1. Service Quality

2. Indira Gandhi International Airport named world's second best airport for service quality
June 5, 2014 | PTI
NEW DELHI: For the third year in a row, Indira Gandhi International Airport here has been adjudged the second best airport in the world for its service quality among the airports handling million passengers per annum (MPPA). Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport was placed at the fifth position in this category by the Airport Council International (ACI). ACI is a global body of airports which represents their...

3. TRAI seeks public views on relaxing service quality norms
May 21, 2014 | PTI
NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator TRAI has sought public opinion on relaxing fixed line and mobile phone service quality norms on issues like fault repair, false billing, response from customer care and other consumer grievances. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) can impose a penalty up to Rs 10 lakh per violation if a telecom operator fails to meet quality of service (QoS) standards laid down by it for fixed lines and mobile phones. In their feedback to TRAI,...

4. Bharti Airtel does a ‘quality’ check to beat competition blues
April 8, 2014 | ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Sharad Jaiswal, vice-president at Bharti Airtel-owned retail stores segment, was recently at an outlet that sells SIM cards and other services. Dressed in a red Airtel T-shirt as trainees do, he spoke to customers and realised one of the most common problems — they dislike the 24-hour wait to get new connections activated. For the 38-year-old executive, who has been with India's largest mobile phone operator for two years, it was a...

5. China’s health care system is ailing, and the prognosis for a cure in the near future is not good. Underlying some of China’s most basic health care challenges is the “wide but shallow distribution of health insurance,” says Burns. Recent reforms have extended health care to 95% of the population — most of whom have never had insurance before — a development that has caused serious strains on the delivery system. Now that consumers have access, “everyone wants to go to the major academic health centers, which means there are enormous lines starting early in the morning to get in and see a specialist,” says Burns, who toured several health care facilities during his teaching week. Not everyone gets through the line, however, and people who do get in don’t always get the results they want.

6. Service Quality
Customers form perceptions of quality during the service transaction - how effectively and efficiently the service was delivered and the speed and convenience of completing the transaction
Customers evaluate support activities that occur after the transaction, that is post-sale services

7. Definitions of Service Quality
Service quality can be defined according to both the what and how a product or service is delivered.
Gronroos distinguishes between“technical quality” and “functional quality”.

8. Definitions of Service Quality
■ Technical Quality is concerned with the outcome of the delivered product or service. Customers use service quality attributes such as reliability, competence, performance, durability, etc. to evaluate technical quality.
■Functional Quality has more to do with how the technical quality is transferred to the consumer. Service quality attributes such as responsiveness and access would be important in helping the customer judge the functional quality of the service encounter.

9. Mapping Service Quality
Parasuraman and his colleagues found that service quality is a measure between service perceptions as well as expectations
Service quality stems from a comparison of what a consumer feels a service firm should offer (desires or wants) versus their perception of what the service firm actually does offer
Ensuring good service quality involves meeting or exceeding consumers’ expectations

10. Measuring service quality ( Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry)
Reliability
Responsiveness
Service
Quality
Assurance
Empathy
Tangibles

11. Service Quality Dimensions
Reliability: Delivering on Promises
Responsiveness: Being Willing to Help
Assurance: Inspiring Trust and Confidence
Empathy: Treating Customers as Individuals
Tangibles: Representing the Service Physically

12. How Customers Judge the Five Dimensions of Service Quality

13. Activity
What do the five dimensions of service quality mean in the context of :
(a) a hotel
(b) a bank?

14. The Gaps Model of Service Quality
Consumer
Past experience
Expected service
Perceived service
Service delivery (including pre- and post-contacts)
External communications to consumers
Translations of perceptions into service quality specifications
Management perceptions of consumer expectations
GAP 5
GAP 3
GAP 2
GAP 1
GAP 4
Personal needs
Word-of-mouth communications
Marketer

15. The Customer Gap
Expected Service
Customer Gap
Perceived Service

16. Customer expectations
Reasons
for
Customer
Gap
Customer expectations
Not knowing what customers expect
Not selecting the right service standards and designs
Not delivering to service standards
Not matching performance to promised
Customer
perceptions

17. Provider Gaps
To close the Customer Gap – the provider gaps need to be closed
These gaps occur within the organization providing the service

18. Provider Gaps Not knowing what customers expect
Not selecting the right service standards and designs
Not delivering to service standards
Not matching performance to promised

19. Provider Gaps The Listening Gap The Service design and standards gap
The service performance gap
The communication gap

20. IKEA
“Putting customers in the ‘wish mode’ is an innovative approach that proved successful for IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, when it opened its Chicago retail outlet. In this approach, nine groups of a dozen customers each were asked to dream up their idea shopping experience. They were told to pretend that all IKEA stores had been destroyed and new ones had to be designed from scratch. How would the store look? What would the shopping experience be like? Jason Magidson, who helped IKEA create the process, reported that customers responded with statements like the following:
“I never feel disoriented because I always know exactly where I am in relation to every department”, “If I am buying one item, all of the other items that go with it are nearby”, ‘Shopping is a pleasant, relaxing experience.’

21. Even though they were not technical experts, customers were asked to actually draw up a design for a store that would satisfy their needs. What is significant about IKEA’s approach is not just that the company asked customers what they expected but that they subsequently incorporated these expectations into the service design for the store. Designers created a multistory octagonal building with an atrium (the central area in a building lighted from above) in the centre that formed a home base for shoppers, addressing their concern about being able to find items easily. In keeping with another customer expectation, items were grouped together with related products. When shoppers were tired or hungry, they could go to the cafeteria-style restaurant on the upper floor that served Swedish food. IKEA’s customers were so satisfied with the store (85% rated it as “excellent” or “very good”) that they returned more and spent about an hour longer than they did in other IKEA stores.

22. The company’s supplier network is carefully chosen and managed to ensure quality and consistency. Despite the fact that the company has stores in more than 20 countries, it keeps standards, designs, and approaches very consistent everywhere. Servicescapes – the indoor and outdoor physical environments – are unique and customer focused. IKEA is also well known for its strong employee culture and careful hiring and training. Further, it has an innovative service concept that involves customers in the delivery, assembly and creation of its products. To accomplish this service, the company educates its customers thoroughly with its script-like catalogs.”

23. Provider Gap 1
It is the difference between customer expectations of service and company’s understanding of those expectations

24. Customer’s expectations Company’s perceptions of customer expectations
Reasons
for
provider
gap I
Customer’s expectations
Inadequate marketing research orientation
Lack of upward communication
Insufficient relationship focus
Inadequate service recovery
Company’s perceptions of customer expectations

25. What may be done….
Marketing Research to capture information about customer expectations
Management needs to be in close contact with frontline employees
Relationship marketing
Appropriate service recovery strategies

26. Provider Gap 2
It is the difference between company understanding of customer expectations and development of customer-driven service design and standards

27. Translation of perceptions into service quality specifications
Reasons
for
provider
gap 2
Poor service design
Absence of customer-defined service standards
Inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape
Management perceptions of customer expectations

28. What may be done…….
Clearly design services using tools such as service blueprinting
Develop customer-defined service standards
Utilize strategies for effectively designing physical evidence and the servicescape to meet customer expectations

29. Provider Gap 3
It is the discrepancy between development of customer-driven service standards and actual service performance by company employees

30. Customer-driven service designs and standards
Reasons
for
provider
gap 3
Customer-driven service designs and standards
Poor human resource policies
Failure to match supply and demand
Customer not fulfilling their roles
Problems with service intermediaries
Service delivery

31. What may be done ……
Issues related to the company’s human resource function need to be addressed
Understanding customer roles and how customers can themselves influence service delivery and outcomes
A firm must develop ways to either control or motivate these intermediaries to meet company goals

32. Provider Gap 4
It is the difference between service delivery and the service provider’s external communications

33. External communications to consumers
Reasons
for
provider
gap 4
Lack of integration of marketing communications
Inadequate management of customer expectations
Over promising
Inadequate horizontal communications
Service delivery

34. What may be done……
Effective co-ordination of actual service delivery with external communications
Manage all communications to customers so that inflated promises do not lead to higher expectations

35. PROCESS MODEL FOR CONTINUOUS MEASUREMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF SERVICE QUALITY
DO YOUR CUSTOMERS PERCEIVE
YOUR OFFERINGS AS MEETING
OR EXCEEDING THEIR EXPECTATIONS?
YES
CONTINUE TO MONITOR
CUSTOMERS’ EXPECTATIONS
AND PERCEPTIONS NO
DO YOU HAVE AN ACCURATE
UNDERSTANDING OF
CUSTOMERS’ EXPECTATIONS? NO
TAKE CORRECTIVE ACTION
YES
ARE THERE SPECIFIC
STANDARDS IN PLACE TO MEET
CUSTOMERS’ EXPECTATIONS? NO
TAKE CORRECTIVE ACTION
YES
DO YOUR OFFERINGS MEET OR
EXCEED THE STANDARDS? NO
TAKE CORRECTIVE ACTION
YES NO
IS THE INFORMATION
COMMUNICATED TO CUSTOMERS
ABOUT YOUR OFFERINGS ACCURATE?
TAKE CORRECTIVE ACTION
YES 35

36. SERVQUAL A gap analysis research instrument
Created by Parasuraman, Zeithamel, and Berry
Introduced in 1988
The marketing research team of Parasuraman, Zeithamel, and Berry created this service quality measuring tool in 1988
Has been used in a wide range of studies including fields such as health care, banking, appliance repair, and many other professions
Five Gaps include
Customer expectations vs. managerial perceptions
Manager’s expectations of quality vs. quality specs
Communication with customer at point of service or sale
Service delivery vs. communication
Perceived services vs. expected services
SERVQUAL is not a measurement to compare and rank separate companies but only to provide a measure for managers to determine actions needed in their own services

37. Servqual Data - How Useful is it?
We can compare the expectations and perceptions of different customer groups
We can assess the expectations and perceptions of internal customers

38. Servqual Instrument There are 22 items which can be rated
i.e. modern looking equipment, prompt service, understanding of needs, etc.
These items are broken up into 5 dimensions:
Tangibles (Items 1-4)
Reliability (Items 5-9)
Responsiveness (Items 10-13)
Assurance (Items 14-17)
Empathy (Items 18-22)
Tangibles: appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials Reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately Responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service Assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence Empathy: the caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers
Reliability is the most important dimension
Tangibles is the least important dimension
There is a shared importance between Reliability and Responsiveness

39. Servqual Instrument
Perceptions and Expectations are given a rating for certain dimensions
Ratings scale
1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree)
Average expectation rating is then subtracted from the average perception rating
Average ratings should usually be taken from a sample size of at least 50 participants