Service quality, Complaint Handling and Service Recovery

Question 1

How does quality and productivity create benefits for customers? (1)

Answer 1

1. Quality focuses on the benefit created for customers whilst productivity addresses financial costs incurred by firm

Question 2

Whats is the importance of Productivity? (4)

Answer 2

1. Keeps costs down to improve profits and/or reduce prices
2. Enable firms to spend more on improving customer service and supplementary services
3. Secure firms future through increased spend on R&D
4. May impact service experience

Question 3

What are the different perspectives of service quality? (4)

Answer 3

1. Transcendent: Quality is excellence. Recognised only through experience
2. Manufacturing-based: Quality is in conformance to the firms developed specification
3. Customer-based: Quality lies in the eye of the beholder
4. Value-based: Quality is a trade-off between price and value

Question 4

What are the dimensions of service quality? (5)

Answer 4

1. Tangibles: appearance of physical elements
2. Reliability: dependable and accurate performance
3. Responsiveness: promptness, helpfulness
4. Assurance: competence, courtesy, credibility and security
5. Empathy: Easy access, good communication, understand of customer

Question 5

What are the proposed solutions to close the knowledge gap, 1 GAP (the service service quality gaps model)? (4)

Answer 5

• Educate management about what customers expect-
  1. Sharpen market research procedures, including questionnaire and interview design, sampling and field implementation, and repeat research studies once in a while
  2. Implement an effective customer feedback system that includes satisfaction research, complaint content analysis and customer panels
  3. Increase interaction between customers and management
  4. Facilitate and encourage communication between front line employees and management

Question 6

What are the proposed solutions to close the policy gap, GAP 2 (the serviceie quality gaps model)? (3)

Answer 6

• establish the right service processes and specify standards-
  1. Get the customer service processes right:
• use a rigorous, systematic and customer centric process for designing and redesigning customer service processes.
• Standardise repetitive work tasks to ensure consistency and reliability by substituting hard technology for human contact and improving work methods

2. Develop tiered service products that meet customer expectations
3. Set, communicate and reinforce measurable customer-oriented service standards for all work units

Question 7

What are the proposed solutions to close the delivery gap, GAP 3 (the service service quality gaps model)? (3)

Answer 7

• Ensure that performance meets standards and that customers understand the quality level delivered-

1. Ensure that customer service teams are motivated and able to meet service standards
2. Install the right technology, equipment, support processes and capacity
3. Manage customers for service quality

Question 8

What are the proposed solutions to close the communication gap, GAP 4 (the service service quality gaps model)? (3)

Answer 8

-close the internal communications gap by ensuring that communications promises are realistic and correctly understood by customers-

1. Educate managers responsible for sales and marketing communications about operational capabilities
2. Ensure that communications content sets realistic customer expectations
3. Be specific with promises and make sure that customers understand of communication content

Question 9

What are the proposed solutions to close the perceptions gap, GAP 5 (the service service quality gaps model)? (3)

Answer 9

• tangibility and communicate the service quality delivered-

1. Develop service environments and physical cues that are consistent with the level of service provided
2. For complex and credence services, keep customers informed during service delivery on what is being done, give briefings after delivery.
3. Provide physical evidence (for repairs, show customers the damaged components removed)

Question 10

What are the proposed solutions to close the service gap, GAP 6 (the service service quality gaps model)? (2)

Answer 10

1. Close gaps 1 to 5 to consistently meet customer expectations
2. Gap 6 is the accumulated outcome of all the preceding haps. it will be closed when gap 1 to 5 have been addressed.

Question 11

What is meant by soft measures of service quality? (3 + EX)

Answer 11

1. Not easily observed, must be collected by talking to customers, employees or others
2. Provide direction, guidance and feedback to employees on ways to achieve customer satisfaction
3. Can be quantified by measuring customer perceptions and beliefs

E.g. Surveys and panels

Question 12

What is meant by hard measures of service quality? (3)

Answer 12

1. Can be counted, timed or measured through audits
2. Typically operational processes or outcomes
3. Standards often set with reference to percentage occasions on which a particular measure is achieved

Question 13

What are the key objectives of customer feedback systems? (3)

Answer 13

1. Assessment and benchmarking of service quality and performance
2. Customer-driven learning and improvements
3. Creating a customer oriented service culture

Question 14

What are some customer feedback collection tools? (8)

Answer 14

1. Total market surveys
2. Post-transaction surveys
3. Ongoing customer surveys
4. Customer advisory panels
5. Employee survey/panels
6. Focus groups
7. Mystery shopping
8. Complaint analysis

Question 15

What does the Servqual survey instrument measure? (4)

Answer 15

customers evaluate firms service quality by comparing:

1. Their perceptions of service quality actually received with
2. Their prior expectations of companies in a particular industry
3. Poor Quality: expectations are greater than perceived performance ratings
4. Good quality: Perceived performance ratings exceed expectations

Question 16

What makes up the servqual? (3)

Answer 16

1. Developed primarily in context of face-to-face service encounters

2 Scale contains 22 items reflecting five dimensions of service quality

3. Scale may have to be customised to the research context as recent research suggests that it is not generalisable

Question 17

What are the three dimensions of perceived fairness in service recovery? (3)

Answer 17

1. Procedural justice – policies and rules that customer has to go through in order to seek service recovery.
2. Interactional justice – dealing with employees of the firm; their behaviour’s towards the aggrieved customer.
3. Outcome justice – compensation received by the customer.

Question 18

What actions can customers take when they are unsatisfied with service? (3)

Answer 18

1. Take some form of public action
   - complain to the service firm
   - complain to a third party
   - Take legal action to seek redress
2. Take some for of private action
   - Defect (switch provider)
   - negative WoM
3. Take no action