Virgin Mobile, McDonalds Australia, National Australian Bank - Case Study Example

Service journal Entry Form Name of Student Name of Institution Course Title Name of Instructor Table of Contents 1.0 Executive Summary 3 2.0 Introduction 4 3.0 Methodology 4 3.1 Discussion and Analysis 5 3.2 National Australian Bank 5 3.3 Discussion of Experience 5 3.3.1 Customer Satisfaction 5 3.3.2 Area of improvement to the service system 6 3.4 McDonalds Australia 7 3.4.1 Discussion of Experience 7 3.4.2 Customer Satisfaction 8 3.4.3 Areas of improvement to the service system 8 3.5 Progressive Car Insurance 9 3.5.1 Discussion of Experience 9 3.5.2 Customer Satisfaction 10 3.5.3 Areas of improvement to the service system 10 3.6 Virgin Mobile 11 3.6.1 Discussion of Experience 11 3.6.2 Customer Satisfaction 12 3.6.3 Areas of improvement to the service quality 12 3.7 Virgin Australia 13 3.7.1 Discussion of Experience 13 3.7.2 Customer Satisfaction 13 3.7.3 Areas of improvement to the service system 13 3.8 Conclusion 14 3.9 References 15 4.0 APPENDIX 16 1.0 Executive Summary Services are an undoubtedly integral in any economy today. It’s also true that services have become the fastest growing component of international trade (Lovelock et al, 2011). According to Shemtob (2013), the Australian service sector as per July 2013 represented almost 705 of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. Successes of this industry in Australia and in any other economy are usually positive indicators of economic growth. However, the services industry is always plagued by service marketing issues which when ignored may bring about some shortcoming on the part of providers. This paper explores on five personal service encounters that I went through in various occasion and with various providers. The report will also show strengths and weaknesses in service provision by the five different service providers that I encountered. Recommendations on areas of improvement have also been made. 2.0 Introduction In the world economy today, majority of the jobs, often more than 75% of them are those that involve some form of service work (Bryson and Daniels, 2007). Many might think and argue that the service industry is more important to most world economies today than it was a century ago. However, the service industry’s role as one of the main pillars of any economy dates back to the Industrial Revolution and earlier. Nonetheless, there has been a considerable rise in the value and importance of services to economies in the second half of the nineteenth century to date. Lovelock et al. (2011) defines services as acts, performances or experiences that a party can offer another. Most of these acts are intangible and do not necessarily lead to the ownership of anything. Ideally, intangible products do lack physical substance. As a result of this, intangible products face a lot of service marketing that are mostly not solved or addressed by the common tradition marketing solutions (Hoffman and Bateson, 2008). This report discusses five personal encounters that bring out these issues facing service marketing. 3.0 Methodology The report will discuss my personal customer experiences at NAB Bank, McDonalds Australia, Progressive Car Insurance, Virgin Mobile, and Virgin Australia. The Report will then analyze each of the experiences with respect to services marketing models and concepts. 3.1 Discussion and Analysis 3.2 National Australian Bank 3.3 Discussion of Experience I usually bank with NAB bank, Brisbane Branch and I wanted the bank to consolidate all my current loans with them so that I could be making one single payment. I called the bank to make an appointment with a Personal Banker who is an officer in the bank that handles such matters. However, the customer care representative who picked up my call declined to book me an appointment with the Personal Banker and insisted that I my problem will be addressed via phone only. The customer agent actually connected me to the Personal Banker and I told him my problem and I was promised that the bank would work on it immediately. The Personal Banker also would call me after 3 days to confirm. Two weeks passed without receiving any call from the bank. I decided to make a call and inquire on why the bank had not yet updated me about the consolidation of my loans. The first time I was told that my consolidation application had been declined. On further inquiry, another customer care agent told me that my application had been approved but differed. When I was about to ask what they meant when they said that my application had been approved but differed, our phone communication was cut off from their end. Through all these phone conversations, I was constantly informed that I could only speak to the Personal Banker whom I initially contacted and no other person was supposed to handle my queries. I finally had to visit the bank’s branch manager in person and it is until then that the consolidation of my loans was addressed. 3.3.1 Customer Satisfaction I rated the level of satisfaction with the bank as terrible. The reason why I felt that the way the bank handled me as a customer was terrible is because a process that would take less than 30 minutes over-the-counter in a bank took almost 3 weeks. The customer service agents also seemed not to be having had proper knowledge of the banks processes and procedures. 3.3.2 Area of improvement to the service system The whole logic of a service according to Lovelock (2011) as an intangible benefit that is meant to satisfy a certain need had been defeated. My need was plain and simple; I needed all my loans consolidated so that when I am making payments, the bank should handle them all in one transaction. Banking is an important component of the Australian economy and banks out to be ware that customer satisfaction should always be made paramount in service management. Bank managers also ought to know that the defection of a customer has more ramifications and not just the mere loss of a customer’s future business (Palmer, 2005). In my case, the NAB needs to procedurally train their customer service agents regularly to keep the in touch with new trends and procedures. There also seemed to be a lack of a rapport between the customer service agents and senior bank employees. However, my main concern was that the bank did not have an officer whose specific task was to monitor on follow-ups of customer queries and complaints. If there existed such a person in the bank, my loan consolidation issue would have been dealt with in quite a short time unlike it occurred. Banks ought to know that when customers subscribe for certain products that the bank is offering, they pay for them and expect a value for their money (Lovelock, 2011). I would be perfectly in order to presume that the interests I paid for loans that had been advanced to me by the bank are payment for any service that I would require from the bank. Therefore, the lack of proper customer service support by the bank was a lack of responsibility on part of the bank. For improvement purposes, the bank should opt to reduce on the arm-length approach taken by its customer service in dealing with customers. Arm’s length contact procedures that are mostly conducted through electronic means as demonstrated by the bank are usually indicators of low-contact service and consequently poor service provision (Lovelock, 2011). From this encounter, I feel least likely to ever again seek a loan from the bank. 3.4 McDonalds Australia 3.4.1 Discussion of Experience I had decided to visit McDonald restaurant in the afternoon of July 3rd, 2013 to buy 2 happy meals and 4 nuggets. I also needed one large pounder meal and 2 large cheeseburgers. Halfway through our drive as we were leaving, we realised that we were not given our toy for the happy meal and therefore had to go back and get it. My partner went in and got it and we immediately left the restaurant for my auntie’s place. On reaching my aunties house, I realised that we were only given a medium pounder meal instead of a large one as I had ordered. We also realised that the cheeseburger was so dry and had no sauce; actually the cheeseburgers were so small and did not seem to match the large one that we always previously got from the restaurant. We then called the restaurant manager and informed him of the poor service that we had received and he told us to immediately return to the restaurant and get the correct orders. A few minutes later, we returned what we had purchased and we were given the proper meals as ordered. 3.4.2 Customer Satisfaction My rating of the level of satisfaction of the encounter at McDonalds was nearly terrible McDonalds is a world renowned restaurant and anyone who visits any of their restaurants or stores expects to get a world-class treatment. We actually drove a couple of miles having to pass several restaurants to specifically get our lunch from McDonalds. What made me feel that their level of customer satisfaction was close to terrible is that we actually presented a written list of our orders to the waiter who was attending to us only to find that it fell short of what we wanted. Lovelock (2011) explains that a service has to have the element of inseparability. That is, the production of a service cannot be separated from its consumption. Furthermore, consumers of services are co-producers of services. When my partner and I decided to visit the McDonalds restaurant, we actually had a list of the order we wanted prepared for us. As a matter of fact we presented this list to the waiter who was handling our order. This shows that we had actually played our part in the production process of the service. For the restaurant to offer us anything short of what we had ordered, it was a show of poor customer service which is why I rated this encounter as nearly terrible. 3.4.3 Areas of improvement to the service system However, in my opinion, I don’t really think that our poor service at the restaurant was because of poor management. This is because when I approached the restaurant manager, he seemed to be annoyed by the poor service we had been given earlier. I think that the person who was preparing our order was not diligent at what we had asked for thereby getting mixed up and packing the wrong order for us. The staff seemed to be operating on the assumption that we were more interested in the tangible outcome, whereas for us, our concern was mainly on the process (Lovelock, 2011). The restaurant staff members need to know that paying attention to a customer’s need is ultimate in service provision. Indeed, services are very delicate and sensitive to time because one cannot back-order them (Zeithaml et al. 2009). For instance, if we were leaving the town immediately after our purchase, we could have left with a poor customer experience about the restaurant. The restaurant also ought to know that once they offer a service, it should be incumbent upon them to foot any other cost that may accrue as a result of compensation of a poor service initially offered. Despite all this, I would still not mind visiting the restaurant again for an order or a meal. 3.5 Progressive Car Insurance 3.5.1 Discussion of Experience My brother had visited me for a weekend and his car had its side window smashed by a thief during one of the nights of his stay. The following morning we reported the incident to the local police and later we contacted the insurance company, Progressive Car Insurance, which had sold the policy covering his car. To our surprise, the insurance company made it clear that it cannot replace the side window since it was not scratched or chipped. Ordinarily, damage caused to a car by a thief should be classified under the categories of theft. However, the insurance company refused to compensate since the kind of damage that was caused by the thief was not covered by the policy. This was even contrary to an assurance made to us by the police officer who was handling our case that since my brother’s car was covered under a comprehensive policy, the damage will be compensated. Even with a statement from the police officer confirming that neither my brother nor I was responsible in any way for the smashed window, the insurance company would still not cover the damage. We were so pissed off with the way progressive car insurance had handled our case that my brother had to even pull out of their services and hire another insurer. 3.5.2 Customer Satisfaction The level satisfaction with this encounter was extremely terrible. The insurance policy that my brother’s car was under had well indicated that the car was insured against theft. For the insurance company to twist words that its only damages where the car is either chipped or scratched that the company would only compensate is what made me feel that Progressive Car Insurance was offering terrible services. This incident did not show that the company was offering poor services, but the company was duping customers with dubious insurance policies. 3.5.3 Areas of improvement to the service system Ideally, consumers should be involved to a greater or lesser extent, in the service (Lovelock, 2005). However, in this case, the involvement of the consumer in the production process was totally not present. My brother had been paying for an insurance cover that he totally did not have full information on what in covered him against. Lovelock (2011) further explains that a customer decision making process has three main stages: the pre-purchase stage; the service encounter stage; and the post encounter stage. Straight from the time he signed up with Progressive Car Insurance, there seemed to be a lack of adequate involvement of my brother through these three stages of decision making. Progressive Car Insurance ought to know that truth is the most powerful marketing tool that a company can have. Honesty and truth about a service is also the only way to properly promote a brand in an effective manner (Unerman & Baskin, 2012). The company, whose insurance policies seemed to be way low priced than most of its competitors out to clearly brief customers about the policies it offers. The company needs to fully disclose the kind of damages that its policies cover so that customers can always be fully aware of the kind of damages that they pay cover for. Marketing communication needs to be honest and truthful. If Progressive car Insurance had inculcated this under its service delivery, my brother would have not terminated his car insurance policy with the company. Poor involvement of the customer in the production process would mostly make the customer to rescind subscribing for the service again which is a decision that the customer reaches upon in the third stage of customer decision making. I would not recommend anyone or even myself to seek any insurance service with this particular company. 3.6 Virgin Mobile 3.6.1 Discussion of Experience Early July, my phone was stolen and I reported the case not only to the police but also to my mobile service provider, Virgin Mobile. I reported the case to Virgin Mobile so that they could classify my phone as stolen and terminate the monthly charges that they were charging. For the whole of July, I kept on calling Virgin Mobile customer service in advance not to charge me any money for their services since my phone was stolen. However, every time I called the company, a different customer service agent addressed my issue. Every one of them promised to rectify the issue, but I was still getting weekly bills for services that I was not using. Finally, they stopped sending me telephone bills but before they could completely end charging me, they insisted that I had to settle a $100 bill to end my contract. 3.6.2 Customer Satisfaction This experience made me feel cheated and I vowed never to use Virgin Mobile Services again. The company, according to my encounter, is plagued by poor customer service. I am sure that what I encountered was not only unique to me, but millions of other Virgin Mobile Services subscribers were also going through the same. What I went through was a terrible customer satisfaction level that made me feel like I was being extorted by Virgin Mobile. 3.6.3 Areas of improvement to the service quality I was so angry that the staff of Virgin Mobile could not terminate my account since my phone was stolen. Ordinarily, terminating an account with a mobile phone company at the request of a customer or a client is supposed to be a simple and quick procedure especially if the reasons raised by the customer are substantial. What even made me more angered by the way the company was treating my case was that a company such as Virgin Mobile did not have a provision for customers to cancel accounts by themselves. This is despite the fact that most competitors were offering this service. Furthermore, the mobile company’s loyalty department was not operating on weekends. To make matters worse, Virgin Mobile customers do not have a way of cancelling accounts online. The company is spending a lot of money on human resource and other supportive infrastructure to deal with issues which customers can easily handle from their end. Proper management of activities by service providers should be the main focus of a value-oriented marketing concept (Bruhn & Georgi, 2009). When companies enable customers to handle some of the production processes from their end, customers end up feeling like they are part of the processes and participate in making it better. 3.7 Virgin Australia 3.7.1 Discussion of Experience I recently flew with Virgin Australia from Brisbane to Hamilton Island in a 737-800 aircraft. The plane was very clean and tidy. I sat in the second row which had bulkhead seats. I also found the plane as having enough legroom in between the seats which made the flight more comfortable. During the flight we were offered a sandwich and biscuits as breakfast with a choice of coffee or milk since it was an early morning flight. 3.7.2 Customer Satisfaction I was very delighted with the service that I got from Virgin Australia. In most airlines, whenever one happens to be in a short distance flight, customers are rarely given proper attendance. Most of the flights also are inadequately staffed especially for 3 hours or less flights. However, my experience of the Virgin Australia flight from Brisbane to Hamilton was delightful. The plane seemed to have enough crew to handle the passengers. The members of staff of the airline, both on the ground and on air, were also very friendly. It seems the airline has learnt that increasing the competence of its employees in customer satisfaction and quality of service provided are very essential in expanding and sustaining a company’s customer base (Hoffman et al, 2002). 3.7.3 Areas of improvement to the service system Lovelock (2011) explains that service positioning is important in that an explicit ‘positioning’ such as the one portrayed by the airline helps customers in getting a ‘mental fix’ on the organisation service. The only area where I would urge the airline to try and look into is on the entertainment part of the flight. The plane lacked in-flight entertainment which meant that those who were lucky in carrying their iPads and other tablets along did not have to just sit and stare around through the flight. Some may argue that since it’s a short flight, customers should be accommodative of this situation. Virgin Australia should maintain its current service product positioning because it’s the means through which the airline differentiates itself from its competitors (Lovelock, 2011). Positioning in exemplary service provision by the airline is the only way to secure itself in the minds of its target market. 3.8 Conclusion From all this encounters, it is clear that a majority of the transaction that we engage in on a daily basis mainly revolve around the service industry. However, most service providers are yet to realise proper service management determines the returns of their investments. One reason why service industry is not given proper attention is because services in their nature are intangible and cannot be inventoried. Customer participation in the production process has also arisen as a major weakness by most service providers. Providers have to be ware that customers do go through a customer decision making process before and after they have requested for a service. It is the experiences of customers during this process that determines whether a customer will return to the provider for further engagements or would rather opt to deal with another provider. 3.9 References Bruhn M. & Georgi D. (2006). Services Marketing: Managing the Service Value Chain. 2nd Edition. Pearson Education Limited. Maidstone, Kent Bryson J.R. and Daniels P.W. (2007). The Handbook of Service Industries. 2nd Edition. Edward Elgar Publishers. United Kingdom. Hoffman K. & Bateson J. (2008). Essentials of Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies & Cases. 3nd Edition. Southern-Western Publishers. Cincinnati, Ohio. Lovelock C. H. et al, (2011). Services Marketing: An Asia-Pacific and Australian perspective. Pearson Education Australia. (5thEd.) NSW: Pearson Prentice-Hall. Palmer A. (2005). Principles of Service Marketing. 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN-10: 0077129512 Shemtob J. (April 3rd, 2013). Australian Service Sector Flirting with Expansion. Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/australian-sector-flirting-expansion-232000147.html Unerman S. & Baskin J.S. (2012). Tell the truth: Honesty is your most powerful marketing tool. Benbella Books Inc. Dallas, Texas. Zeithaml, V., Bitner, M. & Gremler, D. (2009). Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. 4.0 APPENDIX SERVICE JOURNAL ENTRY FORM I NATIONAL AUSTRALIAN BANK Name of Firm/Service Provider NAB Bank Type of Service Loan Consolidation Date: June 22nd, 2013 Time: 0900 hrs How did the encounter take place? In Person What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? I wanted the bank to consolidate all my loans so that I could be making a single payment for all of them. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? Terrible Delighted (1) 2 3 4 5 What exactly made you feel that way? The bank took close to three weeks to address an issue that only took less than thirty minutes in an over-the-counter transaction. What could the employee/firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? Better customer service support. The bank should also regularly train its staff on new bank procedures and processes. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? Extremely Unlikely Extremely Likely 1 (2) 3 4 5 SERVICE JOURNAL ENTRY FORM II MCDONALDS AUSTRALIA Name of Firm/Service Provider McDonalds Australia Type of Service Lunch Order Date: July 2nd, 2013 Time: 1300 hrs How did the encounter take place? In Person What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? Had gone there to buy lunch for my partner and I. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? Terrible Delighted 1 (2) 3 4 5 What exactly made you feel that way? Poor service as a result of careless restaurant staff What could the employee/firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? Pay more attention to customer details and needs How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? Extremely Unlikely Extremely Likely 1 2 3 (4) 5 SERVICE JOURNAL ENTRY FORM III PROGRESSIVE CAR INSURANCE Name of Firm/Service Provider Progressive Car Insurance Type of Service Car Insurance Date: June 30th, 2013 Time: 1300 hrs How did the encounter take place? In Person What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? A thief had smashed the side window of my brother’s car. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? Terrible Delighted (1) 2 3 4 5 What exactly made you feel that way? When the insurance company claimed that the damage of a smashed window by a thief is not covered in any of their policies. What could the employee/firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? There should be openness and honest communication between the service provider and the customer. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? Extremely Unlikely Extremely Likely (1) 2 3 4 5 SERVICE JOURNAL ENTRY FORM IV VIRGIN MOBILE Name of Firm/Service Provider Virgin Mobile Type of Service Mobile Services Date: August 10th, 2013 Time: 0800 hrs How did the encounter take place? Via phone What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? My phone had been stolen from me as I walked home. How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? Terrible Delighted (1) 2 3 4 5 What exactly made you feel that way? The mobile company could not cancel my account and yet my phone was stolen. What could the employee/firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? The mobile firm should come up with easy and fast ways of terminating accounts for customers. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? Extremely Unlikely Extremely Likely (1) 2 3 4 5 SERVICE JOURNAL ENTRY FORM V VIRGIN AUSTRALIA Name of Firm/Service Provider Virgin Australia Type of Service Flight Services Date: August 20th, 2013 Time: 0700 hrs How did the encounter take place? In Person What specific circumstances led up to this encounter? I was on a flight from Brisbane to Hamilton How would you rate your level of satisfaction with the encounter? Terrible Delighted 1 2 3 (4) 5 What exactly made you feel that way? Considering that this was a 2 hr flight, the in-flight attendance was as exemplary as that of a long distance flight. The airline should also maintain its customer service management positioning. What could the employee/firm have done to increase your level of satisfaction? What improvements need to be made to this service system? Improve on in-flight entertainment. The airline should also maintain its customer service management positioning. How likely is it that you will go back to this service provider? Extremely Unlikely Extremely Likely 1 2 3 4 (5) Read More