Customer Service Operations and Excellence - Coursework Example

Service Operations and Excellence “The goal as a company is to have service that is not just the best but legendary”. Sam Walton, Founder - WalMart Introduction Service operations management is concerned with the management of services within organizations, and since customer is the central aspect of all businesses, effective management of the same is not only crucial but inevitable for organizations. Due to globalization, the marketplace today has expanded considerably, transcending beyond geographical boundaries and in various service oriented spheres such as education. In such a highly competitive environment, retaining customers is of supreme significance. The same can be achieved through effective customer service operations. The concept of achieving excellence in service through effective customer service has now transcended to various fields in general and academic libraries in particular. Service institutions such as universities are mainly focused on providing optimum quality service to the students, by way of enhanced support services for education, as a means to retain students and improve their academic performance (Sander et al., 2000). Academic libraries exist purely to offer services to the students, which include a range of activities such as offering professional reference services to enable the students to effectively use the various resources that the library has to offer; respond to online queries for references; assist in information delivery services such as shelving and re-shelving books, periodicals etc., among many others (Hernon, Altman, 1996). This paper on customer service operations and excellence aims to discuss and analyze the various issues related to the management of academic libraries, with the help of appropriate theories and models and conclude with recommendations for improving the services operations to achieve better results. Managing Libraries: Overview One of the primary objectives of libraries is to store and record detailed information about books, in order to serve the 'customer' i.e. students in a better manner. Academic libraries in particular, deals with preserving and recording comprehensive information with regard to scholarly publications as well as the primary resources which are used by the students for achieving scholarships. The libraries in general and academic libraries in particular have recently undergone significant changes over the past couple of years, especially with regard to the manner in which information is stored and dealt with. Such rapid transformations can be largely attributed to the fact that the development of information technology has penetrated almost all aspects of human life, and academic libraries are no exception. Such changes has brought about a significant transformation in the manner in which libraries are governed, and managed; followed by changes in its organizational structure, skills sets required of library staff, as well as the range of facilities made available to the customers (Budd, 2005). Libraries across the globe are now increasingly accepting and accommodating such changes, in order to enhance their service quality. According to the management at University of California Library: “The continuing proliferation of formats, tools, services, and technologies has upended how we arrange, retrieve, and present our holdings. Our users expect simplicity and immediate reward and Amazon, Google, and iTunes are the standards against which we are judged (University of California Libraries, 2005, p. 7).” Considering the wide ranging transformations brought about by technology, the management of library services must be reviewed to accommodate and cope up with the changing times. However, it must be noted that despite the rapid changes which have penetrated almost all the aspects of management within academic libraries, customer services still remains the same and uninhibited. The key role of librarians still surrounds provision of optimum services to the users, by offering high quality services. However, the concept of customer satisfaction with regard to libraries, remains a critical aspect of discussion and debate, especially since it has undergone various changes over the years. There are various approaches to measure customer satisfaction depending on the type of services offered. Measuring the same through contemporary conceptual model is one such way to assess and judge the level and quality of services offered (Crosby, 1993). Models for measuring service quality: The term service quality is defined in different manner by various authors. It refers to the customer satisfaction and meeting of customer expectations in an optimum manner. However, the basic definition of the term, encompasses the following key characteristics: Excellence in service provision; value addition; conforming to specifications and rules; and meeting of or excelling in meeting of customer expectations (Hernon, Calvert, 2006). The SERVQUAL Model or The Gaps Model of Service Quality: This model was developed by Parasuraman, Zeithamal, and Berry (1985) to successfully measure customer satisfaction. It helps in assessing customer satisfaction by identifying various differences known as gaps, between various critical aspects involved in service provision within academic libraries. These include aspects such as customer expectations, their perceptions regarding optimum services, as well as the perception of customer's expectations in the minds of the service provider and compare all this against the actual service provided by them (Parasuraman et al., 1985; Parasuraman, Berry, & Zeithaml, 1991). This model offers an effective framework for all service organizations, such as academic libraries, to measure and identify the services in the form of gaps which exceed or fail to meet customer expectations. It identifies five key gaps which indicate a discrepancy between: Customer’s expectations and the perceptions of the management of these expectations The perception of management regarding customer's expectations and the service quality specifications Service quality specifications and actual service delivery Actual service delivery and what is communicated to customers about it and Customers' expected services and perceived service delivered (Hernon, Altman, 2010, Pp. 87). Reflection & Analysis: The key focus of this model is to enable the management in assessing the the optimum service quality which is solely dependent on the relationship between customers and service providers, through identification of gaps between the said two factors. According to this model, the difference arrived at between the minimum acceptable levels of service and the perceived service reflects better performance, while the difference between desired and perceived levels of service indicates a superiority gap. The gaps mentioned above, have the ability to hinder the progress or success of any organization and hence it is a must for the management to make attempts to identify and eliminate such gaps. If these gaps are not taken care of or attended to, it may result in rendering of poor quality service, which is way below the customers' expectations, thus resulting in a total failure or collapse of the system in question. The Gronroos Model: This model was developed by Gronroos in order to assess and examine the impact of perceived service quality. According to him, perceived service quality is a function of various variables which includes product image, market communications, the needs wants and desires of customers, as well as a product of technical and functional quality. According to Gronroos (1990) the service quality can be defined on the basis of two key dimensions i.e. the technical or outcome dimension and the functional or the process-related dimension. According to this model the two quality dimensions i.e. technical and functional, help in ascertaining the corporate image which in turn plays a key role in influencing the customers' perceived service quality. Such a 'perceived service quality' is thus, a result of the customers' assessment of the perceived service as compared to the 'expected' service. Reflection & Analysis: This model is an extension of the gap model is equally significant in measuring the service quality. However, there are certain drawbacks to this model. Firstly, the fact that there are only two dimensions to service quality doesn't help in identifying and examining the other service qualities, and hence it fails to justify the other elements of service, i.e. over and above the two (technical and functional). Furthermore, this model shows an overwhelming bias towards services rendered by people and hence fails primarily on these two grounds to create the desired impact. Recommendations: The interaction between customers (here students) and the staff plays a key role in determining the quality of service offered to them (Bitner et al., 1990). Hence the quality of the staff hired is of utmost significance for the library management, due to its key role in influencing customers' perceptions towards academic libraries (Nagata et al., 2004). The management must take active steps in providing training to the staff, in order to ensure that the service delivery is of optimum quality. This would help in enhancing the quality of service provided and thus increase customer satisfaction in the process. The quality of staff refers to the various skills and abilities displayed by them while dealing and interacting with the students in a considerate manner. Hence the library staff must display qualities such as reliability and consistency with which they handle queries posed by the students; as well as their overall level of dependability in resolving students' problems and their willingness to offer support services in accordance with the needs and requirements of the students. Responsiveness is another critical element of staffing which is defined as the willingness of the service provider to offer help and support services to the students (Parasuraman et al., 1985). The management at academic libraries must take appropriate steps to ensure that the staff hired is skilled enough to address the concerns and grievances of the students, who approach them, and make an attempt to resolve the same in a speedier and convincing manner. They must not only be able but also willing to render their support to the students at all times. Such high degree of willingness of the staff, will ensure better service quality and hence can be translated into higher and better academic results for the students. Conclusion: Considering the rising competition and the changing external environment, academic libraries today face a severe threat and hence it is imperative for them to improve their service quality in order to sustain their relative standing. Technological changes have forced the academic libraries to redefine the scope of their activities and restructure their organizations to adapt to the changing trends. The current trend of measuring the service quality within the field of education has now affected the service provision within these institutions. The management of colleges and universities, responsible for overseeing the administration of libraries, are hence taking active steps to improve and enhance the services provided by them. They are given guidelines to measure the availability as well as accessibility of the academic learning resources and ensure the integration of technology support services along with a highly skilled professional staff in order to enrich the learning experience of the students (Gratch-Lindauer, 2002). The fact that service quality has become an undeniable and inevitable element of service provision has been proved through research. It has drastically changed the manner in which organizations academic or otherwise, operates and functions. Hence it is crucial for management to investigate, and integrate appropriate tools to measure and enhance the service quality, in order to attain greater customer satisfaction. References: Bitner, M.J., Booms, B., and Tetreault, S. (1990). The service encounter: diagnosing favourable and unfavourable incidents. Journal of Marketing, 54(1), Pp. 71-84. Budd, J., (2005). The changing academic library: operations, culture, environments, Association of College & Research Libraries, Pp. 143 – 145 Crosby, L. A. (1993). Measuring customer satisfaction. In E. E. Scheuing & W. F. Christopher (Eds.), The service quality handbook (pp. 389-407). New York: Amacom. Gronroos, C., (2007). Service Management And Marketing: Customer Management In Service Competition, Wiley Publication Gratch-Lindauer, B. (2002). Comparing the regional accreditation standards: Outcomes assessment and other trends. The Journal of Academic Librarianship 28, Pp. 14-25. Hernon, P., Altman, E., (1996). Service quality in academic libraries. Greenwood Publishing Group. Pp. 60 Hernon, P., Calvert, P. J., (2006). Improving the quality of library services for students with disabilities. Libraries Unlimited Publication, Pp. 102-103 Hernon, P., Altman, E., (2010). Assessing service quality: satisfying the expectations of library customers. ALA Editions, Pp. 87 Nagata, H., Satoh, Y., Gerrard, S., and Kytomaki, P. (2004). The dimensions that construct the evaluation of service quality in academic libraries. Performance Measurement and Metrics, 5(2), Pp. 53-65. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4) Pp. 41-50. Parasuraman, A., Berry, L. L., & Zeithaml, V. A. (1991). Refinement and reassessment of the SERVQUAL Scale. Journal of Retailing 67, Pp. 420-450. Sander, P., Stevenson, K., King, M., and Coates, D. (2000). University student’s expectations of teaching. Studies in Higher Education, 25(3), Pp. 309-329. University of California Libraries. (2005). Bibliographic services task force final report: 125 Rethinking how we provide bibliographic services for the University of California. Retrieved August 4, 2011 from http://libraries .universityofcalifornia.edu/sopag/BSTF/Final.pdf Read More