Part 5

DELIVERING AND
PERFORMING
SERVICE

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 Provider Gap 3

CUSTOMER

Service Delivery
COMPANY
Service
Performance
Gap
Customer-Driven
Service Designs and
Standards

Part 5 Opener

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Chapter
Employees’ Roles in Service 12
Delivery

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

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 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

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Figure 12.2

The Services Marketing Triangle

Company
(Management)

Internal Marketing External Marketing

“Enabling the promise” “Making the promise”

Employees Customers
Interactive Marketing
“Delivering the promise”
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Source: Adapted from Mary© Jo Bitner,
2006 Christian Companies,
The McGraw-Hill Gronroos,Inc.
andAllPhilip
rights Kotler
reserved.
 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?

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Figure 12.3

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.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Service Quality Dimensions
 Reliability
 Responsiveness
 Assurance
 Empathy
 Tangibles

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 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

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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

Internal Environment
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Figure 12.5
Boundary-Spanning Workers Juggle Many
Issues
 Person versus role

 Organization versus client

 Client versus client

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Figure 12.6
Human Resource Strategies for Delivering
Service Quality through People
Hire for service
competencies and
service
Compete for inclination Be the
the best preferred
people employer

Measure and Train for

reward strong technical and
Hire the
service interactive
performers
right people
skills

Develop
Treat Customer-
Retain the people to
employees Oriented Empower
best deliver
as Service employees
customers people service
Delivery quality

Include Provide
employees in needed support Promote
the teamwork
systems
company’s
vision
Develop Measure
service-oriented Provide internal service
internal supportive quality
processes technology
and
equipment
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 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
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
 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
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Figure 12.7

Traditional Organizational Chart

Manager

Supervisor Supervisor

Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line

Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee

Customers

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

 Figure 12.8

Customer-Focused Organizational Chart

Customers

Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line Front-line

Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee Employee

Supervisor Supervisor

Manager

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.