OBJECTIVE: For students to become more aware of critical aspects of the service encounter from 1) your own perspective as a customer and 2) as a services marketing scholar. DIRECTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS: One of the aims of this service encounter essay is to analyse service encounters from a customer perspective. We consume many services every week, but often not thinking about it in those terms. Examples or service encounters include (but are not limited to) banking, dining out, buying a holiday from a travel agent, going to a dentists or doctor, have a haircut, get the car serviced, going to a theatre or concert, having a garment dry cleaned, purchase an insurance policy over the phone/internet, buy a groceries on-line, have flowers delivered to someone. In order to make you more aware of possible sources of customer satisfaction/ dissatisfaction, you are asked to keep a Service Encounter Journal as a first step before you can write the essay itself. You are required to complete 6 service encounters (see below for a blank service encounter form), which should be attached to the essay as an appendix. If your handwriting is neat, the entries may be written. Otherwise, type them up. The service encounters that you enter should be from a variety of types of services (see lecture notes and the textbook) and include examples of good and bad service from your perspective. When you have completed your Service Encounter Journal, you are ready to start writing the essay. The essay will consist of the following sections: 1. Introduction • The aims of the essay should be stated and an outline should be provided • Max 10% of the word count 2. Literature review • Review the literature on services marketing theories and concepts that are relevant to your encounters i. At a minimum the services marketing mix (SMM) and critical incident theory (CIT) 3. Discussion section • In this section, you should use the appropriate services marketing concepts to the analysis of your service encounters. It is imperative that you demonstrate your understanding of these concepts throughout the discussion. Based on your analysis, you need to address the following: i. Discuss the organisations that provided you with the BEST and WORST service out of your encounters. ii. What are the factors that contributed to your dis/satisfaction with your service encounters? iii. How does a positive/negative perception of a service encounter influence your attitudes and behaviours toward these organisations? iv. In your opinion, what are the three most important actions managers should take to improve service? v. What did you learn from these experiences and how will you apply it when you enter the business world? 4. Conclusion • A summary of the main points of the essay • Max 10% of the word count Please note that you are required to use the Harvard reference style. FORMATTING GUIDELINES: Font size and type 12 Times New Roman Line spacing 1.5 lines Alignment Left Margins 1 inch/2.5 cm all sides Marking Criteria Introduction Conciseness Clarity of objectives Outline of essay /5 Literature review Discussion of selected core concepts • Are the minimum requirements at least met? Appropriateness and quality of references used /25 Discussion section Demonstration of understanding of core concepts used throughout the discussion Level of analysis Identification and specification of suggested managerial actions Learning and future application /40 Conclusion Conciseness Clarity /10 Organisation and presentation Is the essay well organised? Does it comply with requirements? Is the essay visually appealing? /5 Spelling and grammar /5 Referencing standard Harvard reference style requirement Is the essay properly referenced (in-text)? Is the reference list correctly written? /10