GROUP ASSIGNMENT- I

ON
SERVICE ENCOUNTERS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE COURSE
SERVICES MARKETING
SUBMITTED TO
PROF. ASHWINI ASWATHI
SUBMITTED BY
GROUP 13 (SMKT-B)
DIVYA WADHWANI (141218)
NIKITA HADA (151132)
DEBDATTA RATHA (151222)
INDUMALIKA BORAH (151325)

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 5th OCTOBER 2016

INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, NIRMA UNIVERSITY

Service encounters are moments of truth, it is a period of time during which a customer interacts
directly with a service provider.
There are certain framework that helps in understanding the consumer behavior during the
service encounter.
a. Moment of Truth Metaphor by Richard Normann
b. High / Low contact service model
c. Servuction model
d. The Theater metaphor
We will try to understand some of the service situations using these models

Service Situation: Bad Experience

Name of the Group Member who faced the situation: Debdatta Ratha
Bad Experience
Organization: Mc Donalds
Category: Fast food, QSR
Type of service: People Processing
Experience
The QSRs like Mc Donalds are famous all over the world for their ability to serve quickly and
provide tasty food. These all make it up for value for money food provider. The expectation that
one carries while visiting a Mc Donalds is about the speed of the delivery and the taste.
On a similar note, I too went to Mc Donalds a couple of weeks ago with some of my friends. We
ordered 3 burgers with meal options which includes fries and coke along with those we ordered
paneer pockets. The global average delivery time for Mc Donalds is at 30 seconds, so that was
the impression I was carrying with me. However I knew that they are not going to deliver the
order before 5minuntes.
It was a Saturday afternoon and being a weekend it had its share of traffic at the outlet. The order
was completed in 4 mins, and we payed with debit card. The POS personnel was cordial and
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friendly. He asked to wait for our turn and to wait for our serial number to flash up in the screen
fitted above.
After waiting for 10minutes, I went ahead and enquired about the order with the POS personnel,
he gave me the excuse of high customer traffic on a weekend as the cause of the delay. After 20
long minutes we received our order. Now coming to the taste of the food, the coke that was
served to us was not tasting good for which I asked the sales personnel to replace my coke, to
which he promptly obliged not once but twice he changed my coke.

Expectation as a customer
Desired Expectation: To get the delivery as fast as possible, may be as soon as the billing gets
complete.
Global average is 30 Seconds, so desired expectation is at 1 minute.
Predicted Service Expectation: 5 to 10 minutes
Adequate Service Expectation: 10 minutes
Zone of Tolerance: From time of completion of billing to 10 minutes.
1. Expectations from this encounter

Getting quick delivery of the food

QSRs like Mc Donalds should deliver the food within 5 minutes

Taste of food to be of paramount importance in such a QSR

2. Exactly what did happen? What did the firm / employee do?

The POS personnel sighted the reason of the customer traffic at weekends as a
reason for the delay.

Delivered the food after 20 minutes.

They did replace the coke twice as I was not at all satisfied with the taste of it.

3. Rating for this encounter on a scale of 1 to 7 and why?

Rating of 3

They tried their best to serve, replaced the coke twice.

It is not always that a product like Coca Cola tastes bad

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4. What could the employees have done with reference to your expectations to make
you happier?

They could have started serving the orders partly, serving the fries and other
smaller items first and then adding on to the order.

They could have made arrangements for faster delivery during weekends

They replaced the coke twice which is good, but care should have been taken
before hand to prevent such an incident. Ensuring quality checks should have
been done.

No free items can heal the pain of a failed service delivery.

5. How likely is that you will go back to the service firm again? Rate it on a scale of 1
to 7.

Rating of 6

Has been a loyal customer of Mc Donalds for many years, this was a peculiar
situation which had very less likelihood of happening. The overall experience has
always been good at Mc Donalds.

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From a marketers perspective the service model applicable in this situation is the
Servuction Model given by Eric Langeard and Pierre Eiglier.

Fig: Servuction Model

In this case of Mc Donalds the Technical Core and the Back Stage plays an important role in
maintaining the Quality of the foods served and also in maintaining the delivery time.
A better coordination is needed in between the personnel at the back stage and at the POS (front
end). The contact personnel in this case were the front end POS sales persons who punch in the
order as per the customer, they also serve as the first point of contact with the firm. Thus it is of
vital importance to the organization that the front line employees be made aware and able to
handle such situations.
Similarly the personnel at the backstage are also needed to be trained to handle the changing
demand condition and its effect on the service provided.
Thus the customer expectation at Mc Donalds can be met only by proper execution and
coordination of the operations system and the delivery systems. Together only it makes an
efficient service system.

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Service Situation 2
Name of the Group Member who faced the situation: Divya Wadhwani
Good Experience
Organization: Flipkart
Category: E-Commerce Platforms
Type of service: People Processing
Description of the Experience
E-commerce platforms are known for their Value for Money products. Here by Value for
money I mean products which are known for their quality and fineness yet they are available at
an affordable rate. As the products are available at a discounted rate on these platforms than the
brick & mortar stores, Consumers who are place sensitive prefer buying through these platforms.
I prefer the quality and brand of the product over price of the product but usually I prefer to buy
it from the place where it is being offered at a relatively lower price. Therefore, I compare the
prices between online and offline channels and make a systematic purchase.
Last year in the month of September, I wanted to buy a Hand bag for my mother to gift her on
her birthday which falls on 4th October. I wished to gift her branded bag. But in a price range of
Rs.3000-5000. Getting a branded handbag in this price range is bit difficult. When I enquired and
searched for a bag through offline modes, the starting range of branded handbags like Dians
Korrs, Micheal Kors and Aldo was between Rs. 3000-5000 and that the bags which were
available were also not as per my requirements.
Therefore after getting disappointed with the brick & mortar stores, I switched to online ecommerce portals, there after searching for 2-3 days I selected Diana Kors handbag which was as
per my requirement and also available at a price range of Rs.2500- Rs.3000 at most of the
E-commerce platforms. I shortlisted flipkart and myntra as they were offering the product
relatively at lower rate than other competitors and there was a price difference of only Rs. 200 on
the product I wanted to purchase and the other reason for shortlisting them was the
trustworthiness factor as I had done my earlier purchases with them where I had good
experience.
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Talking about my purchase, I ordered a Diana Kors Handbag from flipkart of whose original
price was around Rs. 4250 but I got the product for around Rs. 2250. I preferred to order through
Flipkart over myantra as they were offering free home delivery.
When I placed my order, I Opted for standard delivery where the product gets delivered in next
7-10 working days. But I my case I was lucky enough the product got delivered to me within the
next 2 days when I just placed the order. Usually from my past purchases through these portals,
the product have been delivered to me by 4-5 days, this time I got a product within 2 days, which
made my overall shopping experience a pleasant one. In addition to it, I got a product of my
choice at an affordable price which was even less than my minimum price range of Rs. 3000,
which added as an Icing on the cake. Overall, these was one of the best shopping experience of
my life.

Expectation as a customer
Desired Expectation: To get the right product with my desired attributes at an affordable price.
From my point of view, the product should be Value for Money. In this case, I ordered from a
E-commerce platform one of my desired expectation was to get the product delivered as soon as
possible,
Standard Delivery is 7-10 working days after we place the purchase. And from my past
purchases my desired expectation for the delivery of this product was 5 days.
Predicted Service Expectation: Product between the price range of Rs.3000-5000 which can be
delivered in next 5 days.
Adequate Service: Product between the price range of up to Rs. 6000 which can be delivered in
7-10 days after placing order.
Zone of Tolerance: From time of completion of billing to
Expectations from this encounter

Getting the product of my choice in my budget.

Getting the product delivered in a short time span.

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6. Exactly what did happen? What did the firm / employee do?
As this was an E-commerce purchase, I exactly can not say or predict the role of
employees in making my purchase experience pleasant. But on the part of company,
flipkart, I can comment that the company has effective & efficient logistics of which
result is that I got my product within 2 days of placing order.
7. Rating for this encounter on a scale of 1 to 7 and why?

Rating of 6

I could easily place the order through flipkarts website. All the products were
properly and systematically displayed and the best part about their website is that
it can be easily navigated and is user-friendly.

I got the product which I was looking for. Even below the price range which I was
expecting.

The product got delivered to me within 2 days as compare to the average delivery
time of 5 days.

8. What could the employees have done with reference to your expectations to make
you happier?
As I was already satisfied with my experience as I got extra than what I was
actually looking for, therefore in this case they could have done nothing.
9. How likely is that you will go back to the service firm again? Rate it on a scale of 1
to 7.

Rating of 5

After this shopping experience, I have purchased through the same retailer 5-10
times, but the experience has not been fairly good. That is sometimes I have
tradeoff with the product or brand I am looking for or I have to increase my
budget.

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From a marketers perspective In this case two service model are applicable. One is the
Servuction Model given by Eric Langeard and Pierre Eiglier & High to low context Model.

Fig: Servuction Model

(Source: http://www.mospitality.com/)

Fig : Levels of Customer contact with service organization

(Source: http://www.mospitality.com/ )

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In this case of e-commerce retailer Flipkart, Its back hand operations, supply chain management
and Logistics plays a very important role. Also the role of technology is also important in case of
E-retailer like flipkart. All these functions need to be closely integrated with each other to deliver
greater customer satisfaction and achieve targeted goals and targets.
E-commerce retailers like flipkart are investing huge sums to make sure that they dont fail in
delivering to their customers. They are adding more fulfillment centers so that they have
adequate space to store products so that the customer are not disappointed when they order
something and the product goes out of stock.
E-commerce retailers like flipkart are tying up with various local vendors to get the products at
the best available market rate so that they can further offer it to customers at a discounted price.
Also, these E-retailers are having tie ups with third party logistics so that the product reaches the
customers on time.
Also, they are using data analytics and forecasting to predict future demands of customers. They
are also using technology to track the status of customer order at various points so that it is not
delayed at any point.
Thus the customer expectation can be met only by E-commerce retailers like Flipkart when they
properly integrate all their functions.

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CONCLUSION
As a group from both the experience of our group members we could relate how consumer
behavior is important in services marketing. consumer perception about a particular brand or
company can change its purchase behavior. In the case of debdatta where he faced a bad
situation, but he did not blamed the persons or the brand, as he was loyal to brand, he particularly
mentioned It is not always cola tastes the same that is instead of trying to blame the brand or
the people present in the encounter on behalf of the company. In case of divya also, she opted for
flipkart as there was a trust or credibility factor involved as she has purchased from the same eretailer.
Therefore, we can conclude that consumer behavior is important for an organization providing
service because it studies the basic tenets of the most important element:

The

customer. Consumer behavior decision examines the "processes, especially any particular
triggers that compel consumers to buy a certain product. The organizations cannot achieve
success in their respective businesses if they fail to meet the requirements of the consumer.
People are unique and thier consumtpion habits are unique therefore marketers need to
understand the behavior of the consumers in designing and developing right products to the right
consumers.

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