Continued from Part 2…

People. Physical Evidence. Process. These are the key factors of any services oriented business - be it a hospital, a restaurant or a cinema theater. Together, these 3 factors help differentiate one services business over another and that is the reason they constitute the core of the tolmolbol.com offering. At tolmolbol, we strive to provide valuable insights to business owners and professionals about consumer perception based on the above mentioned attributes.

How so?

1. People buy from People. This factor becomes very crucial in a services business. How good is the staff at a hotel? Is the doctor good? Was the receptionist rude? Questions like these are at the top of a consumer’s mind especially when he or she is evaluating or recommending a business. The People factor is all about the personnel or staff; their skill level, commitment, appearance, behavior and attitude; their degree of involvement and contact with a consumer; and all such personal attributes derived from the personnel offering the service.

   Consider some examples on tolmolbol where consumers talk about the people factor in a business. Kayan from Mumbai writes “The service is nice and friendly” in his review of the Leopold Café. He has also scored the customer service higher than other factors in his review of the business. From the business perspective they would be typically viewed as nice and friendly, which is what a lot of consumers going to the café would wish for as their experience.

   Mohit from Delhi reviews Flavours and rates their customer service very highly. To quote from the review “The waiters/waitresses are well read and communicate professionally”. At the same time his experience with the staff at Nothing Authentic has not been so great. It must be noted however that people respond and react differently and inconsistently. Some one else may have had a great experience at the same place where you and I have had a poor service experience. But the business needs to ensure that the personal touch is personalized and also at the same time standardized to give the right experiences to all consumers consistently. Tolmolbol helps businesses understand the intangibles and provides them useful information via consumer feedback and reviews. A business can use this information alongwith other competitor reviews and work towards improving their own service standards.

2. The environment, ambience, colors, décor, furnishings, decibel levels and other tangible attributes are part of the Physical Evidence of a service provider. Customers are often talking about these attributes and their individual choice and preferences are also influenced by what a business provider has to offer in terms of their environment or business location. Consumers often relate their experiences and goodness factor to these tangible factors and when repurchases and/or recommendations are made, the physical evidence factor becomes very important for a business.

   Fionna’s review of Café 100 in Delhi talks about a very good point on the location of their bathrooms and the discomfort caused. She writes “One negative for the bathroom - the ladies’ is located right next to the gents’ swinging door giving you a wide and unnecessary peak into another world.” We hope the business owners read this and appreciate the feedback they are receiving. Here is review of Deli 9 in Hyderabad written by me wherein I personally feel that the ambience factor is lost out due to noise levels from the main road and a new shopping mall from across the location where this business is situated. Another case in point is also the location of a shopping mall and its internal facilities. For example, take a look at this review on Hyderabad Central.

3. Process differentiates a service provider from others and also ensures that the customer actually understands the value add, quality and service offerings of their business and how they are different from another business with the same service offering. A simple example could be salons. You walk into Salon A and are treated with a magazine, personal TV, and you have attendants taking care of your hair cut, pedicure and manicure all at the same time. In Salon B, you are treated in the same manner but each service is rendered only by one attendant and he will first do a hair cut, then a pedicure and then a manicure. The services offered are the same however the process differentiates them. Policies, procedures, flow of activites are all part of the process mix of a services marketing.

   Rithesh’s recent review on Sri Krishna Sweets identifies one of the process differentiators of this service provider against others. Sri Krishna Sweets has various outlets across India; however the preparation method of their famous “Mysore Pak” is so consistent that it tastes the same where ever you purchase it from.

The opinions of the reviewers on tolmolbol are genuine and authentic. These are real reviews of real people. Businesses need to sit up and listen to this voice and reflect on the valuable feedback coming their way. They should strive to provide greater value to their consumers. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him“. And its high time that businesses paid heed to this axiom.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 7:57 am and is filed under customer service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.