Service quality assessment is currently considered one of the most important elements of service quality management. Thanks to the assessment, it is possible not only to control the quality of services, but also provide a basis for management analysis and making important management decisions. In addition, such an assessment allows us to establish feedback, which in turn will contribute to the development of the system.
The quality of services is regulated by the international standard “Administrative quality management and elements of a quality system”. To better understand the essence of the concept and its necessity, a definition of the concept of “service” should be given.
So, the service is called the result of the interaction of the customer and the supplier, as well as the outcome of the internal activities of the supplier in order to meet the needs of the customer. Note that the requirements for the ordered service should be expressed by clear characteristics that can be determined and further evaluated. The processes that ensure the provision of this service should also be expressed by certain characteristics and influence its execution. All characteristics, as a rule, have the ability to be evaluated by a service organization for their acceptability according to established standards.
The quality of services and control over it creates favorable opportunities for increasing efficiency, reducing costs, improving service delivery, and expanding the market. Typically, the management of the service and its provision is carried out by monitoring the process of providing the service. Timely monitoring of process characteristics will help to achieve and maintain the required level of quality. It should be borne in mind that the process of providing services can be either purely mechanized (dialing a phone call) or personified, for example, when providing medical or legal services.
Top management is responsible for the quality control policy and develops rules that address such issues as:
- quality of services;
- the image of the service organization;
- the objectives of ensuring the quality of services;
- choice of approach to achieving goals;
- the role of company employees who are responsible for implementing this policy.
One of the primary goals of management is to ensure the accessibility of quality policies. It should be feasible and understandable and solve certain problems. The quality of services and its evaluation should be aimed at:
- satisfaction of all customer requirements;
- continuous improvement of quality;
- taking into account the needs of society;
- efficiency of services.
Indicators of the quality of services must necessarily ensure that the quality of services is consistent with foreign experience, improving quality, characterizing properties at the stages of the service life cycle.
According to the national standard, all indicators are divided into several groups.
The first group is indicators of appointment. These include indicators of compatibility, application, and enterprise (for example, average waiting time for customer service, material and technical base).
The second group is safety indicators. For example, radiation safety, safety for life or the environment, explosion safety, etc.
The third group is reliability indicators. These are reliability, reliability of the result, safety, durability, resistance to external factors.
And, finally, the fourth group includes indicators of the professional level of employees, namely the level of training, knowledge and skills, compliance with the standards prescribed in the documents, friendliness and attentiveness to customers, etc.
All these and other indicators can be classified differently, according to other criteria: by the method of expression, by the stage of determination, by properties.