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At present the corporate spotlight is well and truly fixed on social responsibility, transparent accounting and board governance with the emphasis upon fair treatment for shareholders and employees alike.

And upon first glance it would appear that the customer has got lost somewhere along the way - that service quality is no longer a necessity and excellence a thing of the past. However this is far from the case. Just one look at the number of initiatives that are springing up from organization to organization and you will see that customer service is still an issue at the heart of modern management. Yet this is not to go down the route of CRM software and relationship management - service excellence is more about offering a quality experience to the customer as opposed to data manipulation or targeted marketing programs.

It may not be as topical as CSR or ethical accounting, but when it comes to naming the core ingredients for a successful business, service quality is high up on the list. And it is impossible to talk of service quality without mentioning SERVQUAL. This instrument has become so popular that in quality circles it is taken for granted and therefore is in danger of becoming one of those meaningless acronyms that is spoken by many yet understood by few. SERVQUAL was designed by a market research team and consists of five dimensions that were identified by customers (through a number of qualitative studies) to be the most important for quality. They are:

1. Tangibles
2. Reliability
3. Responsiveness
4. Assurance
5. Empathy

So that's the theory. But perhaps this quote by an employee at a UK restaurant of the chain TGI Friday sums up the real meaning of service quality:

"I like the relationship with customers. I like to feel that I have given them a good time whilst they are in the restaurant. Last week I had a party in from one of the theatres, I didn't rush them, I took time and had a good laugh with them. After the meal one customer asked me for a cigar. We don't sell cigars, so I went next door to the tobacconist and bought one for him. He was really grateful."

As they say in the US, go figure!

So how do you get from theory to practice? Our Briefing will help you brush up on the ins and outs of service quality:

• Learn about the Start service excellence plan in the Netherlands;
• See how service quality operates on a global level;
• Discover how service quality leads to customer loyalty;
• Gain an insight into measuring service quality through neural networks;
• Take a look at the consumer's reaction to delays in service;
• Learn how Singapore Airlines sustains its service excellence.

Articles:

Modelling and evaluating service quality measurement using neural networks
Effective measurement and analysis of service quality are an essential first step in its improvement. This paper discusses the development of neural network models for this purpose.

Originally published in the International Journal of Operations & Production Management Volume 22 Number 10, 2002

Service loyalty: The effects of service quality and the mediating role of customer satisfaction
Service loyalty, with its final effect on repurchasing by customers, appears to have received relatively little attention. This study starts by first delineating the concept of service loyalty and proceeds to distinguish between service quality and customer satisfaction.

Originally published in the International Journal of Operations & Production Management Volume 22 Number 10, 2002

The consumer's reaction to delays in service
The objective of this study is to examine the relationships that exist among the attributions, the affect and behavioural intentions of consumers who suffer delays in services. As a new element, we propose to consider two different affective dimensions: anger (emotional reaction) and satisfaction with the service (cognitive and emotional evaluation).

Originally published in the International Journal of Service Industry Management Volume 13 Number 2, 2002

The service quality construct on a global stage
The eagerness of global marketers to establish a competitive advantage based upon service quality excellence within emerging markets displays a degree of naïveté in respect to the influence of environmental factors upon consumption behaviour...

Originally published in Managing Service Quality Volume 12 Number 1, 2002

Building people and organisational excellence: the Start service excellence program
One of the largest companies for temporary labour in The Netherlands, Start, is implementing a service-culture-change program. This so-called service excellence program has been initiated to help the organisation to become one of the leading companies in Europe with respect to service behaviour and service culture. After a short introduction of the company and the current situation in the Dutch labour market, this paper describes the reasons for adopting this program and how it is being implemented.

Originally published in Managing Service Quality Volume 12 Number 3 2002

Singapore Airlines: what it takes to sustain service excellence - a senior management perspective
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is internationally recognized as one of the world's leading carriers. This article details the results of a series of in-depth interviews with SIA's senior management on their views on what made SIA a service champion, and what it will take to maintain its lead in the industry.

Originally published in Managing Service Quality Volume 13 Number 1, 2003

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