Bunzl Vending Services and Its Business Environment - Case Study Example

Bunzl Vending Services Introduction Services are marked by their intangibility, inseparability and heterogeneity. It gets all the more complex when automated system and technology creeps into the basic service delivery process because then it dictates the service success on the basis of system-customer interaction. Bunzl vending services is UK’s leader in home refreshment and vending services. However, gaps in its service quality and delivery have been identified which call for improvements and revisiting at its service design process. The paper commences with an overview of the company- Bunzl vending services which is followed by the service issues encountered. Major issues explored are the differentiation, managing the human resources and automation element. Suggested solutions are provided to allow the company redesign its service processes and better them. Use of diagrams and graphs has been made to anchor the understanding of the reader. Company Profile Bunzl vending services boasts of 25 years of glorious experience in providing vending services of all sizes and complexities across UK. With organizational culture of efficiency and detailed attention, it leads the home refreshment services industry by continually incorporating innovation and quality in its services assortments. The company is ISO 14001 and 19001 certified which shows its quality-oriented business proposition. The company provides all sorts of vending services namely coffee, water, snacks and others for both commercial and industrial purposes. Its environment friendly initiative puts in place the objective of proper cleaning of vending machines through harmless chemicals, recycling of waste and minimizing transportation and storage costs of stocks by contracting with local suppliers (Bunzl Vending Services n.d). Service issues The service issues for Bunzl vending services arise from its physical evidence and customer contact elements of service delivery process (Fig 1). Elaboration on the mentioned issues goes as follows: Fig. 1 Differentiation As already remarked, Bunzl vending services are ahead of their competitors in the service quality level. Identification of shortcomings in the service processes and delivery obviate strategic hiccups in the service designing of the company. Vending services are common to all that they are more technology and automation oriented, yet the success of these services rely on how well the service components are distinguished and differentiated from the traditional aspects (Lovelock & Wirtz 2007). For Bunzl vending services, the common shortcomings are: People For Bunzl vending services, its own employees are only technical facilitators while its customers are the actual employees because they themselves operate the machines, manage the vending area and are responsible for other facility issues arising. In this regard, it becomes essential that the customers are provided adequate training of the equipments installed and made realize the importance of their jobs as “partial self-service employees” (Nankervis 2005: 314). Process Process constitutes the flow of information and activities that tend to complete the task smoothly. For customers, self service is only limited to the extent of completing the job (McCluskey 2004). For instance, in vending service, customers are interested in just getting the work done and not about the process. This is pretty much clear from the problem of slow running water, high or low temperatures, no provision of decaffeinated coffee and other similar issues. Such shortcomings are arising because there is lack of direct contact or procedural communication between the customers and the service workers. As such, any technical or managerial glitch is not getting reported to the Bunzl office for immediate rectification. Physical evidence Services are more intangible and non-measurable in their environment but in the case of vending machines, the tangible aspect of services measured and perceived by the customers is the physical setting, facilities and equipments supplementing the service delivery. The prime service issue faced by Bunzl vending services is from ill-handling of its physical evidence which creates Gap 4 (Verma 2008: 287) in its service delivery process (Fig. 2). Fig. 2 The company had introduced world-class vending equipments but fails to provide for their maintenance or training the customers regarding their usage and informing the company about any problems that arise. This fact is proven by slow delivery of drinks, installation of one coffee machine for 200 employees, machines charging the customers without delivering the product and other major technical anomalies. This reveals an incompatible physical evidence strategy put in place by Bunzl vending services and overpromising on grounds of their technical expertise. For customers, vending area and related services serve as refreshment and relaxing environment. However, if the physical evidence is short of proper equipment and surrounding environment that fail to facilitate the communication and performance of the service, the tangible side of services is lost. Tangibles in the service scape aid in the creation of a positive image of the overall service in the minds of the customers. This is so because these components can be touched and measured by the customers and on the basis of its effectiveness, they perceive the intangible elements of the service delivery. For Bunzl vending services, their physical evidence and facilities settings are short of their promises made and technology promised in their service delivery. This is cumulating into dis-satisfied customers for Bunzl vending services. Degree of divergence Divergence is defined as the measure of degree of standardization and customization in the service process. A service is termed highly divergent if it involves greater customer involvement and less divergent if it is more standardized with narrowly defined customization options (Fitzsimmons 2008). Fitzsimmons (2008) describe customer’s contact with services in three ways- first is the direct contact where customer is physically present, second is the indirect contact through electronic media and third is the situation where there is no customer contact at all. In the case of vending machines, the service contact falls in the first category further subdivide into the case where customer does not contact the actual service providers or workers but through the technical and automated system. Thus, it becomes the case of self service. In case of self service like vending machines, employee labor is saved but it calls for more of customer training and awareness as to how to interact with the automated service equipment and handle the issues following. As such, issues of long waiting queues and crowded vending areas arise. At Bunzl vending services, customer becomes the labor when it starts vending the machines and takes advantage of the self-service. If it is the Bunzl employee, they are properly trained of inter-personal skills and managing the facility issues. However, when the process is in the hands of customers, the success relies on the degree of their knowledge, training and employee empowerment of using the automated machines. Recommendations After careful analysis of the service issues confronted by Bunzl vending services, it is clear that they need to revisit their service equipments quality and training of involved entities in the overall service delivery process. Theoretically, there are 5 dimensions of quality in services management which have to be considered by Bunzl in order to improve productivity. Those dimensions are: Reliability- to be able to deliver the service dependably and accurately, Bunzl needs to understand the customer requirements to the minutest details so that customization can be made accordingly. This will involve keeping trustworthy staff and customer care services available for the customers 24*7. Responsiveness- vending services are marked by daily involvement of technical engineers and customer care professionals. As such, there needs to be promptness in Bunzl activities and its staff should be agile enough to take care of the operations. Empathy- this element establishes the relationship between the employees and the customers and rests on the behavior of the company employees. It marks how attentive the company is towards individual details and the level of caring it furnishes to its individual customers. For this, the staff needs to be polite, caring and interpersonal in their communication with the customers. Assurance- customers feel assured of the services if they have the perception that the service providers are adept, competent and able in their tasks and job responsibilities. This sparks interest and approach behavior in the customers towards the service. Thus, the company staff needs to be knowledgeable of what they are proposed to do. Their expertise in their job should inspire trust and interest in the customers to use the service freely. Tangibles- in Bunzl’s case, it is the mishandling of the tangible side of service that has causes hiccups in the service design and delivery. To improvise on this, Bunzl is required to supply handbook of vending machines to the customers and properly train them as to how the machines should be handled and facilities managed for proper and hygienic surrounding environment. Apart from technical knowledge, the customers are also to be made aware of the physical surroundings components and the significance of lights, sitting area, designing and overall ambience of the vending area. This training and arrangement will allow the customers to manage the service delivery on their own to some extent and become partial service providers. This is also required because company employees and staff cannot intervene in between all the customer issues which lead to conflicts and skirmishes at times. If customers are responsible enough and can sort out things, the tangible side of Bunzl vending services can improve considerably. Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler (2005: 328) opines that the physical environment of the service determines the extent of failure and the approach or avoidance behavior of the customer (Fig. 3). If the environment is properly managed with full equipments and requisite factors intact, customers are less likely to report or experience failures and thus they remain attached to the service for longer time. At Bunzl, physical environment is not properly managed which is resulting is dissatisfied customers and possibilities of customers turning away are more if this arrangement continues. These physical surroundings account for social interactions and long term relationships because it is the physical environment which creates the first impression. Thus, physical surroundings determine the duration of contact with service and how the service delivery is progressing (Lewis & Slack 2003: 507). In this respect, Bunzl is suggested to revamp its physical surrounding settings and make it more customer-oriented. In this regard, regular training of staff is quintessential for the success of Bunzl services and differentiating its components from the competitors. Fig. 3 Conclusion Bunzl vending services is a reputed and relied upon name in the vending services. The fact that it has carved a niche for itself in the home refreshment industry now raises the issue of sustaining this leadership position in the market. Services are intangible and can be imitated easily with greater personal element introduced by the rivals. As such, it becomes critical for Bunzl vending to first improve the tangible side of its business which is the physical environment and the facilities settings. Once it infuses the required approach behavior, the skills of experienced and talented staff comes into picture that will be responsible for establishing long term relations with the customers and satisfying them with their care, inter-personal skills and problem solving abilities. Appendices Bunzl Vending Services n.d. Environmental Initiatives [online] available from < http://www.bunzlvendingservices.com/VendingWebstore/page/Environmental+Initiatives/CSRenvironmentalPage/Environmental+Initiatives> [accessed 21 Dec, 2010] Fitzsimmons, A & Fitzsimmons, J (2008). Service Management. Operations, Strategy, Information Technology. Irwin: McGraw-Hill Lewis, M & Slack, N (2003). Operations Management: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management. USA: Routledge Lovelock, C & Wirtz, J (2007). Service Marketing. People, Technology, Strategy. Pearson Education. McCluskey, M (2004). "How Mature is Your Service Operation?" Supply Chain Management Review 8, no. 5: 17–20. Nankervis, A.R (2005). Managing Services. Cambridge University Press. Verma, H.V (2008). Services Marketing: Text and Cases. Pearson Education Zeithaml, V.A, Bitner, M.J & Gremler, D.D (2005). Services marketing: integrating customer focus across the firm. McGraw Hill/Irwin. References Read More