Page 102 - DMGT522_SERVICES MANAGEMENT

Unit 4: Service Strategies

4.2.3 Adequate Training to Front Line Employees Notes

Organizations should educate employees about the need to serve customers to their satisfaction.
They should be trained adequately to offer error-free services consistently. And they should
also be trained to deal with those precarious situations when their efforts to offer quality service
to customers fail.
Employees should be in a position to notice any problems or mistakes that occur in the service
process as soon as possible, bring that to the notice of concerned person, and initiate the service
recovery process. If the customers blame them for delays or flaws in service, they should not
take it personally and get miffed, but should politely accept their responsibility for the
inconvenience caused. They should assure the customers that the mistake will be rectified and
any losses incurred by them will be compensated.
Self Assessment

State True or False:
5. Service recovery strategies aim at dealing with difficult customers.
6. Service firms should attempt to know if any customer is dissatisfied with their service or
any other aspect of the firm.
7. Companies should encourage their customers to complain to them in case they face any
problem in the quality or delivery of service.
8. The customers who complain actually give a second opportunity to the organisation to
correct its mistake.

4.3 Managing Demand, Supply and Productivity

The first step towards managing demand in services is to understand and sketch a pattern of
demand variation. It is also important to understand the reason for greater demand in some
market segments when compared to others at particular time.
An organisation has to track and sketch the demand level for its services at specific time periods.
If an organisation maintains a customer database and a record of varying demand levels over a
period of time, this can be done with ease and accuracy. Companies which do not have a
computerised database can adopt more informal methods. Companies should track the demand
levels regularly viz. daily, weekly and monthly.
The demand level for some services varies seasonally; therefore, organisations should gather
and record information on a periodic basis to predict the future demand levels. In some cases, it
might be relevant to observe the demand levels even on an hourly basis.

Example: Tracking the demand for a restaurant’s or a fast food centre’s services on an
hourly basis might be useful in understanding the demand patterns.

There are some services for which demand patterns can be easily predicted, while patterns for
some other services can be understood only after drawing the demand levels on a chart.

Demand Patterns

After capturing the data on demand levels in the form of charts, an organisation should and
observe the charts for predictable demand patterns.

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