13-1: Evaluating Service Quality Class activity. Tell students: Assume you are
expecting an important package from UPS.
A delivery attempt was made, but you didn’t hear
the door bell, and missed it.
You call the customer service line and they tell
you not to worry, and that one of your options is
to pick up the package at the terminal that
evening.
You tell them that you need the package before
noon.
So, they arrange for you to meet the delivery
truck close to your house.
You are delighted when you spot the clean brown
UPS truck exactly where it is supposed to be.
The friendly driver greets you by name, gets your
package and you are on your way.
13-2: Marketing Research:
Understanding Customers
This is a funny YouTube (always check links
before class) clip that has a little girl talking
about a snotty doctor she recently visited.
Ask students: What did the company learn from
its research?
13-3: Zone of Tolerance Consumers often have a range of acceptable
outcomes.
Discuss the example of a hotel room: You prefer
a king bed but will accept two queen beds; you
will not, however, accept a room without towels
or a lumpy mattress.
Therefore, you have defined your zone of
tolerance for hotels.
13-4: Customer Evaluation of Service
Quality
Class exercise: Have students evaluate the zone
of tolerance for the food service options on
campus.
This exercise forces students to think about the
five service quality dimensions.
It will also reinforce the idea that if a firm is
above the zone, particularly on an unimportant
dimension, they are probably spending too much.
At the same time, if it is below the zone, its
service is substandard.
Being substandard on an important dimension is
potentially a devastating problem.
13-5: The Standards Gap: Setting
Service Standards
Quality service requires constant investments in
training and monitoring.
Similar to any other strategic element, service
quality flows from the top down.
Rewards and incentives must be in place to
support service quality commitments.
Ask students: What types of incentives work
best to make service employees buy in to their
firm’s service standards?
Some will say good working conditions, salaries,
and others might mention contests and prizes.
13-6: The Delivery Gap: Delivering
Service Quality
This slide again sets up the following discussion,
which you may omit if you prefer to focus just on
these dimensions.
13-7: What Airline Workers Learn from
NASCAR
Race against the clock as members of United
Airlines ground crew learn techniques of
precision from the NASCAR crew to turn planes
around quickly and keep the airline out of the red.
Note: Please make sure that the video file is
located in the same folder as the PowerPoint
slides.
13-8: Empowering Service Providers Frontline employees must be able to solve
customer problems.
Ask students: The last time you returned
something to a store, did the person waiting on
you process the return, or did he or she need to
get a manager’s approval?
Which do you prefer?
13-9: Providing Support and Incentives If the firm has just a paper commitment to service
quality, it will not happen.
Systems must support the service providers and
allow them to do their job and exceed customer
expectations.
Ask students: What types of incentives do you
believe would best motivate UPS delivery
drivers?
Of course, they will say money.
This could lead to an interesting discussion about
how intrinsic rewards like recognition plaques
can mean as much or more than money.
13-10: Use of Technology Technology has become an increasingly
important method for facilitating the delivery of
services. RFIDs (radio frequency identification
devices) are tiny computer chips that
automatically transmit to a special scanner all the
information about a container’s contents or
individual products.
Another way to use technology in the service
delivery process is with a retail store assistant
(RSA).
An RSA can be a kiosk or a device attached to the
customer’s shopping cart. Instead of bringing a
shopping list to the store, a customer can swipe a
loyalty card or enter a phone number at an RSA.
Any information the customer has entered online
from home will show up on the customer’s
profile.
Ask Students what new technologies have they
seen at retailers.
13-11: The Communications Gap:
Communicating the Service
Promise
Many people have never stayed in a five-star
hotel, but they know what level of service quality
they expect.
Often, such expectations develop in response to
the promises made in promotional materials
provided by the firm.
Many firms over promise and under deliver;
Southwest Airlines attributes its success to under
promising and over delivering instead.
This web link is for J.D. Power and Associates.
Clicking through will show you the different
industries that they rate, many of them service
industries.
Ask students what it means for a company to
win this. How should they use this in their
communication?
13-12: Check Yourself Answer to both questions:
1 The knowledge gap reflects the difference
between customers’ expectations and the
firm’s perception of those customer
expectations. Firms can understand consumer
expectations and evaluate service quality.
2 The standards gap pertains to the difference
between the firm’s perceptions of customers’
expectations and the service standards it sets.
Firms can set appropriate service standards
and measure service performance.
3 The delivery gap is the difference between the
firm’s service standards and the actual service
it provides to customers. This gap can be
closed by getting employees to meet or
exceed service standards by providing
incentives and support.
4 The communication gap refers to the
difference between the actual service
provided to customers and the service that the
firm’s promotion program promises. If firms
are more realistic about the services they can
provide and manage customer expectations
effectively, they generally can close this gap.
13-13: Service Recovery This slide sets up the following discussion and
can be used instead of the more detailed
discussion that follows.
13-14: Listening to the Customer Group activity: Think about the last time you
called a firm about a service issue. How were you
treated?
What determined your level of satisfaction with
the result?
Sometimes, just having someone who listens and
tries to understand the issue is sufficient.
According to a recent airline study, if the airline
provides a reason for delays, travelers are less
annoyed by the service interruption.
13-15: Finding a Fair Solution Even if they eventually receive a solution that
seems fair, when consumers must work hard to
achieve it, their low procedural fairness
perceptions may cause them to believe that they
are being punished for receiving bad service.
Ask students: How can service firms enhance
both distributive and procedural fairness
simultaneously?
By establishing firm policies, such as the
“Customer Bill of Rights” adopted by Jet Blue.
This statement details what type of service the
firm should provide as well as the remedies that
will be offered in case of service failure.
This statement allows consumers to understand
how and when they will be compensated for
service failures.
13-16: Resolving Problems Quickly By compounding a service failure with long
delays in correcting it, the firm creates a hostile
customer.
Remind students about the strong influence of
negative word of mouth.
13-17: Check Yourself 1 Despite a firm’s best efforts, sometimes
service providers fail to meet customer
expectations. Effective service recovery
efforts can significantly increase customer
satisfaction, purchase intentions, and positive
word of mouth, though customers’ post
recovery satisfaction levels usually fall lower
than their satisfaction level prior to the
service failure.
2 Listen to the customer, find a fair solution,
and resolve problems quickly.
Additional Teaching Tips
In this chapter, students learn the difference between marketing a product vs. marketing a
service. Students find that since a service can’t be “seen” or measured with a quantifiable
outcome, that the marketing strategy must be different in marketing services. The building blocks
of service quality is the foundation of the chapter which then dovetails into how to improve
customer service through the methods to reduce delivery gaps.
The Ritz-Carlton case study is an excellent exercise for this chapter and is strongly
recommended to allow students to apply the five service quality areas. A good way to do this is
to divide the class into 4 or 5 groups and have them tackle the case. Then open classroom
discussion by dialogue in comparing/contrasting the responses from each of the groups. Of
course, a good understanding of the five service qualities is needed before assigning the case.
One good way to do this after discussion/lecture on the topic is to divide the class into groups.
Have each group develop a role-play skit on (1) good customer service incorporating the five
service quality areas and also to prepare an alternate skit on (2) bad customer service.
Students have fun with the skit exercise and it often brings out some humorous acting moments.
Instructors will want to assign different topics (popular food chain, hotel, college bookstore,
retail chain, etc.) to each group to get them focused on the skit and not thinking up “what” to
complete the skit on. Each group presents the “good” skit first in which the audience (the rest of
the class) takes notes and discussion takes place on how the five service qualities were present.
The group then performs their “bad service skit” in which discussion follows on how to
incorporate good service techniques and improve the service gaps.
On-line teaching tip: Instructors can have students complete this same exercise by having
students record individual skits/scenarios and uploading them to the online platform. Other
learners in the online environment can then post their analysis on the five service qualities and
either their suggestions on improving the delivery gaps or write a paper outlining the same
concepts (meanwhile the other learners are also preparing their own skits). Instructors may want
to pair students on the responses in the online forum. For fun, instructors may want to have the
class use online voting to vote on the best “performance.”