Examining Service Blueprint, Servicescape Strategy, Service Quality, Complaint Process & Service Recovery Strategies Of Jetstar Airways

Overview of Jetstar Airways

Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd., which also trades as Jetstar is an Australian budget airline (Jetstar.com. 2018). The headquarters of the Jetstar Airways is in Melbourne, the capital of Australia and the most populous city of Australia. The Jetstar is the fully owned subsidiary of Qantas Airways, which is the largest airlines service in Australia . Jetstar was owned by Qantas to provide low cost service and also to compete with Virgin Blue, which is also a low-cost airline of Australia. The Jetstar Airways has an extensive domestic network operation and it also provides international services from the Melbourne airport, which is the main base of the Jetstar Airways. The secondary hubs of Jetstar Airways include the Auckland Airport, Brisbane Airport, Sydney Airport, Gold coast Airport and Cairns Airport. The report outlines and examines the Service Blueprint, Servicescape strategy, Service quality (based on the SERVQUAL scale), Complaint process, Service recovery strategies, managing supply and demand and also examines the integrated marketing communication.

The report discusses, examines, outlines and defines the service blueprint of the Jetstar Airways. It also discusses the servicescape strategy, service quality, complaint process, service recovery strategies. The report also discusses how Jetstar Airways manages its supply and demand and conducts its integrated marketing communications.

Service Blue printing can be defined as an important tool that helps in enabling the user to devise a structure for viewing service improvement (Lim and Kim  2014). However, it is to be noted that the blueprinting does not guarantee success, it is a visual tool that is conceive in order to provide valuable contributions to the service engineering process. The systematic and organized process that that is used for developing new servicers is defined by the term Service Engineering .Thus it can be said that the Service –Planning is a service planning help tool , which is used in order to develop a new innovating services and also to enhance the already existing services. The quality of service processes is ensured by this method. This also helps to provide training to the new employees or to show the clients the service cycle overview.

The blue print of the services of the Jetstar Airways is shown in the above figure. The figure provides the function of the front stage and back stage operation for the customers (Alter 2013). There are many functions for the customers to be done. In the front stage function, the team of airline addresses the customers and then during the security check functions, the team of the airline checks the passengers. After the completion of security check, the Jetstar Airways serves and greets their passengers .These all operations are done and completed in the front stage of the Jetstar Airways. In the back stage the functions of operation includes the loading of bags in the plane, pilot servicing and also involves removeal of bags from the plane after the journey is completed by the airline. Apart from these support process has been done by the airline, it includes the online registration, registration system, metal detector and check plane function. The line of visibility separates the actions, which are visible to the customers from the set of actions, which are out of sight (Heinonen,  Strandvik and Voima 2013). The line of visibility, front stage and backstage activities and the key interactions between the passengers and employees of the Jetstar Airways have been clearly depicted and explained in the Service Blueprint of the Jetstar airways (Kirschenbaum 2013).

Service Blueprint of Jetstar Airways

In order to emphasize the impact of the physical environment in which the process of service is occurring, a model was conceived by Booms and Bitner, this model is called the Servicescape .The Servicescape model is aimed to explain the behaviour of the people who are present within the service environment . It is developed with the aim to design environment in order to achieve the goals of the organization. The Jetstar Airways provides very good service of air travel in affordable price in Australia. The company uses plus cost margin strategy in order to price the services .The company is providing competitive pricing methods in order to provide best services at affordable rates to gain an competitive edge against the competitors Virgin Blue , which also have  a low budget subsidiary airlines ,Tigerair Australia. A symbol of star appears on Jetstar Airways. It has also several signs and arefacts in the airline, which are, present in the airline in order to assist and guides the passengers in the airlines of Jetstar Airways.

The Service Quality (SERVQUAL) assess how the efficiency of the delivered service that comply with the expectation of the clients (Basfirinci and Mitra 2015). Service business operators like the Jetstar Airways often assesses the service quality that are provided to their customers with the aim of improving their service and to identify and resolve the problems in order to provide better satisfaction of the customers .

The SERVQUAL Scale is based on five dimensions that include tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy.

Table 1: SERVQUAL Scale Table

(Source: Jetstar.com 2018)

If the customers or passengers of the Jetstar Airways have any complaints regarding the services provided by the Jetstar Airways, they can complaint to the Jetstar Airways through a complaint registration form expressing their dissatisfaction. In case of any queries and assistance, customers and passengers can accesses the customer support through the phone numbers, provided in the official website of Jetstar Airways.  The complaints of the passengers or the customers, which are submitted to the organization, are stored in their databases through their official websites, the management view this records of complaints and dissatisfaction and try their best to resolve their problems. Any complaints regarding the services of Jetstar Airways, which are conveyed to the customer support are further forwarded to the management of the Jetstar Airways  so that that particular services can be improved by them. The feedbacks of the customers are essential for the Jetstar Airways in order to improve their services that are provided to their passengers or customers so that it does not result in any dissatisfaction among the passengers or the customers (Filip 2013). It is necessary for Jetstar Airways to improve their services considering the feedbacks and complaints of the customers in order opt compete with other low budget airlines services like Tiger airways Australia (Gayathri et al . 2014)

Service recovery involves the actions and the precautions that are taken by the company in the case of failure in the services provided to the customers, in order to change the dissatisfaction and perception of the customers. The service recovery plan should be  supported by the management of the company as poor or bad service can lead to the dissatisfaction among the customers . If there is a failure in the services provided by a company , it would lead to the negative impact on the company and the company is rated lower in comparison to the competitors in the market . There are several number of strategies which the company can follow by which they can obtain a successful service recovery (Casidy and Shin 2015). The decision-making powers, judgment of employees and the actions are the key factors on which the successful recovery depends. The service recover process is very important for the airline industry .An effective service recovery plan have many advantages and it is crucial to control the failures of services and it also helps in minimizing dissatisfaction of the customers and aids in building a strong relationship with the customers. The Jetstar Airways is one of the leading low-budget airlines in Australia. The Jetstar Airways is deemed as the cost effective and affordable for travelling by the customers. The Jetstar Airways have am appropriate service recovery plan that they follow in order to help the company to curtail the dissatisfaction of the customers and also improve the quality of services. The service recovery strategies of Jetstar Airways are as follows:

• Identification of Problems- Jetstar Airways identifies the source of problem in service. If there is major problem in the service, it can lead to dissatisfaction among customers (Tsyganskiy et al. 2013) .The problems associated with the Jetstar Airways varies from price, quality, employee behaviour, booking services, errors in website and many others .Jetstar Airways identifies these problems and tries to solve it so that it can offer better service to the customers.
• Recovery of problems – The main focus of Jetstar Airways is to recover the problems. After the problem is identified, they are solved without any delay (Chou 2015). Jetstar makes sure that the problems of the customers or passengers are recovered or solved promptly to maintain its good image in the market and to gain a competitive edge over its competitors
• Providing Alternative Options- Jetstar airways in order to create convenience for the customers provides with alternative options until the problem is resolved. They also try to ensure that the alternative options provided to the customers are effective so that they are able to make the customers or the passengers happy. The aim of the company, which it primarily focuses on, is the satisfaction of the customers.

Managing Supply and Demand

Servicescape Strategy of Jetstar Airways

The process of planning the resources that are required in order to meet the demands in business defines the capacity management (Breitgand, Rochwerger and Satran 2014). The capacity management techniques involve capacity forecasting, monitoring, planning and analysis of the performance.

In order to combat the issues of variation in demand, Jetstar Airways have adopted the capacity management techniques in order to meet the demands of the customers in an efficient way. The Jetstar Airways uses the Yield Management techniques, which involves the segmentation of customers markets and also it charges different prices to different segments in such a way so that the capacity can be utilized fully and at the same time maximizes the revenue. Jetstar Airways mainly use it during pre-bookings of the customers. Many times Jetstar Airways book a number that exceeds the capacity of the airline, this is done because people tend to cancel bookings. This technique helps Jetstar Airways to adjust its capacity by stretching their capabilities in order to match the demands of the customers.

Integrated Marketing Communications

The Jetstar Airways uses some unique strategies to communicate its services to the target customers. Some of the strategies of Jetstar Airways are as follows:

• The Jetstar Airways has dedicated team that manages the social media channels of the passengers and customers who share their pleasant experience on social media platforms  .The team monitors the customer behaviour and offer real-time responses .This increase the reach of the organization and through social media channels they market their brands to the target markets.
• The Jetstar Airways sends dedicated mails to communicate with their potential customers about their services and any improvements in their services. They also convey the customers or the passengers when they offer premium reward services like offering extra miles to their customers.
• They also use various advertisement channels and other mass media channels like newspaper and news channels to promote their services to the customers and target markets .

Conclusion

After analyzing the report that examines several aspects of the Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd., it can be said that Jetstar is the leading budget airline in Australia. From the blueprint of the Jetstar Airways, it can be said that they have managed both the front stage and the backstage functions effectively and efficiently. It is evident from the SERVQUAL scale that they provide service to the customers or passengers efficiently. Jetstar Airways also provides the provision of lodging complaints for their customers or passengers.   They have well developed and organized service recovery strategies. They follow proper capacity management techniques that are useful to adjust the capacity to match customer demand. Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd. also has well defined strategies for communicating its service offerings to the potential target markets and the customers.

References

Alter, S., 2013. Value blueprint and service design space for facilitating value creation.

Basfirinci, C. and Mitra, A., 2015. A cross cultural investigation of airlines service quality through integration of Servqual and the Kano model. Journal of Air Transport Management, 42, pp.239-248.

Breitgand, D., Rochwerger, B. and Satran, J., International Business Machines Corp, 2014. Policy-driven capacity management in resource provisioning environments. U.S. Patent 8,732,310.

Casidy, R. and Shin, H., 2015. The effects of harm directions and service recovery strategies on customer forgiveness and negative word-of-mouth intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 27, pp.103-112.

Chou, P.F., 2015. An analysis of the relationship between service failure, service recovery and loyalty for Low Cost Carrier travelers. Journal of Air Transport Management, 47, pp.119-125.

Filip, A., 2013. Complaint management: A customer satisfaction learning process. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 93, pp.271-275.

Gayathri, A., Nandhakumar, C., Gokulavani, M. and Santhamani, V., 2014. Inferring User Goals Using Customer Feedback and Analyzing Customer Behavior. International Journal of Computer Applications Technology and Research, 3(2), pp.125-129.

Heinonen, K., Strandvik, T. and Voima, P., 2013. Customer dominant value formation in service. European business review, 25(2), pp.104-123.

Jetstar.com. (2018). Jetstar Airways – Australia | Jetstar. [online] Available at: https://www.jetstar.com/au/en/home [Accessed 16 Oct. 2018].

Kirschenbaum, A.A., 2013. The cost of airport security: The passenger dilemma. Journal of Air Transport Management, 30, pp.39-45.

Lim, C.H. and Kim, K.J., 2014. Information service blueprint: A service blueprinting framework for information-intensive services. Service Science, 6(4), pp.296-312.

Tsyganskiy, I., Stulski, V., Liakh, D., Satsuta, E. and Scheinkman, L., SAP SE, 2013. Systems and methods for identifying problems of a business application in a customer support system. U.S. Patent 8,539,003.