Measurement of service quality is crucial

The quality of service for customers has improved drastically. The Korea Standards Association and I have been conducting the Korean Standard Service Quality Index (KS-SQI) assessment, and the KS-SQI scores in the past 15 years show drastic improvement in Korean companies’ awareness of service quality.

As a model developer of KS-SQI, I hope that the companies who participate in the assessment would think of happiness of the consumers as value of the company. KS-SQI model measures quality of service, focusing on improving what’s lacking, enhancing customer satisfaction and proposing a direction to contribute to happiness of the people.

It is especially important to look at measured service quality as a hygiene factor. A hygiene factor is a basic element that results in dissatisfaction when not fulfilled but does not inspire satisfaction when fulfilled. In other words, it is a priority for companies to stick to the basics of service in order to keep customers happy.

Rapid development of information technology has expended the range of services using technology. What will the service of the future be like? The service in the future will be service for human, and the core idea is “transformative service.” the concept is garnering attention of the field, as it can improve quality and wellbeing of individual lives.

Until now, the most notable indicator of country’s economic status has been the GDP. But in the near future, an indicator that assesses and measures the status of social progress and wellbeing should be developed and applied. In the end, competitiveness depends on how companies think about service for human and how it is implemented.

Yi You-jae, Professor of Marketing at Seoul National University