Essay: Service Marketing In Emirates Airlines - Vital For Success!

Purpose of the project

Describe about the Service Marketing?

The project aims to establish the importance of service marketing in Emirates Airlines. It highlights the three basic areas of Emirates; the service process, the service people and resource capacity utilization or resource allocation. It also explains the limitations of airline industry in case of service.

Emirates airline is an auxiliary of the Emirates group which is solely owned by the Dubai Government (Bazoobandi, 2013). It is considered as the largest airline in the whole of middle-east with 3500 flight being operated per week. Among the top ten airlines Emirates has its name.  Emirates airline were envisioned in 1985 as the Gulf air backed out from its services in Dubai. At that time Pakistan International Airlines leased two of its airplanes to Emirates. With the start up capital as US$10, today Emirates, today emirates flies in more than 140 destinations.

There has been a sea change in Global economy and one of the most dominating parts of this change is customer satisfaction. There should be efficient servicing for attracting, retaining and servicing the customers (Chitty, D'Alessandro and Hughes, 2012). Today the survival of a company not only depends on its product but also depends to the services provided along with it. During 1970’s service marketing evolved as an academic field, then the concept was well defined through active participation of various business practitioners, researchers and institutions.

The service industry evolved from the classification of three sectors in which one of them was Tertiary Sector. Service industry belonged to tertiary sector.  At the beginning according to economists view countries of low productivity in respect to secondary and primary sectors, tertiary sectors provides productivity above the average which concludes to mass moving to tertiary employment (Joshi, 2008).

Emirates Airline has the vision to be the world’s most esteemed air services provider and solving the capacity issues without upsetting the customers comfort (The Emirates Group, 2013).  The Emirates gives the credit to their belief in business ethics that has leaded them to a successful development. They pays a great deal of care to their stakeholders, environment, communities and last but not the least, their employees. They consider that these are the prime factors that helped in their past and will continue to help in future.

The service process helps to design the process of services from the scratch to the next level of performance. The process involves reengineering the existing processes so that the performance of the company improves. The companies constantly leverage their expertise and also the experiences so that they are able to align the new processes of the company with the standards of the industry (Baron, 2010). The operating procedures and the processes are examined. It is done to identify the opportunities for further improvements which will enable the organization to provide an efficient service and quality to the customers (Servicestrategies.com).

The reengineering of service processes includes:

• Renewing the processes of the business to suit the business.
• To analyze and identify the failure of the current processes
• To create new processes and descriptions for the business.
• To align a new process to meet the industry standards.
• To find out any further requirements of the system which could be fulfilled
• To analyze the requirements of the business so as to execute other processes.
• To change the management role and to train the employees
• To create measures and standards for performance improvements.
• To evaluate the performance by monitoring them.

Introduction to service marketing

The input transformational model

The service process is involved with delivering the best of services of the company to the customers. The input transformation model is based on the three components: the inputs, the process transformation and the outputs. The model involves the systematic control and direction of processes which transforms the inputs or the resources into finished goods or outputs for the clients or the customers (Understanding Operations Management).

In the airline industry, considering the example of the Emirates Airways, the inputs are considered is the employee productivity, better technology in the aircrafts, and better services. The transformation can be customer satisfaction, the above inputs transform into the satisfaction of the people when they are on air. The final outcome or the output is the increased profitability of the business. Emirates tries to constantly develop their technology like recently they have introduced the Wi-Fi technology in the seats of the aeroplanes, so that the passengers can stay in touch even 40000 feet above the ground with their close ones (Understanding Operations Management). They even have luxurious cabins and lounges, where the passengers can rest. The chauffer drive is another specialty that they provide to the first class and the economic class for to and fro journey. The ultimate result is that the customers are satisfied and they are driven to this airline for the superior services they offer. This results in increased revenue for the company. As more and more people avail their services the more revenues they generate (Emiratesgroupcareers.com).

The emirates group constantly looks for people who are globalistic and who want to discover new places, ideas and culture. The airline company also provides training programme which is unparallel in the industry. The company even looks for employees who have an exceptional skill for customer services, cross cultural influence and having good attention skills. The company tries to attract the customers by improving their processes, performances and reducing the cost. The company has established itself as one of the industry leaders in the year 2012.

• Velocity: it is the speed with which the input is converted into the output after being transformed while processing the inputs (Slack, Chambers and Johnston).
• Volume: it is the high volume that is processed. It allows systematising the activities that are needed to be performed.
• Variety: it is the variety of products the company offers. With more varieties, it provides it helps to better serve the people.
• Value: it is the value the company provides. It can be cultural, social and religious. Moreover the values are also in terms of the services being provided, innovation and trust (Understanding Operations Management).

The back office jobs include running the company in terms of manufacturing and developing services and products. It can also include the administrative jobs that the company does. The back office jobs are mainly away from the public view but are major contributors. They handle their jobs efficiently helping the company to prosper, whereas, the front office jobs include the sales and marketing jobs. These jobs require the employees to face the customers on a regular basis.

The engineers of the company, ground staff, are some of the back office jobs that the airline provides. These jobs are very important as they are always busy to make the airlines better and ensure that they have a safe journey. The cabin crew is the front office job that the company offers. The cabin crews are as important as they are in constant contact with the customers; they cater to the needs of the passengers help them in crisis and most importantly to see that the passengers have a safe and pleasurable journey.

About service industry

Customer involvement

Customer involvement means that how the customers involve with a product. If they like a product they identify with it and use it regularly and if they could not identify with the product, the demand of the products decreases. The revenue of the company depends on the customer’s feedback of the product and their usage. It can be seen that the company has from the year 2008-09 has increased its revenue constantly (IT TAKES A WORLD THE EMIRATES GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2012-13). It indicates that the customer base of the company is increasing and people are using their airline services. Their revenue was 43,266 AED in the 2008-09 and it increased to 73,113 AUD in the year 2012-13. Thus it can be said that the people are happy and satisfied with the service that Emirates Airlines provide.

One who provides service for an organization under supervision of a person, by recruitment is known as employees. The one who recruits or employs is the employer.

Emirates Airlines has employees around 68,000 who are being credited for the success and sustainability of the company. The main service people for Airline industries who get to interact with the customers directly are the air-host and air-hostess. They are considered as the brand of Emirates Airlines (International Monetary Fund, 2012). With their services to comfort their customers they play the key role. Not only the host and hostess, the back office plays a very important role, they are the reason of safety and security and design of Emirates airlines.

Pressure is a term that the airline industry employees are well acquainted with. They had to deal with daily pressures. The service provided by the employees is judged only when their customers are satisfied with their service. The more number of satisfied customers, the more number of customers they will retain.

In general view the service profit chain creates a relationship between customer loyalty, employee productivity, loyalty and satisfaction along with profitability.  The chain of service profit begins with profit generated from Emirates airlines loyal customer; this is because the customers were satisfied with the airline service. These services were provided by the employees of emirates (ex: air-hostess) (Demirkan, Spohrer and Krishna, 2011). The value of service is provided by productive loyal workers which is a result of employee satisfaction. Thus it is the employee satisfaction with the company that turns out to be profitable.

Figure 3: The Service Profit Chain

The Emirates Group presents a range of liberal benefits to help permanent employees who are employed globally to reside in Dubai.  Their Remuneration Policy aims on developing benefits and compensation policies through comprehensive analysis and research.  Their main objective is to ensure that the Organization remains competitive and productive within the market it works in, and to ensure that they retain and attract the appropriate talent.

They consider that as a group they are successful because they retain and recruit talented employees from worldwide. They provide the liberty to their employees who have their own career aspirations and priorities in individual perspective. This contributes to their strength and lead towards their business.

Mission and Vision of Emirates Airlines

Training helps in improving communication, team building, general awareness and reduced turnover. It also increases the productivity of the employees. Researchers agree on the fact that empowered employees give a quicker response to the customers. The Emirates Group put great efforts in vocational training and development so that the employees can do their job well. They feel that the employees are the most vital part of successful operation.  There are many institutions that provides courses for airline industry, form these Institutions they hire the best talents.

The company considers their employees to be their human assets and do that they provide sufficient benefits and training as discussed.  In order to provide good services they make it clear that their employees have capabilities enough to serve their consumers.  Emirates Group believes in the concept that the main differentiator is the customer experience. Their main challenges are to keep delivering and designing the experience that Emirates provide in a way that satisfies the customer. Externally and internally the employees of Emirates demonstrate in view of a commitment in customer service. This concept helps Emirates to reach its goal and continue a successful business.

It is the degree to which an Organization uses its resources. Generally a business resource is land, capital, organization and manpower. Today the Information technology has also become an integral part of resources.

In service industry such as Emirates Airlines the prime resource is their people. Throughout the discussion it was neatly discussed that Emirates consider their people to be their biggest assets. In order to support the prime objective of Emirates the Human resource department implements flexible solutions to their problem. Emirates utilize their human resource in two ways. They are:

Conclusion

It can be concluded the airline company has successfully achieved its success. By implementing the process and services they have constantly looked up at the needs of the people. They provide the people with better quality journey with technologies and innovative designs. The company always found new ways to serve the people. They have installed Wi-Fi in their planes and even made lavish lounges for the customers to take rest (Lee, 2007). With all these technologies being installed there still remains a drawback that is there no safety that they will land safely on the ground when they take off.

Field Service management:

The field service management helps in locating airlines, the management of workers activity, their dispatched and scheduled work the billing, accounting and back office procedures. Emirates make sure that the system is efficient enough to work properly. Probably the best field service management in airline industry is provided by Emirates Airlines.

In resource allocation

Building flexibility ( shifts of employees, delivery time)

The Emirates helps in building flexibility among its employees which results in delivery of proper service timely. Even for the company’s 24 hrs service they had various shifts of working time. Emirates make it sure whether their employees are comfortable with the timings.

Evaluation of Service Processes:

The evaluation of service process is done on the basis of customer feedback. Various surveys (online) assures the quality of Service for emirates and in this process the evaluation of services are done. The surveys on employees are also done on yearly basis in order to see the employee satisfaction.

References:

Bazoobandi, S. (2013). Political economy of the Gulf sovereign wealth funds. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Chitty, W., D'Alessandro, S. and Hughes, A. (2012). Services marketing. South Melbourne, Vic.: Oxford University Press.

Demirkan, H., Spohrer, J. and Krishna, V. (2011). The science of service systems. New York: Springer.

Emirates, (2015). The Emirates Story | About Emirates | Emirates. [online] Available at: https://www.emirates.com/english/about/the_emirates_story.aspx [Accessed 18 Feb. 2015].

International Monetary Fund, (2012). United Arab Emirates: Staff Report for the 2012 Article IV Consultation. IMF Staff Country Reports, 12(116), p.i.

Joshi, S. (2008). Growth and structure of tertiary sector in developing economies. New Delhi: Academic Foundation.

The Emirates Group, (2013). THE EMIRATES GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2012-13. 1st ed. [ebook] UAE: The Emirates Group. Available at: https://www.dnata.com/TridionUploads/AnnualReport_2012-2013.pdf [Accessed 18 Feb. 2015].

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Heizer, J. and Render, B. (2001). Principles of operations management. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

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Lee, D. (2007). The economics of airline institutions, operations and marketing. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Servicestrategies.com, (2015). Service Process Design. [online] Available at: https://servicestrategies.com/consulting-services/service-process-design/ [Accessed 18 Feb. 2015].

Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R. (2010). Operations management. Harlow, England: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

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