Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Designing Quality Services: S. Thomas Foster, Jr. Boise State University
Designing Quality Services: S. Thomas Foster, Jr. Boise State University
©2001 Prentice-Hall
Chapter Overview
Slide 1 of 2
• Intangible
– Many services are intangible. This means that they
cannot be inventoried or carried in stock over long
periods of time.
• Heterogeneous
– The output of services are also heterogeneous. This
means that for many companies, no two services are
exactly the same.
• Occur simultaneously
– Production and consumption of services often occur
simultaneously.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-9
Differences Between Services and
Manufacturing
Slide 3 of 4
• Product Liability
– In services, liability issues often relate to
malpractice, whereas in manufacturing liability
issues typically relate to safety concerns.
– However, services also may have liability
issues.
– Certainly, as time passes, more quality
techniques will be developed specifically for
services.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-19
How Are Service Quality Issues Similar to
Those of Manufacturing?
Tangibles
Reliability
Responsiveness
Assurance
Empathy
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-21
What Do Service Customers Want?
Service Vision
High Standards
In-the-Field Leadership
Style
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-23
What Do Service Customers Want?
• What is SERVQUAL
– SERVQUAL is a survey instrument, developed
by PZB, and for assessing quality along the
five service dimensions discussed in chapter 1.
– The SURVQUAL survey has been used by
many firms and is an off-the-shelf approach
that can be used in many service settings.
• Gap Analysis
– The SERVQUAL instrument is used to
perform gap analysis. Because services are
often intangible, gaps in communication and
understanding between employees and
customers have a serious negative affect on the
perceptions of services quality.
– The model in Figure 8.4 shows the gaps that
commonly occur that can affect the perceptions
of services quality.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-36
SERVQUAL Instrument
Slide 4 of 10 ( Figure 8.4 Gaps model )
Word-of-mouth
Personal needs Past experience
communication
Expected service
Gap 5
CUSTOMER Perceived service
Management
perceptions Gap 1 Expected
of customer service
expectations
Gap 1 shows that there can be a difference between
actual customer expectations and management’s idea
or perception of customer expectations.
Many times, improving processes does not equal
improving customer wants. To truly improve customer
service, we must understand what the customer wants.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-38
SERVQUAL Instrument (Gap Models)
Slide 6 of 10 ( Figure 8.6 Gap 2)
Management
Service Gap 2
perceptions
quality
of customer
specifications
expectations
Manager’s expectations of service quality may not match service
quality specifications. This mismatch is demonstrated in gap 2.
Because firms do not specify customer requirements according
to a well-defined process, there is no way to know whether
customer specifications and management expectations are
aligned.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-39
SERVQUAL Instrument (Gap Models)
Slide 7 of 10 ( Figure 8.7 Gap 3)
Gap 3 Service
Service
quality
delivery
specifications
Gap 4 External
Service
communications
delivery
to customers
Gap 4 shows the differences between services delivery and external
communications with the customer. Companies influence customer
expectations of services through word-of-mouth and through other
media such as advertising. There could be a difference between
what customers hear you say you are going to deliver as a service
provider and what you actually deliver.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-41
SERVQUAL Instrument (Gap Models)
Slide 8 of 10 ( Figure 8.9 Gap 5)
Gap 5
Expected Service Perceived Service
• Services Blueprinting
– Lynn Shostack is known for the statement,”
The process is the service.”
– Shostack also developed the process known as
service blueprint.
– A services blueprint is a flowchart that isolates
potential fail points in a process.
• Moments of Truth
– The fail points in the service blueprint are
often referred to as moments of truth. These
are the times at which the customer expects
something to happen.
– Expectations are a major determinant of
customer perceptions of service quality.
– When the customer expects something to
happen, it has to happen.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-58
Designing & Improving the Services
Transaction
• Moments of Truth
– Customers’ contact with the business can occur
in many different ways.
– All these moments of truth result in either
happy customers or lost customers.
– Moments of truth also can happen at various
stages of the product life cycle.
– A Closer Look at Quality 8.1 considers one
firm that used the moment of truth concept to
improve service.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-59
Designing & Improving the Services
Transaction
• Poka-Yoke
– The idea behind poka-yoke (or fail-safe) is to ensure
that certain errors will never occur.
– The idea behind fail-safe is to ensure that certain
errors will never occur.
– Just as many processes seem to be designed to fail,
they can also be designed not to fail.
– In service, Chase defines different classifications for
fail-safe devices. These are: Warning methods,
Physical contact methods, and Visual contact methods.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-60
Designing & Improving the Services
Transaction
• Poka-Yoke
– Fail-safe methods can also be defined using the
“three Ts” ( please see Figure 8.12).
1. Task to be performed.
2. Treatment provided to the customer.
3. Tangibles provided the customer.
-- These poka-yoke classifications and Ts
occur in many different forms.
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-61
Designing & Improving the Services
Transaction
Slide 6 of 6
Tangibles provided
the customer
© 2001 Prentice-Hall Transparency 8-62
The Customer Benefits Package
Slide 1 of 3