Service Culture ▪ The Critical Importance of Service Employees ▪ Boundary-Spanning Roles ▪ Strategies for Delivering Service Quality Through People ▪ Customer-Oriented Service Delivery

1. ARAVIND.T.S
DELIVERING AND PERFORMING SERVICE
www.aravindts.com

2. CUSTOMER
COMPANY
Service Delivery
Service
Performance
Gap
Customer-Driven
Service Designs
and Standards
Provider Gap 3
Source : McGraw Hill

3. Employees’ Roles in Service
▪Service Culture
▪The Critical Importance of Service
Employees
▪Boundary-Spanning Roles
▪Strategies for Delivering Service Quality
Through People
▪Customer-Oriented Service Delivery

4. Service Culture
“A culture where an appreciation for good service exists,
and where giving good service to internal as well as
ultimate, external customers, is considered a natural way
of life and one of the most important norms by everyone in
the organization.”
- Christian Gronroos (1990)
▪ Integrity, joy, respect
▪ In front of the public – behind the scenes

5. The Critical Importance of Service Employees
▪ They are the service.
▪ They are the organization in the customer’s eyes.
▪ They are the brand.
▪ They are marketers.
▪ Their importance is evident in:
▪ the services marketing mix (people)
▪ the service-profit chain
▪ the services triangle

6. ©2006The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.All
rights reserved.
The Critical Importance of Service Employees
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
▪ The critical importance of service employees in creating
customer satisfaction and service quality
▪ Demonstrating the challenges inherent in boundary-
spanning roles
▪ Examples of strategies for creating customer-oriented
service delivery
▪ How the strategies can support a service culture where
providing excellent service is a way of life

7. ©2006TheMcGraw-HillCompanies,Inc.All rightsreserved.
Figure 12.2
The Services Marketing Triangle
Company
(Management)
CustomersEmployees
Internal Marketing
“Enabling the promise”
Interactive Marketing
“Delivering the promise”
External Marketing
“Making the promise”
Source: Adapted from Mary Jo Bitner, Christian Gronroos, and Philip Kotler

8. Services Marketing Triangle Applications
Exercise
▪ Focus on a service organization. In the context you are
focusing on, who occupies each of the three points of the
triangle?
▪ How is each type of marketing being carried out currently?
▪ Are the three sides of the triangle well aligned?
▪ Are there specific challenges or barriers in any of the three
areas?

9. Ways to Use the Services Marketing
Triangle
▪ Overall Strategic Assessment
▪ How is the service
organization doing on all
three sides of the triangle?
▪ Where are the weaknesses?
▪ What are the strengths?
▪ Specific Service
Implementation
▪ What is being promoted and
by whom?
▪ How will it be delivered and
by whom?
▪ Are the supporting systems in
place to deliver the promised
service?

10. ©2006TheMcGraw-HillCompanies,Inc.All rightsreserved.
The Service Profit Chain
Source: An exhibit from J. L. Heskett, T. O. Jones, W. E. Sasser, Jr., and L. A. Schlesinger, “Putting the Service-Profit Chain to
Work,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 1994, p. 166.

11. Service Quality Dimensions
▪ Reliability
▪ Responsiveness
▪ Assurance
▪ Empathy
▪ Tangibles

12. Service Employees
▪ They are the service.
▪ They are the organization in the customer’s eyes.
▪ They are the brand.
▪ They are marketers.
▪ Their importance is evident in:
▪ The Services Marketing Mix (People)
▪ The Service-Profit Chain
▪ The Services Triangle

13. Service Employees
▪ Who are they?
▪ “boundary spanners”
▪ What are these jobs like?
▪ emotional labor
▪ many sources of potential conflict
▪ person/role
▪ organization/client
▪ interclient
▪ quality/productivity tradeoffs

14. Figure 12.4
Boundary Spanners Interact with Both Internal
and External Constituents
Internal Environment
External Environment

15. Figure 12.5
Source Of Conflict For Boundary-Spanning
Workers
▪ Person versus role
▪ Organization versus client
▪ Client versus client
▪ Quality vs. Productivity

16. ©2006The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.All
rights reserved.
Figure 12.6
Human Resource Strategies for Delivering Service
Quality through People
Hire the
right people
Retain the
best
people
Develop
people to
deliver
service
quality
Hire for service
competencies and
service
inclinationCompete for
the best
people
Measure and
reward strong
service
performers
Treat
employees
as
customers
Include
employees in
the
company’s
vision
Provide
needed support
systems
Develop
service-oriented
internal
processes
Provide
supportive
technology
and
equipment
Measure
internal service
quality
Promote
teamwork
Empower
employees
Train for
technical and
interactive
skills
Be the
preferred
employer
Customer-
Oriented
Service
Delivery

17. Empowerment
▪ Benefits:
▪ quicker responses to customer
needs during service delivery
▪ quicker responses to
dissatisfied customers during
service recovery
▪ employees feel better about
their jobs and themselves
▪ employees tend to interact with
warmth/enthusiasm
▪ empowered employees are a
great source of ideas
▪ great word-of-mouth advertising
from customers
▪ Drawbacks:
▪ potentially greater dollar
investment in selection and
training
▪ higher labor costs
▪ potentially slower or
inconsistent service delivery
▪ may violate customers’
perceptions of fair play
▪ employees may “give away the
store” or make bad decisions

18. Figure 12.7
Traditional Organizational Chart
Manager
Supervisor
Front-line
Employee
Customers
Front-line
Employee
Front-line
Employee
Front-line
Employee
Supervisor
Front-
line
Employe
e
Front-
line
Employe
e
Front-
line
Employe
e
Front-
line
Employe
e

19. Figure 12.8
Customer-Focused Organizational Chart
Manager
Supervisor
Front-line
Employee
Customers
Front-line
Employee
Front-line
Employee
Front-line
Employee
Supervisor
Front-line
Employee
Front-line
Employee
Front-line
Employee
Front-line
Employee