Service Experience on Sugarpalm Resort in Phuket - Essay Example

?TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 2 ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF SERVICE ENCOUNTER STAGE 3 High-Contact Service 3 The Servucation System 4 Service Quality Evaluation – First Visit 4 Service Operations 5 Service Delivery 5 The Post-Encounter Stage 7 Service Quality Evaluation – Second Visit 7 RECOMMENDED CHANGES IN MARKETING PLAN 9 Product 10 Price 10 Place 10 Promotion 10 Process 10 People 10 Physical Evidence 11 Bibliography 11 SERVICE EXPERIENCE RESORT ON SUGAR PALM RESORT IN PHUKET INTRODUCTION Sugar Palm Resort is one of the favourite tourists’ resort, located on Kata Beach, Thailand. Services at Sugar Palm Resort are immaculate and the cuisine is extraordinary and beyond this, resort offers subtle and intangible pleasures (Phuket). The resort attracts the travellers because of its ambiance, environment, facilities and high quality services. Any individual visiting Phuket for the first time can go through the positive customer ratings and reviews on Sugar Palm Resort over the internet. The resort offers a complete recreation package which one can expect to have from a high quality vacation resort. Because of the increasing Sugar Palm as a favourite traveller’s resort, I have chosen it evaluate the service quality. I have made two visits to the resort and in this report I have discussed my experience to the resort. In the light of service marketing theories and concepts, I have developed this experience report on Sugar Palm Resort in Phuket. ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF SERVICE ENCOUNTER STAGE As mentioned above, I have selected Sugar Palm Resort Phuket to analyse the service quality therefore, all of the described models will be only used to evaluate the service experience of Sugar Palm Resort. Evaluating a service with few tangible clues can be difficult. A customer cannot evaluate the service of a resort without experiencing it. Although customers can examine the brochures and scroll through resorts website however, they cannot evaluate the service unless they experience the service. Based on the service attributes, ease of evaluation of service quality of Sugar Palm Resort can be categorised as “high in experience qualities” (Figure I). Therefore, I could not evaluate the service quality of Sugar Palm Resort without experiencing the services and I made two visits to the resort. Figure I: Ease of Evaluation based on Product/Service Qualities Source: Lovelock, Patterson, & Walker, 2007 High-Contact Service When a customer visits Sugar Palm, he/she frequently interacts with the service personnel (Figure II). In other words, the nature of the service is high-contact service and in a high-contact service, making the experience of the customer appealing through the physical environment and excellent interaction with service personnel, is a challenge for the company (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chatterjee, 2010). Although most of the customers visit Phuket because of its beauty, still the service quality at Sugar Palm Resort influences overall experience of the customers at Phuket. Figure II: Levels of Customer Contact with Service Organisations Source: Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chatterjee, 2010 Source: Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chatterjee, 2010 The Servucation System The service points of Sugar Palm such as physical environment that is visible to the customers is known as servucation system and Lovestock has identified three overlapping elements of servucation system, based on which I will evaluate the critical service points of Sugar Palm Resort service. Service Quality Evaluation – First Visit In order to evaluate the service, I personally visit the Sugar Palm Resort twice. My experience has been different during the first and second visit. Service Operations Phuket has attracted tourists from all over the world and has been an all time favourite place for the holidays. The hotel that I have visited was located in the heart of the city and was twenty five minutes drive from the airport. The service in terms of eagerness of the hotel staffs to look after the requirements of any visitor was a feature seen in this visit and it enhanced the level of hospitality. Service Delivery Physical Environment: Customers visiting Sugar Palm Resort will never be interested in what goes on backstage however, the failure of backstage personnel could affect the quality of front-stage activities. The ambience and service of the hotel was the unique feature that attracted the tourists and visitors to check in (Figure III). They provided the visitors with features that were distinctive and created a relaxed ambience that caught the eyes of all the visitors including me (Heide & Gronhaug, 2009). The idea is that the physical environment of the resort reflects the efficiency of backstage and front-stage workers. Figure III: A View of Sugar Palm Resort Source: Phuket.com Facilities and services: The hotel had different offerings in terms of services like business centre, swimming pool, snooker club, Thai traditional massage, fitness centre, money exchanger, travel information service, credit cards’ acceptability, and 24 hours security among others (Cummings & et. al., 1998). The value addition was the service that was offered in the restaurant through local and international cuisines along with live music played each evening. Apart from the international standard music experience, they also provided the local music in order to enrich the atmosphere. The lobby lounge was quite a good experience as they were offering cocktails and snacks in the zone. It was a never to be forgotten experience. Perceived Service Alterations: Among all the services offered, there were also certain drawbacks in the services like money exchange service that did not operate properly; and the fitness centre was not available all the time and lacked professional trainer. There was limited service facility on travel information service as well. The prices attached to the service were valuable but the access to the limited services did not add value to the services. It seemed that there was a bit of deficiency in the number of staffs required for properly operating and rendering all the services offered. Customers evaluate the quality of service by comparing what they expected to what they perceive and if their expectations exceed or meet the quality, the service quality is high (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chatterjee, 2010). I have developed Figure IV to describe the factors which have influenced my service expectations of service and which can also influence the expectations of other customers visiting Sugar Palm Resort. The figure shows that the desired service quality was high before visiting the resort because of word-of-mouth, high personal needs and a developed belief about resort. Although my predicted service quality was high however, because of the perceived service alterations, the adequate service was low as compared to the desired service level. Since perceived value has several components like social value, performance value, emotional value, interaction value and price, however, my perceived value was price (Lovelock, Patterson, & Walker, 2007). As mentioned above, I could not find a professional trainer in the fitness centre, money exchange service was not operating properly and staff members were inadequate. As a result, the level of my service expectations declined and I did not find the quality of services up to the expected level. Moreover, my zone of tolerance narrowed because of high desired level of service and low adequate service. Figure IV: Factors Influencing Customer Expectations of Service Source: Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chatterjee, 2010 The Post-Encounter Stage The low service quality than expected service quality can negatively influence a customer. After my first visit to Sugar Palm Resort, I was in a better position to evaluate the service as compared to what I have found in the brochures. The previous experience at the hotel and also Phuket being one of my favourite places brought me back again to the same city and also to the same hotel. Service Quality Evaluation – Second Visit In order to analyse how perceived service quality and expectations change, I made second visit to resort. Physical Environment: There were certain alterations in the ambience and it seemed eco-friendly this time. There were changes in the interiors that looked better and attracted the attention of everyone. Service Layout: There was a separate service desk that was especially located for the money exchanger and travel information centre with more offerings related to travellers check. The lobby lounge was the same with no changes in it. Facilities: This time the hotel had full services related to the fitness centre with professional trainer which encouraged me to walk into the fitness centre and try certain workouts. The professional trainer was good and had advised me to stay healthy and offered certain diet related tips. This time what surprised me was apart from Thai traditional massage, the spa was also launched. Apart from the fitness centre services it was a magnificent experience in the spa which rejuvenated the whole body and mind. The package offering of the spa and fitness centre was worth the value paid for the services. This time they provided a locker system in the front desk, which was missing during the first visit. The variety of wines increased with additional bar snacks. The concept of the music was very same which was experienced and liked previously. The changes in the ambience and the extended services in the hotel with increased involvements of the professionals made the Phuket visit a truly enjoyable and remarkable experience. I have developed Figure V to define how my expectations of service were influenced by different factors. This time, the predicted service quality was based on past experience rather than word-of-mouth. The desired service quality was same because of the same personal needs and beliefs. However, as compared to the desired service level in first visit, this time my desired level has declined a little. The service experience during the second visit was excellent because of the positive perceived service alterations such as availability of more facilities, improvement in layout. Therefore, this time I have come across highly adequate service quality. Figure V: Factors Influencing Customer Expectations of Service Source: Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chatterjee, 2010 The service experience of Sugar Palm Resort has shown that the major factors which influence the satisfaction level of customers are the expectations of the customers. If the adequate level of service is equal or above than desired and expected level then customers achieve high satisfaction and if opposite happens, their satisfaction level declines. RECOMMENDED CHANGES IN MARKETING PLAN Following are some of the recommendations which Sugar Palm Resort can use both in service deliver and service marketing to increase customer satisfaction level. Product Resort should increase the product variety available at the resort such as if there is a wine bar then variety of wines should be available because it adds value. Although ambiance attracts the customers however, company should continue increasing its eco-friendly practices as it will also reflect the social responsibility of the resort. Price By increasing the service quality, Sugar Palm has increased the value of price for the customers. I will recommend that visiting resort is a recreational activity and customers will always be willing to spend huge sums of money on their entertainment. Therefore, rather than focusing on competitive pricing strategy, more focus should be given on service quality to offer more value. Place Phuket is one of the beautiful destinations of the world. Sugar Palm has the advantage of having a beautiful location. Therefore, resort already has location advantage. Promotion Sugar Palm should promote the features of its services so that customers may get attracted. However, to satisfy the customers, the promises made during promotions should be always realistic and practical. Process Service layout did not appear to be my service critical point in the first visit however, when company improved it, I actually felt good during my second visit. People People from different backgrounds and cultures come to resort for recreation; therefore, it is very important to enhance the service quality that highly trained professionals and staff should be hired. Since it is a high contact service where staff and customer interaction is very high therefore, hiring and training people will be very beneficial for Sugar Palm. Physical Evidence Since physical evidence is the first service critical point which a customer comes across therefore, I will recommend that resort should further enhance the physical evidence such as changing layout of lobby. Bibliography Lovelock, C. H., Patterson, P. G., & Walker, R. H. (2007). Services Marketing, Edition 4. Australia: Pearson Education. Lovelock, C., Wirtz, J., & Chatterjee, J. (2010). Services Marketing, Edition 6. India: Pearson Education India. Phuket. (n.d.). Sugar Palm Resort. Retrieved January 30, 2011, from http://www.phuket.com/sugarpalm/ Read More