Service Encounter Journal Form - StFX



BSAD 431 – Service Marketing

SERVICE ENCOUNTER JOURNALS

March 13, 2009

Service Encounter Journal Form

Tim Horton’s Journal Entry #1

March 2, 2009 Restaurant

9:00 am

My Tim Horton’s encounter on March 2nd was frustrating due to the excessive time spent in line. I was in a hurry but decided to stop for a coffee on my way to class. The time from door to door was approximately ten minutes. Perhaps my expectations are too high, but I expect a line in a coffee shop to move quickly and to complete my transaction in less than five minutes.

I would estimate that at least 60-70% of the people ahead of me were unsure of what they wanted and ended up ordering either a bagel or a sandwich. Tim Horton’s has a policy to make these items from scratch, which takes at least five times longer than a typical coffee order. I would rank this encounter a 3 primarily due to the fact that this is a re-occurring problem that they don’t seem to want to fix.

The main issue with their service is the lack of design within their ordering system. Their expanded marketing mix for services should have more focus on the process aspect. Their greatest competitive advantage is the ability to produce inexpensive, high-quality products. However, I perceive service alternatives such as Timothy’s and the Second Cup to generally have faster delivery which lowers my overall customer satisfaction for Tim Horton’s. They had two cash registers open and one additional employee to make the food items, this lead to a backup because they were taking more orders than they could handle. They need to develop their ordering system to speed up the process. The employees were also walking into each other in order to get all of their items due to the small area behind the counter and the proximity of the cash registers in their servicescape. It looked more like a scene from the Three Stooges than an organized delivery process.

Another major component of my poor experience was the fact that the other customers ahead of me weren’t fulfilling their roles efficiently, a particular pet peeve of mine. Customers waited at least five minutes before the employees would take their order, they should have looked at the menu and decided what they were going to get before they actually got the counter. Making the people behind you wait even longer because you haven’t decided on your order just delays the process and frustrates other customers.

Tim Horton’s should decide who their specific target customers are through marketing techniques to best serve them. They could solve similar waiting issues by creating a separate line for drink orders only. I would argue that their core business is still coffee products, even though they may not be as profitable as sandwiches and larger orders. Tim Horton’s recent addition of offering a full breakfast and lunch menus deter many potential customers because it largely increases wait times.

My personal emotions probably helped to elevate my negative experience as well. Having to walk thirty minutes to a Monday morning taxation class doesn’t exactly excite me. By the time I arrived in Tim Horton’s I was cold and tired which allowed a relatively minor problem, having to wait an additional five minutes, to affect my emotional state. Had I been in a more positive mood, it would have taken significantly more to effect my emotions and experience.

I will definitely continue to return to Tim Horton’s because I’m a coffee drinker and I enjoy their product (7-7 chance). However, if there’s a competitor nearby, I will pick the store with the shortest line because I rank the speed of delivery higher than the quality or taste of the coffee.

Service Encounter Journal Form

eBay Journal Entry #2

March 21, 2008 Online shopping

I used eBay to purchase an autographed LP of Kris Kristofferson’s “The Silver Tongued Devil and I” for my father’s birthday last year. I bought the item immediately using the “Buy it now” option on eBay a week before his birthday. I told the seller that I needed it as quickly as possible; he immediately replied that he would send it out as soon as he could. His auction information stated that it usually took between 5 and 7 business days for customers to receive their products. I was pleasantly surprised when I received the product on the third business day, I rank the service experience 7 out of 7.

I hadn’t used eBay before this encounter so I had no past experiences to benchmark my expectations against. I knew a lot of people who had, but their experiences ranged from excellent to disastrous, which didn’t help to form derived service expectations. Therefore my zone of tolerance was wide, my minimum adequate service level was that I would eventually get what I had purchased and my desired level was to receive it before my dad’s birthday. The seller and eBay had combined to exceed my desired level by delivering so quickly.

eBay is a unique operation, since both the buyer and the seller are their customers, they must rely on them to perform their service roles efficiently in order to deliver quality service. If I were to be ripped off by the seller, I would likely blame eBay even though it wasn’t the company’s fault. I paid and provided my address information promptly and he sent out the package immediately after; we worked together to make the eBay process very efficient.

The seller’s auction details had outlined several explicit service guarantees. He promised that the product would shipped within a certain number of days, the condition would be exactly as described, and that he would be availably for any questions. By living up to these promises, he increased my satisfaction and likelihood of repurchasing not only from him individually, but eBay in general.

The entire process aspect of eBay’s marketing mix was great. I dread buying gifts for my father because nobody knows what to get him. I had wasted a lot of time wading through physical stores. eBay’s service design had allowed me to find and purchase a rare item that I couldn’t acquire elsewhere in less than an hour. Everything was delivered efficiently; the searching criteria had allowed me to find a gift, the “buy it now” option allowed to skip the auction period, and the PayPal feature allowed me to pay for it immediately. I can’t think of anyway that eBay or the seller could have improved upon my experience.

This pleasant experience has resulted in the likelihood of me using eBay again to be 7 out of 7, although I’m fearful that the next time my expectations may be a little too high because of the high level of service I received from this particular seller.

Service Encounter Journal Form

Journal Entry Number

CiRCA Nightclub Nightclub

December 27, 2008 11:00PM

I was in Toronto over the Christmas break and went to CiRCA nightclub. I paid $5 for the mandatory coat-check service. When I went to retrieve my coat at the end of the night it was gone.

The coat check employee did not seem to care about my loss, I was told to come back the next day because CiRCA can accommodate 1000’s of people had 100’s of coats, it would be pointless to wait for my coat that night. When I returned the next day, it wasn’t there. I would rank this encounter 2 / 7.

I’m very familiar with missing coat check items. I have lost more than my share jackets over the past years. I purposely wore an old jacket rather than one of my nicer ones because of this. However, despite my past experiences, I still expect to receive my property back at the end of the night.

The major issue leading to this poor experience is the physical servicescape of the coat check. CiRCA is a massive club, with multiple floors and rooms. However, they allocate minimal space for their coat-checks; they have three levels of coats stacked upon each other and they are packed tightly together. When the club closes, there is a large rush for the coat check which results in the employees having to move quickly, inevitably this leads to a few jackets being knocked on the floor or having their tickets accidently removed. If they had larger rooms, it would allow for better organization of the coats so the employees are better prepared for the sudden withdrawal of jackets.

The other main issue was the lack of service recovery. The jacket was a complete loss, they referred me to the familiar “We aren’t responsible for lost or stolen articles” sign located above the coat check window. I always hate this sign because they may as well post a sign saying “We’re able to steal your coat”. The fact that I had paid them for a particular service, safeguarding my coat, and they had failed to perform it should entitle me to some compensation.

Perhaps the worst part about this experience is the fact that I know it will most likely happen again. CiRCA, and night clubs in general could prevent these situations by giving them more physical space and hiring more employees to help with peak times, but the reality is that most customers don’t think about coat checks in evaluating the service provider alternatives. It isn’t seen as an area to spend additional money on by most club owners.

I will try to leave my jacket at home when I go out, but since this has a large dependence on the weather and the fact that it’s mandatory at CiRCA (a favourite club of mine), the likeliness of me using this service again is 4 out of 7 even though I’d prefer not to.

Service Encounter Journal Form

Bell Canada / Aliant Journal #4

September 2008 Mobile Service

I renewed my Bell Mobility contract in Toronto a few months prior to returning to Antigonish, this locked me into a new three year contract. When I renewed the contract, they told me that I would be able to switch my service location and receive a local number if I ever moved anywhere in Canada.

However, when I tried to switch my number at the Antigonish branch, they said that they were unable to transfer my current plan because Aliant didn’t support my plan, even though Bell owns Aliant and claims to be a nation-wide provider. On a scale of 1-7, I would rank this particular encounter a 2.

My expectations for my mobile service are fairly detailed because I make sure to read and understand my contract; I expect them to provide the services which we agree upon. They told me that I would be able to switch locations for a $35 number change fee, but I was forced to cancel my current plan and sign a new one if I wanted a local number.

Over the years of our service relationship, I have added additional features to my plan to take advantage of special rates, at the expense of extending the length of my plan. This is the core of our customer relationship; I guarantee a higher life time value for Bell in order to receive additional benefits. I had adjusted my plan to get it to a level that cost me up to half of what my friends would pay per month for similar usage. We had a level 3 relationship bond, a customization bond. They would provide me only with the services that I need. However, they wanted me to give up all of the benefits I had accumulated; this broke the basis of our relationship.

The greatest problem in this situation was with the provider gap 4; not matching performance to promises. I had specifically asked the sales agent in Toronto if I would be able to change my local area if I moved. He assured me that I could, this was obviously an example of poor horizontal communications between sales and operations across the country. Employees should be informed about their plans and any changes that occur between different areas, especially when they use incorrect information as a way to sell their service.

It is also an example of a failure in provider gap 2 because they have poorly designed service standards. Bell is supposed to be a national communications provider; however, by not aligning their services between Aliant and Bell, they can’t offer a standardized product to meet their customer’s needs. Both companies offer the same products and services, but apparently they don’t offer the same ways to use them.

Bell could have rectified this issue by allowing me to have a local number as they promised or they could have prevented this situation by simply telling me in advance that they wouldn’t be able to switch my plan if I moved to Nova Scotia, in which case I wouldn’t have extended my contract in Toronto.

The likeliness I will return to Bell lies around 5 on a scale of 1 to 7. The switching barriers and costs for mobile communications are high so I will wait until the end of my contract to avoid additional fees. For the most part their service is within my zone of tolerance, I have yet to meet anyone who is 100% happy with their cellular provider, so the lack of superior alternative providers creates a sense of indifference. It will ultimately depend on the competitor’s available rates and products when my contract expires, my loyalty has diminished because of this encounter.

Service Encounter Journal Form

Porter Airlines Journal #5

January 2, 2009 Airline

4:30pm – 12:00am

I flew from Toronto to Halifax on Porter airlines, it was supposed to be a direct flight but we had an unscheduled stop-over in Montreal, where we experienced several delays. The most frustrating part of this encounter occurred after my flight when my brother informed that the Halifax airport employees had no idea that my flight had stopped in Montreal, they had no information regarding my flight status, and they had no explanation why it hadn’t arrived yet. The entire experience was a 2 on a scale of 1 to 7.

The major underlying service failure of this encounter was due to inadequate horizontal communications between the employees in Toronto and Halifax. The fact that they didn’t inform all levels about the four hour stopover in Montreal created unnecessary concern for my brother who was waiting for me in Halifax. Their communication onboard was excellent, we were updated every ten minutes, but they never relayed this to Halifax. My personal service philosophy for airlines is that they must do everything possible to ease concerns of everyone affected by their service, not just the passengers. I am willing to dismiss issues such as long lines and rude service because I have minimal service expectations for them. However, my zone of tolerance is narrower for safety and communication issues, these types of failures have a large impact on my overall satisfaction.

Porter also expanded customer gap 4 by not delivering on their service promises. On their website they make a non-personal explicit service promise regarding their flight schedules. In the past, their flights between Halifax and Toronto have always had stopovers in either Ottawa or Montreal so I tended to use Air Canada and WestJet due to their shorter flights. I booked the flight with Porter this time because they were offering a direct flight. They claimed they had to stop to re-fuel in Montreal, which was frustrating to me because if they know a full plane cannot make it all the way from Toronto to Halifax, they shouldn’t have sold it as though it could. I felt this broke their promise of now being able to provide direct flights. This would also be an example of customer gap 3,’ they weren’t able to deliver their service as it was planned.

This communication problem could have been easily corrected. They simply needed to communicate to Halifax that our flight was held up in Montreal. I wouldn’t have arrived in Halifax any sooner, but at least it my brother would know what was going on.

I often experience poor onboard service and delays while flying, however this was the first time that I felt a critical issue had been breached. I can accept personal inconveniences while flying, but I won’t tolerate putting my family through unnecessary stress and concern on account of my service provider. Therefore, my likelihood of returning to Porter is 2 out of 7. * I have upgraded this to 5 out of 7 after receiving service recovery from Porter. Their apology and credit towards a next flight has satisfied me that they are concerned about the communication problem and are going to rectify it.

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