Cost-Effective Service Excellence

Electronic supplementary material to: Wirtz and Zeithaml, "Cost-Effective Service Excellence", Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Click here for the full article.

Web Appendix to “Cost-Effective Service Excellence”

Table: Strategies that allowed organizations to achieve CESE Organization CESE Strategy

Findings

 Singapore Airlines (SIA)

 Internalized a dual culture of service excellence and cost-effectiveness (Heracleous and Wirtz 2010, 2014; Heracleous, et al. 2009).  Role modeling by management; cost-emphasis and frugality permeated all levels of management (Wirtz et al. 2008).  Extreme focus on cost cutting and productivity due to intense competitiveness of the airline industry. This cost consciousness, as a cultural value, was visible not only when dealing with suppliers and operating aircraft but was also engrained in every employee (Heracleous and Wirtz 2010, 2014).  Powerful reward and incentive systems that drove both objectives. Employees received the same annual bonus of a multiple of their monthly salary. That bonus was hardwired to the annual profit of the organization and had reached up to six months of salary; during quarters of operating losses, the base pay could be cut by up to 20%. Therefore, employees were intensely focused on the profitability of the airline (Heracleous and Wirtz 2010, 2014).  Internal communications and training continuously emphasized that profit is a function of service excellence (which drives revenues through the loyalty of demanding business travelers who are SIA’s most valuable customers and core target segment) and costs (which is the other side of the profit equation). As a result, SIA’s employees had internalized that anything that touches the customer must be consistent with SIA’s premium positioning, whereas everything behind the line of visibility was subject to extreme cost control (Heracleous and Wirtz 2010, 2014; Wirtz et al. 2008).  SIA was highly disciplined in prioritizing routes and customer segments. It put its best and newest inflight products on the most competitive routes such Singapore to London and shifted its older planes (they are still new by industry standards) to less competitive routes such as Singapore to Delhi. It tiered its customers to channel priority towards more important customer segments and to deliver excellence as defined by the different segments (Heracleous et al. 2009).  Employees were trained to integrate conflicting decisions on when to emphasize service excellence and when to emphasize cost-effectiveness (Heracleous and Wirtz 2010).

Ristorante D’O

 Dual Culture Strategy


 Internalized a dual culture with the objective of making Michelin-starred food affordable (Cheshes 2015; Nobel 2013; Pisano et al. 2013).  Focused on the dining experience and food quality with a stated pursuit of excellence and meticulous attention to detail. E.g., (1) it used top quality ingredients and had highly motivated chefs; (2) the chefs served and interacted with the diners, and explained the dishes and how they prepared them, which lead to a superior dining experience and appreciation of the dishes, and it also enhanced employee satisfaction; (3) the founder designed several eating utensils that enhanced the dining experience, including an espresso spoon that sports a hole in the middle so as not to break up the continuity of the crema on top, and a passepartout that was a combination of fork, knife and spoon to allow diners to pick up and taste all the ingredients together (Cheshes 2015; Nobel 2013).  Examined every aspect of the restaurant operation to reduce costs. E.g., (1) the chefs served the food, the restaurant had no waiters, who were expensive, which lead to a significant reduction in labor costs; (2) chose glasses and plates that

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withstood breakage to reduce replacement and cleaning cost; (3) it chose a low rent location situated 20 km away from the city; its rent was estimated to be half of restaurants in the center of Milan; (4) unlike other Michelin-star restaurants, D’O opened for lunch and dinner to reduce unit costs; (5) it designed flatware that served as a combination fork, spoon and knife that reduced capex, labor, and dish washing costs; (6) avoided unnecessary items like bottom plates and table mates to reduce breakage, cleaning and washing costs (Cheshes 2015; Nobel 2013; Pisano et al. 2013).

Amazon

 Modularization

 It restricted customer choice somewhat where the added costs were seen to outweigh perceived customer value. E.g., it (1)


 Amazon had a strong customer centric culture and push for service excellence, while it was at the same time extremely cost-conscious. The rationale for its dual culture was to be able to bring service excellence and the lowest possible prices to its customers (Kantor and Streitfeld 2015; Stone 2013, p. 10).  Role modeling by top management; Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, was known for frugality and for not spending on anything that did not matter to customers. He was at the same time extremely customer centric and infamous for becoming enraged when individual customers complained, requiring that anxious employees found solutions immediately (Stone 2013, pp. 10, 88, 330-331).  Amazon’s sacrosanct leadership principles encompassed frugality: “We try not to spend money on things that don’t matter to customers. Frugality breeds resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for headcount, budget size or fixed expenses” (Stone 2013, p. 330).  Examples of Amazon’s extreme cost-consciousness include (1) minimized employee compensation and it designed bonuses to be back loaded to extend employee tenure; (2) provided low-cost stored value cards for public transport to avoid subsidizing parking; (3) did not subsidize food and made only vending machines available; (4) provided new workers with only minimal materials which had to be returned upon resignation; (5) all employees flew economy class; (6) used cheap blond-wood door-desks as conference room tables (Kantor and Streitfeld 2015; Stone 2013; Wells et al. 2016).

The Vanguard Group

used mostly high-quality seasonal ingredients from the region instead of exotic and expensive ingredients; (2) reduced its wine list to 180 SKUs, which was about half of that of competitors; (3) accepted only cash payment to reduce cost associated with electronic payments; (4) fixed the time for dinner reservations at 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 pm to allow for up to two table turns to reduce costs/seating (Cheshes 2015; Nobel 2013; Pisano et al.2013)

 OM Approaches to Reduce Process Variability

 Amazon’s business model was built on the Internet with a high focus on SSTs (incl. for search, selection, payment, account management, and reviews) which were facilitated by modular services (i.e., highly structured processes with a few, clear options), a minimal front office (mostly its website, but it also opened a few highly automated retail shops and self-service lockers for pick-up and returns) with an almost completely buffered back-office that can run highly efficient fulfilment services that were increasingly automated (McGee et al. 2017; Peters 2006; Wells et al. 2016).


 Focused on investment performance and service excellence for Vanguard’s members. Emphasized that service must be performed at the highest quality level and with zero defects. Stated as the first item in their strategy to “provide the highest quality of investor services, at the lowest possible cost [sic]” (Bogle 2002, p. 138).  Strong role modeling by senior management (e.g., John Bogle, Vanguard’s founder and former CEO, flew economy class rather than in private jets and did not stay in 5-star hotels as it would provide the wrong signal to employees and fund

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holders) (DeMuth 2015).  Intense cost focus that extended to all aspects of its operations, including distribution (e.g., it did not use distributors and did not pay commission) and marketing (e.g., it did not advertise much, felt that market share must be earned and not bought, and relied on word-of-mouth and public relations) (Bogle 2002, p. 193; Heskett et al. 2015, p. 76-79).  The value of frugality was evident throughout the organization. For example, the celebrity analyst Mabel Yu who was instrumental in Vanguard’s decision not to invest in triple A-rated complex mortgage-based securities in the run-up to the 2008/9 financial crisis and avoided billions of dollars of losses was recognized with a lunch by John Bogle; consistent with its culture, it was held in the canteen and followed the Vanguard $5 lunch coupon celebration tradition. As Yu put it, “He is very frugal, so I wanted to do it his way” (Davenport and Manville 2012, p. 157).  Viewed providing fair employee compensation as “one of the most difficult challenges” but aimed to deliver “realistic and competitive salaries” (Bogle 2002, p. 151). Employee compensation and benefits were tightly controlled [e.g., (1) job categories were restructured so that bonuses and pay increments were smaller, and changed its bonus scheme so that lower-grade workers found it harder to quality; (2) transferred thousands of salaried workers to hourly status who had lower or no bonuses, and could be laid off during periods of downturn; (3) faced allegations that older workers who did not get promoted, or took too much family or sick leave, got terminated] (DiStefano 2016).  The client-owned structure (i.e., Vanguard is owned by its funds, and in turn by its fund holders) which provided the rationale for the intense cost focus and allowed employees to sympathize with the need for frugality (Bogle 2011, p. 219).

National Library Board Singapore (NLB)


 Vanguard had no branches and relied mainly on the Internet, apps, phone and mail to interact with its customers (Bogle 2002; Sunderam et al. 2016).  Focused on automating and streamlining its processes to take out all unnecessary costs (Bogle 2002, p. 193; Heskett et al. 2015, p. 76-77); it even cancelled the construction of its second campus and instead intensified its focus on automation and process streamlining (DiStefano 2016).  Used an automated, Internet-based investment platform, the Personal Advisor Service (PAS) that augmented each client’s relationship with a financial adviser. PAS relied on portfolio analytics to match the investment strategy with a customer’s financial goals and dramatically reduced the time needed to generate a client’s financial plan (i.e., reduced costs) while enhancing advisory quality (Sunderam et al. 2016).

 Focused Service Factory

 Focused on passive funds (index funds) that required little costly investment management and less back office work.  Focused on long term investors; implemented pricing policies to discourage short-term trading (and thereby reduced customer service, administration and transaction costs) (Heskett et al. 2015, p. 76).


 NLB needed to scale up its membership and reach to drive life-long learning in Singapore but had a limited budget. To achieve its mission it pursued a strategy of service excellence while using technology to contain costs and achieve scalability. It recruited the former CEO of the National Computer Board in Singapore to drive the library automation to increase speed, and streamline and improve service while increasing productivity (Hallowell et al. 2001).  Groundbreaking innovation and deployment of technology in both the back and front office that often simultaneously drove service excellence (e.g., reduced waiting times, improved availability of titles, and enhanced convenience) and efficiency (e.g., RFID-enabled smart shelves reported mis-shelved books; robots that scanned and shelved books). NLB was a globally leading library in SST deployment (e.g., it was the first library to implement RFID to automate check-out,

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returns, sorting; it used an app-based self-service locker reservation system; had library branches where all customerservice processes were SST-enabled and that operated entirely without customer-facing employees) (Chai et al. 2009; Choh 2003; Heracleous and Johnston 2009; Kelleher 2016; Ong 2014; Ramchand et al. 2005).  Related to SSTs, NLB made heavy use of crowdsourcing, peer-to-peer, and community/volunteer-delivered services (e.g., its Citizen Archivist Project used crowdsourcing to caption and transcribe 15,000 photographs and documents in 2015) (National Archieves of Singapore 2017; Spring Singapore 2016; Tay 2013), enabled through NLB’s ability to creating a sense of community (Lin and Luyt 2014).  Deployment of technology and SSTs were enabled through process redesign that included streamlining, simplification, buffering of front-office activities from the back-office (e.g., book drops, and RFID-enabled dropping off books into mailboxes of Singapore Post, auto-sorting systems, robot-assisted shelf-reading), and modularization of service (e.g., payments were only accepted through a low-fee cashless system) (Johnston and Silm 2008; Ramchand et al. 2005, author interviews),  NLB’s culture made innovation everyone’s job, and it was driven by ad hoc cross-functional teams and not by specialized teams (author interviews).

Google

 OM Approaches to Reduce Process Variability (esp. SST)

United Services Automobile Association (USAA)



 Most products were designed to be “stand-alone” to avoid complexity for developers and users (Girard 2009, p. 89-95; Hamel 2007, p. 102), which Google also called its “Swiss Army Knife” approach (Girard 2009, p. 92).  Extreme focus on scalable solutions (Schmidt and Rosenberg 2014, p. 78-79) that delivered excellent user experiences and were facilitated through SSTs (Cutts 2011; Krazit 2009). Even revenue-generating service interactions and transactions were largely automated and delivered through SST whereby the “typical Google advertiser has no contact with a live person” (Girard 2009, p. 136)  Service related to problem resolution was mostly offered through SSTs and SST platforms that were either provided by Google or facilitated by it; they included online help tools, webmaster tools, webmaster videos, forums, blogs and other forms of support provided by online user communities (Cutts 2011; Girard 2009, p. 146-159).  Heavy use of SSTs for routine services with a focus on delivering a great customer experience (Weill and Woerner 2013), e.g., (1) 93% of service volume and about 35% of customer acquisition volume occurred through cost-effective digital channels; (2) development of an accident reenactment iPad application that enabled members to diagram and reenact a car accident directly on their mobile device. It allowed customers to submit a claim in one-eighth of the time compared to the traditional process via phone; (3) remote deposit capture solution (Deposit@Home) that allowed members to take photos of checks with smartphones and instantly deposit them (Adams 2012; Heskett et al. 2015, pp. 55-57; Lal and Fisher 2014; Quittner 2011).  Had a minimal number of branches and physical service centres to serve its 8.3 million members; it operated only one branch and ten service centres in 2011 (Quittner 2011).  Offered high touch where needed and valued by members (e.g., claim processing) (Heskett et al. 2015, pp. 55-57).  Focused on a niche market which consisted of members of the U.S. military and their immediate families. Although it was entirely focused on its niche market, it nevertheless offered a wide range of services to fully serve the needs of its member base for insurance, banking, investments, retirement, financial planning and brokerage services (Heskett et al. 2015, p. 55-

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57; Teal 1991). Narayana Health


 Extreme focus on surgery quality; focused on success rates and innovation (e.g., pioneered “beating open heart surgery”) (Global Health and Travel 2014; Khanna et al. 2011)  Extremely cost conscious culture, e.g., (1) doctors and senior administrators received a daily SMS detailing the previous day’s expenses to keep them conscious of the need to keep costs down. It is aimed to induce prudence as they could see how their decisions about which medicines, supplies, or tests to use affected the cost of treating patients. It also motivated employees to suggest ideas for cost savings and process improvements; (2) doctors received comparative performance data for their own hospital and 21 others in the group, which encouraged them to share best practices; (3) routinely reused medical devices sold as single-use products, such as $160 steel clamps employed during beating-heart surgeries, which were sterilized and reused 50 to 80 times; (4) maximized utilization of equipment and operating theatres, the latter were used for surgeries 20 hours a day, four hours were needed for cleaning; (5) centralized surgeries in a few hospitals at larger facilities as volume allowed high utilization, low unit costs, and learning and innovation; (6) drove a hard bargain with suppliers, esp. for equipment and consumables; had strong bargaining power as its biggest two hospitals performed about 12% of India’s open heart surgeries; (7) its new hospital in Mysore, India, was built on a $7 million budget, the lowest for a super-specialty hospital in India due to smart design (Anand 2009; Global Health and Travel 2014; Govindarajan and Ramamurti 2013; Khanna et al. 2011).  Senior leadership walked the talk and communicated the extreme cost consciousness internally as a mission to bring advanced healthcare to the poorest of India by keeping prices low (wealthier patients cross-subsidized poor patients, and low overall costs allowed a wider coverage) (Global Health and Travel 2014; Govindarajan and Ramamurti 2013).


 Focused on open-heart surgery which allowed the hospital to production-line and industrialize the procedure (Anand 2009; Tam and Messmer 2015); it decided against building a general hospital that intertwined many service processes and patient segments, and therefore would have been incredibly complex and expensive, and would not have had the same quality output (Global Health and Travel 2014; Govindarajan and Ramamurti 2013)  Encouraged general physicians to become specialists, and specialists to become super-specialists; trained nurses to advance to higher-skilled positions of nurse intensivist, akin to nurse practitioners in the US (Govindarajan and Ramamurti 2013).


 Operated a focused service factory and targeted a highly homogenous customer base as it (1) focused on a single type of surgery (i.e., external, simple hernia) that did not require general anesthesia; and (2) targeted a highly homogenous customer base of “healthy” patients that did not require any other medical attention beyond the hernia surgery and who could largely self-serve in the hospital (Frei and Morriss 2012, p. 126-129; Heskett and Hallowell 2004; Heskett et al. 2008, p. 62-63).  Production-lined and industrialized the procedure that reduced surgery time and costs, and operations theater costs (Frei 2006, p. 126-129; Heskett and Hallowell 2004).

 SST

 As patients were healthy and mobile, self-service was widely used in the hospital, and peer-to-peer help was designed into the process. For example, patients met the evening before their surgery other patients who already went through the procedure to build confidence and reduced counseling time by nurses and doctors. As a result, the nurse to patient ratio

Shouldice Hospital

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was less than 1/3rd of industry average (Frei and Morriss 2012, p. 126-129; Heskett and Hallowell 2004; Heskett et al. 2015, p. 14-15; Heskett et al. 2008, p. 62-63). Jet Blue Airlines


 Followed a focused service factory strategy and offered low-cost, high-quality service to a limited number of non-stop point-to-point destinations. Its simple operations enabled through operating few aircraft types point-to-point, combined with operating longer-haul overnight flights that increased the utilization of its aircraft, helped to lower costs per seat mile; it also had a young fleet and enjoyed low maintenance costs (Harris 2015; Smyth and Pearce 2006, p. 18; Trefis Team 2015).  JetBlue aimed to offer amenities reserved for pricier carriers, including wider seats, more legroom, storage space, individual video screens, free Wi-Fi, and it flew into major airports at fares that were up to 65% lower than those of legacy carriers (Hoyt et al. 2010; Huckman and Pisano 2011; Jacobs 2013). It positioned itself as providing “best service at low prices” (Smyth and Pearce 2006, p. 13).

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