Description of the Service Experienced
You are required to document your experiences with an extended service encounter during your travel in any airline – i.e. describe what happened, and how you felt. This extended service encounter might.
Service encounter is a very useful when it comes to evaluating the service of any company. This factor becomes more strategical in Airline industry because the time spent by the consumer in his entire journey is significantly a lot in comparison to other industries (Saleem, Zahra & Yaseen, 2017). I was travelling a few months back from New Delhi (India) to Sydney by Qantas airline, and it was one of the most satisfying experiences for me and my family members. I was travelling with my mother who is suffering from acute cervical cancer, and we were going for better treatment facility which was available in Sydney.
I booked the flight through the application of the Airline Company, which was very easy to navigate, offered me 10% discount and in less than 3 minutes I was done with the booking confirmation. This was my first service encounter with the company, and it was extremely pleasant because of the time factor. Second when I reached the Airport, I was running a little behind my flight timing, the team from Qantas called me and asked about my whereabouts. The customer support team was warm, courteous and extremely humble, they understood that I am travelling with the patient and cooperated with me and ensured that they would not fly, I was running just 5 minutes late, however I made in time. But, the assurance the customer support offered me was beyond overwhelming and I thanked them deeply for being so empathetic. They offered my mother a wheelchair and gave a personal assistance to take her to the flight; it further gave me a feeling of immense satisfaction. On our way to the flight as well, they offered complementary juice to my mother and me to beat the heat strokes of Delhi, it further boasted my confidence in the extremely high service quality of Qantas Airline.
On reaching the flight, we were received in a warm manner and comfortably taken to our seats. Throughout the journey, the Cabin Crew was polite, helpful and helped my mother in the washroom. Without even asking we were provided an extra set of blanket and pillows to comfort my mother. I was more than just relaxed and happy to see that in the present day when companies are running blindly money, Qantas Airline is one such company which ensures that it runs to ensure high customer satisfaction, rest other things would fall in place.
Discussion of Relevant Service Marketing Theories
Every service provides wants to know in depth what the customer cares about, and what service element clicks to him to ensure customer satisfaction. Companies have become extremely cogent in defining their service elements to ensure customer delight for their service experience (Galeeva, 2016). One such model which is very helpful in defining and evaluating the services of any company, in this case of the Qantas Airline is RATER model. RATER model is a comprehensive tool of evaluating and classifying the service of any company according to the five parameters (Gandhi, Sachdeva & Gupta, 2018).
- Reliability
- Assurance
- Tangibles
- Empathy
- Responsiveness
(Source: Luke & Heyns, 2017)
The model is a great framework which focuses on the difference between the customer experiences and customer expectations.
|
Service Parameter |
Implied Meaning |
|
R-Reliability |
This is concerned with the ability of the company to provide and deliver the agreed upon services consistently and on time (Goyal & Chanda, 2017). |
|
A-Assurance |
This is related to how convincingly customer communicates his knowledge to the customers, and how the customer trust, feel and respond to the assurance given by the employees(Oh & Kim, 2017) |
|
T-Tangibles |
This is related to the appearance of the physical facilities, equipment, personal, website and other communication material (Gera, Mittal, Prasad & Batra, 2017). |
|
E-Empathy |
It is related to the deeper understanding of the customer’s concern by putting themselves in the shoes of the customers(Orel & Kara, 2014) |
|
R-Responsiveness |
This is how quick the organization is to respond to the query of the customer and give him the solution (Bienstock, Mentzer & Kahn, 2015). |
SERVQAUL model is another important framework which is used to evaluate the service quality performance with customer service quality needs. It is used to do a gap analysis and takes into account the perceptions of the customers of the relative importance of the service attributes.
(Source: Izogo & Ogba, 2015)
The five gaps which were identified through the SERVQAUL method, which helps in understand the gap in meeting the customer expectation in tandem with his overall experience are:
Customer Expectation (Gap 1)-The first gap is also called as the management perception gap, here the management fails to understand the customer and has wrong perception on what he wants. The reason for the gap is lack of customer and market focus (Bansal & Taylor, 2015).
Service Quality Expectation Gap (Gap 2)-This gap is specifically related to the aspects of service design, this gap arises when the management is not able to translate customer expectation into service quality attributes (Hill & Alexander, 2017).
Service Delivery Gap (Gap 3)-This is related to the inability of the staff to ensure delivery of high quality service.
External Communication Gap (Gap 4)-This is the gap which is related to the external communication to the consumers on the service delivery and the actual service delivery.
Difference between customer expectation and perception of service quality actually received, this is the fifth gap which is the summation of all the above mentioned 4 gaps.
Analyse and Evaluate the Services Experienced
The above discussed framework is very helpful in evaluating the service I received at Qantas Airline. In the following section I will discuss the enriched service quality experience I received by the employee and the entire organization. To, concise my experience with the Airline was highly enriched and satisfying.
Reliability-Qantas Airline is synonymous to great value, excellent service and trusted advice, I strongly relates to these service attribute of the company. The company has built a reputation for providing safety, operational excellence and strongest customer support to the consumers. The reliability to me can be evaluated by the timely arrival and departure of the flight along with exceptional food and care in the Aircraft. The staff promised me to rely on them in taking care of my mother, for which I am eternally grateful
Assurance-Qantas Airline invoked trust and confidence in me by their knowledge and wisdom. The moment I called them that I am running a bit late, and the reason behind them, they expressed the concern for the safety of my mom and assured me that they will not fly without me. This inspired trust and confidence in me
Tangibility-I was delighted to see the employees properly groomed in neat attire even at 2 AM in the morning, it literally gave me a feeling of high professionalism in Qantas Airlines. Further to that the baggage area, the ticketing counter all were organized neatly. The wheelchair which escorted my mother to the aircraft was tech advanced and the Aircraft interiors just gave me a feeling of WOW.
Empathy-Qantas Airline was highly receptive to my concern that I might be a little late because of my ailing mother, they emphasized with me even at such late hours. They were kind enough to arrange for a wheelchair for my mother in advance as they predicted she would require so. More so, they were empathetic to understand that my mother would feel comfort with more pillows which they gave us without even asking.
Responsiveness- Qantas airline was highly responsive to my troubles, they responded to me quickly when I informed I might be late, responsiveness was also shown when I asked for different food for my mother. Also, they responded in the shortest span of time to arrange a wheelchair even on reaching Sydney and booking a cab for us.
RATER model for Evaluation of Services
Consumer expectation-Management Perception Gap- Qantas Airline has done its homework pretty well, they know exactly what the customer requires to be delighted. They are highly focussed on in-flight comfort, food and beverage, quality and pricing of the food offered.
Service quality Specification Gap- The service design of Qantas was aptly designed and was translated according to the expectation of the customers. Assistance when required, proactive helping approach, brilliant infrastructures and highly co-operative staff is the evidence of this.
Service-Delivery Gap-Only a human and understand a human, Qantas Airline ensure this by recruiting such able staff which has high human and moral values and value the customers. The support extended by the staff is beyond any words.
External Communication Gap- Qantas Airline does exactly what it communicates to its customers. They communicated high value offering, extremely comfortable flight experience, timely arrival and departure and great quality food and services, they delivered all this without a single hiccup.
Overall, I would like to give the company a rating of 5/5 for their exceptional services, high quality food and beverage, excellent in-flight services, helpful and empathetic cabin and ground crew, safety and their communication with the customers.
I am a happy customer and in all praise for Qantas Airline, some of the recommendation which I would love to pass to other service organization is:
Listening to the Customers- In the present days, not everyone is focussed on listening, the world has become competitive and so have the industries. The important part is to listen to the customer, what are their expectations, what are their pain points, what do they value the most and more such points. A company by actively listening to its customer can create a service design which is so resolute and strong that it becomes easier for the service company to acquire and retain a large chunk of customer and make them happy with their services. This has to be ensured and implemented by the marketing research team and the customer support staff, and can be done with the help of Questionnaire, feedback and suggestions from the customers.
Being helpful and active on Social Media- Social media is the Buzzword for decades, companies have started leveraging the tool at its maximum potential, and however in the race they fail to adhere to the most important service attribute; be specific, highly relevant, communicate the necessary information and are helpful. Qantas does a wonderful job at this front. Other Airline companies should also understand the importance of social media to handle the concerns and grievances of the customers, do active social media listening, sentimental analysis and be helpful and empathetic to them. This can be implemented by hiring 4-5 members and forming a social media team within the organization, the cost would be highly in budget of the company.
Exceeding customer expectation every single time- Marketing Myopia is a very dangerous concept, it means having a short sighted approach and forgetting about the long term. Service companies have to ensure that they focus on business sustainability and always deliver more than they promised. Customer are the biggest brand advocates and have huge influence on other customers, by exceeding their expectation they would definitely spread a positive word of mouth about the company which will ensure increased revenue for the company. This can be ensured by apt communication with the customers, ensuring the right elements of the service design and hiring a team of customer service expert who have the ability to understand and empathize with the customers.
References
Bansal, H.S. and Taylor, S.F., 2015. Beyond service quality and customer satisfaction: investigating additional antecedents of service provider switching intentions. In Proceedings of the 1999 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 75-82). Springer, Cham.
Bienstock, C.C., Mentzer, J.T. and Kahn, K.B., 2015. How are service firms measuring and managing service quality/customer satisfaction?. In Proceedings of the 1996 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference(pp. 161-161). Springer, Cham.
Galeeva, R.B., 2016. SERVQUAL application and adaptation for educational service quality assessments in Russian higher education. Quality Assurance in Education, 24(3), pp.329-348.
Gandhi, S.K., Sachdeva, A. and Gupta, A., 2018. Service Quality Models: A Critical Analysis About Their Relevance to Supply Chains of Small-Medium Manufacturing Units. IUP Journal of Supply Chain Management, 15(1), pp.7-39.
Gera, R., Mittal, S., Batra, D.K. and Prasad, B., 2017. Evaluating the Effects of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Service Value on Behavioral Intentions with Life Insurance Customers in India. International Journal of Service Science, Management, Engineering, and Technology (IJSSMET), 8(3), pp.1-20.
Goyal, P. and Chanda, U., 2017. A Bayesian Network Model on the association between CSR, perceived service quality and customer loyalty in Indian Banking Industry. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 10, pp.50-65.
Hill, N. and Alexander, J., 2017. The handbook of customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement. Routledge.
Izogo, E.E. and Ogba, I.E., 2015. Service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty in automobile repair services sector. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 32(3), pp.250-269.
Luke, R. and Heyns, G., 2017. Measuring commuters perceptions of service quality of selected public bus services in the City of Johannesburg. Southern African Transport Conference.
Oh, H. and Kim, K., 2017. Customer satisfaction, service quality, and customer value: years 2000-2015. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(1), pp.2-29.
Orel, F.D. and Kara, A., 2014. Supermarket self-checkout service quality, customer satisfaction, and loyalty: Empirical evidence from an emerging market. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(2), pp.118-129.
Saleem, M.A., Zahra, S. and Yaseen, A., 2017. Impact of service quality and trust on repurchase intentions–the case of Pakistan airline industry. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 29(5), pp.1136-115
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