What Determines A Good Service Encounter?

What Determines A Good field Encounter?When giving examples of my go watch I allow, in both(prenominal) magazine try to explain the reasons for my utility knock, a brief description of what the starchy did and provided for myself, my level of felicity through a rate system amongst one to seven, from lowest to highest possible happiness, and lastly my reasons for this satisfaction rating. I bump this information will allow me to around effectively analyse the aid encounter, and identify the determinatives of a good servicing encounter whilst allowing me to comp be disparate profit encounters.I will firstly look towards the 7ps concept (Booms and Bitner 1982) which is an blanket(a) version of the selling assortment. What is crucial here, for the purpose of the essay, is determining if some Ps argon more all strategic(p) than separate Ps in monetary value of having a greater impact on a returns encounter terminus. I will in that respectfore proceed thro ugh each P, systematically and in turn evaluate its importance in determining a good or inquisitive proceeds encounter.The introductory marting texts conjure that all off prunes of the trade mix (4Ps) argon equally important, since a deficiency in any one enkindle mean unsuccessful somebody (Kellerman, Gordon and Hekmat, 1995). Number of studies of industrial marketers and buyrs indicated that the marketing mix components dissent signifi offertly in importance (Jackson, Burdick and Keith, 1985).Robicheaux (1976) bring that key marketing policies had qualifyingd signifi bottomtly. Pricing was considered the to the highest degree important marketing activity in Robicheauxs (1976) survey, although it ranked only sixth in Udells (1964) survey. Udell (1968) found that sales efforts were rated as most important, followed by merchandise efforts, pricing, and distribution. LaLonde (1977) found harvesting related criteria to be most important, followed by distribution, toll, a nd promotion. Perreault and Russ (1976) found that product character was considered most important, followed by distribution suffice and price.Thus, it appears from the studies above that note executives do not in reality view the Ps as being equally important, but consider the price and product components to be the most important (Kellerman, Gordon and Hekmat, 1995).Brunner (1989) argues that the marketing mix should be extended to include more factors affecting the serve marketing and so real(a)ly becoming mixes themselves. He provides examples of Concept Mix, Cost Mix, Channels Mix and the Communication MixSo far we prep atomic number 18 mainly touched on the 4 shopping center Ps but what Ps shag affect and arrest an eye on the egresscome of a renovation encounter? Fryar (1991) argues that differentiation and segmentation is the basis of a successful usefulness. Further, the personal birth with the guest and prime(prenominal) of the service be important eleme nts of the service marketing. This may be referring to the extended Ps of the marketing mix.Heuvel (1993)seems to agree with Fryar stating that Interaction among the one delivering the service and the client is actually important and has direct effect on the service quality and quality perception. He goes on march on to state that the Product element nooky be better demonstrated as having two components, the primary and substitute service elements as well as the process. Both Heuvel and Fryar seem to be heavily referring to the People and physical Ps of the extended marketing mix(Grove et al. 2000) compares service marketing to a theatrical production. How the service is performed is as important as what is performed. The critical factor is therefore the node experience. He goes on to state that the traditional Marketing Mix does not adequately stamp down the particular(prenominal) circumstances that are exhibit when marketing a service product. As much(prenominal) it cou ld be concluded that the 4Ps for the purpose of service marketing and thereof as a determinate of a service encounter chamberpot be seen as outdated. Rafiq and Ahmed (1995) state that 7Ps is more comprehensive, greater sensitive and includes important participants such as people and process. For the purpose of Service encounters the trio new Ps of People, Process and Physical design rear be seen as equally if not more important than the four total Ps. This cornerstone be supported through the extended Ps widespread acceptance in recent daysThe customer satisfaction Kano stupefy supports to earn and evaluate consumer acceptance and satisfaction, and can be use in many different disciplines. The determine classifies product attributes based on how they are perceived by customers and their effect on customer satisfaction (Kano, Seraku et al. 1996). accord to the mildew, there are ternary types of product attributes that fulfil customer satisfaction to a different degree 1) basic or evaluate attributes, 2) doing or verbalise attributes, and 3) surprise and delight attributes.A competitive product or service find outs basic anticipate attributes, maximises performances attributes, and includes as many blithesome attributes as financially feasible. In the model, the customer endeavours to move away from having unsuccessful desires.The basic or attributes are basic attributes, which customers take for granted and are not worth mentioning due to their obviousness. While the presence of these attributes is not really taken into account, the nonexistence of these attributes could be very dissatisfying for the customer. The performance or spoken attributes are those voiced by customers in what they are wanting from the product. These requirements can satisfy or dissatisfy consumer depending on the level of their satisfaction by a product or a service. The surprise and delight attributes if present can excite the customer, but their absence does n ot dissatisfy, as customers do not expect them. A competitive advantage can be achieved through successful use of both expected and exciting attributesKanos model of customer satisfaction will now be looked at. According to variant researchers, product life cycles are getting shorter, thus businesses are looking for for ways to strike down product development metre and to introduce their products to the market more quickly and effectively (Tan , 2000) Further, in many of the competitive markets, customers are getting more selective, demanding greater features in products and run. As a result, identifying customer leases and transferring this information through to the product design stage is domineering for any business to be able to stay competitive in the market (Sireli et al., 2003, Tontini, 2003,) Kanos model helps deal with these new trends and in turn hopes to meet customer requirements in the most efficient and effective way with traditional customer satisfaction tools , used to evaluate customer feedback, a strong correlation is assumed between product performance and customer satisfaction. For example, customer satisfaction is assumed to increase or decrease proportionally to the product performance improving or deteriorating respectively (Huiskonen and Pirttila, 1998).How ever harmonize to Mazler, increasing fulfillment of customer expectations does not always mean a proportional increase in customer satisfaction as this change in like manner depends on the type of expectation (Matzler et al., 1996). The different types of customer expectations can move everywhere different effects on customer satisfaction fulfillment. Kanos model of customer satisfaction tries to address this issue in providing particular types to each expectation such as attractive and indifferent. This can help companys understand the customer requirements.SERVQUAL can be used to determine if there are any differences between perceptions and expectations and if so whethe r this difference (if it was positive) contributed to a blessed service encounter. SERVQUAL can only be defined in a consumers estimation as it is a psychological difference between perceptions and expectations.Gronroos (1982) suggests that the perceived quality of a service is the result of an evaluation procedure whereby customers compare their perceptions of service quality auction pitch and the outcome against what they expected . Expectations can be can be defined as the customers frame of reference with respect to a product/service that allows anticipation of product/ service performance (Bitner et al. 1990). receivable to the fact that the model involves perception it means judgment may differ among individuals and thus could be based on the cultural framework that the person brings to the encounter (Ueltschy et al., 2007).While customers can judge the quality of manufacturing goods in terms of functions and standards, they may find it difficult to mea authentic service q uality because they perk up to assess not only the outcome of the service, but more significantly the process of the delivery of that service.Therefore, before customers purchase a service, they defecate expectations some service quality that can be based on a number of variables such as word-of mouth advocateations, individual needs, past experiences and a service providers marketing communications (Parasuraman et al., 1988).Parasuraman et al., (1988 1991) attempts to define the dimensions of service quality. Five major dimensions have be identified, videlicet reliability, responsiveness, assurance, tangibles and empathy.Reliability is the ability to execute the service as promised. Responsiveness refers to the willingness in providing the service. Assurance concerns the politeness in delivering the services and trustworthiness expressed to customers. Empathy can be defined as the judgment of customers specific requirements and their individual needs. Finally, tangibles incl ude the physical evidence of the service such as facilities and personnel.It has been widely accepted that these dimensions of SERVQUAL are able to capture the construct of service encounter quality (Raajpoot 2004).The concept of customer relationship worry will now be looked at which has emerged from relationship marketing. There is no doubt that in recent years there has been a greater emphasis on customer relationship management consequently ever but why is this? And is relationship marketing that important with regards to a service encounter?The emphasis on customer relationship management could be attributed to technological advancements which have allowed businesss to spend a penny increasingly intimate relationships with their customers. -sterle (2002) suggests that electronic commerce, put up chain management, one-on-one marketing and customer profiling to name a few are developments which can be attributed to the dramatic changes in the supplier-customer relationship ob served. It is this amalgamation of business functions which could loosely be referred to as modern customer relationship management.Stone et al. (2000) asserts that the concept of RM always included a very strong focus on the consumer. moreover possibly, CRM takes this a step provided in its integration of business functions which contribute to value maximising services for the consumer via the management of customer relationships, and in turn increasing customer guardianshipRelationship marketing has been successful in creating strong relationships with customers on a large scale. The technique has traditionally looked to apply its marketing communications to its customers depending on their relative needs. This entails customising marketing and product/service offerings to the various individual consumer groups to create a more personalised service as well as to develop a relationship based on interactivity.CRM, on the other hand, provides more to the individual marketing needs . This is due in the main part to the technology to make such a system technically and economically feasible (-sterle 2002), organisations are now able to further customise their marketing and product offerings, not just to groups but to individuals themselves. This has meant there is no long-term a need for customers to be grouped together into lifecycles with others, as businesss can mould their services around individual requirements.As such it can be concluded that CRM is an evolution of RM and has utilised advanced technology as an instrument to meet and surpass individual customer requirements.Discussion elementI will first mention my service encounter with dominos pizza pie in short I was throwing a small troupe with my friends from inhabitancy as I had recently returned from university. My freinds were very hungry and figure some fast food that wouldnt be too expensive. Thus I ordered three large pizzas over the call. I was very talented with the service encounter a nd would rate it at a six. My high satisfaction from this service encounter can be attributed to the following. Firstly when I reverberated up dominos pizza the staffs were very friendly and polite, swiftly pickings my order. We were overly informed on the phone most a seasonal special offer that was current at the time. This special offer allowed us to reduce our expenditure on the pizza pies which surpassed my expectations of what I thought would be the price. The pizza was then delivered to us within thirty minutes, as promised and was absolutely exquisite and nonetheless fresh. Thus, I would be very able to order from dominoes Pizza again but I was initially put on find out for three minutes which is why I am not rating the encounter at a seven. This nearly left me hanging up the phone and browsing for a close competitor, which of course would have been foul to Dominos Pizza.I will first look towards the 7ps concept (Booms and Bitner 1982) to determine why and how a good service encounter has occurred. Clearly the price had a major impact on our decision to choose Dominos Pizza. It can be see that Dominos pricing scheme is opposition based, due to the high competitiveness of this industry driving the prices down. til now our decision to buy from Dominos pizza was not solely based on the price, as we had options to look for a cheaper competitor. What did determine why we decided to choose Dominos Pizza was based on the brand name, reputation it holds, public convenience and peoples past experiences with Dominos Pizza. The convenience and price alone would not have persuaded us to buy from Dominos Pizza thus the main determinant of why we purchased from Dominos Pizza could be accredited to the brand name. But what actually determined a good service encounter? iodin must look further and concentrate on the extended Ps, namely People, Physical Evidence and Processes.The personnel on the phone and the friendly delivery staff certainly contribu ted towards a good service encounter. The staff taking my order were distinctly well trained and well informed, providing me information on the latest deals and being polite. The process was a high determinate of a happy service encounter. The Pizza was delivered within thirty minutes stroke to do so may have meant unhappy hungry customers who would not have been willing to repeat purchase from Dominos Pizza. Indeed the three minute hold I take to endure on the phone nearly left me hanging up and not completing the service encounter. The physical evidence is not really relevant to this service encounter. It can be seen that the fast process, polite personnel, product and place (convenience) contributed greatest to a happy service encounter from the 7ps perspective.SERVQUAL will now be used to determine if there were any differences between perceptions and expectations and if so whether this difference (if it was positive) contributed to a happy service encounter. SERVQUAL can on ly be defined in a consumers mind it is a psychological difference between perceptions and expectations.The SQ can be measured using Parasuraman et al.s (1985) Gaps Model. The Gaps model is made up of fiver so called breachs. Firstly, the knowledge perturbation is the difference between what customers want and animal trainers conjecture customers want. In this fibre as customers, we wanted a tasty pizza delivered to our door within a reasonable time at a reasonable cost. We got everything we wanted, thus it would appear that there was no knowledge gap. However being put on hold for three minutes could be seen as a slight knowledge gap which may have been detrimental to Dominos pizza. This knowledge gap could have been caused by the manager not hiring enough or enough plenteous staff.The standards gap is the gap between managements perception of customer expectations and actual results for the service delivery. In this case there is probably a positive gap. Although Dominos pizza utter the pizza would be delivered within thirty minutes we didnt actually deal it. Thus the actual delivery outweighed our expectations and can be seen as a positive gap.Gap 3 Delivery gapThe promises of a delicious pizza and a fast delivery were fulfilled and thus we were happy and didnt have any quarms. From the above it can be seen there were lesser if any gaps between our expectations and what was delivered and this clearly heavily contributed to a happy service encounter.The customer satisfaction Kano Model will be now be used to determine how Dominos Pizza satisfied us. Kano uses three types of relationships between attributes and the levels of customer satisfaction they generate. We must determine which attributes account for the largest proportion of customer satisfaction. The first type of attribute is the must have attributes. These are expected by the customer, all our must haves were met by Dominos Pizza. The bilinear satisfier attributes keep the customer sa tisfied, the delighter attributes are not expected or required, but help create customer satisfaction and can make the difference in brand choice for a consumer especially in competitive markets.The convenience, despatch of delivery and tastiness of the pizza could come under the heading of linear satisfiers. The polite personnel over the phone and great offers provided on the phone can be seen as delighter types of attributes and most contributed to my happiness on traffic with Dominos Pizza, further it was these delighters which have made me want to repeat purchase from Dominos in the future.From using the relevant theories it can quite clearly be seen that the main determinants of a good service encounter which Dominos Pizza offered was the speed of the delivery, the special offers that chinkd the price of the pizzas were less than first expected and the freshness of the pizzas which can be related to the speed of delivery. Thus, a manager working in the take-away service indu stry should ensure that his /her staffs are well trained and informed to not only take peoples orders over the phone but to answer peoples queries and provide information on ongoing special offers. A manager should in any case ensure there is an efficient distribution process so the delivery is undertaken as quick as possible.The service encounter that Dominos Pizza offered delighted me and my friends as customers, further I would be very happy to order from them again and recommend them to others. Therefore Dominos Pizza have provided a good service encounter.My next service encounter I will mention is my orthodontist appointee with my local NHS hospital Northwick Park. I was referred to the orthodontist by my dentist, who advised that I needed braces. I thus made an appointment for 900am on the 24/09/2009. I was pretty unhappy with this particular service counter for a number of reasons. Ultimately I was unhappy that I needed to wait an hour and fifteen minutes for my appointmen t after arriving prompt at 900am meaning me missing my train back to university. I was also upset because my actual appointment was rushed only lasted ten minutes, thus not all my queries were answered sufficiently. I would rate this service encounter at a two.I will again look towards the 7ps when analysing why and how bad services was encountered by myself. Firstly, the price for my appointment was free and therefore started my service encounter on a good note. The place of my appointment was however quite inconvenient for me as it meant me coming back from university especially for the appointment. The actual service was rushed and incomplete, this made me dissatisfied with the service. The process was slow and very inefficient which contributed heaviest to my dissatisfaction of the service encounter.As a customer I would have capricelly preferred an NHS orthodontist to be located nearer my university for convenience, furthermore, I sought-after(a) after a brief waiting time and a productive and effective appointment which would fully answer my questions. I got none of these things and thus there most certainly was a knowledge gap. This knowledge gap could be decreased through an efficient process, a more double-dyed(a) appointment and a local NHS orthodontist for my convenience. My expectation pre appointment was that I would need to wait about twenty minutes for my appointment which I was happy to do and that I would be provided an appointment lengthy enough to ensure all my queries were answered. My expectations were not met at all and therefore clearly there is a negative standards gap.Review sanction To The FutureReview bear To The FutureThe photographic charter Back to the Future, is filled with an all star line and dynamic visual effects that were stunning in nineteen 85 and still stunning by todays definition. It was an appealing depiction in which all ages could relate to the fun and entertainment that it was meant to portray. The depic tion was set in the sham town of Hill Valley and focused upon the antics of Doc. Emmett Brown played by Christopher Lloyd and his sidekick Marty Mcfly played by Michael J. Fox. The snap was written by Robert Zemeckis, who also directed the movie and Bob Gale,who came up the twaddle idea. Steven Speilberg was the producer for the film.The story idea came to writer Bob Gale one day when at his parents home he found an old yearbook of his fathers. He thought to himself, Would he and his father been friends if they had gone to school together? Gale returned to California and shared his idea with Robert Zemeckis. They decided to take the project to Columbia pictures and made a developmental deal with Columbia for the script in September of 1980. (Klastornin) The rough gulp of the script was finished in February, nineteen eightsomey-one. The film turned out to be more than just a thought about his father. The film had only a nineteen million dollar budget and brought in more than thr ee hundred-eighty million dollars. Back to the Future was a critically acclaimed best movie of nineteen eighty- five. Critic Christopher Null claimed it to be a quintessential nineteen eighties flick that combines science fiction, action, comedy and court all into a perfect little package that kids and adults will devour.(Null) It win the Hugo Award for dramatic presentation, the Saturn award for best science fiction film, academy awards and Golden Globe nomination. The film marked the beginning of a licence with the sequels Back to the Future ll in nineteen eighty- nine and the sequel Back to the future lll in nineteen ninety. There was an animated serial, a radical park ride and a video game released as well.The movie has a scene in which Marty is asked who is president in nineteen eighty- five and replies, Ronald Reagan. The person he is talking to laughs and tells him that Ronald Reagan is an actor, not a president. When watching the film for the first time Ronald Reagan h imself was so amused by the joke about his being president that he had the theater stop the movie and rewind the tremble so he could see the part again. He even referred to the movie in his nineteen eighty-six State of the Union address. He stated, neer has there been a more exciting time to be alive, a time of rousing wonder and heroic achievement. As they say in the film, Back to the Future, where were going, we dont need roads.(cspan) Many years later president George H.W. scrub used references from Back to the Future in his speeches.The film had to shoot at Universal Studios in California because no town would allow producers to redo their town to fit the nineteen fifties setting. Hill Valley scenes were quill at Courthouse Square on the back lot. Industrial Light and conjuring trick created the thirty- two special effect shots. (Freer) Designers set the fifties in a wonderful way to make the town look beautiful, they shot all the scenes from the fifties first so they coul d make the town look pure(a) and ugly for the scenes in the eighties. Back to the Future had to shoot differently than how most movies are filmed. Michael J. Fox was working weekdays on the hit television series Family Ties. This made him only available to work on the movie set from six-thirty p.m. to two-thirty a.m. on weekdays. They were forced to save exterior scenes until weekends because that was the only time he was available during daylight. This routine gave him only five hours for sleep each day. He found this schedule exhausting but worthwhile because he was concurrently living his dream of being on television and in movies. The movie took one hundred days to film and finally wrapped up on April twentieth of nineteen eighty- five. Producers and editors worked twenty-four hour shifts making sure the movie would be ready for its July third release date. Only eight minutes of filming was omitted when editing was completed.A lot of hard work went into the making of the movie Back to the Future. It was a risk at the time with lots of wondering whether the movie would flop or be a success. It proved a risk worth taking because now, twenty-six years later, it is movie that most all generations have seen. Back to the Future will continue to remain a film title known worldwide. This is a film that closes the generation gap and brings old and young together as one. Future generations will continue to enjoy this film for years to come.