Serving Customers in Global Markets - Case Study Example

Serving s in Global Markets Contents Serving s in Global Markets Contents 2 Service Encounter 3 ‘Apple Inc’ 3 Summary of the three service encounters 7 Service Encounter 3 ‘Apple Inc’ Name of Service Provider (company, organisation, institution) The company chosen for this report is Apple Inc. Apple Inc. Apple has produces products which are superior in design and quality. Apple has 432 retail stores spread across 15 countries along with online stores available in 39 countries. Apple leads the retail market in US in terms of sales per unit area. Type of Organisation (commercial, not-for-profit, public service) Apple Inc is a commercial organisation. The company sold 33.8 million iPhones for September quarter in 2013 as compared to 26.9 million in the same quarter previous year. Apple also sold 14.1 million iPads during the quarter while it achieved a sales figure of 4.6 million Macs in the September quarter 2103. Date, time, length, and precise location of Service Encounter Date: 04/03/2014 Time: 18:00 pm Length: 60 Minutes Location: 1 Crossgates Mall Road Albany, NY 12203 I visited the Apple Store located in 1 Crossgates Mall Road Albany, NY 12203 on March 4, 2014 for one hour. What did you choose to analyse this particular organisation (purpose, location, choice of provider, expectations)? Why: Apple Inc took home repeat Brand of the Year distinctions in three categories—Tablet, Computer and Mobile Phone in 2013. Apple scored strong points for all elements of Brand Equity namely Quality, Familiarity and Purchase Consideration. In the world of tablets, Apple’s iPad series which expanded its offerings in 2012 with the iPad mini and it received the Tablet Brand of the Year award for second consecutive year. The Apple has a more than 100 products under its brand. Purpose: The reason for going into 1 Crossgates Mall Road Albany, NY 12203 is to evaluate the service levels which are offered by the staff present in the store. This is important since it affects the customer satisfaction with respect to product and pricing offered to them. Location: The location was chosen since it was reputed of being the best place to test-drive and explore Apple products. Under one place one can easily find every product of Apple including one of the most knowledgeable Apple people. Choice of Provider: The main reason for choosing Apple Inc. is that the company is world renowned for its top quality products meeting the customer expectation. Apple came out with innovative products like Tablet, iPad, iPhone etc. which revolutionized the mobile industry. Again it is known for good customer service. Expectation: My expectation is that the shop should have all the recent products released by Apple available along with good customer service support staff that should be knowledgeable at resolving my issue and a pleasant atmosphere. To know the exact location and choice the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategy of Apple Inc. is been studied. Figure 1: STP Analysis of Apple Inc. Segmentation- Segmentation of the market is very important as it is the key process of capturing the market share and launching the product. When a particular product is been developed by any company it need to find out which segment of customers can utilize that particular product. Apple came up with the i-phone with all the latest technologies in build in, it had kept the price of the product high and segmented it in the higher end customers. In the same way the products to be launched are been segmented based on their price, qualities, status symbol etc. It is also done on the basis of differences in needs of customers. Targeting- Apple Inc. has target the high end customers by providing good quality phones with features from Apple itself which gives it a competitive edge over its other competitors. With its presence in all countries across the globe it has been able to have a good market share among all the countries. Positioning-Apple has looked to position its products with unique features and also high quality among the customers to keep it completely different from the competitors and have a competitive advantage over all. 7Ps for Apple Inc. Product – Apple had come out with many products like iPad, iPhone, Tablet which helps the customers meets their expectations. With their iTunes business they were the first company who indentified the need of the consumers for listening the music and came out with Apple iPod. Place – Apple has 432 retail stores spread across 15 countries along with online stores available in 39 countries. This helps the company in creating multiple touch points so that it can help the customers easily get access to their products. Price- Apple charges premium amount for their products because of high quality it delivers through its products. Promotion- Apple has recently been quite aggressive through its promotional strategy through heavy advertisement, discount offers and entering into new dealers. People- Apple retains its customers through its high quality products which it delivers to the customers and there are many fans which are apple loyalist and keeps buying apple products. Positioning – Apple is positioned as a premium category product which delivers according to customer expectations. Processes – Apple product are known for its simplicity and elegance of design. They appeal to their customer through this feature. Again the customer service is good so that customers are satisfied at the company touch points. Briefly and precisely - exactly what did you and the employee(s) say and do? I went to Mall Road Albany NY with the intention of understanding the customer service of the store and to check whether their service is matching those reported. After I checked in at the door, I told the greeter that I wanted to buy a Laptop. The young lady tapped a few buttons on the iPad mounted on a table to register my visit and the screen displayed that I was second in line. She told me then that it would take a minute or so and someone from the customer staff would be over to help me. There already around forty or fifty customers present and most of them were looking after the iPad 2 tablets. I was standing at the Mac Air Table. The blue shirts salespeople were around twenty in number. After five minutes I asked one of the employees that whether he was working today. He nodded and replied that they were watching a video. I saw other customers who also faced the same problem. Then I again walked back to the greeter and repeated myself that I was there to buy a laptop and they have six employees who were just watching a video and I pointed to them. But to my surprise she held up Juts-a-Moment finger right at my face and started talking into her headset. I became more irritated and didn’t know what do to. Then I told the lady that I am going out of this store than I never experienced such bad customer service. The lady didn’t even look at me and gave me a cold gesture of bye bye. If the encounter occurred in a physical location - such as a shop, hospital, etc. - describe and analyse the location, surroundings, décor, and general atmosphere of the outlet where the encounter took place: The Apple store at Mall Road Albany NY was very crowded. There were wall-to-wall people who were browsing the product demo on the sales floor. The noise level on the sales floor was so high that it gets difficult when one’s name is called. It was crowded and people were constantly getting bumped into one another and it was incredibly difficult to focus. The Apple store had good lightning to make the experience a pleasant one. They had their salespeople ready but they didn’t meet the expectations. But a being busy store Apple should try to increase their floor size since the store was packed and noisy. There was argument going on between the customers and employees continuously and it was difficult to maintain focus. i) What could the employee(s) have done to increase your level of satisfaction? The employees should be more informed and have a sense of treating the customers in the right way. They should not show unnecessary attitude and show customers door. They must try to engage with the customers and ask if they are satisfied with their customer service in a feedback form. ii) What could you have done to increase your own level of satisfaction? I should have been more patient and keep my frustration aside. In such crowded store it is important to wait for my turn. iii) What improvements need to be made to this Service Encounter? After my experience, I would want that the employees should have a little empathy and personal assistance. How likely is it that you will return to this Service Provider? Extremely Unlikely... ...Extremely Likely 1□ 2□ 3□ 4□ 5□ How would you rate your level of satisfaction with this encounter? Select a number corresponding to your feelings for each section Terrible... ...Delighted 1 2 3 4 5 Interaction with Staff BAD Staff Knowledge Average Surroundings BAD Decor GOOD Overall BAD Summary of the three service encounters Marketing developed initially in connection with selling physical products such as cars, steel, and equipment. Yet one of the major megatrends in the modern world has been phenomenal growth of services. Service jobs now account for 77% of total employment and 70% of GNP. ALDI is a grocery discount supermarket chain in Germany which offers reasonably priced but high quality products. The service staffs at ALDI are considered to be cooperative and friendly and they deal with customer complaints in a very compassionate way. The only problem is that there is formation of long queue in the store which is sometimes irritating for consumers. In this regard, the company has adopted a procedure where the shopping part of consumers will be done by the service personnel of the store and they will also stand in the long queue for the consumers. The consumer in the mean time can sit somewhere in the store and choose to wait. In this regard, the company ALDI must convey to its consumers that its service is quick and efficient. It could liquidate this positioning strategy through a number of tools such as the physical setting of the store must connote quick and efficient service. The exterior and interior of the store must have clean lines. The layout of the desks and the traffic flow should be planned carefully. Consumers waiting in the store should have plenty of seating space and the background music should reinforce the concept of efficient service. The communication material of the store should suggest efficiency. The pamphlets of the store should have clean lines and avoid clutter. Photos should also be chosen carefully. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the location of the store is convenient and in a prestigious area which can be easily accessed by public transport. The decoration of the store is also quite beautiful and the atmosphere is brilliant due to highly trained staff of the store. Poundland is another company which offers 3000 items across 17 shopping categories at a very cheap rate. The company can be considered to provide good value for money to its consumers. The company is a winner of “discount retailer” by the grocer gold award 2013. The company is already considered to have satisfied consumers with regard to its product and pricing. But the main issue that should be considered by the company is whether its service is matching appropriate standards to maintain long term profitability. One of the major ways to differentiate a service firm is to deliver consistently quality service than competitors. The key is to meet or exceed the target consumers’ service quality expectations. The expectations of consumers are formed by their past experiences, word of mouth, and service firm advertising. Therefore it is of utmost importance that the company identify target consumers’ wants with regard to service quality. But it is very difficult to define service quality. Service providers must do their best to identify the expectations of their target consumers with respect to each specific service. This does not necessarily mean that the company will be able to meet the wishes of consumers. The company faces trade-offs between consumer satisfaction and company profitability. What is important in this regard is that the organization has a clear definition of the service level that is provided to consumers so that the employees of the organization know what they have to do and the attracted consumers know what they will get. Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml formulated a service quality model that highlights the main requirements for a service provider delivering the expected service quality. The model identifies five gaps that cause unproductive events of service quality delivery which are as follows: gap between expectation of the consumer and perception of the management, gap between perception of the management and specifications of service quality, gap between service quality specifications and service delivery, gap between service delivery and external communications, and gap between perceived service and expected service. The company Apple Inc is a leading company which focuses on producing products which are superior in quality and design. It is a commercial organization which specializes on the production of iPhones and iPads among other products. The company has many stores which sells its products such as laptops, iPhones, and iPads. The store should have all the latest products that are released by Apple Inc with a good customer support. The service staff at the store should possess high degree of knowledge about the products of the company. The company in this regard should effectively employ the 7Ps of marketing such as product (or service), place, price, promotion, processes, people and positioning. It is found that Apple is strong in each of the areas of 7ps of marketing. The company should think about the needs of consumers that are met by the products of the company. It should also consider the specific wants of consumers with regard to its product or service. It should take into consideration the places where consumers search for its product or service. The company in this regard should have access to the right distribution channels. With regard to pricing, the company should try to find out the established prices of products or services for the area in consideration. The company should place high importance on the sensitiveness of consumers with regard to price. They should take into account considerations such as whether any increase in market share is possible through a small reduction in price. The pricing of products of the company with regard to competitors is an important issue which plays a major role in the performance of the company. Promotion of the products of the company is also an important factor. The company should think of ways such that the marketing messages of the company reach its target market. The company with regard to intense competition must follow the process of NPD to develop new products and add to customer value. It is considered to be an expensive process and there is no guarantee that the product that is being developed will bring good financial results for the company. But it is considered as an important tool to compete with the intense competition that is there in the market. References Buttle. F., 2007. Customer Relationship Management. London: Elsevier. Blythe J. 2008. Consumer Behaviour. New York: Thompson. Buttle. F. 2007. Customer Relationship Management. London: Elsevier. Dibb,S., Simpkin, L., &  Ferrell, O.C. 2006. Marketing Concepts and Strategies. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Donnelly, R. & Harrison G, 2009.  The Marketing Planning Process. London: Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More