Employees Role in service Delivery Managing People in Service Organizations Employees Role in service Delivery

Service Performance Gap Service Designs and Standards Provider Gap 3 CUSTOMER Service Delivery COMPANY Service Performance Gap Customer-Driven Service Designs and Standards Part 5 Opener

What Are Appropriate Roles for People and Technology? How do employees’ attitudes, appearances, and performances affect our success? How do we select, train, and motivate customer contact employees? Is technology a key strategic thrust in our business or just another operations tool? How would new technologies impact productivity and/or service quality? Do customers have the skills and desire to use self service options?

Service Employees Who are they? What are these jobs like? “boundary spanners” What are these jobs like? emotional labor many sources of potential conflict person/role organization/client interclient quality/productivity tradeoffs

Service Employees They are the service They are the firm in the customer’s eyes They are marketers Employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction are linked Quality service is highly dependent on recruiting, training, and retaining employees who can deliver and will deliver excellent service.

Service Culture “A culture where an appreciation for good service exists, and where giving good service to internal as well as ultimate, external customers, is considered a natural way of life and one of the most important norms by everyone in the organization.” Christian Gronroos (1990)

Empowerment Empowerment means giving employees the desire, skills, tools, and authority to serve the customer.

Empowerment and Enablement Giving employees greater discretion to act without seeking supervisor approval Training them to use their own judgment in: solving service problems responding to customer needs, concerns customizing service delivery Giving workers tools and resources needed

Factors Favoring Employee Empowerment Firm’s strategy is based on competitive differentiation and on personalized, customized service Emphasis on long 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, are good at group processes

Empowerment Benefits: Drawbacks: quicker responses to customer needs during service delivery quicker responses to dissatisfied customers during service recovery employees feel better about their jobs and themselves employees tend to interact with warmth/enthusiasm empowered employees are a great source of ideas great word-of-mouth advertising from customers Drawbacks: potentially greater dollar investment in selection and training higher labor costs potentially slower or inconsistent service delivery may violate customers’ perceptions of fair play employees may “give away the store” or make bad decisions

Emotional labor is…. the type of labor that goes beyond physical or mental skills, drawing on employees’ feelings and inner emotions.

Emotional Labor is … Showing sincere interest. Delivering smiles. Making eye contact. Engaging in friendly conversation with people who are essentially strangers. Suppressing true feelings at the moment.

Emotional Labor “The act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions” (Hochschild, The Managed Heart) Problem: employees may not feel such emotions Three approaches used by employees surface acting deep acting spontaneous response Performing emotional labor in response to society’s or management’s display rules can be stressful Good HR practice emphasizes selective recruitment, training, counseling, strategies to alleviate stress

Think about a jobs you have had Think about a jobs you have had? Was emotional labor a major part of the job?

Levels of Employee Involvement Suggestion involvement employee recommendations Job involvement jobs redesigned employees retrained supervisors facilitate High involvement information is shared employees skilled in teamwork, problem solving, business ops. participate in decisions profit sharing, stock ownership

FISH Philosophy               One drizzly day in a small fish market on the West Coast, a group of workers muddled through their jobs of chopping and selling fish.  Suddenly, there was a revelation:  If they had to show up and do these somewhat mundane tasks anyway,  why not HAVE FUN?     The employees of the fish market started to change their attitudes.  It became common to see fish flying across the bins of the kiosk.    Shoppers were brought into the act, and were prompted  to catch the fish being thrown across the room.  Businessmen from the commercial buildings across the street began to come during their lunch hours just to watch the spirit of play being such a success in the workplace.       Eventually, the workers of the fish market developed an entire philosophy about work, which involves the following rules: Have Fun Choose Your Attitude Make Someone's Day   Be There

Front – Line Employees Boundary Spanning Roles External Environment Internal Environment

Boundary-Spanning Workers Juggle Many Issues Person versus role Organization versus client Client versus client Quality vs production

Sources of Conflict for Boundary-Spanning Workers Person vs. Role Employees feel that they must suppress their own personalities, or values to effectively perform their jobs. Organization vs. Client Employees are faced with conflicting needs of the organization vs. the customer. Client vs. Client These conflicts occur when the employee is serving multiple customers with conflicting needs – may not be able to satisfy everyone. Quality vs. Productivity Employees are asked to provide high quality and be efficient.

Reflect on your own role as a front-line service provider Reflect on your own role as a front-line service provider. Have you experienced any of these types of conflicts? person/role organization/client inter-client quality/productivity

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

Human Resource Strategies for Closing Service Gaps Hire for Service Competencies and Service Inclination Compete for the Best People Be the Preferred Employer Measure and Reward Strong Service Providers Train for Technical and Interactive Skills Hire the Right People Customer- oriented Service Delivery Develop People to Deliver Service Quality Treat Employees as Customers Retain the Best People Empower Employees Include Employees in the Company’s Vision Provide Needed Support Systems Promote Teamwork Develop Service- oriented Internal Processes Measure Internal Service Quality Provide Supportive Technology and Equipment

The Cycle of Success Low customer turnover Repeat emphasis on customer loyalty and retention Customer loyalty Higher profit margins Broadened Lowered turnover, job designs high service quality Continuity in relationship with Train, empower frontline personnel to control quality customer Employee satisfaction, positive service attitude c l e C y e e o y Above average Extensive m p l wages E training High customer Intensified satisfaction selection effort c l e y m e r C t o C u s Source: Schlesinger and Heskett

* reliability * assurance * tangibles * empathy * responsiveness Select a service provider with whom you are familiar and discuss ways this person could positively influence the five dimensions of service quality in the context of delivering his or her services. * reliability * assurance * tangibles * empathy * responsiveness

The Services Marketing Triangle Company (Management) Internal Marketing External Marketing “Enabling the promise” “Making the promise” Employees Customers Interactive Marketing “Delivering the promise” Source: Adapted from Mary Jo Bitner, Christian Gronroos, and Philip Kotler

Services Marketing Triangle Applications Exercise Focus on a service organization. Who occupies each of the three points of the triangle? How is each type of marketing being carried out currently? Are the three sides of the triangle well aligned? Are there specific challenges or barriers in any of the three areas?

Ways to Use the Services Marketing Triangle Overall Strategic Assessment How is the service organization doing on all three sides of the triangle? Where are the weaknesses? What are the strengths? Specific Service Implementation What is being promoted and by whom? How will it be delivered and by whom? Are the supporting systems in place to deliver the promised service?

The Service Profit Chain Source: An exhibit from J. L. Heskett, T. O. Jones, W. E. Sasser, Jr., and L. A. Schlesinger, “Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 1994, p. 166.

Traditional Organizational Chart Manager Supervisor Supervisor Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Customers

Customer-Focused Organizational Chart Customers Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Front-line Employee Supervisor Supervisor Manager