Service Marketing-Woolworths Limited-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss howWoolworths Limited Service Encounters affect the Business Management of the Customers. Answer: Introduction In any service industry, the customer experience on a particular brand plays a major role in deciding whether he or she will purchase the same service in future. The customer offers his or her judgment on the service based on the service encounters or the moment of truth that he or she experiences while interacting with the service provider (Bradley et al. 2013, p.512). Therefore, in the case of any service based organizations, the company should focus on improving the customer touch points which are the key areas where there is an existing interaction with the customer. This is the ideal opportunity for the companies to ensure that they leave a positive impact on the customers. In this paper, the author will be looking at the impact that service encounters in the scenario of Woolworths Limited. The paper uses the real life situation of what happens in this company and how its service encounters affect the business management of the customers. There are several moments of truth in the case of the customer, and it is not possible here to analyze all of them. Therefore, this paper finds it suitable to address services encounters among the Woolworth Company customers based on both backstage and front stage operations. Before engaging in further discussion, it is important to determine the meaning of service encounters. Service encounters involve the mix of emotions where the customers judge the quality of service offered to them in an economic sense concerning the various experiences that they have. There are so many factors that if managed properly can lead to a better customer satisfaction and can increase the business considerably. Flow Chart Showing Service Marketing of Woolworths Limited Significance of Service Encounter In the flow chart, it shows various processes that a customer goes through after coming to the company. Some of this encounter directly involve the customer making several inquiries on product features. However, some customers to engage in products inquiry. This helps the company to allow time for each customer according to his or her needs. The company has to manage the two types of customers effectively to ensure that their service experience is enhanced (Gazzoli, Hancer, Kim, 2013, p.384). Therefore, Woolworth Limited has designed these service experiences in such a way that they can convert neutral or negative emotional experiences of the customers while entering the premises to a positive one. The emotional underpinnings of the service encounters hold utmost importance and have to be managed properly to make the service experience good for the customer. For example in this case, even though the sale person is not available to attend to the customer, they have to be kept engaged with the things that they like so that they don't develop negative feelings about the environment. Many organizations do this by having various entertainment options for their customers like various Frequently Asked Questions pamphlets and having a match running on a T.V near the waiting area. This can be done only if the service providers can understand various touch points that the customer would interact with and the various scenarios that are likely to occur (Giesbrecht, Schwabe, Schenk, 2016, p.172). Duration effects also have to be taken into consideration where the organization management will have to ensure that the customer is made aware when there is a significant progress in their total operations and at the same time they will have to ensure that there are not many discrete steps in which the same is being divided into (Lings, Beatson, Gudergan, 2008, p.1435). Likewise, the Woolworth Limited applied all the above mention approaches when keeping the customers at bay before they are served. Another major factor that is likely to affect the customer satisfaction is that the perceived control that the customer has in the proceedings. In this case, Woolworth Limited instead of making the customer wait for a long time they can give him or her the option of booking the slot based on the availability of the sale person. The more the perceived control that the customer has on the system, more likely he is to be satisfied with the service provision (Lings, Beatson, Gudergan, 2008, p.1443). However, this may not be possible in all the cases where there are several internal systems which the customer has little control on; in such cases, the company must ensure that there is fairness in proceedings so that the customers do not feel that they are being taken for granted. Therefore, managing the perceived control is also one of the major factors that affect the business in a big manner. Every service interaction is an opportunity for the company to portray their satisfaction on the brand. Therefore, it may be argued that each positive experience that the customer has to be reinforced to his or her favorite brand. The Woolworth Limited make maximum use of these service encounters in interacting with the customers and understand their needs and wants and design the service offerings accordingly. This is an ideal platform for the company in getting the feedback from the customers and thus can make the necessary improvisations as and when required (Botschen, 2012, p.16) Managerial Implications As mentioned above the company should make use of these service encounters in getting the customers to their fold. Therefore, unlike other disciplines in the service stable, service encounters cannot be judged merely based on any mathematical equations; there are a lot of qualitative factors influencing the same. The managerial implications that these encounters can have may directly affect return on investment and the market share as it directly influences the customers choice of a brand ("Framework for energy market communications," 2012., p.30). Therefore, this sounds good especially in the case of a company's brand where trust matters the most and most of the marketing methods are based on word of mouth in the market. Regarding facilities, most of the present day companies may be the same; it is just the way the service is being offered that matters. There is not enough focus on the service psychology part of the business that can help Woolworth to improve the service encounters in the organization (Johns, 2012, p.101-115). Therefore, the company has to identify various service interactions that the customers will have during a transaction and identify what all can negatively affect the customers. Improvements have to be made to make sure that the customers are made aware of the completeness of the process, the duration and various steps before hand to avoid any ambiguity (Young 2016, p.178). This approach will help them in reducing the cost and effort as the number of reworks when there is no ambiguity is far less, and this would also improve the customer satisfaction. These encounters also may be used by the company to sell up various services that they offer. There has been enough and more systems and checks developed by the business to manage the demand and the supply needs of the organization, but very little effort has been put into making them effective. Therefore, adding the psychological dimension to the same would increase the brand loyalty and the customers who are satisfied with the service will, in turn, refer them to more and more customers that can help them in building the base (Lloyd Luke, 2011, p.178). Even the internal transactions where the customers are not directly involved but forming an essential part of the whole service process has to be taken into consideration so that the overall service experience is pleasant and streamlined (Zhang, Kosaka, Yabutani, 2011, p.26). Companies these days have been spending a huge budget of promoting their brand through various mediums. 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