netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Activision Blizzard, Inc., formerly Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) is the American holding company for Activision and Blizzard Entertainment. The company is majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA and was created through the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, announced on December 2, 2007,[3] in a deal worth USD$18.8 billion.[4] The deal closed July 9, 2008. The company believed that the merging of the two companies would create "the world’s largest and most profitable pure-play video game publisher".[5] It believes that it is the only publisher that has "leading market positions across all categories" of the video game industry 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 (Cook & Chung, 1999).
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.
It is also important to focus on the degree to which service personnel can exercise judgment and carefulness. In the case of partial catering, there is a need for mediocre discretion because all of the activities and things to be done in the site were all planned before and the employees don’t have serve the customers to the fullest. Because of these factors it can be said that the value added is at the back-room or at kitchen where all the food to be delivered are being cooked and prepared. However, it is still important for the employees to show courtesy during the delivery. Above all, the said topology of service is the mixture of product and process, because it is important to ensure the quality of the food to be delivered as well as the processes that are needed to be done.
Because of the said factors it is important for catering firm to focus on the different activities and things that will help to align their service model towards the quality of their service. Primarily, it is important for catering business to focus on the different equipments that are needed in order to produce and deliver their products towards the customers and the site, at the same time, focus on developing the skills of employees in cooking and preparing foods, and communicating with the customers, but it is important to focus on the skills that are hardly needed in the back-room. Therefore, it is important to employ efficient staffs; at the same time install different kitchen equipments that will help to speed up the performance of the staffs, at the same time, improve the quality of their works. Above all, it is important to properly organize the activities and duties of staff in order to ensure that the person holds responsibility and duty that he or she is familiar or good at.
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 (Cook & Chung, 1999).
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.
It is also important to focus on the degree to which service personnel can exercise judgment and carefulness. In the case of partial catering, there is a need for mediocre discretion because all of the activities and things to be done in the site were all planned before and the employees don’t have serve the customers to the fullest. Because of these factors it can be said that the value added is at the back-room or at kitchen where all the food to be delivered are being cooked and prepared. However, it is still important for the employees to show courtesy during the delivery. Above all, the said topology of service is the mixture of product and process, because it is important to ensure the quality of the food to be delivered as well as the processes that are needed to be done.
Because of the said factors it is important for catering firm to focus on the different activities and things that will help to align their service model towards the quality of their service. Primarily, it is important for catering business to focus on the different equipments that are needed in order to produce and deliver their products towards the customers and the site, at the same time, focus on developing the skills of employees in cooking and preparing foods, and communicating with the customers, but it is important to focus on the skills that are hardly needed in the back-room. Therefore, it is important to employ efficient staffs; at the same time install different kitchen equipments that will help to speed up the performance of the staffs, at the same time, improve the quality of their works. Above all, it is important to properly organize the activities and duties of staff in order to ensure that the person holds responsibility and duty that he or she is familiar or good at.
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