Activity: managing capacity & demand
Sophie and Luke are on holiday in Europe. They spent three days in Rome sightseeing before picking up their hire car a brand new silver Peugeot 3008 SUV this morning. Sophie, now in the holiday spirit has already nicknamed the car ‘Pierre’. Under their contract the have arranged to drop the car at Charles de Gaulle Airport [France] in twenty five days time.
Prior to meeting Sophie, Luke had travelled Europe on a Contiki tour. He had the time of his life and will recount the stories at the slightest prompt [Sophie can recount them word for word]. This is Sophie’s first visit to Europe and she is determined to make the most of it before she and Luke start a family [how are expectations formed?].
Since leaving Rome at 2:00 pm they have been travelling north on the Autostrada del Sole. It is now getting late and they leave the Autostrada to look for a place to stay. They have decided to look for a place to stay in the outskirts of Firenze before negotiating their way to the historical city centre tomorrow. Sophie spots a motel sign and Luke drives into the parking lot [driving LH drive takes more effort than Luke imagined]. Sophie comments that the grounds are well kept, the buildings seem well maintained and there is parking right outside the rooms; they don’t want the car broken into during the night [what is happening in this last two sentences?].
Twenty five days later at Charles De Gaulle airport Luke completes the paperwork for the return of the hire car and, reluctantly, hands the keys over. Luke tell the assistant that this is the first time he has hired a car and it feels strange giving this car back “we’ve been through so much the last few weeks it just seems strange”. The assistant politely smiles and states that she has heard other people say the same thing. She hands back the paperwork and wishes them a pleasant flight home. Sitting on the plane Sophie reflects on their experiences. She thinks of all the money they have spent; how they really have nothing to show for it; just memories.
Twenty five days later at Charles De Gaulle airport Luke completes the paperwork for the return of the hire car and, reluctantly, hands the keys over. Luke tell the assistant that this is the first time he has hired a car and it feels strange giving this car back “we’ve been through so much the last few weeks it just seems strange”. The assistant politely smiles and states that she has heard other people say the same thing. She hands back the paperwork and wishes them a pleasant flight home. Sitting on the plane Sophie reflects on their experiences. She thinks of all the money they have spent; how they really have nothing to show for it; just memories.
Tasks:
- Visit a hire car website and create a positioning map of hire cars suitable for Luke and Sophie to hire.
- What would be your considerations?
- Identify the car you would select.
- Identify the core and supplementary services on offer at this motel.
- Attempt a quick blueprint of the service encounter, showing the front stage encounters and the back stage processes that are needed- Keep in mind 1] frontstage activities 2] backstage activities
- In this activity there are occasions when Luke and Sophie’s experience has exceeded their expectations. Identify an occassion and discuss the relationship between expectations and experience relative to satisfaction.
- The activity identifies an important product consideration – product perishability – discuss this consideration.
