Service delivery & performance

Ahmad A. Maiyaki, PhD

Dept. of Business Admin. BUK
aamaiyaki.bus@buk.edu.ng
 Role of service employees
• People at both the front and back offices are critical to
delivery of service
• Service employee is the service in the eyes of customer
• Because they directly represent the firm and any
action they take can influence the organisation’s image
• Even staff off-duty represent their organisation
• So, service employees are the service, the
organisation, the brand and the marketers
 The services triangle
• Service marketing is about promises and keeping
promises
• Hence, there is a critical role play by employee to
keep promise
• In the triangle there’re 3 points: company,
providers and customers
• By the sides of the triangle there 3 types of mktg
activities: internal, interactive and external
marketing
 Services Marketing Triangle

Company
(Management)

Internal External
Marketing Marketing

“enabling the “setting the

promise” promise”

Employees Interactive Marketing Customers

“delivering the promise”
Source: Adapted from Mary Jo Bitner, Christian Gronroos, and Philip Kotler
 Employee sat and cust. Sat vs profits

• These 3 concepts are interrelated theoretically

• Satisfied staff play a role in satisfying the
customers which generate profits
• Good service climate for both the internal and
external customers
 Delivering service quality via People

• A combination of strategies is required for the

employee to be willing and able to deliver
quality services
• Through internal marketing employees are
motivated in customer-oriented ways
• So, it’s invaluable to attract, develop and
retain service employees
 Hire the right people
• Compete for the best people
– Identify the best people struggle to get them
“competing for talent market”
– Hence, organisation should consider recruitment as
a marketing activity that handles market (employee)
segmentation, product (job) design and promotion
of vacancies
– HR dept is also called: talent acquisition, people
department, human capital, personnel,
establishment etc
• Hire for service competencies & service
inclination
– Service competencies are the skills and knowledge
required for the job
– This is met by holding certain degrees,
certification and training
– Service inclination entails interest to do service-
related work
– Service inclination is reflected in the attitude and
orientation of potential employees toward service
customers
– Research suggests that quality service is correlated
with xtics such as: helpfulness, thoughtfulness and
sociability
– Similarly, simulation through role playing allows
the candidates to demonstrate how they’ll
perform on the job
• Be the preferred employer
– Is a way to attract and retain the best employees
– This can be achieved through: extensive training,
career opportunities, internal support, attractive
incentives, flexible working hours etc
 Develop people to deliver SQ
• Training for technical and interactive skills
– To delivering quality service there is need for
continuous training in both technical and interactive
skills
– Technical skills are the skills necessary to achieve
specialised tasks
– The know-how for performing activities in different
functional areas
– Such activities involve method, procedures and
techniques
• Interactive skills
– This involves how to interact and develop rapport
with customers
– This allows for courteous, responsive and
empathetic service delivery
– One way to achieve this is through “service
manner training”
– Talking with customer, appearance,
communication skills etc are taught
• Empower employees
– Giving employees authority, skills, tools and desire
to serve customers
– Authority, knowledge, tools, motivation encourage
employee to take right decision and recover
service on the spot
– Benefits of empowering service personnel:
reduction in job-related stress, improved job
satisfaction, better outcomes for customers
• Promote teamwork
– The challenging and demanding nature of service
work call for team to ensure better SQ delivery
– With teamwork, employees feel supported and
backed to deliver quality service
– A way to encourage teamwork is through instilling
the attitude that every employee is responsible for
quality service delivery to customer
– Incentives and compensation should focus on teams
 Provide support systems
• Provide supportive technology and equipment
– To deliver quality service employees need the
right equipment/machine
– Imagine a bulk counter without currency counting
machine
– Office space can be designed to provide support
e.g. open space
• Develop service-oriented internal processes
– Internal process must be re-designed to enable
delivery of quality service
– While some organizations’ process are driven by
bureaucratic rules, tradition, cost efficiencies;
good process should be customer focused
 Retain the best people
• Employee turnover should be avoided
• If best employees are leaving then customer
satisfaction, other employee morale and SQ
will be affected
• Include employee in the coy’s vision
– Employees need to understand and commit to
coy’s vision
– They should see how their contribution leads the
achievement of the coy’s goal
• Treat employees as customers
– Internal customers are as important as external
customers
• Measure and reward high performers
– Reward system should focus on service excellence
– Other wise high performers will be discourage and
leave
– So, higher pay, promotion, monetary awards and prizes
can be linked to service performance
– Other non-monetary awards can also be made