Page 101 - DMGT522_SERVICES MANAGEMENT

Services Management

Notes succeed in earning a loyal customer. This loyal customer could tell his friends and relatives how
the organisation attended to his concerns and solved his problems. This will help develop a
positive image about the company among prospective customers and serve as word-of-mouth
publicity for the business. While developing an effective developing a service recovery system,
the following guidelines should be kept in mind:

4.2.1 Track and Anticipate Recovery Strategies

Service firms should attempt to know if any customer of theirs is dissatisfied with their service
or any other aspect of the firm. Periodic customer surveys and regular customer interaction can
help the organisation identify any failures on their part. There may be some customers who are
dissatisfied with poor quality service but do not complain to the firm or voice their problems
openly. Such customers may reduce their business interactions with the organisation and may
eventually discontinue utilising the services of the organisation. Organisations can track such
customers with the help of technology and attempt to communicate with them.

Example: A private marketing company which regularly utilises the services of a
particular hotel for the business travel of its employees starts to utilise the services of another
hotel, at the behest of its employees. If the first hotel had a proper database management system,
it would have been able to notice that the business from a corporate account had been declining
and can take the necessary steps to revive the account.

Companies should encourage their customers to complain to them in case they face any problem
in the quality or delivery of service. The complaint submitting process should be simple and
swift and should be widely publicised so as to increase the awareness of customers.

The management should continuously analyse the complexities involved in the service process,
and identify the areas where there is a possibility of failure or delay. This proactive approach
can help the management prevent some of the customer related problems. It should develop
effective mechanisms to deal with any problems that may still arise, and solve them immediately
to the customer’s satisfaction.

4.2.2 Solve Problems in Quick Time

One of the main reasons for customers shying away from conveying their problems to the
company is that they feel that it will be of no use. They might have formed this opinion based on
past experience or on hearing it from friends. Some customers, however, communicate their
grievances to the company, expecting a prompt corrective action. When the company fails to
meet the customer’s expectations and fails to sort out the issue, he loses confidence in the
company and its services.

The management should recognise that the customers who complain have given a second
opportunity to the organisation to correct its mistake. If it fails to deliver even after being given
a second chance, the customers will, perhaps, be lost forever. The management should motivate
its employees to utilise the opportunity to correct their mistake and offer superior quality. They
should be made to realise that they can convert dissatisfied customers into satisfied and loyal
customers again by exceeding their service expectations. The complaints lodged by customers
should be attended to immediately and the problems resolved to their satisfaction. The employees
of the company should be made to understand the implications of bad service both in terms of
losing an existing customer as well as bad publicity for the company by the dissatisfied customer.
The longer the company takes to resolve a customer complaint, the greater will be the damage.
Moreover, the slow recovery process reduces the chances of retaining a customer dissatisfied
with its service.

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