Unit 2

Customer Care in services

Introduction
Interaction between the service provider and the
customers
Customer care includes not only providing what
is required but also includes being nice,
employee relationship with customers and
relationship between the management and
employees
Integral part of the total quality management
Development of Customer Care
The need for customer care is driven
by:
Customers
Employees
Changing business environment
Customer Care Program
Identify the dimensions of customer care/service from
the internal and external customer research-their
needs and expectations from a company
Measuring the importance of these dimensions
Setting measurable standards and systems for service
delivery
Translating the customer needs into appropriate
service specification
 Customer Care Program
Managing employees to include recruitment,
selection, training, reward and recognition
Managing delivery process to include complaint
handling and service recovery
Monitoring the customer care program e.g.
developing systems to research and evaluate
customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction and
employee performance
Reviewing organization structures and customer care
objectives
Benefits of Customer Care
Customer loyalty through satisfaction
Increased opportunities for cross selling
Employee satisfaction
Enhances corporate image and insulation
from price competition
External Customers
An external customer is someone who uses your
company's products or services but is not part of
your organization
Elements of external customer care
Product service range
Both the basic goods and augmented goods
Delivery system
Professional service which is few in number in
terms of transaction but is highly customized
Mass service like in banks
Service shops
Service encounter or moment of truth
 Elements of external customer care

Delivery environment
Physical design and access
aspect
Emotional or atmospheric
impact
Servicescape/service
setting has impact in
customer perception and
attitude
 Elements of external customer care
Technology
Facilitates the customer-company exchange
relationship
Increases efficiency, speed and accuracy of the service
and at the sme time depersonalizes the service
Employees
Personal quality and ability of the employees to
understand and satisfy the customer needs
Dimension of external customer care
Different dimensions of customer quality
Process Quality
Output Quality
Physical quality and interactive quality
Corporate Quality
Technical quality and functional quality
 Dimension of external customer care
Five dimensions in service quality
(1)Tangibles . Physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel.
(2) Reliability . Ability to perform the promised service dependably and
accurately.
(3) Responsiveness . Willingness to help customers and provide prompt
service.
(4) Assurance (including competence, courtesy, credibility and security).
Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and
confidence.
(5) Empathy (including access, communication, understanding the customer).
Caring and individualized attention that the firm provides to its customers.
 Measurement of external customer care
Success with respect to customer care, traditionally, has been
assessed by measurement of consumer satisfaction
But these days customer service is measured in terms of the
difference between the consumer expectation and perception
If gap between expectation and perceived service then service
gaps occurs
Management assessment of the customer need, development
of the service system, employees involvement in the service
delivery and external communication about the service delivery
 Measurement of external customer care
The SERVQUAL instrument has been the predominant method used to measure
consumers perceptions of service quality.
It has five generic dimensions or factors and are stated as follows
(1)Tangibles . Physical facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel.
(2) Reliability . Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
(3) Responsiveness . Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. (4)
Assurance (including competence, courtesy, credibility and security). Knowledge
and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence.
(5) Empathy (including access, communication, understanding the customer).
Caring and individualized attention that the firm provides to its customers.
 In the SERVQUAL instrument, 22 statements measure
the performance across these five dimensions, using a
seven point likert scale measuring both customer
expectations and perceptions
Measurement problem in external customer
care
Dimensions
Some can be easily measured whereas some cannot be.
E.g. tangibility and credibility
Customer expectation
Zone of tolerance
Measurement tools
Problems with SERVQUAL
Problem with the rating scale
Customers in financial services
Physical features and facilities
Reliability
Characteristics of the staff with whom the customers come
into contact
Responsiveness to customer need
Reliability and trustworthiness in the branch manager
Promises being kept
Speed in decision-making, transaction and dealing with
customers
Explanation of charges and privacy
 Customers in tourism
Based upon the expectation and anticipated benefits prior
to the travel and satisfaction and dissatisfaction and future
purchase intensions after the tour
Elements of the service and care were:
Good weather, clean hotel, good food, on-time flights,
friendly hotel staff efficient service in the hotel
Expectation was the function of the price paid
Customers attitude towards tour operator with regard to
reliable, value for money and standard of service
Security, in-time flight and information during delays
Customers in healthcare services
Medical care and information
Food and physical facilities
Ward atmosphere
Nursing care
Visiting arrangement
staff expertise
Doctor patient interaction
Customers in retailing services
Friendly and approachable staff
Consistent service
Staff are not waiting to pounce on you
Clearly priced
Proper display
Delivery facility
 Customers in manufacturing
Dimension of Service quality related to;
Product i.e. quality, innovation history, range of product,
technical specification, product availability
The organization and its personnel i.e. reputation, previous
experience, helpful personnel, technical support, after sales
services, location of supplier, communication/response
time
Operational system i.e. delivery reliability and speed, ease
of contact, administrative efficiency, electronic aspects of
ordering
Customers in manufacturing
The dimensions were:
Reliability services reducing the uncertainty of
buyers purchase decision
Convenience services adding values to the product
offering adapting it to individual customer need and
simplifying the work of the buyer
Interaction services enhancing the buyer seller
relationship
Internal marketing
Role of employees in the organization
Employees are internal customer
Internal service quality-employees satisfaction-employee retention-
external service quality-customer satisfaction-customer retention-
profit
Internal marketing is needed to achieve motivated, customer oriented
care oriented personnel
Recruitment, selection and training
Training and reward needs to be emphasized
Service delivery
Manage the promise to reduce the gap
What is said in the external communication should
match the service that is delivered
Advertising and promotion can affect the consumer
expectation and perception so over promise should
not be done
Service guarantee
With rise in the consumer expectation and rise in the standard
of the company the concept of Service Guarantee has emerged
E.g. free pizza if not delivered within 30 minutes
Service guarantee should be unconditional, easy to understand
and communicate, easy to evoke and easy to collect
Customers can be dissatisfied with the service delivery system
and may never complain due to perception of:
Fear of hassle or too much trouble to complain
No one is available to complain or no easy channel is set up
Do not know where to complain
When customer themselves are the source of service failure
Service guarantee
Such dissatisfied customer must be retained to reduce
the negative word of mouth and also those satisfied
when complain is addressed are more loyal than
before
Service Recovery
Every firm want to make their customer 100 percent satisfied in the
first encounter but may not always be possible due to different
circumstances
So service provider needs to recover the problem or mistake and
make it right thee next time to turn the frustrated customers into
loyal one
Planned process of returning the dissatisfied customer to the state of
satisfaction with the company service through special effort