SERVICE SECTOR MANAGEMENT
N.B.: 1) Section I is compulsory. (60 marks)
2) In Section II solve any 3 out of 4 questions. 2hrs.
Section – I
1. Explain the following Concepts: (15 marks)
i. Dimensions of service quality
ii. Complain handling
iii. Intangibility aspect of a service
iv. 3 key characteristics of services
v. Internal Marketing
2. Case Study (15 marks)
On checking into a 5 Star Hotel in Bangalore recently, Anand was impressed by the courtesy extended to the visitor in the front office – polite, friendly and efficient. The checking in card was filled and ready, just waiting to be signed. He walked upto the room and his bag arrived at the time. A few minutes later, the bearer came in with a welcome drink – which was “on the house”. It was certainly an excellent start.
Later when he settled down, he discovered that there was no table lamp in the room and this made it difficult to read. The press button for the shower did not work, so one had to bend down and keep it pressed right through a shower. The wash basin became easily clogged and was virtually unusable. A complaint was made to the housekeeping department and they said they would certainly attend to it. Normally it happened for a whole day.
The next day, a complaint was given to the Reception desk. They said they would surely look into it. In the evening it was discovered that only the basin had been attended to, but the floor was littered with some screws and nails lying in a pool of dirty water. Another complaint was lodged the following morning at the Reception desk, but again it remained unattended to by the evening. But the unkindest cut of all was inflicted the following morning when the girl at the Reception desk (who was new recruit, perhaps wrongly selected and obviously inadequately trained) crowed in her most pleasantly sarcastic manner: “Good morning, Mr. Anand, any further complaints today? I am all ears!”
At that moment, the hotel lost a customer. The back room services rendered by the Hotel were poor and she compounded the problem with poor front office service. She had forgotten or perhaps never been taught that in the marketing of a service, the focus is not just on delivering goods, but on satisfying the reasonable expectations of paying customer.
Questions:
i) What were the moments of truth (indicate various interactions).
ii) Highlight the critical and non-critical incidents.
iii) Which were the supplementary/peripheral services missing in the hotel? Justify their importance.
iv) What steps could have been taken to resolve the problem effectively?
Section – II
3. Explain Service Quality, Gap model, Service Recovery. (10 marks)
4. Explain the 7p’s of Service Marketing (10 marks)
5. Distinguish between goods and services. What are the challenges faced by the service marketers? (10 marks)
6. Attribute reasons for the rapid growth of service sector in the global as well as Indian context. (10 marks)
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