Thai Airways International: Services Marketing Management Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of services marketing management at Thai Airways International. It delves into the company's strategies for process improvement, examining the application of the four V's (volume, variety, variation in demand, and visibility) and their impact on customer experience and cost management. The report also explores the human aspects of the airline's operations, focusing on employee training, service quality, and the importance of human resource management practices in achieving organizational goals. Furthermore, it investigates Thai Airways' approach to managing resource capability, including capacity management, network strategy, fleet strategy, and commercial strategies to balance capital and demand. The analysis considers the limitations and challenges faced by the airline in each area, offering insights into its overall service marketing approach and its efforts to maintain a competitive edge in the global airline industry. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and their implications for Thai Airways' future strategies.

RUNNING HEAD: Services Marketing Management 0
THAI AIRWAYS NTERNATIONAL PUBLIC LTD.
Services Marketing Management

Services Marketing Management 1
Contents
Process improvement.................................................................................................................2
Purpose:..................................................................................................................................2
Application:............................................................................................................................3
Limitation...............................................................................................................................4
Human aspects...........................................................................................................................4
Purpose...................................................................................................................................4
Application.............................................................................................................................4
Limitation...............................................................................................................................6
Managing resource capability....................................................................................................6
Purpose...................................................................................................................................6
Application.............................................................................................................................6
Limitation.............................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11
Appendix..................................................................................................................................13

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Thai airways is a public limited company of Thailand. It operates domestic, regional and
international flights. The company started it’s operations in 1960. It was established as a
joint venture between Thailand’s domestic carrier, Scandinavian airlines and Thai airways
company. It’s first intercontinental services were started in 1971. The company got listed in
July, 1991.
Process improvement
Purpose:
The service process improvement creates the best customer experience and outcomes. It is
essential in Thai airways to manage cost and quality in every single process from start to
finish and provide good quality to passengers. Service process improvemet has a great role in
bringing customers back and use services on regular basis. The service process is an
important part of operation and binds employees, material, equipment and customers
together. Thai airways monitor it’s service process to ensure that process are effectively
designed to attain customer satisfaction. The philosophy of Thai airways is to offer finest
service to passengers with maintaining highest standard of service. It can be accomplished by
it’s services. The company aims to improve process improvement by four V’s such
as .volume dimension, variety dimension, variation in demand dimension and visibility
dimension. The improvement in process increases the number of sales. Improvement brings

Services Marketing Management 3
better results in the productivity. The company has further expanded services by providing
Wi-Fi internet services to use laptop, smart phones or tablets.
Application:
It explains how That airways makes use use of 4V theory in it’s business.
Volume dimension (Low): The volume dimension is an amount of services which have been
produced for customers. Thai airways is one of the famous companies of airways which
provide the best travel experience to customers. It provides high volume of service based on
the booking class codes reserved (Kowalkowski, et. al. 2015). The volume of operations is
the key how business is organised. The competitive price fares are provided for all classes.
The programme designed by company enables small and medium size companies enjoy
significant saving at the time they travel with Thai (Grönroos & Gummerus, 2014). The
employeees perform a variety of tasks which results in higher unit costs.
Variety dimension (High): The Thai airways has service to 35 countries and popular
destinations. The services provided through Thai airways is standardised. It provides more
convenience to customers through reservation, instant payments, electronic tickets, coupon
serial and easy refunds. The reservation can be made before 6 hours and maximum of 11
hours. Thai provides standardised services in every country (Nilsson & Ballantyne, 2014).
The refund can be made at any Thai city ticketing office. Other than the airline business Thai
has other related business which contains passenger services, pre and post flight preparation,
aircraft fuel service, travelling support service, aircraft maintenance service and duty free
products. The process of company is smooth not complex.
Variation in demand dimension (Low): The customers who once travel from Thai airways
like to travel often from Thai airways only. The company meets customer requirements in an
appropriate manner. It creates strong culture of organisation by bringing out the best from it’s
employees. Thai can forecast the number of customers coming and availing services.
Therefore, the company makes enough arrangement for the customers (Hutchinson, et.
al.2015). It supervises the business acording to the international standards to generate
sustainable growth.
Visibility dimension (High): Thai airways have 21998 employees operate in 35 countries to
provide service and take care of employees. Thai airways serves a holistic freight for
domestic and international flights. It focuses on the standard, safety and convenience of

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passengers. Thai airways deleiver the valuable and dependable product. The airlines responds
to society as a national airline (Bryson, et. al.2015).
Limitation
The limitation of process improvement is transit. The passengers who travel from Bangkok
Suvarnabhumi International airport are supposed to pass over immigration. The passengers
should be alert that they fulfill immigration formalities, custom and other duties and pay
airport taxes and fees. In the check-in process, the persons of Thailand travelling on domestic
flights are supposed to carry Thai identity card instead of passport. The limitation of self-
service check-in kiosks is that it is accessible at some certain airports. It is the accountability
of ticket holders to make sure that all the visas are attained and presented at check-in for
international level.
Human aspects
Purpose
The human aspects are considered by Thai airlines in managing human resources so as to
make organisation profitable. The staff beleives in providing best service and experience to
passengers. Giving importance to human aspects has helped Thai airways to succeed in their
functioning. The purpose of human resource management practices is to improve quality of
human resources. The company manages human aspects by providing friendly atmosphere
and training to employees. It only can help organization to improve operations of
organization. The company also makes use of human resource management practices to
accomplish it’s purpose.
Application
Service quality is one of the important factors in gaining competitive adavntage for airlines. It
can be made possible only by fostering high skilled human resources in all departments. Thai
airways has used the employent training administration competency model is used to explore
Thai competencies in the ground operations at the airport in Thailand. The airline surveys and
articles are used to estimate service quality competencies (Vargo, Wieland & Akaka, 2015).
It helps to estimate competencies of Thai employees. It also brings out certain competencies
which require aatention from managers to improve quality of airline service. The model used

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by airlines helps to identify handling agents that potentially limits quality of airline service.
The human aspects can be considered by the following facts:
Make employees aware of their performance: It is considered to make employees aware of
their outstanding performance so that they feel more connected towards organisation. The
managers should appreciate and encourage employees by providing incentive and bonus. The
company has created vision to motivate employees to improve operations of organisation.
The organisation manages and motivates employees by being friendly. Usually the regulation
in organisation results in dissatisfaction among employees. As a result employees can not
contribute their full efforts. Friendly behaviour of senior staff can actually result in more
productivity. A pay check is not sufficient to get employees to work on time. The inspiring
purpose beyond pay check can inspire people to go extra mile. The company adopts the
human resource management practices to retain employees (Giannakis Harker & Baum,
2015). Such employees contribute efforts to the objectives of company. It also helps to
maximize productivity and deployment of resources. The company empowers staff to take
corrective actions needed for service recovery.
Enhance service quality performance: It is required to enhance service quality performance of
employees. The efforts are needed to improve discipline and communication (Akaka &
Vargo, 2015). The employees should be updated according to the changes happening in
airlines. They should be known to the travel routs. The service can be improved by the
necessary education and training. Enhancement in performance of employees is surely going
to profit organisation. Taylorism is the approach of job design which can be used by
organisation. It is foundation for systematic job design and also known as scientific
management. It is the effort to develop science for every job within the organisation. It
creates a standard model for every job in the organisation. It successfully make selection of
employees and hire them. It also trains employees appropriately and supports them.
Provide necessary training to staff for handling agents: The necessary training should be
provided to staff for handling agents and customers. Staff are trained for informing customers
of delay, cancellation and changes, holding reservations, providing quick ticket refunds,
responsing customer problems and for the time delivery of baggages (Heirati, et. al. 2016).
The Core Characteristics Model can be used well in providing training to employees. It
includes variety of skills, identity of tasks, significance of tasks, autonomy and job feedback.
In this model job feedback is the important aspect and it can give opportunity to organisation

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to make appropriate changes. It automatically results in improvement in performance and
profitability.
Limitation
The limitation of human aspect comes in handling customers fairly and constantly in the
event of over sales. The situation of over sale occurs due to safety. For instance weight limit
of aircraft, replacing a smaller aircraft than the initially arranged and more check in of
customers than the seats available. In such scenes customers become frustrated and the
customers can only communicate regarding the options available to them. The Thai airlines
contacts to the passengers who are denied for boarding and the eligible compensation and
alternative flights are made available to them (Baker, 2014).
Managing resource capability
Purpose
The purpose of managing resource capability is to utilize resources of organization. It aims at
meeting future resources. It effectively develops organizational resources whenever they are
needed. It is effective to sustain long term competitive advantage. It is the capacity to
combine internal and external resources for the purpose of creating new value and
maximizing competitive advantage. The managers can balance capital and demand only by
managing resource capability. It also affects day to day planning and control. Resource
capability has contribution in managing bottle necks and queue.
Application
Capacity management
Capacity management ensures proper utilization of available resources with the capacity to
meet future resources which is cost effective. Basically, it is the capacity to meet current and
future requirements. The organization using capacity management insures the needs are met
with minimum IT resources. The objective of capacity management is to manage
performance and capacity of both services and resources. The capacity of Thai airways has
increased in advance as nonstop flights are taking off. The airplane has 42 spaces in royal silk
business class and 306 seats in the economy class. The Thai airways has slow down it’s
capacity plan in 2018 after making growth at the rate of 5% in 2017. It is done just for the

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second time in decade (Armstrong, et.al. 2015). Now, the company has shifted focus to
product and profitability improvements. The airways is expanding it’s fleet by one aircraft.
Along with this, the company has implemented a new commercial strategy. It focuses more
on transit traffic which is going to target kangaroo route between Europe and Australia.
How can managers balance capita and demand?
The Thai airways continue to grow because of the increasing demand of air travel and as a
result the capital of the company is increasing constantly. The rapid growth in the air travel
industry has resulted growth in low cost airlines. The company takes transformational
measures to enhance efficiency of internal management, which helps in balancing capita and
demand. The company has identified following strategic transformations:
Network strategy: The network strategy is used to stop further losses from nonprofit routes
(Patterson, 2016). It helps in generating sustainable directions from the profitable and
competitive advantage routes.
Fleet strategy: The fleet strategy is bringing in practice to adjust existing varieties of airplane.
It simplifies types of airplanes in order to reduce functional costs and increasing operational
efficiency.
Commercial strategy: It is used to improve sales capabilities to increase revenue from all sale
channels, sale network and other customer segments.
Operational and cost strategy: This strategy is used to enhance operational efficiency and
service quality along with monitoring operational costs in every section to increase
competitive abilities (Wuenderlich, et. al. 2015).
Organizational strategy: The organizational strategy is used to increase capital in an
organization to a suitable size along with less complex structure. It defines key performance
indicators which help in increasing personnel effectiveness. It also defines the remunerations
which are linked to the operating performance of company.
Portfolio strategy: This strategy is used to ensure portfolio of business which supports and is
consistent with the core business of Thai airways.
How is day to day planning and control carried out?

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The success of airline day to day planning and operations are assessed by the effective
completion of flights. The day to day planning includes:
Flight schedule: The robust schedule helps in minimizing operational impact due to
disruptions and changes in schedule.
Creating a trip plan for each flight: The best route and prevailing conditions are considered in
advance for creating a trip plan. Time take to reach destination is also evaluated (Homburg,
Jozić & Kuehnl, 2017). It is developed to ensure operation of each flight follows legal and
safety requirements.
Flight times and airport details: The flight plan includes speed, elevations, flight times and
details of airport to include chosen alternate airports.
Optimizing fuel usage: The fuel cost is the top challenge to profitability. The aviation fuel
prices are usually higher and are the highest expense for airlines. The Thai airways find
measures to reduce fuel burn.
The control carried out in day to day planning by Thai airways is as follows:
Crew planning: The airways keep control on scheduling of pilot and cabin crew. The
schedule allocates pilots to fly planes for what they are licensed.
Block times: The block time is the time between aircraft leaves the departure gate and arrives
at the gate of arrival airport. The delays are controlled by schedule. The minor delays can be
avoided (Hoffman, Kelley & Rotalsky, 2016).
Gate plotting: When several aircrafts are on ground at a same time. It is controlled as it can
be problem in loading and unloading.
Recovery: The allowances are made for recovery as many things can cause
unconventionalities from any plane (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).
How do organizations manage bottlenecks and queue?
The Thai airways manage bottlenecks and queue by giving option of managing booking on
it’s website. The passenger can go on the homepage of Thai airways an can choose option
“Manage My Bookings” and can get the e-receipt. The Thai airways can manage the queue
system this way, as it saves the number of process and bottlenecks. A passenger can get e-

Services Marketing Management 9
receipt by entering ticket number, first name and last name and by pressing submit button.
Soon after entering the valid information, the passenger gets the ticket number which starts
with 217 and is of 13 digits. If a passenger does not have ticket number, than reservation code
can be used along with first and last name (Shaw, 2016). This process reduces the number of
persons standing in queue and the problems faced.
What happens when managers can’t cope with demand?
The manger takes action when cannot cope up with demand and uses these strategies:
Corporate level strategy: The manger uses corporate level strategy to create value through
alligning and bringing together company’s market activities. It includes mainly value
creation, structure and multimarket activities. The company creates portfolio of profitable
routes by launching airlines in the market where low fare and low cost business model has
prospective for sustainable profitability.
Business level strategy: The business level strategy used by Thai airways relays competitive
advantage to cost and differentiation advantage. It is based on two factors, low price and low
added value (Lonsdale, et. al. 2017).
Operational strategy: This strategy is used by the mangers to create and deliver service and
value to the customers by it’s core competencies. The manager increases the core competency
of low fare when he is not able to cope up with demand.
How can Thai airways improve capacity utilization?
The capacity utilization helps Thai airways to measure productive efficiency. The capacity
utilization of Thai airways has increased by .5% in the second quarter of 2017. On an annual
basis the capacity utilization has increased by 1.5% compared to 2016. The company can
improve capacity utilization by introducing technologies, by increasing space in aircrafts and
maintaining quality. The company can also improve capacity utilization by increasing
number of domestic flights and by increasing number of aircrafts (Achroll & Kotler, 2014). It
can set seat capacity growth. The company can also introduce a new product regional fleet.
The company has to essentially manage with smaller fleet because some aircrafts will be out
of service temporarily during the year of retrofitted.

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Limitation
The capacity management utilizes resource capability but sometimes it is less cost effective.
The management of resource capability requires innovation time on time. So, Thai airways is
required to invest huge amount in innovations. Due to the rapid growth of airlines, the
company is required to maintain low cost service. It puts effect on the revenue of company.
In this scenario, it is tough for the managers to balance demand and demand. Sometimes
delay of flights interrupts the day to day planning and control. When the website does not
response well due to technical issues than it is problematic for the company to manage
bottlenecks and queue system. Lacking technologies also does not enable company to
improve it’s capacity utilization.
Conclusion
The Thai airways provide finest service to the passengers along with maintaining standard of
services. The process is improved by providing services like reservation, payment, ticketing,
refund, check-in transit and more. It considers the human aspects such as offering lowest fare,
informing consumers for known delays, cancellations and changes, time delivery of baggage,
providing quick ticket refunds, ensuring responsiveness to customer problems and passenger
services during a tarmac delay. The limitation of the organization can be judged by it’s
capacity management and how managers balance capita and demand and how planning and
control are carried out. The organization manages well with it’s marketing by managing
bottlenecks and queue system.

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References
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Akaka, M.A. and Vargo, S.L., 2015. Extending the context of service: from encounters to
ecosystems. Journal of Services Marketing, 29(6/7), pp.453-462.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Pearson Education.
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bryson, J.R. and Daniels, P.W. eds., 2015. Handbook of service business: Management,
marketing, innovation and internationalisation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Giannakis, D., Harker, M.J. and Baum, T., 2015. Human resource management, services and
relationship marketing: the potential for cross-fertilisation. Journal of Strategic
Marketing, 23(6), pp.526-542.
Grönroos, C. and Gummerus, J., 2014. The service revolution and its marketing implications:
service logic vs service-dominant logic. Managing service quality, 24(3), pp.206-229.
Heirati, N., O'Cass, A., Schoefer, K. and Siahtiri, V., 2016. Do professional service firms
benefit from customer and supplier collaborations in competitive, turbulent
environments?. Industrial Marketing Management, 55, pp.50-58.
Hoffman, K.D., Kelley, S.W. and Rotalsky, H.M., 2016. Retrospective: Tracking service
failures and employee recovery efforts. Journal of Services Marketing, 30(1), pp.7-10.
Homburg, C., Jozić, D. and Kuehnl, C., 2017. Customer experience management: toward
implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 45(3), pp.377-401.
Hutchinson, K., Donnell, L.V., Gilmore, A. and Reid, A., 2015. Loyalty card adoption in
SME retailers: the impact upon marketing management. European Journal of
Marketing, 49(3/4), pp.467-490.

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Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
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transition? Rethinking established assumptions about manufacturers' service-led growth
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Lonsdale, C., Hoque, K., Kirkpatrick, I. and Sanderson, J., 2017. Knowing the price of
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Patterson, P., 2016. Retrospective: tracking the impact of communications effectiveness on
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Appendix
The Thai airway is an international public limited company. It is registered under the
Securities Exchange of Thailand since 1991. The Thai airways operate domestic, regional and
international flights. The company started providing services in 1960.The company operates
the business of transport passengers, parcels, goods and postal through the air transportation.
The Thai airways focuses on customer satisfaction and it’s vision is “The first choice carrier
with touches of Thai airways”. The Thai airways use aircraft to transport passengers and
goods and include all advance technologies related to the aviation industry. The company
provides goods and services to customers which are environment friendly.