Introduction
The
advent of the 21st century has brought about new innovations in the
filed of technology all for the purpose of not only providing for a better
standard of living for people in general but also to facilitate large scale
companies in their quest to emerge as the most efficient and competent business
in their industry –not to mention, one which has a sustainable competitive
edge. These aspects of doing business the right way and getting to the top of
the corporate ladder notwithstanding many companies are now beginning to
realize the importance of the role of
employees in the organization in terms of
customer contact. The term personal touch, all of a sudden, holds much more
meaning and scope. It is not just about greeting a customer with a warm smile
anymore it sis about understanding their latent needs and catering to them in
such a way that the customers themselves could not have ever imagined, thus,
also sealing their loyalty to the brand as well as to the company berry
Parasuraman, 1991. A service package is a collection of
updates, fixes and /or enhancements to a software program delivered in the form
of a single installable package.
Service Package Managers Often
Say:
the employees cannot be separated from the production of the service they are
the service they are the service. No doubt the ultimate goals of the creation
of a particular service is to satisfy the customer but often the attributes and
features of a product or a service are not enough as, service package involves
a combination of both tangible and intangible elements in order that the core
benefit is realized by the customer. However, a number of specific difficulties
involved in determining the particular combination of these tangible and
intangibles. these include:-
(1)
The difficulty
associated with the actual articulation of the product elements for it is for
easier to articulate the tangible aspects than it is to produce and display the
intangibles”.
(2)
The
inseparability of production and consumption, this goes to ensure that some
elements of the secondary service level are not actually provided by the
service provider but by the customers themselves.
The most service packages have been analyzed in terms
of distinctive for example, different commercial schools usually offer
different courses to appeal to segments of the population with slightly
differing need even though the core and essential service remain the same.
Also, individual companies offer different types of cover packages to appeal to
individuals exposed to different types of risks even though they all market the
same core product.
Customer contact employees are a critical asset of
service organizations due to the interactive nature of service delivery.
Customer contact employees are boundary spanners who attempt to serve both
internal and external constituents. Attempting to serve two masters can result
in role conflict and the present effort presents and tests a framework for
understanding possible antecedents and consequences of such role conflict.
Survey data collected from 200 telephone service employees in an insurance
company revealed at least partial support for the following hypotheses: role
conflict emerges when there is a discrepancy between what employees think
customers expect rewards them for doing, role conflict, in turn, is related to
employee attitudinal (e.g. absenteeism) outcomes, and role conflict mediates
the relationship between service orientation discrepancy and employee outcomes.
Implications of the results ofr the management of service employees and service
quality are presented.
Employee self-service
Feature provides a centralized online resource for
employees to manage their own career development, modify personal data, review
benefit packages, and request vacation time. By giving employees selected
access to applications traditionally available only to HR, employee self
service minimize the need for HR and manager assistance, helping to lower
administrative costs, increased productivity, and improved operational
efficiencies. In addition, employee self service provides employees with easy,
24x7 access to real time corporate information, policies, and procedures, which
can help improve corporate wide communications and ultimately, employee loyalty
and job satisfaction.
In industry today, researchers and practitioners are
pointing to service as the differentiating factor in competitive situations. In
both the marketing and management literature disconnects exist between the
importance of the corporate brand and the service component of the offering
that is supported by consistent and effective marketing employees. This
research examines the relationships between corporate brand identity and
employee personality traits, organizational culture and employee turnover. We
found that employee need for achievement moderates the relationship between
corporate brand identify and employee intent to turnover.
Confidential information is a risk to the business and
it plays a large role in protecting the data. Not all data is electronic though
files that identify customers and employees, social security numbers, credit card information and other
account data are just some of the forms of sensitive data a company must
protect. Failing to protect confidential information can lead to identify theft
and fraud you can lose the trust of your customers and even end up defending
yourself in a lawsuit. Data loss is often due to employees who are do not
follow IT security policies or inadvertently expose the company network to
risks. According to the first annual ISACA IT risk/reward barometer survey the
top three ways employees add risks for IT and the business.
· Not protecting confidential work data appropriately
(50 percent)
· Not fully understanding IT policies (33 percent)
· Using non-approved software or online services for
their work (32 percent). This is why your employees play a very important role
in IT security.
Computer and network defenses are important, but don’t
forget all data is not electronic. Offices are filled with files containing
sensitive or confidential information. Here are a few steps employees can take
to secure data.
v
Make sure every
employee has a secure drawer or cabinet to lock up files.
v
Centralize
sensitive paperwork in a secure location and limit access to only employees who
have a legitimate business use for the data.
v
Remind employees
to never leave documents out even if they will only be away from their desk a
short time. Just open the secure drawer and lock it. It is a habit every
employee needs.
Employees
must understand their role in electronic security.
1.
Encourage
employees to use strong passwords, the longer and more sophisticated the
better, tech your employees methods of remembering strong passwords so they do
not write them down and enforce mandatory password changes.
2.
Block sties that
are not work related or that are known to have risks associated with them,
educate your employees that they only have to visit the wrong website to become
infected. To an employee what seems like innocent web surfing can be a huge
risk to your network.
3.
teach your
employees to never open an email attachment from same one they do not know. Even
if they know the person employees should always be wary of attachments. Give
them a list of known file name extensions they should never open regardless of
who it seems to be from.
4.
Educate your
employees on the hazards of installing unauthorized software on their computer.
Employees roles in service package, this chapter’s
objectives are to:-
i.
Illustrate the
critical importance of service employees in creating customer satisfaction and
service quality.
ii.
Demonstrate the
challenges inherent in boundary-spanning roles.
iii.
Provide examples
of strategies for creating customer oriented service delivery through hiring
the right people developing employees to deliver service quality; providing
needed support systems and retaining the best service employees.
iv.
Show how the
strategies can support can support a service culture where providing excellent
service to both internal and external customers is a way of life. In the
chapter we focus on service employees and human resource practices that
facilitate delivery of quality services. The assumption is that even when
customer expectations are well understood (gap 1) and services have been
designed and specified to conform to those expectations (gap 2), there may
still be discontinuities in service quality when the service is not delivered
as specified. These discontinuities are labeled gap 3 the service performance
gap-in the service quality framework. Because employees frequently deliver or
perform the service, human resource issues are a major cause of this gap, by
focusing on the critical role of service employees, and by developing
strategies that will lead to effective customer-oriented service, organizations
can begin to close the service deliver gap.
The
failure to deliver services as designed and specified can result from a number
of employee and human performance factors, ineffective recruitment of service-oriented
employees, role ambiguity and role
conflict among contact employees. Poor employee technology job fit
inappropriate evaluation and compensation systems, and lack of empowerment,
perceived control, and teamwork. The chapter gives you an understanding of
these factors and strategies for overcoming them. In many cases, the contact employee is the service there is
nothing else. For example, in most personals and professional services (like
haircutting, physical trainers, child care, cleaning/maintenance, limousine
services, counseling and legal services) the contact employee provides the
entire service single handedly. The offering is the employee. Thus, investing
in the employee to improve the service parallels making a direct investment in
the improvement of a manufactured product.
Even if the contact employee doesn’t
perform the service entirely, he or she may still personify the firm in the
customer’s eyes. All of the employees of a law firm or health clinic from the
professionals who provide the service to the receptionists and office
staff-represent the firm to the client, and everything these individuals do or
say can influence perceptions of the organization. Even in a non-service
setting, Audi an automobile manufacturer, recognizes the importance of its
employees in representing and reinforcing the brand image of the company. As a
result, Audi recruits staff at all
levels whose psychological traits parallel and support the Audi brand image.
The brand image isn’t just built and maintained by the cars themselves and
advertising. It is a function of the people who work at Audi. Even off-duty
employees, such as flight attendants or restaurant employees on a break,
reflect on the organizations and can directly influence customer satisfaction,
they perform the role of marketers. They physically embody the product and are
working billboards from a promotional standpoint. Some many also perform more
traditional selling roles. For example, bank tellers are often called on to
cross-sell bank products, a departure from the traditional teller role of
operations function only whether acknowledged or not actively selling or not,
service employees perform marketing functions. They can perform these functions
well, to the organization’s advantage, or poorly, to the organization’s
detriment. In this chapter we examine frame-works, tools, and strategies for
ensuring that service employees perform their marketing function well. Services
marketing is about promises made and promises made and promises kept to customers.
A strategic framework known as the services triangle visually reinforces the
importance of people in the ability of firms to keep their promises and succeed in building.
Customer relationship. The triangle shows the three interlinked groups that
work together to develop, promote, and deliver services. These key players are
labeled on the points of the triangles the company (or SBU or department or
“management) the customers, and the providers. Providers can be the firm’s
employees, subcontractors, or outsourced entitles who actually deliver the
company’s services. Between these three points on the triangle, three types of
marketing must be successfully carried out for a service to succeed external
marketing, interactive marketing, and internal marketing.
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