Servicivity:  Measuring Productivity
In A Service Economy

Introduction

The industrial revolution, and the shift from an agricultural society to a manufacturing society, brought with it a need to measure how well the production process was doing—how effective and/or efficient it was.  The measurement term chosen became known as productivity.  Hundreds of books and articles have been written over the last 50 to 100 years on this subject.  But the key thing to keep in mind is that the concept of productivity is rooted in the fact that the outcome of the process is a product.

     We’re now in the midst of another transition—from a manufacturing economy to a service economy.  The commodities we deal with can not be seen or touched.  However, we still have a desire to measure what’s happening.  But what are we supposed to measure and how?  That’s what this DeltaPro $olution^TM is about.

General Advertising

Let’s compare two processes—one in which the end result is a product, the other in which the end result is a service.  Notice that the requirements to get to the end result are very similar.

The key difference between these two processes is the fact that the serving process does not deal with anything material.  Now, while there are dozens of processes that combine products and services, for this discussion let’s keep each of these processes as pure as possible.

     The main goal of a producing process is to bring forth, by intellectual, physical or mechanical means, something having economic value, usually a material result—a product.  The main goal of a serving process, on the other hand, is to do or provide what is necessary to help a person or organization accomplish a task or satisfy a need.  The help may be in the form of support, caring for, being of use to, or doing work for.  When a serving process is effective, the end result is service—a need has been satisfied, a problem has been solved, a task has been accomplished.

     Well then, how do you know that either of these processes is working as effectively as possible?  Some kind of measurement is needed.  The measurement term for the producing process has traditionally been productivity, an objective, quantitative yardstick—a measure of what or how much results from a producing process.  Productivity can be measured several ways.  One of these is to measure the quantity of products coming out of the process per unit time.  Thus, for example, a person or machine which turned out twice as many widgets as another person or machine in the same period of time can be said to have twice the productivity of the other.

     Productivity can also be a measure of the quantity of products coming out of the process at a given cost.  Thus, for example, one process which was able to turn out a certain number of widgets for $10 might be said to be twice as productive as another process which turned out the same number of widgets for $20.

     applied?  What about issues like customer satisfaction, goodwill, etc?  To measure the serving process, a new term is needed—servicivity (ser vis iv’ it y), a more subjective, qualitative measurement—a measure of how a serving process performs.

     Because it’s subjective, each person (the subject) will measure a given serving process differently.  One of the simplest and most common measurement scales one could use may go something like:  Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent.  In fact, this is the exact “scientific” scale used for measuring the grading of coins in numismatics.  And for each denomination and series, specific parameters are defined for each grade.

     The obvious difficulty, though, is that, without such a previously agreed upon scale, one person’s “good” can easily end up being another person’s “fair” or even “poor”.  For example, think of someone you know who thinks “hot” (spicy) foods are very good, while someone else you know thinks these foods should be boxed in asbestos (that is, they’re poor to that person’s taste).  And what about the relative measure of one serving process over another?  Can we say something like process A is twice as good, bad, or whatever as process B?  Unfortunately, no. Instead, we get into more qualitatively comparative terms like better, worse, more than, less than, etc.

     There are, however, some general characteristics that can be defined so one can compare apples against apples when measuring one serving process against another.  These fall into two categories:  personnel behaviors—measurements of the service providers (the people providing the service) and process characteristics—measurements of the serving process itself.

Personnel Behaviors

Service providers can be measured by their:

• appearance—Dressing in clothes appropriate for their job; looking neat and clean.

• attitude—Being committed to the serving process; being ready and willing to provide service; having a “service attitude”; being cooperative, courteous, friendly, polite, and sincere; providing personalized attention; demonstrating respect for the customer and the customer’s property.

• communication, understanding—Being visible and easily accessible; listening to customers; making every effort to discover and understand each customer’s special needs; talking to, informing and helping educate the customer in language the customer can understand.

• competence, credibility—Possessing required knowledge and skills to perform the service; being trustworthy, honest, believable, and having the customer’s best interests at heart.

• dependability, reliability—Performing consistently, keeping promises, and doing the job right the first time.

Process Characteristics

The process can be measured by its:

•  accuracy—Providing results which are free of errors; doing the job right the first time.

• action—Doing something, not just talking about it.

• cost effectiveness, value—Being the most the effective at the lowest possible cost.

• efficiency, timeliness, speed—Providing results as quickly as possible, on time, when promised, without rushing to the point of introducing errors.

• facility—Providing and maintaining a facility, tools and equipment which appear professional, neat and clean.

• follow-up—Including a follow-up contact to assure that the delivery met with customer’s satisfaction.

• security—Provided the customer with the peace of mind knowing he/she will not be harmed or put at risk in any way.

• thoroughness—Doing the whole job completely the first time.

Looking back over the list of characteristics, consider how you might measure a serving process you’ve used lately (eg, a sales person, your tax accountant, an automobile mechanic, etc).  For each characteristic, you might rate the servicivity characteristics on a chart similar to the following.

There’s an expression that says “what goes around comes around.”  And servicivity is a key to good business.  The following diagram is virtually self-explanatory.

So, next time you use a serving process, or want to measure the service output of yourself, your department, your organization, or your business, create a table like to one on page 3 to see that you’re getting optimum servicivity.

ODSE—Rev 12/6/06

Home                                                                                                                        Top of Page
Copyright 2001 by DeltaPro