QUALITY ASSURANCE

Strategic Customer Service Enhancement

A key to successful and cost effective marketing in competitive markets is to differentiate an organization, and its programs, facilities and services, from the competition on features or dimensions most important to its target markets. Quality and customer service are primary discriminators. Thus, it is important that organizations address quality assurance and service enhancement aggressively.

Indications are that quality is one of the most relevant and cost effective ways to augment and add value to service offerings. Studies show that customers are generally willing to pay higher prices for a product or service if they perceive it to be of superior quality. Also, it is more difficult for competitors to offset a true “quality advantage” through price-cutting or increased advertising alone (Sherden, 1988).

Failure to continually improve product and service quality will make it difficult for businesses and organizations to retain existing customers and attract new ones. Failure to meet the quality expectations of customers not only reduces potential revenues, it also increases operating costs, including the cost associated with correcting quality related problems (e.g., redressing complaints). Systematic program and service quality problems can also negatively effect employee morale, attitudes, and productivity which often leads to a further deterioration of service quality and image. An organization’s image and performance, with respect to quality, can also significantly impact its ability to attract funding and retain quality employees.

What is Quality Service and Experiences?

One reason why many service businesses, agencies and organizations have failed, or been slow to develop strategic service/experience improvement programs, is that they have a hard time defining quality in a way that it can be managed and evaluated. Many organizations can not clearly define the concept of quality, never mind specific aspects or dimensions of quality. Service organizations generally have the greatest difficulty conceptualizing and defining quality. This is to some extent due to the inherent and complex nature of services that was discussed earlier in this chapter.

Event though the complex nature of recreation experiences and characteristics of services make it difficult specify and measure quality, it is still important and possible to define service quality. What is important to recognize is that there is no universal definition of quality? A definition that is appropriate and works for one organization may not be applicable in others. Quality must be customer relevant and organization relevant. Since different organizations target and serve different customers, they must develop their own definition of quality based on customer expectations. Parks and recreation organization have to make their s own assessment of what its customers expect and perceive "quality" to be.

While it is true that customer relations and hospitality are important elements of service quality and recreation marketing, however alone are not enough to ensure that customers have quality recreation experiences and positive perceptions. Customers evaluate the quality of recreational experiences and service simultaneously on both functional and technical quality. Technical quality is what customers receive. Examples are the skill of instructions, cleanliness of a campsite, and the maintenance of a tennis court. Functional quality is how the service is

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delivered including such things as the knowledge, responsiveness and cordiality displayed by the organization’s staff.

Although definitions of recreation experience and service quality will vary, most authors agree that any definition must be customer focused and relevant Any definition of quality that does not include the customer’s viewpoint is incomplete, and any concept of quality that is not oriented to customer satisfaction will not be adequate. John Guspari (1988) argues forcefully that “The customer is the final arbitrator when it comes to quality.” There is general agreement that, “It is not those who offer the product but those whom it serves - customers, users - who have the final word on how well a product fulfills needs and expectations (Blume, 1988).” 1984

Most definitions of service quality emphasize that the key elements in determining customers’ perceptions of quality are:

Their expectations

Expectations are predictions made by customers about how a service provider is going to perform, not necessarily how it does perform (Guspari, 1988). Customer expectations are formed based on:

Their image of the organization,

Their prior experience with the organization, and its products and services,

The marketing mix including promotional messages, and

Word-of-mouth communication from other people who have experience or perceptions about the products or services.

A comparison of the service experience they received (or perceived they received) with their expectations.

The after-experience evaluation of the degree to which the product or service met their expectations.

The degree of success in control for variability.

An expectation-based definition of quality requires a business or organization to identify, continually monitor, and if possible anticipate changing customer expectations. It is important to recognize that defining quality as meeting customer expectations does not eliminate the need to develop product and service performance standards. It means standards must relate to customer expectations.

A number of the definitions reviewed stressed that it is not enough to meet customer expectations. Organizations must exceed them. While it is true that if organizations consistently exceed expectations, customers will have astrong sense of perceived quality, defining quality as consistently exceeding customer expectations is too abstract in that it does not provide a definitive standard. Defining quality as meeting customer expectations provides a clear target provided that customer expectations are determined and communicated to staff.

The Management of Customer Service Enhancement

According to one management expert, “Managers of businesses have three primary objectives: (1) to enhance customer satisfaction, (2) strengthen competitive position, and (3) improve earnings (Butterfield, 1987).” Obviously, the success of for profit businesses are dependent on

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how well it meets the needs and expectations of their customers. But, managers of not-for-profit organizations and agencies must attract funding and maximize net public benefits. A quality assurance program can contribute significantly to the achievement of all these management objectives. It will also help focus employees, decisions and processes on customer expectations and satisfaction.

The quality of services and experiences provided by park and recreation organizations can and must be managed. Service quality problems can be divided into three general categories (1) poor performance on the part of particular employees, (2) special and unforeseen circumstances (e.g., weather, equipment breakdowns) and, (3) process failures. Problems with organizational processes account for more than three-quarters of all quality failures (Orsii, 1982). Focusing on processes can best enhance service quality, because focusing on processes helps prevent problems from occurring (Moore, 1987; Hansen et.al., 1988). " Fundamentally the process that must be managed is the process by which various departments and employees function together to provide value to its customers (Guspari, 1988).” According to Philip Crosby (1979), quality management is a systematic way of guaranteeing that organized activities happen the way they are planned.

As Salton (1988) put it, the process of quality improvement all boils down to creating a conducive environment (system), providing the necessary support and tools, and motivating individuals to realize the achievement of quality goals. This is clearly a management function and responsibility. Even though service enhancement is a responsibility shared by all employees throughout the organization, ultimate responsibility falls not to customer contact staff (e.g., receptionists, and technicians) but rather to top and middle managers.

The Need for Comprehensive Service Improvement Strategies

The fact that park and recreation customers and other stakeholders (e.g., elected officials, sponsors, and volunteers) are demanding improved quality should be sufficient reason organizations to develop service improvement programs. For agencies and non-profits service quality can affect public support and funding. Most customers have a wide range of recreation and activities and providers to choose among. Customers are not reluctant to shift to organizations that provide programs, facilities and services and products that meet or exceed their expectations even if it means paying more or traveling greater distances. One service expert put it this way, “Your best customer is someone else’s best prospect (Drier, 1987).”

Quality recreation programs, facilities and services don’t just happen. Park and recreation organizations must develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of comprehensive service improvement program that focus simultaneously on facility, program and service(s) quality. Service improvement efforts should be integrated within the framework an organizations strategic plan. A plan is needed to connect your business -decisions and activities - to customer expectations (Brown, 1987a).” Without a plan, the tendency in many organizations is to deal with the symptoms of quality problems (Vavoso, 1987), and to place primary responsibility for quality on employees, and not on management where it really belongs.

Without question, handling of customer concerns and complaints is an important component of customer service but a service enhancement program should focus on preventing problems by creating attitudes and controls that make prevention possible (Orsini, 1982). Preventing quality related problems is preferable and usually less costly than redressing customer complaints. Responding to customer complaints is no assurance the problem won’t occur again. Also, preventing quality problems before they occur can improve employee morale and productivity by reducing the time and stress associated with dealing with dissatisfied customers. While it is true that superior service and complaint handling can mediate compensate for occasional product and facility technical shortcomings, it cannot compensate for products and facilities which

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consistently fail to meet customer expectations. It is a myth that a pleasant smile can remedy all problems.

Successful service improvement efforts can also enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing communications and public affairs efforts by enhancing customer bonds, by creating an image of quality, and through support from positive word-of-mouth communication. It is very difficult and very costly for organizations to effectively promote products and services to quality conscious markets if they have reputations for poor or inconsistent quality. Consistently providing quality facilities, programs, products and services can provide organizations with a very effective marketing communication theme. A reputation for high quality will also encourage marketing partnerships with other organizations.

Organizations that have a reputation for delivering quality services and products also find it easier to attract and retain quality employees. "In organizations where quality is poor and customer dissatisfaction is high, employee morale is often low and employee retention is difficult. Organizations that have service enhancement programs tend to treat their employees with the same respect, care, and responsiveness as customers. Marriott Corporation and other quality service organizations work hard to attract, support and retain quality employees because it knows that quality people desire to work for quality organizations.

A service enhancement program can actually reduce costs. According to Philip Crosby (1979), once a quality improvement program is implemented, most managers agree that quality is free. Crosby contends that “What costs money are the unquality things -- all the actions that involve not doing things right the first time.” This includes costs associated with responding to customer complaints, reduced productivity, employee stress and turnover, and in some instances, liability costs.

Other bonuses from implementing effective quality assurance include: more effective management and managers, customer-focused innovation, internal partnerships between employees and different departments, and a better image and relationship with the local community.

Service Enhancement Programs

Service enhancement programs should: (1) move quality from an abstract concept to something that can be managed and evaluated by identifying customer expectations and the level of program, facility and service features and performance required to meet those expectations, (2) identify, assess the cost effectiveness, and prioritize new programs, services, facilities, and processes for improving quality; and (3) serve as the basis for educating the organization about quality and the approach the organization plans to take to improve quality.

While, there is no universally correct approach to improving the quality of recreation programs, facilities and services, experience and research indicate that the following elements are common to most successful programs (See Figure 11- ) :

1. Develop and sustain an organizational commitment and climate for service improvement.

2. Identification of existing and prospective customers, their program, facility and service expectations, and their perceptions.

3. A comprehensive program, facility and service audit

4. Service improvement program

Service quality objectives

Technical and functional performance standards

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Human Relations Program

Participative Management and Empowerment

Complaint Solicitation, Handling and Analysis System

Employee Education

Point-of-Purchase and Promotion Post Consumption

Customer Education

5. Monitoring and evaluating customer satisfaction and results of service improvement efforts

Organizational commitment and climate for service improvement

Gaining commitment to quality and service improvement is so important that it must be the first step in a service improvement program. Even the best intentioned, most well designed service improvement program will fail unless management, support staff, and front-line line employees are committed from the very beginning. Employees must be genuinely concerned and feel responsible for improving the quality of programs, facilities and service. Top management cannot assume that their employees or managers are already committed to quality improvement.

The success of any quality assurance effort depends significantly on the early and full support of top management Employee support is a direct function of perceived management commitment. Without management support and leadership the quality program will lack a sense of importance and employees will either disregard the effort, or treat it in a very apathetic way (Kurman, 1987). Commitment to quality and continuous improvement must come from the top. As Edward Demming (1982), one of the pioneers in quality assurance stated, “It is not enough that top management commit themselves by affirmation for life to quality. They must know what they are committing to, i.e., what they must do. Mere approval is not enough... they must act.” Managers in organizations must also win employee commitment by:

Marketing the concept of quality and service to their employees. They must convince and demonstrate to all employees that their individual performance and concern for customers has an impact on quality and customer satisfaction, which in turn will affect the long-term well being of the organization, and therefore their well being (Hagan, 1984).

Recognizing and accepting their role as quality leaders. It is essential that top managers accept that they have an obligation to demonstrate the type of leadership that encourages and supports employee commitment to improve quality. - gaining employee understanding and commitment to the organization’s quality assurance vision and objectives,

Allocating the necessary resources (e.g., funding, and staff) required to develop and implement service improvement strategies.

Breaking down real or perceived organizational barriers that limit cooperation between departments, functions, and employees.

Holding the organization, and its managers and employees accountable for quality improvement and customer satisfaction. All departments and employees, regardless of function or extent of contact with customers, must understand and accept their service responsibilities. It is crucial that top management shows that service improvement really counts when it comes to performance appraisals, recognition, raises, and promotions.

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Adopting a management style (e.g., empowerment and participative management) and designing a human relations program that creates an environment that involves, encourages, and develops the potential of all employees.

Program, facility and service expectations

Developing and evaluating service improvement programs require up-to-date information on customer expectations. It is equally important to determine, and continually evaluate, customers’ perceptions of the quality of facilities, services and programs. However, managers and employees of park and recreation often: (1) do not know what program, facilities and service features their customers consider important, (2) misperceive the relative importance customers assign to different features, and/or (3) don’t really know how customers rate their performance on important product and service features

Determining customer expectations and perceptions, although it requires an investment in both time and money, it is an essential component of a service improvement program (Shetty and Ross, 1985). Organizations which really do understand, and act on, customer expectations and perceptions:

Understand that customer expectations, and their competitors’ offerings, are constantly changing. Therefore, they regularly invest the necessary time and effort to conduct customer research.

They commit themselves not only to collect customer information, but also to act on the findings.

They use a variety of methods, or listening devices, to secure and maintain information about customers’ needs, expectations and perceptions. They recognize that certain customers prefer and/or will not respond to certain methods (such as questionnaires) and that using more than one method to collect customer information will help avoid basing decisions on biased information.

Listening to customers, and reporting what they discover, is considered every employee’s responsibility, not just the responsibility of their marketing and sales staff.

Owners and managers make it a point to know customers as individuals, and not just statistics. Their informal face-to-face discussions with customers supplement and confirm the information from comment cards, complaint analysis, or customer surveys.

They make sure that all employees, regardless of position or responsibility, are provided with information about customer expectations and how they evaluate their products and services.

Customer information can be gathered through secondary data, personal, telephone and mail surveys, focus groups, comment cards, customer complaints, and from employees. It is important to consider a variety of methods and carefully assess the cost, advantages, and disadvantages associated with a number of different methods.

Secondary data

Universities, industry organizations, government agencies, and commercial research companies regularly collect information that can assist in better understanding existing and emerging customer expectations. Using secondary data is usually less expensive than requiring the collection of “primary’ data. The principal disadvantage is that the data usually have not been collected from the secondary user’s customers, or for the specific purposes of the secondary user.

Advances in computer and communication technology, and a growing number of on-line data bases, now make it possible for businesses and other organizations to gain access to the entire

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collections of libraries, census and zip code data, and the results (and data) of various surveys. Because of the increasing number of Internet and computer accessible databases, businesses and organizations now have accessible information on market trends, customers, and current research.

Focus Groups

The focus group method of collecting data involves in-depth, interactive discussions, led by a moderator, with a group(s) of customers. Key factors in successful focus groups are: (1) deciding what information is desired, (2) the composition of the focus group, and (3) the skill of the focus group leader. Focus groups can result in a more comprehensive and meaningful definition of who customers are, how they make decisions, what they really desire in a product or service, and how they feel about specific products and services. Focus groups can also serve as a way for an organization to pre-test new product and service concepts, and better define questions to be included on larger scale customer surveys and information forms (e.g., registration cards).

Regular Informal Discussions with Customers

Some of the most successful service organizations rely heavily on regular informal face-to-face discussions with their customers in order to stay in touch with customer expectations and perceptions. Their top managers believe that if you want to know what customers expect and think, you need to ask them. Although these discussions are informal, their approach is usually well organized, and not left to chance. In many of these organizations managers are required to make regular face-to-face contact with a certain number of customers each week/month/quarter.

Observation

Useful insights concerning how customers use and react to products and service can be gained by observation. While it is true that observation does not provide an explanation for customer behavior or reactions, it can supplement information obtained through other methods. It can also be useful in generating questions to be included on interviews and surveys. For example, one large resort was confronted with a significant number of customer complaints relating to the availability of information about activities, services, and their locations. By observing their customers, they discovered that their normal traffic patterns did not bring them by the resort’s main information distribution points. As a result, they changed the locations of the distribution points and complaints decreased substantially.

Polling Employees

Many service organizations recognize that their employees, especially front-line staff, have valuable insight into customer expectations and satisfaction. If asked, they can provide useful quality improvement recommendations. They regularly poll their staff as a means of gaining information about customers, and ways to improve products and service. Other organizations hold regular employee meetings as a way of finding out what customers are saying and how they are reacting to products, pricing, procedures and rules.

Comment Cards

A large number of organizations, rely on comment (or report) cards distributed to all their customers to assist them in determining customer perceptions of the quality of their facilities, products, and service. A problem is that comment cards often produce skewed data. Often only persons who are either very satisfied or very dissatisfied take the time to complete them. They also don’t provide much in the way of reasons for the satisfaction or dissatisfaction ratings.

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However, they can still provide useful insights when used in conjunction with data collected using other methods.

Customer Panels

A number of businesses and organizations have set up ongoing customer panels. The panel, which is regularly asked about product, program, facility and service expectations and perceptions, operates for a set period of time, sometimes years. The problem with panels is that some customers are just not willing to devote the necessary time and energy, even when offered with some type of incentive such as free merchandise or trips. Therefore, it is difficult to formulate and maintain a panel consisting of a representative sample of customers.

Customer Surveys

While some of the best service organizations rely heavily on informal methods for collecting customer information, they also conduct regular customer surveys. These surveys use carefully structured questionnaires and are distributed to representative samples of their current, former and/or prospective customers. Surveys can provide quantitative data to verify information obtained through more informal and qualitative methods such as focus groups. They can also allow an organization to explore issues and concerns more analytically and in greater depth than is possible with methods such as comment cards.

Surveys can be completed by the customer or administered by trained interviewers via telephone or face-to-face. Properly designed and administered surveys can be a relatively quick, inexpensive way of collecting valuable information.

Quality Audit and Service Blueprints

The purpose of an audit is to identify reasons for service shortcomings, determine real or perceived barriers to improving quality, establish quality improvement priorities, and recommend alternative actions which will enhance the quality of program, facilities and services. The results of the audit, along with research on customer expectations and perceptions, should be the basis for service improvement objectives and performance standards.

Audits should include assessments of programs facilities and services. The emphasis should be on identifying product and facility attributes and service features that do not meet customer expectations, reasons why they fail to meet expectations, and alternative corrective actions (such as technology, additional personnel, and facility redesign). Audits should attempt to identify improvements which can be made immediately without significant cost; necessary product, facility and process modifications which will require significant investments of time and money; and entirely new services, products, facilities, and technology needed to meet customer expectations. Audits often uncover very simple procedural shortcomings which can be corrected overnight at little or no additional cost. Conversely, they sometimes identify significant facility design and technology problems that require substantial investment to improve user friendliness and increase reliability.

Service improvement audits also focus on factors which effect the organization's ability to develop and implement a quality assurance program including:

Whether the organization has standards covering program, facility and service features most important to its customers. If standards exist, are they based on customer expectations, and are they used to evaluate/measure performance?

Whether there is cooperation and good communication between the Forest Service and its customers between different functional areas, employees and managers. If not, what needs to be done to improve communication and cooperation?

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How the organization holds its employees and managers accountable for service quality and improvement. Who in the organization is accountable for service improvement and customer relations?

Are current employee educational programs and opportunities sufficient to enhance relevant managerial and employee skills?

Do employees have access to the types and quality of equipment and technology (e.g., microcomputers) which will be needed to improve service quality? This includes production, communication, and information technologies.

Are employees at all levels in the organization actively encouraged to participate in decision making? Do they feel empowered to make decisions and take actions necessary to meet customer expectations?

Will current human relations (personnel) policies and practices support the organization’s emphasis service improvement and customer satisfaction?

Service audits can be conducted by outside consultants, a special team consisting of employees from different areas in the organization, or by managers. The benefit of using outside consultants is that they can often be more objective, and although they will need to learn about the organization’s products and services, they already have experience conducting audits. The danger of using employees or managers is that past experience and loyalties often prevent them from being objective, and/or focusing on the real problems and long-lasting corrective action. Also, internal audits often don’t have the credibility associated with audits conducted by outside experts. Some organizations have hired consultants to help a team of employees conduct audits. This not only builds employee ownership, it also develops internal expertise.

Conducting a comprehensive service audit is not an easy undertaking. It is usually recommended that organizations, which have never conducted an audit, limit the scope of their first audit to those facilities, programs, services, and processes most likely to be the priority of their quality improvement program. The scope of the audit can be expanded over time as they gain experience.

Service improvement is often more effective if organizations develop service or process blueprints/diagrams. Even the simplest of services and programs entail many different tasks, and often require the efforts of different employees, departments, and functions. A service blueprint identifies and diagrams the different elements of a service, the sequencing of the elements, and the relationships between different elements. Blueprints can be developed for services in much the same way as architectural drawings and product engineering blueprints.

Service blueprinting forces organizations to break down services into their various components, and show, in sequence, the steps or tasks which must be performed to produce or deliver the service (Hansen et. al., 1988). Blueprints can assist in describing desired customer outcomes and suggesting performance standards (e.g., execution time) to better insure these outcomes, identifying service elements which are most subject to failure and for which fail safe systems must be developed, determining staffing and design requirements to insure consistent performance, and focusing monitoring, and improvement efforts.

Service Improvement Programs

Once an organization has gained the commitment of its staff, collected and analyzed information on customer expectations and perceptions, and conducted a service audit, the next step is to utilize this information to develop a service improvement program. The program should specify

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what the organization intend to do to enhance customer and stakeholder satisfaction and perceptions the quality of its facilities, programs and services.

Quality Assurance Objectives

Serve improvement objectives that unambiguously state its priorities for improving programs, facilities and/or services. The objectives should focus on product and service features most important to customers, especially those areas where the organization is not meeting customer expectations such as complaint handling, customer input, cleanliness of facilities, food and beverage service, reservations, security, or customer information. The objectives should be specific and measurable statements of desired quality improvement.

Technical and Functional Quality Performance Standards

Service organizations are discovering that it is hard, if not impossible, to implement or evaluate a service improvement program without performance standards. An essential step in promoting quality is to develop specific measures throughout the organization and continuously measure performance of their products, services and employees against those standards Parasuraman et. al., 1988; Shetty and Ross, 1985; Zemke and Schaaf, 1989; Lele and Sheth, 1987; Moore, 1987). The standards reflect customer expectations, are enforced by managers and supervisors, and are linked to measurement systems used to evaluate the performance/contribution of departments, managers and individual employees (Shetty, 1987).

Many organizations with reputations for quality products and services including Marriott, Disney, Embassy Suites, McDonalds, Swiss Air, and Holiday Inn, have all developed customer focused quality standards. Some, such as Marriott Corporation, have formulated very specific written quality standards for every aspect of every employee’s job. Deviation from these standards cannot be made without management approval. A growing number of organizations such as Federal Express, Holiday Inn, and a number of banks, not only develop standards, they back them up with money-back guarantees.

Standards specify the level of performance required to produce and deliver the organization’s concept of quality. They are precise statements of expected performance against which the actual performance of the organization, departments and individual employees will be measured. For example, 90% of all inquiries for information will be responded to within 24 hours of when they are received; all persons making reservations will receive written confirmation within three days; all customers will be provided with information and maps describing and showing the location of all the facilities, programs and services; all utilities and equipment will be in operating order and/or will be serviced within one hour of a customer complaint.

Standards can, and should, be established for products, facilities and services. To be effective, performance standards:

Should be expressed precisely and suggest a feasible method of measurement .

Should be based on customer expectations and how they evaluate product, facility, and service quality.

Must be formulated in keeping with the organization’s customers, quality strategy and personnel. Standards developed by one business or agency, even one that offers the same products and services, are not directly transferable to another business or organization.

Should be realistically achievable. The quickest way to frustrate employees and undermine a quality assurance effort is to set standards so high that they can never be achieved. To avoid this, standards should be designed in the context of available resources (e.g., personnel, equipment, technology and facilities). If a certain standard of performance, determined

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through research to be crucial to customer satisfaction, is not currently achievable then the organization must allocate additional resources to realize the standard.

Need to be communicated to, and understood by, all employees, especially those employees whose performance must conform to standards, and managers responsible for assessing conformance. It is important that employees understand the relationship of standards to customer satisfaction. Involving managers and employees in the development of standards is the best way to accomplish this. Collaborative standard setting helps win organizational-wide support.

Serve as a primary basis for the design of job descriptions, performance evaluations, and the organization’s recognition and incentives program.

Should be used to evaluate actual performance. Once established and accepted by employees, it is important that conformance to standards be monitored. Results of the monitoring should be used to evaluate employee and management performance and to initiate corrective actions that will result in conformance. Often, organizations that go to the trouble of developing standards fail to follow through with evaluation. Or, the results of the evaluation do not result in appropriate action or recognition. If an organization does not hold its managers and employees accountable for conformance, there is no reason to establish standards.

Human Relations Program

Employees will continue to remain the most crucial factor in determining the quality of recreation programs and services. Given the crucial role that service employees play, it is important that park and recreation organizations design a human relations program – hiring, motivation, training, incentives - which assures that employees will be involved, productive, and satisfied members of the service improvement effort.

Organizations cannot hope to satisfy their customers if their employees, especially customer contact staff, are not satisfied (Peterson, 1988; Kurman, 1987; Lele and Sheth, 1987). The importance of employees, especially front-line staff, in determining the quality of service experiences has, according to Berry (1983), resulted in some of the top service organizations turning their organization charts upside down. They place their front-line staff on the top in terms of attention and consideration; they treat them like customers. These organizations regularly use a variety of informal and formal methods to gauge staff morale, determine their expectations, and assess how well they perceive they are being treated.

No amount of skills training and/or motivational seminars will compensate for human relations policies and practices which do not encourage responsibility and initiative for quality and customer satisfaction According to Lele and Sheth (1987), the ability of many organizations to successfully improve service quality, is due in large part to the fact that these values guide how they hire, train, promote and reward employees. Hiring practices, position descriptions, and other personnel policies and practices can make or break the success of an organization’s quality assurance effort/program. This is why organizations should carefully examine, and if necessary modify, personnel practices and policies that influence employee attitudes and behavior toward customers. A number of organizations, both large and small, have rewritten all their position descriptions to reflect customer service responsibilities, reoriented their performance appraisals, changed their employee recruitment and selection criteria, refocused their rewards/incentive programs, and even modified their wage structure to support their quality assurance and customer relations efforts.

Job Descriptions and Position Announcements

Job descriptions and position announcements are particularly important given that employees generally perform what is expected of them, and apply for jobs which match their personalities, orientation and skills. Leading service organizations draft their job descriptions to reflect

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customer service. They base them on: (1) information about customer expectations, (2) service performance standards, and (3) information obtained by observing and questioning their top service performers regarding job elements and skills they consider most important.

Recruitment and Hiring

Leading service organizations are now placing greater emphasis on how they recruit and hire employees, especially employees who service and regularly interact with their customers. As one company president recently remarked, “Why do we spend so much time interviewing and selecting receptionists and persons who staff our information booths? The answer is simple. They are the company to many of our customers. They are responsible for demonstrating our commitment to quality and service.”

More and more service organizations are recognizing the importance of hiring and retaining people who have professional skills, but also the attitudes, sensitivities, and interpersonal skills necessary for effective customer relations staff. An increasing number of service organizations now require perspective front-line staff to go through several interviews, and the interviews which are increasingly directed at assessing personal philosophy and attitude, customer service instincts, verbal and non-verbal communication, interpersonal skills, and problem solving ability. It is much more common for these interviews to include mini-simulations where candidates are asked to demonstrate how they would go about assessing and responding to different customer relations situations (such as special problems or requests). Persons who conduct the interviews clearly communicate the organization’s emphasis on customer service to better enable candidates to decide whether or not they are cut out for the job.

Recognition. Rewards and Incentives

The structure of an organization’s rewards, incentives, and recognition system has a great influence on how service workers perform. Organizations which have successfully implemented service improvement programs have a wage-recognition-reward system which is linked to customer service objectives and standards (Salton, 1988).

It is important that businesses and organizations make a concerted effort to recognize quality improvement successes and those responsible for the successes. Organizations, which have successfully used incentives, recognition and rewards in support of service improvement, have some things in common:

Rewards, incentives and/or recognition are linked in an obvious way to service improvement objectives and standards.

Incentives and rewards are designed with careful consideration of the needs and expectations of their employees.

All employees, regardless of position or rank, are equally eligible to customer service recognition and awards.

Recognition and awards are presented on a regular basis, often immediately after excellent service is rendered.

Performance Evaluations

Organizations that take service improvement seriously focus performance appraisals explicitly on those elements of job performance that impact on customer satisfaction. They include service improvement and customer satisfaction in all performance appraisals (Cocheu, 1988).

Participative Management and Empowerment

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Organizations must develop management styles or approaches that support customer satisfaction and service improvement. Employees must feel that they are involved in decision making, and empowered to take actions on behalf of customers unless they had prior management approval. Organization that are most effective at managing service quality develop and maintain and internal environment that encourages and supports employees abilities and contribution to service enhancement. They:

Have, and demonstrate, a genuine and lasting respect for all their employees (Horton, 1986). They believe that employees are generally capable of providing quality service if they know what they are doing, and why they are doing it.

Believe that the key to a successful service improvement is total employee involvement (Hansen et. al, 1988). This type of involvement only results from participative management and empowerment.

Recognize that if employees are to take responsibility for quality improvement, they must see that there is an opportunity to perform in an empowered way, feel they are part of a team, and believe they are part of something of importance (Kanter, 1983).

Understand that customer contact staff continually must deal with special situations and requests not specifically covered by standard operating procedures or policies. As one author stated, “Standards are all very well and good, but a large part of excellent customer service has to do with individual initiative and responsibility. The ultimate standard after all is to make the customer happy, and you should encourage people to go beyond the call of duty if they see fit (Blume, 1984).”

Realize that customers like to deal with service people who have the authority and confidence to act assertively on their behalf (Bell and Zemke, 1988). They also accept that the ability of employees to take quick and decisive action reflects positively on the entire organization.

Adopting participative management and empowering employees is not a quick or easy undertaking, especially in hierarchical organizations with centralized decision making. It is important to lay the necessary groundwork including the following:

Top management must make it clear to the entire organization that participative management and empowerment will become part of the organization’s long-term management style, and is not a short-term “let’s see how it works” type of experiment. Employees at all levels must be convinced that managers will support and back their decisions (Horton, 1986).

Educating both managers and employees before implementing participative and empowerment management. Education should focus on improving employees’ situation assessment, problem solving, and decision-making skills. Managers and supervisors must be convinced that empowerment will benefit the organization and will not lead to an erosion of their prestige or position. If managers view empowerment and participative management as being detrimental to the organization or themselves, they will withhold support and may attempt to sabotage the effort. They must be convinced that employees are competent, and it is safe to allow them to make and implement decisions (Salton, 1988; Uttal, 1987).

Complaint Solicitation, Handling and Analysis

Soliciting and being responsive to customer complaints is an essential element of any customer service program. There are two ways an organization can keep customers satisfied. The first is to always provide flawless programs, immaculate, user-friendly facilities and impeccable service. The second is to assist customers in resolving any problems they perceive. Although emphasis should always be on proactive service with the objective of preventing problems that cause

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dissatisfaction, organizations must develop their capability to solicit and responsively resolve customer complaints.

Developing a proactive complaint systems often require changing attitudes of managers and front-line employees. In some organizations complaints are still viewed as bad news and problems, rather than opportunities. Some organizations and managers view complaints and complaint handling only as a cost. As a result, they often either intentionally, or unintentionally, develop barriers which discourage customers from complaining including complex and bureaucratic complaint procedures, and dealing with complaints in an adversarial way. The problem here is that customers who perceive complaint resolution processes as being complicated and slow, are likely not to complain and are more likely not to receive satisfaction and are more prone to engage in negative word-of-mouth communication .

Customer oriented organizations go to great lengths to make it as easy as possible for dissatisfied customers to complain. They recognize complaints as opportunities. Opportunities to make things right, retain and strengthen their relationship with customers, and avoid bad word-of-mouth communications. Proactive responsive complaint handling systems can produce many benefits:

A proactive customer complaint system is a cost-effective way to retain customers. Between half and three quarters of customers who make a complaint will do business again with an organization if their complaint is handled satisfactorily especially if the complaint is resolved quickly.

Responsive complaint handling can actually increase loyalty and strengthen bonds between the organization Customers will generally remain loyal to an organization if they perceive that the organization is sensitive and responsive to their concerns and welfare.

Complaint follow-up and analysis is a cost effective way to identify chronic problems that often go unnoticed by employees and management. By following up on complaints, organizations can frequently identify a number of problems not specifically mentioned in the original complaints. Often complainants can recommend corrective actions that will meet their expectations.

Receiving and settling complaints can forestall negative word-of-mouth, and can actually generate positive word-of-mouth from satisfied complainants.

Complaints, if perused effectively, can provide opportunities for organizations to increase visits and satisfaction by identifying products and services which may better meet the complainants’ needs, and of which they may not have been aware.

Customer oriented and effective complaint systems include:

Alternative means/channels for customers to communicate their complaints should be designed because customers vary significantly on methods (e.g., comment cards, toll free numbers) with which they prefer to express their complaints. Some prefer making their complaint known immediately to the nearest employee, others would rather write letters, while some favor comment cards addressed to a ranking official. Therefore, reliance on only one, or a couple of methods, will discourage complaints since different mechanisms de-select some complainants (Moyer, 1984).

Informing customers about channels and procedures available to them to communicate their problems.

Educating managers and customer contact staff on: the importance of catching and addressing customer problems and complaints when they originate, how to identify dissatisfied customers who don’t complain (e.g., non-verbal clues), methods for cooling

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down irate customers (e.g., active listening), problem solving and negotiation skills, and what to do if they are unable to resolve a complaint to the customer’s satisfaction.

Establishing standards to guide employees and evaluate complaint handling. Standards are often established for response time and modes of response (e.g., telephone follow-ups), employee responsibilities to complainants, necessary documentation, required follow-up, and targets for the percentage of complaints successfully resolved.

Following-up on complaints to determine whether the customer is actually satisfied with the resolution and the way their complaint was handled, identify ways their complaint handling process can be improved, and reinstate the business/organization’s presence and send a message that they are genuinely concerned for the customer, and value their relationship.

Establishing methods to record, track, and analyze all complaints. A number of organizations have developed relatively simple computer software which allows them to effectively track progress on resolving complaints and analyze complaint trends.

Employee Education

Employee customer service education crucial in parks and recreation organizations because employees serve complex multiple functions. They produce, customize, deliver and market recreation programs and services. The ability of an organization to continuously enhance the quality of its programs, facilities and services requires that is employees understand the importance of customer satisfaction, be aware of service improvement concepts and methods, know their customers, and also have the requisite technical and interpersonal skills.

Educating employees on customer service is most effective if it is ongoing, consistent with other elements of a comprehensive service improvement program. Education should include: (1) orientation of new employees to the organization, their job, and the importance placed service and customer satisfaction; (2) making all employees are of the organization's service philosophy and service improvement program and, (3) information and regular training on skills and methods important in producing, delivering, and marketing quality programs and services.

New Employee Orientation and Training

Organizations with a reputation for high quality service are well aware of the importance of orienting and training new employees, especially customer contact staff. They recognize that the orientation process must include an emphasis on customer satisfaction and service improvement because employees are most receptive and impressionable their first days on the job. Their orientation processes generally include the history and traditions of the company/organization, its culture, and most importantly, its dedication to quality and customer satisfaction.

They provide customer relations training to all new employees. Many will not allow newly hired employees to start work until they have successfully completed a rigorous customer service course They also expect them to be very knowledgeable about their programs, facilities and services so they can assist customers with their decisions and problems.

Educating Employees about Service Improvement and the Organization’s Service Improvement Program

Regular service improvement education should orient all employees to an organization's service philosophy and service improvement program. It should:

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Provide an understanding of the organization’s service improvement and standards and how each relates to the organization’s overall objectives.

Convince them that customer service and relations are an organizational/team effort, and that management and support staff must active partners in quality improvement efforts.

Describe the benefits to employees from improved quality.

Make employees at all levels aware that it is their responsibility to identify service problems, and to make suggestions for improvement. They should also be made aware of the channels for communicating problem identification and improvement recommendations.

Inform employees about how the organization plans to evaluate customer satisfaction and service improvement program.

Information and Skill Enhancement

Organizations should continuously provide employees with: (1) important up-to-date information, and (2) opportunities to improve both their technical and customer relations skills. This can be accomplished through a variety of educational delivery modes including: videotapes, workshops, newsletters, employee meetings, cross training, computer simulations, and expert systems.

Providing employees with up-to-date information should be an essential component of an ongoing educational effort. It makes no sense to invest in training aimed at enhancing customer relations skills unless employees are kept informed about the organization’s customers, products, services, operating procedures and marketing strategy.

It is important that all employees are:

Well informed regarding customer characteristics, product and service expectations, and the criteria on which they evaluate quality. This information should be supplied to all employees, not just the marketing/public affairs staff.

Kept informed about changes in program, facility and service standards, the results of quality and customer satisfaction assessments, and service improvement priorities.

Furnished with regular up-dates on programs, facilities and service and other elements of the organization’s marketing mix, including prices and marketing communications. It is especially important that all customer contact staff are knowledgeable about new programs, facilities, services and rules/regulations since they also function as marketing representatives. They cannot make effective sales presentations if they are kept in the dark about new products, services and/or the organization’s promotional/sales strategy.

In addition to supplying information, organizations should provide opportunities and incentives for employees, especially customer contact staff, to upgrade their current skills, and learn new concepts, methods, and techniques such as the following:

Employees should be educated in concepts and skills for dealing with difficult situations and difficult customers. It is important that employees receive training in diffusing conflict situations, analyzing problems, and problem solving techniques. All service workers must be capable of identifying and solving product and service problems quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

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All employees (regardless of rank) in the parks and recreation organizations are marketing representatives. Many experts now advocate training employees in non-manipulative or conversational sales techniques. Non-manipulative selling focuses heavily on defining customer needs/desires and then identifying products and services which will satisfy those needs/desires (Alessandra and Wexler, 1985). This requires that employees are skilled not only in listening, but also asking the type of questions which will help in clarifying what customers really desire in the way of products and services (Alessandra, 1987).

Employees should receive continuous training and coaching to improve their communication skills, both verbal and nonverbal. It is especially important that employees develop question-asking skills that are essential in active listening. Employees must also understand the importance of, and be able to read, non-verbal cues. Sensitivity to non-verbal cues - both their own and those of their customers - is important in identifying and dealing with dissatisfied customers.

Employees (especially customer contact staff) in parks and recreation organizations are frequently subject to a great deal of stress. A well-designed and implemented quality assurance program will assist in reducing stress by decreasing customer dissatisfaction. However, employees who regularly interact with, and serve, customers will always be subject to a certain amount of stress; it comes with the job. However, stress, if not recognized and managed, can negatively impact morale and productivity, which in turn will effect service quality. The impacts of stress on customer contact staff is now widely recognized and many service businesses and agencies are now incorporating stress management as part of employee education.

Customer Education

Customer education is an important, but frequently overlooked element of service improvement and customer relations in parks and recreation. Today, people are confronted with an ever-increasing variety of products, services and recreation opportunities. This is especially true with respect to outdoor recreation opportunities. Recreation decisions just aren’t as simple as they used to be. It’s becoming more and more difficult for people to objectively assess and compare the benefits and prices of different recreation programs and facilities. Some say this has created an education gap which parks and recreation organizations need to recognize and rectify.

A growing number of organizations and associations are directing greater attention at customer education because: (1) service organizations can enhance their s credibility for ‘being on the customer’s side’ through education, (2) more knowledgeable consumers are likely to make better decisions, leading to greater satisfaction . Some examples of customer education efforts include:

brochures which include questions customers should ask, and information they should obtain, in the process of making their purchase decisions;

educational materials aimed at enhancing user ethics toward other users and the environment;

providing customers with information on the rationale for their policies, regulations and prices;

skills acquisition and development clinics offered by recreation product manufactures/retailers and recreation providers;

computers with video, graphics, touch screens and expert system software, which provide customers with answers to a host of decision oriented questions.

Monitoring and Corrective Action

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Service improvement must be managed as an ongoing process, not a one time project or initiative. It is not enough that an organization develops standards and implement improvement projects. It must continuously monitor quality performance and assess the resultant impact on customer satisfaction. Without a service improvement objectives and standards, an organization’s service improvement does not have direction, without measurement it does not have control (Butterfield, 1987).

Continuous service quality monitoring is important for a number of reasons. First, even a well-rounded, carefully designed service program will require some tinkering and customizing. Second, customers, and their preferences change over time, as does the type and quality of programs, facilities and services offered by the competition. What is considered as quality today may be inferior tomorrow. Also, a service standard, which is consistent with the expectations of longtime customers, may not measure up to the anticipation of new or targeted potential customers. Finally, even effective customer service improvement efforts can deteriorate over time unless they are carefully monitored and adjusted. The deterioration can result from a variety of causes including employee and management turnover, and gradual changes in organizational culture.

The only way to insure service quality improvement is to collect, analyze, and distribute information which compares actual performance against objectives and standards, and determines changes in customers’ perceptions of quality. It is important that top management communicate to all managers, supervisors and employees that measurement is a crucial part of their job responsibilities and not an “only-after-everything-else-is-done” activity. They also must demonstrate the relevance of measurement by taking corrective actions suggested by the results of monitoring.

There are three basic approaches organizations can utilize to monitor their service improvement efforts:

internal approach which focuses on measuring actual performance (e.g., actual time customers spend waiting in lines, average time it takes to respond to inquiries) against service standards,

external approach which utilizes various methods (e.g., comment cards, customer surveys, unsolicited comments, complaint analysis) to gauge customer perceptions of quality, and

regular but unannounced inspections by internal teams or mystery customers/shoppers (Thompson et. al., 1985).

Organizations which do the most effective job of monitoring customer satisfaction and their service improvement efforts:

Monitor and analyze performance information collected from a variety of different methods (e.g., comment cards, interviews with customers, inspections, and employee surveys).

Communicate performance information on a regular basis to employees throughout the organization. Sharing quality improvement information with all employees, regardless of function, also enhances awareness that customer satisfaction is everyone’s responsibility.

Place emphasis on assessing the quality of programs, facilities and services from the perspective of their customers rather than relying on measures of effort or inputs (e.g., dollars spent on quality improvement). Their bottom-line is not effort or inputs, but rather customer recognized improvement.

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Insist on valid, measurable information. Rather than fudging the numbers to make themselves or the organization look better, top management tells it like it is. Bad news is viewed as good news if it results in quality enhancement.

Constantly work hard at developing an organizational culture where employees view the results of customer satisfaction and service assessments as opportunities rather than a threat or indictment of their performance.

RESOURCES

Abbott, G.J. (March, 1996). The marketing plan. Business2Business http://www.business2business.on.ca/magazine/mar96/b2b_mktg.html.

Bearden, W.O., & Netemeyer, R.G. (1999). Handbook of marketing scales (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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Berkowitz, E.N., Crane, F.G., Kerin, R.A., Hartley, S.W., & Rudelius, W. (1995). Marketing (2nd ed.) Toronto, ON: Times Mirror.

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