Customer service born and bread inside a business: An analysis of the use of corporate culture as a power in customer service

Abstract

Many different factors are effecting or influencing service quality. We all know what bad service entails and how it makes a customer feel and can imagine the consequences that it can have on the business when, for example, unfavourable information about a bad, unsatisfactory, unfulfilling or disappointing experience is transferred by word of mouth and the media spreading enough poisonous material for results such as a bad reputation, bad image, low brand loyalty. When bad service is delivered it is easy for the customer to apportion blame to the easiest most prominent target that comes to mind. Some may even go as far as recommending laymen solutions about what should be done to avoid bad service and overcome the bad service reputation. But the situation is not that easy when one takes a closer and deeper look. There is a multitude of variables influencing the quality of service provided as will be seen later on. This study focus on the role and contribution of corporate culture and aspects related to that on service quality. Service quality is born and bread within the business like a human is born into a family belonging to a certain culture and raised and shaped by many influences, but taking place in that culture. The individual later becomes a mature example of the character of the culture to which he/she belongs. Service quality is in a similar fashion born in a business and raised in the corporate culture of a business. This is unavoidable just as it is unavoidable in the realm of the natural family. The service quality can also be seen as an ambassador of values incorporated in the corporate culture. From this logical background it seems that the marketer and also business management as a whole should carefully analyse and scrutinise the effect of the corporate culture on the quality of service and utilise the corporate culture to their advantage. The effect of the corporate culture in an organisation can only be evaluated an explained by taking a look at the meaning and unique characteristics of service because it is this very nature of service that makes it sensitive to the influence of the corporate culture.