Page 109 - DMGT206_PRODUCTION_AND_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Production and Operations Management

Notes

Notes Soft standards have been developed to measure the following aspects of personal
service:
 Staff who are attentive and ready to help,

 Polite staff,
 Competence in dealing with any eventuality,
 Level of tact displayed by staff in difficult situations,
 Availability of airline staff,

 Responsiveness to individual needs,
 Being treated as an individual,
 Approachable staff,
 Staff who are warm and friendly,

 Being greeted with a smile and pleasant service.
Although soft standards in these areas are subjective and difficult to monitor, they are the
standards by which, Jet believes, many customers are likely to judge their services and as such
cannot be left to chance. Hard standards have the potential to dissatisfy customers if they are not
met. However, Soft standards are powerful tools to impress customers and can be used to make
them feel special, to recognize and treat them as individuals.

Like Jet Airways, despite difficulties, the world’s best service providers measure almost
everything that can be measured. A way of categorizing non-financial service indicators that is
catching interest is to refer to them either as upstream or downstream indicators.

Example: Improved quality of service upstream leads to better financial performance
downstream.

Table 5.3: Upstream Determinants and Downstream Results

Performance Dimensions Types of Measures

Competitiveness Relative market share and position
Sales growth, Measures re -customer base.

Financial Performance Profitability, Liquidity, Capital Structure,
Market Ratios, etc.

Quality of Service Reliability, Responsiveness, Appearance, Cleanliness,
Comfort, Friendliness, Communication, Courtesy,
Competence, Access, Availability, Security, etc.

Flexibility Volume Flexibility, Specification and Speed of Delivery
Flexibility.
Resource Utilization Productivity, Efficiency, etc.

Innovation Performance of the innovation process, Performance of
individual innovations, etc.

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