Enhancing Performance Value and Quality - Essay Example

? Marketing Service Task1 Executive Summary Marketing professionals as well as specialists make use of numerous strategies so that they can retain the best and most lucrative customers with them for longer period of time. In the context of service or product industry, the best way to retain the customer is via good customer service. The customers are likely to have positive service encounter with a company and its products if they are satisfied with it. In case the customers experience dissatisfaction, they are most likely to confront negative service encounter. The companies need to identify various gaps that hinder the customer satisfaction level. Attempts need to be made by the companies to bridge the gap. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Service Encounter 1 5 Service Encounter 2 7 Service Encounter 3 9 Service Encounter 4 11 Service Encounter 5 13 Conclusion 15 References 16 Appendices 18 Introduction Services are the economic activities rendered by one party to another party. The heart of service is considered to be the encounter taking place between the server as well as the customer. It is during this phase when the emotions tend to come into contact with the economics in real time and hence people evaluate the quality of service (Chase & Dasu, 2012). The chief objective of the report is to evaluate the service encounters from one’s perspective as a customer and hence to analyze the recorded situations by making use of the relevant theories and concepts. Service Encounter 1 While having a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) internet connection with Dodo Company in the year 2012 with a contract of two years, I found that the company disconnected my internet within a month of the contract. I tried to fix the problem with the company and despite several attempts made by the company to resolve the issues faced by me, it was not capable of coming out with a feasible solution. Hence, I experienced a negative service encounter with the company. I noted the fact that the actual performance of the brand was less than expected, hence I felt quite dissatisfied with the product (Victorino, 2008). The service offered by the company felt short of expectations which can be stated to be a negative disconfirmation and hence I found myself dissatisfied with the services offered. It can be mentioned that the disconfirmation of expectations paradigm has been considered as most accepted model that can be successfully applied for examining the issues related to consumer satisfaction/ dissatisfaction (Fisk & Young, 1985). Customer experiences with the product causing negative emotions can lead to substantial damages to the companies in relation to their reputation as well as their association to their customers. When a customer experiences a negative service encounter, the result of such experience is generally anger or frustration which has been the case with me in relation to Dodo Company. Although the company realized the problems that I have been facing with the services and tried to fix it up however, it had not been meeting up to the expectations (McGrawHill, 2012). One of the underlying facts related to services is that satisfaction tends to have an impact on usage continuance intentions. A customer is most likely to continue using a product only if he/she is satisfied with the product or service. It can be observed that since the service rendered by the company was not up to my expectation, I planned to discontinue using the services of the company. Hence, such circumstances reveal the fact that the companies must make all the attempts to satisfy the customers so that they do not stop consuming the services. Discontinuation might lead to several damages to the company in the form of decline in revenues and retardation of the brand image as well. Dodo needs to ensure that they do not breach the contract that they make with the customers and try to fix all the problems within the stipulated time (Miao, 2008). Service Encounter 2 While visiting McDonald’s, I ordered for a coffee and banana bread which they were supposed to serve within five minutes. However, even after waiting for next 10 minutes, I noted that the food that I ordered did not arrive. Nevertheless, when I was about to move out from the place due to an urgency of attending a class, I experienced a positive service encounter from the service provider. After certain point of time a lady arrived with the food and apologized for being late in providing the required service. She also returned me half of the money that I paid. It can be stated that it was a good service encounter. I was quite delighted with the kind of service that the company offered me. Since the past few decades, service quality has become one of the major domains of attention for the practitioners because of its strong impact on business performance, customer satisfaction, and profitability along with ensuring lower costs. In this scenario, service quality models can be successfully applied in order to understand the situation better. It is a well known fact that if a company wants to compete successfully then it must have an understanding of consumers’ perception of the quality and the way in which service quality is influenced. Furthermore, in order to manage the perceived service quality the company needs to match the expected service along with the perceived service to each other so that the customer satisfaction is attained. There are generally three elements of service quality such as technical quality, functional quality as well as image. Technical quality can be comprehended as the quality of what the consumer actually attains because of his/her interaction with the service providing company and is vital to him/her and for his/her evaluation of the quality of service (Victorino, 2008). Functional quality is mainly concerned with how a customer obtains the technical outcomes. Image on the other hand is significant for the service companies and this can be expected to develop mainly by technical as well as functional qualities along with other factors such as word-of-mouth, tradition, pricing, ideology and public relations (Seth, Deshmukh, & Vrat, 2004). If McDonald’s keeps demonstrating similar extent of integrity in the provided service then the customer loyalty rate of the company is most likely to increase and this will pull greater number of customers towards it. Service encounter quality is directly linked to customer satisfaction as well as service quality perceptions and is indirectly linked with the aspect of loyalty. Since, I experienced positive service encounter, I found myself quite contented with the services rendered by McDonald’s despite the fact that it was unable to keep its word of providing service within a maximum duration of five minutes. However, it was prompt to accept its mistake. It is quite likely that in the near future I would prefer visiting McDonald’s again because of honesty it depicted while delivering its services (Jayawardhena, Souchon, Farrell, & Glanville, 2006). However, it can be recommended that McDonald’s can further improve its service quality by minimizing the time within which the services can be delivered to the customers. My level of satisfaction with the company would have further increased if the employees of McDonald’s could have delivered the food within the stipulated time. The company can further increase the number of workforce that can facilitate in the reducing the waiting time for the customers (Miao, 2008). Service Encounter 3 I was quite dissatisfied when I received creative sound blaster that I ordered for my computer so that the music sound can be improved. When I received the order I realized the fact that the order was not similar to what I had asked for from eBay. I took the necessary steps to let the company know regarding the issue that I was facing. However, I was quite astonished by the quality of the service that the company rendered. The level of satisfaction was quite pleasing as the company arranged for replacement and returned me back the money for shipping. The service encounter scenario can be linked to the concepts related to performance quality value. It can be mentioned that there are generally two attributes which are important for a successful business. One of them is the performance value and the other is the quality products or services. There are numerous factors that the manager can do in order to inspire and hence support better performance from the employees in the company (Miao, 2008). One of them is to demonstrate the employees that they are quite valued. eBay seems to have implemented the similar policies that encourage the employees to work hard and hence offer quality services to the customers. It is quite significant for the managers of the company to demonstrate the kind of respect that they expect to obtain in return. Improvement of the performance value and quality among the employees so that they can deliver quality services tends to be the responsibility of the managers in the organization (Aveta Business Institute, 2012). It can be observed that the intangible nature of services leads to uncertainty concerning the delivery and outcomes. As a result of this, customers generally try to observe signs of service quality as well as other cues to understand quality. It is because of the lack of tangible entity as well as objective information, positive mood initiations during the service encounters can lead to favorable impact on the transactions (Miao, 2008). In other words, it can be mentioned that positive mood initiation can be successfully utilized as a cue to judge the quality of the services rendered by the company. Since the mood states are significant sets of affective factors they are found to be creating a part of all the marketing situations and thus impact consumer behavior in numerous situations. It can be mentioned that alteration in the physical surrounding impacts consumers’ mood during the time of their purchase. Since I was quite satisfied with the services offered by the company, I was capable of demonstrating positive mood (Victorino, 2008). In order to improve the quality of services eBay needs to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques in its organization that will help the company minimize the mistakes and improve the overall efficiency. My level of satisfaction with the service could have enhanced to a significant amount if the company would have been capable of delivering me the right kind of sound system at once. This aspect needs to be taken care of by the company (Gardner, 1985). Service Encounter 4 In order to have my ear pierced I was required to fill the form, and hence answer a few of the questions that have been mentioned in the form. Despite waiting for a long time, the company was incapable of offering us with good service. The encounter generally took place in person where I was expecting a better service. However, I noted the fact that I confronted a terrible level of satisfaction with the company (Miao, 2008). I felt that the employees of the company did not even care to understand if I was satisfied with their service or not. In order to make me happier with the encounter they could have made the process go a little quicker and could have paid due attention towards my requirement. I was really annoyed that no one listened to us. I realized the fact that it was their mistake as they did not serve me properly. The company was incapable of meeting the desired level of expectation. I expected the ear piercing company to render us with good customer service. It can be mentioned that the zone of indifference with the service offered by the company has been quite high. The main reason behind this has been the variability of the service offering by the company (Buttle, 1995). In this context, the concepts related to service marketing can be utilized effectively. There are seven variables that the service marketing makes use of. They are product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence (Victorino, 2008). Contextually, it can be noted that people of the organization were not effective enough to serve us with ear piercing. The process in the context of service marketing can be identified as the way in which the service is delivered to the consumers. The ear piercing company did not focus upon quick service. The flow of activities in the company was quite inefficient thereby leading to low customer satisfaction. In order to make the process smoother and to enhance the level of customer satisfaction, it is significant for the company to focus upon the improving the ways in which it delivers its services. It is essential to make the overall process faster and hence identify the areas for further improvements. Changing the employees in the organization can also prove to be fruitful for the company so that the overall level of customer satisfaction can be enhanced and the sales and revenues of the company can be increased (Buttle, 1995). Service Encounter 5 While visiting an Indian restaurant, I ordered for food and thought that the food would arrive soon. However, I was astonished with the fact that the hotel had only a single employee who was responsible to handle the overall operations of the organization. I was amazed when she arrived after ten minutes and asked me the way I would like to have my food. It can be analyzed that the service encounter with this restaurant had been quite unfavorable. The level of satisfaction with the restaurant was quite terrible. I encountered a problem when I arrived at the place hoping to begin a dining-out script and learnt that the food was not actually ready. It is a well known fact that if the organization fails to recognize the seriousness of the customers need and thus treats the problem inadequately then it might lead to dissatisfactory incidents. It is apparently realized that the customers can be quite dissatisfied when their preferences are not accommodated. Culture impacts on the way consumers perceive service quality. Furthermore, the customers’ propensity to complain to the service provider is greatly impacted by their cultures. The culture of Indian restaurant may be completely different with that of the culture of the other restaurants. Hence, culture has an impact on the kind of service to be delivered to the customers. The predictive expectation with the restaurant was quite high. I expected to obtain a very high level of service with this service provider (McGrawHill, 2012). This context can be evaluated by making use of the SERVQUAL model. The zone of tolerance with the service offered by the company has been such that I did not desire to visit the restaurant in the future (Victorino, 2008). I further demonstrated negative emotions to my friends and relatives which hampers the brand image of the restaurant by a certain extent. The company had poor employee fit that adversely hampered the quality of services delivered to the customers. Such bad service encounter tends to hamper the brand image and loyalty of the company. It further minimizes the sales of the particular service providers. Attempts need to be made to improve the service offered to the customers (Miao, 2008). In the near future, it is quite essential for the companies to attempt at minimizing the gaps in the service quality expectations. The restaurant must increase the number of employees so that the pace of service can be increased by a certain extent. A culture of good customer service needs to be built in the hotel. Conclusion Issue related to satisfaction levels of the customers with the services offered in the hospitality industry is a burgeoning phenomenon. It is worth noticing the fact that negative service experience tends to have an unfavorable impact upon the aspect of customer loyalty. The customers who had an unfavorable experience with a company’s services, they are most likely to demonstrate negative emotions to others. The possibility of failure in the context of service encounters cannot be eliminated because of numerous factors that might have an impact upon the process of service co-creation. It is essential for the companies to deliver the best services to the customers with the intention to generate good customer relationships. Individual personality traits as well as temporary mood states because of unrelated events are most likely to fuel the extent of displeasure in a particular service encounter. The companies are required to comprehend this personality traits as well as mood states of the customers while offering services. References Aveta Business Institute. (2012). Enhancing performance value and quality. Quality Management. Buttle, F. (1995). SERVQUAL: review, critique and research agenda. European Journal of marketing. 30(1), pp. 1-20. Chase, R. B., & Dasu, S. (2012). Psychology of the experience: the missing link in service science. Retrieved from http://www.3sresearch.de/wp-content/uploads/ucscchase.pdf Fisk, R. P., & Young, C. E. (1985). Disconfirmation of equity expectations: effects on consumer satisfaction with services. Association for Consumer Research. 12(2), pp. 340-345. Gardner, M. P. (1985). Mood states and consumer behavior: a critical review. Journal of Consumer Research. 12(1), pp. 280-291. Jayawardhena, C., Souchon, A. L., Farrell, A. M., & Glanville, K. (2006). Outcomes of service encounter quality in a business-to-business context. Industrial Marketing Management. 36(5), pp. 575-588. Miao, L. (2008). Consumers' emotional responses to service encounters: the influence of other consumers. Michigan: ProQuest. McGrawHill. (2012). Customer expectations of service. Retrieved from http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0077107950/577210/04ch03.pdf Seth, N., Deshmukh, S. G., & Vrat, P. (2004). Service quality models: a review. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management. 22(9), pp. 913-949. Victorino, L. (2008). Scripting the service encounter: an empirical analysis. Utah: The University of Utah. Appendices Service Journal Entry Form (Service Encounter 1) Name of the Firm/ Service Provider: Dodo Company Type of service: Internet service provider Date: 1.6.2012 Time: 3.00 p.m. How did the encounter take place? The encounter took place over the telephone. What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? (E.g. purpose, location, expectations, etc) I bought a DSL internet connection with a company named Dodo Company in the year 2010 and the contract was generally for two years. However, I noted that my internet connection was disconnected one month after the contract. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? (Circle a number Corresponding to your feelings) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What exactly made you feel that way? I was really angry with the internet service provider as I badly needed internet connection and the company disconnected it within the contract period. Although they sent me a new modem, I still faced similar issues. I was quite disappointed with the service of the company and hence did not wish to use it again in the near future. What could the employee /firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? The company could have sent me a properly functioning new modem which would have served my purpose and hence would have helped me to remain with the company. It could have not breached the contract that it made with me. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? It is because of the fact that I was not satisfied with the services of the company, it is extremely unlikely that I will go back to this service provider. Service Journal Entry Form (Service Encounter 2) Name of the firm/ service provider: McDonald’s Type of service: Restaurant Date: 6.6.2012 Time: 12 p.m. How did the encounter take place? The encounter took place in person. What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? (E.g. purpose, location, expectations, etc) I went to McDonald’s and thus ordered for coffee and banana bread which was supposed to be delivered within a maximum of five minutes. Although I had to wait for more than 10 minutes, a lady arrived with the food that I ordered and returned me half of the money because they were late in providing the service. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? (Circle a number Corresponding to your feelings) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What exactly made you feel that way? I never expected the company to return me half of the money just because I had to wait for some time. The lady apologized to me as well and I was contented with the kind of service offered by the company as well as with the honesty that it depicted by confessing their mistake. What could the employee /firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? In order to increase my level of satisfaction, the company could have delivered the food within the stipulated time. The company must train its employees regarding the importance of delivering services on time. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? It is quite likely that I would visit the same service provider because of the level of commitment and honesty in customer service offered by the company. Service Journal Entry Form (Service Encounter 3) Name of the firm/ service provider: eBay Type of service: Entertainment Date: 21.6.2012 Time: 12.45 p.m. How did the encounter take place? The encounter took place through email. What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? (E.g. purpose, location, expectations, etc) I ordered for a sound blaster from eBay. When I received the order, it was not the same that I required and hence I emailed the company. The company decided to replace the item and also returned me the money when I sent the old one. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? (Circle a number Corresponding to your feelings) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What exactly made you feel that way? I thought that the company would not replace the item for me and hence it was pleasing to observe that the company would return me back the money charged for shipping purposes. What could the employee /firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? In order to increase my level of satisfaction, the company could have sent the right Creative sound blaster for my computer system. This would have helped me to remain loyal to the company. Furthermore, the company could have offered extended warranty services to the customers to entice them towards the provided services. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? It is quite likely that I would again visit the same service provider because of the extent of commitment the company showed after it realized its mistake. Service Journal Entry Form (Service Encounter 4) Name of the firm/ service provider: Ear piercing company Type of service: Ear piercing service Date: 20.6.2012 Time: 1.00 p.m. How did the encounter take place? The encounter took place in person. What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? (E.g. purpose, location, expectations, etc) I went with my friend to have his ear pierced. However, the employee of the company made us come back after 30 minutes. We arrived after 30 minutes but still the company was not ready to have my friend’s ear pierced and the employees went for smoke paying less attention towards the customer. Though a lady designated to handle customers apologized for the inconvenience caused but still she told us that we would have to wait for another 20-30 minutes. I was furious with this event. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? (Circle a number Corresponding to your feelings) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What exactly made you feel that way? I thought that the lady would at least serve us after we waited for 30 minutes at the first place. However, she apologized and told us that we would require waiting for more 20-30 minutes which increased our discontent. It was quite imprudent on behalf of the company to make us wait for so long in order to receive the service. What could the employee /firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? In order to increase my level of satisfaction, the company needs to have proper time management. It must understand the importance of time. It could have provided the ear piercing service after making us wait for 30 minutes at the initial stage. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? It is quite unlikely to make a revisit to the same service destination. Service Journal Entry Form (Service Encounter 5) Name of the firm/ service provider: Indian Restaurant Type of service: Restaurant Date: 1.7.2012 Time: 11.15 a.m. How did the encounter take place? The encounter took place in person. What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? (E.g. purpose, location, expectations, etc) I went to the Indian restaurant and ordered for food. I thought that my ordered foods would be getting ready but after 10 minutes a person came and asked me the way I would prefer to eat my food. I grew angry after learning the fact that my food was not ready even after I waited for a substantial amount of time and an aspect of service delivery process that could have been asked at the time of taking the order was asked to me at a later stage when I expected to receive my ordered foods. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? (Circle a number Corresponding to your feelings) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 What exactly made you feel that way? I thought that the lady would arrive with the food but even after waiting for a significant amount of time, my food was not ready. It was really annoying and this level of service dissatisfied me by a great extent. What could the employee /firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? In order to increase my level of satisfaction, the restaurant could have thought of employing proper time management strategies. It must understand the value of time of every individual customer. The culture of the organization needs to improve and the customer needs to be paid due attention. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? It is quite unlikely that I would again go back to the restaurant. Read More