Kerala university services operations management

1. Service Operations
Management
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2. SERVICE PACKAGE
 The service package is defined as a bundle of goods and services.
 Service managers have difficulty describing their product. This
problem is partly a result of the intangible nature of services, but it
is the presence of the customer in the process that creates a
concern for the total service experience.
 The service package is defined as a bundle of goods and services
with information that is provided in some environment.
 This bundle consists of five features
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4. 1. Supporting facility.
The physical resources that must be in place before a service can be offered.
Ex :a hospital, and an airplane.
2. Facilitating goods.
The material purchased or consumed by the buyer, or the items provided by the
customer.
Ex :food items, replacement auto parts, legal documents, and medical
supplies.
3. Information.
Data that is available from the customer/provider to enable efficient and customized
service.
Ex electronic patient medical records, airline Web site showing seats
available on a flight, customer preferences from prior visits, GPS location of customer to
dispatch a taxi, and Google map link on a hotel Web site.
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5. 4. Explicit services.
The benefits that are readily observable by the senses and that consist of
the essential or intrinsic features of the service.
Ex: the absence of pain after a tooth is
repaired, a smooth-running automobile after a tuneup, and the
response time of a fire department.
5. Implicit services.
Psychological benefits that the customer may sense only vaguely, or the
extrinsic features of the service.
Ex: the status of a degree from an Ivy League
school, the privacy of a loan office, and worry-free auto repair
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7. DESIGNING THE SERVICE PACKAGE
Managing the service offering requires following steps
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8. 1. Developing the Service Concept
 Central to the idea of a service product are the consumer benefit concept, the
service concept, the service offer and the service delivery system.
 While the consumer benefit concept defines what benefits do consumers
derive from a particular educational package offered,
 the service concept is concerned with the definition of the general benefit the
service organisation offers.
 According to Gronroos, the service concept has to be defined at two levels.
 The general service concept - the essential utility being offered
 core of the service offer are specific offers
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9.  The service concept is the service 'in the minds' of customers, employees, and
managers.
 It describes:
 1) The service outcomes and benefits offered to the customers,
 2) The way that the service is delivered by the employees,
 Developing a service concept requires translating a service idea into the
statement of a service concept.
A typical concept statement includes a
 description of problems or needs that a prospect might experience,
 the reasons why the new service is to be offered,
 and the outline of its features and benefits,
 and the rationale for its purchase.
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10. Developing a Basic Service Package
 The basic service package describes the bundle of services that are needed to
fulfil the needs of customers in target markets.
 This package determines what customers receive from the organisation.
 A well-developed basic package guarantees that necessary outcome-related
features are included, and that the technical quality of the outcome will be
good.
 However, even an excellent service package can be destroyed by the way in
which the service process functions. Therefore, a good service package does not
necessarily mean that the perceived service is good, or even acceptable.
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11.  According to the quality models of services, the service
production and delivery process, especially the customer
perception of the buyer-seller interactions or the service
encounter, is an integral part of the service.
 This is the reason why the basic service package has to be
expanded into an augmented service offering before service
marketers have a description of the service as an offering.
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12.  There are two groups of services:
 1) Core services
 2) Supplementary services.
Core Services
A service product typically consists of a core product bundled with a
variety of supplementary service elements.
The core elements respond to the customers' need for a basic benefit
eg:transportation to a specific location, repair of malfunctioning
equipment.
This central component addresses two questions:
1) What is the buyer really purchasing?
2) What business are we in?
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13. Supplementary Services
 These services augment the core product ,both
facilitating its use and enhancing its value and appeal.
 Ie it enhance the use of core services.
 Mainly of two types
 1. Facilitating Supplementary Services
 2. Enhancing supplementary services
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14. 1) Facilitating Services:
 ensure the smooth delivery of core services.
 Facilitating or support services are taken for granted by customers
(more likely by users) who expect these to be bundled with the
core service and not be additionally charged
 For example, installation, activation,registration, and technical
support for the voice messaging service ensure its timely
availability and uninterrupted use.
 These services include:
 i) Information: Customers need information on various elements of
a service, for evaluation and purchase decision making
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15.  ii) Order Taking: Order taking is the first step in transaction.
 iii) Billing: Billing is important from the company's as well as the
customer's point of view. Customers expect accuracy,
completeness and legibility in bills prepared by the service
providers.
 iv) Payment: After the billing is done, customers have to take
action on payment. Activities such as cash handling, cheque
handling, credit system and coupon system are part of the
payment system. The payment system should facilitate customers
to get easy and convenient payment of their dues.
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16.  2) Enhancing Services:
 Enhancing or rapport services provide consequences that are not expected by customers but
which are appreciated enough that service providers may either charge for their provision or
expect customer loyalty in return.
 For example, remote and toll-free access to voicemail from an outside phone. Some service
features may mandate by government and industry regulations,such as those associated with
privacy and security.
 These services include
 :i) Consultation: Consultation involves a dialogue with the customers to probe their requirements
so as to design and develop a tailored solution. Consultation often helps customers to understand
their own situation better and encourages them to come up with their own solutions and action
programs.
 ii) Hospitality: Hospitality-related services should, ideally, reflect pleasure at meeting new
customers andgreeting old ones when they return. Well-managed businesses try at least in small
ways, to ensure thattheir employees treat customers as guests. Courtesy and consideration for
customers' needs apply toboth face-to-face encounters and telephone interactions.
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17.  iii) Safekeeping (Looking after the Customer's Possessions): While visiting a
service site, customers often want assistance with their personal possessions.
In fact, unless certain caretaking services are provided (notably parking for
their cars) they may not come at all. The list of potential safekeeping services
when customers come to visit is a long one. It includes: provision of
coatrooms; baggage transport, handling and storage; safekeeping of valuables;
and even child care and pet care.
 iv) Exceptions: Exceptions involve a group of supplementary services that fall
outside the routine of normal service delivery.
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18. An Open-Systems View of Services
 An open system is a system that regularly exchanges feedback with its external
environment.
Aspects that are critically important to open systems include the boundaries,
external environment and equifinality (Equifinality means that the same or
similar results can be achieved by using a variety of different processes).
 In system theory, an open system is a system which continuously interacts with
its environment or surroundings. The interaction can take the form of
information, energy, or material transfers into or out of the system boundary,
depending on the discipline which defines the concept.
 An open system is contrasted with the concept of an isolated system which
exchanges neither energy, matter, nor information with its environment.
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20. Mainly has 3 components:
1) Suppliers
2) Customers
3) Environment
 The customer is viewed as an input that is transformed by the service
process into an output with some degree of satisfaction.
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22. Service vision
 The service vision represents all that a service organisation stands for,
the image of the organisation as the customers see it.
 From a theoretical point of view, it is the service concept that explains
to both employees and customers what the organisation stands for and
what it aims to offer.
 An analogy is an architect’s drawing of a building - indicating how a
building will look when its construction is complete. In designing a
building, an architect's task is to visualise the final product, and then to
fulfil that vision with a detailed plan that indicates all the components to
be put together to bring the plan.
 In the same way, the service vision or service concept is necessary as
a statement of the final service benefits that a service organisation
proposes to deliver..
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23. Strategic service vision
 The need of most service organizations to plan as well as direct marketing
and operations as one function has led to the formation in leading
companies of what I call a strategic service vision.
 It consists of identification of a target market segment, development of a
service concept to address targeted customers’ needs, codification of an
operating strategy to support the service concept, and design of a service
delivery system to support the operating strategy.
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25. Understanding the Competitive Environment of Services
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