Service Marketing Report: Contrasting Customer Experiences and Lessons

This report provides an in-depth analysis of service marketing through the examination of two distinct customer service encounters. The first encounter highlights a positive experience with Amazon, focusing on efficient online delivery, excellent service quality, and high customer satisfaction. The second encounter details a negative experience at Jameson Inn, a five-star restaurant, where issues such as poor service, rude staff, and unsatisfactory food quality led to customer dissatisfaction. The report contrasts these encounters, evaluating their impact on customer loyalty and providing lessons for service marketers. It emphasizes the importance of customer satisfaction, employee training, and effective communication. The report also discusses the significance of the marketing mix, including people, process, and physical evidence, in delivering effective service quality. The analysis underscores the need for service marketers to understand customer perceptions and adapt strategies to ensure positive service encounters and long-term customer relationships. This report is a valuable resource for students studying service marketing and provides insights applicable to various business environments.

Running head: SERVICES MARKETING
SERVICES MARKETING
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

Executive Summary
The report showcases the importance of service marketing in the business environment.
Two service encounters has been chosen for the report. The two encounters highlighted both
positive and negative experience of me as a consumer. Both the encounter is analyzed and their
respective consequence on the management has been evaluated. The encounters are contrasted to
know the impact of favorable and unfavorable customer services. In addition to this, lesson has
been provided to the service providers. This included proper knowledge about the services
standards, service delivery and customer satisfaction by the service marketers.

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction:..............................................................................................................................3
2.0 Encounter 1: Online Delivery Service......................................................................................3
3.0 Encounter 2: Restaurant Service................................................................................................4
4.0 Encounter 1 Link:......................................................................................................................5
5.0 Encounter 2 Link:......................................................................................................................6
6.0 Contrasting the Encounters:.......................................................................................................7
7.0 Lessons for Service Marketing:.................................................................................................7
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography:.................................................................................................................................10

1.0 Introduction:
In today’s scenario, maintaining or developing customer loyalty is considered to be a
crucial marketing strategy to achieve success. It is the organization services towards I customers
that matters the most. It is the duty of the organization to reinforce customer loyalty by providing
maximum satisfaction to its customers. The report helps in analyzing two personal service
encounters that has led both positive and negative consequences. Customers are rarely involved
for the manufacturing of goods that participate in the generation of services and their delivery
(Fisk, Grove and John 2014). It is a major challenge for the service marketers to know the
customers and efficiently interact with the organization operational activities. Service encounters
refer to the face to face or personal interaction between the buyer and seller. The interaction
component is vital for the determination of satisfaction level (Ahmed, Aimin and Ullah 2016). It
is vital for the evaluation of satisfaction with the services. The report helps to address the
requirements for customer satisfaction that is significant to assess the actions of both the
participants.
2.0 Encounter 1: Online Delivery Service
Best Service
The service encounter that I was most satisfied with was the Amazon Company. It is an
online shopping website. I received excellent service from the organization and they successfully
deliver a number of quality services marketing concepts. Based on my experience with the
Amazon Company I firmly believe the firm is carrying on their services exceptionally well. Last
month I purchased a dress from the online website for an upcoming business party. Due to

shortage of time I could not go and purchase it personally from the store. The website provided
variety and awesome option for its potential customers. Amazon delivered their promised
services more quickly and accurately before the delivery date. Moreover, the dress was
dispatched very safely and also was packed properly. I was expecting the services to be
delivered at least a few days before the dress was delivered. I was extremely bewildered by the
responsiveness of Amazon services.
The quality of their services seems that the management has taken various actions so that
such high quality services can be delivered to its customers. Human resource strategy is used to
empower its employees by delivering high service quality through their people. Employee
empowerment gives them the power to make decisions. This further provides them skills and
tools to efficiently serve their customers. The effort made by the delivery boy to call me when he
was unable to find anyone in the mentioned shipping address and further dispatching the item in
the correspondence address was remarkable.
3.0 Encounter 2: Restaurant Service
Worst Service
My dining experience at a five star restaurant called Jameson Inn was the most worst and
unpleasant. After the service encounter, I felt that I would never be again paying visit to the
same restaurant in my entire life. The first thing that really angered me was that I had to wait for
a really long hour before a waiter comes and takes the order. The waiter who greeted me o
arrival said that he would help me momentarily but I have to wait for thirty long minutes before
he came to take my order. The waiter was very condescending and robotic in nature. When I
asked about the flavors and ingredients about the different dishes in the menu he behaved in a

very rude manner. I wanted to have something non-spicy or sweet instead of spicy dish. Finally,
when the food arrived after such long wait, it was not at all up to the expectation. The food was
served cold and was not and was not heated up to the required and adequate temperature.
While having the food I also encountered a hair within it, which made the condition more
worsen. On complaining about the situation to the waiter, he became very adamant and
confidently replied that it was not present in the food beforehand. In addition to this, the waiter
was not ready to believe the matter and apologize for the mistake. He further started creating a
scene by arguing at the top of his voice on asking for an apology. When I could not take the
matter anymore I left the restaurant after paying for the food.
4.0 Encounter 1 Link:
Management has efficiently performed its action and done excellent job in stressing all
the major significant management dimensions (Tam, Sharma and Kim 2016). The three
additional P’s in the service of marketing mix are people, process and physical distribution.
People are the employees for the services are the firms in the eyes of customer. Management has
performed an outstanding job while giving training to their employees to provide such high
quality and excellent services (Grönroos 2016). Physical evidence is the packaging done by the
organization for the dress and similar other items was made in a very sophisticated manner. This
was done to ensure the safety of the products and also to provide maximum customer satisfaction
to their customers (Russell-Bennet and Baron2015).
Process is the operational activities of Amazon allow it management to easily get in and
dispatch thee items to the desired customers as soon as possible. This focus of Amazon is to
make its management structure highly flexible. The service provided by the employees is highly

recommendable. The customers are mostly looking for flexibility and convenience from the
service provided (Gordon, Zainuddin and Magee 2016). Amazon has designed such high quality
services that provide maximum satisfaction to their customers. The services include free
shipping, cash on delivery, cash back policy and return policy.
5.0 Encounter 2 Link:
Customer satisfaction is the key element while providing service to the customers
(Chitty, Hughes and D’Alessandro 2012). It is the duty of the management to determine key
services to their customers. The restaurant actual service delivery was different than its
established customer driven standards and services. The experience was worst and unpleasant
due to lack internal service quality. The main reason for low service quality can be dissatisfied
employees within the management (Anaya et al. 2015). Satisfied employees can only make their
customers highly satisfied. If the management has high internal service quality, employee
satisfaction will increase. This will eventually increase customer services and external services
value. The management should execute adequate strategies to value its internal stakeholders
before delivering the services to its potential customers.
Management should lay more emphasis on relationship marketing instead of transactional
marketing. If the organization would treat its customer only as profitable transaction then it
would not achieve success in the long-run (Sundar et al. 2017). The management should lay
more emphasis on the relationship marketing that follows retaining, enhancing and maintaining
smooth relationship with customers. If the management shifts it focus to relationship marketing
by adapting with the customer’s needs through service loyalty, the restaurant would in fact be
more profitable.

6.0 Contrasting the Encounters:
As a customer I would always go for the management providing the best service.
Considering the restaurant to be a five star and popular, I though the services to be also of high
value. The experience in the restaurant was very unpleasant one and turned out to be one of the
worst experiences of my life. On the other hand, the service provided by Amazon was a
remarkable one. I did not expect the item to be delivered on time but it was dispatched even
earlier. In addition to this the delivered boy proved to be highly skilled and trained to deliver the
item in my correspondence address while facing difficulty to reach.
The service delivery was at par excellence by the management of the online service and
bought immense satisfaction to me, as their customer. While the service of the restaurant lacked
the value and integrity towards it customer. I did not expect this from a five star restaurant.
Management should redesign its services standards in order to retain its target customers. In
addition to this the employees should also be trained effectively and motivate so that they can
satisfy their potential customers. Miscommunication was another factor that created a negative
impact on the service encounter and made it unfavorable.
7.0 Lessons for Service Marketing:
The service encounters by a firm with its customers always create a chance for them to
create a positive image. This helps in attracting and retaining customers and can prove useful in
determining customer loyalty and satisfaction (Witell et al. 2015). It is important for the
marketers to learn that influence a customer’s perception towards the service quality and level of

satisfaction. The service marketers should clearly understand these factors and control them so
that they can provide intended effects on their customers. Furthermore it is important to clearly
understand the additional P’s of marketing mix. This includes the physical evidences, people and
process (Li et al. 2018). These factors play a major role in providing effective service quality.
In the current times, service continues to be highly prevalent in all the business industries.
It is important for the service marketers to know the unique considerations and concerns. This
help in ascertaining the factors that influences the perceptions of the customers. Therefore,
facilitates the management to contribute towards a better and successful services marketing.
The management should more focus on the recovery for their service failure. Most of the
customers experiencing a service failure though does not complain but never pursue service from
them again. This leads the management to lose their customers similarly like the restaurant,
Jameson Inn. The service structure and quality delivery should be monitored and evaluated from
time to time (Payne and Frow 2017). If any need arises for making any changes the firm should
redesign its established standards.
Customer satisfaction should be the main motto of the service marketers. Moreover
employees delivering the services should also be properly trained before executing their assigned
job. To create a long-term impact on its customers the management of the hotel needs to improve
defects of services and lots of shortcomings. They need to improve the attitude of their staffs,
service quality and service level. This will increase the organization image and gain advantage
over its competitors in the long-run.

Conclusion:
Customer satisfaction is therefore considered to be a significant marketing strategy to
maximize success in service marketing. Quality services are delivered by the organization to
retain and build customer loyalty that further enhances their customer relationship. Service
encounters helped me in identifying the marketing needs and acquainted me with the benefits of
effective service delivery to the customers. In a service delivery process both the staff and
customers are actively involved. In the service environment effective communication is also
highly important as it is highly powerful to influence the mind of the consumers.

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