Improve Customer Satisfaction through Process Development

Organizations seek to raise their customer service preferences but may ignore more fundamental adjustments in the manufacturing processes which raises and creates higher levels of product development. It is often these systematic changes which can transform quality products into superb products that improve upon quality, design, functionality, utility and eventually long-term customer satisfaction.  

Customers have needs and demands that make their way into their perceptions of the business and the product. A positive perception of quality is important for meeting these customer expectations Stojkovic & Djordjevic (2010). Where Americans may have difficulty competing on price due to international competition, they can still enhance quality and service to retain value.It is difficult to compete on price as a sole factor when labor costs and currency make product manufacturing much cheaper in China and Asia. Even with such difficult to match price points Americans can still provide a higher-level product with updating features and strong service performance. Yet before this can occur operations should be aligned along key competitive strategies.

To use service enhancements for additive value it is important to understand what types of service customers are seeking. These include time, timelines, completeness, courtesy, consistency, accessibility, and convenience, accuracy and responsiveness (Nazzal, 2006). Such surface enhancements do not necessarily address the satisfaction that is inherent within the product itself.

Once an organization has defined their customer’s needs they should begin to align their operations to meet those standards at a more fundamental level. This alignment creates systematic adjustments to ensure higher caliber of products. According to Radovic, et. al. (2009) there is nine steps to improving processes to create greater customer service:

1.)    Develop mission and vision statements.
2.)    Indentifying service inputs for process identification.
3.)    Define the company’s goals and objectives.
4.)    Determine service quality determinants.
5.)    Identify processes currently being used.
6.)    Understand the critical processes and select those that fulfill goals.
7.)    Define the process performance indicators.
8.)    Review and re-engineer processes.
9.)    Manage processes for continuous improvement.

Alignment of operations to customer preferences is often a detailed and painstaking process of continuous improvement. Through the development of strong operational adjustments the end products specifications are more closely aligned to customer needs. Often we view service as only customer service but this does not take into consider the service adjustments that can be applied systematically and create compounded benefits in product design, quality, and output. Understand what your customers want and align your operations accordingly.   

Nazzal M. (2006). The Palestinian Health Care System ata critical and crucial point (The Two-Edged Sword. How does it foster life and death simultaneously. Retrieved May 22^nd, 2013 from http://www.ahewar.org/eng/show.art.asp?aid=104 

Radovic, M., Tomasevic, I., Stojanovic, D., Simeunovic,B.. (2009). An excellence role model:Designing a new business system one process at a time. Industrial engineer. 41, (8) 

StojkovicD., Djordjevic D. (2010) Important aspects of customer relationship management conceptin banking quality. Journal TTEM-technics, technologies, education, management. 5 (4).. 

Staffing, Waiting, and Analyzing as Three Aspects of Customer Service

Proper staffing, customer comfort, and operational effectiveness is important for creating strong service delivery. With proper staffing organizations can covered needed service and production aspects of running the business. All operations should have in mind the customer needs as they are going to be purchasing the products and services. This requires the ability to move customers efficiently and quickly throughout the organization without reducing the potential for future purchases. Likewise, the method of effectively improving slow spots in service and operations can be found using a critical path map or analysis.

Projection and Staffing:

Management has the responsibility to ensure that workers are covering the required volume of production in order to meet demand. The scheduling of the workers is an important function of management and can lead to all types of efficiencies or inefficiencies in labor costs. To do this well managers often project or forecast demand. It is possible to create efficiencies in scheduling using a formula:

The sum of half hour increments times (number of operators required minus the number of operators assigned in a period). It is beneficial to see the staff scheduling formula below.

The purpose of such a formula is to reduce the amount of waste in schedules as often seen in organizations that suffer from higher labor costs. The more efficient a manager can project need and schedule accordingly the less cost to the product or service and more profit that can be made. However, one doesn’t need to get this complex to have strong staffing. Staffing is primarily concerned with effective coverage despite the methodology.

The key is to balance the need for full-time and part-time employees in order to ensure that all of the needs of the organization are being met. Part-time workers come with advantages in terms of cost but are also limited in their knowledge and commitment to the organization. Therefore, full-time workers often make up a larger percentage of the employees due to their institutional and career knowledge. 

Waiting Lines:

Waiting lines create problems for companies. As people wait they become annoyed by the inactivity. This inactivity not only reduces the perceived quality of the service but it stops customers from shopping, buying products, or browsing which leads to higher sales. It also holds up organizations that could better put their time toward serving other customers. A number of methods can be used to deal with the frustration of waiting in line (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2010):

Animate: Keep waiting fun.

Discriminate: Offer preferred services

Automate:  Simple problems and questions can be automated.

Obfuscate: Reduce the perception of wait time. 

Critical Path Method:

The critical path method offers an opportunity to determine the start and finish times for certain projects. It also may be used to determine the activities and paths of services and customer actions. The basics of the path method are (Armstrong-Wright, 1969):

1.)    A list of all activities required to complete a project. 

2.)    The time that each task takes to complete 

3.)    The relationships between the activities. 

When outlined it is possible to use such methods to determine the amount of time, resources, and staffing needed for activities. It provides for a mental schematic for people who want to see how customers are moving and areas where there may be regular service delays. For example, if an analysis has shown that consistent service delays are occurring at a particular node it may be necessary to adjust, divert, or offer additional support to the path. 

Armstrong-Wright, MICE, A. T. Critical Path Method: Introduction and Practice. Longman Group LTD, London, 1969

Fitzsimmons, J. & Fitzsimmons, M. (2011). Service Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology (Seventh Edition). NY: McGraw-Hill. 

Don’t Escape the Details of the Servicescape

Your stomach is growling with hunger pains and you need a great place to eat. You don’t want just any place but need that perfect place that expresses your mood. Feeling a little upscale with that great bonus you just received from work you scan your memory for a restaurant that will not only satisfy your appetite but also perpetuate that positive feeling into the evening.  You know big things are going to happen since you have now been recognized for your great work. Thinking of possible alternatives you finally settle on a fancy French establishment with valet, fireplaces, patio dining, fountains and violin music in the background. It costs more but heck it still feels great to spend your reward for superior effort!

What you have just thought about is called servicescape. The servicescape is the physical environment that customers exist in that influences both customer behavior as well as overall impression of the business. Successful retail management includes the understanding of physical layout and how this impacts the overall customer experience and impressions of the total experience.

Such experience is often seen in the way establishments are designed, how atmosphere feels, and the overall impression that customers leave with. Knowing and managing the servicescape can help create positive feelings and memories that help to cater to customer’s self impression. Servicescapes often include the following concepts (Fitzsimmons & Fitzsimmons, 2011). 

• 1.)    Ambient conditions: The back ground of the environment such as lighting, temperature, noise music, etc… This is the general use of our five senses to create a culture and environment that encourages positive feelings and memories of an organization. Nothing sells a home like the sweet smell of Apple Pie.
• 2.)    Spatial Layout and Functionality: The successful layout of an environment often determines how well customers can manage to find their way within the environment in order to encourage quick paced purchasing behavior. When the layout of the establishment is not strong a resulting safety and service problem results.
• 3.)    Signs, Symbols and Artifacts: The signs, symbols and artifacts create a perception of the business as it relates to its value and purpose. Those signs, symbols and artifacts can also create impressions of an organization. For example, a high end restaurant is likely to have fireplaces, pictures of elaborate dinners, and certain types of silverware to ensure that all of these factors are in alignment with the sales product. 

One of the beneficial ways to encourage stronger servicescapes that lead to stronger sales and customer satisfaction is through the use of surveys. Surveying customers helps organizations understand the overall perception of the environment, layout, and symbolism of the organization. For example, A total of 109 participants from six hotels in Delhi india found a positive relationship between ambience, spatial relationship, and symbolism on customer support (Medabesh & Upadhyaya, 2012). This study helps highlight the overall nature of the need servicscapes in enhancing products and services. 

With servicescapes the devil is often in the details. The right forks, flowers, table cloth, temperature, food design, food offerings, decorations, etc… all work together. Understanding how these multiple aspects of the business fit together to create a totality of impression can do wonders with enhancing the sensory experience of customers. The next time you go to eat remember that it isn’t only the food that counts.

Fitzsimmons, J. & Fitzsimmons, M. (2011). Service Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology (Seventh Edition). NY: McGraw-Hill. 

Medabesh, A. & Upadhyaya, M. (2012). Servicescape and customer substantiation of star hotels in India’s metropolitan city of Delhi. Journal of Marketing & Communication, 8 (2).