Part one: Service Quality in the eyes of the customer Researching service quality – The concept of a service quality information system 14.5.2012 1

How to research service quality, maintain and improve it “What you can not measure that you can not manage” Plan a system of systematic information gathering about perceived service from customers Use different manners to gather information about service quality Make a plan how to use the information to maintain and improve service quality

Ways to gather information about service quality Questionnaires Commonly used Easy to conduct, easy to outsource Can give information about service quality from a large number of customers Easy to analyze Questions, answering scale, open questions Critical incidents technique Qualitative way to study customers’ quality perceptions The so called Critical incidents are looked for in customers’ experiences, and then they are mapped in different categories Narratives Customersù stories are analysed in a way how the story is told (the struture of the story, the themes that exist in the story etc.) Internet feedback on companiesì web sites commonly take a story form Mystery customers A group of researchers/experts observe the service quality attributes as common customers and then later on reports about their observations on qualtiy provided by the company Think about the strenghts and the weaknesses of different ways to measure quality?

A Listening Organization Comments cards Customer Questionnaires Market Research Customer Complaints Mystery Shopping Corridor Converstions Lost customer and New customer discussions Focus Groups External customers  Customer Interface Employee feedback Internal Customers Employee reports Focus Groups Employees’ discussions 4

Companies that gather sytematically customer information with multiple research methods make better profits (A finding from a study Brannick et al. 1997 about listening organizations)

How to use information about service quality Information about service quality can be related to three different levels: Strategic Operational Service encounters at the customer interface Strategic and operational decisions, changements and improvements are more timetaking that changes and improvements in service encounters

Service strategy triad, service quality and service quality improvements Target market Who are the customers? Service Quality Service quality Service quality Service encounters What does happen when the service and the customer meet and interact? Service Concept What is the service offering? Service delivery system Service Design choices How will the service be delivered?

Thank you for your attention Looking forward for the next lecture