Ch-11

Managing People (Role of

Service Employee)
 Provider Gap 3

CUSTOMER
MANAGING PEOPLE FOR
SERVICE ADVANTAGE

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

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 why service staff is so important to the success of a
service firm
• service level delivered and the way the service is delivered
• can be an important source of differentiation and competitive advantage

• Service staff is the most visible element of the service (represents

MANAGING PEOPLE FOR
SERVICE ADVANTAGE

the company)

• From customers’ point of view, service staff is very much the

service firm

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 why service staff is so important to the success of a
service firm
• Highly motivated service staff plays a key role in
• anticipating customer needs,
• building personalized relationships with customers, and thus
• building customer loyalty.
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SERVICE ADVANTAGE

• Frontline staff is also crucial in low contact services where

technology is largely commoditized.

• The firms’ differentiation will then rest on these few moments of

truth whether it is through the phone, email or face-to-face.

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 The importance of service personnel
Help maintain firm’s positioning. They are:
A core part of the product

The service firm

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The brand

Affects sales

Is a key driver of customer loyalty

Determine productivity
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 • They are the service.
• in many cases, the contact employee is the service
• we often DO NOT DISTINGUISH between the person and the firm
• haircutting, child care, counseling, legal services
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SERVICE ADVANTAGE

• in these cases, the offering is the employee

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 • They are the organization in the customer’s eyes.
• employees represent the firm to the client
• may be the ONLY contact they have with the firm
• everything they say and do can influence perceptions of the organization
MANAGING PEOPLE FOR
SERVICE ADVANTAGE

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 The Services Marketing Triangle
Company
(Management)
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Internal Marketing External Marketing

“Enabling the promise” “Making the promise”

Employees Customers
Interactive Marketing
“Delivering the promise”
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 The service profit chain
MANAGING PEOPLE FOR
SERVICE ADVANTAGE

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 Effect of Employee Behaviors on Service Quality
Dimensions
• Customers’ perceptions of service quality will be affected by the
customer-oriented behaviors of employees.
• All five dimensions of service quality (given below) can be
influenced directly by service employees.
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SERVICE ADVANTAGE

• Reliability
• Responsiveness
• Assurance
• Empathy
• Tangibles

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 • Reliability (delivering the service as promised) – is often totally within
the control of frontline employees.
• For automated services (ATM), behind-the-scene employees are critical for
making sure all the systems are working properly.
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• Frontline employees directly influence customer perceptions of

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responsiveness through their personal willingness to help and their

promptness in serving customers.

• The assurance dimension of service quality is highly dependent on

employees’ ability to communicate their credibility and to inspire the
customers’ trust and confidence in the firm.

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 Service Employees
• Who are they?
• “boundary spanners”
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• Operates at the organizations boundary (frontline employees)

SERVICE ADVANTAGE

• Provides a link between external customer and environment and the internal
operations of the organization.

• Serve a critical function in understanding, filtering, and interpreting information and

resources to and from the organization and its external constituencies.

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 Boundary Spanners Interact with Both Internal and
External Constituents
External Environment
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SERVICE ADVANTAGE

Internal Environment
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 Frontline work is difficult and stressful
• Boundary spanners link inside
of organization to outside
world and often experience
role stress from multiple roles
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they have to perform

• 3 main causes of role stress:
o Organization vs. Client: Dilemma
whether to follow company rules
or to satisfy customer demands
o This conflict is especially acute in organizations that are not customer oriented
o Person vs. Role: Conflicts between what jobs require and employee’s own personality and
beliefs
o Client vs. Client: Conflicts between customers that demand service staff intervention

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 Frontline work is difficult and stressful
Emotional Labor
• “The act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions”
(Hochschild, The Managed Heart)
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• Occurs when there is gap between what employees feel inside, and emotions that
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management requires them to display to customers

• Performing emotional labor in response to
society’s or management’s display rules can
be stressful
• Good HR practice emphasizes selective
recruitment, training, counseling,
strategies to alleviate stress

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 Hire for service
competencies and
service
Compete for Be the
the best inclination preferred
people employer
Measure and Train for
reward strong Hire the technical and
service right people interactive
performers skills
Human Resource
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Develop
Customer- Strategies for Delivering
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Treat Retain the people to

employees best Oriented deliver Empower
as people Service service employees Service Quality through
customers Delivery quality People
Include Provide
employees in needed support Promote
the systems teamwork
company’s
vision Develop Measure
service-oriented Provide internal service
internal supportive quality
processes technology
and
equipment
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 The Service Talent Cycle for Service Firms
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SERVICE ADVANTAGE

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 Hiring the right people
• Be the Preferred Employer:
o Create a large pool: “Compete for Talent Market Share”
o What determines a firm’s applicant pool?
o Positive image in the community as place to work
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o Quality of its services

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o The firm’s perceived status

• Select the right people:

o There is no perfect employee
o Different jobs are best filled by
people with different skills, styles
or personalities
o Hire candidates that fit firm’s core
values and culture
o Focus on recruiting naturally warm personalities for customer-contact jobs

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 Hiring the right people
Tools to Identify the Best Candidates (1)
• Employ multiple, structured interviews:

o Use structured interviews built around job requirements

o Use more than one interviewer to reduce
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“similar to me” biases

• Observe candidate behavior:
o Hire based on observed behavior, not words
you hear
o Best predictor of future behavior is past
behavior
o Hire those with service excellence awards and
complimentary letters

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 Hiring the right people
Tools to Identify the Best Candidates (2)
• Conduct personality tests:
o Willingness to treat co-workers and customers with courtesy, consideration and tact
o Perceptiveness regarding
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customer needs
SERVICE ADVANTAGE

o Ability to communicate
accurately and pleasantly
• Give applicants a realistic
preview of the job:
o Chance for candidates to
“try on the job”
o Assess how candidates respond to job realities
o Allow candidates to self select themselves out of the job

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 Training service employees actively
• Service employees need to learn:
o Organizational culture, purpose and strategy
o Get emotional commitment to core strategy and core values
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o Get managers to teach “why”, “what” and “how” of job

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o Interpersonal and technical skills

o Both are necessary but neither alone is enough for performing a job well
o Product/service knowledge
o Staff’s product knowledge is a
key aspect of service quality
o Staff must explain product
features and help consumers
make the right choice

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 Internal marketing and communications
• Especially necessary in large service businesses that operate
in widely dispersed sites
• Employees need to be kept informed about new policies,
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changes in service features, and new quality initiatives

• Nurtures team spirit and support common corporate goals
across national frontiers
• Can complement training
o ensures efficient and satisfactory service delivery
o achieves productive and harmonious working relationships
o builds employee trust, respect, and loyalty

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 The importance of empowerment
• Empowerment is most appropriate when
o the firm’s business strategy is based on personalized, customized service and competitive
differentiation
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SERVICE ADVANTAGE

o emphasis is on extended relationships rather than short-term transactions

o complex and non-routine technologies are used

o service failures are non-routine and cannot be designed out of the system

o the business environment is unpredictable

o managers are comfortable letting employees work independently for the benefit of firm and
customers

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 The importance of empowerment
• Requirements for Empowering the Front Line
o Information about organizational, team, and individual performance

Knowledge that enables employees to understand and contribute to organizational,

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o
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team, and individual performance

o Power to make decisions that influence work procedures and organizational direction at
the higher level and transaction-specific decisions at the micro level

o Rewards based on organizational, team, and individual performance

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 The importance of empowerment
Levels of Employee Involvement
• Suggestion involvement
o Employee make recommendation through formalized programs
• Job involvement
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o Jobs redesigned
o Employees retrained, supervisors reoriented to facilitate performance
• High involvement
o Information is shared
o Employees skilled in teamwork,
problem solving, etc.
o Participate in management
decisions
o Profit sharing and stock
ownership

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 Building high-performance service delivery teams
• Many service require cross-functional coordination for excellent service delivery
• Teams, training and empowerment go hand-in-hand
• Creating Successful Service Delivery Teams
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o Emphasis on cooperation, listening, coaching and encouraging one another

o Understand how to air differences, tell hard truths, ask tough questions
o Management needs to set up a structure to steer teams towards success

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 Integrating teams across departments and functional
areas
• Ways to reduce conflict and break down the barriers between departments
o Transferring individuals internally to other departments and functional areas.
o Establishing cross-departmental and cross-functional project teams.
o Having cross-departmental and cross-functional service delivery teams.
Appointing individuals whose job is to integrate specific objectives, activities, and processes
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o
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between departments.
o Carrying out internal marketing, training, and integration programs.
o Having top management’s commitment to ensure that the overarching objectives of all
departments are integrated.

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 Motivating and energize service employees
Use full range of available rewards effectively, including
• Job content:
o People are motivated and satisfied knowing they are doing a good job
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Feedback and recognition:

SERVICE ADVANTAGE

o People derive a sense of identity and belonging to an organization from feedback and
recognition
• Goal achievement:
o Specific, difficult but attainable and accepted goals are strong motivators

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