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Chapter 8
Service Process Selection and
Design
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Some Service Generalizations
1. Everyone is an expert on services.
2. Services are idiosyncratic.
3. Quality of work is not quality of service.
4. Most services contain a mix of tangible
and intangible attributes (service
package).
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Service Generalizations
5. High-contact services are experienced,
whereas goods are consumed.
6. Effective management of services
requires an understanding of marketing
and personnel, as well as operations.
7. Services often take the form of cycles of
encounters involving face-to-face,
phone, and/or mail interactions.
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Service Businesses
A service business is the management of
organizations whose primary business
requires interaction with the customer to
produce the service
• Facilities-based services: Where the customer
must go to the service facility
• Field-based services: Where the production
and consumption of the service takes place in
the customer’s environment
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The Customer Centered View
A philosophical view that
suggests the organization
exists to serve the
customer, and the
systems and the
employees exist to
facilitate the process of
service.
The
Systems
The Service
Strategy
The
Customer
The
People
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Service-System Design Matrix
Degree of customer/server contact
High
Buffered
core (none)
Permeable
system (some)
Reactive
system (much)
Exhibit 7.6
Low
Face-to-face
total
customization
Face-to-face
loose specs
Sales
Opportunity
Face-to-face
tight specs
Production
Efficiency
Phone
Internet & Contact
on-site
technology
Mail contact
Low
High
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Characteristics of Workers, Operations, and Innovations Relative
to the Degree of Customer/Service Contact
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Service Blueprinting Steps
1. Identify processes
2. Isolate fail points
3. Establish a time frame
4. Analyze profitability
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Example of Service Blueprinting
Standard
execution time
2 minutes
Brush
shoes
30
secs
Total acceptable
execution time
5 minutes
Seen by
customer
Line of
visibility
Not seen by
customer but
necessary to
performance
Clean
shoes
45
secs
Apply
polish
30
secs
Fail
point
Buff
Collect
payment
45
secs
15
secs
Wrong
color wax
Materials
(e.g., polish, cloth)
Select and
purchase
supplies
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Service Fail-safing
Poka-Yokes (A Proactive Approach)
• Keeping a
mistake from
becoming a
service defect
Task
Treatment
Tangibles
• How can we
fail-safe the
three Ts?
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Have we compromised one of the
3 Ts?
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Service Recovery (Just in case)
• A real-time response to a service failure.
• Blueprinting can guide recovery planning
(fail points).
• Recovery planning involves training
front-line workers to respond to such
situations as overbooking, lost luggage,
or a bad meal.
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What is a Good Service Guarantee?
• Unconditional
• Meaningful
– The payout covers--fully--customer
dissatisfaction
• Easy to understand and communicate
– For customers
– For employees
• Painless to invoke
– Given proactively
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Characteristics of a Well-Designed Service System
1. Each element of the service
system is consistent with the
operating focus of the firm
2. It is user-friendly
3. It is robust
4. It is structured so that
consistent performance by its
people and systems is easily
maintained
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Characteristics of a Well-Designed Service System (Continued)
5. It provides effective links between the
back office and the front office so that
nothing falls between the cracks
6. It manages the evidence of service
quality in such a way that customers
see the value of the service provided
7. It is cost-effective
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