The service industry depends on the customer’s experience to ensure the strength and survival of a brand in the market. The customers judge a service based on the encounters with the service providers or the service points. The moment of truth for the service comes up when the customer contacts with the service at the designated points. Therefore, the service providers should ensure that the customers get the expected quality and satisfaction to ensure a positive image of the service brand. The service improvements could take place through the training of employees and the introduction of technological systems that increase efficiency and effectiveness. Moreover, the service provision presents a good chance for a company to create a good impression on the customers.
The assignment checks on the service provision in a real medical centre to establish the relationship between the service provision and customer satisfaction. Additionally, the assignment focuses on the management of services to ensure customer satisfaction and brand strength. The service provision at the medical centre reveals moments of truth that determine whether the customers will continue using the services. The satisfaction of customers increases the number of visits due to the word of mouth marketing done when recommending the services to friends and family. Service encounter refers to a mixture of emotions where the consumers rate the quality of the services offered with the amounts paid with respect to the experiences at the service points.
The customers arrive at the medical centre, and a receptionist checks the details in the system, which leads to either asking the customer to fill in details or see a nurse. The nurse checks the patient’s weight, pulse and blood sugar levels before seeing the doctor. In the case that the doctor has another patient, the clients seat in the waiting room waiting. The doctor attends to the customers by diagnosing the illnesses and giving medicine. The customer could require a follow-up appointment for further treatment. In the case that the customer does not require an appointment, then the medical centre allows the customer to leave. On the other hand, the customer passes through the chemist to collect medicine before leaving the medical centre.
The front stage services refers to the services that involve the customer and the service giver interactions. In the case of the medical centre, the front stage services include reception, weight, pulse and blood sugar level checks, patient meeting the doctor and collection of medicine. On the other hand, the backstage operations include checking the patients’ record at reception, slotting appointments and availing doctors and nurses to attend to the patients. Generally, the backstage activities include the services that do not involve the customer.
The flowchart shows the different services experienced by the customers at a medical centre. Some of the services include the conducting of tests by the nurses and clinical officers while other services include the booking of appointments. Other services include the collection of medicines and attendance of appointments or routine health check-ups. The services differ regarding customer involvement since some require the direct participation while others do not require the customer’s participation (Boag, 2018). The services that require the direct participation of the customers include such as consultancy, injections, surgeries and laboratory tests.
On the other hand, the services that do not require the direct participation of the customers include such as slotting for appointments in the master calendar and preparation of medication to treat diseases. The medical centre has to plan and organise the services in a manner that leads to customer satisfaction (Olsen, 2018). The services should ensure that the customers do not spend much time before receiving attention by having adequate medical officers to accommodate the customers. The medical centre should design the service points to ensure comfort and matching the customer perception with the customer service expectations (Dobes, 2016).
Moreover, the medical centre concentrates on converting the neutral customer emotional expectations to positive experiences (Mark, 2018). The focus on emotional experiences aid in identifying the specific customer needs, which leads to the delivery of specific attention to ensure satisfaction. For example, from the flowchart, the customers still get attention even when the nurses or doctors attend to other customers. The customers read newspapers, magazines and health brochures in the waiting room while waiting for attendance in the waiting room. The clinical officers also perform various basic tests on the customers such as weight checks, blood-sugar levels and blood pressure levels. The involvement of the customers in various activities ensures that the customers do not get frustrated or leave to get medical attention in other places (Gjoko, 2015).
Furthermore, the duration also affects the customer perception of the services delivered (Mandviwalla, 2015). The management should ensure that the customers fully understand the significant activities that will take place. The customers should also understand the time that each activity will take and the moments of achievement of major milestones in the activities. The medical centre should ensure that the customers do not pass through many steps at the health centre to avoid confusion and fatigue (Krishnan, 2018). The customers should also have more control over the duration of the services given. For example, the medical centre allows the customers to attend appointments at the times of choice. The medical centre receptionists book doctors to attend to the customers during the times specified by the patient. The customers get medical services when free without having to stop other activities to attend doctor appointments. The hospital achieves the booking method by reducing internal procedures that reduce the customer’s influence on the services (Nigel, 2013).
Furthermore, managing the perceived control affects businesses ability to meet customer expectation to a great extent (Olsen, 2018). The number of service interactions gives an opportunity to the business to offer high-quality services that ensure customer satisfaction. The offering of high-quality services that match customer perceptions improves the brand image of the business. The medical centre should ensure that the service design meets the demanded quality by employing qualified staff who understand the need for customer satisfaction. The medical centre should meet the customer perception by administering the right treatment for diseases and charging affordably. The medical centre should also seek the customer’s feedback to establish the levels of satisfaction to allow service improvement.
Business should make use of service encounters in the current competitive markets to win customers and ensure usage of products (Perks, 2017). Unlike other elements in the service industry, one cannot judge service encounters based on the mathematical functions since many qualitative factors need consideration. The managerial implications of the services result in a direct impact on the return on investment and the market share. The level of satisfaction achieved from the service encounter by the customer determines the attitude towards the brand. Thus a service encounter that results in customer satisfaction will lead to more usage of the services offered, which increases the revenues and units of sale (Rebecca, 2018). The use of service encounter holds in the case of the medical centre where the customers focus on trust and word of mouth. The level of trust that the customers hold towards the medical centre determines the number of customers using the services and the market share. Medical centres should work on improving the services offered to customers by improving the facilities and training employees to attend to customers in a way that meets the expectations.
Moreover, the medical centre should focus on the psychological aspect of service management by identifying the factors that negatively influence satisfaction (Russell, 2014). The medical centre should eliminate the negative factors and ensure that the customers understand the completeness of the activities to avoid confusion. The process assists in reducing cost and effort put in customer satisfaction due to the elimination of unnecessary activities and steps taken in the service delivery. The process of eliminating the many unnecessary steps and activities required in the service delivery will also enable the medical centre to upscale the services rendered. Therefore, the medical centre does not experience many reworks and ambiguity when determining the exact services to offer to the customers.
The medical centre should focus more attention on the psychological aspect and reduce the checks and systems in the management of demand and supply of services (Smet, 2018). The psychological attention will improve service delivery since the customers look for activities that match the perceptions. Failure to match the perception held by the customers about the service could lead to a reduction in the market share. The psychological management plays a huge role in the medical services since the customers require assurance that the services given will ease the pain, reduce the effects of an illness or diagnose the correct illness. The customers require a value for the money paid for the services and failure to meet the need could cause a fallout with the clients.
The delivery of services that meet expectations increases the market share enjoyed by a company since the customers do word-of-mouth referrals to friends (Smith, 2018). The referrals increase the market size of the company since the customers trust the words of friends. The same applies to the medical centre when customers get the right attention and refer friends to use the services in the case of illnesses or medical check-ups. The medical referrals increase the number of customers visiting the medical centre, which enables to beat the competition in the market (Suzanne de Treville, 2018).
On the other hand, the referrals result in a strong market brand due to the high loyalty from satisfied customers (Wagner, 2018). The achievement of brand strength and customer loyalty will require the medical centre to streamline both the internal and external processes involved in the delivery of services. The major improvement in the internal and external processes includes increasing the visibility of procedures. The customers should have the opportunity to see and experience how the internal services go about to reduce the mystery and ambiguity. The visibility creates a friendly relationship between the medical centre and the customers due to the feeling of inclusion in the service delivery. The customers should also fully take part in the external services to ensure the development of a service that fulfils both customer and the medical centre needs (Juneja, 2018).
Conclusion
The delivery of high-quality services increases the revenues earned by a business since the customers do referrals that increase the size of market share. In the case of the medical centre, the customers evaluate the services based on the level of relief from illnesses or health improvements. The failure to deliver services that meet customer expectations result in negative comments from the customers leading to fewer customers visiting the centre. The medical centre should uphold high levels of customer services especially with the increased use of social media. The social sites could lead to the downfall of a service centre when a group of unsatisfied customers complain about the services.
Furthermore, the service activities should include modern technology to increase uniformity and reduce the errors involved. The technology includes such as computers and teller machines that offer services in place of human labour. The technology advances increase the speed and urgency of service delivery. The medical centre could introduce machines such as MRI scanners and X-ray machines that reduce the effort incurred when diagnosing illnesses. The machines could also enable the delivery of quick services to the customers. The medical centre should also focus on the important aspect of error reduction. The failure to eliminate errors from medical services could lead to death from the administration of wrong drugs, overdoses and not treating the right illnesses.
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