Service Sector of Bangladesh: Where are we in terms of

International Service Standard?

Tawhid Reaz
Head of Tele Sales & Business Service Management,
Grameenphone Ltd. (MBA, 38th Batch)

Can you recall the situation when the last time you had received fantastic service with extra
ordinary smile and quality service delivery in Bangladesh? While answering this, many of us can
recall few such cases. But did that organization could maintain the same level of service standard
for last few years? Here most of us will agree that, after inauguration, the first few months/years
service standard was awesome but in periods of time either it had been deteriorated or at least we
have observed variation in terms of service quality, delivery time etc.
Let us make the question even more difficult, Can you recall how many times you felt delighted or
highly satisfied after taking any service in Bangladesh? I mean you will score 10 on 10. (Though to
get delighted may need a score 11 out of 10). I think while scoring this question you paths are
getting narrowed down and probably now you can count on your fingers. But actually you are
taking services hundreds of times in a day.
One of my supervisors is a blind fan/promoter of iPhone. He uses all the Apple gadgets available in
the market. Most of the cases he purchases iPhones/Gadgets from abroad. If I ask him the question
(The Question we asked for NPS Survey) How do you rate iPhone based on the services or features
used? He will rate 10 on 10 without thinking twice. But is it so point blank for any service provider
of Bangladesh? I dont think so.
Coming back to Sector wise GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Bangladesh, service sector easily
crowns the contribution (it is 56%).
Sector wise GDP/GVA of Bangladesh in 2015-16
GDP/GVA in Ml.
Sector Wise Percentage
BDT
Agriculture 2,433,902
14.77%
Industry
4,738,710
28.77%
Service
9,300,504
56.46%

Total

16,473,116

100.00%

Sector wise GDP/GVA of

Bangladesh in 2015-16
15%
Agriculture
56%

29%

Industry
Service

Service Industry: Sector Wise GDP/GVA of BD

(2015-16). In Ml. BDT
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL TRADE; REPAIR OF
MOTOR VEHICLES, HOUSEHOLD GOODS
HOTEL AND RESTAURANTS
TRANSPORT, STORAGE & COMMUNICATION
FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATIONS
REAL ESTATE, RENTING AND BUSINESS
ACTIVITIES
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEFENCE
EDUCATION
HEALTH AND SOCIAL WORKS
COMMUNITY, SOCIAL AND PERSONAL SERVICES

1,186,654
63,657
959,718
287,873

26.34%
1.41%
21.30%
6.39%

562,968
307,962
202,480
156,124
778,376

12.49%
6.83%
4.49%
3.46%
17.27%

The above figures shows service sector is the revenue mine of the country. But where are we while
ranking us in terms of quality of the service? Now if we compare the quality of service, customer
satisfaction index of any Bangladeshi organization (Completely Bangladeshi owned company) with
any international index, you will not find any such name within the top 100 ranking worldwide, in
most of the cases we dont even placed within 100 among Asian organizations. There are many such
internationally renowned rankings available in internet, if you click on those, Bangladeshi
organizations does not stood anywhere in the ranking ladders, no matter it is Airlines Industry,
Hotel/Tourism Industry or any other service industry.

Internationally recognized tools of Service Quality or Customer Loyalty:

Two Examples:
There are many management tools available in the world developed by highly recognized research
agencies. Here only two of those will be discussed. 1. Servequal and 2. NPS. Very few Servqual
reports available for Bangladeshi Service Organizations and only few organizations (Exp:
Grameenphone Ltd., Standard Chartered Bank) does NPS Scoring.

Servqual:
SERVQUAL, later called RATER, is a quality management framework. SERVQUAL was first published
in 1985, 1988 by Valarie A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman & Leonard L. Berry to measure quality in the
service sector. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERVQUAL

The SERVQUAL service quality model was developed by a group of American authors, 'Parasu'
Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zeithaml and Len Berry, in 1988. It highlights the main components of high
quality service. The SERVQUAL authors originally identified ten elements of service quality, but in
later work, these were collapsed into five factors - reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and
responsiveness - that create the acronym RATER.
Businesses using SERVQUAL to measure and manage service quality deploy a questionnaire that
measures both the customer expectations of service quality in terms of these five dimensions, and
their perceptions of the service they receive. When customer expectations are greater than their
perceptions of received delivery, service quality is deemed low.
In addition to being a measurement model, SERVQUAL is also a management model. The
SERVQUAL authors identified five Gaps that may cause customers to experience poor service
quality. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERVQUAL

Gap 1: between management Perception of Customer expectations and customer Expected Service
Gap 2: between management Perception of Customer expectations and Service Quality Specification
Gap 3: between service quality specification and service delivery
Gap 4: between service delivery and external communication
Gap 5: between expected service and experienced service

Initially 10 Determinants were there but By the early 1990s, the authors had refined the model to
five factors that enable the acronym RATER:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

Reliability:
Assurance:
Tangibles:
Empathy:
Responsiveness:

The simplified RATER model allows customer service experiences to be explored and assessed
quantitatively and has been used widely by service delivery organizations.

NPS: Net Promoter Score is a customer loyalty metric developed by (and a registered

trademark of) Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company, and Satmetrix Systems. It was introduced by
Reichheld in his 2003 Harvard Business Review article "One Number You Need to Grow".
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter

Source: https://www.netpromoter.com/know/

NPS Calculation Method: Customers being asked a question on a scale of 0-10 Based on the
service received, how likely is it that you will recommend that brand?,
Where 0-6 is the Detractor, 7-8 Passive and 9-10 are promoters. Promoters are loyal enthusiasts
who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth. Passives are satisfied but unenthusiastic
customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings. Detractors are unhappy customers who can
damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

Now NPS = Percentage of Promoters Percentage of Detractors. If 10 respondents scores,

among which 6 scored 9 to 10, 2 scored between 7 to 8 and rest two scored within 0 to 6. Having
there are 60% Promoters and 20% Detractors, NPS Score will be =60-20=+40. It is said that, NPS
Score over +30 is good, over +50 is great and over +70 is excellent. Latest Result of NPS of Apple is
+89.
But what you will do if your NPS score is + 50? The power of NPS measurement system may lie on
its simplicity of calculation or representation, but it needs to be part of a broader ecosystem
whereby the entire organization lives and breathes by it.
First off, without senior leadership sponsorship and a strong commitment to improving the
customer experience, it will be difficult for any one part of the company, be it marketing, sales,
operations, customer service or a customer experience team to get the necessary cross-functional
adoption and accountability for the program. It needs to be a company-wide effort.
Secondly, the NPS eco-system needs to have a closed loop. Front employees need to be able to act
upon real-time feedback and from insights from customers and the rest of the organization.
Whether it is operations, sales, or marketing, all should be able to learn and improve from the
utilization of the information obtained.
Third, the data needs to be properly analyzed. The power of the Net Promoter Score lies in its
simplicity but unless a business dissects the data and figures out the root causes of its detractors
experiences or the factors of the success that turned simple customers into promoters, it will miss
out on a recipe for future growth, profitability and sustainability.

Root Cause:
But what is the root cause behind this, huge investments made in many sectors of Bangladesh,
Billions of Dollars spent in Services Sectors, but why we could not make our customers delighted?
Already Crores have been invested in Hotel Sectors; star ranked hotels are readily available here
and there in the country. But are the customers happy?
For this Write up, no, I did not use any internationally recognized root-cause analysis tools, exp:
Pareto Chart, 5 Whys, and Fish Bone Analysis etc. I just collected information from secondary
sources and used my own judgment. Since I have been working as Head of Business Service
Management of a Multinational organization here in this country for last two and half years and
working in service industry for more than a decade probably few judgmental statements can be
accepted. Many Root Causes can be written, but here I am portraying only very few quick fixable
basic root causes and improvement areas.

A. The Basic Root Cause is we do not smile

Serving with Smile: There is a Saying Great Customer Service Begins with a Smile. But
do we smile while giving our customer any service. But most of the times we do not smile.
www.srune.com rightly portrayed on their topic 40 facts about Bangladesh that, The
People of Bangladesh Seldom Smile. This is not because they are unfriendly but because
smiling much is considered a sign of immaturity.

I have been to a five star hotel of Coxs Bazar recently. I found they have invested BDT500Crore to
establish this big set up. All the modern amenities have been used. Highly qualified people have been
hired. But I could not rate them more than 3 in my trip advisor rating. The reason behind is the people
there do not serve with smile. Smile does not need money. But it tells the story inside. If the internal
people are not happy, how can they make their customers happy.

B. We do not want to listen and hence we do not find out the root
cause while providing solutions:
In her blog writer Caron Beesley suggested the 3 simple ways to Improve Customer Satisfaction
todayAccording to her, Here are three simple things you can do to embed customer service into your
business philosophy and day-to-day operations:
1. Listen and Learn
Listening is key to effective customer service and it can also help boost your profitability. Here are
two ways to prove to your customers that you are listeningand tips on how to make it count:

Everyday Customer Interaction

Facilitating Feedback

2. Look For Ways to Treat Customers As You Would Like To Be Treated

How are customers being greeted?

Demonstrate that your customers are valued
Ask how to help your customers
Dont challenge disgruntled customers
Help customers

3. Carry Customer Service Across All Your Customer Touch Points

Remember to carry through on your customer service goals wherever your business has a
presence. This means both online and offline.
So Listening to your customer is the most important parts, but what about the service industries of
Bangladesh. Do we listen?

Lack of Listening Habit: In his book When Cultures Collide: Leading across Cultures,
Writer Richard D. Lewis depicted about the listening habits of Bangladeshi people:

Bangladeshis Listen Carefully, as they have a thirst for knowledge. Their natural courtesy
prevents them from interrupting frequently; though they may do so if they fail to understand
what the speaker is driving at. As they listen, they are seeking areas of common interest and
opportunities to create empathy. Sometimes they are reluctant to admit something is above
their head, out of respect for a foreigner or senior figure.
Here basically writer indicated his experience from foreigners point of view, i.e. when foreigner
tends to speak, how Bangladeshi people shows interest and hence listens. But when locally we talk
to each other we do not try to listen as much we are interested to speak. This lack of listening, more
talking tendency instigate customer managers of the country to quickly go to the solutions part
rather than finding out the root cause of the problem. Therefore, we do provide quick solutions in
some of the cases, but since we could not find out the root cause of the problem, the treatment
provided is not effective and sustainable.

C. We are interested in short term business, we do not think about

long term relationship and loyalty management.
In Bangladesh we are very good in short term targets vs. achievements. Hence we do pretty good in
sales and distributions. We are also doing well in terms of short term revenue gain. But in the long
run are doing good in terms of international standard service quality. Customer loyalty means
nothing for us. We are just interested in quick business.
We should be selling litchi candies in the bus only, which may not require happy customer
retention and loyalty. But for world class service we have to be effective in customer retention,
doing proper customer life cycle management. Since Retaining customers involves less investment
than new customer onboarding.

References:
Richard D. Lewis, 2006, When Culture Collide: Leading Across Cultures, Third Edition. Pp. 447-448.
Nazia Nabi, July 2012, Customer Expectations of Service Quality: A Study on Private Banks of
Bangladesh, World Review of Business Research Vol. 2. No.04 Pp. 172 186,
Ayesha Tabassum and Parisa Islam Khan, July 2013, Journal of Business and Policy Research
Beautification for Female in Bangladesh: Exploring the Service Gap through SERVQUAL Model, Vol. 8. No. 2. Pp.
32 51
http://cpd.org.bd/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CPD-IRBD-FY15-State-of-Bangladesh-Economy-June2015.pdf
http://www.campaignasia.com/Top1000Brands
http://www.srune.com/lists/40-facts-about-bangladesh/74

https://www.sba.gov/blogs/3-simple-ways-improve-customer-satisfaction-today
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Promoter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERVQUAL
http://www.medallia.com/net-promoter-score/