Customer Services

There are many factors that affect the level of satisfaction of both product and service customers equally, and some of these factors have been discussed in detail earlier. However, there are also some factors that affect the level of satisfaction of service customers alone, and not necessarily customers satisfaction levels of people buying products. The most common factors proposed by authors that effect the customer satisfaction levels of service customers can be summarized into following points: First, non-verbal behaviour of service  provider greatly affects the level of customer satisfaction of service customers (Gabbot, 2000). Due to the fact that most of the services are provided by people, service customers are more sensitive and critical towards behaviour, including nonverbal behaviour of people offering these services. However, this statement is less relevant to services provided by London Underground and National Rail Services, due to the fact that although they operate in service sector, nevertheless, human aspect of their operations that has a direct contact with customers are less intensive compared to many other types of services like teaching and hairdressing. Second, in service sector the quality of service and customer satisfaction level may depend on the competency of a single employee (Barnard, 2000) In cases of London Underground and National Rail Services this statement is especially true which can be illustrated by the role of train operators in cases of trains being held between two stations. London Underground and National Rail Services trains being held between two stations for signal failures and other occasions are not rare occurrences. However, some train operators positively contribute to the level of customer satisfaction by repeatedly apologizing and explaining the reasons of delays, while others damage the customer satisfaction level even more by keeping customers ‘in dark’ in such an unpleasant circumstances. Third, customers’ own involvement…

Factors Influencing Customer Expectations Factors that influence the level of customer expectations have been specified by Rai (2008) as the following: Firstly, benchmarks specified by service competitors. Competitors’ service benchmark influence customer expectations in a way that the higher the benchmarks, the higher customer expectations will be. Secondly, individual psychology. As it has been discussed above the role of individual differences find greater reflection in the level of customer satisfaction in the service sector compared to the level of customer satisfaction in products. Therefore, most of the service companies strive to adopt individual approach taking into account expectations and characteristics of each individual customer (Barnard, 2002) Thirdly, individual background. As it has been identified that individual psychology plays a great role on the service expectations from that individual; individual background as one of the main determinants of individual psychology also plays an important role in customer service expectations. Fourthly, previous service records of the company. When potential consumers approach a service company they will have their expectations according to various characteristics of the company, including its previous service records. Accordingly consumer expectations will be high in companies with reputable service records, and vice-versa.   Issues in Customer Expectations As it has been well established in business world, one of the important conditions of ensuring long-time profitability of the business is meeting or exceeding customer expectations at all times. However, even with the willingness of the company to exceed customer expectations and with relevant skills and capabilities achieving this objective can prove to be challenging due to the following reasons specified by Rai (2008): Firstly, customer expectations may be unrealistic. The issue of customer expectations being unrealistic have been raised by several authors including Miller (1995), James (2004), and Hayes (2008). The common practice for service companies in such a scenario…

Service Quality Model pioneered by Gronroos (1982) states that customer’s perception of quality, and ultimately customer satisfaction depends on customer’s perception of two dimensions of the service: technical quality and functional quality. Technical quality dimension of the service concentrates on what the customer receives, focusing on the technical outcome of the process. Functional quality, on the other hand, concentrates on how the consumer receives the technical outcome. A service concept is explained by Johnston and Calrk (2008, p.42), as a shared understanding of the service nature provided and received, which should encapsulate information about: – The organizing idea, which is the essence – The experience. – The outcome. Lancaster et al (2002, p. 75) inform that consumer buyer behaviour is influenced by a range of environmental and individual factors. Environmental influencers include cultural, social class, groups/family, situational factors and marketing efforts, and individual influencers include psychological aspects, lifestyle, demographics and economic situation. References Johnson, R & Clark, G, 2008, “Service Operations Management”, third edition, Prentice Hall Lancaster, G, Massingham, L & Ashford, R, 2002, “Essentials of Marketing”, fourth edition, McGraw-Hill

Kano model of Customer Satisfaction was proposed by Kano et al (1996) and it focuses on product attributes on the basis of how they are perceived by customers and their effect on customer satisfaction. The model distinguishes three types of product attributes that contribute to customer satisfaction in varying degrees: basic attributes, performance or spoken attributes, or surprise or delight attributes. Kano model of customer satisfaction is not only valid for manufacturing businesses; rather it also equally can be applied to the service sector, including London Underground and National Rail Services. The basic or expected attributes for London Underground and National Rail services would be to ensure the commute of their customers from one destination to the other. Customers would be highly disappointed when the basic attributes of their services are not ensured, let alone the extremely low level of their satisfaction level if such a situation were to occur. Performance or spoken attributes of services of London Underground and National Rail Services would be the speed at which customers are taken, to their destination, the level of crowdedness inside the carriages, on platforms and stations in general, the level of customer services customers are offered by staff, and others. The level of performance or spoken attributes of services offered by London Underground and National Rail Services make a huge difference on the customer satisfaction, in a way that the better the performance, the higher customer satisfaction level will be. Surprise and delight attributes, are the ones that are not generally expected by customers, but if they are present they will make a significant contribution on the level of customer satisfaction. However, the absence of surprise and delight attributes would not dissatisfy customers due to the fact that customers would not be expecting them in the first place. For instance,…

Johnson and Clark (2008) define service concept as a shared understanding of the service nature provided and received. They also state that service concept has to provide information about the essence of the service, service experience, and service outcome. “The terms customer satisfaction and perception of quality are labels we use to summarize a set of observable actions related to the product or service” (Hayes, 2008, p.33) The most comprehensive definition of satisfaction has been offered by Kotler and Keller who define satisfaction as “person’s feeling of pleasure or disappointment which resulted from comparing a product’s perceived performance or outcome against his/ her expectations” (Kotler and Keller, 2006, p.144). “Perception is defined as consumer’s belief, concerning the service received or experienced” (Rai, 2008).   Categorisations of Customer Satisfaction and Service Perception Parasuraman et al (1991) divide customer service expectations into two levels: desired and adequate. Desired level of service expectations is a state of service the customer desires to receive, whereas adequate level of customer expectation is the level of service the customer can only “accept” without being too satisfied with it. If desired and adequate levels of service expectations are to be explained in case of London Underground and National Rail Services customers, desired level of customer expectation would be to go from one destination to the other with no crowded train as quick as possible, whereas, adequate level of customer expectation would be just to go to destination even if the train carriage is crowded, and the train is not moving too fast. Walker (1995) offers conceptualised service encounter model that is divided into three disconfirmation stages: First stage is evaluation stage in which peripheral service is offered before the consumption of the core service. Second stage involves intensive anticipation of core service by consumer. Third stage is the final in…

Customer perceptions are needed to be met and exceeded. It requires from companies to study the buyer behaviour of their existing and potential customers and to devise programs and initiatives to offer superior customer service. According to Parasuraman et al (1991, p.42), customer services expectations consist of two levels: desired and adequate. Desired level of expectations is the level of service a customer wanted to be performed, while the adequate level of expectation is the “acceptable” level of service by the customer. A service quality model, highlighting the main requirements for delivering high quality service which identifies five gaps as causes for unsuccessful service delivery has been formulated by Parasuraman et al (1985, pp.41-50): Gap between expectation of client and perception of management. In order to be able to exceed customer expectations, and in this way to insure customer satisfaction service company management has to have a clear and accurate perception about customer expectations. A lack of such knowledge creates a gap that can be one of the main reasons for service customers not being satisfied. Gap between perception of management and service quality specification. Even if management accurately perceive customer expectations there are still chances of customer dissatisfaction that can be caused by the gap in planning quality of the service according to customer expectations Gap between specification of quality and the delivery of service. Another potential area for customer dissatisfaction relates to the failure of efficiently specified quality service due to various reasons, including incompetent workforce, and inefficient working conditions. The gap between the delivery of service and external communications. In cases where service company employees have relevant skills and willingness to offer efficiently specified quality service, still customers may be left unsatisfied due to external factors Gap between perceived and expected service. Lastly, one of the common causes for customer dissatisfaction in service sector…