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...
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...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.
High levels of customer satisfaction will not guarantee future sales, but are more likely to result in repeat future sales than indifferent or poor customer service. Moreover, satisfied customers are more likely to try out other products/services in the firm’s range, or recommend it to friends and family. Build on customer loyalty Customer loyalty is valued highly by most businesses and can be
According to Business Studies ‘’Customer service is one of the most important ingredients of the marketing mix for products and services. High quality customer service helps to create customer loyalty. Customers today are not only interested in the product they are being offered but all the additional elements of service that they receive from the greeting they receive when they enter a retail outlet, to the refund and help that they receive when they have a complaint about a faulty product that they have paid for’’ (Business Studies, n.d).
The characteristics of a service are intangible, inseparable, perishable, heterogeneous and lack ownership. The marketing mix of a service is not perceptible and as the features of a service is distinctive to the features of a product, it has additional elements which are process, people and physical evidence.
First, when shopping, a big factor that will impact a customer 's experience is the customer service. Whether it’s from a simple “hello”, or an employee going out
Reliability is doing what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it. If someone is reliable, you are able to depend on him or her at work or school. Working with someone who is reliable is working with someone whom you trust versus working with someone who is not dependable.
Zeithaml, Valarie A, Berry, Leonard L, & Parasuraman, A. (1996). The behavioral consequences of service quality. Journal of Marketing, 60(2), 31. Retrieved April 1, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 9401886).
We recommend Vikram to use service quality framework (SERVQUAL) as a scale to measure and manage hotel guest’s perception of service quality in terms of five dimensions (session2 slide#45), which are (i) Reliability – OV employee’s ability to dependably and accurately perform the promised service to consistently delight its guests (ii) Assurance – Knowledge and courtesy of OV employees, and their ability to convey trust and confidence. (iii) Empathy – OV’s individualized attention and customized care it offers to its guests and understanding the customer to anticipate guest needs, wants and desires to enlighten the service. (iv)Tangibles – Refers to OV’s lavish tents and other physical facilities, equipment, pleasant appearance of OV personal, etc. (v) Responsiveness – OV’s willingness to help customers and provide prompt
Customer service is valued as a competitive tool by many organisations. It gives you the ability to gain customer loyalty while meeting the customer’s expectations. Staff will have many skills and knowledge that will provide a competitive edge. Most organisations are known for the quality of their customer service. This means that they are known for good customer service or poor customer service. However, being known for good customer service will attract customers. It will also attract customers who are usually hard to reach.
Close to the Customer: Customer satisfaction is very important throughout all the roles that the business plays. Many companies forget about their customers, whereas successful companies have an obsession with their customers. Excellent product quality and reliability will make a satisfied customer. Great service will keep the customer coming back.
...ough quality or enough service, satisfaction will result. However, we have evidence to support that quality and service alone can not produce recurrent satisfaction. Satisfaction is a distinct and separate issue.
Customer service is constantly evolving. A few decades ago, businesses considered customer service an unnecessary expense. Now, companies view it as a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Research reveals that “80% of CEOs believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8% of their customers agree”.
Intangibility distinguishes between services and goods. Unlike goods, services have no physical attributes that can be used by the consumers to make judgment. Therefore, the customers cannot imagine what would they get from a particular service. The customers might think of the possible risks that they would encounter if they buy the service. Hence, the service provider must consider enhancing their marketing strategy to convince the customers about their services and reduced the perceived risks.
Service Quality: This dimension is the last and final factor of the value it appears when the customer has made up his mind to purchase a product or service. Service quality decides the relationship between the customer and the store.
Customer Service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. The perception of success of such connections is subject to workers "who can modify themselves to the identity of the visitor". Customer service concerns the need an association relegates to customer service in respect to segments, for example, item development and valuing. In this sense, an association that esteems good customer service may spend more cash in preparing representatives than the normal association or may proactively interview customers for feedback.
When organization always provide high-quality products and good services, customer will create their satisfaction and increased customer loyalty.