Service Marketing

This report discusses a service failure experience with Thai Airways, analyzes service quality and customer satisfaction, and suggests a service recovery strategy. It also explores the importance of customer service function in improving customer loyalty.

Service marketing
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Service failure experience................................................................................................................3
Service quality.............................................................................................................................3
Customer satisfaction...................................................................................................................5
Service recovery strategy.................................................................................................................5
Customer service function...............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The aim of the report is to select one of the recent service failure experiences that you have
encountered in the Thai airline. The report includes the application of the service quality as well
as the customer satisfaction theories that has been learnt in class with the motive to evaluate the
service experience. Considering the experience, it is essential to form the service recovery
strategy and customer service function that will support in bringing the improvement the
customer post-purchase behaviour as well as promote the customer loyalty.

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Service failure experience
The service failure experience that has been encountered by me includes bad experience with
Thai Airways. While travelling with the Thai Airways, it was witnessed that the booking of the
flight ticket is one of the major issue. The online website of the airways shows the processing
denied or the payment not accepted that affected the experience (Skytra, 2019). It was very
lengthy and time-consuming task when I was supposed to book even the ticket. This shows that
the portal of the Thai airways is not working effectively as well as there is lack of proper
management of the portal. Later after the booking was done with the struggle, I being to the
airport and seek help from the ground staff of the airways but they were very late at listening.
However, somehow they managed and helped for boarding. The way, I was supposed to travel
was approx. 12 hours along in which I was expecting the excellent services from the staff and for
food and beverages. I order for the meal according to my health but it was not available and due
to which they serve me the wrong food. Further, on requesting for second glass of white wine
staff replied that their stock is finish in the arrogant manner. Further, there was no person passing
with the water due to every time passenger were using the call button. The overall service
experience with the Thai airways was not good and they need to bring the improvisation and
many changes in their services (Trip advisor, 2019).
Service quality
The service is analysed with the SERVQUAL theory that helps in determining the gap between
the service perceived and service experienced (Kaura, Durga Prasad and Sharma 2015, p. 411).
This theory of the service quality helps in analysing the loopholes of the Thai Airways.

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 Gap 1: Listening Gap: - The Staff at the flight were not able to listen effectively about the
order placed and they were very bad at replying in the arrogant manner. The services that
are expected by customers include effective listening skills and response in polite manner
to customers within flight.
 Gap 2 – The Service Design and Standards Gap: - The booking of the ticket is one of the
major factors that affect the experience and it is require to be recovered by the customers
(Hussain, Al Nasser and Hussain 2015, 172). The booking website is every complex that
affects the experience.
 Gap 3 – The Performance Gap: - The overall performance of the airline and from the
staff was not good. The airways was supposed to be on time but it was late and then the
staff was slow that affected experience. The delivery of the service from the airways was
expected to be good with the proper availability of the resources. There was lack of food
that was offered by staff within the flight.
 Gap4 – The Communication Gap: - The communication between the customer and staff
was not effective, as staff were not giving the proper response (Brochado, Rita, Oliveira
and Oliveira 2019, p. 827). The customer expected their welcome by the staff with a short
communication but everything was missing.
 Gap 5 – The Customer Gap: The customer expectation with Thai airways was high as
they expected that the performance and service would be effective that can easily make
the day of the other person. However, unfortunately the services that were actually
received by the customers were not satisfactory.

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Customer satisfaction
The customer satisfaction is essential to be maintained by organisation by offering the effective
and delight services to the customers. The experience of the customers with the company can be
evaluated with the theory of disconfirmation model that shows satisfaction is achieved or not.
The theory of the disconfirmation postulates that satisfaction is linked with the size and direction
related to the discrepancy among the prior expectation as well the actual product performance
(Kiseleva, Nekrasova, Mayorova, Rudenko and Kankhva 2016, 98). The customer experience in
the airways is related to the services offered by them, the previous expectation of the customers
in the market as well as the direction that is linked with the management of the experience. In the
Thai Airways, the customer found that they are not prior for the company and their expectation
does not matter.
Service recovery strategy
In the global environment, there are many failure faced by the airline industry related to the
customer satisfaction. Then they apply the concept of the service recovery as this helps them to
generate the positive responses from the customers (Mellat-Parast, Golmohammadi, McFadden
and Miller 2015, p. 21). In the competitive market, the airline industry need to come up with the
right strategy related to the service recovery. The service recovery concept says the process of
acknowledging the service failure that can take place. There are different strategies that are
available for the Thai Airways that include:
 Act quickly
 Provide the proper explanation
 Fair and delight treatment with customers

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 Cultivating the strong relationship with passengers, accepting the mistake and
apologising
 Fail-safe the service
 Learning from the mistakes
 Track the complaints
According to the service failure issues, the airways need to implement the strategy of the offering
the fair as well as the delight treatment to the customers who are travelling with them. In this,
airline staff needs to be equipped with the proper personal engagement training that helps them
to communicate with softness. In the flight, every customer wants to be treated well without any
issue. In the service failure, this has been evidence that passenger is even calling for water and
they are not getting right meal even. It is recommended to the airline to implement the strategy
through which the employees understand the work and perform in getting the positive views of
customers which leads to rise in customer loyalty (Harrison, 2018).
Further, it has been found that at the time of boarding there was issue with the staff as there were
slow at their process. The employees within the company need to act quickly as this will reduce
the number of issues as well as complaints of the customers. In the Thai airways, the customer
found delay in the process that leads to irritation and affects experience. This strategy will
enhance their experience and make the changes in their post buying behaviour due to which they
will recommend to others.
In addition to this, there was no engagement between the employees and customers that leads to
the service failure. It is recommended to Thai airways to develop the engagement between their
staff and the customers that helps them in improving the personalised service. It also helps in

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understanding the overview of the customer towards the brand. This engagement will help in
forming the customer loyalty (Ghorabaee, Amiri, Zavadskas, Turskis, and Antucheviciene 2017,
p.53). Moreover, it is recommended to employees to acknowledge the complaints and apologise
for the inconvenience cause to them due to the service failure with the Thai Airways. This will
bring the change in the customer post purchase behaviour with the airways and likely to visit for
the next time.
Customer service function
Customer service is the act of taking care of the needs of clients by offering the professional,
high quality service assistance to the customers. When the company deal with the issues or
service failure then they apply this function in order to ensure that they are able to offer the high
customer service. In the customer service function, Thai airline enhance their skills, knowledge
and capabilities so that they can work effectively (Halvorsrud, Kvale and Følstad 2016, 854).
They will enhance their professional services through which they can offer the delight service by
offering proper meal, by communicating professionally, by asking for their needs for anything at
flight, by ensuring that their luggage is safe, they are comfortable with seat and many others.
This will not only bring the changes in the consumer post purchasing behaviour but also affects
the customer loyalty. It is recommended to airline to do effective implementation of the customer
service function will leads to the improvement in the customer loyalty towards the airways. Thai
airways will be able to generate high loyalty with customer satisfaction that will contribute in
achieving high sales.

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Conclusion
In the end of report, this is concluded that service failures are majorly witnessed in service
industry and one of the industries is Airline. In the airline industry, Thai airline is able to
effective perform but service failure is also encountered within the airline. The experience of the
service failure shows the issues related to website design, delay in acting, lack of food and
beverages facility, lack of professional skills of employees and many others. Further, the
company implement the strategy to recover the service that helps in bringing the changes in
consumer buying behaviour and improving customer loyalty.

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References
Brochado, A, Rita, P, Oliveira, C & Oliveira, F 2019, Airline passengers’ perceptions of service
quality: themes in online reviews, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 855-873.
Ghorabaee, MK, Amiri, M, Zavadskas, EK, Turskis, Z & Antucheviciene, J 2017, A new hybrid
simulation-based assignment approach for evaluating airlines with multiple service quality
criteria, Journal of Air Transport Management, vo.63 pp. 45-60.
Halvorsrud, R, Kvale, K and Følstad, A 2016, Improving service quality through customer
journey analysis, Journal of service theory and practice, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 840-867.
Harrison, J, 2018, An examination of the nature of service recovery within the airline industry
and its impact on customer loyalty, Journal of Promotional Communications, vol. 6, no. 2.
Hussain, R, Al Nasser, A & Hussain, YK 2015, Service quality and customer satisfaction of a
UAE-based airline: An empirical investigation, Journal of Air Transport Management, vol. 42,
pp. 167-175.
Kaura, V, Durga Prasad, CS & Sharma, S 2015, Service quality, service convenience, price and
fairness, customer loyalty, and the mediating role of customer satisfaction, International Journal
of Bank Marketing, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 404-422.
Kiseleva, EM, Nekrasova, ML, Mayorova, MA, Rudenko, MN & Kankhva, VS 2016, The theory
and practice of customer loyalty management and customer focus in the enterprise activity,
International Review of Management and Marketing, vol.6 pp. 95-103.

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Mellat-Parast, M, Golmohammadi, D, McFadden, KL & Miller, JW 2015, Linking business
strategy to service failures and financial performance: Empirical evidence from the US domestic
airline industry, Journal of Operations Management, vol. 38 pp. 14-24.
Skytrax, 2019, Thai Airways, viewed on 9th June 2019, https://www.airlinequality.com/airline-
reviews/thai-airways/
Trip advisor, 2019, Bad Experience with Thai Airways, viewed on 9th June 2019,
<https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowTopic-g293915-i3686-k5024105-
Bad_Experience_with_Thai_Airways-Thailand.html>