Case Study Assignment
1. To build your Report, start by reviewing Case Study #3 ( United Breaks Guitars page 537) and Case Study #7. (JetBlue page 493) and consider the history of the airlines up to 2013, when the textbook was published.
2. Select five credible sources (Wikipedia is not considered a credible source) to provide CURRENT and RELEVANT information about customer service in the airline industry. One of these sources MUST be a journal article obtained from the Lakeland library or another college-level library. On your source page, include one sentence about each source that explains why you selected it(annotated bibliography).
3. Research the current state of basic marketing principles in the airline industry... a) Product, b) Price, c) Place, d) Promotion, as well as e) Personnel and f) Presentation ( these are the two extra P's often discussed in the service industry). Consider the Marketing of Service perspective as discussed in the textbook.
4. Write an analytical report with the following format:
a. Start with an Introduction to the topic of Airline Customer Service and Safety. What did you suspect, what did you find out that was new, and what surprised you?
b. Using the Chapter 2 discussion of Customer Gap, discuss examples of the gaps you found in your research examples between expected and perceived service.
c. Give at least one example from your research of each of the four Provider Gaps. These include 1) listening gap, 2) service design and standards gap, 3) service performance gap, and 4) communication gap. Use headings to separate each section.
d. Using the Chapter 12 discussion of Customer Roles, explain how customers contribute to the service gap in the airline industry, and explain how a)information, b)effort, and c) physical possessions if customers make the airlines' work more challenging.
e. Evaluate the Communications Triangle featured in Chapter 14. Discuss how the a) service intangibilities, b) management of service promises, c) management of customer expectations, d) customer education and e) internal marketing communications can work to widen the service gap. What can airlines do to improve communications among carriers and with customers?
f. Conclude the paper with a list of five or more suggestions of changes the airline industry could make to improve customer service, including suggestions to improve communication and customer-role issues. How could technology play a major role in improving the industry? Are there any problems that are "unfixable" and too difficult to change? Cite examples of how certain airlines have resolved these problems, and examine why others have have not been able to resolve the same issues.
g. Finally, would you like to work in the airline industry? If you had a job with an airline, what would be the best jib for you, suiting your personality and abilities?
5. The paper needs to follow college- level writing standards with headings, charts, graphs, and other reported-based formatting details to make it interesting and easy to read. Use a 12- point- font and double-space the report. Use an APA or MLA style source page, and include footnotes/citations throughout the report.
6. The final report must be six(6) to ten(10) pages in length. Reports that are shorter or longer than this will be returned ungraded to the student for further editing. Source page is not included in the overall page count.
Textbook is Services Marketing sixth edition
Case Study: "United Breaks Guitars".
Case Study- JetBlue: High-Flying Airline Melts Down in Ice Storm by Joe Brennan and Felicia Morgan.
Article: Technology's Impact on the Gaps Model of Service Quality by Mary Jo Bitner, Valarie A. Zeithaml and Dwayne D. Gremler.
Article: The Communications Triangle.