Excelling in Service Quality

It is a dream of every services organization right from coffee shop to hi-tech professional services organization to excel in service quality. It is easier said than done. Measuring service quality is lot more difficult than measuring product performance due to many factors. Some of the key factors that differentiate service quality among service providers are explained by SERVQUAL model. The easiest way to understand the model is to take the most common example of our experiences in restaurants as we all know just the food quality alone may not be a very compelling reason for us to go to specific restaurant than another. I tried to present below the five dimensions of SERVQUAL model, their definitions and their applicability to a restaurant scenario

Tangibles: Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personal and communication materials. This has to be considered as basic hygiene factor (if it is not there it would create a big dissatisfaction, if there not a great differentiator) that everyone expects from a service organization. In the context of restaurant it could be anything like hygiene of the place, well dressed staff, neatly arranged chairs and table, presenting the dishes in the right format etc

Reliability: Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. This is a very important aspect as you would never go back to the restaurant if he assures you the food in 5 minutes but takes more than 30 minutes to serve (no wonder why companies like Dominos promises 20 minutes guaranteed delivery). Other factors like consistency in the taste of the food every time, availability of your favourite food whenever you go, no mistakes in taking / delivering orders, error free billing etc are other reliable factors that you obviously expect from the Restaurant

Responsiveness: willingness to help customer and perform prompt service. I believe many of you would have the experienced a situation of where the waiter vanishes after serving (dumping) the first round of orders. You have to really look around every nook and corner of the restaurant to locate to get even a glass of water. These aspects go under responsiveness

Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Factors like the ability of the waiters to explain us the ingredients of the menu items, ability to recommend the right food depending on your requirements (less spicy, hot etc), some accreditation/ certifications from Organizations like www.burrp.com etc goes under the assurance aspects of Service delivery

Finally Empathy: Providing care and individualized attention to the customers. This is a significant differentiator. Some of factors like the special attention given by the restaurant staff to kids, elderly, physically challenged people etc are examples of empathy. Promptly replacing a dish that is not in good form or shape without arguing with customers by understanding the concerns from customer stand point is also an example of Empathy

I presume with a good understanding on the above, it is no big deal to map the above to whatever services your organization delivers to ensure they are taken care to excel in service quality. Feel free to post on what does each of the parameter means in your organization’s context

Venkatesan Sundaram

Senior Director, CRMIT

(Originally Published in : http://venkysundaram.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/excelling-in-service-quality/)