How service quality concept is integrated with process quality improvement? How it is different from concept of manufacturing process quality?

Module II. Process Quality Improvement

Lecture – 8 How service quality concept is integrated with process quality improvement? How it is different from concept of manufacturing process quality?

Service means many different things in different contexts as compared to product quality (Garvin, 1984). For some it is synonymous with customer care, for others it is equivalent of logistics function, or internal services such as accounting or personnel, for others it means 10,000 mile check-up to their car.

Despite more than 25 years of study, scholars in the field of services management do not agree on ‘what a service is’. From customers’ perspective, service is a combination of customer experience and their perception of outcome of service. An experience at a park, for example, includes experience of rides, restaurants, emotions of enjoyment and customer view of value for money at the end of the day. From manufacturing operations perspective or definition, Figure2-25 shows the transformation process in service operation.

It is important to note that customers also have to make an input to the service. These customer inputs include their time and effort plus the financial cost (i.e. the price they pay for the service) (refer Figure 2-26).

Service Quality

The term service quality is often used to mean different things. Some operations manager use the term to mean how customer is treated. This is perhaps more accurately called quality of service, as opposed to service quality, which can mean outcome and experience. Definitions of service quality include:

Satisfaction

Sometimes service quality is used to mean same as satisfaction, i.e. perceived (experienced) service quality.

An impression of the organization and its services

Service quality is more often used as a more enduring construct, whereas satisfaction is situation and experience-specific. Satisfaction has to be experienced (refer Johnston and Clark, 2008), whereas customers may have views about organization’s service quality without ever having experienced the service. Service quality can also be expressed as consumer’s overall impression of relative inferiority/superiority of organization services. Recent empirical work also suggests that there is an interactive relationship between satisfaction and service quality, i.e. each can have a moderating effect on other and on post-purchase intentions (Johnston and Clark, 2008).

Quality delivered

When we talk about service quality from an operation's perspective we usually mean the quality of the service (may be in multiple stages) we deliver, i.e. does it consistently meet the specification for that service? This, of course, may be different to how a customer sees the service (their perceived service quality), and thus there may be a mismatch between a customer's expectations of a service and their perception of its delivery. This mismatch could be the result of either a mismatch between expectation and delivery and/or a mismatch between delivery and perceptions which is a simplified version of the gap model developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985).

Customers’ Expectations

Organizations need to understand expectations of customers and if appropriate, manage those expectations (refer Figure 2-27). Indeed it may be appropriate to try to built-in

customer’s expectations in order to keep them at the right level that can be met or just exceeded by service delivery. This is a key challenge for service operations managers.

Customer’s expectation and service quality factors

Price often has a large influence on expectation. Higher the prices, higher are customer expectation. Alternative services available also help define and set expectations. Marketing

can have a considerable influence on expectations. Marketing, branding and advertising campaigns help set expectations.

Word-of-mouth marketing can have a profound effect on customer expectations. Indeed, in some situations, word-of-mouth may have a stronger influence than organizational marketing.

Customers' mood and attitude can affect the expectations. Someone in a bad mood or with a poor attitude to an organization may have heightened expectations; someone less concerned and more tolerant may have a wider zone of tolerance and thus has a wider range of expectations.

As observed, expectations are dynamic. Customers are continually experiencing many service situations and their expectations are under continual review and change.

Service quality factors are those attributes of service about which customers may have expectations and which need to be delivered at some specified level. Several sets of factors have been identified (Parasuraman et al. 1985, 1988; Zeithaml et al., 1991) while explaining the service quality gap model. There are 18independent quality factors (Johnston and Clark, 2008) which try to capture totality of service quality. These factors include access, aesthetics, attentiveness/helpfulness, availability, care, cleanliness/tidiness, comfort, commitment, communication, competence, courtesy, flexibility, friendliness, functionality, integrity, reliability, responsiveness and security.