SERVICES MARKETING ASSIGNMENT

HOW TO MEASURE SERVICE QUALITY

In a general sense, measuring service quality depends entirely on the context and brand promise,
and service quality dimensions vary according to the industry. However, the industry standard and
most widely-used metric is SERVQUAL.

SERVQUAL

SERVQUAL is based on a set of five dimensions which have been consistently ranked by customers to
be most important for service quality, regardless of service industry. These dimensions defined by
the SERVQUAL measurement instrument are as follows:

 Tangibles: appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication

materials.

 Reliability: ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

 Responsiveness: willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

 Assurance: knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and
confidence.

 Empathy: the caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers.

These five SERVQUAL dimensions are used to measure the gap between customers’ expectations for
excellence and their perception of the actual service delivered. The SERVQUAL instrument, when
applied over time, can help you understand both customer expectations, perceptions of specific
services, and areas of needed quality improvements.

SERVQUAL has been used in many ways, such as identifying specific service elements that need
improvement, and targeting training opportunities for service staff.

Proper development of items used in the SERVQUAL instrument provides rich item-level information
that leads to practical implications for a service manager.

The service quality dimensions evaluated by SERVQUAL should be adjusted for optimal performance
in different industries, including public and private sector applications.

SERVQUAL scores are highly reliable, but when used in different industries may fail to produce a
clear delineation of the five basic dimensions. Other measures, such as the Six Sigma model should
be considered for applicability in quantifying the gap between service expectations and perceptions.

SERVICE QUALITY QUESTIONNAIRES

In order to improve service, you must understand customer satisfaction and customer expectations.
This can be done by asking for feedback from your customers using service quality questionnaires.
These are typically completed after the service with a follow-up email or paper survey. Following up
immediately is the best way to fix any mistakes or clear up misunderstandings before your
customers become detractors.
SERVICE QUALITY QUESTIONS

There are many types of questions that can be asked in a Service Quality Questionnaire. They should
focus on the customer’s interaction with the customer service rep (positive and negative), the
service and experience overall, and if the customer would use your service again. It’s also good to
have a couple open text questions so your customers can write in their own feedback.

Sample questions include:

o The service rep was helpful (strongly agree to strongly disagree)

o Which of the qualities about the service did you like (include a list patient, friendly,
attentive, willing to help, empathetic, etc)

o Was there anything about our service that stood out to you? (open-text response)

o Over the next 12 months, how likely are you to use our product or service again
(strongly agree to strongly disagree)

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY QUESTION TEMPLATES

Industry examples

As mentioned before, measuring service quality depends entirely on the context and brand promise,
and that varies by industry. To understand if you’re providing good service, you must know exactly
what your customers are looking for in terms of service quality.

Below are examples of how service quality is measured in different industries.

RESTAURANTS

In restaurants, service quality tends to focus on timely service (not too rushed or too slow), server
attentiveness, and friendliness.

In fine dining restaurants with a fairly engaged experience, an expected part of service quality is the
ability to make relevant recommendations. This can be easily measured by a manager asking the
customer questions at the end of the meal, such as “how satisfied were you with the server’s
recommendations?” The manager can also ask if the order placed was influenced by the
recommendation(s).

However, this is clearly not a measure that would be relevant in a quick service restaurant, showing
the importance of context. In quick service restaurants, things like order accuracy and speed of
delivery are more accurate measurements. To gather this data, you can put a link to a survey on a
receipt and giveaway a free menu item upon completion.

AUTOMOTIVE

Service quality is especially important in automotive because the customer’s car must be fixed and
completed on time. This is mostly focused on the service itself, and less about the interactions with
the technician or front desk attendant, except when it comes to trust (because they must trust the
professionals recommendations).

You can ask questions like “how would you rate the quality of the service you received” or “is your
car now running like you expected after it was serviced?” You can also ask an NPS question like,
“how likely are you to recommend our service to a friend or colleague?”
RETAIL

In retail, you typically ask things about staff product knowledge (think Adidas and knowing what type
of running shoe best suits your use) and recommendations. You can also assess merchandise
knowledge (what goes with what), friendliness, and availability (were team members on the shop
floor easy to engage).

While there are all very straightforward questions to ask, they can be conditional based on the text
comments or score provided on that element.

These questions help to identify both the frequency with which it happens and the customer’s
satisfaction with the experience.

You can then regress that against the outcome measure and see how big an impact that makes on
the overall experience. This provides direction on what to focus on in your store (or restaurant), and
what action you should take. For example, if shoe recommendations are a significant part of the
experience and guests are not satisfied – you can provide better merchandise training, and if they
are knowledgeable but not making relevant suggestions, retrain to better read guests’ interests.

How to take action on your findings

After you’ve defined and measured your service quality, it’s time to take action and create a better
service experience. This can be done on an individual or team level.

ANALYZE TEAM-WIDE DATA

By analysing data across your team, you’ll get a big picture into where the knowledge gaps are as a
whole. For instance, maybe the team lacks product knowledge or customers don’t find them friendly
and helpful. Once you understand the collective feedback, you can implement training programs in
those specific areas. This will also ensure new employees don’t make the same mistakes.

ANALYZE INDIVIDUAL DATA

Every service rep has their weakness and developing an individualized service improvement plan can
help strengthen every service rep. It’s important to go over the feedback in a positive way and
emphasize the positive qualities, but you can also highlight areas of improvement. Individual service
reps might be one quality away from exceptional, and it’s the managers goal to get them there.

Creating great customer service takes time and effort. You must be intentional about collecting
feedback, putting that feedback into action, and creating exceptional experiences for your
customers.

WHAT CUSTOMER EXPECTS

1. Customers want you to meet their expectations.

It’s complicated, and yet it’s simple. Customer frustration stems from a discontinuity between the
expectation of a service interaction, and what’s actually delivered.

A study from the MIT Sloan Review found that that customer expectations had two levels: desired
(what the customer hopes to obtain) and sufficient (what the customer would actually find
acceptable). But of course, there’s a third level: unsatisfactory, where companies miss the mark
entirely. The difference between these relative levels is significant and is surely something reflected
in the corporate bottom line.
The key is to measure and understand customer expectations; only then can you begin to manage
them. Many businesses have learned that it’s often advantageous to “underpromise and overdeliver”
in order to increase the likelihood of exceeding customer expectations. Others take pride in high
expectations, knowing full well that they can deliver the goods.

Regardless of the approach, it’s imperative for companies to manage customer satisfaction.

2. Customers want options in how they contact you.

There’s a wealth of recent data citing the importance of channel preference on customer
satisfaction. In a nutshell, customers expect companies to communicate with them on their
preferred channel, be it in person, online, or on the phone.

The devil is in the details here, though. Studies show that channel preference depends on the type of
interaction. For example, for “simple” inquiries (like “what’s my bank balance?”) online self-serve
and email are the preferred channel. However as the inquiry gets more complex, speaking with a live
agent becomes the dominant channel choice.

3. Customers expect a timely response.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in a store, on the phone, or online – no one likes to wait. Accordingly, the
response times of channels you provide service on should be reasonable.

What’s reasonable, of course, depends on your customers and their channel preference. For
example, one study shows that on Twitter, 53% of customers expect a brand to respond in under an
hour. That number jumps to 72% when they have complaints. In the call centre, it’s often hard to
determine what the right service level is. For example, see Shai’s recent blog post on the subject

4. Customers want relationships (or, at least, a personalized experience).

Though we live in a seemingly anonymous culture (where “self-service” is so prevalent), customers

increasingly want a personalized experience when it matters most. For example, a study by Wells
Fargo found that 60% of banking transactions are made by customers who still prefer to do business
with a teller.

Today, technologies like CRM allow businesses to extend relationships with customers to the call
center. For example, agents can greet callers by name and have a complete history of their
interactions with the company (purchases, transaction history, etc.), so those customers don’t have
to repeat information every time they call.

This approach can also extend to proactively contacting customers, for example, sending electronic
communication about relevant promotions, follow-up calls to ensure satisfaction, etc.

Fostering relationships with customers can significantly increase the likelihood of exceeding their
expectations, turning them in to advocates of your brand.

5. Customers want you to solve their problems!

At the root of every customer inquiry is a desire for a quick resolution. It doesn’t take a rocket
scientist to understand that customers don’t want to jump through hoops to get their problems
fixed and questions answered.
Empowering your front-line agents so they have the ability to resolve customer issues is key. With
each transfer, subsequent call or email, customers lose patience with your organization, resulting in
a loss of goodwill which can significantly affect your ability to retain and grow your customer base.

Solving customer problems right away is a sure-fire way to avoid issues from your customers down
the line.

DIFFICULTIES INVOLVED

1. Not having an answer to a question

Handling this challenge is more about what you shouldn’t do than what you should do.The key is to
avoid being unclear in your response. If you don’t have the answer, acknowledge the question’s
difficulty, ask them for time to find a solution, then guarantee them you’ll contact them.

2. Transferring calls to another department

There will be times when the best way to help a customer is to transfer the customer to another
person. When that happens, you first need to let customers know you’re transferring them to
someone that will help. But avoid the mistake of doing a “blind transfer.” Meaning you transfer the
customer to your teammate without verifying they are available to take their call.

If someone is expecting a live person but gets a voicemail, how do you think they will feel?

3. Failing to understand what customers want

Customers can have a hard time explaining what they want. They may not know the technical jargon
to tell you exactly what the problem is.

If possible, ask the customer to take you step by step through their issue.

You might find it helpful to take notes while they explain the issue.

Consider sharing the problem with a teammate. A second opinion could help you solve the issue
quickly.

4. Dealing with angry customers

Even the best companies get calls from angry customer.

The key is to first calm them down so you can find out how you can help them. Then, do it.

One approach is to use the HEARD technique for helping customers—Hear. Empathize. Apologize.
Resolve. Diagnose. This approach calms customers while providing you time to diagnose the
problem and then address it.

5. Exceeding customers’ expectations

The trick to beating this challenge is to set reasonable customer expectations, then meet and exceed
them. Exceeding expectations can generate repeat customers.

The key to doing that is to first take a customer approach. Then, generate data that tells you exactly
what customers want. Use print, electronic, and social media to produce that kind of data.
6. Serving multiple customers

Customers are okay with being put on hold if it helps resolve their issues. But telling customers
you’re going to put them on hold to solve their problems buys you time to talk with the other
customer.

Above all, avoid telling the first customer you’re talking with a second customer. And don’t leave the
first customer on hold for a long time.

7. An outage or other crisis occurs

Is there anything worse than having a power failure or a crisis? Severe emergencies, like security
breaches, can be deadly. How do you handle them? First, put a crisis communication plan in place.
That tells employees exactly what they have to do during a crisis. Then, when customers call, you
need to apologize to customers for what they’re going through.

Also, provide constant updates—say once every 30 minutes— to help reassure nervous customers.

When everything’s over, you can then publish a detailing the steps you took to help the situation
and issue a sincere apology for any inconvenience customers may have experienced.

Not sure what to say? Check the internet for models you can download.

8. Customers want a discount you can’t give

Discounting can get customers to buy from you. But it also devalues your brand’s perception in the
customer’s eyes. So, use this strategy sparingly. Plus, no customer likes to hear “no” from a
customer service agent. So, don’t just turn the customer down. Explain to them why you can’t give
them the discount. Use this opportunity as a chance to reinforce your offering’s value.

9. Customers want a feature you won’t or can’t add

It’s hard to say no to good customers, as we noted above. But sometimes you must. Here’s a way to
do it gracefully:

 Keep your tone positive.

 Be personal. Forget templated responses.

 Offer a workaround if one exists

10. Flooded with service tickets

This challenge is fairly common—especially if you don’t have an employee working 24/7 or a third-
party provider like Unicom that provide response. Many customers, though, expect an answer within
six hours. When you’re backed up like this, focus on responding instead of resolving. But don’t set up
autoresponders to do it.

You can also have agents write personal emails telling customers “We’re backlogged, but we’ll be
taking care of you soon.” Also, give customers a hard deadline by which you’ll help them. That gives
you time to resolve the issue and your customers get timely responses.

11. You need to fire a customer

Some people are better suited for your product or service than others. But letting a customer go is
never easy. So, if you need to do it, do it with grace and respect. Use this four-step approach:
  Be positive and appreciative

 Re-frame the situation as your fault

 Make the customer whole

 Apologize and offer an alternative

Going above and beyond can save this relationship.

12. Reply/resolution times are slow

Customers want answers now. Or better yet, five minutes ago. To start, review the ticket handling
process you have in place. If you have tickets bouncing around from one department to another,
find out why and eliminate the problem. Also, try omnichannel support, create a service level
agreement, and set up your internal structure for team success.

Conclusion

Customer service challenges don’t go away. But if you don’t handle them correctly, they could cost
you some customers. Disappointing them costs you customers and generates negative word-of-
mouth advertising. No business can afford that.

Instead of disappointing customers, turn service challenges into relationship-building opportunities.

Prepare your team to handle these challenges in advance. That keeps customers satisfied and
retains their business, boosting customer loyalty and increasing profitability.