Service 5: Week 2: Mailroom Service at XLRI

Need:

Collect couriers and letters addressed to me.

Expectation:

To be able to get all letters and couriers and parcels sent to me when I go to the mailroom. Since going to the mailroom is only feasible in between classes, I also expected the mailroom to remain open till at least 3:45pm and also remain open till 12:45 or 1 before breaking for lunch. Another expectation which was set during the first year at XLRI was to receive an updated list of the names of people who need to collect their mail from the mailroom.

Experience:

Since the second year of college began, the courier list on the notice board has not changed. Earlier, a new list was put up every couple of days (at most changed every week). However, this term, since I was expecting a couple of letters and couriers, I checked the list regularly and somehow didn’t see an updated list on any day of the week and am yet to see an updated list. This is an inconvenient change from the previous term where it was easy for us to know that there is a courier awaiting us and we could go and collect it. But the inconvenience caused by the absence of a list was just the first of the many signs of growing inefficiency at the mailroom at XLRI.

After checking the status of my expected courier online using its tracking number, I learnt that the courier had been delivered at XLRI on 2^nd July 2009. Due to the schedule of classes, I went to collect the courier on 3^rd July at 12:30 only to realize that the mailroom had closed for lunch and would open at 2:00. Since I had a class at 2, I assumed the mailroom would remain open till 4:30 like other offices at XLRI. However, when I went again to the mailroom at 3:45, the mailroom was closing for the day and the person in charge requested me to come the next day to collect the courier.

I visited the mailroom again on 4^th July to collect my courier. This time, the person in charge was available and started to search for my courier. He could only locate an Airtel bill in my name and the actual courier that I was expecting could not be located by him. Since this had happened earlier with my Fee Demand Draft courier, I requested him to search again assuring him that the courier has been delivered. He asked me to search for the same in a bundle of letters. I could not locate the courier and he told me to wait for a day or two saying that maybe the courier is still in the courier office and has not reached XLRI’s mailroom.

I visited the office a fourth time for the same courier on Monday, 6^th July. This time, finally, the person in charge was able to successfully locate my courier and give the same to me. My expectations of finding a courier, an updated list and finding the mailroom open were all tossed out the window with this experience. Now I have a parcel showing a delivered status online - I dread the number of visits I would have to make to the mailroom this time!

Service Analysis:

The above figure summarizes the analysis of the service in terms of the Service Trinity based on my experience. The analysis for Employee Management is not applicable as I did not interact with any employees during my experience.

Service Quality:

In order to determine the perceived service quality of the XLRI Mailroom Service the five dimensions of service quality (SERVQUAL) have been used. These dimensions are given in the table below along with the quality perceived by me during my experience.

Dimension	Rating (Scale of 1-10) 1 – Poor; 10 - Excellent	Analysis of Service
Tangibles	7	The mailroom is equipped with a computer to track the incoming and outgoing mails, couriers and parcels. The mailroom itself is sizeable and well-compartmentalized to store considerable number of letters et al.
Reliability	7	Although I have received all my couriers and letters from the mailroom till date, the decline in the efficiency of the service at the mailroom has give rise to doubts in my mind about the sustainability of the reliability of the mailroom service.
Responsiveness	6	The mailroom personnel are highly responsiveness and address any queries and search for the letters and couriers as soon as they are asked. However, due to the limited availability of the personnel in the mailroom, the responsiveness also suffers.
Assurance	8	Competence of the mailroom personnel is mediocre in finding the mails and fulfilling all his responsibilities. Courtesy of the mailroom personnel is good and they are generally helpful in finding the required letters. Security of the service is good as I have never lost a courier till now and have never received a torn envelope of felt that the contents of any parcel were damaged or inspected.
Empathy	6	The mailroom personnel are empathetic and trust our word on delivery of couriers. However, if they cannot locate the courier, they are not concerned about the inconvenience caused. The unavailability of the service is also not a concern for the personnel.

Based on the above dimensions of quality, I would summarize the perceived service quality to be of a mediocre level and falling.

Your opinion and comments are welcome.

Service 4: Week 2: Travel Agent for Student Exchange Travel

Need:

Ticket, Eurail and other services for Student Exchange Program

Expectation:

To get helpful information as well as service for various arrangements to be made for the student exchange program. Not only was help needed with travel tickets and Eurail Passes, information was also needed for accommodation search, Visa details, International Driving License, Phone Connections and other similar requirements for the entire batch of students from XLRI going for Student Exchange.

Experience:

The travel agent came to XLRI with his service offerings at the best possible prices. He had ample information on the travel tickets and which airlines would suit us more in terms of higher baggage weight limits and direct and connecting flights. He also had information or could source the information from someone in his company for all our requirements. However, since we had searched for travel tickets on our own and were also in discussion with other B-schools to get a combined discount on Eurail passes, his offer worked out to cost us more. When we asked him for further discounts, his conditions increased to the next level and he wanted a group of over 15 students to take the same flight. Since we have different dates of joining our Exchange institutions, this was infeasible and when we informed him of the same, he seemed disinterested and told us he will try but cannot guarantee any further reduction in costs from his end.

Eventually, after further discussions, our own search and information base seemed less costly, more economical and flexible and hence we didn’t find the travel agent’s offering useful. We ended our interaction with the travel agent at this point and decided to make the arrangements on our own instead of paying the travel agent to perform the same service at a higher cost.

Service Analysis:

The above figure summarizes the analysis of the service in terms of the Service Trinity based on my experience. The analysis for Employee Management is not applicable as I did not interact with any employees during my experience.

Service Quality:

In order to determine the perceived service quality of the Travel Agent the five dimensions of service quality (SERVQUAL) have been used. These dimensions are given in the table below along with the quality perceived by me during my experience.

Dimension	Rating (Scale of 1-10) 1 – Poor; 10 - Excellent	Analysis of Service
Tangibles	-	We did not visit the office facility of the Travel Agent and hence cannot comment on this
Reliability	8	The commitment of the travel agent to find the best possible costs and service for us from his end and also source information from all possible sources to help us increased our reliability for the travel agent.
Responsiveness	8	The travel agent not only made the effort to come to XLRI to address all the students going for exchange, he was also willing to cater to individual demands and needs to as high a degree as possible.
Assurance	8	Competence of the travel agent seemed high based on his capability to source helpful information. Credibility was high as the travel agent was from Jamshedpur and based on our prior experiences with other services in Jamshedpur, the XLRI relation with the city increased the credibility. Courtesy of the travel agent is also high based on our interaction with him. Security of the service was not a concern as it was a travel agent service.
Empathy	8	The travel agent understood our cost sensitivity and tried his best to help us. However, since it is a commission based business for him there was obviously a difference in the prices offered by him and the ones known to us.

Based on the above dimensions of quality, I would summarize the perceived service quality to be of a good level. For other purposes where the cost sensitivity may be lower and where we may be willing to pay in order to save time and effort, his services would definitely be at the top of our mind.

Your opinion and comments are welcome.

Service 3: Week 2: Online Shopping of Photo Collage Coffee Mug (Zoomin.com)

Need:

None. Availing a free gift offer received from Cleartrip

Expectation:

To be able to create a photo collage mug with multiple pictures easily. I am a member of Snapfish by HP which has an easy-to-use interface and my experience with HP increased my expectation from other photo sites as a result of which I expected Zoomin also to have an easy-to-use interface. I also expected the shipping of the coffee mug to be fast and safe. Also, safety of the site was a concern as I expected to pay shipping charges with my credit card and as a result wanted a secure connection for the same. Uploading pictures to the site meant I expected high amount of storage space as well a facility to synchronize my pictures with the site (something like Picassa with its offline tool). I did not want to select every single image I had to upload one after the other.

Experience:

During the course of my Summer Internship, I had booked multiple Flight Tickets on Cleartrip. On two of those transactions, I got a coupon for a Free Photo Collage Mug from Zoomin. This offer was valid till 30^th June 2009 and being a true MBA working on the last minute, I availed the offer on 30^th June 2009. The experience with Zoomin began with a lengthy registration form and an even lengthier photo uploading process. Not only was the photo uploading process inconvenient, it was also limited in terms of the size of the picture and other such flexibilities available on other similar services. But, this was just the beginning of my dissatisfaction from the experience. After tedious efforts, I was finally able to upload enough pictures to select from for a decent photo collage for the mug. But of course in order to create the mug, I first had to find the suitable links as the website was not user-friendly and I had to literally read the offer mail and follow it step-by-step to order the mug. Once I reached the required web-page, I decided to make a picture collage with multiple pictures of all my friends. But, I should’ve guessed that the inflexibility would continue here and I could put a maximum of 8 pictures on the mug in 2 4X4 matrices on either side. This further increased my dissatisfaction as other photo collage mugs that I have, have over 12-15 pictures on them. Suddenly I was faced with the task of reducing the number of pictures from the vast selection I had uploaded after herculean efforts. Finally, I completed the collage and ordered the mug and after paying the shipping charges was informed that the mug would reach me by 5^th of July 2009.

Expecting to receive an update from Zoomin when the order was shipped (the site informed me that they will send me an email once the order is shipped), I checked my mails regularly for the same. However, till 6^th of July there was no such email from Zoomin. Finally on 7^th July, I logged in to Zoomin again to check the status of my order and it showed the status as shipped on 6^th of July. My expectations had fallen considerably by that time and I was pleasantly surprised to see that at least the order had been shipped. I finally received my photo collage coffee mug and can now say goodbye to the cumbersome site and service Zoomin.

Service Analysis:

The above figure summarizes the analysis of the service in terms of the Service Trinity based on my experience. The analysis for Employee Management is not applicable as I did not interact with any employees during my experience.

Service Quality

In order to determine the perceived service quality of the Zoomin Online Shopping service the five dimensions of service quality (SERVQUAL) have been used. These dimensions are given in the table below along with the quality perceived by me during my experience.

Dimension	Rating (Scale of 1-10) 1 – Poor; 10 - Excellent	Analysis of Service
Tangibles	5	The website and the final delivered product are the only tangibles of the service and the website is not user-friendly or convenient.
Reliability	5	The inability of an automated system to send a mail about shipping of the order as well as the inconvenience caused during the time considerably reduced the reliability of the service.
Responsiveness	3	Although I did not interact with the employees, the failure in sending information at the right time, particularly for shipping the order, showed low responsiveness.
Assurance	4	Very Low credibility for the brand due to the poor experience. Also since I had no prior experience with the brand, I did not have any experience which may have helped increase the credibility. Security is high for the online payment, but this is a requirement for all websites where any payment needs to be made and this security is maintained by outside agencies. The security of the pictures uploaded is however a concern for me.
Empathy	-	Since I did not interact with the staff, I cannot comment on this aspect.

Based on the above dimensions of quality, I would summarize the perceived service quality to be of a poor level and except for some savings in cost and consumer offers, the service is unwelcome.

Your opinion and comments are welcome.

Service 2: week2: rendezvous with the doctor on campus ...a rendezvous that never happened

Need: Medical consultation

Expectation: Moderate expectation as I have had reviews from my batch mates that the doctor aint so great. But I needed to see a doc for psychological reasons and pressure from family to go see a doctor and so I did...

Experience: The doctor is supposed to be on campus from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm.I reached the clinic at 4:45 pm hoping to see the doctor. But he wasnt there.Instead the clinic( in this case a room allotted in the junior hostel) was open and there was nobody inside. The room had a chair, a table , a small bed for inspecting patients and a small washbasin.
Now, here are some questions I have.

Why is the clinic in such pathetic shape? I mean it does not even look like a clinic.
Is the college indulging in having a clinic like this just because its mandatory to have one?

The doctor in this case never showed up till 5:30 and when he was called on his cell, he preferred to have a telephonic conversation.

Now as an xl student I do expect the college to have a decent medical facility.Especially when there are are so many sporting activities that happen on campus. And here I have a clinic opened in one hostel room that does not even have a doctor when needed. I understand I might be biased in jumping to conclusions based on just one visit but that's my first encounter with the service and probably after today's experience the only one.

SERVQUAL Analysis

Dimension	Rating (Scale of 1-10) 1 – Poor; 10 - Excellent	Analysis of Service
Tangibles	1	Very poor with absolute lack of basic clinical facilities
Reliability	1	Completely unreliable by the look of it and more so without a doctor
Responsiveness	2	Unresponsive. Gave 2 because the doctor bothered to answer the phone
Assurance	1	Nil
Empathy	1	No service offered