SERVICE QUALITY Dr.

Ankit Singh
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Dimensions of Service Quality
Gaps in Service Quality
Measuring Service Quality
Quality Service by Design
Service Recovery
 SERVICE QUALITY: INTRODUCTION
The 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 .
RATER
1. Reliability
2. Responsiveness
3. Assurance
4. Empathy
5. Tangibles
 RELIABILITY
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 .
 RESPONSIVENESS
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 .
 ASSURANCE
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 .
 EMPATHY
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.
 TANGIBLES
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).
PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY
GAPS IN SERVICE QUALITY
Measuring the gap between expected service and perceived service is a routine customer
feedback process that is practiced by leading service companies.
 MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY
The authors of the service quality gap model ,
developed a multi-item scale called SERVQUAL for
measuring the five dimensions of service quality
(i.e., reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy,
and tangibles). This two-part instrument, 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.
 TAGUCHI LOSS FUNCTION
Genichi Taguchi, who advocated “robust design” of
products to ensure their proper functioning under adverse
conditions.
The idea is that for a customer, proof of a product’s
quality is in its performance when abused.
For example, a telephone is designed to be far more
durable than necessary because more than once it will be
pulled off a desk and dropped on the floor.
Taguchi believed that product quality was achieved by
consistently meeting design specifications.
He measured the cost of poor quality by the square of
the deviation from the target .
TAGUCHI LOSS FUNCTION
 POKE-YOKE
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
error .
 POKE-YOKE
Customers play an active role in the delivery of services .
These errors fall into three categories: preparation, encounter, and resolution .
In Shouldice Hospital :
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 carryon 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 .
 QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT
Quality function deployment (QFD) refers to both
(1) determining what will satisfy the customer and
(2) translating those customer desires into the target design. The idea is to capture a rich
understanding of customer wants and to identify alternative process solutions.
(3) This information is then integrated into the evolving product design. QFD is used early in the
design process to help determine what will satisfy the customer and where to deploy quality efforts.
House of quality : A part of the quality function deployment process that utilizes a
planning matrix to relate customer “wants” to “how” the firm is going to meet those “wants .
Product Development Stages
HOUSE OF QUALITY
 WALK THROUGH AUDIT
Fitzsimmons and Maurer developed such a walk-through audit for full-service sitdown restaurants. The
audit consisted of 42 questions spanning the restaurant dining experience.
The questions begin with approaching the restaurant from the parking area, then walking into the
restaurant and being greeted, waiting for a table, being seated, ordering and receiving food and drinks,
and finally receiving the check and paying the bill.
The questions include nine categories of variables:
(1) maintenance items,
(2) person-to-person service,
(3) waiting,
(4) table and place settings,
(5) ambiance,
(6) food presentation,
WALK THROUGH AUDIT
(7) check presentation,
(8) promotion and suggestive selling, and
(9) tipping.

Thus, the entire customer experience is traced from beginning to end

 THE WALK-THROUGH AUDIT AS A
DIAGNOSTIC INSTRUMENT
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.
 Customers visit a site less frequently than do managers
and, thus, are more sensitive to subtle changes (e.g., peeling
paint or worn rugs) than are managers who see the facility
every day and who are likely to overlook gradual
deterioration of the supporting facility.
Cost of Quality
Managers and workers speak the
language of things but Senior
leaders speak the language of
money...

…COPQ allows us to translate the

things into money.

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COST OF QUALITY
QUANTIFYING THE
POTENTIAL BENEFIT
Sigma Cost
6 sigma <10% of sales
5 sigma 10-15% of sales
4 sigma 15-20% of sales
3 sigma 20-30% of sales
2 sigma 30-40% of sales

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 SERVICE RECOVERY
A service failure can be turned into a service delight by empowering frontline employees with the
discretion to “make things right.”
For example, when an airplane full of anxious passengers is delayed for some minor mechanical problem,
it’s time to break out complimentary drinks. More heroic efforts become legends, such as the story of a
Federal Express employee who hired a helicopter to repair a downed telephone line during a snowstorm.
Expenses incurred to accomplish a recovery are “pennies on the dollar” compared with the possible
adverse ”word-of-mouth” stories that are now turned into good stories of how an employee went the extra
mile to accommodate a customer.
Training employees in approaches to service recovery should be the first line of defense against
defections and “poor word-of-mouth.