Service Quality: What Does Quality Service Really Mean?

Sometimes we feel annoyed or even angry when we ask for something, but employees in service businesses such as hotels, restaurants, hospitals, or other service organisations respond slowly, respond too late, or do not respond at all. This is where service quality becomes important.

Everyone has expectations when staying at a hotel, eating at a restaurant, receiving treatment at a hospital, or arranging documents at a government office. These expectations usually relate to service facilities, cleanliness, employee friendliness, speed of service, employee care, employee capability, and whether employees fulfil their promises. These are the expectations we have of a service, and they can also be understood as indicators of service quality.

The better the facilities, the cleaner the environment, the faster the service, the friendlier and more caring the employees, the greater the confidence they create, and the more consistently promises are fulfilled, the higher our expectations of service quality become. In other words, customers who expect these things are expecting high service quality.

Higher expectations of service quality are usually associated with a higher price. When a service business charges a premium price, customers will automatically have higher expectations of the quality of service they receive. The opposite also applies. When customers pay a relatively low price for a service, they are more likely to expect a more basic level of service quality. Price equals quality: Higher price, higher quality expectations. Lower price, more moderate quality expectations.

When the service customers actually receive matches their expectations or even exceeds them, they are likely to say that they are satisfied. But when the service they experience falls below their expectations, dissatisfaction begins. The question is: how can you make customers satisfied with your service?

Understanding Service Quality

Customer satisfaction can only be created when everyone in the organisation understands what constitutes quality service. Understanding the indicators of service quality enables an organisation to map, measure, evaluate, and redesign its service quality so that it meets customer expectations. Service quality expert Parasuraman introduced five indicators of service quality:

These five indicators can be remembered as TEAR_R. You could even think of it as the organisation’s commitment to fulfilling its promise to wipe away “customer tears” caused by problems.

Tangible: What Customers Can See and Experience

There are two broad dimensions of Tangible: the physical appearance of employees and the physical service facilities. Employee appearance includes clothing, body gestures, scent, cleanliness, neatness, and other attributes that customers can see, hear, smell, or experience through their senses. Physical service facilities include buildings, furniture, information equipment, lifts, toilets, cleanliness, neatness, scent, hygiene, and other tangible aspects of the service environment. One of the most visible differences between a five-star, four-star, and three-star hotel is often its tangible service quality.

But which is more difficult to manage: employee appearance or physical facilities? Employee appearance is usually more difficult to build and maintain consistently because employees are dynamic. Physical facilities are relatively static and generally require only regular maintenance or occasional renewal. Would you agree?

Empathy: The Foundation of Service

Empathy is a fundamental quality for anyone working in a service business. Employees who demonstrate empathy need to care about what customers need and be willing to provide personalised service based on those needs. The higher the level of empathy, the higher the level of service quality. This requires employees to show greater care and a stronger willingness to provide special service to customers. An organisation therefore needs to determine the level of empathy that forms part of its intended service-quality design. Remember, price often becomes a reference point for determining how much empathy customers expect from employees. The higher the price, the greater the customer’s expectation that employees will demonstrate empathy.

There are three levels of empathy that employees need to develop: Listen (being willing to listen to what customers need). Understand (being able to understand what customers actually need). Conclude (being able to reach an accurate conclusion about those needs). These three levels help determine the extent to which an employee can truly be described as empathetic. Empathy is like a mirror. Employees need to become a mirror of the customer. They need to be able to put themselves in the customer’s position to make it easier for them to provide the right service.

Assurance: Courtesy and Knowledge

Employees who already understand customers through empathy need to have the desire to provide service solutions that match those expectations. Those solutions can be delivered when employees possess both courtesy and knowledge, which is what we call assurance. Employees need to continuously learn. What should they learn? Consider a security officer in a bank who demonstrates a high level of courtesy and understanding by politely asking customers what they need and then connecting those needs with the appropriate banking service, whether it involves deposits, withdrawals, transfers, loans, passbook printing, ATM replacement, or other services. You may also have experienced restaurant employees who are polite and able to clearly explain menu items, promotions, payment methods, and other service information. This is assurance.

The courtesy and knowledge possessed by employees help the organisation create a sense of confidence in the minds of customers. This makes it easier for employees to guide customers through the process of meeting their needs. When employee courtesy and knowledge reach a high level, customers may move beyond confidence and develop trust in the organisation. When customers trust the organisation, the process of fulfilling customer needs becomes much more effective. Confidence and trust are evidence of the extent to which employees demonstrate courtesy and knowledge. Courtesy enables employees to communicate their knowledge in a way that customers perceive as convincing and trustworthy.

Responsiveness: How Quickly Do Employees Respond?

Responsiveness, or the ability to respond quickly to customer needs, is the fourth indicator of service quality. Employees need to be responsive, fast, agile, and alert in fulfilling customer needs. There are two types of responsive employees: proactive and reactive.

Consider a restaurant. Perhaps you need more drinking water. In one situation, you need to ask an employee first, and the employee then responds quickly. In another situation, the employee notices that your glass is nearly empty and asks whether you would like more water before you even have to request it. A reactive employee waits for the customer to make a request. A proactive employee anticipates what the customer may need. When responsiveness is proactive, the organisation is delivering a higher level of service quality. Reactive responsiveness, by contrast, represents a more standard level of service design.

Again, the expected level of responsiveness usually follows the price of the service. A premium-priced service is likely to require employees to be proactively responsive. For a lower-priced service, customers may already be satisfied when employees respond effectively after being asked. Would you agree?

Reliability: Fulfilling the Promise

The fifth indicator of service quality is reliability, the ability of employees to fulfil their promises. Suppose you eat at a restaurant that promises to serve your pizza within 15 minutes. That promise immediately becomes one of the standards by which you judge the restaurant’s service quality. If the pizza arrives after 15 minutes, you are likely to feel dissatisfied because the promise has not been fulfilled. Reliability therefore means that employees should not make promises too easily. The more promises they make, the more difficult it becomes to fulfil all of them. Employees should not promise something unless they are reasonably confident that they can deliver it. Sometimes employees make promises simply to please customers or temporarily reassure them. But in service quality, a promise is not intended merely to comfort the customer. A promise must be fulfilled.

There is one important relationship between assurance and reliability. Employees with a high level of courtesy know how to communicate with customers when a promise cannot be fulfilled. Employees with strong knowledge are also less likely to make unrealistic promises because they understand whether a customer’s request can actually be delivered. Courtesy and knowledge therefore help determine the extent to which reliability can create customer satisfaction.

So, how about your organisation? How strong is your service quality? Does the quality of your service match the price your customers are paying?

Start with Empathy

If you ask which service-quality indicator should be developed first, the answer is: Start with empathy. Employees who have empathy will improve their own physical presentation. Employees who have empathy will become more courteous and continue to develop their knowledge. Employees who have empathy will become more responsive. Employees who have empathy will be more committed to fulfilling the promises they make. Would you agree?

Have a good day!

Greetings of Transformation