MKT203 | Marketing | The Service-offering Diagram of Ritz Carlton

Answer:

The service offering diagram

This diagram is made in service marketing to show the services and their various types being offered by a product or service company.

According to Lusch and Vargo (2014), the service has three kinds of classification, depending on their importance and level of need:

• Core: The actual product which cannot be touched or felt
• Augmented: The add-on aesthetic value to the product or service, which again is not physically present but adds to aesthetic pleasure while using the product
• Supplementary: This is the actual physical thing present to the product which can be touched and felt and experienced

For this project, we will be studying the service-offering diagram of Hotel Ritz Carlton. Here, the core will be the hotel room and the hotel facility including the dining hall and the car parking.

Once we centre on the room, the supplementary will be the bed, how well the bathroom has been made, if it has a wifi or not. Augmented will consist of the add-on which is not important but are desired in a product like a sea view room, AC room, compartment etc.

Figure 1: The service-offering diagram

(Source: Created by author)

Service Process Chart

The service process chart or the service process blueprint is a set of cohesive flow diagrams, which indicate as to what work is to be done and how it will be done (Kauppinen and Grönroos 2015).

The service process chart is based on an experience that I had encountered while residing at the Ritz Carlton for a night on 9^th August 2018:

• The service offered by Rirz Carlton began from the moment I set foot outside of my car. The valet boy came over to park my car, while another offered the services of carrying my bag inside the hotel. I followed the service boy in the reception and had my name checked-in while my bags were being carried to the rooms.
• After entering the room, I found that the service boy analysed the contents of the room and ensures that everything was clean and in proper place. I was offered an opportunity to order food from the hotel, but I declined as I had already dined.
• I was given all the necessary items that I require to spend the night at the hotel and was asked to call the hotel helpline in case of any emergency or requirement. In the morning, I was guided to the place where complimentary breakfast was served and was provided with equal assistance as I had received the night before.

This service map explains in depth what exactly happens in a hotel and the kind of service, which is provided to the people who come and stay there, thus availing their services in any way possible (Wittmer and Rowley 2014).

This allows the services to move up and improve themselves in order to appeal to more and more customers eventually, bringing in an altogether new energy for the company to work themselves (Bitner and Wang 2014).

Figure 2: The service process map

(Source: Created by author)

Reference

Bitner, M.J. and Wang, H.S., 2014. Service encounters in service marketing research. Handbook of service marketing research, 221.

Kauppinen-Räisänen, H. and Grönroos, C., 2015. Are service marketing models really used in modern practice?. Journal of Service Management, 26(3), pp.346-371.

Lusch, R.F. and Vargo, S.L., 2014. The service-dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions. Routledge.

Wittmer, A. and Rowley, E., 2014. Customer value of purchasable supplementary services: The case of a European full network carrier's economy class. Journal of Air Transport Management, 34, pp.17-23.