MMK251 Services Marketing Assessment Details
Assignment, written as a business report, to be completed individually (3,000 words)
Choose a service organisation for which onsite physical environment and the service delivery process of the production environment are particularly important in communicating with and satisfying customers. Imagine that you work for a marketing consultancy firm and that you are serving as consultants to your chosen organisation. Visit the service site and have a detailed look around at the exterior and interior of the building. In addition, collect all forms of physical evidence that the organisation uses to communicate with its customers (e.g., brochures, information packs or business cards). Experience the physical environment and try to feel how the various design elements shape what you feel and how you behave in that setting. Next consider the service production environment from the customer's perspective as they move through each step of the service delivery process, identifying the 'moments of truth' - that is, the critical points that are likely to have a significant bearing on customers' perceptions and sense of satisfaction. Also consider the design of the services cape and the service production environment from the perspective of employees.
Once you have done this, prepare a report for the organisation's management that addresses the following:
a) Describe the strategic role of the services cape as it applies to your chosen organisation.
b) The theoretical underpinning for understanding the effects of service environments on customers and service employees emanates from environmental psychology. There are two key models:
- The Mehrabian-Russell Stimulus-Response model holds that environments influence peoples' affective state (or emotions and feelings), which in turn drives their behaviour.
- Russell's Model of Affect holds that affect can be modelled with the two interacting dimensions of pleasure and arousal, which together determine whether people approach, spend time and money in an environment, or whether they avoid it.
- Bitner's Services cape Model, which builds on the above theories, represents an integrative framework that explains how customers and service staff respond to key environmental dimensions.
You are required to apply the services cape model to 'critically' evaluate the effectiveness of your chosen organisation's physical environment.
c) Construct what you believe to be a flowchart or blueprint representing the service production environment for your service organisation (front stage and backstage), with some reference to relevant models and/or diagrams from the services marketing literature, including the physical evidence tangible cues as the customer moves through each step of the delivery process. What do you think are the 'moments of truth' and why are these likely to be critical points for customer's perceptions and satisfaction?
d) Based on your response to b) and c) above, provide recommended strategies to management as to how they may better design and manage the organisation's physical evidence and 'moments of truth'.
e) Marketing metrics are numeric data that allow marketers to evaluate their performance against organisational goals. How would you use marketing metrics to determine if the recommended strategies that you identify in your answer to part d) were successful?
Your report should include an executive summary, introduction, body (addressing all assignment questions), conclusion and a list of references. Please note that an executive summary is meant to be an overview of your entire paper. It requires explicit detail, particularly in relation to your recommendations. Your executive summary should appear on a separate page. For a good description as to what is required in an executive summary.
A good introduction will be short and will help guide the reader. It should include:
- The purpose of the report;
- What the report will cover. Otherwise your marker will not be able to ascertain whether you have talked about it meaningfully. If applicable, also indicate what you are not going to cover in your report; and
- Background information that will assist the marker in understanding the contents of the report.
Your final paragraph should contain the conclusions that you draw from the information presented in the body of your report. Conclusions should be briefly but firmly stated. You should not introduce new information in your conclusion paragraph.