Service delivery requires a clear understanding of how client’s needs have to be met. This is where most organizations experience drawbacks as they struggle to overcome the mentality of “That’s not how we do it or how we operate” and “Our clients don’t need that or they do not expect that”. These situations however pave way for opportunities to innovate and create for both the service providers and their customers/ clients. The burden now lies on managers to question basic assumptions about how a service is defined and delivered as well as seeing the opportunity to achieve dramatically enhanced results. These four points will help review areas that affect the quality of service delivery and how it can be improved.
1.How interaction is conducted
The interactions between service providers and the customers can be conducted in four ways:
- Interaction between one provider and one client (commonly known as one-on-one assistance).
- Interaction between one provider and multiple clients.
- Interaction between multiple providers and one client.
- Interaction between multiple providers and multiple clients.
As a service provider the priority should be on determining the effectiveness of the type of interaction to be implemented, whether the value for customers increases or decreases when information or experience is shared with others and whether communication amongst the service providers themselves improves service quality. These can only be determined by assessing these questions:
Does creating shared experiences/shared information among customers add value for them?
When the service provider shares the same information to different interactions, there is this belief that holding collective interactions actually reduce on costing. On actual fact the concern must never really be about the cost (although its part of the picture ), rather the focus should be on value. How much value has been affected as a result of the service rendered? Normally, its either the customer benefit from the interaction or the customer might actually be concerned about their privacy and individuality and that can cause them not to share their real concerns in the presence of other customers. As service providers we must ensure which interactions best suits our customers.
Does your customers need tight communication among more than one provider?
A full and clear understanding of what the customer’s needs really are, must be a priority. Communication between service providers must be active to ensure the customer gets the best help and feedback they need. This also is dependent on the input of all those responsible to assist the customer.
2.Service Boundary
Assumptions about the scope of what an organization delivers must be reexamined. Service delivery must always be designed to achieve excellent outcomes for either grouped clients who share concerns or for those individuals who have concerns that require customization.The fact that your clients might be using similar services is not sufficient to indicate a need for redefinition, but if clients have troubles accessing or using those services, you may want to review the service boundary. For example, if the main problem is that of poor communication, clients must be given access to effective communication tools like active hotlines etc. Another example we find in the banking sector, to combat the problem of managing finances, most banks now provide their clients with budgeting and record-keeping tools and the knowledge of how they can track their transactions. No matter how good a service is, it becomes useless if clients are too overwhelmed to access it.
3.Allocation of Service Tasks
Whenever the service boundary changes or even if it does not, organizations can enhance more value by reviewing who actually delivers the service. Constantly review whether or not the employees expertize match their assigned tasks. This way the best employees will be able to attend to areas where they are good and this ensures more success as well as value for the customer.
4.The delivery location
Location plays a powerful role in redefining a service. Clients need not stress before they can access the service provider. If they are limited already the service value to them is compromised. The more the service provider is located where the customer can reach the more services can be trouble shoot and ensure the best customer experience such that the customer will never forget.