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Group assignment

Date of submission: On or before 24th October 2017

Case study 1
Based on the group formed at the beginning of the semester, read the following case studies (1
and 2) and answer the questions that follow. You may add more information from the other
literature to support your answers/statements/ arguments.

The case study

Visitors to SPS’s website will find many words that this bank uses to describe itself. These include
personalised, friendly, responsible, innovative and outstanding service.

SPS, the first ‘branchless’ bank in the Brunei, began operation in 1989. The concept is simple to
provide 24-hour banking for 365 days a year. At the heart of the operation was an information
system that allow customer to handle any traditional branch transaction in a single telephone call or
online.

Before they introduce the new technology that allow customers to do the transaction via website,
their CEO Izz Haikal mentioned that it is important to improve the existing web-based experience by
improving the response time and navigation of the sites. They also need to understand the best
services to be offered via website. Since most of the customers are using the website to do their
transactions, at a single point of time, there will be thousands of people connected to the website.
Therefore an efficient server is required to handle all the request. SPS also need to consider which
part of the business that need to be automated and finally they need to provide training to their
customer as this could increase the efficiency and experience of the customers when using the
website.

However, despite all the efforts to introduce the website, there are some risks for the customer to
do their transaction using the website. Customer may have high and different expectation from one
another, which can be very hard to fulfil. Moreover, certain transactions could be limited and SPS
could focus more on the expense of operational structures.

The management team took a significant decision to look for people who were fast and efficient,
able to work under pressure, but critically, people with warm personalities. Much of this is due to
the vision of the CEO, Izz Haikal, who is quoted as saying:

“I believe that in going forward three things need to be developed. We have to be utterly
low cost. We must be able to individualise the manufacturing process and recognise that all
our customers are individual. Third, we must build a strong brand as people need to identify
with institutions they can trust. This includes the team leader to be approachable, empathic,
organised and knowledgeable about their role of their subordinates”.
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The vision of the CEO has made it possible for the team leader to design and acquire the resources
and design and develops the processes and experience requires to deliver the concept to SPS’s
customers.

(Adapted from Service Operation Management: Improving Service Delivery, 2012).

The questions 1;

a) Explain one (1) importance of service concept at SPS

b) Discuss five (5) key steps in developing the e-service strategy.

c) Outline three (3) dangers of using Internet services

d) Identify four (4) key attributes of team leader mentioned by Izz Haikal
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Case Study 2:
You are still working on with the same group, please read the next case study and answer all the
questions.

A year ago, Prasetya was appointed as a new manager at Meirose Manor. His ability to focus on the
day-to-day operation as well as planning ahead for the company has made him the right candidate
to fill up the position. The owner of Meirose Manor, Hartono, believed that Prasetya are able to pay
attention to, and create time in their day for both strategic issues and also managing the day-to-day
operation in order to create and sustain a successful organisation.

Lately, Prasetya put all his focus in managing the day-to-day and operation. The increased numbers
of guests check-in for holiday pressured him in managing the operation. This situation has led him to
have little time to think about the medium-term operational improvement activities and also the
long-term strategic planning. Not only that, he also tend to feel more comfortable with the
unambiguous and rational nature of many short-term tactical decision.

Apart from that, Prasetya also responsible in making sure the supply at Meirose Manor is adequate
and able to fulfil the customer demand. Prasetya use middlemen, finding a suitable supplier and
develop a partnership, outsourced some of the office activities to the outsource company and
making sure that the purchasing of office equipment is through a proper procurement procedure.
In a meeting to discuss the day-to-day issues with his subordinates, Arini, the new appointed
supervisor mentioned about few strategies that they can adopt to enhance the number of guests
coming to Meirose Manor. She mentioned that it is important to promote the quality service and
affordable price through social media. Not only that, they should be very careful with complaints by
guests which is publicly post online. All these influences can really change someone expectation
about the resort. Arini also added, every employee should play a role in providing excellent service
at all cost especially to the returning customer as their expectation may be raised during the next
visit.

Prasetya agree to the suggestions made by Arini and asked every employees to give their best in
providing the guests that come to Meirose Manor.

(Adapted from Managing Quality Service in Hospitality: How Organisation Achieve Excellence in
the Guest Experience, 2012)
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Questions 2

a) Discuss one (1) key strategic challenge faced by Prasetya at Meirose Manor.
b) Analyze three (3) factors that influence customer expectation
c) Identify one (1) disadvantage of expectation-perception approach.
d) Outline four (4) approaches to supply chain management that can help in terms of
better management of supply network.

Question 3

a) Kepuasan pelanggan biasanya dinilai dengan cara berstruktur. Terangkan dua (2)
cara untuk menilai kepuasan pelanggan dan cadangkan satu (2) masalah yang
berkaitan dengan instrumen ini

Customer satisfaction is usually assessed in a structural way. Explain two (2) ways to
understand customer satisfaction and suggest one (1) problem associated with these
instruments.

Good luck! 