EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This study examines the underlying forces of service quality influences on passengers
satisfaction in aircraft transport.

A service sector play important role in an economy and shaping its future.

The economies of world now dominated by services, which account for nearly two
third if the GDP and employment.

It is becoming the primary source of wealth, trade and growth throughout the
developed world.

In service industry, service quality and price have an important role in influencing
customer satisfaction. The Air India and IndiGo has their own brand image in the
market like Air India is known for its services means value for money full satisfaction
and the IndiGo is known for its LCC low cost carrier that is supporting to the middle
man the problem is that the being low cost carrier the IndiGo does not provide the
services like Air India but the customers are satisfied enough as it focuses on low cost
an the punctuality and the common services which all airlines provide IndiGo also
gives only it varies in quality and quantity as compared to Air India. As in todays
generation time is money for some people as what IndiGo has achieved in market.

The study is regarding the airline services of these two flights which includes the on
board services inflight services other loyalty program services offered by them the
types included for these survey is secondary data from different sources and the
service marketing mix of these airlines the service flower their service blueprints the
service gaps. As Air India being the India first airline company owned by tata and
recently by government the Air India is an service brand in aviation industry as we
geta lot of information on these company whereas the IndiGo is a cheapest low cost
carrier private company on these we get few information.

In the whole study the highest ratings is signaling towards the Air India services than
the IndiGo services but in case of IndiGo the IndiGo itself have positioned their brand
image as a LCC one of the low cost carrier which clearly says that the they will serve
the services to the rich as well as the middle class people as well as they are also
known for punctuality so in this case we can say that whether the IndiGo services are
not at the level of Air India but depending on its cost and the service provided yet it is
sufficient. Currently IndiGo is working on expansion of market and the service

1
quality and the segmentation where he can cater all types of services to all types of
customers Whereas the Air India is facing much problem because the IndiGo where
being a low cost carrier they had maintained the demand and supply and done market
research where Air India lacked and currently faced a loss and the IndiGo is in a full
swing where the Air India has only focused on the service and customer acquisition.

2
 INTRODUCTION
Marketing :
Marketing refers to activities a company undertakes to promote the buying or selling
of a product or service. Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering
products to consumers or other businesses. Some marketing is done by affiliates on
behalf of a company.

Professionals who work in a corporation's marketing and promotion departments seek

to get the attention of key potential audiences through advertising. Promotions are
targeted to certain audiences and may involve celebrity endorsements, catchy phrases
or slogans, memorable packaging or graphic designs and overall media exposure.

Service :
A service is a form of product that consists of activities, benefits, or satisfaction
offered for sale that are essentially intangible and do not result in ownership of
anything.

Example: Teaching, banking, retail, airline etc.

A service is consumed at a point of sale and provides benefits to the customer. The
term service is not limited to personal service like medical services, beauty parlours,
legal services, it is more wider.

Service marketing :
Service marketing is a specialised branch of marketing because marketing of service
requires different strategies compared with the marketing of physical goods. Service
marketers often use marketing mix which consist of seven p’s product, price, place,
promotion, people, physical evidence and process. It is mostly used for value creation
and changes the concept of the consumer role in their service delivery process.

According to American Marketing Association, “services are the activities, benefits or

satisfactions which are offered for sale or are provided in connection with the sale of
goods.

Four most common characteristics of services are:

3
Intangibility- services are intangible they cannot be seen, touched, felt, or smelt
before they are bought like physical product.

Inseparability- service cannot be separated from the service providers. In fact the
production, delivery, and consumption of a service takes place simultaneously.
Services and their providers are associated closely and thus they are not separable.

Perishability- services are perishable services have high degree of perishability. It

implies that unlike goods service cannot be stored.

Variability – It is also known as heterogeneity. Services are highly variable it is

almost impossible to have the same service from the same seller second time. Because
of this character the quality of services cannot be standardised.

Service Marketing Triangle/Trinity :

The service marketing triangle or the Service triangle as it is commonly called,

underlines the relationships between the various providers of services, and the
customers who consume these services. As we know, relationships are most important
in the services sector. The service triangle outlines all the relationships that exist
between the company, the employees and the customers. Furthermore, it also outlines
the importance of systems in a services industry and how these systems help
achieve customer satisfaction.

Type 1 : Internal Marketing – Marketing between company to employees (Enabling

the promise)

4
The internal marketing is in between company and their employees where the
responsibility of company is to look after their employees they has to keep their
employees motivated, stress free condition, providing with all the accessories they
needed for their work because the company knows that the employees are the major
role players in their company to generate revenue the great example is sales
department. So to the company should provide outgoing tours to their employees for
refreshment and joy should provide them proper working environment their efforts
should not be ignored they should be rewarded for what they deserves the greviance
should be settled down properly.

Type 2 : External Marketing - Marketing between company and customers (making

the promise)

The external marketing takes place between company and customers that is encounter
of customers means targeting the customers through service marketing the types of
service marketing are such as sales promotion, advertising, public relation, direct
marketing, and the internet marketing which is most prominently currently going on.

Type 3 : Interactive Marketing - Marketing between employee and the customer

(delivering the promise)

The interactive marketing is in between employee and customer means this marketing
takes place in retail stores, hotels, restaurants, malls, banks etc. the marketing takes
place where there is personal interaction with the customers. Interactive marketing
helps to influence the customer helps them to buy proceeds positive things about the
product to convert the customers decision into buying decision to generate revenue.

7P’s of Service Marketing :

Product- the product is the core offering to the customer “the thing” if the product is
faulty it will fail the attributes of the product the attributes offered by competing
product or substitute must be considered while formulating the marketing strategy

Price- pricing is also a important concept as price has a lot of impact on service
buyer’s satisfaction level. Sometimes often paying more price satisfies the customer it
is being important to note that service being intangible the price becomes an

5
important factor for actual consumption to happen after service awareness &
acknowledgement.

Place- place also often offer value (utility) to the customer. Ex. Who would want to
travel 10 miles to have regular dinner even if the price is very competitively and has a
super quality services are also chosen for their place utility.

Promotion- Promotion plays a role in the perception the possible target audience may
have about your service. Many different promotional tools are often used like internet
advertisement, special events, endorsements which happen out of the store or in-store
merchandising like branded boxes from Custom Boxes Now, plastic dump bins and
digital signage.

People- People are crucial in service delivery. The best food may not seem equally
palatable if the waitress is in a sour mood. A smile always helps. Intensive training for
your human resources on how to handle customers and how to deal with
contingencies, is crucial for your success.

Process- Processes are important to deliver a quality service. Service being intangible

process become crucial that it should be performed in such a way that it should met to
the standards.

Physical evidence- physical evidence sometimes affects the customer satisfaction

being service is intangible customer depends on other cues to judge the offerings. Ex.
If you were heard about the hotel but while going there you something else than what
you have heard so on that basis you make the judgement and give service ratings
somewhere the physical evidence works like this.

Services marketing is that elusive concept which stays incomplete without a thorough
understanding of 7 Ps. These form the critical success factors for any service as
evaluated by a possible customer.

Service Lifecycle :

The different stages in lifecycle of product and service are more or less similar and
has common characteristics.

6
Introduction- at this stage the service is new as it is just launched its use age rate will
be low. The production cost is high but the sales being smaller the revenue is low.
Until the growth stage the service provider mostly operate from one location.

Growth- There is rapid increase in sales at this stage. The sales increase at an
increasing rate as the co summers see the benefits in using the service. Promotion is
focused in using the service. Promotion is focused in order to attract new users and
retain repeat customers. The firm may even improve service quality and add some
new features to attract the customers.

Maturity- The service enters the stage of maturity as the rate of growth slows down.
Here the sales are still increasing but increasing at a decreasing rate. The sales touch
their peak and then it saturates at that level for the period of time. There is intense
competition at this stage and the firm in order to keep its market share may modify
and improve the service quality.

Decline- the usage rate of the service diminishes with the technological advancement
and changing consumer tastes. The service provider uses different strategies at this
stage. Some firms withdraw from the current service and switch over to new ventures
with better opportunities.

Basic Service Package :

A service product is a package of series of service elements executed in proper order

in keeping in mind the needs and wants of the consumer with an intention to
maximise the consumer satisfaction. The concept of (BSP) helps us to understand the
service product comprehensively. There are three element in BSP

 Core service

 Facilitating service (Enabling service)

 Supporting service (Enhancing service)

Core service- The core service is the reason for being in the market. Thus, a hospital
is for health care, hotel is for lodging and railway is for transportation.

7
Facilitating service (Enabling services)- Facilitating services are those service without
which the core service cannot be performed. A hospital requires doctors, nurses,
medical equipment, medicines and so on for health care services. In the same way the
hotel requires building consisting of rooms, toilets, beddings and so on to provide any
type of services the facilitator make it possible to use a core service.

Supporting services (Enhancing services)- supporting service increase the value of the
service offering it does not facilitate the consumption or use of a core service ex. A
hotel can operate a restaurant inside, transport services for local visits, reservation
facilities, shopping facilities and so on.

Creating a strong service brand :

All service marketer cannot succeed in creating a service brand. Berry proposes the
service brand and they can achieve this by performing well on core service,
reaching their customers, emotionally and associating the brand with trust. In order
to build strong brands there are 4 approaches which can be used.

Courage to be different- Strong service brands set out their own rules. They
identify new paths in order to reach and acquire customer. Their brand building
efforts are continuously made to create distinct personality in the mind of the
people and to look distinct from their rivalries for these they need to go out of box
for their brand presentation and service performance and quality.

Determining own fame- A brand must capture and communicate what the firm
wants to be famous for.

Emotional connection- The bond and the connections with the customer makes the
brand strong. Strong brand goes beyond functionality and penetrates into soft or
emotional side of customer psychology.

Internalise the brand- In services brand is realised to the action of service

providers. They transform the brand vision into reality. A service brand to the
customer is what service personnel perform and does. Their action can reinforce or
destroy the brand as well as service quality.

8
 SERVQUAL MODEL :

The SERVQUAL method from Valarie A. Zeithmal, A. Parasuraman, and Leonard

L. berry is a technique that can be used for performing a gap analysis of an
organisation’s service quality performance against customer service quality needs.

This method is mostly used by service organisation to improve service quality.

These measures perceptions of service quality for the organisation and then
compare it against the organisation that is “excellent” the resulting gap analysis
that can be used for service improvement. In this method the data are collected via
survey of sample of customers and the customer respond to the series of questions
in survey based around number of key service dimension.

The five key dimensions are Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance,

Empathy.

Service Quality Gap / Service Gap Model :

9
The above given diagram is a gap analysis or service quality model or service gap
analysis or service quality model all are same. It was developed by Parasuraman in
1985. This model clearly indicates that the consumers quality perceptions are
influenced by a series of five distinct gaps occurring in the organisation.

This gap model is widely used by many service firms to measure the gap between
expected and perceived service.

Gap 1- Customers Expectation (Not knowing what customer expect) :

As because of service is intangible in nature it makes difficult to define the customers

expectation. Sometimes the customer himself is not articulate enough to explain what
are his/her specific expectations. As a result marketer has to depend upon their own
judgement which sometimes differ from customers expectation.

Gap 2- Management perception of customers expectation (Not selecting the right

service design standard) :

The customer expectation need to be translated into appropriate performance

standards. Many a time a service firm has a good idea as to what customer expect but
they fail to develop them into appropriate service specification. There are many
reason responsible for it like inadequate commitment to quality, lack of inclination to
specify quality standards and to measure quality etc.

Gap 3- Service delivery (Not delivering to service standards) :

This reflects the differentiation of actual performance from standard performance i.e
failure to conform to establish standards .

It occurs when employees are unable to or unwilling to perform at desired level. Role
ambiguity, role conflict, poor employee job fit, lack of training, absence of proper
motivation system etc.

Gap 4- External marketing communication (Not marching performance to promise) :

A service company external communication efforts i.e advertising, publicity, personal

selling, and public relations may over promise and they logically result into the gap
occur. The marketer find it very hard to resist the temptation of making big promise.
Otherwise they know that if they don’t make tall promises that their appeal to the
customers wont be the exciting and the entire promotion process get reduced.

Gap 5- Actual service performance (The customer gap) :

10
This gap occurs when the customers perception of delivered service differs with the
expected service. The customers experience of the service is conflict upon many
factors and sometimes the service may needs customers expectations and yet
perceived otherwise.

The key to provide good quality service is meeting and exceeding customers’
expectations. This gap is the end result of earlier four gaps.

Sometime the gap between customer expectation and perception is caused by a series
of organizational gaps :

Marketing information gap : sometimes the manager is not fully aware of customers
service expectation.

Standard gap : when a firms service quality specification do not match with the
customers expectation then the standard gap occurs.

Service performance gap : The difference between the service quality specification
and the service actually delivered causes the service performance gap.

Communication gap : this occurs when there is a discrepancy between communication

and customers describing the service offered and the service actually delivered.

Service Encounters :
A service encounter is also known as “moment of truth” and it can be defined as when
the customer comes into contact with any aspect of the organisation and its quality of
its service.

The term moment of truth comes from language of bull fighting and it refers to
moment of truth same when the matador faces the bull before he takes his final
decision that ends the fight. The term is used in service management in order to
dramatize the Importance of encounter of a customer with service organisation.

This service encounter means it is a situation where the customer interacts with the
service provider. The customer gets the clear impression of the service, during service
encounter.

Ex: In the hotel the customer service encounter starts as he checks into hotel after
words how he was guided to his room, the serving of the meals and the checking out
all are service encounters.

11
Elements of service encounter :

 The customer : The customer is the most important element of service

encounter because his perception regarding service quality, overall satisfaction
and repeat purchase decision depends on the perception of service encounter.
It is therefore necessary that service and its delivering system must be
designed in order to meet the customers needs effectively and efficiently.

 Service provider/Employee : the service provider is another crucial player in

the service encounter the service employee represents the service organisation
and is the force that keeps the delivery system going. His every words and
performance will be noticed by the customer and the service organization
hence proper training and knowledge should be must to perform the task.

 Delivery system : What the Cristopher lovelock has explained in their service
flower that has to be followed by every service organization that is service
consist of core service and several supplementary services for customer
satisfaction the core service is must because excellent delivery of
supplementary service will not mean much as if they fail in delivering their
core service so service must be designed in perfection of core service if
needed the core service can be enhanced by adding supplemental service.

 Physical evidence : As we has mentioned above what is physical evidence in

7p’s it includes all the tangible aspects of service or service organisation.
Physical evidence is important for the success of service encounter.

Service Blueprinting or Flowcharting :

According to rust and mothers service blueprinting is a technique that helps to
understand the totality of the process so that “fail point” stages of service that have
high probability of generating problem can be identified understood and possibly
redesigned.

Service blueprint or flowcharting can be applied to any type of service organization

when the management needs to gain the better understanding of how the service is
created and delivered alternatively it is also called as service mapping or blue
printing.

12
It is a technique used for service innovation. Service blueprinting has its roots in
service quality and customer satisfaction research it is a basic method to understand
the service processes. In the below diagram the service blueprint includes interaction
with customer in the front stage, separated from the back stage service production.

 Customer Action (Line of interaction) : customer action includes all steps that
customers take as a part as service delivery process. This element is always on
the top of service blueprint which make blueprinting different from other
approaches as well as the action of the customer are central to the creation of
blue print.

 Onstage / Visible Contact Employee Action (Line of visibility) : this is the

next critical component. In this the action of frontline contact employees that
occur as a part of face to face encounter are depicted as onstage contacted
employee actions. Every time the line of interaction is crossed via link from
customer to a contact employee. As well as a moment of truth is occurred.

 Back Stage / Invisible Contact Employee Action (Line of internal

interaction ) : The line of visibility separates the onstage from the backstage
actions. Everything that appears above the line of visibility can be seen by the
customers, while everything under the line of visibility is invisible for the
customers.

13
 Support Processes : The fourth critical component of blue print is support
processes which is separated from contact employees by internal line of
interaction these all activities are carried out by individuals within the
company who are not contact employees but that need to be happened in order
for service delivery.

14
 Vertical line from the support area connecting with other areas of the blueprint
show the inter-functional connections and support that are essential to deliver
the service to the final customer.

 Physical Evidence : For each customer action and every moment of truth the
physical evidence that customer come into contact which is described at he
very top of the service blueprint.

Company Profile
AIR INDIA :
Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, owned by Air India Limited, a government
of India enterprise. The airline operates a fleet of Airbus and Boeing aircrafts serving
various domestic and international airports. It has its headquarters located at the
Indian Airlines House, New Delhi.

It has two major domestic hubs at Indira Gandhi International Airport (New Delhi)
and Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai). Its secondary hubs are at
Chennai International Airport (Chennai) and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
International Airport (Kolkata).  Air India is the largest international carrier out of
India with an 18.6% market share. Over 60 international destinations are served by
Air India across four continents. The airline became the 27th member of Star
Alliance on 11 July 2014.

Air India's colour scheme is red and white. The first logo of Air India was a centaur, a
stylised version of Sagittarius shooting an arrow in a circle representing the wheel of
Konark. The logo chosen by founder J. R. D. Tata was introduced in 1948 and
15
represented the airline until 2007 On 22 May 2007, Air India and Indian Airlines
introduced their new symbol consisting of a Flying Swan with the wheel of Konark
placed inside it. The flying swan shape was changed from the centaur logo and the
chakra was derived from Indian's erstwhile logo.

At the side of that logo you can see Air India's mascot is the Maharajah (high king).
It was created by Bobby Kooka, the then-commercial director of Air India, and
Umesh Rao, an artist with J. Walter Thompson Limited in 1946.  Kooka stated that,
"We call him a Maharajah for want of a better description. Air India adopted the
Maharajah as its mascot in 1946. It was used in promoting it although initially
designed only for the airline's memo-pads. The Maharajah was given a makeover in
2015 and the brand is represented by a younger version.

 IATA : AI

 ICAO : AIC

 Call Sign : AIRINDIA

These are the airline codes of air India in which iata consist of two character airline
designator and icao is three airline character designator ae well as call sign.

Subsidiary Companies :
 Air India Charter Limited

 Hotel Corporations of India

 Air India Air Transport Services Limited

 Air Engineering Services Limited

 Airline Allied Services Limited

 Vayudoot Limited

History :

16
Air India is the India’s National Airline. Its history can be traced to October 15th
1932. On this day J. R. D. Tata, the father of civil aviation in India and founder of Air
India, took off from Drigh Road Airport, Karachi in a tiny, light single engine de
Havilland Puss Moth on his flight to Bombay (Mumbai) via Ahmadabad. Air India
earlier was known as Tata Airlines. After the World War II, regular commercial
service in India went back to normal, Tata Airlines changing its name to Air India and
becoming a public limited company on the 29th of July 1946. On March 8th, 1948 Air
India International limited was formed to start Air India’s International operations .On
the 8th of June 1948, Air India introduced a regular service from Bombay to London,
and two years later, Air India started regular flights to Nairobi.

Jingle / Tagline / punchline of Air India brand :

“Your Palace in the Sky!”

Mission : To be rated among top five airlines in Asia Pacific by customers and
distribution partners.

Objective: Achieve unit revenue, unit cost, profitability and service level target,
based on benchmark.

Vision :
 To provide expertise services to passenger and departure control applications
using industry standards with a view to enhance revenues and reduce cost.

 Upgrade participation levels with various Global Distribution Systems (GDS).

 Provide for various modes of booking and check-in and thus extend the
convenience to the customers for easy booking without any hazzle.

 Ensure that NACIL hosted system has incorporated latest Industry Standard
(IS) changes relevant for all PSS (passenger service system) applications as
per requirements.

 Provide the Customers using the airline IBE (internet booking engine) for
passenger services and better experience .

 Provide a world class Frequent Flyer system with comprehensive interface

with other frequent flyer systems of Global Alliances partner airlines.

17
Services of Air India :
Cabin :
 The Boeing 777-200LR/777-300ER and Boeing 747-400 aircraft operated on
long haul flights are in a three-class configuration.

 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A321 aircraft have a two-class

configuration.

  Airbus A320 aircraft operated on domestic- and short haul international

flights are in either an all-economy configuration or a two-class configuration.

 Airbus A319 aircraft have a full economy configuration.

 Air India serves meals on all international flights and on domestic flights with
a flight duration of over 90 minutes.

In-flight entertainment :
 Air India aircraft are equipped with Thales i3000 in-flight
entertainment system.

  Passengers can choose from five channels airing Hindi and English content.
  Air India's Boeing 777, 747 and 787 aircraft are also equipped with personal
on demand in-flight entertainment systems on which passengers can choose
from available content.

 Showtime is the official entertainment guide published by Air India.

 Shubh Yatra (meaning Happy Journey) is a bilingual in-flight magazine
published in English and Hindi by Air India.

Frequent flyer programme (FFP) :

Flying Returns is Air India's frequent-flyer programme. It is shared by Air India and
its subsidiaries. The points can be redeemed for awards travel on some other airlines.

 frequent-flyer programs designed to encourage airline customers enrolled in the

program to accumulate points (also called miles, kilometres, or segments) which may
then be redeemed for air travel or other rewards. Points earned under FFPs may be
based on the class of fare, distance flown on that airline or its partners, or the amount
paid.

Premium lounges :
18
  The Maharaja Lounge (English: Emperor's Lounge) is available for the use of
First and Business class passengers.

  Air India shares lounges with other international airlines at international

airports that do not have a Maharaja Lounge available.

 There are eight Maharaja Lounges.

SWOT Analysis :
Strength
 Strong backing by the Government of India

 Its information systems are advanced

 Known for its unique and high quality “Maharaja” advertising

 Presence in nearly 54countries

 Flying to 61 destinations within India

Weakness
 Labour problem and political intervention creates problem

 Financial crises leading to payment issues of employees

 Low profitability and utilization of capacity

 Airline high cost structure and compulsion of being a public sector unit are the
reasons it had been making a loss

Opportunity
 Dedicated set of customers

 Expansion of routes and international destinations

 Solving international issues regarding workforce can highly boost image and
operations

 The routes agreement is easier to achieve

 The number of foreign visitors and investors to India is increasing rapidly

 industry like tourism will increase demand for airline services

19
  Customers are getting wealthier, tend to be less price conscious and prefer to
choose quality service over cost

Threats
 Rising labour, fuel cost

 Losing market share due to other airlines

 Faces imminent aggressive competition from world leading airlines and price
wars triggered by domestic players.

INDIGO :
IndiGo is a private domestic low-cost airline based in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It
operates domestic services linking 25 destinations. Its main base is Delhi’s Indira
Gandhi International Airport. It was awarded the title of Best Domestic Low Cost
Carrier in India for 2008. It commenced its operation on August 4, 2006. The airline
operates 1500 flights everyday to 87 destinations – 63 domestic and 24 international.

The airline was founded as a private company by Rahul Bhatia of Inter Globe
Enterprises and Rakesh Gangwal, a United States-based expatriate Indian in 2006. It
took delivery of its first aircraft in July 2006 and commenced operations a month
later. The airline became the largest Indian carrier by passenger market share in 2012.
The company went public in November 2015.

We can see that Twenty dots arranged in the shape of an aircraft serves as the logo of
the airline. The airline uses a two tone blue livery (uniform) on a white background
with the belly (stomach) of the aircraft painted in Indigo with the logo in white.

20
The flight attendants wear a single-piece navy-blue tunic with a cap and a thin indigo
belt designed by fashion designer Rajesh Pratap Singh and make-up artist Ambika
Pillai.

 IATA : 6E

 ICAO : IGO

 Call sign : IFLY

These are the airline codes of indigo in which iata consist of two character airline
designator and icao is three airline character designator ae well as call sign.

History :
IndiGo is an Indian low-cost airline set up by Rahul Bhatia of Inter Globe Enterprises
and Rakesh Gangwal, a United States-based NRI. Inter Globe holds 51.12% stake in
IndiGo, and Gangwal’s Virginia-based company, Caelum Investments, 48%.

In June 2005 : IndiGo placed a firm order for 100 Airbus A320-200 aircraft with
plans to commence operations in mid-2006 and to take delivery of all the 100 aircraft
by 2015–2016. However, the airline completed its initial order ahead of schedule
when the 100th aircraft was delivered on November 4, 2014.

In July 2006 : IndiGo received its first Airbus A320-200 aircraft and commenced
operations on August 4, 2006, with a service from New Delhi to Imphal via
Guwahati. By the end of the year, the airline had 6 aircraft, and 9 more aircraft were
delivered in 2007 taking the total to 15.

In 2011 : IndiGo placed an order for 180 Airbus A320 aircraft, 30 regular A320 and
150 A320neo, a new generation version of the A320 scheduled for delivery from
2016.

In September 2011 : after receiving the license to operate international flights,

IndiGo launched its first international service between New Delhi and Dubai.

In August 2012 : six years after operations commenced, IndiGo became the
largest airline in India in terms of market share (27%) surpassing Jet Airways.
Strongly adhering to a low-cost model, IndiGo buys only one type of aircraft and
keeps operational costs as low as possible along with an emphasis on punctuality.
Being a low-cost carrier (LLC), IndiGo offers only Economy Class seating and does
not provide on any of its flights in-flight entertainment or complimentary meals.
21
Premium services, with additional benefits like a pre-assigned seat and meals on
board, are offered at a higher fare.

In March 2016 : IndiGo received its first A320neo aircraft. In 2017, IndiGo
became the first Indian carrier to operate 1000 flights a day and, with the delivery of
the 31st Airbus A320neo aircraft, a fleet of 150 aircraft. IndiGo also took delivery of
its first ATR 72-600 aircraft in December.

In 2018 : IndiGo continued to expand its international route network to 15

destinations, adding daily non-stop flights to Hong Kong, Male, Phuket, and Kuala
Lumpur. No fatal accidents involving IndiGo aircraft were registered so far.

Jingle / Tagline / punchline of IndiGo brand :

“on-time” focusing on punctuality

Mission : Their passionate and creative team will innovatively provide small project
facilitation to clients expecting high quality results, reliability and excellent customer
service.

Vision : Their vision is to be a successful, world-standard company, working closely

with business and organisations to improve their results. They will achieve this by
understanding client’s needs and providing quality products and services that exceed
their expectations as well as they

look forward to the journey with passion.

Values :
 A commitment to high quality customer service.
 Clear and open communication to ensure the best results.
 Reliability and integrity as a strong foundation for building trust.
 Efficient service and quality products.
 Innovative thinking.
 A sustainable environment to be enjoyed by future generations.
 The importance of enjoying life and work.

Services of IndiGo :

 Being a low-cost carrier, IndiGo offers only economy class seating.

22
  To keep fares low, IndiGo does not provide complimentary meals on any of its
flights, though it does have a buy-on board in-flight meal programme.
  No in-flight entertainment is available. Hello 6E, the in-flight magazine
published by IndiGo, is available for passengers to read.
 IndiGo offers premium services, such as a pre-assigned seat, multiple
cancellations and priority check-in, to its passengers who are willing to pay a
higher fare.
  In September 2019, the company announced its tie up with Sony LIV on
demand video app for providing its fliers with entertainment options at the
airport and in flight.

SWOT Analysis :

Strength

 IndiGo has carved an image of being the most efficient low fare operator not
just in the domestic market but also globally. This image of a low-cost carrier
that provides high-quality services has resulted in making it the preferred
travel option for many frequent travellers.
 Indigo offers a wide services such as multi-channel direct sales, online flight
booking, customer support through call centres and airport counters, online
flight status checking, a user-friendly IndiGo app for Android etc.
 Indigo ensures that it keeps track of customer needs and also communicates to
every customer on a regular basis. Indigo also has a high level of employee
satisfaction and has been consistently voted into India’s best places to work in.

 Indigo is a hassle-free place to work in and this has ensured that they have a
highly motivated and self-driven work force. Indigo has deployed the i-fly
facility where their new employees are given complete real-time training on
how to deliver the best customer service.

  The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of the airline named as

Indigo Reach has undertaken a lot of initiatives for the upliftment and well
being of children, women empowerment, and environment. 

Weakness :
23
   Indigo is positioned as a low-cost carrier and thus pricing for the airline needs
to be as low as it can be managed. At the same time, the costs need to be
maintained as low as possible. However Indigo has often been unable to
maintain its profits contineously and this can be a weakness for the company.
  In order to maintain profits the company needed to ensure that the volumes
were always high and business could not be affected by fluctuations
in demand. This means that the business needs to ensure that sufficient steps
are taken to ensure consistent volumes and this required an additional
investment.

 After the safety of Pratt & Whitney aircraft became questionable, the Civil
Aviation Authority had to make a decision to ground these airplanes owned by
Indigo. This scandal affected the goodwill and trust of the customer.

Opportunities :

 Growing demand for foreign travel: There is a surge in the number

of people in India who need to travel to foreign locations both for business and
pleasure. This means that there is a huge scope for the airline to expand to
more foreign destinations.

Threats :

 The airline faces a lot of competition from brands such as Jet Airways, Indian
Airlines, Air India, Singapore Airlines etc.
 The key components of cost in an airline is the fuel which is highly fluctuating
and in order to manage the pricing in accordance with the dynamics of fuel
prices is a threat today and even in the future.

7p’s of service marketing of Air India :

Product : The Air India has two products that is passenger and cargo. However the
most of the Air India operates through passenger rather than cargo. Air India fleet of
Boeing and Airbus planes for transport of passengers as well as the inflight
entertainment is also said to be the product of Air India.

24
Price : Air India has different prices based on the route as well as the distance of
travel. The two types of price exist in the flight one is economy class and business
class hence Air India makes the competitive pricing strategy

Promotion : It provides POP means ticketing counters at travelling agencies as well as

the online options like membership, couple tickets, tourist packages for agencies etc.
being an Indian government operated airline itself makes the brand equity as well as
the timely banners and outdoors promotions are done it also promotes its business
through B2B channel via trade discounts and tie- ups.
Place : Now in todays generation the is no problem of ques everything is online and
easy we can also book Air India airline tickets from yatra.com, make my trip, expedia
etc from their website portal.

Process : For an airline service there is a online or manual booking of the tickets
which has to be conformed 2hrs before from the security desk before your journey
starts. After boarding the air craft the after sale service is provided it depends in case
if the flight is delayed or rescheduled the post landing at convenient destination is
arranged for the passengers.

People : Air India has team of skilled & professionally trained pilots, ground staffs,
flight attendants, freight movers and packers, securities, management decision makers
etc.

Physical Evidence : All Air India planes are excellent in their service. Their premium
lounges are very comfortable hence people like to travel from Air India.

Service Flower :

25
Air India :
Core service : The core service of any airline service is to provide excellent service to
their passenger move them safely and at punctual time from one place to another.

Facilitating supplementary services :

 Information – The customer can get timely information regarding their

ticketing, time schedule etc there is customer care number of Air India which
operates 24*7 as well as we can get the information from the site of air India
(contactus@airindia.in).

 Order taking – Air India takes order from dial a ticket, dial a package means
from mobile phone and can also by online website and app as well as the
traditional offline mode is also available.

 Payment – The payment can be done through credit card as well as debit card
the cards include (Master, VISA, Amex etc) as well as from internet banking
and the additional 25rs levied by banks will be collected and is not refundable.

Enhancing supplementary services :

 Consulation – there is no personal consultation as the customer make the

tickets and journey of their own choice and needs further information are
available provided by them if there is any query they can ask at their help
desk.

26
  Hospitality – The Air India provides excellent hospitality services for which it
is known for may be the services differ according to the class of travellers
good infrastructure, cuisine, entertainment etc.

 Safety – Air India follows both the safety measures first is customer
information and the other is luggage and if any emergency arises to the
traveller while travelling.

 Exception – Some of the exceptions are such as if you want to cancel the
ticket you can it through my booking site of Air India and the amount will be
refundable not full there are some deductions it depends but yet it is refunded.

Service Gap Of Air India :

Gap 1 : Between management perception and passenger’s expect

Gap 2 : Between Passenger-driven service design, standards, and perceptions of

passenger expectation

Gap 3 : Between service delivery and external communications

Gap 4 : Between perceived service and expected service

Gap 5 : Between Service delivery and Passenger-driven service design and standards.

27
Service Blueprint of Air India :

7p’s of service marketing of IndiGo :

Product : Indigo Airlines provides 2 types of product services they are On ground
services In flight services on ground services consist of ground staff department in
flight services is provided while travelling through that airline.

Price : As compared to other airline services IndiGo is known for its cheap fares as it
opens the gates for the middle income group also in case of price comparison IndiGo
is giving tuff competition to other airlines but it also faces competition from Air India
and Spice jet. Its their strategy to minimize the cost and increase the customer.

Place : IndiGo airline has online airline booking for customers to go at booking
counter and stand in ques. They also have tie ups with various travels and tour
operators.

28
Promotion : IndiGo being lower price air carrier is one of the promotional measure
and also does its online advertising it includes billboards print media and hoardings
on travel portals. One of the speciality is that it has proper connecting flight facilities
that customer does not have to book any other flight ticket for continue journey.

Process : Their process is regarding service delivery to customer to the best policy as
to gain the customer loyalty their process includes reservation system, how effectively
inflight information is provided to customers, facilities provided in the airport,
baggage handling technique and check in process.

People : For IndiGo people involved may be directly or indirectly are important as
they will provide information. Employee are their main manpower as they have to
hire a skill full employee to make the customer and give quality service at low budget
means optimum utilization of resources.

Physical Evidence : All IndiGo planes are excellent in their service. Only the
difference is that as being the low cost carrier (LCC) it does not provide as much
service as Air India as it is known for its low budget only and punctuality.

Service Flower :

IndiGo :
Core service : The core service of indigo airlines is that they provide low cost
passenger air transportation for middle class and lower middle class customers so that
they can also experience flight journey.
Facilitating supplementary services :

29
  Information – The customer can get timely information regarding their flight
timely schedule etc through mobile as you will provide contact number while
booking. you will be informed via SMS, phone and e-mail. By contacting the
24/7 IndiGo Call Centre.

 Order taking : IndiGo takes the order and you can book the flight via On the
IndiGo Website www.goindigo.in. IndiGo mobile app to check the latest flight
updates. At any IndiGo Airport Counter at participating Travel Agencies.

 Payment - Customers may pay via MasterCard, American Express and VISA
credit/debit cards and Net Banking. Cash and credit cards are accepted at
Airports, participating Travel Agents and IndiGo Shops. IndiGo does not
accept personal cheques.

Enhancing Supplementary Services :

 Consulation - there is no personal consultation as the customer make the

tickets and journey of their own choice and needs further information are
available provided by them if there is any query they can ask at their help
desk.

 Hospitality – The hospitality services of IndiGo is also better bot not much as
compared to Air India as IndiGo being low cost carrier it does not provide
much more like other airlines as their work is going on to overcome their gaps
in service because indigo is known for its punctuality in low cost it provides
only meals which normally every airline provides.

 Safety - IndiGo follows both the safety measures first is customer information
and the other is luggage and if any emergency arises to the traveller while
travelling.

 Exception – The exceptions regarding fares are that the fares are refundable
after cancellation as per cancellation rules according to them sometimes some
charges are deducted from refundable amount it depends on condition.

30
Service Gap of IndiGo :

Gap 1 – Lack of upward communication the employee of IndiGo do not do upward

communication with their senior manager hence the manager does not come to know
what is going on .

Gap 2 – Absence of customer driven standard because being an economy class IndiGo
lacks in providing better services to the customers as well as the staffs also.

Gap 3 – Failure to match supply and demand because sometimes customers are not
taking the initiative to keep the airline environment clean while travelling hence their
expense also goes in cleaning it.

Gap 4 – Lack of IMC they invest very less in their advertisement and promotional
schemes hence the customer did not know about the schemes or very few only came
to know.

Blueprint of IndiGo :

Service triangle of Air line (Air India & IndiGo) :

31
Customer – Here the customer is a person who has certain needs wants and desires.
The airline company makes the promise with the customer to move them from one
destination to another the customer may be solo or institutional means a corporate
who wants to travel his group of employees.

Employee – They are finally a person (staff) who interacts with the customer. They
are the one who carry out final transaction the company enables its employees to
deliver the promised services for which the company train their employees to provide
quality services to customers.

Company – The company is an offeror of the service to customer which will satisfy
the customer expectation their aim is to provide quality service to their customers and
to remain competitive in the market.

Internal Marketing (Enabling the promise) :

Internal marketing is between company and the employees means while delivering the
services the quality of the service totally depends on frontline staff capability his
communication. Being an hospitality line the employee is given a extensive training
to render quality service and attention to customer there are many people involved
with working of airline industry.

These people includes the flight crews who check in the luggage till the customer
boarding in the aircraft the crew includes Pilots Flight Attendants Reservation Clerks
Airport check-in and gate personnel Security guards and In-flight security There are
also ground staff employee such as technician engineer flight and luggage dispatcher
etc.

External Marketing (Setting the promise) :

These marketing is between company and the customer these are the main customer
of the company as they generate revenue for the company as customer play the
important role hence their airline services should be processed by keeping customer in
mind it will earn goodwill for the airline industry.

The airline uses traditional strategy such as segmenting customer on the basis of first
class, business class and economy class but currently most of the airline uses only two
classes that is Business class and economy class only.

32
Interactive Marketing (Delivering the promise) :

The interactive marketing is between employee and customer where the employee
delivers the promise the promises such as helping them from check in to boarding on
flight then again inflight services as well as hospitality services like types of meals
according to Indian cultures seating arrangements as well cleanliness if these all
promises will up to the mark these will crate the brand as well as customer loyalty.
Because the satisfied customers will bring more customers.

These are some of the common service triangle which all the airline industries uses in
their regular functioning on these basis the research will be put in research
methodology.

Objective of the study

 To examine the significant differences among these two airline service

factors and preference factors and customer satisfaction factor.

33
  To analyse the level of service quality of airline passenger of Air India
and IndiGo.

 To compare the satisfaction level of travellers of IndiGo and Air India.

 To identify the influencing service quality factors affecting customer

choice of airlines.

 To Evaluate the degree of service performance of both these airlines.

 To analyse the perception of customers towards the service of these

two airlines.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A  research methodology or involves specific techniques that are adopted in research

process to collect, assemble and evaluate data. It defines those tools that are used to
gather relevant information in a specific research study. Surveys, questionnaires and
interviews are the common tools of research.

34
Research methodology identifies the research activity in a true sense. It specifies and
defines the actual concepts. The research may be qualitative or quantitative.

Qualitative - Qualitative data can be observed and recorded. These data does bot
include any numericals the data is collected through the method of one to one
interview, survey, questionnaries.

Quantitative – Quantitative data can be defined as the value of data as it includes

numbers these data can be used for mathematical calculation and statistical analysis.
Quantitative data is usually collected for statistical analysis
using surveys, polls or questionnaires sent across to a specific section of a population.

The most of data has been taken from the secondary source.

Secondary data :

Secondary data refers to data that is collected by someone other Secondary data

analysis can save time  Secondary data can provide a baseline for primary research to
compare the collected primary data results to and it can also be helpful in research
design. Sometimes  secondary data can present problems, too. The data may be out of
date or inaccurate.

The above research is based on the service marketing and the service quality as well
as the satisfaction level of customer perceived. The service is of the airline industry
for which two airline is taken that is Air India and Indigo.

The research does not covers the all aspects of the services it includes some of the
service parts such as the service marketing mix used by both the airlines and their
service blueprint that is service chart flow the study also analyse the service types of
service gaps of these airline industries by using service gap model and the last is the
service flower of these airline industry Which classifies the core service
supplementary service and enhancing services. The service gap has been made
without servqual method.

The first is service marketing mix of these airline industry means the
7p’s used by these airlines are :
35
Product – The product includes the in ground and the inflight service products the On
ground service product of Air India is they have domestic on ground service which
includes web check in, kiosk check in, city check in, mobile check in another one is
international on ground services which includes web check in, city check in another is
general on ground services which includes customer services, transfer desk and
namaskar paid services. The inflight services are they provide complementary inflight
meals which includes separate meals for domestic travellers in which there is dietary
meal, baby meal, religious meal etc. also the entertainment services.

The ground services of IndiGo and inflight services are less than Air India as it is low
cost carrier the inflight services of IndiGo does not have entertainment services they
have currently tie up with Sony.

Price – The price of Air India is more as Compared to IndiGo because the IndiGo is
known for LCC low cost carrier on time flight especially for middle class people.

Place – In terms of place both the airline provides common services there are online
and offline options available for booking flights by sitting at on place or in case of
destinations the Air India has more destination than IndiGo.

Promotion – Air India promotional strategy is strong than IndiGo because it is an

government maintained airline the IndiGo does not make expense on advertisement
they make normal advertisements they focus more on customer acquisition by making
tie up with the other travelling websites.

People – The people means staffing strategy is same of every airline because being an
service industry they mostly focus on their people means personnel they train them
well proper hierarchy well dressed uniform rules are followed etc.

Process – The airline process for booking and other things are most of common for all
airlines some of the rules and regulations has to be followed in their process.

Physical Evidence – The physical evidence depends on customer experience it what

they see and experience it varies from different type of customers.

36
These are the service marketing mix of the Air India and IndiGo in these most of the
things are common the IndiGo only lacks behind in case of promotion and place and
inflight service product but the Air India only lacks in case of price from IndiGo.

Service Flower of Air India & IndiGo :

Core service – The core service of Air India is to move the passenger from one place
to another with safety and to focus that the customer should be satisfied they provide
more than expected means value for money. In case of IndiGo the core service is that
they provide low cost passenger air transportation for middle class and lower middle
class customers so that they can also experience flight journey.

Facilitating supplementary service :

The facilitating supplementary service includes information, payment, order taking

these service are common in Every airline service the information is provided timely
as per the airline responsibility they receive the payment by every mean online offline
like net banking debit card, credit card etc as well as the order taking they can
purchase tickets online as well as offline.

The facilitating supplementary service is most of common

Enhancing supplementary service :

These service include consultation, hospitality, safety exception. Both these airline are
somewhere equal in case of consultation and safety but the IndiGo lacks in
hospitality with Air India as being the low cost carrier

the IndiGo does not provide hospitality services like Air India it focuses on
punctuality the exception regarding cancellation is common but on the basis of
cancellation rules the refunds depends.

So the enhancing supplementary most of varies in Hospitality and Exception in both

these airline services.

Service Gap of airline :

Air India

37
Gap 1 : In gap 1 of Air India there is gap between management perception and
passenger’s expectation. To cover these gap management should provide the service
to the customer to their expectation to satisfy them so that the customer should realize
that they has got value for their money so the management should make proper
service management through various service models or by customer reviews.

Gap 2 : In gap 2 there is a gap between passenger driven service design, standards,
and perceptions of passenger expectation means the service designed by the
management for rendering to customers was not up to the mark of passenger
expectation the service rendered if more than customer expectation is good but the
gap indicates dissatisfaction so the service must be designed by keeping in mind the
type of customers they have and the design should be evaluated timely on feedback
basis of customer for improvement.

Gap 3 : In gap 3 there is gap between service delivery and external communication
means there is a gap that what company (airline) is promising to customers and
actually what service they have rendered to them. This should not be done as it
reflects a negative impression in the market because of these type of gap they can lose
the customer as well as the customer loyalty hence the promise made it should be
rendered. The company should make the promise that they are capable to fulfil.

Gap 4 : In gap 4 there is gap between perceived service and expected service means
what customer was perceived and what he expected as these gap is common it does
not affect much it depends on types of customers.

Gap 5 : In gap 5 there is a gap between service delivery and passenger driven service
design and standards means the service designed is not uniform to service delivery it
may create two condition may it have positive impact that service delivery is not up to
mark but service design is satisfactory but may the service design is not up to mark
but service delivery is satisfactory the any of the thing is satisfactory the changes is to
made for improvement.

IndiGo :

Gap 1 : In gap 1 there is gap in upward communication as well as the employee are
not able to serve food to the customers as they are unsatisfied in this case the
management should start the upward communication the manager should start

38
communication with employees he should encourage them to communicate and
should explain the value of better communication as well as they should improve their
hospitality services as this is the basic services which should be good enough.

Gap 2 : In gap 2 there is a gap that in economy class airline does not provide quality
services because airhostess take a lot of time to serve the company should well train
their staff should reward for their efforts.

Gap 3 : In gap 3 there is Failure to match demand and supply to meet the demand of
the customers and to keep the smooth supply of goods in the flight the supply chain
management should maintain properly and to meet the demand for customer.

Gap 4 : In gap 4 there gap of advertisement and horizontal communication the IndiGo
does not spend much on the advertisement for their promotion as being LCC they
does normal promotions they should implement intranet for the horizontal
communication.

These are some of the Service gaps of the Air India and Indigo.

LITERATURE REVIEW

They developed the initial tools of service quality measurement in the airline industry
in the U.S.A. These studies were based on economic variables, and pre-deregulation
developed as service quality assessments from the perspective of the airline consumer.
Kearney was the first one to conduct service quality assessments from the perspective
of the airline consumer in his doctoral dissertation work, which examined service
quality from the perspective of industry-based economic and marketing measures. In
short, service quality of airlines has been studied based on industry measures,
SERVQUAL, SERVPERF study attempts to examine the satisfaction level of service
quality of domestic airline travellers in India.

They developed a conceptual model of service quality. It is a study conducted on four

service categories such as retail banking, credit card, securities brokerage and product
repair and maintenance. Moreover, the nature and results of the service act are more
tangible for product repair and maintenance services to a greater extent than the other

39
two types of services. He discussed the application of the chronological framework in
understanding and predicting service quality and its consequences. They found that
factors relevant to service quality are better conceived as its antecedents rather than its
components and that customer satisfaction strongly mediates the effect of service
quality on behavioural intentions. Their expectations and perceptions of Air Mauritius
by using the SERVQUAL model. The findings allowed the airline to emphasize the
right service and dimensions in its marketing communications to different target
markets. Service and branding strategies should reflect the cultural and social
background of the traveller. Therefore, it is important to analyse the demographics
characteristics of passengers of airlines expectations and their service.

Types of Service marketing environment :

There are two types of environment in which the service firm operates

Internal environment (Micro environment) :

 Internal customer :
The internal customer consist of the employees, providers and direct sales
agent who are an intrinsic part of the service firm environment. They have
control and can affect the service firm directly. All the service firm
accomplish their objectives through their employees therefore employee form
an important marketing mix of the service firms.

 External customers :
The external customer of the service firm consist of consumer, competitors,
suppliers and regulators. They are either a threat or opportunity for a service
firm.
The customer are an opportunity in an service firm if the service provider
repeatedly provide quality services, but the same customer can be a threat if
they are not in a good mood.

 Competitors :

In order to gain a competitive advantage service firm must either provide

accurate product value. The competition in the service firm can be direct,
indirect or substitute. Direct competition takes place when service products are
identical in feature.

 Suppliers and regulators :

40
 The suppliers and regulators are the channel partners who balance the demand
and supply and keeps smooth supply of goods regular supply services.

External Environment (Macro environment) :

 Economic Environment :
Economic events within the country and outside affects the economic
environment change in economic policies lead to change in economic
environment. Technological innovation has created a higher standard of living
for everyone where people spends a large portion of disposable income on
services because of globalization the demand for travel and tourism,
communication and information services etc.

 Political environment :
political and economical environment are closely related because political
decision create corresponding changes in economical environment like in India
socialism prevents many service sectors from blooming in Indian democracy the
service entrepreneurs found themselves surrounded with rules and regulations.

 Legal Environment :
There are more laws and regulations for service industry like over the year the
banking and insurance have grown in difficulties because legal changes are
greatly affecting the service industries.

 Technological :
Technology has been particularly improve for service firm as it has been very
successful in increasing their productivity and created effectiveness also has
given competitive advantage like development of internet and mobile phones
made service competitive and easier.

 Socio Cultural :
The service firm in India has been greatly affected by socio cultural
environment because of growing awareness the environment is changing
among consumer, employee, investor, and community like because of growing
income purchasing power also increase and the mall culture is getting more
popular etc.

 Demographic Environment :

41
 Demographic changes has also contributed to the growth of service marketers
like tour package company innovate service product design to target different
segments of people etc.

 Global Environment :
There are ample scope for field of export which is done at global level as well
as the India has become destination for customer services. Many of big us
companies like GE, IBM, insurance and banking companies now outsource
customer service functions to call centres located in India.

Types of service expectation

 Desired level Expectation :
It is the level of service the customer hopes to receive although the customer
expect the quality of service to be excellent every time they consume it that is
not always possible.

 Adequate level expectation :

It is the level of service that customer will accept. The adequate service
represents the minimum tolerable expectation, the bottom level of
performance acceptable to the customer and reflect the level of service they
will get on the basis of experience with service.

 Zone of Tolerance :
Since services are heterogeneous in nature the performance of service also
varies from provider employees and the extent to which consumers are willing
to accept is called zone of tolerance.

Recovering from service failure :

 Act quickly. Don’t give the customer time to fume about the problem.
 Apologize :
Say a genuine “I’m sorry,” because you don’t want to lose the customer. In the
process of apologizing, empathize. Say something to the effect of, “I
understand why you are offended by this.” Then explain what went wrong and
explain what you will do to solve the problem.

 Provide the right type of justice :

42
 From customers point of view good service recovery focuses on fairness and
justice. The customers needs to see that the company honestly fix the problem
or find the solution.

 Encourage customers complaint :

Many company don’t recognize the customer complaint which is wrong thing
the company should resolve it or provide incentives for reducing the number
of customer complaint because greviance handling also creates good image of
the company.

  Follow up with the customer :

Afterward, check back to make sure that they are satisfied with the solution
you offered as well as the quality of your service. Every single service failure
should be accompanied by an apology If it’s just a social failure, you can stop
there. If time or money was lost, you have to compensate the customer
according to the level of what they lost.

Pricing in services :
 Cost based pricing : it is also called as cost plus strategy under this method the
company determines the cost of service delivery as well as the pre determined
rate of profit in order to arrive at a price. This type of pricing is mostly used in
catering services and advertising services.

 Demand based pricing :

Demand based pricing is generally used where the services are price sensitive.
Therefore the successful demand based pricing there should be proper
segmentation of market to get maximum price from the market.

 Competition based pricing :

In this method of pricing the prices are determined on the basis of competitors
price. Price under this situation may be used to gain short term competitive
advantage overs rivals.

Unethical practices in service marketing :

43
 False advertising : While marketing the services the marketer should ensure
that he could deliver type of services what he/she is advertising. While
marketing the services also the company must abide the code of ethics.

 Misleading the public : The field of personal training offers services to get the
better physical shape the good way of that trainer is to market his services
provide proper information. people of his education and credentials as a
personal trainer. If he specializes in a certain segment of the population, such
as women, he can market to women who want to lose weight. On the other
hand, if he puts out an advertisement featuring one of his best female clients as
a success story, he can be crossing the line. The trainer may mislead potential
clients into thinking that their results will mirror those of that particular client.

 Disclaimers : Ethical issues can arise when marketing and delivering any type
of service. As a result, a service provider must act to ensure that what he is
advertising should be true and it can be delivered to the customers. For
example, a business can feature a testimonial from a satisfied customer but
emphasize that, although this particular customer had this result, the business
cannot guarantee that all customers will end up with this result.

 Irresponsible Market Research : Improper market research and grouping can

lead to stereotyping that shapes undesirable beliefs and attitudes and
consequently affect marketing behaviour. For example, assuming that all
women like pink and therefore basing an entire advertising campaign on that
belief could be a costly mistake.

 Unethical Advertising and Promotion : Making: false claims about what the
product does, and its importance is an unethical way to gain profit. For ex. For
many years, Nestle has been the target of many boycotts for predatory and
aggressively marketing baby foods, especially to women in poorer countries as
a better substitute to breastfeeding. This manipulative marketing technique has
caused a lot of damage and loss to these children and their families.

 Delivery Channel practices : Marketing in ways like cold calling through

telemarketing companies that purchase leads is not only annoying, they are
disruptive and untrustworthy. So have television commercials, email spam and
direct mail, which people are going to significant lengths to avoid.

 Dealing with competitors : Many companies advertise cheap prices as a bait

and then once they draw in the customers, switch them over to a costlier
44
 product, because the advertised good was not available, insufficient or not of
any value to the customer. Many online surveys and work at home
opportunities use this unethical marketing technique.

 Pricing strategies : Predatory pricing or pricing beneath the competition so as

to cannibalize the market and restrict the competition is an unethical pricing
strategy. And setting up barriers that prevent smaller companies from entering
the market is unethical as well.

These are some of the misleading strategies that marketers should avoid.

Conclusion
The concept of service quality is built by the fundamental aspects of tangibility,
reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. This structure is universally
accepted and followed by many service industries. Service cover a spectrum of high
contact to low contact operation depending on the service involved and the nature of
process used in service creation and delivery. Flowcharting helps us to understand the
nature of customer involvement. In all types of service understanding and managing
the service encounters between customer and service personnel is central to creating
the satisfied customer who are willing tom enter the long term contract with service
provider. gaining a better understanding that how customer evaluate, select and use
services should lie at the heart of the strategies for designing and delivering the
service products.
The business can be divided into three overlapping system the operating system
consist of personnel, facilities and equipments required to run the service operation
only the front stage part is visible to the customer.

45
quality. SERVPERF measures service quality by capturing
customers’ performance

46