4.5.7—People

People are employees and other participants whose knowledge, behaviour and service interactions affect customer value.

Recruitment, training, incentives and empowerment shape consistency; a low-cost service can fail if staff cannot solve problems.

Identify the interaction that creates value and align skills, authority and measures to it.

A hotel trains reception staff to fix booking errors without manager approval, reducing waiting and frustration.

People is not only headcount; behaviour at the service moment matters.

Employee-customer relationships matter especially in services because the interaction is part of what the customer experiences: knowledgeable, responsive and trusted employees can raise satisfaction, loyalty and word of mouth. Expectations about formality, personal space, speed, language and authority vary across cultures, so training and service standards should preserve the brand promise while allowing appropriate local adaptation; stereotyping customers is not valid cultural adaptation.