Chapter 4. Results
4.3 Results – II. Service Product Dimension
This section presents respectively the data of practitioners’ and clients’ responses on the 13 statements representing 13 quality attributes of Service Product Dimension. The respondents are asked to choose on a seven-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7) to reflect their expectations on the service quality described by the statements. A follow-up question is asked to learn if respondents have in mind other critical service delivery quality items to add.
4.3.1 Responses on the 13 Statements (1) Practitioners
The statistics of points given by the 17 practitioners are listed in Table 4.5, including the mean, modes, standard deviation, minimum points, and maximum points on the 13 statements. The average mean of the 13 items is 5.63. The individual means of 13 items are presented in a line chart (Figure 4.7).
Based on the means, the rankings of the 13 quality attributes are also defined. Only three statements receive average points of over “6”, ranking them the top three: P1 “The delivery is consistent with the meaning of the original message” has a mean of 6.71; P5
“The delivery uses the correct terminology in the field of conference subject” has a mean of 6.24, P7 “The delivery is fluent without hesitations or unnecessary pauses” has a mean of 6.12. The standard deviations of the top 2 quality attributes are also the smallest (<0.8) among all, suggesting the consistency of opinions on the top two items.
The item with the highest standard deviation (1.453) is P3 “The delivery includes the details and nuances of the original message”, which is the only item with a mean lower than
“5” points among all, making it ranking the last. This suggests practitioners have extremely
different opinions on this item, someone who does not agree on its importance denies the attribute entirely (1 point), while some others who does, thinks just the opposite (7 points).
One respondent made a statement on P3, saying that he believes clients generally expect detailed interpretation by default, and would only ask for extracting the essential (P4) under time constraints.
Table 4.5 Responses of Practitioners on Service Product Dimension – I
Average Mean: 5.63
Average Standard Deviation: 1.05 Ranking Mean Mode Standard
Deviation Min Max
P1_The delivery is consistent with the meaning of the original message.
1 6.71 7 .588 5 7
P2_The delivery is coherent and makes sense by itself. 4 5.88 6 1.317 2 7 P3_The delivery includes the details and nuances of the
original message.
13 4.88 5 1.453 1 7
P4_The delivery extracts the essential and leave out the trimmings.
10 5.24 6 1.200 3 7
P5_The delivery uses the correct terminology in the field of conference subject.
2 6.24 6a .752 5 7
P6_The delivery uses the appropriate style that fits the conference settings.
5 5.88 6 1.054 3 7
P7_The delivery is fluent without hesitations or unnecessary pauses.
3 6.12 6a 1.054 3 7
P8_The pronunciation of the delivery is (close to) native accent.
6 5.53 5 1.231 3 7
P9_The delivery is grammatically correct. 11 5.12 4a 1.166 3 7
P10_The voice of the interpreter is pleasant to the ears. 12 5.12 4 1.054 4 7 P11_The delivery is (close to) simultaneous with the original
message.
8 5.47 6 1.068 4 7
P12_The delivery is rhythmic and with right intonation. 9 5.41 6 .870 4 7
P13_The delivery is convincing to the audience. 7 5.53 6 .874 4 7
Source: Compiled by this study.
Figure 4.7 Responses of Practitioners on Service Product Dimension- II Source: Compiled by this study.
(2) Clients
The statistics of points given by the 20 clients are listed in Table 4.6, including the mean, modes, standard deviation, minimum points, and maximum points on the 13 statements. The average mean of the 13 items is 5.90. The individual means of 13 items are presented in a line chart (Figure 4.8).
Based on the means, the rankings of the 13 quality attributes are also defined. Six statements receive average points of over “6”, ranking them the top six: P1 “The delivery is consistent with the meaning of the original message” has a mean of 6.55; P5 “The delivery uses the correct terminology in the field of conference subject” has a mean of 6.40; P2
“The delivery is coherent and makes sense by itself ” has a mean of 6.25; P8 “The pronunciation of the delivery is native accent” has a mean of 6.10; P7 “The delivery is fluent without hesitations or unnecessary pauses” has a mean of 6.10; P11 “The delivery is simultaneous with the original message” has a mean of 6.05. The standard deviation of the top two quality attributes are also the smallest (<0.8) among all, suggesting the consistency of opinions on the top two.
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 Means 6.71 5.88 4.88 5.24 6.24 5.88 6.12 5.53 5.12 5.12 5.47 5.41 5.53
4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7
Sc or es
P4 “The delivery extract the essential and leave out the trimmings” has the highest standard deviation (1.447), suggesting clients of different backgrounds hold distinctive views on this item. One respondent who gives P4 “1” point states that a delivery simply extracting the essentials is a failed performance of interpreting, while another respondent who gives P4 “7” points claims that a delivery that extracts the essentials and makes sense by itself is a successful delivery, as it gives the audience a clear picture of the messages the speaker is trying to deliver.
Table 4.6 Responses of Clients on Service Product Dimension - I
Average Mean: 5.90
Average Standard Deviation: 1.01 Ranking Mean Mode Standard
Deviation Min Max
P1_The delivery is consistent with the meaning of the original message.
1 6.55 7 .686 5 7
P2_The delivery is coherent and makes sense by itself. 3 6.25 7 .851 4 7
P3_The delivery includes the details and nuances of the original message.
13 5.15 4 1.226 3 7
P4_The delivery extracts the essential and leave out the trimmings.
8 5.90 7 1.447 1 7
P5_The delivery uses the correct terminology in the field of conference subject.
2 6.40 7 .754 5 7
P6_The delivery uses the appropriate style that fits the conference settings.
7 5.95 6 .887 4 7
P7_The delivery is fluent without hesitations or unnecessary pauses.
5 6.05 6 .887 4 7
P8_The pronunciation of the delivery is (close to) native accent.
4 6.10 7 1.021 4 7
P9_The delivery is grammatically correct. 10 5.70 6 1.129 3 7
P10_The voice of the interpreter is pleasant to the ears. 12 5.20 6 1.322 2 7 P11_The delivery is (close to) simultaneous with the
original message.
6 6.05 6 .759 5 7
P12_The delivery is rhythmic and with right intonation. 9 5.75 6 1.118 4 7
P13_The delivery is convincing to the audience. 11 5.70 6 1.081 4 7
Source: Compiled by this study.
Figure 4.8 Responses of Clients on Service Product Dimension - II Source: Compiled by this study.
(3) Comparison of the two data sets
In comparison, the average mean of the client data is slightly higher (5.90) than that of the practitioner data (5.63). The average standard deviation of the client data (1.01) is slightly lower than that of the practitioner data (1.05), which suggests the consistency of opinions on Service Product statements is similar in both data sets.
A comparison on the rankings of the two data sets shows both groups share common recognition of the most and the least important quality attributes: both P1 and P5 rank top 2 and P3 ranks the last in both data sets. In addition, the rankings of P12 and P10 are 9th and 12th in both data sets.
As shown in the line chart illustrating the means of both data sets (Figure 4.9), Clients’
means are all higher than Practitioners’, except for P1, but the trends of both are similar.
This suggests opinions on this dimension of both groups are generally similar, while clients expect a slightly more than practitioners on almost all the items. When asked to name the least important quality items of this dimension, some respondents say that they are unable to name one because all items are very important.
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 Means 6.55 6.25 5.15 5.9 6.4 5.95 6.05 6.1 5.7 5.2 6.05 5.75 5.7
4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7
Scores
Figure 4.9 Result Comparison on Service Product Dimension Source: Compiled by this study.
4.3.2 Additional comments
When asked if they have in mind other critical service product quality items to add, respondents have less additional comments on this dimension than they do on Service Delivery Dimension. Some comments refer to similar concepts of the existing 13 items, though in different wordings, such as cohesive, synchronicity, and terminology. The others suggest “eliminating superfluous words”, and “answering questions (on clients’ behave) in a smart manner in the Q&A sessions”, etc.. Appendix 6 lists the comments gathered, mostly quoting directly what is stated on the questionnaires, with little adjustments to make some statements easier to read.
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11 P12 P13 Practitioner 6.71 5.88 4.88 5.24 6.24 5.88 6.12 5.53 5.12 5.12 5.47 5.41 5.53 Client 6.55 6.25 5.15 5.9 6.4 5.95 6.05 6.1 5.7 5.2 6.05 5.75 5.7
4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7
Points