Measures to Ensure Effecting Management of Customer Waiting Time - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Management of Service Quality Issue: Paper 2 Institution: Date: Table of Contents Title: Management of Service Quality Issue: Paper 2 1 Table of Contents 2 Executive summary 3 Introduction 4 Discussion 4 Mafraq hospital 4 Rashid hospital 6 Al Hilal Bank 7 Overall Approach 8 Analysis 9 Conclusion 10 Bibliography 11 Executive summary Service quality management is an important aspect in today’s competitive business environment. The ability of service organizations such as hospitals and banks to service in the competitive and ever changing market depends on their capability to offer quality services that meet customer satisfaction. As the wishes and needs of customers are formed and shaped by their social, civilization and economic conditions, there exists a close relationship amid the ability of banks and hospitals to continue and subsist and their capability to generate and offer services that are in line with the changing and increasing needs of customers. Therefore, service organizations are working hard to find efficient ways of countering exterior changes so as to survive. The quality of service offered by organizations is a necessity whose importance increases in accordance to the increasing expectations, needs and wishes of the customer, along with the ability of organizations to meet these expectations, needs and wishes. Management of waiting time of customers is a familiar aspect in most of service delivery organizations. Waiting time has the potential of influencing the overall customer satisfaction and the way the customer perceives the service encounter. Introduction Management of service quality is an important aspect in every service organization. Due increased competition and changing business environments, organizations have been compelled to offer services that meet the needs and expectations of customers so as to achieve customer satisfaction. Waiting time is a vital aspect of service quality that is posing a challenge to service organizations. Management of customer waiting time is a significant aspect in service organizations because it has a high of determining the overall customer satisfaction and customer’s perception of service encounter. The degree of customer satisfaction depends on the how a customer perceives waiting time, real performance of service delivery scheme and customer’s perception of service encounter. This report looks at how Rashid hospital, Mafraq hospital and Al Halil bank are dealing with the issues of waiting time of customers and measures that can be put in place to ensure effecting management of customer waiting time. Discussion Mafraq hospital Mafrq hospital is dealing with the waiting time of customers through expanding its facilities in order to ensure faster treatment of patients. The hospital has expanded its emergency room to increase capacity from ten to thirty three patient bays. This patient friendly facility is anticipated to shorten the waiting time of patients by approximately 30 percent and also to increase patient intake. The expansion of the emergency department entails a series of crucial enhancements, ranging from an expanded in patient registration kiosks form three to six, an increased triage are, separate female and male waiting regions with expanded capacity , a devoted ambulance entrance, a 230 percent expansion in patient beds and enhanced signage. The expansion of the emergency department is anticipated to increase the number of patients requiring treatment and position the department as one of the best emergency departments in the region. The expansion has resulted to first rate and swift treatment, along with efficient flow of customers, an undertaking that is vital for the success of the service quality in the hospital. The hospital employs dedicated doctors and nurses who effectively do their job around the clock to make sure that patients get the greatest quality of care, and also get positive treatment experiences. The hospital has designed this new facility to give patients a pleasant experience, and to ensure that patients are receptive to treatments, which subsequently lessens wait times and leads to a highly efficient experience for both patients and doctors (Mafraq Hospital, 2011). Mafraq hospital has also expanded its day surgery unit so as to promote access to outpatient care in UAE and reduce waiting time of customers. According to Mafraq Hospital, (2009), day surgery, which is a surgery completed in a single day without overnight stay in the hospital reduces decongestion of patients requiring surgical procedures in the hospital. The hospital is developing its present schemes to improve access to quality healthcare for every surgical patient. The expansion will lead to reduced waiting times prior to surgery, increased resources and space for emergency procedures, better healthcare and the entire improvement in patient satisfaction and welfare. Around 610 people are admitted to the Mafraq hospital for inpatient surgery every month. With the use of Day surgery unit, 40 percent of surgeries can be safely performed as outpatient procedures, permitting patients to go back home immediately and pave way for other patients. Rashid hospital Rashid hospital has partnered with Qmatic, which is the principal queue management company in the world to reduce customer wait times and deliver customer flow management solutions based upon exceptional incorporation with the SAM system of the hospital. The hospital has partnered with Qmatic in an attempt to improve its outpatient department clinic effectiveness and offer information for improved resource planning. The hospital has improved patient flow by streamlining patient flow through shifting the load of directional regulation from physical resources to an entirely automated system. Through the use of the innovative customer flow management solution, Rashid hospital has been able to reduce waiting times by 70 percent to a simple five minute waiting time which has resulted to more customer satisfaction. The improved patient flow has also resulted to reduced manpower and better utilization of time (Thomas, 2011). The hospital has automated appointment validation introduced self service kiosks which have dramatically reduced waiting times of customers through verifying appointment details. Rashid hospital has also automated the payment process to make sure that customers do not have to queue at the reception to make payments. Thomas (2011) notes that with the use of the Qmatic solution, Rashid hospital has been able to reduce waiting time of customers through patient tracking. The hospital tracks customers from the time they get into the hospital to the time they leave utilizing one ticket and one system. The live management information offered by the system enables the management to take instant measures when necessary. Managers are able to establish patient volumes and estimate future waiting times for treatment rooms, consulting rooms and reception. Additionally, managers are able to see appointment delay times and when they occur and when waiting times surpass the established limits, the management is notified by the system and is able to act accordingly. Al Hilal Bank Al Hilal bank is dealing with the issue of waiting time of customers through the use of thumb verification system. As a leading bank in UAE, Al Hilal has embraced technology through use thumb verification system which is intended to streamline and to accelerate everyday banking transactions and reduce waiting time of customers. This innovative system has been implemented as a result of a set of through tests and it has proven to significantly shorten customers’ waiting time. The technology has enabled the bank to offer value addition through providing safe transactions and high quality banking services to its customers. The thumb verification system has been inspired by the bank’s vision to consistently redefine principles of Islamic banking and also to initiate a state of art technologies that makes banking procedures for clients simpler( Pratap, 2011). The bank has also launched immediate issuance of visa debit cards to its UAE customers. According to Pratap, (2011) customers who open accounts at the bank’s branches are able to access the facility of immediately getting their debit cards together with personalized account numbers selected by the client. With conventional processing of card processes taking around ten business days, the novel immediate issuance attribute of the bank considerably shortens waiting time for clients and eradicates probable security hazards connected to tampered or lost cards as clients now get their cards immediately at all branches. Overall Approach Managing the waiting time of customers is a familiar aspect of majority of service delivery organizations and has the potential of significantly influencing the overall satisfaction of customer with service encounter. A client’s degree of gratification with the service attained or with waiting is completely dependent upon the real performance of delivery scheme, the customer’s anticipations concerning that performance, as well as the consumer’s perception of service encounter. There are two forms of waiting time within service encounters. The initial form of waiting time occurs when a customer spends time in a queue in between or before the several phases of service delivery. Queues usually happen when demand exceeds supply. Queues occur in face to face transactions as well as in telephone encounters when consumers are required to hold up to the time a service representative can talk to them. The second form of waiting time occurs in process delays (Sheu, & HcHaney, 2003). According to Kent, (2006), waiting time greatly affects customer satisfaction in banks and hospitals. When customers are kept waiting for so long, they are prone to dissatisfaction and annoyance. Patients spend a considerable duration in clinics and hospitals waiting for delivery of services by nurses together with other health professionals. The extent at which health customers are gratified with the service and care attained is strongly associated with the quality of wait experience. Hospitals that endeavor to offer exceptional service must efficiently manage their customer’s wait times. Failure to integrate consumer driven aspects into the plan of wait time experience will result to provider and patient dissatisfaction. Management of waiting time is vital in every service organization. A controlled and balanced waiting time is the aspired optimum outcome of each manager. Customer flow management can assist managers to attain a balance of customers through improving staff planning and through adding flexibility to the service delivery process (Clemmer & Schneider, 2002). From the perspective of customer flow management, customer flow has a great risk of influencing negative customer service management if not appropriately managed. Davis and Heineke (2004) argue that a consumer who perceives waiting time as long is often dissatisfied with the service being offered. Customer flow management provides two key approaches to managing customer satisfaction in regard to waiting time. The initial approach is to reduce waiting time. Through selecting tools for planning staffing and monitoring waiting in actual time, the service provider is able to dynamically manage waiting time. Another approach employed by customer flow management is minimization of perceived waiting time. This is might be achieved through engaging the consumer in active waiting, for instance, through filing waiting period with activities that shorten the perceived waiting period and thus promote waiting experience. Active waiting time increases the satisfaction of customers, as customers are consistently notified of their place within the queue together with anticipated waiting time. Moreover, with addition of entertainment, customers see waiting time as being shorter and this makes them more content. Customer satisfaction whist waiting minimizes the burden on staff as customers don’t interrupt their job with repeated wait time inquiries and queuing (Davis & Heineke, 2004). Analysis Hospitals and banks can use customer flow management system to manage the waiting time of customers. According to Davis, M., & Heineke (2004), Through gathering and storing data from customer flow management system, managers will be at any time be able to utilize this data to assess tha current trend of customer waiting time. Customer flow management can also generate reports on the interactions between customer and employee, customer wait times and service times. Operational efficiencies will also be recognized and addresses via training or process changes. The trend analysis offered by system reports assists managers to effectively manage staff rotas on basis of quieter and peak times within the service region. Hospitals can use iSOFT queue management to deal with waiting time and improve customer satisfaction. iSOFT queue management will enable these hopsiptals to get helpful statistical information that will improve customer satisfaction, develop superior working conditions for workers whilst attaining cost effective planning. Feedback information that will be offered by this system will be vital for the management as it will enable it to have a picture of what advancement they are making towards attaining their goal of offering quality services. Conclusion Management of waiting time of customers is an important aspect in service organizations like banks and hospitals. The level of customer satisfaction in service delivery depends on how customers perceive waiting time and service encounter. Customers who perceive waiting time as long as usually dissatisfied with the service being offered. Therefore, hospitals and banks must endeavor to offer exceptional services through effectively managing their customer’s waiting times. This is important because failure to integrate consumer driven aspects in planning wait time experience results to dissatisfaction of both the customer and service provider. Bibliography Mafraq Hospital, 2011, Mafraq hospital expands its Day Surgery Unit, Retrieved on April 6, 2012 form Pratap, M., 2011, Al Hilal Bank introduces thumb verification system in all branches, Retrieved on April 6, 2012 form Davis, M., & Heineke, J., 2004. Understanding the roles of the customer and the operation for better queue management, International Journal of operations and production management, 14(5), 21-34. Kent, R., 2006, managing the clinic wait: An important quality of care challenge, Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 13(2), 11-20. Thomas, C., (2011). Rashid hospital achieves 70 percent reduction in waiting time, Retrieved on April 6, 2012 from www.q-matic.com/en/int/who-we-are/news/ Clemmer, E., & Schneider, B., (2002). Toward understanding and controlling customer dissatisfaction with waiting, Elsevier Publishing Group. Mafraq Hospital, 2009, Mafraq hospital emergency room expansion almost triples capacity, retrieved on April 6, 2012 from www.mafraqhospital.ae/NewsItem.aspx? Sheu, C, & HcHaney, R, 2003, Service process design flexibility and customer waiting time. International Journal of operations and production management, 23(8), 901-917 Read More