Service Quality

Examples of Service Quality in the following topics:

• Delivering Excellent Service Quality

  • The core task of a business is to ensure that customers come back, which can be done by delivering excellent service quality.
  • Examples of excellence in service quality include personalized service, good return policies, complaints desks and hotlines, being able to speak to a human being when calling for service, and so on.
  • Maintaining a consistently high level of customer service is a challenge for any company.
  • Examples of excellence in service quality include personalized service, good return policies, complaints desks and hotlines, being able to speak to a human being when calling for service, and so on.
  • Customer service should be included as part of an overall approach to systematic improvement, as a customer service experience can change the entire perception a customer has of the organization .

• Heterogeneity

  • In other words, services are generated, rendered, and consumed at one time.
  • Given that services are heterogeneous, it is essential that each and every customer receive excellent service.
  • Heterogeneity of service quality does not imply that no two customers can receive great service, it just means that no two transactions can be repeated identically.
  • It is the quality of the service that will essentially set two competing firms with similar products and services apart.
  • However, too much customization would compromise the standard delivery of the service and adversely affect its quality.

• Intangibility

  • Teachers provide a service that is intangible.
  • However, it is possible to give tangible proof for the quality of service, such as through state test scores.
  • To reassure the buyer and build his confidence, marketing strategists need to give tangible proof for the quality of service.
  • Service providers can inspire confidence in the service by having a clean facility that customers can see, an easy-to-navigate website that shows service offerings, and a reliable and courteous staff to help customers.
  • For example, in the case of two fast food chains serving a similar product (Pizza Hut and Domino's), it is the service quality, not the actual product, that distinguishes the two brands from each other.

• Product Quality

  • Quality refers to the ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed customer requirements or expectations.
  • Broadly defined, quality refers to the ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed customer requirements or expectations.
  • When discussing quality one must consider design, production, and service.
  • Quality of Design – intention of designers to include or exclude features in a product or service.
  • Quality of conformance – refers to the degree to which goods and services conform to the intent of the designer.

• Quality

  • Consumers place a value on quality; therefore high quality products may be able to win share and/or command a price premium.
  • When it comes to quality in product design, manufacturers might measure how well products conform to certain requirements or the level of accuracy in products and services following production.
  • Product qualities can be divided into two main categories:
  • Checking - confirming that a product or service has been produced correctly.
  • Quality Assurance – obtaining confirmation (usually from the purchaser or a third-party) that a product or service will be satisfactory.

• Inseparability

  • Inseparability is a service characteristic that makes it impossible to disconnect the production of the service from its consumption.
  • Inseparability (also known as simultaneity) is used in marketing to describe a key quality of services that distinguishes them from goods.
  • Moreover, it is very difficult to separate a service from the service provider.
  • The concept of inseparability does not mean that the same service will be delivered to each customer; rather, it means that the same standards of quality will be applied to each service.
  • Describe inseparability in services marketing and how it distinguishes services from goods

• Perishability

  • Perishability of services implies that service capacity cannot be stored, saved, returned, or resold once rendered to a customer.
  • Services are perishable in two regards.
  • Second, when the service has been completely rendered, this particular service irreversibly vanishes as it has been consumed by the consumer.
  • As demand fluctuates, it can be very difficult to maintain quality service.
  • Describe why business services are perishable and how perishability impacts services marketing

• Product, Placement, Promotion, and Price

  • It is important to minimize the differences in performance (through training, standard-setting and quality assurance).
  • However, too much customization would compromise the standard delivery of the service and adversely affect its quality.
  • Service providers have to give special thought as to where the service is provided.
  • Service providers offering identical services such as airlines or banks and insurance companies invest heavily in advertising their services.
  • Most companies have a service blue print which provides the details of the service delivery process, often going down to even defining the service script and the greeting phrases to be used by the service staff.

• Customer Service as a Supplement to Products

  • Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.
  • For instance, if a product is faulty in one way, having good, responsive customer service may ameliorate to some degree the customer's dissatisfaction, but will not make up for the deficiency in product quality.
  • Customer service may be provided by a person, such as a sales and service representative, or by automated means.
  • An advantage with automated means is an increased ability to provide service 24-hours a day, which can complement in person customer service.
  • This is a form of customer service.

• Product Orientation

  • A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly concerned with the quality of its product.
  • A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly concerned with the quality of its product.
  • Consumers recognize product quality and differences in the performance of alternative products.
  • Consumers choose between different products based on getting the best quality for the price paid.
  • Adopting the product orientation can be advantageous to a company, due to the fact that the cost of determining consumer preferences and the development of new products and services are minimized or eliminated because consumers are in some way captive.