The document discusses service quality, including defining it, measuring it using models like SERVQUAL, and identifying key dimensions of service quality. It notes that service quality is a perception involving technical and functional aspects, and that measuring it can be complex given intangible nature of services. Five key dimensions of service quality are identified as reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. The SERVQUAL instrument is discussed as a way to measure service quality gaps between expectations and perceptions.
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SERVICE QUALITY GAP MODEL
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2. Ineffective Recruitment: The front-end employees involved in services deliveryrequire certain qualities that enable them to relate to and deal with customers.They require training to achieve this.
3. Role ambiguity and role conflict: these include employees who do not clearlyunderstand the role they are to play in the company, employees who feel in conflictbetween customers and company management, the wrong employees.
10. Customers not fulfilling roles: The customer is as much involved in the process ofservices delivery as the service provider. Therefore, training the customer toreceive the service to derive maximum benefit is essentials.
14. Provide employees with product and service knowledge so they canperform in theirjobs better.
15. Train and retrain employees in the proper method of performing the service Train service contact personnel
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17. Failure to manage customer expectations through all forms of communication: Inaddition unduly elevating expectations through exaggerated claims, there areother, less obvious ways in which external communications influence customers’service quality assessments. Customers are not always aware of everything donebehind the scenes to serve them well. One bank executive indicated that customerswere unaware of the bank’s behind-the-counter, on-line teller terminals, whichwould translate into visible effects on customer service. By neglecting to informcustomers of such behind-the-scenes efforts, the bank was foregoing an opportunityto favorably influence service perceptions.
18. Failure to educate customers adequately: In the anxiety to strike a deal or marketthe service, sales personnel promise more than what they can ever deliver. Suchcommunication can be either formal or informal. Usually, customers set the serviceexpectations according to such delivery and price quotations.
20. Overpromising in advertising: During the marketing phase, the sales force may gobeyond the original script to strike the deal.
21. Overpromising in personnel selling: While customers may be lost to competitiondue to under promising, they may be lost due to overpromising as well.
24. Insufficient communication between sales and operations: If during the personalselling phase a commitment was made to strike the deal, it is essential to conveythis message to the other people in the organization, especially the productionteam, failing which, they may not be able to keep up with this additional concededdemand
27. Pricing of services.In packaged goods many customers possess enough price knowledge before purchase to be able to judge whether a price is fair or in line with competition. With services customers often have no internal reference point for prices before purchase and consumption. Pricing strategies such as discounting, “everyday prices” and couponing obviously need to be different in services in cases where the customers have no sense of the price to start with! Techniques for developing prices for services are more complicated than those for pricing of tangible goods.<br />Strategies for Reducing Gap Four<br />To reduce the size of Gap Four, service firms must address two issues: horizontal communications and propensity to over promise. Service contact personnel should have input in the firm’s advertising and promotional to ensure that messages conveyed to the prospective customers can be operationally performed. The reverse is also true; service personnel should be informed prior to an advertising or promotional campaign. In service organizations with field sales representatives, there must be communication between the salespeople and the personnel performing the service. Salespeople will often make promises to prospective customers to gain contacts. If promises are made, the operations department needs to be aware of it so they can ensure the promises will be delivered.<br />The tendency to over promise increases with pressure to achieve greater profits or to meet competitive claims. In both cases, severe damage to the firm’s image can occur since it is unlikely the firm can perform the service as promised.<br />Customers’ service perceptions may also be enhanced if the company educates them to be better users of the service. Service companies frequently fail to capitalize on opportunities to improve customers’ perceptions. As on bank executive observed, “We don’t teach our customers how to use us well and why we do the things we do.” Effectively coordinating actual service delivery with external communications therefore narrows provider gap 4 and favorably affects the customer gap as well.<br />Another function that must be involved in communication is human resources. For employees to deliver excellent customer service, firms must serve the employees through training, motivation, compensation and recognition to have a power full impact on the quality of service the employees deliver.<br />External communications—whether from advertising, pricing or the tangibles associated with the service – can create a larger customer gap by raising expectations about service delivery. In addition to improving service delivery, companies must also manage all communications to customers so that inflated promises do not lead to higher expectations.<br />Case: Taj Mahal<br />“Archetypal Drives” of a customer who Visits Taj Mahal: The study was of the visitors including spouse, family, and group of friends or relatives. The primary drives of the tourist to this place are the beauty of the place and historical significance. The facilities sought in the vicinity of the Taj Mahal and basic amenities like safe drinking water, clean toilets, small grocers, cafeterias and milk. The sample interviewed was of the opinion that the Taj Mahal bedecked in moonlight was a picture of delight, and should not be missed. However, for those who could not make it on that crucial night of the month, similar creations could be madethrough a light and sound show. On the full moon night some cultural events could also be planned and offered. Since the main charm in visiting the city of Agra was the Taj Mahal, the tourists were keen on knowing the timings and approach to the spot and any rules that govern visiting this wonder of the world.<br />External Communication Content on Taj Mahal: The information provided on the government websites on Taj Mahal is not indicative of the facilities sought by the tourists. On fundamental information, the prevailing basic amenities in the vicinity of Taj Mahal are not listed, once in Agra how to reach Taj Mahal is not known. The visiting hours and weekly offs, if any are not notified. Also people traveling with families must be provided with information on basic amenities in and around the Taj Mahal.<br />For the bespoke customer, the historical significance, this is a selling point for Taj<br />Mahal Is not adequately flaunted. There is neither imagery nor mystic incorporated in the communication content. Taj Mahal bedecked in moonlight, a much sought after experience is also not adequately represented. Though there is a mention of the Taj’s beauty on a full moon night but there is no mention of when the full moon is expected in the next few months. Tourist could be provided with calendar data of full moon nights along with associated special events. There could be plans for special shows on full moon night to make experience more memorable. There is no mention of any light and sound show on any day. Taj Mahal is one of the wonders of the world, hence providing conservation guidelines for tourists in the communication content is an expectation.<br />Consumer Perception of Technical and Functional Quality Model<br />QUALITY AND SATISFACTION<br />A review of the literature will reveal that the terms ‘quality’ and ‘satisfaction’ are quite often used interchangeably. While both concepts are related and appear to be merging, there are still gaps in the understanding of the two constructs, their relationship to each other and their antecedents and consequences. A distinction has often been made between the two constructs. According to Cronin and Taylor ‘this distinction is important to both managers and researches alike, because service providers need to know whether their objective should be to have consumers who are satisfied with their performance or to deliver the maximum level of perceived service quality.’<br />Oliver takes the view that satisfaction is ‘the emotional reaction following a disconfirmation experience’. Getty and Thompson defined satisfaction as a‘Summary psychological state experienced by the consumer when confirmed or disconfirmed expectations exist with respect to a specific service transaction or experience’. Rust and Oliver suggested that customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction - a ‘cognitive or affective reaction’ – emerges as a response to a single or prolonged set of service encounters.<br />Satisfaction is a ‘post consumption’ experience which compares perceived quality with expected quality, whereas service quality refers to a global evaluation of a firm’s service delivery system. Perceived quality, on the other hand, may be viewed as a global attitudinal judgment associated with the superiority of the service experience over time.<br />Not surprisingly there has been considerable debate concerning the nature of the relationship between the constructs of satisfaction and quality. While the majority of research suggests that service quality is a vital antecedent to customer satisfaction there is now strong evidence to suggest that satisfaction must be a vital antecedent of service quality. Regardless of which view is taken, the relationship between satisfaction and service quality is strong when examined from either direction.<br />Satisfaction affects assessments of service quality and assessment of service quality affects satisfaction. In turn both are vital in helping buyers develop their future purchase intention.<br />So, conclusion is that the key difference between the two constructs is that quality relates to managerial delivery of the service, while satisfaction reflects customers’ experiences with that service. They argued that quality improvements that are notbased on customer needs will not lead to improved customer satisfaction.<br />THE SERVICE-PROFIT CHAIN<br />The increased emphasis on customer satisfaction begs the question whether improvements in customer satisfaction lead to improvements in the economic performance of firms. Heavy expenditures and importance attached to customer satisfaction measurement suggest that the link between customer satisfaction and economic performance is presumed by companies. Increasing levels of research is going into understanding the nature of the service-profit chain.<br />There is considerable support for a link between improvements in service quality and improvements in service quality and improvements in financial performance.<br />Grant reports that the American Customer Satisfaction Index studies found a positive correlation between customer satisfaction and stock market returns. Much of the literature has sort to establish a link between satisfaction and loyalty. Dick and Basu, in a conceptual paper on loyalty viewed satisfaction as an antecedent of relative attitude because, without satisfaction, consumers will not hold a favorable attitude towards a brand as compared to other alternatives available and will therefore not be predisposed to repurchase. .<br />Much of the research into the outcomes of the satisfaction has measured behavioral intentions, for example, the likelihood of recommending a service or repurchasing it. However, in the light of increasing levels of competition in most services markets, behavioral intention based on loyalty generated through good service can easily be broken. This decline has been attributed to a number of factors including greater choice and information available to customers, the ‘commoditization’ of several services, and increased levels of competition.<br />Against this, some researchers have pointed out that much of the evidence to support a link between quality and financial performance is anecdotal in nature and refuted by analysis of corporate performance. It is suggested that there is wide spread evidence of managers’ frustration with the inability of quality improvement to improve organizational performance.<br />Developments in information technology are offering new insights into the link between quality and financial performance. Large multiple outlet service organization are increasingly able to experiment with elements of service quality in test sights and to judge economic performance over time. A fast-food restaurant,For example, may implement a new staff payment system or training program in a number of “experimental” sites and will be able to identify changes in performance relative to other ‘control’ branches. Some service providers have disaggregated their information even further by linking service quality questionnaires to features of the service which a respondent actually received. In this way, individual employees or groups of employees can be linked to measure of quality. While information technology is opening up new possibilities for correlating data about inputs and perceived outcomes, the problem of analyzing cross-sectional data remains. It is very difficult within a research framework to isolate all of the contributors to customers’ perceptions of quality except those which the researcher is interested in The Service Profit-chain.<br />SETTING QUALITY STANDARDS<br />A precise specification of service standards serves a valuable function in communicating standard of quality which consumers can expect to receive. It also serves to communicate the standards which are expected of employees. While the general manner in which an organization goes about promoting itself may give a general impression as to what level of quality it seeks to deliver, more specificstandards can be stated in a number of ways which are considered below.<br />At its most basic, an organization can rely on its terms of business as a basis for determining the level of service to be delivered to customers. These generally act to protect customers against excessively poor service rather than being used to proactively promote high standards of excellence. The booking conditions of tour operators, for example, make very few promises about service quality, other than offers of compensation if delays exceed a specified standard or if accommodation arrangements are changed at short notice.<br />Generally worded customer charters go beyond the minimum levels of business terms by stating in a general manner the standards of performance which the organization aims to achieve in its dealings with customers. In this way, banks publish characters which specify in general terms the manner in which accounts will be conducted and complaints handled.<br />Specific guarantees of service performance are sometimes offered, especially in respect of service outcomes. As an example parcel delivery companies often guarantee to deliver a parcel within a specified time and agree to pay compensation if they fall below this standard. Many of the public utilities now offer compensation payments if certain specified services are not delivered correctly, increasingly, service organizations set their service guarantees with reference to benchmarks established by best-practice companies within their sectors, or in completely different sector. Many highly specific targets are therefore restricted to internal use where their function is to motivate and control staff rather than to provide guarantees to potential customers. While the major banks give their branch managers targets for such quality standards as queuing time for counter staff and availability of working ATM machines, it does not guarantee a specified level of service to its customers.<br />Many services companies belong to a trade or professional association and incorporate the association’s code of conduct into their own service offering. Codes of conduct adopted by members of professional associations as diverse as car repairers, undertakers and solicitors specify minimum standards below which service provision should not fall. The code of conduct provides both a reassurance to potential customers and a statement to employees about the minimum standards which are expected of them.<br />Contrary to popular belief, a company operating to ISO 9002 does not guarantee a high level of quality for its service. Instead, ISO accreditation is granted to organizations who can show that they have in place management systems for ensuring a consistent standard of quality- whether this itself is high or low is largely a subjective judgment. Although this standard was initially adopted by manufacturing industries, it has subsequently found significant use among service companies, including education, leisure centers and building contractors.<br />Increasingly, industrial purchasers of services are seeking the reassurance that its suppliers are ISO registered.<br />In the case of some public sector services which operate in a monopolistic environment, quality standards are sometimes imposed from outside. In the case of privately owned utilities, the relevant regulating authority has the power to set the specific targets.<br />DELIVERY OF HIGH-QUALITY SERVICE<br />DEVELOPMENT OF A QUALITY CULTURE<br />Organizations, like human beings, develop a unique personality, shaped by interpersonal relations, the quality of the management and the influence of the leadership upon the employees, the system in place, and the quality of the employees. High-quality service design and delivery is not just the function of the front end employees but of all the members of the organization. The factors that could play a crucial role in the quality of service delivery are many. A few important factors are discussed below.<br />HUMAN FACTORS<br />It basically includes employee recruitment and selection, training, rewards and motivation. ‘I shall not deliver substandard service nor shall I let anybody else deliver substandard service’ is the type of motto to be adopted. For example, some quality conscious automobile companies have given the right of halting the assembly line to any concerned employee who may have noticed inadequate or defective components fitted on a vehicle. This quality consciousness is crucial to long term quality maintenance. In addition, customer feedback on quality issues has to be an important component of employee evaluation.<br />SYSTEMS SUPPORT<br />It is not employees but also system which tends to produce defects. Thus, organizations have to put systems in place that ensure high quality services delivery. For example, the computerized system in the bank has to ensure accurate and timely delivery of the customer bills and statements.<br />ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS<br />Organizations with very high number of levels within the structure tend to have very poor interaction between the front-end employees and the higher echelons within the organization. The reporting structure and close interaction between the supervisors and the front-end service delivery employees is very important. A receptionist being a front-end employee may be seen as the key person for the customer interaction. However if the receptionist is not authorized to ask the housekeeping unit to improve upon the service when a customer has complained about it, it may demotivate the employee, and, in future, the receptionist may not report problems with the housekeeping unit.<br />FEEDBACK<br />Organizations need to encourage feedback from every employee including the front-end employees as a part of the quality monitoring system. Employees have to be told that this feedback is crucial for the organizational success.<br />1] QUALITY CIRCLES<br />Quality circles are groups of non-supervisors and work leaders in a single company department who volunteer to conduct group activities in order to improve the effectiveness of the work in their respective departments. Fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams prepared by Ishikawa help to trace quality complaints to the responsible production process that is the root cause of the problem. The role of individual employees is very crucial to quality control of services as well as goods production. This is more so in the case of services where the service is usually delivered in person by one of the employees.<br />The diagram below is a root cause diagram that enables you to pinpoint the causes contributing to the delayed departure. In addition, the frequency of each failure can be measured so that the reasons for poor quality service can be understood and both short and long-term measures can be instituted to tackle the situation.<br />2] TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT<br />TQM is defined as management of the entire organization so that there is continuous improvement in all dimensions of process, products, and services that are important to the customer. The key aspects of the focus as follows:<br />• Quality Standards must be customer driven. Every service firm should have both company-defined and customer-defined standards of quality. The customer-defined standards are classified as soft and hard standards.<br />• External and internal customers both need to be addressed. The receptionistcould not perform the best service for the customer without the cooperation from others, including the housekeeping department. Thus, services to internal customers also have to be given the same degree of importance as those for external customers.<br />• Every employee is a quality inspector and is empowered. Each and every employee can stop the assembly line. Thus, each employee is treated as a quality inspector and is empowered to take appropriate corrective action.<br />• Continuous measurement and improvement. It has been the belief of a number of organizations that the quality improvement needs to be done on a large scale to be effective. Contrary to this, it has been seen that while it helps to have a major review of the quality of Japanese goods and services owes much to the continuous measurement and improvement, even on a small scale. Thus, small tinkering towards quality improvement also contributes significantly to overall quality improvement due to the cumulative effect.<br />• Commitment to quality improvement from the top management. Organizational culture is very crucial to the quality improvement process. In particular, the contribution of top management and their commitment is also crucial as employees usually emulate the attitudes of the top management. When the top management is committed to quality improvement, the employees feel confident that they would enjoy the support of top management even when they have to make some hard unpalatable decisions leading to short term loses.<br />THE FACTORS THAT CAUSE THE FAILURE OF TQM ARE AS FOLLOWS:<br />• More rhetoric than real commitment to the development of quality culture. Many times we see quality statements or organizational objectives displayed prominently at work place. Surprisingly, most of them are for the visitors or the customers rather than the operating employees! Thus, they are decorative rather than operative in nature. This does not bring about the desired changes in the products or services, nor does it bring about an attitudinal change.<br />• More focus on cost saving than on long-term generation of value for the customers. Some of the quality control initiatives require capital funds or increases in the variable cost. In the short run, they may sound like unnecessary costs and therefore not desirable. However, in the long term, quality improvement would bring about customer satisfaction through greater value delivery and customer loyalty. These costs will eventually transform themselves into financial gains.<br />• Lack of quality initiatives, support, or follow-through actions. The lack of commitment also could mean no further initiatives or follow up actions. Employees may tend to think that if the immediate crisis is adverted, there is less compulsion to follow up on the efforts made.<br />3] HARD MEASURES OF SERVICE QUALITY<br />A standard represented by a number gives a concrete idea about the goal and the gap between the performance and the goal. Thus, this is an ideal way of giving feedback to relevant parties about the performance. To understand this hard measure we use the example of the number of buses leaving a bus terminal. In the Ishikawa or fishbone diagram, we went into the possible reasons for the delay. Let us assume that the acceptable standard for the service delivery is a maximum delay of 10 minutes in bus departure from the announced timetable. We could develop a daily measure of how many buses left within this 0-10 minute’s interval. We could use percentage of buses that left within 0-10 minutes delay as a measures of overall timeliness quality. The timeliness index would be the percentage of buses leaving on time. Visually, both the operating and supervisory personnel could judge the recent trend, the long-term trend, and whether the performance is satisfactory or not. If a series of such hard measures could be developed, the task of quality control would be greatly simplified.<br />4] PREVENTION OF CUSTOMER DEFECTION<br />If the quality of the services extended by the organization is perceived by the customers to be of high quality, the customer is likely to remain loyal to the service provider. The perceived level of service, above which this level of satisfaction is achieved, is called ‘adequate level of service’.<br />It has been noted that the switching to another source of service usually does not occur suddenly. The customers start to use the service of the current provider less frequently before completely switching over to another provider. Thus, usually, there is some warning when the correction could be made and the trend reversed. We need to make use of the tools of computerization and data mining for this purpose.<br />For example, a frequent flyer program administered by airlines can be used effectively. From the past data, the company knows about the average number of flights undertaken by an executive on quarterly basis. Should there be a significant drop in the number of flights flown on this airline during two successive quarters, it may be worth acting upon a line may be dropped to the person enquiring about his health and the reasons for the lack of flying, or even requesting a feedback about the airline performance.<br />The techniques of data mining and data manipulation can be used effectively to bring out such instances to the attention of the management to plan suitable action. A stitch in time could thus save nine. While a number of managers would agree on the value of customer loyalty, they are not prepared to invest resources to ensure continued patronage. This total commitment to the customer loyalty would ensure long-run success.<br />5] ROLE OF AUTOMATION IN SERVICE QUALITY DELIVERY<br />The factors contributing to poor quality of service include:<br />• Employees as a source of variation in services delivery<br />• Customers as a source of variation in services delivery<br />• Due to intangible nature of services and inability to describe them, good communication with the customers may be difficult to achieve.<br />In view of these factors, automation can be a way of delivering high quality services. The advantages of automation are:<br />• The role of a service-providing person is greatly reduced or even totally eliminated, thereby reducing one source of services variation. Thus, when the bank passbook entries are made directly from a computer through a printer, the role of the person keeping the ledger is greatly reduced. This ensures accuracy of the work.<br />• Due to moods, emotions and variations in behavior, customers tend to perceive identical service delivery at different points to be different. Even the moodiest of the customers, however, can see the consistency in automated delivery.<br />• As automation usually means a limited number of alternatives available on a menu, the customer is unable to ask for an impossible service alternative, thereby avoiding the risk of failure.<br />• Automation always provides consistent and standard delivery. While the service may or may not delight the customer, it would meet the adequate level of service expectation quite easily. Reliability is one of the most important quality dimensions.<br />• Usually the cost of automated delivery is considerably less than that of service delivery by an employee or representative. A case in point is the ATM. The average cost of cash receipt or payment transaction by a cashier or teller is Rs 3 to 5 per transaction. A similar ATM transaction costs Rs 0.25.thus, a considerable saving in operating cost can accrue to the service provider due to automation.<br />• Automation can produce data about various customer transactions. It can be used as a source of information about consumer behavior, special interest, etc. This can be used to make customized offerings to high net-worth customers for mutual benefits.<br />6] ROLE OF QUALITY AWARDS AND CERTIFICATION<br />An offshoot of the commerce department of the United States Government cal –led ‘National Institute of Standards and Technology’ offers awards each year in three categories- manufacturing, service and small business-for quality achievements.<br />The award, named after a US commerce Secretary, was instituted in 1987 to promote excellence in order to meet the Japanese economic threat successfully. Companies have to nominated themselves and make detailed submissions about their quality practices and performance. Selected companies are visited by the examiners for a detailed look at the operations. Thus, two-third points are awarded for direct measurement of quality and contribution of quality processes. The chosen criteria are good yardsticks for quality. They represent the entire quality delivery process of services. <br />If a company receives such a highly prestigious award, it can be used as a vital tool for marketing the products or services produced by such a firm. The award focuses on management systems and processes, and even the companies who are not successful in winning the award benefit enormously by just participating in the award process. The award wakes up a number of companies and participant managers to the need for TQM. The importance of quality in the global competition is brought before the participants and they get a blueprint for action that works.<br />7] ROLE OF SEGMENTATION IN SERVICE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT<br />Segmentation is one of the key techniques used in the current marketing to understand the customer needs better and then offer products or services that more particularly meets thee customer needs. In the case of products, the need for segmentation is obviated to some extent by an elaborate range of products that can be offered simultaneously. Thus, a large number of alternatives exist for customers to choose from. In the case of services, the number of alternative services that can be designed to achieve the same end purpose is limited. For example, if the tourist company normally offers tours to Far East or European Countries, the number of service alternatives is limited to first class or economy class.<br />If the customer is provided with unsuitable service not needed or required by a set of customers, their perception of service quality received is considerably lower. The service provider can adopt a number of measures to combat this situation. <br />Specialization in a particular area of service:-<br />While there are any number of both public and private hospitals in India, a very large percentage of them offer extensive services in almost all the areas of medical care. By specialization in one area, however, a hospital can develop expertise, reduce costs, and build up a quality reputation which can be unmatched. In Canada, DrShouldice, a pioneer in the technique for surgical correction of hernia (a condition usually brought about by the weakening of the stomach wall), and his colleagues run a number of hospitals which surgically treat only hernia. Unlike in the case of other hospitals, the surgery is mostly performed under local anesthesia, with the patient walking in and out of the operating theatre with the help of the surgeon. The previously operated patients in their post-operative stay in the hospital provide moral and spiritual support to the newly admitted patients, which lead to reduced anxiety and faster recovery.<br />Adoption of modularization<br />Instead of offering completely different or distinct services, the company may design add-on modules and offer them to customers by way of greater variety. Thus, a tour and travel company may offer an add-on package for children below 3 or between 3 and 12 years of age. The company may offer an additional stay package at attractive prices, single room supplement for a price, etc. these modules will effectively meet the demands of the greater segments of the customers moreprecisely.<br />Various modules can be combined to produce distinctive services that appeal to various customers. For example, in KuluManali, a large number of hiking alternatives are available to a tourist. Thus, the tourist can decide on an uphill and/or downhill walk. The tourism department offers a choice of walk trail for 2 hours, 4 hours, or 6 hours. One can choose either a bus, funicular railway, chair car, ski lift, or even a post office bus to reach the starting point and then choose the trail of the selected duration. Even the return arrangement is similarly made by flexible mode of transport. As a result, tourists return to the area frequently and choose the modular package best suited to their pockets and levels of energy.<br />RESEARCHING SERVICE QUALITY<br />The development of reliable, easy-to-easy measures of service quality represents a key aspect of consumer behavior and services marketing research. Indeed, an integral part of any organization’s attempt to still a ‘quality culture’ is a commitment to a process of ‘continuous improvement’. To support this systematic approach to quality measurement is needed. This is especially true of ‘pure’ services organizations, as unlike their counterparts in the manufacturing sector they have fewer objective measures of quality by which to judge their production. Ramaswamy identified three different three different sets of measures that a company must be concerned with:<br />• Service performance measures that are primarily internally focused and evaluate the current performance of the service and ensure that it is continuing to reliably meet the design specifications.<br />• Customer measures, on the other hand, which are both internally and externally focused, aimed at assessing the impact of the service performance on customers.<br />• Financial measures, which are indicators of the financial health of the organization.<br />Naturally the correlation between financial and customers will determine the revenue generating potential of the service, while the relationship between service performance measures and customer measures will give some indication as to how the service is performing in customers’ eyes. In turn, this will have a direct bearing on a company’s financial performance and overall market share.<br />1] Regular customer surveys<br />The incidence of surveys into the level of satisfaction that customers have experienced from service providers is increasing throughout the service sector. The increasing range of competing services available and customers’ growing awareness of the fact that they are in receipt of a service for which they pay a price<br />– Whether directly or through taxation – has led them to expect to be consulted and to express an opinion about the level of satisfaction provided. Today, members of the public are in constant receipt of literature from a wide range of service providers asking for comments on the quality of service that they have received. It is probably true to sat that most large service providers in both private and public sectors have jumped on this quality bandwagon, although it is often questionable whether the most appropriate methods are employed to gather the information.<br />Typical application include filling in a questionnaire on the plane after a holiday or being asked by the local council to fill in a card headed Customer service enquiry.<br />Such surveys usually ask recipients to relate any complaints that they may have about the services provided and any comments/suggestions for improving them.<br />The assumption that most people make is that data from such surveys will be used to take corrective action where expectations are not reached.<br />2] Customer panels<br />These can provide a continuous source of information on customer expectations. Groups of customers, who are generally frequent user, are brought together by a company on a regular basis to study their opinions about the quality of service provided. On other occasions, they may be employed to monitor the introduction of a new or revised service – for example a panel could be brought together by a building society following the experimental introduction of a new branch design format.<br />The use of continuous panels can offer organizations a means of anticipating problems and may act as an early warning system for emerging issues of importance. Retailers have been involved in the operation of continuous panels contribute to monitor their level of service provision as well as letting panels contribute to new product development research. User groups also have an important part to play in many of the UK’s recently privatized industries such as gas, water, electricity and telecommunication. However, the validity of this research method is quite dependent on how well the panel represents consumers as a whole.<br />There has been a suggestion that the number of people prepared to become members of panels is not rising as quickly as firms’ appetite for information. The result has been the emergence of ‘professional’ panel members who may not be representative of service users as a whole.<br />3] Transaction analysis<br />An increasingly popular method of evaluative research involves tracking the satisfaction of individuals with particular transactions that they have recently been involved in. This type of research enables management to judge correct performance, particularly customers’ satisfaction with the contact personnel with whom they have interacted, as well as their overall satisfaction for the service.<br />The research effort normally involves a mail-out questionnaire survey to individual customers immediately after a transaction has been completed. For example, the Automobile Association surveys customers who have recently been served by its breakdown service and many building societies invite customers who have just used their mortgage services to express their views on the service received via a structured questionnaire. An additional benefit of this research is its capability to associate service quality performance with individual contact personnel and link it to reward system.<br />4] Perception surveys<br />These investigations use a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Many professional services organization have employed such studies in order to develop future market strategies. Their aim is to achieve a better understanding of how customers view an organization. In other words, to help the firm itself as clients see it. The initial qualitative stages of a study involve researchers in identifying the attitudes of clients towards the firm as well as how the firm is perceived by the community at large. Group discussions and/or in depth interviews are the vehicles used for assessing the perceptions of people at this stage. In the quantitative phase of the survey, clients are asked to judge the company’s performance using a battery of attitude statements. Perception studies of ten include an analysis of the perceptions of a firm’s employees.<br />5] Mystery customers<br />The use of ‘mystery customer’ is a method of auditing the standard of service provision, particularly the staff involvement in such provision. A major difficulty in measuring service quality is overcoming the non-conforming of staff with performance guidelines. This so called service-performance gap is the result of employees being unable and/or unwilling to perform the service at the desired level.An important function of mystery customer surveys is therefore to monitor the extent to which specified quality standards are actually being met by staff.<br />This method of researching actual service provision involves the use of trained assessors who visit service organizations and report back their observations. Audits tend to be tailored to the specific needs of a company and focus on an issue that it wishes to evaluate. The format of the enquiry is determined jointly by the client and research organization.<br />The constructive nature of this research technique has to be stressed, as the mystery customer can quite ea