Service Failure and Service Recovery free essay sample

Assignment on SERVICE FAILURE AND SERVICE RECOVERY Few months back my experience with ICICI bank helped me identify with these concepts. Service failure can occur on multiple dimensions. A core service failure occurs when a customer is not able to avail the service one has paid for. A service encounter failure occurs when customer interaction with employees of a firm leave the customer feeling negative about the firm. I experienced the first type of service failure. In March 2010, while I was withdrawing money from my account, I discovered that my ICICI silver account had been blocked and expectedly hacked. A password was put on my account due to which I could not log in. (an authenticator barred me from my accessing my account and a random number was generated as a second password, which had to be entered after the first password. ) I tried contacting the customer care executive on telephone but that was impossible on Sunday evening 8pm. So I send an e-mail and got an automated response that they would get back to me on working day. My father had always been satisfied with the banking services of ICICI, so I also decided to avail the service of same service provider due to its proven standards and achieved results. * According to me, on the five dimensions of service quality, ICICI ranked high on assurance and empathy, however, they failed to deliver reliability and responsiveness, which resulted in the service failure. The severity of the service failure was high as incapability to secure my account and not responding to my call could have lead to a huge monetary loss to me. Analyzing the above service failure in the context of 7 Ps of services marketing, I found that there was problem on part of people, process and the offering. a. People: There was a failure on part of ICICI customer care department to entertain my call and address the issue. The personnel were not responsive in handling my situation of account hacking at the moment I reported about the same. b. Product: The offering of the bank to keep the a ccount secure and protected was not fulfilled. c. Process: There was a problem with the process as the awareness about the support channel was not there which barred the problem form getting solved quickly. * The gap model of service quality shows that there was a gap existing in the service provider which led to delay in service delivery. The Gap was the provider GAP-4 which is GAP 4 SERVICE DELIVERY| * Ineffective management of customer expectations Lack of adequate education for customer regarding the existence of various support channels EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS TO CUSTOMERS| Service Recovery: Monday morning ICICI responded by taking an immediate step to restore my account. I was asked to make a second request to get the authenticator (which is a second level password protection) to be removed from my account. The account was restored by Monday evening. Overall, ICICI did a great job, although they were not responsive, not as quickly as we would have been. I later learned that a different support channel would have served me quicker. They assured me that all my deposits and item will be returned within 36 hours (maximum expected time). To my surprise all account was credited within 4 hours. ICICI also gave time to educate me about how to contact them in the future in case of failure. They actually have a dedicated support channel for when a persons account is hacked. I was given complete information about the support channel for recovery of hacked account or any account related information has been set as a separate unit in ICICI. Overall, this was a successful service recovery, and I will probably be more loyal to ICICI, as the service failure was severe and the recovery exceeded my expectations. I will be an easy customer to serve, as now I am aware of the multiple support channels, and will use the appropriate one in the future. I told my parents regarding the service failure and also informed them about the multiple support channels provided by ICICI for service recovery. Now, they are also aware of the grievance addressal system. I still hold two accounts in ICICI and the services availed by me are quite satisfactory. I have renewed and converted my personal account into a fixed deposit account which provides me better interest and zero balance maintenance facility which is need by me as a student. This was suggested by an executive of ICICI. Also I had lost my debit card previous month which I was able to get easily as I knew whom to contact and how to get it. Q. How satisfied you were with the service provider prior to the above service failure. Rate on a scale of 1-7 1- Not satisfied; 7- Extremely satisfied 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| Not satisfied| | | Neutral | ICICI services | | Extremely satisfied| Q. Rate the perceived criticality of failure on a scale of 1-7 1 Not critical; 7 Extremely critical 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| Not critical| | | Neutral| | Service failure was modest | Extremely critical| Q. On a scale of 1-7 rate your satisfaction after the recovery   efforts made by the service provider. 1- Very poor; 7 – Excellent 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| Very poor| | | Neutral| | | Excellent service provided by ICICI after service recovery. | Thus, having mentioned the service failure and recovery of ICICI bank, my satisfaction after the service recovery increased. This has incident provided me knowledge about the support system and I am now a loyal customer of this service provider. The expectations from the service provider before the service failure were more towards the higher side due to the past experiences of my father and media. After the service failure and recovery done by ICICI was excellent. I was patient for the customer care executive to get back to me and they in spite of little delay they did, handled the situation really well. I have shared my experience to many people and also informed them regarding the multiple support systems they have for various account related problems which I was unaware of before this incident. Submitted by- PUJA PALLAVI 10BSPHH010573 SECTION- D