2. WHAT IS SERVICE QUALITY ?
Product-based:
User-based:
Manufacturing-
based:
Transcendent:
Quality = Excellence. Recognized only through
experience
Quality is precise and measurable
Quality lies in the eyes of the beholder
Quality is in conformance to the firm’s developed
specifications
Value-based: Quality is a trade-off between price and value
3. 4 KEY FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE
CUSTOMER’S EXPECTATIONS
Word of mouth communications
Personal needs and preferences
Past Experience
External Communication
4. COMPONENTS OF SERVICE QUALITY
Tangibles: Appearance of physical elements
Reliability: Dependable and accurate performance
Responsiveness: Promptness; helpfulness
Assurance: Competence, courtesy, credibility,
security
Empathy: Easy access, good communication,
understanding of customer
5. DIMENSIONS OF TOTAL QUALITY
(SERVQUAL)
8 Dimensions of quality were identified by Garvin.
Performance
Features
Reliability
Conformance
Durability
Serviceability
Aesthetics
Perceived Quality
It measures the GAP between the customer
experience and expectations.
6. SERVQUAL
Survey research instrument based on premise that
customers evaluate firm’s service quality by comparing
Their perceptions of service actually received
Their prior expectations of companies in a particular industry
Poor quality
Perceived performance ratings < expectations
Good quality
Perceived performance ratings > expectations
7. HOW CUSTOMERS MIGHT EVALUATE ONLINE
BUSINESSES: SEVEN DIMENSIONS OF E-S-
QUAL
Accessibility : Is site easily found?
Navigation: How easy is it to move around the site?
Design and presentation: Image projected from site?
Content and purpose: Substance and richness of site
Currency and accuracy
Responsiveness: Firm’s propensity to respond to e-
mails
Interactivity, customization, and personalization
Reputation and security
8. THE GAPS MODEL—A CONCEPTUAL TOOL TO
IDENTIFY AND CORRECT SERVICE QUALITY
PROBLEMS
Customer experience
relative to expectations
1. Knowledge Gap
2. Standards Gap
3. Delivery Gap
5. Perceptions Gap
7. Service Gap
Customer needs and
expectations
6. Interpretation Gap
4. Internal
Communications Gap
MANAGEMENT
CUSTOMER
4.
Customer perceptions
of service execution
Management definition
of these needs
Translation into
design/delivery specs
Execution of
design/delivery specs
Advertising and sales
promises
Customer interpretation
of communications
9. THE GAP MODEL
1. Knowledge gap: Learn what customers expect
Understand customer expectations
Improve communication between frontline staff and
management
Turn information and insights into action
2. Standards gap: Specify SQ standards that
reflect expectations
Set, communicate, and reinforce customer-oriented
service standards for all work units
Measure performance and provide regular feedback
Reward managers and employees
10. THE GAP MODEL
3. Delivery gap: Ensure service performance meets
standards
Clarify employee roles
Train employees in priority setting and time management
Eliminate role conflict among employees
Develop good reward system
4. Internal communications gap: Ensure that
communications promises are realistic
Seek comments from frontline employees and operations
personnel about proposed advertising campaigns
Get sales staff to involve operations staff in meetings with
customers
Ensure that communications sets realistic customer
expectations
11. THE GAP MODEL
5. Perceptions gap: Educate customers to see
reality of service quality delivered
Keep customers informed during service delivery and
debrief after delivery
Provide physical evidence
6. Interpretation gap: Pretest communications to
make sure message is clear and unambiguous
Present communication materials to a sample of
customers in advance of publication
7. Service gap: Close gaps 1 to 6 to meet customer
expectations consistently
12. MEASURING AND IMPROVING
SERVICE QUALITY
Soft measures—not easily observed, must be collected
by talking to customers, employees, or others
Provide direction, guidance, and feedback to employees on
ways to achieve customer satisfaction
Can be quantified by measuring customer perceptions and
beliefs
For example: SERVQUAL, surveys, and customer advisory panels
Hard measures—can be counted, timed, or measured
through audits
Typically operational processes or outcomes
Standards often set with reference to percentage of
occasions on which a particular measure is achieved
Control charts are useful for displaying performance over
time against specific quality standards
13. SOFT MEASURES OF SERVICE QUALITY
Key customer-centric SQ measures include:
Total market surveys, annual surveys, transactional
surveys
Service feedback cards
Mystery shopping
Analysis of unsolicited feedback—complaints and
compliments, focus group discussions, and service
reviews
Ongoing surveys of account holders to determine
satisfaction in terms of broader relationship issues
Customer advisory panels offer feedback/advice on
performance
Employee surveys and panels to determine:
Perceptions of the quality of service delivered to
customers on specific dimensions
Barriers to better service
Suggestions for improvement
14. HARD MEASURES OF SERVICE QUALITY
Control charts to monitor a single variable
Offer a simple method of displaying performance over
time against specific quality standards
Are only good if data on which they are based is
accurate
Enable easy identification of trends
Service quality indexes
Embrace key activities that have an impact on
customers
15. BLUEPRINTING
Depicts sequence of front-stage interactions
experienced by customers plus supporting
backstage activities
Used to identify potential fall points—where failures
are most likely to appear
Shows how failures at one point may have a ripple
effect later
Managers can identify points which need urgent
attention
Important first step in preventing service quality
problems
16. TOOLS TO ANALYZE AND ADDRESS
SERVICE QUALITY PROBLEMS
Total Quality Management (TQM)
ISO 9000
Comprises requirements, definitions, guidelines, and related
standards to provide an independent assessment and
certification of a firm’s quality management system
Malcolm Baldrige Model Applied to Services
To promote best practices in quality management, and
recognizing, and publicizing quality achievements among
U.S. firms
Six Sigma
Statistically, only 3.4 defects per million opportunities
(1/294,000)
Has evolved from defect-reduction approach to an overall
business-improvement approach
17. TQM IN A SERVICE CONTEXT:
TWELVE CRITICAL DIMENSIONS FOR
IMPLEMENTATION
Top management commitment and visionary leadership
Human resource management
Technical system, including service process design and
process management
Information and analysis system
Benchmarking
Continuous improvement
Customer focus
Employee satisfaction
Union intervention and employee relations
Social responsibility
Service scapes
Service culture
18. CAUSE-AND-EFFECT CHART FOR
FLIGHT DEPARTURE DELAYS
Aircraft late to
gate
Late food
service
Late fuel
Late cabin
cleaners
Poor announcement of
departures
Weight and balance
sheet late
Delayed
Departures
Delayed check-in
procedure
Acceptance of late
passengers
Front-Stage
Personnel
Procedures
Materials,
Supplies
Customers
Gate agents
cannot process
fast enough
Late/unavailable
airline crew
Arrive late
Oversized bags
Weather
Air traffic
Frontstage
Personnel
Procedures
Materials,
Supplies
Backstage
Personnel
Information
Customers
Other Causes
Mechanical
Failures
Late pushback
Late baggage
Facilities,
Equipment
19. WHAT IS INTERNAL & EXTERNAL CUSTOMER?
The external customer is someone who signs a
check, pays our employer, and ultimately makes
our paycheck possible. External customers have
choice, and if they don't like your product or service
they can take their business elsewhere.
An internal customer or internal service
provider can be anyone in the organization. An
internal customer can be a co-worker, another
department, or a distributor who depends upon us
to provide products or services which in turn are
utilized to create a deliverable for the external
customer. In general, internal customers don't have
a choice.
20. ROLES OF EMPLOYEES AND THEIR INFLUENCE
ON CUSTOMERS
MODIFIERSCONTRACTORS
ISOLATORSINFUENCERS
Periodic customer
contact
Infrequent customer
contact
Involved in
conventional
marketing mix
Not directly Involved
in conventional
marketing mix
21. Contractors: These are employees having frequent
contact with customers.(Salesmen,Promotions).
Modifiers : These are employees having frequent contact
with customers and also go on to build “MOMENT OF
TRUTH”.(Call center personnel)
Influencers: These are senior employees who have
planned and devised strategies ,but are very infrequent
with customers.
Isolators: These role players perform support functions
like data processing, office operations.
ROLES OF EMPLOYEES AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON
CUSTOMERS
22. DEMAND AND SUPPLY MANAGEMENT
There are 9 different types of demand,
Rising Demand : This occurs when the service offer
is in the growth stage.(Cellphone Service)
Falling Demand: This occurs when the service offer
is in the decline stage.(Browsing Centers)
Zero Demand: The market may have no demand
for that service.(No demand for Foreign language
coaching center in rural villages)
Full Demand: Demand for service is equal to
supply.
Overfull Demand: Demand exceeds supply
23. TYPES OF DEMAND
Negative Demand: Customers may avoid
consuming a particular service.(Cosmetic Surgery)
Latent Demand: There lays a deep demand for a
particular service but no service offer exists to
satisfy that demand.(Good Day care centers)
Seasonal Demand(Hotel accommodation during
New Years in Goa)
Unwholesome Demand : People tend to lose
interest in that service due to the new ingredients in
the service.
24. STRATEGIES FOR PRODUCTIVITY
There are three major ways in which improvement
in productivity can be brought out,
Improving staff performance through training
Introducing system and technology
Reducing service levels
Customer interactions
Managing capacity by controlling supply.
