introduction

Customer satisfaction and service quality are considered as a crucial aspect in business, for the
development of a company highly depends on how good they maintain their customer through service.
Indeed, good service quality is expected to result in customer satisfaction, therefore will increase
customers retention and loyalty.
Service quality is defined as a comparison of customer expectations with service performance.
Good service quality leads into customer satisfaction and, therefore, makes the firms more competitive in
the market. High service quality can be achieved by identifying problems in service and defining
measures for service performances and outcomes as well as level of customer satisfaction. Moreover,
service quality can be defined by examining the differences between expected service and perceived
service
there is a positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. In this study, multiple
regression analysis is implemented to examine the relationships between service quality variables and
customer satisfaction.
The results show that all the service quality items were good predictors of customer satisfaction. Hence,
identifying and
satisfying customers’ needs could improve network services because what is offered can be used to
separate the company’s services from competitors.

Types of major satisfaction

There are said to be four levels of customer satisfaction that stand as a testament to glorying customer
success. What are they and why are they so important, the blog here awaits the answers.

• Level One: Meeting Customer Expectations

• Level Two: Surpassing Customer Expectations

• Level Three: Delighting your customers

• Level Four: Amazing your customers

Level One: Meeting Customer Expectations

Well, let’s face it – the entirety of your business depends on the customers. The minimum, basic
requirement that is asked from you to sustain the market is the ability to meet the expectations of a
customer. This is the only level where you know that your customers are happy, fulfilled, and will not
carry any severe grudge against you. And on similar tracks, they won’t have loyalty for you too.

But do not assume that since you are on the first level, you are entitled with no efforts at all. If in the
meanwhile, a competition of yours does something greater than just meeting their expectations, you
lose the chance to retain them. Not just that, your customers will now give away their customer loyalty
Brownie points to someone whom they really want to. Surviving the first step, you will have to learn the
skill of packing the punch in the first go.
Level Two: Surpassing Customer Expectations

Now, it is time to go beyond mere expectations. So how do you redeem yourself in this category? A
friendly customer service that provides impromptu solutions, followed by regular feedback sessions
might put you at this level. As you have promoted to the second level, you must know that satisfaction
for a customer means more than just subscribing to your product.

You will have to come up with a multitude of additional causes that can give you an edge over your
competitions. Exceeding their basic expectations here will build a treasure trove of customer retention
and will eventually augment your profitability bar too. Once a user sees that you are ready to surpass
their expectations, they will most likely be eager to pay more and stick around for a longer time.

Level Three: Delighting your customers

It is human tendency to fall for things that give them pamper and attention. The same principle goes for
the customers too. Once they come and see your abode of love, respect, and dedication, you are
assured to put a smile on their face. On the third level, a customer served here is indeed delighted.

Not only they saw that their basic expectations have been met and surpassed, but you as a company
have connected with them on an emotional note too. This accounts to be the beginning of wreathing
their loyalty towards you. This is also the stage were luring a loyal customer of yours away from the
clutches of a vying competitor is difficult and impossible for some.

While you make sure that you are delighting your customers, you are in a way paving the route to
building a well-profitable business with an enriching revenue bar. It is not always expensive, trophy gifts
that retain a customer. You can delight them in myriad cost-effective ways too. All they need from you
at the end of the day is empathy and devotion above the rest

Level Four: Amazing your customers

As you walk into the final level, you are looking at propelling your business in financial ways. At this top
level of customer satisfaction, you will have to bring you’re a game and amaze your customers more
than ever. Some of the simple yet significant tactics include launching a revamped version of a product
update that goes way beyond what they had expected. Freebies too are a great way to keep them
amazed.

A customer by default has a thing towards getting discounts, special promo codes, and loyalty programs.
These methods will almost simmer down on the bulging churn rates. On top of that, adding a
personalized note that goes along with these freebies is like icing on a cake. Receiving regular customer
feedback too is a good way to show them that you are listening and that their suggestions are truly
welcome. This will aid in moving your business higher in the customer satisfaction hierarchy and strive
to get more brand loyalty.
Major satisfaction:
What Is Customer Retention?

Provide customers with a great experience and you will keep them.

This retention translates into increased revenue and lower costs for acquiring new customers.

Customer retention is the result of an organization’s ability to create customer loyalty.

This is done by providing the systems, processes, and support to keep a customer happy

The goal is to transition customers into advocates for the organization – who are not only loyal but also
recruit others.

An organization’s focus on customer retention should be part of a comprehensive customer satisfaction

strategy.

A customer satisfaction strategy requires having a good understanding of what the customer wants and
expects from you.

And then using that understanding of the customer to create systems and processes to not only meet,
but to exceed expectations – and ultimately delight the customer.

This is what strategy is all about.

5 Levels of Customer Satisfaction

1. Not Satisfied
It is pretty simple. A customer is not satisfied when their needs are not met.

This dissatisfaction will result in the consumer looking to other organizations to meet their expressed
needs.

The risk with an unsatisfied customer is that they will share their dissatisfaction with other potential
customers in an attempt to protect people they know from a less than satisfactory experience. No
business wants that.

An unsatisfied customer may be the result of bad service or product but it also may be the result of
unrealistic expectations.

For instance, wait times can be very frustrating for a customer. No one enjoys sitting in a waiting room.
Particularly if they don’t know how long they will be sitting there.

Help to manage the customer’s expectations by informing them of typical wait times and providing
distractions during the wait.

For example, offer free food, coffee and have a neutral program playing on a television
The goal is to consume the customer’s time so they don’t get annoyed with the wait.

Think of the lines at Disney. They do a great job of winding people through a line and distracting them as
they go.

2. Slightly Satisfied
A slightly satisfied customer may have some expectations that are being met but others are not.
Everything is so, so.

This customer may return but may go somewhere else if offered a more appealing option.

For instance, I went to the same doctor for many years and loved him. However, his office staff was
consistently rude and incompetent – resulting in unpleasant interactions.

I decided to find another doctor, not because of him, but because of his employees.

The sad news is I think he ever found out why I left. Because he never asked.

3. Satisfied
A satisfied customer is one who gets what they expect. Nothing more. Nothing less.

There are no wows in the experience and they leave satisfied but not a smiling advocate.

For instance, think about driving through your favorite fast-food restaurant.

You receive what you ordered and it was what you expected. Not better or worse than prior
experiences.

You were satisfied but probably won’t call your friends to share the experience.

4. Very Satisfied
A very satisfied customer not only gets their needs met but may experience some unexpected surprises
that enhance their experience. The wow factor or surprise element.

This is when customer satisfaction gets fun.

Figure out a way to throw unexpected surprises at the customer to enrich their experience.

As an example, think about that drive-through restaurant experience, now imagine that a cookie was
thrown in the bag simply as a bonus.

That simple gesture may take the customer from being simply satisfied to very satisfied.

As well as a moment to share with friends.

5. Extremely Satisfied
An extremely satisfied customer is the ultimate goal.
This level of satisfaction is a customer who has an experience that consistently exceeds all expectations
and has wow factors associated with every experience.

These customers are so excited about the service they received that they become an advocate for the
organization and often recruit new customers because they want to share the positive experience.

For instance, we have a favorite restaurant that we go to for special occasions. They do an outstanding
job with the wow factor.

The wait staff greets us by name. Remember the occasion we are celebrating, and share unexpected
surprises during the entire experience.

These are experiences that I share with anyone who listens simply because I want them to experience
the same thing.

Characteristics of customer Satisfaction

1. Accessibility
Have you made it easy for customers to interact with you to ask questions, voice concerns, or get
a problem solved? Or, do customers have to jump through a number of hoops, do an extensive
Google search, and pray to the gods of customer service that they can get a hold of you?

While it may be unpleasant dealing with an unhappy customer, it's significantly worse dealing
with an unhappy customer who took 2 hours out of their day to track you down.

2. Empathy
Mistakes happen, and despite the old adage, the customer isn't always right… but if you'd like to
keep them as a customer, they must always be happy. You can ensure this by hearing them out
when they are upset, showing concern for the situation, and letting them know that you'll do
everything in your power to make it right.

3. Language
Every industry and company has its own "shop terms" and lingo that they use to describe what
they do and how they do it. Unfortunately, this insider language doesn't resonate with customers.

They want to know that you understand their problem and have a solution for it. In order to
communicate that, you need to figure out what words they use when they talk about it.
4. Response Time
We live in a fast-moving world. Customers expect products to arrive on their doorstep hours
after they order them, and questions to be answered within minutes (if not sooner!) of them
asking.

5. Convenience
Very few customers will go out of their way to do business with you. If you make it difficult for
them to browse, shop, schedule, or buy, they'll be looking for another company to provide the
solutions they need.

It's important to review your buyer's journey on a regular basis and see if any areas could be
tweaked to increase convenience.

6. Choices
Customers like to have options when it comes to purchasing. They want different colors, styles,
levels of services, and different methods for delivery. These choices help them feel in control of
their own buying experience.

7. Simplicity
While customers like having options, too many options can cause analysis paralysis and cause
your potential customer to give up before they finalize a purchase. As you design your products
and your processes, remember that a confused mind never buys.

8. Quality
Your customer service may be top-notch, but if your product is of poor quality, you won't have a
returning buyer. Make sure that you create the best possible product that customers can't live
without.
9. Reasonable Prices
There will always be low range, mid-range, and high range prices. If your products are of superb
quality and your customer service consistently wows, it's okay to charge more.

However, if you charge more than the market will bear, and more than your ideal customer can
afford, you'll price yourself right out of business.

10. Appreciation
Customers want to feel appreciated for doing business with you. You should have some sort of
follow-up procedure in place to say thank you. This can range from a quick email to a thank you
gift (depending on the value of the product or service), but will always let your customer know
that they are important to you.

11. Loyalty Programs

It's wonderful to offer incentives to new customers coming in, but what about the loyal
customers that have stuck with you from the beginning? Consider instituting some sort of loyalty
program where existing customers receive discounts, freebies, or access to special content or
products as a thank you for their continued support.

12. Community
The business relationship doesn't have to stop just because the credit card has been swiped. As
humans, we want to feel like we are a part of something bigger. Creating a community, whether
virtual or in-person, around your product, will help keep your customers engaged with your
brand.
Characteristics of quality service provided to clients
Advantages of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

 Up-to-date feedback: Gather current customer feedback on various aspects of

your company. You can stay on top of customer trends through regularly
scheduled online surveys or email surveys, and receive instant customer
feedback.  It is always useful to acquire insight into how your customers are
currently reacting to all aspects of your business.
 Benchmark results: You can administer the same survey every so often to
customers to gain continued insight into your customers. Surveys can have the
same questions, which will allow you to compare data over time and benchmark
survey data across previous years to determine if any changes need to be made.
 Show that you care: Customers like to be asked for their feedback. It gives the
customer the perception that your company values them; is committed to keeping
them as a long-term customer; and bases business decisions on their feedback.

 A deeply satisfied customer means a lower churn rate, higher retention, and
an increase in brand loyalty.

Disadvantages of Customer Satisfaction Surveys

 Too many surveys, so little time: Your customers are bombarded with online surveys.
Surveys may be simple to complete, however, some people simply don’t like to complete
them.  Sending surveys too often can irritate customers and lead to customer burnout.
Customer burnout can result in low response rates or result in lower satisfaction scores,
despite your reputation for providing excellent products or services.

 Privacy Issues:  We live in a high-tech environment filled with daily doses of

unwanted junk email, email solicitations, and sales calls. When taking an online survey
or a phone survey (or any type of survey), it is hard for your customers to believe that
they aren’t being tracked. Because of insecurities of releasing private information,
customers today are hesitant in giving out information that may lead to more junk email
and unwanted calls.  Make certain to assure customers that the information they
provide in response to your customer satisfaction surveys will not be used. Without this
disclaimer, it may be difficult to receive a good response rate.

 Customer Satisfaction does not guarantee “Re-Purchase” — It is a poor indicator.

Research shows that 75% of customers who switched brands were satisfied or fully
satisfied with the brand they left. Brands lose 20%of their customers every year.

Advantages of quality of service

Improving service quality can increase revenues through

(1) retaining a higher percentage of existing customers,
(2) attracting more customers through positive word of mouth, and
(3) increasing the usage rates of existing customers.

 It can help to prevent faulty goods and services being sold.

 It is not disruptive to production- workers continue producing, inspectors do the checking.
 As with any quality system, the business may benefit from an improved reputation for quality
and this may increase sales.

Disadvantages of quality of service

It does not prevent waste of resources when products are faulty.
The process of inspecting the goods or service costs money, e.g., the wages paid to the
inspectors, the cost of testing goods in the laboratory.
It does not encourage all workers to be responsible for quality.

How to contribute customer satisfaction

1. Understand your customers.
How can you satisfy your customers, if you don’t know their needs and pain points, how can you
create a product or service that helps them resolve their challenges?
Understanding your customers begins with customer profiling, where you identify their
purchasing behaviors, pain points, demographic information, and critical characteristics to get a
better sense of who they are. With this information, you can provide superior customer service
that is delightful and speaks to their exact needs.

2. Understand customer expectations

You cannot hope to serve and satisfy your customers if you fail to understand and deliver on
their expectations

3. Reduce wait times

Higher wait times significantly take customer satisfaction score down. It is the brand’s
responsibility to plan for and hire support staff. You cannot provide excuses to customers such as
high call volume, understaffed, holiday season, etc. You need to foresee such situations and plan
measures accordingly.

4. Listen to your customers

Listen to your customers, both satisfied and unsatisfied. Figure out what’s working for you and
what’s standing in the way of excellent customer experience. Conduct customer satisfaction
surveys using a management platform and go through them. See which areas need improvement
and how you can improve them. If you conduct customer surveys but not act on their feedback,
you will not make them happy. Do not lose your customers this way to your competition. Get all
your teams involved and work towards the common goal of elevating customer satisfaction.

5. Read customer reviews

Apart from leading social media channels, there are many websites and portals out there where
customers can post their reviews. Monitor these or sign up on these portals to see what your
customers are saying about your products and services. Good or bad, try and understand the
reasons behind these reviews. If they are good, see if you can replicate them elsewhere and
improve customer satisfaction surveys. If negative, what are the reasons, and what measures can
be taken to improve their experience? Once you start analyzing these, you can use that data to
increase customer satisfaction significantly.
How to contribute quality of service
Improving product quality is essential for achieving long-term profitability and sales growth.
While increasing product quality is no easy task, the rewards for doing so surpassed the
challenges.

It helps build trust with your customer and fuels recommendations and referrals. Excellent
product quality also means fewer complaints and returns from your customers. All of these,
impact your bottom line and encourage business growth.

With that said, how do you increase the quality of your products?
1. Define Product Quality
Before you can start improving product quality, you first need to understand what constitutes a
quality product.

Quality is often defined in two ways:

Satisfying a set of pre-determined specifications
Satisfying the customer
In general, product quality describes the capability of that product to meet user standards. Here
are the questions to evaluate a product’s quality.

Is it tailored to your customers?

A product that’s tailored specifically to the needs of your customers shows that you understand
its users and are willing to accept any suggestion they voice.

Does it solve a problem?

No product would exist if it weren’t improving or solving something. The extent to which a
product fixes and intended problems helps in determining its quality.

Is it efficient?
A quality product shouldn’t just get the job done but do so efficiently. Meaning, it should deliver
quickly with minimal effort from the consumer.

Is it easy to use?
Quality products shouldn’t complicate the process of solving a problem. Customers should be
able to learn how to assemble or use the product easily and effectively.

2. Invest in Machinery
If your production primarily uses human laborers, then your products are more likely prone to
errors and defects.
With that said, you need to invest in quality machinery. Production machinery like precision
CNC machining ensures accuracy for consistent product quality. Also, machines help increase
the production speed and are far more cost-effective than hiring several skilled laborers.

3. Implement a Quality Management System

A quality management system (QMS) is a set of internal rules that determines how your business
will create and deliver quality products. Whether you’re manufacturing your products or
outsourcing them, a QMS can keep your organization compliant with the latest regulations and
standards in product quality.

Implementing a QMS can impact your business’s total performance. An effective QMS allows
your organization to meet customer requirements and regulatory standards as well as prevent
errors, save money, and continuously improve your product offering. Most importantly, by
ensuring consistent quality products, you can improve your business’s image and credibility and
enhance customer satisfaction levels.

5. Infuse Quality in Company Culture

Implementing a QMS is essential, however, it’s not enough. These quality principles need to be
embedded across your entire organization to work effectively.

Your entire team needs to be on the same page on what constituted a quality product. Encourage
managers to constantly reinforce the idea so you can get everyone on board with your vision of
quality and more likely become part of the culture.

Once your employees comprehend the larger part of the quality message, managers should
empower them to use their own intuition and judgment to handle individual responsibilities. This
means that managers can take a hands-off approach and allow their employees to freely raise
concerns if certain procedures and policies take away their ability to pursue quality.

In order to create quality products, employees need to have a say in the developmental process.
After all, your employees can provide you with essential feedback regarding quality production.
Allow your employees to have a voice in the business process and organize meetings where they
can suggest any improvements to the company’s products.
6. Train Employees

Training your employees at all levels can help improve product quality and lessen the problems.
Training can take several dimensions. You can set up a new-employee initiation program, train
your workers to focus on quality problems and in operating production machinery and equipment
from the first day of their job. You can assign existing employees to train new employees since
they can provide a firsthand perspective of how your business’s operations work. 

Also, you must provide employees with a history of the business through the lens of quality.
Show them problems you’ve had in the past and how you corrected these issues. Also, let them
know where your business stands with respect to its quality goals today. 

In addition, you also need to train your employees to see a connection between their actions and
work ethic and the overall performance of the business. By tying their individual behavior to the
overall system of working, you can give them insight on how to ensure product quality and good
stewards of your business. 

7. Perform Product Testing

It’s important to test your products before launching. This way, you can anticipate how buyers
will react to the product and see what changes you need to do before making an official release
to the public. 

Product testing allows you to see how your product performs in the real world, ensuring if your
product reflects the quality, usability, and efficiency you intended. Also, it provides insight into
marketing strategies as well as you’re positioning against your competitors. 

8. Listen to Customers

Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask your customers. Collecting customer feedback can give your insight
into what improvements can be made and how to enhance product quality. 

You can use any negative feedback to learn more about your customers’ wants and needs and
help you in creating products that meet these requirements. 

Challenges of customer satisfaction.

 1) Understanding Customer need:
It can be difficult to determine what customers want as their needs and
purchasing habits change, especially given how much needs differ between
customer profiles. And how can you tell if you're satisfying customers if you don't
know what their needs are? a product team, for example, might not know what
features or upgrades to priorities if they don't have insights into their target
customers' motivations, problems, or desires which could hurt their customer
satisfaction score with each new product or feature rollout.
2) Prioritizing Customer needs and request:
Now that you've determined what your customers' needs are, the next step is
determining which requests to priorities and act on. Customer satisfaction does
not entail building every feature they request or responding to every demand for
example, if Amazon implemented all of its customer feedback, it would be an
unrecognizable brand with a chaotic product offering, unable to provide true
value to any specific customer type.
3) Using the Right Tools and Channels:
With new customer touchpoints, channels, tools, and insights emerging all the
time, it can be difficult to determine whether you're using the right technology to
effectively reach and satisfy your customers finding the right tools and channels
for your business is all about understanding your target audience and their goals
their jobs to be done JTBD as well as your own business goals and marketing
strategy.
4) Consistently Communication with Customer:
Customer satisfaction is dependent on your ability to establish rapport with your
customers and develop new channels of communication with them. However,
staying consistent in your communication can be difficult, especially when dealing
with a large number of customers across multiple channels.
5) Handling angry customer:
There will always be an angry customer, no matter how good your product is, and
you must be prepared for unpleasant interactions and support your employees
with tried and tested mitigation strategies you could waste valuable time and
energy rationalizing with every person who simply called in to vent or
entertaining user frustrations beyond your control if you don't have strategies in
place to deal with angry or upset customers.
 6) Navigation service outages:
Anyone who conducts business online or works with software is aware that
service and technology failures occur. When customers rely on your software or
product to accomplish their goals and solve problems, a service outage can have
an immediate negative impact on customer satisfaction the most important thing
you can do to navigate service outages skillfully is to keep customers informed.
7) Creating an intuitive onboarding experience:
The manner in which you onboard users has a direct impact on customer
retention and satisfaction, and can make or break a customer's likelihood of
adopting your product or utilizing all of the tools and features you have to offer
with step-by-step instructions such as tooltips, product guides, demos, and pop-
ups, an intuitive onboarding process guides users to understand and use your
product. And it gradually introduces customers to the full value of your product
without distracting or overwhelming them with too much information.
8) Aligning UX and UI teams:
Strong website or product design does not guarantee a great user experience, and
all too often, UX and UI teams leave their respective product visions without first
aligning their approaches.

Challenges of quality services

Quality of service Provided to Client.
1)Reliability: This refers to an organization's ability and consistency in providing a
specific service in a way that meets the needs of its customers. This process
encompasses all aspects of customer interaction, such as the delivery or
execution of the good or service, quick and precise problem resolution, and
competitive pricing. Customers expect dependability when purchasing a specific
product, and a company's success is usually dependent on its ability to meet
those expectations.
2) Tangibility: This is the ability of a company to portray service quality to its
customers. Many factors contribute to a company's highly tangible quality, such
as the appearance of its headquarters, the attire and demeanor of its employees,
marketing materials, and customer service.
3) Empathy: Empathy is how a company delivers its services in a way that makes
the company appear sympathetic to the desires and demands of its customers. A
customer who believes a company genuinely cares about their well-being is more
likely to stay with that company.
4) Responsiveness: This is a company's commitment to and ability to provide
prompt services to its customers. Receiving, assessing, and responding quickly to
customer requests, feedback, questions, and issues is what responsiveness
entails. A company with high service quality always responds to customer
communication as soon as possible, which can often indicate how important
customer satisfaction is to the company.
5) Assurance: Customers' assurance is their confidence and trust in a particular
organization. This is especially important with services that a customer may
perceive to be beyond their ability to understand and properly evaluate, implying
that there must be some trust in the servicing organization's ability to deliver. If a
company wants to keep its customers, its employees must be mindful of earning
their trust.

Importance customer satisfaction and the quality of the services provided to

the client

 Good service quality leads into customer satisfaction and, therefore, makes the firms
more competitive in the market. High service quality can be achieved by identifying
 problems in service and defining measures for service performances and outcomes as
well as level of customer satisfaction.

 High service quality can be achieved by identifying problems in service and defining
measures for service performances and outcomes as well as level of customer satisfaction
 Service quality has a positive relationship with customer loyalty. These findings hold
implications for industry operators on key areas to pay attention to in order to support the
quality of services offered so as to guarantee sustained customer loyalty.
 Measuring customer satisfaction helps you take stock of that demand, find out what your
customers like, and maybe even discover what they don't like and what leads to
dissatisfaction.
 A proper understanding of your customers' satisfaction will help you identify their
specific needs, better than any market study.

 It boosts sales. Customers that perceive a company's services as being high quality are
more likely to do business with that company. Also, customers who buy from companies
with high service quality are more likely to continue buying from those companies
regularly. It saves marketing money.
 Increases employee satisfaction to provide great customer service than when they’re
frustrated. Learning and implementing what your agents need to be more productive
makes the entire process smoother for everyone involved.
 Improves efficiency and productivity
 Evaluating your customer satisfaction and will help you determine where your agents can
improve to make customers happier. Satisfied customers mean you’ll spend less time
fixing problems and more time getting work done. 

Comparison between service and manufacture

Definition of Manufacturing and Service

Manufacturing process: Manufacturing can be defined as the process of covering raw

materials, components, or parts into finished goods that meet customer satisfaction.

Service process: A valuable action, deed, or effort performed to satisfy a need or to fulfill a
demand. Differences between manufacturing and servicing are as follows:

Similarities between Manufacturing and Service

The similarities between manufacturing and service operations are given the following:

1. Manufacturers do not just offer products, and service organizations do not just offer
services. Both types of organizations normally provide a package of goods services.
2. Generally, service organization cannot inventory their outputs, but manufacturing firms
that make customized product also cannot inventory their output.
3. Everyone in an organization has some customers, whether in service or manufacturing.
4. Both of the organizations require hard labor.
5. Both have a very good return on investment.
6. Both have huge marketing potential.
7. Both have forecasting and capacity planning to match supply and demand.

The difference between manufacturing and service operations fall into the eight categories as
follows:

Key point Manufacturing Service

Physical nature of the product Manufacturing organization provides physical and durable products. Service organization provides the intangible and p
product.

Inventory Output can be inventoried. Output cannot be inventoried.

Customer contact It involves low customer contact. It involves high customer contact.

Response time It requires a long response time to meet customer demand. It requires a short response time to meet the custom
demand.

Location and size of the operation It serves the regional, national, even international market. It serves in the local market.

Facilities It requires a larger facility, more automation, and greater capital investment. It requires small facilities.

Intensive It is capital intensive organization. It is a labor-intensive organization.

Quality Quality can be easily measured. Quality can’t be easily measured.

Nature Manufactured goods are physical, durable products Services are intangible, perishable products often b
ideas, concepts, or information.

Facilities Manufactured goods are output that can be produced, stored, and transported in By contrast, service cannot be produced.
anticipation of future demand.

Contact Most customers for manufactured products have little or no contact with the However, in many service organizations, the custo
production system. input and active participation.

Time While manufacturers generally have days or weeks to meet customer demand. Many services must be offered within minutes of c
arrival.

Transport Manufacturing facilities often serve regional, national, or even international Service cannot be shipped to distant locations.
markets.
Quality As manufacturing systems tend to have tangible products and less customer contact, By contrast, the quality-of-service system which g
quality is relatively easy to measure. produces intangible is harder to measure.

Case Study