Service

Operations
Management
– Unit II
 Designing the Service Delivery

What Are Processes Involved in Service Design and Delivery?

 What is an example of service design processes?

 At a restaurant, processes would include as taking orders, entering orders, serving food,
 At a retail store, processes would include stacking of products, billing, inventory, guiding
a customer.
 At a bank, processes would include verification of details, handing over cash and so on.
 Actions take place either when a service is carried out or in order to support the service.
Processes may involve only the employee, or both the employee and the customer. In
other words, some processes are behind the scenes and some takes center stage.
Designing the Service Delivery

Why Is it Important to Build Service Processes?

A service can be carried out without specific, laid-out processes or with

vague processes. However, in these cases, the inevitable result is that
the outcome will be inconsistent and potentially sub-par, creating low
or variable customer satisfaction.

By creating clear, specific processes that incorporate every part of a

service, organizations establish a guideline to ensure consistency in
service, meeting customer expectations and creating satisfaction.
4 Success Factors when Building Service Design and
Delivery Process

1. Focus on the Customer

 Look for pain points within the customer’s journey and think of
ways to making improvements to the experience.
 Look to the parts of the process that may be interfering with the
satisfaction of the entire experience.
 Consider asking for customer feedback to narrow down pain points
 When establishing processes in terms of the “what to do” and “how
to do”, you may use the SERVQUAL model – an empiric model
designed by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry to understand
customer expectations before translating them into service quality
specifications or processes.
4 Success Factors when Building Service Design and
Delivery Process

2. Consider the Sequence

 Welcoming, greeting and seating the customer

 Introduction of server and the menu/specials of the day
 Taking the order
 Serving the order
 Taking feedback/asking for repeats
 Clearing the order
 Billing
 Farewell
4 Success Factors when Building Service Design and
Delivery Process

3. Consider Each Staff Role Within the Service

 Each role a specific part of the process creates ownership within that role, as well as
responsibility for carrying it out and accountability for that stage of the process.

 Get feedback on processes from the team members in those roles. his includes
different levels of staff members, and those who are front stage as well as backstage.

 Remember the ability of your staff while designing the process, do not expect your
frontline staff to be able to execute complex processes with consistency.
4 Success Factors when Building Service Design and
Delivery Process

4. Allow for Flexibility

 Back end processes can and should be rigid and regimented.

 front end processes that do involve the customer, always remember that at the end
of the day it is a human interaction, establish guidelines as far as the process is
concerned and allow for flexibility, allow for your staff to be able to adapt to the
situation, do not make front end processes so rigid and regimented that they
negatively impact the customer experience.
 make sure that you can streamline (as per the customers’ requirements) and track
them.
 The Service Process Defined

The Service process is defined as “ the way in which a company works so that a
customer receives service”.
To standardize this in line with the company’s identity and aims, managers will work
on:
 Determining procedures which contribute to the process
 Allocating tasks and responsibilities
 Formulating effective schedules and routines
 Defining service mechanisms and process flows
 The shape that the service process will assume will depend on two primary
factors:

 The type of service process

 The degree of customer contact
 The Type of Service Process

 Line operations
Line operations progress in a linear fashion. Thus, the client passes through a sequential experience beginning at point A, when
they first enter the store or contact the business. Now, service delivery passes through a number of processes before finalizing the
transaction. It’s also not a service process that allows for much flexibility. That does make controlling it easier, but it would only
suit a standard offering that implements repetitive processes with little or no variation. This type of service process is the easiest
to automate because it is so standardized. Every customer has a similar customer experience, and the service process does not
vary.
 Job shop operations
This type of service model provides customer satisfaction by tailoring the service to the client’s needs. For
example, a professional organization such as a law firm or a bespoke service such as that which a carpenter
may provide is only open to a limited level of standardization. Each client’s needs will vary to some degree, and
the service process must, therefore, vary accordingly.
Being able to offer flexibility makes this model attractive, but it can complicate scheduling and workflows.
 The Type of Service Process

 Intermittent operations
Some service projects are unique and seldom repeated. For example, construction projects or
branding initiatives would fall under this category. In most instances, the projects themselves
are of a relatively large scale. They will involve bringing together several elements so that they
can work harmoniously.
Planning will be key, and managers would evaluate each project independently in order to
determine what process flows would contribute to the final result: providing the desired
service to its clients. Critical path analysis is often used in this context.
Degree of Contact

The human element of contact with the client influences the complexity and variability of the
service process. When there is little customer contact, it is easier to adopt a linear approach.
However, high contact service processes will require greater flexibility, and managers and
operational staff can expect a degree of disruption.
In high contact service processes, clients will:
•Expect some input into the business processes that affect the service
•Expect similar service levels regardless of current demand
•Judge the quality of the business based on their experience of the people with whom they
interacted
High contact systems are the most demanding for businesses to manage effectively because:
•Scheduling becomes more complicated
•The processes can be difficult to standardize or automate
•They may need to coordinate low and high contact service systems simultaneously
 Hayes-Wheelwright matrix
Product Process with Volume Variety matrix
Service Process Map for Loan
Service Experience

Service experience is the end-to-end set of customer

experiences that add value to a service. This is typically viewed
from the customer perspective as a journey whereby a
customer discovers, purchases, experiences and participates
in a service. The following are the basic elements of service
experience.