Diseño de la Muestra

For services, due partly to its characteristics of intangibility, inseparability and variability, people ñ mostly its internal customers ñ have become one of the most important strategic variables. They, therefore, are the main differentiators for the service firm.

Example: There are over 900 business schools in India. Some of the more important

ways in which they can effectively differentiate themselves is through its faculty and staff quality (internal customers), pedagogy (process), infrastructure and facilities (process and physical evidences), etc.

There could be two service organisations in the same business proposition, having the advantage of same equipments, technology and complementary goods. Nevertheless, they could be perceived to be radically different in their approach to customer service and consistency in service delivery.

Example: A good example is the airline service. There are not too many aircraft

manufacturers. In all probability, most competitive airlines of the world must be using either Boeing or Airbus aircraft... or both. But Singapore Airlines is perceived to be a class apart in customer service, which is mostly credited to their efficient crew and graceful ëSingapore Girlsí. Lufthansa, the efficient German airline, is known for its safety and punctuality records. Passengers have reported to be pleasantly surprised at the breadth of decisions that the employees of the Swedish airline SAS seemed to have been empowered to take. This was in sharp contrast to the bureaucratese displayed by most other airline staffs. SAS employees seemed to take many decisions regarding passenger comforts, upgrading passengers, baggage and other travel problems themselves without referring them to their superiors.

In India, Jet Airways, compared to the state owned airlines and other private players came in late yet is better rated in service than most other domestic players. The reason for the above airlines to be successful is the same: high quality internal customers.

Some of the ways in which the internal customers can contribute to unique and positive differentiation of the service firm are:

 Communicability: The term ìinternal customersî includes employees of the service firm, channel partners like Direct Sales Agents (DSAs), retailers, franchisees, etc., and Business Process Outsourcers (BPOs).

A better skilled and trained internal customer would be able to communicate better with the external customer. This includes an incisive analysis of the customerís needs, his levels of comprehension (feed forward), assimilation and choice of encoding symbols, message formulation and delivery. This helps the internal customer to be persuasive in his communication - making the customer understand and believe in the concept of the service. The latter is a major inherent drawback that is derived from intangibility. The quality of the providerís interaction with the customer is also very high, leaving a lasting impression of good customer service and satisfaction.

Notes  Transaction: A highly trained and skilled provider will be able to deliver high quality service. The quality of transaction will have minimal service failures; and if there are such unfortunate incidents, then there will be scope for swift service recoveries.

The customer now has his service experience to help him in differentiating the particular service firm from others - in the offer design and service delivery. The quality of service transaction is also dependent on the moods, involvement, orientation and experience of the internal customers. The customer encounters ëMoments of Truthí and carries home the experience as the evidence of quality of the service firm.

 Consistency: Only a highly trained cadre of internal customers would be able to consistently deliver the service at all levels and at all times. The consistency is not only in the individual providerís performance; say Monday through Saturday, but also amongst all other providers of the service firm.

Everyone seems to possess the same high skills in uniformity that makes it hard for the customer to detect any change in the service delivery. This goes a long way in putting the customer in comfort zones, preventing him from having any feeling of fear, anxiety or dissonance.

10.1.1 Boundary Spanning Roles

The service providers are unique (when compared with those in the goods industry) in the sense that they are continuously interacting with their internal as well as external environment. They receive information from the external non-members of the service organisation and transfer them inside for it to react and respond positively. They also interact with the outside world as representatives of the service firm, almost as its spokespersons. They are the service firm. In this way, service providers adopt roles that span a wide boundary, helping link their service firm with the environment.

Is there only one type of provider who has boundary-spanning roles? No, because in the service industry, internal customers range from being professionals to non-professionals. The implication is that in a service firm, non-professionals have the roles of information transmitters as well as that of representing the service organisation. Similarly, even the professional internal customers also don the same two mantles: that of information transmitter and a representative of the firm. The difference lies in the reaction of the customers to the two: they acknowledge the expertise of the former because of their educational qualifications (surgeons, lawyers, accountants, bankers etc.) while for the latter (waiters, receptionists, bell-hop, drivers), the customer hardly takes them into consideration for their purchases or consumptions.

Caution The internal customers suffer through various types of conflicts due mainly to their boundary-spanning roles and the difference in the (inequity of) roles, responsibility and respect between two different types of providers.

10.1.2 Different Roles Played by Internal Customers

As mentioned in the previous section, by virtue of over dependence on people, internal customers play a variety of roles that stretch beyond the expected boundaries. V C Judd has developed a 2x2 matrix that leads to four categories of roles played by employees of a service firm. The matrix is based on the frequency of customer contact that employees have with customers and

the involvement of the staff with conventional marketing activities. Analysis of the four groups and the consequent roles will reveal also the importance of the people factor to the following:

 The efficiency and effectiveness of the service firm

 Customer responsiveness

 Image and positioning of the firm, especially where lacking any relevant tangibility to

service. They form the major part of differentiation of the service firm.

 Opportunity to create additional value, as Singapore Airlines have successfully adopted.

The four groups or roles are illustrated below:

Notes

Contactors: They possess above-average customer intuition, having very frequent contact with customers. They are very involved with all front line marketing activities like sales, promotions, handling customer enquiries and also complaints. They are often involved in the strategy aspects of marketing but are definitely deeply involved in the executions of these strategies.

Caution They make the maximum impression on the customers and are wholly

responsible for Moments of Truth.

They are the ones who are to be trained to deal with customers, and situations - and require being highly motivated on a continuous basis. Selection of these personnel should be based on the parameter of their customer intuition, attitudinal characteristics and responsiveness. Modifiers: These role players have regular encounters with customers and also go on to build the Moments of Truth of a service firm. Nevertheless, they occupy lowly points of interaction with the marketing activities. They constitute receptionists, switchboard and call centre personnel, and direct sales agents of banks, Para banks and insurance companies.

Figure 10.1: Roles of Employees and their influence on Customers

Frequency or periodic customer