Summary
This work aims to carry out a general analysis of the elements to be taken into account in the establishment of an inspection system to control the quality of services.
Keywords: Quality, Inspection system, Control system, Quality in services.
Service Verification System.
Services, unlike products, have characteristics that make it difficult to verify or inspect them before the customer is in contact with them. Among these features are:
• Concurrency: Services are generally consumed at the same time they are produced.
• Inseparability: Services cannot be separated from their source of production.
Basically, these two characteristics are the ones that cause difficulties for the establishment of an inspection system in the services, basically because it is almost impossible to avoid, in the event of non-conformities with the service, that the client finds out about its presence and thereby affect customer satisfaction and consequently the image of the service.
The aforementioned produces a higher level of complexity in the quality management of services, however actions can be taken that lead to a decrease in the risk mentioned above, dividing the service into each of the elements that converge and treating to establish for each one of them the control mechanisms that are feasible. The elements that converge in the services are:
• The client.
• The Service Provider.
• The Objects that are included in the service.
• The Premises for the provision of the service.
• Equipment and Furniture.
On the other hand, when establishing an inspection system, the following parameters must be established.
• Characteristics to be evaluated.
• How to evaluate (attribute, or variables).
• How much to evaluate, sample size.
• When to evaluate.
• Where to record the information.
Therefore, in the design of a service provision process, it would be enough to establish the design parameters for each of the elements that concur in the provision of a service, and this will be what is intended to be described below:
The objects that are included in the service: they can be produced in the entity or acquired by it. The characteristics evaluated will always be a function of the level of influence that this has on the quality of the product and the final quality of the service, as well as the frequency with which it exhibits non-conformities, to the extent that they are, the less will be less important check. In case of being acquired, it was convenient to inspect them at the time of their arrival, either by applying a 100% inspection or a statistically based sampling plan, if the storage conditions of these in the entity are suitable, the Inbound inspection otherwise it would be beneficial to carry out another inspection before offering it to the customer.Entrance inspections may not be carried out in the case of fully proven suppliers. The characteristics to be verified in these products can be both variables and attributes, if they are variables, instruments are required for their verification such as (weights, tapes, etc.) and if they are attributes they will be checked through the use of the sense organs such as sight and smell, so it will require great experience from the evaluating staff.therefore, it will require a great experience of the evaluating personnel.therefore, it will require a great experience of the evaluating personnel.
In the event that the products are produced in the unit, control must be exercised in the production process, using selection criteria of the characteristics to be verified similar to those established for products purchased from third parties. Carrying out the control as close to the place where the characteristic is generated, using small sample sizes or 100% if they are small volumes or very important characteristics, the sample size and the frequency with which the verification is carried out will also be a function. of the predominant factor in the generation of the characteristic if it is the time or the equipment that produces it, periodic inspections will be carried out at shorter intervals and as close as possible to the time of variation of the characteristic,If they are the quality of the components when they arrive, if it were the worker, it will be carried out randomly.
Whenever products with non-conforming characteristics are detected, whether they are an input from the entity or produced in it, the product must be separated, guaranteeing its non-use, registering it, as well as proceeding to study the causes of non-conformities to avoid that the fact is repeated.
The premises for the provision of the service: those characteristics that vary most frequently, such as cleanliness and order, should be evaluated, usually this evaluation is carried out visually in 100% of their existence before starting the provision. service and then keep a frequent check on them depending on the possibilities of variation of the characteristics over time. In the case of more stable characteristics over time such as comfort, they should be considered in the quality audit processes that must be carried out at least once every 6 months at 100% of the premises, registering the non-conformities detected and proceeding to take actions that allow its correction.
The Equipment and Furniture: they will be periodically verified based on their operating conditions and their reliability characteristics, as their existence always results in a relatively small volume, checks will be carried out at 100% of these, these as well as the products must be evaluated in moment of its acquisition, and before starting to provide a service, checking its operation either by means of the results they produce or by measuring devices such as thermometers, consumption meters.
In all cases of verifications, the negative aspects found must be recorded since these will be the data that will later be used to know where improvement programs should be undertaken and to demonstrate to senior management the need to initiate these.
The information: It is always of vital importance within the services, since within it the one offered to the client is contemplated (menu menu, programs, service hours, etc.), if this is not totally true, it will cause levels of disagreement very high in customers. Consequences similar or worse to the previous ones occur when the needs and desires of the clients are misinterpreted and quality standards are established that serve as a guide for the provision of the service but that do not coincide with the expectations of the clients: for everything As described above, it is clear the need to keep the information of the service under control, therefore, the truthfulness, accuracy and timeliness of the information must always be verified.Information that changes daily, such as the menu menu, must be checked daily before starting the service and making the corresponding corrections. In the case of quality standards, they will also be subject to verification during the biannual quality audits, working on their correction as soon as their non-conformity is detected.
As it is evident, all the elements valued so far can be checked, at least once before starting the service and any deviation corrected, thus avoiding affecting customer satisfaction and the image of the entity, then it is only enough to maintain periodic control over these.
The service provider: it is the only one that cannot be fully controlled before starting the service, however there are a series of measures that considerably reduce the risk of non-compliance. The characteristics of the service personnel can be assessed according to different classification criteria, among which are:
The most common criteria in the classification of personnel characteristics are the following
| Appearance
Personal |
Correct use of the uniform |
| Neatness in dress | |
| Hygiene habits | |
| Style
Shaved and Peeled Hairstyle, nails painted and clean objects in pockets Garments |
|
| Bearing | |
| Age | |
| Professionalism | Technical knowledge |
| Reaction capacity | |
| Informative Knowledge | |
| Creativity | |
| Technical ability | |
| Language Proficiency | |
| Motivation | |
| Flexibility | |
| Courtesy and kindness | Amiability |
| Body language |
The characteristics of the human factor can be classified according to other criteria:
1- According to the training needs
• Innate: are those that the individual is born with, or that depend on the moment of this birth as age.
• Formable: those that can be acquired through a training process.
2- According to the predominant factor
• Psychological are linked to the evolutionary and cognitive sphere of the individual, that is, those that depend on the functioning of the nervous system.
• Physical are those that can be evaluated at first glance for having a bodily character.
3- According to its persistence over time
• Variables: they are presented over time in different ways, for example the treatment of people, their creativity.
• Constant: they tend to show stability over time, such as appearance, knowledge.
These classification criteria allow the design of different strategies for quality control introduced by the service provider. For example, through the personnel selection process, it is determined whether or not they have certain innate characteristics that are not formable at a certain stage of life, such as presence, in the same way it can be determined that personnel need and can be trained to provide a Quality service. It is also possible to evaluate what constant characteristics the staff has and based on them decide the selection.
Once the staff has been selected, the skills and knowledge that are not present but necessary to provide a quality service must be trained.
The work systems, according to the degree of facilities that they offer together with the stimulation systems, must allow the personnel to maintain and maintain an adequate psychological state for the provision of the service throughout the working day. It is necessary that the personnel work in comfortable conditions to reduce fatigue, that they possess the necessary means for the fulfillment of their functions and that they have adequate incentives and values to offer a quality service.
Once all these strategies have been established, daily control systems should be implemented before starting the service to verify the hygiene and presence of the personnel as well as their state of mind and do everything possible to prevent them from working with any of the the required requirements altered. If any non-conformity is found, work should be done on its elimination, register it, study its causes and take the necessary actions for its non-repetition.
In these conditions, it only remains to maintain a good leadership system that allows constant interaction with the workers, the detection and correction of any non-compliance during the provision of the service. It is recommended that the staff be in a state of self-control so that they are capable of providing a quality service by themselves and correcting any deviation that may arise if there is no correspondence with the quality standards. For workers to be considered in a state of self-control, three basic principles must be met, these are:
• The worker must know what to do, for this, quality standards and adequate training are needed.
• The worker must know what he is doing, for this they receive feedback in their own interaction with clients or they are informed of the result of customer satisfaction surveys or any opinion expressed by them.
• They must have the means to correct their behavior whenever they detect deviations.
Once the service has been provided, there is still a good performance evaluation system to validate compliance with quality standards.
There are numerous evaluation methods and each one has its advantages and disadvantages, as there is no ideal or universal method applicable to all people, all positions, all companies and all situations. The choice of one or the other will depend on many aspects:
• Type of position considered.
• Aspects or characteristics to be measured.
• Existing Business Culture..
• Objectives to be achieved.
• Various conjunctural elements that will always have to be taken into consideration.
The most used methods or techniques:
1. Tasks related to the provision of the service (number of services and customer satisfaction, complaints or claims received))
2. Tasks not related to the provision.
Some of the more direct and simple measures are also applicable to non-production related jobs, such as:
• Absenteeism: Number of days or hours the employee missed work.
• Accidents: Number of accidents caused by the employee
• Salary: Salary progress achieved.
• Promotions: Rate of progress and promotion at work.
The client: obviously the client cannot be inspected, but rather satisfy him, perhaps the only parameter by which to exercise some control over the client lies in ensuring that he is not offered more than what can be provided with The objective is not to create higher expectations than those that can be satisfied.
However, the client offers the possibility of closing the cycle and having a general idea of the quality of the service, only retroactively, through the results of the satisfaction studies according to which the causes of non-compliance can be known, It also provides feedback with its complaints and claims, although in no way should their absence be considered synonymous with quality.
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