Products and services have a collection of features that enable a customer to rate quality of the goods and services for satisfaction. The views to determine the overall quality of product and service include product design, services delivery, and the overall process of delivering product or services. This paper focuses on assessing product and service quality.
According to Lewis et al (2007, p. 447) there are many factors for rating a products quality, but it depends on the type. For example, I went to a beauty shop to buy a face cream for removing blackheads, which I thought could be effective after some time but did not see any improvements. The factors which I used to gauge the product include the brand name, products ingredients, its effectiveness and price. The product contained a trusted brand name and I thought that it was effective and hence, I rated it at 9 out of 10.
The product also had many ingredients, which appeared to be natural and so I rated it at 5 point. Since the product was not effective as expected, I rated it at 1 because there were no changes after applying it. Due to the products’ ineffectiveness, and despite the high price, the products rating were at 4 point. I discovered that it is not always true that the higher the price of a product, the better it is as compared to those with lower costs.
Based on the results of the rating, the brand name was at 9 point, ingredients at 5, and effectiveness of the product at 1, and the price at 4. Hence, the total number of all the ratings was 19. I got the average of the total points by dividing the total by the four factors and a rating of 4.75.
In service quality, I used many determinants when I visited a national library, but did not get the best services. First, there was no proper responsiveness whenever I needed assistance in locating my books of interest. The rate of responsiveness was of 4 out of 10. In addition, there was no ease of accessing the reading materials because they were mixed up in the shelf, thus the rating was 5 out of 10. At the main entrance the library staff was not courteous and polite to customers, thus courtesy rating was at 3 out of 10.
The library also lacked competent staff because I noticed that they did not have the proper skills and knowledge for providing the services when I tried to enquire more about the library, hence competency rating was at 2 out of 10. It was not easy to communicate since there were no staffs ready to listen to the customers and thus, communication rating was at 4 out of 10.
Similarly, security of the bags and other items left at the shelf was not guaranteed because some of the shelves did not have number tags and we left the bags without being assured of their security: it is possible for another customer to pick a bag that does not belong to him hence the security rating was at 6. The staff did not bother to understand individual customer needs and hence, the rating was at 5.
Based at all the service ratings, the responsiveness had 4 points, ease of accessing had 5 points, and courtesy was at 3 points, staff competency was at 2 points, communication was at 4 points, security was at 6 points and finally understanding customer needs was at 5 points. The ratings were all out of 10 and thus, when I added all of them the result was 29. I got the overall average service rating by dividing the number of points by the number of factors and the average was at 4.14.
In conclusion, it is important for companies and organizations to focus on customer satisfaction by providing the best services and giving quality products. Wirtz (2003) suggests that to determine the customers’ perception of a product and a service, businesses should seek to understand the customers’ experience when using the product or getting the service, and what they say about them because the final financial results are based on customer satisfaction and quality.
References
Lewis, P. S., Goodman, S. H., Fandt, P. M., & Michlitsch, J. F. (2007). Management: Challenges for Tomorrow’s Leaders (5th Ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. p 36.
Wirtz, J. & Meng, C. L. (2003). An Empirical Study on The Quality and Context-specific Applicability of Commonly Used Customer Satisfaction Measures. Journal of Service Research, 5(4), 345-355.