Dr. Leonard Berry is the author of On Great Service: A Framework for Action;
Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality; Delivering Quality Service:
Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations; Service Quality - A Profit
Strategy for Financial Institutions.
He is also the director of the Center for Retailing Studies, editor of the
Arthur Andersen Retailing Issues Letter, and former president of the American
Marketing Association. His extensive research into the success factors of
companies renowned for their quality of service have led him to the conclusion
that there are four principles of great service: reliability, surprise,
recovery, and fairness. His latest book is Discovering the Soul of Service: The
Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success (February 1999).
Health Care Agenda for Business
The health care system in the United States is in crisis, and the implications
for businesses and their employees are profound. As employers struggle with
unrelenting double-digit health insurance cost increases, some firms have
decided to drop coverage entirely, and many others have shifted costs to
employees. Meanwhile, the quality of the health care being paid for by
companies and their workers remains highly uneven. On its own, business cannot
solve the health care crisis in all aspects, but that does not mean it cannot
do a lot more to improve the system. Some companies are taking more active
control over the issue and getting better results on both cost and quality.
To learn from such companies and those who influence and deliver health care
services, Dr. Leonard L. Berry has conducted in depth interviews with thought
leaders in business, health care and related sectors. The overriding lesson
from his research: Companies must build bridges to other players in the system
to address the systemic problems that transcend the most powerful corporations.
He proposes a partnership-based health care agenda for business that will
benefit not only companies and employees but also health care overall by
strengthening the market mechanism and encouraging fruitful collaboration.
