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DESIGNING QUALITY SERVICES

High-quality service is essential for competitiveness and can evenimprove employee satisfaction. However, services, like quality, is a multidimensional term.

Quality service is not only an imperative for competitiveness but alsoa sign of quality maturity.

In today’s economy, services still is a major differentiator that allowsfirms to beat competitors in the marketplace.

In this chapter we discuss services in general first and then servicesfrom a quality perspective. Tools such as the SERVQUAL, gapanalysis and services

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SERVICES AND MANUFACTURING

Services are distinguished from manufacturing on severaldimensions. First, many service attributes are intangible. This meansthat they cannot be inventoried or carried in stock over long periodsof time. However, all services have some tangible aspects as well. The outputs of services are also heterogeneous. This means that formany companies, no two services are exactly the same.

One useful distincition between services and manufacturing centerson the aspect of customer contact. Customers tend to be moreinvolved in the production of services than they are in production of goods.

Internal versus External Services

External services are those whose customer pay the bills. Internalservices are in house services such as data processing, prrinting andmail.

Voluntary versus InvoluntaryServices

Voluntary services are services that we actively seek out andemploy of our own accord.

The quintessential example of an involuntary service is a prison. It is generally more difficult to achieve high levels of customersatistifaction in involuntary services.

How Are Service Quality IssuesDifferent from Those of Manufacturing? Because services’ attributes can be intangible, it is sometimes

difficult to obtain hard data relating to services. In manufacturing, dimensions such as heigh, weigh and width are available formeasurement.

In manufacturing, repetitive tasks are easily measured and cycletimes are generally consistent. When customers are intimatelyinvolved in processes, there is much more customization and muchmore variability than in manufacturing.

Product liability issues in services are very different frommanufacturing.

SERVQUAL

An important tool developed by Parasuraman, Zeithamel and Berry forassesing services quality is SERVQUAL. The SERVQUAL survey has beenused by many firms and is an off theshelf approach that can be used in many services situations. The SERVQUAL instrument, a survey, has manyadvantages. Among these are the following:

1- It is accepted as a standard for assesting different dimensions of services quality.2- It has been shown to be valid for a number of service situations.3- It has been demonstrated to be reliable, meaning that different readersinterpret the questions similarly.4- Each instrument is parsimonious is that they have only 22 items. Thismeans that it can be filled out quickly by customers and employees.5- Finally, it has a standardized analysis procedure to aid bothinterpretation and results.

Gap Analysis

The SERVQUAL instrument is useful for performing what is called gapanalysis. Because services are often intangable, gaps in communication and understanding between employees andcustomers have a serious negative effect on the perceptions of services quality.

DESIGNING AND IMPROVING THE SERVICES TRANSACTION

One of the ways to improve customers perceptions of quality is toimprove the process of delivery of the service.

Other concepts and tools include services blueprinting, moments of truth concept, and the Japanese method know as poka-yoke.

Services Blueprinting

A services blueprint is a flowchart that isolates potential fail points in a process.

There are four steps to developing a services blueprint:1- Identify Processes2- Isolate Fail Points3- Establish a Time Frame4- Analyze Profits

Moments of Truth

These are the times at which the customer expects something tohappen.

Customers contact with the business can ocur in many differentways face to face, over the Internet, by phone, through a machinesuch as an ATM, or through the mail. All these moments of truth resultin either happy customer or lost customers.

THE CUSTOMER BENEFITS PACKAGE

Just as many organizations have employee benefits packages, services firms can develop customer benefits packages (CBPs).

A customer benefits package consists of both tangibles that define the service and intangibles that make up the services.

CBPs are important not only in that they help define what it is thatyour service firm will provide to the customer but also in helping todefine what will not be provided to the customer.

SERVICE TRANSACTION ANALYSIS

This is a service improvement technique that allows managers toanalyze their service precesses at a very detailed level.

Service Transaction Analysıs is a method for identifying thesetransactions and evaluating them from the customer’s perpectiveto determine if there is a gap between service design and what thecustomer perceives as the service.

IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE IN GOVERNMENT

If customer service is the battlefield for business in the 21.century, then government is probably the last frontier. There are someevidences of improvement in several aspects of government.

The government has developed a searchable lists of 4,000 customerservice standards for 570 federal departments and agencies.

These early adopters were the Social Security Administration, the IRS and the Postal Service.

SUPPLY CHAIN QUALITY IN SERVICES

Service customers actually provide inputs to the supply chain. Many times, these inputs can be information or in some cases, labor

as in the case of a self-service gas station. Therefore, effective communication is necessary between

customers and suppliers to prevent inadequate fulfillment of customer expectations.

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