Introduction
The aim of this report is based on discussion of theory to critical evaluation of the Westside Health & Fitness Club (WH&FC). Having emphasis on the role service encounters in customer satisfaction and quality, outline a detailed approach to manage moments of truth of service recovery. Keeping good relationship with customer can be seen an important retention strategy of customer. Loyal customers can be especially useful in service businesses where most people use word of mouth recommendations to decide which business or person to use. The report is surrounding several issues, which include customer retention, management of moments of truth, service recovery and so on.
Methodology
First of all, I have visited the WH&FC
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Note that services are not things, yet services often rely on things for their performance.”
1.2 The service marketing mix
Fisk, Grove and John (2000) describes the service marketing mix in their study “The most common version of the marketing mix, known as the four Ps of marketing, emphasizes the key role of product, price, promotion, and place……Booms and Bitner (1981) suggested that service organizations need to augment these with three additional elements. The service marketing mix adds three new Ps---participants, physical evidence, and process of service assembly……”
Fisk, Grove and John (2000) agreed that “According to Booms and Bitner(1981), participants refer to all people, whether customers or workers, who are involved in the service production. Physical evidence means the service environment and other tangible aspects of the service that facilitate or communicate the nature of the service. The process of service assembly refers to the procedures and flow of activities that contribute to the delivery of the service.”
1.3 Customer retention
Customer retention has been argued by Murphy (2001) who states its purpose “It takes time and money to attract every new customer. For the first year or two after acquisition, the money that new customers spend with the organization is offset against acquisition costs. After this, there is a gradually increasing profit to be made from them. In time, if they stay with the
Emmy's and Maddy's first service experience highlights some of the basic differences between the production and delivery of goods versus that of services. In contrast to goods, services
This course focuses on services management in general and service operations in particular. It explores the elements that unite services, that differentiate service processes from non-service processes and that differentiate various types of services from each other. Customers generally participate in the service process, often with direct and uncensored interactions with employees and facilities. The resulting
Retention is a reflection of a customer’s willingness to remain with a particular company’s service or products and is useful to measure customer loyalty. The relationship
The service experience includes four different aspects that must be understood before analyzing the experience: services setting, the service workers, the service customers, and the service process. The service setting is where the action or service performance unfolds (Fisk et al, 2014, p. 26). The setting can also be what the customer is unable to see (backstage). The service workers are those who work together to create the service for the customers including the seen and unseen. The service customers are the person, group, or organization receiving the service. Finally, the service process is the series of events during the service received (Fisk et al, 2014, p. 26).
To an organisation, through understanding the service concept they are able to display the value of their service to the customer through communicating a key set of benefits. The services and benefits provided vary upon industry, however what individual organisations can benefit from is organisational alignment. Johnston et al. (2012) suggests that the service concept can act as a tool that links together the different functions of an organisation with a common purpose and standard. In addition, Looy et al. (2013) explains that the service concept can become a blueprint that communicates to employees what service they should provide and to customers what service they should expect to receive.
There has to be an understanding of the complexity of services before one can begin to determine what challenges face the service industry and the most efficient means of facing those challenges to maintain success. A service organization provides intangible services for a monetary value as perceived by the consumer (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2011). A simple definition is that there are no physical items exchanged in a service transaction as opposed to retail where an item is given in exchange for a predetermined price point. This paper will provide
The service industry interacts with our lives on a daily basis. Services can be defined as deeds, processes and performances. When considering the differences between products and services, intangibility and the fact that a service cannot be touched, tasted, viewed or tried on are terms often used (McColl-Kennedy & Kiel 2000). Services differ from goods in essentially four ways: (1) intangibility; (2) inseparability; (3) heterogeneity; (4) perishability (Kotler, Brown, Adam, Burton, Armstrong 2006). To deliver a quality service, managers also pay attention to the importance of tangibles that support service delivery as well as service delivery blueprinting. Managers must also accept that service failures occur and be able to
The aspects of business success that Jones (2012) chooses to study are that of customer retention and employee satisfaction. Being able to minimize the loss of customers correlates to improved financial
The contemporary school of thought in service science is currently dominated by the notion of service-centric services (Lusch & Vargo, 2008), whereby it is believed that the end users are the determinant of value of a given service and co-producing a service with the end users would enhance the value of the service. A main assumption made by this school of thought is that all aspect of services, from creation to delivery process, is the domain of the service providers. However, the emergence of disruptive technologies such as the internet, social media, etc has reduced the operational barriers, empowering the end users to become services provider themselves. This empowerment has led to the creation of what is known as
Tangible goods, or rather manufactured goods, have been the dominant medium of exchange for centuries. However, recent decades have proved that it is no longer the case as there has been a prevalence of being service oriented (Vargo and Lusch, 2004:1-2). Services, as defined by Vargo and Lusch (2004), are “the application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills) through deeds, processes, and performances for the benefit of another entity or the entity itself (p.2).” Utilizing services gives businesses an edge, a competitive advantage, particularly in an evolving competitive market, something which Metalfrio is definitely part of (Vargo and Lusch, 2004:9). Those businesses that learn to adapt tend to do well. In addition, Vargo and Lusch (2004) write this shift to services is also a shift from producer perspective to a customer perspective (p.2). Thus, it leads to more of a collaborative effort where co-creation leads to adding value to the service rather than a product having value (Vargo and Lusch, 2004:6). Also, customers rather develop relationships with those that can provide a range of related services over an extended period of time, thus allowing businesses retain their clients for the long term (Vargo and Lusch, 2004:13). Overall, service oriented marketing is a direction that businesses should be headed towards to ensure that they can remain relevant and competitive in the
Marketing is very important to all organizations, and it determines whether the business will be successful or not. “Marketing is the all-encompassing process of getting a product or service in the hands of your customers. The steps involved include market analysis, product creation, advertising strategy, and distribution (Jeanty, 2011).” The elements of the marketing mix help the marketing department market products or services correctly to make them the most appealing to consumers. There are four elements of the marketing mix, which are as follows: product, place, price, and promotion. The organization that was chosen to describe how each of the four elements of the marketing mix affects the development
It is imperative to satisfy customers and give them an amazing experience at the company. While it cost less to sell to existing customers and companies can increase profit by selling to the same customers; if customers are satisfied, there is more chance they will come back for more services or products. Satisfied customers are a free marketing for the company. However, it is the opposite if customers are dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customer will tell 8 to 10 people about his or her experience (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004). If by any reason, representatives see that the customer is not satisfy, they should act fast and fix the problem. Furthermore, there is more chance for sale representatives to sell to an existing customer that to a new customer. A good strategy for customer retention is to reward good customers. Companies can easily do
When City Grill follows the service blueprint above in its service processes, a change will be observed in their sales as there profits will definitely increase. They need to reduce the amount of waiting time from the thirty minutes to around ten minutes;
“Services are acts, deeds, performances, or relationships that produce time, place, form, or psychological utilities for customers” (Roberta S. Russell, 2014, p.194). Besides, there are some other explanation of service design: Service design is all about making the service you deliver useful, usable, efficient, effective and desirable (UK Design Council, 2010); Service design aims to ensure service interfaces are useful, usable and desirable for the client’s point of view and effective, efficient and distinctive from the supplier’s point of view (Birgit Mager, 2009); When you have two coffee shops right next to each other, and each sells
The manmade physical environment (servicescapes) or the tangible facets of the service facility (equipment, machinery, signage, employee appearance etc.)