Blueprint For Service Marketing 231y5k

Deg and Managing Service Processes

Developing a Blueprint – Some Basic Advice

 Identify key activities in creating and delivering the service

 Distinguish between front stage (what

customers experience) and back stage

 Chart activities in sequence  Show how interactions between customers

and employees are ed by backstage activities and systems

 Establish service standards for each step  Identify potential fail points  Focus initially on “big picture” (later, can drill down for more detail in specific areas)

Service Blueprinting: Key Components 1. Define standards for front stage activities 2. Specify physical evidence 3. Identify principal customer actions 4. ------------line of interaction (customers and front stage personnel)-------5. Front stage actions by customer- personnel 6. ------------line of visibility (between front stage and backstage)-------------7. Backstage actions by customer personnel 8. processes involving other service personnel 9. processes involving IT Where appropriate, show fail points and risk of excessive waits

Simplified Example: Blueprinting a Hotel Visit (extract only)

Hotel exterior, lobby, employees, key

Stage

Physical Evidence

Front

Line of Interaction

Make Customer reservation Actions Employee Actions Face-to-face Phone

Backstage

Line of Visibility

Arrive, park Doorman greets, valet takes car

Check-in at reception

Elevator, corridor, room, bellhop Go to room

Receptionist verifies, gives key to room

Rep. records, confirms Make up Room

Valet Parks Car Enter data

guest data

Improving Reliability of Processes by Failure Proofing

 Analysis of reasons for failure often reveals opportunities for failure proofing to reduce/eliminate risk of errors

 Errors include:  treatment errors—human failures during with customers  tangible errors—failures in physical elements of service

 Fail-safe procedures include measures to prevent oversight of tasks or performance of tasks  in wrong order  too slowly  not needed or specified

 Need fail-safe methods for both employees and customers

Process Redesign: Principal Approaches

 Eliminating non-value-adding steps  Shifting to self-service  Bundling services  Redeg physical aspects of service processes

Customers as Co-Producers: Levels of Participation in Service Production

 Low – Employees and systems do all the work  Medium – Customer inputs required to assist provider  Provide needed information, instructions  Make personal effort  May share physical possessions

 High – Customer works actively with provider to co-produce the service

Self Service Technologies (SSTs)

 Self-service is ultimate form of customer involvement in service production

 Customers undertake specific activities using facilities or systems

provided by service supplier

 Customer’s time and effort replace those of employees

 Concept is not new—self-serve supermarkets date from 1930s, ATMs and self-serve gas pumps from 1970s

 Today, customers face wide selection of SSTs to deliver

information-based services, both core and supplementary

 Many companies seek to divert customers from employee to Internet-based self-service

Service Firms as Teachers: Well-trained Customers Perform Better

 Firms must teach customers roles as co-producers of service

 Customers need to know how to achieve best results

 Education can be provided through:       

Brochures Advertising Posted instructions Machine-based instructions Websites, including FAQs Service providers Fellow customers

 Employees must be well-trained to help advise, assist customers

Managing Customers as Partial Employees to Increase Productivity and Quality 1. Analyze customers’ present roles in the business and compare to management’s ideal 2. Determine if customers know how to perform and have necessary skills 3. Motivate customers by ensuring that he/she will be rewarded for performing well 4. Regularly appraise customers’ performance; if unsatisfactory, consider changing roles or termination

The Problem of Customer Misbehavior – Identifying and Managing “Jaycustomers” What is a jaycustomer? A customer who behaves in a thoughtless or abusive fashion, causing problems for the firm itself, employees, other customers

Why do jaycustomers matter?

  

Can disrupt processes Affect service quality May spoil experience of other customers

What should a firm do about them?

    

Try to avoid attracting potential & jaycustomers Institute preventive measures Control abusive behavior quickly Take legal action against abs BUT firm must act in ways that don’t disaffect other customers

Six Types of “Jaycustomer”

 Thief – seeks to avoid paying for service  Rule breaker – ignores rules of social behavior and/or procedures for safe, efficient use of service

 Belligerent – angrily abuses service personnel (and sometimes other customers) physically and/or emotionally

 Family Feuders – fight with other customers in their party  Vandal – deliberately damages physical facilities, furnishings, and equipment

 Deadbeat – fails to pay bills on time