Turner D. "Redesigning the service organization," Journal for Quality and Participation, July/August 1994, 28-33.

The process of "service" is intangible and creates a distinct dynamic that sets it apart from manufacturing a tangible product. Service is produced, delivered and consumed all in the same moment. The customer is often an integral part of the service production process, and their subjective expectations and sense of satisfaction serve as the only meaningful measures of quality.

Service employees require a variety of interpersonal skills to effectively interact with a diverse set of customers, involve some level of decision-making, and receive direct feedback from customers.

Organizational service must be viewed as a series of customer interactions, or "moments of truth", which provide a systematic structure ("cycle of service") for analyzing and designing the service process. At each interaction, various people try to meet the customer's needs and expectations. Of all these interactions, which are key and how can they be assessed vis-à-vis the "ideal?" Where are the areas of hidden opportunity? These questions are very important to put in context of the organization's critical customers (the 20% who account for 80% of the income) and key interactions (the few customer interactions which occur most frequently, have the greatest impact on satisfaction, and/or may be significant to the critical customers). Otherwise grappling with the entire cycle of service can be an intimidating prospect.

Consideration of the current organizational culture as a whole must also take place. Unless the total organization is redesigned, significant changes in results cannot be accomplished -- it is currently perfectly designed to get the results it already gets. "Responsiveness" will not do it either. Customers want reliability (read: elimination of ineffective processes that create mistakes) first, then responsiveness.

Service is a people intense process and cannot be managed by either "microsupervision" or over-regulation (complex policies and procedures) -- Compliant employees can't give quality service. However, empowered employees (with knowledge, skills, information, authority, resources, and needed support) can IF they are directed and guided through a clear strategy and culture that provides them with standards or guidelines for their decision- making and actions.

The culture must be assessed to determine the key, i.e., actual, values driving the decision- making and behaviors. Many times, these "values" hinder front line employees' ability to meet or exceed customer expectations. Many cultural "givens" present potential barriers to implementing redesign recommendations. Employees model the service they provide to customers after the service they receive from the organization and its leaders. Once the redesign process has started with a concurrent effort on the culture, a functional system must be created for identifying customer expectations, measuring customer satisfaction levels, and communicating results to all areas of the organization.

Economics and more sophisticated consumers will "force" the issue of service, and the suggestions in this article are excellent for beginning a process to meet this challenge.