© Oxford University Press 2013. All Rights Reserved

© Oxford University Press 2013. All rights reserved.
Composition of India’s GDP
Composition of
India’s GDP

Services Scenario in India
Average growth rates over the 1990s of selected services sectors
%
Business services, incl IT 21.1
Communications 15.1
Banking 11.8
Life insurance 11.0
Hotels & restaurants 10.1
Education 9.9
Medical & health 9.0
Distribution 8.1
Road transport 7.7
Air transport 6.1
Legal services 5.8
Construction 5.2
Real estate 4.9
Water transport 4.4
Dw ellings 4.1
Entertainment services 3.4
Railw ays 3.2
Postal 1.8
Storage 1.7
Significantly liberalised Moderately liberalised Non-liberalised
Source: World Bank 2004.

Characteristics of Services
1. Services are intangible
2. Services inspired the ‘Just-in-time’ concept
3. Services are more people-centric

Classification of Services

Service Capacity
Strategies for Service Capacity Planning
• Constant capacity
• Chase strategy
• Demand smoothening

Chase Strategy

Designing Service Processes
1. Designing the ‘high customer contact’ and ‘low

customer contact’ operations of a service process
separately
2. Designing through an assembly line approach
3. Designing services with technological interfaces

Service Blueprinting

Service Blueprinting

Dimensions of Quality in Services
• Time
• Completeness
• Courtesy
• Consistency
• Accessibility and convenience
• Accuracy
• Responsiveness

Measuring Service Quality
(The Gap Model)

Servqual
This questionnaire has the following five categories:

•tangibles
•reliability
•responsiveness
•assurance
•empathy

Conformance to Specifications
“Conformance to specification” is the definition of quality

given by Philip B. Crosby.
• The specifications for a product or service are evolved during

the design process, in line with the customer requirements as
provided by the sales team.
• During the later stage of the production process, namely –
engineering, manufacturing, packaging, dispatching,
installation, and after-sales-service, the specifications are
expected to be adhered to by all concerned people.

Defining the quality characteristics In this activity, the priorities of the

customers with respect to the quality of a product or service are
defined. These priorities are known as “Critical to Quality (CTQ)”
characteristics.
For example, a popular café in Hyderabad (Laziz Café) conducted a
survey to know about the CTQs of the hot tea served by them,
which happens to be the most popular item on their menu. The
survey revealed the following CTQs:
◊ The tea should be really hot
◊ The tea should have the typical Laziz Café aroma
◊ The tea should have the typical Laziz Café taste

Measuring each quality characteristic As is evident from the CTQs

expressed by the customers in the above example of tea, it may be
difficult to capture the true expectations of the customer.
For instance, in the first CTQ – how hot is “really hot”? The role of the
product designer (in this case the chef) comes into the picture.
Thus, the measurable characteristics implicit in the CTQs have to
be decided upon.

Measuring each quality characteristic
In our example of tea, the chef of Laziz Café decides:
• The temperature of the tea served needs to be measured (to make
sure it is “really hot”)
• The time taken by the waiter to take the tea from the kitchen to the
table of the customer needs to be measured (to make sure that the
tea is served “really hot”)
• The quantity of the tea put into water in the cup (standard size)
needs to be measured (to give the typical Laziz Café aroma as well
as taste)
• The brand and model of the tea used has to be always the same (to
give the typical Laziz Café aroma as well as taste)

Setting quality standards for each quality characteristic The engineer/

designer needs to set standard values (specifications) for each of
them.
In our example, the chef comes up with the following specifications:
• The temperature of the tea when ready in the kitchen should be
between 100 degree Celsius & 98 degree Celsius
• The waiter should take time 2 minutes ± 1 minute to take the tea
from the kitchen to the customer table
• The quantity of tea to be put into water in the cup is 2 tablespoons
per cup ± ¼ tablespoon
• Only Brooke Bond Red Label tea should be used

Controlling quality against those standards Having created the standards, it is

necessary to ensure that the same are followed rigorously and any
deviations from the standards can be easily detected.
In our example, to control quality against the standards, the following control
mechanisms are installed:
• A temperature meter is installed on the microwave oven used for heating
the tea with water in the cup. This microwave is exclusively to be used for
tea making. An standard operating procedure (SOP) is created which
states that the tea with water in the cup is to be heated (by one of the
chefs) till the temperature displays 100 degrees Celsius and the cup
should remain inside the oven as long as the waiter does not come to take
it directly to the customer table.

Controlling quality against those standards

• Another SOP mentions that when the waiter comes to take the tea from
the oven, he should check the temperature displayed there and if it is less
than 98 degrees Celsius, he should put the oven on for a couple of
minutes till the temperature display shows 100 degrees Celsius.
• As a control measure, a buzzer (a form of Poka-yoke or fool-proofing
device) is installed in the oven, which starts ringing in case the door of the
oven is opened when the temperature displayed is below 100 degrees
Celsius.
• This draws the attention of all in the kitchen, thus alerting the waiter to
comply to the SOP.

Controlling quality against those standards
• Small pouches of Brooke Bond Red Label tea are prepared with exact
measurement of 2 tablespoons, which the chef has to put in the water in
the cup while preparing the tea.
• As a control measure, the chief chef occasionally (once a week) inspects
the quantity in a pouch drawn at random from the lot.

Finding and correcting causes of poor quality In order to detect any lapses, a
customer feedback form is created and provided to customers chosen at
random. In case of any problem reported by customers in the feedback
form, corrective action is taken.
For example, a new waiter who is found to deviate from the SOPs is re-trained
so as to not repeat the same mistakes leading to poor quality.

Continuous improvement No process should be deemed to have achieved the

state of perfection, as there is always some scope for further
improvisation.
Employees know their area of activity in the best possible way and should be
encouraged to suggest ideas for continuous improvement (CI).

Waiting Time Management
Formats of queues
• Classic Queue Format (Multiple servers, multiple
queues)
• Zigzag Queue Format (Multiple servers, single
queue)
• Numbered Queue Format (Multiple servers,
single queue with numbered customers)
• Split Queue Format (Multiple servers, single split
queue)

Classic Queue Format

Zigzag Queue Format

Numbered Queue Format

Numbered Queue Format

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Composition of India’s GDP