The Service Encounter Delivery System

Question: 1. Identify and briefly describe the design features of the service delivery system (cover issues like facility location and layout, the servicescape, service process and job design, technology and information support systems, and organizational structure) 2. Explain the role of service encounters and service management skills at Bobs. How do Bobs Coffee Shops create superior customer experience? 3. Identify and briefly describe the design features of the service delivery system (cover issues like facility location and layout, the servicescape, service process and job design, technology and information support systems, and organizational structure) 4. Identify and briefly describe the design features of the service encounters (cover issues like customer contact behavior and skills; service-provider selection; development, and empowerment; recognition and reward; and service recovery) 5. Identify and briefly describe five processes Bobs Coffee Shops use and their relative importance. 6. If given the job of analysing the survey data, what recommendations will you make to Bob and his team? What other method of measurement would you recommend the team to use? Answer: 1. Out of 10 people, 8 will agree that customer service influences their selection of brands as per market surveys made in the year 2015. Out of 10 people, 4 will be eager to pay extra for a better customer service. And a big 86% of people can even quit an organization if they are treated badly. Hence, it is not a hidden fact any more that expectations of the customers are growing at a fast pace. A new trend of sharing their negative experiences online is also gaining importance and it is causing an alert for every business out there. Companies like Bobs Coffee Shop are under constant pressure to raise their standards and maintain customer satisfaction and service quality. Bob Thomson, owner of Bobs Coffee Shop was smart enough to understand that it is only through great service he can make his business successful. Not only will it help him keep his existing customer base but also fetch new ones by word of mouth promotions (Bsi, 2014). Bob has planned and executive an excellent customer benefit package for the utmost satisfaction of his customers. These are outlined as below:- Accessibility - Bobs Coffee Shop is located in 15 different locations focusing on some of the busy areas, corporate spaces, arcades and shopping malls. Customers are able to access it even on their walk back home post work or while shopping in malls. Order on the go - A very new addition to the strategy now, customers can order their coffee before arriving the shop. When they arrive they gets it ready. Customers are given the option to scan QR codes from their mobiles and get their free coffee as soon as they reach. Personalisation - Everyone needs and desires personal attention. The staff in Bobs team makes sure to remember customer by their names and addresses them calling names. This helps bonding with them better. Individual attention leads to repeat orders for Bobs. Product quality - Bobs coffee shop offers a variety of quality coffee products, some tea items, readymade gourmet sandwiches, healthy snacks and pastries. Freshly baked items help keep up their standards along with providing beautiful aroma to the ambience of the cafe. Customer engagement - Waiting for your coffee to be ready can be tedious in busy hours. So, Bob has installed TVs offering a variety of channels, newspapers, current affair magazines and electronic tablets for customers waiting. The team takes special care to engage into conversations when someone is waiting. The mission strategy of Bobs coffee shop is providing world class coffee accessible to customer in every possible way along with the friendliest staff service for every customer. This is the topmost competitive priority for the organisation. Price of their products is higher than the competition but still now demand has never been less as people are ready to pay more if service quality is at its best. 2. Bobs coffee shop provides excellent service management skills to its customers which in turn helps in creating superior quality customer services. The reason why customers deviate away to an alternative brand at times is due to poor focus of the staff over its customers (Markidan,2014). Without proper service management skill at place one will find the business at wreck. Some of the necessary skills absolutely needed for creating superior customer experiences are these:- Patience Attentiveness Good Communication Skill Product Knowledge Positive vibe Acting capabilities Reading customers Time management Focused Calmness Handle Surprises well Good Presentation Good Personal Hygiene Convincing Listening Power Friendly Attitude but Stern Motive (HelpScout, 2016) At Bobs we can view the above 15 traits present in every member of his coffee shop. Firstly, Bob employes great quality individuals who has hands on experience in the hospitality industry. Experience helps learn how to deal with customers and keep them satisfied. Every employee is trained rigorously before he or she deals with customers real time. Secondly, the staff keeps themselves updated about current affairs and news. This helps them converse with waiting customers better and in a smart manner. Chatting with waiting customers and staff walking down long queues to take orders right from the customers space is a common experience here. This adds to personalisation and better customer satisfaction is granted. Third and a very important factor is maintenance of cleanliness and hygiene. Although everyone knows about it very few take it as a mission strategy like Bobs. Fourthly, Bobs coffee shop offers special coffee menu for small groups. The coffee shop is a great place for business patrons to hang out, have coffee and converse about business. All the above mentioned features help the coffee shop impart superior customer service. 3. The service business is highly competitive. Value propositions and high end service quality to the target customer is the basis of market strategy for every industry out there (Ponsignon,2009). Participation and engagement of customer leads to direct customer satisfaction in the service industry (Chetty,2010). Some of the key elements of the service industry are:- Service culture must be excellent. Work habits, personal hygiene, friendly attitude etc form part of work culture. Engagement with employee must be easy and comfortable. This way customer can convey their concern and based on that services can be designed in a better manner. Quality service must be provided at all circumstances. Customer experience must be unique (Servicefutures, 2015) Technologically updated team helps customer find similar intellect while conversing with employees. This adds to their comfort levels. Location based analytics helps understand from where customers are coming. Based on their locations notifications about latest offers can be provided. 4. Every customer's buying decisions can be influenced right at the service encounters. Everyone of us has faced such encounters (Sltten, 2011). An organization focuses on keeping its best managerial personnel in counters for encountering customer issues, providing quality service, recognising the requirements, service delivery, rewarding loyal customer and recovery of services (Glushko, 2009). The concept of service encounter is motivated by the following factors:- Offerings of service centric or product centric nature. Experience based offerings. Focusing on every transaction and customer relationship (Alvarez, 2015) 5. Five processes used by the Bobs Coffee Shops and their importance is described as under. For better understanding I have categorised the special feature of Bobs in the following manner:- Product quality - First of all the products offered in the coffee shop are at par with any of the standard brands out there in the industry (Myles,2015).. Additionally, the food and beverage is prepared right there in the same coffee shop space. This adds to the rich aroma and flavour of the environment. Even if sometimes customers do not order they love sitting there. Focus on people - Without a team a business can never survive. Bobs Coffee Shop focusses on its staff as much as it does to its customer. Employees are trained beautifully understanding how to relate to customers and strong product knowledge is given to them. They are encouraged to be updated about latest news going around the world. They are encouraged to focus on cleanliness. Every month an employee is chosen to be the special employee of the month and he wears a red tie as an appreciation from the team. Such appreciation keeps the team high spirited and happy. In turn they serve their customers in the best possible way they can. Customer Personalisation- The team at Bobs Coffee Shop addresses customer by their names. Good communication and better personalization helps repeat orders (Slayter,2016). Analytics- The team regularly collects customer purchase data and take surveys to know feedbacks from them .This data is analysed to understand the performance of the firm and the level of customer satisfaction offered. Customer Engagement -Long queues at busy hours must not bore the customers (Bastiman,2015). For this at Bobs seating arrangements are made. Although limited, customers can check latest news in newspapers, magazines or at tablets or even view live TV news or sports. The staff keeps chatting if they see a customer is waiting too long. 6: For making an analysis of the survey data it can be recommended to Bob to make a note in between singles and non-singles meeting over the coffee shop. As we all know a coffee shop is a great meeting area, if customers gets comfortable they will use it more for meeting people. An additional measurement can be made if Bobs gave out Friends Coupon if anyone brings their friend here for the first time. For the newcomer this will be a great economic incentive and for the firm it will be one additional customer. Keeping a count of how many old customers are bringing one new customer and how many repetitions of this process is being made can be made by the number of coupons redeemed. This measure will help achieve to things. One, it will be a rewarding experience for old customers. And it will be a great offer for the first time coffee customer. References Alvarez, H.R. 2015. The Service Encounter [online]. Available at https://www.academia.utp.ac.pa/sites/default/files/docente/51/customer-2.-service-encounter.pdf [Accessed 27 October 2016] Bastiman, J. 2015. Why personalisation is the key to gaining customer loyalty[online]. Available athttps://econsultancy.com/blog/67070-why-personalisation-is-the-key-to-gaining-customer-loyalty/ [Accessed 27 October 2016] Bis, 2014. The Importance of Excellent Customer Service [pdf]. Available at https://www.bsigroup.com/LocalFiles/en-GB/consumer-guides/resources/BSI-Consumer-Brochure-Customer-Service-UK-EN.pdf [Accessed 27 October 2016] Chetty, P. 2010. Role of customers in service delivery[online]. Avaialble athttps://www.projectguru.in/publications/role-of-customers-in-service-delivery/[Accessed 27 October 2016] Glushko, B. 2009. Service Encounters and Touch Points [pdf] Available at https://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~glushko/ISSD-LectureNotes/ISSD-20090928.pdf[Accessed 27 October 2016] HelpScout, 2016. 15 Customer Service Skills That Every Employee Needs [online]. Available at : https://www.helpscout.net/blog/customer-service-skills/ [Accessed 27 October 2016] Markidan. L, 2014. What is Good Customer Service? [online] Available at https://www.groovehq.com/support/good-customer-support[Accessed 27 October 2016] Myles, M. 2015. Personalisation four steps to put the customer at the centre of marketing [online]. Available athttps://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2015/03/05/personalisation-four-steps-put-customer-centre-marketing [Accessed 27 October 2016] Ponsignon, F. 2009. Service delivery system design [pdf]. Available athttps://sistemas-humano-computacionais.wdfiles.com/local--files/capitulo:sistemas-de-servico/Design%20and%20Contingencies.pdf [Accessed 27 October 2016] Servicefutures, 2015. Four Key Elements of a Service Delivery System [online] Available athttps://servicefutures.com/service-management/four-key-elements-service-delivery-system/[Accessed 27 October 2016] Slayter, M. 2016. Focus on People to Make Your HR Tech Content Marketing Shine [online] Available athttps://repcapitalmedia.com/focus-on-people-to-make-your-hr-tech-content-marketing-shine/[Accessed 27 October 2016] Sltten, T. 2011.Emotions in service encounters from the perspectives of employeesand customers [online] Available athttps://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:433158/FULLTEXT01.pdf[Accessed 27 October 2016]