DELIVERING AND

PERFORMING
SERVICE
 Provider GAP 3
CUSTOMER

Service Delivery
COMPANY
GAP 3
Customer-Driven
Service Designs and
Standards
 Closure of Gap 3
• Understanding Employees roles in Service
Delivery
• Understanding Customers roles in Service
Delivery
• Intermediaries roles
• Managing demand & Capacity
 Employees’ Roles
in Service Delivery
• The Critical Importance of Service
Employees
• Boundary Spanning Roles
• Strategies for Closing Gap 3
• Service Culture
 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
 The Services Marketing
Triangle
Company
(Management)

Internal External
Marketing Marketing
enabling setting
promises promises

Employees Interactive Marketing Customers

keeping promises
Source: Adapted from Mary Jo Bitner, Christian Gronroos, and Philip Kotler
 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.
 The Service Profit Chain
• Helps in understanding the link between
employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction
and profits.
• Climate for good service and climate for
employee well-being are highly correlated.
• Service quality dimensions are driven by
employee behaviors
 Service Employees
• Who are they?
– “boundary spanners”
• Organisation members who interface with customers
• Boundary – zone where customer meets internal
operations
• Two main roles performed:
– Information processing
– External representation
 Boundary spanners
• What are these jobs like?
– emotional labor
– many sources of potential conflict
• person/role
• organization/client
• Interclient
• Quality/productivity
The effect of role stress on job
performance
Human Resource Strategies for Closing GAP 3
Hire for
r Service
fo Competencies B
e
t t Pr e t
pe es and Service E m f e he
e
m B le pl rred
Co the op Inclination oy
Pe er
Str ard nd

Te Inte kills
Tr nica tive
Re ure a

ch rac
ain l
Hire the
Pe ervi g
ers

fo and
rfo ce Right People
n
w
as

S
o

r
rm
Me

Develop
Customer-

Employees
Empower
Employees

Customers

Retain the People to

Oriented
Treat

Best Deliver
as

Service Service
People
Delivery Quality
Em th any’

wo e
rk
Inc ee

am ot
Provide
plo e

Te rom
Co Visio

lu d s in
y

Needed Support
mp n

P
e

Systems
De
Se v e l o
s

re
or rvic p a su al
i
Int ente -
e
Provide Me tern e
Pr ern d In rvic y
oc Supportive Se alit
es al
se
s Technology Qu
and
Equipment
 Empowerment
• Benefits:
– quicker responses
– employees feel more
responsible
– employees tend to interact
with warmth/enthusiasm
– empowered employees are a
great source of ideas
– positive word-of-mouth from
customers
• Drawbacks:
– greater investments in
selection and training
– higher labor costs
– slower and/or
inconsistent delivery
– may violate customer
perceptions of fair play
– “giving away the store”
(making bad decisions)
 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.”