Question

firm is herschel

· Introduce your service firm. Include the company name. Describe the company and its services based on the 4 P's: • Product (Service in this case - be careful to express the company in terms of its services rather than the products they may sell) • Place • Price • Promotion If it is a large firm, you may wish to review one service rather than the full firm. In this case, describe the entire company and at the end, indicate you will be assessing (name the service/department) rather than the entire company. · Assess your service firm by ranking each of the questions asked in Gap 1 of the Gap Analysis Template (find this in the Learning Hub/Content/Chapter 0/Gap Template. You must: a. Rank each question in the Gap Template. This will require some research either with the company directly, with someone you know who works there, or perhaps through internet searches. b. Total the ranks and divide by the total possible marks to get the average (you will need this later in the project) C. Then write a brief overview of the Gap 1 strengths and weakness in narrative form. d. Also indicate what you would do to improve that Gap. Remember, I am not looking for something they are already doing. I am looking for new ideas for this firm. Be innovative.

Answer 1

i. The firm is Herschel Supply Co. which is design driven manufacturing company of backpacks, bags, travel goods and accessories. Now detailing about the company with regard to the 4 P’s has been given below:

- Product: The product as mentioned above are finest quality backpacks, bags, travel goods and accessories.

- Place: They started their business first in Vancouver, Canada. And now they own more than 40 stores all around the world in some of the hottest destinations or cities like Hong Kong, Dubai and the like.

- Price: The price of the products is very reasonable as the products are of finest quality and design. They range from $30 and above.

- Promotion: They promote their products by giving various promotions like discounts, offs and coupons. The company also has good display of their products through which they put out the uses of their products also.

ii. Gap Analysis:

1. I would rate this as 1 which means it is poor and the company does not understand customer expectation of service quality.

2. ‘1’ again on how much they understand customer’s perceptions of service.

Provider Gap 1: The Listening Gap

1. Market Research Orientation

· 1

· 1

2. Upward Communications

· 1

· 10

3. Relationship Focus

· 1

· 1

4. Service Recovery

· 1

· 1

                       Total Score for Provider Gap 1: 15

                        Total: 17

                        Gap Percentage: 88%

Provider Gap 1 can be improved only if the company pull up the socks and take proper initiatives to get the customers happy. You can see a poor review about the company and some serious revelations about their returns and refund policies. Despite of buying a $200 product from the company and getting it torn in just 1 use, gave them a furious customer to which the response of the company was very poor. They did not even take a wild step to have a happy customer. This is bound to be a huge problem as the poor ratings has been pouring in since the company started and there have not been much of steps taken by them to solve the same.

When we see for the strength and weakness of the Gap 1, we could say there is only weakness in all the points and the only strength was that the contact people tell the management about the customers’ expectations and what exactly has been probing them to put the negative reviews. This is a serious issue as the company has not been making good market research so as to understand the customers, their expectations and where the company stands as of now. And the company does not have proper return policies which is one of the major baselines for having a happy customer and a healthy relationship with the customer. Another disturbing factor is that despite of being the same for many years also the company has not cared about making the things right and correcting the failures.