Ch 9: Customer-defined service standards

Question 1

Forms in which standardisation can be created (3)

Answer 1

1) Substitution of technology for personal contact and human effort
2) Improvement of work methods
3) Combination of these two methods

Question 2

Which gap does standardization reduce?

Answer 2

Gap 2

Question 3

What should goal-setting involve?

Answer 3

Specific targets for individual behaviours and actions

Question 4

Two categories of customer-defined standards

Answer 4

Hard customer-defined service standards
Soft customer-defined service standards

Question 5

Hard customer-defined service standards (def)

Answer 5

This usually has to do with reliability since this is often the single most important concern for a customer.

Examples are the percentage of orders delivered on time with complete accuracy.

Question 6

Soft customer-defined service standards (def)

Answer 6

Not all customer priorities can be counted, timed or observed through audits. These are the soft customer-defined service standards.

Example ‘understanding and knowing the customer’. Soft standards are important for person-to-person interactions.

Question 7

One-time fixes (def)

Answer 7

Technology, policy, or procedure changes that when instituted address customer requirements.

Question 8

Measuring behaviors and actions consists of …

Answer 8

counts or audits or timed actions that provide feedback about the operational performance of a service standard

Question 9

9 steps for setting customer-defined standards

Answer 9

1. Identify existing or desired service encounter sequence
2. Translate customer expectations into behaviours/actions
3. Select behaviours/actions for standards
4. Set hard or soft standards
5. Develop feedback mechanisms
6. Establish measures and target levels
7. Track measures against standards
8. Provide feedback about performance to employees
9. Update target levels and measures

Question 10

Service performance indices (def)

Answer 10

Comprehensive composites of the most critical performance. Not all service performance indices contain customer-defined standards but the best are based on them.