2. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Define service quality
Diagnose service quality problems using The Gaps
Measuring and improving service quality
Explore key tools for measuring and improving
productivity
4. COMPONENTS OF QUALITY:
SERVICE-BASED
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. CAPTURING THE CUSTOMER’S PERSPECTIVE OF SERVICE
QUALITY: SERVQUAL
To measure customer satisfaction with various aspects of service quality-
Zeithmal developed a 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
Developed primarily in context of face-to-face encounters
Scale contains 22 items reflecting five dimensions of service quality
Subsequent research has highlighted some limitations of SERVQUAL
6. SERVQUAL
Respondents complete a series of scales that
measure their expectations of companies in a
particular industry on a wide array of service
characteristics
Susbsequently they are asked to record their
perceptions of a specific company whose services
they have used
When perceived performance ratings are lower
than expectations =poor quality
Reverse= good quality
7. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS IN
SERVICE QUALITY MEASUREMENT
In uncompetitive markets or in situations where
customers do not have a free choice, researchers
should use needs or wants as comparison
standards
Time constraints
Services high in credence characteristics may
cause consumers to use process factors and
tangible cues as proxies to evaluate quality—halo
effect
Process factors: Customers’ feelings
8. The Gaps Model—A Conceptual Tool to
Identify and Correct Service Quality
Problems
9. SEVEN SERVICE QUALITY GAPS
(FIG 14.3)
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
10. PRESCRIPTIONS FOR CLOSING THE
SEVEN SERVICE QUALITY GAPS
1. Knowledge gap: Learn what customers expect
2. Standards gap: Specify SQ standards that reflect
expectations
3. Delivery gap: Ensure service performance meets standards
4. Internal communications gap: Ensure that communications
promises are realistic
5. Perceptions gap: Educate customers to see reality of service
quality delivered
6. Interpretation gap: Pretest communications to make sure
message is clear and unambiguous
7. Service gap: Close gaps 1 to 6 to meet customer
expectations consistently
12. SOFT AND HARD MEASURES
OF 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. COMPOSITION OF FEDEX’S
SERVICE QUALITY INDEX—SQI (TABLE 14.4)
Late delivery—right day
Late Delivery—wrong day
Tracing request unanswered
Complaints reopened
Missing proofs of delivery
Invoice adjustments
Missed pickups
Lost packages
Damaged packages
Aircraft delays (minutes)
Overcharged (packages missing label)
Abandoned calls
1
5
1
5
1
1
10
10
10
5
5
1
Failure Type
Total Failure Points (SQI) =
Weighting
Factor
XXX,XXX
Daily
Points
X
Number of
Incidents
=
Source: See Services Marketing textbook, page 417,
for full source information.
14. CONTROL CHART FOR DEPARTURE DELAYS
(FIG 14.3)
J F M A M J J A S O N D
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Month
% Flights Departing Within
15 Minutes of Schedule
15. TOOLS TO ANALYZE AND ADDRESS
SERVICE QUALITY PROBLEMS
Fishbone diagram
Cause-and-effect diagram to identify potential causes of problems
Pareto Chart
Separating the trivial from the important. Often, a majority of
problems is caused by a minority of causes (i.e. the 80/20 rule)
Blueprinting
Visualization of service delivery, identifying points where failures
are most likely to occur
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. CAUSE-AND-EFFECT CHART FOR
FLIGHT DEPARTURE DELAYS (FIG 14.4)
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
Facilities,
Equipment
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
18. Late passengers
Waiting for pushback
Waiting for
fuelling
Late weight and balance sheet
Late cabin cleaning/supplies
Other
Newark
All stations, excluding
Chicago-Midway Hub
Washington Natl.
23.1%
23.1%
23.1%15.3%
15.4%
53.3%
15%
11.3%
8.7%
11.7%
33.3%
33.3%
19%
9.5%
4.9
%
Case: Analysis of Causes of
Flight Departure Delays
19. 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
20. SIX SIGMA METHODOLOGY TO
IMPROVE AND REDESIGN SERVICE PROCESSES
Process Improvement Process Design/Redesign
Define Identify the problem
Define requirements
Set goals
Identify specific or broad problems
Define goal/change vision
Clarify scope and customer requirements
Measure Validate problem/process
Refine problem/goal
Measure key steps/inputs
Measure performance to requirements
Gather process efficiency data
Analyze Develop causal hypothesis
Identify root causes
Validate hypothesis
Identify best practices
Assess process design
Refine requirements
Improve Develop ideas to measure root
causes
Test solutions
Measure results
Design new process
Implement new process, structures, and
systems
Control Establish measures to maintain
performance
Correct problems as needed
Establish measures and reviews to maintain
performance
Correct problems as needed
21. 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
Servicescapes
Service culture
22. RETURN ON QUALITY (ROQ)
Assess costs and benefits of quality initiatives
ROQ approach is based on four assumptions:
– Quality is an investment
– Quality efforts must be financially accountable
– It’s possible to spend too much on quality
– Not all quality expenditures are equally valid
Implication: Quality improvement efforts may benefit from being
related to productivity improvement programs
To determine feasibility of new quality improvement efforts,
determine costs and then relate to anticipated customer response
Determine optimal level of reliability
Diminishing returns set in as improvements require higher
investments
Know when improving service reliability becomes uneconomical
23. WHEN DOES IMPROVING SERVICE RELIABILITY
BECOME UNECONOMICAL? (FIG 14.7)
Satisfy Target
Customers through
Service Recovery
Optimal Point of
Reliability: Cost of
Failure = Service
Recovery
Satisfy Target
Customers through
Service Delivery as
Planned
100%
ServiceReliability
Investment
Small Cost,
Large Improvement
Large Cost,
Small Improvement
A B C D
Assumption: Customers are equally (or even more)
satisfied with the service recovery provided than with a
service that is delivered as planned.
25. PRODUCTIVITY IN A SERVICE CONTEXT
Productivity measures amount of output produced relative to the
amount of inputs.
Improvement in productivity means an improvement in the ratio of
outputs to inputs.
Intangible nature of many service elements makes it hard to
measure productivity of service firms, especially for information-
based services
Difficult in most services because both input and output are
hard to define
Relatively simpler in possession-processing services, as
compared to information- and people-processing services
26. SERVICE EFFICIENCY, PRODUCTIVITY,
AND EFFECTIVENESS
Efficiency: Involves comparison to a standard,
usually time-based (for example: how long
employee takes to perform specific task)
Problem: Focus on inputs rather than
outcomes
May ignore variations in service quality/value
Productivity: Involves financial valuation of outputs
to inputs
Consistent delivery of outcomes desired by
customers should command higher prices
Effectiveness: Degree to which firm meets goals
Cannot divorce productivity from quality and
customer satisfaction
27. MEASURING SERVICE PRODUCTIVITY:
VARIABILITY IS A MAJOR PROBLEM
Traditional measures of service output tend to ignore
variations in quality or value of service
Focus on outputs rather than outcomes
Stress efficiency but not effectiveness
Firms that consistently deliver outcomes desired by
customers can command higher prices; loyal customers are
more profitable
Measures with customers as denominator include:
Profitability by customer
Capital employed per customer
Shareholder equity per customer
29. QUESTIONS WHEN DEVELOPING STRATEGIES
TO IMPROVE SERVICE PRODUCTIVITY
How to transform inputs into outputs efficiently?
Will improving productivity hurt quality?
Will improving quality hurt productivity?
Are employees or technology the key to productivity?
Can customers contribute to higher productivity?
30. GENERIC PRODUCTIVITY
IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES
Typical strategies to improve service productivity:
Careful control of costs at every step in process
Efforts to reduce wasteful use of materials or labour
Replacing workers by automated machines
Installing expert systems that allow paraprofessionals to
take on work previously performed by professionals who
earn higher salaries
Although improving productivity can be approached
incrementally, major gains often require redesigning
entire processes
31. IMPROVING SERVICE PRODUCTIVITY:
(1) OPERATIONS-DRIVEN STRATEGIES
Control costs, reduce waste
Set productive capacity to match average demand
Automate labour tasks
Upgrade equipment and systems
Train employees
Broadening array of tasks that a service worker can perform
Leverage less-skilled employees through expert systems
Service process redesign
32. IMPROVING SERVICE PRODUCTIVITY:
(2) CUSTOMER-DRIVEN STRATEGIES
Change timing of customer demand
By shifting demand away from peaks, managers can
make better use of firm’s productive assets and provide
better service
Involve customers more in production
Get customers to self-serve
Encourage customers to obtain information and buy
from firm’s corporate websites
Ask customers to use third parties
Delegate delivery of supplementary service elements to
intermediary organizations
33. BACKSTAGE AND FRONT-STAGE PRODUCTIVITY
CHANGES: IMPLICATIONS FOR CUSTOMERS
Backstage improvements can ripple to front and affect customers
Keep abreast of proposed backstage changes, not only to
identify such ripples but also to prepare customers for them
For example: New printing peripherals may affect appearance of bank statements
Front-stage productivity enhancements are especially visible in
high contact services
Some improvements only require passive acceptance, while
others require customers to change behaviour
Must consider impacts on customers and address customer
resistance to changes
Better to conduct market research first if changes are
substantial
See Service Perspectives 14.1: Managing Customers’
Reluctance to Change
34. SUMMARY
Customers evaluate services using five different categories
Tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy
There are seven service quality gaps and solutions presented
in the Gaps Model
Knowledge, standards, delivery, internal communications gap,
perceptions, interpretation, service
Key tools for measuring and improving productivity are:
Fishbone diagram
Pareto Chart
Blueprinting
Total Quality Management (TQM)
ISO 9000
Malcolm Baldrige Model Applied to Services
Six Sigma