Lecture on Improving Service Quality
Importance of Service Quality
- Key differentiator for service organizations
- Necessary for process owners or those redesigning customer service processes
Customer Service Process Redesign
- Reasons for Redesign:
- Changing customer needs
- Technological advancements (apps, AI, chatbots)
- Processes become outdated
- Guiding Principles:
- Speed correlates with value-add time
- Six Sigma as a cultural and performance standard
- Avoid non-value-adding work steps
- Focus on ease of business rather than wow experiences
People and Processes
- Average people excel in excellent processes
- Consequences of good people, poor processes:
- Employee frustration and resignations
- Lack of value for staff and customers
- Desired outcome: Cross-functional discipline for process change
Process Redesign Outcomes
- Aim for productivity, cost reduction, and customer satisfaction
- Key metrics:
- Cutting fail points and defects
- Reducing cycle time
- Improving productivity and cost-effectiveness
- Enhancing service quality and customer satisfaction
Tools and Methods for Process Redesign
- Blueprinting/Service Mapping:
- Systematically charting customer experience
- Identifying customer actions and associated internal actions
- Recognizing potential fail points and contingencies
- Analytical Tools:
- Pareto charts for identifying major failure causes
- Cause-effect diagrams (fishbone) to explore failure reasons
- Example of Successful Redesign:
- Case study of a global bank reducing process time from 54 hours to 4 hours
Benchmarking
- Tool to set objectives for process redesign
- Comparing within organization, with competitors, and best practices globally
- Ensures new standards exceed customer expectations
Steps to Improve Service Quality
- Identify priority processes to redesign
- Set targets for satisfaction, defect cycle time, and productivity
- Identify key elements of quality for customers
- Measure current performance
- Analyze shortfalls
- Conduct root cause analysis
- Improve processes using tools like poka-yokis
- Continuously control and fine-tune processes
- Start the cycle again for ongoing improvement
Key Takeaways
- Use of service process redesign, blueprinting, TQM tools, and benchmarking
- Continuous improvement culture is vital
- Assessing personal and organizational challenges and opportunities
Reflect on the tools discussed and contemplate the biggest challenge and opportunity for your company in improving service quality.