Unit 5: Managing service levels

CONTENTS
A.

PAGE

B.

C.

D.

E. F.

G.

INTRODUCTION TO UNIT 3  Aims 3  Your learning outcomes 3  Essential and suggested reading 4 SERVICE EXPECTATIONS 5  Customer expectations 5  Service encounter experience 5  Organisational change of focus 7  Ensure that segments are compatible (managing the segment portfolio) 7  Segment management 8 SERVICE LEVELS AND STANDARDS 9  Introduction to expected service levels 9  Problems in defining and agreeing service levels 9  Expected service levels versus service standards 10  Developing a set of service standards 11  How many service standards are necessary? 11  Planning service standards 12  Implementation of service standards 12  How can service standards be used? 13  Review of service standards 13 SERVICE RECOVERY 17  What happens when things go wrong? 17  Conflict management 19  Service recovery processes 19  Effective service recovery 20  Building trust 21 SUMMARY 22 NOTES AND GUIDANCE ON THE SELF-ASSESSED ASSIGNMENTS 23  Self assessed assignment 1 23  Self assessed assignment 2 24 REFERENCES 25

1

Unit 5: Managing service levels

Blank page

2

Unit 5: Managing service levels

A. INTRODUCTION TO UNIT
This unit looks at the expectations of the customer and how they relate to managing service levels. It also covers managing service levels with service standards, service guarantees and service level agreements (SLA). It investigates what goes wrong when service levels are not achieved and how to recover the situation and build trust again. The structure of this unit is as follows:     the expectation of the service from the customer viewpoint, the service encounter experience and the impact on the organisation (section B) the creation of service levels and standards and some of the issues involved in their implementation of service