International Service Quality - Essay Example

International service quality (the validity of a mystery shopper) Contents of the Documentation: Introduction. Validity of a Mystery shopper. Evaluation of the role of a Mystery shopper with SERVQUAL. Mystery shoppers in delivering quality service. Mystery shopper -Benefits and Drawbacks. Examples of Mystery Shoppers from international hospitality industry. Strategic issues related to hospitality organizations. Recommendations. Possible improvements with the help of quality control tool. References. Abstract In today's scenarios the position of a company in lead speaks volumes in the market than just being a survivor. A company can flourish if the most important factor of customer satisfaction is met according to the standards. These standards whether achieved or not can be evaluated by having some spy's, who play the role of a customer. They analyze the services provided by that particular company and in turn get paid to present an appropriate feedback (Alan Wilson, 2001). This very concept is called as Mystery Shopping. As usual it also has some dark sides. This documentation throws light on issues related to mystery shopping by evaluating the role of a Mystery Shopper, quality service delivery. The benefits and drawback, strategic issues in hospitality organizations and recommendations which are later followed by possible improvements suggested with the help of the quality control tool. Introduction As the competitiveness kept on rising in the market economy the companies had to come-up with strategies that would always take it to higher position and retain it. The welfare of a company is based on the products it offers, the quality of the products and the main concentration rests upon customer satisfaction. As customers are treated to be the major factor for a company's expansion, there was a necessity to gather feedback and conduct surveys on its own services. The procedure of gathering information in feedback sheets and then appointing few analysts was a lengthier process and was also vulnerable to inappropriate results. This very issue was addressed by appointing a Mystery Shopper. A Mystery Shopper basically makes a purchase at one of the company outlet as a customer (Cybershoppers.co.uk, nd). The services that he was provided with are considered as a feedback to the quality of service at the company's outlet. These results play a vital role in evaluating the company's functioning and helps in stimulating a progress. Validity of a Mystery Shopper One of the golden strategies followed by the emperors can be implemented to obtain the right feedback i.e. by disguising oneself and then checking out the functioning yourself. But these days it is almost impossible to perform this act on our own because of time constraints, so the best way is to appoint a person who can work for the client. But appointing an employee who does, the inspection periodically would always leave an opportunity for the particular outlet of the company to set things right overnight. In the instant generation an approximate of six hours is sufficient to change the complete look of the outlet with the help of instant tools. To avoid such situations and tampering of the reports by some corrupt employees a Mystery Shopper would be the best solution. An approximate of $1 billion is invested in the Mystery Shopping strategy per annum through out the world (Maret, 2005). There is another issue wherein the customers do not wish to spend time on the feedback forms or would try and avoid any sort of personal contacts to invest their time in some other activity than to speak up for the problem and elaborate on it. The easiest way out for a customer would be to pretend that the services are good and avoid further contacts (Mystery-shoppers.co.uk, nd). It basically concentrates the quality of customer services which is the best strategy to gain a grip over the competitors in the market economy though the quality and cost of the product are almost equivalent. Mystery Shopper is also a fundamental factor in the determination of a quality control tool, and improvising the training programs for the employees to improve the sales (Jesson, 2004). This indeed brings in an excellent reputation for the company or a restaurant from the market point of view. Evaluation of the Role of a Mystery shopper with SERVQUAL Sales rate is another important aspect that can easily gather the customers at your outlet. If the sales drop out there is a probability that the customers perceive it to be a problem. Such scenarios are dealt by determining the gap between the service levels downfall and the customers diverting from the respective business. Servqual is considered to be the most appropriate quality service determination technique (Carman, 1990). It is basically based on five important attributes. They are Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy (Parasuraman, 1985). Based on these attributes lets evaluate the role of a Mystery Shopper. Tangibles: A Mystery Shopper is always provided with the necessary details pertaining to the outlet under inspection. For example they comprise of the specific details pertaining to the purchase related to a particular department. Reliability: A Mystery Shopper's report is more reliable as there is no chance of tampering information, as it is going to be a report that is neutral and from a customer's perspective. There is an added advantage to a Mystery Shopper as the report is filled right after the visit and this definitely does not request for memory and hence leads to a good result enclosing all the requirements. Responsiveness: The trend is such that the Mystery Shoppers are more than willing to do this job as it is part time job and can be done with ease by just gathering information about the specific outlet. This willingness has indeed expanded the pool of shoppers who wish to help the clients with a prompt service as it might result in an increasing demand. Assurance: The role of a Mystery Shopper always imbibes certain amount of trust and confidence in the client as it is connected to the reports and new offers. If the Mystery Shopper fails to produce the necessary report, it is a risky situation for the Shopper as his position as a Mystery Shopper is at stake. Empathy: It is much easier to explain the problem to an individual who is willing to help the client, in improvising the customer service quality. If the Mystery Shopper doesn't fulfill the requirements then his job is at stake while at the same time the client needs to figure out a solution or invest in another Mystery Shopper methodology. Mystery Shoppers in delivering Quality Service There is always a single question lingering in the client's mind is that, "Have I made the right decision of mystery shopping" This happens when the client doubts about the quality of service provided to him from the mystery shopper. On the other hand the organizations that provide Mystery Shopping services claim that there is nothing to be worried about and they can guarantee an excellent quality of service (NationalShoppingServiceNetwork, 2005). The reasons behind this excellent quality are as follows: Client's requirements are noted and suitable program is developed and is implemented on client's approval. This is done to make sure that the client is satisfied with the services and does not lead to re-shopping assignments. Assignment of specialized shoppers based on the task at hand. This act usually confirms that the shopper assigned the particular task is aware of all the necessary requirements and can perform well at site by noting the important details. The details are then transformed into appropriate reports. This is usually done immediately after the shopping act and thus is an added advantage as the Mystery Shopper need not memorize the details and present later. Hence it does not leave any scope to miss out a minute detail (Lisa, nd). The report is then formatted and presented to the various clients in a suitable format which helps in easy analysis of the situations. Thus resulting in a quick action taken towards the development of the customer services indeed resulting in a positive progress. A& M business claims that they carry out the above process under the supervision of skilled personnel's and thus there is no scope for errors (ambussvcs.com, 2003). They also mention that their software named PEGASYS presents an immediate and accurate report developed from the minute details acquired by Mystery Shopping. Based on all these factors we can say that a Mystery Shopper definitely provides good quality of service. Mystery Shopper - Benefits and Drawbacks As every coin has two sides, there are certain benefits and drawbacks for Mystery Shopping as well. These are dealt under the specific subtopics below: Benefits: Mystery Shopping always keeps employees on a high alert. Improves sales abilities by identifying the required training programs. Helps in cutting costs related to the determination of specific training programs through various sources (CustomerPerspectives.com, 2007). Improvise customer service. Gaining the confidence of the employees to perform better. Presents specialized shoppers who are not always shopping for the same products thus presenting an accurate report (Brandt.R, 2005). Definitely attracts new customers. Improves customer relationships and helps in providing quality services (Turner, 2005). Drawbacks: Mystery shopper providing an accurate report on a single visit. Decision of a wrong training program leads to additional costs. Inexperienced shopper assigned the task leads to the arrangement of re-shopping process. Might result in the loss of employee's confidence, if the Mystery shopping act is revealed (Semenak, 2005). Loss of data might result in the wrong report presentation (Koriat, Goldsmith, & Pansky, 2000). Blackmailing the clients by using hidden cameras (AssociatedContent.com, 2006). Examples of Mystery Shoppers from International Hospitality Industry: Let us consider few examples of mystery shoppers in the international hospitality industry. Example 1: Coyle Hospitality Group Coyle Hospitality Group claims to be one among the leading Companies in providing Guest service measurement and analysis for hoteliers to improvise on their market stands (Coyle Hospitality Groups, 2006). The core functionalities involved in this are: to keep an account of the various services provided to the customer by the staff at various departments. They also check the way in which a customer is treated during their stay and then the report is based on the departmental performances which is compared to the other hotels in the lead to gain a better knowledge. They have a specialized tool known as 'InnsQore' which is a robust SQL Sever Environment that can be customized based on the clients requirements. This report is based on graphs and charts to evaluate the performance of the company outlet. The software is built with intelligence so that it compares the similar standard of hotels and presents a narrow report on the minute details. Example 2: Quality Assurance Consulting Quality Assurance Consulting claims to be the best provider of Quality assurance consultancy, Mystery Shopping and cost control services for the Hospitality Industry (QACi.net, nd). This consultancy basically concentrates on the server and the service provided to the customers and not on the customers and their styles. They do not look for customer comments and evaluate the work in an unbiased manner. The reports presented by their mystery shoppers are the most accurate and unaltered data of information based on the quality of service. The Mystery Shopper starts by inspecting the way a customer is greeted by the staff and then the requirements met with perfectionism. Cleanliness is also evaluated by the Mystery Shopper. The report is then stored in the database that can be utilized in order to customize the forms to present the report. This software is also used in order to process graphical reports that can compare the performance at various instances of time. Thus the improvements are highlighted to gain a better position in the market economy. Strategic issues related to hospitality organizations: The strategic issues are of great importance when it comes to the investment plan of Mystery Shopping to be opted by a client in order to evaluate the service progress in his hospitality outlet. To maintain the secret of not revealing the Mystery Shopper the organizations are always visited by different shoppers. This helps in concealing the Mystery Shopping activity from the employees. The issue here is that, if a shopper is under trained and then is sent to the site inspection, this would cause an inappropriate report to be delivered (Michelle, 2000). The major issue that needs the attention is whether the client's investment in Mystery Shopping justified (Cronin, 1992). The capability of a shopper to analyze the performance of the outlet is always questioned. How can the shopper just check the outlet and evaluate its performance without any prior knowledge of its functionalities. In a hospitality industry the concerned issues are the details to be gained over the various departments at various levels. Like based on the level at which the shopper is placed the quality of service might be excellent whereas for the lower level customers the services might differ. So this is a major hindrance in analyzing the quality of service based on a single Mystery Shopper. Mystery shopping as a concealing issue faces a lot of challenges. If the secret of Mystery Shopping is not kept a secret anymore then the complete plan to determine the service quality fails (MARTIJN, 2004). This usually calls for the re-planning and implementation of the Mystery Shopping activity. Certain situations cause a long delay thus striking out the customer relationships leading to the immigration of customer. Recommendations Mystery Shopping is recommended as the quality assessment tool as we can analyze the sales standards. The evaluation is based on simple tasks implementation that presents the report. The report can be customized based on the industry under observation. These reports can also be customized according to the various clients that are going to review the analysis. It presents a wide scope of evaluation by analyzing the customer relationships built by the staff personnel, the prompt service provision from the server to the customer. This also helps in analyzing the changes occurred over the period of time by the data presented in graphical format. This helps in analyzing the various trends and brings in some improvisations (Informars.com, 2006). The best factor when it comes to the report presentation is that the shopper does not have to remember all the details as the software is of high software. The GenX technology has evolved up to such a great extent that the shopper has to find a computer terminal and then just upload the details to the organizational group. Then the reports of various formats are made and submitted without any time loss (SecretShopper.com, 2004). The most important aspect for the client is that the industry that is asking for Mystery Shopping services is kept a secret industry. So the client can get his inspection part done on time without even the employees getting to know about the whole act. Such secret issues are not revealed to anybody except the top tier and thus it enhances the training programs and brings in a huge number of customers. This is a strong point for which the companies prefer to take up Mystery Shopping. Possible improvements for Mystery Shopping The most important idea that needs to kept in mind is that the Mystery Shoppers are not sent to the same field of shopping every time. This does not mean that the shoppers lack the knowledge of the details to be observed. The company can ask for skilled shoppers who can perform to the maximum extent. The company can also demand for a quality control tool that can analyze the various aspects related to customer relationships. It is also crucial that the forms or the software does not contain the routine set of questions. The questionnaire can be varied up to a certain margin (Peter Gurney, nd). The Company can analyze various scenarios related to customer services and check for the customer satisfaction rates. The company can also keep an account of the percentage of customer retainment until the present day. The information obtained based on customer likes and dislikes also helps the company to introduce new schemes that can draw more number of customers. It helps in enhancing the sales level by introducing new sales schemes that also draws more umber of customer. All these activities definitely result in a huge profit pouring down at the company's economy. This results in enthusiastic employees who wish to perform much better and then a big lot of satisfied customers. References 1) A&M business services. "Marketing Research & Analysisand Dynamic Database Solutions" found at: http://www.ambussvcs.com/Pegasys.asp 2) AssociatedContent.com, 2006. Home Based Business: Disadvantages of Mystery Shopping. Found at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/104547/home_based_business_disadvantages_of.html 3) Brandt, R. Effectively using mystery shopping to enhance the customer experience, www.hospitalitynet.org, 2005. 4) Carman, J.M. (1990), "Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality: An Assessment of the SERVQUAL Dimensions," Journal of Retailing, 66 (Spring), 33-35. 5) Coyle Hospitality Group, 2006. Hotel Mystery Shopping by Experienced Hotel Secret Shoppers. Found at: http://www.coylehospitality.com/hotelservice.html 6) Cronin, J. Joseph, Jr. and Steven A. Taylor (1992), "Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension," Journal of Marketing, 56 (July), 55-66. 7) Customer Perspectives. "Mystery Shopping for your Business." Found at: http://www.customerperspectives.com/customer-relationship-mgt.html 8) Cybershoppers.co.uk (nd),"NOP Mystery Shopping", Found at: http://cybershoppers.nop.co.uk/prelogin/Introduction.htm 9) Informars.com, 2006. "Mystery Shopping Program" Found at:http://www.informars.com/mt/mys_shopper/mys_gen.htm#2 10) Jesson, J. (2004). Mystery shopping demystified: Is it a justifiable research method. The Pharmaceutical Journal, 615-617. 11) Koriat, A., Goldsmith, M. & Pansky, A. (2000). Toward a psychology of memory accuracy. Annual Review of Psychology, 51, 481-537. 12) Lisa Narvaez (nd). "Experimental Mystery Shopping: Are Businesses Spending Their Research Dollars Wisely" User Experience Professional at Perceptive Sciences Corp. 13) Maret, S.E. Mystery shoppers evaluate customer service on the sly. Richmond Times Dispatch, Virginia, December 20, 2005. 14) MARTIJN HESSELINK, JOS VAN IWAARDEN, TON VAN DER WIELE, 2004.Mystery shopping: A tool to develop insight into customer service provision 15) Michelle Lowndes, 2000. The Impact of Negatively Directed Statements on Service Quality Ratings. 16) Mystery-Shoppers.co.uk (nd), "Guide for Mystery Shopping", found at: http://www.mystery-shoppers.co.uk/guide_to_mystery_shoppers.htm 17) National Shopping Service Network, llc. Mystery Shopping Professional since 1986, Found at: http://www.mysteryshopper.net/services/satisfaction.htm 18) Parasuraman, A., Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry (1985), "A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research," Journal of Marketing, 49 (Fall), 41-50. 19) Peter Gurney, nd. Performance Assessment: A primer for call centers 20) QACi.net. Quality Assurance Consulting. Mystery Shopping found at: http://www.qaci.net/client/qacdifference.asp 21) SecretShopper.com, 2004. Mystery shopping services. Found at: http://www.shopreports.com/ps/services.asp 22) Semenak, S. Mystery shopper keeps retailers on their toes. The Star Phoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, October 29, 2005. 23) Turner, T. Mystery shoppers spy -for good cause; Feedback lets companies see themselves through eyes of their customers, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, 2005. 24) Wilson, A.M. (2001). Mystery shopping: Using deception to measure service performance. Psychology & Marketing, 721-734. Read More