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The Indian health services have upper hand as far as cost is concerned. However, the hygiene awareness in medical attendants, unhygienic food handling and non-availability of beds are the major quality issues for its sustainability in the future. Similarly, in
other service segments like telecom, mobile operators have not been able to sustain or increase satisfaction level despite eleven years of existence of mobile telephony in the country. According to VOICE & DATA Mobile User's Satisfaction Survey 2006, there has been a large-scale drop in satisfaction of the subscribers with respect to most service providers.

As countries from around the world enter the market, competition for various offshoring, health tourism, financial services, etc., intensifies, and India starts loosing its competitive advantage of low cost to countries like Indonesia, Philippines, etc., due to appreciating rupee and increasing labor cost. It must improve the quality of service provided and skills of its workforce in this vital sector of economy. It can be achieved with logical and consistent use of statistical quality control and improvement tools of six sigma.

Benefits of Six Sigma in Service Sector

The heart of every service-based business depends on the opinions, behaviors and decisions of people acting through work processes. Analyzing and modifying human performance in these environments is complex. Nevertheless, task-oriented service organizations including mortgage lenders, wireless phone providers and call centers could use Six Sigma to bring a process focus to their operations (e.g., streamlined mortgage approval procedures, improved customer service processes and improved customer-problem resolution). Service-oriented businesses adopting Six Sigma business strategy will have the following benefits: -