5questions about Strategic Services Marketing

****For questions 1 and 2 below please consider the context of your group project when answering****

Question 1. (response: 400 words maximum)

When the Swans are allowed to welcome back spectators in their stadium, based on your understanding of the experience staged by the Swans during their home games, consider the role of the customer (or spectator) in co-producing the experience; keeping in mind the relevant segments of customers for this service.

Identify which role(s) customers play in the co-production of the service experience. Is it as: productive resources, as contributors to service quality and satisfaction, or as competitors? Keep in mind that customers may have one or more of these roles in varying degrees of intensity. Make sure you justify your answer based on facts and information from your work on this assignment as well as from tools and concepts from the subject. (4 marks).

Think about 1 main strategic initiative aimed at strengthening customer participation in the co-creation of the experience in order to enhance it and briefly describe it. (6 marks).

Question 2. (response: 200 words maximum)

Consider now how you would support the initiative described in question 1 b) above through an appropriate communication strategy. Make sure you keep in mind how this strategy would impact service promises (5 marks).

****For the questions below (3, 4, and 5), you no longer have to consider the group project assignment when answering****

Question 3. (response: 200 words maximum)

In case of service failure, is a strong, good quality, relationship between the service provider and the customer always desirable from the organization’s standpoint? Explain. (5 marks).

Question 4. (response: 400 words maximum)

You are a newly appointed marketing executive at a company that owns and operates Olympic-size swimming pools for the general public. The opening of a new facility is scheduled to be in 3 months from now and you are free to decide which segment(s) of the population you will target (families, recreational swimmers, fitness enthusiasts, ‘loungers,’ ‘splashers’, etc.). At the same time you want to make sure the capacity of the swimming pool is utilized to the fullest possible extent.

Specify whether you would adopt a narrow focus strategy and target only 1 or 2 segments or you would cater to as many customer segments as possible and justify why (2 marks)

Based on your answer to a) above, describe at least 2 strategies that you will use to match capacity with demand (5 marks)

Based on your answers to a) and b) above, explain how you would manage this Customer Mix with the ultimate goal of optimizing the service experience for each and every customer (5 marks).

Question 5. (response: 300 words maximum)

One of the most important strategic decisions for services marketing executives is the extent of the empowerment of the service employees who are in direct contact with customers.

Define empowerment and weigh in the pros and cons of this strategy (4 marks).

Find some service provisions for which high empowerment is desirable for providing the best possible service and other service provisions for which low empowerment is more desirable. Make sure you explain why you believe such difference exists; these service provisions might be from different types of services, involve different customer segments, etc. (4 marks).