Relating Your Brand Values to the Five Classic Dimensions of Customer Service


Once your brand values have been defined, you can run them through the ServQual filter. In this way, your branded customer service will be built on a foundation of excellent generic service, which is service quality that meets the five classic dimensions of customer service. As introduced earlier, the five components of the ServQual measurement were delineated from extensive group and survey research to let businesspeople know what customers consider good service over a range of industries—in other words, generic service. [2] Staff will then know how to deliver unique brand values on service dimensions that are fundamentally important to consumers.

  1. Reliability. Service is carried out dependably and accurately. Emotional benefit: Customers feel they can rely on the service provider.

  2. Assuredness. Service staff demonstrate trust and confidence. Emotional response: Customers trust the work being done and statements that are made.

  3. Tangibility. Service staff and premises are clean and look good. Emotional judgment: Customers sense the organization takes pride in itself.

  4. Empathy. Service staff are caring and provide individualized attention. Emotional reaction: Customers feel recognized as individuals.

  5. Responsiveness. Service staff are willing to rapidly help customers. Emotional experience: Customers feel they are important to the organization.

ServQual Applied

Let's walk through a ServQual process with a fictional service business, a real estate agency called Dream Homes. First we need to define the agency's brand vision, mission, promise, and values. Then we can relate the five ServQual components while linking them to Dream Homes' total brand space.

We'll start Dream Homes as a small operation (one broker and five agents) in a relatively large metropolis that is experiencing a real estate boom. Dream Homes' vision is to become the number one real estate brand in its city. This is not a small vision because of the stiff competition from the big national realty brands, but Dream Homes' founder is a charismatic person and sees an opportunity in a marketplace where Realtors frequently mistreat home buyers and sellers because there are so many of them. The reason Dream Homes exists—its mission—is to provide complete real estate services to help people find their dream homes, whatever their dream. The brand promise, expressed in its tag-line, is "If you can dream it, we can find it." After careful study of the local marketplace, Dream Homes has chosen the following values: compatibility, honesty, attentiveness, fun, and thoroughness, which Dream Homes' founder believes most of the competitors are lacking.

The staff of Dream Homes have gone through a process of stating precisely what each of these values means in relationship to the five ServQual components of good generic service. Their (fictional) work is summarized in table 2.

Table 2: Relating brand values and ServQual

YOUR DREAM HOME

OUR BRAND VALUES

HOW WE DELIVER SERVQUAL COMPONENTS

Compatibility We make sure that we are the right Realtors for you. We do not work with everyone. If we do not believe that our services will serve you well, we will tell you. Because we believe that buying a home is one of the most important things you will ever do, we want to make sure that when we say "we care," we mean it. We want to get to know as much about you as possible so you can find your dream home. We begin with a consulting hour so we can know you and you can know us.

Reliability Every document in our office is checked by at least one other person. We have employees who know our business and who work with us part-time. In this way, when we get backed up, we can take care of your needs instead of offering the excuse "Well, we're real busy here." We double-check our appointments so no one's time is wasted.

Honesty We promise to give you complete information about any property you are interested in. We will never make side deals. If your purchase or sale is quick, we will return a portion of our commission to you.

Assuredness We commit to honesty, even if it means we lose a sale. We would rather have you in the home that is best for you. We'll detail all the downsides of any property you consider, and we'll also let you know if your dream extends beyond your pocketbook. Once we commit to working for you, we'll stay with you until you find your dream home.

Attentiveness We promise to return all your calls within 24 hours. Period. We will always have someone in the office to talk with you 7 days a week.

Tangibility We all take responsibility for ensuring that our offices and vehicles are clean and in good working order. We have invested in good-looking office facilities. We have invested in the latest technological tools, so someone is reachable at all hours.

Fun Purchasing a home is a big deal. We promise to make this as much fun as possible. We want to enjoy our own work, so we pay attention to the business of creating dreams!

Empathy We take the time to get to know you. We conduct a full hour consultation before any business occurs. We want to make sure that you enjoy working with us. We are a fun-loving group of Realtors. If there is any tension in our personal relationships with clients, we can shift a client to one of our other Realtors.

Thoroughness Real estate is the business of details. We promise to consider any and all opportunities for you. You won't have to tell us what you want more than once. We are technological wizards and keep complete records. You'll be driven around to shop the neighborhood In clean vehicles, represented by friendly Realtors. You'll have the opportunity to visit our gorgeous offices and share English high tea service every afternoon at 4 p.m.

Responsiveness We absolutely commit to rapid responses to you. Because we are a small office, we brief each other on our individual clients so we can all pitch in and help each other when one Realtor is busy in the field.

Once your customer service brand space can be readily and easily described, you then need to permeate your culture with these ideas. In this way, you create brand operating rules, much like birds create flocking patterns utilizing the principles of self-organizing systems. A brand model, Inside-Out Branding, can help you visualize what steps you need to take.

[2]These were identified by Texas A&M University by Len Berry, Valerie A. Zeitham, and A. Parasuraman, "Quality Counts in Services Too," Business Horizons (May–June 1985): 44–52.




Branded Customer Service(c) The New Competitive Edge
Branded Customer Service: The New Competitive Edge
ISBN: 1576752984
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 134

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