Customer Service Failure: An Analysis of the Fyre Festival

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Fyre Festival, focusing on customer service management within the context of tourism and hospitality. It begins with an overview of the festival, its origins, and the key players involved. The report then delves into the profile of the Fyre Festival customer, examining demographics, expectations, and consumer trends. A significant portion of the analysis is dedicated to the customer journey, service blueprint, and the impact of physical evidence on the customer experience. The report meticulously details the 'on stage' and 'back stage' interactions, support processes, and the eventual service failures that characterized the festival. Finally, the report concludes with a discussion of the service failures, and provides recommendations for improvement, emphasizing the critical role of customer service in the success of events and the importance of aligning promises with reality to avoid disastrous outcomes. The report highlights the importance of proper planning and execution in the event management, and emphasizes the significance of fulfilling customer expectations.

Customer Service
Management for
Tourism and
Hospitality

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
1. Overview.................................................................................................................................4
2. Profile of a Fyre Festival Customer........................................................................................4
3. Fyre Festival consumer trends................................................................................................5
4. Fyre festival customer Expectation.........................................................................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
1. Fyre festival customer journey.....................................................................................................6
2. Physical evidence in a fyre festival customer journey............................................................7
3. 'On stage' interactions..............................................................................................................8
4. 'Back Stage' interaction...........................................................................................................8
5. Support processes....................................................................................................................9
6. Service failure and recommendations...................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

Introduction
Customer service are the services which are provided by the organization before, after
and during the purchase of the products from the company. The customer is the main person the
company interacts with and the employees must know how to deal with the customers by getting
in there personality to sell their products. The customer service is the only person who can sell
products which are new inventions by the company and price also is a great field which the
employee must be able to sell and take back feed backs from the customers. The company must
invest a lot on the employees training making the customer service team work efficiently and the
employees must value all the customers because the value of customers is very important for the
company. The customer service team plays an important role because it is them who is able to
generate revenue and income for the company. The customers like and good experience with the
event Fyre festival was the main aim for the event therefore they postponed there event so that
they can make the event a success. The feed backs for any company plays a very important roles
because through that they can improve on there products and give the customers the best of
products so that the organisations can make profit from them.
Task 1
1. Overview

Fyre is a musical festival which was an initiative by Billy McFarland and Ja rule. Billy
McFarland is the CEO of Fyre Media Inc and Ja rule is a well renowned rapper in this music
field. The dates for this event to start there opening from 28-30 April and May 5-7 of 2017 in
Bahamian island. The event did not take place and got postponed because they the event lacked
in accommodation, security, artist relations, medical and food service.
The festival promotions were done by big celebrities and the company was all set to start
this event. The tickets of the show were priced low so that people would come for the event.
There were only 500 customers or people who attended the first festival of this music concert.
The facts and figures of the company were not well analyzed and that lead to eight lawsuits on
this festival. There was selling of tickets on cheat because of the lawsuits reason.
This event used the modern way of approaching to the customers and that was social
media and networks online. The celebrities they hied for promoting the event they also helped
the festival to grow because they also put it on instagram and other social medias about the
event. The event took money for luxury villa's accommodation and food and the tickets with
those provisions were coming up to thousands and the festival did not give the customers those
requirements. The festival provided the customers with prepacked sandwiches and tents of
FEMA for accommodation. A film is made on Fyre festival and that is there on Netflix and is
directed by Chris Smith.
2. Profile of a Fyre Festival Customer
Fyre festival was a good music festival. Demographic profile is used to identify the
characteristic of population, their age, income, gender. It will also include collecting information
about Fyre festival customers and changes over a period. There are various ages customers are
participated in this festival (Hassan and et.al., 2015). The people above the age of twenty can
largely participate in this festival. This music festival is highly liked by youngsters. The founder
of this festival is Billy McFarland and he is a great rapper so, the youth of this generation
encourage this so much. But the inconvenience in the festival, this festival was postponed.
Various discomforts was occurred in this festival such as lack of accommodation, unhygienic
foods and drinks, artist relations, medical services, many safety and healthy issues. Customers
who are participated in this festival was luxuries people and they spend their high amount in this
event. Customers had expected from this event the luxury accommodation, good music, the best
food and exciting adventure activities but their desires was not fulfilled by Fyre event.

May categories of occupation's customers was there and they lost their whole time in this.
Some People spend lot of time on tickets but this event was created various discomfort for them.
Mostly of the customers of this event was students. Because of the average tickets they choose to
go there but the management of this festival destroyed all the customers desires and
requirements.
3. Fyre Festival consumer trends
The planning of this festival was made on the national spotlight. In this event customer
was expected the several facilities like great accommodation services, the best food and drinks,
attractive music and high quality of services but unfortunately this event was emerged with
unmitigated disaster and errors. Customers had a high trend on this festival. Customers wanted
VIP experience but the reality of the event was different such as half-build rooms to stay and late
flight. They were also expected the private beach and partying on the beaches of white sand.
Consumers were also expected that they would be reached on the festival in a VIP and custom
Boeing 737 and that was take off from Miami but the guests had to wasted their huge time on
waiting at the airport (Sade, Bojei and Donaldson, 2015). They were also expected that the ticket
cost includes advatures, gourmet food and star catering services.
Expectation of the customer from this event was very high. They want great music fun
and exciting activities from Fyre festival but the desires were crushed by threatening reality.
Digital payment of the tickets was the major consumer trend. It is the big part of cultural
practices and daily routine. They were expecting to watch Blink 182 execute. Consumer trend
had majorly focused on cash free payment by the convenient and easy process. The next
consumer trend is the best ingredients in food products. They desired hygiene food for
generating the great pleasures. For enhancing the consumer experience, comfortable environment
plays a major role. Convenient activities are highly preferred by the consumer.
4. Fyre festival customer Expectation
The customers had high expectation from this event because the promotions they had
done were of high level. The promotions were done by celebrities of the movie industry and they
even put out pictures on their own social media pages to promote the event. The celebrities who
did this included Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid, etc. The celebrities did not
initially disclose that they were being paid for the promotions of this event. The event no longer
is in motion and is shut for good.

The customers paid in thousands of dollar for this event because they were giving
provision of luxury villa's and gourmet meals during the event. The customers were not many in
the first event they held and there were just 500 customers who were provided with FEMA tents
to stay in and prepacked sandwiches. This event has at least eight violation of lawsuits and the
event is going in loss and is shut down due to it. The tickets of the event were sold in cheat
because the customers did not want to attend this event because they were not a good company
to depend upon. There was a lack of food, accommodation, medical services, security, etc
therefore they could not do the shows and they postponed the event but even after that the
customers did not get the provisions for which they had paid for to get the tickets for the event.
The location which was chosen by the festival was really appropriate to gather the crowd but due
to there misconduct they lost the festival from hand.
Task 2
1. Fyre festival customer journey.
This mapping might not seen like its required for most of the companies because they
think they know and understand the kind of customers they are going to serve but there is a
major need of this if something big is being planned. All the companies depend on products
which are for customers and satisfying them is a big deal.
All the step of the organisation should be planned according to the steps and every step
must have a goal (Aryee and et.al., 2015). Everything that a company does has to be problem
solving for the customers so that they are satisfied and this way they can achieve the objectives
of the company. This process helps the company to grow and run for long term.
Service blueprint-
The company did not plan the blue print of the services they would be providing to the
customers. Billy and Ja rule thought about this fact therefore the festival did not last for long.
The company had planned there each step properly and had made sure that they have a goal to
achieve that way they would have made this company a success. Blueprint to any work is a must
because without having a blue print it is impossible for any organisation to work.
Purpose-
The purpose of this method is required because the company will be able to work in one
direction and they will know there goals and aim more appropriately. Fyre festival promised so

many services to the customers but they did not give any services out to the people who came for
the event. Mapping is very important and Fyre festival did not take this seriously. To understand
what the customer is going through and improve on the quality of the customer's experience and
consistency in the company is all the purpose of journey mapping.
Benefits-
The company is able to understand its customers with this mapping journey. The gap
between the marketing, sales and operation team is very good. Mapping journey can also help
with telling what the brand can do, its success and the behavior of the customers. Journey
mapping can get the company and the customers meet at an emotional level.
Customer Journey-
The customer's who went to Fyer festival were not satisfied and they did not have a good
time. The customer journey of this event was not good at all and the owners of the event did not
think this event through. The owners just made there though into action thinking this was an easy
event to be held but it was not so. The customers who paid so much to attend this event were
promised of good food and luxuries villa's to stay in but they never received that. The customer
journey was not though throw and throw by the event holders.
2. Physical evidence in a fyre festival customer journey
In order to know the impact of physical environment on consumers attending Fyre
festival services cape theory has been used in report. The aim of the services capes model is to
explain behavior of people within the service environment with a view to designing
environments that does not accomplish organizational goals in terms of achieving desired
behavioural responses (McColl-Kennedy and et.al., 2015). This model will help company in
analyzing the latest trends which is being followed by consumers, so that they can attract them.
The physical evidence which can be used to make the event successful is a proper venue which is
accessible by all range of consumers. This will increase the liking of Fyre festival show. In this
organization can make it more attractive by decorating the venue with attractive lights. This will
make the experience of consumers better.
It will also attract more customers and travellers towards the Fyre festival. Company can
also live stream the show on social media websites such as Instagram and Facebook. This will
make the Fyre Festival more popular among the target audience. By this organization can attract

more youngsters and young adults towards. This will help company in increasing their
profitability. It will also make the Fyre Festival show more popular. In the event, organization
can also put light and fire work show, in order to make the event more mesmerizing. This will
lay a delightful impact on mind of travellers who are visiting the Fyre Festival show. Company
can also invite celebrities to perform in the event (Noe. and et.al., 2017). This will make the
music event show more beautiful and mesmerizing. This will also support company in attracting
more travellers. They can also put red carpet welcome for the guest which are coming in Fyre
Festival show. This will make event better.
3. 'On stage' interactions.
The event of this company was postponed because this was one of the reasons of the
many reasons. The event manager did not think about this event through and that did not let it
last for long (Novokreshchenova, Novokreshchenova and Terehin, 2016). This event took place
only in 2017 and never after that because there were 8 law cases on this event. The audience did
not have a good interaction with the musicians that made the audience very unhappy and did not
make them feel satisfied at all. The stay and food made the people sick and was not accepted
with the people who were served such food. The event only took place because they had planned
to host a concert but they did not plan the event but directly went to organise the event. The guest
on the stage who entertained the audience also did not have a great experience in doing his work.
The performer also did not enjoy there work because they could not interact with the audience
and the audience could not relate with the artist. The show went for a fail and the nor the
audience was satisfied and nor the performer of the event. The stage was far away from the
audience as compared to the other music events and till a connection is not built between the
performer and the audience, both the parties will not be satisfies and happy about the event. The
audience can motive the performer more enthusiastic and willing to do better when there is an
interaction.
4. 'Back Stage' interaction.
Backstage interaction include interacting with the participants about their experience of
the whole show about are they satisfied with the services of the event, did they have any problem
regarding anything in the event or is there any inconvenience caused in the event. This will
provide the event manager to know about the problems of their event and help them improve

their work. Successful event happens because of continuing engagement of attendees at the
backstage. With backstage interactions, the event manager will be able to keep the attendees
updated with the latest news of what is happening in the event. The backstage team will always
be ready to take care of any complication and problem arising during the event which will ensure
that the next event is successful and the same complication does not arise in any further events.
Backstage interaction also include motivating any attendee who is nervous and encourage them
to perform (Stadtler, 2015). Backstage interaction is a supporting system in the event as they do
not perform directly on stage but help in other supporting activities. Backstage interaction are
basically feedback of all the participants about their whole experience and using these feedbacks
the event manager will improve their next events. Backstage interaction are done by a
coordinator which involve administrative tasks. While doing all these administrative task the
coordinator will interact with the attendees. With the help of these interactions the company
keeps on improving the things that went wrong previously and this will be resulting in further
successful events. All the ongoing activities in the events are conveyed through these backstage
interactions only as they will inform all the participants about these informations.
5. Support processes.
Providing support to employees and consumers is one of the most important aspect. This
can be done by listening to problems of employees and analysing their needs and demands. Fyre
Festival in order to host a successful event can engage in analysing latest trends and making
consumer satisfied. This can help them in satisfying consumers and making them attracted more
towards organization. This will also help them in creating consumer loyalty. Also by providing
support to consumers, they can solve their permanent queries which can attract them more
towards the music fest held up by them (Wilson and et.al., 2016)
(Yang and et.al., 2016). Company must also be engage in analysing latest trends related to event
so that they can make consumer more happy. If consumer are satisfied then this will help them in
increasing the goodwill of Fyre work company. It can also help them in increasing the
profitability and with the help of this they can expand their company in different areas. This will
help them in becoming huge and big. They can also expand their event globally and
internationally. Also Fyre festival event can also make use of various themes so that customers
are attracted more towards them. It will help them in growing.

6. Service failure and recommendations.
Fyer should not have promised so many services to the customers and when it came to
the main show the company did not provide the customers with the services. The company had
to sell there tickets in black because they did not have any other way of selling them because of
the cases put on them (Gordon, Sharp and Martin, 2018). Fyer did not think about there steps
even twice because they just wanted to make money instead of planning there event properly.
The company did not want to invest but they just wanted to make profit. Even after promoting
there event to much on social media and other networks the event did not become a success. The
first show of Fyer just had 500 audience and the company could not deal with it. The income of
the company from the event was so low that they could not afford half the services that they were
supposed to.
The company should have planned there event step by step to make it a success but
instead they directly went for field work. The company has to think about the event in detail.
They must fulfill the services they promised to the customers and if they can not fulfill the needs
then they should not make the promises to the customers. Safety measure, medical help,
customer satisfaction should be one of the major steps the company should have looked in to
(Maglio and et.al., 2018).

REFERENCES
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