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MSQ
18,6 Assessing poor quality service:
perceptions of customer service
representatives
610
Marilyn M. Helms and Donna T. Mayo
Dalton State College, Dalton, Georgia, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the variables most often associated with customer
dissatisfaction and to discern which variables result in customer defection. Identification of these
variables can aid managers as they develop strategies to prevent their occurrence.
Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study examined customer service
dissatisfaction from a respondent group of customer service representatives employed by a call
center. These employees deal with customers as their exclusive job function and are trained to correct
customer concerns. The customer service respondents were surveyed and asked to list their top service
complaints. From this list they were also asked to indicate the top ranked poor service issue that would
cause them, as customers, to defect and select a competitor to provide a substitute product or service.
Findings – Results of the study parallel those in other customer dissatisfaction research and indicate
interesting characteristics of customer dissatisfaction arising from service failure. Interestingly, the
top four categories (rude employees/poor attitudes; overall poor service; employees socializing and not
paying attention to customers; and slow service) were noted most often as service problems by
respondents and also ranked as the top reasons for defection. Areas for future research are also
considered.
Practical implications – By understanding and anticipating poor service delivery, managers can
regard these complaint categories as critical market research information. In addition, such
information may help managers anticipate customer needs. They can re-structure service experiences
and train employees to avoid problem behaviors and actions.
Originality/value – While past research has focused on end-user customers and their
dissatisfaction, this research considers the opinions of consumers who are trained in, and work in,
customer service.
Keywords Call centres, Problem based learning, Quality management, Customer service management,
Customer satisfaction
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Numerous studies have considered the positive correlation between customer
dissatisfaction and complaint behavior (Goodman and Ward, 1993; Goodman and
Newman, 2003; Folkes, 1984; Singh, 1990a, b; Singh and Howell, 1985; Singh and
Wilkes, 1996; Kim et al., 2003; Davidow, 2000, 2003; Lemmink, 2005). In the service
industry, in particular, the importance of complaint management is linked to profit and
firm longevity (Stewart, 1998; Tax and Chandrashekara, 1992). Onyeaso (2007)
suggests service managers can leverage their organizational performance through
Managing Service Quality superior complaint management programs.
Vol. 18 No. 6, 2008
pp. 610-622 While managing complaints has been found to improve customer service and
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0960-4529
retention, studies have not examined the value of being proactive by identifying and
DOI 10.1108/09604520810920095 preventing major issues. Eliminating sources of the most common complaints may be
the most cost-effective way to increase customer satisfaction and reduce complaint Assessing poor
behavior. Eliminating complaints may also prevent the most extreme actions of quality service
dissatisfied customers – no longer purchasing a company’s products or services
(defection).
The purpose of this study is to explore the variables most often associated with
customer dissatisfaction and to discern which variables result in customer defection.
Identification of these variables can aid managers as they develop strategies to prevent 611
their occurrence. While past research has focused on end-user customers and their
dissatisfaction, this research considers the opinions of consumers who are trained in
and work in customer service. What can be learned about poor service quality from
customer service representatives (CSR) who serve customers and address complaints
on a daily basis? Perhaps employees who provide customer service on a regular basis
provide unique insights into common customer complaint variables.
Methodology
The unique perspective of customer service representatives
If customer service is a key to business success, it is critical to determine service
problems and work to correct or eliminate them before customers defect. This study
surveys employees of call centers to assess their perceptions of customer service. These
call center employees provide customer service and assist customers daily. In their
jobs, these customer service employees experience a wide range of situations and
varying emotions from customers.
Johnson (2005) agrees call center employees and other service employees often deal
with the problematic behavior of unpleasant encounters with customers. These include
customer anger, frustration, dissatisfaction, and a range of negative emotions, which
are all encountered on almost a daily basis Thus, they are uniquely positioned to
articulate which service experiences are “non-forgiving”. Since these employees have
received numerous hours of training in customer service and are evaluated on their
own service delivery process, they were chosen to offer their unique perspective on
poor quality service. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to learn about customer
complaints from those most trained to deal with them as part of their job function – the
call center employee. By understanding their perspective and perceptions it should be
possible to offer suggestions to industry to improve service quality delivery processes.
Data collection
Given the exploratory nature of this study, a simple two-question survey was
developed and administered to employees during a two-hour company-training
seminar on customer satisfaction led by external consultants. The following two
questions were provided to respondents on large index cards:
(1) Think about your own experiences as a customer and list three examples of
poor customer service on the index card provided. Do not include your name.
(2) Considering these three examples, place a star by the item that would cause you
to choose another service provider.
Research authors were present to answer questions from respondents about the survey
instrument and the study. Although 137 respondents completed the surveys, six
respondents were eliminated – as they were new hires – with no customer service
experience beyond their initial classroom training.
Sample comments are provided in Table I to further explain and clarify each
category.
Table II shows the frequencies within the 11 service categories and further classifies
each category as either qualitative or quantitative. The qualitative variables may be
more difficult for managers to improve since customer experiences vary as do the
customer’s subjective interpretation of the service encounter.
The largest category of customer dissatisfaction (24 percent) was rude employees
and poor employee attitudes. The next most frequently reported categories were
employee socializing or not paying attention to customers (17 percent) and overall
service failures (17 percent).
Table III is derived from the follow-up survey question which asked respondents to
indicate which dissatisfaction category would cause the respondent to terminate their
business with the service provider (i.e. defect to a competitor). Rude employees and
poor attitude ranked as the category most likely to end the business relationship
followed by overall poor service. Interestingly, the top four categories (rude
employees/poor attitudes; overall poor service; employees socializing and not paying
attention to customers; and slow service) were noted most often as service problems by
respondents and also ranked as the top reasons for defection.
616
MSQ
Table II.
classification
and category
Frequency of reporting
Number Percentage Number indicating they Percentage indicating Qualitative or
reporting the reporting the would never return due they would never return quantitative
Category problem problem to the problem due to the problem category
Second, the findings also highlight the “soft side” of customer service. These soft-side
categories of problem service, like rude employees with poor attitudes or employees not
paying attention to customers, are more likely to cause customers to defect to a
competing service provider. The study does validate that the soft side of customer
service is typically more important than the hard side of service.
Bougie et al. (2003) found customers may experience anger and other undesirable
emotions when waiting for service, dealing with unresponsive or impolite
employees, and a host of other behaviors. Bitner et al. (1990) found avoidable
service failures include the unavailability of a service, slow service, or errors in
delivery (Bitner et al., 1990). In his study of the hospitality industry McCole (2004)
agreed the avoidable breakdowns often result in switching behavior and he
classified industry failures using the eight reasons for customer switching
developed by Keaveney (1995). These include pricing (high price, price increases,
unfair pricing and/or deceptive pricing); inconvenience (location or hours and/or
wait times); core service failure (service mistakes, billing errors and/or service
catastrophes); service encounter failures (uncaring, impolite, unresponsive and
unknowledgeable staff); responses to service failure (negative responses, no
response, and/or reluctant response); competition (found better service elsewhere);
ethical problems (cheating, and/or conflict of interest); and involuntary switching (or
the unavoidable breakdown).
In another categorization of poor service (Johnson, 2005) found the characteristics of
poor service were just the opposite of excellent service and included: not delivering
what was promised, being impersonal, not making any effort, and not addressing
problems or questions. In a service encounter, Kinna (2005) suggests there are a
number of factors that influence or drive customer satisfaction and retention. Technical
factors include speed, efficiency, availability, and accuracy while interpersonal factors
include courtesy, knowledge, and confidentiality. Environmental factors include both
convenience and comfort.
MSQ The findings of this study, in particular, validate the work of Kinna (2005) in her
18,6 study of customer service. She found factors influencing customer satisfaction and
retention and categorized them as technical (speed, efficiency, availability, and accuracy);
interpersonal (courtesy, knowledge, and confidentiality) or environmental (convenience
and comfort). In Table II, the findings of this research show technical factors including
“slow service” (i.e. speed); “employees socializing and not paying attention to customers”
618 (i.e. efficiency); “being rushed or associate being pushy” (i.e. availability) and “mistakes”
and “overall poor service” (i.e. accuracy) were indeed validated.
Interpersonal factors of poor service quality were also included by the customer
service employees polled. “Rude employees and poor attitude” corresponds to Kinna’s
(2005) variable of courtesy. Similarly “lack of training or lack of employee job
knowledge” corresponds to knowledge. Interestingly, issues of confidentiality were not
identified by the call center employees as a key category of poor service quality.
Environmental variables further identified by Kinna (2005) correspond to this study’s
findings of “appearance and cleanliness”. The customer service employees polled
identified additional issues of product availability, poor quality, and prices. These
could be classified as intrinsic product and service delivery features. In addition, these
findings are important because they not only identified the categories of service failure
but they also ranked the severity of the service encounter failure which can guide
practitioners in service businesses as they work to improve the service delivery process
and adjust employee training.
These research findings also point to the categories of avoidable and unavoidable
groupings of service failures identified by McCole (2004). The call center employees
identified product availability, poor quality, and prices as categories of poor service
quality. Interestingly, these intrinsic product and service delivery features seem to
influence customers’ perceptions of the overall quality. Product availability is an
inventory and ordering or scheduling issue that management could easily address.
Prices may be beyond the control of management and service delivery personnel (and
classified as unavoidable issues), but poor product quality should be reported to
manufacturing plants and to raw material vendors within the supply chain. Poor quality
services point to errors and omissions in the service delivery process. Benchmarking the
service delivery of competitors is recommended as a way to improve processes.
Managerial implications
The findings can be used to separate the avoidable and the unavoidable service
failures, allowing managers to focus and correct the avoidable breakdowns. These
findings also validate most of the problem service categories identified in prior
customer service and quality research.
Use of the rankings can aid managers in directing attention to those particular areas
of service failure that need the most attention. For example, if a manager knows
customers really do not like being treated in a rude manner and this behavior is most
likely to keep a customer from returning, particular attention should be given to this
aspect of employee training. Employees should be rewarded for treating customers
with care, attention, and respect. Role playing involving scenarios with angry
customers in a variety of service delivery situations should be developed and used for
employee screening and on-going training. Benchmarking comparison of excellent
customer service responses versus inappropriate or rude customer service responses
could also yield important training information. Scripted responses might be Assessing poor
developed; however, companies should ensure their delivery sounds genuine and does quality service
not appear memorized or rehearsed.
The rankings are important for managers as they work to utilize their resources in
the best and most cost-effective way. Like the Pareto 80-20 rule, if the large majority of
your customers agree customer service personnel were rude, addressing this issue may
eliminate most of a company’s complaints and customer defections. Thus, customers 619
may not perceive a long wait time or see mistakes, prices or lack of product availability
as severe as they might have, provided they are treated in a professional, courteous
manner.
Table II classified the categories of poor service quality as either qualitative or
quantitative. The qualitative issues may take more resources (time, money, training,
discussion) with employees to improve. For example, if an employee is told they have
been rude or have a poor or pushy attitude, management should explain the details of
this encounter and what behaviors the employees exhibit and how they can be
changed. Moreover, if an issue is considered more quantitative, it may be more clearly
resolved or settled faster or in an easier manner.
For example, if customers perceive slow service as an indicator of poor service
quality, managers can establish service standards based on time. Procedures can be
developed to determine an acceptable period of time to perform a particular task. Also,
process improvements can be implemented that reduce service flow or streamline
service delivery processes. Even standardization of services can reduce the delivery
time.
If service failures can be seen as opportunities, organizations can gain the maximum
benefit from customer feedback. Onyeaso (2007) found changes in customer
dissatisfaction explain changes in complaints and found dissatisfaction leads to
both current and future complaints. By addressing the reason for dissatisfaction
(before it occurs), it stands to reason that managers could eliminate or reduce customer
complaints. Working to eliminate key customer dissatisfaction triggers is important
for improving satisfaction with future service experiences.
In addition to the application of the findings of this study for managers for their use
in improving service delivery, the study also has an added benefit for the respondents.
The researchers reviewed the findings with the respondents. Interestingly, the
respondents evaluated customer service encounters the same way their own customers
assess them. Having those who deliver customer service evaluate customer service
may also improve the manner in which they interact with customers.
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MSQ About the authors
Marilyn M. Helms is the Sesquicentennial Chair and Professor of Management at Dalton State
18,6 College in Dalton, GA. She works closely with the area community, speaking on quality,
entrepreneurship, and other management topics as well as conducts seminars, and training
programs. She teaches production and operations management classes as well as classes in
quality management and entrepreneurship. She is the author of numerous business articles and
writes a monthly column for the Dalton (GA) Daily Citizen newspaper. She holds a doctorate
622 degree from the University of Memphis (Tennessee) and was a Fulbright scholar at the
University of Coimbra, Portugal. Her research interests include international entrepreneurship,
quality, and strategic planning. Marilyn M. Helms is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: mhelms@daltonstate.edu
Donna T. Mayo is Dean of the School of Business Administration at Dalton State College. She
holds a PhD in Marketing from the University of Alabama. Donna has published numerous
scholarly and applied works in a variety of journals and books including Journal of Marketing
Theory and Practice, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Internet Commerce. Her
current research interests include e-commerce, entrepreneurship, and customer relationship
marketing.