MKTG2509 Service and Relationhsip Marketing | A1 Overview | Service Encounter Critique
Assignment 1: Service Encounter Critique
This assessment in divided in 2 parts: 1) Service Encounter Journal 2) Service Evaluation Paper
Service Encounter Journal:
Objective: To become more aware of critical aspects of the service encounter from a customer’s
perspective.
Directions: We all have a number of such encounters each week, including (but not limited to)
restaurants, banks, airlines, dry cleaners, doctors, dentists, libraries, photographers, tutors, travel
agencies, theatres, pest control agencies, phone companies, automotive mechanics, insurance
companies, attorneys, and accountants. During the semester, you are to keep a "journal" of your
service encounter experiences. The purpose of this journal is to identify sources of customer
satisfaction and dissatisfaction with services.
Requirements: The student is asked to complete five journal entry forms describing recent service
encounters you have experienced (i.e., those occurring during this semester). Service encounters
occurring in the first 4 weeks of our course are preferred. The journal entries should be typed; an
electronic version of the journal form can be found on Blackboard. Each entry will correspond to one
service encounter that you have during the semester. You should enter descriptions of the service
encounters as you experience them. Be sure to completely and thoroughly answer all the questions on
the journal entry form. Your inclusion of the important details of the service encounter will help you
in writing your service encounter paper.
You are expected to record an assortment of types of encounters from a wide variety of service
industries (i.e., do not do all restaurants). We recommend that half of the journal entries should
describe satisfying encounters and the other half very dissatisfying ones. The best way to complete
your journal is to fill a form out immediately following a particular incident. If you try to do your
entries from memory, or do too many at one time, the quality of the entries will suffer.
After collecting the 5 service encounter journal entries, you should clearly indicate which encounter is
the worst and which is the best across these journal entries. The worst encounter will be the focus of
your critique.
Note that the entire set of five journal entries is to be submitted as an appendix to the service
encounter critique paper.
Service Encounter Paper:
Objective: To evaluate critical aspects of service encounters (of five that are collected) from your own
perspective as a customer and as a services marketing scholar.
Directions: After creating a journal of service encounter entries you are to write a service encounter
paper that analyses the worst service encounter in detail. This paper (maximum 1,500 words) will
consist of three parts: First, you will write about the organization that provided you with the worst
service of any organization you encountered this semester, trying to develop your critique around of
services marketing concepts learnt in the course so far. Second, still focusing on the same
organization, you will identify any aspects of service delivery that meet expectations, and finally
discuss what you learned from this experience.
Discussion of worst service. The paper should begin by describing the organization that provided you
with the worst service of any organization encountered this semester. Based on theoretical
MKTG2509 Service and Relationhsip Marketing | A1 Overview | Service Encounter Critique
frameworks and issues discussed in class, diagnose what went wrong in the encounter. That is, from a
services marketing perspective, what is the real cause of the problem? Use concepts from class to
diagnose why the firm did not deliver service that met your expectations.
In addition, again based on your reading of the textbook and theoretical frameworks, identify what
this firm is doing well (if any). In your analysis you should demonstrate your knowledge of services
marketing concepts by briefly discussing 2 other elements of service delivery that this organization
does that it is considered satisfactory or exceeding expectations, using (and clearly labelling) concepts
covered in class discussion and the textbook. Be mindful that aspects that went wrong cannot be again
cited in this second part.
Recommendations. Then, assume the manager of this firm is reading your paper and recommend the
three most important actions that should be taken to improve service. Be specific (e.g., suggesting that
employees “need more training” is not a particularly enlightening or useful recommendation). To
demonstrate your understanding of course concepts, use concepts and strategies from the class to
support your discussion/suggestions. Be selective and focus on the most important issues. A good
paper will describe the problem(s) and present a specific, logical plan for improvement.
Discussion of lessons learned. Finally, you should conclude your paper with a discussing of what you
learned from this experience and how you will apply it as you enter the business world. Be specific
here; saying that you have learned “what good service is” does not provide much insight, nor does
saying that you will “use what I learned when I enter the real world.”
The grading criteria used for evaluating your paper include your ability to relate material from
readings and lectures to your paper, your ability to diagnose probable causes of problems and match
them with appropriate solutions, depth and substance of your observations, persuasiveness of your
observations, and the quality of writing. You should use and explicitly identify services marketing
concepts throughout your discussion to demonstrate your understanding of these concepts, as
this is the primary purpose of this assignment.
Q: Do we need to include images/photographs of our service encounters?
A. Yes it would be good to see the inclusion of images/photographs to support your report. Note:
This is not mandatory and there is no fixed number of images required but including one or two
images would be reasonable — and no more than 8 images.
Due Date: The paper is due on Week 5 at 2pm AEST; an electronic copy is to be submitted via
Blackboard. All journal entries should be included as appendix (the paper and journal entries should
be merged into one document prior to submission). Please don’t send separate documents.
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