Attempt all the problems.

Section-A

problem1)a) What are the challenges to services purchase?

b) What are the significant elements of the service production process?

problem2)a) What is a service style?

b) What potential does e-CRM have for companies?

problem3)a) What are the characteristics of services that should be taken care of in designing service  processes? 

b) What are the various approaches to segmenting service customers?

problem4)a) To what extent do you think price influences your perception of service quality and, ultimately, your buying decision?

b) What are the different distribution channel options available to service marketers?

Section-B

Case Study: THE LOST BAGGAGE

Mr. Desai decided to take the couple of days off from work, in order to visit his family in Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Though he had many options to travel, he decided to buy  ROUND TRIP from Dubai to Ahmedabad, in a tourist class, and to fly by Air India as it offers a direct fly, without a break.

Flying from Dubai to Ahmedabad, flight was on time, and the plane was fully occupied.  He got the good service, a normal meal, and they landed on time.

After some days with his family it was time to go back home.

At the airport, he was looking for flight schedules on the screens; he realized that his flight was going to be delayed.  Mr. Desai was clearly disturbed, as it was not first time that this happened to him when he was flying by Air India.

His flight was scheduled to take off at 2100 hours, but it was delayed by two hours. Distressed by the wait, he was already feeling itchy.
When they landed in Dubai, he was waiting to recover his luggage but after 30 minutes, one of his bags was still missing. Seeing a service manager near the luggage area, Mr. Desai tried to describe the situation to him. The manager appeared helpless and asked Mr. Desai if he had labelled the luggage correctly.

Unable to trace his luggage, Mr. Desai was asked to fill some forms in order to make the claim for his luggage. During phone call, service attendant described the procedure to Mr. Desai, according to which airline will try to trace luggage for two weeks. If after this time they are unable to find the luggage, they will pay 100 per cent over the declaration form.

After eight days, he received the call to go down to airport warehouse to look for his bag. There, a service attendant was assigned to Mr. Desai to help him search for his lost bag. But he never found his bag.

At the end of his meeting, Mr. Desai signed some papers and he got 100 per cent in cash over the declaration form.
Three days later, he got the phone call from the airline office, informing him that they had found his bag.

problem5) Case problems:

a) What is the cause of the problem?

b) What do you propose to reinforce the luggage security process?

c) From the customer’s viewpoint, is two weeks a reasonable time to solve problem?