Service Quality Improvement Programs

This chapter introduces the different quality improvement programs used within organizations, furthermore, the critical success factors of each program will be introduced and referenced in the final thesis framework beside the advanced critical success factors.

Additionally, the challenges & issues that companies face while operating and optimizing their service quality will be mentioned. And in the final chapter the solutions to these issues will be used to develop and design the framework which consists of all CSFS for implementing the PI program.

Goals of this chapter:

• Discuss service quality improvement and the different tools/programs that are available.

• List the PI programs critical success factors.

• Service quality improvement

One of those names is the BP improvement/optimization or quality improvement.

PI have different primary goals, these are:

- To reduce costs and increase efficiency.

- To be able to keep up with the fast changing market and customer demands.

- To be able to face the high competition and satisfy the customers.

- Last but not least is reaching the company’s goals more effectively.

When these goals are reached this will eventually increase profit by creating customer loyalty and satisfaction towards the company.

This research is oriented towards the service industry and optimizing their BPS. BP improvement is one step in BPM that eventually will optimize the service quality of a company, because services are results of the company’s activities/processes.

Thus this part of this study will introduce and explain the service industry and its characteristics, the service Industry can be distinguished from the manufacturing industry based on five key characteristics which are intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity, perishability, and lack of ownership (1):

The table in the next page explains these characteristics in

Thus better management of processes that exist within a service system will lead to greater profitability for the organization. In order to manage a service system, an efficient BPMS is needed. Therefore, the improvement of BPS is critical to the success of BPM and must be studied.

To improve processes in an organization it is essential to have a culture that adapts and accepts improving processes of the organization to be able to improve processes without facing the barrier of refusal. Furthermore, improving process should be oriented towards the company’s strategy, where the strategy defines the business, the position that the organization hopes to hold in the industry or market, and the means by which it is to compete, thus, to benefit from PI on the long run, PI should be aligned with the company’s