Transcript Services Quality Management

Services Quality
Management
MANAGING SERVICE
QUALITY
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The service quality of a firm is tested
at each service encounter.
Customer Expectations
A) Customers form service expectations
from many sources:
Past experiences.
Word-of-mouth.
Advertising
MANAGING SERVICE
QUALITY
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B) In general, customers compare the
perceived service with the expected
service.
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If the perceived service falls below the expected
service customers are disappointed.
If the perceived service meets or exceeds their
expectations they are apt to use the provider
again.
C) Successful companies add benefits to their
offering that not only satisfy customers but also
surprise and delight them.
D) Delighting customers is a matter of
exceeding expectations.
MANAGING SERVICE
QUALITY
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Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry
formulated a service-quality model that
highlights the main requirements for
delivering high service quality that
identifies five gaps that cause
unsuccessful delivery:
MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY
Gap model satisfaction
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Gap 1: Not Knowing What Customers Want,
Unwillingness or un-preparedness to ask
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Gap 2: Inability to Set Right Standards, Absence
of QC Goals or Vague Design
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Gap 3: Not Delivering to Set Standards,Problems
of Empowerment or Training
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Gap 4: Mismatch Between Promises and Delivery,
Over Promises
The provider gap are underlying
causes behind the customer gap
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Not knowing what customer expect
Not selecting the right service design and
standards.
Not delivering to service standards.
Not matching performance to promises
Key Factors Leading to the
Customer Gap
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Provider gap 1-not knowing what customers
expect
Provider gap 2-not selecting the right service
design and standards
Provider gap 3-not delivering to service
standards
Provider gap 4-not matching performances to
promises
Customer perception
Key factors Leading to Provider Gap1
Customer Expectations
1. Inadequate marketing research
orientation-insufficient marketing
research, research not focused on service
quality, inadequate use of market
research
2. Lack of upward communication-lack of
interaction between management and
customer; insufficient communication
between contact personnel and top
management, too many layers between
contact personnel and top management.
3. Insufficient relationship focus-lack of
market segmentation, focus on
transaction rather than relationship;
focus on new customers
4. Inadequate service recovery
Key factors Leading to Provider Gap-2
Customer-driven service
designs and standards
Poor service design- unsystematic process
vague, undefined service designs
Absence of customer –defined standardsabsence of process management to focus on
customer requirements, absence of formal
process for setting service quality
goalsInappropriate physical evidence and
servicescape
Management perception
of customer expectation
Key factors Leading to Provider Gap-3
not delivering to service standards
Service Delivery
Deficiency in human resource policiesineffective recruitment; role ambiguity and
role conflict; poor employee-technology job
fit; inappropriate evaluation and
compensation systems, lack of
empowerment, perceived control and
teamwork
Failure to match demand and supplyinappropriate customer mix
Customers not fulfilling roles
Problems with service intermediaries
Customer-driven service
designs and standards
Key factors Leading to Provider Gap-4
Service Delivery
Lack of integrated services marketing
communications
Ineffective management of customer
expectations
Over promising-in advertising, personal
selling, over promising through physical
evidence cues
Inadequate horizontal communicationsinsufficient communication between sales
and operations, advertising and operations.
External communication to
customers
In a perfect world expectation and
perception would be identical
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Customers expectations are the standards
or the reference points for performance
against which the service experiences are
compared.
The sources of customer expectations
consists of –pricing advertising and sales
promises as well as innate personal need,
word of mouth communications, and
competitive offerings.
Gaps Model of Service Quality
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The model focuses on strategies and
processes that firm can employ to drive
service excellence while maintaining a
focus on customers.
It is the model that can drive strategies as
well as implementation decisions.
Services search Vs experience Vs
credence properties
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Search qualities, attributes that consumer
can determine before purchasing a
product E.g.. Color, style, price, fit, feel
etc.
Experise qualities, attribute that a
consumer can be discerned only after
purchase or during consumption
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Figure 13.4 shows the service quality model.
Gap between consumer expectations and
management perception.
Gap between management perception and
service-quality specification.
Gap between service-quality specifications and
service delivery.
Gap between service delivery and external
communications.
Gap between perceived service and expected
service.
MANAGING SERVICE
QUALITY
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Based upon this service-quality model,
researchers have identified the following
five determinants of service quality, in
order of importance:
Reliability.
Responsiveness.
Assurance.
Empathy.
Tangibles.
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Credence qualities, includes characteristics
that consumer may find impossible to
evaluate even after purchase and
consumption. For e.g. an appendix
operations
Experience and credence qualities
dominates in services
Marketing of Services
Continuum of evaluation for different types
of Products