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Service Management 1

Service Management
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Table of Contensts
Aim, Purpose and Scope...................................................................................................3
Background........................................................................................................................3
Introduction........................................................................................................................4
Define Service................................................................................................................4
Two perspective of service.............................................................................................4
Service as Business Model............................................................................................4
Methodology in data collection around Customer’s expectation and services.................5
Method used in collecting the data.................................................................................5
Ethics consideration.......................................................................................................5
Questionnaire for interview.............................................................................................6
Use of ServQual Instrument...........................................................................................6
Thematic analysis..............................................................................................................6
Customer’s expectations of service...............................................................................6
Range of expectations of customers of services and service encounters.................6
Factors influencing expectations of customers...........................................................6
Satisfaction continuum of customers..........................................................................7
Service quality perception relative to expectations........................................................7
Factors influencing perception of customers..............................................................7
Gap between perception and expectation of customers............................................7
Expectation changes......................................................................................................8
Zone of tolerance............................................................................................................8
Thematic analysis..............................................................................................................8
Customer’s expectation of the service...........................................................................8
Service quality perception relative to expectations........................................................9
Result mean.................................................................................................................14
Service provider understands expectations.................................................................16
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................17
References.......................................................................................................................19
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Aim, Purpose and Scope


The purpose of this report is to know about the process of service management in the
service organisation. Service management will help the organisation to appropriate
processes, technology and people are put in right place and most importantly provide
best services to its customers, so that organisation can achieve its business goals.
Background
Pascoe’s Ltd is an Australian company which deals in Jewellery. They have the large
number of jewellery and watches in New Zealand with a hundred years of jewellery
experience and excellent in providing services to its customers. Pascoe’s Jewellers are
the leading brand in jewellery in New Zealand. [ CITATION Pas201 \l 16393 ]
Potential Customers
The potential customers of the organisations are men, women and kids of any age
group.
Interview of customers to determine:
a) Expectation- They expect good delivery services from the company and provide free
delivery services on certain products.
b) Consistency in the expectation- As the company provides good delivery services
and provide timely services to the customers, then there is a consistency among them.
c) Zone of tolerance- As the product which company is delivering is very important to
people then they have zone of tolerance for expected service delivery
d) Customer’s satisfaction- Customers are happy with the services provided by the
company, it ultimately define that they are satisfied.
e) Gap between perception and expectation- The perception of the customer about
the company is impressive but consumers have high expectations from services
provided by company.
f) Yes there is a difference between their expected level of service and their perception
of service they received.
g) Expectations of customers have modified by the changes and improvement adapted
by the company in their services.
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Introduction
Define Service
A service can be defined as a type of activity which is consumed at a point of sale.
Services are provided by government system or private organisation for a particular
type of activity or for providing a particular product which people need. [ CITATION Cam20 \l
16393 ]
Two perspective of service
1. Customer’s perspective- The main reason for a company is that, it is based on
customer relationships. The new economy of the countries are based on customer
management and customer will choose the product of that company whose services are
best. For this the company should know how to manage relationships with customers.
[ CITATION Web20 \l 16393 ]
2. Provider’s perspective- A provider of service will be the person or company who will
provide assurance to the customer about its service delivery.
Service as Business Model
Business model of Pascoe’s Ltd is to selling of Jewellery and other accessories. The
company will provide delivery, return, and exchange services to their customers who
buy their products.
Service Logic-
Unlike product logic, in service logic both employees and customers are part of the
value creation chain. Under Pascoe’s Ltd, the service logic is to provide detail training to
the employees about the service provided to the customers and the training provided
according to the service need of the customers.
Service encounters-
The transactional interaction between customer and service representative of the
organisation is known as service encounter. It is an opportunity to build satisfaction.
Types of Service encounters-
There are three types of service encounters-
Remote encounters- When the encounter is happened without any direct human
interaction, then it will be called remote encounter.
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Phone encounters- When the encounter occurs over the telephone between customer
and organisation is called as phone encounter. It is almost common in all organisation
these days.
Face to face encounters- When the encounter occur between a service provider and
customer in direct contact, then it will be called as face to face encounter. [ CITATION
MBA12 \l 16393 ]
Pascoe’s Ltd generally follow phone encounter as encounter of dealing their customers.
Customer’s Expectation
Customer’s expectations are any arrangement of practices or activities that people
foresee while connecting with an organization. Verifiably, clients have expected
essentials like quality help and reasonable valuing — yet present day clients have a lot
better standards, for example, proactive assistance, customized associations, and
associated encounters across channels. From Pascoe’s Ltd, customer’s expectations of
services are high and of good quality.[ CITATION Sal201 \l 16393 ]
Customer’s perception
Customer’s perception can be said as the impression, mindfulness or consciousness
about a company and its offering. The impression of Pascoe’s Ltd among its customer
is very good as the company is leading brand and old.
Customer’s Satisfaction
Customer’s satisfaction can be known by its happiness and when the customers
repeatedly use the product and services of same company, then the customer seems
happy and satisfied. Pascoe’s Ltd always satisfied their customers by using innovative
way of providing products and services.
Methodology in data collection around Customer’s expectation and services
Method used in collecting the data
In order to know the expectation of customers from providing services by the company,
there is quantitative and qualitative method is used by preparing questionnaires for
collecting the information from customers.
Ethics consideration
 The research should not harm the participants who are involved.
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 Informed the participants about the whole process and methods involved in
research.
Questionnaire for interview
The questionnaires will be designed by me will be direct and short so that the
participants will not need to waste more time and feel comfortable. I will ask the
questions which are based on their real life experiences and expectations.
Use of ServQual Instrument
The ServQual instrument will be used in asking questions from the participants will be
divided on the basis of reliability dimension, responsiveness direction, and assurance
dimension.
Thematic analysis
Customer’s expectations of service
Range of expectations of customers of services and service encounters
Customer’s expectation refers to a ideas, needs, and feelings that customers have in
relation to services or product. A customer is said to be satisfied if the service received
by him is exactly what he expected. Fulfilling expectations of the customers is partially
within the service provider’s influence. The range of customer’s expectations lies
between ideal, ideal feasible, desirable, deserved, minimal tolerance, and intolerable.
Factors influencing expectations of customers
Customer’s expectation is classified into two categories and each category has different
factors which influence their expectations:
1) Derived service expectations
Derived expectations are intensified as they are derived from the experience of the
others. Such factors are influenced by another person or social group. In this case, the
expectations are set by the customer on the basis of any other person who has already
avail the jewellery services offered by Pascoes Ltd. If that person has mentioned that
the Pascoes Ltd offers good quality services then the expectations will be set to that
standard.
2) Personal service philosophy
Under this category, the expectation of the customer is set on the basis of his own
judgment about the service or the service provider’s performance. If the customer has a
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past experience of working in the jewellery industry then he may have better
philosophies of the service.
Satisfaction continuum of customers
Satisfaction continuum of customers is based on the perception and expectation of the
customers. If the perception of the customer about the services offered by Pascoes Ltd
match with his expectation then it can be said that customer is satisfied. If the
perception exceeds the expectation the customer is more than satisfied. If the
perception does not meet the expectation then the customer is dissatisfied. A 5 to 5
scale graph is used to analyze the continuum where +5 represents delighted customers
and -5 represents dissatisfied customers, and 0 represents satisfied customers.
Service quality perception relative to expectations
Factors influencing perception of customers
Perception of customer refers to opinion of the customer about the service and product
of the organization. It indicates the feeling of the customers about the brand in relation
to the services they received from the organization. There are different factors which
impact the perception of customers which includes the following:
Price
The price of the gold jewelley is usually depend on the standard gold rate in the state or
country. The other attribute which adds to the jewelley price is the making charges
which is decided by the brand itself. Since Pascoes Ltd is a long history and is a
renowned retailer of gold they usually charge high making prices. Most of the customers
have a perception that the jewelry is overpriced but looking at the quality and design of
gold they are ready to pay the price.
Quality and design
Pasocoes Ltd provide high quality gold and has variety of design due to which
customers have perceived that the quality and design of the customers are high.
Gap between perception and expectation of customers
Perception is totally based on the interaction of the customer with the service offered by
Pascoes Ltd whereas expectation is what is expected by the customers as per the
available resources and is influenced by cultural background, personality,
demographics, advertising, and past experience of jewellery shopping as well as online
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information. The gap between perception and expectation usually occurs in terms of
knowledge, policy, delivery, and communication. Most of the customer have
experienced gap in the delivery of their jewelley as well as telephone responsiveness.
Expectation changes
The reason behind the gap is the intangible and inseparability which means the
manufacturing process is not concurrent with the delivery. Also, the simultaneous
consumption and production has influenced the service delivery. Over the time, the
expectation has been modified in number of ways. Firstly, the customers expect the
timely delivery of the product. In addition to this, they also expect quick response over
telephone or any other mode of communication.
Zone of tolerance
There are two types of customer’s expectation i.e. desired level and adequate level.
Desired level is the level that customer wish to receive whereas the adequate level is
the minimum service level accepted by the organization. The gap between the desired
services and adequate services is known to be zone of tolerance. The zone of
tolerance’s width is inversely proportional to the level of commitment and involvement of
customers. Usually the customers purchasing gold from Pasoces Ltd are highly involved
in their purchase as they are paying huge amount. Therefore they are willing to expect
both quality and delivery at the same time.
Such expectations are very well understood by Pascoes Ltd as they have been
operating in the industry from a very long time.
Thematic analysis
Customer’s expectation of the service
Most of the customer’s of Pascoes Ltd has similar expectations from the organization
such as quality gold, unique designs, price, timely delivery, and responsiveness. A
sample size of 20 customers is taken to analyze the range of expectations of customers
on the basis of continuum graph and is represented graphically below:
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Customer's expectation of service


7
7 6
6
5 4
4
3 2
1 No. of customers
2
1 0
0
l e
ea bl bl
e ed le le
I d si i ra erv rab rab
a s s le le
fe De to to
l De In
ea um
Id im
i n
M

On the basis of the above graph, it can be analyzed that 2 rating has been given
customers for services to be ideal as they believes that company provides ideal service
to them. 6 rating has been given by customers as they believe that services provided by
the organization is ideal feasible i.e. up to the industry standards at the price charged by
the organization. 7 rating has been given by customers as they believe that they receive
exactly the same kind of service which they wish to receive from Pascoes Ltd. 4 rating
has been given by customers as they believe that Pascoes Ltd delivers the level of
performance which they ought to receive at the given perceived costs. Only 1 rating has
been given by customers for intolerable as they believe that the services offered by
Pascoes Ltd are up to the minimum tolerable standards.
Service quality perception relative to expectations
The service gap between the customer’s perceptions and their expectations is based on
five attributes including tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.
The response of different customers on the perceived services is presented below in
graphical format along with reasoning.
1. Tangibles
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Tangibles
8
6
4 7 7 7 7
6 6 5
2 3
0 Expectations
Perceptions

Explanation
The above chart depicts the opinion of different customers on the tangible attributes of
organization. Majority of the customers believe that Pascoes Ltd is highly equipped with
modern equipments with extremely good physical facilities such as furniture and sitting
area. They also believe that appearance of staff is neat and tidy and the content on the
website and way of advertisement by the company is appealing.
2. Reliability
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Reliability
8
6
4 7 7 6 7 7 7 7 7
2 5 5

0
Expectations
Perceptions

Explanation
According to the above graph, the perception of customers in terms of timely delivery
and showing sincere interest is solving customer problems is not up to their
expectations. The reason behind this is that sometimes due to high frequency of
customers the production gets delay and company is not able to put attention to the
customer queries.
3. Responsiveness
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Responsiveness
8
6
4 7 6 7 7 7 6 7
2 5
0 Expectations
Perceptions

Explanation
According to the above graph, the perceptions customers in terms of exact time of
performing services, helping staff, and response to customer queries are not up to their
expectations. The reason behind these includes higher frequency of customers and
fuzzy expectations of customers which cannot be helped out such as delivery of
material on short notices which are not possible.
4. Assurance
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Assurance
7
6.6
6.2 7 7 7 7 7 7 7
5.8 6
5.4
Expectations
Perceptions

Explanation
The above graph shows that expectations of the customers meets their perception
expect for knowledgeable staff. The reason behind this is that staff members are
sometimes not able to answer customer queries and then it answered by manager only.
5. Empathy
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Empathy
8
6
4 7 7 7 7 7
2
0 Expectations
Perceptions

Explanation
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The above graph shows that staff of Pascoes Ltd is highly emphatic towards their
customers.
Result mean
Table 1

Table 2

Table 3: Servqual weighted scores


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Service provider understands expectations


Comparison of customer’s expectation
On company’s website it is mentioned that it is recognized as one of the leading brands
of jewellery in Australian market and provides highest range of jewellery to the
customers with excellent customer service. The brochures of the company show large
variety of designs with their discounted price [ CITATION Pas20 \l 1033 ].
Looking at these, the customers expects excellence in customer service in terms of
being courteous and respectful and proactively pay attention to the needs of the
customers. Also, the customers expect availability of all the mentioned designs in the
brochures of the company and expect it to be delivered timely at the mentioned prices.
Critical analysis of customer’s expectation being understood by the organization
Pascoes Ltd pays attention to the customer needs by analyzing the latest trends in the
market and provides exceptional range of jewelry matching with the market trend. In
addition to this, organization has placed sufficient staff in their showrooms who can
cater the need of each customer personally. Also, the organization ensures all the
design visible to the customers are available. However, during the season time the staff
fails to provide excellence in their service due to high rush of customers.
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Conclusion
There are 5 different types of service encounters such as remote encounter, phone
encounter, and face to face encounter. The service provider has to fulfill the expectation
of customers in all these encounters so that they can develop a positive perception of
their services in customer’s mind. Primary method of data collection is used to gather
data from the customers and is analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Thematic
analysis concludes that expectations of customers are influenced from derived service
expectations and personal service philosophy. The service quality perception and
expectations of customers is based on price, quality, and design of the service.
Customer expectations can be influenced by the service organization though
responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. The benefit of customer satisfaction is that it
can insulate customers from competitors, create sustainable costs, and reduce failure of
costs. The responses of 5 different customers for the questionnaire are as follows:

Customer 1 Customer 2 Customer 3 Customer 4 Customer 5


Question 1 Ideal Ideal Desirable Deserved Desirable
feasible feasible
Question 2 Derived Personal Word of Derived Psychological
service service mouth and service need
expectations philosophy past philosophy
and experience
situational
factors
Question 3 Delighted Satisfied Satisfied Satisfied Satisfied
Question 4 Price Price Image Price Image
Question 5 Gap 1 Gap 2 Gap 2 Gap 1 Gap 2
Question 6 Less Expected Expects Expects Expect
designs quicker 24*7 service more personalized
delivery just like discount service
online one
Question 7 Yes, by Yes, I Yes, I would With Yes, I expect
looking at expect the expect increased to be treated
online world business to business to competition as an
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I expect the be more be available expect individual and


business to efficient to respond better not just
be more to my query designs at another
efficient every time less cost customer
Question 8 Acceptable Acceptable Acceptable Acceptable Acceptable
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References
Cambridge Dictionary. (2020). Service. Retrieved from dictionary.cambridge.org:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/service
MBA knowledge base. (2012). Service encounters. Retrieved from mbaknol.com:
https://www.mbaknol.com/services-marketing/service-encounters/
Pascoes. (2020). Pascoes- The Jewellers. Retrieved from pascoes.co.nz:
https://www.pascoes.co.nz/about-us
Salesforce. (2020). Customer Expectation. Retrieved from salesforce.com:
https://www.salesforce.com/research/customer-expectations/
Web and Marcos. (2020). Customer perspective. Retrieved from webandmarcos.net:
https://www.webandmacros.net/customer-perspective.htm

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