Critique Of Service Marketing Management For Virgin Atlantic Airlines Essay.

Conduct a critique of the following service marketing management ideas, theories and techniques, specifically with reference to purpose, application and limitations and with regard to how these service management ideas, theories and techniques might contribute to the success of a service organisation:

• Service concept
• Understanding customer types
• The gaps model - Customer expectations and perceptions

Service Concept in Marketing

The following report is based on Service Operations management of the business organizations. The researcher has taken the example of Virgin Atlantic Airlines Pvt. Ltd as an example of the service providing companies in United Kingdom (www.virginatlantic.com). Service Operations Management forms an integral part of the business organization as it determines some of the most important factors which have an impact on the success of the business organization. Service Operations Management is referred to as the term that is needed to cover the decisions, activities and the responsibilities of a n operations manager in the business organization. The operations manager is entitled with a number of tasks to run the organization smoothly. The operations manager of Virgin Atlantic group takes care of the different complex activities that are used to deliver proper service to the customers. The operations of the organization includes the listing of the equipments, resources, monitoring the performance of the employees and ensuring that the inputs of the industry are arranged in a proper way to deliver the finished services for the consumers (Hult et al. 2017).

Figure 1- Service Operation

Source- (Haksever Cook and Chaganti 2015)

Service in business context implies a lot of different things. Service to someone can be similar to customer complaints or answering to customer care. The customers’ perspective on services on the other hand refers service as the sum total of the customer experience and their feedback on the following experience (Hult et al. 2017). It can be said that visit to a restaurant is the experience whereas the quality of food can be the perception If any problem occurs the airlines company is there to eradicate the problem. This can be defined as the service concept. The management of Virgin Airlines provides a range of products and different services to satisfy their diverse range of customers. The Company offers air services across 400 destinations worldwide which makes them one of the top earners of revenue. Along with its Australian partner Virgin Austtralia it caters to a wide range of Airline services. Apart from Air services the company provides many other services. The mentioned Airlines Company has kept the product range straightforward so that they can focus on what is more important. The service provided is believed to be second to no other such existing service and it is possible only because of the reliability, validity and effective communication (cargo.virgin-atlantic.com). The Company provides super fast shipment facilities for the customers as well as specific transportation process to maintain the effectiveness of the customer services. The shipment service is segmented into three types of different services namely, Just Ride, Must Ride and Fast Ride. Just ride is the basic shipment delivery service handled by the efficient networking team of the mentioned Airlines. While Must Ride is the range of premium service that aims to deliver the product tto the end users within the specified time limit and even returns the money back if they fail to deliver their promise. Last but not the least in any sense fast ride is the emergency shipment service for the delivery of the sensitive cargo to the users within a very short notice. The company has also started its own range of Courier service titled VEX. VEX offers express courier product withsuper urgency on a very short notice. However the most important product of the Airlines Company comes with Pharma Passive which has been designed to help transport the sensitive pharmaceutical products in passive packaged boxes (cargo.virgin-atlantic.com).

Understanding the Customer Types

A service provided by a business organization can be both good as well as bad. The quality of the service is determined by the customer feedback. The customer feedback is termed as the service experience of the company. The service experience of a customer is the direct experience of a customer on the goods and services that are provided to them by the business organization. The following may contain different elements like the process in which the customers are treated by the organizations and also how the customers have an experience of the facilities and services of the organization (Pérez and Rodriguez 2015).

Figure 2- Service Experience + Outcome

Source- (Haksever Cook and Chaganti 2015)

Some of the main service experiences include;

1. Responsibility of the employees of the organization
2. Behavioral trends of the employees of the organization
3. The ease of access to the people providing the services to the organization
4. The amount of interactions with the customers
5. The quality or the quantity of the goods and services that are provided to the organization
6. The reason for which the customers feel valued by the organization

The different organizations in the market provide one service or the other to the service users to earn revenue and increase the brand reputation of the companies (Hu and Sheng 2014). The task of the operations manager is to carefully manage, integrate and implement all the related aspects through financial performance, customer satisfaction and a high level of competitive advantage (Prakash and Mohanty 2013).  

Taking an example will help the readers to understand the following concept more easily. Name of the company- Virgin Atlantic Airlines   

Tagline- Virgin Atlantic (Flying in the face of ordinary)

Service Provided- Air Transportation, Food, hotel stay, cab service and many others.

Service Received- Great Air Travel, Hotel stay at the cost of the company in case of flight delay or cancellation, cab service to and from the airport, Good behavior of staff, catering to individual needs of the customers

Outcomes- Greater Customer Satisfaction, Increased Brand value, Greater revenue and greater Profit.

Customers are considered to be the most crucial part of a business organization. The absence of customers in a business will spell doom for the business organization. The customers are the sole responsible party for the betterment of the business organizations (Sivakumar Li and Dong 2014). The customers are the ones that judge the different products and services and rate them according to their demands. The customers can be divided into a number of types according to their demands;

1. Ally- Allies are the most valuable customers of any organization and have usually a positive frame of mind and always have the tendency to give back a positive feedback to the products and services of the organization. Making the ally happy ensures success for the customer as because they can lure other customers to use the products and services of the particular company.
2. The hostage- These types of customers are tied to use the products and services of a particular group of company contractually. For example a person buying a particular brand of mobile phone has to do the servicing of the phone from the registered dealers for a certain period of time. These customers might or might not possess a happier mood but are sure to develop a negative mood once the product does not meet its normal standard.
3. The Anarchist- The following types of customers hates the so called rules and systems of the organizations and in turn suggests different measures about the products and services provided by   the company. These types of customers create problems for the other customers.
4. The patient- Patients are the particular type of customers that have no other options rather than using a particular product or service. This may include the services that are received by a student in the school or the services received by a person in the hospital. According to Lovelock and Patterson (2015) these customers do not create any problem while receiving the services but too much regulations and unnecessary guidelines may turn these people hostile.
5. The tolerant- Tolerant customers might be passive and patiently wait for the service providers to deliver quality service to them. However their silent nature makes the service providers unaware of their presence and thus they may lose goodwill and reputation in the market.

6.Intolerant- Intolerant customers are seldom passive and patient and thus they create problems to both themselves and the service providers. Though these customers do not show any signs of their character initially but neglecting them can lead to serious problems. The Management of Virgin Airlines has a specific set of guidelines in place to tackle such errant customers.

7. The Victim- The time when something or the other goes wrong in the service organization some customers seems to attract bad luck. The products and services that are offered to them might not be of the particular standard that the others may have received.

8.Terrorist- Terrorist are the  customners who have the tendency to mount a suddenn attack when it is least expected. For example a customer who might have bought a particular product the earlier day comes to the packed up store the next day and suddenly vent out  his anger about the product. This has a negative impact on the buying pattern of the customers.

9. The incompetent- The management of any organization must deliver additional power to the frontline staffs of the organization to make sure that the new users does not face any problem while they use the services of the organization. The customers need to perceive the maximum value for the products so that they can return to the organization to use their services in the coming future.
10. Champions- There are some of the customers in the modern marketing world who are both loyal to the organization and also recommend highly and provide positive reviews to the people that helps the organization to gather more and more clients(Blut et al. 2014).

The mentioned Airlines Company has to identify the type of customers that they deal with and accordingly arrange for the facilities that cater to the demand of the flyers. Identification of the customers is very important as it is an indirect consideration on the success of the business. If the Airlines Company succeeds in serving the different customers in a proper and efficient manner it makes sure that they will go a long way in the future.

The Gaps Model (Customer Expectations and Perceptions)

 

Figure 3– Customer Service Gaps Model

Source- (Blut et al. 2014)

The Customer Service Gaps Model as shown in the above figure is one of the most trending part of business in the modern days. Globalization has changed the ways by which a customer perceives about a certain product or service in an organization (Heidenreich et al. 2015). The customers demand not only superior quality products and services but also expect high quality service from the employees of the organization. Superior quality services of different organizations are not only the only factors that help the organizations to gain a strategic advantage in the market. According to Lovelock and Patterson (2015) the other hand from a customer’s point of view the following service is considered to be an integral part of the product. The mood of the consumers depends on whether he will rate a service good or bad and thus a proper rapport must be established by the organization to make sure that the customer can have a transparent understanding of each and every products and services used by them.

The following gap is the difference between the customer expectations and the customer perceptions. The customer experience is determined by cultural background, family lifestyle, demography and some other important factors like advertising. On the other hand customer perception is based on the involvement of the customer on the products and services of the organization. Customer gap is experienced when the following two qualities are not met within a product or service (Lovelock and Patterson 2015). The customer gap is the most key element and in the real world the expectations and the perceptions of the customers would be the most identical. In the modern business environment delivering a quality service for a product is based on a transparent understanding of the market of the specific product. Therefore the best way to close the gap is to make a clear understanding of the needs of the customer and know the expectations of the customer.

Knowledge Gap is the contrast between the organizations provision of a particular service and the expectations of the consumers about the particular service. If the managers in charge of the operations of the company fail to understand the demands of the customers a gap in knowledge will be created which will lead to the downfall of the company in the market. As mentioned earlier if such a gap exists it must be ascertained that the organizations are heading towards a blank future and are failing to gain the trust of the customers (Heidenreich et al. 2015).

Policy Gap refers to the wrong translation of the management of an organization of the rules and policies that forms a part of the organizational structure (Hu and Sheng 2014). Poor designing of the products and the services, failure of the company to maintain the products and the services, absence of standardized services and goods are some of the main hiccups for the organizations to transform the expectations of the consumers on the goods and services into a reality.

Delivery gap clearly highlights the gaps in the performance of the employees. Generally such gap occurs in the companies having a very poor quality training program or the absence of a training program at all. The absence of a efficient training program makes the employees helpless and as a result they fail to meet the demands of the customers. Some of the main problems that the employees and the managers in charge of the operation faces are;

1. Lack of training programs is one of the main reasons that hamper the type of service of the company
2. Delivery gaps leads to the inability of the companies in delivering the products

The management of Corinthian travel has put in place a proper and efficient training system to train its employees in the best possible way to make the business attractive and help the employees gather necessary skills that will make the company have a competitive advantage over their rivals. The company can easily eradicate the delivery gap if it can implement a proper training program.

Communication Gap is one of the most important drawbacks of the modern day business environment. Often the companies tend to engage in false and misleading advertisements to lure the customers and maintain a quality brand image in the market. An advertisement which promises a number of different facts generally fail to meet the demands of the customers and ultimately leads to loss of valuable customers from their fold.

Conclusion

The purpose of the report to identify the service management concept of a business organization has been effectively met. A thorough analysis of the report will help to identify the meaning of service management in business context, the types of customers involved in business and the famous Gaps model that has helped to find out the drawbacks of a business organization. The different types of Gaps in business render the business ineffective to making profit.

References

"Book Flights With Virgin Atlantic." Virginatlantic.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 21 Nov. 2017. ()

"Virgin Atlantic | Our Products." Cargo.virgin-atlantic.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 28 Nov. 2017.

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