4: Service and Service Delivery Flashcards
Service
Combinations of outcomes and experience delivered to an received by a customer.
Production of an intangible benefit, either on its own or as a significant element of another tangible product.
Inside out
Focus is on the processes, systems, tools and products that are designed and implemented based on an internal thinking and intuition.
Outside in
Focus on the customer’s perspective so design the processes, systems etc based on what’s best for the customer.
Characteristics of pure services
Intangible. Cannot be stored. Production and consumption are simultaneous. High consumer contact. Cannot be transported. Quality difficult to judge. Short response time. Local markets. Labour intensive.
SHIP model of services
Simultaneity
Heterogeneity
Intangibility
Perishability
Inseparability
Services often produced and consumed simultaneously.
Solution: service organisations should consider learning to work in larger groups, working faster, train more competent service providers.
Variability
Quality of the service may vary depending on who, when and how it is provided.
Solution: provide better training and supervision of staff, improve communication.
Heterogeneity
Each ‘unit’ of service may differ from other ‘units. Difficult to ensure the same level of output in terms of quality.
Solution: careful personnel selection and training, ensure standards are monitored, pre-packaged service, industrialise for quality control.
‘Professional’ services
Very accessible with customer contact over a considerable time.
Highly customised/bespoke.
Front-office focus - staff use own discretion.
Significant staff skills.
Staff to customer ratio is high.
People based focus on how service is delivered.
‘Mass’ services
High volume of customer transactions, limited contact time, little customisation.
Equipment and product oriented.
Focus on product/service and back office.
Front office staff tend not to be allowed to use discretion.
Clear division of labour / set procedure followed.
‘Service’ shop
Mixture of professional and mass services.
Service concept
Describes the way in which an organisation would like to have its services perceived by its customers, employees, shareholders and lenders.
Must be deliverable and relevant to whole organisation.
Three aspects that need designing
Concept, package, process.
Stages of product/service design
Concept generation, Concept screening, Preliminary design, Evaluation and improvement, Prototyping and final design.
Service quality
Measure of the levels of the explicit and implicit benefits provided to the customer.
SERVQUAL
Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, Responsiveness.
‘Gap’ model
Perceived quality is governed by the gap between customers’ expectations and their perceptions of service.
Gap 1
Not knowing what customers expect/want.
Gap 2
Not selecting the right design standards.
Gap 3
Not delivering to service standards.
Gap 4
Not matching performance to promises.
Gap 5
Between customer perceptions and customer expectations.
Process Chain Network (PCN)
A service improvement tool. A network of independent process chains that span multiple process entities.
3 regions of a process domain
- Direct interaction - people with people.
- Surrogate interaction - people with things
- Independent processing - entity acting only with entity’s own resources.
Principles of PCN analysis
Process efficiency
Customisation
Economies of scale
Surrogate interaction
Importance of good service recovery
If things go wrong, the way you deal with that failure can impact customer loyalty. If there's a service failure and the service recovery is amazing, that customer may be more loyal afterwards than they would be had there not been a service failure. E.g. being upgraded to first class for a delayed flight.
