PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT THROUGH MANAGING THE SERVICE ENCOUNTER

As economies become increasingly dspendent on their service sector, service productivity becomes more important to understand and improve. This article argues that quality service is the key to service productivity and discusses those factors, some within management’s control, that impact the behavior of service providers. Key Words: Service, service productivity, service encounter, service quality. America is becoming a service society. It is estimated that two thirds of both employment and the gross national product come from the service sector (Albrecht & Zemke, 1985). The service sector is sometimes down-played because the jobs are believed to be low paying or unimportant. Some are, of course. In the United States between 1983 and 1986 over 350,000 low-paying jobs were added in fast foods and health care. However, more jobs with above-average salaries are being added in professional, administrative and technical services. Between 1983 and 1988 almost three million jobs of this category were added (Peterson, 1987). Th