Operations of the London Zoo - Case Study Example

London Zoo The purpose of the paper is to look at the operations of the London Zoo. More specifically, it will investigate the contribution of the operations function within the London Zoo's service environment. This paper will also present the challenges facing operations managers at a zoological park. It will critically evaluate strategic change and its impact on operations at the London zoo and apply the and theory of the research process. INTRODUCTION: There is much more that goes into a zoo than the zookeepers and the animals. It s something that most of us do not give much thought to. However, to run a zoo is a very detailed and complicated business. There are directors, curator, zookeepers, veterinarians, landscapers and maintenance workers. This is only a few of the zoos employees because there are promotions, accountants, front desk, special services and a department to handle the volunteers. A zoo is a business like any other profit or non-profit organization and there are many details that must be considered when investigating the operations of a zoo. In fact, due to the nature of the wildlife kept in a zoo it entails many business and health regulations that many business never encounter. The following will include a Management Report of the London Zoo that will provide a comprehensive focus, for management, staff and customers of the zoo. It will focus on the needs of the customers that will give staff and management a perspective on the priorities of the customers needs and wants. In addition, it will enable them to develop and deliver a service operation to match the customer needs and priorities. It will offer suggestions and recommendations on how management and staff can reach this goal. MANAGEMENT REPORT: The next portion of the report will examine the existing service concept of the London Zoo and make suggestions for improvement. It is important to understand what a service concept is and in order to do this one must think in terms of customer service. It is a concept usually set forth in a mission statement that improves the service and quality of the service in an organization. The goal of a service objective is to improve the existing customer service and efficiency of the service provided by an organization. In addition, the service concept continually is evaluated and any improvements that are necessary are made. According to Behn, a service concept is one of the most important decisions that management can make regarding the operation of their business. (2001) A service concept model can be derived just from London Zoo's mission statement. Their mission statement reads, "To achieve and promote the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats" (London Zoo) Their statement seems to say so little but actually it says a lot. To promote the wildlife is actually a much larger endeavor than it sounds and to promote the habitats of these animals is also a paramount undertaking. Nonetheless, the mission statement does require some elaboration. The promotion will be included in the service concept model. As well the habitat of the animals must be included in the concept. If the promotion includes advertising animals in their habitats the Zoo is then responsible for replicating these habitats and that is not as easy as it sounds. It requires construction as well as the study of the environment that the animal's habitat is in and most significant, it requires resources. MISSION STATEMENT/SERVICE CONCEPT: The London Zoo does explain how they will pursue the goal. "The London Zoo pursues this mission by: keeping and presenting animals at London Zoo and in accordance with best practice; giving priority to species that are threatened in the wild; increasing public understanding of animals and their welfare and of the issues involved in their conservation; maintaining an outstanding education and information programme, particularly for schoolchildren and families; developing its role as a leading centre for research and conservation biology and animal welfare; " (London Zoo) Starting with London Zoo's mission statement a service concept can start to be established. According to (Lee) "the concept of customer satisfaction has attracted much attention in recent years. Organizations that try to analyze this concept should begin with an understanding of various customer satisfaction models." Taking this information into consideration in order to complete the London Zoo's service concept model the customer's needs and wants must be combined with the Zoo's objectives set forth in the mission statement. The most difficult part of devising a service concept model is establishing what to base the concept model on. ((Taylor) This means that the model is ready to be devised and can be improved upon during the course of completion. The London Zoo does not have a clear definition of what the areas that need improvement are. According to a recent PAW Bulletin Report "he internal quality services are rather poor, workers don't care what kind of semi-finished goods they are 'throwing' to the next stage." (Williams 2001) The Bulletin announced news of a questionnaire the Zoo was distributing "to find out the gap between service concept and the way the organization has specified the quality of the service internally, the gap between the customer's specification and operation's specification of quality. Quality planning and controlling." (Williams 2001) When establishing a service concept and planning it there are some steps that should be considered. Quality planning and controlling can be divided into six steps: SERVICE CONCEPT COMPONENTS: Step1: Define the quality characteristics of the product or service. Step2: Decide how to measure each quality characteristic Step3: Set quality standards for each quality characteristic. Step4: Control quality against those standards. Step5: Find and correct causes of poor quality. Step6: Continue to make improvements. Step1: Define the quality characteristics of the product or service. (Williams) When implementing these plans into the London Zoo's service concept they should give a clear definition of quality to every customer service phase. These steps should be explained and understood by management and workers, for each step, in order for the concept to succeed. QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS: By doing the questionnaire, London Zoo is trying to define their quality of service. When doing this It is good for them to expand and implement the explanation of zoo service by means of benchmarking the 18 determinants of service quality. (Williams) In their anticipation, the performance score will give out the perception of the quality, and the priority scores will give out the customers' expectations. Since resources such as investment of money, human resources, are not sufficient enough for all the improvement. London Zoo tries to find out ten priorities to be first considered, if the final score does not match the recent performance scores that means, London Zoo has to improve those criteria. By looking at the table of priority overall scores, we first pick up ten aspects and compare them with the performance scores. (Williams) Priority Sequence Aspect of Visit Expected Performance Score Recent Performance Score Gap Happiness of animals 4.79 1.96 -2.83 Visibility of animals 4.78 2.08 -2.70 Care of animals 4.65 3.77 -0.88 Overall, as day out 4.10 4.39 +0.29 Commitment to animals 3.82 4.37 +0.55 Number of animals to see 3.78 2.88 -0.90 Educational experience 3.67 3.58 -0.09 Cleanliness and tidiness 3.54 2.76 -0.78 Comfort of animals 3.53 1.73 -1.80 Commitment to visitors 3.39 2.86 -0.53 (Operations Management) EVALUATION OF DATA: When evaluating the data from the questionnaires and implementing it to the service concept It is obvious that those 10 priorities are what customers expect from visiting the zoo. (Ferris 2004) Even though customer deciding criteria may change under different circumstances ,such as for example, parking is critical when visitors are over 6000, however, it is not included into the 10 priority by looking at the overall scores, the overall scores are by far the balance of the whole situation, those gaps with the negative scores are urgent to be met, the more negative the score is, the more urgent the situation should be changed. (Ferris 2004) Step2: Decide how to measure each quality characteristic. All quality definition should be able to be measured . (Hom 2001) The service concept of the London Zoo, should be established so that the quality characteristic can be given a continuously variable scale as well as the attributes. (Ferris 2004) For example: Aspect of Visit Variable Attribute Happiness of animals How happy is the animals Are the animals happy to live in the zoo Visibility of animals How visible are the animals Can you the visitors see all the animals Care of animals How much care does the animals receive Are the animals receiving good care Overall, as day out SERVICE CONCEPT MODEL: Service concept models such as this one, explain make clear the various theories about customer satisfaction, making research and analysis in this topic more focused and less wasteful of research resources. (Hom 2002) There are two types of models that can be considered for this type of service concept; macro-models of customer satisfaction and micro-models. The concept of customer satisfaction has attracted much attention in recent years. Organizations that try to analyze this concept should begin with an understanding of various customer satisfaction models. Such models clarify various theories about customer satisfaction, making research and analysis in this topic more focused and less wasteful of research resources. This service concept will take two levels of models into consideration. Macro-models of customer satisfaction that theorize the place of customer satisfaction among a set of related constructs in marketing research. Micro-models of customer satisfaction theorize the elements of customer satisfaction. (Hom 2002) However, there are various different models of customer satisfaction from the perspective of the marketing research discipline. Both public and private sectors have given much attention to the concept of customer satisfaction so the service concept is one that will be established using the knowledge and opinions of both. Administrators are key players in these service concepts and the London Zoo concept is no exception. In most cases, and is advisable for the London Zoo case, administrators have requested their staff to do customer satisfaction studies for the organizations. The London Zoo questionnaires would suffice for this concept. At this point an analyst or researcher must operationalize the concept of customer satisfaction in order to measure it. "More importantly, in order for any measurements to have validity, the analyst needs to assume some model of the subject matter." (Ferris 2004) The analyst must use very explicit conceptualizations of the subject matter (in other words, models) if she/he expects to do research and analysis that has relevance for organizational decisions for the London Zoo. (Hom 2002) The service concept has been identified and so have the concerns and problems that need to be addressed. The next phase in the concept is the actual application of the concept at the London Zoo. We have determined that that mission statement of the Zoo although short does define the goals and objectives of the Zoo. The problem found in the mission statement is the habitats. Not that there is anything wrong with the habitats that the Zoo has on display rather the problem is in the continual maintenance to insure the authenticity of the habitats. It has been determined that this requires knowledge and resources. It has also been determined to keep the customers satisfaction the habitats must be authentic and provide for an environment in which the animals will behave naturally and will be active in and the customers can see the animals. It is also important that the animal habitat areas be kept clean and are well maintained. If the habitat reach the customer's satisfaction the customers will return. This is the goal of the London Zoo service concept. As well, if the customers return it will produce revenue and the revenue can be used as a resource to help maintain the animal habitats. moreover, if the habitats are genuine-a they can be- the animals will be happier and more active resulting in more customer satisfaction. In order to reach this goal of providing natural habitats for the animals that will result in happy animals and therefore happy customers will be dealt with by the London Zoo. The plan is as follows: the London Zoo ill focus its research in the next few years to include evolutionary biology, genetics, ecology, reproductive biology, wildlife epidemiology, and animal health/welfare. In addition a senior research fellow in the Institute leads" each one of these, but staff are not restricted to working within any one theme. The London Zoo's scientific research and training programmes are outlined in their annual scientific report." (London Zoo) According to Luoma "the marketing research literature extensively covers the elements that make up the concept of customer satisfaction," (1994) This literature has been used to establish the service contract for the London Zoo and the literature will be used as a guide when implementing the concept. There are important aspects that needed to be approached with caution when implementing the service concept. (Bendiner) These areas include disconfirmation of expectations, equity, attribution, affect, and regret." Because these elements explain the composition of the customer satisfaction concept (or "construct"), we will label these kinds of models as "micro-models." Micro-models enable an analyst to properly operationalize measurements of customer satisfaction, thus helping her/him to achieve construct validity in the eventual satisfaction survey."(Behn) In the past the London Zoo has held workshops for management and staff concerning the welfare of the animals. these workshops included the animals environments, record keeping, habitats and was an opportunity for zookeepers and other staff to voice their concerns, opinions and ideas. In order for this service concept to work it is advisable that the London Zoo continue with workshops of this sort. It will allow the management and staff to approach the habitat and the animals welfare on both macro and micro scales. The objective of these workshops is to impart an analysis of methods and techniques that can be used for" population management of species at the group rather than the individual level, where management is intended to achieve conservation objectives of maintaining viable captive populations that are genetically diverse and demographically stable" (Clemen 1998) This will work into the implementation of the service concept because the issues that will be dealt with at the workshops will enable management and staff to incorporate ideas and most importantly, knowledge. The objective of workshops such as these will be to "incorporate genetic as well as demographic management, and also policies for record keeping. Finally, for didactic purposes, we hypothesize how one type of public-sector organization, the community." (The London Zoological Society) These workshops will have more than one objective, just as they have had in the past. The London Zoo explains that "the second objective is to bring together an international team representing zoos and aquaria to discuss the current status of population group management in order to identify and develop an action plan to approach this issue in a co-ordinated way" (The London Zoo) BACKGROUND The background information on the London Zoo proved helpful in establishing the service concept for the zoo. The London Zoo opened in 1828, and since that time has been a significant part in the country's interest in natural history. The zoo has established this interest in natural history to the public both as a scientific and recreational activity, and has frequently been in the news headlines. "London Zoo is the UK's premier zoological collection and has one of the most prestigious animal collections in the world. It was designed to house and display the 'grand collection of live animals', for the Zoological Society of London." (Zoological Society of London) Even though when it initially began the zoo was only occupying a small corner of Regents Park, it expanded rapidly to reach its present size of 36 acres. (Hetzman 2002) From the start the zoo had a wide range of exotic species including Indian elephants, llamas, leopards, kangaroos, bears and numerous birds. The significance of the habitats as a motivator for customer satisfaction becomes obvious when this is taken into consideration. According to the London Zoo this collection quickly grew and an orangutan, an Indian rhinoceros, giraffes, and chimpanzees were all added to the zoo during next 10 years. The first of a series of gorillas arrived in 1887 and this was an important addition that booted the customer satisfaction levels. The London Zoo has always been concerned with customer satisfaction and has continually monitored it over the years. As the zoo grew so did publicity about the zoo and so did the numbers of customers that visited the zoo regularly. In an attempt to keep the customers satisfied the collections at the zoo began to grow. "As the collection expanded so building work continued, with major periods of construction and refurbishment occurring in the 1830s, 1850s, 1880s and 1920/30s" (London Zoological Society) The long history of the zoo has also been one filled with trials and errors. " For the first 65 years all the animals were permanently housed inside in the mistaken belief that they would not survive the cold outside." (von Winterfeldt) The world's first aquarium was built in 1853 and the original lion house was replaced in 1876, and the first reptile house, which opened in 1849, was replaced in 1883. (The London Zoo) The existing aquarium was built in 1924, the present reptile house in 1927, the penguin pool in 1934, and the Cotton and Mappin Terraces were also built during the 1930s. (London Zoological Society) The latter are closed awaiting refurbishment, and have been for a number of years. These, and many of the other buildings are listed, and cannot simply be demolished, but must be renovated within strict guidelines. this is one of the reasons that the habitat is such an important part of the service concept. In addition to have vacant building in the park does not look good either ascetical or to the public. Customers wonder why they are empty and why animals are not in the buildings. It gives them a reason to speculate and this can bring customer satisfaction down. It is difficult to keep customers satisfied and it is also difficult to find the resources to complete the vacant buildings. As well service cannot be overlooked in lieu of trying to meet the objectives of the service concept. If one customer visits an untidy restroom or is served food at the concession that was not satisfactory that can have an effect on their overall happiness with thir visit. The service concept has to encompass every aspect of the visit that the customer has to the London Zoo. Every aspect from parking to the Lion exhibit must be taken into careful consideration when considering the customer's satisfaction with the overall experience. The overall success of the zoo depends on the attendance to the zoo. This is dependant on satisfaction of the experience and must be closely monitored. According t the London Zoo "Visitor attendance levels have always fluctuated as fashion and public interest have increased and waned with the introduction of new exhibits and developments, or as investment declined. In the 1830s annual attendance levels exceeded 250,000, but fluctuated considerably during the latter half of the century. The zoo's popularity increased after the turn of the century with a sustained period of expansion, attendance figures reaching 2 million per annum before the Second World War. After the war, attendance figures leapt to 3 million due to the desire for post-austerity recreation, but by the mid-50s the visitor numbers had settled back down towards their pre-war 2 million level and remained stable for some time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s a new decline began and by 1975 attendance levels started to fall rapidly. By the early 1980s visitor levels were just over 1 million, and the budgeted 1995/96 attendance level was just 900,000." (London Zoo 2004) CONCLUSION: In conclusion it has been determined that using the customer questionnaire data results and combining it will the dedication of management and staff to the mission statement the service concept is workable and should be a success. In order to measure its success it would be advisable to collect more data at intervals during the implementation of the service concept. This has been a reliable source for gauging customer satisfaction the past and since it was used to devise the service plan would be advisable to use in the future ... References Baldwin, R.F., (1991) "Doctoring the Exotic." Sea Frontiers 37 (1), 1991, pp. 30-35. Bendiner, Robert. (2001) "The Fall of the Wild, the Rise of the Zoo. New York: E.P. Dutton. Behn, R.D. and J.W. Vaupel, 1982. Quick Analysis for Busy Decision Makers, Basic Books, New York, NY. ( Clemen, Robert T. & Reilly, Terence. (1998) "Making Hard Decisions with Decision Tools, 2nd Edition", Duxbury Press, Belmont, CA. Chefs, Jeremy. Zoo (2000)." A Look beyond the Bars". London: British Broadcasting Corporation, Duncan, Jane C. (1998) "Zoological Park Operations" New York: Rosen Publishing Group Inc., 1988. Ferris. (2004) Operations Management.". Coursework. Info Fox, W. Conservation "Career Close up: National Marine Fisheries Service". Charleston, New Hampshire: Earth Work, 1992. Heitzman, Ray. 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(1989) "Conservation for the Twenty-first Century". New York: Oxford University Press. Williams, Nick P. "PAW Bulletin" DEFRA Global Wildlife Division, Bristol. . Read More