SERVICE MARKETING CHAPTER 6: EMPLOYEE ROLE IN SERVICE DELIVERY

Importance of service employees

 Employees are service. For example, in haircutting service is given by hair dresser, personal training
is given by personal trainer etc.
 They are the organization in the customer’s eye. Behaviors of all the employee of the organization
influence the perception of the customer.
 They are brand. Attitude, behaviors etc of the employee will shape the identity of the organization in
the market. Usually customer visits the service station to meet the particular service provider.
Organization runs because of specific service providers name attached to the organization
 They are marketers. Since employees compulsorily meet the customers in delivering services.
 They are base of service triangle. In all three sides of the triangle employees prevail.
 Employee’s satisfaction brings customer satisfaction which brings more business & profits.
 Service quality dimensions are driven by employee behaviors.

Boundary-spanning role of employees

Front line service employees (boundary spanners) provide a link between the external customer &
environment, & the internal operations of the organization. They serve a critical function in understanding,
filtering, & interpreting information & resources to & from the organization & its external constituencies.
Boundary spanners can be receptionist, delivery people, layers, doctors etc. some of them are as follows-:
1. Emotional labor: is delivering smiles, making eye contact, showing sincere interest &
engaging in friendly conversation with strangers. It is a labor because employees must show
such emotion all the time tirelessly even when they are not in a mood.
2. Handling conflicts : sources of conflicts are-:
 Person/role conflicts-: person may have different personality, ideology, values
than the company but still, person must adjust into company’s ideologies & values.
Young law graduate may need to cut his hair & change his jeans into three piece suit
against his wish, when joining the law firm.
 Organization/client conflict-: there might be the situations when company
policies & rules do not match the customer requirements.
 Inter client conflicts-: especially when service is provided turn by turn or when
service is provided in the group this conflict is higher. When doctor is giving more
time to a patient in the form of customized service other patients in the line may
complain of slow service.
3. Quality/productivity trade-offs: boundary spanners are asked to deliver satisfying service
as well as be cost effective & productive at the same time in what they do. Doctor may need
to check the patience thoroughly and at the same time must check the certain number of
patients per day in the hospital.

Conducting internal customer audit

In creating the right people for the service company, one of the function of the company is to provide needed
support systems to the employees. In doing so measuring internal service quality is essential. Internal service
quality is quality of service employee render to another employee in the service company.
Steps in conducting internal customer audits
1. Define your customer-: list all the people or departments in the organization who need help from
you or our department in any way. Prioritize the manes on the list, placing the people of departments
that rely on you the most at the top.
2. Identify your contribution-: for each of these internal customers specifies the primary need you
think they have, to which you can contribute. Take to your internal customers about what problems
they are trying to solve & think about how you can help.
3. Define service quality-: for each internal customer design a report card & a set of evaluation criteria
for your department’s service package, as seen through the eyes of those internal customers. The
criteria might include such dimensions as timeliness, reliability & costs.
4. Validate your criteria-: talk to your internal customers. Allow them to revise, as necessary, how you
saw their needs & the criteria they used in assessing you performances. This dialogue itself can go a
long way toward building internal service teamwork.
5. Measure service quality-: evaluate your service against the quality criteria you established in
talking to your internal customers. See how you score. Identify opportunities for improvements.

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 SERVICE MARKETING CHAPTER 6: EMPLOYEE ROLE IN SERVICE DELIVERY

6. Develop a mission statement based on what you contribute-: consider drafting the brief,
meaningful service mission statement for your operation. Be certain to frame it in term of value you
contribute, not what you do.

Developing service culture in the organization

Corporate culture has been defined as the pattern of shared values & beliefs in the organization that of an
organization & give the members of an organization about meaning to various elements of an organization &
provide them with the rules for behavior in the organization. Organization culture includes-:
 Shared perceptions or themes regarding what is important in the organization
 Shared values about what is right & wrong
 Shared understanding about what works & what doesn’t work
 Shared belief, & assumptions about why these things are important
 Shared style of working & relating to others
Service culture is where an appreciation for good service exists & where giving good service to internal as
well as ultimate external customers is considered a natural way of life & one of the most important norms by
everyone. Strong service culture begins with leaders in the organization who demonstrate passion for service
excellence.
Service culture cannot be developed over night. It takes hundreds of small factors too with big ones to build &
sustain the service culture over long time. Even for companies such as FedEx, Charles Schwab, Disney that
started with strong service & customer focus, sustaining their established service cultures still takes constant
attention to hundreds of details.
Service culture is the heart of customer-oriented, service-oriented organization strategies. Minimizing gap 3(
gap between established service quality standard & delivered service quality) supports the development of
service culture over time.

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