During service delivery, customer contact can be either or high or low, depending on the service desired. Most of high contact services are preformed in front office; low contact services are completed away from the customers in the back office. The contact along with the degree of uncertainty of the customer will have an impact on the efficiency of service provided. Hospitals are considered to have high contact services because the are considered to be front office services. The services provided at a hospital generally require higher prices because they are more customized due to their variable nature of service. Since hospitals should provide high contact, operation managers should consider the fact that customer contact can introduce variability in the process. This is why we find so many people in the hospital waiting area. The variability is very challenging for hospitals because the capacity planning is very difficult and this causes long lines in the hospital waiting area. Some variability challenges involve: arrival variability, request variability, capability variability, effort variability, subjective preference variability. Arrival variability is the uncertainty of when a customer will arrive for service. As much as a hospital staff manager try to prepare the different shifts with adequate help, this some times does not suffice because arrival variability is very challenge when it comes to trying to determine when a consumer will arrive for service. Request variability is the uncertainty of what a customer will ask for in the service product bundle. Capability variability is the uncertainty of the customers ability to participate in the service. Effort variability is the uncertainty of the customers willingness to perform appropriate actions. Subjective preference variability is the uncertainty in the intangible preferences of customers in how a service is performed. In order for the hospital to be successful it must overcome the challenges that variability brings so that the hospital can run efficient as possible.
Grocery stores could use a mixer of high and low contact services because the grocery stores as like the hospital can not predict the variability of customer contact. In order for a grocery store to be successful it must also overcome the challenges of managing the uncertainties that come with customer variability. Low contact service can be provided in the grocery store as well because face to face interaction is not always required, for example, Walmart provides self check out