Unique Services of Southwest Airlines - Case Study Example

Southwest Airlines- Service Flies High Table of Contents Introduction 3 Reasons for calling Southwest Airlines a service 3 Instances and application of the 4 Unique characteristics of Services 3 Challenges of each Service Characteristic when Developing a Market Strategy 4 A structure of Evaluated Service Performance of Southwest Airline 5 The Difference in Importance of the 5 Dimensions Aforementioned and their Implications …………………………………………………………………………………..6 Additional Relevance and Conclusion....................................................................................7 References 9 Introduction Marketing in general can be defined as the process of communicating to customers the value of a service. (Swearingen, 2002). Making reference to this case study, Southwest Airlines is a local airline that has in the past operated three routes in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. It is an airline that was established about four decades ago and had in the past set records and maintained quality standards in customer service. The airline is determined to improving service delivery and maximising its profits over time at pocket friendly rates, has kept this spirit over time. With a vision of climbing (Gustofsson et al, 2003) to the top of the airline industry, Southwest Airlines has embraced several policies that ensure that their customers get the best of service. As other airlines kept adjusting their airfares based on market trend variations, the airline developed systems that ensured that turbulent seasons in the market do not impact negatively on the rates that their customers pay. Reasons for Calling Southwest Airlines a Service Southwest Airlines has a business stock symbol LUV that is read as LOVE, summing up to improving the customer’s attitude towards the airlines’ services. Handling customers and utterly winning their loyalty goes a long way than just a strong customer relation. Southwest Airlines is one such (Swearingen, 2002) company in the flying industry that has been ready to go an extra mile to make customers happy and keep them for long term benefits. Based on the above sentiments, Southwest Airlines is referred to as a service because they offer a set of consumable and perishable benefits. The benefits they offer are only valid when an order is made by a customer. (Pride et al, 2012) Instances and Application of the 4 Unique Characteristics of Services to Airline The four unique characteristics of services include Perishability, Intangibility, Inseparability and Heterogeneity. Pointing out to Perishability and Intangibility, Perishability refers to the ability of a service to expire. Expiry of a service can be looked at in two specific dimensions. First, resources relevant to a service, its processes and systems are many a time assigned to a specific service over a definite duration. Relevant to Southwest Airlines, a customer’s seat that remains empty in a plane over a flight can never be used and paid for after departure. Secondly, after a service is utterly rendered to a consumer, the exacting service irrevocably vanishes as it has been consumed by the service consumer. In Southwest Airlines, once a passenger has been transported to the end, he or she cannot be transported again to this location at this point. Intangibility points out that services cannot be touched or handled thus need no transportation or storage. As per Southwest Airlines, the flight services offered are only done by them and not the service consumers. Therefore, once a customer requests for a flight service the airline is obliged to offer the service. Their roles cannot be reversed at all. Inseparability of a service elaborates that once a service consumer, in this case a passenger, requests for a flight and the Southwest Airlines receives the service request and accepts to offer it, resources must be set aside to carry out the service delivery. At this point in time, the pilot must be in the plane together with the flight passenger for the process to be complete. The passenger is inseparable from the service delivery because he is involved in it from requesting it up to consuming the rendered benefits (Wolak et al, n,d). The same applies to the pilot. Heterogeneity refers to the possibility for high inconsistency in the performance of services. The quality and importance of a service can vary from a provider to a provider and customer to customer. A flight passenger’s behaviour or handling of issues can change and as well the performance of the airlines’ employees varies on a daily basis. This brings inconsistency thus varying the mode of service delivery resulting in heterogeneity. Challenges of each Service Characteristic when Developing the Market Strategy Whenever the four unique qualities of services are experienced in service delivery, there are normally challenges that arise when it comes to their handling and mostly in marketing departments in a company (Zeithaml et al, 1981). Southwest Airlines, being a company that is labour intensive in the transport industry, may experience challenges that are associated with the unique quality of services when undertaking and implementing market strategies. Heterogeneity is associated with difficulty in achieving quality control and standardization of services. When customer-employee (customer care) relations and performance in the Southwest Airlines firm become inconsistent then the level of certainty that one can count on and try to communicate to the consumer is not a consistent thing. Perishability would mean that services cannot be stored and setting airfares also become difficult. Because flight services cannot be stored, it becomes difficult to harmonize service provision and demand. For instance, if airline tickets are not purchased and sometimes they are, it is extremely difficult to set an airfare because balances between what is spent in service provision and what is gained after service delivery is not certain. Inseparability on the other hand may lead to a difficulty in centralized mass production of services. Because the flight passenger in this given context must be present during service production. If they are large in numbers then it becomes difficult to deliver services effectively. Attention is not given to one passenger alone affecting the quality of service. Involving consumers in the production process becomes a critical challenge. (Zeithaml et al, 1981) Finally, intangibility of a service is associated with difficulty in setting airfares. Because a service is not something one can touch, valuate and come up with a price, justification to airfares becomes a challenge because convincing customers to understand and appreciate the prices they are charged is almost impossible. Relativity and rational are used in setting prices. Passengers cannot directly relate the cost of service delivered and their worth because they cannot touch it and gauge its pricing. This makes the Southwest Airlines management have a problem in coming up with a price they deem fair enough to the customers. A Structure of the Evaluated Performance of the Southwest Airlines The five commonly known dimensions for evaluating (Arlen, 2008) service quality include making inquiries about the Tangibles, Reliability of the service, Responsiveness of a firm’s staff, and Assurance of the staff. In addition Empathy is also essential for evaluating a service. When reference is made to Southwest Airlines, Tangibles will mean the company’s personnel, equipment, communication materials and the general appearance of its physical facilities. Empathy and Assurance is the caring, individualised attention the firm provides its customers plus the acquaintance and politeness of workers and their capacity to express trust and self-confidence respectively (Zeithalm et al, 1990). Pointing out to Southwest Airlines, a sample structure on the result of a survey carried out to determine the rating of the levels of quality on service delivery is as shown below; It represents a well structured questionnaire that was used to determine the quality of service delivery at Southwest Airlines Company. The survey done was meant to help the management of the aforementioned company to improve its capacity to handle customers much more effectively. Method used to collect data; Filling in questionnaires. Key 1= Poor. 2= Somehow poor 3= Somehow good 4= Good 5= Excellent NB: The star in the boxes represent the responses and ratings of the general public and clients of the Southwest Airlines Company. Survey questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. How would you rate the communication equipment and personnel used at Southwest airline? * 2. Have you ever launched a complaint with Southwest Airlines? If Yes, how would you rate the speed at which the customer care desks at the Southwest Airlines respond to queries? * 3 Have you ever had a trip with Southwest Airline? If so how would you rate the individual care offered by the hostesses during the flight? * 4 Have you ever interacted with the Southwest staff face to face? What was your reason to visiting their offices? Was the issue resolved? If all the answers are ‘Yes’ then how would rate the assurance (knowledge and courtesy) of the Southwest Airlines staff? * 5 How would you rate the Southwest Airlines staff’s way of handling customers? How would you rate the reliability of the information given by this same staff to customers? * Out of the analysis it was evident that the Southwest Airlines had its rating more than average thus adding more emphasis on the fact that for more than 35 years it has been amongst the top 20 most preferred plane in the United States (Zeithaml et al, 1990). Perhaps that is why it has more than 35,000 employees, a further proof of a company enjoying the monotony of making large profits every year. The Difference in Importance of the 5 Dimensions Aforementioned and their Implications All the above mentioned 5 dimensions of measuring the quality of service delivery are all essential to customers, but some more serious than others. A service provider therefore needs to know which of the dimensions above is more crucial depending on the type and nature of the service they provide.(Arlen, 2008) This would help a company like Southwest Airlines to be able to avoid instances of majoring on minor issues in the firm. The implication of this therefore is that the company must carry out a customer satisfaction survey to enable it rate, depending on the opinion of its customers, what they value most. Based on past research, it was found that customers rated (Arlen, 2008) Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, and tangibles amongst its topmost in terms of priority respectively. Reliability makes emphasis on the fact that it is extremely significant that customers count on their providers. Southwest Airlines needs to know what the customers value and it is only through reliability that this is possible. The firm needs to be three times more reliable than just have shiny equipment. Every service that Southwest Airlines offers needs to be done on time. This includes its periodic on schedule, Work orders and on-site Service Level Agreements. They have to be both presentable and reliable. On the other hand, responsiveness comes clear of the fact that responses from the service provider should be quick, rapid, prompt, immediate and instantaneous. The customer care desk needs not wait a whole day to respond to calls or mails. Responsiveness forms more than 20 % on what is assessed in service quality. This applies to daily responses and not just emergencies. It is essential that customers feel that the providers are responsive to their requests. This can be done through establishing (Arlen, 2008) trackers that time call waits. Other Key Performances Indicators of responsiveness can also be tracked to keep the customers satisfied with the services. These performance data can be presented to customers in Departmental Performances Reviews. Assurance demands that service providers be experts in whatever service they offer. It is vital that the firm communicates that expertise to customers. If a service provider is highly skilled and customers are not aware then during ratings/ assessments, the service provider will be rated low thus rating the service quality of the whole firm low. This compels the service provider to raise customer awareness of their competencies. This can be done through inclusion of certification logos on emails, letters and reports, putting certification into posters, newsletters and handouts of the firm and to some extent display industry certifications on patches, badges or buttons (Arlen, 2008) worn by employees. This helps providers manage customer expectations thus influence their service quality assessment. Additional Relevance and Conclusion Empathy is an additional quality that helps maintain customers. It is essential that after doing work to the required specification of the customer care is shown to a customer by the employees. This makes the customers feel appreciated. A company therefore should train their employees on how to interact with customers and their end users. This would help raise the customers’ assessment of quality service. In addition, looks are also beneficial. A firm should make certain their employees’ appearance, uniforms, equipment and work areas on-site look appetizing. Looking sharp is essential but should not be done to perfection then the company falls short of on reliability and or responsiveness. In conclusion therefore, it is indispensable to know that a complete customers’ assessment include their expectations and perceptions across all the dimensions. (Arlen, 2008) The dimensions are used as a guide in making crucial decisions. It as well helps determine specific customer and site needs. By asking questions around these dimensions, providers can learn how to play out at particular times/ location or opportunity. References Gustofsson, A., & Johnson, D., M. (2003) Competing in a Service Economy, San Francisco, Josey-Bass. p.7. Swearingen, J. (2002): Operations Management - Characteristics of services - s. Retrieved on 29th September, 2012 http://online.uis.edu/spring2002/bus322/lectures/chap01/sld040.htm Wolak, R., Kalafatis, S., & Harris, P., (n.d): An Investigation Into Four Characteristics of Services – s, Retrieved on 29th September, 2012. http://members.byronsharp.com/empgens/emp1.pdf Zeithaml, V. A., Parasuraman, A., & Berry, L. L., (1981) ; Problems and Strategies in Service Marketing. Retrieved on 29th September, http://areas.kenan flagler.unc.edu/marketing/faculty staff/zeithaml/selected%20publications/problems% 0and%20strategies%20in%20services%20marketing.pdf Pride,W.M., Ferell, O.,C. (2012). Marketing (16th ed.). Mason,USA; South Western Cengage Learning, p. 394 Arlen C. (2008): The 5 Service Dimensions All Customers Care About; Service Performance, Engaging Service Success. Retrieved on 29th September, 2012 http://www.serviceperformance.com/articles/33_Five_Service_Dimensions.php Zeithaml, V., Parasumaran, A., & Berry, L. (1990): SERVQUAL-s. Retrieved 30th September, 2012 http://www.12manage.com/methods_zeithaml_servqual.html Swearingen, J. (n.d): Operations Management - Characteristics of services - s. Retrieved on 29th September, 2012 http://online.uis.edu/spring2002/bus322/lectures/chap01/sld040.htm Read More