Complete the Case Study below.

The case has a set of questions at the end. Please discuss the case in a narrative/essay format. Your narrative must consider, and answer, the questions presented. These cases are based on the information in the chapter and will require that information to effectively answer the questions. Feel free to visit the company's web site or social media page for insight and additional information.

Your paper must be: two pages, double-spaced, with one-inch margins using a 12 point font. Please submit your assignment as attachment uploaded to the dropbox. Include your name, the assignment number, and the term in the upper left corner of page one. If you use additional sources, you must cite them and provide the url for web sites visited.

Case Studies are considered major written assignments and should utilize good grammar. All Module Written Assignments should be a minimum of 500 words/two full pages of writing.

Case Study- Hotel Flowchart and Blueprint

Mini-Case Hotel Flowchart and Blueprint One of the ways that services marketers try to understand, manage, and control the service encounter experience is to use flowcharts (theyre also called blueprints). In services flowcharts, there is a delineation between what a customer sees (e.g., a car valet) and what the company needs to do to make that part of the service encounter as flawless as possible (e.g., it needs to have a sufficient number of valets who are well trained to be polite and good drivers, plentiful nearby parking).

Each part of the service encounter is described in steps that unfold or flow over time to simulate the process of the customer experience. Its important for the customer service team to understand that the customer is evaluating the brand every step of the way. Each step along the customer journey is described in layerssome are visible to the customer, or are actions that occur on stage, and other services and actions occur behind the scenes. The figure is based on Scheuing and Christopher's Service Quality Handbook).

A hotel flowchart is organized as follows. The figure depicts the steps, left to right, and the layers, top to bottom, for a customer going to a hotel. Layer 1. Customer: Hotel Exterior Parking: step 1. Arrive at hotel. Cart for Bags. Step 2. Give bags to Bell person. This step leads to the second layer: Contact person on stage: Greet and Take Bags. Take bags to room is the next step of the second layer, in the back stage category. Step 3 for the customer is Desk, Registration, Lobby, Key: check in. This leads to contact person on stage: Process Registration. This leads to layer 3: Support: Registration System. Step 4 for the customer is Elevators, Hallways, Room: Go to room. The contact person on stage then delivers the bags to the customer. Step 5. Cart for bags: Receive bags. Step 6. Room, Amenities, shower: Sleep and shower. Step 7. Menu. Call room service. This leads to the back stage contact person: Take Food Order, who then passes the order to the support staff in layer 3: Prepare food. The support staff then sends the food up to the on stage contact person in later 2, who delivers it to the customer. Step 8 for the customers: Delivery, Tray, Food, appearance. Receive food. Step 9. Bill Desk, Lobby, Parking: Check out and leave. This leads to the contact person in layer 2: Process Check Out, and then to support staff in layer 3: Registration System.

Questions:

1. Brand managers of services often complain that their job seems more difficult than being a brand manager for, say, a sneaker. How does the flowchart support their claims? What must the marketer pay attention to?
2. For quality assurances, what performance indicators would you measure, at each step in the process ((left to right) and in which layers (top to bottom) to track what is working well versus what needs to be streamlined in the process?
3. By comparison, how much of manufacturing goods, say a box of cookies, occurs "on stage," that is, visible to the customer?