Measuring Service Productivity: The Case of a German Mobile Service Provider

Productivity is pivotal when assessing the performance of service systems. The aim of this article is to provide a novel benchmarking method to measure productivity. Based on authoritative theories on service productivity, the ontological concepts of four theories of service productivity management are unified. Subsequently, formulations of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) are stated to implement these concepts of service productivity. However, there hasn´t been a single DEA-based approach detected that unifies the service productivity concepts for the purpose of service benchmarking. Therefore, such a model is developed by taking DEA as a starting point. It is then applied to benchmark shifts of 63 service technicians from a field force unit of one of Germany´s biggest mobile service providers. In an evaluation based on data from these shifts the model delivers sound results. Hence, it is deemed suitable for benchmarking productivity in the service sector.