The term “Service Quality” may sound new and unfamiliar to many organizations or even service professionals. A majority would think Service Quality is the same as providing good customer service, which is an inaccurate perception. This article will attempt to enlighten you with the essential knowledge on Service Quality and insights to its importance.

Service Quality is defined as “consistently and continuously exceeding customer delight”. The key words here are “consistently” and “continuously”. In a customer centric organization for instance, “consistently” means each and every service professional in the organization needs to demonstrate or provide the same service standards to customers. The service standards provided cannot deviate from one service professional to another in the same organization. This is such as customers expect the same standards regardless of who the service professional is. The expectations are on the organization not of the individual.

Apart from understanding and demonstrating the expected service standards, a service professional also needs to perform it every single time and all the time. This is what the term “continuously” means. Service, no matter how excellent, if demonstrated only in a few occasions or touch points with a customer, is not regarded as achieving Service Quality. Customers expect to receive the same service standards each and every time they interact with an organization.

Some may question, “Why does my organization need Service Quality, if we are already providing good customer service?” As mentioned in the start of this article, Service Quality is not about providing good customer service. The purpose of service quality is to differentiate “great service” from “good service”. This will then lead to enhanced customer satisfaction and ultimately increase loyalty.

Moving forward, good customer service will not be sufficient to exceed customer delight. In this knowledge economy, customers are more intelligent and demanding. As such, Service Quality is vital for organizations to increase its competitiveness in customer service. It provides the key strategy for an organization to differentiate itself from its competitors.