Measuring and Improving Service Quality

Overview
Service quality Soft measures Hard measures Tools to Analyze & address service quality problem.

Service Quality
Measuring and improving quality is more difficult for services than for products
Unsatisfactory service cannot be replaced or repaired Intangible and temporary nature

 Soft measuresnot easily observed, must be collected by talking to customers, employees, or others
Provide direction, guidance, and feedback to employees on ways to achieve customer satisfaction. Can be quantified by measuring customer perceptions and beliefs
For example: SERVQUAL, surveys, and customer advisory panels.

Soft and Hard Measures of Service Quality

SERVQUAL
Survey research instrument based on premise that customers evaluate firms service quality by comparing
Their perceptions of service actually received. Their prior expectations.

EX: Online Business site. Accessibility : Is site easily found? Navigation: How easy is it to move around the site? Design and presentation: Image projected from site? Content and purpose: Substance and richness of site.

 Hard measurescan be counted, timed, or measured through audits

Typically operational processes or outcomes. Standards often set with reference to percentage of occasions on which a particular measure is achieved Control charts are useful for displaying performance over time against specific quality standards

Hard Measures of Service Quality

Control charts to monitor a single variable

Offer a simple method of displaying performance over time against specific quality standards Are only good if data on which they are based is accurate Enable easy identification of trends
Service quality indexes

Service Quality IndexSQI

Failure Type
Late deliveryright day Late Deliverywrong day Tracing request unanswered Complaints reopened Missing proofs of delivery Invoice adjustments Missed pickups Lost packages Damaged packages Aircraft delays (minutes) Overcharged (packages missing label) Abandoned calls

Weighting Factor
1 5 1 5 1 1 10 10 10 5 5 1

Number of Incidents

Daily Points

Total Failure Points (SQI) =

XXX,XXX

Tools to Analyze and Address Service Quality Problems

Fishbone diagram
Cause-and-effect diagram to identify potential causes of problems

Pareto Chart
Separating the trivial from the important. Often, a majority of problems is caused by a minority of causes (i.e. the 80/20 rule)

Blueprinting
Visualization of service delivery, identifying points where failures are most likely to occur Total Quality Management (TQM)
Managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer Drivers are often set internally

Cause-and-Effect Chart for Flight Departure Delays (Fig 14.5)

Facilities, Equipment Frontstage Front-Stage Personnel Personnel Procedures
Procedures

Arrive late Oversized bags

Customers
Customers

Delayed check-in Gate agents Aircraft late to procedure gate cannot process Mechanical fast enough Acceptance of late Failures Late/unavailable passengers Late pushback airline crew

Delayed Departures Other Causes

Weather Air traffic Late fuel
Materials, Materials, Supplies Supplies

Late food service Late baggage

Late cabin cleaners

Poor announcement of departures Weight and balance sheet late

Backstage Personnel

Information

Blueprinting
Depicts sequence of front-stage interactions experienced by customers plus supporting backstage activities Used to identify potential fall pointswhere failures are most likely to appear Shows how failures at one point may have a ripple effect later Managers can identify points which need urgent attention
Important first step in preventing service quality problems

TQM

Pareto Chart

Tools to Analyze and Address Service Quality Problems

ISO 9000
Comprises requirements, definitions, guidelines, and related standards to provide an independent assessment and certification of a firms quality management system

Malcolm Baldrige Model Applied to Services

To promote best practices in quality management, and recognizing, and publicizing quality achievements among U.S. firms

Six Sigma

Statistically, only 3.4 defects per million opportunities (1/294,000) Has evolved from defect-reduction approach to an overall business-improvement approach

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