Company Name- Bharti Airtel Limited. Location – Kolhapur. Region – South MaharashtraName of the Franchise – Aarya Enterprises

Q 1 Describe Service Quality Gaps. Customer perception of the firm and its offer are shaped by word of mouth

publicity like recommendation of friend, relative, neighbour and peer at

workplace, personal experience on the part of the customer, personal need of

individual customers, external communication like the publicity of the firm in

the media and its advertisements and other corporate communication.

Study shows that customer assessed the service of firm on the following

parameter.

Tangible or the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel

and communication material.

Reliability or the ability to perform the desired service dependably and

accurately

Responsiveness or the willingness to help customers and prompt

service

Assurance as measured by the competence of the firm in delivering the

promised service, courtesy extended to the customer, the firm’s

creditability and the extent to which customer feel secure.

Empathy or the caring, individualized attention that the firm provides to

customer

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Fig. Service Quality Gaps Model.

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Research on how organisations address such situation when services quality gaps are encountered

Gap 1: Not Knowing What Customer Expect It actual means there is difference between customer expectations and organisations or management perception. What customer is actually need or expect from any service provider and what perception the management of the service provider company make. The gap is what customer expects and what customer actual receives in order to satisfy their customer and build a long term relationship.1) Inadequate marketing research orientation.

When management encountered such gap as there was not enough or no marketing research has taken place before dealing with the customer, if the management is unaware about the target customer to Which customer exactly they want to target or which is the customer with whom they will maintain a long term relationship, which will ultimately turn that customer in to a loyal customer, If there is no such marketing research is conducted then company start loosing the prospect customers.

2) Lack of upward communication

When ever the organisation faces such problem or come across such issues as there is lack of communication between the management and customer, then there is strict action taken against it, Because until n unless the management interacts with the customer they wont be able to know what exactly the problems customer are facing or what customer actual required from the service provider. The company also try to bridge the gap between the contact employee and the management, because this helps the organisation and management to know more about the customer because the only touch point between the organisation and the customer is front line employee or the employee who interacts with the customer on regular basis.The organisation also tries to curtail hierarchy of the top level management and the contact personnel employee.

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3) Insufficient Relationship focus

When ever management find that the employee is more transaction focused rather than maintaining relationship with the customer. Then the management tries to correct the employee on his approach towards the customer as he doesn’t only look at the sales to take place but also look after the services that employee has to give to the customer after sales. When ever management address such situation they try rotating the job of the particular employee or try to shift him to the sales department. Employee shouldn’t be only focused on new customer he also has to try and maintain good and warm relationship with old or any loyal customer of the organisation.

4) Inadequate Service Recovery

What ever may be the outcome of the service render or provided to the customer and the management find there is something or the other is missing while providing the services to the customer it is called as inadequate service recovery. This is nothing but a clear cut gap between the customer expectation and management’s perception about customer’s expectations.

Gap 2: Not Having the Right Service Quality Design and Standards

Here is the difference between companies understanding of customer’s expectation and development of the customer driven service design and standard. Here the customer driven standard are more different form those of the Performance standard of the service companies.

1) Poor services design

There should be operation standard set by the company according to the customer expectations and priorities rather than company concerns such as productivity or efficiency. When the company come across this kind of gap they try to apply systematic way to approach for the development process. Companies don’t underestimate the customer expectation as if they are unreasonable or unrealistic the management try level best to satisfy the customer to what ever extent possible

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2) Absence of customer defined standards and inappropriate physical evidence and service

The customer has maintain preconceived standard about the company he visits and if the same things is not received or seen in the company then the customer tend to dissatisfied . So the management are trying providing the full fledge information to the customer whether it is related the company services or not. It is very difficult for the service industry to provide the physical evidence to the customer then too Management are trying to make model which will help them and customer to identify the issue if any with physical evidence.

Gap 3: Not Delivering to Service Standards 1) Deficiencies in human resource policies and Failure to match the supply and demand.

Whenever there is the ineffective recruitment takes place then the organisation immediately act upon it when contact employee or some one who’s not serious about his role or not completely fit for the act as contact person at service delivery desk to provide the service to customer, first and fore most companies don’t take such kind employee in the organisation or if there is any employee who falls in this categories try an arrange training programme session from companies best trainers and try to make them understand the essentiality of the business. The problem of demand and supply always arise, it is actually happens when service don’t meet the demand of the customer this kind of situation do arise and management act upon it very quickly as possible there is chance of losing the customer.

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Questionnaire to Interview the Manager in Service Sector Organisation Q1. Being a Manager what is the role of Showroom Manager in this Telecom sector service outlet.Answer: - To look after each and every department which comes in service delivery. Prepaid and Post paid sales both (inbound only) in that pre sales and post sales experience of the customer is count, collection, Retention. Handling enquiries, Resolving complaints and Accepting Request.

Q2. Can you explain what is the hierarchy in this service outlet? To whom do you report?Answer: - There is no such hierarchy over here in the office everybody is at same level, every one has assigned certain task the employee follows the same but the job is different. And I Report Service Delivery Regional Head.

Q3. What is the strength of your staff and what kind of job they undertake?Answer: - Total 9 Executives, 4 Front end Customer Relationship Officer (CRO) , 1 Backend, 2 Field Retention officer and 2 Field Sales officer

Q4. What is your daily routine or your daily job exactly?Answer: - Daily MIS Reporting to Regional office, checking out the scores of Sales and Services, Important and urgent issues or unresolved issues to handle and give the resolution in Turn around Time (TAT).

Q5. How do you identify need and wants of the customer at first visit and how do you close it?Answer: - Asking him what exactly he is looking out for .and what is his need so that they assist him to deliver it

Q6. After recognising the expectation of the customer what is the service delivery towards that customer – loyal/ treated differently.Answer: - We treat the all Customer in same manner whether is very old customer or new one, usually we don’t differentiate between them , but yes we take care of our Loyal customer very much.

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Q7. Which are the areas you cover under service delivery?Answer: - It begins with the sales then comes the usage of the product and its services and then payment what ever he has used so far then comes the collection and retention.

Q8. Is there any Service Marketing Research conducted by the company to meet the exact customer requirements?Answer: - Yes Earlier the well know Multinational used to carry the marketing research for us but it has changed now to Indian company.

Q9. What is the weightage or focus given by the company to improve the service quality as far as research are concerned?Answer: - As far as weightage or focus is concerned company do put lot of efforts to improve it and try and deliver services u to the Customer expectation.

Q10. As a manager in a given day how many customer you attend?Answer: - 20% to 25% of overall customer who visit in a day.

Q11. Does your employee or subordinate communicate with you on each and every part when it comes to resolving the issues of the customers?Answer: - Yes, if there any issue which has to be resolve in short span of time or any issue which has to be put forward to the Management then the subordinate communicate do communicate with me.

Q12. CRE are more focused on transaction or do they try to maintain relationship with the customer?Answer: - they are focused on both transaction and Customer relationship as well

Q13. To whom will you give more importance?a. Your existing customer.b. The new customer.

Answer: - Both

Q14. What are the systems and processes you follow for QRC?Answer: - There are different systems for Post-Paid and different for Pre- Paid If any customer visit showroom it recorded for the further process and analysis.

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Q15. Here in the outlet is everybody assigned a single job or they do multi-tasking?Answer: - Only Front end officer or Customer Relation officer do perform Multi tasking job rest all do what ever they have assigned

Q16. Do you keep the track record of the customer and how?Answer: - There are different systems for Post-Paid and different for Pre- Paid If any customer visit showroom it recorded for the further process and analysis. If the post customer comes what ever his request or complaint may be it get updated in systems and then for further process it goes to back end.

Q17. Is the customer satisfied when he leaves the outlet?Answer: - Yes to certain extent.

Q18. Customer satisfaction is the only think you look for or do you expect something more than that?Answer: - We only try to make Customer Happy or satisfy but even go beyond our boundaries and try to delight the customer.

Q19. As a manager what are the things you check on daily basis to keep things go smoothly on daily process?Answer: - there is a daily check list we have and according to that we see whether things are going in smooth manner or not. If not then immediate action is taken

Q20. How do handle an irritated customer?Answer: - Try to make him calm down and try to give him special treatment for time being and resolve his complaint as early as possible.

Q21. How do you treat you’re loyal and HNI customer?Answer: - Both are different. HNI customer may or may not be loyal because they just give the high revenue to the customer. But that doesn’t mean that they are loyal.

Q22. How do you retain the customer?Answer: - By knowing first what he exactly looking for, why he wants to discontinue with our service, try and identify the Problem area offer him whatAre the need and wants of the particular customer if it is feasible for the organisation to offer him?

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Q23. How do you deal with the problem of system or software failure?Answer: - If there is any problem pertaining to the System failure or Software failure occurs. For this the Company had already made an arrangement with out source Local IT Company to provide the Quick Resolution to us. Q24. Do company audit the service outlet? If yes then on what parameters.Answer: - Yes, Customer Service Index 40%, Infrastructure 15%, Scenario 20%, and Customer Handing 25%.

Q25. Are the executives updated with the new products and services?Answer: - YES

Q26. What is the selection and recruitment procedure for your employees?Answer: - They are recruited and selected by the Regional office Team

Q27. Do the employees deliver to the customer expectations?Answer: - Yes

Q28. What would you do to delight the customer? And what activities you carry out to delight them?Answer: - We go beyond our boundaries and try to delight the customer. We held various services camp at different Remote areas where customers are unable to reach to the main office area

Q29. Do you receive the feedback from the customers? If yes then what is the response?Answer: - Yes we do fill up the customer feedback form from the customer, where he shares his experiences he had at service outlet at that given point of time.

Q30. Who are more important customer or company policies?Answer: - Both. But I’ll give priority to the customer first.

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Suggestions and Recommendations

The overall experience at the Showroom or Service Outlet of Airtel as Quite good the Repose which was received was satisfactory. But still feel there is scope of improvement.

The employee must be more attentive towards customer. Wait time should be decreased. There should be proper acknowledgement of the customer. Employee should provide the in-depth information of what ever

queries customer has. Quality of resolution must be improved. There should be proper Display of the Over all Product and services

offered at the service outlet. Systems availability and the functioning of it must be of Quality

standards. Confirmation should be received from the customer whether he is

satisfied with the overall resolution given. Electricity Problem or load shedding should be resolved with genitor

back up. Spontaneous explanation must be provided for filling up the

documents. Customer must be asked whether his visit was satisfactory or not?

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Reference

Service marketing --- Valerie Zeithaml & Mary jo bitner) Tata MacGraw-hill

edition-13(2006).

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