Services Marketing & Relationship Marketing - myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theServices Marketing Relationship Marketingfor Coles. Answer: The reflective essay sheds light on the marketing services and relationship marketing of an organisation. The services provided by an organisation determine its relationship and effectiveness of marketing strategies. The reflective essay focuses on the importance of front-stage and backstage activities of an organisation. These activities are important in order to maintain the flexibility of an organisation and ensure that the internal and external threat factors are mitigated successfully. A description about the significance of the services encountered by the customers and employees; along with the managerial implications of the activities are provided in the essay. For the purpose of the essay and a better understanding of the impact of front stage and backstage activities, Coles has been chosen. A flowchart is provided in order to conceptualise the effects in a clear manner. Coles is a famous retail department store in Australia. Set up in 1914, the organisation is situated in Melbourne. Presently the company owns AUD$22.1 billion assets and accounts for more than 80% of the Australian market. In 2007, Wesfarmers approached to purchase Coles for AUD$22 billion. By 2008, the purchase of the company was complete. In the modern day, the company launched a new website by the name of Coles Online to provide online shopping services to its customers (Coles.com, 2017). In my opinion, the front-stage and backstage activities of Coles help it to maintain its dominance in the Australian market. With a continuous threat coming from Woolworths, the implications of a proper managerial strategy can help the company to maximise its sales. According to Markham, (2013), front-stage activities are the interactions that take place between the customers and the service providers. The interactions include communication with the customers, receiving feedbacks, providing after sales or before sales services and so on. These interactions help an organisation to complete itself and work hard towards achieving its goals of satisfying customers. The backstage activities, on the other hand, are the type of activities that are not visible to the customers. These include the strategies, service chain, manufacturing processes that are done within the organisational boundaries and rules (Liu et al., 2017). In the light of this statement, I can state that both these activities are important for the success of an organisation. Working harmoniously can help in the progress of an organisation. I have observed that the more the amount of interaction with the customers the better it is for the reputation of an organisation. In the case of C oles, the application of such a concept can help it to gain a competitive edge over its rivals. Hence, a flowchart of the types of services offered by Coles can be used to analyse its effectiveness. From the flowchart, it can be seen that several sub-divisions exist under both categories that help it to distinguish between the services. These categories are unique and form the foundations of an organisation. For example, the facilities of an organisation, its contact personnel and the promotional techniques help it to attract and interact with customers. In the case of Coles, these factors are important to satisfy customers because the appearance of the company is also analysed by the customers. The back-stage factors include the number of employees, the strategies taken by the managers and the number of orders that need to be carried out. La Rocca et al., (2017) stated that these activities are equally important as the front-stage activities. I am of the same view, as these activities are co-related to another. I have observed that without a proper strategy and a sufficient number of employees, an organisation cannot maintain itself. The results from the front-stage activities prompt the managers to take action at the backstage. For example, if a customer returns a particular product of Coles, then the managers gave to investigate the cause of the failure of the product. This is done at the backstage of Coles so that customers or rival companies do not have access to seek out strategic information (Brockhoff Hauschildt, 2013). In this regard, it can be said that the service encounters between customers and employees of Coles can be determined by the front-stage analysis. It can be seen that Coles need to maintain its focus on the satisfaction of the customers. This includes providing proper after sales service, guiding customers inside the store and solving any queries related to product or price. Proper contact personnel need to be identified that can take care of the needs of the customers (Sandstrm, Berglund Magnusson, 2014). In this way, customers can remain happy and contribute to the success of the organisation. Apart from employees, it is also needed that Coles install equipment that is convenient for the use of the customers. This is mainly because of the fact that customers prefer to handle equipment that is easy to use and light to carry. In the case of online purchase, a less complicated payment method may help Coles to satisfy customers. Based on this analysis I can say that service encounter is important for Coles. Based on the services provided by the company, the customers can remain satisfied. Apart from this, the backstage operations of Coles can also fluctuate. The back-stage operations or activities are the managerial implications of a company. The managers of every company take strategic decisions that contribute to the profitability and success of a company (Sderlund, 2017). The first major decision that needs to be made is the satisfaction of employees. This is mainly because a dissatisfied, employee can misguide customers and lead to a fall in the reputation of the organisation. This is also important in the case of Coles. The managers of Coles need to keep the employees satisfied and motivated. The employees need to be given proper authority to take decisions regarding the welfare of the organisation. The back-stage activities also involve formulating strategies based on the orders and/or replacement of the products (Brockhoff Hauschildt, 2013). The managers need to ensure that the strategies are communicated with the employees so that mistakes can be avoided in the organisation. Thus, after analysing the backstage activities, I opin e that the managerial implications of the strategies and the thoughts about the welfare of the companies need to be made depending upon the level of success of an organisation. In the case of Coles, the implications made by the managers need to be such that the organisation outgrows its competitors and improve its reputation in the Australian retail market. Thus, I can conclude that for an organisation to exist successfully, it is necessary that the front-stage and backstage work simultaneously. This is important in order to gain a competitive advantage. The activities involved in these two stages need to be managed well in the proper departments so that the goals of the organisation can be reached. After analysing this topic, I can say that the implications of strategies by a manager are based on the service encounters between the customers. In the case of Coles, the main aim is to maintain the reputation and work on growth. Hence, the implications of these strategies and techniques are important for the organisation. Reference Brockhoff, K., Hauschildt, J. (Eds.). (2013).The dynamics of innovation: strategic and managerial implications. Springer Science Business Media. Coles.com (2017). Retrieved 21 August 2017, from https://www.coles.com.au/ Kazemzadeh, Y., Milton, S. K., Johnson, L. W. (2015). Service blueprinting and process-chain-network: an ontological comparison.International Journal of Qualitative Research in Services,2(1), 1-12. La Rocca, A., Hoholm, T., Mrk, B. E. (2017). Practice theory and the study of interaction in business relationships: Some methodological implications.Industrial Marketing Management,60, 187-195. Liu, Y. F., Xu, Y., Ling, I. L. (2017). The impact of backstage cues on service evaluation.International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences,9(2). Markham, S. K. (2013). 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