Design Thoughts

Guidelines for Enhancing Service Quality

Service Quality is essential for a company seeking to satisfy its customers. Lack of quality can result in customer dissatisfaction and can cause loss of customers. This will impact a company’s brand image, and profitability negatively.  Service quality is a measure of how well the service level delivered matches customer expectations. Delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectations on a consistent basis.

So how can a company assess their service quality and enhance it? This article identifies the elements of good quality services and provides guidelines to improve them. The following are 10 elements of service quality. Each element is explained and is supported by key questions companies need to consider to improve that element.

1. Useful

This means the service fulfills the needs of the customers at all time.

Questions to consider:

  • Are you and your service staff aware of the needs of your customers throughout their service journey?
  • Do you have the right tools and platforms to capture the needs and requirements of your customers?
  • Are you fulfilling the needs of your customers at all stages of your journey?

2. Responsive

This means the company provides a prompt response to customers at all time.

Questions to consider:

  • Are your service staff responding promptly and timely to all customer requests?
  • Do they have the tools and knowledge required to respond to customers efficiently and effectively ?
  • Do you have a measurement system in place to measure response time by your service staff?

3. Competent

This means the service staff is skilled and knowledgeable about the service they are delivering. 

Questions to consider:

  • Are your service staff well trained to provide the service to customers?
  • Do your staff appear professional when dealing with customers?
  • Does your service staff have the access to the knowledge such as policies to serve customers?
  • Do you have procedures that service staff can follow in case they don’t have specific knowledge about a particular customer’s case? 

4. Accessible

is the service easy to find and access at all times?

Questions to consider:

  • Do your customers get lost when trying to find your service?
  • Do you have the navigation guidelines for customers for them to access your service?
  • Is the facility, where your service is provided, easy to find and conveniently located?
  • Do you have convenient hours of operations?

5. Delightful

Do service moments delight customers and give them joy?

Questions to consider:

  • What can you do to delight customers at different moments of their journey?
  • Is your staff trained in delighting customers?
  • Do you have policies and the right culture to delight customers?
  • Do you have a mechanism in place to capture the delight of customers?
  • Do you reward your staff for delighting customers?

6. Communication

This means customers find the service, its value and requirements easy to understand. Furthermore, the customers are always well-informed regarding their transactions with the company.

Questions to consider

  • Have you explained the service well for customers to ensure they have the right expectations?
  • Do you have the right channels and format for communicating with customers?
  • Are you using the right language for communicating with customers?

7. Credible

Can customers easily trust the company and its promises?

Questions to consider

  • Do you meet the promises you made to your customers?
  • Are the service staff indulging in behavior that could damage your credibility?
  • Do you measure how trustworthy customers find your service staff?

8. Reliable

This means the customers will receive the right service consistently at all times in their journey.

Questions to consider

  • Do you deliver the service right from the first time?
  • Do you deliver the service consistently at all times?
  • Do you deliver the service at the time you have specified to customers?.

9. Servicescape

Do customers find the physical surrounding and touchpoints of the service aesthetically pleasant and delightful? 

Questions to consider

  • Do your customers find the ambiance of your service facility pleasant and comfortable?
  • Do your customers find it easy to navigate within your service facility?
  • Do your customers find it easy to use your service touchpoints?
  • Are your customers delighted when they use your service facility and touchpoints?

10. Service Recovery 

This means customers realize that if something goes wrong, the company will take prompt action to correct it.

Questions to consider

  • Have you imagined scenarios where the service delivery can fail?
  • Do you have procedures to solve the problems customers face as a result of service failure?
  • Do you have a set of compensation that you can provide to customers as a result of failure?

These are the 10 elements of service quality. Systematically assessing your service quality with them will help you identify areas of improvement and necessary interventions you can take.

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