anjalicutek
Anjali Khurana
ABM Industries Incorporated NYSE: ABM is an American corporation involved in outsourced, building maintenance. Wholly owned subsidiaries include ABM Janitorial, Ampco System Parking, ABM Engineering, ABM Security Services (known formerly as American Commercial Security Services), Security Services of America (SSA), Amtech Lighting, and ABM Facility Services.
Founded in 1909 by Morris Rosenberg as a one-man window washing business, they took the name American Building Maintenance in 1913. In 1927, they acquired Easterday Janitorial Supply Company. His sons took over after his death.
They were listed in 1945 on the American Stock Exchange. In 1967, Ampco Auto Parks, which became Ampco System Parking in 1993, became the newest Division of the Company. In 1972 they were listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, ABM had revenues above $2 billion as of 2001. The company and its CEO Henrik Slipsager were featured in the second season of the CBS reality show Undercover Boss.[2][3]
In order to improve the quality and speed of service production, players in the service industry tend to isolate or separate the different supporting activities or the back-room activities that are vital in order to complete the service operation but are not visible to the customers. However, the said strategy is not always applicable for all companies or players in the service industry. It will be dependent on the marketing strategy being employed by a certain firm.
McDonald’s will be one of the most important cases which will be associated with isolating supporting activities to backrooms. As part of its marketing strategy, McDonald’s brand promises about the efficiency and cleanliness of their facilities and procedures, particularly regarding the process of preparing food ordered by customers. This also focused on the aspect of franchising, especially because the company is facing problems regarding the standards of its franchises. Because of that, hiding their backroom activities will be against their promise, because it will be hard for the customers to know whether the restaurant that they visiting is following the standards of the restaurant. Furthermore, the promise of the company will not be convincing for the customers because they cannot see what is going on inside the backroom. Aside from that hiding the cooking and preparation of food in the backroom can also raise different issues about the cleanliness of the company, which can affect the brand image and meaning of the company that will affect its entire position and share in the market.
In that case, it will be important for McDonald’s to learn from the case of Sbarro, with an open kitchen installed, which enables the customers to watch the pizza-makers spinning pizza dough behind the counter, thus, enable the customers to see that the facilities used and processes applied are all based on high standards.
Question 2
Silvestro, Fitzgerald, Johnson & Voss (1992) add to the service literature by the development of a topology that was based on the function of the existing service dimensions to the existing organizations. This resulted to three-category typologies which are: professional service, service shop and mass service. The amount of the daily service activity and the ranking of firm on the six classification dimensions were combined in order to decide into which category it fits. Furthermore, the authors stated that as the daily volume of service activity increases the focus moves from a people orientation to an equipment orientation, whereas the length of customer contact time, degree of customization as well as the level of employee discretion moves from high to low. In addition, value added tends to move from the front office to the back office, and the focus shifts from a process to a product orientation
The catering service is considered as included in the mass service typology. Thus, the said service model can be used in order to focus on how food-catering firm can design the entire delivery system.
In the partial service catering, the meal will be prepared at the location of the firm or at the party site and then arrange it as a self serve buffet. The said type of catering can be considered as the most common type of catering or mass service. There are different factors that must be considered in order to design a service model which will ensure good flow of service from the consumers and the catering firm.
In partial catering service, it is important to maintain the balance between being equipment and people focused, because orders must be taken from the customers, produced in the headquarters of the firm, with accordance to the fixed menu and then deliver it to the site and set up. In addition, the length of customer contact time is considered as low, because the catering firm is only involve in the delivery of the foods and preparation of buffet. Furthermore, the degree of customization is also considered as low because commonly catering firms tend to create their own menu, where in the customers can choose from or ask for some changes in the ingredients or process if possible, but still the degree of adjustment made to respond to the customers is not that high that it will affect the standard procedures and process of the company.
Founded in 1909 by Morris Rosenberg as a one-man window washing business, they took the name American Building Maintenance in 1913. In 1927, they acquired Easterday Janitorial Supply Company. His sons took over after his death.
They were listed in 1945 on the American Stock Exchange. In 1967, Ampco Auto Parks, which became Ampco System Parking in 1993, became the newest Division of the Company. In 1972 they were listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, ABM had revenues above $2 billion as of 2001. The company and its CEO Henrik Slipsager were featured in the second season of the CBS reality show Undercover Boss.[2][3]
In order to improve the quality and speed of service production, players in the service industry tend to isolate or separate the different supporting activities or the back-room activities that are vital in order to complete the service operation but are not visible to the customers. However, the said strategy is not always applicable for all companies or players in the service industry. It will be dependent on the marketing strategy being employed by a certain firm.
McDonald’s will be one of the most important cases which will be associated with isolating supporting activities to backrooms. As part of its marketing strategy, McDonald’s brand promises about the efficiency and cleanliness of their facilities and procedures, particularly regarding the process of preparing food ordered by customers. This also focused on the aspect of franchising, especially because the company is facing problems regarding the standards of its franchises. Because of that, hiding their backroom activities will be against their promise, because it will be hard for the customers to know whether the restaurant that they visiting is following the standards of the restaurant. Furthermore, the promise of the company will not be convincing for the customers because they cannot see what is going on inside the backroom. Aside from that hiding the cooking and preparation of food in the backroom can also raise different issues about the cleanliness of the company, which can affect the brand image and meaning of the company that will affect its entire position and share in the market.
In that case, it will be important for McDonald’s to learn from the case of Sbarro, with an open kitchen installed, which enables the customers to watch the pizza-makers spinning pizza dough behind the counter, thus, enable the customers to see that the facilities used and processes applied are all based on high standards.
Question 2
Silvestro, Fitzgerald, Johnson & Voss (1992) add to the service literature by the development of a topology that was based on the function of the existing service dimensions to the existing organizations. This resulted to three-category typologies which are: professional service, service shop and mass service. The amount of the daily service activity and the ranking of firm on the six classification dimensions were combined in order to decide into which category it fits. Furthermore, the authors stated that as the daily volume of service activity increases the focus moves from a people orientation to an equipment orientation, whereas the length of customer contact time, degree of customization as well as the level of employee discretion moves from high to low. In addition, value added tends to move from the front office to the back office, and the focus shifts from a process to a product orientation
The catering service is considered as included in the mass service typology. Thus, the said service model can be used in order to focus on how food-catering firm can design the entire delivery system.
In the partial service catering, the meal will be prepared at the location of the firm or at the party site and then arrange it as a self serve buffet. The said type of catering can be considered as the most common type of catering or mass service. There are different factors that must be considered in order to design a service model which will ensure good flow of service from the consumers and the catering firm.
In partial catering service, it is important to maintain the balance between being equipment and people focused, because orders must be taken from the customers, produced in the headquarters of the firm, with accordance to the fixed menu and then deliver it to the site and set up. In addition, the length of customer contact time is considered as low, because the catering firm is only involve in the delivery of the foods and preparation of buffet. Furthermore, the degree of customization is also considered as low because commonly catering firms tend to create their own menu, where in the customers can choose from or ask for some changes in the ingredients or process if possible, but still the degree of adjustment made to respond to the customers is not that high that it will affect the standard procedures and process of the company.