Understanding True Quality Service - Term Paper Example

Individual Case Study- Understanding True "Quality Service" Student’s name Course title Instructor’s name Date of submission Introduction One of the famous phrases coined in this century talks about consumer being the king. In this regard, the consumer boasts of a significant effect on the operations of the market. The consumer constitutes a huge chunk of demand for goods and services while the producers and service providers supply a variety of goods and services. The interaction between the demand and supply acts as forces that influence the determination of prices, especially in free markets. In a free market environment, there are several service providers competing to provide the best services to the consumers. As a result, services providers strive to provide the best service to the consumers in the market. This paper will look at various aspects about customer service with a focus on the theoretical concepts that inform the variety of customer service perspectives. Customer service There is much truth in the statement that suggests that customer service is different depending on the type of business and the needs of the customer in each individual case. For example, a variety of businesses operate in various global markets and the customers are served depending on their needs. Customer service is closely related to the outcome of customer satisfaction and the two go hand-in-hand in order to ensure sustained business profitability and growth out of sales (Johnson & Clark, 2008). Various industries such as telecommunication, construction and real estate management, banking and finance, tourism and hospitality, and transport among many others strive to provide quality service to customers. The video on “Handling customers’ complaints” provides an educative and interesting scenario that gives insights into the customer service arena with a focus on a hotel (falls in the tourism and hospitality management industry). Theoretical concepts in customer service Johnson and Clark (2008) identify customer service as an ability to understand the nature of service required by a particular customer and working towards delivering the specified services. The concept of service needs to maintain a clear definition of the needs, objectives, outcomes, and approaches to provision of a service (Rai, 2013). In the video, the nature of customer services that the management prescribes to the employees would be tailored to meet the needs of the customers being served in the hotel environment. The staff need adequate training to understand the specific approach to customer service that would be appropriate in the present scenario. The concept of customer satisfaction takes centre stage while looking at customer service as already mentioned. “The terms customer satisfaction and perception of quality are labels we use to summarize a set of observable actions related to the product or service” (Hayes, 2008). The customer satisfaction and overall experience about the nature of service received varies from one consumer to another (Kandampully, 2002). As portrayed in the video, Mrs Alice Richards seemed discontented with the quality of service she was received from the staff at the hotel (Fawlty Towers). She required instant attention without regard to the fact that another client, Mr. Thurston, was being served. Mrs. Richards seems to lose her patience citing an apparent disregard of her right to receive satisfactory service from the staff. The ensuing scene highlights various aspects about customer satisfaction and perception. There exist two main levels of customer service expectations, namely desired and adequate (Kotler & Keller, 2009). The desired level customer service expectations looks at the nature of service that the customer anticipates to receive after subscribing to a service. On the other hand, the adequate level of customer expectation looks at the level of service that a customer would be willing to accept despite achieving total satisfaction (Rai, 2013). The video also gives insights in these two concepts that define customer satisfaction levels. The customers seeking hospitality services at the hotel do so with the hope that they will receive value for their money. As a result, Mrs. Richards states categorically that she expressly requested for a room with a bath and clear view of the sea. In this case, the desired level of satisfaction that Mrs. Richards demands requires total fulfilment of her requirements. On the other hand, other clients such as Mr. Bradley, who was making a check payment, seem to have achieve adequate level of customer service satisfaction. They are duly thankful for the service that they have received. Moreover, the Expectancy-Disconfirmation Paradigm (EDP) gives similar perspectives to consumer satisfaction (Rai, 2013). The EDP model suggests that consumers make their purchase decisions concerning goods and services with pre-purchase expectation about the kind of performance that they anticipate to receive from the service providers. The expectations that consumers harbour form the basis and standard upon which a product is judged (Kotler & Keller, 2009). As time goes by, the product of service is judged on the outcome with a recollection on the expectations. In cases where the outcome corresponds to the expectations, confirmation is achieved. However, a difference between expectation of the customer service and actual service reveals disconfirmation. The video highlights a strong stance taken by Mrs. Richards stating that she is disappointed with the poor service that she has received. The difference between her expected service and the actual service she received portrays a disconfirmation. The dissonance theory notes a customer with a high expectations about a service or a product and received low-value product would recognize the disparity and experience cognitive dissonance (Needle, 2010). As a result, the customer service should be tailored to ensure that the expectations of the consumer are exceeded as a failure to do so would result in a psychological discomfort (Rai, 2013). The video shows a lack of adequate personnel to handle the needs of customers. In certain industries, a small number of staff would be able to attend to the needs of several customers. However, the hospitality industry portrayed in the video requires a larger number of personnel to attend to the diverse needs of consumers in real-time. The inability of Manuel to communicate effectively in English with clients sets the stage for cognitive discomfort. The customer service department attempts to ensure customers receive the maximum benefits for the costs they incurred in procuring services. The two factor theory highlights the possibility of customers to be satisfied and dissatisfied with a product or a service at the same time (Needle, 2010). The satisfaction or dissatisfaction relate to different and unrelated aspects of a service. Mrs. Richards may be satisfied that she actually gets the room she wanted (room 22), but she is dissatisfied that she did not get the unlimited attention that she desired. Similarly, the dual factor theory looks at the instrumental and expressive factors of performance. Customer service needs to aim at developing products and services that possess the desired physical attributes (Hayes, 2008). Furthermore, the customer service teams need to ensure that the products and services they provide meet the psychological thresholds that peg on them. Therefore, it is necessary to come up with services and products that serve the express needs of the customer in order to achieve maximum satisfaction and expressive performance. Conclusion and recommendations The customer needs and demands reflect the dynamism in the global market. The consumer feels that they deserve to get maximum value for their money. The video highlighted the demands laid forth by Mrs. Richard as she sought to get her issues addressed by the hotel personnel. The customer services department needs to acknowledge the various theoretical concepts that describe the customer satisfaction aspects and work towards meeting the expectations of the customers (Needle, 2010). It is prudent for the personnel to express empathy while dealing with customers as this will help them to ensure that they do not lose their temper while dealing with difficult customers. As a result, the personnel require proper training that allows them to understand the best approach to follow in order to ensure maximum satisfaction from the customers (Kandampully, 2002). The tenets of various theoretical concepts need to be woven into the training template for customer service delivery. As the customer service initiatives continue, it would be prudent to take note of the power of technological instruments such as social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook (Hayes, 2008). The advent of technological revolution has impact on the nature of business operations and organizations need to integrate social media marketing and customer service delivery (Needle, 2010). As opposed to the video, customers in the present days may decide to focus their satisfactions and regrets about a given product or service over the internet, for example, via Twitter. Such expressions on social media may influence the perceptions of other consumers and they may build or destroy a given brand. An integration of social media perspectives would ensure that customer service delivery is not hampered and companies are increasingly taking up social media accounts. Such accounts allow them to respond to customer services related queries or feed in real-time and they also get a platform to market various products and services (Needle, 2010). References Hayes, B. (2008). Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty. Milwaukee, WI Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press. Top of Form Johnson, R & Clark, G. (2008). Service Operations management. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall. Kandampully, J. (2002). Services management: The new paradigm in Hospitality. Elsternwick: Hospitality Press. Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2009). Marketing management. Beijing: Qing. Needle, D. (2010). Business in context: An introduction to business and its environment. Andover: South-Western Cengage Learning. Rai, A. (2013). Customer relationship management. New Delhi: PHI Learning. Read More