The Service Marketing of Virgin Atlantic Airways - Assignment Example

Business Letter and Literature Summary BUSINESS LETTER Dear Mr.: We thanked you for calling our attention on the food and entertainment during your travels from Mumbai to Heathrow via our Virgin Atlantic Airways. We value what our customers like you think and say. We recognized all those problems that you mentioned in your email to us. We understand your predicament in having to endure nine (9) hours travel time without food and entertainment. We are deeply sorry that you found the food that we serve during your flight as comparable to receiving a dead hamster in the box as a christmas present and for acquiring a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen when you watched our onboard entertainment. Earlier, no less than Sir Richard Branson telephoned you to personally apologize. You are assured that we are addressing the problems. We are offering solutions to all those that you raised in your email as soon as we received your correspondence. We started by providing training to our staff and crew for our airlines. With regards to the food that we are serving during our flights, we are selecting well the foods with due consideration to what majority of the customers like based on the surveys that we conducted. To address your concern, we will again conduct surveys to determine on which aspect(s) of food selection and preparations that we need to improve. You are welcome to visit us on September 1, 2011 at nine in the morning to have a taste test. We are encouraging you to give your inputs on our array of food that we will start to offer our airlines’ clients starting October 1, 2011. The company is also giving you three thousand miles to be credited automatically to your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club card on September 1, 2011. Thank you very much and we are looking forward to more years with you flying aboard our Virgin Atlantic Airways. Sincerely, XXXX Marketing Manager LITERATURE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION As the Marketing Manager of Virgin, I wrote the letter above to address the concerns of the complainant and to act promptly on the problems identified. In writing a letter in response to a complaint, the correspondence has to be straight to the point and sincere. The company should honor whatever was written to the client. It is important that the company's sincerity will be felt by the reader of the response – who is the complainant. The service sector, according to Kutscher & Mark (1983), includes all sector except those in the goods-producing sector. These includes those in the food service, transportation service, trading (retail and wholesale), banking, insurance, finance, marketing, communication, hospitality, real estate, public utilities, government and other personal and business services. All of them deliver a type of service or services. This is a critical type of enterprise since in this sector, the customers' satisfaction and welfare are foremost considerations. In numerous countries around the world, the service sector is turning to be the major engine of the economy. A number of service businesses are being put up. The numbers are continuously increasing. Hence, it is very important that customer service is given its much needed attention. The airline industry is a type of service industry that has a high level of interaction between the customers and the service providers, as explained by Street (1994) and Lorenzoni & Lewis (2004). The airline industry is an industry which value the clients. It cannot afford to lose Customers. These clients have the potential to become public relation makers. They can refer the airlines' service to other customers through positive word-of-mouth (Magnini & Ford, 2004). They may consciously or unconsciously promote the airways company through their positive feedback and reviews on the airlines' service. Hence, the fronliners dealing with the clients has to be well-trained and the services being provided is of high quality. PROBLEMS RECOGNISED The problems mentioned by the client were identified. In this case, a service failure occured. According to Maxham (2001), a service failure is any service-related problems or mishaps. It can be either perceived and-or real. This happens during a costumer's experience with the enterprise. Service failure happens when a service provider cannot deliver service that meets the customer’s expectation (Alexander, 2002). Customers set up their expectation(s) from a service. Once this expectation is not met, according to (Babakus, Yavas, Karatepe, & Avci, 2003), it may result to complaint(s). Sometimes, complaint gets compounded when not addressed at once. As soon as the frontliner notice inconvenience(s) on the part of the client, the frontliner should start asking the client for any concern that the customer may want to raise. Miscommunication or the lack of it can result to service failure (Lewis & McCann, 2004). Service failure can be identified through customers and service providers using the following four causes: (a) an improper service provider response to a service delivery system; (b) an ineffective response of the service provider to customer requests; (c) unwanted service provider actions (proposed by Bitner et al., 1990); and (d) inappropriate customer behavior (proposed by Bitner, Boom, and Mohr, 1994). As can be observed from the above, a complaint, if not properly handled may be worsen. Hence, in any service failure, prompt and proper response have to be provided to the client. These can save a lot of trouble and compensation money. Nowadays, customers have high level of service expectation from service providers. This is specially true in the leisure, tourism and hospitality industries (McCole, 2004). These are the type of business where in the customers rely so much on efficient and effective delivery of service. Competition in these industries result to companies coming up with strategies aimed at giving high service quality. They add value to their service, morese than they go for price or service differentiation. Service Quality Management in these industries made use of strategies and concepts with the aim of enhancing the delivery of services for their clients. These concepts and strategies have to put in place system that clearly gives logical and practical explanations of theories and principles that the company is adopting. More and more companies are moving towards having competitive edge from their competitors since they are up against each other in this fast-changing industry. The problems faced by the client in this case, is having to endure the type of in-flight meals that were served and the splitting headache that he got as a result of watching onboard entertainment wherein the flickering white lines were running up and down the screen during his December 7, 2008 Heathrow to Mumbai travel through the Virgin Atlantic Airways. What the complainant emailed is a form of a feedback. Feedback may range from cards, emails or letters expressing gratitude, complaints or suggestions on improvement. The Virgin Atlantic Airways can view complaint or feedback like this as a valuable opportunity to review procedures, practices and policies. The changes that would be identified as needed would help the company improve. With regards to the food during the Virgin Atlantic Airways flight, the client was complaining about these food preparations below: desert with a tomato and peas in sour gel with clear oil on top Main meal which is like a lifeless hamster as a christmas present which has more mustard than any man could consume in a month with a piece of broccoli,some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and broken mashed potato mixed with a bit of mustard harder than a brass small cookie inside an evidence bag from the scene of a crime another crime-scene cookie dunk it in the mixture between the Baaji custard and the Mustard sauce With the onboard entertainment, the client was complaining about the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. The latter resulted to splitting headache, as experienced by the complainant. SOLUTIONS OFFERED Compensate the Complainant by Apologizing Several solutions were offered to the complainant. These solutions were raised so that the frustrated customer will become a loyal customer. These are forms of efforts aimed at service recovery. According to Grönroos (1988), service recovery refers to the action of the service provider in response to something that goes wrong. It entails those actions that are made in order to give solutions to the problems identified, alter negative attitudes of dissatisfied customers and of course, to ultimately retain these customers (Miller, Craighead & Karwan, 2000, p. 388). When a complaint was filed, provide solution. It is not good to make the staff's problem or the business’s problem the customer’s problem. Remedy the circumstance. Train the employees facing the customers to have the latitude to provide the clients with solutions when they cannot satisfy a need. In this case, the company quickly apologized to the client by calling him. It is important to apologize for poor or inadequate service. Apology is is a form of compensation for the inconvenience suffered by the customer. ompensation are needed to ease up the bad feelings of the complainant. The summary of the literature used that supports the solutions and compensation that were included in the letter was shown here. In this case, the owner of the company, Sir Richard Branson, personally apologized to the complainant via telephone call (Telegraph Media Group Ltd., 2009). As a result of the apology, contentment can occur after the dissatisfaction of this complainant with with service. This happens when customers have a chance to express their feelings. Contentment also also is achieved after the client received an apology. Compensation by Explanation We explained to the customer that the food being served are well-selected. The survey which was previously conducted was the basis in the choice of the array of food during each flight. The meals that are being served during the Virgin Atlantic Airways’ flights are well-thought of by the professionals in the kitchen. The caterers of the Virgin Atlantic Airways are continuously improving their systems. What are being served and their preparations are carefully studied. Despite this, the customers’ complaint (however isolated) has to be addressed and responded to. These should be explained well to the customer. Good explanation would clear up misunderstanding and miscommunication. Sincerely explain. The explantions have to be direct to the point. Customers value honesty. They can gauge from the way you talk and your body language the level of sincerity and honesty. Complaints should be addressed as soon as it happened. If the passenger started complaining aboard the plane, the staff and/or crew should attend to him right there and then. A complaint should be resolved on the spot. When providing explanation to the customer, recognise the need to be fair to all – to the complainant, to the company and/or to the person(s) against whom the complaint is made. Be fair to all involved. Each should be treated with courtesy as well as respect. Each should be given the opportunity to respond to any concerns or problems raised. Customers have the right to expect an honest, open, prompt and constructive response and clear and to the point explanation. Compensate by Correction The compensation through apology which was discussed above was coupled with prompt sending to training the crew and staff of the Virgin Atlantic Airways. This is being done to correct the mistake of the staff and crew of not addressing the concerns of the passenger while on flight. Sending the staff concerned to training is a good start and a good form of corrective action. Correction is also being done to maintain current customers (McCole, 2004) aside from attracting new ones. To show sincerity to the client, the company had scheduled again conduct of customers’ surveys. This will be done to identify the aspect(s) of food selection and preparations that we need to improve. The Virgin Atlantic Airways is demonstrating a commitment to an effective complaints handling system. This system is ensured to reflect the rights of complainants, their expectations and their needs. The Virgin Atlantic Airways has to have a company culture within the agency. This culture must recognise the complainant's right to complain. Likewise, it should provides the mechanisms for complaints to be addressed in a timely, fair and efficient manner. Management commitment should be shown by the provision of adequate resources including training. A dedicated complaint handling system should be in placed so as to give attention and make actions on the complainant's problems raised. Everyone at Virgin Atlantic Airways, from the Chief Executive Officer down, should know how to direct any complaint to the company's complaints management system. The integrated complaints handling system should be coupled with the necessary support for it to be effectively operated. Corrective action from the service provider results to contentment by the complainant and the other customers. Feelings of satisfaction can be enhanced by a favorable outcome, as explained by (Alexander, 2002). Learning that your service provider is acting on the complaints of other customers gives positive feelings to other customers and spectators. Compensate by Providing Perks or Efforts that will Ease up the Inconvenience that the Customer Experienced Any offer of compensation or perks that will help the customer ease up his or her inconveniences would be better than simply having a better-luck-next-time attitude of the frontliner. In the case of this complainant against the services of the Virgin Atlantic Airways, he was invited to come and participate in the taste test to be held on September 1, 2011 at nine in the morning. He was asked to come for a visit and was encouraged to give your inputs on the food selections that the company will start to offer starting October 1, 2011 to our airlines’ clients. In this time of tight competition, companies cannot always compete on price. What the companies can always compete on is on the quality of service that they provide to their respective customers. The best thing about providing great customer service is that giving it to your clients does not cost extra money. When the competitor is scrounging for customers, what your company could do is to hold yours close. This begins with excellent customer service. Compensate the Complainant with Exceptional Treatment The company, likewise, authorized providing the complainant three thousand miles for his Virgin Atlantic Flying Club card, as a token of appreciation for calling the attention of the company with regards to the foods that are being served and the quality of the onboard entertainment. This is done in an attempt to acquire client satisfaction that will eventually lead to repurchase intention. Once these two -- client satisfaction and repurchase intention -- are achieved, this may hopefully lead to profitability after restoration of customers from service recovery. Satisfaction best explains loyalty. The more satisfied customers are, the more likely they will remain loyal to their institution (Graf, Durif & Belzile (2008). When situation(s) is/are preventing the organization from providing the best quality of customer service or when a mistake was made, find a way to make it up to the c lient. A once dissatisfied customer would have gladly continued going back to the service provider that he or she was dissatisfied with if that establishment’s staff had offered to make amends for the fact that the customer was getting less than what he or she ordered or bought. If the establishment's crew or frontliner allowed the customer to feel shortchanged, that is not a feeling that any customer is going to want to repeat. Feel valued – that is important to clients (Hess, et. al, 2003). All client is special. The main purpose of business is to serve clients. This has to be understood by all the employees. Therefore, the focus of them should be making the clients feel appreciated and well-valued. A number of companies are giving perks for the customers. For example, loyal companies can be upgraded to Very Important Person (VIP) status. Some establishments believe that there is never a bad time to throw in a special perk for a client. Gestures as little as providing a metaphorical hug or shaking a customer’s hand are forms of good customer service. The business is not about the company. It is about the customers, the generator of revenue, the reason for the business. Making cuts to employee perks or customer service perks is not a good practice. It will not help the company in the long run. In today’s modern economy, everything has to be done so that the company can hang on to the clients. Companies should encourage the customers to keep coming back to the business. There is no better way to do that than through the provision of excellent customer service. It is important to compensate the complainant with exceptional treatment. Ensure that this client is satisfied before you move on to the next customer. Provide the needs and expectations of the complainent. Ask if there is anything else that the company could do to him. The Virgin Atlantic Airways is not done serving the complainant when the company thinks that it is done. The company is done serving the client when he or she is fully satisfied. An effective service recovery can turn dissatisafied customer to a satisfied client (Simon & Kraus, 2005). A frustrated client may become a loyal one. Service recovery when done can create more goodwill than harm. Fnally, a good consumer complaint handler has to learn empathy. When handling complaint, there is a need to put on the shoes of the customer who is complaining. The responses to the complainants have to be customised to his or her needs. The customer complaint handler has to understand the emotional impact of the situations that have caused the complaint. In cases like this, emotions may be high. The handler has to be calm and objective. The body language has to be at bay. It has to be neutral during the meetings or the complaint session. The tone of the voice or any responses should be empathic as well as conciliatory. WORKS CITED Alexander, E. C. (2002). Consumer reactions to unethical service recovery. Journal of Business Ethics, 36(3), 223-237. Babakus, E., Yavas, U., Karatepe, O. M., & Avci, T. (2003). The effect of management commitment to service quality on employee’s affective and performance outcomes. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(3), 272-286. Bitner, M. J., Booms, B. H., & Tetreault, M. S. (1990). The service encounter: diagnosing favorable and unfavorable incidents. Journal of Marketing, 54(January), 71-84. Bitner, M. J., Booms, B. H., & Mohr, L. A. (1994). Critical service encounters: The employee's viewpoint. Journal of Marketing, 58(4), 95-106. Hess, Ronald L., Ganesan, Shankar and Klein, Noreen M. (2003). Service Failure and Recovery: The Impact of Relationship Factors on Customer Satisfaction. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science April 2003 vol. 31 no. 2 127-145. Graf, Raoul, Durif, Fabien and Belzile, M;ario. (2008). “Echo Generation”: switching costs and the relational approach in the banking industry. Innovative Marketing, 4 (1): 77. Grönroos C. (1988) "Service Quality: The Six Criteria of Good Perceived Service Quality", Review of Business, Vol 9 No Winter, pp. 10-13. Kutscher, Ronald E. And Mark, Jerome A. The service-producing sector: some common perceptions reviewed. Monthly Labor Review Online, 106 (4), April 1983. Lewis, B. R., & McCann, P. (2004). Service failure and recovery: Evidence from the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(1), 6-17. Lorenzoni, N. & Lewis, B. R. (2004) Service recovery in the airline industry: a cross-cultural comparison of the attitudes and behaviours of British and Italian front-line personnel. Managing Service Quality, 14, 11-25. Miller, J. L., Craighead, C. W., & Karwan, K. R. (2000). Service recovery: A framework and empirical investigation. Journal of Operations Management, 18(1), 387- 400. Magnini, V. P., & Ford, J. B. (2004). Service failure recovery in China. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(5), 279-286. Maxham J.G.I. (2001) "Service Recovery's Influence on Consumer Satisfaction, Word-of- Mouth, and Purchase Intentions", Journal of Business Research, Vol 54 No October, pp. 11-24. McCole, P. (2004) Dealing with complaints in services. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16, 345-354. Simon, J. V. & Kraus, M. E. (2005). An analytical approach for allocating service recovery efforts to reduce internal failures. Journal of Service Research, 7(3), 277-289. Street, M. (1994).  Trainning people to deliver service excellence in British Airways. Managing Service Quality, 4( 4), 13-6. Telegraph Media Group Ltd., 2009, Virgin: the world's best passenger complaint letter? 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