Discusses ways to embed customer service learning and customer loyalty including making customers think, examining every aspect of customers' service encounters with staff, providing follow-up, making learning fun, and involving customers in your business. (JOW)

Employers place less emphasis on experience and much more on adaptability. They want people who can learn. However, at the lowest stratum of the service sector, jobs are being dumbed down so that a worker has only to obey commands of smart machines ("Touch french fry icon now"). (Author/JOW)

Firms with the ability to provide superior customer service can accrue significant competitive advantage and research suggests that frontline service employees' (FLSEs) actions have a considerable influence on the success of service operations. Yet, the high level of customer defections consistently attributed to poor and indifferent service…

The graduate of the Steamfitter-Pipefitter apprenticeship program is a certified journeyperson who will be able to: (1) install and maintain high pressure and low-pressure steam and hot liquid systems, including various process and industrial systems; (2) fabricate, join and install any pipe system used for various purposes in buildings, using any…

This report compares Vermont's experience with two federally funded programs aimed at reducing unemployment. The first was a Special Work Project (SWP) directed toward providing work experience rather than skill training for welfare recipients, and also for low-income families. A second approach was through the Public Employment Program (PEP).…

Professional preparation programs at the two-year, four-year, and graduate levels of education are producing more enlightened, professional, therapeutic recreators. (JD)

There are very few jobs today that do not require basic literacy and numeracy skills. Even when the job itself is manual, employees need to read health and safety notices, fill in a job sheet and check their pay and overtime hours. Service industry jobs place even more demands on the workforce, with their emphasis on efficiently and rapidly…

Trainees in a Public Service Employment program may find work training as paraprofessional aides in manpower agencies, social services, and human services. The work experience is valuable for the trainees. However, the actual structure of their training needs close attention. Supervisors are likely to rate the effectiveness of on-the-job training…

LARGE SCALE EMPLOYMENT OF THE UNEMPLOYED POOR AS NONPROFESSIONALS IN THE HUMAN SERVICES IS BEING PROPOSED AS A MAJOR DETERRENT TO POVERTY. SOME PROPONENTS STATE THAT NOT ONLY WILL LARGE NUMBERS OF POOR PEOPLE BE EMPLOYED, BUT THE QUALITY OF SERVICES WILL BE IMPROVED. CRITICS OF THIS APPROACH ARGUE THAT MANY POOR PERSONS ARE TOO DEBILITATED BY THE…

The duties, training, qualifications, advancement, and employment outlook of correction officers are described. (EA)

Data from the Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1990 Census of Population show that home-based workers are more likely than onsite workers to be self-employed, to live in rural areas, to work nonstandard hours, to be women, to be white, and to work in service industries and occupations. (Author)

Data from the European Union's Labour Force Survey show how training opportunities decline with age and are lower for low-skilled/unskilled workers and unemployed persons. Continuing training is more common among workers in higher-level jobs and nearly twice as common in service as in industrial occupations. (SK)

Investigates factors contributing to the growth of part-time employment in Australia, specifically (1) the growth of the service sector, and (2) the possibility that the supply of part-time workers has increased due to the scarcity of full-time employment opportunities. (JOW)

A sample of 1,000 households provided 155 responses regarding dissatisfaction with automobile repair service, 166 for medical care, and 176 for grocery shopping. Analysis supported Hirschman's theory of the impact of "loose monopoly" conditions on consumers' choice of responses to marketplace dissatisfactions. (SK)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the formation of CoPs (communities of practice) in three call centres of cellular communication operating companies in Israel. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a qualitative methodology including observations, interviews and textual analysis. Findings: In all three…