About Mind Tools Membership Corporate Services Tool Explorer Contact us Newsletter 212 October 25, 2011 In This Issue... The RATER Model Managing Complaints and Feedback Value Chain Analysis The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter   Exceptional Service, Every Time! Whoever your customers are, it's important that you give them the best service possible. But, how? This week, we're looking at the RATER Model - a tool that highlights five areas that are important for providing a great service to your customers. We also look at how you can use complaints and feedback to provide a better service. And, we explore how you can deliver exceptional value at every stage of the service delivery process, with our article on Value Chain Analysis. Enjoy the newsletter!         James Manktelow and Rachel Thompson MindTools.com - Essential skills for an excellent career!     Featured Resources at Mind Tools The RATER Model Five Ways to Measure Service Use this simple model to improve the service that you give to your customers. All Readers' Skill-Builder Managing Complaints and Feedback Improving the Way That You Do Things Many of us deal with people's feedback as part of our roles. Learn how to manage complaints and improve the way that you do things. All Readers' Skill-Builder Value Chain Analysis Achieving Excellence in the Things That Really Matter Learn how to maximize the value of your product or service, by scrutinizing every step of your delivery process. All Readers' Skill-Builder   ... And from the Mind Tools Club Getting More Exercise Fitting Exercise Into a Busy Schedule Find out how even a small amount of regular exercise can have a positive effect on your work and personal life. All Members' Skill-Builder The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni This entertaining book explores five common issues that can prevent your team from performing at its best. Find out more about it here. Premium Members' Book Insight Fears About Reinventing My Business Find out how Damien learned to understand and face his fears about a major new business opportunity. All Members' Coaching Clinic   Your Virtual Career Network Join thousands of like-minded professionals in the official Mind Tools Club. Get career advice, ideas, training, and support in a thriving online community. Find Out More   Editors' Choice Article The RATER Model Five Ways to Measure Service How do you assess the quality of the service that you give to your customers? You might ask focus groups or do a customer satisfaction survey. Or you could look at the number of complaints you get, or analyze the time it takes to answer customer queries. While all of these can be useful for assessing what people think of your service, using approaches like these can lead you to miss areas that are important to your customers. This is where the RATER Model can help. Five ways to assess your service. © iStockphoto/Neustockimages This useful tool highlights the areas that you need to focus on to provide great customer service. In this article, we'll explore the model, and we'll look at how you can use it to improve the service you provide to your customers. Tip: Remember that customers can be internal to your organization, as well as external. So this model is relevant in a wide range of scenarios. About RATER The RATER Model was created by professors Valarie Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard Berry, and published in their 1990 book, "Delivering Quality Service." The model highlights five areas that customers generally consider to be important when they use a service. These are: Reliability - your ability to provide the service you have promised consistently, accurately, and on time. Assurance - the knowledge, skills, and credibility of staff; and their ability to use this expertise to inspire trust and confidence. Tangibles - the physical evidence of the service you provide. This could be offices, equipment, employees, and the communication and marketing materials that you use. Empathy - the relationship between employees and customers. Responsiveness - your ability to provide a quick, high quality service to your customers. By focusing on these five areas, you can analyze and improve service. Tip: The RATER Model is a simplified version of the SERVQUAL Model, which was first created in 1988. Nowadays, you must also consider the state of your online presence, as well. Depending on the importance of your online channels to your business, you can consider this under the tangibles heading - even though your online presence isn't strictly "tangible" - or you could have a separate area for this. (We add questions relating to these below, even though these were not part of the original RATER model.) How to Use RATER A good way of using the RATER Model is to carry out a Gap Analysis using each of the five dimensions. You can then come up with a plan for improving the way that you serve your customers. To do a Gap Analysis, you identify the following in each of the five areas: Future state - the "place" you want to be to provide exceptional service. Current situation - how you currently provide your service. Next Actions - how you'll move from your current situation to your future state. You can use the following questions as a starting point for thinking about each area: Reliability How well do you provide the service that you've promised to your customers? Are your systems and processes robust and reliable? Is service delivery consistent and timely, across all service channels (including online)? Could you improve the quality of your service in any way? Assurance Do staff have the skills and knowledge needed to deliver a good service, across all channels? Do your people need any further training or development? Do staff inspire trust in customers? Is your service safe and secure? Tangibles Is the evidence of your service (products, packaging, marketing materials, website, offices, staff appearance, and so on) attractive and appropriate for your customers? Are your website FAQs useful, comprehensive, and up to date? And can people talk to a human being through other channels if their questions haven't been answered, or if your website is broken? As well as managing traditional channels and your website, are you properly handling queries and feedback through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online services? Does physical or virtual evidence fit with your organization's brand? Empathy Do your people build good relationships with customers? Is all communication with customers clear and timely? Do staff show empathy with customers? Do they understand why empathy is essential for providing a great service? Do your people genuinely care about customer needs? Are staff able to see things from a customer's point-of-view? Responsiveness Do you provide a prompt service, which is easy to access? Do you manage complaints and feedback appropriately? Are staff always willing and able to help customers? Do you resolve customer issues and problems satisfactorily, and in good time, across all service channels? When you identify your future state and your current situation, it's important that you talk to your customers to understand their experiences and expectations fully. Where you can't talk to customers directly, use tools such as Customer Experience Mapping to see your service from their perspective. You can also use Reverse Brainstorming to explore possible service improvements, and Benchmarking to compare your performance with similar organizations or services. Tip: There is arguably some crossover between the elements of the RATER Model. Don't worry about this - just aim to do a thorough analysis in each of the five areas. Key Points The RATER Model was created by professors Valarie Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard Berry. It highlights five areas that customers consider important when they use a service. These are: Reliability. Assurance. Tangibles. Empathy. Responsiveness. You use the model by doing a Gap Analysis in each of the five areas. From this, you can plan how you'll improve the service you give to your customers. Share this article:       A Final Note You'll find the RATER Model useful whatever role you're in. Use it to improve the service you give to your customers and service-users, whether they're external or internal. Next week, we're looking at how you can use the Brand Pyramid to build loyalty to your brand, product, or organization. See you then! James Manktelow Email us Mind Tools Essential Skills for an Excellent Career!   Privacy Policy Mind Tools will treat your email address with complete respect and will not circulate it to any third party. If you have enjoyed this issue, please do email it on to your friends and co-workers. To find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they're uploaded, click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed). Power your organization with Mind Tools! 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