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Prelims

Grafton Whyte (University of Namibia, Namibia)

The V-Model of Service Quality

ISBN: 978-1-78769-606-8, eISBN: 978-1-78769-603-7

Publication date: 18 October 2018

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Citation

Whyte, G. (2018), "Prelims", The V-Model of Service Quality, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. i-xix. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78769-603-720181010

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited

Half Title Page

THE V-MODEL OF SERVICE QUALITY

Title Page

THE V-MODEL OF SERVICE QUALITY

An Exploration of African Customer Service Delivery Metrics

BY

GRAFTON WHYTE

University of Namibia, Namibia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2018

Copyright © 2018 Emerald Publishing Limited

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78769-606-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-603-7 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78769-605-1 (Epub)

Dedication

To Chen,

Leon Jonathan, Jerran David, Marcel Joseph, Nathan Richard and their families,

a very special clan who have with me, shared this long journey.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge and give special thanks to my partners, sponsors and supporters without which this project would not have seen the light of day.

Conference Link and CEO Marelise Serfontein who believed in this enterprise and partnered with me, financially and reputationally, to launch the CSMA Awards, Conference and Master Class that took place in November 2014 here in Windhoek, Namibia. Marelise’s vision, entrepreneurial flair and passion for Namibia were a source of continuous encouragement.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC), Nambia Broadcast Corporation (NBC) and Namibia Media Holdings (NMH) who came on board as premier sponsors providing much needed foundational financial and media support.

Business Intelligence Africa (BIA) worked closely with us to collect 7,258 responses on customer service in Namibia reaching 1,500 homes and covering 12 essential services from home affairs to supermarkets. The results of this data collection effort are one of the studies reported here.

A special thanks to our guests and keynote speakers in particular Professor Moira Clark and Howard Kendall. Clark is Professor of Strategic Marketing at Henley Business School, Head of Marketing and Reputation as well as Director of The Henley Centre for Customer Management (a consortium of organisations who are interested in leading-edge best practice in customer management). Kendall, who founded the Service Desk Institute (SDI) in 1988, is recognised as a leading authority in Europe on Help Desks and IT Support. Kendall wrote a definitive book on customer service for the British Standards Institute (BSI).

Thanks to all those companies whose generous contributions ensured our success: The Harold Pupkewitz Foundation, Nampower, FNB Namibia, Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR), Namibia Diamond Trading Company, Team Namibia, DbAudio and White Feather.

It is likely this book would never have been written without the encouragement and support of mentors and friends such as Professor Andy Bytheway, Professor Harold Campbell, Professor Samuel Mensah, Sibu Zondi of Emerald Publishing and Tafadzwa Chirunda who edited my script. And fellow journeymen such as Dr R. David Muir, Greg Roachford, Winston Bygrave, Donovan Walker and Len Randall who never doubted this moment.

This book has been in the making since 1995 when I completed my PhD and my wife, Chen, and sons have supported and encouraged me all the way, to them is the biggest thank you of all.

List of Figures

Figure 1. Overview of the Book. 5
Figure 2. High-Level Overview of the VMSQ. 12
Figure 3. The V-Model of Systems Development. 14
Figure 4. The V-Model of Service Quality (VMSQ). 15
Figure 5. Building and Operationalising Theory. 24
Figure 6. The VMSQ Process Stages. 42
Figure 7. VMSQ Reporting Levels. 57
Figure 8. The VMSQ Applied to the Namibian Study. 73
Figure 9. Bank Sector Summary Report. 85
Figure 10. Municipal Service Sector Summary Report. 87
Figure 11. Supermarket Services Summary Report. 88
Figure 12. Home Affairs Services Sector Summary Report. 89
Figure 13. International Bank Information Systems Service. 93
Figure 14. The Service Exchange Model (SEM). 96
Figure 15. Mapping Service Quality Attribute to the SEM. 98
Figure 16. Core Management Competencies. 103
Figure 17. The African Management Matrix. 105

List of Tables

Table 1. The Stages of VMSQ Deployment. 19
Table 2. Constructs from Repertory Grid Interviews. 28
Table 3. Attributes Emerging from Constructs. 32
Table 4. Attributes and their Definitions. 35
Table 5. Example of Complexity in a Banking Service. 39
Table 6. Example of Rating Scale for Responsiveness. 46
Table 7. Example of the Overall Performance Rating Scale. 47
Table 8. Example of Benchmark Rating Scale. 48
Table 9. Benchmark Rating for the Insurance Sector. 52
Table 10. Attribute Rating for the Insurance Sector. 53
Table 11. Item Rating for the Insurance Sector. 55
Table 12. Insurance Sector Report by Company. 59
Table 13. Insurance Sector Service Attributes. 61
Table 14. Insurance Sector Service Items – Recovery. 65
Table 15. Chosen Industry Sectors with Benchmarks. 69
Table 16. Service Quality Attributes Used in Namibian Study. 71
Table 17. Key Service Attributes for the Banking Sector. 77
Table 18. Reporting at Item Level for FNB Bank. 81

About the Author

Professor Grafton Whyte is Director of the Namibia Business School (NBS) in the University of Namibia (UNAM), Namibia, Visiting Professor of Business at the Graduate School of Business Management (GSBM) at Cape Peninsula University of Science and Technology (CPUT), South Africa, and, former Director of the Harold Pupkewitz Graduate School of Business (HPGSB) at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Namibia.

Preface

A mild wet afternoon in November 2013 saw Professor Frank Witt and I playing host to Professors John Board and Jon Foster-Pedley of Henley Business School. The setting was Okapuka Game Ranch and the discussion was making business schools relevant to the communities and countries in which they operate. It was during this free-flowing discussion that the idea of studying and suggesting ways of improving customer service in Namibia was first conceived. A year later in November 2014, the first Namibia Customer Service Awards, Conference and Master Class was born. This fledgling movement hopes to make a contribution in changing attitudes towards customer service and basic service delivery (i.e. housing, water and sewerage), first in Namibia and eventually throughout Africa. We therefore hope this book will be the first of many from the Customer Service Management Africa (CSMA) organisation and be the first step in a long journey of service change in Africa.

We hope it will inspire you to be a part of this change!

Professor Grafton Whyte

Director, Namibia Business School (NBS)in the University of Namibia (UNAM)

May, 2018

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