A Journey to the Woodland

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Week-3, Experience-1 by Angshu: “A Journey to the Woodland”

Date: 17-July-2009

Time: 8-00 to 9-00 PM

Location: Woodland Store, Bistupur

Background

The busy MBA creatures that we are don’t get time otherwise and hence this evening plan. The three musketeers I, Ankur and Vinay went to Plaza for a hair-cut at around 7 PM. Anyway, after the hair-cut was done we did some little shopping from a mom and pop store in Bistupur. Then, suddenly Ankur said – “Why don’t we go to a different land?”. “Different land?”, Vinay asked. “Yes, Woodland”, answered Ankur with an impish grin on his lips. Laughter followed and the three musketeers followed the road to Woodland.

Prior Expectation

We expected to have posh ambience in the store and good quality shoes and apparels.

Basis for Expectation

Woodland is a popular brand known for its quality. Also, the information about the discount prompted us to believe that we will get a good bargain. The look and feel of the store from the outside indicated that the inside ambience and employees will be of good quality.

Actual Experience

We entered the store and Vinay and I went to the shoes section, Ankur to the apparel section. The ambience was good but because of lot of merchandise it looked a bit congested. Some unopened packages kept by the side increased the congestion.

Vinay checked a shoe model which he had bought earlier but was surprised to see the price. When the store personnel were asked – we were informed about the 40% discount. The bright QT chap Vinay was quicker than the experienced personnel to find out that even after the discount the price is higher than what he paid for an identical shoe pair last month. We wondered is it a discount or perceived discount to dupe the gullible consumers.

Anyway, the signal was strong and we both decided not to buy anything there and went to the apparel section. Ankur had already selected a shirt for him. He asked the store guy if any other color of that design was available but negative was the response. Ankur asked us if the shirt looked good – we nodded head and told him to have a trial. But the trial room was busy and could accommodate Ankur only after a long wait of five minutes. Tried and tested the shirt looked good and the 40% discount was the icing on the cake. We paid the money and left Woodland.

Service Trinity Model

Core Service

o Selling of shoes and apparels o Trial rooms o Advice of store personnel o Ambience and service

Funding Mechanism

o Customer Pays o Customer can go and select what they want and get it to the counter. The self-service cuts cost. But as the store has personnel to help consumers also – so this self-service is more for convenience and not for cutting costs o Company Pays – in the form of discounts

Customer Management System

o Well mannered employees o Employees providing information about the products and prices o Customer can go back to store or call a number in case of any issues

Employee Management System

o Select and train customer focused employees o The owner is sitting in the side and watching the employees and customers

Tangibility vs People/Possessions

Woodland is a retail store. It provides apparels and shoes which are possessions and tangible. So, Wood land will fall in upper-right cell i.e. tangible and possessions.

	People	Possessions
Tangible Acts		Woodland
Intangible Acts

Separability vs Core service/Delivery

Customer has to be present in the store to chose and buy the product and also providing shoes and apparel is the core business of Woodland. So, it will fall in the bottom-left cell i.e. inseparable and core.

	Core	Delivery
Separable
Inseparable	Woodland

The Service Process Matrix

In case of Woodland – a retail shop, degree of labor intensity is high but the degree of interaction and customization is low or at most medium. So, in this matrix it is categorized as Mass Service.

	Degree of Interaction and Customization
Degree of labor Intensity		LOW	HIGH
	LOW	Service Factory	Service Shop
	HIGH	Mass Service Woodland	Professional Service

Outcome, Interaction and Physical Evidence Quality

· Outcome was good in the sense the shirts that we bought was good and the 40% price discounts was another source of delight.

· Interaction with the employee was not very good but not bad either – the employees tried to help but they did not look very competent and confident.

· Physical evidence in terms of the ambience of the store was quite good. But there were some packages kept inside the store which degraded the quality of the ambience.

SERVQUAL Ratings

Dimension	Rating	Remarks
Tangibles	3	Physical facilities and ambience was OK but not very good
Reliability	3	Collection of products was OK but not very good.
Responsiveness	2	Had to wait a lot for trial of shirt
Assurance	3	Employees tried to help but they did not look very competent and confident
Empathy	2	Store personnel did not provide individual attention rather they looked more indifferent to the customers

[Rating is given on a scale of 1-5; 1=Very Bad, 2=Bad, 3=Neutral, 4=Good and 5=Very Good]

Critical Analysis & Suggestions

· The packages need to be removed to make the ambience better.

· Employees need to have more knowledge about the products and prices so that they become more competent and confident.

· Employees need to be proactive to help the consumers.

· Employees need to be groomed properly so that they do not look misfit with the posh ambience of the store and the brand.

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