Write peer responses following posts,These responses should be a minimum of 125 words and be substantive. A response such as “I agree with her,” or “I liked what he said about that” is notconsidered a substantive post and will not be counted for course credit. CLEARLY LABEL EACH RESPONSE ON A WORD DOCUMENT (EXAMPLE HEADING: POST ONE)
POST ONE
There are give gaps in service quality: knowledge gap, standards gap,deliverygap, communications gap and service gap. The book says that the service gap is the mostimportant I totally agree with it. It is the biggest andmost important when dealing with services.Service gaps in service quality are the gaps that are between what the customer expects of the service and how they received the service that was actually given to them. This gap happens before, during and after the service is performed. When they are met or exceeded then there is no gap. Only when there was poor or less than expected service quality is when there is a failure gap.Most customers come into a scenario with an idea of what the service will be and then after the service they have timeto see if it undelivered, met or exceeded their expectations. One example I thought of in my life was going out to eat. Often when you go into a fancy high priced restaurant you expect the service to be amazing, it is what happens after that service was given is where the failure gap in service quality happens.
Knowledge gaps are between the managers and the customers. This is what the manager thinks the customer wants and what the customer actually wants. This is something that I dealt with in one of the restaurants I used to manage. The upward level of managementdidn't understand our customers, they wanted to be a bourbon bar. Not many people came into our little bookstore bistro to have bourbon and spend hours. Most of our clients at the bar were husbands waiting on wives to get done shopping or kids that wanted a hot chocolate to go. They took out the steam machine and replaced it with a bourbon barrel, it was a very monumental time and caused us a lot of lost sales. They used a research orientation to decide this change, as we are in bourbon and horse capital of the world in Lexington, Kentucky, they saw that a lot of books sold in the book store during our less busy times at the restaurant were about these two topics. We ended up changing back after sales ended up decreasing significantly during this time.
Next, the standard gaps are the next step, where management's perceptions of the expectations of the customer comes to the standards that are in the service delivered. This is when leaders in the service company are actually what happens. Whether it is not possible or no way, that is where this service gaps comes in.Next, the standards of the specific service deliveredto the actual service that is deliver, the deliverygap. It is where employees have to be accountable. If they are in a bad mood or not feeling well, they could give bad service, it is their willingness to perform. From there the actual service goes into one of two way. One way is to customer perception and the other is the retailer's communications about the services. The communications gap is where people can over promiseand under deliver and vice versa.This is important because it is the last of the customer's interactions with staff and will lead back to the service gap being a failure.
POST TWO
Firms should strive to always provide excellent service quality. However, businesses often struggle to do this considering "service quality is not a specific goal or program that can be achievedor completed, but must be an ongoing part of all management and service production on a daily basis." (Bateson& Hoffman, 2017, p XXXXXXXXXXIn Chapter 12 of the text, it clarifies the difference between customer satisfaction and service quality. It states, "Most experts agree that customer satisfaction is a short-term, transaction-specific measure, whereas service quality is an attitude formed by a long-term, overallevaluation of a performance. (Bateson& Hoffman, 2017. p. 317).
It is understandably hard for service firms to set themselves apart in a sea full of competition, however, providing exceptional service quality can cause a business to stand out. The text states, "Service quality offers a way of achieving success among competing services... In fact, establishing service quality may be the only way of differentiating oneself. Service quality differentiation can generate increased market share and can ultimately mean the difference between financial success and failure." (Bateson and Hoffman, 2017, p. 318).
There are five failure gaps in service quality that are discussed in Chapter 12. These include the service gap, the knowledge gap, the standards gap, the delivery gap, and the communications gap. The goal of any business is to close or at least narrow these gaps in service quality, which examines the cumulative satisfaction of consumers experiences based on successful or unsuccessful experiences. Our reading identifies the service gap as the most important. It "describes the distance between customers' expectations of service and their perception of the service actually delivered." (Bateson& Hoffman, 2017, p XXXXXXXXXXThe service gap is made up of the other four gaps. When one of the gaps increases or decreases, that is reflected in the service gap.
The knowledge gap is defined as "the difference between what consumers expect of a service and what management perceives that consumers expect." (Batesonand Hoffman, 2017, p XXXXXXXXXXThere are three factors that have a major impact on how large the knowledge gap is. The factors consist of research orientation, upward communication, and the levels of management. My biggest takeaway is that this is basically just knowing what the customer is truly seeking from the service and attempting to give them what they want.
The communications gap is described as "the difference between the actual quality of service delivered and the quality of service described in the firm's external communications." (Bateson and Hoffman, 2017, p XXXXXXXXXXThe communications gap is one of the most important to me. Nothing is more frustrating than not getting what was promised or feeling disappointed with the purchase of a service. A communications gap is not good for a business to build positive relationships or trust with customers. The two factors that have a strong impact on the communications gap include overpromisesand the flow of horizontal communication.
It is beneficial for businesses to create a flowchart when trying to develop and communicate standards. The goal is for all employees to meet or surpass the expectations of consumers. There are several factors that influence the standards gap--"management does not believe it can or should meet customer requirements for service, corporate leadership may set other priorities that interfere with setting standards that lead to good service, there is simply no culture for service quality, management feels hampered by insufficient methods of measuring quality, and difficulties in writing specifications for employee behaviors. (Bateson& Hoffman, 2017, p. 322).The standards gap is said to be "the difference between what management perceives that consumers expect and the quality specifications set for service delivery," while the delivery gap is "the difference between the quality specifications set for service delivery and the actual quality of service delivered. When employees follow the standards set by management to deliver excellent service, the delivery gap is nonexistent." (Bateson and Hoffman, 2017, p. 320).
The delivery gap is based on employee efforts to provide the service in the desired manner. Employees must strive to meet company standards. Some things that may hinder their performance include willingness to perform, employee-job fit, role conflict, role ambiguity, dispersion of control, learned helplessness, and inadequate support. The gap will grow if these are not properly managed.
It is important to close the service gap as much as possible. In order to have a successful business with the reputation of high service quality, the business must provide consistent satisfying experiences that meet consumer expectations. The text claims, "The needs of the consumer must be understood in detail, as must the constraints under which the service firm operates. Service providers must be focused on quality, and the system must be designed to support that mission by being controlled correctly and delivering services as it was designed to do." (Bateson& Hoffman, 2017, p. 317).