Tutorial One

Lesson Two

a) Haywood-Farmer’s Model

Professional judgement refers to:

diagnosis, advice, guidance, innovation honesty, confidentiality flexibility/ discretion knowledge, skill

Typically, professional services, like legal and health care services, are heavily dependent on the judgement element to deliver quality service. Understanding the model will help the service firm ensure it pays attention to the specific areas of concern, and ensuring these areas of concern are adequately addressed. This becomes the basis of the parameters to design into the service, and the rest of the task is to monitors if they delivered.

However, take for example the doctor’s service of accurate diagnosis must be completed by the reception’s courtesy and empathy when patient’s register at the beginning and when at completion how the patients are treated by counter staff, whether in collecting payment or assigning the next appointment. Other elements, in Haywood-Farmer’s Model may need to be evaluated. They are:

* Physical processes facilities layout, size, decor, reliability process flow, capacity balance, control of flow process flexibility, timeliness, speed range of services offered, communications (written)

* Behaviour of people and conviviality timeliness, speed, communications (verbal) warmth, friendliness, tact, attitude, tone of voice dress, neatness, politeness attentiveness, anticipation handling of complaints, solving problems

The correct mix of the above three elements, will depend on the type of service package.

Students expected to name the service and a brief description; describe why its delivery depends on judgement; why judgement alone may not deliver the complete service and how 2 other elements in the model may help; concluding comments on the interplay of the 3 elements.

b) The Service Package

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Services are characterised by intangibility but majority of services have some small tangible elements in it. This takes us into the concept of the service package, which comprises a bundle of goods and services.

Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons (1994)break the service package into 4 components:

1. Supporting facility The physical resources that must be present before a service can be offered. Examples – golf course for a game of golf, aircraft for airline service, hospital for healthcare

2. Facilitating Goods The material purchased or consumed by the buyer or items provided by the customer. Examples – golf clubs for a game of golf, food in aircraft, medical supplies in a hospital

3. Explicit services The benefits that are readily observable by the senses and consist of the essential or intrinsic features of the service. Examples – absence of pain after a bad tooth is repaired, smooth running of a car after tune-up, the response times of the fire service

4. Implicit services Psychological benefits that the customer may sense only vaguely or extrinsic features of the service. Examples – status of the degree from a prestigious university, the privacy of a loan office, worry-free car repair

The students are expected to:1. Briefly describe the svc package and its 4 components2. Clearly describe the Explicit Service and Implicit Service 3. Based on the Explicit / Implicit Service offered, highlight the supporting facility and

facilitating goods offered and why they are consistent with the services offered.

For examples:

Singapore AirlinesExplicit Service – Singapore Airlines provides international air travel routes with focus on comfort, convenience, excellent on-board service. Target segment are not cost conscious travelers but business travelers and travelers seeking convenience and comfort.

Implicit Service – Safe, comfortable travel with a renowned international airline

The supporting facilities and facilitating goods mirror the explicit / implicit service:- Comfortable airline lounges at airports prior to boarding- Aircrafts that are new (< 5 yrs of service) and fitted with Video on demand, wider seats,

more legroom- A380s that offer suites- Facilitating goods like choice of food, drinks and amenities

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Air AsiaExplicit Service – Air Asia provides mostly regional travel routes with focus on cost (cheap), no-frills service. Target segment are budget travelers with less concern for convenience and comfort.

Implicit Service – value for money

The supporting facilities and facilitating goods mirror the explicit / implicit service:- Operate out of budget terminals- Small, efficient aircraft with narrow seats and free seating- Little or no facilitating goods like food / drinks

Conclusion: Based on the Explicit / Implicit service philosophy of each type of airlines, the supporting facilities and facilitating goods are consistent with their approach.

Lecture Three

Strategic service visionfull-time surgeons perform over 7500 hemiorrhapies each year. The facility, which looks much

like a mansion, is purposely comfortable, featuring a 23-acre (9.3 ha) property. The centre is owned by Shouldice Hospital Limited.

Pre_sugrery Surgery Recovery Follow Up

Strategic service vision is about establishing a focused vision of what a firm wants to do and thence, focusing on this vision to deliver the best to their customers. Examples of success stories – Shouldice Hospital & Carrefour.

Basic elements of a strategic service vision

Establish target market segment Service concept Operating strategy Service delivery system

Lesson Four

a) Measuring Quality

Service quality is difficult to measure because the outputs of many services are intangible or subject to individual judgments. Ultimately, the measure of service quality is a measure of

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customer satisfaction. But, customer satisfaction is a measure of the discrepancy between the customer’s expectations before the service is delivered and his or her perceptions of the service that is delivered, which are both subjective evaluations.

A measurement tool called SERVQUAL attempts to deal with this difficulty by tracking service quality trends by measuring the gaps between customer expectations and perceptions. Surrogate measures such as customer waiting times and the number of customer complaints may also be used to assess customer satisfaction and service quality.

In addition to the difficulties in measuring the quality of outputs, service organizations face another important problem related to quality. Because services usually are provided and consumed simultaneously, there seldom is enough time to remedy an incidence of poor service before the customer is involved in the process.

(Explanation on difficulties of measurement 30 marks, Description and methodology of SERVQUAL or other method of measurement 40 marks)

b) Enhancing Customer Satisfaction with Service Recovery

This cannot work because of the following reasons:

Procedures may become robotic, giving the impression that the organisation is good at service recovery because it happens a lot.

Standard letters are somewhat impersonal whereas customers do not want to be treated routinely.

Procedures may mean that the organisation does not always listen to what the customer wants to happen, but it instigates a standard response.

Many recovery processes are focused on recovering the customer, rather than on ensuring that the problem does not reoccur – which is an outcome most customers actually want to see.

c) Gap Analysis – problem with High-volume/low-variety and Low volume/high-variety service

Problems:

High-volume/low-variety service provider such as SMRT services often portray degrees of personal attention that are not delivered in practice. Leisure services such as hotels or restaurants attempt to give the impression that they provide ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences, which are in fact mass-produced.

Low volume/high-variety service customers often expect much more service (such as free advice) than the fee rate supports. Professional service may be experienced as arrogant (flaunting expertise). High variety services may not be as consistent as high-volume/low-variety operations. Whilst the essence of the service may be delivered to expectations, some of the

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details of delivery might be less well executed because professionals may see them as less important.

Solutions:

Consistent service is expected at all times but this is difficult for the volumes of customer transactions. Ensuring that customer expectations are not raised excessively is a key strategy. Operations input into the development of the service offer are critical. Having the staff experience the service as a customer helps them to understand what is important to customers.

Low volume/high-variety service providers often employ Key Account Managers to smooth over any gaps between expectation and delivery. This approach works well for the handful of ‘strategic’ (high value) major accounts. For the next tier of less valuable, more numerous customers, some organisations allocate a relationship manager as a named point of contact, though the service they can provide is usually limited.

d) The 5 dimensions of Service Quality

They are Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance (Credibility, Security, Competence and Courtesy), Empathy (Understanding, Communications and Access)

1. Tangibles The physical appearance of the facilities, staff, building, etc. Example, does the equipment appear modern?, How clean is the waitress’s apron?

2. Reliability The ability to reproduce the same level of service again and again. Example, Is feedback consistently given to students?

3. Responsiveness The speed with which queries are dealt with. Example, are email queries to a company replied to promptly or are they ignored or not replied in a timely manner.

4. Assurance The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. It includesCredibility – The trustworthiness of the service provider Security – The physical safety of the customer or privacy of the client’s informationCompetence – The technical expertise of the service provider.Courtesy – The attitude of the service provider. Example, Is the receptionist friendly, Is the surgeon qualified to perform heart surgery, Does the financial consultant present all the options?

5. Empathy Caring, individualized attention which the service provider provides to his customers. It

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includesUnderstanding – How well does the service provider understand his client’s needsCommunication – The clarity of the information given to the clientAccess – How easy is it to reach the service provider? Examples: Does it always take 5 attempts to reach the lawyer, Does the banks understand that customers cannot get to the banks during office hours?, Does the doctor take the time and effort to explain the medical situation to a patient?

Students are expected to explain the 5 dimensions and using the example of the chosen organization, explain what the organization can do to meet the expectations along each dimension.

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