Unit 4 - Employee role in service designing

The important role of service-employees in service delivery cannot be overemphasized, in

the eyes of the customer they are the service, the organization, the brand, and
the marketers. ... Thus, they play a crucial role in how customers experience and develop love
for service brands.
Deficiencies in human resource policies: Ex.. Statements made by the hotel relating to their
service, what they have advertised Ex.. clean rooms, well maintained etc . The discrepancy
between actual service and the promised one may occur due to:- 1) Over promising in external
communication, 2) failure to manage customer expectations, 3) failure to perform as per
expectations
Failure to match supply and demand: Balancing the supply and demand sides of a service
industry is not easy, and whether a manager does it well or not will make all the difference.
What makes service industries so distinct from manufacturing ones is their immediacy: the
hamburgers have to be hot, the motel rooms exactly where the sleepy travelers want them,
and the airline seats empty when the customers want to fly.
Customers not fulfilling roles: Service experiences are the outcomes of interactions between
organizations, related systems/processes, service employees and customers. Considerable
research in marketing and management has examined customer satisfaction with service
experiences. However, in many services customers themselves have vital roles to play in
creating service outcomes and ultimately enhancing or detracting from their own satisfaction
and the value received. This is true whether the customer is an end consumer (for example,
consumers of health care, education, personal care, or legal services) or a business (for
example, organizations purchasing maintenance, insurance, computer consulting or training
services). In all of these examples, customers themselves participate at some level in creating
the service and ensuring their own satisfaction.
Problems with service intermediaries : Service Intermediary is defined as an entity that
interacts with the customer in the execution of service. Ex.. distributor / wholesaler. Basic
Channel functions are : Decreasing cost of delivering products and services, Regrouping
activities, Standardizing transactions, matching buyers and sellers, providing customer service
and support.
Service Employees : A person engaged in performing a service contract other than any
person employed in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity.
Importance of service employee : In the world of business, keeping customers satisfied and
retaining them is vital to continued success. Often, the employees who work face-to-face with
these customers are the ones who determine their levels of satisfaction, keeping them
content with the company and preventing them from looking elsewhere for someone to meet
their needs. Instead of ignoring the impact your employees can have upon the overall
satisfaction levels of your client base, keep this power in mind and encourage employees to
make the most of the power they wield, helping your business achieve success.
Boundary spanning roles : In social sciences research on commercial R&D
laboratories, boundary spanning is a term to describe individuals within an innovation system
who have, or adopt, the role of linking the organization's internal networks with external
sources of information. Job positions where individual employees are required to come in
direct contact with the public or employees of other firms. Also called boundary roles.
Emotional labour : Emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to
fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, workers are expected to
regulate their emotions during interactions with customers, co-workers and superiors.
Source of conflict : The effective management of workplace conflict requires an
understanding of the nature and sources of conflict in the workplace. Conflict occurs when
there is a perception of incompatible interests between workplace participants.
Quality- productivity trade off : Refers to Service productivity and perceived service quality.
Both a high service productivity and a high customer perceived quality are two main drivers
of good performances in service companies and they simultaneously occur as a consequence
of a synergy of several drivers such as employees' competencies and motivation,
organizational efficiency, technical devices availability, information technologies
employment, etc. In scientific literature a trade-off between productivity and perceived
service quality is asserted and several cases derived both by market observations and
academic research could bear such trade-off out.
Strategies for closing GAP 3.Customers role in service delivery
Importance of customer & customers role in service delivery : Customer participation at
some level is inevitable in service delivery. Services are actions or performances, typically
produced and consumed simultaneously. In many situations employees, customers and even
others in the service environment interact to produce the ultimate service outcome. As the
customers receiving the service participates in the service delivery process. He or she can
contribute to the gap through appropriate or inappropriate, effective or ineffective,
productive or unproductive behaviors

Customers roles

Customers as a productive process :

Service customers are referred to as partial employees of the organization. They are human
resources who contribute to the organizations productive capacity. In other words, if
customers contribute effort, time or other resources to the service production process, they
should be considered as part of the organization.

Customers as quality contributors to service delivery and satisfaction

Another role customers play in service delivery is that of the contributor to their own
satisfaction and the ultimate quality of the services they receive. Customers may care little
that they have increased the productivity of the organization through their participation. But
they likely care a great deal about whether their needs are fulfilled. Effective customer
participation can increase the likelihood of service delivery that their needs are met and that
benefits the customer seeks are attained.

Customers as competitors

A final role played by service customers is that of a potential competitor. If self-service

customers can be viewed as resources of the firm, or as partial employees, self-service
customers in some cases. They can partially perform the service or the entire service for
themselves and may not need the provider at all.

Strategies for enhancing-Customer participation : The level and nature of /customer

participation in the service process are strategic decisions that can impact an organization
productivity, its positioning relative to competitors, its service quality, and its customer
participation. The overall goals of a customer participation strategy will typically be to
increase productivity and customer satisfaction while simultaneously decreasing uncertainty
due to unpredictable customer participation is self-service often facilitated by technology.

Delivery through intermediaries-Key intermediaries for service delivery : Service

intermediary is an entity that interacts with customer in the execution of the service.
Key intermediaries of service delivery are Franchisees, agents & brokers, electronic channels
like ATMs.
Intermediary control strategies : One way for a company to
improve intermediary performance is to conduct research or standard-setting studies
relating to service performance, then provide them as a service to intermediaries.