Services Marketing:Complaint Letter Response Analysis, writing homework help

Objective:

To provide students with the opportunity to provide feedback to a service organization, as well as help students understand and evaluate the customer service and “recovery” strategies of a specific organization.

Directions:(I HAVE ALREADY FINISHED THE COMPLAINT LETTER MYSELF AND DO NOT GET ANY REPLY)

In order to complete this assignment, students will be expected to write a complaint letter to an organization from whom the student has, in his/her opinion, received bad or less-than-satisfactory service during the first few weeks of the course.  It does not have to be an extremely upsetting situation; it may be simply that the organization did not provide service that met expectations.  You should focus on a failure that is tied primarily to the service provision, not a deficiency in a tangible good sold by an organization.  The name and address of the appropriate person within the organization to whom a complaint should be directed needs to be obtained (this may take some research!) and then a formal complaint letter written in accordance with the instructions provided. 

All pertinent information (dates of service, names, account numbers, etc.) should be included in the letter, as well as a description of the poor service experience and, if appropriate, a suggested course of action the company could take to appropriately “recover” in this situation.  That is, the resolution being sought from the organization should be clear.  (Do not state in the letter that you are doing this as a class project.)  The letter should request a response from the organization and provide appropriate contact information for the student – a mailing address, e-mail address, phone number (if appropriate), or other relevant information.  Instructions for your complaint letter are provided at the end of this document.  All complaint letters will be sent via traditional postal service.   

Analysis Requirements:

After the organization has had sufficient time to respond to the complaint, students will write a short paper that analyzes the organization’s response (or lack thereof) to their complaint.  The analysis paper should include all of the following components including the associated headings and subheadings (i.e., letters/numbers) shown below. 

Your analysis is not a creative writing endeavor.  Provide a statement/question and follow it with your response.  See the example below.  Your responses should be in complete sentences. 

Z. Tell when you were born.  I was born on April 12, 1995. 

Your analysis paper should include at least 10 relevant service marketing concepts from the text and your writing should demonstrate that you have an understanding of these concepts.  This is after all the primary purpose of this assignment.  Concepts should be correctly used and clearly identified with bold, italic, or colored font. 

The grading criteria used to evaluate your paper include your ability to relate material from readings and lectures to your analysis, your ability to diagnose probable causes of problems and match them with appropriate solutions, depth and substance of your observations, persuasiveness of your discussion, and quality of writing.  Concise, clear writing in both your complaint letter and your paper is expected.  As such, you will not receive extra credit for proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc., but will receive a poor evaluation on the assignment if these areas are found to be lacking.

Analysis Paper Outline:

Introduction

A.  Briefly describe what led to your dissatisfaction.

B.  Identify which factor most influenced your judgment of service quality (i.e., outcome quality, interaction quality, or physical environment quality).  Briefly explain your thinking.

C.  Identify the Provider Gap in the Gaps Model of Service Quality that you think was most likely to have resulted in your dissatisfaction.  Briefly explain your thinking.

D.  Identify which two service quality dimensions you think are key for the average customer purchasing that specific service.  Briefly explain your thinking. 

E.  Discuss what you wanted the organization to do in response to your complaint.

F.  State how quickly you expected the organization to respond to your complaint.

Organization Response

A.  If the organization did respond, the student should:

OR

B.  If the organization did not respond, the student should:

1.  Describe the organization’s response.

2.  Discuss the adequacy of the organization’s response (in your opinion as a consumer).

3.  Provide three reasons why you believe they responded in the manner they did.

4.  Discuss what the organization could have done better to delight you.

1.  Begin this section by explicitly stating that there was no response of any kind.

2.  Discuss at least three realistic reasons why you think you did not receive a response.  (Reasons that make their lack of a response your fault, like a wrong address, or an intermediary’s fault – i.e., mailman didn’t deliver the letter – are unacceptable.)

3.  Write a professional letter to yourself (on behalf of the organization) containing an appropriate response that addresses what you think the organization should have done.  This letter should be formatted using a business letter format and be included in the Appendix of this assignment.

4.  Discuss why the letter you wrote on behalf of the organization would be an adequate response.  (Note: What they should have done may not be exactly what you expected or wanted them to do.)

Discussion

A.  Visit the Better Business Bureau online at https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started .  Discuss how you think that registering your complaint online with an organization like the BBBonline might have influenced the organization’s response (i.e., what difference do you think it would have made if you had done so?)

B.  Discuss how you feel toward the organization now that you have seen their response to your complaint (or lack thereof) and how it will impact your use of their services again in the future.

C.  “The customer who complains is the organization’s friend.”  Discuss your perspective on this statement in general (not in the context of this specific experience).  Discuss what you think the organization’s perspective on this statement is, based on the behavior they exhibited. 

D.  Discuss what you have learned from this specific complaint experience about yourself and about complaining to organizations in general.

E.  Discuss how you can you apply what you have learned in your future in the business world. 

Appendix

A.  A copy of the complaint letter you sent to the organization.

B.  If received, a copy of the response from the organization (i.e., response by letter, e-mail, telephone, or any other form), if any.

C.  If received, a brief description of anything else the organization provided you as a result of your complaint (i.e., gift certificate, company materials).