Part 4

DELIVERING AND
PERFORMING
SERVICE

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 Provider GAP 3

CUSTOMER

Service Delivery
COMPANY
GAP 3
Customer-Driven
Service Designs and
Standards

Part 4 Opener

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Chapter
Employees’ Roles
11 in Service Delivery

• The Critical Importance of Service

Employees
• Boundary Spanning Roles
• Strategies for Closing Gap 3
• Service Culture

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 Objectives for Chapter 11:
Employees’ Roles in Service Delivery
• Illustrate the critical importance of service
employees in creating customer satisfaction and
service quality
• Demonstrate the challenges inherent in boundary-
spanning roles
• Provide examples of strategies for creating
customer-oriented service delivery
• Show how the strategies can support a service
culture where providing excellent service is a way
of life
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 Figure 11.2
The Services Marketing Triangle
Company
(Management)

Internal External
Marketing Marketing
enabling setting
promises promises

Employees Interactive Marketing Customers

keeping promises
Source: Adapted from Mary Jo Bitner, Christian Gronroos, and Philip Kotler

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 Services Marketing Triangle Applications
Exercise
• Focus on a service organization. In the context
you are focusing on, who occupies each of the
three points of the triangle?
• How is each type of marketing being carried out
currently?
• Are the three sides of the triangle well aligned?
• Are there specific challenges or barriers in any of
the three areas?

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 Ways to Use the
Services Marketing Triangle
• Overall Strategic • Specific Service
Assessment Implementation
– How is the service – What is being promoted
organization doing on all and by whom?
three sides of the triangle? – How will it be delivered
– Where are the weaknesses? and by whom?
– What are the strengths? – Are the supporting systems
in place to deliver the
promised service?

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 Figure 11.3
The Service Profit Chain

Source: An exhibit from J. L. Heskett, T. O. Jones, W. E. Sasser, Jr., and L. A. Schlesinger, “Putting
the Service-Profit Chain to Work,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 1994, p. 166.

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 Service Employees

• They are the service.

• They are the organization in the customer’s eyes.
• They are the brand.
• They are marketers.
• Their importance is evident in:
– The Services Marketing Mix (People)
– The Service-Profit Chain
– The Services Triangle

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 Service Employees

• Who are they?

– “boundary spanners”
• What are these jobs like?
– emotional labor
– many sources of potential conflict
• person/role
• organization/client
• interclient
• quality/productivity

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 Figure 11.4
Boundary Spanners Interact with Both
Internal and External Constituents
External Environment

Internal Environment
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 Figure 11.5
Sources of Conflict for
Boundary-Spanning Workers

• Person vs. Role

• Organization vs. Client

• Client vs. Client

• Quality vs. Productivity

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 Figure 11.6
Human Resource Strategies for Closing GAP 3
Hire for
Service
Competencies
and Service
Inclination

Hire the
Right People

Develop

Employees
Customer-

Empower
Employees

Customers

Retain the People to

Oriented
Treat

Deliver
as

Best Service
People Service
Delivery Quality

Provide
Needed Support
Systems

Provide
Supportive
Technology
and
Equipment
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 Empowerment
• Benefits:
– quicker responses
– employees feel more
responsible
– employees tend to interact
with warmth/enthusiasm
– empowered employees are
a great source of ideas
– positive word-of-mouth
from customers
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• Drawbacks:
– greater investments in
selection and training
– higher labor costs
– slower and/or inconsistent
delivery
– may violate customer
perceptions of fair play
– “giving away the store”
(making bad decisions)
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 Service Culture

“A culture where an appreciation for good service

exists, and where giving good service to internal
as well as ultimate, external customers, is
considered a natural way of life and one of the
most important norms by everyone in the
organization.”

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