Look to Consumers to Increase Productivity看看消费者提高生产力.docx

1、Look to Consumers to Increase Productivity看看消费者提高生产力管理学院 营销1001 3100806022 赵潮 (124)May 1979Look to Consumers to Increase Productivityby Christopher H. Lovelock and Robert F. YoungWhen productivity is a problem in manufacturing, managers turn to the R&D department or operations for help. In services,

2、 however, especially ones where there is a lot of contact with the customer, such in-house groups cannot by themselves improve productivity. Because services involve the customer in production, are labor intensive, and are time-bound, consumer behavior itself is critical. Increasing productivity, th

3、en, becomes a matter of changing consumer behavior and expectations, and that depends on enlisting consumer acceptance of the change. The authors describe five instances where managers have been less successful than they might in improving productivity in services because they did not take the needs

4、 of consumers into account. Then, drawing lessons from these experiences, they discuss three marketing strategies managers can employ in influencing consumers to become a part of the service process itself.Most people agree that low productivity is a major contributor to inflation. Lagging productiv

5、ity gains are particularly a problem for the service sector of the economy, which now accounts for close to two-thirds of the GNP in the United States.Low productivity afflicts all three categories of service organizationsfor profit, public, and nonprofit. In private companies, managers worry about

6、their ability to maintain profits, yet fear that passing on higher costs in the form of higher prices might drive away consumers. Many public agencies find themselves with rising deficits at a time when taxpayers are angrily demanding tax cuts; yet a strategy of service cutbacks could have serious c

7、onsequences for the welfare of disadvantaged citizens and the quality of life in general. Some nonprofit organizations that have relied unrealistically on increased donations or higher user charges have been hit particularly hard, some even to the point of collapse.People usually think that improvin

8、g productivity is a task for the R&D department, for the finance committee, or for operations and personnel management. Economists tell us that the three ways to increase productivity are (1) to improve the quality of the labor force, (2) to invest in more efficient capital equipment, and (3) to aut

9、omate tasks previously undertaken by labor.In this article, we are going to argue that there is a fourth component to improving productivity in service industriesthat is, to change the ways consumers interact with service producers. This is a task that marketingthe art of demand managementcan tackle

10、 best. Service managers can use marketing tools to encourage consumers to modify their behavior so that services can be delivered in a more productive and economically efficient manner. Our primary focus will be on what Richard B. Chase has termed “high contact” service systems, where there is a hig

11、h level of interaction between service producers and their customers.1One can divide services into two broad categories: those that do something for consumers themselvessuch as transporting them to distant locations, cutting their hair, and healing their bodies; and those that do something for consu

12、mers possessionssuch as transporting their mail, cutting their grass, and repairing their cars. The former, of course, involve a higher level of personal contact than the latter, but consumer behavior is important in both instances, and we will consider both here. Understanding consumer behavior is

13、the first step in determining how to change it.Impact of Consumer on ServicesWhy is consumer behavior a particularly critical factor for productivity gains in the service sector of the economy? Three basic reasons come to mind.First, service industries typically involve the consumer in the productio

14、n process. A haircut requires you to sit in the barbers chair; a stay at a hotel requires that you check in and enter your room in person; to mail a letter requires that you address, stamp, and deposit it. If you fail to complete your bank withdrawal slip correctly and argue with the teller, then yo

15、u will slow down the service and delay other customers as well.Second, service industries are typically labor intensive, with the service being part and parcel of the overall “product” being purchased. Sometimes, though, consumers can do some of the work themselves, replacing all or part of that pre

16、viously done by the service employee. Consumers now serve themselves at buffets in restaurants and dial long-distance telephone calls directly instead of going through the operator.Third, a service industrys product tends to be time-bound: it cannot be stockpiled. Thus the opportunity to sell an emp

17、ty seat on the 9:00 p.m. flight to Boston is lost once the aircraft takes off. Conversely, theatergoers turned away by “house full” signs cannot be relied on to wait for the next available show. Because of the time-bound nature of service, managers place a heavy emphasis on capacity utilization. The

18、 productivity goal is to smooth the peaks and valleys of demand to avoid both excess demand (which cannot be satisfied) and excess capacity (which represents unproductive use of resources).2In services where there is a great deal of personal contact, managers can increase productivity by changing pr

19、ocedures at point of delivery. But these changes, such as replacing a bank teller or a waiter with machines, directly affect consumers, and their acceptance of the change cannot be assumed.Sometimes, as Chase points out, the “technical core” or “back room operations” of a service can be separated fr

20、om the personal service aspect. In recent years, many of the productivity gains made by service organizations have been achieved within the technical core. Computers now handle accounting procedures and hotel/airline reservation systems, larger, faster, and more efficient aircraft fly more passenger

21、s, and partially automated mail-handling procedures speed up postal services.But changes in the technical core may still affect consumers, requiring them to accept changes in bank statement formats, include ZIP codes when addressing mail, or accustom themselves to computer-generated reservation conf

22、irmations for seats on new kinds of aircraft. While many of these innovations offer benefits to customerssuch as greater accuracy, faster service, more comfortable flightsservice managers cannot take consumers acceptance of change for granted.Five Cautionary TalesIn our experience, attempts to impro

23、ve productivity in service industries all too often demonstrate a lack of sensitivity to consumer needs and concerns. Consider the following situations: In the early 1970s, the Universal Product Code made its appearance. By 1978, it appeared on some 170 billion packages. Yet it is estimated that onl

24、y 2 billion of those packages actually passed through scanners. Less than 1% of U.S. supermarkets have installed registers that can read the code, in part because consumers distrust them. Between 1967 and 1974, the British Post Office introduced sophisticated alphanumeric postal codes. These identif

25、y mailing addresses down to a specific city block or even to a single dwelling. But a majority of Great Britains consumers are still not bothering to include these “postcodes” when addressing their mail. Though many banks have installed automatic tellers, some of their customers are refusing to use

26、them. As a “once bitten” consumer reports: “Well, I tried that machine just once, and it ate my card. The card came back in the mail, but I didnt bother using it again.” In an effort to reduce crowding on its trains during the rush hour, Bostons transit system introduced “Dime Time,” which offered a

27、 60% discount on travel between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. But because most consumers must travel during rush hours, Dime Time had only a modest impact on travel patterns and was finally abandoned as too costly. Despite the fact that self-service gas stations are quicker and cheaper, many people expre

28、ss a dislike for them. “Im not going to slosh around in gas to save a penny” was a typical response to a recent research study.The common thread linking these attempts by five major service industries to improve productivity is that consumers resisted the change, and the anticipated gains have yet t

29、o be fully achieved. In most instances, management has scaled down its expectations and has even abandoned some specific efforts for the time being. Let us look briefly at each situation in turn, and then consider what can be learned from them.Universal product codeWhen they first introduced the con

30、cept in the early 1970s, marketers of the Universal Product Code had high hopes. They expected it to reduce labor costs, eliminate errors, and provide better information for retail management. In 1973, the UPC symbols began appearing on thousands of mass-merchandized consumer items. Why has so littl

31、e progress been made in the past five years? Equipment costs are one reason, union resistance a second, and consumer opposition a third.Some supermarket executives now concede that they did a poor job of preparing the public for the scanners. “Consumer groups raked us over the coals,” admitted a sen

32、ior executive of Giant Stores, “because we didnt bring them into the decision-making process two or three years earlier.”3Consumers concerns centered around the fact that items would no longer be price marked (a potential source of labor cost savings for food stores). Consumer organizations expresse

33、d fears that, if items were not individually marked, surreptitious price hikes would result. In response to lobbying, six statesincluding California and New Yorkhave passed laws forcing stores to retain item pricing.Nevertheless, recent experience in those stores that have UPC scanners suggests that consumer rece