Please select a service of your choice and answer the following questions: (10 m

Question

Please select a service of your choice and answer the following questions: (10 m)
1. What service have you selected?
2. Describe your role as a customer in the service delivery process.
3. How did you learn your “role”?
4. How important is the customer to the service delivery process?
5. How would you describe your level of participation (low/medium/high)? Explain.
6. What influence do other customers have on your service experience?
7. When might other customers enhance your experience?
8. When might other customers diminish your experience?
9. Could you be considered a “partial employee” of this organization? Explain.
10. When might you, as the customer, be able to enhance your experience?
B. Explain the dimensions of SERVQUAL framework and relate the same to a service organization of your choice for measurement of service quality gaps. (5 m)
C. Illustrate how a service firm that you are familiar with has implemented successfully strategies for managing both demand and capacity. (5 m)

Explanation / Answer

(1)

Consider hair cutting/ dressing service in a barber's shop (salon).

(2)

As a customer, I must be present to the barber's shop in order for the delivery of the service. Additionally, the service is totally customized according to my needs and requirement. So, it is not possible to deliver the service without my active participation from beginning to end.

(3)

When I went to the barber's shop - several times a year, I noticed that when I participate more i.e. give instructions in a more vivid manner, the satisfaction happens to be more.In other words, I learn to participate more in the process so that the service delivery can satisfy my needs. This learning was a gradual process which I have started in my childhood whenever I encountered a situation of a haircut.

(4)

In all types of service, customer participation is essential to some extent because service delivery essentially is a set of actions which becomes successful with the continuous interaction between the customer and the service provider. If customers are not ready or underprepared for this participation, the service providers become ineffective or inefficient and the outcome of the service delivery gets affected. In the case of barber's shop as well, this participation is essential. If I do not let the barber understand my exact requirement of a haircut, eventually he/ she will not attain the desired satisfaction level demanded by me.

(5)

The level of participation will depend on the context. For example, if we are at the shop of a new barber, we need to participate maximum because we need to make sure that the person understands our requirement very well. However, when we visit a known shop several times, the person may be knowing the requirement exactly and the participation needs to be medium. But in any case, the participation can never be low because the customer must sit for the entire service delivery time.

(6)

In this case, the impact of other customers can be substantial because before the service delivery, we may sit in a queue and invariably at that time will observe the process applied to other customers. This makes us feel better or worse depending on the experience of the other customers. The barber's interaction with the other customers directly or indirectly influences our experience as a customer.

(7)

If the time taken to cut the hairs of other customers is less, we perceive the barber as efficient and our experience enhances. Furthermore, if we find that all the customers are satisfied after the service delivery and there are no repeat attempts to correct some mishaps, our experience is enhanced. Moreover, if the status and broad demography of the visiting customers matches that of ours, it also enhances the experience.

(8)

On the other hand, if the status and demography of the other customers are in contrast with that of mine, I may have a diminished experience. Additionally, if the time taken to service a single customer is too much or there are arguments regarding the quality of service between the barbers and other customers, my experience will get diminished.

(9)

Note that without the resources that I provide to the barber, it is not possible for him/ her to deliver the service. The resources are the a) time provided (the entire time of mine when the service is getting delivered), b) my interactions & instruction, and c) my activities. Since these resources are essential for the service delivery and can only be provided by me - the customer, I am a "partial employee' of this organization (Lovelock and Young, 1979).

(10)

By participating more in the process of service delivery, by having more knowledge about the process, by scheduling the time of delivery in the appropriate time (e.g. in a time where the overall workload remains moderate), and finally by selecting the service provider appropriately, I, as a customer, can enhance your experience.

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