PART 2Analysing customer service

quality1. Assessing customer service quality

2. How to get information for assessment

3. Benchmarking customer service quality

1. Assessing customer service qualityThe quality of customer service is made of a

variety of criteria that can measure the quality of a service that is provided to customers. There are 13 main criteria:

1. Reliability of service2. Consistency3. Health and safety4. Accessibility5. Availability6. Timing7. Price

8. Value for money9. Staffing levels10.Quality of staff11.Enjoyment of

experience12.Provision for

individual needs13.Service levels.

Below is an excerpt of the Ritz Carlton Customer Satisfaction Survey -- an event survey -- in image and table format.  An article on the site discusses the impact of the survey design upon the data generated, which raises questions about the true intent of the survey program.

http://www.greatbrook.com/ritz_customer_satisfaction_survey.htm

1. RELIABILITY

A business is reliable when it is possible to trust it.If a service is excellent but can not be relied upon, customers will not return.

2. CONSISTENCY

It is related to reliability. It is a way of measuring whether the customer always receives the same level of service consistently in time.

EXAMPLE: Reliability of a train service: you expect the trains to depart and arrive according to the published timetable. Consistency of a train service: you expect the same level of friendly service from the on-board buffet on Wednesday as you received from different staff on Tuesday.

3. HEALTH AND SAFETY

Most health and safety standards are set by laws. Therefore failure to comply cannot only loose customers but put employees of an organization in court.

It is important to observe procedures rigorously. In that way, if anything goes wrong the organization is protected. EXAMPLE: In a case of food poisoning, “A person accused of an offence under the Food Safety Act 1990 may plead that he had taken all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the offence being committed by himself or by someone under his control” (Donaldson, RJ, Essential food and hygiene, Royal Society of Health. London 1993)

4. ACCESSIBILITY

Is the leisure and tourism facility accessible to people who might want to use it?Does it have wheelchair access? Are there any other facilities for disabled people. Is there an elevator?

5. AVAILABILITY and 6. TIMING

Is the leisure and tourism facility available to people who might want to use it at appropriate times?EXAMPLE: A restaurant that opens from 10 am -12 am and 2pm-5pm is likely to lose customers.

7. PRICE

Prices are a very important criteria for judging the quality of customer service. If a customer feels that an attraction was “not worth the money”, it is because they have not achieved the same level of satisfaction as they received for spending the same amount of money on something else8. VALUE FOR MONEY.

Utility derived from every purchase or every sum of money spent. VFM is based not only on the minimum purchase price(economy) but also on the maximum efficiency and effectiveness of the purchase.It is the relation between the quality and the price of a service. If something is good value for money it does not mean that it is necessarily inexpensive.

EXAMPLE: A customer may feel that €20 for a day in a theme park was good value for money, whereas 2€ for entry to a poor quality exhibition may be considered a “rip-off”

9. STAFFING LEVELS

Leisure and tourism organisations are known as labour intensive. This means that the cost of staff makes up the largest part of their costs. The main reason that some hotels are much more expensive than others is because they hire more staff so that the customer can have a better service. In many leisure and tourism organisations, minimum staffing levels are dictated by health and safety regulations. EXAMPLE: A characteristic of Forte Travel Lodge and similar hotels where you pay a fixed price for the room, is that very few staff are employed. There is no reception staffed 24 hours, no restaurant, no bar. You get what you pay for, a clean and comfortable room with a kettle, a TV and a bathroom. This has become increasingly popular. 10. QUALITY OF STAFF

When assessing the quality of staff, it is the minimum level of quality that must be measured. Temporary workers: when an employee is off sick, his substitute should know a minimum standar on procedures of the company. The fact that he or she is a temp will be irrelevant to the customer who will expect the same level of customer service. Employees with an off-day: “always cheerful” is not a good criteria to mesure quality of staff, it is better to assess politeness, smartness and knowledge.

11. ENJOYMENT OF EXPERIENCE

It may be impossible to guarantee that every customer will enjoy the experience of visiting your organization: often it can be affected by things over which you have no control (the weather can be bad …)However, you must think about how can you do your best to ensure that the customer’s potential for enjoyment is maximized.

EXAMPLE: A canal tour operator in the Belgian city of Bruges may be faced with a group, with one boat already half full. In a situation like that it would be best to avoid splitting the group (and certainly avoid splitting couples)

12. PROVISION FOR INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

The only way to ensure that individual needs are met is to build in flexibility. From the 90’ the emphasis is much more on the individual customer than standardization of the product . Customization of products and services is one of the key points of XXI ‘s century marketing. EXAMPLE: During the 80’ hamburgers became much more sophisticated with the arrival of American chains who produced large numbers of burgers ready and waiting to be served, complete with various relishes, garnishes and ketchup. If you wanted a burger without these additions it was not possible. Nowadays you should be told: “Certainly sir. That will take about four minutes, so if you would like to take a sit, I will bring it over when it is ready”.13. SERVICE LEVELS

Airlines offer various levels of service and while most passengers travel “economy class”, some opt for the extra expense and service level offered by “Club” or “first” class where the food is better and the seating less crowded.

Practice 1

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation.[2] Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity.

2. How to get information for assessment.Many times the problem for large organizations is that although they may

have first class training programmes and policy documents for customer service, it is difficult to know exactly what is happening on the ground.

FEEDBACK FROM CUSTOMERS

It is important for businesses to receive feedback from their customers:

If the customer is doing things that customers like this should be publicised.If things are going wrong, it is important that the management are made aware that the actual level of service does not relate to the quality criteria or to customer expectations.

Positive feedback can be very motivating for staff. Without a actively solicitated feeback, only complaints are likely to come through, and the 99 percent of satisfied customers will never be heard. Asking for customer’s opinion makes him feel valued and increases customer satisfaction. It saves money to the organization as it can avoid contracting marketing research services. It is key point to ensure customized services and to recover and reward for possible complaints.

EXAMPLE

OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Rather than relying on customer feedback, other methods can be devised: the use of “company spies” or “the mystery customer” is a widely used technique.

However, although company spies are a useful way of improving standards as they keep management informed of what is really happening, they can lead to mistrust between staff and management. This creates an unpleasant atmosphere which is bad for customer service.

A market researcher visits an organization , and reports back to the management on just how well their quality criteria are operating on the ground . Often the individual who gives less than satisfactory customer service is named in the report , possibly damaging his or her career prospects.

http://www.shopperjobs.com/index.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl2xm-eekko&feature=PlayList&p=1863BC71C75228F8&index=8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOtzhxfM8dkPractice 3, 4

3. Benchmarking customer service quality

Benchmarking is a term used to describe the process of measuring an organization’s performance against that of other organizations.

Internal benchmarking compares performance between different parts of the same organisation.

External benchmarking can make comparisons with quite different types of organizations.

ANALYSING THE QUALITY OFFERED IN RELATED MARKETS

Related markets are those which may affect the customers’ view of your organization. As such, it is not just direct competitors that provide impressions. Direct competition: if there are 2 cinemas in one town then they are obviously in direct competition; if one offers better customer service than the other then it has a competitive advantage.

Other organizations in the same business: while a fish and chip shop is not in direct competition with a chinese take-away, if one offers a faster service than the other, this will affect customers’ expectations both are in the take-away business.

Related service organizations: a theater could be related to a cinema in terms of its foyer services (such as the provision of refreshments). One might expect similar standards in each.

Unrelated service organizations: organizations outside the leisure and tourist industry may affect customer expectations. For example , supermarkets have introduced policies to keep queues to a minimum at check out tills. This may affect customers expectations of a reasanable time delay in purchasing a ticket.