EXAMPLE
Service Encounter Journal Entry
Student Number: 12345
Journal Entry Number: 1
Name of Firm: Widget Experiences
Type of Service: Example Provider Service
Date of Encounter: November 2018
Time of Encounter: 14:30
Very briefly, describe the business:
Widget Experiences provides quality examples for courses at UWE
How would you rate your level of satisfaction with this encounter? (Scale of 1-7 where
1 is extremely dissatisfied and 7 is extremely satisfied)
Apply relevant marketing and operations concepts/theories from the lectures to your
service encounter: (briefly describe the concept and its purpose as it applies your
service encounter)
For this encounter, I will apply the Transformation Model from the Operations
Management Literature. The Transformation Model is a framework used by both
academics and practitioners to understand the various components of how organisations
undertake activities for the benefit of the customer (Slack et al, 2016). By dividing the
necessary components of activity, an organisation can start the analytical process which
leads to improvement.
The model is divided into three main parts: inputs, the transformation activity, and outputs.
Inputs are used by the transformation activity to create outputs. Inputs are further divided
into Transformed and Transforming resources, which are the things being changed and the
things required to do the change respectively. The relationship is illustrated below in
Figure 1.
Figure 1 - The Transformational Model (Slack et al, 2016)
1
This concept was chosen because of a problem in my encounter with Widget Experiences,
and the Transformation Model could be used to understand the nature of that problem.
Using bullet points list three main issues that made you satisfied OR dissatisfied with
this service encounter
• Friendly staff that engaged with me very well
• Poor materials which I did not enjoy
• A confusing process to follow which made the encounter take too long
Present evidence or data collected from the business that applies to the
concept/theory:
The company produces an output which is an experience, this means that people are the
Transformed Resource input for the process. Specifically, I was the transformed resource
and the output where I had the experience.
To deliver the encounter, the company required one employee to greet me and begin the
experience. I was asked to sit in a waiting room which was well-lit and gentle music was
playing. These Transforming Resources helped make the experience pleasant.
However, during the experience, I was offered cold coffee and poor food. These are
examples of Transforming Resources which were negative impacts to the experience.
The Transformation Process itself went very well, and no problems were encountered
during the experience.
What does your analysis, using the marketing and operations course
concepts/theories, tell you about the company?
By using the Transformation Model, I was able to determine that the company was able to
successfully deliver many aspects of the encounter they promised. However, the analysis
revealed that Widget Experiences failed at providing the adequate Transforming
Resources to support the overall experience.
The issues encountered have clear links to the course concept of the 7Ps, and that the
Product offered was inadequate. The 7Ps, however, were not the best tool to use because
in this case the Product needed to be separated into subcategories. One could see how
the Product could be considered the food, drink, and experience for me. In this case, the
Product was both successful (experience) and unsuccessful (food/drink). Further
separating these concepts into Transformed vs Transforming resources will help Widget
Experiences focus on the specific areas of improvement while further supporting the parts
of the Transformational Model which successfully delivered the Service Concept.
END