Employees' role in service delivery

The Services Marketing Triangle Internal Marketing Interactive Marketing External Marketing Company (Management) Customers Employees “Enabling the promise” “Delivering the promise” “Making the promise” Three interlinked groups work together to develop, promote and deliver services

Frontline Service Personnel: Source of Customer Loyalty and Competitive Advantage  Frontline is an important source of differentiation and competitive advantage. a core part of the product the service firm the brand  Frontline also drives customer loyalty, with employees playing key role in anticipating customer needs, customizing service delivery and building personalized relationships

Boundary Spanning Roles  Boundary spanners link the inside of the organization to the outside world  Multiplicity of roles often results in service staff having to pursue both operational and marketing goals  Consider management expectations of restaurant servers: deliver a highly satisfying dining experience to their customers be fast and efficient at executing operational task of serving customers do selling and cross selling, e.g. “We have some nice desserts to follow your main course”

Role Stress in the Frontline  Person vs. Role: Conflicts between what jobs require and employee’s own personality and beliefs  Organization vs. Customer: Dilemma whether to follow company rules or to satisfy customer demands  Customer vs. Customer: Conflicts between customers that demand service staff intervention 3 main causes of role stress:

Emotional Labor  The labor that goes beyond the physical and mental skills needed to deliver quality service.  “The act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions”

Service Culture  Corporate Culture The pattern of shared values and beliefs that give the members of an organization meaning, and provide them with the rules for behavior in the organization. Cannot be developed overnight. No magic or easy way to sustain a service culture.

Hire the Right People “The old saying ‘People are your most important asset’ is wrong. The RIGHT people are your most most important asset.” “The old saying ‘People are your most important asset’ is wrong. The RIGHT people are your most most important asset.” Jim Collins

Recruitment  The right people are a firm’s most important asset: take a focused, marketing-like approach to recruitment  Clarify what must be hired versus what can be taught  Clarify nature of the working environment, corporate values and style, in addition to job specs  Ensure candidates have/can obtain needed qualifications  Evaluate candidate’s fit with firm’s culture and values  Fit personalities, styles, energies to the appropriate jobs

 The Organizational Culture, Purpose and Strategy Promote core values, get emotional commitment to strategy Get managers to teach “why”, “what” and “how” of job.  Interpersonal and Technical Skills Both are necessary but neither is sufficient for optimal job performance  Product/Service Knowledge Staff’s product knowledge is a key aspect of service quality Staff need to be able to explain product features and to position products correctly Train Service Employees

Factors Favoring Employee Empowerment  Firm’s strategy is based on competitive differentiation and on personalized, customized service  Emphasis on long-term relationships vs. one-time transactions  Use of complex and non-routine technologies  Environment is unpredictable, contains surprises  Managers are comfortable letting employees work independently for benefit of firm and customers  Employees seek to deepen skills, like working with others, and are good at group processes

The Inverted Organizational Pyramid Frontline Staff Top Mgmt Middle Mgmt Legend: = Service encounters, or ‘Moments of Truth.’ Traditional Organizational Pyramid Inverted Pyramid with a Customer & Frontline Focus Customer Base Frontline Staff Middle Mgmt & Top Mgmt Support Frontline