Questions to Ask When Developing Strategies to Improve Service Productivity ™ How to transform inputs into outputs efficiently? ™ Will improving productivity hurt quality? ™ Will improving quality hurt productivity? ™ Are employees or technology the key to productivity? ™ Can customers contribute to higher productivity?Operations-driven vs. Customer-driven Actions to Improve Service Productivity Control costs, reduce waste Set productive capacity to match average demand Automate labor tasks Upgrade equipment and systems Train employees Leverage less-skilled employees through expert systems Change timing of customer demand Involve customers more in production Ask customers to use third partiesBackstage and Frontstage Productivity Changes: Implications for Customers ™ Backstage improvements can ripple to the front stage and affect customers e.g., new printing peripherals may affect appearance of bank statements. ™ Front-stage productivity enhancements are especially visible in high contact services. Some may just require passive acceptance by customers Others require customers to change their scripts and behavior. ree