Service Quality Ch6

Moments of Truth
- Each customer contact is called a moment of truth.
- You have the ability either to satisfy or dissatisfy customers when you contact them.
- A service recovery is satisfying a previously dissatisfied customers and making them loyal customers.

Dimensions of Service Quality 144

They identified five principal dimensions that customers use to judge service quality—reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles, which are listed in order of declining relative importance to
customers.

1- Reliability: The ability to perform the promised service both dependably and accurately. Reliable service
performance is a customer expectation and means that the service is accomplished on time, in the same manner,
and without errors every time. For example, receiving mail at approximately the same time each day is
important to most people. Reliability also extends into the back office, where accuracy in billing and record
keeping is expected.

2- Responsiveness. The willingness to help customers and to provide prompt service. Keeping customers
waiting, particularly for no apparent reason, creates unnecessary negative perceptions of quality. If a service
failure occurs, the ability to recover quickly and with professionalism can create very positive perceptions of
quality. For example, serving complimentary drinks on a delayed flight can turn a potentially poor customer
experience into one that is remembered favorably.

3- Assurance. The knowledge and courtesy of employees as well as their ability to convey trust and confidence.
The assurance dimension includes the following features: competence to perform the service, politeness and
respect for the customer, effective communication with the customer, and the general attitude that the server has
the customer’s best interests at heart. Assurance: Ability to convey trust and confidence, e.g., being polite and
showing respect for customer

4- Empathy. The provision of caring, individualized attention to customers. Empathy includes the following
features: approachability, sensitivity, and effort to understand the customer’s needs. One example of empathy is
the ability of an airline gate attendant to make a customer’s missed connection the attendant’s own problem and
to find a solution. Empathy: Ability to be approachable, e.g., being a good listener

5- Tangibles. The appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials. The
condition of the physical surroundings (e.g., cleanliness) is tangible evidence of the care and attention to detail
that are exhibited by the service provider. This assessment dimension also can extend to the conduct of other
customers in the service (e.g., a noisy guest in the next room at a hotel). Tangibles: Physical facilities and
facilitating goods, e.g., cleanliness.

Perceived Service Quality

Service Quality Gap Model

Measuring Service Quality

Measuring service quality is a challenge because customer satisfaction is determined by many intangible factors.
Unlike a product with physical features that can be objectively measured (e.g., the fit and finish of a car), service
quality contains many psychological features (e.g., the ambiance of a restaurant).

SERVQUAL 147
The authors of the service quality gap model shown in Figure 6.3 developed a multiitem scale called
SERVQUAL for measuring the five dimensions of service quality (i.e., reliability, responsiveness, assurance,
empathy, and tangibles). This two-part instrument, which can be found in the Student CD-ROM, pairs an
expectation statement with a corresponding perception statement. Customers are asked to record their level of
agreement or disagreement with the statements using a seven point Likert scale. The 22 statements in the survey
describe all aspects of the five dimensions of service quality.

Walk-Through-Audit
- Service delivery system should conform to customer expectations.
- Customer impression of service is influenced by use of all senses.
- Service managers lose sensitivity owing to familiarity.
- A detailed service audit from a customer’s perspective is needed.

Designing a Walk-Through Audit

The first step in designing a WtA is the preparation of a flowchart of customer interactions with the service
system. A WtA for the Helsinki Museum of Art and Design is shown in Figure 6.7 . Observe that the
questionnaire is divided into five major service delivery process sections (i.e., ticketing, information,
experience, facilities, and satisfaction).

The Walk-Through Audit as a Diagnostic Instrument 151

The walk-through audit can be a useful diagnostic instrument for management to evaluate the gaps in perception
between customers and managers of the service delivery system.
Quality Service by Design 152
Quality can neither be inspected into a product nor somehow added on, and this same observation applies to
services. A concern for quality begins with the design of the service delivery system.

1- Quality in the Service Package (Budget Hotel example)

Supporting facility. Architecturally, the building is designed to be constructed of materials that are
maintenance-free, such as concrete blocks. The grounds are watered by an automated underground sprinkler
system. The air-conditioning and heating system is decentralized by using individual room units to confine any
failure to just one room.

Facilitating goods. Room furnishings are durable and easy to clean (e.g., bedside tables are supported from the
wall to facilitate carpet cleaning). Disposable plastic cups are used instead of glass, which is more expensive,
requires cleaning, and, thus, would detract from the budget image.

Information. An online computer tracks guest billing, reservations, and registration processing. Keeping a
record of customer’s prior stay speeds future check-in, avoids billing errors, and anticipates needs (e.g., non-
smoking room). This system allows guests to check out quickly and automatically notifies the cleaning staff
when a room is free to be made up. Noting time of check-out allows for scheduling early maid service and
inventorying available rooms for early arrivals.

Explicit services. Maids are trained to clean and make up rooms in a standard manner. Every room has the same
appearance, including such “trivial” matters as the opening of the drapes.

Implicit services. Individuals with a pleasant appearance and good interpersonal skills are recruited as desk
clerks. Training in standard operating procedures (SOPs) ensures uniform and predictable treatment for all
guests
.

2- Taguchi Methods
The budget hotel example illustrates the application of Taguchi methods, which are named after Genichi Taguchi, who
advocated “robust design” of products to ensure their proper functioning under adverse conditions. 4 The idea is that for a
customer, proof of a product’s quality is in its performance when abused.

3- Poka-yoke (fail-safing) Height bar at amusement park

Shigeo Shingo believed that low-cost, in-process, quality-control mechanisms and routines used by employees in their work
could achieve high quality without costly inspection. He observed that errors occurred, not because employees were
incompetent, but because of interruptions in routine or lapses in attention. He advocated the adoption of poka-yoke methods,
which can be translated roughly as “foolproof ” devices.
Service provider errors fall into three categories: tasks, treatments, and tangibles. The use of a french fry scoop
at McDonald’s to measure out a consistent serving of potatoes is an example of a task poka-yoke device that
also enhances cleanliness and, hence, the aesthetic quality of the service as well. A novel treatment poka-yoke
devised by a bank for tellers to ensure customer eye contact requires them to enter the customer’s eye color on a
checklist at the start of the transaction. An example of a tangible poka-yoke is the placement of mirrors in
employee break rooms to promote appropriate appearance upon returning to the customer area. The automatic
spell check feature of Microsoft Outlook assures that an e-mail is not sent until it has been proofed for errors.

All potential patients are required to fill out a comprehensive medical survey, that is, a preparation poka-yoke,
to ensure that the medical condition is appropriate for treatment at Shouldice. Many encounter poka-yokes are
unobtrusive, such as the use of height bars at amusement rides to ensure that riders exceed size limitations or
frames at airport check-in counters to gauge allowable size of carry- on luggage. Resolution poka-yokes help
mold the behavior of customers as they exit the service. Fast-food restaurants strategically locate tray-return
stands and trash bins at the exits.

4- Quality Function Deployment

To provide customer input at the product design stage, a process called quality function deployment (QFD) was
developed in Japan and used extensively by Toyota and its suppliers. The process results in a matrix, referred to
as a “house of quality,” for a particular product that relates customer attributes to engineering characteristics.
The central idea of QFD is the belief that products should be designed to reflect the customers’ desires and
tastes; thus, the functions of marketing, design engineering, and manufacturing must be coordinated. The “house
of quality” provides a framework for translating customer satisfaction into identifiable and measurable
conformance specifications for product or service design.
House of Quality
The steps in conducting the QFD project and constructing a “house of quality” follow:

1- Establish the aim of the project. In this case, the objective of the project is to assess Village Volvo’s
competitive position. QFD also could be used when a new service delivery system is being considered for the
first time.

2- Determine customer expectations. Based on the aim of this project, identify the customer group to be
satisfied and determine their expectations. For Village Volvo, the target customer group is Volvo owners with
nonroutine repairs (i.e., exclude routine maintenance for this study). Customer expectations could be solicited
by interviews, focus groups, or questionnaires.

3- Describe the elements of the service. The columns of the house of quality matrix contain the service
elements that management can manipulate to satisfy customer expectations. For Village Volvo, we have
selected training, attitudes, capacity, information, and equipment.

4- Note the strength of relationship between the service elements. The roof of the house of quality provides
an opportunity to note the strength of correlation between pairs of service elements. We have noted three levels
of strength of relationship: * strong, • medium, and Ø weak.

5- Note the association between customer expectations and service elements. The body of the matrix
contains numbers between 0 and 9 (9 indicating a very strong link) to indicate the strength of the link between a
service element and a corresponding customer expectation.

6- Weighting the service elements. This step is taken to measure the importance of a customer’s assessment of
the service element. The chimney of the house of quality contains a listing of the relative importance of each
customer expectation. These weights on a scale of 1 to 9 indicate the importance that customers place on each of
their expectations and could be determined by a customer survey.
7- Service element improvement difficulty rank. In the basement of the house is a ranking for the difficulty of improving
each service element, with a rank of 1 being the most difficult. Capacity and equipment have a high rank because of their
capital requirements. This exercise demonstrates that even though customers may give a service element a high rank, the
firm might be unable to deliver it.

8- Assessment of competition. A study of the Volvo dealer is made to assess customers’ perceptions of service
at the dealer compared with that at Village Volvo. The result of a customer survey (using customers who have
experienced both providers) using a five-point scale is plotted to the right of the matrix.

9- Strategic assessment and goal setting. Looking at the completed house of quality, Village Volvo can see
some strengths and weaknesses in its strategic position relative to the Volvo dealer. Except for responsiveness, it
is viewed favorably by its customers.

Service Recovery Framework

Approaches to Service Recovery

Case-by-case approach addresses each customer’s complaint individually but could lead to perception of
unfairness.

Systematic response approach uses a protocol to handle complaints but needs prior identification of critical
failure points and continuous updating.

Early intervention approach attempts to fix a problem before the customer is affected.

Substitute service approach allows rival firm to provide service but could lead to loss of customer.

Taguchi’s Cost of Quality Function

Taguchi quadratic cost function (internal quality)

Customer cost function (no loss within limits)

Gaps in Service Quality

In Figure 6.3 , the gap between customer expectations and perceptions is defined as GAP 5. Customer
satisfaction is dependent on minimizing gaps 1 through 4 that are associated with delivery of the service.

The market research gap is the discrepancy between customer expectations and management perceptions of
these expectations.

GAP 1 arises from management’s lack of full understanding about how customers formulate their expectations
on the basis of a number of sources: advertising, past experience with the firm and its competitors, personal
needs, and communications with friends. Strategies for closing this gap include improving market research,
fostering better communication between management and its contact employees, and reducing the number of
levels of management. The service design gap results from management’s inability to formulate target levels of
service quality to meet perceptions of customer expectations and translate these into workable specifications.

GAP 2 may result from a lack of management commitment to service quality or a perception of the
unfeasibility of meeting customers’ expectations; however, setting goals and standardizing service delivery tasks
can close this gap. The conformance gap occurs because actual delivery of the service does not meet the
specifications set by management.

GAP 3 can arise for a number of reasons, including lack of teamwork, poor employee selection, inadequate
training, and inappropriate job design. Customer expectations of the service are formed by media advertising
and other communications from the firm.

GAP 4 is the discrepancy between service delivery and external communications in the form of exaggerated
promises and lack of information provided to contact personnel.

The numbering of the gaps from 1 to 5 represents the sequence of steps (i.e., market research, design,
conformance, communication, and customer satisfaction) that should be followed in new service process design.
The remainder of this chapter will address ways of closing these gaps in service quality. We begin by
considering approaches to measuring service quality.