How to achieve service success through the Service Encounter

Introduction

Increasing or preserving customer constancy in the modern world is depicted as one of the vital marketing strategies for determining a competitive differentiation in ever challenging and fast growing business world Raab (2011). For constructing or preserving customer loyalty, a company needs to concentrate on heightening the customer relationship by guaranteeing a quality service nature which would be in line with the requirements and anticipation of customers. Many service organizations supply quality services in order to sustain good customer relationships yet they still find it hard to apprehend ways to keep consumer loyalty. Yet, an analytical investigation of services marketing journal reveal that quality of service encounter reflects the true picture of level of customer loyalty for a service provider Hennig (2004).

Customer happiness is a fundamental tool for attainment, particularly in a service positioned company. Diagnostically studying a service distribution system by where companies seek the weaker areas has many benefits as it enables companies to see where the service delivery needs to be improved. After clearly identifying the weaker areas, advancements can be done for ensuring that these practices are not repeated which would lead to higher profits and increased customer loyalty (Fletcher, 2010).

Research Aims and Objectives

Aims

The key purpose of this study is to create a basis for understanding customer satisfaction, service quality, retention of customer relationships and theories but likewise taking into reason the worth scheme for quality in a business. How is quality outlined? And how this quality meaning influences customer service strategies in its entirety. The goal here is to present not only current literature as a foundation for endorsing a theory but also determining that these relationships exist within the managerial setting.

Objectives

The main objectives of this report are as follows:

• Describe the idea of quality within the environment
• Determine the value system in various companies and if this is imitated in their quality service strategies
• Explain customer satisfaction and retention with respect to customer relationship management models and investigate the correlations between these strategies and success of companies
• Inspect possible correlations amongst customer happiness and employee optimism
• Evaluate quality in the terms of customer service functioning and brand individuality
• Make recommendations for the development of customer relationship running in different companies

Case study’s

As the airline production resumes to quickly develop and progress, today’s airlines front-runners are met with the trial of pairing long term tactics with short term answers. Customer satisfaction has developed considerably in importance for airline operations and as an outcome service excellence has also gotten paramount significance in this sector. Lean’s customer-focused premise for successful service quality has added an energy in services, though, Lean positioning within the airline service area is commonly long overdue in developing and health services. These aspects have driven research into exploring Lean phenomena within primary UK airline companies. For quantitative and qualitative data analysis, 9 cases were collected from 3 internal departments of the airline company, 35 semi-structured interviews were held, and 220 survey questionnaires were circulated of which 180 were returned. Within-case and cross-case analysis techniques were applied and, to develop a framework and 5 key relationships were identified. This study’s contribution is in the area of Quality Management as it: (a) highlights the role of ‘customer value’ and ‘engagement value’ in the domain of technical and functional service quality attributes; (b) maps cost-quality-delivery relationships through linking Lean improvements to its results; and (c) constructs an ‘outcome-driven’ framework from the findings Radwan (2009). Finally, this research offers data and knowledge of how an airline corporation installs Lean as business tactic to develop their service quality. The uniqueness of the research in its deliverables is twofold: first, it creates structure connecting Lean enhancement plans to its outcomes, which ranges to the future profitability, market share characteristics of improvement results, sustainability and commitment; and secondly, it delivers a means, which could contribution key conclusion makers in assessing the results of the Lean inventiveness to deliver better consideration for Lean positioning.

Oliver (1980) states that customer satisfaction is the meeting of one’s expectations and it is the feeling a customer is left with after using the product or service (Evans et al., 2006). It deals with five measurements of service quality including responsiveness, reliability, tangibility, empathy and assurance; using a five-point scale. This standard helps researchers find the measurements of service quality by paralleling the dissimilarity amid consumers expected against truly experienced service. Nevertheless, this admired service quality tool has been criticized on both methodological and theoretical grounds (Babakus and Boller 1992). In addition, researchers have debated in support of investigating service quality through numerous levels with both primary and sub-dimensions, as consumer’s form supposed service quality through various evaluations (Lu et al, 2009).

Likeminded to Parasuraman et al. (1988) retailers selling only have very little to offer apart from their service, hence organisations should ensure and provide good quality services. In the tourism and hospitably industry Sutherland (2007) shapes that there is asymmetry of information between the service provider and customer which makes it difficult for customers to have sufficient understanding of the qualities and charges offered to them by the service provider and customers usually discover the reality only after the purchase.

With quick progression in tourism customers have a wide range of service providers to choose from than in the past. Therefore, guideline of quality service becomes very significant. According to Sutherland (2007) the rapid increase in mobile phone service providers, will lead to unevenness in the quality provided.

Kim et al. (2004) states that customer care service is part of service quality and quality in turn effects satisfaction and loyalty. Study perceived that factors like problem solving, the courtesy of customer service agents, the aid delivered by customer service and the delivery of reliable advice play a vital role in safeguarding great service quality. Henceforth, it is imperative that managers by all means ensure that consumer care facility is of the highest quality.

Conclusions of Blery et als. (2009) study displayed a connection between service quality and repurchase purpose. Their analysis also found three key characteristics that affects customers repurchase intentions in an industry: provide discrete attention, companies should have client’s best importance at heart, and reply instantly to requests. It should also be renowned that people participation in the service delivery procedure allows less control of the fabrication process and retain a distinctive challenge for service suppliers as the opening for failures are greater.

Service failure and complaints

As firms normally try to attain a faultless service delivery, it is predisposed by factors like customers’ changing anticipations, the multifaceted and lively nature of the setting, large human participation in manufacture and delivery of service, all these influences make it problematic for service providers to regulate the service delivery process. All these aspects unavoidably lead to service catastrophe circumstances.

Concurring to Smith and Bolton (2002), service failures arise when services are not available, delivered late or/and inadequately, or below the acceptable level. Similarly, in it states that customer consummation is the consequence of an assessment process whereby consumers liken his or her anticipations with the real service experience. This experience either implants a positive, negative or neutral feeling in the customers’ brain, which in turn indicates as to if the person is satisfied or discontent.

The success or failure of the service process has become an important aspect, as customers’ consciousness has greatly increased (Lin, 2009). Yet, Gruber, et al. (2009) states that the issue of service failure and the seriousness of customer dissatisfaction are not adequately addressed by companies.

Organisations can begin long term relationship with consumers by lessening adverse consequences of disappointment. A dissatisfied customer is met with three options: (1) exit: a voluntary termination of an exchange relationship, (2) voice: an attempt to change the current state of affairs rather than escaping it, and (3) loyalty: consumers’ willingness to continue the relationship with the service provider (Hirschman, 1970).

Service recovery

When a company answers to a service failure, it offers the customer with a new service encounter known as service recovery (Andreassen, 2000). The recovery strategies embraced by companies after a service failure, permits them to correct the errors made and offer their customers with an involvement that may have positive consequences for their fulfilment which in turn helps in preserve lasting relationships. Johnston (2001) states that the manner in which complaints are handled can either build or destroy a firm’s reputation.

Glitches occasionally cannot be avoided hence establishments should be speedy to learn from and remedy them. Research states that annoyed and unfulfilled users can be twisted into reliable customers by executing an applicable service recovery, it is also said to create more goodwill than if things were done right the first time (Hart et al. 2000). According to Jones and Farquhar (2007) the type and ruthlessness of the failure results in consumers opportunities with the service recovery strategies adopted by the firm. It is also said that throughout a service recovery assessment procedure, customer contentment is controlled by the supposed fairness with which the issue is treated. Supposed reasonableness plays a serious role in understanding a person’s response to complaint incidents.

Practical justice beliefs acts as a “heuristic or mental shortcut” for trust judgements (Lind, 2001). It permits partakers to feel appreciated and they are keen to accept the rightfulness of expert of applying the process. Additionally, a study found that practical fairness impacts customer gratification and confidence. Thus, the process used to decide the service failure, the handling established from the employees who deal with the complaint, and the perceptible reimbursement proposed after the service failure are all crucial in attaining happiness with service recovery.

Conclusion

Rapidity, the haste and effectiveness with which a complaint is handled is found to be a vital part achieving service quality and service success through the service encounter. According to Sutton and Rafaeli (1988); Lovelock (1983) stated that consumers are often willing to trade of promptness factor with personalisation. All these factors are greatly respected by the consumers when weighing out a service failure and the recovery of that service.

Companies must understand that supplying a modified service that allows them to profit viable advantage is no longer the accountability of one individual employee of that company, yet in its place it is made by a cross-functional panel that needs to be accumulated and accomplished by the employees to meet customer desires, wants and needs. According to Mulki et al (2007) the main responsibility of employees is to draw on the influences made by the varied set of organisational employees in order to create value propositions for customers. As noted by Ustuner and Godes (2006) to be fruitful, employees need “access to the right information, the ability to disseminate it to the right people, and the power to coordinate efforts of groups of people to deliver value to the customer.”

Hence to have satisfied customers, the company must also have content employees working together for them. According to Berry and Parasuraman, (1991, p. 151) “Internal marketing is attracting, developing, motivating and retaining qualified employees through job products that satisfy their needs. It is the philosophy of treating employees as customers . . . and it is the strategy of shaping job-products to fit human needs.” Grönroos, (1998) states that internal marketing helps management to bring about a change in the attitudes and behaviour of the employees toward the customers and toward their jobs, and also to achieve a more customer-oriented performance in the service process.