/ PESIT Bangalore South Campus
Hosur road, 1km before Electronic City, Bengaluru -100
Department of MBA
INTERNAL ASSESSMENT TEST – 2
Date: 02/11/2017 Max Marks: 40 Marks
Subject & Code:Services Marketing (16MBA MM303) Section: Marketing
Name of faculty:Asst. Prof Roshny UnnikrishnanTime: 1:30 – 3:00 PM
Note: Answer all questions
1(a) / Briefly describe service recovery strategies.A service failure is described as service performance that falls below a customer’s expectations in such a way that leads to customer dissatisfaction.Service recovery refers to the actions taken by an organization in response to a service failure. / (2 marks)
(b) / What is a service blueprint? What are its major components?
A tool for simultaneously depicting the service process, the points of customer contact, and the evidence of service from the customer’s point of view. The components of a service blueprint are as in the following figure.
/ (6 marks)
(c) / What are offensive and defensive marketing strategies? How can service quality be an offensive and defensive strategy?
The defensive strategies are done to continually strengthen strongly held current position
•Fortress / Position defense
•Flank defense
•Preemptive defense
•Market expansion defense
•Contraction defense
The offensive strategies are market challenger strategies to overcome the market leader
- Frontal attack
- Encirclement attack
- Flank attack
- Bypass attack
- Guerilla attack
Improvement in service quality goes hand in hand with offensive strategy. Service quality innovations are a defence strategy. Hard service standards to be improved in offensive strategy.
Hard and Soft service standard's to be improved in defensive strategy. / (8 marks)
2(a) / What is Bucket Theory of marketing?
The leaky bucket theory is the model that seeks to describe the process of customer gain and loss, otherwise known as customer churn. Customer retention is one of the key concepts in relationship marketing.
/ (2 marks)
(b) / Describe briefly the following terms
a)Capacity Constraints
- Optimal v/s maximum capacity level
- Time constraints
- Labor constraints
- Equipment constraints
- Facilities constraints
The main goal of yield management is to maximize the revenue with the help of effective management of three essential domains – pricing strategy, control of availability and inventory control.
c)Waiting line strategies
Multiple queue – restaurants
Take a number – tokens in hospitals
Single queue – airline / (6 marks)
(c) / What are the dimensions of service quality? Explain in detail
Service quality has five identifiable parameters and these can either be designed into a new service or brought about through training of the personnel
These dimensions are:
- Tangibles – the appearance of physical facilities
- Reliability – the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately
- Responsiveness – the willingness to help customers and to provide prompt service
- Assurance – the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence
- Empathy – the provision of caring, individualized attention to customer
3 / Case Study
Mumbai’s Models of Service Excellence
In July 2005, Mumbai was battered by unusually heavy monsoon rains. In just 12 hours, more than 25 inches deluged India’s business capital. That, combined with record high tides, wreaked widespread havoc, bringing the city to a virtual standstill. As the water rose waist-high in many areas, people found themselves stranded at railway stations, in trains, and on roads and sidewalks.
Among them were many of Mumbai’s dabbawalas, who deliver meals prepared in customers’ homes to their offices and then return the empty dabbas (metal lunchboxes) the same day. Nevertheless, on the second day of the flooding, even before the city had limped back to life, the dabbawalas were back on the job, wading through the water. They quickly became a symbol of gritty resilience.
The 5,000 or so dabbawalas in the city have an astounding service record. Every working day they transport more than 130,000 lunchboxes throughout Mumbai, the world’s fourth-most-populous city. That entails conducting upwards of 260,000 transactions in six hours each day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year (minus holidays), but mistakes are extremely rare. Amazingly, the dabbawalas—semiliterate workers who largely manage themselves—have achieved that level of performance at very low cost, in an ecofriendly way, without the use of any IT system or even cell phones.
The dabbawala service is legendary for its reliability. Since it was founded, in 1890, it has endured famines, wars, monsoons, Hindu-Muslim riots, and a series of terrorist attacks. It has attracted worldwide attention and visits by Prince Charles, Richard Branson, and employees of Federal Express, a company renowned for its own mastery of logistics.
How can a poorly educated, decentralized workforce perform so beautifully in an environment that can charitably be described as unpredictable and challenging? The answers hold lessons not only for companies seeking to expand in emerging markets but also for all developed-economy enterprises whose ranks are dominated by unexceptional talent. Even firms that can afford to hire stars typically depend on a cast of average people to support them. The dabbawalas’ success is proof that with the right system in place, ordinary workers can achieve extraordinary results.
1)Elaborate on the pillars of belief and service delivery excellence of Dabbawalas of Mumbai.
The dabbawalas have an overall system whose basic pillars—organization, management, process, and culture—are perfectly aligned and mutually reinforcing.Thedabbawalas essentially manage themselves with respect to hiring, logistics, customer acquisition and retention, and conflict resolution. This helps them operate efficiently and keep costs low and the quality of service high. All workers contribute to a charitable trust that provides insurance and occasional financial aid—for example, when a worker needs to replace a bicycle that’s been stolen or is broken beyond repair.Eachdabbawala is an entrepreneur who is responsible for negotiating prices with his own customers. However, governing committees set guidelines for prices, which take into account factors such as the distance between a customer’s residence and office and the distance between that office and the closest railway station. Because dabbawalas own their relationships with customers and tend to work in the same location for years, those relationships are generally long-term, trusting ones. The dabbawalas within a group don’t have a monopoly over any particular area; they’re encouraged to seek out new customers, even in a building that is served by a colleague. However, once the relationship is established, no other dabbawala is permitted to go after the same customer and “steal” him. The dabbawalas take advantage of their more-relaxed afternoon schedule to interact with customers to share information about upcoming changes, collect monthly fees, and discuss any issues.
2)Suggest examples of hard and soft service standards that can be implemented in any organization to improve service delivery.
Hard customer defined standards
- Things that can be counted timed or observed
- Percentage of orders delivered on time
- Frequency of customer problems
- Percentage of problems fixed on first visit
- Opinion based measures that cannot be directly observed
- Perceptual data
- Responsiveness
- Courtesy
- Interpersonal skills
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