Services Marketing For Competitive Business Environment

McDonalds Service Blueprint

Discuss about the Services Marketing for Competitive Business Environment.

In the present competitive business environment, importance of services is growing at a rapid rate. For that reason, many organizations are looking to enhance their present level of services for improving the satisfaction level of the customers. Many studies have highlighted the fact that quality of services can actually help organization to retain their customers for a longer period of time. Therefore, it has become necessary for the organizations to analyze each step in such a way so that it can able to create desired level of impact on the success rate. In this report, the focus will be on the implemented strategies of McDonalds for enhancing the satisfaction level. The report will analyze all the factors related to implemented strategies of the McDonalds to provide best quality services to all the customers. Furthermore, as McDonalds is in an extremely competitive business sector, it has to face huge amount of competition to sustain its position in the market. Therefore, McDonalds has tried to utilize services in such a way so that it can able to add value to the organizations. In this report, blueprint of McDonalds’s provided services will be analyzed to evaluate the positive and negative aspects of implemented strategies of the organization. Furthermore, the report will also provide suggestions that can create positive impact on the effectiveness of the service quality of the organization.

Figure 1: McDonalds service blueprint

(Source: Rao & Parekh, 2016)

As per the article by Yunus et al. (2013), a service blueprint reflects a map or a picture that describes the service system accurately so that all the people who are involved in providing it can understand and deal with the process effectively regardless of roles from the individual point of view. Furthermore, blueprinting of the services can actually help organization to segregate the entire service processes into different parts that helps organization to evaluate the effectiveness of the service processes in an appropriate manner. McDonalds service blueprinting also has several segments that organization tries to fulfill in order to create desired amount of impact.

The first segment of McDonalds service blueprinting highlights physical evidence that includes several factors. Now, physical evidence focuses on the external appearances that can increase the desire level of the potential customers to purchase products from the retail outlets of McDonalds. Many studies have highlighted the fact that physical evidence is important to increase the satisfaction level of the customers (Nadolny & Ryan, 2015). McDonalds physical evidence includes a large display of menu from where customers can choose their meals according to their preferences. McDonalds also has included various display of food to increase the desire level of customer to avail the services. Furthermore, McDonalds retail stores include well-decorated table and chairs so that people can able to enjoy their meals with families and friends. Second stage of McDonalds service blueprinting focuses on customers actions so that it can improve the effectiveness of the customer services (Rao et al., 2013). McDonalds customer actions include steps from arrival at the retail stores to leave the retail stores of the customers. In the customer action steps, McDonalds tries to provide superior quality of the products within the limited timeframe so that they can feel satisfied with the provided services of the organization.

McDonalds front stage and back stage functions

McDonalds also tries to include technological implementation, on-stage employee action and back-stage employee action in order to create the desired level of impact on the organizational success. Technological intervention helps McDonalds to prepare the instant bills for the customers on the provided products and services. Furthermore, technological intervention also helps McDonalds to have access of different types of information, which helps to increase the effectiveness of the service processes. Back stage employees of McDonalds focuses on the preparation of the foods and maintenance of cleanliness atmosphere at the retail outlets. On the other hand, on stage employees focuses on greeting the customers in an appropriate way so that they can enjoy to their fullest (Raju, Singh & Tariyal, 2015). Furthermore, McDonalds service blueprinting also include support process, which is responsible for effective utilization of the payment system as well as fore see the way of internal interaction so that customers do not have to wait for long period of time in getting their ordered food products. McDonalds always focuses on the effective utilization of all the stages so that it can able to create desire amount of impact on the effectiveness of the service processes.

As per the article by Lim & Loh (2014), front stage and back stage service functions do have a sharp distinction between the interactions among the providers and customers. Front stage functions ensure the kind of services that the customers will receive at the time of purchasing any products. On the other hand, back stage functions describe the value chain of the organization. Now, McDonalds front stage functions include interaction with the customers who are visiting the retail stores of the organization in an appropriate manner. As per the article by Koh et al. (2014) interactions with the customers is an extremely important factor that can enhance the sales volume to a different level. In McDonalds, it has been assessed that people have to wait for sometime in queue in order to place an order to the front stage employees. For that reason, McDonalds has tried to implement several strategies so that people it cannot affect the satisfaction level of the customers. For instance, McDonalds has introduced online order placement facilities for the customers so that they do not have to wait in the queue for a long period of time. Furthermore, front-end function of McDonalds includes the effective way of serving the products to the customers (Crawford, 2015). It ensures that customers do not have to worry about the provided quality of the products and services. Furthermore, front-end function of McDonalds also includes cash management activities of the retail stores in an effective manner. For that reason, McDonalds has implemented different types of payment methods so that front-end employees can manage the cash transaction process in an appropriate way. On the other hand, back-end functions of McDonalds include the production lines, which ensure that the quality of the provided products can able to meet the expectation of the customers (New, 2015). Therefore, McDonalds back-stage functions include purchasing process of raw materials to the inventory management system of the organization. McDonalds tries to utilize back-end process in such a way so that it can minimize the amount of wastage of raw materials in an appropriate manner.

“Moments of truth” for the service organization

Behind the success of a business organization, both the employees and the customers leave equal contribution. An effective interaction between the organizational service providers and the customers is highly needed for maintaining organizational reputation and image. The overarching term ‘moment of truth’ can be defined as the communication between the customers and the organization with the help of products and services (Allred & Addams, 2013). The customers like to gather an impression on the organization based on the product quality and service procedure of a specific business organization. McDonald being one of the largest chain hamburger restaurants in US has spread a predominant place all over the World due to their effective service as well as product quality.

McDonald has received immense positive responses from the customers based on which the organization has expanded the entire process of business in various multinational countries. As per the website of McDonald, the report says that the customer service department has received only 5% customer service complaint in the last year. The interaction that the service providers tend to maintain within the business organization is able to deal with the organization effectively (Cina, 2013). In order to provide an effective service to the customers McDonald has decided to take some of the major initiatives that are as follows:

Employee training:

In order to handle the complaints of different kinds of customers, McDonald likes to provide four steps training methods to the customers. At the training session, the experts suggest the organizational employees to identify the reason of customer dissatisfaction first. Customers become highly dissatisfied only when they fail to communicate effectively with the customer executive.

Technology:

The entire department of customer service system of McDonald is endowed with advancement of technology. Before using the products and services of this organization, the customers can get an in-depth knowledge and view with the help of internet (Frenk & De Ferranti, 2012). The official website of McDonald is very much updated based on which customers can know a deep insight about organizational services, products, about the company, upcoming service facilities, ways of product promotion and so many. In addition, at the time of providing services to the customers, the organization likes to keep a constant data about the customers including their needs and demands.

In order to reduce the range of issues on behalf of customers, the organization likes to make an effective market survey based on the particular regional (Hakanen & Jaakkola, 2012). The primary responsibility of the regional head to gather necessary information about the most happening complaints rose on behalf of the customers. After identifying the issue, the managers should take an effective decision for resolving the problem. McDonald intends to short out those kinds of problems on the regional basis. As a result, the customers would automatically get an effective result from the service providers of McDonald.

Figure 2: The implementation of “Moments of truth” for the service organization like McDonald

(Source: Jaakkola & Alexander, 2014)

Determinants of the satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the service organization and the relevant theories regarding the service quality management

The customer service process of McDonald has received immense positive responses based on which the business experts have expanded the widespread wings in different countries all over the World. As per the overall market survey conducted as per the region, it has been observed that most of the customers have appreciated the rush service procedure and same day service procedure highly. McDonald primarily likes to maintain some of the primary service procedures that are as follows:

Rush Service:

Rush process service has been used widely within the service process of McDonalds. Rush process service implies that customers should never wait for a long time in order to receive a quality service from the organization (Janssen, 2012). Based on a particular region, the servers tend to make a target group. After selecting the customers and their regional background, the service providers intend to provide ad maintain quality of products. For an example, the service procedure of McDonald USA should be different from the service procedure of McDonald Australia.

In order to deliver an effective service to the customers of USA, this particular organization intends to maintain effective communication especially to draw customers’ attention. On the other hand, Australian customers’ are primarily concerned with the on time service procedure (Maister, 2012). Therefore, the service providers have to make a balance between supply and demand of the products. While maintaining the rush service procedure, business experts of McDonald keeps a major concern on some of the major factors. The factors include delivering the service procedure within time. The customers should not have to wait for a large time for getting effective service.

Same day service implies that the organization should deliver the entire service process within the date of receiving orders. McDonald being a fast food delivery center tends to use this particular service process effectively (Ramanathan, 2014). It has been observed in general that people tend to receive the service of a particular food only that day they have provided the order. Therefore, same day service policy is very much effective for this kind of food industry.

Dynamic service management theory has serious been followed within McDonald. As per this particular theory organization should never restricted to one particular service process. With the upgrading progress of civilization, the tastes and demands of the customers are changing day by day (Sharma & Lambert, 2013). Therefore, the business managers should change the service procedure as per the upcoming needs and demands of the customers.

For an instance, McDonald liked to follow high-touch customer service policy at the beginning of their journey. High-touch customer service policy is one of the most important service procedures with the help of which the service providers liked to wait to gain the interest of customers (Stadtler, 2015). At the very first stage, the providers intended to approach the customers for using the facilities and benefits of their services. If the customers showed their interest for using the service as well as the products, the service providers intended to proceed for the next step.

However, in order to create a demand on the market in comparison to the other competitors such as Dominos, KFC and so on, McDonald decided to follow Low Touch customer Service. Low touch customer service implies that service providers are able to provide a large number of facilities in low price (Wandersman, Chien & Katz, 2012). As a result, low cost customers can easily purchase the service and the products of McDonald.  If the organization like McDonald can make the target group as both premium cost customer and low cost customers, the range of target group can automatically be enhanced (Wang et al., 2012). As a result, the business organization gets a major scope to enhance the revenue growth in the market.

However, while discussing the service satisfactory factors regarding the business organization like McDonald, one specific gap in the service process has also been pointed out. Dominos is primarily famous for the quality of their services (Warren, 2012). After the entry of dominos, a large number of customers have showed their interest to change their consumer ship from McDonald to Dominos. Home delivery service process was primarily been  rendered by the business experts of Dominos. People are able to enjoy the taste of food sitting at their home. As a result, consumers do not have to visit the organization for using the products and services. This particular service strategy had come as a major threat for McDonald. After that the concept of Rush service process had been effectively implement with the business process of McDonald.

Figure 3: Service quality management of McDonald

(Source: Yoon, Kim & Rhee, 2012)

As already stated, this particular organization had to face a major threat from Dominos regarding the entire service process. The service gap has also been mentioned in this particular study. However, in order to make an effective service recovery plans and policies, some of the major steps can be implemented that are as follows:

Service recovery plans	Description
Implementing home delivery service being available at twenty four hours	McDonald should take an immediate initiative for implementing home delivery services to the customers. People from different geographical boundaries may not be able to visit the restaurant for using products and services. In this kind of situation, the business organization should deliver the order to the home of the customers so that the customers do not have to jump physically to the organization. They should get the facilities for enjoying the food sitting at their dining room.
Maintaining an effective market survey in order to know the current needs and demands of the customers	Business organizations have to change their service strategies and policies as per the current needs and demands of the customers. Therefore, before fixing the service strategies or tools, McDonald should conduct one effective market survey with the help of which market executives would be able to know which particular service procedure is currently suitable for them. Based on the needs of customers, the business experts should form organizational strategies and policies. McDonald is not exceptional to that. If the customers tend to show their reluctance on low touch customer service, the business experts can use some of the other business strategies and policies such as transparent customer service, clueless customer service and evil customer services.
Being aware of the competitors’ market threat and taking an effective measure on it	Competitor’s market threat should be the major concern for every business organization. If the competitor’s can defeat the organizational plans and polices, the reliable customers also tend to lose their confidence on the service process of particular organization. McDonald is not different from any perspective. Therefore, before forming the business strategy and policy, the business organization like McDonald should have an in-depth knowledge and experience about the strengths and weakness of the competitors’. On one hand, the service quality of Dominos has already gained a market demand in the realm of fast food industry. On the other hand, McDonald has drawn the customers’ attention in terms of product reliability. Therefore, service procedure should be a major concern for the business organization like McDonald based on which the customers from various geographical boundaries tend to show their interest for using services.

Table 1: Service recovery strategy plan

(Source: Zhao et al., 2012)

Conclusion:

Service procedure plays a major role for rendering the success of a business organization. Maintaining the quality of products can never be the primary concern for a business organization. McDonald should focus on the service procedures so that people from various places can show their interest for purchasing the products. This particular study has provided an in-depth understanding regarding the service procedures of McDonald that have primary been used for many years. The customers’ reaction regarding the service quality of this particular organization has also been discussed here. In comparison to KFC and Dominos, the service quality of McDonald should be improved. Otherwise, the business experts may have to face a major threat from the competitors. Based on the service gap, an effective action plan has also been prepared in this specific study. Some of the effective measures have been planned and initiated for improving the service procedures of McDonald.

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