6 Employees Role InService Delivery

EMPLOYEES ROLE IN SERVICE DELIVERY

The Critical Importance Of Service Employees

Key focus on customer contact service employees because: They are the service They are the organization in customer’s eye They are the brand They are the marketers

Their importance is evident in: The Services Marketing Mix (People) The Service-Profit Chain The Services Triangle

The Service Triangle

Internal Marketing

Interactive Marketing

External Marketing

Company(Management)

CustomersEmployees

enablingpromises

delivering promises

settingpromises

The Service Triangle

External Marketing: includes anything or anyone

that communicates to the customer before service delivery

Interactive Marketing: its the real time marketing

were promises are kept

Internal Marketing: management aids the

providers in their ability to deliver the service promise- recruiting, training, motivating, rewarding, and providing equipment & technology

Ways to Use the Services Marketing Triangle

Overall Strategic Assessment

How is the service organization doing on all three sides of the triangle?

Where are the weaknesses?

What are the strengths?

Specific Service Implementation

What is being promoted and by whom?

How will it be delivered and by whom?

Are the supporting systems in place to deliver the promised service?

Why Internal Marketing?

Satisfied employees make for satisfied customers Unless service employees are happy in their jobs,

customer satisfaction will be difficult to achieve Employees directly influence all 5 dimensions of

service quality

Service Profit Chain

Boundary Spanning Roles

The frontline service employees are referred to as boundary spanners because they operate at the organization's boundary

They provide a link between external customer and environment and the internal operations of the organization

They serve as a critical function in understanding, filtering, and interpreting information and resources to and from the organization and its external constituencies

They vary from the least skilled, lowest paid employees like order takers, front desk employees, delivery people to well paid highly educated professionals like doctors, lawyers

These positions require extraordinary levels of emotional labor, frequently demand an ability to handle interpersonal and inter-organizational conflict

Emotional Labor arises from the discrepancy between the way frontline staff feel inside and the emotions they are expected to portray in front of customers

Sources of Conflict Personal/ Role Conflict: conflict between

what their job requires and their own personalities, self perceptions, and beliefs

Organization/ Client Conflict: dilemma of whether they should follow the company’s rules or satisfy customer demands.

Interclient Conflict: conflict between customers. Eg: speaking o mobile phone in a cinema hall, noisy guests in a restaurant

External Environment

Internal Environment

Boundary Spanners Interact with Both Internal and External Constituents

Strategies for Delivering Service Quality Through PeopleStrategies for Internal Marketing: To build

a customer-oriented, service-minded

workforce, an organization must:

Hire the right people Develop people to deliver service quality Provide the needed support systems Retain the best people

Customer-Oriented Service Delivery

Hire theRight People

ProvideNeeded Support

Systems

Retain theBest

People

DevelopPeople to

DeliverServiceQuality

Compete

for

the B

est

People

Hire for Service

Competencies and Service Inclination

Tre

at

Em

plo

ye

es

a

s

Cu

sto

me

rs

Em

po

we

r E

mp

loy

ee

s

Be the Preferred

Employer Train for

Technical and

Interactive

Skills

Prom

ote

Team

wor

k

Measure

Internal

Service

Quality

Develop Service-

oriented Internal

Processes

Mea

sure

and

R

ewar

d S

tron

g S

ervi

ce

Per

form

ers

Include

Em

ployees in

the

Com

pany’s

Vision

Provide Supportive Technology

and Equipment

Hire the Right People

Compete for the best people Identify the people and compete with other

organizations to hire them

Hire for service competencies and service inclination

Service competencies are the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job

Service inclination means their interest in doing service related job

Be a preferred employer Provide career and growth opportunities, excellent

internal support, attractive incentives etc

Develop People to Deliver Service Quality

Train for technical and interactive skills Ongoing training in necessary technical skills like

cash machine procedures, accounting systems in hotels

Interactive skills allow employees to provide courteous, caring, responsive, and empathetic service

Empower employees Empowerment means giving employees the desire,

skills, tools, and authority to serve customer Frontline providers need to be empowered to

accommodate customer requests and to recover on the spot when things go wrong

Employees need the knowledge and tools to be able to make these decisions

Positive benefits of empowerment: reduction in job related stress, improved job satisfaction, greater adaptability, and better outcomes for customers

Promote teamwork Teamwork enhances the employees’ abilities to

deliver excellent service Build an interactive community of coworkers who

help each other Encourage the attitude- “everyone has a

customer” Team gals and rewards also promote teamwork

Provide Needed Support Systems

Measure internal service quality Internal customer service audits can be used to

implement a culture of internal service quality

Provide supportive technology and equipment

Develop service-oriented internal processes Internal processes should be designed with

customer value and customer satisfaction in mind Go for “process engineering” (i.e. total redesign

of system)

Retain The Best People

Include employees in the company’s vision

Treat employees as customers Make them feel valued and take care of their

needs The products that the organization has to offer its

employees are a job (with assorted benefits) and quality of work life

Measure and reward strong service performers

Service Culture

To move an organization towards service excellence, we

need a strong service culture that is continuously reinforced

and developed by the firm’s management.

“A culture where an appreciation for good service exists, and where giving good service to internal as well as ultimate, external customers, is considered a natural way of life and one of the most important

norms by everyone in the organization.”