Dewi Pancawati N.,S.Pd.,MM

Managing People

for Service Advantage

Role Play

NAME OF ORGANIZATION

VISION AND MISSION

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

Hire The Right PeopleService 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

the product

the service

firm

the brand

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 FailureCustomer turnover

Failure to develop customer loyalty

No continuity inrelationship 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 BehaviorsCovert Overt

„No

rma

lity

‟ o

f S

erv

ice S

ab

ota

ge B

eh

avio

rs

Routiniz

ed

Inte

rmitte

nt

e.g. Waiters serving smaller

servings, bad beer or sour winee.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 spendworking 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) Emphasison rules

vs. pleasingcustomers

EPromotion and pay

increases basedon 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)

Low customer turnover

Customer loyalty

Continuity inrelationship with

customer

High customer satisfaction

Extensive training

Employee satisfaction, positive service attitude

Repeat emphasis on customer loyalty and

retention

Higher profit

marginsBroadened job designsLowered 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

oPromote core values, get emotional commitment to strategy

oGet managers to teach “why”, “what” and “how” of job.

• Interpersonal and Technical Skills

oBoth are necessary but neither is sufficient for optimal job performance

• Product/Service Knowledge

oStaff’s product knowledge is a key aspect of service quality

oStaff need to be able to explain product features and to position products correctly

Train 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 contentFeedback and recognition

Goal accomplishment

Use the full range of available rewards

effectively, including:

The Inverted Organizational Pyramid (Fig. 11.5)

Frontline Staff

Top Mgmt

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*

Hatur Nuhun