02/13/2007
15.00 p.m
Press Release
Banca Mediolanum has entered into an agreement with Università Bocconi to establish a professorial chair in Customer and Service Science.
At the same time, a Customer and Service Science Lab has been set up: a centre for applied research in the service sectors. It comprises laboratories that will investigate various areas of interest such as client orientation, technological innovation and competitiveness, best practice and service science.
The professorial chair and the management of the centre will be undertaken by Professor E. Valdani, Professor of Economics and Corporate Management at Bocconi. He will be assisted by a technical committee which will include, in addition to Professor Valdani, Professor A. Parasuraman and Mr A. M. Penna, as well as a renowned European academic yet to be appointed.
Professor Parasuraman holds the James W. McLamore Chair of Marketing at the University of Miami and has been widely in top academic journals. He is a leading light in the field of product and service quality. Mr Penna is managing director of Banca Mediolanum.
Plans for the Centre include the development of nationwide analysis on service quality. Banca Mediolanum has always placed strong emphasis on service quality and client satisfaction. Since the 80s, it has been the first among finance and insurance companies in Italy to create a structure that emphasised respect for the qualitative standards of its products and operations, as well as making a toll-free number available to clients. It also conducts annual customer satisfaction surveys to evaluate how well their products and services are received by the market.
There are also periodic internal assessments to ascertain whether the company maintains a tranquil and cooperative environment.
This lengthy experience in the quality area has now been maximised through the initiative with Università Bocconi.
Banca Mediolanum will also broaden its own quality and communication project with the setting up of the Mediolanum Best Creatives Service Award. This annual award will recognise Italian companies that have distinguished themselves in the high standard of the service and customer satisfaction they provide.
Banca Mediolanum is also establishing, within the Mediolanum Group, a training course on Quality.
The first session, in April and September, will be limited to 10/12 high potential new graduates who will gain the Mediolanum Service Quality Certificate upon completion of the course.
Milan, 13 February 2007
