Academic Session 2024

JANUARY 2024 Term

ASSIGNMENT

BMK302/03 Services Marketing

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES:

1. This assignment is the final assessment to replace the proctored examination.

2. This assignment consists of ONE (1) section. Answer ALL questions.

3. You are allowed a maximum of one (1) attempt to submit your assignment.

4. The final assessment will be made available from 25th February, Sunday
(00:00) until 31st March, Sunday (23:59).

5. Completed final assessment must be submitted by 31st March, Sunday (23:59).

Copyright © 2024 WOU

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GUIDELINES:

Report
• This is an individual assignment. No duplication of work will be tolerated. Any
Plagiarism or collusion may be result in disciplinary action.
• The total mark for this assignment is 100, and will contribute 40% towards the total
grade of the course.
• The assignment must be typed and professionally presented. It should be in essay
format. Font Size: 12-point, Times New Roman; Spacing: 1.5.
• Your written report should not be more than 2500 words.

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Final Assessment

Batik Air told to apologise to passengers by Malaysian minister. But is it too

little too late?
05 January 2023
Reema Dudekula

Malaysian transport minister, Anthony loke has asked Batik Air Malaysia to apologise
to its passengers for allegedly leaving them stranded in the airport for a flight that was
delayed for about seven hours overnight at KLIA. This was brought to minister Loke’s
attention via Twitter, where a passenger by the name posted about the snafu on his
Twitter page. In his tweet, he tagged Malindo Air (@malindoair) that is now called Batik
Air. He directly referred to Loke to take action against the matter. The tweets also
indicated that the airline staff had treated them poorly and not forewarned them about
the delay.

The video that Jailan posted on his social media has now amassed more than 1 million
views and around 1.3k likes on Twitter. The caption of the video stated that the flight
had been delayed from 11am to 6pm and the passengers were not provided with any
amenities to make their stay at the airport a more comfortable one.

Since the incident, Batik Air has also apologised to the consumer. The airline
compensated the consumer with 100 Ringgit, and the letter pointed out that the airline
knew it had run into a problem from 12.30pm, but did not take the initiative to inform
its passengers. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE reached out to Batik Air for a statement.

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Batik Air Malaysia, was previously known as Malindo Air, with a rebranding done in
2017 to give the airline a better position in the Lion Air Group. In Malaysia the brand
has several other established competitors within the domestic market to vie against -
the biggest being AirAsia. As such having a credible brand experience and positive
recognition is vital to the awareness of the brand.

Former chief strategist at Be Strategic, Ashvin Anamalai said that flight delays are a
typical part of the travelling experience that most travellers are bound to face at some
point, but the lack of customer service is the focal point of the issue at hand. "As the
brand scrambles to solve the often reoccurring problems, many airlines fail to
communicate adequately with consumers during flight delays. In doing so, they reveal
that their operations are much more important than their customers," he added.

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Regarding Loke's engagement in the issue, he said that the minister's action definitely
brought attention to the brand as he is a person of influence who carries far more
credibility and impact than a common person. However, "Tarnished reputations aren't
as important as their responses, because brand credibility doesn't just rebuild itself;
as people may forgive and forget the incident but they wont forget how you conducted
yourself in the process."

When it comes to remedying the situation, David Lian, managing director of Asia,
growth and innovation said right now its about how the airline decides to react to the
apology request. "Consumers want to be treated fairly, and the brand’s credibility will
be much more affected by how it resolves their customers concerns with care, sincerity
and real action," he said.

In 2019, Batik air faced a major data leak of its passengers. A database dump made
available on 3 September was published online and contained email addresses, dates
of birth, physical addresses, passport numbers, and phone numbers claimed to be
breached in 2019. In September 2019, Batik Air, then operating as Malindo
Air, confirmed that the data breach had been contained. It explained that two former
employees of its eCommerce services provider, GoQuo in their development centre in
India had improperly accessed and stole customers' personal data. The airline also
reported the matter to Malaysian and Indian police.

Additionally, AirAsia received the highest number of complaints in the first half of the
year in 2022 (42.1%), followed by Malaysia Airlines (40.7%) and Batik Air (7.9%). For
every million passengers carried, Malaysia Airlines recorded the highest number of
registered complaints with 199 complaints, MAVCOM said, followed by Batik Air with
167 complaints and AirAsia with 95 complaints. Flight rescheduling, flight
cancellations, and online booking collectively contributed to 46.1% (577) of total
complaints filed. Other complaints included refunds (7.9%), frequent flyer programmes
(7.6%), and mishandled baggage (7.3%).

In October 2022, airasia came under fire for poor customer service when a paraplegic
passenger had to crawl across the cabin to get to his wheelchair when the plane
landed at Changi Airport. Citing a TikTok video which has since been deleted, media
outlets reported that the man was struggling to crawl along the aisle. He was also
clutching a seat handle for support. This is another example of why frontline staff are
a crucial aspect of the customer's experience when it comes to the service industry.
With travel picking up, airlines are among the companies that need to once again win
the hearts of consumers with their hospitality and service.

Source:
https://www.marketing-interactive.com/batik-air-told-to-apologise-to-passengers-by-malaysian-
minister

TASK:

Based on the case above, answer ALL the questions below:

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1. You have been assigned by the Manager of Batik Air to evaluate the service quality gap(s)
from the case study.
(50 marks)

2. Provide suggestions for the management of the Batik Air to correct the service quality
gap(s) identified in Question 1.
(50 marks)

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