Amity Business School

Customer Perception of Service

Amity Business School

Perceptions are always considered relative to expectations.

Amity Business School

Customer Perceptions
Prof. P K Bansal

Since expectations are dynamic evaluations and may shift over time from person to person and from culture to culture, the Perceptions are also Dynamic in nature. Customers perceive services in terms of the Quality of the service and Satisfaction they receive in overall with their experiences.

Service Quality Elements

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Satisfaction

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Each service quality dimension is a focused evaluation that reflects the customers perception of elements of service:
Interaction quality Physical environment quality Outcome quality

Satisfaction is the consumers fulfillment response. It is a judgment that, a product or service features, or the service itself, provides a pleasurable level of consumptionrelated fulfillment. It can also be reflected as Contentment, Pleasure, Delight or a sense of relief. Satisfaction is a dynamic, moving target that may evolve over time.

Strategies for Influencing Customer Perceptions Amity Business School 1. Measure and manage customer Satisfaction and Service Quality

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2. Aim for Customer Quality and Satisfaction in Every Service Encounter

Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction can be caused by any of the four main areas of employee response during any service encounter viz. 1. Recovery (Employee response to service failures) 2. Adoptability (Employee response to customer needs and requests) 3. Spontaneity (Unprompted and Unsolicited Employee actions) 4. Coping (Employee response to problem customers)

Measure and track trends, diagnose problems, link to other customer-focused strategies like, employee training, reward system, and organizational structure etc. Quality firms benefit from customer satisfaction in terms of market share, sales per employee, return on sales.

1 - Recovery
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2 - Adaptability

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Used when service delivery system has not delivered the desired results and the employee is required to respond. The content or form of the employees response makes the customer remember the event favourably or unfavourably. Recovery strategies include: Fail-safe your service- Do it right the first time. Adopt TQM, Poka Yokes. Act quickly. Employees not only need the authority to act but they should not be punished for taking appropriate action.

Customers judge service encounter quality in terms of flexibility of employees and the system. Customer perceives that something special is being done for her and is pleased when the service provider puts forth the effort to accommodate. Employee should know, when and how the system can be flexed, and when and how to explain to customer why a particular request cannot be granted. It requires knowledge of the service concept and service delivery system.

3 - Spontaneity
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Includes pleasant surprises like, special attention, treated like royalty, receiving something nice but not requested. Negative in this group represent, rude behaviour of employee, ignoring the customer etc. Besides adopting the following strategies, the organisations should encourage employees positive spontaneous behaviour and discourage negative behaviour

Hire the right people.

Develop competencies and service inclination. Empower employees. Promote teamwork, every one has a customer. Provide needed support systems. Retain the best employees. Develop service culture.

4 - Coping

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Here, Uncooperative customers are the cause of their own dissatisfaction. Nothing the employee could do would result in the customer feeling pleased about the encounter. Managers need to acknowledge that, customer is not always right, nor she always behave in acceptable ways. So, they should also be given training and tools to deal with problem customers.

Understanding of customer expectations in the above four areas helps building relevant strategies for aiming customer quality and satisfaction in every service encounter at the point of contact. Aim for Zero defect or 100% satisfaction.

3.Manage the Evidence of Service to Reinforce Perceptions.

Evidence of Service, People, Process and Physical Evidence help in the tangibilising the service for the customer and creating positive impression.