Satisfying and dissatisfying scenarios and two service incident analyses - Essay Example

Table of Contents Page Executive Summary 2 Part A. Satisfying Service Incident 3 A Service Incident 3 A 1 Circumstances leading to incident 3 A.1.2 What occurred during the incident? 4 A.1.3 What made the incident satisfying? 4 A.1.4 What could have been done differently? 4 A.2 Service Incident Analysis 5 A.2.1 Incident Appraisal 5 A.2.1.1 The types of encounter that occurred 5 A.2.1.2 The source(s) of pleasure 6 A.2.1.3 The relevant service quality gap 7 A.2.2 Recommendations 7 Part B. Dissatisfying Service Incident 9 B.1 Service Incident Description 9 B.1.1 Circumstances leading to incident 9 B.1.2 What occurred during the incident? 9 B.1.3 What made the incident satisfying? 10 B.1.4 What could have been done differently? 10 B.2 Service Incident Analysis 10 B.2.1 Incident Appraisal 10 B.2.1.1 The types of encounter that occurred 11 B.2.1.2 The source(s) of displeasure 11 B.2.1.3 The relevant service quality gap 12 B.2.2 Recommendations 13 References 14 Executive Summary Included in this paper are two service incident descriptions with satisfying and dissatisfying scenarios and two service incident analyses. The point of views are taken from the actual customer experience and in the case of incident analyses were taken from respective theories and marketing concepts. The proponent included service incident description, which involves circumstances leading to incident, the scenario that takes place during the incident, and the information involved that makes the incident satisfying or dissatisfying. Finally, under the service incident analysis includes the incident appraisal and recommendations. The two incidents involved in this paper are regarding McDonald’s and KFC experience of the customer. The point of the proponent is not to create any political or other meaning on this, but to emphasize how poorly some franchises in these food chains could manage their business with customers. Recommendations were included after each of the detailed analysis in these two respective cases. Part A. Satisfying Service Incident A.1 Service Incident Description There are many satisfying service incidents that I have experienced, but I would like to share this particular experience with McDonald’s. McDonald’s is one of the leading firms in the fast food chain industry around the globe today. Fast food chain restaurants are very popular in today’s fast-paced world where everybody seems to be looking for instant in almost everything. This incident happened on August 27, 2011 at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Together with my family, we enjoyed not just good tasting foods from McDonald’s, but including their fast and reliable service. It took only around less than 5 minutes and we enjoyed eating our orders. A.1.1 Circumstances leading to incident We were looking for nearby restaurants at that time. Our hunger and thirst were remarkable by then, but they subsided right away after we were able to receive product and service offerings based on our expectation. We thought it would be much better to try McDonald’s instead of other restaurants because we were trying to consider the time and our level of hunger for food. It happened that McDonald’s was one of the nearby restaurants we saw so we considered it our primary choice. A.1.2 What occurred during the incident? I was so satisfied because there were many customers on the queue at that time but the service crew attendants did a remarkable favor for everyone. They ensured that customers’ orders have been taken already while they were sill on the queue waiting their time to be served. The purpose of this was to inform in advance the staffs who were in-charge of the food preparation and to have ample time to know customers’ orders, and prepare and serve them on time. A.1.3 What made the incident satisfying? Due to the initiative of the said firm to cater their customers at a remarkable speed, we were able to quench our thirst and feed our hungry stomachs satisfactorily. It was one of the most satisfying events in my life that day, which I will never forget until now. A.1.4 What could have been done differently? If the said firm would have not been looking forward to serve their customers at a reliable speed, some of those new comers might not insist to throw themselves into the queue if they would realise the line they fall in was slow moving. The firm could have overlooked this situation and considered that customers would be willing to fall in line and would just wait for their turn. However, the firm was able to initiate things that would work favorably for the customers. The firm’s initiative was able to meet our needs at that time. A.2 Service Incident Analysis A.2.1 Incident Appraisal A.2.1.1 The type of encounter that occurred There was a face-to-face encounter between the customer and the service provider through the persons of service crew attendants. At this point, there was a direct personal contact between them. This would mean that verbal and non-verbal gestures were remarkably present and both the customer and service crew attendant substantially observed all of these. From the standpoint of the customer, the said encounter is a remarkable way to ensure that his or her needs are substantially addressed. At this point, the service crew attendant could give essential suggestions, explain the availability of their offerings and even make some ways to create great offer for other available products, promos and other related offers. These are just some possibilities that a service crew attendant could provide in situations like this especially in fast food chains. The transaction needs to be fast, but accurate to ensure that customers’ orders are served right. In other words, what matters in this situation is the right communication process in which both the customers and service provider can understand each other’s well. The right communication process ensures the right information is obtained and it is the bottom line of understanding what satisfies customers the most (Noe, Uysal, & Magnini, 2010). This remarkably applies between the customer and service provider especially in a fast food chain. Furthermore, the right communication process does not only end with the right words, but with the right gestures as well (Boone & Kurtz, 2010). At this point, essential to the face-to-face encounter is the ability of the service provider to initiate the right gesture. A warm smile of welcome might be enough for some customers to create an impression about the kind or quality of service they will receive (Knapp & Hall, 2009). A.2.1.2 The source(s) of the pleasure The main source of customer’s pleasure was the specific level of response by the service provider to his or her special needs. This remarkably talks about adaptability issue. In modern marketing, it is all about creating needs that essentially satisfies customers (Kotler et al., 1999; Boone & Kurtz, 2006). However, it talks about satisfaction in great detail. Thus, the ability of the service provider to meet the specific need of the customer which is about a fast-service met the customer’s expectation. Thus, it satisfies him or her. Furthermore, this is remarkably connected with spontaneity considering that the service provider was able to anticipate customer’s needs in the first place. A.2.1.3 The relevant service quality dimensions/gaps Listening gap is the relevant service quality gap involved in this case. It is important to note that the firm was able to understand the situation in advance. The company was able to understand the probable needs or expectations of the customers by employing personnel who could take down their orders while waiting for their turn to be served especially in the event of high traffic customers. There was an anticipation of this gap based in this case based on the ability of the service provider to achieve the specific needs of its customers at a given situation. In some cases, the only way to do this is for the service provider to evaluate their service from the point of view of the customers. In most cases, this is done through marketing research and other related activities (Grover & Vriens, 2006; Parasuraman, Grewal & Krishnan, 2006). The ultimate point is to create a link between the gap created between customer’s expectations and the firm’s perception of its customer’s expectations (Boone and Kurtz, 2011). A.2.2 Recommendations Based on the above case, the following recommendations apply: The said service provider should continue to elaborate specific customers’ needs so that they can always control the situation especially on how to addressing them with the right timing. Marketing research is necessary in order to understand further what other essential things that could satisfy customers (such as time, money, opportunity, value etc.). Customers’ feedback is necessary so that the service provider will be able to empirically evaluate how far it is giving the right value for its customers. The right communication is a must and the service provider should always ensure this is substantially performed. Part B. Dissatisfying Service Incident B.1 Service Incident Description If we talk about dissatisfying service incident, most probably I could share a number of them. In particular, I would like to share my bad experience with KFC. This does not intend to harm the entire firm, but I would like to point out a specific franchise dealer regarding this experience. This happened way back in the year 2008, it was on the 28th of March during the sweltering afternoon of the day. Perhaps I was just overreacting to the situation partly because of the weather condition or due to a relatively bad mood that day. B.1.1 Circumstances leading to incident I just finished shopping at a grocery store that day, but a little pissed off with the kind of service I received because it took me too long to stand falling in line before my items were punched in. After that, I decided to take my lunch at KFC since it was the nearest fast food restaurant at that time. I was remarkably in a bad mood, in hurry and hungry too. B.1.2 What occurred during the incident? However, at KFC, it was the same disappointing situation I experienced. It took me a little longer to fall in line waiting for my time to be served. The customer associates were not that accommodating. I just want them to at least give me a smile just to break my existing mood. Not only that, I was not really happy with their fries and there was a little thing needed to improve the quality of their fried chicken. Perhaps, it was due to not using suitable cooking oil that resulted to undesirable smell and taste. I just could not explain, but the entire service was remarkably poorly executed. B.1.3 What made the incident dissatisfying? The incident was just aggravating my existing mood at that time and it only reminded me how some businesses would undermine the importance of customer care. I was completely dissatisfied knowing that I waited for a long while and only to receive unmet expectation in the end. B.1.4 What should have been done differently? That particular franchise of KFC should have given much focus on how they could serve their customers at a remarkably higher speed. I believe they also lack time management in the first place and proper planning ahead of time. The very proof was their inability to provide quality product on a timely manner. B.2 Service Incident Analysis B.2.1 Incident Appraisal B.2.1.1 The type of encounter that occurred There was a face-to-face encounter between the customer and the service provider through the persons of service crew attendants. At this point, there was a direct personal contact between them. This would mean that verbal and non-verbal gestures were remarkably present and both the customer and service crew attendant substantially initiated or observed all of these. The customer remarkably pointed out that a smile from the service provider could have possibly changed his mood. Thus, this only proves that both verbal and non-verbal communications are essential in creating customer satisfaction at some point (Seliet, 2005; Leathers & Eaves, 2008). B.2.1.2 The source(s) of the displeasure There were many noted sources of the displeasure based on the above case. The first source was the failure of the service provider to anticipate responding to service failure (recovery). The customer pointed out that the fries were of an unacceptable taste together with its fried chicken. This was failure on the part of the service provider by not detecting the said problem in the first place and being unable to ask for customer feedbacks, which was necessary. Some customers would not be vocal to express how and what they feel on certain situations. Furthermore, there was a failure on the part of service provider to equip or train its human resources to detect non-verbal expressions from customers that may somehow signal significant needs. Non-verbal gestures are essential sources of information especially in understanding customer satisfaction (Boone & Kurtz, 2009; Woodside, 2003; Goman, 2009). There was also a problem regarding on anticipating customer’s needs (spontaneity). The service provider was unable to detect urgent need of the consumer for food. It is necessary to prioritise them by taking their orders in advance so that there will be ample time to prepare for them. This would remarkably ensure fast moving line and would make the customers feel they are essentially valued. Customers would know if they are valued or not and if their needs are taken care of and placed at a higher priority (Gale, 2010; Pallante, 2010; Nijssen & Frambach, 2000). Finally, there was also a problem regarding the failure to accommodate and recognize the seriousness of needs (adaptability). Some customers may not actually endure too long waiting time because of some specific needs, existing moods and other factors. Based on the above case, the service provider failed to properly take care of this. B.2.1.3 The relevant service quality dimensions/gaps Generally, the relevant service quality gap was too complicated, but in great detail it would boil down to the necessary link that should be improved especially on the company’s perception of customer’s needs and its customers’ expected service or product output. B.2.2 Recommendations I would particularly recommend that the said service provider should include learning and growth in its strategy especially on how to effectively handle their customers. Marketing research in line with understanding the needs of customers is necessary. The service provider should place more effort on how to come up the right quality of its product and service offerings through constant evaluation (ex. Customer feedbacks, evaluation, marketing research etc.). References Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2009). Contemporary Business (13th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2010). Contemporary Business (14th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2006). Contemporary Marketing (12th ed.). Ohio: Thomson/SouthWestern. Boone, L. E., & Kurtz, D. L. (2011). Contemporary Marketing (15th ed.). Ohio: Cengage Learning. Gale, B. (2010). Managing Customer Value: Creating Quality and Service That Customers Can See. 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