In managing your service, you must identify those providers who represent a greater risk of affecting your quality. Individualizing them and ensuring the quality of their service is key to final customer satisfaction.
When managing your service, you should bear in mind that there are characteristics that differentiate it from production companies. One of them is the simultaneity between the "production" of the service and its receipt by the client.
A client in her beauty session is receiving the massages at the same time that the masseuse performs them on her body.
In such a case, there can be no prior production, shipment and subsequent consumption. If that masseuse is a provider of your spa, and her service is not satisfactory because she is late for her session, you cannot explain to the client that this service is external, or get rid of that responsibility.
Automatically she will associate that dissatisfaction with your company, beyond the explanations that you can give, since the client does not distinguish the external provider, separating him from the company that hires him.
In this sense, the ISO 9001 standard (Quality Management Systems - Requirements) says: “The organization must ensure that the purchased product meets the specified purchase requirements. The type and scope of control applied to the supplier and the product purchased must depend on the impact of the product purchased on the subsequent realization of the product or on the final product. " (By saying "product" in this standard, it also refers to "service").
This last aspect highlighted by the standard is important in service management, since the provider must be differentiated according to the impact that "their" service generates on "your" client.
Continuing with the previous example, we see that the service of the masseuse blends so much with the service provided by the company, that we could say that this provider fulfills the role of an employee in direct contact with the client.
On the other hand, the hydromassage maintenance provider could also have an impact on customers (if the equipment is not in condition when it should be used), but in this case there is a possibility of preflight and correction, which does not exist with the masseuse. This reduces the impact on the customer.
Another case would be the supplier of cleaning products for the spa. If this provider fails, there are even more instances that allow the impact to be minimized, since it will be the cleaning staff who could replace those products, change the cleaning method, etc. so that the client does not perceive this shortcoming.
Therefore, in this way, you can identify the suppliers of your company that have a more direct impact on your customers, and it will be on them that I suggest you implement the following actions:
1. Agree on the main values and objectives. If the masseuse does not understand that it is a value for you to serve your clients in their specific needs and that most of them resort to the spa with limited time (therefore a goal of the company is to comply with the schedules), do not You can work with that masseuse, as she will violate this principle of your company and throw your efforts in this regard overboard.
2. Once you make sure they are on the same line, you must make clear specifications for your suppliers. If punctuality is a requirement, define what you mean by punctuality. It could be: be present 10 minutes before the requested time to start the service at that time. It is necessary that you make it explicit and be specific in this, since each person can have different interpretations and lend themselves to misunderstandings that result in service failures.
3. Then you must establish a control mechanism for these specifications (those that are really important). If you set it to arrive 10 minutes early, how will you know if it happens? Will you ask the customer? The doorman? Will you put an electronic access control? Will you do random checks? Define it and agree on it also with the provider.
4. Finally, specify the actions to be followed in the event of deviations, or the threat of deviations. What should the masseuse do if she sees that she will not arrive on time? By what means will you give notice, and to whom? What will be communicated to the client? Remember that, no matter how much the supplier has a commitment and all his good will to fulfill it, factors can always appear that do not make it possible, but that is where there must be an alternative plan to minimize the impact on the client. Remember that this is the end goal.
Well, then I invite you to identify your key suppliers, analyze the impact of their service on your customers and take the service management measures that I indicate, to have their added value under control, so that they are not become a cause of dissatisfaction for your customers.
