SDM404: Service and Design Management Team Project Report

ASSESSMENT BRIEF
Subject Code and Name	SDM404: Service and Design Management
Assessment 2	Team Project Report
Individual/Group	Group
Length	4000 words (2000 for Part A and 2000 for Part B)
Learning Outcomes	This assessment addresses the following subject learning outcomes: a) Develop an understanding of the role and nature of service in the service economy and the hotel industry b) Examine key issues concerning the management and measurement of service quality and customer satisfaction c) Critically explore the role of frontline service providers’ service behaviour with respect to service delivery, service failure and service recovery d) Critically reflect upon key strategies used by hotels for managing service behaviour, including empowerment, training, branding and labour commodification e) Assessment strategies to address service organisation processes such as managing supply and demand and relationship management f) Plan and execute a project as part of a team, employing effective teamwork strategies for the design and analysis of an innovative service organisation
Submission	By 11.55 pm AEST/AEDT Friday of Week 10
Weighting	60%
Total Marks	100 marks

Context:

This assessment task comprises of two parts: the first part in producing a Customer Service Handbook as a go-to resource that guides service employees from understanding the hotel’s service concept to implementing service recovery at service encounters, supported by the other part which is a report that justifies the contents in the Handbook.  To be successful in delivering this task, you must utilise relevant learnings from all modules of the unit to design a service management structure that is resilient in practice and communicable in a Handbook that addresses an audience of service people.

 

Instructions for the Task:

Working in groups of three, this project provides you with the opportunity to step into the position of a specialised consultancy team to review and propose a service design management plan for an upper scale hotel.

Based on a hypothetical case study, your team will interpret the hotel’s context and then use this interpretation to construct a Customer Service Handbook (Part A) for current and new employees. Your team will analyse and justify your decisions against service management theory in an analysis-based business report (Part B).

Part A: Construction of Customer Service Handbook (2000 words)

Your team, representing a professional services management consultancy, is engaged to produce a service design proposal that comprehensively addresses the whole service spectrum ranging from concept to relationship management with guests and employees.

Good hospitality in the hotel sector is all about keeping customers satisfied with prompt, responsive and reliable service. The Board of Directors of the Credence Eight Points Hotel is concerned that the service level has been reportedly slipping from excellence and is losing market share. The hotel has been receiving unflattering reviews on social media about its interior design of public spaces, slow to poor service and appearance of its frontline staff.  It has set new objectives in regaining its eminence as a luxury hotel; re-positioning itself as a modern accommodation choice with well-appointed guestrooms and above all, customer service that is unique and memorable.  It has 300 rooms in the configuration of standard deluxe and executive rooms with some exclusive suites.  Its target customer markets are mainly corporate business, leisure, and event groups. The hotel also boosts of augmented services that include two restaurants, one with bar, a 24-hour café, fitness club and a gift shop.

With your expertise in service design and management, you are required to design a Customer Service Handbook for Credence Eight Points Hotel to assist its frontline employees in delivering seamless quality service to its in-house guests and patrons of its retail outlets.

The Customer Service Handbook must guide the Guest Experience Team (employees in front office, concierge desk, housekeeping, restaurant with bar, fitness club and retail) in providing exceptional customer service aligned with the hotel’s market positioning and service concept.  The Handbook will require an accompanying report to justify the items planned as its content.

Six key service design and management components must be included and applied to Samudra Grand Hotel:

1. The Hotel’s Service Concept	Critically reflect how Guest Experience employees could understand the service concept of Credence Eight Points Hotel.   Articulate and communicate its business idea by developing a service concept statement and justifying the key elements that uphold the intention of the service.
2. Strategies for managing service encounters	Reflect on desirable service behaviours for the hotel.   Apply three specific strategies to manage service behaviour encounters.
3. Strategies for managing service quality and satisfaction	Firstly, apply one theory to conceptualise service quality and/or customer satisfaction determinants at Credence Eight Points Hotel.   Then apply one strategy or method to measure and monitor service quality and/or customer satisfaction.
4. Managing service processes and environments	Explain the importance and significance of mapping service processes.   Create a detailed blueprint for the service process of your choice.   Create a theoretical framework for a servicescape of your choice and justify the environmental stimuli that you will propose to enhance both guest behaviour.  Consider how you will communicate this to the employee in the Customer Service Handbook.
5. Managing service failure and recovery	Create a full synopsis of potential service failures for the hotel.   Apply one theory to your detailed service recovery process proposed for the hotel and explain how it can be incorporated in the recovery steps for the employee.
6. Managing external and internal customer relationships	Explain the importance in managing internal and external customer relationships, and then apply one strategy to manage internal customer relationship.   Develop an effective service guarantee (statement) for the hotel and outline the process of how employees should implement the service guarantee.

 

Tips on Part A – Designing your Customer Service Handbook

In constructing the Customer Service Handbook, first research the key theory relevant to each component. Use this theory to help your team decide on strategies for managing and designing service. When communicating and explaining strategies to employees (in layman’s language), you will need to justify your decisions and strategies in Part B of this assignment, with contents of BOTH parts corresponding where necessary. However, only Part B must be supported by academic literature.

Be creative in the design of the Handbook. This is a document to be used by the hotel’s Guest Experience employees, so make it relatable and easy to understand. The use of drawings, images, figures, and tables are highly recommended to visually display information in a compelling way, but all must be originally constructed.  Copying from another source including the Internet is not permitted.  Diagrams are required in component 4 (see table of key components above). If you have adapted information from an academic source, you must acknowledge your source below the figure or table, e.g., Source: adapted from Smith, (2015).

Important reminder: when creating and applying strategies, you must establish clear communication of the reasons underlying the prescribed service behaviour and/or line of action (as the implementation of the strategy).

Tips on Part B – Justification Report (justifying your decisions of content in the Handbook)

The report analyses and justifies all decisions and strategies in your team’s Customer Service Handbook against relevant service management theory and concepts.

The following structure is to be used for your Part B (2,000 words plus 2,000 words for Part A Customer Service Handbook):

Essential Texts and Reading Materials:

Basso, K., & Pizzutti, C. (2016). Trust Recovery Following a Double Deviation. Journal of Service Research, 19(2), pp. 209 – 223.

Bailly, F., & Léné, A. (2012). The personification of the service labour process and the rise of soft skills: a French case study. Employee Relations, 35(1), 79-97.

Bayraktaroglu, S., & Kutanis, R. O. (2003). Transforming hotels into learning organisations: A new strategy for going global. Tourism Management, 24(2), 149-154.

Bitner, M., Booms, B., & Tetreault, M. (1990). The service encounter: Diagnosing favourable and unfavourable incidents. The Journal of Marketing, 54(1), 71-84

Chebat, J. C., & Kollias, P. (2000). The impact of empowerment on customer contact: Employees’ roles in service organisations. Journal of Service Research, 3(1), 66-81.

Czepiel, J., Solomon, M., & Surprenant, C. (1985). The service encounter: Managing employee/customer interaction in service business. Lexington, MA. Lexington Books.

Dillard, C., Browning, L. D., Sitkin, S. B., & Sutcliffe, K. M. (2000). Impression management and the use of procedures at the Ritz‐Carlton: Moral standards and dramaturgical discipline. Communication Studies, 51(4), 404-414.

Edvardsson, B., Tronvoll, B. & Höykinpuro, R. (2011) ‘Complex service recovery processes: How to avoid triple deviation’, Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 21(4), pp. 331–349.

Edvardsson, B., Gustafsson, A., & Roos, I. (2005). Service portraits in service research: a critical review. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 16(1), 107-121.

Gabbott, M., & Hogg, G. (2000). An empirical investigation of the impact of non-verbal communication on service evaluation. European Journal of Marketing, 34(3/4), 384-398.

Garavan, T. N., Morley, M., Gunnigle, P., & McGuire, D. (2002). Human resource development and workplace learning: emerging theoretical perspectives and organisational practices. Journal of European Industrial Training, 26(2/3/4), 60-71.

Goldstein, S. M., Johnston, R., Duffy, J., & Rao, J. (2002). The service concept: the missing link in service design research? Journal of Operations Management, 20(2), 121-134

Gwinner, K. P., Bitner, M. J., Brown, S. W., & Kumar, A. (2005).

Service customization through employee adaptiveness. Journal of Service Research, 8(2), 131-148.

Hemmington, N. (2007). From service to experience: Understanding and defining the hospitality business. The Service Industries Journal, 27(6), 747-755.

Hudson, S. & Hudson, L. (2013). Customer Service for Hospitality and Tourism. Goodfellow Publishers Ltd: Oxford.

Johnston, R., Clark, G.& Shulver, M. (2012) Service Operations Management: Improving Service Delivery. Fourth Edition Pearson Education Ltd Essex, UK

Johns, N. (1999). What is this thing called service? European Journal of Marketing, 33(9/10), 958-973.

Kandampully, J., & Butler, L. (2001). Service guarantees: A strategic mechanism to minimise customers’ perceived risk in service organisations. Managing Service Quality, 11(2), 112-121.

Keith, N. K., & Simmers, C. S. (2013). Measuring Hotel Service Quality Perceptions: The Disparity Between Comment Cards and LODGSERV. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, 17(2), 119-131.

Knutson, B., Stevens, P., Wullaert, C., Patton, M., and Yokoyama, F. (1991) LODGSERV: A service quality index for the lodging industry, Hospitality Research Journal, The Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education, Michigan State University, pp 277-284

Lusch, R. F., Vargo, S. L., & O’Brien, M. (2007). Competing through service: Insights from service-dominant logic. Journal of Retailing, 83(1), 5-18.

Shahin, A. (2010). Service Blueprinting: An Effective Approach for Targeting Critical Service Processes–With a Case Study in a Four-Star International Hotel. Journal of Management Research, 2(2).

Yves, V. V., De Keyser, A., & Larivière, B. (2014). Customer intentions to invoke service guarantees. Managing Service Quality, 24(1), 45-62.

 Submission Instructions:

1. Submit your report (Part A and Part B) in Word document to Turnitin by 11.55 pm AEST/AEDT on Friday of Week 10.
2. Use font Time Roman, Arial or Calibri, size 11-12, at one and half line spacing
3. Student must refer in text and in an associated reference list, to a minimum of 8 academic sources, plus others as required in order to show competency in the assessment. Up to three of these can be academic textbooks, with a minimum of five academic journal articles. Blogs and other unverifiable sources will not count as references.
4. All referencing must be in accordance with APA 6^thEdition Referencing and Academic Writing Guide.
5. A Torrens University Group Assignment cover sheet is to be attached with your submission to Turnitin
6. Essential that you view the marking rubric for this assessment and remember you do not need to attach this rubric to your submission

 Learning Rubric: Assessment 2 (Team Project Report)

Assessment Criteria	Fail (Unacceptable)0-49%	Pass (Functional)50-64%	Credit (Proficient)65-74%	Distinction (Advanced)75 -84%	High Distinction (Exceptional)85-100%
Construction and Design of Customer Service Handbook Part A 30%	. Handbook components are not formulated clearly. Does not present reasonable review of solutions and/or presents incomplete solutions. Understandability, creativity and visual design is poor and/or incomplete	Handbook components exist as directed but are unclear in some respects and do not appear to be well thought out. Offers solutions but they are not clear and rational overall. Understandability, creativity and visual design is satisfactory.	Handbook components are clear, but the scope is not well defined. There are clear and rationale strategies offered. Understandability, creativity and visual design is sound.	Handbook components well conceptualized. Strong strategies offered. Creativity and visual design are of superior quality to appeal to audience.	. Handbook components are comprehensive and well thought out. Clear and comprehensive strategies are offered. Creativity and visual design are of outstanding quality and would appeal to audience effectively.
Critical Analysis and Discussion 20%	Fails to analyse applied and theoretical information. Lacks critical thought /analysis / reference to theory in providing a rationale for work.	Can analyse a limited range of information with guidance using classification / principles. Some evidence of critical thought/critical analysis and rationale for work presented.	Can analyse with guidance using given classification / principles. Demonstrates sound application of theory through critical analysis of the topic area and rationale for work.	Can analyse a range of information with minimum guidance, can apply major theories and compare alternative methods/techniques for obtaining data. Clear application of theory through critical analysis/critical thought of the topic area and rationale for work.	Can analyse new and/or abstract data and situations without guidance using a wide range of techniques appropriate to the topic. Consistently demonstrates application of critical analysis and rationale for work.
Theoretical knowledge and range of topic and theory 20%	Lacks evidence of knowledge relevant to the topic and/or significantly misuses terminology. Inappropriate choice of theory.	. Evidence of limited knowledge of topic and some use of appropriate terminology. Selection of theory is Inaccurate and inappropriate, but some aspects have been missed or misconstrued.	Has given a factual and/or conceptual knowledge base and appropriate terminology. Most key theories are included in the work in an appropriate straightforward manner.	Reasonable knowledge of topic and an awareness of a variety of ideas/contexts/frame-works. Insightful and appropriate selection of theory in key areas.	Comprehensive/detailed knowledge of topic with areas of specialisation in depth and awareness of provisional nature of knowledge. Assignment demonstrates integration and innovation in the selection and handling of theory.
References Source Citation Source Selection Number of Sources 15%	Fewer than 10% of the sources listed are referred to in the text, or no list of references. Sources are random and do not relate to the topic Number of sources chosen is clearly insufficient to support the argument. Fewer than 10% of citations are formatted correctly.	Fewer than 75% of the sources listed are referred to in the text. Few sources included with little connection to the topic. Number of is less than adequate to fully support the argument. Fewer than 75% of citations are formatted correctly.	More than 75% of the listed sources are referred to in the text. Similar sources and source types included, clearly related to the topic. Number of sources chosen is adequate but could be expanded. More than 75% of citations are formatted correctly. Some information may be missing, or APA style may not be used consistently.	Includes all and only those sources referred to in the text. Includes a variety of sources clearly related to the topic. Number of sources chosen provides abundant evidence to support the argument. More than 90% of citations formatted correctly using APA style.	Very comprehensive reference selection and citation. Exceptional list of references
Writing structure and presentation style 15%	Inappropriate vocabulary and/or grammar Significant grammatical and/or spelling errors Significant report formatting errors. Required appendices not submitted.	Some inappropriate vocabulary and/or grammar Notable grammatical and/or spelling errors.   Notable errors in report formatting and/or development. Required appendices submitted but not well developed.	Minor use of inappropriate vocabulary and grammatical structures Minor grammatical and/or spelling errors Minor errors in report formatting and/or development. Required appendices submitted and clear.	Appropriate vocabulary and grammatical structures used Minimal to no grammatical and/or spelling errors Report well formatted and developed. Required appendices submitted and well developed.	Mature writing style using appropriate vocabulary and grammatical structures No grammatical and/or spelling errors. Report comprehensively developed and very well formatted. Required appendices submitted and comprehensively developed.