Managing Services Promises
The foundations of success for any service organization are the strategies that are designed to transform inherently intangible services into tangible experiences for customers. From airlines fulfilling the flights they offer to the hotels accurately keeping records of reservations, the fulfillment of any service experience is directly tied to the ability of firms of services companies to make and keep commitments. The strength of a service brand is tied directly to its ability to make and keep commitments to its customers (Johnston, 2004. Empirical research shows that when customer expectations are consistently exceeded a brand becomes the standard by which consumers judge and evaluate other brands in their same industry (Apte, Apte & Venugopal, 2007).
In evaluating the performance of Time-Warner Cable and cable companies who in general deliberately over-schedule service calls assuming a predictable cancellation rate bet against themselves and risk high levels of customer dissatisfaction (Apte, Apte & Venugopal, 2007). it's a ragged edge of customer service to seek to optimize service calls, betting a percentage of them will be cancelled, only to have days where none are and customers are left waiting. Clearly the impact of continually over-committing and hoping there is a cancellation is highly efficient yet harmful to a company's reputation. No wonder cable companies who practice this approach to optimizing service calls run the risk of disgruntled, dissatisfied customers. What cable companies need to do is take the opposite approach and assume that existing service calls, in aggregate, can take over 20% longer than expected, thereby making sure there is enough time to exceed the expectations of customers. Only by a consistently defined strategy of exceeding expectations can any service company overcome a mediocre or deficient reputation for responsiveness (Johnston, 2004). The bottom line is that the concept of efficiency has to be redefined as taking whatever time is necessary to delight customers first, and then move onto to the next appointment. Merely overcomitting and rushing through service promises, as is the current approach of cable companies, leads to a major problem with their reputations.
References
Aruna Apte, Uday M. Apte, Nandagopal Venugopal. (2007). Focusing on Customer Time in Field Service: A Normative Approach. Production and Operations Management, 16(2), 189-202. Retrieved April 3, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1291828291).
Johnston, R (2004). Towards a better understanding of service excellence. Managing Service Quality, 14(2/3), 129-133. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 660617891).
