Delivering Quality Service by Valarie A. Zeithaml

Author:Valarie A. Zeithaml
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

GAP 3 PROBLEM: LACK OF TEAMWORK

The value of teamwork—employees and managers pulling together for a common goal—is a recurring theme in all our studies of service quality. The following statements from one of our studies illustrate a situation where bank employees did not feel they were working together well.

LENDING OFFICER : “I worked in the bank 13 years. There is a big difference in when I started and now in terms of how the employees feel about the bank. There used to be so much camaraderie. Now, it’s like pulling teeth to get associates to help you.”

CUSTOMER-SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE : “We’re not working as a family and as a group. We may all come together again but it hasn’t happened yet.”

CUSTOMER-SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE : “Our cashier sits there and smokes cigarettes and drinks coffee. She doesn’t help with any of our work. She says it isn’t in her job description. She’s a deadbeat.”

One aspect of teamwork is the extent to which employees view other employees as customers. In many companies, support employees must provide good service to contact people to enable them to serve customers. Some businesses underestimate the importance to service quality of support services. While customer-contact personnel are obvious targets for quality-improvement efforts, the providers of internal support services are also critical. Poor service to customer-contact personnel results in poor service by those personnel.

Another aspect of teamwork involves the extent to which employees feel personally involved and committed to the firm. Strong belief in an organization and in the importance of one’s contribution to it can inspire strong discretionary effort by workers; weak belief can have the opposite effect. To some extent, this employee commitment comes from the sense that management cares about them. In many companies, service people feel that individual performance goes unnoticed and unrewarded. One employee commented: “You feel like management doesn’t know what you are doing. We need more support and recognition.” Another said, “They should give recognition to people who are really performing. So many times you are judged by your immediate supervisor. That person may not like you. I wish other managers, higher up, would know how people are performing.”

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