ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses why customer service measurement is a key component of a service strategy. It explains the service-value chain and the need for internal as well as external measures. Best practice organisations have a service strategy encompassing all of their business that directs and guides their approach to service excellence. Making customer service a key business imperative was critical to their successful implementation of the change. In many service organisations however, customer measurement can be an infrequent and haphazard event, the results of which are not properly communicated or acted upon. Research by Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger of the Harvard Business School demonstrated a clear link between what happens inside the organisation and the quality of the service provided to the external customer. The quality of external service delivery is a reflection of the quality of service that people within the organisation provide each other.
