Quality of Service

1. Quality of Service Unit – customer service Assessment, expectations, standard procedures, codes of practice.

2. Quality of service “Actually Improving service in the eyes of the customer is what pays off. When service improvement leads to perceived service improvement, Quality becomes a profit strategy.” “In the long run the most important single factor affecting a units business performance is the quality of its products and services, relative to those of its competitors,’ Zethml et al. (1990 p. 20 )

3. More on Quality Advantages. Superior quality = Increased profits. “customers will go out of their way to buy a superior product and you can charge a toll for the trip” “the top third of companies that provided a superior product/service charged 5-6% higher”

4. Even more on Quality Advantages “in the long run superior / improving quality is the more effective way for a business to grow. Quality Leads to both increase in market share, and market expansion.” “this means that the business gains a scale advantage over a competitor as a result although there are short term costs these are offset by scale economics.”

5. Assessment of quality. The customers view on Quality. Service quality is more difficult for customers to evaluate than goods quality. What Methods can we use to Assess the service quality of the organization.

6. Assessment methods of service quality SERVQUAL OR RATER he SERVQUAL service quality model was developed by a group of American authors, 'Parsu' Parasuraman, Valarie Zeithaml and Len Berry, in 1988. It highlights the main components of high quality service. The SERVQUAL authors originally identified ten elements of service quality, but in later work, these were collapsed into five factors - reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness - that create the acronym RATER. Businesses using SERVQUAL to measure and manage service quality deploy a questionnaire that measures both the customer expectations of service quality in terms of these five dimensions, and their perceptions of the service they receive. When customer expectations are greater than their perceptions of received delivery, service quality is deemed low. In additional to being a measurement model, SERVQUAL is also a management model. The SERVQUAL authors identified five Gaps that may cause customers to experience poor service qu

7. servequal Gap 1: between consumer expectation and management perception[edit] This gap arises when the management does not correctly perceive what the customers want. For instance, hospital administrators may think patients want better food, but patients may be more concerned with the responsiveness of the nurse. Key factors leading to this gap are: Insufficient marketing research Poorly interpreted information about the audience's expectations Research not focused on demand quality Too many layers between the front line personnel and the top level management

8. Servqual Gap 2: between management perception and service quality specification[edit] Although the management might correctly perceive what the customer wants, they may not set an appropriate performance standard. An example would be when hospital administrators instruct nurses to respond to a request ‘fast’, but may not specify ‘how fast’. Gap 2 may occur due to the following reasons: Insufficient planning procedures Lack of management commitment Unclear or ambiguous service design Unsystematic new service development process

9. Servequal Gap 3: between service quality specification and service delivery[edit] This gap may arise through service personnel being poorly trained, incapable or unwilling to meet the set service standard. The possible major reasons for this gap are: Deficiencies in human resource policies such as ineffective recruitment, role ambiguity, role conflict, improper evaluation and compensation system Ineffective internal marketing Failure to match demand and supply Lack of proper customer education and training

10. Servequal Gap 4: between service delivery and external communication[edit] Consumer expectations are highly influenced by statements made by company representatives and advertisements. The gap arises when these assumed expectations are not fulfilled at the time of delivery of the service. For example, the hospital printed on the brochure may have clean and furnished rooms, but in reality it may be poorly maintained, in which case the patients' expectations are not met. The discrepancy between actual service and the promised one may occur due to the following reasons: Over-promising in external communication campaign Failure to manage customer expectations Failure to perform according to specifications

11. Servequal Gap 5: between expected service and experienced service[edit] This gap arises when the consumer misinterprets the service quality. For example, a physician may keep visiting the patient to show and ensure care, but the patient may interpret this as an indication that something is really wrong

12. What things create this gap / customer expectations. Competence , Courtesy, Credibility, Security, Access, Communication, knowing the customer, tangibles, reliability, Responsiveness. This was later narrowed down to 5. ( RATER) Reliability, assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, Responsiveness.

13. Standardised procedures in customer service. Class develop a set of procedures using the rater or servqual model for a chosen interaction. Alternatively the code of practice for same. Difference e.g. Customer emails. Procedure – a trained customer service professional must handle the email, all interactions must display courtesy, an email signature must always be used. Code of practice – we aim to answer all guest emails in a courteous & professional manner. We aim to achieve a 24 hour turnaround for all emails, a contact number and the name of the staff member will always be provided to you along with an enquiry number if applicable.

14. Codes of Practice Example http://www.mpal.com.au/PDF%5CPP075%20-%20Code%20of%20Practice%20-%20Customer%20Service.pdf

15. Bibliography Zeithaml, V A Parasureman, A Berry, L L 1990, Delivering Quality Service : The payoff of quality, The free press, New York, U.S.A.