Chapter 12

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Chapter 12Researching

Service Success and Failure


Objectives

1. To emphasize the importance of researching service success and failure

2. To examine why service success is so difficult to achieve

3. To discuss methods for researching services

4. To explore creating a service quality information system


Outline

I. Introduction

II. Why Is Researching Service Success and Failure Necessary?

III. Why Is Service Success So Difficult to Achieve?

IV. Research Methods for Services

V. Creating a Service Quality Information System

VI. Summary and Conclusion


Why Is Researching ServiceSuccess and Failure Necessary?

• Determining success or failure is a key focus of service performance measurement.

• Success or failure information can be used to reward excellent performance, set priorities among process improvement options, and preempt customer switching behavior.

• In cases of extreme dissatisfaction and satisfaction, the customer is often very vocal.


Why Is Service SuccessSo Difficult to Achieve?

• Service success is difficult because:– Services are dynamic and experiential in nature.

– Services exist only when they are rendered.

– Services occur in real time.

• The same forces contributing to unpredictable service quality complicate investigating services using traditional research methodologies.

• Measure service performance using a combination of methods, thereby offsetting the limitations of any single method.


Research Methodsfor Services

• Observational Techniques

• Mystery Shopping

• Employee Reports

• Survey Methods

• Focus Groups

• Experimental Field Testing

• Critical Incident Technique

• Moments of Truth Impact Analysis


Research Methodsfor Services (cont’d)

• Mystery shopping – an unobtrusive method of gathering data in which

people pose as bona fide shoppers to observe and collect information about an organization's service performance.



• The Critical Incident Technique – research method especially useful to study the service

experiences of customers and frontline employees.






Creating a Service QualityInformation System

• What to Measure– Use service blueprints as guides to structure

questions, make direct observations, and ensure that all essential aspects of the service experience are covered

• What to Do with the Information– Uncover problem areas

– Adjust service standards

– Decide which activities need the highest priority


Creating a Service QualityInformation System (cont’d)


Supplemental Slides

• Why Observational Research for Services?

• The Research Process– Identify and Formulate the Problem

– Determine Data Needs and Sources

– Choose Research Design

– Design the Sample

– Develop Data Collection Forms

– Collect the Data

– Process and Analyze the Data

– Report Preparation

• Chapter Web Sites


Why ObservationalResearch for Services?

• Services are dynamic, experiential processes

• Survey or experimental methods are not capable of fully capturing these dynamic, experiential processes

• Observation offers naturalistic insights into service phenomena

• Direct human observation does not rely on the service participants’ recall or verbal capabilities, nor does it require their cooperation


The Research Process


The Research Process (cont’d)


1. Identify and Formulate the Problem

• Most important research step– Can also be most difficult research step

• Problems are not always what they appear to be

• State as a question

• Don’t label symptoms of the problem as the problem

• The researcher also must determine why the research is needed


2. Determine Data Needs and Sources

• Identify the information needs for this problem

• Is secondary data available?– Internal

– External

• Secondary data should always be sought.– Saves time & money


3. Choose Research Design

• Survey

• Experimental

• Observational


4. Design the Sample

• Key goal is representativeness

• Kind of sample– Probability – known chance

– Nonprobability – unknown chance

• Sample size


5. Develop Data Collection Forms

• Four basic methods:– Self-administered

– Telephone

– Personal

– Electronic


6. Collect the Data

• Pretesting of the main study

• Field work

• Supervision of interviewers


7. Process and Analyze the Data

• Process – Editing, coding, tabulating

• Analysis – Statistical interpretation via computer


8. Report Preparation

• Form of report– Written

– Oral

• Explain the research process

• Interpret findings

• Summary section


Web Sites

• Hertz (http://www.hertz.com), p. 174

• Mary Kay (http://www.marykay.com), p. 174

• Southwest Airlines(http://www.southwest.com), p. 174

• BizRate (http://www.bizrate.com/), p. 180

• Marriott Hotels (http://www.marriott.com), p. 181


Web Sites (cont’d)

• McDonald’s (http://www.mcdonalds.com), p. 181

• Citibank (http://www.citibank.com), p. 181

• Olive Garden (http://www.olivegarden.com), p. 181

• Skype(http:// www.skype.com), p. 185

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Chapter 12

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