Service Quality Improvement - Essay Example

Service Quality Improvement Introduction Service quality improvement is paramount especially in companies that deal with provision of services to clients. This is because it forms the main base of the organization’s competitive advantage. The competitive advantage is what assists a company to form a strong customer-base. Various companies use different approaches in their service quality improvement strategy. According to Hernon & Whitman (2001), one of the most popular strategies for quality improvement is a normative model for improving service quality. The normative model for service quality improvement is very effective in achieving high levels of quality services in a company when used effectively. This is because it plays a great role achieving a continuous improvement in the quality of its services thus resulting to increase in organization’s competitiveness. This thesis is what forms the basis for our discussion in this paper in an effort to identify its truthfulness. Characteristics of normative model of service quality improvement According to Sheth & Kellstadt (1992), a normative model of service quality improvement is built on the concept of continuous improvement. The company that I have been working in has been using this kind of approach to address its issues of quality improvement. This is because the key objective of the company is to achieve sustained improvements in its services delivery. Therefore, throughout my career, I have had an opportunity to experience a situation in which this model was applied. Moreover, I have been able to experience some of the benefits of this kind of a model when used to improve service quality as well as some of its shortfalls. This benefits and shorts could form a very good basis for my evaluation in this paper. Normative model of service improvement is divided into stages. The stages include management commitment, employee commitment and participation, employee education and training, communication, assessment and modification, outcomes and targets, and integration (Hernon & Whitman, 2001). These stages are interconnected in an intertwined manner. This means that a stage does not necessarily result to its next stage. However, each stage is independent of the other. The company that I am working in has been undertaking almost all the above stages in its approach to service quality improvement. Some of these stages in service quality improvement have been very conspicuous. This makes them to be easy to identify even to the people who are not top managers. However, some are inconspicuous thus can only be identified by top managers. Sheth & Kellstadt (1992) also identifies this approach of service quality improvement as both multi-disciplinary and requires individuals with different functions in the company. This is because it requires efforts of managers belonging to different disciplines. Moreover, it involves employees with varying roles in the company. In the company I work with, service quality work has not been the work of the marketing department only. In every case that the company has attempted to improve its quality of service, all the departments have been required to play almost equal roles. This is because the company believed that improvement in quality of its services could only come from an improvement in the effectiveness of every department in the company. Benefits of the model to service quality improvements The most essential component of any organization is its management since it controls all the decisions made in the organization in its various operation stages. Use of a normative model for service quality improvement by the organization I work with has enhanced the participation and commitment of the management team to the process of improving quality of services. This is because it has been requiring every manager to show his commitment to the process. Moreover, it has been requiring the managers to convey commitment-creating information to their juniors. This ensures that the managers become committed to their decisions regarding quality improvement thus helping the organization to achieve its quality improvement goals. Management of any process undertaken by an organization is aimed at enabling the organization to control the process. This control is paramount for the success of the process because it enables the implementation team to undertake the process more systematically. Normative model of service quality improvement has been found to improve the management’s role in the process of service quality improvement (Brace, 2005). By using this model, the company that I work with has been able to enhance the ability of the management to control its service quality improvement measures. The approach has increased the level of accountability required for the managers. As a result, the company has become effective in its service quality improvement measures. Performance of a company is dependent on the communication between employees and the management. Normative model approach of service quality improvement is a systematic approach that involves steps and procedures. This makes it to encourage communication within the teams mandated to improve the quality of service provision. The organization I work with has greatly benefited from the enhanced communication associated with approach of service quality improvement. Because of the improved communication associated with the use of this kind of an approach, the company has been able to ensure that decisions related to service quality improvement passed by the management are conveyed effectively to the employees for implementation. This is what has been enabling the organization to improve the quality of its services from time-to-time. Personal goals and objectives play a very great role in enabling the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. However, this only happens when the personal goals happen to be in line with the organizational goals. Otherwise, they can have either no effect to the achievement of the organizational goals or have a hindering effect to the achievement of the goals of the organization. The company I work with ensures that every employee mandated with implementation of service-quality improvement programs has set his goals and objectives related to that issue. Moreover, it ensures that the goals of each one of the employee’s goals is in line with the overall goals of the company. The company does this by setting targets and deadlines for each of the employees involved in the improvement of services provided by the company. This has actually played a very great role in ensuring that the company succeeds in its endeavor to improve the quality it provides to its customers. Continuous processes require evaluation and monitoring for them to yield the required results. This is because evaluation and monitoring suggest the next course of action and modifications required to make the process more effective. Service quality improvement in the company that I work with has been a continuous process. This is because the company knows very well that if it wants to maintain and increase its competitiveness it has to improve the services it provides to its customers. The normative model approach that the company has been using in service quality improvement has helped the company a lot in ensuring a continuous improvement. This is because it encourages monitoring and evaluation of the improvement actions. As a result, the company is enabled to correct any emerging negative effects and make positive modifications in its improvement processes to make them more effective. Shortcomings of the normative model for service quality improvement The organization that I work in has faced several shortcomings because of employing normative model in its endeavor to improve the quality of its services. A normative model of service quality improvement requires full commitment and participation of employees in the company. Maintaining the commitment of employees requires the company to employ motivational strategies like giving incentives and rewards to the employees. This requires resources in order to be effectively undertaken. The company I work with has been using many resources to provide incentives and rewards to workers in its various levels. As a result, it has been forced to reduce some of its other budgets of operation to maintain profitability. This has made it to be ineffective in some of its department especially the procurement and supplies department. Research is essential for effective decision-making. According to Shahin & Samea (2010), programs for service quality improvement should be preceded by service quality identification and measurement. This is only achievable through research. Research undertaken in an organization might be either internal or external. An internal research is a research that is undertaken within a company while an external research is undertaken outside the company. A major disadvantage of a normative model of service quality improvement is that it involves very little external research. Because of employing this kind of approach in the process of improving the quality of its services, the company I work with has not been undertaking external research on the issues of service quality improvement. This has made the company’s decisions to be guided by internal research facts rather than by external research facts. As a result, the processes of service quality improvement have always been associated with inappropriate decisions. Several protocols for service quality improvement are available for use by managers. These protocols include simplification and clarity of results, accountability of the people involved, outsourcing, and in-time results (Brace, 2005). However, none of the strategies used by companies encompasses all the protocols. Normative model of service quality improvement used by the company I work in fails to have in-time results and accountability of the individuals involved in service quality improvement. The reason why it lacks in-time results is that it involves several progressive steps that are very bureaucratic. This makes it to be very time consuming. The reason why it has low levels of accountability is that the junior employees are not involved in any form of decision-making. This makes the junior employees only to follow the instructions delivered to them by the management. Possible solutions to the shortcomings Shortcomings associated with use of a normative model of service quality improvement could be easily avoided or controlled. One of the measures that could have been adapted by the company I work with to control the shortcoming of having to use many resource in motivating employees is identification of other motivational strategies. These are strategies like improving the working conditions of the employees and facilitating the career growth of employees. If the company that I work with had adapted such strategies, then it would be using as much resources to motivate its employees as it is currently using. However, this also would require research to identify the most effective non-monetary motivational tools. Such motivational tools might include participation in decision-making, verbal recognition of good work, and written recognition of good work (Nilay, 2004). These kind of motivational tools do not involve direct payments that might cost the company its resources but they are very effective in motivating employees to do better. To overcome the shortcoming of research deficiency in the organization, the company should start undertaking external research to support its service-quality improvement approach. One of the external researches that the organization should start undertaking is a research on non-monetary motivational tools. This research could enable the company to identify complementary motivational tools to substitute with its current monetary motivational tools. As a result, the company would be able to improve its approach of service quality improvements without increasing its costs of operation. Another external research that would be paramount for service quality improvement is a research on customer’s response to the current state of the company’s services. This would actually be very crucial since it would guide the company in its actions regardless of the model it decides to use. As a result, the company would be able to improve the quality of its services. The shortcoming of lack of in-time results in the company’s process of service quality improvement could be easily avoided using several measures. To avoid this shortcoming, this company should try to intertwine the steps it adapts for its normative model of service quality improvement. This would enable some of the steps undertaken in this process to be undertaken consecutively. As a result, the time spent on undertaking these kinds of processes would be greatly reduced thus resulting to elimination of lack of in-time results. Lack of accountability can be eliminated by strengthening teamwork in the company. In a teamwork environment, everybody is accountable for his performance as well as the performance of the team. If the company applies this kind of an approach, then accountability of every employee involved in service quality improvement would be greatly increased. This would result to an overall improvement in the effectiveness of the approach used by the company to improve the quality of services it provides to its customers. Conclusion Normative model of service quality improvement is very effective in achieving high levels of quality services in a company when used effectively. The results obtained show that the model has several important characteristics. One of the characteristics is that it is built on the concept of continuous improvement. The other characteristic is that it consists of several interconnected and intertwined stages. Moreover, it has a characteristic of involving multi-disciplinary roles and cross-functions. In addition, the model has several benefits when used to address the issue of service quality improvement. The model also has some shortcomings when used to address the issue of service quality improvement. However, the benefits of the model outweigh its shortcomings. Moreover, the shortcomings of the model could be avoided or controlled in several ways. This makes us to conclude that a normative model of service delivery is an effective tool for service quality improvement. Reference Brace, W. C. (2005). Sustainable Performance Improvement. Retrieved from: http://www.abs.uci.edu/RevisedSustainablePerformanceImprovement.pdf. On 26 September 2012. Hernon, P., & Whitman, J. R. (2001). Delivering Satisfaction and Service Quality: A Customer-Based Approach for Libraries. Chicago, IL: American Library Association Press. Nilay, Y. (2004). The Use of Non-Monetary Incentives as a Motivational Tool: A Survey Study in a Public Organization in Turkey. Retrieved from: http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12605141/index.pdf. On 26 September 2012. Shahin, A., & Samea, M. (2010). Developing the Model of Service Quality Gaps: A Critical Discussion. Retrieved from: www.macrothink.org/journal/index.php/bms/article/.../342. On 26 September 2012. Sheth, J. N., & Kellstadt, C. H. (1992). A Normative Model of Retaining Customer Satisfaction. Retrieved from: http://www.jagsheth.net/docs/A%20Normative%20Model%20of%20Retaining%20Customer%20Satisfaction.pdf. On 26 September 2012. Read More