The purpose of this project is to understand the characteristics of the customer service strategy of a project involving a kiosk vending movies and how service leadership can be achieved.
I have attempted to use some of the frameworks and the learning from the class and apply to the above stated concept. The concept is detailed in the next section.
Services Marketing text book (6e) by C. Lovelock, I. Wirtz, J. Chatterjee was used as a general reference and wherever appropriate, references have been provided.
Concept and Stakeholders
Traditional movie rentals in India happen in two ways - through brick and mortar shops or online libraries that deliver video rentals to your doorstep. My concept is to supplement the existing models with a new distribution vehicle of a standalone kiosk which can be capable of vending the movies in some form - either DVDs or some other. Although the model is already in use in some other parts of the world, there would be some differentiation achieved through technology. It is hoped that the kiosks would be unmanned and not require any manual intermediary apart from that required for the operations and the maintenance aspect.
The stakeholders are shown below
The company partners with content owners to procure the rights and then through technology enables the distribution through its retail partners for consumption by the end consumer. The kiosks could be installed in a high traffic place like a mall or as a retail shop like a bank ATM. Apart from the Kiosk, there could be a supplementary e-service (web based) presence where the consumers could check latest updates, their account balance, recharge their accounts and check other offerings.
Service Strategy
Although the service is as basic as to deliver movies through a kiosk, there are several aspects of service delivery that need to be understood and paid attention to. E.g. where will the service be delivered, who is our target customer, nature of customer contact and technology requirements, capacity and demand requirements, etc.
Customer Contact
The customer contact envisaged in this form of service would be low and direct, however involvement is high. Because of the nature of self service technology, it will be more mechanized in nature with little interaction with the customer. Since the customer contact is low, efficiency measures such as low cost can be pursued more easily. There will be little capacity constraints in terms of additional manpower required to serve additional load.
Complexity and Divergence
The degree of complexity would be relatively lower as it would be a standardized process. The level of process divergence also would be low.
Service Positioning
Degree of Customization and Interaction
Low
High
Degree of
Labour Intensity
Low
Kiosk
High
In this case, the labour required would be much less as compared to the capital requirements and hence the labour intensity is much lower. The interaction with the customer is also very less so it falls into the low-low quadrant of the service positioning matrix [1] . Although there are benefits of such positioning, there would be some challenges which will be described in subsequent sections.
Service Blueprinting
The various processes of the services are broken down for the purpose of blueprinting. Since the kiosks are unmanned, there would not be any personnel below the line of visibility. Contact employee has been replaced by technology onstage [2] . Poka-yoke is not covered here.
Customized Service Blueprint for Kiosk service [3]
Service Interactions - Moments of Truth
Moment of truth
Expectations?
How do meet/ exceed?
Place of Kiosk
Easily visible
Good signage, prime location
External Premises
Not too crowded location
Not in the middle of walkway in the mall
Should be covered if installed on the road like an ATM
Parking availability
At least 1 or 2 parking spots available if installed on the road
Ensure curb side parking is available
Identification
Identify the customer immediately
Maybe a loyalty card could be provided which when swiped could bring out his preferences and history
Ease for first time users
Should be accessible for guests and non service customers
Provide for a guest mode and easy checkout
Interface
Ease of use
Touch screen interface with an optional keyboard
Availability of movies
Should get to rent/buy what I want
Ensure an inventory of most likely movies
Billing
Should have multiple options
Cash or Card or bill to Account options should be available
All Currency denominations should be accepted and change provided at the end of the transaction
Security
Billing transaction should be safe
Design of kiosk should be such that there is an adequate cover from all sides so that customer feels safe.
Should have a small mirror on top of the kiosk so that the customer can see what's happening behind
Roadside kiosks should have at least a glass door.
Customer service numbers
The customer service helpline numbers should be visible
Put stickers on the kiosk or have options in the kiosk interface to provide customer service numbers in case of any problems or feedback with the service.
Statements
Billing statements if any should be clear and simple to understand and mailed on time to the customer
Legible statements with date, transaction details, and charges should be printed and mailed with in advance to give sufficient time frame for the customer to pay in time.
Provide e-statements, account balance, transaction history online
Customer Service
Good Customer Service
Trained, motivated and empowered personnel to troubleshoot, counsel and fix problems or provide information
Working Condition
Kiosk should be in good working condition
Periodic maintenance will be undertaken to see that kiosks are maintained in good working condition
Modified SERVQUAL
Since the SERVQUAL model was more applicable for face-to-face encounters, I looked at the corresponding E-S-QUAL [4] model for managing service quality in online environments. Since the service in question involves a kiosk and software with a remote communications component, I felt that a hybrid model for SERVQUAL would be appropriate.
Dimensions
Items/Questions
Tangibles
Location of the kiosk is accessible
The kiosk is not placed in too crowded locations
Design of the kiosk is visually appealing
There is not too much litter around the kiosk
Efficiency
Touch screen interface is available and easy to use
Help or instructions available in the interface
Responsive without any noticeable delays
System Availability
No downtimes
No bugs or issues observed
Movie titles are available
Fulfilment
Selections are correctly pushed to shopping cart
Billing is done as per the selections
Correct movies are delivered
Quality of movie media is good
Receipts are correct and printed in a legible form
Change if any is returned successfully
Privacy
Guest mode is allowed
If log in or customer loyalty card is used, purchase history not shared with other partners
Passwords are encrypted
Credit Card details are not shared with anyone
Data about previous session is closed and unavailable for the new customer in line
Challenges
Although the benefits of self service technology are present - standardized process, differentiation through technology and low costs, there are some challenges to be addressed as the degree of customer interaction is minimal.
Challenges
Mitigation
So there is less opportunity for striking relationships with the customer that come typically with face-face service scenarios.
Loyalty cards could be used. Some offers could be given for frequent buyers of movies from the kiosk.
Biggest challenge is to get customers try this self service technology
A mindset problem needs to be solved. Demonstration by staff will be needed to be done in the initial stages to convince customers of privacy, order fulfilment and ease of use.
While it works customers are extremely happy. When it stops working, the satisfaction with the service will be at the lowest point, as there is no alternative (service personnel) and customer's faith in such a technology's durability is shaken.
Periodic maintenance needs to be undertaken. Faulty equipment needs to be replaced. Remote monitoring of the kiosks can help to an extent.
Service recovery paradox can be exploited to fullest extent. To be able to do that, a customer service helpline or some level of interaction through the website will be made available. If any such service is encountered and found to be valid, then freebies could be given to make the customer happy. It is hoped that the customer will use word of mouth and generate positive reviews for the service.
Service Leadership
Marketing
The role of marketing in this kind of service would entail creating a competitive landscape audit with clear positioning against the mom and pop stores and convincing mainly the content owners over the feasibility of this distribution channel and that too at an attractive price point. Marketing this service would require some PR campaigns - let's say picking influential locals or vanguards to have them use the service and gather some mileage. There is a geographical element as the kiosk will have a radius of customer reach and hence targeting the influential locals would be important. Net savvy, technology friendly and movie freaks could be initial set of customers that the service can be marketed to at least initially. It will be important to strike partnerships with high footfall locations like retail hyper-marts or places having complementary synergies. Since this is not a national wide rollout, word of mouth marketing would be extremely important. The use of local newspapers, social media like Facebook and Twitter can be used to create a buzz. Social media special offers could be launched exclusively to build loyalty and create further buzz. Since the competition is intense for this kind of service, service quality would be of paramount importance. Ease of use, safety, intuitiveness, up time will be of prime concern.
Operations
Since this is more of a self service type, the front stage interaction with the customer is very less. The only interaction would probably when the customer logs complaints about the service or when there is something to cross sell or seek feedback from the customer regarding the quality of service. Maintenance aspect of the operations would still be required. However the customer should be actively involved in improving the service itself in terms of features or metrics. Some lead customers could be chosen to firm up the operations aspect of the service. In this kind of business, it is envisaged to be a low margin, high volume business so there will be pressure to keep the costs low and build scale. At the backstage there will be challenges to get the technology right, maintain lean operations and keep employee productivity high.
Human Resources
Since this is a technology oriented service company, the Human resources dimension plays a significant role. It is extremely important to find people who are interested in technology and who believe in radical improvements to keep the customer experience above standards. The selection of people will be an intense process with culture fit and technology understanding to make simple and usable products and services being assessed. It is the job of the managers to influence the employees in believing how their work affects the overall quality of the service as experienced by the customer. Moreover since the service product is movies, employees themselves will be very often customers and hence have to put themselves in the customer's shoes, see their point of view and design highest quality of service. The Human resources function should prepare with the top management a clear outline of the vision, mission and service strategy and help employees be a part of it. They have to create an environment wherein the employees create opportunities for them and as well as for the company.
Conclusion
The service triad has to be designed with keeping the customer in central focus. It starts with the strategy and identifying your customer. After this is done, the process has to be designed. To keep the strategy and process in synch, due attention to people needs to be paid. The elements pertaining to each vertex of the triad (and customer) are depicted in the diagram above. E.g. what is required of the people, what is required for the process etc?
To achieve the best out of the service design for the kiosk based service, the orientation of marketing, operations and human resources has to be integrated. In this case, human resources are more important for the back stage as the handshake between the customers is through the kiosk. Although the kiosk model poses challenges, mitigation measures have been identified.
This project has helped me identify the finer details of kiosk strategy in terms of the blueprint and quality standards. To be able to provide for the same, a strong marketing initiative has to be backed with a superior operations model. And for both to simultaneously take place, a human resource model aligned with the strategy needs to be in place.
