SERVICES

FUNCTIONS
AND
BLUEPRINT
Customer Service Management
Cycle
Customer Service Customer Service
Where you want it to be Where it is now

Stage 5 Stage 1
Provide proactive Understand the service
Problem solving Seekers

Stage 2
Stage 4
Set customer service
Check up regularly
Standards
Stage 3
Build a winning
Team
STAGE 1: UNDERSTAND THE
CUSTOMER
 Specific service niche : Determined by the
targeted services and the service seekers
 Characteristics
• People/Things orientation
• High/Low tech
• Personal Interaction : Physical, Mental, Emotional
• Time involvement
• Location
• Complexity: Actual, Visual
• Flexibility
• Numbers served per transaction
• Training
• Supervision
 Developing the Service seeker
profile
 Values and beliefs
 Attitudes
 Social habits and norms
 Preferences
 Expectations
 Customer Perception of the
service and service provider
 The service profile: Service characteristics, Service
seekers wants and needs and perceptions of requisite characteristics

 Characteristics include
• The service purpose
• The degree of necessity
• The magnitude of importance
• View of results
• Relative cost and benefits
• Perceived risks
 STAGE 2:SET CUSTOMER
STANDARDS
 Establish a target
 Communicate expectations
 Create a valuable management tool
 Dimensions in strong customer service: Procedural and
personal
 Standard areas of procedural dimension: Timing, Flow,
Flexibility, Anticipation, Communication, Customer Feedback,
Organisation and Supervision
 Standard Areas of personal dimension : Appearance,
body language and tone of voice, attentiveness, tact, guidance, selling
skills, gracious problem solving
 Writing customer service
standards
 Timeliness
 Anticipation
 Attitude
 Customer Feedback
 Appearance
 Guidelines for developing customer
service standards
 STAGE 3: BUIDING A
WINNING TEAM
 Design customer service jobs
 Writing job specifications
 Screening job applicants
 Training for customer service
 Practice leadership skills
 Supportive organizational environment
 STAGE 4: CHECK UP
REGULARLY
 Service Audit system
 Service seeker feedback system
 Employee feedback system
 STAGE 5: PROACTIVE
PROBLEM SOLVING
 Create supportive climate for solving
problems
 Appoint teams to identify problem areas
 Select teams to improve through
brainstorming
 Transferring team problems and
complaints into opportunities
 COMPONENTS OF SERVICE
BLUEPRINT
Customer
Actions Line of External Action

Onstage
Contact
Employee
action Line of visibility

Backstage Line of internal

Contact action
Employee
Action

Support
Process
 Components……..
 Line of External Interaction:
Line above which all customer interactions take place e.g.
Interactive Marketing
 Line of Visibility:
Area up to which the customer knows of organizational
processes.Influenced by visible interactions
 Line of Internal Interaction:
Not Visible; helps in effective service delivery; Customer
is ignorant
 Components……….
 Contact Employee Actions:
• Onstage contact employee action between
the lines of interaction and visibility
• Backstage contact Employee actions
taking place between lines of visibility and
internal interaction
 Support Processes:
• Support contact employees in service
delivery
• Occur behind the line of internal interaction
 STEPS IN SERVICE
BLUEPRINTING
 Identification of service to blueprinted: Purpose and goals identified
for inside and outside customers
 Service blueprinted from customers point of view: Customers steps in
purchase,consumption and delivery to be mapped /eliminate unnecessary
activities
 Identification of employee actions: Identify Both onstage and backstage
actions/linkages between customers and contact personnel and between
employee
 Identification of support activities: Support activities also to be
identified and blueprinted
 Giving physical evidence to each customer action step: Customer
needs to undergo experience;hence to reduce perceived risk will decide
based upon the tangibility of physical evidence
 Identification of employee actions: Identify Both onstage and backstage
actions/linkages between customers and contact personnel and between
employees
 CLASSIFICATION OF
EMPLOYEES
 Contactors
• Frequent/regular customer contact
• Well Trained/motivated to serve customers on day
to day basis
• Recruitment based on responsiveness
• E.g. Zenith and Eureka Forbes,Outbound Call
centers

 Modifier
• Not directly involved
• Frequent customer contact
• High levels of customer relationship skills
• E.g. Receptionists, Inbound call centers
 Classification……
 Influencers
• Sparse/No Customer contact
• Implementation of organizational marketing strategy
• Evaluated according to customer oriented
Performance standards/opportunities
• E.g. Product development firms,Market Research
Firms(Automotive research centers, Harris
Interactive)
 Isolators
• Performance of support functions
• Critical for better performance
• Understand Their contribution to better
performance
• Purchasing,Personnel,C.A. Firms performing audit
 Classification.…
 High Contact Services: Long duration contact.E.g.
Educational institutions, hospitals and restaurants
 Low Contact Services: Interaction for shorter time with
systems E.g.banks,post offices and retailing
 Professional Service Employees: High
qualifications and perceived status
 Consumer Service Professionals: Relatively
standardized services;high on task based skills
 STRATEGIES FOR CUSTOMER
ORIENTED SERVICE DELIVERY
 Hiring the right people: Competing for the best
people,hiring for service competence and inclination,being the
preferred employer
 Developing employees to deliver service and
quality: Training for technical and interactive skills, empowering
employees, promoting team work
 Providing needed support to employees
 Retaining the best employees:Including employees in the
customers vision, treating employees as customers, measuring and
rewarding best performers
DEVELOPING MARKETING –ORIENTED SERVICE
ORGANIZATION Shared values
• We will become a fully customer-driven
organization. Style
Strategy:
• Customer comes first • Top management support for
• Integrated plan for
• Marketing expenditure are an investment. marketing through symbolic
development of marketing
• Services paramount. actions and commitment of
orientation.
• Formulized definitions of time to marketing and
Shared customer related activities.
markets and mission.
• Detailed specification of Values • Open communications
marketing objectives. between all functional groups
Style and marketing staff.
• Commitment to Strategy
implementation. • Recognition and reward of
customer/market – oriented
behavior.

Systems Structure
Systems Structure
• Customer intelligence • Simple structure based on
reports. Skills / markets/geography.
• Competitor intelligence Staffing • Key account sales structure
reports. to service most important
• Marketing planning and Skills / Staffing customers
control systems. • Recruitment of an adequate number of • Decentralized marketing
• Remuneration and people with requisite marketing skills staff to provide close and
performance appraisal • Marketing training programs and fast support to customers.
systems geared to facilities. • Staff rotation to non
support marketing • Knowledge of market. marketing staff through
orientation. • Analytical skills in segmenting markets customer contact positions
and identifying decision-making units.