Using Service Quality to Gain Competitive Advantage

962 Words2 Pages

Using Service Quality to Gain Competitive Advantage

In today's competitive environment, organizations must earn the customer's trust by consistently meeting or exceeding expectations. The disparity between expectation and perception is the major determining factor in a customer's assessment of quality of service. Service quality and customer service is very important. One of the most important customer service skills you can develop is the ability to understand and effectively respond to the customer's needs and concerns. For a long time, a sale has been perceived to be mostly about trying to convince the customer that he needs the product. Excellent customer service starts by first taking the time to get to know the customer, their situation, vision, frustrations, and goals. Service quality is very important. Companies should use the strategy: Under promise and Over deliver.

Because business services are intangible and nonstandardized, buyers tend to have greater difficulty in evaluating services than in evaluating goods. Customers utilize a variety of prepurchase information sources to reduce risk. There are five dimensions of service quality that customers use to evaluate service quality: Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, and Tangibles.

Reliability is most important to customers. Reliability is performing promised service dependably and accurately. If you don't deliver on your promise you can lose customers and your credibility will be damaged. An example of reliability would be delivery dates being met. In tod...

... middle of paper ...

...e can be such a difference. It is very difficult to control, and therefore difficult to imitate. It is difficult to control because of its variability. The level of service may vary greatly between two providers in the same organization. It may also vary from one moment to another, even as delivered by the same provider. The difficulty is compounded in multi-unit operations: in addition to variability within units, there is also variability among units. That is both the challenge and the opportunity. The consistent delivery of superior service requires the careful design and execution of a whole system of activities that includes people, capital, technology, and processes. The few companies that can manage this system do stand out, and are sought out. This is the foundation of their sustainable competitive advantage.

Open Document