Satisfactory and Dissatisfactory Experiences of Service Encounters - Essay Example

?Introduction Services are all around us. We have to avail various services at different points of time, and each time, our experience is different from what it was the last time. These experiences, though may resemble a similar trend every time one visits the same service outlet, may vary marginally given that there are various intricacies involved in providing those services to the customers as well as clients. In the case of the present study, the report has been broadly divided into two categories – satisfactory and dissatisfactory. The aspects of satisfaction as well as dissatisfaction are such that it varies from time to time and from person to person. However, certain parameters have been selected in the case of the present report in order to refer to the managerial frameworks available to us that would let us analyse these experiences and make the claim valid as well as reliable. The aspect of degree of satisfaction as well as dissatisfaction is yet another problem that crops us in this regard. However, the measurement scales provided in the Annexure that details the experiences gives us a relatively better view into how satisfactory or for that matter dissatisfactory these experiences have been. In this regard, it should be mentioned at the very outset that service encounters refer to the customer’s most vivid impression of the service (Ziathaml, Bitner, Gremler & Pandit, 2011). Thus the report starts analyzing these experiences or to be more specific the service encounters from various managerial frameworks available to us as well as make comments on the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction it caused to the customers availing the service. Satisfactory Satisfactory experiences in terms of service encounters refer to those encounters of availing services that result in meeting the moot objective of the demand. However, nowadays, more and more service sector firms are tending towards providing a more wholesome service experience to their clients and customers. In this regard, Clow and Kurtz (2003) have been of the opinion that satisfaction or dissatisfaction is known to be an episodic measure in that it normally relates to the last service experience. Thus, service quality becomes increasingly important an aspect from the point of view of services marketing as well as management of services as a whole. So far as the satisfactory service experiences are concerned, the present report presents six favorable or for that matter satisfactory service experiences are concerned, these focus on the aspects of favorable experiences that lead to repeat purchases or to be more specific result in customer loyalty. The first satisfactory service experience has been experienced has been in a cirque named Cirque de Soleil in London in the Royal Albert Hall. In spite of much hype as well as a long queue in front of the ticket counter along with the other encumbrances that any hyped show comes with, the cirque lived up to its expectations and thus customers left the hall satisfied. Of course, in terms of analysis, satisfaction in this case is due to the level of perfection that the show had attained given that the organizers had kept note of every minute detail thereby bringing parity as well as that they had taken care of the details of the service thereby referring to the impeccable service blueprint that they had put in action. Also, though the food has not been as exemplary as the other aspects have been, everything else has been just perfect thereby leading to an overall satisfactory service experience for the audience or for that matter, customers in this case. In this regard, a service blueprint refers to a graphic representation of the essential components of the service both front stage as well back stage (Fisk, Grove & John, 2008). In terms of the quality of food not being up to the mark, the concept of zone of tolerance comes into the picture. The food not being of the highest quality seemed to be well within the zone of tolerance and thus the customers were still happy with the overall performance of the cirque. In this context, zone of tolerance refers to the extent to which customers are willing to accept the variation in the services provided by service providers. In this case, the food may not have lived up to the mark but it was accepted without much fuss by the customers. Also, since everything has been in congruence with what is advertised to be on offer, it seems to have been following the service marketing triangle of marketing between the management (firm), employees and customers (Rao, 2005; Schultz, Doerr and Doerr, 2009, Lovelock, Wirtz and Chatterjee, 2010). As far as the second experience is concerned, this happened in the Gaucho Restaurant in London wherein the customer service was found to be excellent. The service was prompt as well as lent a helping hand as to which drink goes with which dish. Moreover, it also ensured that the customers were seated in a table despite not having any reservation for the dinner services they offer. Right from the first employee of Gaucho restaurant the customers met, it was basically a satisfying experience. Again, the point of focus of the satisfying feature of the restaurant was the promptness as well as the servility on the part of the employees of the restaurant. Thus, it can easily be understood that the moments of truth that the customers were met with resulted in favorable experiences thereby leading to customer satisfaction. In this context, it may be noted that moment of truth refers to any contact point with a service organization that a customer uses in order to evaluate service delivery (Fisk, Grove & John, 2008). Thus in this case, each contact right from the front desk to the people who assisted with the selection of the food as well as the drinks were helpful as well as gratifying for the customers. This resulted in moments of truth being favorable for the customers thereby resulting in very likely repeat visits to the restaurant. The third satisfactory experience leads to Harrods, a well known departmental store in London. The expectations of customers is high given the high quality commodities it sells as well as the various tiers it has created on the basis of consumer behavior for its customers. The apprehension that there may be long queues has also not deterred customers from flocking the store. The experience was satisfactory given the level of customer service along with the satisfaction the customers have derived having been able to spend to the maximum extent in the light of the fact that the service was conducive to buying of the customers. In terms of the canons of services marketing, service quality was such that it impelled the customers to buy more and to their heart’s fill. This may be analysed with the help of the Service Quality model, popularly known as the SERVQUAL model. The lack of gap in the service quality led to the customers buying as much as they wanted from Harrods. Right from the beginning, when the customers were greeted into the store till such time they paid the bills and left the store, they continuously at the service of the employees of the store. The fourth satisfactory experience of service was encountered at St. Thomas Hospital in London. This experience relates to both the doctors as well as the non medical staff who were responsible for taking care of the patients. Since they were generally good as well as ensured that each and every need of the customer was duly taken care of along with ensuring that everything possible that was needed by the patient were at his or her disposal, these factors led to satisfactory service experiences. In terms of the analysis of the factors that led to the utmost satisfaction of the patients in the hospital, the fact that each and every possible requirement was minutely observed as well as made at the disposal of the customers significantly reduced the service quality gap and therefore resulted in satisfaction on the part of the clients. The fifth service experience that lent satisfaction to the customers tried to develop a relationship as well as tried to give personalized attention to the customers individually. To this end, it may also be noted that it was a local wine shop and still maintained a database presumably that included the personal preferences of the customers who frequented the shop. Also, trying to create a relationship resulted in sales of the wine shop and also satisfaction on the part of the customer. Moreover, in accordance with the canons associated with the ambit of services marketing, it may be noted that this is exactly in congruence with the concepts of personalized attention as well as relationship marketing, something that is at the heart of customer relationship management as well as a very important aspect of services marketing. The last satisfactory experience that I had in terms of service was when I went to the Jazz bar. Though the experience was a mixed one, one the whole, it can be said to be satisfactory. This is due to the fact that the variations from the ideal quality expected from the bar varied within the zone of tolerance. Thus the outcome was a favorable experience for the customers. Dissatisfied The first dissatisfactory experience in terms of services was gained in the Hotel Grand Opera in Paris. This was also a mixed experience however the ultimate reaction elicited by the customer was positive. The incident of the mouse did not turn out to be within the zone of tolerance for the customer and thus the ultimate feedback came out to be in the positive. All other services were as per the perceived quality of the hotel and thus the gap between the perceived quality of the hotel and that of the actual quality of the hotel was found to be significant. The experience of the V & N Beauty & Nail Studio can be said to be a dissatisfactory experience for any customer. For a salon that advertises extra durability as their main USP cannot be thought to last for less than the minimum number of days the firm claims to last. Moreover, the fact that the customer is not being compensated for not being able to live up to the minimum level of expectation is basically a huge gap between perceived quality and actual service quality. Thus this surpasses the zone of tolerance and therefore results in a dissatisfactory experience for the customer. Moreover, each and every moment of truth turns out to be bad experience for the customer. Even the front desk executives, who happen to be the first moment of truth for the customer did not behave properly thereby accentuating the bad experience the customer already had. This is all the more likely to result in unfavorable service experiences for the customer and loss of repeat purchase for the firm. Fridays Restaurant is yet another incident of poor service quality. In this case, more than anything else, the personnel employed by the food joint seemed not to be properly trained to serve the customers properly. The experience banked more on the long waiting time, nonchalance on the part of the waiters who did not pay heed to the calls made by the customers, poor quality of food etc and all this at a price that is regarded as pretty high. This implies that the gap between the perceived quality of the service of the restaurant and the actual service delivered by the food joint are poles apart. Thus since the actual deliverables have not been within the zone of tolerance, it becomes clear that the customer has not been satisfied with the service encounter he has had. Each moment of truth has only yielded a bad experience thereby even accentuating the disgust inflicted on the customer. The next dissatisfactory experience listed in the report concerns a multinational company that has traditionally been known to deliver the best of services. However, this time the experience was truly bad. Though this was not a face to face encounter with the staff, it was nevertheless no less than a bad service encounter. A long waiting time over the phone ending in no results can indeed irritate the customer and at least would surely not be taken in the best of spirits by the customer. Moreover, it may be noted in this regard, that the customer care personnel who the customer spoke to, or for that matter, even the manager to whom the call was transferred was unable to resolve the issue. Thus the gap between the perceived service quality of British Airways being one of the best airline service providers in the world and the actual service quality of not being able to do anything about a rather minor that should ideally have been sorted out by any petty executive is sure to result in a very bad feedback. In this regard, it may be noted that word of mouth plays a very crucial role in the services sector. Since word of mouth becomes a make or break factor for any service sector firm, thus any service sector oriented firm must ensure that the word of mouth spread about them should only be positive. Otherwise, there is potential loss in customers in future. Also, people is an integral part of the services marketing mix and the personnel employed by British Airways not being able to resolve such a petty issue questions the effectiveness with which the firm has designed the services marketing mix which comprises product, place, price, promotion, people, physical evidence and process (Srinivasan, 2004). Also, this points out to the organizational structure as well as its effect on decision making in terms of not being able to resolve the simple query (Gilmore, 2003). However, in this case, the factor of the word of mouth, something integral to the SERVQUAL model, has turned out to be negative given the bad quality of service the customer has encountered. The last but one experience relating to dissatisfaction is regarding the bad experience that one had at the Roller Disco in London. The lack of caution both on the part of the customer as well as the employees who have not taken proper care so as to mention the necessity of guards for roller skating or for that matter who should ideally have compelled the customers to use protection can stand out as a typical example of the bad service encounter. Moreover, the rates are also not very good. They are high and still the services of the disco are not up to the mark. This once again calls for the analysis of the service delivered by Roller Disco to be done with the help of the gap between the high perceived quality that the customer originally had in mind when he or she had come and the actual dismal performance that one noticed after one started using their products basically refers to a huge gap between these two standards. Thus, once again the relevance of the SERVQUAL model comes into play. Also the concept of the expectancy theory holds true which says that an individual’s motivation is guided by the perception of his/her ability to do the job along with the expected outcome or reward of doing the same (Crane, 1993, Koortz, Boone, McKenzie and Snow, 2007; Hoyer, Bhattacharya, 2005, Maccinnis, 2007, Hoffman & Bateson, 2006; Berry and Parashuraman, 1991). Here the ultimate outcome did not match the perceived level of benefit. The fact that protection was not being insisted upon by the personnel working for the disco is a sign of not being clearly mentioned the role that one has been assigned properly within the firm. Also, this problem may have been solved with the help of creating a Service Blueprint, which would have pointed out which are the specific personnel would have been present along with the full charges as well as the facilities that one needs in order to fulfill while on the task. Conclusion Overall, it is seen that customer service experiences may turn out to be both good as well as bad. Again, in case it turns out to be bad, the firm should ensure that proper care is taken to address this. Among the satisfactory experiences that the report has had, most are concerned with the stores or for that matter outlets, restaurants and the like may already have the requisite infrastructure needed to run a flawless service encounter on behalf of the firm. This indeed brings in various advantages and that is why these moments of truth have yielded favorable results that are conducive to the repeat purchase or in fact may even lead to customer loyalty, a much coveted result or outcome of the service encounter. As for the dissatisfactory experiences, these have resulted majorly from the gaps between the perceived service delivery and that of the actual service delivery. Of course a service delivery that is better than the perceived service delivery is ought to result in delight among customers, which again is a much coveted position for the service providers. But in this case, the actual service encounters have been considerably inferior to the perceived service delivery and for the most part the variation has surpassed the zone of tolerance. This has resulted in negative feedback on the part of the service provider. This in turn may result in bad word of mouth – something considered detrimental for any service provider for that matter. References 1. Ziathaml, V, Bitner, M, Gremler, D & Pandit, A 2011, ‘Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm’, New Delhi: TMH 2. Klow, K & Kurtz, D 2003, ‘Services Marketing, Operation, Management, Strategy’, USA: Atomic Dog 3. Fisk, R, Grove, S & John, T 2008, ‘Interactive Services Marketing’, USA: Houghton Mifflin Co. 4. Rao, K 2005, ‘Services Marketing’, New Delhi: Pearson 5. 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