2014

Table of Contents

Executive Summary..................................................................................................................3

Service Encounter Stage...........................................................................................................3

Evaluation for the Service Environment...................................................................................5

Visual Evidence.........................................................................................................................7

Service Process.......................................................................................................................14

Recommendations..................................................................................................................15

References..............................................................................................................................16

Executive SummaryThis case study aims to cover and illustrate all the Service aspects in a customers’ experience of visiting an Entertaining club in Adliya called Jimmys Snooker.

Furthermore, the case study includes analyzed areas in the experience of services such as Service Encounter Stage, Service Environment, Visual Evidence and Service Process. Moreover, these service marketing topics are illustrated and analyzed in this case study in order to have a brief study of the services available and the quality of those service.

Finally, a set of Recommendations are provided in order to improve the services of the club that will support important factors such as brand image, positioning and enhancing customer experience.

Service Encounter Stage From all the available categories that had to be chosen from such as Restaurants, Banks, Beauty, Hotels and Entertainment; the chosen industry is Entertainment.

A shop called JIMMYS SNOOKER CLUB located in Adliya, one of the most famous areas including many restaurants, hotels and other entertainment shops. Jimmys Snooker Club offers a different experience due to the unique services it offers as we know that Football, Basketball and other type of sports lovers can perform their favourite sport in many parts of the country. But Jimmys is the only snooker and billiard shop in Adliya and one of the fewest all around Bahrain.

As soon as I entered, the employee greeted me and I asked whether there is an available table and he replied “definitely”, he then guided me to the second floor where the 4 snooker tables are located. I was even surprised that the balls where set ready on the table and everything was ready for me and my friend to start playing. The other employee, responsible for the customers upstairs, came and handed us the drinks menu asking us whether we demanded any drinks or food. Furthermore, after ordering a couple of red teas, the employee went down to the kitchen and had our orders ready and brought them to us in a very short notice, approximately 3 Minutes. Everything was going perfect, but when we started to make some loud voices, reactions and laughs; the employee suddenly came to us, asking us politely and respectively to lower our voices as it there were other customers playing in the snooker hall. Thus, we continued playing quietly without shouting, laughing or making any type of noises. After finishing, we started collecting the balls but suddenly the other employee ran towards us and stopped us by saying “You don’t need to do that sir, it’s my duty.... have a nice day”. So we headed to the cashier downstairs and paid the bill, the

cashier handed us the receipt and thanked us for visiting with asking us to come again, the price was a bit higher than the usual but it’s absolutely worth it.

Aspects of Service Encounter:-

Contact Level

The level of Contact is considered Medium due to several features like the guidance and walking with the customers to the snooker hall, serving the drinks & beverages, dealing with the incident of noises and the process of payment. Those features do not require a High or a Low level of contact between the service provider and the customer. (Bahrain Polytechnic, 2014) (Guiry, 1992)

SCRIPT AND ROLE THEORY

Customer Employee Downstairs Employee Upstairs1: Parks the car2: Enters the shop 3: Greets the customer4: Asks for a table 5: Walks with and Guides the

Customer to an available table6: Sets up the table

7: Order drinks and beverages 8: Prepare and serve the order

9: Starts playing10: Waits until customer finishes playing

11: Heads to cashier 12: Cashiers asks whether they enjoyed it13: Give bill

14: Pays and receives receipt 15: Thanks and asks to come again

16: Leave

Servuction System:-

There are many procedures occurring whether in the front or the back stage of the servuction system.

Backstage (Service Operation System) : How the charge of the table based on the duration is done technically using a machine at the cashier which is linked to each snooker table.

Front stage (Service Delivery System): The contact between the Customer and the inanimate environment from the table, AC, snooker cues, etc and the employees themselves. (Bitner, 1990)

This is a model of the Servuction System :-

Evaluation for the Service Environment

There were many aspects in the Service Environment that played a role in enhancing my experience and also on the other hand supporting important marketing factors such as the brand image, position and creating value of the experience.

The pricing strategy set and the quality of service in Jimmys Snooker & Billiard club helps in positioning the shop in a Expensive-High Services category. Thus, although the prices are somehow high compared to other Snooker clubs(2.500BD/Hour), the quality of services offered enhance the customers experience by making them feel comfortable and seek towards visiting the club again in the future. The method of communicating with the customer and offering services in a short period of time, high quality and full of manners are all aspects that lead to enhancing the customers experience and supporting the brand name of the club as it is of an Expensive-High Services category. (Bahrain Polytechnic, 2014) (Jörg Pareigis, Bo Edvardsson, Bo Enquist, 2011)

Positioning of Jimmys Snooker Club:-

Creating value to the customer:-

Furthermore, every experience should have an environment that creates value to the customer. The Service Environment and the Service Escape of Jimmys Snooker Club played an important role in creating value to the customer, enhancing the customer and also supporting the Brand name, image and position of the club.

Expensive

Low-priced

High Service Low Service

Jimmys

Lightning: The lightning in the snooker hall is off and the only lights that are on are the Snooker tables lights. The aim of this type of lightning is to keep it focused on the Snooker tables and on the entertainment source.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere of the place is very quit and calm as playing Snooker needs much concentration and any noise would cause a distraction to the players/customers.

Signs: Several signs like “No-Smoking”, “Please keep Mobile-Phones on silent”, “Quit Please” are located right in front of the customer on their way to the snookers hall. Their aim is to deliver a message that would tell them more about the atmosphere of the club.

Colours: The colours used in decoration of the place downstairs is somehow bright, but dim upstairs. Thus, supporting the idea of having a quit and a calm place as bright colours support hyper. (Bahrain Polytechnic, 2014)

Competitive Advantage: What differentiates Jimmys Snooker club is not only the Snooker atmosphere and experience upstairs, but also the atmosphere downstairs. There are not only 1 but 4 TV’s available, where you can watch all sort of entertainment programs such as Football matches and movies. Not only that, but also the variety of drinks, beverages, chocolates and sandwiches it offers.

Location: As we know that Adliya is a very famous area in Bahrain filled with restaurants and coffee shops, the location of Jimmys Snooker Club helps customers to save time if they have specific plans of gathering with friends or relatives in several restaurants. Hence, customers can reach or leave to famous restaurants such as Coco’s, Lilous, Monsoon, Fuddruckers, etc, in a very short notice as the distance between those locations and Jimmys is considered very short.

Visual EvidenceHere are the Visual Evidences that prove how Jimmys Snooker Club is different from its competitors.

1:

The entrance of Jimmys Snooker Club:- The entrance is very attractive and this is only Snooker club in Bahrain that actually has an entrance, the rest are usually located in buildings (not shops).

2:

Another view of the entrance.

3:

Reception/Cashier Desk

How I was greeted by the employee when I entered.

4:

Variety of Drinks/Chocolates/Ice-creams/Chips/Juices available which are displayed orderly where customers have a clear view.

5:

Customers can enjoy watching several TV shows at the same time. Hence, customers can wait downstairs for available tables or sit and enjoy their time after they finish playing.

6:

Waiting area upstairs located in-front of a transparent glass to watch others while playing.

7:

Employee responsible of services upstairs.

8:

Signs located on the wall of the stairs informing customer about the rules of the club and the way towards the Snooker Hall.

9:

Machine/system responsible of setting the prices based on the duration played.

10:

Table ready for new customers. Thus, customers do not need to rack the balls.

11:

The only snooker hall in Bahrain with such a classy/attractive design.

These visual evidences include features of how the customer is served in Jimmys Snooker Club in a way that no other club offers. I have personally been to different clubs around Bahrain, but have never had a better experience than this one, due to the great atmosphere and environment this club has as shown through these evidences.

Service Process

This is a blue-print that has been created to describe in-detail the steps of the experience. Line of Interaction, Visibility and Internal Interaction are used in order to separate the different stages of the processes throughout the experience.

Moreover, there are some Failure points that somehow distributed the transactions between some of the steps such as:-

Any error in the system would lead to faults in the pricing and timing of each table. Waiting for available tables in-case they are all occupied. If tables stay occupied for a

long period of time, moving to the other steps might be corrupted and stopped.

In order to avoid such failures:-

There should be a backup system whether electronic or manual. Thus, continues recording throughout the period of occupancy time needs to be taken in order to avoid miscalculations in-case of system down situations.

The employee should specify the maximum amount of time that the customer might wait in order to avoid dissatisfaction of not knowing the period of waiting time.

RecommendationsIn order to have a satisfactory service experience for the customer, there are many factors that need to be focused on. All the important factors in a service experience are found in the Flower of Service.

There are two types of elements in the flower of service;

Enhancing elements:- Billing/Payment/Information/Order-Taking.

Facilitating elements:- Consultation/Exceptions/Hospitality/Safe Keeping(Caretaking).

There are some of these elements that require some changes or development in order to enhance the customer experience.

Information: As the club opening hours are from 3pm-1am daily, opening during mornings is very vital, and that is because the club is situated in Adliya were many tourists, occupations, coffee shops, restaurants and different nationality residents live. It is a very active area in the morning, hence opening during morning hours would lead to attracting more customers who are in Adliya during that time.

Payment: During the payment process, I noticed that the option of paying by Credit Cards is not available, and this might represent an obstacle as many customers might need credit card payment option. Thus, adding the credit-card option will improve the Payment element in the flower of services.

Order-Taking: The option of reservation is not available, which means that the probability of coming to the club and not finding an available Snooker table is high during peak hours. Several customers come to enjoy this experience live in areas far from Adliya. Thus, adding the service of Reservations would help in avoiding

dissatisfaction of customers coming and not getting table. The element of Order-Taking will be completely perfect by then.

Consultation: I believe that many customers are not familiar with all the rules of snooker or how to play the game. Hence, including a Snooker coach that would help customers to know more about the game and the way of playing it would furthermore satisfy the customers and attract them towards the excitement of knowing more about the game. Thus, enhancing the customers experience can be fulfilled by improving this element in Jimmys Snooker Club.

Safe-Keeping: The parking slots are very limited due to the busy area Jimmys is located in and because its exactly between Caesers Restaurant and Med-Cafe coffee shop that are two of the very-well known restaurants and coffee-shops in Bahrain. Thus, acquiring specific parking area for Jimmys-Club is required in-order to fulfil the element of Safe-Keeping and improving the Flower of Service.

Those are the elements of the Flower of Service that need to be improved in order to develop a better experience for the customer and deliver the services of the club in the most appropriate, enhancing and satisfactory way.

I would like to add one more point, I believe that two employee are not enough as there are many services that need to be covered. Thus, in order to deliver services in a shorter period of time, the number of employee should increase by at least one. (Tseng, 1999)

Word Count: 2124

References1. Bahrain Polytechnic. (2014). Week2: Consumer Behaviour in a Services

Context[Powerpoint slides]. IsaTown, Bahrain. Retrieved from: http://moodle.polytechnic.bh/moodle/course/view.php?id=317

2. Bahrain Polytechnic. (2014). Week3: Service Marketing: Positioning[Powerpoint slides]. IsaTown, Bahrain. Retrieved from: http://moodle.polytechnic.bh/moodle/course/view.php?id=317

3. Bahrain Polytechnic. (2014). Week4: Developing Service Products: Core and Supplementary Elements[Powerpoint slides]. IsaTown, Bahrain. Retrieved from: http://moodle.polytechnic.bh/moodle/course/view.php?id=317

4. Bahrain Polytechnic. (2014). Week6: Pricing Services[Powerpoint slides]. IsaTown, Bahrain. Retrieved from: http://moodle.polytechnic.bh/moodle/course/view.php?id=317

5. Bahrain Polytechnic. (2014). Week8: Service Environment[Powerpoint slides]. IsaTown, Bahrain. Retrieved from: http://moodle.polytechnic.bh/moodle/course/view.php?id=317

6. Bitner , M. J. (1990). Evaluating Service Encounters: The Effects of Physical Surroundings and Employee Responses. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1251871?uid=3737616&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21103861796357

7. Guiry, M. (1992). Consumer and Employee Roles in Service Encounters by Michael Guiry. Retrieved from http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7372

8. Jörg Pareigis, Bo Edvardsson, Bo Enquist (2011). Emerald Insight | International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences | Exploring the role of the service environment in forming customer's service experience. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1911747

9. Mitchell M. Tseng (1999). Emerald Insight | Business Process Management Journal | Mapping customers’ service experience for operations improvement. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1463-7154&volume=5&issue=1&articleid=843425&show=html