Marketing Strategies for Service Firms 207
- Gap between consumer expectation and management perception:Management does not always
perceive correctly what customers want. Hospital administrators may think that patients
want better food, but patients may be more concerned with nurse responsiveness. - Gap between management perception and service-quality specification:Management might
correctly perceive the customers’ wants but not set a specified performance standard.
Hospital administrators may tell the nurses to give “fast” service without specifying it
quantitatively. - Gap between service-quality specifications and service delivery:Service personnel might be
poorly trained, or incapable or unwilling to meet the standard. Or they may be held to
conflicting standards, such as taking time to listen to customers and serving them fast. - Gap between service delivery and external communications:Customer expectations are
affected by statements made by company representatives and ads. If a hospital
brochure shows an attractive, modern room, but the patient finds an older, unappeal-
ing room, external communications will have distorted the customer’s expectations. - Gap between perceived service and expected service:This gap occurs when the consumer
misperceives the service quality. The physician may keep visiting the patient to show
care, but the patient may interpret this as an indication that something really is
wrong.
In addressing these gaps and pursuing service quality, well-managed service com-
panies share the following common practices: a strategic concept, a history of top-
management commitment to quality, high standards, systems for monitoring service
performance and customer complaints, and an emphasis on employee satisfaction.
Strategic Concept
Top service companies are “customer obsessed.” These firms have a clear sense of their
target customers and their needs, and they have developed a distinctive strategy for
satisfying these needs. Cleveland-based Progressive Insurance, for example, knows its
customers want to get their auto accident claims processed and paid as quickly as pos-
sible. Thus, its service strategy focuses on expediting claims handling. The company
now has a fleet of claims adjusters ready to rush to the scene of any auto accident in
their territory. There, the adjusters record all of the information they need and often
settle claims on the spot.^21
Top-Management Commitment
Market-leading companies such as Marriott, Disney, and McDonald’s have thorough
commitments to service quality. Every month, their management looks not only at
financial performance but also at service performance. Top-management commitment
can be demonstrated in various ways. Founder Sam Walton of Wal-Mart required the fol-
lowing employee pledge: “I solemnly swear and declare that every customer that comes
within 10 feet of me, I will smile, look them in the eye, and greet them, so help me Sam.”
To reinforce its corporate-wide commitment to service quality, L.L. Bean’s management
has tacked up a “What is a Customer?” poster in every office.
High Standards
The best service providers set high service-quality standards. Swissair, for example,
aims at having 96 percent or more of its passengers rate its service as good or superior.
Citibank aims to answer phone calls within 10 seconds and customer letters within 2
days. Still, service standards must be set appropriately high. A 98 percent accuracy
standard may sound good, but it would result in FedEx losing 64,000 packages a day,
10 misspelled words on each page, 400,000 misfilled prescriptions daily, and unsafe