What Is a Services Audit Plan?
We use a Services Audit Plan to look at a service firm from many different
perspectives and to analyze both the service product offered and the service firm
itself. Centered on the 7 Ps, the Services Audit Plan is a comprehensive and
independent review of the company’s marketing environment. Its purpose is to
identify problem areas and opportunities, enabling you, the marketing student, to
develop recommendations for the firm on how to improve their marketing
approaches in both the short‐ and long‐term.
Over Assignments 1 to 4, you will be asked to look at your chosen firm in some
detail. With this in mind, it is important to pick a service firm that you can collect
information about from online and library sources. For example, to create a Service
Blueprint, a thorough understanding of how the firm works is necessary. It is
strongly recommended that you pick a publicly held company versus a privately
held company in order to have access to many types of information. And finally,
having an interest in the service offered by the firm is much more motivating, so
investigate a service that appeals to you. However, you cannot select your place of
employment or a previous place of employment as this would create ethical issues.
You cannot contact the company or customers so please make sure to select a
company that you can find information about. Also, do not choose a firm that (in
your opinion) is near “perfect” in their service offerings. It is hard to audit a firm
that has no room for improvement.MKTG 4411: Services Marketing
1
Assignment Plan: Service Firm Selection
Introduction
Many of us learn best when we apply theories and ideas to real life. As you work
through the course, some of the activities and the five graded assignments will
require you to put marketing concepts into action for a specific service firm.
At this time, you are expected to choose a service‐based firm and briefly justify your
choice. As you work through the course, your chosen service firm will be the basis of
your analysis. By applying the course concepts to this firm, you will develop a
Services Audit Plan during the four assignments contained in Modules 2 to 5.
What Is a Services Audit Plan?
We use a Services Audit Plan to look at a service firm from many different
perspectives and to analyze both the service product offered and the service firm
itself. Centered on the 7 Ps, the Services Audit Plan is a comprehensive and
independent review of the company’s marketing environment. Its purpose is to
identify problem areas and opportunities, enabling you, the marketing student, to
develop recommendations for the firm on how to improve their marketing
approaches in both the short‐ and long‐term.
Over Assignments 1 to 4, you will be asked to look at your chosen firm in some
detail. With this in mind, it is important to pick a service firm that you can collect
information about from online and library sources. For example, to create a Service
Blueprint, a thorough understanding of how the firm works is necessary. It is
strongly recommended that you pick a publicly held company versus a privately
held company in order to have access to many types of information. And finally,
having an interest in the service offered by the firm is much more motivating, so
investigate a service that appeals to you. However, you cannot select your place of
employment or a previous place of employment as this would create ethical issues.
You cannot contact the company or customers so please make sure to select a
company that you can find information about. Also, do not choose a firm that (in
your opinion) is near “perfect” in their service offerings. It is hard to audit a firm
that has no room for improvement.
TRU Open Learning
2
Assignment Plan: Service Firm Selection
Instructions
The purpose of your ungraded Assignment Plan is to select and receive approval of
the service product and firm you will focus on in your later assignments. Review
your journal to see if there are any service firms of particular interest to you and/or
review the list of services below for inspiration.
Vacation travel
House cleaning service
Automotive repair
Window washing service
Physical therapy treatment
Hotel stay
Car rental
Tax preparation
Restaurant
Dental service
Nursing
Fitness instruction program
Bed and breakfast stay
Movie theatre
Sports or music lessons series
Live performance
Weight‐loss program
Dry cleaning service
Adventure tour
Daycare (for children or pets)
Day spa treatment
Courier service
Legal service
Charity haircut
Insurance service
Although interesting, conducting a Services Audit on a fledgling firm or a new‐to‐
the‐world services company is not recommended, as access to existing information
may be limited. Also, please do not select your place of employment as it could
create ethical dilemmas.
After choosing your service firm of interest, prepare your Assignment Plan by
completing the following:
1. Service Product Selected. Identify your chosen service and briefly describe it.
If your service firm offers a number of service products and locations, select
one service and one physical location you want to focus on. Indicate why this
service is of particular interest to you.
2. Service Firm Selected. Provide the name of your company and your chosen
location, indicating whether it is a privately or publicly held company
(publicly held companies are strongly preferred to privately held firms).
Include the name of the parent organization, if relevant.
TRU Open Learning
MKTG 4411: Services Marketing
3
Please ensure that enough information is publicly available about your
chosen company, including marketing , operations, etc.
As part of later assignments, you will be required to evaluate the global
competitive environment in which the service firm competes. For now,
identify two or three opportunities and threats, respectively, facing your
chosen firm.
3. Customer Encounter. The Services Audit Plan evaluates a service firm by
applying all 7 Ps of the marketing mix. Specifically, the three new Ps are
applied to your firm to identify both customer service successes as well as
opportunities for improvement. Outline who the typical consumer for this
service is, and describe a typical service encounter a consumer has with this
firm, mentioning any customer gaps which may be occurring.
Note
While not graded, this is considered an assignment, since your Open
Learning Faculty Member must approve your selection and the reasons
behind it. This a crucial step for much of the remainder of the course. You are
not permitted to submit Assignment 1 until the plan is approved.
You must receive your Open Learning Faculty Member’s approval of your service
firm prior to starting Assignment 1. Do not waste any time by progressing without
this approval.
Please take a few minutes to review these assignment guidelines:
•
Address all 3 areas as outlined above in your plan.
•
Create headings (and subheadings) as appropriate.
•
Submit all assignments in PDF form, using 12‐point Arial font and
double line spacing.
•
All sources used must be cited and referenced in correct APA format.
Please see the Referencing Expectations document provided.
•
Name your file as follows and submit through Moodle:
MKTG4411_LastName_AssignmentPlan
Although this is an ungraded assignment, be sure to adhere to all of the standards
for professional business writing. If your Open Learning Faculty Member cannot
understand your submission because of spelling or grammatical errors, you will
miss the opportunity for feedback, and your choice may not be approved.
TRU Open Learning
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