Teaching Notes for: Feeding the hungry surfers:

www.justeat.in
Rik Paul and Debapratim Purkayastha

Case synopsis
JustEat, the world's largest and premium online food ordering and table reservation portal,
acquired a 60 per cent stake in India's premium online food ordering and table reservation
portal Hungryzone. Ritesh Kumar Dwivedy, Founder and CEO of Hungryzone and now the
CEO of JustEat.in, soon faced certain challenges that cropped up as a result of this
development.
The case provides students with an opportunity to closely examine various marketing
activities and to understand how problems associated with services being intangible can be
dealt with by using effective integrated marketing communications (IMCs). The case also
highlights the issues and challenges faced by the management in rebranding Hungryzone to
JustEat.in. Finally some significant challenges yet to be resolved are posed. What should be
done to deal with the problem of poaching of customers by partnering restaurants? How
should JustEat.in ensure that the partnering restaurants do not perceive it as their competitor
in spite of the fact that registering with JustEat.in helps increase their revenues by 10-15 per
cent? How should JustEat.in convince popular restaurant chains to register with it keeping in
mind the fact that they are already facing excess demand situations?

Teaching purpose and target audience

The case is designed to enable students to understand:

the concepts associated with delivering services through electronic channels;

communications and the services marketing triangle;

key service communication challenges;

the integrated services marketing communication mix;

strategies to match service promises with delivery; and

the services branding model.

This case can be taught effectively to MBA/MS students as a part of the services
marketing curriculum. It can also be used in the IMCs and marketing management
curriculum.

Immediate issues

enlisting more restaurants and popular restaurants with JustEat.in;

reducing customer poaching by partner restaurants;

creating customer awareness on rebranding of Hungryzone.com to JustEat.in; and

ensuring service quality.

Basic issues
Service marketing; communication and the service marketing triangle; service branding
model.
Rebranding: IMC; online marketing of services.

Session plan
This is as shown in Table I.
Research methods

Primary source. In-depth interview with company officials and customers.

Secondary source. Company web site and other publicly available resources.

Teaching approach
The instructor may initiate the discussion by taking a poll on the number of students who
have ordered food online. Some of the students can then be asked to describe their experience
with the service delivery process. The instructor can take the discussion further with the help
of the following questions.
Suggested questions

JustEat.in is India's number one online food ordering and table reservation portal.
What are the benefits and challenges the company could face with the online service
delivery model?

Services are said to be intangible and thereby high on experience and credence
attributes. What are the key challenges that JustEat.in faces in terms of
communicating its service to its customers?

JustEat.in promises a wide assortment of cuisines and a fast, free and reliable service.
Given the challenges that JustEat.in already encounters with its services being
intangible, what marketing communication strategies would you suggest to ensure
that the promises made to the customers are delivered?

Case analysis

1. Delivering service through electronic channels

The world wide web has been instrumental in radically transforming the lives of people.
Socializing, purchasing goods and services, gathering information everything is now online.
Electronic channels have expanded service marketers' opportunities for delivering their
offerings to a great extent. All that marketers require is some predesigned services (such as
information, education, or entertainment) and an electronic vehicle to deliver it. No direct
human interaction is required. The less a service relies on face-to-face interaction and the
more it relies on technology for service production, the less the service is characterized by
non-standardization and inseparability (Table II).
In the following analysis, we will see how JustEat.in overcame some of the problems
associated with service inseparability and allowed a form of standardization not previously
possible in most services.
Benefits of distributing services through electronic channels
(a) Consistent delivery of standardized services
Whenever a customer places an order either on the phone or online with JustEat.in, the
delivery of the order as well the payment process is consistent no matter what order the
customer has placed and which restaurant the customer has ordered the food from (i.e.
JustEat.in informs the selected restaurant about the order and the customer details; the
restaurant prepares the order, delivers it to the customer and receives cash payment directly
from the customer at the time of delivery).
(b) Customer convenience
Customers can access a firm's services when and where they want due to the convenience of
electronic channels. From the marketers' point of view, electronic channels provide access to
a large group of customers who, due to their busy schedules, are not able to shop in other
ways. JustEat.in's target customer is called a hungry surfer, i.e. a person who is hungry, has
access to the internet and is searching for various options to eat. Customers can access
JustEat.in's services whenever and wherever they want. Where JustEat.in is concerned, it is
able to access a large group of customers consisting of the people working in the IT sector of
Bengaluru. These are the people who are mostly online and are searching for various eating
options.
(c) Wide distribution and low cost
Service providers get an opportunity to interact with a large number of consumers through
electronic channels. An added benefit for service providers is that they need to incur less cost
and effort to inform, promote, and motivate consumers to buy through electronic channels
than they would through offline channels. As JustEat.in is an online food ordering and table
reservation portal, it allows them to interact with a large number of consumers. It is also
cheaper and takes much less effort to convince consumers to order food on the internet.
(d) Customer choice and ability to customize

When customers use online services, they have access to a wide variety of options.
Customers are also able to get customized services as per their individual needs through the
internet. This ensures that customers get exactly what they want. Customers get access to a
wide variety of restaurants and cuisines when they order food or book tables through
JustEat.in. For example, while ordering a pizza a customer can choose extra toppings or even
choose not to have a topping. Customers get their orders customized as per their needs.
Moreover, JustEat.in has also come up with customized micro-sites for its corporate alliances.
(e) Quick customer feedback
One of the biggest strengths of e-commerce is the aspect of rapid customer feedback.
Companies can immediately find out what customers think about their services. They can
also get higher participation from customers in surveys. Companies find it easier to make
rapid changes to service assortments, address problems immediately, and dramatically speed
up the learning cycle with quick customer feedback. JustEat.in has a feedback form on its
web site which helps customers to provide immediate feedback. This in turn, helps JustEat.in
to understand what customers think about its web site as well the services offered and design
its services accordingly.
Challenges in distributing services through electronic channels
(a) Price competition
The rapid growth of the internet has enabled customers to easily and quickly compare the
prices of different services through various web sites. In case of JustEat.in, customers can
easily find out the prices of ordering food from rival web sites such as:
www.eveningflavors.com; www.burrp.com and www.zomato.com.
Note: available at: www.burrp.com and www.zomato.com are just restaurant listing sites.
(b) Lack of consistency because of customer involvement
Customers have different preferences when they are performing a certain part of the delivery
process in terms of co-creating the service offering with the service provider. In the case of
JustEat.in, the customers have to navigate through the web site, select their desired restaurant
and cuisine, and enter their contact details as well as preferable time of delivery. The entire
process requires the customer to have access to internet facilities and to be tech savvy to
easily follow the instructions on the web site. But the problem is, not all the customers will
have the same proficiency in going through the entire process. This may lead to frustration
and inconsistency.
(c) Inability to customize
As of now, the customer has to pay cash on delivery. Often, this can pose a difficult situation
for the customers as the service is online. For example, a customer X has placed an order
online for Y on the occasion of Y's birthday. Both stay in different locations. Now X
wondering what to do with the payment for the ordered food as he wants the food to be
delivered at Y's location but wants to make the payment at his own place. The situation could
have been resolved had the customer X and the service provider interacted with each other

online. Similar situations can arise while placing orders online due to the inability to
customize.
(d) Security concerns
This is one of the major concerns facing marketers. The use of electronic channels causes
consumers to place a question mark on the security of information that they provide,
particularly financial and health information. Many consumers are still skeptical about
providing information related to their credit-card on the internet. Consumers do not consider
the internet a safe place to do business. To overcome this challenge, companies doing
business through the internet must continually come up with ways to protect their systems
from cyber attacks like hacking, identity theft, vandalism, eavesdropping, and penetration.
Companies need to ensure the safety of the information provided by customers. JustEat.in
also needs to ensure the safety of information provided by the customers. As JustEat.in is also
planning to start online payment facilities, it has to ensure the safety of financial information
provided by customers at the time of payment.
2. Key service communication challenges
Service intangibility
Because services are performances rather than objects, their essence and benefits are difficult
to communicate to customers. Before buying services, consumers have difficulty
understanding what they will be buying and evoking names and types of services to consider.
After purchase, consumers have trouble evaluating their service experiences. According to
Mittal and Baker (2002), intangibility involves incorporeal existence, abstractness, generality,
non-searchability and mental impalpability (Table III):

Incorporeal existence. The service product is neither made out of physical matter nor
occupies physical space. The implication is that showing the service is difficult if not
possible. The same is the case with JustEat.in. It is just an online portal. So for a
customer, visualizing the entire service starting from the order taking till the point
when the food gets delivered is practically impossible.

Abstractness. Service benefits such as financial security, fun or health do not

correspond directly with objects, making them difficult to visualize and understand.
The benefit associated by a hungry surfer when he enjoys his favourite cuisine
ordered through JustEat.in is intrinsic and difficult for both the customer and the
service provider to comprehend, thus making the entire phenomenon a little abstract.

Generality. Many services and service promises are described in generalities

(wonderful experience, superior education, completely satisfied customers), making it
difficult to differentiate them from those of competitors. The web site of JustEat.in
mentions that it is the world's largest online food ordering and table reservation portal.
This makes it difficult for customers to comprehend.

Non-searchability. Because service is a performance, it often cannot be previewed or

inspected in advance of the purchase. JustEat.in is an online food ordering and table

reservation portal. Consumers cannot inspect the quality of service unless they
purchase it. In other words, services are high on experience and credence attributes.

Mental impalpability. Services are often complex, multidimensional, and difficult to

grasp mentally. When customers have not had prior exposure to, familiarity with or
knowledge of these services, they are difficult to interpret. First time users of
JustEat.in face the same difficulty. As they are using the service for the first time, they
are unsure of the quality of the service.

Management of service promises

Companies must manage service marketing communications the promises made by
salespeople, advertising and service personnel in order to ensure that the service does not fall
short of what is promised. JustEat.in promises fast, free and reliable service and it strives to
ensure that it delivers just that.
Management of customer expectations
Appropriate and accurate communication about services is the responsibility of both
marketing and operations. Marketing must accurately and compellingly reflect what happens
in actual service encounters; operations must deliver what is promised in communications.
Customers of JustEat.in expect fast, free and reliable service. So, JustEat.in must ensure that
its operations meet the expectations of customers by providing fast, free and reliable service.
Customer education
Service companies must educate their customers. If customers are unaware of how service
will be provided, what their role in delivery involves, and how to evaluate services they have
never used before, they will be disappointed. When disappointed, they will hold the company,
not themselves, responsible. These errors or problems in service, even if they are caused by
the customers themselves, still lead customers to defect. For this reason, the firm must
assume the responsibility of educating customers. The web site of JustEat.in depicts an image
on the homepage which shows the entire service delivery process. This ensures that
customers know how to order food or book tables using JustEat.in and they also understand
how their orders are processed. This helps in avoiding confusion regarding the service
delivery process of JustEat.in in the minds of customers.
Internal marketing communication
Multiple functions in the organization, such as marketing and operations, must be coordinated
to achieve the goal of service provision. Because service advertising and personal selling
make promises about what people do, frequent and effective communication across functions
horizontal communication is critical. All that is needed is internal communication
between the sales force and service providers. Horizontal communication also must take
place between the human resource and marketing departments. To deliver excellent customer
service, firms must be certain to inform and motivate employees to deliver what their
customers expect. The employees at JustEat.in are trained to respond to customer queries and
spread the word about the rebranding.
Services marketing triangle

The services marketing triangle emphasizes that the customer of services is the target of two
types of communication. First, external marketing communication includes traditional
channels such as sales promotion, advertising, and public relations. With regard to JustEat.in,
it makes use of various communication vehicles such as advertisements (radio and print ads),
direct mail (location-based mailers, supper mailers and newsletters), blog (JustEat.in blog),
virtual communities (Facebook and Twitter), gaming (Belly and Brain games) and public
relations (corporate and apartment campaigns). Second, interactive marketing communication
involves the messages that employees give to customers through such channels as personal
selling, customer service interactions, and servicescapes. Whenever customers order food
through the JustEat.in hunger hotline number, they interact with the call centre executives
who take their calls and their orders. The call centre executives also provide information
regarding restaurants, cuisines, service delivery process, and delivery time to the customers.
JustEat.in has to ensure that the information is consistent both among themselves and with
those sent through external communications. To do so, the third-side of the triangle, internal
marketing communications, must be managed so that information from JustEat.in to
employees is accurate, complete and consistent with what customers are hearing or seeing
(Figure 1).
IMCs refers to the process of carefully integrating and organizing all the external marketing
channels of a company. But a more complex type of IMC is required for services than for
goods. External communications channels must be coordinated, as with physical goods, but
both external communications and interactive communication channels must be integrated to
create consistent service promises. To do that, internal marketing communications channels
must be managed so that employees and the company (JustEat.in in this case) are in
agreement about what is communicated to the customer. This is a more complicated version
of IMC called integrated services marketing communications (ISMC). ISMC requires that
everyone involved with communication clearly understand both the company's marketing
strategy and its promises to consumers (Bitner, 1995).
3. Five categories of strategies to match service promises with delivery
Address service intangibility
Approaches to service intangibility include advertising and other communication strategies
that clearly communicate service attributes and benefits to consumers and strategies designed
to encourage word of mouth communication (Figure 2).
If service companies recognize the challenges they face due to intangibility, they can use
selected communication strategies to overcome the problems. In one way or the other, each of
the individual strategies discussed here focuses on ways to make the message dramatic and
memorable.
Make the intangible tangible
Advertisers increase the effectiveness of their service communication by featuring the
tangibles associated with the service. In the case of JustEat.in they make sure that they focus
on the tangibles by using their logo and their mascots Belly and Brain in each and every
marketing campaign. They make their services tangible by giving certifications to their
partner restaurants in the form of glass frames, high-quality vinyl stickers, acrylic panels,
open/close boards, menu card holders valet parking cards, special discount coupons and

location maps with the JustEat.in logo printed across them and black t-shirts with the bright
red logo of JustEat.in to the restaurant staff members. They also make sure to be ranked the
highest on the Google pages by doing SEO. Their aim is to ensure that whenever the
customer is hungry and is thinking about ordering food the only brand that comes to mind is
JustEat.in.
Use brand icons and interactive imagery to make the service tangible
Services companies should create a recognizable brand icon and interactive imagery that
represents the company and generates brand visibility.
JustEat uses its cute red and yellow mascots Belly and Brain. Even before that, Hungryzone
used Aloo Patel for greater brand visibility, brand recognition and brand recall. It becomes
very easy for customers to associate the icons with the company name whenever they come
across then. Advertising icons are even more critical in industries in which the service is
complex and difficult to understand (for example, insurance companies).
Imagery enhances the recall of names and facts associated with the service. Interactive
imagery integrates two or more items in some mutual action, resulting in improved recall.
JustEat.in effectively integrates its logo along with its mascots Belly and Brain in every
marketing activity. In order to achieve better brand recall, JustEat has launched interactive
imageries in the form of Belly and Brain games which are compatible with Apple iPhones.
There is a lesson to be learnt in this case. Every service provider should also ensure that there
is no communication gap, i.e. a difference between the service delivery and the service
provider's external communications. In this case, before the joint venture, Hungryzone used
its mascot Aloo Patel for all its external communications, which led to confusion in the minds
of its customers that the food was prepared by Hungryzone itself as Aloo Patel was portrayed
as a chef. Some customers were unaware of the fact that Hungryzone was just the service
provider a link between the customers and the restaurants. Hence, to ensure that there is no
communications gap, the mascot Aloo Patel was replaced with new mascots that JustEat used
globally Belly and Brain.
Leverage social media
Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are becoming avenues for consumers to
exchange information. For a service provider like JustEat.in, this is the best source of
communication to its target market called the hungry surfers. The Facebook and Twitter page
of JustEat.in provide information on recent restaurant additions. The customers are always
updated with the latest news and necessary information. JustEat.in has also conducted various
contests such as the how well you know JustEat, Cook Smart Eat Healthy and the Smart
Foodie contest and given away exciting prizes such as Android phones, IFB microwave ovens
and exclusive discount coupons for premium restaurants to make sure that its fans and
followers visit its page frequently. It also has exclusive offers, interesting food facts as well as
Guess the dish for devoted followers on Facebook. According to Ganti, The followers
simply adore the posts that are put up by JustEat.in and always comment and hit the like
button.
The use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter to promote the JustEat.in brand has
been pretty successful. It has allowed more easy access to people, grabbed a lot of the needed

attention and generated word of mouth. Barely two months after the launch of its web site
page on Facebook, JustEat.in had 32,014 likes by September 2011.
Create advertising that generates talk because it is humorous, compelling, or unique
JustEat.in uses its funny mascots Belly and Brain with its tagline Belly says Takeaway,
Brain says JustEat It regularly posts very interesting food facts like Apples are more
effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine, lemons contain more sugar
than strawberries on its Facebook and Twitter pages. JustEat.in posts an informative
comment regarding its new additions or new features. The fans love the posts by JustEat.in
and as a result, also read those informative posts.
JustEat.in also posts hilarious television advertisements that are used by JustEat.co.uk for its
television campaigns. The posting of these advertisements serves a dual purpose. The
customer is entertained as well as made indirectly aware of JustEat's global presence. As a
result of this, he/she frequently visits JustEat.in's Facebook and Twitter pages. JustEat has
also shared its television campaigns on You Tube.
Manage customer education
Disappointment among customers may often result either from their performing their roles
improperly or forgetting to perform their roles completely.
Prepare customers for the service process
Companies must prepare customers for the service process. And companies may need to
prepare the customer every step of the way, for the subsequent actions the customer needs to
take. Any time a customer is inexperienced or a service process is new or unique, education
about what to expect is essential.
As far as JustEat.in is concerned, educating customers about the service process is crucial to
ensure that customers perform their roles properly. This is necessary especially in the case of
first time users of the web site who do not know how it works. The web site of JustEat.in
features an image titled How it Works which provides a step-by-step explanation of the
service process of JustEat.in on the home page of the web site itself. Also, each restaurant's
page on JustEat.in has a column on the right hand side which educates the customer on how
to place an order. This helps customers in understanding the entire ordering process and
enables them to perform their roles effectively.
Match performance with standards and expectations
In situations where the customer places an order with JustEat.in and then is informed that the
order cannot be processed, he/she is dissatisfied. Now, if JustEat.in, while calling the
customer to provide a list of back-up restaurants, makes him aware that JustEat.in is
providing the list of back up restaurants, and that too of the same cuisine especially for him,
there is a possibility that the dissatisfaction will be lower. In a way, what JustEat.in would try
to do is make the customer aware that in order to meet his/her expectations and maintain the
standard of service promised, JustEat.in is going out of its way to make him/her happy.
Clarify expectations after the sale

In service firms, salespeople are motivated and compensated to raise customer expectations at
least to the point of making a sale rather than to communicate realistically what the company
can provide. A call centre employee at JustEat.in may promise a delivery in 45min as per its
standards, but it depends on the partner restaurants' promptness and delivery efficiency. A
wait beyond 45min in case of a delay in delivery on the part of the partner restaurants may
create dissatisfaction among customers. So JustEat.in should clarify the expectations clearly
to the customers at the point or after the sale in order to avoid future disappointment of the
customers in evaluating what was promised.
Managing customer expectations
In order to close the communication gap, service providers must make accurate promises on
when and how the service delivery will take place.
Make realistic promises
Making promises about any aspect of service delivery is appropriate only when these aspects
are actually delivered. Understanding the service delivery is essential for both the marketing
and the sales teams of the firm so that they know what they can promise to a customer.
Communications about service quality must accurately reflect what customers will actually
receive in service encounters. Communications must promise only what is possible and not
attempt to make services more attractive than they actually are. The communications of
JustEat.in mention that JustEat.in stands for a reliable, convenient mode of ordering any
cuisine, providing the comfort of ordering food with just a few clicks at no extra cost. Hence
JustEat.in ensures that its services are delivered to the customers exactly the way they are
promised.
Offer service guarantees
Service guarantees are formal promises made to customers about aspects of the service they
will receive. Although many services carry implicit service satisfaction guarantees, the true
benefit from them an increase in the likelihood of a customer choosing or remaining with
the company comes only when the customer knows that guarantees exist and trusts that the
company will stand behind him/her. JustEat.in guarantees a wide variety of restaurants and
cuisines to its customers. Customers can always be assured that they will find what they are
looking for. Even in situations where a customer is not able to get food from the restaurant
he/she ordered from due to any reason, he/she can still be assured that JustEat.in will provide
a list of back-up restaurants serving the same cuisine that he/she wanted.
Offer choices
Providing customers with options for aspects of service that are meaningful, such as time,
cost and convenience can potentially reset customer expectations. JustEat.in offers to deliver
the customer's order within 45min of the order being placed. The entire service is also
provided free of cost to the customer, which is an added benefit.
JustEat.in offers a lot of choices to customers. Customers can choose from a variety of
restaurants and cuisines. They can either choose for home delivery or book a table. JustEat.in
is also planning to give its customers choices in terms of payment procedures (online or cash
on delivery). This ensures that customers' expectations are met.

Communicate the criteria and levels of service effectiveness

Services often being high on credence attributes, it makes it difficult for consumers to
evaluate the service because the customers cannot comprehend on which attributes they
should evaluate it. In situations like this, service providers can point out to the customer the
criteria for evaluation. This not only helps the customer in evaluating the service but together
generates a sense of mutual trust and commitment. For instance, JustEat.in can establish
criteria such as the time taken for the entire service process, ease of the process, how well the
call centre executive interacted with the customer, effectiveness of the payment process,
satisfaction with the order placing process and so on. At present, JustEat.in does not provide
any criteria for service evaluation. The customers are free to write comments, suggestions or
complaints on the feedback option which is there on every page on the left hand side.
Monitoring these feedback statements provided by the customers helps JustEat.in in
designing the evaluation for its service which it can subsequently communicate to the
customers as well.
Manage internal marketing communication
Create effective vertical communications
The frontline employees of the company should always be provided with adequate
information, tools and skills to their customer contact employees to enable them to
successfully perform interactive marketing. These skills can be provided both through
training and other human resource efforts as well as downward communication such as
company magazines and newsletters, e-mail, videotapes, corporate television networks,
internal promotional campaigns and recognition programs. Downward communication can be
successful only when employees are informed about everything that has been conveyed to
customers through external marketing. Hence JustEat.in must ensure that its frontline
employees are regularly updated with the recent restaurant additions and the latest offers
along with effective tools and techniques, and handling of the software packages that assist
them in interactive marketing. JustEat.in has employed visually impaired persons to work at
its call centres. To help these employees carry out interactive marketing successfully, special
equipment such as the JAWS software which reads out every word on screen once the cursor
is pointed at that particular word, is given. The employees hear through one ear and have the
phone positioned on the other ear. They convey whatever they hear to the waiting customers
on the phone. Also, employees at JustEat.in are always informed when the company sends
out any mailers or newsletters to the customers.
Sell the brand inside the company
It is essential to emphasize the importance of marketing the company's brand and brand
message to employees of the organization so that they develop powerful connections with the
customer.
Often identifying the right moment is necessary because employees are not capable of or
willing to accept too many change initiatives. Therefore, selecting the right opportunities
becomes important to create enthusiasm about the brand among employees. At the time of
rebranding Hungryzone to JustEat.in, both the employees as well the customers had to be
made aware of the change.

At JustEat.in, whenever new restaurants are added or new offers and discounts are available,
or menus and rates are updated, both the customers as well as the employees are informed
about them. This helps in making things clear in the minds of both customers and employees.
For example, if a customer calls up JustEat.in and places an order for Dragon Chopsuey from
a restaurant called Chung's, and if the JustEat.in employee in turn tells the customer that the
particular dish he/she ordered for is not available on the menu of Chung's even though it has
been added recently, then it may cause the customer to get frustrated or disappointed because
he/she specifically wanted Dragon Chopsuey. At this point, the customer may question the
JustEat.in employee and ask him why Dragon Chopsuey was not available on the online
menu at JustEat.in even though it is available on the menu offered to dine-in customers at
Chung's. This just highlights the fact that the JustEat.in employee was not informed about the
new addition to the menu of Chung's by the company and so told the customer that Dragon
Chopsuey was not available even though it actually was. Thus, it is very important for
JustEat.in to link both internal and external marketing.
At JustEat.in, employees are regularly motivated by the management and they are also taken
out to movies or trips by the company wherein both the call centre employees as well as the
senior management join in. This helps in establishing an emotional connection between the
employees and the company and also brings the JustEat.in brand alive in the minds of
employees. They feel proud to be a part of JustEat.in.
Create effective upward communication
Upward communication is also necessary to close the gap between service promises and
service delivery. Customer care employees are at the front line of service and know more than
anyone else in the organization about what can and cannot be delivered. They know when
service breakdowns are occurring and, very often, why they are happening. Having open
communication channels between employees and management can prevent service problems
before they occur and minimize them when they do take place. At JustEat.in, employees are
always encouraged to speak to their superiors about any issue they face with customers, or
about any suggestions they would like to make, or about any complaints made by customers.
This ensures free flow of information and closes the gap between service promises and
service delivery.
Create effective horizontal communications and cross-functional teams
In order to have an efficient service delivery in place, JustEat.in requires its call centre
executives' team, marketing team and operations team to form a closely knit group. Such
cross-functional activity ensures effective horizontal communication and each department is
aware of the problems faced by the others. Working together makes the service delivery
process to the customer smooth, reducing the chances of breakdowns.
Align back-office and support personnel with external customers through interaction or
measurement
Apart from just monetary incentives, front line employees often enjoy intrinsic rewards like
praise from customers for providing them with a satisfying experience. This creates a
bonding of the employee with the company and motivates him/her to do his/her job better.
Employees in the back end processes miss out on this opportunity. JustEat.in should ensure
that these intrinsic rewards get passed on to the back stage personnel as well.

Managing service promises

In services, usually the sales and marketing departments make a promise to customers that
other employees in the organization will have to fulfill. This requires great coordination and
management of promises as what employees do cannot be standardized unlike physical goods
that are produced mechanically. All the company's marketing communications should be
coordinated and a strong service brand must be created in order to fulfill service promises.
Creating a strong service brand
Strong brands enable customers to better visualize and understand intangible products. They
reduce customer's perceived monetary, social, or safety risk in buying services, which are
difficult to evaluate prior to purchase. Strong brands are the surrogates when the company
offers no fabric to touch, no trousers to try, no watermelons or apples to scrutinize, no
automobile to test drive (Leonard Berry, 2000).
Unlike branding of goods where the product itself creates its own brand, in services the
primary brand is the company itself. Therefore, the creation of a successful service brand
depends upon brand awareness, brand meaning and brand equity of the company as perceived
by its customers. The way a company tries to present its brand to the customers with the aid
of external brand communications creates favorable brand awareness whereas the company's
presented brand, the external brand communications and the customers experience with the
company help create brand meaning. Subsequently, brand awareness and a favourable brand
meaning contribute to the formation of a unique brand equity about the service in the mind of
the customer (Table IV).
JustEat.in presents itself as a brand that offers fast, free and reliable service as well as a wide
assortment of cuisines and restaurants so that the customer is spoilt for choice. It has also
carried out various marketing activities such as social media marketing through Facebook and
Twitter, radio advertisements, apartment campaigns, interactive Belly and Brain games that
can be played on Apple's iPhone and iPad Touch, trade marketing activities, above the line
(ATL) campaigns like targeted SMS and restaurant signboards, below the line (BTL)
campaigns such as the six-in-one menu cards and electronic customer relationship
management (eCRM) activities such as the JustEat.in blog and mailers. All these external
communications were targeted at hungry surfers. Thus, the company's presented brand
together with these external communications have helped in creating brand awareness. When
the company's presented brand and the external communications that are carried out are
reinforced by the customer's experience with the company as well as word of mouth from
other customers, it creates a favourable brand meaning that the mascots Belly and Brain try to
communicate, i.e. when the belly is hungry and crying for food, rather than going all over the
place, customers can apply their brain and order food through JustEat.in.
Coordinate external communication
JustEat.in's customers receive communication from various sources. The communications
originate both from within the organization and outside. Communications that originate from
within the organization occur through two distinct channels, i.e. production channels and
marketing channels. The details of the communication that occurs through these two channels
for JustEat.in are given in the board plan mentioned later in the teaching note. Students are
expected to decipher the sources of communications of JustEat.in by themselves (Table V).

References and additional readings

Mittal, B. and Baker, J. (2002), Advertising strategies for hospitality services, Cornell
Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 43 April, No. 53.
Bitner, M.J. (1995), Building service relationships: it's all about promises, Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 23 No. 4.
Berry, L.L. (2000), Cultivating service brand equity, Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, Vol. 28 Winter, pp. 128-37.
Berry, L.L. and Clark, T. (1986), Four ways to make services more tangible, Business,
October-December, pp. 53-4.
Legg, D. and Baker, J. (1987), Advertising strategies for services firms, in Suprenant, C.,
(Ed.) Add Value to Your Service, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 163-8.
Zeithaml, V.A., Parasuraman, A. and Berry, L.L. (1990), Delivering Quality Service:
Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, The Free Press, New York, NY, p. 120.

Figure 1: Board Plan 3 communications and the services marketing triangle

Figure 2: Board Plan 4 strategies to match service promises with delivery

Table I:

Table II: Board Plan 1 delivering service through electronic channels

Table III: Board Plan 2 key service communication challenges

Table IV: Board Plan 5 creating a strong service brand can be viewed via these links

Table V: Board Plan 6 coordinate external communication