Quality in Services
Objectives
Services play a major role in modern economies. The course on “Service Quality” is focused on service delivery characteristics as well as the integration of the quality function in service organizations. Conceptual and measurement models are presented and discussed. Strategies to obtain and analyze customer based data are presented (reliability and validity of questionnaires, sampling procedures, etc). Multivariate techniques are utilized to articulate internal and external measures.
Students should be able to develop models to assess and characterize service quality in several types of organizations, as it is proposed in their final work. The acquisition of some soft skills is strongly associated to the development of this work, namely their communicative and writing skills, as well their ability to apply technical knowledge in real situations
General characterization
Code
3729
Credits
6.0
Responsible teacher
Ana Sofia Leonardo Vilela de Matos, Rogério Salema Araújo Puga Leal
Hours
Weekly - 4
Total - 66
Teaching language
Português
Prerequisites
Available soon
Bibliography
Notes and slides provided by the Professor
Johnston, R., Clark, G., Shulver M. (2012) – Service Operations Management: Improving Service Delivery, Pearson Education.
Hair, J. H., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., (2009), Multivariate Data Analysis, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall Higher Education.
Zeithaml, V.A., Parasuraman, A., Berry, L.L. (1990) - Delivering Quality Service:Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations; The Free Press.
Zeithaml, V.; Bitner, M. J. , Gremler, D.(2006) – Services Marketing, Mc-Graw Hill.
Rosander, A. C. (2007) – Applications of Quality Control in the Services Industries, CRC Press.
Pinto, S. S. (2003) – Gestão dos Serviços: A avaliação da Qualidade, Verbo.
Vavra, T. G. (1997) – Improving your measurement of Customer Satisfaction, ASQC Quality Press
Montgomery, D. C., Runger G. C. (2010)- Applied Statistics and Probabilty for Engineers, John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Teaching method
Teaching strategy is based on a combination of expositive approaches with simulated practice. The course’s project is aimed to develop student’s technical skills as well as their ability to perform teamwork.
Evaluation method
Approval:Minimum score of 9.5 in the Written Test (or in the appeal exam).The final grade will be obtained as follows: 50% Practical Work + 50% Written Test.The frequency depends on the practical work.
Subject matter
- Service concept;
- Service characteristics versus product characteristics;
- Scales of measurement and statistical procedures
- Service management with uncertain demand: supply side versus demand side
- Critical Incident’s methodology;
- Questionnaire development;
- Reliability assessment;
- Types of validity
- Assessment of customer satisfaction (proactive, reactive and combined methods);
- Lean services
- Multivariate techniques in service quality (Multiple Regression and Factor Analysis);
- Conceptual and evaluation models of service quality;
- Zone of tolerance and service recovery
- Customer Satisfaction Index