Dewi Pancawati N.,S.Pd.,MM
Managing People
for Service Advantage
Role Play
NAME OF ORGANIZATION
VISION AND MISSION
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
Hire The Right People Service Sabotage
Enable Your People
Motivate and Energize Your People
Frontline Service Personnel: Source of Customer Loyalty and Competitive Advantage
Frontline is an important source of
differentiation and competitive advantage.
a core part of product the
service the firm
brand the
Boundary Spanning Roles
• Boundary spanners link the inside of the organization to the outside world
• Multiplicity of roles often results in service staff having to pursue both operational and marketing goals
• Consider management expectations of restaurant servers:
deliver a highly satisfying dining experience to their customers
be fast and efficient at executing operational task of serving customers
do selling and cross selling, e.g. “We have some nice desserts to follow your main course”Role Stress in the Frontline
Person vs. Role: Conflicts between what jobs require and employee’s own
personality and beliefs
Organization vs. Customer: Dilemma whether to follow company rules or to satisfy customer demands
Customer vs. Customer: Conflicts
between customers that demand service staff intervention
3 main causes of role stress:
Emotional Labor
• “The act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions” (Hochschild, The Managed Heart )
• Three approaches used by employees
surface acting
deep acting
spontaneous response• Performing emotional labor in response to society’s or management’s display rules can be stressful
• Good HR practice emphasizes selective recruitment,
training, counseling, strategies to alleviate stress
The Cycles of Failure, Mediocrity and Success
Too many managers make short-sighted
assumptions about financial implications of:
• Low pay
• Low investment (recruitment, training)
• High turnover human resource strategies
Often costs of short-sighted policies are ignored:
• Costs of constant recruiting, hiring & training
• Lower productivity & lower sales of new workers
• Costs of disruptions to a service while a job remains unfilled
• Loss of departing person’s knowledge of business and customers
• Cost of dissatisfied customers
Cycle of Failure
Customer turnover
Failure to develop customer loyalty
No continuity in relationship for
customer
Customer dissatisfaction
Employees can’t respond to customer
problems Employees become bored Employee dissatisfaction;
poor service attitude
Repeat emphasis on attracting new customers
Low profit
margins Narrow design of jobs to accommodate
low skill level
Use of technology to control quality High employee turnover;
poor service quality
Payment of low wages
Minimization of selection effort Minimization
of training
Emphasis on rules rather than service
Source: Schlesinger and Heskett
Service Sabotage
Customary-Private Service Sabotage
Sporadic-Private Service Sabotage
Customer-Public Service Sabotage
Sporadic-Public Service Sabotage
„Openness‟ of Service Sabotage Behaviors
Covert Overt
„Normality‟ of Service Sabotage Behaviors RoutinizedIntermittent
e.g. Waiters serving smaller servings, bad beer or sour wine
e.g. Talking to guests like young kids and putting them down
e.g. Chef occasionally
purposefully slowing down orders
e.g. Waiters spilling soup onto laps, gravy onto sleeves, or hot plates into someone’s hands
Cycle of Mediocrity
Good wages/benefits high job
security Other suppliers (if any)
seen as equally poor
Customers trade horror stories
Service not focused on customers’ needs Employees spend
working life in environment
of mediocrity
Narrow design of jobs
Success = not making mistakes Complaints met by
indifference or hostility Employee dissatisfaction
(but can’t easily quit) Emphasis
on rules vs. pleasing
customers
E Promotion
and pay increases based
on longevity, lack of mistakes
Initiative is discouraged Jobs are boring and
repetitive; employees unresponsive Resentment at inflexibility and
lack of employee initiative;
complaints to employees No incentive for cooperative relationship
to obtain better service
Training emphasizes learning rules
Customer dissatisfaction
Cycle of Success
(Fig. 11.3)customer Low turnover
Customer loyalty
Continuity in relationship with
customer
High customer satisfaction
Extensive training Employee satisfaction, positive service attitude
Repeat emphasis on customer loyalty and
retention
Higher profit margins
Broadened job designs Lowered turnover,
high service quality
Above average wages Intensified selection effort
Train, empower frontline personnel to control quality
Source: Heskett and Schlesinger
How to Manage People for Service Advantage?
1. Hire the right people 2. Enable your people
3. Motivate and energize your people
Staff performance is a function of both ability and motivation.
How can we get able service employees who are motivated to
productively deliver service excellence?
Hire the Right People
“The old saying „People are your most
important asset‟ is wrong.
The RIGHT people are your most most important asset.”
Jim Collins
Recruitment
The right people are a firm’s most important asset:
take a focused, marketing-like approach to recruitment
Clarify what must be hired versus what can be taught
Clarify nature of the working environment, corporate values and style, in addition to job specs
Ensure candidates have/can obtain needed qualifications
Evaluate candidate’s fit with firm’s culture and values
Fit personalities, styles, energies to the appropriate
jobs
Select And Hire the Right People:
(1) Be the Preferred Employer
Create a large pool: “Compete for Talent Market Share”
• What determines a firm’s applicant pool?
Positive image in the community as place to work
Quality of its services
The firm’s perceived status
• There is no perfect employee
Different jobs are best filled by people with different skills, styles or personalities
Hire candidates that fit firm’s core values and culture
Focus on recruiting naturally warm personalities
• Observe Behavior
Hire based on observed behavior, not words you hear
Best predictor of future behavior is past behavior
Consider group hiring sessions where candidates given group tasks
• Personality Testing
Willingness to treat co-workers and customers with courtesy, consideration and tact
Perceptiveness regarding customer needs
Ability to communicate accurately and pleasantly
Select and Hire the Right People:
(2) How to Identify the Best Candidates
Select and Hire the Right People:
(3) How to Identify the Best Candidates
• Employ Multiple, Structured Interviews
Use structured interviews built around job requirements
Use more than one interviewer to reduce similar to me effects
• Give Applicants a Realistic Preview of the Job
Chance to have “hands-on” with the job
Assess how the candidates respond to job realities
Allow candidates to self select themselves out of the job
• The Organizational Culture, Purpose and Strategy
o
Promote core values, get emotional commitment to strategyo
Get managers to teach “why”, “what” and “how” of job.• Interpersonal and Technical Skills
o
Both are necessary but neither is sufficient for optimal job performance• Product/Service Knowledge
o
Staff’s product knowledge is a key aspect of service qualityo
Staff need to be able to explain product features and to position products correctlyTrain Service Employees
Factors Favoring Employee Empowerment
• Firm’s strategy is based on competitive differentiation and on personalized, customized service
• Emphasis on long-term relationships vs. one-time transactions
• Use of complex and non-routine technologies
• Environment is unpredictable, contains surprises
• Managers are comfortable letting employees work independently for benefit of firm and customers
• Employees seek to deepen skills, like working with others,
and are good at group processes
Control vs. Involvement Model of Management
• Information about operating results and measures of competitive performance
• Rewards based on organizational performance (e.g.
profit sharing, stock ownership)
• Knowledge/skills enabling employees to
understand and contribute to organizational performance
• Power to influence work procedures and
organizational direction (e.g. quality circles, self- managing teams)
Source: Bowen and Lawler
Control concentrates 4 key features at top of organization;
Involvement pushes them down:
• Suggestion involvement
Employee recommendation
• Job involvement
Jobs redesigned
Employees retrained
Supervisors facilitate
• High involvement
Information is shared
Employees skilled in
teamwork, problem solving etc.
Participate in decisions
Profit sharing and stock ownership
Levels of Employee Involvement
Motivate and Energize the Frontline
Job content Feedback and
recognition Goal
accomplishment
Use the full range of available rewards effectively, including:
The Inverted Organizational Pyramid
(Fig. 11.5)Frontline Staff
Top Mg
mt
Middle Mgmt
Legend: = Service encounters, or ‘Moments of Truth.’
Traditional Organizational
Pyramid
Inverted Pyramid with a Customer & Frontline
Focus
Customer Base Frontline Staff
Middle Mgmt
& Top Mgmt Support Frontline
The Wheel of Successful HR in Service Firms
(Fig. 11.6)Leadership that:
Focuses the entire organization on supporting the frontline
Fosters a strong service culture with passion for service and productivity
Drives values that inspire, energize and guide service providers
1. Hire the
Right People 3. Motivate &
Energize Your People
2. Enable Your People
Be the preferred employer & compete for talent market share
Intensify the selection process
Empower Frontline
Build high performance service delivery teams
Extensive Training
Utilize the full range of rewards
Service Excellence
& Productivity
www.animationfactory.com
The Important key to
success is confidence, and the key to confidence is preparation.*Arthur Ashe*
