Report: Managing Global Service - Issues, Solutions, and Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of global service management, examining critical issues and proposing effective solutions. The study delves into the core aspects of service operations, including the identification of customer expectations, the establishment and maintenance of strong c...Read More

Running head: MANAGING GLOBAL SERVICE
MANAGING GLOBAL SERVICE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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MANAGING GLOBAL SERVICE
Table of Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................ 2
Methodology........................................................................................................................... 2
Analysis.................................................................................................................................. 2
Issues................................................................................................................................. 3
Managing good customer relation...................................................................................3
Identifying customer expectations...................................................................................4
Service supply chain management..................................................................................5
Solutions............................................................................................................................. 5
Service process designing..............................................................................................5
Technology in enhancing customer experience..............................................................5
Motivating service providers............................................................................................6
Conclusions and Recommendations......................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................. 8
Appendices............................................................................................................................ 9

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MANAGING GLOBAL SERVICE
Introduction
The services are the steps of a process that involves treating the customers or
something that belongs to the customers. Services are varied in types and have different
structures in every sector. Mostly known service structures are B2C or Business-to-
consumer services, B2B or business-to-business services, voluntary services non-profitable
services and public services. Service management is an integral part of the organisations
that deal with the service and production industry. It is not confined to the service industry
itself as the other industries also have to deal with some kind of service issues for their
customer satisfaction. The prime objectives of service operations are to carry out the
processes and activities that are required to deliver and manage the quality of services for
the customers and business users’ satisfaction. Organisations generally have to face
problems in their service management like – identifying the expectations of customers,
managing a good relationship with the customers and proper management of the supply
chain to achieve the service objectives. In this paper, the issues and possible solution to the
problem of service management in the hospitality industry are discussed. The
recommendations that are suggested in the latter part of the report are based on the
research and findings of this study.
Methodology
The study has been done using the primary research method. The primary research
method is used so that the researchers could get the first-hand experience of the service
providers and the consumers in this respect. The research has adopted the interview and
survey method. The customers’ responses were collected through the close end survey,
whereas, the managers were interviewed with open-ended questions. A total number of
survey questions were ten, including three demographic questions. The interview with the
managers has been done using five questions. For the survey, the Likert scale has been
used.
The sample size of this study was 15, among which 10 were the customers, and 5
were the service managers. The customers’ samples were chosen in a random sampling
method from the people visiting a restaurant on the day of study. Among the managers, the
departments of service management in food and beverages services were considered as the
sample.
Secondary data resources have also been used for the study purpose. The
theoretical aspects of the research have been covered through the secondary data
resources like using the peer-reviewed articles, journals and books along with company
websites. Analysis of the data is done ion qualitative method. The survey and interview
answers were critically analysed to get a detailed overview. [Referred to Appendix 1]
Analysis
The service management has two main aspects- customer expectations and
marketer’s service quality. There is no doubt in the fact that customers or buyers play a
pivotal role in service management. Specifically, in the hospitality industry service is the
main product that a company sells (Peng, Zhao and Mattila 2015). Therefore, the prime
objectives of the service managers are to ensure that there is a balance between the
customer perception of the service and the service quality delivered by the firm. The
instruments used to measure the service quality takes into account the dimensions like
reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility.
The concept of quality has many difficult dimensions, and it could change according
to the perceptions of individual perceptions. The basic concept of service quality is defined
as the fulfilment of the requirements (Rauch et al. 2016). The first step is to specify the
requirements. After the specifications, the organisations should have their quality goals

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MANAGING GLOBAL SERVICE
sorted according to these specifications or requirements. Quality development could be
identified as technical and functional qualities.
There are various theories highlighting the contexts of service quality in both service
and goods sectors of business. The Gap Theory is considered to be the most effective one
in identifying the problems and marking the solutions to it. The Gaps Model of Service
Quality marks the difference between customer expectations and customer perceptions
(Sabuncu and Karacay 2016). The service management uses the gap model to understand
the area of problem that results in poor service quality to the consumers. The gap
management model has all the important components of service management that a
manager needs to consider while planning the service operations.
Issues
In most of the organisations, the service managers fail to detect the gap between the
customer perceptions and service quality that is delivered. The main issues that the service
managers could face in their operations are discussed below-
Managing good customer relation
Customers are at the receiving end of the service delivery. The valuable customer
base building and retention of loyal customers are one of the major roles of the service
managers. The customers could use referent to all the individual or the buyers to whom the
organisation provides its services (Manhas and Tukamushaba 2015). First, the managers
have to understand the types and natures of the customers and address their requirements
accordingly. According to the Gap theory in service quality, the lack of quality perceptions
lies in the context, where the managers do not understand the nature and perceptions of the
customers. In this case, the managers fail to categorise the expectations of the individual
consumers and provide them with quality services. In the hospitality industry, most of the
reputed companies try to maintain a good relationship with their customers so that they
could retain their loyal customers for long.
The benefits of retaining customers through service operations are varied. As opined
by Jalilvand et al. (2019), some of these are- reduced cost, increased revenue, long-term
revenue streams, getting recommendations. A service manager needs to apply strategies to
develop a beneficial customer relationship.
 The main objective is to establish, maintain and enhance the relationship stature to
earn mutual benefits.
 Mainly, customer relationships could be categorised in three forms- personal
relationships, portfolio relationships, temporary relationships (Ionel 2016).

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Figure 1: forms of customer relationships
(Source: created by the author)
 The individual relations are built between the customers and the employee or
manager to get the customer's loyalty. This method is used mainly in the sectors with
low volume operations
 The customer relations that are based on the portfolio of the services are used in the
higher volume operations. The customer preferences and expectations are analysed,
and the manger or the employees in the service management tries to influence the
customers through their activities (Parasuraman 2018).
 The type of relationship that the customer wants with the service provider is linked
with the consumers' perceived risk of buying or using a service.
 The needs of the customers are better understood by the effective application of the
CRM or customer relationship management (Tang, Wang and Tang 2015). The task
of the managers is to identify the right nature of CRM and apply it in their service
operations.
Identifying customer expectations
The expectations and perceptions of a customer depend on multiple things
like customer’s past experience, culture, language, habits, beliefs, values and
assumptions. Therefore, understanding the expectations of a customer is a big
challenge to the service managers. Expectations are often referred to as the beliefs
about the service that the customers have while choosing a type of service for
themselves (van Riel et al. 2015). The decisional making process of the consumers or
the buyer often get influenced by the dimensions of expectations. The dynamic of
expectation could be changed according to the price, alternative service availability,
communication ability of the service provider and previous experiences.
In order to manage the perceptions and expectations of the customers, that
obvious challenge that a manager's face is overestimating the service delivery
capacities. The service operators often miss the aspects of customer expectations
and deliver low quality services in this process. When the service managers are
higer volume operations
Personal
relationships in
service management
low-volume operations
Realtionships build
on porfolio of
serrvices
transactional and one-off
nature of services
Temporary
trelationships

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MANAGING GLOBAL SERVICE
unable to mark the customer expectations, they fail to satisfy the need of the buyers,
and the service quality falls.
Service supply chain management
Supply chain management is the most important part of any organisational
operations. The cost and benefits are directly linked to the supply chain networks. The links
between the internal and external customers and internal and external suppliers are joined
by the supply chain (Akoğlan Kozak and Acar Gürel 2015). In service, information and
inventory management is a crucial task. There could be problems in the service distribution if
the specified inventories or the required information is not available at the right time and the
right place. The customer base could collapse as the customers could feel dissatisfied
because of the unexpected delay or quality adjustments. This is the reason that most of the
service sectors take special care of their supply chain management (Dedeoğlu and Demirer
2015). Specifically, in the food and drink services, the availability of the inventories and
effective distribution of them have the utmost importance. If the service supply chain is not
managed efficiently, the problems could be in supplier partnerships, inventory planning,
capacity planning, production scheduling, procurement methodology, distribution networking
and responsiveness. Therefore, the service managers need to take care of the supply chain
management in order to have the quality and quality intact of the service.
Solutions
Service process designing
To retain the customers with the organisation for a long time is a tough task. The
challenges that a service provider faces in this respect, as discussed above, are related to
the lack of customer relations development. To fulfil the expectations of the customers,
service designing is an important aspect. The service designing have specific steps that
would help to complete the process in a skilful manner. These are-
1. Service presentation and offer
2. Service fulfilment
3. Service feedback
4. Service measurements
The presentation of the service that the organisation is offering plays a vital role in
customer decision making. For example, the company that is offering exotic and
experimental food items in their services would be preferred by the tourists having the
mindset for food experiments. Again the type of experience they have from this would be
judged according to the fulfilment parameters. According to Suquet and Stoessel (2016),
this would build their preferences for the service in future. Feedbacks from the customers
and other financial measurements in service designing would help the organisations and
the service manager to understand their quality of service and deliverables. By
examining and putting all these steps in the service design, and organisations could marl
their uniqueness and would be able to manage customer relationships effectively.
[Referred to Appendix 1]
Technology in enhancing customer experience
Service operations are hugely depended on the communication process. The
relationship building with the customers is the prime task of the managers. Therefore, to
solve the problems in assessing and maintaining customer expectations, the service
manager could take the help of technologies. In the era of the internet, communication and
advertisement play a crucial role in gaining competitive advantages (D’Annunzio-Green and
Teare 2018). But this could also be used in the betterment of service providence. The
organisations could enhance the experience of the customers through innovation. The

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electronic-based services in ordering and service delivery process could, at the same time,
cut the cost of manual handling and enhance the profit. The e-service is the popular service-
based technologies in recent times. The organisations could upgrade their service methods
by the use of IT and AI, and this would definitely help them in assessing the expectation of
the customers. The managers could gather feedback and share the information to the
customers about their services (Borg, Ljungbo and Harris 2015). This process would make
the interaction easy, and the managers would be able to reach the customers to take care of
their individual expectations. The personalised services of every individual could be
designed to address the customised food and drinks needs of the consumers in a restaurant
or hotel.
Motivating service providers
Proper workforce management could mitigate all the supply chain-related problems in the
organisations. The use of technology reduces the workloads and the workforce cost of the
service in spite of all that the employees must be motivated to provide the best service to the
consumers. In order to have the most effective outcome, the service managers must share
the related and important information throughout the supply chain. The employees should be
aware of the company objectives (Ionel 2016). The employees of the company in the food
and drinks services have to go through various experiences with the customers. Therefore, it
is the responsibility of the managers that the stress of this level of job should be managed
through a positive environment and motivation. The employees have to face the risks of
unrealistic expectations, customer anxiety and pressure (Chung and D’Annunzio-Green
2018). Good leadership and motivational work ethics could lead the organisation's supply
chain through these problems.
Conclusions and Recommendations
A skilful and efficient management technique leads the company through all the challenges
in the workplace. The service operations are challenging for their multidimensional
approaches and customers exceptional dynamics. The context of customer satisfaction
stands at the central point of service activities. Most common issues that the companies face
while dealing with the service management are the quality of services, the gap between the
perception and delivery of service and retention of customers. It is the responsibility of the
service management team to ensure that the customers are getting quality services
according to their expectations. The following recommendations could help the
organisation's service managers to achieve their goals towards quality service delivery-
 The first thing is understanding customer expectations and works according to that.
There are huge instances where firm managers fail to evaluate the perceptions of the
customers. They make high commitments to retain their customers’ interest and face
problems in fulfilling them.
 The quality of the service needs to be designed carefully. To maximise the profit
margin and increase the customer base, the company must never lower the food and
drinks quality of what they promise. It has been proved in some researches that,
customers are even ready to pay more than regular amount if they get quality
services from organisations.
 Technological advancements should be incorporated into the service management
process. The communication between the service provider and the customers would
be more effective if the service manager uses convenient ways to interact with the
customers.

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 The technology could also be used for understanding the customer expectations of
the service providers. The online surveys and interview tools are easy to access, and
they are trending in modern times. The organisation service managers could develop
their strategies to identify and evaluate customer preferences, thorough these
technological interventions.
 Service designing is the most crucial part of the service process. The design of the
service should be an integral part of the organisational objectives. Customer
satisfaction and retention should be at the heart of service designing.
 Mere service design implementation will not suffice for the organisations if the
process is not reviewed regularly. The manager needs to address and communicate
with the customers, suppliers and the employees to evaluate and control the service
processes. The regular evaluation would increase the possibility of development and
customer retention. The service managers could implement a new process or change
some of the steps to gain more profits through service providence.

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References
Akoğlan Kozak, M. and Acar Gürel, D., 2015. Service design in hotels: A conceptual
review. Turizam: međunarodni znanstveno-stručni časopis, 63(2), pp.225-240.
Borg, E., Ljungbo, K. and Harris, C., 2015. Hospitals with Hospitality: The adaptation of
hospitality management, concepts and training to the management of hospital services,
a tri-continental case study. In Pac CHRIE 13th Annual Conference, Auckland, New
Zealand.
Chung, K.L. and D’Annunzio-Green, N., 2018. Talent management practices in small-
and medium-sized enterprises in the hospitality sector: An entrepreneurial owner-
manager perspective. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 10(1), pp.101-116.
D’Annunzio-Green, N. and Teare, R., 2018. Reflections on the theme issue outcomes: Is
talent management a strategic priority in the hospitality sector?. Worldwide Hospitality
and Tourism Themes, 10(1), pp.124-130.
Dedeoğlu, B.B. and Demirer, H., 2015. Differences in service quality perceptions of
stakeholders in the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, 27(1), pp.130-146.
Ionel, M., 2016. Hospitality industry. Ovidius University Annals: Economic Sciences
Series, 1(1), pp.187-191.
Jalilvand, M.R., Pool, J.K., Khodadadi, M. and Sharifi, M., 2019. Information technology
competency and knowledge management in the hospitality industry service supply chain.
Tourism Review.
Manhas, P.S. and Tukamushaba, E.K., 2015. Understanding service experience and its
impact on brand image in hospitality sector. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 45, pp.77-87.
Parasuraman, A., 2018. Service productivity, quality and innovation: Implications for
service-design practice and research. International Journal of Quality and Service
Sciences, 2(3), pp.277-286.
Peng, J., Zhao, X. and Mattila, A.S., 2015. Improving service management in budget
hotels. International journal of hospitality management, 49, pp.139-148.
Rauch, E., Damian, A., Holzner, P. and Matt, D.T., 2016. Lean Hospitality-Application of
Lean Management methods in the hotel sector. Procedia CIRP, 41, pp.614-619.
Sabuncu, K.U. and Karacay, G., 2016. Exploring professional competencies for talent
management in hospitality and food sector in Turkey. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 235, pp.443-452.
Suquet, J.B. and Stoessel, C., 2016. Literature Review Customer orientation: a service
management cornerstone. Menu, Journal of Food and Hospitality Research (2016), Vol
5., p.59.
Tang, T.W., Wang, M.C.H. and Tang, Y.Y., 2015. Developing service innovation
capability in the hotel industry. Service Business, 9(1), pp.97-113.
van Riel, A.C., Victorino, L., Verma, R., Plaschka, G. and Dev, C., 2005. Service
innovation and customer choices in the hospitality industry. Managing Service Quality:
An International Journal.

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Appendices
Appendix 1: questionnaire for survey and interview
Interview Questionnaire
1. What is the most important aspect of service management according to you?
2. What are the crucial steps in service management?
3. How important are the customers in the service management process
according to you?
4. What are the current issues that the service managers are facing in the sector?
5. What could be the possible solutions to the problems?
Survey Questionnaire
1. Age?
2. Occupation?
3. Annual income?
4. The restaurant understand your preferences
Strongly
Agree
Agree Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral
5. The service provided by the service providers are quite effective and
thoughtful
Strongly
Agree
Agree Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral
6. The service providers of this place should be more open to the customers
Strongly
Agree
Agree Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral
7. The restaurant prices do not match your expectations of the services
Strongly
Agree
Agree Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral
8. The number of services provided in this restaurant or the variety of the items
of this restaurant is quite satisfactory
Strongly
Agree
Agree Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral
9. Your satisfaction with the service is increased with the quality of services
Strongly
Agree
Agree Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral
10. Internet and social media are the most effective medium for communication
and feedback gathering.

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MANAGING GLOBAL SERVICE
Strongly
Agree
Agree Strongly
Disagree
Disagree Neutral
Appendix 2: Service management process
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