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Keywords Productivity rate, Service delivery, Customers, Service quality assurance, Performance measurement (quality)
Abstract It is surprising that little empirical research has been conducted in the area of service productivity given its impact on organisational costs. In order to try to encourage such research, this paper provides a structure for analysing productivity in service organisations by distinguishing between operational and customer productivity. The paper also clarifies the meaning of "productivity" and differentiates it from efficiency and utilisation. The authors identify some of the problems in measuring productivity, especially in a service setting, and then use a few examples to illustrate the sometimes counterintuitive relationship between operational and customer productivity.
Service productivity
Despite the importance of productivity to many service organisations it is surprising that there is relatively little empirical research on this topic. Indeed a search of the last five volumes of the two leading service journals, the Journal of Service Research and the International Journal of Service Industry Management, reveals only three papers that address this issue. One paper, by Martin and Home (2001), summarises the existing literature in two points. First that most research attention has been focused on the definition and measurement of service productivity and second that this work has been concerned with internal rather than customer or client productivity. They suggest that greater productivity gains can be achieved by focusing on the client rather than the employee. This is a theme found earlier in the literature (see, for example, Lovelock and Young, 1979).
A third finding from a review of the literature is that there is little empirical work undertaken in this area, despite exhortations by several academics in particular Gummesson (1993, 1998). The area is ripe for development.
In order to try to encourage such research this paper provides a structure for analysing productivity in service organisations by developing Martin and Home's (2001) notion of customer productivity. In their paper, which discusses productivity in a management consultant setting, Martin and Horne (2001) make a number of points relevant to this paper:
* the customer often plays a dual role as both customer and co-producer of the service;
* customer productivity can have a significant impact on the quality of the service and overall productivity;
* understanding customer productivity adds...