Improvement In Service Quality Advent Of The Internet Essay - 2,392 words

Improvement in Service Quality Advent of the Internet Thesis: The advent of Internet has given a clear competitive edge to companies employing its facilities and extending it to its customers. There are numerous success stories. The quality management movement began in the manufacturing sector, but a growing concern with quality in other areas of the economy has led to its application in service industries, government, education, and other nonprofit agencies. Quality has emerged as and remained a dominant theme in management thinking over the past fifty years. While the initial approaches arose from American theorists and practitioners, it was predominantly Japanese companies that undertook the early commercial applications. The need for enhanced quality was initially largely ignored or rejected in the West. More recently, organizations throughout the world have begun to embrace the theories and practices of quality, and quality initiatives in the public sector are being actively pursued by many national governments. During the years immediately following the Second World War, consumer demand grew to such an extent that the manufacturing focus in the Western world was on productivity. Effectively, growing markets were starved of products, and with increasing economic prosperity, everything that could be produced could be sold.


Simply, with unfulfilled demand, organizations were under no pressure to focus on the quality of their product and perhaps perceived that they had already achieved the ultimate standards. Coupled to this, consumer expectations of product longevity and reliability were relatively low compared with those of today, as was the technology level of both the products and the manufacturing processes. With the help of increased access to information technology and the Internet, customers are becoming increasingly more knowledgeable and demanding. Witness the many service-quality initiatives that are currently in vogue. The combined effect of increasing wealth, an aging society, higher wages, higher education levels, and a younger generation that is comfortable with technology has increased pressure on companies to adapt operations accordingly. Juran (1964) defined quality as fitness for use, and he was known for his trilogy of quality: planning of quality, quality control and improvement of quality (Beckford, 2002). In 1974, Juran pointed out five characteristics of quality: technological, psychological, time oriented, contractual and ethics.


Deming (1982), on the other hand, defined quality as fitness for purpose, and specified 14 points to guide the search for quality, where he pointed out that an organization should: be driven towards quality, look for the problems to solve them, constantly worry about improving the production systems and the training of its employees, and not be based on numeric production quotas. Crosby (1979) refers to quality as conformance to requirements and pointed out that the only standard of performance is the one that produces zero defects (Beckford, 2002). The foundation of Demings approach can be seen in his statistical background and his training in the science of physics. These essentially hard sciences based in scientific method will have informed the development of his early approaches. It must be acknowledged that they continue to make a major contribution to work in the field of quality. The principles and practice of SPC have been demonstrated over time to have considerable value to organizations in both the service and manufacturing sectors. They also have value for the workers who use them, providing rapid and personal performance feedback information, enabling them to recognize their own successes and failures and to take corrective action where appropriate, provided always that the outputs are expressed in a language which they can understand. Demings work in relation to the softer issues is considered to be narrow and underdeveloped, failing to take account of much of the thinking in that area over the period of his career. It must, though, be acknowledged that Deming did not claim to be an expert in this area.


Nevertheless, the value of his approach could have been further enhanced by a clearer focus on that aspect. The Plan, Do, Check, Action cycle is a clear directive to both management and workers that achieving continuous improvement is the purpose of the quality activity. This contrasts directly with the hints of a discrete programme suggested in Crosbys work (Cooper & Edgett, 2003). Deming makes quite clear reference to the service sector in his work, but again places much emphasis on quantitative aspects of this area. For example, he refers to aspects such as how long a telephone is out of action before it is repaired. While this is of great importance, of equal importance is the tone of voice which a person uses in answering the telephone when it rings.


This may be a stronger determinant of how the customer perceives the level of service quality than the number of times that it rings, or even the words that are said. It is often the case that managers take measurements of the things which are easy to measure, rather than the things which, while difficult to measure, are of greater importance. In a world which relies ever more heavily on telecommunications devices, these aspects, which are more difficult to quantify, will have increasing importance. The reliability and clarity of modern digital telecommunications systems are such that these are no longer significant issues, and many businesses are run entirely through them for example, telephone-based banking and insurance services. Of increasing importance, then, is tone of voice, since technical issues are less problematic and digital technology makes tone of voice transparent to the listener. The more recent development of videophone technology and Internet telephony, which are not yet widespread, will have further impacts on this area of service.


It is accepted that Deming has probably made the most substantial contribution to quality management. However, enthusiasm must be tempered with the knowledge that if he had provided a clearer method, a more explicit and developed recognition of the human aspects, and a precise focus on what constitutes quality of service in the contemporary world, the value of his work would have been enhanced. The government played a key role in encouraging several industries such as the railroads and airlines. The computer is a government-inspired product opposed by IBM from fear that its tabulating machines would become technologically obsolete. The Internet was originally developed by the government to assure a means of communications during the Cold War and was subsequently turned over to the public domain. A constant evaluation and review of customer needs and desires is part of successful customer service management (CSM). Using a comprehensive CSM strategy can bring about customer centering, customer retention, and decreased costs of customer relations for an organization (Kinney, 2000).


For example, Amazon.com individualizes service by recommending books to customers based upon past ordering patterns and interests using its highly trained staff and new technology, including the Internet and special customer service software. Another example of enhancement though IT and Internet changes is Dell. Dell Computer has totally eliminated finished goods inventory by building computers in response to customer orders via telephone or the Internet. The computers are built after customers place an order and are shipped directly to the customers eliminating intervening layers of wholesalers ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: customer, service quality, inventory, finished goods, item

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