Introduction

The service sector is an important sector in the world economy today. For instance, more than 60 million people work in the service industry in the USA. The more complex the interna­tional economy, the more the services needed to address problems in sectors such as law, health accounting and education, which are some professional service areas that parallel retail stores, financial institutions and charitable organizations.

The service sector is one of the important sectors for the social growth of a country. Glob­ally, the service sector is the largest and fastest growing sector contributing to the global output and employing more people than any other sector. In alignment with global trends, the Indian service sector has witnessed a major boom and is one of the prime contributors to both employment and the national income in recent times. About 60 per cent of India’s economy is largely driven by the service sector followed by the manufacturing sector and the agricultural sector. The Indian economy has moved from being an agriculture-based econ­omy to a knowledge-based economy. The important service industries are Information Technology, Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES), Retailing, Financial Services, Banking, Insurance, Health care, Education, Media and Entertainment.

The TQM approach focuses on connecting the organization with the customer at every stage of the business process. The challenge of TQM in services lies in establishing smooth connectivity between business processes so as to retain the customer. Implementing an effective TQM mechanism in the service industry requires patience and commitment on the part of the management and the workforce to satisfy the customer.

Source: Poornima M. Charantimath (2017), Total Quality Management, Pearson; 3rd edition.