5.6
The eighteen quality factors provide a base to help us understand and defi ne customer expec-tations (whether for internal or external customers) and defi ne appropriate levels, i.e. create the internal operational quality specifi cation. They also help us to measure customer satisfac-tion, which we will cover in Chapter 9 .
5.6.1 Methods to capture customer expectations
There are many different methods available to gather information about customers’ expecta-tions of a service. 23 Some quantitative methods, such as questionnaires and surveys using a quantitative approach, can be structured around all or some of the eighteen quality factors and analysed by each factor. Other, more qualitative, approaches tend to collect descriptive data and provide the interpretation of events by customers in their own words. This creates more diffi culties in analysis and interpretation in order to extract meaningful summaries.
Such approaches do, however, have the benefi t of providing ideas and examples that managers and employees can use and discuss to better understand and improve their services.
● Questionnaires and surveys , written or verbal, can be a good means of soliciting
opin-ions about an organisation’s services and to identify what customers fi nd important.
Figure 5.19 shows the results of a questionnaire asking customers of a hotel (mid-week guests only) to rate the importance of various aspects of the service. The staff were also asked to do the same. There are several interesting mismatches between the views of staff and guests.
Figure 5.19
Importance of various aspects of a hotel as rated by staff and guests
Importance
0 2 4 6 8 10
Speed of gr eeting
Speed of check-in
Personal contact (arrival)Room facilities explained Account accuracy
Personal contact (departur e)
Accompanied to transport
Guests Staff
● Focus groups usually comprise groups of about fi fteen customers with a trained facilita-tor, brought together to discuss one or a few aspects of a particular existing or planned service.
● Customer advisory panels are similar to focus groups but are likely to meet regularly with a more structured agenda.
● New/lost customer surveys are very useful ways of fi nding out what attracts customers to the organisation and indeed why they left. While many organisations are now conduct-ing exit interviews, the most successful rely heavily upon the direct involvement of senior managers to ensure appropriate access, information and action.
● Complaint/compliment analysis can be undertaken upon customers’ voluntary contribu-tions, although they tend to be more negative than positive. They do provide informa-tion about the extremes of delight and dissatisfacinforma-tion. Case Example 5.2 explains how Singapore Airlines makes use of its complaints and compliments.
● Critical incident technique (CIT) attempts to identify the things that delight and dissatisfy customers. Critical incidents are events that contribute to, or detract from, perceived serv-ice or product performance in a signifi cant way. The CIT instrument usually comprises two questions. The fi rst question asks customers to think of a time when they felt very pleased and satisfi ed with the service/product received and to describe, in a few sentences, the situation and why they felt so happy. The second question requires customers to think of a time when they were unhappy and dissatisfi ed with the service/product they received and to describe, in a few sentences, why they felt this way.
● Sequential incident analysis combines CIT, walk-through audits and process mapping (see Chapters 7 and 8 ). 24 Customers are ‘walked through’ a pre-prepared process map of the service they have recently encountered and asked for their experiences of each stage or transaction in the process. This technique identifi es not only critical situations but also potentially critical ones.
SIA employs varied and systematic meth-ods to obtain information from its pas-sengers, including quarterly passenger surveys and focused group work with its frequent fl yers. The company also uses its magazine for frequent fl yers, to ask for passengers’ reactions to proposed new ideas. It also checks out the service for it-self by conducting on-site audits with test calls to reservations, for example, to see how service is being delivered. Also when any members of staff fl y in its aircraft they are asked to submit reports of their travel experiences. Senior staff members must submit a comment sheet on each fl ight with their expense account. SIA staff also monitor their competitors and often go and check out their services.
SIA takes both compliments and complaints seriously; indeed there is a vice-president with respon-sibility for complaints and compliments. Every letter has to be acknowledged, investigated and followed
Case Example 5.2
Singapore Airlines (SIA)Source: Singapore Airlines
up, even letters of compliment. In 2004, Lam Seet Mui, the senior manager for human resource develop-ment, explained:
We investigate all complaints. Then not only do we try to recover the customer or the situation, we will also use it as a learning lesson. If we don’t learn something from a complaint then we’ve failed. We also take compliments seriously. Not only do we disseminate them so that people can share in the success, but we try to learn things from them too. They can help us understand what we need to do to excel.
Sim Kay Wee, the senior vice-president responsible for cabin crew, added:
We do try to deal with problems at the time they arise. If a problem occurs on board the crew will try to recover immediately. Any follow-up or written complaint is overseen by the customer affairs department.
However we do the investigation, we fi nd out precisely what happened and report to them. We try to do it personally and quickly.
SIA also produces newsletters for particular groups of staff. Highpoint , for example, is aimed at keeping its 8,000 in-fl ight personnel informed about the airline’s latest offerings and its commitments to passengers.
The newsletter has a regular feature page with about eight or nine extracts from letters – half compliments and half complaints. An example of each follows.
An example compliment:
I noticed the service, although in economy class, was professional and better than any fl ights I have ever been on. Miss Iris lee was the most hardworking amongst all the crew. She came round distributing news-papers, drinks, postcards, playing cards, amenities etc. As a director of travel and tours, I fl y often and I have never come across such an outstanding cabin hostess . . . She loves to fl y and it shows.
An example complaint:
We were sitting close by the galleys and were able to observe the cabin crew at work throughout the fl ight, and the impression we gained was that they were unable to cope with a full load of passengers.
There seemed also to be a lack of leadership and organisation – the cabin crew were rushing back and forth getting in each other’s way – not the smooth activity which we have come to expect from Singapore Airlines.
Higher Ground is a bi-monthly newsletter aimed at the ground services staff, including ticketing, reserva-tions and check-in, as well as baggage handling, logistics and transportation. Higher Ground also contains extracts from letters, usually two complaints and one compliment.
An example compliment:
I would like to pen a note of appreciation for the extra help your staff gave my aged parents when they took your SQ860 from Singapore to Hong Kong. They were told at the check-in counter to come back to see your staff. My brother accordingly brought them to the counter near the check-in time. Then one of your staff very kindly brought them into the restricted area, through immigration and right to the departure room. This was of great help to them as they do not understand the signs in English and may have had to look around or ask around for the direction to the departure room. Walking extra would also be trouble-some for my mother who is recovering from a stroke. Thank you once again to your staff for going out of their way to assist my parents. I am indeed proud of our national airline.
An example complaint:
On 26 July we fl ew Singapore Airlines. Prior to the arrangement being made and also a few days before the actual fl ight, I reiterated the comment that my mother would require a wheelchair for both embarka-tion and disembarkaembarka-tion . . . She had travelled last year by Singapore Airlines and had no trouble what-soever. At [embarkation] a wheelchair was provided and we boarded the plane with no problems . . . On arrival . . . we were not docked at a bridge, but parked in the middle of the airfi eld. I was then asked if my mother could manage to get down two external steep fl ights of stairs and to walk to a bus that would
then take her to the terminal. As she had come on by wheelchair I would have thought it was patently obvious that this was totally impossible for her. We were told that it was our fault that [the airport] had not been informed. I explained that I had done as much as I could in informing [the station at departure], and they certainly knew she required a wheelchair to get on the plane and therefore, obviously, to get off the plane. It took an hour to get some means of transport to take her off the plane and into the airport terminal.
Source: This illustration is based on a case study written by Robert Johnston, Warwick Business School, and Jochen Wirtz, National University of Singapore, 2004. The case was commissioned by the Institute of Customer Service as part of a study into service excellence. The authors grate-fully acknowledge the sponsorship provided by Britannic Assurance, FirstGroup, Lloyds TSB, RAC Motoring Services and Vodafone. The authors would like to thank the interviewees for their participation in this project and also Jasmine Ow, National University of Singapore, for her valuable assistance.