service quality delivery niit

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INTRODUCTION

DEFINATION OF MARKETING:

Marketing is so basic that it cannot be considered a separate function. It is the whole business

seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customers point of view. Business success

is not determined by the customer.

-Peter Drucker.

A human activity at satisfying needs and wants through exchange process.

-Philip kotler

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:-

The objective of the study was to do the service quality of service and broking service provided

by NIIT LTD and its major competitors on the basis of 7p s of service marketing.

The study was conducted to measure the customer satisfaction level of NIIT LTD. Study was

focuses on clients within Hyderabad region. NIIT LTD provides many products and services but we

focused our study on DP services and Broking services only.

Outcome of the analysis shows that though NIIT LTD is on the top position as a market share, but

NIIT LTD is still behind in many more factors and they need to improve those factors. Some

recommendations are given to improve. (Project study has been done with the help of primary and

secondary data.)


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Marketing Management

Marketing Management is the leading marketing text because its content and organization

consistently reflect changes in marketing theory and practice. The very first edition of marketing

management, published in 1967, introduced the concept that companies must be customer-and-market

driven. But there was little mention of what have now become fundamental topics such as segmentation,

targeting and positioning. Concepts such as brand equity, customer value analysis, database marketing

communication were not even part of the marketing vocabulary then. Marketing management continues

to reflect the changes in marketing discipline over the past forty years.

Firms now sell goods and services through a variety of direct and indirect channels. Mass

advertising is not nearly as effective as it was, so marketers are exploring new forms of communication,

such as experimental, entertainment, and viral marketing. Customers are telling companies what types of

product or services they want when, where, and how they want to buy them. They are increasingly

reporting to other consumers what they think of specific companies and products using e-mail blogs,

products, and other digital media to do so. Company messages a smaller fraction of the total

conversation about products and services.

In response of companies have shifted gears from managing product portfolios to managing

customer portfolios, compiling databases on individual customers so they can understand them better and

construct individualized offerings and messages. They are doing less product and service standardization

and more niching and customization. They are replacing monologues with customer dialogues. They are

improving their methods of measuring the return on their marketing investment and its impact on

shareholder value. They are also concerned with the ethical and social implication of their marketing

decisions.


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A company change, so does their marketing organization. Marketing is so longer a company

department charges with a limited number of tasks it is a company wide undertaking. It drives the

companys vision, mission and strategic planning. Marketing includes decision like who the company

wants as its customers;

Which of their needs to satisfy; what product and services to offer; what prices to set what

communication to send and receive; what channels of distribution to use; and what partnership should

develop. Marketing succeed only when all departments work together to achieve goals: when engineering

designs the right products, finance finishes the required funds, purchasing buys high-quality materials,

production makes high-quality product on time, and accounting measure the profitability of different

customers, products, and areas.

Defining Marketing

Market is everywhere. Formally or informally, people and organization engage in a vast number

of activities that we could call marketing. Good marketing has become success. And marketing

profoundly affects our day to day lives.

Good marketing is no accident, but a result of careful planning and execution. It is both an art and a

science-theres constant tension between side, which will occupy most of our attention, but it will also

describe how real creativity and passion operate in many companies.

PROJECT SCOPE


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Create an integrated web site that projects a consolidated and consistent image.

To portray image of progressive, firmly grounded church serving the needs of the

Community.

To increase visibility of our services options.

To provide features those make the church part of a members daily functions.

To ensure training and technical support is in place to maintain the site.

Give peoples the ability to bypass the phone to contact the church.

Measure traffic.

OBJECTIVES

To know the level of service quality delivery of NIIT Ltd

To know the customers satisfaction with NIIT Ltd.

To suggest suitable strategies for upgrading the performance of store.

To know about the customer retention.

To find out the impact of the strategies on the daily business activities in the store.

To analyze the effect of customer retention strategies on the performance of the employees, top

management, sales of the divisions, merchandise turnover etc.


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LIMITATION

Converting service quality scale with respect to Indian scenario.

Testing reliability and validity for all the variables included in the study.

Secondary data taken from websites and documents, which may not be correct or

manipulated/distorted by someone.

Every respondent dont have uniform interest during answering of questionnaire


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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be

understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically. In it we study the various steps

that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying his research problem along with the logic behindthem.

TYPE OF RESEARCH

Descriptive research:

In this project descriptive type of research is done. It includes surveys and fact-findings enquiries

of different kinds. The main purpose of descriptive research is description of the state of affairs, as it

exists at present.

The main characteristics of this method are that the researcher has no control over the variables. He can

only report what has happened or what is happening.

Research design

Research design is the conceptual structure within which research is conducted; it constitutes the

blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data. AS such the design includes an outline of

what the researcher will do from writing the hypothesis and its operational implications to the final

analysis of data.

Important features of research design-

It is a plan that specifies the sources and types of information relevant to the research problem.


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RESEARCH DESIGN

NON-PROBABILITY

EXPLORATORY &DISCRIPTIVE EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

The research is primarily both exploratory as well as descriptive in nature. The sources of

information are both primary & secondary.

Primary Data:

Primary data is basically the live data which I collected on field while doing cold calls with the

Distributor and shopkeeper, customers, I shown them list of question for which I had required their

responses. In some cases I got no response form their side and than on the basis of my previous

experiences I filled those fields.

Source: Main source for the primary data for the project was questionnaires which I got filled by

the customers or some times filled myself on the basis of discussion with the customers.

Secondary Data:

1 Internet

2 Books

3 Journals,

4 Newspaper,

5 Annual report,

6 Database available in the library,

7 Catalogues and presentations.

SAMPLE SIZE

The sample size of 100 persons is used for the completion of research .


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Collecting the data

In dealing with any real life problem it is often found that date at hand are inadequate, and hence,

it becomes necessary to collect data that are appropriate. There are several ways of collecting the

appropriate data, which differ considerably in context of money costs, time and other resources at thedisposal of the researcher.

Primary data can be collected either through experiment or through survey. If the researcher

conducts an experiment, he observes some quantitative measurements, or the data. With the help of

which he examines the truth contained in ihis hypothesis. But in the case of a survey, any one or more of

the following ways can collect data.

By observation:

This method implies the collection of information by way of investigators own observation, without

interviewing the respondents. The information obtained relates to what is currently happening and is

not complicated by either the past behavior or future intentions or attitudes of respondents. This

method is no doubt an expensive method and the information provided by this method is also very

limited. As such this method is not suitable in inquiries where large samples are concerned.

Through personal interview:

The investigator follows a rigid procedure and seeks answers to a set of pre-conceived questions

through personal interviews. This method of collecting date is usually carried out in a structured way

where output depends upon the ability of the interviewer to a large extent.

Through telephone interviews:

This method of collecting informations involves contacting the respondents on telephone itself.

This is not a very widely used method but it plays an important role in industrial surveys indeveloped regions, particularly, when the survey has to be accomplished in a very limited time.


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Questionnaires:

The researcher and the respondent do come in contact with each other if this method of survey is

adopted. Questionnaires are mailed to the respondents with a request to return after complaining the

same. It is the most extensively used method in various economic and business surveys. Before

applying this method, usually a pilot study for testing the questionnaire is conduced this reveals the

weaknesses, if any, of the questionnaire, Questionnaire to be used must be prepared very carefully so

that it may prove to be effective in collecting the relevant information.

Through schedules:

Under this method the enumerators are appointed and given training. They are provided with

schedules containing relevant questions. These enumerators go to respondents with these schedules.

Data are collected by filling up the schedules by enumerators on the basis of replies given by

respondents. Much depends upon the capability of enumerators so fare as this method is concerned.

Some occasional field checks on the work of the enumerators may ensure sincere work.

The researcher should select one of these methods of collecting the data taking into consideration the

nature of investigation, objective and scope of the inquiry, financial resources, available time and the

desired degree of accuracy. Though he should pay attention to al l these factors but much depends upon

the ability and experience of the researcher. IN this context Dr. A.L Bowley very aptly remarks that in

collection of statistical data commonsense it ht chief requisite and experience the chief teacher.

In this project primary data is collected through questionnaire.


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INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION

Primary data- questionnaire

Questionnaire consists of a set of questions presented to respondents. Because of its flexibility, itis by far the most common instrument used to collect primary data.

Secondary data- Books, reports, journals, internet etc.

What is customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a

company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business

and is part of the four perspective of a balanced Scorecard. .

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is

seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.

Measuring customer satisfaction

Organization are increasingly interested in retaining existing customer while targeting non

customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is

at providing products and /or services to the marketplace.

Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the

state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of

satisfaction depended on a number of both psychological and physical variable, which correlate with

satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary

depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can

compare the organizations products.

Because satisfaction is basically a psychological sate care should be taken in the effort of

quantitative measurement although a large equality of research in this area has


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Recently been developed. Work done by Berry (Bart Allen) and Brooder between 1990 and 1998

defined ten Quality values which influence satisfaction behavior, further expanded by berry in 2002 and

known as the ten domains of satisfaction. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality value,

Timeliness, Ease of access, Environment, inter- departmental Teamwork, Front Line service behavior

commitment to the customer and innovation. These factors are emphasized for continuous improvement

and organizational change measurement and are most often utilized to develop the architecture for

satisfaction measurement as an integrated model.

Work done by Parasuraman, zeithmal and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985 and 1988 provides the

basis for the measurement of customer satisfaction with a service by using the gap between the

customers expectation of performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides the

measure with a satisfaction gap which is objective and quantitative in nature. Work done by Cronin

and Taylor propose the confirmation / disconfirmation theory of combining the gap described by

parasuraman, Zenithal and Berry as two different measures into a single measurement of performance

according to expectation. According to Garbrand, customer satisfaction equals perception of performance

divided by expectation of performance.


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Company profile

INTRODUTION

NIIT Group is a leader in software and services sector. NIIT services enterprises and individuals

in 42 countries with its wide ranging Learning Solutions. NIIT Group comprises two companies: NIIT

Technologies. & NIIT Limited. NIIT Technologies offers a vast portfolio of IT solutions to customers

spread across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Australia. NIIT Limited is a pioneer in the field

education and training. NIIT was set up in 1981 by young Indian entrepreneurs. NIIT has pioneered the

concept of high quality IT education in India and has trained one out of every three software

professionals in the country. In 1982, NIIT set up education centres in Mumbai, Delhi, and Madras and

followed them up with one in Bangalore in 1983. In the same year NIIT introduced Corporate training

programs. In 1991, NIIT set up its first overseas office in US. In the same year IBM awarded NIIT its

first CBT assignment. By 2000, NIIT has software operation in 18 countries. In 2001, NIIT was

conferred Microsoft's 'Best Training Company Award'. In 2002, NIIT acquired three companies in the

US and launched NIIT Smart Serve for Business Process Management. In 2003, NIIT achieved CMMi

Level 5 for software business. In 2004, NIIT's Global Solutions Business was spun off into NIIT

Technologies Limited.

Contents Introduction History NIIT Limited NIIT Technologies Timeline Business units Key

industries NIIT's key initiatives Global training centers Competitors Notes and references & External

links.

Introduction NIIT is an Information Technology global education and training company

headquartered in Gurgaon, India. It is one of Asia's largest Information Technology training and

education company with 5 million students across 40 countries. [3] The company is listed on the National

Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange of India.


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NIIT Technologies

NIIT Technologies focus areas include application development and management, enterprise solutions,

including managed services, and business process management. NIIT Technologies addresses the needs

of well-defined industry segments such as Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, Transportation,Retail and Manufacturing. NIIT Technologies has alliances with global IT majors such as Computer

Associates, IBM, Informatica, Metalogic, Microsoft, NetIQ, Oracle, SAP and SEEC.

NIIT Technologies NIIT Technologies (BSE: 532541) is a Global IT solution organization

headquartered in New Delhi, India. It was established in 2004 when split with NIIT Limited happened.

According to NASSCOM NIIT technologies is ranked among India's Top 20 IT software service

exporter. It follows global standards of development, which includes ISO 9001:2000 certification,

assessment at Level 5 of both SEI- CMMi version 1.2 and People-CMM frameworks and ISO 27001

information security management certification. Its data centre operations are assessed at the international

ISO 20000 IT management standards. [9] NIIT Technologies has alliance with global IT players such as

Computer Associates, IBM, Microsoft, Metalogic, SAP AG, Cisco Systems, Oracle Corporation and

Seek.

NIIT Limited

NIIT Limiters vast education network span over 30 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia,

Middle East, Africa and Australia/Oceania. NIIT provides both classroom and on-line learning. It ranks

among the Top 20 Global IT Training Companies.

NIIT Limited NIIT Limited (BSE: 500304) education centers are found in over 30 countries and

provides both classroom and on-line learning solution. NIIT Limited has been recognized as one of the

Asia's largest IT training institution; with more than 100 educational centers were setup in China and

other parts of Asia-Pacific region.


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Major Achievements of NIIT Adjudged Best Training Company by Users in Computer World opinion poll 2000.

Adjudged the "Best Microsoft Win2K Training Partner" 2000.

Conferred Microsoft's 'Best Training Company Award' 2001

'Best Training Service Provider on .Net' award by Microsoft for its outstanding contribution.

NIIT Technologies featured among the "Top 25 Great Places to Work" in the BusinessWorld

Survey-2003

NIIT is a leading Global Talent Development Corporation, building skilled manpower pool for

global industry requirements offering learning solutions to Individuals, Enterprises and Institutions

across more than 44countries.

NIITs training solutions in IT, Business Process Outsourcing, Banking,

History:

History NIIT was established in the year 1981 by young entrepreneur Rajendra S. Pawar and

Vijay K. Thadani. In the early 1981, on the campus of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India young

enthusiastic students Rajendra S. Pawar and Vijay K. Thadani not found themselves at the same company

sharing the same dorm room. After graduating from IIT with the ambitious goal of spreading computer

knowledge throughout India Pawar and Thadani, envisioned and developed a company which is today

known as NIIT. [It has pioneered in IT education in India and trains one out of every three software

professional to work in an IT company. During 1982 it setup educational centers in Mumbai, Delhi later

it spread in western part of India especially in Bangalore. In the following years it stated corporate

training programs. It is ranked among top 20 IT training institutions and graded among India's most

trusted service brands.


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Timeline:

1981: NIIT was established by Rajendra S. Pawar and Vijay K. Thadani to cater IT education and

training in India. 1982: Setup educational centers in Mumbai and Chennai. 1982: Introduced Multimedia

technology in education 1983: Corporate training program introduced 1983: It setup education center in

Bangalore 1984: IT consultancy service stated 1985: Head Office integrated in New Delhi 1986:

Software product distribution started under " Insoft " brand 1987: Education centers setup in Kolkata and

Hyderabad 1987: Conceived Franchising Model of education 1989: Dr CR Mitra an alumnus of MIT

joined NIIT as education adviser stated and created "GNIIT" program. 17 Timeline

Business units:

A business unit NIIT has organized itself along the following three lines of business: Individual

Learning Solutions - This focuses on providing employability skills to people in the age group of 1625

years. IT training forms the bulk of this segment. In recent years it has launched new offerings for

training in Banking, Insurance and Financial services through IFBI, NIIT IMPERIA Executive

Management Programs through NIIT Imperia and training in skills for BPO/KPO sectors through NIIT

Unique School Learning Solutions - this provides training and learning solutions to government and to

private schools. Corporate Learning Solutions- this division provides training services such as off the

shelf learning library, custom content development, and customized instructor led training and training

administration services. Element K a US company, acquired by NIIT in 2006, forms about two thirds of

the sales from this division.

Key industries:


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Key industries Banking & Financial Services, Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Investment

Management Risk and Compliance Offerings Business Testing Frameworks Insurance Channel and

Customer Interface Solutions Core Insurance Business Processes Enabling Insurance Business Processes

Regulatory Compliance and Tax Environments Intellectual Property-Solutions and Solution Accelerators

Value Added Services.

NIIT's key initiatives:

NIIT's key initiatives NIIT Institute of financial banking (IFBI), formed with equality

participation with ICICI Bank, which offers programs to develop talent in banking industry. Later NIIT

offer Turkey integration program for schools and cater computer base training to over 5000 government

schools. NIIT's corporate learning solutions, it offers corporate learning solution to Fortune 500

companies, Universities, technological companies, training corporation and publishing companies.

Element K delivers learning solutions for customers and partners through a tailored solution through

catalog learning products, technology and services. It offers Virtual lab (hand-on-labs), instructor led

course ware, comprehensive journals and e-libraries.

Global training centers:

Global training centers Indian training centers NIIT has training and educational centers in the

following Indian states: Andhra Pradesh , Assam , Bihar , Chandigarh , Delhi , Goa , Gujarat , Haryana ,

Himachal Pradesh , Jammu and Kashmir , Jharkhand , Karnataka , Kerala , Madhya Pradesh ,

Maharashtra , Nagaland , Orissa , Pondicherry , Punjab , Rajasthan , Tamil Nadu , Uttar Pradesh , West

Bengal . Global Units North America : USA , Canada , Mexico South America : Peru Europe : UK ,

Ireland , Kazakhstan , Turkey Oceania : Australia , New Zealand Asia (outside India) : China ,

Indonesia , Malaysia , Nepal , Philippines , Sri Lanka , Vietnam , Bahrain , Iran , Oman , Qatar , Yemen

Africa : South Africa , Nigeria , Ghana , Morocco , Sudan , Zimbabwe , Mauritius.

Competitors:


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Competitors School Learning Solutions competes in the e-learning market with a number of local

players including Everonn Education, Manipal K12 Education, and Educomp as well as other players

like HMSC Learning a joint-venture between S.Chand and Houghton Mifflin Harcourts international

arm EMPGI.

References &External links:

References & External links www.google.com From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia NIIT

Limited - Official website NIIT Technologies - Official website About NIIT page NIIT demerger NIIT

University 31 NIIT in world.


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SERVICE QUALITY DELIVERY

All industries maybe treated as service to an extent, some organizations more than others. Even

manufacturing organizations do not just sell a product but provide some of backup such as after-sales

service, advice, warranty, repair, installation, or training. On the other hand even in pure service

industries such as banks, hospitals, education, and consultancies, automobile industries there often a

product which changes hands. For example banks talk new product development, because they do have

products-loan schemes, deposits schemes, various types of schemes, deposit schemes, various types of

credit cards, other types of monitory instruments etc. hospital provide products to patients in the form of

diagnoses and prescription to reports. Similarly consultancies provide reports of their findings analysis,

and recommendations to client organizations. In an educational set-up a student maybe entirely different

as it may consider an enlightened student with appropriate knowledge and skills as the end product.

In manufacturing we get a tangible and Identifiable product, which is obtained as a result of a

service of transformation processes subjected to it. In services the end product is often tangible

amusement in a them bank, hospitality in a hotel, good education processes but focus only upon the

features of the end product. The main difference is that in services it is the customer that has been

processed. In the service industry, it is often the processes that are bought rather than the product. Some

organizations maybe considered as offering a hybrid of product and services to its customer.


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LITERATURE REVIEW

One effective strategy used in differentiating an offer from that of the competitors, is to excel in

delivering quality service to Students. One hears a lot of talk about institutions goal being to deliverquality service to the students. Service before self is more a clich with many Indian firms. Their

strategy, action, and organization show a half-hearted attempt to provide quality service to students.

More often than not, the attempt is to avoid or somehow get over with the students.

The study is concerned with the comparison of different studies related with the various quality

services. An over view of the literature in the field of quality service sectors. The study is presented in

this section converting the core title information of quality service delivery towards NIIT.

There are so many past researches done on the basis of students quality services in different areas are as

follows.

One of the researches done in quality service satisfaction related to padmini bajaj motors.

To find out the customer service satisfaction towards various services provided by padmini bajaj.

To build good customer relationship.

To take necessary measures to improve quality service offered to customer.

To compare customer satisfaction of the company wise major competitors.

To draw out of the customer satisfaction level.

The above research mainly focus on quality service satisfaction related to Padmini bajaj Motors.

This research is different from the above research this research is purely based on NIIT computer

institute in quality service delivery. In this study researcher mainly focused on particularly NIIT

institute and its quality services.


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Some another researches also done the research on customer quality services on e-seva centers.

To evaluate the present position of e seva services compare to Govt office bills collection.

To evaluate customer perception towards e seva services through customer feedback.

To suggest the methods to improve services.

The above research was done in e seva. In this research particularly focus on e seva services.

These research objectives are totally different from the above objectives. In this study mainly

focused on how NIIT providing quality services to students.

And some other researches also had done the research on after sales service provided by

Samsung service centre. The objectives of the study were different each other. And this research has

done on following basis.

To study the customer awareness towards after sales service offered to him/her.

To draw out customer satisfaction level with Samsung services.

To take necessary feed back about their products.

The above research was done on Samsung services. In this research particularly based on after sales

service towards Samsung services.

These objectives are totally different from past research objectives.

And some other researches also had done in this area. This research mainly focused on sales

service related to phoenix motors private Ltd Hyderabad. They analyzed to find the strategies and

customer regarding the availability of information related to the product.

To study the customer service on quality service related to sales provided by the dealers.

To study the opinion of the customers regarding the availability of information related to the

product

To study the customer satisfaction with user of their bikes.


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To study the customer satisfaction with usage of their bikes.

To study the information recourses their customers using before purchasing the bike.

And some other research also had done in this service area. The objectives of study were different

form each other.

To gain the feed back from customers regarding after sales services and its improvements that are

required for the consultancy.

To suggest necessary measures to improve services offered consultancies.

To study customer awareness towards consultancy sales services offered him/ to her.

To draw customer satisfaction levels after placements.

His/her research tries to find the facts of consultancy services

These are all of the important research objectives of the past research studies.

Present research objectives are differing from the past research objectives. These all objectives

are different from the past studies. In this study main aim is to done the research on some of the different

aspects which is very useful for futures. There are so many differences are available between presentresearch and other researcher research. In this research study mainly focused on quality service delivery

of NIIT.

Juran defined customer quality as feature of products which meet customers needs and thereby

provide satisfaction, and service quality relates to quality is identified to understand the consumer.

Zeitheml (1987) defined perceived quality as the consumers judgment about an entitys overall

excellence or superiority, which can be viewed as distinct of attitude, related in part to satisfaction , andresulting from a comparison of expectations of performance.


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Marketing

Marketing is "The process of planning and executing the pricing, promotion, and distribution of

goods, ideas, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals." Another

definition, perhaps simpler and more universal, is The process of moving people closer to making a

decision to purchase, use, follow, refer, upload, download, obey, reject, conform, become complacent to

another person's, society's or organization's value. Simply, if it doesn't facilitate a "sale" then it's not

marketing.

Types of Markets

The word market originally meant the place where the exchange between seller and buyer took

place. Today we speak of a market as either a region where goods are sold and bought or particular types

of buyers (summarized from Wells, Burnett, Moriarty, pg. 6566). When strategizing specialists in

marketing comment about markets they are usually referring to the different groups of people and/or

organizations. The four major market groups are 1) Consumer, 2) Business to Business, 3) Institutional,

and 4) Reseller.

Branding refers to the sum total of your company's value-proposition: Products, Services, People,

Advertising, Positioning, Culture, and Partner Relationships.

10 Common Marketing Methods

There are many methods of marketing, from simple to elaborate and from inexpensive to extremely

costly. All or only some of these may be applicable to your business, but you can choose the ones that are

and create a powerful marketing strategy. The following list outlines some common marketing and

communication methods used by millions of businesses to reach their potential customers:

Print advertising in newspapers, magazines, business journals, community newsletters, etc.

Developing sales flyers, brochures or newsletters for distribution to potential customers.

Attend trade shows or exhibitions related to your industry, product or business.


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Press releases and public service announcements in newspapers. Usually free and good exposure.

Cooperative marketing efforts (in advertising, etc) with a business that compliments yours.

Join community networking groups like your local chamber of commerce or business committee.

Join professional associations through your industry, business or personal credentials.

Internet marketing is an exciting and inexpensive method of regional, national or global

marketing.

Telemarketing to potential customers off a list or out of the telephone book.

Direct marketing with written correspondence using a list to mail or fax marketing literature.

Quality Service

Quality in a service organization is a measure of the extent to which the service delivered meets

customers expectation because to the customer, quality is all about Meeting or exceeding their

expectation.

The National quality institute web site defined quality as follows:

Quality is in the eye of the beholder. Yet we all recognize it when we

See it Quality is when you are so satisfied with a product or service

That you go out of your way to recommend it to other people

There is a tendency to think of quality as being upscale, first class and

Expensive: In fact, quality can be achieved at all price levels if the need and desires of thecustomers are met, and exceeded.

The nature of most services is such that the customer is present in the delivery process. This means

that the perception of quality is influenced not only by the service outcome but also by the service

processes. NIIT Ltd is a store, which provides services to the customers. In this project it is estimated that


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to what extent the quality service is by NIIT Ltd and what role does the marketers play in delivering high

quality goods and services to get the target customers. For research work both primary and secondary

data are used. Customer to know their perceptions and belief fills questionnaire. Then in this report

service quality model is explained which highlights the gaps that cause unsuccessful delivery of service.

On the basis of this model five determinants of service quality are- Reliability, Responsiveness,

Assurance, empathy, tangibles.

QUALITY SERVICE MODEL

The model highlights the main requirements for delivering service quality.

It identifies five gaps that cause unsuccessful delivery.

Gap between consumer expectation and management perception.

Gap between management perception and service quality specification.

Gap between service quality specification and service delivery.

Gap between service delivery and perceived service.

Gap between perceived service and external communication


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GAP 5

CONSUMER

MARKETER

GAP 1 GAP 4

GAP 3

GAP 2

Based on this service quality model, researchers identified the 5 determinants

Personal needs

Expected

service

Perceived

service

Service delivery

(Including pre and post

contacts)

Transaction of

perceptions into

service quality

specifications.

Management

perceptions of

Consumer expectations

Past

experience

Word of mouth

communication

External

communication

To consumer


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Of service quality, in order of importance.

RELIABILITY- The ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

RESPONSIVENESS- The willingness to help customers and to provide prompt service.

ASSURANCE The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convert trust and

Confidence.

EMPATHY The provision of caring individualized attention to customers.

TANGIBLES The appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication

materials.

Quality service

Quality in service organization is measure of the extent to which the service delivered meets the

customers expectations. The nature of most services is such that the customer is present in the delivery

process. These mean that the perception of quality is influenced not only by the customer service but

also by the service processes. The perceived quality lies along by the service outcome but also by the

service process the perceived quality lies along a continuum, unacceptable quality lies at one end of

continuum, while ideal quality lies at the other end. The points in between represent different

gradations of quality, measures of quality may either be hand or soft hand measures are those which are

quantifiable or objective, for example computer down time or the proportion of telephone calls answered

soft measures are those which are quantitative, judgmental, subjective, and based on perceptual data, for

example customer satisfaction with speed of service or managers assessment of staff attitude towards

services.


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The role of services

The western world has experienced a post-industrial service economy for over two decades. This

is not the situation in all parts of the world. In industrialized countries the value created by the service

sector as a percentage of GDP in current prices rose from 53 percent in 1960 to 66 percent in 1995. in the

European union it rose from 47 to 68 percent, and in the USA from 57 to 72 percent, and keeps rising.

However, the service sector has for a long time counted for over 50 percent of gross national product

or total employment in developed countries. In several countries this percentage is closer to 100 than 50.

However, quoting statistics is largely irrelevant, because they are complied based on the industrial era,

where the creation of wealth in a society was due to that societys capability to produce manufactured

goods in efficiently functioning factories. Services were considered add-ons, something that was

necessary but which did not add much value for the society. What in official statistics was not included in

manufacturing, the industrial sector or the agriculture sector was put together in what was called the

service sector. This included financial services, transportation, hospitality services, professional services,

and services provided by the public sector. Official statistics on the importance of the services to society

were vastly understated.

Service competition

Service competition is nothing new. Service firms such as banks, hotels, restaurants and

transportation firms have always faced the situation where competing with services is critical to success.

They have not always realized what this requires of them, and therefore, for example, may have fallen

into a price trap or over-emphasized marketing communication. However, firms in more and more

industries, regardless of whether they are traditionally categorized as service or manufacturing industries,

now find themselves in a situation where the core product only offers a starting point for the development


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of a competing advantage, but does not guarantee a competitive advantage any more. In such a situation a

service perspective offers an approach to the strategic reorientation of the firm. The development of the

core product into a service offering including value-enhancing billable and non-billable service

components may make the firm competitive again. Service competition has become a reality for most

firms. Without adopting a service competition logic such firms will be in trouble.

What is a service.

A service is the word has many meanings, ranging from personal service to service as a product.

Service that are a series of a process, where production and consumption cannot be totally separated, and

where the customer often actively participates in the production process, and bound to be perceived as

extremely complex. However, in order to develop service management and marketing models, it is

important to understand what customers are really looking for and what they evaluate.

When the service provider understand how service will be evaluated by the users, it will be

possible to identify ways of managing these evaluations and influencing them in a desired direction. The

relationship between the service concept, the service offered to customers, and customer benefits has to

be clarified.

Studying critical incidents an alternative way of measuring quality service.


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The measurement methods discussed in the previous section are based on attributes and

quantitative measurement of these attributes. An alternative way of creating an understanding of how

customers perceive the quality of given service is the critical incident method. This method has been used

a great deal in various studies in the service field.

The methodological approach is to ask respondents, in this case customers with experiences of a

given service, to think of situations where the service, or any part of the service process including the

outcome of that process, clearly deviated from the normal, either in a favorable or unfavorable way.

These are critical incidents. Then the respondent is asked to describe, in as much detail as possible, what

happened and what made him consider the incident critical. Finally, the researcher analyzes the

descriptions of the critical incidents and the reasons for them in order to find out what kind of quality

problems exist and why these problems occur. Favorable quality perceptions and the reasons for them are

also categorized in the same fashion.

A study using critical incidents gives the marketer rich material indicating problem areas and

strengths as well as what should be developed in order for the firm to improve the perceived quality

services. One may find out, for example, that a lack of resources, problems with the technical skills of

service employees or negative attitudes towards customers seem to be frequently occurring reasons for

negative critical incidents, causing a low perception of service quality. If needed, the marketer can use

these findings as a basis for further research on actions necessary to improve service quality. Frequently

the findings from a critical incident study give direct indications about what actions need to be taken.

How is quality service measured.


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In order to measure service quality, one has to assess customer expectations and his or her actual

experience with the service provided by the firm, based on the five dimensions of service quality

spelled out earlier. The gap between the two will indicate whether the service quality is high or low

on each of these variables. It is equally important to assess the service providers perception of the

service delivered to the customer and what they perceive to be organizational factor that facilitate or

hinder their ability to deliver quality service. Often one may find gap between the customers

expected level of service and service providers perception of it. It is these gaps that need to be closed

through appropriate organizational interventions in technology, system, policies, human resources

development, and marketing. A useful tool here is SERVQUAL, developed Zeithmal and others. This

is further discussed in the section on marketing instruments.

The SERVQUAL= (perception of an ideal company as measured by the rating given by the

customer on the ten-point scale for each variable)-(expectation or actual service provided by the firm

as measured by the rating given by the customer on the ten-point scale for each variable in the firm).

After calculating this SERVQUAL score for the customer, one can calculate the same for the

service providers also by subtracting the customers average SERVQUAL gap for each variable or

for the firm as whole.

While assessing perceptions regarding the quality of service they think they deliver. It is

important to study all employees across the organizational hierarchy. In other words, the study should

measure the perceptions of contact personnel, like sales and service executives, as also those of the

top management. An analysis of responses at different levels in the organization can lead to strategic

option to help close the gap and also ensure shared vision values.


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Organizational issues in quality service:

Service quality is a deliberate strategic choice exercised by winner firms. Now, the firm which

aims to deliver service quality has to focus on the following critical areas.

Planning for service: It is not only important to have a service vision, but it is equally critical to plan

and implement a service quality strategy. Here the firm has to set before itself the goal of 100 percent

customer satisfaction. Though on the face of it, this looks impossible; in reality it has been found to

be a motivating, challenging and even an achievable goal. If the firm does not to have this goal and is

satisfied with 95 percent of customer satisfaction, the 5 percent dissatisfied customers are enough to

negatively affect the companys market share and profits. Dissatisfaction is as contagious as

satisfaction, and therefore the firm should work to achieve 100 percent customer satisfaction. Some

strategic options in this regard are:


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THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE OF SERVICE QUALITY

At the outset it is very important to acknowledge that services can vary in quality and that it is quite

possible to influence it for good and bad. The very fact that service quality isnt a fixed reality but rather

one that can be improved is important to consider. Its nature is malleable and this gives those that care

about quality the chance to influence it for the better. Further, it suggests that we dont necessarily have

to settle for inferior service, providing weave made the investments to have it improved. It also means

that in some instances, it maybe possible for exceptional levels of quality to be achieved even in times in

which poor service quality is the norm.

Quality generally refers to something done by human beings at a very high level of excellence,Often times in the sense of works of perfection as being distinctive from inferior mediocre performance.

This is the sense in which quality will be used here.

There is another sense of quality as being a continuum from very poor to excellent. All stages of

the continuum are part of quality in that they all express some level of attainment of quality - even if in

the inferior ranges. This sense is not helpful if what one wants to concentrate on is the best effort as

distinct from all efforts.

Quality can also be a sustained phenomena that accumulates its virtue precisely by enduring in its

meritorious distinctiveness within the passage of time. It would be reflected in a track record of

interlinked instances of individual excellence combining with other ones across time. Conceivably these

may not be accidental at all but are shaped repeatedly by the hands of those whose task it is to ensure a

good outcome. If such persons fail to assure the intended quality then something that might have been

excellent will not become so.

Service quality can decline even in circumstances where it had consistently been above average.

This could also mean that service quality is low despite the fact that it neednt be. Since quality can be

influenced either positively or negatively, it matters a great deal whether people are trying to influence it

for the better. One of the most decisive of the possible influences on quality is leadership.


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Nothing of consequence can be achieved in any human activity without a measure of leadership

being required to ensure that things turn out well. While people in human services often see themselves

as somehow apart from other walks in life, a more accurate sense is that the essential human condition is

much the same in human services as anywhere else. Additionally, we are much the same today as we

have been down through the ages. In this we share much with other ages in our own struggles for quality

and leadership.

The temptation may be to see these challenges in only their highly modernized versions and thus

make the questions of quality and leadership much too hostage to the current culture of human service.

A more cautious approach would be to anchor these more to what quality and leadership have asked of

human beings across many times and places and in the many facets of human life in which these are

universally relevant concerns.

Leadership, as we use the term today, does not have quite as encompassing a lineage as does quality.

Few languages outside of English have a comparable term and, in English itself, the terms current

meanings only crystallized in the latter half of this century. The early concept of leader usually

indicated a formal role whereas today leadership typically refers to the capacity of some people to lead.

This does not imply that leadership is or has been unimportant in bringing about quality but rather

that we have our own particular preoccupations about it in this brief period of the late twentieth century.

In any case, it is worthwhile to link these two concerns and try to discern how these might or might not

make any difference for the many millions of people now dependent on modern human service systems.

a) Quality as an Internalized Ethic

There is no particular reason to do anything of quality unless one seeks to shape things so that

something above average can result. This will to quality thereby moves from being a goal to a

commitment. A commitment is the undertaking of an obligation in which one will risk not measuring up

to a high standard. Achieving quality means living with the risk of doing poorly. On the other hand,

quality cannot be achieved merely by intentions as, at some point, one will have to struggle to

demonstrate excellence. This would explain why quality talk is so universally insufficient as a


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response to the deeper challenges of achieving excellence. Words are not deeds. For leaders the task

becomes one of both calling for and exemplifying a consistent commitment to quality in oneself and

others, such that it becomes a part of which people are - that is, an ethical foundation in their identity.

For instance, one cannot achieve an attitude of respect for clients by merely mouthing respectful things.

The test of genuineness will require that you mean what you say and this is recognized as tangibly a part

of who you are. An ethic that is not internalized is not a commitment but rather a pose. Thus for leaders

the task becomes one of getting people (including themselves) to authentically care about quality and

then to continuously challenge themselves to do something about it. Put in another way, quality begins

inside people and radiates outward.

Less obvious may be the fact that it is impossible to achieve a quality outcome without first

resolving within oneself the will and intention to do a superior job of things. Even with such questions

resolved at the outset it is quite realistic to expect that the commitment to excel will be tested repeatedly

by the disciplines inherent in achieving excellence. Each trial in its own way forces a recurring

recommitment to quality at each step in the task. Whenever one lets ones commitment to excellence

lapse quality inevitably will decline. Thus the outer manifestations of quality e.g. performance are a

mirror of the inner challenge of quality.

b) Quality Derives Fundamentally From People, Not From Organizations,

Laws or Systems the current management ethos about quality is that it is something that comes

to clients (or customers) via organizations. The difficulty with this premise is that it ignores the

commonly cited observation that organizations are only as good as the people in them. Thus the more

fundamental origin of quality is persons, both in their personal and collective sense. Without good

people it is very doubtful that you can get good results. Axiomatically, it is entirely predictable that

quality will utterly mirror the strengths and weaknesses of the people involved. Organizations and other

Structures do profoundly influence people but in the end the raw essence of quality lies in the characters

of these who are involved. One cannot draw good results from poor character as good does not derive

from its absence.

To suggest that organizations, laws, systems and other such structures govern human conduct is to both

grossly overstate their influence and to ignore the way human beings actually interact with systems. In


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the first instance systems constitute frameworks which channel human activity but cannot utterly

control it. In the second instance human beings show both a startling capacity to render even elegantly

logical systems dysfunctional as well as a genuine innovativeness in making sense of things even in the

face of incoherent systems. Thus it is a far more cautious view to see the eventual dependence of systems

on people even if this sensibility is ignored in the paradigm of technocratic utilitarianism.

For leaders, the initial challenge becomes the recruitment of the right people and the redirection

or substitution of those less suited. It means the deployment of people where they can do the most good

and providing the ongoing sustenance to them to meet the demands of achieving quality. These tasks

alone are formidable, so it should give an inkling of the deeper costs to leaders if they embrace the

painfully taxing ambition of quality. Superior quality will only derive from people doing a superior job.

C )Achieving Excellence is Difficult and Rare

There seems to exist in all of us a wish to make things easier. This leaves us vulnerable to trying

to enact this wish through short cuts, quick fixes and other subterfuges. The reality is that achieving

anything of quality is precisely the opposite of easy. There is no doubt that many people can create the

appearance that quality has been achieved easily. This will not in the end be proven to have been the true

case. Quality will always ask something of human beings and will yield its benefits only to the extent hat

each gain has been precisely earned. One cant realistically expect to be at the top of ones field without

paying the price of proving oneself again and again. This has always been true and will continue to be so

even if we live in foolish times. In the end substance matters in quality.

Excellence will be increasingly more difficult to achieve as one increase the standard.

Consequently fewer and fewer people will reach that standard as the degree of quality heightens. Thus

in most things, including human services, the average level of quality can be expected to be routinely

ordinary or worse and only infrequently remarkable or outstanding. It is no mistake that most quality

assurance schemes are minimal standards oriented since this is much more consistent with the regression

to the mean tendencies that derive from human nature. In this, quality assurance is actually quality

avoidance, since most QA strategies virtually ignore the question of what an optimal service could or

should look like in favor of asking what is minimally acceptable.


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For leaders there is necessarily a requirement that there be no underestimation of what it really

takes to get people to excel on any kind of sustained basis. Quality can be addressed partly by getting

people to excel and partly by getting people accustomed to a more exacting standard, such that quality is

not a foreign struggle to them. Humility in the face of the profound limitations in achieving excellence is

in no way an impediment to cultivating a proper respect and desire for quality. In fact, it is doubtful that

human beings can sustain any exacting task without both a realistic idealism and a generous grasp of

what it takes to do something authentically notable.

It is revealing that so many people who speak and write about quality act as if quality

achievement was merely a matter of adopting the right outlook. While outlook does matter there are

indeed further substantial costs in attaining authentic quality that should not be underestimated as this

will lead to a serious lack of realism. It has never been true, nor will it ever be true, that exceptional

accomplishments can be acquired without struggle, commitment and difficulty. It cheapens the meaning

of excellence to suggest that it asks nothing of us before delivering its bounty.

Excellence must be earned each and every day, as has been known since ancient times in the

moral recognition that one is entitled only to that which one has contributed to. One of the more

misleading themes of our disoriented age is that one can have it all without somehow paying ones way.

How can one serve people with distinction if one has not acknowledged the immense difficulty of what it

takes to consistently understand, assist and enable people? If it were so easy why is it that the clients of

so many of our services are living lives that are far less than either they or their service providers would

hope for? What is it that we believe we have added to the process of service that justifies a claim of

excellence?

The good news in this is that superior quality in service is realistically attainable for those leaders

in service, at whatever level, who both engage the level of difficulty involved and recognize that each

step towards improvement will ask something before giving way. If people and organizations can be

enabled to meet this price then there can be the resultant confidence that progress is feasible.

Further, it can also be expected that shallow, superficial and deceptively easy versions of quality

will eventually yield their inevitable fruits of disappointment and emptiness. Genuine leadership, in this


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regard, may be as much concerned with discernment as to what is true quality as it is with paying the

daily price for this insight.

d) What Is Said To Be Quality in Human Service May Not Necessarily Be

Centered On the Service User

It is important to recognize that we are all free to call anything we want quality. As in ancient

times much is passed off as quality, which is actually inferior. We recognize this ancient challenge in the

enduring use of Latin terms such as caveat emptor, i.e. let the buyer beware. Unfortunately foolishness,

gullibility and an inability to discern quality are ever present in all of us at one time or another. This

leaves us vulnerable to those who can present themselves as excellent whether or not there is any

evidence for their claims. The difficulty goes deeper than merely discerning what salesmanship, to the

underlying reality is that there are many competing ideas of what quality might be. Some of these may

be as primitive as believing that a clean service setting reflects a superior service, to a more sophisticated

naivete that increasing the number of credentialed professionals somehow ensures that the service user

will be treated better. Whatever the singular element of service quality cited, the fact remains that ones

perception of service quality functions for most people as their standard. Consequently, quality in

service can be whatever people want it to be.

A crucial question then becomes whether what people see as quality has anything to do with the

service users experience of service. If a service is genuinely good then surely it must be of distinctive

benefit to the person served. This assumption requires of all service that it be beneficial to the person

served, at least insofar that such benefits are realistically feasible. It is this assumption that encourages

many people to look at service user outcomes as a clue to whether authentic service has been rendered.

Even so, many people might nonetheless still be content to look at non-service user factors as being as

good as client outcome measures. Conceivably these non service user factors could include financial

control, documentation of policies and practices, adherence to regulations, minimal standards,

competitive unit costs, administrative performance and so on. Needless to say, these factors typically do

not relate to client outcomes as much as they do organizational conformity and stability. Even so, in

some minds, the dependable presence of service maybe more valued than whether it aids the service


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users life. In some extreme instances, services have been evaluated without any inquiry whatsoever into

whether the service user is better off - including having the evaluators fail to meet the persons served.

The dilemma is not resolved simply by adopting some measure of service user outcomes since

these outcomes may they be a poor measure of whether service(s) has authentically benefited the

person. For instance, client satisfaction surveys are notoriously undependable as a gauge of service

effectiveness, as are units of service received as a measure of program relevance. Yet these are both

likely to be called outcomes. Still, the act of focusing on the people served at the expense of an over

concentration on disembodied and abstract organizational performance measures is nevertheless a good

safeguard against the possibility of ignoring the life of the person served as the crucial test of service

quality. Service leaders must direct their energies to establishing some manner of service that is

unmistakably focused on the people served. This is not as easy as one might imagine.

e) Quality in Service must relate to what is good for People

There are many people in this era whose conditioning has led them to believe that all human

problems are technical in nature and therefore they neednt consider what used to be called

metaphysics. While this preference can be maintained in most settings it does not at all serve as a

convincing rationale for avoiding the values questions involved in ascertaining whether a given human

being is indeed better off. While empiricism is helpful in testing and measuring matters, it gives little

guidance ultimately on what is the good that should be measured. For this, we must turn to values.

It is simply not practical for insightful service leaders to ultimately dodge the question of values,

since all manner of service is guided by values whether they are acknowledged or not. Further,

promulgation of the supposedly right values is not in itself anything more than verbal activity since

ultimately such talk can easily be contrasted with what the service user actually experiences. While a

given service leader may inevitably fool some people, the test of values congruity will eventually sort out

fact from fiction. Inevitably, a meritorious service leader must ultimately, consciously and with

commitment, choose values that benefit the person served or there will be no benefit. Values do relate to

what is good for people even if this fact gets obscured.

This can be seen in those many instances in everyday life where children are neglected because


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Adults do not take responsibility for the childs eventual well being. Their lack of value for the childs

potential inevitably shows itself in the wasting of the childs life. Adults with a different set of values vis-

a-vis such a child might indeed do more good for the child by seeing more clearly their personal

responsibility in how the child grows up. We can always say that values are merely abstractions but this

does not make them so.

It is nonetheless very difficult to choose and adhere to positive values quite apart from getting

others to see the merit of embracing them. Yet this is only a part of the difficulty of providing leadership

on service quality. Even so, a committed leader must both advance and defend a vision of superior

service quality or they risk both not standing for anything and supporting a mediocre sense of whats

possible. What makes this whole aspect of value focused leadership even more costly is that while

values can unite people they can also divide them, thereby undermining the essential unity of purpose

and commitment necessary for people to act as one. It is very doubtful that any manner of excellence can

be achieved without agreement on purposes, yet it is this very agreement that is so elusive. Yet, clearly

there are service leaders who have mounted a sufficient degree of consensus to ensure that those they

serve gain the benefits that are possible even in the face of many whom adamantly oppose them. Under

such circumstances it would be logical to conclude that productive values leadership is possible even in

the face of adversity. Even so, it will always remain difficult to be sure that the values embraced are

indeed good in the lives of the people served. It is very easy to lose ones way especially if the test of

ones fidelity to those served is weak or absent.

f) Service Quality as One Person at a Time

Service quality is simultaneously multidimensional and its sub-elements differently ordered given

the specific needs of each person served. Human beings rarely need just one thing in order to have their

lives function optimally. More typically they need a variety of things in quite differing orders of priority.

For instance, there might be many things that people share in their personal sense of what constitutes a

good home life for them, but it is very unlikely that the person-by-person ordering of importance of these


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is distinguishable in the abstract. More commonly there is individual variation as to how each person

might prioritize the many variables of quality in their home life.

For a service leader the challenge is to recognize that service quality has many facets that have to

be managed simultaneously but also managed with direct relevance to the greater and lesser needs of

each unique person served. In concrete terms this argues against pre-packaged or standardized service

and service outcomes since, by definition, outcomes must ultimately be tailored to the variable needs and

priorities of the persons served. With this in mind it is not hard to see why the very best services are the

ones that derive from who the people served actually are, rather than from generalized assumptions about

them, i.e. overly standardized service models and practices.

If one takes this insight to its logical implications it becomes clear that it is not possible to discern

whether a service is good for a given person except by delving deeply enough into who that person is

and what it is they actually need to enhance their life. While some checklists of possible elements of

quality could be utilized as a starting point for analysis, these, in the end, can only be ordered into elative

priority in reference to a given person. Even the evaluation of services by standardized client outcomes

may miss the point since these are, at best, global and reductionist starting points, since the true worth of

a service is directly tied to its relevant address of a given persons needs.

What at one time was called the individualization of service is an instructive example as to how

the person served can eventually be omitted from influencing his or her service design and delivery.

Many people can undoubtedly recall numerous examples of service agencies attempting to install some

measure of individualized planning, service delivery and even funding. Commonly this has been

motivated by a quite genuine concern that the wishes and needs of individuals not be overlooked. In

practice, however, we rapidly witnessed the standardization of procedures for even this individualization.

In many cases the standardization went well beyond the codifying of outlook and procedure to the

installation of mandatory bureaucratic rituals. It is ironic that this so-called individualized bureaucratic

process has been foisted upon people for their own good, irrespective of whether they even want or need

such mechanisms. We are always at risk of providing service to people in such a way that they no longer

matter.


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The telling point in this previous example is that while the individual was ostensibly the center of

attention, the practices for actually dealing with the person did not originate with the persons served but

with the hunger of people and systems for stepwise methodologies or recipes. This same pattern of

ignoring the person in order to save them is already evident in the newest generation of so called

person centered methodologies. Again, the nominal intention is to make the person the decisive

influence, yet in practice, honesty would require the acknowledgement that the needs of other more

influential parties are at work.

The ability of people and agencies to submit to the needs and priorities of those they serve is clearly

limited. Even with honorable intentions it is very easy for service providers to lose sight of those they

serve, even if at times, they are genuinely guided by the persons they are supposed to serve. This risk of

estrangement has certain inevitability to it since it is very unlikely that most people could ever entirely

maintain their fidelity unerringly to all of those they serve. The implication is clear that person

centeredness is a capacity that needs constant attention or even devotion in order to amount to anything

of consequence. In this way it is an incessant daily requirement of good service that must repeatedly be

earned and defended. Also it is not a dichotomous variable but rather a continuum from the ordinary to

the superb that will be achieved despite the presence of competing pressures and limitations.

The task for service providers and in particular, their leaders, is to constantly reassert that the

priority for personal and organizational attention is focused on the lives of those served. While on one

level this is a value that needs adoption and reinforcement - on a practice level it means constantly

referring back to what life is like or could be like for the people served and judging all other matters

against their relevance to this end point. It would not be easy to do this even if people were able to be

readily understood and their needs addressed in a straightforward way, yet most human beings are

typically more complex than this. Being there for any group of human beings is never going to be

anything but a challenge, yet it is this struggle that leaders must burden themselves with if progress is to

be made.

g) The Inherent Richness of Ordinary Lives As a Criterion for Service


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Quality one of the great tragedies of human service has been the times in which we have

dehumanized and degraded the people we were supposed to serve and honor. While much that is

harmful has been done through misguided actions and ignorance we need to recognize those elements of

mistreatment which derive from the poverty of our vision for other people. If we cannot see the potential

in the lives of the people being served it invariably will mean that we wont reach for it. Excellence

normally is only attained after striving for it, so the absence of a compelling vision of human possibility

greatly endangers this necessary challenge for us to excel.

What has made this field memorable has been those occasions when it helped to restore to people the

humanity that their world had denied them. We did not simply get up one morning and do this on a

whim. On the contrary, we were relentlessly challenged in this direction by the staggering contrast

between how those we were to serve were forced to live and how most people in our community

preferred to live. To their credit, many people in service roles were morally disturbed by the possibility

that they were contributing to the degradation of others and sought ways to set things right. Even so, this

aim would still not have been fruitful if it were not for the adoption by this field of the commitment that

its clients were entitled, as human beings, to the richness of life available to most so called ordinary

citizens.

This was not a mundane matter merely of making available to people the many possibilities of normal

lives in the community but something much more far-reaching. It was a commitment that we would

respect and honor their humanity by insisting that they be treated as well or even better than their fellow

citizens. Were it not for the rigorous adherence by many to this moral foundation, it is doubtful that we

would still be pushing forward on the agenda of deepening the possibilities

inherent in seeing people as being essentially like all other people, leading their lives as do other people

and having access, like all other people, to the good things in life.

We were brought to such revolutionary commitments by the principle of normalization and then

social role valorization which challenged us to both see the harm of social devaluation but also the great

healing power of enabling people to have the kinds of lives that we often mistakenly think of as

ordinary or normal. Since we have adopted this standard of striving to enable people to have the

fullness of community life, we have seen breakthroughs in virtually every aspect of the lives of the


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people this field serves. Our sense of what constitutes quality seems to have been inexorably extended

upward year after year with the fruits of such an expansion amply enriching the lives of those touched by

such higher aspirations.

It is noteworthy that many people see quality as being the product of various clinical processes,

treatments or programs, i.e. quality equals clinical methods being pursued optimally. Such a view

contrasts sharply with those who see the ultimate outcome needing to be better lives not better programs.

What will have been gained, after all, if you have a good program but no life? In this way good service

must be in support of enriched ordinary lives perhaps even a life without client hood.

Even with a pro forma adherence to the good of the pursuit of ordinary lives in community, it is easy to

be fooled into thinking that minor progress on this goal is the same as great progress. In community

living it is immensely easy to make available to people the most marginal, depleted and degraded

versions of what is possible in normal life. Interestingly, the persons being served are typically so lacking

in influence that they might not ever get the chance to challenge our rhetoric and complacency about

inferior community living. Anyone who can say that the challenge of social role valorization is passe

simply has not looked at the reality of the lives of people needing service in our communities today.

Much is missing in their lives that should concern us.

It is this threat of the dominance of an impoverished version of community living that leaders in

the field must now address. If we do not continue to push the boundaries of what is possible within the

framework of valued social roles, we risk becoming the agents of new community centered degradation

every bit as pernicious as the ones we already have witnessed. We should be under no illusions that we

can cheat people out of quality in community living and expect at the same time to think we have

respected the humanity of those who we are supposed to serve. Many people may be tempted to think

that cutting corners on what we mean by quality community living will go unnoticed. This would be

unwise, as the legacy of this field is amply evident in the actual lives of the people served, for those who

have the interest to look into such matters. We should recognize that we are only as good as the

goodness they get to live. We will surely need leaders who unremittingly bring us back to such

realizations.


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h) The Struggle for Quality Competes with Other Necessities and Vested

Interests It may not be obvious to many people but human services are steeped in vested interests

of both legitimate and illegitimate sorts. These interests compete for influence over the affairs of

services and are incessantly factors in all matters both big and small. Such interests are rarely equal

relative to each other and will often be found deep in conflict with each other. Service users may

actually be poorly positioned to influence services, given the many (more) powerful interests at work. It

should not be surprising then that those who must rely on services are often the least able to shape what

services are and thus become hostage to the will and priorities of others who hold more influence. If

service users are to benefit from services then a great deal will rest upon the values, commitments and

alignment of interests of various people and groups who are normally more powerful than service users

and will likely remain so. If their disproportionate power is used for good then much of value can be

gained.

Leaders at all levels of service can help to cancel out much of what might harm people who rely

On services as well as advance the kinds of things that might further benefit them. We repeatedly

witness the difference good (moral) leadership can make and we stagger under the awesome costs of

poor leadership. Thus it matters whether leaders commit themselves to service quality as it provides the

huge advantage of creating a political, economic and moral agenda that both favors service users and

challenges the commitments of those with greater influence. The agenda of service quality will never be

the sole preoccupation of service leaders as there are many other matters that also require their attention.

Service quality must compete with other necessities and will therefore need to be reinforced and

reasserted as a priority by concerned leaders. In most cases leaders will need to wade through

innumerable other matters even as they hope to preserve the time and energy to give service quality the

concentration it needs.

This tension underlines the importance of having service leaders who do not let they lose sight

of what life is like for the people they serve.

Service leaders must also recognize that getting to service quality means building service quality

into the shared purposes and vision of the many interests at work in services. Many might mistakenly

assume that vested interests will inevitably be selfish interests. This neednt be the case at all as its quite


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possible for people and groups to align themselves with the service users interests. On the other hand, it

would be unwise to leave the matter to chance given the competing pressures that must be faced. Its

for this reason that the role of committed leaders building momentum towards service quality is so

crucial. Without people bringing the focus back on the people served, there is a great risk of their needs

being overlooked. Also, since achieving service quality is so difficult the will to attempt it must be

constantly renewed.

I) Service Quality Is Not Assured Simply By Spending Money

While it is true that you get what you pay for, its also quite possible to pay a lot and get very

little back. If it were not so, then one could assume a simple correlation between price and benefit with

the latter rising or lowering with price. Such an assumption is misguided since it falsely pre-supposes

that any human being or agency already has what it takes for quality and secondly that such persons or

bodies will somehow release quality in proportion to the funds assigned.

Even a naive person could quickly appreciate that funds could be squandered if they are given to

People who lack the substance to use them well. Quality does not derive from money but rather from

people. For good people in human service, the motivation and ability to do exceptional work on behalf

of those they serve is not typically driven by money but rather from a sense of mission, commitment and

values. Most of these people will give the same kind of effort irrespective of the level of payment and

thus do not hold back quality until sufficient payment induces its release. One could assume that most

of these people would be offended by the suggestion that the reason they provide good service to people

is because they are induced to do so by increased payments. In essence, the simple correlation

Model is a false depiction of whats really at work in excellent service.

Sometimes the things that people really need cannot be bought in any case. This might include

Security, love, relationships, hope, community and other such things which are the gifts human beings

give to each other rather than sell to each other. Acquiring valued social roles within community life is

not equivalent to obtaining a product, though its commodification is verbally achievable as can be seen

by recent efforts to linguistically commercialize human services, e.g. Referring to service users as

customers, referring to services as products, agencies as businesses etc.


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Service requires expenditures and investments in supporting people to undertake the task of

treating peop

service quality delivery niit

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