WEEKLY TUITORIAL ACTIVITIES ON THURSDAYS O… · What is the “JetBlue Experience” and how is it...

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WEEKLY TUITORIAL ACTIVITIES

ON THURSDAYS

WK 1 Course Introduction and Frameworks for Services

28/8 Read: Chapter 1

Assignment: Prepare discussion questions 4 and 2

Q4.

One of the underlying frameworks for the text is the service marketing mix.

Discuss why each of the three new mix elements (process, people, and physical

evidence) is included.

With reference to an example of how Southwest Airlines develops its positioning

strategy around the three new P’s (as shown in Exhibit 1.2), how might each of

these communicate with or help to satisfy an organization’s customers?

Q2.

Read the major section of chapter 1 titled “Service and Technology”, and

comment on how is technology changing the nature of customer service and

service offerings?

With reference to the Technology Spotlight on the “Changing Face of Customer

Service”, how does technology enable new ways to deliver services”?

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WK2 Gaps Model and Financial Impact of Service Quality

4/9 Read: Chapter 2

Assignment: Get ready for “gap analysis”

One way to get the class more actively involved in the discussion of the Gaps model is to

get them to discuss the various pieces of the model. The class is divided into five

groups and have them discuss each of the five gaps presented in the chapter. An

outline of the chapters and topics is provided below.

• The Customer Gap

Chapter 3 – Customer Expectations of Service

Chapter 4 – Customer Perceptions of Service

• Gap 1 – Not Knowing What Customers Expect (The Knowledge Gap)

Chapter 5 – Listening to Customers through Research

Chapter 6 – Building Customer Relationships

Chapter 7 – Service Recovery

Gap 2 – Not Having the Right Service Quality Designs and Standards (The

Service Design and Standards Gap)

Chapter 8 – Service Innovation and Design

Chapter 9– Customer-Defined Service Standards

Chapter 10 – Physical Evidence and the Servicescape

• Gap 3 – Not Delivering to Service Standards (The Service Performance Gap)

Chapter 11 – Employees’ Roles in Service Delivery

Chapter 12 – Customers’ Roles in Service Delivery

Chapter 13 – Managing Demand and Capacity

• Gap 4 – Not Matching Performance to Promises (The Communication Gap)

Chapter 14 – Integrated Service marketing Communications

Chapter 15 – Pricing of Services

Each group would be given 10 minutes and asked to discuss the following:

• Provide a review/summary of the topic assigned.

• Provide examples (ideally new ones) to illustrate the concepts/issues from

the assigned topic.

• Discuss how the assigned topic relates to the Gaps model.

• Suggest ways (key strategies) that could be used to close a gap in the model.

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WK3 Gaps Model and Financial Impact of Service Quality

11/9 Assignment: Case Study “Jyske Bank” (PP. 572 – 590)

Questions are to be prepared in advance of each case discussion; turn in your answers

at the beginning of class, keeping a reference cope for yourself to use during the

discussion.

(Q1) What is Jyske Bank’s new positioning or competitive differentiation strategy?

(Q2) What changes did the bank make to get to its new position? What effect did these

changes have?

(Q3) Analysis Jyske Bank’s success using the Service Quality gaps Model – Chapter 2

(e.g. what are Jyske Bank’s strategies for closing each of the 5 gaps in the model?)

(Q4) In your opinion can Jyske Bank’s sustain its growth and success? Would you

invest in Jyske Bank?

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WK4 Customer expectations of services


Assignment:

Get ready for “content analysis of some big companies’ websites”

Prepare discussion questions 7 and 11

Content analysis of some big companies’ websites:

Listed below are Web sites for companies known to have outstanding service.

Students may be asked to evaluate these sites in terms of

whether the sites themselves meet their expectations for service, and

whether they signal that the companies creating the sites offer services that meet their desired

or adequate expectations.

Company

Amazon www.amazon.com

Pebble Beach Resort www.pebblebeach.com

Ritz-Carlton www.ritzcarlton

Q7. Read the Strategy Insight on “Customer Experiences as Corporate Strategy”.

What strategies can you add to the Strategy Insight in this chapter for influencing the

factors?

Q11. Should service marketers delight their customers?

http://www.ritzcarlton/

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WK5 Customer perceptions of services


Assignment:

Review The American Customer satisfaction Index (ACSI) and attempt the questions

set below

Prepare discussion question 9

Q9. Assume you are a manager of a health club. Discuss general strategies you might use

to maximize customers’ positive perceptions of your club.

First, the students could build a strategy around the concepts shown in Figure 4.1

and the related discussion in the text.

Second, students can use the material in Table 4.3 about “ service behavior based

on service encounter themes” to develop a strategy.

Visit ACSI website at http://www.the acsi.org and consider the following questions:

What is ACSI?

What is the trend in customer satisfaction in service businesses?

How do services compare to tangible products in terms of customer satisfaction?

Choose one service industry in the ACSI and review the trends in that industry since the

ACSI was created.

http://www.the/

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WK6 Listening to customer through research

2/10 Chung Yeung Festival Public Holiday

Read: Chapter 5

Assignment:

An active learn exercise helps you learn to apply a popular service marketing

research technique to measure service quality, and use the collected information to

guide business decisions

SERVQUAL Research Project

You are to select a service that your university offers to students and that most

students will be familiar with (e.g., recreation center, health center, library, food

service at the student union, etc.). Your task is to adapt the SERVQUAL scale,

located in Exhibit 5.2 (pp. 126-127), to fit the service you select and then

administer your survey to a sample of students. (A reasonable number for this

assignment would be for each student to collect 3-5 responses.) Then your team is

to analyze the data and provide the class a verbal summary of your results. You

should prepare either a handout for the class or PowerPoint slide(s) to visually

display your results. Your analysis should include the mean rating for each

dimension. What implications are there for the manager of the student service you

selected? Finally, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages to using this

type of research method?

In the following week (7 Oct), presentations and debriefing of project finding will be

made to the entire class at the designated time. During this meeting the entire class

will compare and contrast the different methods and discuss the types of information

that can be discovered.

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WK7 Service Recovery


Assignment: Case Study “JetBlue Airline” (pp. 591 – 606)



discussion.

(1) Before the Ice Storm:

What is the “JetBlue Experience” and how is it related to the company’s overall

business strategy?

What challenges did the airline face in managing the customer experience as the

airline grew rapidly and how did they respond?

(2) During the ice Storm:

What exactly went wrong? Why? Who, or what, was responsible?

Did the airline handle the crisis well – why or why not? What else could JetBlue

have done to improve the situation?

(3) Looking Ahead:

What are the potential negative consequences for JetBlue resulting from the

situation?

What do you think of the Customers’ Bill of Rights as a service guarantee? Will it

help the company regain customer loyalty?

What further strategic and/or leadership actions should JetBlue take to ensure the

company’s future success and their ability to deliver the JetBlue Experience?

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WK8 Service innovation and design


Assignment:

Service Blueprinting Exercise

Class members will be working in small groups to complete this service blueprinting

exercise. The activity involves the following steps:

• Each group creates a blueprint for one of the services described on the next two pages,

either “Diets to You” or “Azure River Tubers.” Groups should refer to textbook for the

basic steps for designing a blueprint, the generic map, and the sample blueprints.

• Groups then share their blueprints with the class, and the class discusses the content of

the blueprints and the process of developing them. To conclude the exercise, the class

brainstorms potential uses of blueprinting.

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“DIETS TO YOU” DELIVERS TO HOMES

The paperboy delivers the paper. The mailman delivers the mail. And Diets to You

delivers diet foods–about 900 calories each. So the day begins for 100 dieters who pay

on average $75 a week for fresh, low-calorie, low-fat meals delivered to their homes or

offices five days a week.

Carolyn Adamson began this business in 1991. She and her partner recently ironed out the

bugs and began talking to potential franchisers. “I’m surprised I don’t have any

competition,” says Ms. Adamson. The idea seemed so obvious to her, and customers

agree.

Three years ago, Ms. Adamson and her partner were working as technical writers in an

engineering firm, and hating it. “We were both on diets but never had enough time to

cook low-cal, low-fat meals at home,” she recalled. If only someone delivered fresh

food to the door!

Advertising such a service in the local newspaper, the two attracted eight customers and

quit their jobs to work on the business full time out of a caterer’s kitchen they had

subleased. Ms. Adamson has not advertised since; for fear of attracting too many

customers too soon, but finally she’s ready. Ms. Adamson has hired a publicist and

expects business to double this year.

“I’m eating their breakfast right now,” says Charles Baldwin, a cheery-sounding customer

of Diets to You. Putting down his blueberry muffin, the referee explained that he

signed on two years ago, lost twenty pounds, and never gained them back.

The menus only repeat every six weeks and include such fare as lasagna, quiche, soups,

Mexican food and pizza. “It’s basically not diet food,” Ms. Adamson said. “We just

use diet ingredients and cut the portions.” The meals come in 900, 1200 and 1600

calorie servings, with no more than 20 percent of the calories coming from fat. The

bigger the portion, the more you pay. At the Garcia household, Angela Garcia orders

1200 calorie meals for herself and 1600 for her husband, three times a week. Since

both spouses work, she said, “It really fits our lifestyle.”

Today’s breakfast: muffins, vanilla yogurt and a pear. Lunch: home-style turkey soup, bagels

and fruit. Dinner: baked Greek shrimp and noodles in tomato-garlic sauce, broccoli, salad, and

for dessert, lemon cookies.

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Azure River Tubers

Azure River Tubers (Tubers), which has an exclusive concession agreement with the

State Department of Natural Resources, offers tubing trips down the Azure River from

Scenic Bend to Lookout Bridge, a distance of 12 miles. The Azure River is located

about 15 miles south of Capitol City and runs through a series of canyons. The journey

offers outstanding views and the chance to enjoy an undeveloped and unspoiled natural

environment.

Most customers are college students and young adults from Capitol City who enjoy

spending an afternoon in the sun floating down the scenic Azure River. Because it is

hot and sunny, customers need to be prepared. They are advised by Tubers in its

brochures, advertisements and website to bring sunscreen, hats and long-sleeved shirts

to wear over their bathing suits. Many tubers forget at least one of these essential

items. The Tubers Rental Shack at the river stocks a complete line of accessories for

anyone who has forgotten something.

Customers start their journey down the Azure River at Scenic Bend, where they park

their vehicles in a parking lot owned and maintained by Tubers. Parking costs $5 for

all day, but is free for those who spend at least $20 in the Tubers Rental Shack.

Before they begin their tubing trip, customers must rent a tube at the Tubers Rental

Shack. Tubers inventories over 200 tubes in a backroom of the rental shack. Two

college students work there part-time, filling the tubes with air and maintaining them.

Each tube is checked for air pressure and leaks before it is rented to a customer.

Customers can either bring their own refreshments or buy food and drink from the

Tubers Rental Shack. In addition, Tubers will sell or rent small floating coolers to keep

snacks cold. The coolers can be attached to a tube with a hooked rope.

Many tubers like to stop during the trip and go ashore. They have picnics, swim and

enjoy the scenery.

At the end of the 3-4 hour trip, customers arrive at Lookout Bridge, where they exit

the river. If they wish, they can take a shower at the Tubers Deck House next to the

bridge. A Tubers van takes them back to their vehicles at Scenic Bend where they

started.

©

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WK9 Customer-defined service standards


Assignment: Case Study “Merrill Lynch: Supernova” (pp. 516-536)



discussion.

(1) What does Supernova offer to Merrill-Lynch? Does Merrill-Lynch need Supernova to

be successful or grow in the future?

(2) What is Supernova and how is it different from traditional financial advising models?

What is the value proposition for customers?

(3) What changes were required to implement the Supernova process – for FAs? For

Merrill-Lynch itself? What were the risks and potential benefits for both?

(4) Paint a picture of a Financial Advisor’s day using the Supernova process. How is this

different from typical day under the old process?

(5) How would you recommend Merrill-Lynch as a company proceeds in rolling out

Supernova? What are the challenges and hurdles that must be overcome for it to

succeed? How can they overcome these challenges?

(6)

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WK10 Physical evidence and the servicescape


Assignment:

Video-tapping the servicescape of a specific service centre at LU

To supplement the class lecture on the topic of physical evidence, student teams could be

asked to “produce” a short (4 to 5 minutes) video segment related to a specific

servicescape. Although the assignment could include a local business, it probably could be

done on most college campuses by looking at such servicescapes at a campus dining hall,

a student recreational center, the library, the business building, etc. (Many universities

have facilities that will loan out video equipment at minimal or no charge for such

purposes.) Each video segment might address the following questions:

1. What is done well in this servicescape? Use the video to point out specific examples.

2. What are the important issues in designing/maintaining this servicescape so that it will

be a positive influence on customer expectations?

3. What part(s) of the servicescape could be improved or altered to positively influence

the service experience? Use the video to point out specific examples.

4. Do any of the following characteristics (color, lighting, shapes, sound, and smell)

influence the customer’s experience? Explain.

5. Which roles (package, facilitator, socializer, and differentiator) does this servicescape

play? Explain.

Student groups can be assigned completely different services, or several groups may be

assigned different aspects of one provider’s servicescape. For example, several student

teams could be assigned the university golf course, but each might be responsible for a

different aspect of the servicescape (e.g., parking lot, club house, driving range, or the

course itself). Alternatively, a different approach might be to make comparisons between

providers who essentially provide the same service. In this case, students could compare

and contrast the university golf course’s servicescape with (if available) the servicescape

of a municipal golf course, a resort golf course, and/or a private country club golf course.

Each course is likely to have a very different servicescape which, in turn, is likely to have

a different effect on its customers. Once the video segments have been “produced,” they

can be shown to the entire class. The instructor can stop the videos to elaborate on various

points and ask the video’s producers questions. A major objective of the assignment is to

illustrate how the servicescape can influence the customer’s service experience.

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WK11 Employees’ roles in service delivery

6/11

Read: Chapter 11

Assignment:

Guest Lecture

Guest speakers can often make a valuable contribution to what is being said in class.

Figure 11.4 can also be used to structure a lecture around the topics in this chapter for

a guest speaker. In particular, an instructor might approach a guest speaker in advance.

For example a vice president of marketing or possibly human resource management in

an organization, and ask him or her to come in during the discussion of the material in

this chapter. Without a lot of preparation, many guest speakers can talk intelligently

from this figure. In particular, many knowledgeable managers will know what their

company is planning and doing for many of the human resource strategies depicted in

Figure 11.4. So for example, a guest speaker can easily talk about what’s being done

to empower employees, to train for interactive skills, or things they may be doing to

become a preferred employer.

Providing this figure as a framework provides benefits for both an instructor and the guest

speaker. For the instructor, it helps to keep the conversation and the discussion on topics

related to class material. For the guest speaker, it gives him/her an organized framework

from which to talk. Most of the topics are areas that he/she is probably very

knowledgeable, and the figure provides an easy method to present ideas and strategies

used in their particular organization (without having to spend a lot of time in developing a

specific framework for that particular class lecture).

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WK12 Customers’ roles in service delivery


Assignment: Case Study “Zappo.com 2009” (pp. 495 – 515)



discussion.

(1) Why was Zappos so successful in its first 10 years from 1999-2009? What evidence is

presented in the case of the company’s success? What general, high-level strategies

can you identify that lead to their success?

(2). Use the Service Triangle to illustrate and analyze Zappos’ success from a service

strategy perspective. What specific things did the company do to achieve its success in

external marketing, interactive marketing, and internal marketing? Is the Triangle

well-aligned and where do you see potential threats going forward?

(3) What challenges or changes in strategy would you anticipate for Zappos following its

acquisition by Amazon? Can the company continue with the same strategy – why or why

not?

(4) Go the Zappos website and check it out. What is one “cool thing” on the website that

you think reinforces a concept or strategy connected directly with service marketing

and management fundamentals?

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WK13 Integrated service marketing communications

20/11 Read: Chapter 14 Assignment:

Find 3 effective services advertisements and explain why they are effective

Find three effective service advertisements in newspapers and magazines. According to the criteria given in this chapter, identify why they are effective. Critique them using the list of criteria and discuss ways they could be improved.

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22 November (SAT) Project Presentation Day

Service Blueprinting Projects’ Presentation Day

9:30am-12:30pm

and

2:30pm-5:30pm

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WK14 Pricing of services


Assignment:

Pricing for “Creative Dating Services”

To illustrate the difficulty in pricing services, an example many students may have fun

discussing is creative dating services. In particular, a company could

(theoretically) help someone plan and execute a creative date. A creative date

might include a date based upon a particular theme (e.g., a red date where the

participants dress in red, drive a red car, go to “Red Robin” restaurant, eat red

meat, drink red wine, and watch the movie “Reds”), a catered wine and cheese

picnic in the park, or an ABC date (e.g., doing something for each letter of the

alphabet, such as Acting out your favorite movie scenes, Bragging about a

childhood accomplishment, Chugging a Coke, Driving downtown, etc.).

The major discussion could center on what a provider should charge for assisting a

client in creating a creative date. Many of the pricing issues identified in the

chapter could be discussed. For example:

• What value would you (as a customer) put on such a service?

• Should a provider of creative dates set the price based upon costs, competition, or

demand?

• If pricing is based on costs, should it be for the provider’s time in dreaming up

(i.e., creating the date), the time it takes to execute the date, and/or the amount of

involvement of the client in the process?

• Should the service fee be based on the satisfaction of the couple experiencing the

date?

• Should the fee be based on the client’s ability to pay? That is, should students pay

less for this service than professionals?

• If you were the customer, what references might you use in determining whether

the price being charged was appropriate? (reference pricing)

[Note: A good book for background material on the topic is Creative Dating by Doug

Fields and Todd Temple (1986) Nashville, TN: Oliver Nelson.]

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Weekly Schedule

Week Topics Covered in Lectures

1st section of the week

Learning Activities in Tutorials

2nd

section of the week

Ch

Foundations for Services Marketing

26/8

WK1

Course Introduction and Frameworks for

Services

LA1:

Discussion Q2, 4

1

2/9

WK2

Gaps Model of Service Quality LA2:

Get Ready for Presentation of your Gap Analysis

2

9/9

WK3

Public Holiday following the Chinese

Mid-Autumn Festival

LA3:

Case Study “Jyske Bank”

Focus on the Customer – The Customer Gap

16/9

WK4

Customer expectations of services LA4: Content Analysis of Websites for Signals

on Service Expectations

3

23/9

WK5

Customer perceptions of services LA5: ACSI Exercise

Hands-on exercise on SERVQUAL survey

4

Understanding Customer Requirements – The Listening Gap

30/9

WK6

Listening to customer through research Public Holiday on the

National Day

5

7/10

WK7

Service Recovery LA6: Case Study “Jet Blue Airline” 7

Individual Assignment on Service Journals due Submission in-class (8 October)

Aligning Strategy and Service Design – The Design and Standards Gap

14/10

WK8

Service innovation and design LA7: Service Blueprinting Exercise 8

21/10

WK9

Customer-defined service standards LA8: Case Study “Merrill Lynch Supernova” 9

28/10

WK10

Physical evidence and the servicescape LA9: Video-tapping servicescapes at LU 10

Delivering and Performing Service – The Performance Gap

4/11

WK11

Employees’ roles in service delivery LA10: Guest Lecture 11

11/11

WK12

Customers’ roles in service delivery LA11: Case Study “Zappo.com 2009” 12

Managing Service Promises – The Communication Gap

18/11

WK13

Integrated service marketing

communications

LA12: Critique on Effective Service

Advertisement

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22/11 SAT

Service Blueprinting Projects’ Presentation Day 9:30am-12:30pm and 2:30pm-5:30pm

25/11

WK14

Pricing of services Course Review & Examination Briefing

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WEEKLY TUITORIAL ACTIVITIES ON THURSDAYS O… · What is the “JetBlue Experience” and how is it...

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