Concepts of Service Quality

Richard Whitfield- PhD, Manufacturing Engineering; Professor, USJ.

I recently needed to visit a factory in Shenzhen, and the easiest way as to take a ferry from the New Macau Ferry Terminal to the Fu Yong Ferry Terminal next to the Shenzhen Airport. I checked the always useful Internet, and found that the earliest ferry from Macau was 10:45am each weekday. The day before my trip I went to the New Macau Ferry Terminal to buy a ticket, only to be told that the earliest ferry was only at 12:15pm – too late for me to visit the factory and get back the same day.
It was quite annoying that the Internet published schedule was different to the actual schedule and subsequent Internet checking revealed that the ferry operator had not updated the ferry schedule but had posted a notice on another webpage to say that several services were suspended indefinitely.
This seems a very customer unfriendly way of doing things – leaving an incorrect webpage in place and then creating a new webpage to say it is wrong with no link between them. Why not simply correct the sailing schedule page? I consider this to be a basic service quality issue – something that all good companies should know and deal with properly. As important as not updating the company website, the ferry operator’s staff gave no explanation of the change and seemed totally unconcerned that the ferry operator was publishing inconsistent information in different places.
Surely, if front office staff are properly trained they would take note of customer complaints so that they could be reported and acted on – to me this is an example of “service quality 101” - a basic service quality issue that all good companies should deal with properly.

 It is basic that if a service must be cut, it should be done in such a way as to minimize the impact on customers – the unbalanced way in which these sailings have been cut does not seem to follow this basic service quality principle.

It was also disturbing that the ferry operator can simply suspend services “until further notice”. I can understand that if a ferry route is not adequately patronized, some sailings would need to be cut to reduce costs. However, the suspension notice did not explain this. Moreover, I would have expected that the sailings would be cut across the whole day, and not just cut ALL of the morning sailings. Again, it is a basic concept in service quality to explain why services are being cut, so that customers can understand and accept the need for the cuts. Also, it is basic that if a service must be cut, it should be done in such a way as to minimize the impact on customers – the unbalanced way in which these sailings have been cut does not seem to follow this basic service quality principle.
Finally, and most disturbingly, when I explained my problem to the ticketing person – my need to get to Shenzhen in the morning – he was unable to provide me with any assistance. When I asked if there was another way to get to the Fu Yong Ferry Terminal in the morning he could only answer “I do not know, use another ferry operator”.
He was not even well enough trained to suggest that I talk to the information desk in the ferry terminal.
I believe that if a service provider cannot fulfil a customer’s needs, the provider should give recommendations for alternatives – it demonstrates that the service provider puts customers first and knows its competition. To me this is also “service quality 101”. I believe that this is especially true in situations where an organization has deliberately decided to reduce its service offering – it should do its best to assist customers who are disadvantaged by the decision to reduce services. In a city that nearly totally relies on tourism, I find it quite disturbing that at least one ferry operator does not seem to understand the basics of customer service. Ferries are an important way that visitors (and residents) enter and leave Macau and so provide an all important “first impression” of our city. We need them to be focused on customer service, and I recommend that the maritime authorities in Macau take a more active role in ensuring that ferry operators provide customer focused services. Additionally, the ferry operators themselves need to improve their understanding of service quality – there are any number of consultants in the region who can assist them.

©MDTimes/University of Saint Joseph