1. Managing Service Quality
Emerald Article: Making service-quality improvement work
Bo Edvardsson
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Bo Edvardsson, (1996),"Making service-quality improvement work", Managing Service Quality, Vol. 6 Iss: 1 pp. 49 - 52
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2. Most of the management concepts found in
Illuminate organizational theory are based on the experi-
Making service-quality ence of manufacturing companies and, subse-
quently, little is known about quality manage-
improvement work ment in service operations. Indeed, services
are often invisible, making them difficult for
the supplier to explain and for the customer to
assess. To understand how to manage and
Bo Edvardsson improve quality in service companies we must
appreciate the unique characteristics of the
service industry.
The concept of service should be
approached from the customer’s point of
view; it is his perception of the outcome which
constitutes the service. Customers may have
different values and different grounds for
assessment, they may perceive the same ser-
The author vice in different ways, but what they do not
Bo Edvardsson is Associate Professor and Director of the perceive does not exist. Furthermore, a ser-
Service Research Center at the University of Karlstad, vice is generated by a process, and the cus-
Sweden. tomer outcome is created in this process.
Unlike manufacturing (which takes place at
Abstract one time and in one place without the partici-
Understanding how to manage and improve quality in pation of the customer) the service experience
service requires an appreciation of the unique characteris- involves the customer as co-producer.
tics of the service industry. Unlike manufacturing, the I believe that service companies do not
service experience involves the customer as co-producer. provide services but rather the prerequisites
Discusses how customers assess service quality and the for services (the technical resources, adminis-
factors they perceive as contributing to quality. Puts trative routines and procedures which cus-
forward 13 propositions on service quality as guides to tomers must understand and use). A logical
new service development. consequence of this is that the central goal of
service development is to provide the best and
right prerequisites to achieve added value and
quality in the eyes of the customer. Naturally,
all this has to be achieved with some prof-
itability for the company and to the reason-
able satisfaction of employees. My definition
of quality is that it satisfies the needs and
meets the expectations of customers, employ-
ees and owners. It is essential to understand
these needs and expectations, how they are
formed and how they change. When develop-
ing services, it is crucial to build in the right
quality by balancing these often contradictory
demands.
If we assume that customers are co-
producers, it suggests that they are either an
asset or a disruptive factor. It also means that
some of the prerequisites exist outside the
service company and therefore generally
This article is based on recent research on and
experiences from leading service companies. One
Managing Service Quality important source is the author’s research report
Volume 6 · Number 1 · 1996 · pp. 49–52 “Service development with built-in quality – a
© MCB University Press · ISSN 0960-4529 customer and management perspective”.
49

3. cannot be influenced or controlled. However, factors” for what some researchers call quality
with good service the prerequisites within the criteria, quality dimensions or quality cate-
service company interact with those of the gories. Trust/dependability is a quality factor
customer. It is also important for a service which a number of studies indicate to be the
organization to define the level of quality at most important. Simplicity/availability is
which to operate; it is not sufficient to declare another factor stressed in service literature.
that “we are going to offer the best”. It is more Recovery – the company’s ability to handle
relevant to speak of the “right quality” than of critical situations – is yet another important
merely high quality. factor. A fourth factor is employees’ actions or
When a customer assesses service quality, roles in service production.
the company’s profile or image acts as a filter. The customer’s picture of the service
If a company has a positive image, it is easier company’s employees, their experience,
to overlook smaller mistakes in its service knowledge and competence combined with
delivery; to regard them as temporary distur- their commitment and willingness to serve,
bances. Townsend and Gebhart[1] speak of affects customer-perceived quality. Depend-
“Quality in Fact” and “Quality in Percep- ability and trust are central components of the
tion”. Quality in Fact means that established quality concept; the customer wants to rest
specifications have been fulfilled. Quality in assured that the service will be delivered as
Perception, on the other hand, means that the agreed. Empathy is another factor which has
customer feels that they have received the to do with genuine interest in the customer. It
quality they expected. Consequently, it does entails personal attentiveness, an ability to
not suffice to attain Quality in Fact if Quality
enter into and identify with another person’s
in Perception is not achieved.
situation. Recovery provides the service com-
On the basis of research carried out in
pany with a golden opportunity to communi-
manufacturing companies, Gummesson[2]
cate and demonstrate its capacity. A non-
has suggested a number of terms:
professional response can lead to strong
• design quality – built into the construction
dissatisfaction or to a broken relationship. It
of a service;
may also lead to negative rumours in the
• production quality – how the service is
marketplace.
produced;
Parasuraman et al.[3] and Zeithaml et
• delivery quality – the way in which the
al.[4] are well-known researchers of service
service is delivered;
quality who have studied customer-perceived
• relationship quality – the interaction with
quality in a number of different service indus-
the customer.
tries. In one study, service quality was
Gummesson stresses that relationship quality described by means of ten factors: depend-
is more than the relationship between cus- ability, willingness, competence, availability,
tomer and service producer. Each company courtesy, communication, trustworthiness,
exists in a network where relations to other assurance, empathy and tangibility. In a later
actors such as suppliers, competitors and study these were reduced to five factors valid
authorities are also important. Whilst rela- in general terms:
tionship quality is related to the process – how • tangibility – the organization’s premises,
the service is produced and delivered – I equipment, personnel and dress code;
would stress that it can also be affected by the • dependability – the ability to fulfil commit-
results (what the customer receives). A much ments;
worse result than expected can dramatically • willingness and readiness – punctuality,
change relations. A customer thus dissatisfied speed, being there for the customer when
can break all contacts with the company, they need assistance;
regardless of how good the construction,
• assurance – the employees’ knowledge and
production and delivery qualities are. A com-
competence, the ability to inspire reliance
pany’s relations must be constantly nourished
and trust;
and strengthened. Good relations are built on
• empathy and insight.
trust – a trust which can take a long time to
build and a short time to destroy. A study by British Airways shows that the
Quality development requires a well- following quality factors are central to the
defined concept. I have chosen to use “quality customer’s perception of quality.
50

4. • Attention and consideration. The traveller to different groups. A questionnaire can then
wants to feel that the organization and its be designed to measure the present status
employees are working to solve their trans- according to evaluations made by customers
port problems. The entire service system and other groups.
should be designed to service the Following are 13 propositions on service
customer. quality which can be regarded as my guide to
• Spontaneity. The traveller wants to feel that new service development. They are all under-
the employees are committed and that they pinned by international service research. I do
are actively trying to solve problems in a not claim them to be all-encompassing but
flexible way, even though the solution may they cover central needs:
not be found in the rule book. (1) The managing director should be the
• Ability. The front personnel should be foremost practitioner of leadership from
competent to carry out their tasks in the the top, designing and spreading a quali-
manner that the traveller has the right to ty policy, formulating challenging goals,
expect. Also, other co-workers should have plans and routines for all parts of the
the same ability. business and dividing the responsibility
• Recovery. Should an incident arise, within the organization.
employees should have the ability and the (2) Service quality has become a field for
authority to clear up the situation to the strategic development, an important
customer’s satisfaction. ingredient in the business idea as well as
a central management task at all levels.
Personal attention has proved to be a central Quality should be placed at the centre –
quality factor, and in his studies on quality it is a question of leadership and compa-
evaluation Hornik[5] found that purchasing ny culture.
behaviour was positively affected by a light (3) Successful service companies focus on
touch. In one of the studies of restaurant the customer. They map and understand
services, touch turned out to have a positive customers’ articulated and unarticulated
influence on the diner’s quality assessment. needs. They are sensitive to the ideas and
“A casual touch by a waiter or waitress might expectations of customers without being
be an important factor in the way diners will governed in all respects by them.
tip and evaluate the server and might also (4) Quality improvement is everybody’s
enhance the way they evaluate the restaurant.” responsibility. Each co-worker has
Similarly, Sweeney et al.[6] explored what knowledge, resources and authority to
cues customers use when choosing a restau- provide the right quality. Each person
rant and found that price is a major factor. “A checks the quality in his own job because
lower price is likely to increase the chance of a the company recognizes internal as well
restaurant being selected, but at the same as external customers.
time it lowers expectations regarding service (5) Focus on new service development and
quality. This suggests that price, for this service design. It is becoming increasing-
sample at least, makes both a positive and ly apparent that it is essential to build-in
negative contribution to the overall assess- prerequisites for the right quality from
ment of a restaurant. Restaurateurs should be the beginning when designing new ser-
careful in their pricing strategy in order to vices.
remain within the budget of their target mar- (6) Continuous improvement and re-engi-
ket, while ensuring that the price is not so low neering – moving from a focus on struc-
as to indicate poor quality.” ture to a focus on processes – as a matter
General quality factors are an important of prevention. This means developing an
but insufficient foundation in service develop- organization to prevent mistakes from
ment; greater precision is necessary. One way happening, as opposed to discovering
is to describe quality in the form of a quality mistakes through inspection and then
map made up of quality factors and defini- taking measures to correct them. Contin-
tions of quality factors in the form of vari- uous quality improvements in the
ables. The map is a description or a reproduc- process and “process” re-engineering
tion of what quality means to the various complement each other.
partner groups. Often the quality concept has (7) Quality improvement drives productivity
different – perhaps very different – meanings and profitability.
51

5. (8) Benchmarking. Learning (not copying) (13) Rewarding improvement based on facts
from others. is, according to Juran, “a prerequisite for
(9) Service guarantees of various kinds can successful quality work in the long run”.
make a service more distinct and help
create realistic customer expectations.
They have also proved useful in strength-
ening internal quality. References
(10) Focus on complaint management as a
1 Townsend, P. and Gebhart, J., Commit to Quality,
tool for discovering customer dissatisfac- Wiley, New York, NY, 1986.
tion, learning how to handle the situa-
2 Gummesson, E., “Att utveckla servicekvalitet eller
tion, compensating for the mistake and
Varför finns det inga servicekonstruktörer?”, in
explaining why it happened; a unique Edvardsson, B. and Gummesson, E. (Eds), Manage-
opportunity to correct a quality failing. ment i tjänstesamhället, Liber, Lund (in Swedish).
(11) Focus on employee commitment and
3 Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. and Berry, L., “A concep-
customer involvement for customer- tual model of service quality and its implications for
perceived total quality. This requires future research”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, 1985,
challenging and engaging tasks, good pp. 41-50.
relations with the co-workers and man- 4 Zeithaml, V., Parasuraman, A. and Berry, L., Delivering
agers. Quality Service – Balancing Customer Perceptions and
(12) Increased stress on the systematic mea- Expectations, The Free Press, New York, NY, 1990.
suring of quality for customers, employ- 5 Hornik, J., “Tactile stimulation and consumer
ees and owners. Such a holistic perspec- response”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 19
tive is necessary when setting up realistic No. 4, December 1992, pp. 449-58.
goals. When quality and economic 6 Sweeney, J.C., Johnson, L.W. and Armstrong, R.W.,
results are integrated, company improve- “The effect of cues on service quality expectations and
ment is naturally and unmistakably service selection in a restaurant setting”, The Journal
placed at the centre. of Services Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 15-22.
52