Managing People for Service Advantage

Question 1

What is the cycle of mediocrity?

Answer 1

uccess defined by not making mistakes, wages and benefits are good with high job security, narrow job design, initiative is discouraged. –> think hire car companies

Question 2

What is the cycle of failure?

Answer 2

emphasis on rules rather than service, low wages, employee become bored, leads to no customer loyalty –> think fast food chains, or low-cost retail chains –> people wont visit based on loyalty, it will be out of convenience and purely based on product, no switching barriers.

Question 3

What is the cycle of success?

Answer 3

training and empowerment of frontline personnel to control quality, above average wages, extensive training, leads to customer loyalty and low customer turnover.

Question 4

LO5: explain how to attract, select, train, motivate and retain outstanding frontline employees

Answer 4

• Hire the right people, identify the best people, train service employees actively, empower the frontline, motivate and energise people, build high-performance delivery systems
• Other ways to attract the right people are: be the preferred employer brand, hire for service attitude, train for skill relevant to the job.
• Employers can: observe behaviour, conduct personality tests, give applicants a realistic preview of the job

Question 5

LO6: What is the role of service culture and service leadership in sustaining service excellence

Answer 5

• Instead of having the frontline at the bottom of the pyramid, as the face of the organisation they should be secondary only to the customers, with middle and top management helping to support them.