Analyzing Virgin Atlantic's Service Quality and Customer Gaps Model

Virgin Atlantic, a renowned airline company, continuously strives to improve its service offerings to meet diverse customer needs. This analysis leverages the Gaps Model to identify discrepancies between customer expectations and perceived services. Key areas such as product offerings, communication strategies, and frontline employee performance are evaluated. The study highlights how Virgin Atlantic's strategic initiatives aim to bridge gaps in service quality, enhancing customer loyalty and satisfaction. By understanding these dynamics, students can gain insights into effective business practices for maintaining competitive advantage in the airline industry.

Running head: SERVICES MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Services marketing management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3
Figure 1- Service Operation............................................................................................................4
Service Concept in Marketing.........................................................................................................4
Figure 2- Service Experience + Outcome.......................................................................................5
Understanding the Customer Types................................................................................................6
The Gaps Model (Customer Expectations and Perceptions)...........................................................9
Figure – Customer Service Gaps Model..........................................................................................9
Customer Gap................................................................................................................................10
Knowledge Gap.............................................................................................................................10
Policy Gap.....................................................................................................................................11
Delivery Gap..................................................................................................................................11
Communication Gap......................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References.....................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The following report is based on Service Operations management of the business
organizations. The researcher has taken the example of Virgin Atlantic Airlines Pvt. Ltd as an
example of the service providing companies in United Kingdom (www.virginatlantic.com).
Service Operations Management forms an integral part of the business organization as it
determines some of the most important factors which have an impact on the success of the
business organization. Service Operations Management is referred to as the term that is needed
to cover the decisions, activities and the responsibilities of a n operations manager in the
business organization. The operations manager is entitled with a number of tasks to run the
organization smoothly. The operations manager of Virgin Atlantic group takes care of the
different complex activities that are used to deliver proper service to the customers. The
operations of the organization includes the listing of the equipments, resources, monitoring the
performance of the employees and ensuring that the inputs of the industry are arranged in a
proper way to deliver the finished services for the consumers (Hult et al. 2017).

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Figure 1- Service Operation
Source- (Haksever Cook and Chaganti 2015)
Service Concept in Marketing
Service in business context implies a lot of different things. Service to someone can be
similar to customer complaints or answering to customer care. The customers’ perspective on
services on the other hand refers service as the sum total of the customer experience and their
feedback on the following experience (Hult et al. 2017). It can be said that visit to a restaurant is
the experience whereas the quality of food can be the perception If any problem occurs the
airlines company is there to eradicate the problem. This can be defined as the service concept.
The management of Virgin Airlines provides a range of products and different services to satisfy
their diverse range of customers. The Company offers air services across 400 destinations
worldwide which makes them one of the top earners of revenue. Along with its Australian
partner Virgin Austtralia it caters to a wide range of Airline services. Apart from Air services the
company provides many other services. The mentioned Airlines Company has kept the product
range straightforward so that they can focus on what is more important. The service provided is
believed to be second to no other such existing service and it is possible only because of the
reliability, validity and effective communication (cargo.virgin-atlantic.com). The Company
provides super fast shipment facilities for the customers as well as specific transportation process
to maintain the effectiveness of the customer services. The shipment service is segmented into
three types of different services namely, Just Ride, Must Ride and Fast Ride. Just ride is the basic
shipment delivery service handled by the efficient networking team of the mentioned Airlines.
While Must Ride is the range of premium service that aims to deliver the product tto the end
users within the specified time limit and even returns the money back if they fail to deliver their

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promise. Last but not the least in any sense fast ride is the emergency shipment service for the
delivery of the sensitive cargo to the users within a very short notice. The company has also
started its own range of Courier service titled VEX. VEX offers express courier product
withsuper urgency on a very short notice. However the most important product of the Airlines
Company comes with Pharma Passive which has been designed to help transport the sensitive
pharmaceutical products in passive packaged boxes (cargo.virgin-atlantic.com).
A service provided by a business organization can be both good as well as bad. The quality
of the service is determined by the customer feedback. The customer feedback is termed as the
service experience of the company. The service experience of a customer is the direct experience
of a customer on the goods and services that are provided to them by the business organization.
The following may contain different elements like the process in which the customers are treated
by the organizations and also how the customers have an experience of the facilities and services
of the organization (Pérez and Rodriguez 2015).
Figure 2- Service Experience + Outcome
Source- (Haksever Cook and Chaganti 2015)

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Some of the main service experiences include;
1. Responsibility of the employees of the organization
2. Behavioral trends of the employees of the organization
3. The ease of access to the people providing the services to the organization
4. The amount of interactions with the customers
5. The quality or the quantity of the goods and services that are provided to the organization
6. The reason for which the customers feel valued by the organization
The different organizations in the market provide one service or the other to the service users
to earn revenue and increase the brand reputation of the companies (Hu and Sheng 2014). The
task of the operations manager is to carefully manage, integrate and implement all the related
aspects through financial performance, customer satisfaction and a high level of competitive
advantage (Prakash and Mohanty 2013).
Taking an example will help the readers to understand the following concept more easily.
Name of the company- Virgin Atlantic Airlines
Organizing Idea- Great Experience of an unmatched air travel
Tagline- Virgin Atlantic (Flying in the face of ordinary)
Service Provided- Air Transportation, Food, hotel stay, cab service and many others.

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Service Received- Great Air Travel, Hotel stay at the cost of the company in case of flight delay
or cancellation, cab service to and from the airport, Good behavior of staff, catering to individual
needs of the customers
Outcomes- Greater Customer Satisfaction, Increased Brand value, Greater revenue and greater
Profit.
Understanding the Customer Types
Customers are considered to be the most crucial part of a business organization. The
absence of customers in a business will spell doom for the business organization. The customers
are the sole responsible party for the betterment of the business organizations (Sivakumar Li and
Dong 2014). The customers are the ones that judge the different products and services and rate
them according to their demands. The customers can be divided into a number of types according
to their demands;
1. Ally- Allies are the most valuable customers of any organization and have usually a positive
frame of mind and always have the tendency to give back a positive feedback to the products and
services of the organization. Making the ally happy ensures success for the customer as because
they can lure other customers to use the products and services of the particular company.
2. The hostage- These types of customers are tied to use the products and services of a particular
group of company contractually. For example a person buying a particular brand of mobile
phone has to do the servicing of the phone from the registered dealers for a certain period of
time. These customers might or might not possess a happier mood but are sure to develop a
negative mood once the product does not meet its normal standard.

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3. The Anarchist- The following types of customers hates the so called rules and systems of the
organizations and in turn suggests different measures about the products and services provided
by the company. These types of customers create problems for the other customers.
4. The patient- Patients are the particular type of customers that have no other options rather than
using a particular product or service. This may include the services that are received by a student
in the school or the services received by a person in the hospital. According to Lovelock and
Patterson (2015) these customers do not create any problem while receiving the services but too
much regulations and unnecessary guidelines may turn these people hostile.
5. The tolerant- Tolerant customers might be passive and patiently wait for the service providers
to deliver quality service to them. However their silent nature makes the service providers
unaware of their presence and thus they may lose goodwill and reputation in the market.
6.Intolerant- Intolerant customers are seldom passive and patient and thus they create problems
to both themselves and the service providers. Though these customers do not show any signs of
their character initially but neglecting them can lead to serious problems. The Management of
Virgin Airlines has a specific set of guidelines in place to tackle such errant customers.
7. The Victim- The time when something or the other goes wrong in the service organization
some customers seems to attract bad luck. The products and services that are offered to them
might not be of the particular standard that the others may have received.
8.Terrorist- Terrorist are the customners who have the tendency to mount a suddenn attack when
it is least expected. For example a customer who might have bought a particular product the
earlier day comes to the packed up store the next day and suddenly vent out his anger about the
product. This has a negative impact on the buying pattern of the customers.

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9. The incompetent- The management of any organization must deliver additional power to the
frontline staffs of the organization to make sure that the new users does not face any problem
while they use the services of the organization. The customers need to perceive the maximum
value for the products so that they can return to the organization to use their services in the
coming future.
10. Champions- There are some of the customers in the modern marketing world who are both
loyal to the organization and also recommend highly and provide positive reviews to the people
that helps the organization to gather more and more clients (Blut et al. 2014).
The mentioned Airlines Company has to identify the type of customers that they deal
with and accordingly arrange for the facilities that cater to the demand of the flyers.
Identification of the customers is very important as it is an indirect consideration on the success
of the business. If the Airlines Company succeeds in serving the different customers in a proper
and efficient manner it makes sure that they will go a long way in the future.
The Gaps Model (Customer Expectations and Perceptions)

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Figure 3– Customer Service Gaps Model
Source- (Blut et al. 2014)
The Customer Service Gaps Model as shown in the above figure is one of the most
trending part of business in the modern days. Globalization has changed the ways by which a
customer perceives about a certain product or service in an organization (Heidenreich et al.
2015). The customers demand not only superior quality products and services but also expect
high quality service from the employees of the organization. Superior quality services of
different organizations are not only the only factors that help the organizations to gain a strategic
advantage in the market. According to Lovelock and Patterson (2015) the other hand from a
customer’s point of view the following service is considered to be an integral part of the product.
The mood of the consumers depends on whether he will rate a service good or bad and thus a
proper rapport must be established by the organization to make sure that the customer can have a
transparent understanding of each and every products and services used by them.
Customer Gap
The following gap is the difference between the customer expectations and the customer
perceptions. The customer experience is determined by cultural background, family lifestyle,
demography and some other important factors like advertising. On the other hand customer
perception is based on the involvement of the customer on the products and services of the
organization. Customer gap is experienced when the following two qualities are not met within a
product or service (Lovelock and Patterson 2015). The customer gap is the most key element and
in the real world the expectations and the perceptions of the customers would be the most
identical. In the modern business environment delivering a quality service for a product is based

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on a transparent understanding of the market of the specific product. Therefore the best way to
close the gap is to make a clear understanding of the needs of the customer and know the
expectations of the customer.
Knowledge Gap
Knowledge Gap is the contrast between the organizations provision of a particular service
and the expectations of the consumers about the particular service. If the managers in charge of
the operations of the company fail to understand the demands of the customers a gap in
knowledge will be created which will lead to the downfall of the company in the market. As
mentioned earlier if such a gap exists it must be ascertained that the organizations are heading
towards a blank future and are failing to gain the trust of the customers (Heidenreich et al. 2015).
Policy Gap
Policy Gap refers to the wrong translation of the management of an organization of the
rules and policies that forms a part of the organizational structure (Hu and Sheng 2014). Poor
designing of the products and the services, failure of the company to maintain the products and
the services, absence of standardized services and goods are some of the main hiccups for the
organizations to transform the expectations of the consumers on the goods and services into a
reality.
Delivery Gap
Delivery gap clearly highlights the gaps in the performance of the employees. Generally
such gap occurs in the companies having a very poor quality training program or the absence of a
training program at all. The absence of a efficient training program makes the employees

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helpless and as a result they fail to meet the demands of the customers. Some of the main
problems that the employees and the managers in charge of the operation faces are;
1. Lack of training programs is one of the main reasons that hamper the type of service of
the company
2. Delivery gaps leads to the inability of the companies in delivering the products
The management of Corinthian travel has put in place a proper and efficient training system
to train its employees in the best possible way to make the business attractive and help the
employees gather necessary skills that will make the company have a competitive advantage
over their rivals. The company can easily eradicate the delivery gap if it can implement a proper
training program.
Communication Gap
Communication Gap is one of the most important drawbacks of the modern day business
environment. Often the companies tend to engage in false and misleading advertisements to lure
the customers and maintain a quality brand image in the market. An advertisement which
promises a number of different facts generally fail to meet the demands of the customers and
ultimately leads to loss of valuable customers from their fold.
Conclusion
The purpose of the report to identify the service management concept of a business
organization has been effectively met. A thorough analysis of the report will help to identify the
meaning of service management in business context, the types of customers involved in business