Quality Customer Service –

Monitoring and
Communications
Prepared by: Joseph Bautista Dimaano, CTP
Service Operations

 Services operations often encounter different

opportunities and challenges than tangible goods, and
thus require unique operational considerations
 Service operations are simply the application of
operations management to an intangible good (i.e. a
service). To understand how service operations function

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Service Operations

 Service operations are the operational strategies and tactics which go

into delivering an intangible good to prospective consumers.
 Understanding this field of work requires an understanding of what a
service constitutes. One useful perspective in differentiating services
from other goods is the ‘5 I’s of services’ perspective.
 As services behave somewhat differently than tangible products,
operations managers must take into account different considerations
when optimizing their operational strategy.
 Improving overall quality through measuring consumer satisfaction,
planning facilities for optimal use of space, and effective scheduling
are a few examples of considerations service operators consider.
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5 I’s
 Intangibility – Services cannot be touched, shipped, handled, or looked at.
They are an occurrence, not a tangible good.
 Inventory – Services cannot be stored for later use. They occur, or they do not
occur.
 Inseparability – Services cannot be pulled into different parts or separated (as
many tangible goods can be—which makes operations management quite
different for products).
 Inconsistency – Services tend to be unique. A teacher may teach you a topic,
and another teacher may teach you the same topic in another course. Each
teacher will deliver this topic somewhat differently. This is a good example of
service inconsistency.
 Involvement – Consumers are often directly involved in the service delivery. A
therapist is a good example of this. The consumer is the center of the service,
and thus each instance of the service is unique based on the individual
involved.
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Managing Service Operations

 Without a tangible good to ship, handle and

produce, operational managers are instead
focused on the execution of an activity to fill a
consumer need. This management of an instance
is rather different than the management of a
product

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Core Operational Decisions

 Location - how to lay out the facility, what size is

appropriate, and overall how efficiently a given space can
be used relative to the cost are key considerations
 Scheduling - Maximizing output through planning properly
can minimize opportunity costs and maximize revenue,
and plays an integral role in operational management of
services
 Quality - As the ‘5 I’s of Services’ indicate, most services
tend to be completely unique
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Review customer satisfaction

 Every three months or more frequently if time permits, it

is important to review customer satisfaction with your
service delivery

 This should be done, using verifiable data, rather than

relying on subjective impressions and hearsay from
other staff.

‘A rolling stone gathers no moss!’

Slide 7
Reviewing customer satisfaction

Objectives of collecting and reviewing customer

feedback

 Identify the extent to which customers and others are

satisfied with service delivery

 Identify the areas in which there is

satisfaction with service delivery

 Identify the precise areas within areas

where there is dissatisfaction

 Identify the precise nature of any

dissatisfaction
Slide 8
(Continued)
Reviewing customer satisfaction

Objectives of collecting and reviewing customer

feedback

 Identify the staff involved in both superior and inferior

levels of service

 Identify if there is a certain time of the day/week when

service levels are reduced or at their best

 Discover what can be done to improve a

less than optimum situation

 Identify what needs to be done to maintain

the present satisfactory level of service
delivery. Slide 9
Reviewing customer satisfaction

The review should be as wide-ranging as possible,

meaning it should involve:

 Regular customers

 New customers

 Customers who are one-off customers

 Corporate customers

 Staff

 Management.

Slide 10
Reviewing customer satisfaction

Types of feedback

 Positive – customers give compliments about aspects

of service

 Neutral – customers say they ‘enjoyed’ their

experience, not provide any further comment

 Negative – customers have a complaint regarding an

aspect of their ‘experience’.

Slide 11
Compare information to identify
changes in customer satisfaction
Budgets

 Sales budgets

 Labour budgets

 Material budgets

 Inventory budget

 Overhead budgets.

Slide 12
Seeking agreement on action

Courses of action to overcome service problems

 Stimulate employees to be creative in developing

customer care activities

 Allow staff room to make mistakes

 Invest in meetings and regular contacts with customers

via newsletters or customer magazines

 Make it easy for customers to complain.

Slide 13
Communicating changes in service

Communicating new approaches to service delivery

Once all parties have reached agreement, any new

approaches to customer service decided upon must be
communicated to all those involved within appropriate
timeframes.

Slide 14