Auto world case study- service marketing

Running Head: case study Auto World Case Study- Services marketing of the of the of the Developing the service blueprint of servicing of car: assumptions and bases
Services are marked by their predominant intangibility as compared to tangible components. In the case of car repair and maintenance services, the tangibility spectrum (Ograjensek 2008) (Appendix 1) denotes higher intangibility. As such, this component has to be used in developing the blueprint for car servicing at Auto World.
Auto World is currently facing repercussion from down times of car servicing. To bring about a change in this dimension and improve the service quality and intangible aspect of the service, the following changes are recommended in the service blueprint (Bitner, Ostrom and Morgan 2008):
Tangibles- better appearance of service writers, mechanics and facilities, sitting arrangement for customers while registering their orders.
Reliability- routine check up cars delivered the same day while emergency ones within a few hours after examination.
Responsiveness- prompt segregation of routine and emergency service customers and estimate telling on the basis of this segregation.
Assurance- sales people introduce the service people to the new customers and fixing service issues in the first servicing itself.
Empathy- personalized attention to loyal and regular customers. Separate database maintenance will be established for regular customers who come for routine check up of their cars and no need for them to stand in a queue.
Assumptions:
Assuming that manual service writing has been replaced with computerized system of entering service orders and creation of database of regular customers with oil and maintenance routine has been put in place at Auto World, the service blueprint will be worked out as follows: (Appendix 2) (Bitner, Ostrom and Morgan 2008)
The new service strategy for enhancing service would be to segregate the routine and emergency service customers on the basis of maintained database. As a result, routine customers will be asked to fill a form and let go after taking their cars. Emergency customers would have to detail the service writer about the problem and then place the order.
Future strategy advice for Carol
As stated already, cars and their servicing are marked by greater intangibility and thus, bettering this component of the business will definitely bring benefits to Carol. Recovering from service failure will encompass timely deliveries, increased attention to customer expectations and deciding upon who should be involved at which stage and in which process of service delivery (Boshoff 1997).
As obvious from case facts, annoying behavior of employees has been a key factor in the failure and bad experience of service in Auto World (Lovelock, Wirtz & Chew 2009). As such, tangible offering will have to be coupled with more of intangible aspects to deliver an optimum service and product mix.
Instance of bad service experience
One bad service experience in car servicing is error in delivering the worked upon car. For instance, whether manual or computerized entry system, a car was to be delivered to the customer on a specific date but when the customer asked the service agent to confirm the date, it was told incorrect by error.
As a result, the customer had to wait for one more day to get his car delivered and when he comes on the later day to collect, he is told that by mistake the delivery date was a day earlier. This resulted in extra servicing costs and delayed delivery for the customer, leading to increased customer dissatisfaction (Andreassen 2000).
Appendices
Figure 1: Tangibility spectrum
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Figure 2: Service Blueprint of Auto World car servicing function
References
Andreassen, T. W. (2000) Antecedents to satisfaction with service recovery,
European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34, No. 1/2, pp. 156-175.
Bitner, M., Ostrom, A. and Morgan, F. (2008). Service blueprinting: a practical
technique for service innovation, California Management Review, Vol. 50, No. 3,
pp. 66-94.
Boshoff, C. (1997) An experimental study of service recovery options,
International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 110-130.
Lovelock, C, Wirtz, J & Chew, P. (2009). Essentials of Service Marketing. Prentice Hall.
Ograjensek, I. (2008). Service Quality. John Wiley & Sons