In 1990 Valerie Zeithaml, Leonard Berry and A. Parasuraman published a landmark book entitled, “Delivering Quality Service: balancing customer perceptions and expectations”.
The book delivered something that all IT Service Managers need to be familiar with – namely, the SERVQUAL model which is a methodology for measuring service quality. Produced over four key phases of detailed research, involving over 15 large organizations in America, the book achieved four key objectives: -
- To attack head-on the mystique, mush and myths that surround the service-quality issue and limit progress
- To offer a framework that managers can actually use to understand and improve service quality
- To offer specific and practical guidelines for improving service; and
- To convey the sense of urgency that we feel about improving service quality in America
This article, the first in a three part series, was originally published in the itSMF journal, “Service Talk” and has been re-produced with kind permission.
I have reproduced the article by Karen Ferris and Heather Stebbings to kick-start a thorough review of the ‘gap’ model because I believe that the model stands the test of time and is still highly relevant to IT Service Managers today. Also, there is little point in re-inventing the wheel since both Ferris and Stebbings absolutely ‘hit the nail on the head’ with their article by positioning the ‘gap model’ in an ITIL Service Delivery context.
Mind The Gap.
By Karen Ferris and Heather Stebbings.
Let’s get back to basics: you have suppliers of products and services and consumers of products and services. Sometimes the suppliers are made up of internal and external teams providing everything from 1st line service desk support through to the project delivery organisation (and by project we mean business driven as well as IT driven). Sometimes the consumers are internal customers who then face off the public. The embedded nature of IT systems and services means this consumer/supplier relationship is now reliant on IT for its every day functions – from telephoning orders to stock delivery, or adding up accounts and invoicing. If IT fails, so does the business process – so getting IT “right” between these parties is the key to success.
The knock-on effects of this can be seen further down the value web1 and in your own balance sheet. This “getting IT right” means we as suppliers have a consistent level of service delivery, which means consumers experience a perceived value of service delivered, which means they are more than likely to stay with us and spend their money with us – this in essence is the “Service-Profit” chain - see diagram 1 (Click to enlarge): -
The inbuilt implications of this are that by exceeding the expectation, we win and retain clients, therefore increasing our revenue (& profit) which satisfies our stakeholders, and we keep the employees happy through reinvestment in the working environment (so say the theorists!).
All makes sense so far? So where are the gaps?
In the space of this short introduction, we’ve already mentioned them:
• The gap between what consumers think they want and what they actually receive
• The gap between what consumers say they want and what suppliers think they mean
• The gap between what suppliers think the customer means and the services the supplier can design or provide
• The gap between what the suppliers can offer and what they say they can offer
• The gap between what the supplier actually provides as a service to the consumer and how that service is perceived by that consumer
The model most used for measuring service quality and identifying the gaps is SERVQUAL2, and is shown in Diagram 2 below (Click to Enlarge): -
Starting to sound complicated?
It’s all about delivering systems and services that meet the expectations of the consumer – and if you don’t deliver it, you as a supplier can expect to lose customers.
Did you know it is 5 times MORE EXPENSIVE to WIN a new customer then to keep an old one?
So how do you keep the EXISTING ONES happy (let alone win the new ones!) and maintain your service-profit chain?
Anyway - why hasn’t anyone mentioned ITIL yet?
Think in a straight line for a moment:-
“My ability to keep the customer satisfied relies on the fact that I deliver systems and services that meet and satisfy the consumers’ requirements because I meet the consumers’ expectation of service quality” - in other words, I can provide systems and services that satisfy the consumer on a technical and/or functional level, I meet their perceived needs with the products or services I supply, and what I supply matches their expectations.
Back in the real world, these gaps between what you want and what you get are the crux behind many service improvement programmes. Identifying these gaps accurately and working out ways to minimise the impact of those gaps is critical – closing the gap for some services may be economically untenable to the supplier unless the consumer has some “skin in the game” and we start to complicate the relationship!
The Servqual model gurus identified 5 key dimensions that applied to all the gaps – and as suppliers and consumers of products and services yourselves, these characteristics may be familiar to you:
Tangibles - The appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication
materials
Reliability - The ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
Responsiveness - the willingness to help customers and provide a prompt service
Assurance - The knowledge and courtesy of the employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence in the solutions being provided
Empathy - The caring, individualised attention the company provides its customers
Typically, to determine the gaps that occur in the planning and delivery of supplied products/services to consumers, questionnaires based on five quality dimensions or criteria are used to judge the quality of service.
The questionnaires also identify the relative importance of these dimensions to each customer.
The combined knowledge provided in respect to an organisation’s service gaps, together with knowledge of what is really important to the customer provides a solid basis for service improvements utilising a prioritised action plan.
The gap analysis can be used to support initiatives such as ISO9001 and EFQM3
So, if we can address these dimensions, we can begin to close the gaps. And what help is there to assist us on this journey of service improvement?
Did someone mention the IT Infrastructure Library?
ITIL focuses on providing high quality services with a particular focus on customer relationships, which makes it the ideal support tool. Service Delivery is partially concerned with setting up agreements and monitoring the targets within these agreements.
Service Support processes can be viewed as delivering the services as laid down in the agreement. On both levels there is a strong relationship with quality systems such as ISO9001 and EFQM. Therefore there is a direct alignment between ITIL and Servqual Gap Analysis. ITIL supports the quality systems by providing defined processes and best practice for the management of IT services.
So how can ITIL help us?
Addressing the Dimensions
During their investigations, Berry et al. identified that reliability was the most important dimension used by customers in evaluating service quality, with responsiveness being next. So let’s start there.
How do we address Reliability? Surely Change Management and Availability Management are key here. Change Management puts in place standardised methods and procedures to ensure that changes are handled effectively and efficiently and given due consideration in terms of risk and impact. Therefore effective Change Management will minimise the adverse effect of changes on the business thus increasing reliability of service. Reliability is a key component of Availability Management. Reliability is concerned with the prevention of failure and the ability to keep services and components operable. Availability Management should start with system design and continue through implementation, on-going measurement and monitoring of the infrastructure, thus ensuring that the availability requirements of the organisation are met.
Other processes also contribute to the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately:-
• Capacity Management ensures that as the business evolves, the capacity requirements are identified and meet the demands of the business in a cost-effective and timely manner. It also involves monitoring and fine tuning to make the best use of available resources. Provision of sufficient capacity reduces the risk of poor performance and therefore unreliable services. Remember that the systems or services you supply may also be dependent upon suppliers who supply YOU with their services – and their ability to meet YOUR expectations as their customer is crucial in providing that confidence level that YOU need to support your own customers!
• Problem Management also has a role to play in reliability. Identification of problems and known errors through root cause analysis and their subsequent eradication prevent further incidents occurring thus increasing reliability. Proactive Problem Management through trend analysis can identify and resolve problems before incidents occur.
Responsiveness – the willingness to help customers and provide a prompt service is a fundamental role of the Service Desk. The Service Desk provides the interface between the customer and service teams. Given the right mix of people, processes and technologies, the Service Desk can assist customers at the first point of call and take ownership for the calls ensuring that the customer receives a fast response. The Service Desk is crucial in the improvement of customer perception of the service they receive. Customer perceptions are formed by the customer experiencing so-called “moments of truth”.
A “moment of truth” is the basic atom of service and describes each time a customer comes into contact with any aspect of the organisation. In IT, that “moment of truth” is the call to the Service Desk. A single negative experience can spoil the entire experience and therefore it is paramount that the Service Desk is effective and efficient.
The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence is the Assurance dimension. Assurance is concerned with competence; having the requisite skills and knowledge; courtesy and credibility etc. Once again the Service Desk is key in addressing this dimension. With the right people, processes, tools and technologies assurance can be achieved. Equip the Service Desk, Incident and Problem Management with a quality (and evolving) knowledge base and they will be more competent and have the skills and knowledge needed to respond to customer needs. Any IT Service Management area involved in regular communication with the customer such as Change and Service Level Management have the same requirements as the Service Desk to address this dimension.
Empathy is the caring and individualised attention the organisation provides its customers. It involves access; approachability; ease of contact; communication with customers and understanding customer needs. Obviously the Service Desk is once again key in addressing this dimension. Service Level Management and Customer Liaison also contribute.
Service Level Management determines what the customer needs are and should establish a true partnership between the customer and IT so that a mutually beneficial agreement (SLA) is reached. Service Level Management also sets up and maintains regular channels of communication with the customer so issues can be identified early and addressed in a prompt manner. Customer care is of vital importance. As David Wheeldon stated in “Business and Management Skills”:
“The basics of customer care are little more than ‘common sense’ – to treat your customers as individuals, to ask customers what they want, listen to their reply, then strive to provide it, to be pleasant and courteous in the way you deal with them, to act swiftly and decisively to correct any problems and encourage return business. In reality however this is not always easy and the good work of many can sometimes be spoiled by a thoughtless act by one individual. Everyone in the organisation therefore needs to be committed to customer care.”
It is that old message again, processes and technology will not bring about a culture change - only people can do that.
The final dimension is Tangibles - the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials. Not wholly addressed via a Service Management process but assisted by the application of a quality approach to change via Change and Configuration Management.
So, ITIL can help us improve the 5 dimensions. When we do discover gaps the ITIL processes will also help determine how we can address those gaps. Monitoring aspects of processes such as Incident and Problem Management, Availability and Capacity Management, and especially Service Level Management can highlight the areas for improvement.
Conclusion
The use of gap analysis helps management diagnose where performance improvements can be best targeted. The largest negative gaps, combined with an assessment of where expectations are highest, facilitates prioritisation of performance improvement. Equally if positive gap scores are obtained expectations are just not met but exceeded. This allows management to conclude if the organisation may be “over-supplying” a particular service feature and whether there is potential for re-deployment of resources.
In addition to performing the gap analysis, a framework has to be put in place for judging quality of service over time to determine if improvements have been made or expectations have changed.
This article was re-produced with kind permission and was originally published in the itSMF Journal, “Service Talk”.
References:-
http://www.proactiveservices.com.au/
Original Article Source:-
http://www.kmfadvance.com/mind_the_gap.htm
Amazon Book Reference :-
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