Sunflower

Improvement of efficiency in service operation through the understanding of service design, setting and delivery process:

Sunflower Travel

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Matriculation number: 40186662
CityU SID: 53056389

TSM 09005 Service Management

Tutor: Ken Poon

Date of Assessment: 10 April 2015

Executive Summary:

Content Page

1. Cover Sheet
2. Executive Summary
3. Content page
4. Introduction
5. Main body of report: Key Consideration
   5.1: Servuction system

5.2: Blueprint

5.3: Servicescape

5.4 Physical evidence

Introduction

Sunflower Travel was founded in 1974. Its head office and ten branches can be found throughout Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories. Sunflower Travel gained many different awards in recent years with its high quality travelling service and reputation. One of those is the Hong Kong Superbrands Honorary Awards in 2004.

There are three main objectives of Sunflower Travel:  

1.        To have the service that customers expect to get      

2.        To keep improve the quality of travel tour and service

3.        To energize customers and staff

The above objectives of Sunflower Travel are consistent with their service promise -

“Improve quality of service constantly”

Service organization and their characteristics

The nature and the characteristics influence the service design, setting and process. “A service is an activity which has some element of intangibility associated with it, which involves some interaction with customers or with property in their possession, and does not result in the transfer of ownership” (Adrian Payne, 2015) “Services are relatively intangible, produced and consumed simultaneously and often less standardized than goods” (Leonard Berry, 2015) Thus, we have to distinguish the service organization by identifying four characteristics – intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability.

Intangibility (J. Ali-Knight, S. Chiu, S. Taylor & R. Sutherland, 2015)

The service provided by Sunflower Travel cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard or smelled. For example, the consultation and the advices are not concrete and tangible. Customers can take the leaflets but the service is more than that. It includes the greetings from the staff, advices, hospitability and the ambient condition there. It is not a physical good. Thus, the process of consultation of the travelling information by the staff cannot be stored.

Inseparability (J. Ali-Knight, S. Chiu, S. Taylor & R. Sutherland, 2015)

Service provider and the customers are essential in the service process. They cannot be separated. Customers can get the information of the travelling package from the posters and leaflets but not the service. The service has to be provided by the staff in Sunflower Travel and the performance of the service depends on the staff.

Variability (Heterogeneity) (J. Ali-Knight, S. Chiu, S. Taylor & R. Sutherland, 2015)

The service received by different customers is different as it is provided by different staff. Even though there are lots of rules and standardized procedures in Sunflower Travel, the variability still occurs. The performance of different employees is variable which is led by the inseparability. The employees may provide different advices even to the same customer. Also, their attitude may be different too.

Perishability (J. Ali-Knight, S. Chiu, S. Taylor & R. Sutherland, 2015)

Service cannot be stored or kept as it is not a physical good. When there are less customers in the shop, the service cannot be stored and wait until there are more customers coming for consultation. The consultation and advices provided by Sunflower travel employees cannot be stored for future use.

Background of the case

Improving the service quality is the main objective of Sunflower Travel. However, its service quality is worse than its competitors, eg Wing On Travel. To improve its service quality, the efficiency has to be improved. There are certain issues that have been found about the service quality provided by Sunflower Travel, including the performance of staff, environment and insufficient information etc. All these problems in service design, setting and delivery process affect the efficiency in service operation.

Discussion and Investigation under Key Considerations

Blueprint (Service design & process)

‘A blueprint specifies in detail how a service process is constructed, including what is visible to the customer and all that goes on in the back office.’ (Kumar & Philips & Rupp 2009, p.173) There are certain design characteristics that help to see how a blueprint should be developed – Front-stage activities, Physical evidence of front-stage activities, Line of visibility, Backstage activities, Support processes and supplies, Potential fail points and identifying customer waits. (Lovelock & Wirtz & Chew 2014, p.100-101)

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Discussion and Investigation : Blueprint

When customers arrive Sunflower branches, service starts. However, the staff do not have greetings to the customers. Thus, the level of customer satisfaction^[1] cannot be reached.

Customers first approach the Tour Board and have a look on the leaflets. However, no one comes to approach the customers to provide appropriate resources. (Billie Nordmeyer 2015) The quality of performance and efficiency is not achieved.

Then, they go to the consultation table for consultation with frontline travel agents in order to get some travel advice and detailed information, which is supported by the information system and database. The information system is the invisible process. In this stage, there are potential fail points and waiting time. The waiting time reduces the speed. In addition, the attitude and professionalism of frontline staffs may be different due to the variability of the service. Thus, the quality of service may not be reached. Efficiency is reduced.