Are You Being Served?

Kenneth R Deans, Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand, 9001. Email: kdeans@business.otago.ac.nz

Sandy von Allmen, Science Library, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 67, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001. Email: Sandy.vonAllmen@utas.edu.au

Keywords

Portal, service, satisfaction, user needs, technology.

Abstract

There has been a lot of healthy and much needed debate about the pros and cons of web pages vs portals in tertiary institutions as well as industrial organisations. In particular, papers have reported on organisational issues in dealing with adoption, implementation and maintenance. This paper considers an equally important and often forgotten issue and suggests that it is time to adopt a more customer / client focus. Without ignoring the technology, which has tended to lead such initiatives, a stronger service orientation considers user satisfaction and the usefulness of the service offered. A model of service delivery is used to explain the shortcomings of many service providers and the paper ends with some pointers to improve the experience and outcomes generated.