R统计代写代做、代做R编程设计、NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY

日期：2018-04-19 08:50

NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY1

Tom Kurtis, Manager of Customer Service for National Insurance Company, and his assistant, Jill Baxter

were getting ready to analyze data collected through a mail survey of a sample of National’s customers.

The primary purpose of the survey was to ascertain how customers perceived National’s quality of service

and to identify areas for improvement.

THE COMPANY

National Insurance Company is one of the leading insurance firms in the United States. It serves over 10

million customers who have insurance coverage from National for a variety of needs (e.g., home, health,

auto, life). The company’s customer base, after growing steadily for a number of years, had started to

erode during the past two years. Jack Driver, president of National, was concerned about this downturn.

Suspecting that there might be some shortfalls in the service National was providing its customers, Jack

had asked Tom to conduct a study to determine the “image” that customers had about National’s service.

THE SURVEY

In designing the content of the survey, Tom Kurtis drew upon insights he gained by reading a number of

recent articles emphasizing the importance of service quality and suggesting approaches for measuring

customers’ perception of a company’s service. In particular, one journal article that was based on

extensive customer research suggested that there were five broad dimensions along which customers

evaluated service quality.

1. Tangibles: The appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communications

materials.

2. Reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

3. Responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

4. Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and

confidence.

5. Empathy: Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers.

The article also contained a number of illustrative questions pertaining to each of these dimensions and

their relative importance. Tom Kurtis and Jill Baxter discussed the contents of this article vis-à-vis their

Survey objectives and concluded that the suggestions in the article could be adapted for their study.

Using the ideas in the article, they designed the questionnaire shown in Exhibit 1.

The items in Section 1 of the questionnaire pertain to customers’ evaluation of National’s service along

five dimensions. Section 2 is designed to determine the relative importance of the five dimensions.

1

This case was written by Professor A. Parasuraman of the University of Miami. Used by permission of

the author.

2

Section 3 contains several questions relating to customers’ overall experience with National. The final

section focuses on respondents demographic characteristics.

THE SAMPLE

The questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 1000 policyholders from National’s customer base.

On the basis of data available in the company’s records on policyholders, the current customer base had

the following profile:

Number of years with the company

Less than 1 year 8%

1 to less than 2 years 9%

2 to less than 5 years 18%

5 years or more 65%

Gender

Male 54%

Female 46%

Age

Under 25 5%

24 – 44 70%

45 – 64 15%

65 and over 10%

3

Exhibit 1 Survey Questionnaire

Note: The labels for the five dimensions in Sections 1 and 2 did not appear in the original questionnaire.

They are included here to indicate the dimension to which each question pertains.

SECTION 1

Directions: The following set of statements relate to your feelings about National Insurance Company.

For each statement, please show the extent to which you believe National has the feature described by the

statement. Circling a “1” means that you strongly disagree that Nations has that feature, and circling a

“7” means that you strongly agree. You may circle any of the numbers in between that show how strong

your feelings are. There are no right or wrong answers; all we are interested in is a number that best

shows your perceptions about National.

Reliability Strongly

Disagree

Strongly

Agree

1. When National promises to do something it does so. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2. When you have a problem National shows a sincere interest in

solving it.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3. National performs the service right the first time. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. National provides the services at the time it promises

to do so.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

5. National maintains error-free records. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Empathy

6. National treats you with care. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7. National has operating hours convenient to all its policyholders. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8. National has employees who give you personal attention. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

9. National has your best interest in mind. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

10. Employees of National understand your specific needs. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Continued

4

Exhibit 1 Continued

Tangibles Strongly

Disagree

Strongly

Agree

11. National has modern looking equipment. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

12. National’s physical facilities are visually appealing. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

13. National’s employees are neat-appearing. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

14. Materials associated with service (such as pamphlets or

statements) are visually appealing at National.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Responsiveness

15. Employees of National tell you exactly when services will be

performed.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

16. Employees of National give you prompt service. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

17. Employees of National are always willing to help you. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

18. Employees of National are never too busy to respond to your

requests.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Assurance

19. The behavior of employees of National instills confidence in

you.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

20. You feel safe in your transactions with National. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

21. Employees of National are consistently courteous with you. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

22. Employees of National have the knowledge to answer your

questions.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Continued

5

Exhibit 1 Continued

SECTION 2

Directions: Listed below are five features pertaining to insurance companies and the services they offer.

We would like to know how important each of these features is to you when you evaluate an insurance

company’s quality of service. Please allocate a total of 100 points among the five features according to

your impression about how important each feature is to you – the more important a feature is to you, the

more points you should allocate to it. Please ensure that the points you allocate to the five features add up

to 100.

Tangibles

1. The appearance of the insurance company’s physical facilities,

equipment, personnel, and communications materials. _____________ points

Reliability

2. The insurance company’s ability to perform the promised service

dependably and accurately. _____________ points

Responsiveness

3. The insurance company’s willingness to help policy holders and

provide prompt service. _____________ points

Assurance

4. The knowledge and courtesy of the insurance company’s employees

and their ability to convey trust and confidence. _____________ points

Empathy

5. The caring, individualized attention the insurance company provides

to its policy holders. _____________ points

Total points allocated 100 points

SECTION 3

For questions in this section, please circle the number that corresponds to your answer.

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the overall quality of service provided by National?

Extremely Poor Extremely Good

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. Would you recommend National to a friend interested in insurance services? Yes 1 No 2

Continued

6

Exhibit 1 Continued

SECTION 3 Cont.

3. How long have you been using the services of National?

Less that 1 year 1

1 to less than 2 years 2

2 to less than 5 years 3

5 years or more 4

4. Have you recently had a problem with the service you received from National?

Yes 1 No 2

5. If you did have a problem, was it resolved to your satisfaction?

Yes 1 No 2

7

FINAL SECTION

The following information is solely for statistical purposes and will be kept confidential. Please circle the

number that corresponds to your answer.

1. Your sex is:

Male 1

Female 2

2. Your marital status is:

Single 1

Married 2

Widowed 3

Divorced 4

3. Your age is:

Under 25 1

25 – 44 2

45 – 64 3

65 or over 4

Thank you very much!

4. Your total annual family income is:

Under $10,000 1

$10,000 – $19,999 2

$20,000 – $29,999 3

$30,000 – $49,999 4

$50,000 – $64,999 5

$65,000 – or over 6

5. The highest level of schooling you have

completed is:

High School or less 1

Some college 2

College graduate 3

Graduate school 4

8

Completed questionnaires were received from 285 respondents. Being aware that mail surveys typically

have low response rates, Tom and Jill were quite satisfied with the response rate of 28.5%. However,

they wanted to determine whether the sample of respondents differed in any significant way from

National’s customer base so that the appropriate precautions could be taken in interpreting the findings

from the survey.

Assume that you have been asked to assist Tom and Jill in analyzing and interpreting the survey data.

To carry out the various analyses, download the "national insurance data.xlsx" data file from the class website.T

The coding scheme used in the dataset is outlined in the Appendix to this case.

QUESTIONS

1. Do the survey respondents differ significantly form National’s customer base? If there are

differences, what bearing do they have on interpreting the findings about customers’ perceptions

of National’s service quality?

2. What are the correlations between respondents’ overall service-quality perception and their

average ratings along each of the five dimensions? Are these correlations statistically significant?

3. Are there any significant differences between males and females in terms of how they

perceive National’s overall service quality?

4. Is there a significant relationship between customers’ willingness to recommend National to a

friend and their overall service-quality perception?

5. Feel free to conduct additional analyses of the data. Make sure you investigate whether

the pattern of missing data seems random or systematic. Based on your analysis,

recommend concrete actions Tom Kurtis should take. How would you change the

questionnaire if you were to collect more data?

9

APPENDIX: NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY

(In this data set there is just one record per respondent. Also, the data coded are the actual numbers

representing the responses as shown on the questionnaire.)

Question Number Variable Name