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DESIGNING AND MANAGING SERVICES | CHAPTER 13 371<br />

USAA From its beginnings, USAA focused on selling auto insurance, and later<br />

other insurance products, to those with military service. It increased its share of each customer’s<br />

business by launching a consumer bank, issuing<br />

credit cards, opening a discount brokerage, and offering a<br />

selection of no-load mutual funds. Though it now conducts<br />

transactions for more than 150 products and services on the phone or<br />

online, USAA boasts one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings of<br />

any company in the United States. It was the first bank to allow iPhone<br />

deposits for its military customers, to routinely text balances to soldiers<br />

in the field, and to heavily discount customers’ car insurance when<br />

they are deployed overseas. A leader in virtually every customer service award or survey, the company<br />

inspired one industry expert to comment: “There is nobody on this earth who understands their customer<br />

better than USAA.” 64<br />

By relentlessly focusing on its military<br />

customers, USAA has created<br />

extraordinary levels of customer<br />

satisfaction.<br />

Service outcome and customer loyalty are influenced by a host of variables. One study identified<br />

more than 800 critical behaviors that cause customers to switch services. 65 These behaviors fall into<br />

eight categories (see Table 13.3).<br />

A more recent study honed in on the service dimensions customers would most like companies<br />

to measure. As Table 13.4 shows, knowledgeable frontline workers and the ability to achieve<br />

one-call-and-done rose to the top. 66<br />

Flawless service delivery is the ideal state for any service organization. “<strong>Marketing</strong> Memo:<br />

Recommendations for Improving Service Quality” offers a comprehensive set of guidelines to<br />

TABLE 13.3<br />

Factors Leading to Customer Switching Behavior<br />

Pricing<br />

Response to Service Failure<br />

• High price • Negative response<br />

• Price increases • No response<br />

• Unfair pricing • Reluctant response<br />

• Deceptive pricing Competition<br />

Inconvenience • Found better service<br />

• Location/hours Ethical Problems<br />

• Wait for appointment • Cheat<br />

• Wait for service • Hard sell<br />

Core Service Failure • Unsafe<br />

• Service mistakes • Conflict of interest<br />

• Billing errors Involuntary Switching<br />

• Service catastrophe • Customer moved<br />

Service Encounter Failures • Provider closed<br />

• Uncaring<br />

• Impolite<br />

• Unresponsive<br />

• Unknowledgeable<br />

Source: Susan M. Keaveney, “Customer Switching Behavior in Service Industries: An Exploratory Study,” Journal of <strong>Marketing</strong> (April 1995),<br />

pp. 71–82. Reprinted with permission from Journal of <strong>Marketing</strong>, published by the American <strong>Marketing</strong> Association.

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