Customer Defined Service Standards

Customer defined service standards.

-Srinivas R Khode. MBA. VTU.

Objectives • Differentiate between Company-defined & customer-defined service standards. • Distinguish between “hard” and “soft” customer-defined standards. • One time service fixes. • Service encounter sequence. • Process of developing customer-defined service standards.

Gap 2. It is the gap between company perceptions of consumer expectations & customer driven service standards and designs. •Not having the right service quality design & standards.

FEDEX- Setting standards through SQI. • The company drives its operations with the aid of a comprehensive, customer defined index of service standards called as service quality indicator(SQI). • Designed to deliver 100% customer satisfaction on every package handled.

Factors necessary for appropriate service standards. -Standardization

of service behaviors and actions. •Expert services cannot be standardized viz; Accounting, consulting, engineering, dentistry, etc. •Recurring tasks can be Standardised viz; checking in patients, weighing, billing, collecting payment, etc.

-Formal service targets and goals.

-Customer- Not CompanyDefines standards.

Company versus Customer Defined service standards Company DefinedInternal- Productivity, Efficiency, Costs or technical quality. Customer DefinedRequirements that are visible and assessed/ measured by consumers.

“Hard” customer defined standards. Things that can be counted, timed, or observed through audits (time, numbers of events)

“Soft” customer defined standards. Opinion-based measures that cannot be observed and must be collected by talking to customers (perceptions, beliefs)

Hard and Soft Service Standards at Ford 1.Appointment available within one day of customer’s requested service day 2. Write-up begins within four minutes 3. Service needs are courteously identified, accurately recorded on repair order and verified with customer 4. Service status provided within one minute of inquiry 5. Vehicle serviced right on first visit 6. Vehicle ready at agreed-upon time 7. Thorough explanation given of work done, coverage and charges

Hard standards: The standards 1,2,4,5&6 can be measured & audited. Soft standards: The standards 3&7 require customer opinion.

One time fixes. One time fixes are technology, policy or procedure changes that when instituted/ implemented address/ deliver to customer requirements. Eg. McDonalds single waiting line.

Building blocks- The service encounter sequence. A customers overall evaluation is the accumulation of evaluations of multiple service experiences, service encounters, therefore, are the building blocks for service quality. Eg. -AT&T- sales-installation-repair-billing.

- Marriott hotels.

Process for developing customer defined standards.

1- Identify Existing or Desired Service Encounter Sequence: Similar to AT&T’s example. 2- Translate Customer Expectations Into behaviors/actions: Abstract customer expectations are translated into concrete specific behaviors/actions associated with each encounter. 3- Select behaviors/actions for standards: - Standards are based on behaviors and actions that are very important for the customers. -standards cover performance that need to be improved or maintained.

- Standards are accepted by employees. - Standards are predictivre rather than reactive. - Standards are challenging but realistic. 4- Set Hard or Soft Standards: -companies are biased towards hard standard. -First establish a soft standard. 5- Develop Feedback Mechanisms: - Hard standards involve mechanical counts or technology enabled measurements. - Soft standards- employee monitoring through customer feedback.

6- Establish measures and target levels: -companies can relate levels of customer satisfaction with actual performance of a behavior. Eg: Airline waiting line. 7- Track measure against standards: -Figuring out what goes wrong and prevent it from happening again. 8- Provide feedback about performance to employees: - Communication of performance on its service quality to its employees to identify and correct problems.

Thank you