Management of Service Quality - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Management of Service Quality Institution: Date: Table of Contents Title: Management of Service Quality 1 Table of Contents 2 Management of service Quality 3 PART A 3 Question One 3 Question Two 4 Case study 2 5 Question one 5 Question two 7 PART B 8 Question One 8 Question Two 10 Question Three 11 Bibliography 12 Management of service Quality PART A Question One Managers have to adopt system thinking to management of problems within the organization in effort to solve problems related to quality. System thinking acknowledges key interrelationships and patterns and look forward to implications of their effect on the entire organization. Managers have to be prepared to have alternative solutions to an anticipated problem or challenge. Option thinking is practiced. Supervisors who are system-oriented anticipate as many crises as possible and have plans put in place to deal with emerging issues. System approach to problem solving helps managers identify the key problem that is causing inefficiency in the outcome of service provision (Haykin, 2001, p.1-3). Without system approach to problem solving, the symptoms will be treated without looking at the causal factors. In order to identify the real problems within the operations of the company, the managers have to look at the entire system of the company. Exiting services have to be updated from time to time. Main problems have to be identified as opposed to the looking at the symptoms without analyzing the main cause of the problem. Dell Corp maintains high quality service system that ensures customized services are provided to each customer. The company maintains a high database of customer information. The company spends many hours offering support services to its customer. The company pays attention to details and ensures products delivery to customers is faster and convenient (Anderson & Mittal, 2000, p.107-120). The company sends experts to deal with problems that customers encounter in their homes or work premises. Dell Corp tried to use retail chain to supply its products but the plan failed. The customers were used to the old system of direct marketing that offers more support service. The company has maintained high quality service that are convenient as part of its competitive advantage. Customers are serviced on time and there is high discipline among the workers. The founder of the company, Michael Dell visualized service delivery in terms of system that incorporated the value creation towards customer satisfaction. System approach to service delivery at Dell Corp increased profitability of the company. Question Two Negative publicity spread at a faster rate as compared to positive publicity. Companies in the hospitality sector have to strive in ensuring that they maintain a positive image in the eyes of the public. Negative image can affect the profitability of any business in a big way. Social media like Twitter and Facebook make people from different quarters of the world to receive news at a supersonic speed. People share negative news more as compared to positive news. Keeping an old customer is easier than winning anew customer (Brady & Cronin, 2001, p.34-49Organizations can pay heavily if they ignore to deal with the effect of negative publicity. Customer complaints have to be dealt with immediately and the company has to communicate and indicate that that was an isolated case. Repeat sales can only be realized if the company offers superb services to its customers. The management has to continuously ask questions concerning the prevailing circumstances within the organization. Thorough investigation of the situation at hand through repeated questioning can reveal exactly what is ailing the performance of the organization. Service process mapping and root-cause analysis are predominantly used in total quality management. Work groups are effectively used in fending off service problems that can come up within the organization. Maximization of efficiency while reducing production error is important in realizing achievement in the company (Jean, 1998, p.584-9). Research and development has to be enhanced. A new philosophy has to be adopted to enhance high level of production. Immediate reaction to any customer complaints curbs the extent of destruction of negative publicity. Deming 14 points are very important in application of Service Quality Model in an effort to achieving quality service. Deming 14 points provide emphasis on the procedures to be followed when trying to achieve service quality. Deming emphasize in minimization of costs through increasing efficiency in the supply chain. Training on job is an important aspect that can be incorporated in the service quality model. Workers have to get the necessary training in order to provide quality services to customers. Deming also talks about constant improvement of the system of service and production. Driving out fear is important for everyone to be contented when working within the organization. Barriers within departments have to be broken down in order to enhance communication in the organization. Case study 2 Question one Despite of the increased effort invested over the years, customer loyalty only looks at brands and products at the expense of services. Loyalty in many service firms is under-utilized. Perceptions of buyers concerning value are grounded on a trade off between perceived product qualities in relation to the sacrifice they receive in monetary terms. Individual service encounters may not match with the expectations that the customers possess and hence the cause of frustration, dissatisfaction, and even irritation. Service encounters are described as role performances whereby both service providers and customers have roles to play. Industries do not have to forget all about service encounters and concentrate on brands and products. The customers are frustrated because they are left out on aspects concerning service provision as industries concentrate on the quality of the product (Bendapudi & Leone, 2002, p.97-102). Service encounters are perceived by customers as more important as more important than mere provision of products. Individual services encounters are not packaged in the manner which the products and the brands themselves are represented in the market. Customers do not feel the monetary value for their money while being services. Branding and product packaging has taken over the concentration that customers during service encounter. Customer satisfaction is crucial in achieving loyalty. Without loyalty company has to work very hard to win a new customer as opposed to retaining the old one. Individual service encounters determine the level of satisfaction perceived by the customers. Service quality measurement results into complexity of the issue. Discrete service encounters determine the level of satisfaction received by customers from a given service. It is not about a collective bargaining but a result of a single interaction between the service provider and the customers. The customers are left frustrated since many service providers due not focus on how to improve service encounter quality. Service provide struggle to increase or improve other things at the expense of service quality encounter. Mostly the point of view of customers is not consulted or taken into consideration when making plans to improve existing services. Customer loyalty is divided between loyalty to the employee of the company and the company itself. Lack of more construct in the service quality research thwart any effort directed towards improving customer’s perception of service encounters. Measurement of service quality is still a debatable issue in the world. Retail consumers get more attention as opposed to service consumers. The needs of service consumers are not fully met. Question two There is very little agreement concerning the correlation between customer satisfaction and perceived quality. Satisfaction is seen as antecedent to quality of service founded on the premise that is generally evaluated in similar manner as attitude and consequently, it is super ordinate to satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is an input of perception of customer towards service quality. Perceived value as a variable that is dynamic happens at different stages of the process of service purchasing, after use, at the time of use, and at the moment of purchase. The stages of customer behavior happen in traditional transaction as well as electronic transaction. Literature of value disconfirmation supports the correlation that exists between customer satisfaction and perceived value (Jean, 1998, p.584-9). Perceived value can be considered as post or pre purchase. Customers like to get additional benefit as compared to the cost during the purchase of a product or a service. The customer can refuse to buy the product if the quality is inferior or the product is considered to be unaffordable. This is where pre-purchase value occurs. Customer satisfaction can determined as a post purchase phenomenon since the value of a service or a product is evaluated and perceived by the experiences of the customer with the service of the product. Perceived value is directly proportional to the satisfaction derived by customer. The evaluation also happen the point where the interaction happen during service encounter. Overall price, quality and expectations affected Satisfaction of customer and customer satisfaction is based on future service anticipated quality together with the capacity of service to cater for needs occurring in future. Customer satisfaction is an input to perception of customer of service quality (Brady & Cronin, 2001, p.34-49). Relationship between loyalty and perceived value is important in understanding service encounter quality. Practitioners and researchers would want to understand how perceived value affect customer satisfaction and the manner in which it can be measured. Customer satisfaction is obtained from individual transaction whereby the employee is the frame of reference. Perceived value is measured at different stages of the service provision according to the judgment of the customer. The valuation made at each stage of the service will vary according to the satisfaction derived from the service provided. The evaluation criterion used at each stage may be different. The kind of satisfaction occasioned at every stage differs from the next stage. PART B Question One The success of the organization at adding a service that is total new to large extent depends on application of the elements of the cycle of service development, and management and measurement of the quality of each service encounter. This is done in order achieve high level of customer loyalty and satisfaction. The organization has to come up with a framework that will ensure that the service quality is developed through a process that can be met via the cycle. There should be a well established pattern that has to be followed when development a new service that has quality (Anderson & Mittal, 2000, p.107-120). A new service has to be implemented in stages as the members of the organization get used to it. The existing gaps in the prevailing service provision systems can only be discovered if the new system tried in a supply chain cycle that will see the efficiency of the new project. Service quality has to be integrated with strategies of production in order to maintain a sequence flow of order. Productivity and quality can hardly be divorced. High quality service needs meticulous planning that has to be done at different stages of the service development. Therefore, a sequence that forms a cycle has to be followed. A new service has to be gradually integrated into the system of the business so that it does not create any amount of confusion in the organization. In a tourist firm like, Hell’s Gate resort, a new service cannot be introduced without thorough investigation to discover the effect of the service on the customers (Caruana, 2002, p.421-35). Abrupt introduction of the service can cause confusion which leads to under productivity. A new destination for the tourists introduced by Hell’s Gate Resort will have to be furnished by pilot studies with pockets of tourists before droves are allowed to join the camp. The guides will have to be trained on the new route together with handling emergencies. Tourists will have to be advised on how to avoid adverse whether and keep warm. A cycle has to link up the new system with the old system. In the long run there will be continuous flow without Interruption to the existing system. Question Two Adopting new technology in different stages of evaluating, delivering, and designing services have got challenges. A big challenge that faces the process of new service development stages is meeting the expectations of the customer with application of the new technology. Designing the services requires mind-mapping that allows visualization the whole process when it is complete. New technology has to fit into the existing function of the service provision. Synchronization of the normal flow of business is not easy when it comes to the adoption of new technology. The new technology cannot be evaluated efficiently unless the members of staff have understood how it functions and its value addition to service quality. To design, deliver, and evaluate effectively the adopted technology on new service delivery requires the incorporation of the entire team of the organization. The holistic approach to management of service brings about challenges in the implementation of the new technology (Anderson & Mittal, 2000, p.107-120). The technology has to fit within the projection of the company in terms of service delivery. Having an accurate estimation of the impact of technology to the organization is not an easy task. Some of the benefits of the new technology will be realized after a long time and it requires meticulous preparation. To control and monitor service delivery, the firm has to do a thorough development procedure which will involve connecting with the technology developed. Measurement of service quality delivery is one of the biggest challenges that face service providers. This happens during the evaluation stage. There are many constructs and variables that are involved in service delivery. Interpretation of elements in the market is not easy particularly in the absence of a qualified statistician (Chumpitaz & Pararoidamis, 2004, p.237-9). Delivering the best service is not easy without thorough market intelligence to determine the impact of the service to the market share. Consistency and achieving perfection affect the early stages of implementation of a new technology. The staff has to be trained on house to use the new technology. The customers have to experience the improved quality as a result of the technological advancement. New technology has to be implemented in phases so that it does not disrupt the normal functioning of the business. Question Three Service industry has played an important role in today’s economies of the world. Service industry has provided meaningful employment to people whop could be jobless and languishing in abject poverty. Tourist industry in Pacific Asia countries has developed tremendously to be among the main backbone of the economy. Tourists’ destinations that are attractive have provided an opportunity to the service sector to make substantial income which has contributed to improved standard of living (Gounaris, 2005, p.811-28). Today’s market is moving service oriented realm as many customer require support services to enhance product perception. Hotel industry is doing very well. The most luxurious hotel is in the United Arab Emirates which a wonderful destination for tourists and holiday lovers. There has been an increased need for support services with the company as the needs of customer continue to change. The service industry has resulted into growth of economy through job creation. Service industry has contributed largely to growth of economy. Banks play a big role in the development of the economy. Even in the production and manufacturing industry services are offered through the way the client is treated. Many people who would have been jobless are now employed and supporting their families due to expansion in the service industry. Preferences of the customers have lead to increase in customized services that bring in more income for the company. Bibliography Haykin, S., 2001, Communication Systems (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons. pp. 1–3. Jean H., 1998, Service quality: a tutorial, Journal of Operations Management, 16; 583–597. Bendapudi, N. & Leone, R.P., 2002, Managing business-to-business customer relationship following key contact employee turnover in a vendor firm, Journal of Marketing, 66 (2); 83-102. Anderson, E.W. & Mittal, V., 2000, Strengthening the satisfaction-profit chain, Journal of service Research, 3 (2); 107-120. Brady, M.K & Cronin, J.J., 2001, Some new thoughts on conceptualizing perceived service quality: a hierarchical approach, Journal of Marketing, 65(3); 34-49. Chumpitaz, R. & Pararoidamis, N.G., 2004, Service quality and marketing performance in business-to-business markets: exploring the mediating role of client satisfaction, Managing Service Quality, 14(2/3); 235-48. Caruana, A., 2002, Service loyalty: the effects of service quality and the mediating role satisfaction, European Journal of Marketing, 36 (7/8); 811-28. Gounaris, S., 2005, Measuring service quality in B2B services: an evaluation of the SERVQUAL scale Vis-à-vis the INDSERV scale, Journal Services Marketing, 19 (421-35). Read More