Service Management-Courier Service

12/17/2010 MSc OR/BAC | Courier Services | Managing Business Operations | SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT - group 5 |

Contents
Service Definition 2
Intangibility 2
Heterogeneity 2
Inseparability 2
Perishability 2
Service Classification 3
The Volume Measure (Silvestro) 3
Other Service Classification Models 4
Service Design 5
What is the philosophy behind the service design? 5
What to deliver to courier service customers? 6
How to deliver? 7
The blueprint diagram 7 Customer actions 7 Onstage activities 8 Backstage activities 8 Support functions 9 Management functions 9
Strategic Links 10
The Cycle of Failure 10
Perpetuating the cycle 11
Strategies for breaking the Cycle of Failure 12 Winning Assumptions 12 Common Elements of Strategy 12
Service Productivity 13
Operational vs. Customer Productivity 14 Trade-off between Customer Productivity and Operational Productivity 14
Cultural Issues within Courier Delivery 15
Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Model 15
Bibliography 17
APPENDIX A : Customer Contact in Courier services 18

Service Definition
Intangibility
Courier services are a prime example of contradiction to service intangibility. Courier services can be described as hybrid services where physical possessions are distributed as part of the provision. As a result, such services undermine a number of issues relating to intangibility. Courier services do not need to ‘describe the invisible’. Courier services such as DHL and FedEX are able to use vivid interactive imagery to communicate with potential consumers and convey the service concept, overcoming potential communication problems as associated with pure service operations (Verma, 2008). Courier services cannot however provide a sample of the service until all infrastructures and delivery linkages are operational, and thus suffer from problems relating to service specification and copyright, with various imitators free to compete at their will (Balachandran, 2004).

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