teacher with over 10 years of teaching experience. Although I am licensed to teach all subjects in grades K-8, my passion is Literacy instruction.
My favorite part of teaching literacy is working with progressing readers through fluent readers, and I use modified workshop models across all of my English Language Arts instruction block. I believe in using mentor texts and constructivist teaching methods to deepen comprehension and teach writers.
Currently, I'm spending my time in a self-contained elementary sixth grade classroom and chasing my two year old son around town!
I have two hopes for this blog. One is to share my ideas and ramblings about teaching, and the other is to share some of my very own classroom mishaps and hopefully give you a good laugh.
I started this blog in 2011, and it was called "Second Grade Sparkle". Now the posts I write are aimed at teachers across various grade levels and you'll see a variety of topics and ideas for multiple grades and ages. I also sell digital teaching resources on the website Teachers Pay Teachers, and enjoy creating helpful materials for educators across the country!
Want to get to know me better? Check out some of my most popular posts! I would also love you to join me on Facebook!
Using Mentor Texts for Writing Narratives
Why I Hate Sarah Morton
Teaching is the crappiest of crap jobs
Writing Great Beginnings for Narratives
Writing Tips: Topic Sentence & Main Idea
Come on, get happy!
Get the job! Tips for acing a teaching interview
Mother's Day Success
With that, I welcome you to my blog! I hope you'll poke around and stay a while!
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There are few artists that continue to surprise me like Raphaël Schaltegger, the designer behind Goutte de Terre. His collection of fine handmade jewelry, designed from his studio in Paris, France, is simple beautiful. What amazes me is that he finds ways to create new and exciting designs from such a celebrated medium: Limoges porcelain.
Raphaël's continual passion for his craft is clearly seen in this expansive collection of handmade jewelry that includes earrings, necklaces and rings. Gold is the accent of choice and adds another layer of luxury. You'll love Goutte de Terre and I hope you support this talented maker by visiting Etsy and following him on Instagram for his latest designs. One more cool detail: Raphaël isn't the only artist in the family. Stay tuned for a look at his creative partner's equally gorgeous handmade jewelry collection, Lunaticart.
About the maker:
Born in eastern France, in the South of the Champagne, I grew up in an atmosphere of a very small village with parents who are artisans (cheese makers), what gave me from the earliest age a glimpse into the artisan craft world.
At 18 years old I left France to go on an adventure. I made my first pieces of jewelry in the Antilles, with painted quenetes seeds (Caribbean traditional fruit). I sold in markets and later on they used for various fashion shows in the Caribbean.
Thanks to my designs, I could continue my journey and it is Latin America, which will be the longest part, as I spent 7 years there, in total. Macramé, seeds and semi-precious stones became my new favorites materials.
It is in Guatemala where my path crosses Berenice's (Lunaticart) with whom I exchange different techniques of macramé. At that time I didn't know that I was talking to the woman of my life!
Jewelry making led me to India, Cuba, Canada, US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Galapagos, Easter Island and Tahiti where I worked with leather and black pearls.
After Living for 5 years in Belle-Ile-en-Mer, I decided to open an art gallery/workshop in Paris, it is the birth of 'Goutte de Terre' (drop of earth) in 2009.
With Goutte de Terre, I developed a work inspired by mainly by water. I love the fluidity and it is in nature that I observe it better.
Goutte De Terre
Etsy | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter


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VINTAGE Collectible MILK GLASS BUTTER DISH, "PAT Aug 6 1889", Antique ART GLASS
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- Sold Date:
- Source: eBay
Collectible Butter Dish
Welcome to our listing for an exquisite piece of retro tableware, available to you at a fraction of the retail or vintage cost! Check back frequently as I will be adding more unique items to my eBay listings, including a variety of silver jewlery and other interesting collectibles, as well as many other styles of butter dishes!
Details:Description : This auction is for an elegant milk glass butter dish featuring a reticulated frame on the rectangular base that resembles coral, and a charming cat perched upon the lid. The underside of the lid is marked "Pat P Aug 6 1889."Dimensions : Dish is 8"L X 5 1/4"W X 2 3/4"H. Lid is 6 3/8"L X 3 1/2"W X 4"H. Condition : Great vintage condition with little to no signs of wear, other than light scratches from gentle use; however, there are no chips or damage. Shipping and Payment Terms
Paypal is the only accepted method of payment. Items paid for before 10 p.m. EST will ship the following business day. Payment must be made no more than 4 days after auction's end. Combined shipping is available and the additional charge will depend on the type of item, but will not exceed $2 per item. (Only 50 cents for each additional piece of jewelry!) Combined shipping only offered on auctions that end within 4 days of one another. International bidders: please... read more


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Dharma Spirit was founded in 1994 by Katherine Labonte and is located in Canmore, Alberta. Dharma Spirit's mission is to provide the best possible up to date Holistic Health Care for all people. Whether you want to optimize your health and energy, be pro-active towards family hereditary markers or deal with a pre-existing chronic health challenge, this is the place for you.
Dharma Spirit offers the following services:
Please click on services in the menu above for complete details. Also, there are details of Colon Therapy Certification Courses as well as client testimonials.
Even though Katherine is trained and certified in many modalities, her passion lies with YOGA and COLON HYDROTHERAPY, as they are what brought her back to health and life! Click here to learn more about Katherine.
Many thanks for visiting and don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Proud Member of Health Practitioners Alliance
Naturopathist receipt now available!
"Dharma" is a Sanskrit word that means teaching, truth, that which supports, sustains, and upholds. The truth of things as they are, like the earth that upholds us. Dharma is that which alleviates, heals, and restores. To align with Dharma puts an end to conflict and brings about unity and harmony, developing love and interconnectedness. It is the underlying truth of all spiritual paths.
The highest dharma is to recognize, and live in accordance with the truth in one's own heart (Sadguru). It is personal alignment with a higher Truth, a divine or creative principal which guides a lifestyle that leads to personal liberation. To follow your Dharma is to take the path that leads you from suffering to joy. Dharma is a way of life that aligns your body, mind, and soul in balance with your true nature and divine will.
"Dharma brings as its consequence happiness. It is that which elevates one, which leads you to the path of perfection and glory. Following one's one's dharma leads to the attainment of one's total cessation of pain, and attainment of eternal bliss. Self-realization is the highest dharma." — Sri Swami Sivananda
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NOON FLOW (All Levels)
Wednesdays, 12:00 p.m. to 12:50 p.m.
The Yoga Lounge
Monthly theme of focus, something for everyone, focusses on alignment principles, exploring potential!
REJUV & RESTORE (All Levels)
Friday, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The Yoga Lounge
Designed by Katherine, focusses on building chi / prana / life force by opening up meridians, fascia and chakras, includes: meditation, pranayama, mudras (hand gestures for specific energy flow), deep long held postures (yin and Iyengar style restorative), longer held hatha postures, and other classical yogic techniques. A YUMMY class!
Thursday, 5:30 p.m 7:15 p.m
Sunset Om Yoga Studio
This class is based ON Dharma Mittra Yoga and will include: Surya Namasker (flow), Siva Namaskar (flow), Asanas (longer held postures), Pranayama (breath techniques), Dhyana (meditation) and Savasana (long relaxation). It is deeply opening to the body and restful for the mind. It is more an intermediate class, but being a small class, Katherine can help students simplify or deepen any aspect.
YIN/RESTORATIVE (All Levels)
Tuesday, 6:00 p.m 8:00 p.m
Email Katherine for registration
This is a two hour, deeply meditative, still and quiet practice but deeply opening, using Iyengar Restorative techniques as well as yin to work on deeply opening the physical and energetic body. It is like having a SPA DAY in the middle of the week. This practice will help ANY yoga, even Ashtanga Yogi's or long term practitioners.
MYSORE2 (All Levels)
Coming Soon!
This class is for Asthanga Yogi's or Hatha Yogi's. Anyone who wishes to develop a deep and regular practice. It will be a two hour space that you come in to develop your own practice, either using the Asthanga Method or a Hatha Sequence (Dharma Mittra level 1-IV) for example. As you practice, Katherine helps with any aspect you may need help on. You can be a COMPLETELY NEW yoga student, or someone who has practiced for years!
Upcoming I-ACT Colon Hydrotherapy Foundation Certification Training:
March 28 to April 6, 2017
October 15 (Sunday) to October 24 (Tuesday), 2017
More info...
Private IACT Foundation Certification Training available upon request:
Contact Dharma Spirit here
Comin soon!
Happy Hound B&B opening soon for 5 day cleanse retreats!
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The Historical Indiana Movie Theatre;
This iconic Terre Haute landmark opened on January 28, 1922, and occupies a special place in American theater architecture design. The Theatre was built by Terre Haute resident T.W. Barhydt to be a lasting gift to the City of Terre Haute, and it was designed by America's preeminent designer John Eberson to be his first prototype "Atmospheric Theater" which became his signature style that is recognized to be the gold standard of American theater design. Throughout its rich history, the Theatre has hosted a wide range of events that have included vaudeville, cinema, performing arts and community celebrations of all types. Through restoration efforts, which began in May 2013, the Indiana Theatre's heritage has been preserved and the Indiana has been reborn as a 1,600 seat full service event center which can host a wide range of community gatherings that include live entertainment, performing arts, cinema, wedding events, and fundraisers. While visiting our proud
and historic city, we encourage you to visit this downtown treasure, which has served as a vault for Terre Haute memories since 1922.
Event Coordinator: Amanda Balk
683 Ohio Street Terre Haute, IN 47807
Contact Rob Lundstrom: email@example.com