Quality Counts in Services, Too
Leonard L. Berry, Valarie A. Zeithaml, and A. Parasuraman
44
Leonard L. Berry is professor of marketing, Valarie A. Zeithaml is assistant professor of marketing, and A. ("Parsu")
Parasuraman is an associate professor of
marketing, all at ~rexas A&M University.
The authors wish to express appreciation
to the Marketing Science Institute for
funding the research on which this article
is based.
Quality is essential when service is what is
being sold.
he issue of product quality
has come to the forefront in
American industry. One reason for this is the rise of the "get
my money's w o r t h " consumer, a
value-seeking shopper who thinks in
terms of total use cost ("What will
this product cost me over the total
period I will be using it?") rather
than just initial acquisition cost.
According to a Whirlpool Corporation study, nearly four out of five
American consumers claim to be
more demanding about quality now
than in prior years.a
Most published work on product quality focuses on manufactured goods. The subject of service
quality has received less attention.
This distinction is important because some of the quality-improving strategies available to
manufacturers (for example, better
vendor management) may be inappropriate for service firms. Services
are performances, not objects. They
are often produced in the presence
of the customer, as in the case of
air travel or a medical exam. Because of the labor intensity of
many services, quality can vary
considerably from one firm to
another and from one situation to
the next within the same firm.
T
1. "America's Search for Quality," Whirlpool Corporation, 1983: 3.
To learn more about the subject
of service quality, we recently conducted a series of consumer focus
group interviews and executive interviews in four service sectors:
retail banking, credit cards, securities brokerage, and product repair
and maintenance. Our objectives
were to better understand the nature and determinants of service
quality from both consumer and
executive perspectives, to find out
more about what causes service
quality problems, and to propose
strategies for dealing with these
causes. Our research was exploratory and, in this phase, restricted to
consumer services.
The four service sectors we
studied vary along key dimensions
used to categorize services. 2 For
example, retail banking and credit
card services provide immediate
customer benefits, while securities
brokerage and product repair services provide more enduring benefits. A nationally recognized company in each of the four sectors
participated in the study. In-depth
interviews were held with operations, marketing, customer relations, and senior executives in the
firms. A total of 14 executive inter2. Christopher H. Lovelock, "Classifying
Services To Gain Strategic Marketing Insights,"
Journal of Marketing, Summer 1983: 9-20.
Business Horizons / May-June 1985
Quality Counts in Services, Too
views were conducted, each lasting
one to two hours. The interviews
were based on a c o m m o n set of
open-ended questions.
We also conducted 12 consumer
focus group interviews, three for
each of the four services being
studied. Eight of the focus groups
were held in a metropolitan area in
the southwest; the other four were
spread across the country. All focus
group participants were current or
recent users of the service being
discussed. In the interviews, they
discussed their experiences and perceptions concerning the service in
general, rather than the specific
service of the participating firm, the
identity of which was not revealed.
What Is Service Quality?
ust what is service quality?
Philip Crosby defines quality
as conformance to specifications? Christian Gronroos distinguishes between "technical quality"
(what is delivered) and "functional
quality" (how it is delivered). He
believes the " h o w " of service del i v e r y - f o r example, the appearance
and behavior of a restaurant
w a i t e r - i s critical to perceptions of
service quality. 4 J a r m o Lehtinen
views service quality in terms of
"process quality" and " o u t p u t
quality." Process quality is judged
by the customer during the service.
Output quality is judged by the
customer after the service is performed. The barber's conversation
and apparent skill during the haircut involve process quality; the
appearance of the hair after the
haircut involves output quality, s
We asked each executive we
interviewed to define service quality. A banker said that it "is setting
standards regarding customer needs
J
3. Philip 13. Crosby, Quality Is Free (New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1979): 17.
4. See Christian Gronroos, Strategic Management and Marketing in the Service Sector
(Boston: Marketing Science Institute, May
1983), Chapter 4.
5. Jarmo R. Lehtinen, "Customer Oriented
Service System," Service Management Institute
Working Paper, Helsinki, Finland, 1983.
45
"I'm sorry, but she can't speak with you now. She's considering quality
improvement suggestions, from a consumer perspective, for a certain technicalprocess service vendor."
and meeting them." A securities
brokerage
executive
answered,
"Service quality is true representation of the client's interest first and
foremost." A product repair executive responded, "Service in a reasonable amount of time at a reasonable cost by a competent technician who does it right the first
time."
From the focus group interviews, we identified ten determinants of service quality. Virtually
all comments consumers made in
these interviews about service expectations, priorities, and experiences fall into one of these ten
categories. Although the relative
importance of the categories would
vary from one service industry to
the next, we believe the determinants of service quality in most
(if not all) consumer service industries are included in the list.
• Reliability
involves
consistency of performance and dependability. It means that the firm
per,forms the service right the first
time. It also means that the firm
honors its promises. Specifically, it
involves:
- a c c u r a c y in billing;
- k e e p i n g records correctly;
- p e r f o r m i n g the service at the
designated time.
eResponsiveness concerns the
willingness or readiness of employees to provide service. It involves timeliness of service:
--mailing a transaction slip immediately;
--calling the customer back
quickly ;
--giving prompt service.
• Competence means possession
of the required skills and knowledge to perform the service. It
involves:
--knowledge and skill of the
contact personnel;
- k n o w l e d g e and skill of operational support personnel;
--research capability of the organization.
• Access
involves
approachability and ease of contact. It
means:
- t h e service is easily accessible
by telephone (lines are not busy
and they don't put y o u on hold);
--waiting time to receive service
is not extensive;
- h o u r s of operation are convenient;
46
--location of service facility is
convenient.
• Courtesy involves politeness,
respect, consideration, and friendliness of contact personnel (including
receptionists, telephone operators,
and so forth). It includes:
--consideration for the consumer's property;
--clean and neat appearance of
public contact personnel.
• C o m m u n i c a t i o n means keeping customers informed in language
they can understand. It also means
listening to customers. It may mean
that the company has to adjust its
language for different consumers-increasing the level of sophistication with a well-educated customer
and speaking simply and plainly
with a novice. It involves:
--explaining the service itself;
--explaining how much the service will cost;
--assuring the consumer that a
problem will be handled.
• Credibility
involves
trustworthiness, believability, honesty.
It involves having the customer's
best interests at heart. Contributing
to credibility are:
- c o m p a n y name;
- c o m p a n y reputation;
- p e r s o n a l characteristics of the
contact personnel;
--the degree of hard sell involved in interactions with the customer.
• Security is the freedom from
danger, risk, or doubt. It involves:
-physical safety (will I get
mugged at the automatic teller
machine?);
--financial security (does the
company know where m y stock
certificate is?);
--confidentiality (are my dealings with the company private?).
• Understanding
the
customer
involves making the effort to understand the customer's needs. It involves:
--learning the customer's specific requirements;
--providing individualized attention;
--recognizing the regular 'customer.
• Tangibles include the physical
evidence of the service:
--physical facilities;
--appearance of personnel;
--tools or equipment used to
provide the service;
--physical representations of the
service, such as a plastic credit card
or a bank statement;
- o t h e r customers in the service
facility.
Four Conclusions
alysis of our data leads us to
onclude the following about
the concept of service
quality.
1. Consumer perceptions of service quality result from comparing
e x p e c t a t i o n s prior to receiving the
service and actual experiences with
the service. If expectations are met,
service quality is perceived to be
satisfactory; if unmet, less than
satisfactory; if exceeded, more than
satisfactory. The expectations/experiences connection is consistent
with Gronroos's conclusions based
on research he performed in Europe. 6
2. Quality evaluations derive
from the service process as well as
the service outcome. The validity of
Lehtinen's process quality/output
quality scheme is underscored in
our research by the large number of
focus group comments relating to
the interpersonal behaviors of the
service provider, such as politeness,
willingness to help, trustworthiness.
The manner in which the service is
performed can be a crucial component of the service from the
consumer's point of view.
3. Service quality is of two
types. First, there is the quality
level at which the regular service is
delivered (such as the bank teller's
typical handling of a transaction).
Second, there is the quality level at
which "exceptions" or "problems"
are handled (when, for example,
the monthly credit card statement
is incorrect, or the broker bought
the securities but the instructions
6. Gronroos, Chapter 14.
were to sell them). Delivering good
service quality requires strength at
both levels.
4. When a problem occurs, the
low contact service firm becomes a
high contact firm. Credit card service is a good illustration. Usually,
the credit card user has no personal
contact with the credit card company. There is contact with the
merchant at checkout but none
with the credit card company unless there is a problem. The problem may be noticed by the company (the user exceeds the credit
limit) or by the user (an error in the
statement), but in either case personal contact between c o m p a n y
and customer may result. We have
learned that interactions between
customer and company representatives c a n - a n d do--figure prominently in the quality image of
so-called low-contact firms. Time
and time again, credit card and
product repair focus group participants emphasized interpersonal factors when discussing how service
providers responded to an exception.
The Figure shows how service
quality evaluations are a function
of the expectations consumers
bring to the service situation and
the process and output quality they
perceive they receive. These relationships hold whether the service
performed is the regular service or
in response to an exception.
What Causes Service
Quality Problems?
ur research reinforces the
conclusion from a study of
manufacturing companies,
" t h a t the seeds of quality problems
are widely distributed. ''~ However,
studies of manufacturing firms and
service firms produce some different "seeds." The most frequently mentioned sources of quality problems in the manufacturer
study
were workmanship/work
force, materials/purchase of parts,
O
7. Frank S. Leonard and W. Earl Sasser,
"The Incline of Quality," Harvard Business
Review, September-October 1983: 164.
Quality Countsin Services,Too
control systems, product design,
and maintenance of process equipment. s The primary causes of service quality problems surfacing in
our research are, in key respects,
quite different.
Inseparability of Production and
Consumption and Labor Intensity
Goods are manufactured in a factory, then sold, then consumed.
For many services the sequence is
reversed. First the service is sold,
then it is produced, often in the
presence of the customer. Frequently, production and consumption are inseparable. Customers cannot be transported by an airline
without being on the airplane. They
cannot have their teeth cleaned
without going to the dentist's office. In effect, for many services the
customer is in the factory. The
customer experiences firsthand the
production of the services. Holy
service personnel conduct themselves, how they speak, even how
they dress, all potentially shape the
customer's perceptions of service
quality.
The inseparability characteristic
would not figure so prominently in
matters of service quality, however,
if most services were not so labor
intensive. The extensive involve8. Leonm'dand Sasser: 164.
ment of people in the production
of a service introduces a degree of
nonstandardization that doesn't
exist when machines dominate the
production process. As a securities
brokerage executive p u t it: "Trying
to maintain service quality when
you have five thousand entrepreneurs (brokers) out there is difficult. Their levels of knowledge vary
greatly. Getting five thousand to do
it right all the time is hard."
Many factors can interfere with
a satisfactory experience when service producer and service consumer
are in direct contact. It is particularly t r o u b l e s o m e - a n d yet quite
common--when the backgrounds of
those delivering the service and
those buying it are quite different.
The service personnel with whom
consumers interact (bank tellers
and credit card operations clerks,
for example) are frequently among
the least educated and lowest paid
employees in their companies. Both
the bank and the credit card issuer
participating in our study voiced
concerns about personnel who respond to customer inquiries but
have a poor command of the English language.
The problem of service worker
backgrounds involves low wages,
insufficient talent pools for certain
"non-glamorous" service jobs, not
enough (or the wrong kind of)
training~ high turnover rates, and
other factors. A bank operations
executive enumerated several of
these points: "Turnover is high and
a lack of experience results. A
person who normally would keep a
position for 18 months has to move
upward before he is ready. And this
has an impact all the way down the
line. You have limited staff because
of unfilled openings and inadequately prepared staff because people have to get up the learning
curve when they are new."
47
If a worker in a manufacturing
plant has difficulties with the language, is poorly dressed, or has
body odor, the customer won't
know about it. With most services,
however, the worker's language
skills, dress, and odors are part of
the customer's experience. The
presence of the customer during
production of the service--which is
frequently labor-intense and hence
subject to variability--causes quality problems unique to services.
Inadequate Service to
Intermediate Customers
In each of the companies we
studied, the quality of service the
consumer received depended in part
on the quality of operational support the service personnel received.
Continuum of Perceived Service Quality
Unacceptable Quality
Expectations Not Met II
Prepurchase
Expectations
X
Perceived
Process
Quality
X
I Perceived
Output
Quality
Expectations Met
[
Satisfactory
[ Expectations Exceeded]
Ideal Quality
"New services or enhanced
existing services offer both additional
marketing opportunity and additional opportunity
for things to go wrong. Too much newness
can do more harm than good."
48
In effect, these customer contact o f the broker in the office and the
personnel--the branch office bank- problems he faces. For instance, the
er, the stockbroker, the repair tech- broker comes to the office on
nician, the me~chant accepting the Monday morning when the market
credit c a r d - a r e intermediate cus- is going up, and he thinks it's going
tomers of various support services to be a great week. The first call he
that pertain to the services they gets is Mrs. Smith, who hasn't
themselves perform. If the quality received her dividend check. He
of intermediate service is poor, the spends 30 minutes with her and
quality of service rendered the ulti- then he can't get the problem fixed
mate consumer is likely to suffer. at headquarters.
Customer-contact
personnel
For many service companies,
provide the link between c o m p a n y two sets of service quality cusand customer. They sell and]or tomers must be satisfied. In addiperform the service. To the con- tion to the ultimate consumer, the
sumer, they are the company. When intermediate c u s t o m e r - t h e contact
something goes wrong--a lost stock person who depends upon support
certificate, an ordered appliance services provided elsewhere in the
part that doesn't arrive--it is the organization--must be served. The
contact person, who may be totally consumer's perceptions of service
blameless, to whom the customer quality depend on it.
will likely turn.
For service quality to be satis- Communication Gaps
factory, customer contact person- Communication gaps were a major
nel m u s t be willing and able to factor in service quality problems
perform the service. The repair surfacing in our research. These
technician needs to have the right gaps were of several types. One
diagnostic tools. The branch banker type is when the firm overpromises.
needs a prompt response from Another is when the firm fails to
operations to the customer's in- stay in touch. The c o m m e n t b y a
quiry. The merchant needs fast repair customer illustrates both
access to credit card purchase problems: "I was told I would be
authorizations We found evidence the first call tomorrow. At 12:30
that intermediate service quality the next afternoon I called to ask
problems result in problems at t h e them when their day started."
consumer level. The c o m m e n t made
Another gap occurs when comb y a securities brokerage executive pany communications are not unillustrates the concept of inter- derstood. A brokerage customer
mediate customer service: I wish I said, "When the broker talks to
could take our 2,000+ operations
you, you feel like he's talking to
people and let them see the reality
another broker." A credit card cus-
tomer complained of "this mysterious thing called average daily balance."
Still another gap is when the
c o m p a n y does not listen. One of
several recurring themes in complaints to the bank in our study is,
"My instructions to the bank were
not foUowed." A second recurring
theme: " I get no response."
A disproportionate number of
service quality problems seem to
arise from failure to stay in t o u c h
whh customers until a problem is
fully resolved, to communicate in
nontechnical rather than technical
language, to develop employee listening skills in training, and to
moderate customer expectations.
Service Proliferation and
Complexity
Another source of service quality
problems is too much newness in
the service l i n e - t o o many new services, too much added complexity
with existing services. Change, in
effect,
outstrips
organizational
capacity to handle it. All of the
companies we studied were characterized by extensive "net additions" to their service lines during
the period in which we conducted
our research. In the case of the
financial firms, a clear impetus was
deregulation. In the case of the
repair firm, the impetus was electronics technology and its new
product offspring: videocassette
recorders, home computers, touchsensitive, electronically timed washing machines.
Quality Counts in Services, Too
In discussing the sources of service quality problems, a product
repair executive stated: "We may
not have all the specifications
needed to train technicians before a
new product is marketed. Some
technicians may never be capable of
being trained to service these new
'hi-tech' products. These products
are coming too fast." On the same
subject, a securities brokerage executive said: "All the new services
bring with them new quality problems. When you are no longer a
broker and not quite a bank, you're
'in-between' and there are no 'inbetween' people to hire--so you
have to make them. We've taken
our best brokerage clients and
hooked on a credit card, and we
don't know enough about minimizing mistakes. Learning the process has taken a couple of hairs off
my head."
Clearly, new products are vital
to a firm's long-term success. However, our research underscores the
importance of service firms being
prepared to provide the service before marketing it. New services--or
enhanced existing services-offer
both additional marketing opportunity and additional opportunity
for things to go wrong. Too much
newness can do more harm than
good.
Viewing Customers as Statistics
Services are performed for individuals. It can be difficuh to keep
this perspective in mind when every
working day a bank processes over
one million checks, a credit card
issuer receives thousands of telephone calls from customers, a
brokerage firm executes 300,000+
transactions, and a repair firm has
rooms full of appliances awaiting
repair.
When a service firm has many
customers, there is a tendency to
view them as statistics, foregoing
the opportunities that are sometimes present to individualize the
service. However, many consumers
desire a personalized and tailored
approach to the service. A bank
customer says: " S o m e b o d y in the
bank should know y o u . " A credit
card customer: " T h e y should know
you're good for the bucks. They
should know that, if I want to
exceed my credit limit, I'm good
for it." A securities customer: " T h e
broker has to understand your
situation, your objectives. Is the
money for play, for risk, or is it for
the kids' education?"
Repetitive tasks, more problems
to solve than staff to solve them,
sheer size and magnitude of operations, improper selection, training,
compensation, and supervision of
service workers-all contribute to a
service insensitivity we found in our
research. A product repair executive discussed the problem this
way: "We tend to forget to put
ourselves in the customer's shoes.
All we see are broken appliances.
We forget sometimes about how the
customer feels, about his concerns,
and we don't take the time to allay
these concerns." A bank operations
executive said: "Operations personnel can be insensitive. They see so
many problems that they lose sensitivity. For example, one hundred
dollars doesn't seem as important as
one thousand dollars, but it's critical to the customer out one hundred dollars. Nevertheless, a situation where the bank has shortchanged a customer one hundred
dollars may be put on the back
burner because of other problems
involving more m o n e y . "
While the customer interacts
with a small set of firms for a given
service, the service firm interacts
with a large set of customers. Treating individual customers as individuals is not automatic. When the
lines in the bank lobby are backed
up to the door, when the credit
card customer telephones to indicate the charges on his statement
belong to someone else and it's the
forty-third such call received that
day', the potential for treating the
customer as a statistic-and for the
customer to be disappointed-is
high.
Short-Run View of the Business
Too much emphasis on short-term
profitability in a service firm may
be reflected in lower service quality
assessments from the customer. A
short-run view can affect service
quality in several ways. First, it can
lead to too many cost-reducing
moves and their consequences, such
as reducing t h e number of bank
tellers (and lengthening the lines at
the teller windows) or drawing
down the spare parts inventory
(and delaying the completion of
certain repair jobs). Second, it can
encourage transactions that are not
in the best interests of the customer; for example, account churning by the stockbroker.
In the focus group interviews,
credibih'ty of the service firm
proved to be a major determinant
of service quality perceptions, especially in the securities brokerage
and product repair groups. Two
themes prevailed: Are they honest?
Do they care about my welfare?
These remarks from customers are
typical:
• " I f a broker is going to make a
recommendation to a client, it
should be an honest recommendation based on facts, not based on
commissions to be received. Honesty is the basis of the whole
thing."
• " I f I find a good, honest repairman, I won't even experiment
with anyone else."
• "When you have a problem,
they treat you like you have a
disease."
• "Everyone has the best products and service departments before
you buy. Once you buy and sign
your check, you go down the
drain."
Taking a short-run view to conducting business is a well-known
problem about which much has
been written. The problem can be
particularly acute in service businesses, however, because service is
what is being sold. If you jeopardize the service in a service business, you jeopardize the business.
49
"Avoiding the promotional temptations
to overpromise can help a company achieve
a good quality image. Raising expectations to
unrealistic levels may lead to more initial business,
but it invariably fosters customer disappointment
and discourages repeat business."
50
realistic levels may lead to more
initial business, but it invariably
aterially improving service
fosters customer disappointment
quality is a long-term,
and discourages repeat business.
multifaceted task. To ap- The "on-time" airline, the "no surproach this task on a short-term, prises" hotel chain, and the "it will
unidimensional basis is to invite be ready by five" auto repair shop
failure. What ideas might be incor- risk their reputations for quality
pora'ted into a service company's every time they fall short of these
quality improvement planning?
promises. It is better, we believe, to
Identifying
primary
quality excel in the primary quality deterdeterminants. Earlier we presented minant areas, to exercise prudence
the determinants of service quality and caution in promoting these
found in our research. Improving attributes of performance, and to
service quality begins with a com- let repeat patronage and word-ofpany using research to identify the mouth build the business. It is
quality determinants most impor- better to exceed customer expectatant to market segments of interest. tions than to let the customer
It is necessary to find out if the mix down.
of primary quality determinants
Managing evidence. Closely aschanges when it is an "exception" sociated with the notion of manrather than a routine service. The aging expectations is the notion of
next step involves assessing how the managing evidence. While the forcompany and its competitors are mer is concerned with assuring realrated by target markets on the key istic expectations prior to the serquality
determinants.
Isolating
vice situation, the latter is conquality determinants important to cerned with shaping perceptions
the customer and in need of imduring and after the service. Beprovement by the company pro- cause a service is a performance and
vides a focus for a quality improvecannot be sensed as goods can,
ment program. Because market consumers tend to be especially
priorities may change, they need to
attentive to tangibles associated
be tracked over time.
with it for clues about its nature
Managing customer expecta- and quality. 9 Managing evidence
tions. The expectations consumers means making sure that these tangibring to the service situation play a ble objects convey the proper clues.
pivotal role in the quality percep- The tangibles to be managed could
tions they ultimately develop. include the physical service facility,
Avoiding the promotional tempta- the appearance of service providers,
tions to overpromise can help a
c o m p a n y achieve a good quality
9. Leonard L. Berry, "Services Marketing Is
image. Raising expectations to un- Different," Business, May-June 1980: 26.
Improving Service Quality
M
devices or equipment used in performing the service, account statements, and the firm's logo.
Consider the case of the product repair service. The appearance
of the technician is a clue. Is he
neat and clean? Does he look "professional"? Another clue is his attitude. Is he courteous? Is he interested? Does he appear to know
what to do? Still another clue is the
technician's equipment. Is it impressive? Is it modern? All of these
tangibles can make an impression
about the quality of service rendered. If managed properly, they
can support the intended quality
image; if neglected, they can suggest a lower quality than desired.
Planning the tangible and intangible
elements of the service so they are
reinforcing can help a service company improve its quality image.
Educating customers a b o u t the
service. A service firm can enhance
its credibility for "being on the
customer's side" by helping consumers through education. More
knowledgeable customers are likely
to make better decisions, leading to
greater satisfaction.
Customer education can take
several forms. The firm can educate
consumers to perform certain services themselves. Whirlpool, for example, has developed a do-it-yourself kit and a series of pamphlets
for buyers of its appliances? 0 The
firm can also help customers to
10. "Whirlpool: A Marketing-Minded CEO
Tries To Set Sales Spinning," Business Week,
May 16, 1983: 50-51.
Quality Counts in Services, Too
know when to use the service. For phones are answered). American
instance, in our product repair has scores of service standards for
focus groups, a number of partici- every facet of the operation. Reserpants expressed the desire for infor- vation phones should be answered
mation that would help them within 20 seconds at least 80 perdecide whether to fix an appliance cent of the time; doors should be
or replace it. Finally, the firm can opened for deplaning within 70
educate consumers on how to use seconds after the aircraft parks at
the service. Crocker Bank, for ex- the gate. Employee compensation,
ample, sponsored a "wait reduc- including incentives and merit
tion" educational program, suggest- raises, is tied to achievement of the
ing various strategies customers standards.l
could use to minimize delays in
Commitment to quality needs
banking transactions.
to pervade an organization. It starts
Although not directly related to at the top but cannot end at the
customer decision making, some top.
Quality happens
in the
service companies could improve trenches. In reviewing published
quality perceptions by explaining case histories of companies known
to customers the underlying ratio- for service of high quality, we
nale for policies that could frustrate noted one constant: the pervasivethem. A banker i~a our study said: ness of quality consciousness in
"Lots of problems arise because these companies. At Wachovia
people don't understand bank poli- Bank, which thoroughly pretests
c i e s - f o r example, our policies on new services and technologies even
funds availability. We don't teach if it means entering the market later
our customers how to use us well or than competitors, quality is part of
why we do the things we do."
the culture. 12 So is it at Disney,
Developing a quality culture. which puts all of its theme park
Superior service quality on a sus- employees through "Traditions I,"
tained basis requires that quality a day-long course on the company's
become imbedded in a company's history and central values; in genculture,
that
quality
become eral, the enterprise places a prevah~ed.
mium on fielding well-trained, neatBuilding a culture for quality ly groomed, unfailingly cheerful
involves establishing specific quality "cast members" (as they are called
standards, hiring personnel with the at Disney). 13
capacity to meet those standards,
Automating quality. Replacing
training them to meet the stan- or supplementing human efforts
dards, checking to see that they with automated systems can minimeet the standards, and rewarding mize the chances of error in prothem when they are successful. ducing a service. For instance, the
There is a quality loop, and the repair firm in our study has deloop must be closed.
11. Based on remarks by William E. Crosby,
At American Airlines, which has
vice president of passenger service for American
had a formal quality program for Airlines,
in Robert C. Lewis and Bernard H.
more than 30 years, the vice presi- Booms, "The Marketing Aspects of Service
dent of passenger services makes a Quality," in Leonard L. Berry, G. Lynn
Shostack, and Gregory D. Upah, eds., Emerging
weekly presentation to top manage- Perspectives
on Services Marketing (Chicago:
ment on the company's quality American Marketing Association, 1983):
performance. Data is collected by a 100-102.
quality consultant who rides the
12. See "Interview: John G. Medfin, Jr.,
planes to check on service perfor- President, The Wachovia Corporation," United
mance and take photographs. Data States Banker, October 1983: 22-28, 74.
also comes from customer opinion
13. See Norwood W. Pope, "Mickey Mouse
surveys and from various electronic Marketing," American Banker, July 25, 1979:
measurements (for example, the 4, 14; and Pope, "More Mickey Mouse Marketing," American Banker, September 12, 1979 : 4,
elapsed time before reservation 14.
f
veloped a computerized system that
produces daily printouts of the
repair jobs promised for the next
working day in each service location. The securities brokerage industry is developing technology offering on-line editing of transactions entered into remote data input devices. In other words, if a
broker in Des Moines enters a transaction containing an error, the order is not accepted until the error is
corrected.
A key to making the right decisions about technology is understanding the customer's priorities
well enough to know which aspects
of the service require the human
touch and which lend themselves to
automation. Finding the optimum
mix of "high-touch" and "hightech" can pay off in better service
quality.
Following up the service. Following up on services performed
can help isolate aspects of the
service that require improvement.
Several possibilities exist. The company can take the initiative and
contact all customers, or a sample
of them, to determine their level of
satisfaction with the service. An
automobile repair firm that solicits
feedback from every fourth customer is using this approach. A
second option is to make it easier
for customers to communicate with
the firm when the need arises.
Companies that sponsor toll-free
telephone lines are using this approach.
Contacting
customers
and
making it easier for customers to
contact the firm are complementary strategies. Service companies
should consider using both. The
strength of the first strategy is that
it represents a systematic approach
for monitoring service quality. The
second option affords the opportunity to get back in the good
graces of unhappy customers who
otherwise may be lost to the firm
forever.
Soliciting feedback from contact personnel concerning the quality of intermediate customer service
51
when tile service is performed, in
effect witnessing its production.
Even if customer contact personnel
have the talent, training, and motivation to deliver high-quality service, they may nonetheless be dehe service quality challenge pendent on " g o o d sel-~,ice" from
is to meet--or better yet, the operations part of the firm to
exceed--customer expecta- be fully effective.
There are no formulaic answers
tions. For most firms, this is a
complex undertaking. Most service to this challenge. Part of the solubusinesses are labor intensive and tion is recognition b y management
the service is subject to variability. that high quality can contribute
Customers are frequently present significantly to bottom-line perfor-
is also recommended. Surveys and
small group discussions involving
contact personnel can uncover conditions preventing them from offering higher quality service.
T
52
mance. Part is recognition that delivering high-quality service touches
everyone in the organization and is
not limited to a quality assurance
department. Part is recognition that
many steps can be taken to improve
quality and that they need to be
melded into a cohesive whole. Improving service quality requires
formalization, planning, and coordination. Most of all, it requires total
commitment. Anything less is not
enough. CZ]