A Strategic Approach To Managing Customer Service Quality

Abstract

Service quality is an essential strategy for success and survival in today's competitive environment. Earlier discussions emphasized what service quality meant to customers and how to develop strategies to meet customer expectations. More recently, the focus has shifted to understanding the impact of service quality on profit and other financial outcomes of the organization. Lowering customer defection rates can be profitable to companies, at the same time lowering employee turnover and improving their satisfaction and loyalty can also reduce customer defection and maintain or increase profits.

The purpose of this paper is to put forth an argument that to measure customer service quality is not only an important strategic approach, but is a critical and intertwined link to organizational commitment, communication, and employee satisfaction by improving and maintaining high standards of consistent service quality delivery. This strategic approach pulls together many previously tested models into a single workable assessment and feedback tool, with a particular focus on employee training, by establishing a strategic and measurable benchmarking index for continual monitoring and operational improvement.