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Coopers & Lybrand open an office in Hungary.

Coopers & Lybrand open an office in Hungary.

P.K. Scherle, R.N., founder, president, and owner, struggles with her successful business and focuses on either growth or enhanced profitability.

FBO, Inc. is a fixed-base operator at a large metropolitan airport. The general manager must decide if the current pooling format is the appropriate way to staff the commercial refueling operations. If pooling is deemed inappropriate then the implementation of a different format in the face of a hostile management/union relationship is a concern. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

John Martin, Taco Bell CEO, brings the company into line with its competitors through incremental change during the 1980s. In the early 1990s, he adopts breakthrough approaches to improve service levels while reducing prices, providing a distinct competitive advantage. Illustrates the power of breakthrough thinking in a service industry and demonstrates the importance of a coordinated, holistic approach to implementation.

The developed countries need a productivity revolution in knowledge and service work. The country that first achieves such gains will dominate the economic landscape in the next century. The key to this new productivity revolution is closely examining work in five distinct steps: 1) defining the task; 2) concentrating on the task; 3) defining performance; 4) getting worker input on productivity improvement; and 5) building continuous learning into the organization.

Blake Memorial Hospital was in poor financial health, due to rising costs and stagnating revenues. The hospital's quality of care was also a major problem, and its clinics were losing over $250,000 a year. As the new CEO worked on the 1992 budget, he saw he would have to cut some services in order to fund others. One service he was considering cutting was the clinic program. Experts from public service and health care comment on the issues.

In this interview, Robert McDermott tells how he has built customer service into the very fiber of the insurance company he heads--USAA. His successful service recipe has three principal ingredients: 1) A niche market (active and former military officers and their families); 2) Progressive employment practices and commitment to continuous development of its work force; and 3) Innovative use of technology, including imaging and expert systems.

For more than 40 years, service companies like McDonald's prospered with organizations designed according to the principles of traditional mass-production manufacturing. Today that model is obsolete, and companies like Taco Bell, Dayton Hudson, and ServiceMaster have chosen to reverse the cycle of failure by putting workers with customer contact first and designing the business around them. They are developing a model that replaces the logic of industrialization with a new service-driven logic.

Describes Star's experiment with gain sharing over a three-year period. Background on the industry and company's history are provided to establish the context for the shift to pay-for-performance. Describes the three different gain sharing programs, the resulting payouts, and organizational impact.

The manager of a Fairfield Inn located near a family entertainment center is requesting special consideration for a falling quality rating caused, in his opinion, by unusually high occupancy rates at his unit. The case raises questions about quality measurement, control, and the consistency of an operating strategy.

Describes the historic evolution and current positioning of a Christian church which focuses on the attraction of "unchurched" individuals. Describes the church's strategic service vision and its current growth and leadership problems.

In a once-impoverished inner city section of Chicago, South Shore Bank has combined what its owners call old-fashioned commercial banking with a progressive social agenda to transform the neighborhood, without forcing out its old residents. It designated itself a community development bank, extending credit to residents to support small business, restore community self-confidence, and reinvigorate market forces.

Companies that aim for "zero defections" (keeping every customer they can profitably serve) can make profits rise. Defection rates are both a measure of service quality and a guide for achieving it. By listening to the reasons why customers defect, managers know exactly where the company is falling short and where to direct their resources.

Service companies often cannot prevent mistakes, but they can learn to recover from them and thereby retain an unhappy customer. Recovery begins by identifying the problem, then acting quickly to correct it. Most important, service companies should give front-line employees the authority and responsibility to do what is necessary to correct a service mistake, even if it means deviating from the rules.

Shortly after installing a new computer system designed to provide quick and accurate service, the president of Presto Cleaner received an angry letter from a customer whose laundry had been lost by the system. The case study looks at the questions: How much service does a company or store owe a customer? Is the customer always right? In 90304 and 90316, four authorities on customer service--Leonard A. Schlesinger, associate professor at the Harvard Business School; Dinah Nemeroff, corporate director of customer affairs at Citicorp/Citibank; Ron Zemke, president of Performance Research Associates; and Claus Moller, president of Time Management International--consider Presto Cleaner's customer complaint.

Shortly after installing a new computer system designed to provide quick and accurate service, the president of Presto Cleaner received an angry letter from a customer whose laundry had been lost by the system. The case study looks at the questions: How much service does a company or store owe a customer? Is the customer always right? In 90304 and 90316, four authorities on customer service--Leonard A. Schlesinger, associate professor at the Harvard Business School; Dinah Nemeroff, corporate director of customer affairs at Citicorp/Citibank; Ron Zemke, president of Performance Research Associates; and Claus Moller, president of Time Management International--consider Presto Cleaner's customer complaint.

Shortly after installing a new computer system designed to provide quick and accurate service, the president of Presto Cleaner received an angry letter from a customer whose laundry had been lost by the system. The case study looks at the questions: How much service does a company or store owe a customer? Is the customer always right? In 90304 and 90316, four authorities on customer service--Leonard A. Schlesinger, associate professor at the Harvard Business School; Dinah Nemeroff, corporate director of customer affairs at Citicorp/Citibank; Ron Zemke, president of Performance Research Associates; and Claus Moller, president of Time Management International--consider Presto Cleaner's customer complaint.

The Oakland A's baseball team underwent a major turnaround during the 1980s, both on the field and in the business office. One of the most significant improvements came in the area of customer service. The A's management believed that if they took care of their fans, they would remain loyal through winning and losing seasons.

Services technologies are changing the way companies compete. Vertical integration, physical facilities, even a seemingly superior product no longer assure a competitive edge. Sustainable advantage is more likely to come from developing superior capabilities in a few core service skills. Technology is increasing the leverage of service activities. These changes have far-reaching implications for the way managers structure their organizations and define strategic focus.