Evaluation of Service Encounters in PIA Pakistan

and NayaTel(Pvt)Ltd. Islamabad Pakistan.

Service Encounter:
A service encounter is defined as the period of time that a customer
interacts with a service (Shostack, 1985). The definition of a service
encounter is broad and includes a customer's interaction with customercontact employees, machines, automated systems, physical facilities and
any other service provider visible elements. On the Web, customers engage
in service encounters with businesses by visiting their Website, navigating
through it, searching for product and service information, communicating
with customer service representatives, and perhaps purchasing a product
and/or service. Researchers (e.g., Czepiel, 1990; Gronroos, 1990; Mohr &
Bitner, 1995; Collier & Meyer, 1998) believe that the quality of the
interaction between customers and service providers during the service
encounter is important because it is at this level where customers judge the
services provided to them. They also agree that a service encounter is
composed of a service outcome (i.e., what the customer receives during the
exchange) and the process of service delivery (i.e., the way through which
the outcome is delivered to the customer). They maintain that customer
satisfaction with service encounters, also known as transaction satisfaction,
1

is a combination of the customer satisfaction with the service outcome and

the customer satisfaction with the process of service delivery.
Moreover, customers with multiple encounters with a service provider will
develop an overall perception of service quality and, hence, an overall
satisfaction or dissatisfaction \with the service provider. Perceived service
quality and the overall satisfaction with the firm are attitudinal constructs.
These constructs are more enduring in nature when compared to the
transaction satisfaction construct, which is transitory in nature.

Concepts of Service Encounter:

Blueprinting:
Service blueprinting has its roots in service quality and customer satisfaction
research. It is a basic method to understand and to describe service processes. The
method was introduced by Shostack (1984). A service blueprint is an operational
planning tool that provides guidance on how a service will be provided, specifying
the physical evidence, staff actions, and support systems / infrastructure needed to
deliver the service across its different channels. For example, to plan how you will
loan devices to users, a service blueprint would help determine how this would
happen at a service desk, what kinds of maintenance and support activities were
needed behind the scenes, how users would learn about whats available, how it
would be checked in and out, and by what means users would be trained on how to
use the device. Service Blueprints may take different forms some more graphic
2

than others but should show the different means/channels through with services
are delivered and show the physical evidence of the service, front line staff actions,
behind the scene staff actions, and support systems. They are completed using an
iterative process taking a first pass that considers findings from personas, journey
maps, and location planning and then coming back to the blueprint to refine it over
time.

Dramaturgical Approach:
The concept of role playing has been used to apply the principles of social
psychology to explain the interaction between service producer and service
consumer (e.g. Solomon et al., 1985). It sees people as actors who act out roles that
can be distinguished from their own personality. In the sociological literature, roles
are assumed as a result of conditioning by the society and culture of which a person
is a member. Individuals typically play multiple roles in life, as family members,
workers, members of football teams etc., each of which comes with a set of socially
conditioned role expectations. A person playing the role of worker is typically
conditioned to act with reliability, loyalty and trustworthiness. An
analysis of the expectations associated with each role becomes a central part of role
analysis. The many roles that an individual plays may result in conflicting role
expectations, as where the family role of a father leads to a series of role
expectations that are incompatible with his role expectations as a business
3

manager. Each role may be associated with competing expectations about the
allocation of leisure time.
The service encounter can be seen as a theatrical drama. The stage is the location
where the encounter takes place and can itself affect the role behavior of both
buyer and seller. A scruffy service outlet may result in lowered expectations by the
customer and in turn a lower level of service delivery by service personnel (see
Bitner, 1990).

Servicescape:
Servicescape is a concept that was developed by Booms and Bitner to
emphasize the impact of the physical environment in which a service process
takes place. The concept of servicescape can help assess the difference in
customer experience between a fast-food franchise restaurant and a small,
family-run restaurant. Whereas the quality of the food may be the same, the
customer may perceive higher quality in the latter over the former based on
the environment in which the service is provided. Servicescape studies until
now have ignored that in reality it cannot be completely controlled and that
it is affected by a variety of aspects many of which are cultural. The
objective of this paper its determinate what factors affects the servicescape
design, what role culture plays in it and at what point in the life of a business
these factors are taken in consideration.

Servuction:

Service encounters occur where it is necessary for consumer and producer to

meet in order for the former to receive the benefits that the latter has the
resources to provide Palmer (2008, p.90).
This definition includes all aspects of the service firm with which a consumer
may interact, including its personnel and physical assets. Servuction
concentrates on consumers perceptions of the service encounter. The
framework,

developed

by

Eiglier

and

Langeard

(1987),

emphasizes

experiential aspects of service consumption and is based on the idea of

organizations providing consumers with complex bundles of benefits.
According to the framework the elements of the service experience are
divided into two parts-visible and invisible. The invisible part includes the
services invisible organization, aspects that contribute to the service
production beyond the customers view. The visible part includes the physical
setting in which the service is performed, the employees who directly
interact with the customer to provide the service and both customer A and
customer B. The model is completed by the introduction of other customers,
with whom each consumer may interact within the system. This is important
because the actions of fellow consumers can contribute greatly to the overall
encounter. There is often large number of contacts between the service
provider and the customers which makes it difficult in identifying the
servuction system.

Customer Experience:
Companies are increasingly using the framework of customer experience to
define what they offer their customers. Although the term has become
widely used, there are many definitions of just what constitutes customer
experience. An all-embracing definition is provided by Gupta and Vajic
(2000), who stated that an experience occurs when a customer has any
sensation or knowledge acquisition resulting from some level of interaction
with different elements of a context created by the service provider. Some
authors

have

broadened

the concept

of

customer

experience,

with

sometimes seemingly circular definitions, for example total customer

experience emphasizes the importance of all contacts that a consumer has
with an organization and the consumers holistic experience (Harris et al.,
2003).

Examples of worst and best service encounters:

Worst Encounter:
Pakistan International Airlines (formally known as PIA) is the national
flag carrier and a state-owned enterprise of the Government of Pakistan.
Headquarter at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi it operates scheduled services
to 24 domestic destinations and 38 international destinations in 27 countries

across Asia, Europe and North America. Its main bases are at Karachi, Lahore
6

and Islamabad/Rawalpindi; Secondary bases include Peshawar, Faisalabad, Quetta,

Sialkot and Multan.

PIA has a long history of milestones in aviation, being the first Asian airline to
operate a jet aircraft and Boeing 737 aircraft; it today remains by far
Pakistan's largest airline with a fleet of 33 airplanes and at least 20 more
on order. It is currently going through a procedure of privatization to shift
management from government to private sector. It employed 18,043 people
as of May 2008. PIA has been proactive in understanding the needs of time
and has launched the Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) initiative. The
objective of this program is to mature the airlines HSE systems to a level
which will eventually lead to OHSAS-18001 and ISO-14001 certification.
As part of this program, PIA plans to conduct organization wide HSE
trainings, development of HSE objectives, implementation of HSE system
procedures and management reviews to assess the continual effectiveness
of the HSE system. These accomplishments will make PIA a safer airline,
paving the way for OHSAS and ISO certifications.
After review the service encounter journals of different people who had not
good service encounters with PIA but I had also no good service encounter
with PIA.

As I had worst experience with PIA "I flew from Islamabad to Jeddah.
Even though. I have always had a great experience flying in Kuwait Airlines
and Saudi Arabian Airlines but travel time is too long(sometimes as long as
9-10 hours because of the flight was not direct most of the times as Kuwait
Airways travel VIA Kuwait then to desired destination). The travel time was
long so I had no option to choose PIA from Islamabad to Jeddah. Before
entering they gave soveignier and some sweets to celebrate. As soon I
entered the plane there was this foul smell. You know the mixture of pee and
sanitizing product. It was sanitized but whoever did the job didn't do a good
job. If you stay long enough in an environment, the smell eventually goes
away or you get used to it. So it wasn't really an issue after a while. There
were hardly 50-65 people boarded this flight, so basically the plane was all
empty. That means each passenger could occupy the whole row and sleep
their way home. This flight probably went into loss for PIA, I assume: It was
only 4 pm local time; I was fully awake and had no intention of sleeping this
early.
I usually watch a bunch of movies when Im on a long flight. Best way to kill
time for me. So I was looking forward to see what's on the entertainment
system. To my disappointment the video section of entertainment system
isn't working. I asked one of the stewards, he told me most of the
entertainment systems are broken in the plane. I asked him if this is the case
in all of PIA planes and his response was "pretty much". So what now? What
will I do now? How will the next 5 painful hours will go by? I should have
8

downloaded a bunch of movies on my laptop or even on my Samsung Galaxy

S3. Would it been easier to travel Kuwait Airways despite long hours I was
thinking? I had just downloaded on my kindle "Game of Thrones"..... But I
cannot read a book for more than two hours straight .I called steward and he
told me a lot of them are broken and won't turn off, again i asked if this is
the case in all planes and his respond was yes again. He told me all the
planes are so old, they need massive revamping and authorities just try to
fix what we have but it can only run for so long. I said PIA is really broken up
and he noted. The lights were annoying so everyone was complaining. To
resolve this, they shutoff all lights from the main switch, so rest of the way
no one had control over lights, felt like we are already in Pakistan and
experiencing load shedding. The food also was also fresh. Despite all this,
the staff was very friendly and helpful. How did I spend those 5 painful
hours...? They felt like 10+ hours since I couldn't sleep."

Evaluation:
Blueprinting:
9

PIA had not really devised a complete blueprinting process for the value
added services as the respondent is not really happy with the entertainment
service and PIA did not even followed their service blueprint and failed to
give service to me so it means the technology being used in PIA is too old or
broken with entertainment system and also the light above respondent was
not even functioning in a sense that respondent could not even turn off the
lights. The roles and responsibilities were not completely defined to the
employees of PIA.

Dramatization Approach:
Also the dramatization approach was also missing in the part of service
encounter.PIA had not used any dramatization approaches to help me to
understand why the entertainment service is broken as well as the light. So it
means they have no script for such entertainment services issue and neither
of any Stewards had provided feedback for it. I had complete desire that
entertainment service would be of some use to him but it was not the case
for me.

Servicescape:
The

physical

setting

and

environment

was

not

very

pleasing.

The

environment system was broken as well as the light panel was broken as I
could not even operate it from myself. The environment around me was not
good as the bad smell of pee and sanitizing product and value added
10

services was not even pleasing to me and value added services gave me the
bad experience regarding service.

Servuction:
The pre encounter expectations were pretty high as I was fairly satisfied with
Kuwait Airways and Saudi Arabian Airlines so i expected a similar
performance from PIA. But after the service encounter my mind was very
clear that my expectations were not clearly met. As the value added services
which include entertainment system which was broken.

Customer Experience:
Well the customer experience was quite poor as the expectations were not
clearly met. I had to travel painfully without satisfying myself as I could not
sleep my entire journey.PIA could not provide me with positive customer
experience neither they could arrange some other entertainment so i can kill
my time and reach to the Destination.

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Best Encounter:
NayaTel (Pvt) Ltd. (NTL) is a sister concern of Micro net Broadband (Pvt)
Ltd. (MBL), www.dsl.net.pk , the company that launched first broadband
service in Pakistan in July 2002. Leveraging its rich expertise and experience
of broadband, MBL team conceived the idea of a most modern telecom
network which could take care of ever growing telecommunication needs of
customers and have the capability to cater for bandwidth requirements of
next few decades. The idea was transformed into reality when NTL launched
South Asias first fiber to the home (FTTH)/fiber to the user (FTTU) network in
Islamabad in September 2006. This real triple play project is unique in its
nature as it serves complex networking needs of mission critical businesses
yet so simple that it has become a symbol of prestige for quality conscious
home users. Covering over 90% areas of twin cities of Islamabad and
Rawalpindi, Nayatels network offers ultra broadband Internet, modern
telephony and digital video services to business and home users.
Nayatels FTTH network has transformed Islamabad into one of the most
connected and optically wired cities of the world. In line with traditions of
MBL, Nayatel purely focuses on quality and customer service. In fact, both
MBL and NTL have rewritten the quality of service parameters in Pakistani
context. As weve been a trend setter in broadband, weve also set new
quality

standards

totally

aligned

with

requirements.
12

customers

expectations

and

Fair and ethical business is hallmark of our corporate strategy. Customers

confidence earned with hard efforts of last many years is our most
prestigious asset and we always go an extra mile to protect this asset. This
combination makes NTL as most trusted and reliable telecom service
provider of twin cities. NTLs team has a passion to make Pakistan a
prosperous nation using modern IT enabled and cutting edge technology as
tool for development. We strongly believe that our country and society can
become a great contributor to the knowledge based economy of 21st century
by leveraging the talent and intellect of young generation. And Nayatel
provides an information super highway for this talent to access global
knowledge repositories and business opportunities, hence contributing
towards national development.
As I had a really bad experience with ptcl internet and landline so I decided
to move to Nayatel services which are much better then ptcl and providing a
good internet and landline at good rates plus the internet of Nayatel is giving
maximum speed which is quite stable.

Here is my experience "When I had ptcl I was suffering a huge

disconnection sometimes but most of the time my internet speed was not
good and sometimes phone line was also dead and I am a gamer who needs
a stable net plus downloading speed of ptcl was terrible so I called Nayatel
and I ordered my internet and I just disconnected my ptcl and after 4 to 5
working days of Nayatel, Nayatel send their team with proper devices and
13

they came up with pretty much planned how to start and where to start I
was bit surprised to see that Nayatel is putting too much effort in making
satisfying their customers, so the team started working and they took about
3 to 4 hours to complete the setup well it was the time when I was bit
suspicious because of the past experience of the internet with ptcl what if
the Nayatel internet wouldnt fulfill my desires so when the internet started I
was surprised to see that internet was so fast and plus they are giving me
more speed than I ever had with ptcl and there are no disconnections so I
tried online gaming and the results were splendid no disconnect whatsoever
and now I can watch free movies online freely even by streaming and also
they have value added services that I can directly stream HD movies direct
from their server without the hesitation of being disconnected I am now very
happy and pleased with their service because the service is excellent "

Evaluation:
Blueprinting:
Nayatel has done excellent job with their service blueprinting, they had
defined processes clearly for the employees as every employee knows what
is their role what should they do to fulfill their roles. Their service is quite
systematic because whenever I get the problem with their service I call them
and my problem is resolved quickly. The service blueprinting is in a way

14

employees on the back end of nayatel are much supportive and they provide
every instruction to their employees to make customers satisfied.

Dramatization Approach:
The employees are very much scripted and roles are clearly defined for
them. Whenever I call them and tell them about the problem or how to do
this on their internet or how can I stream their movies from server they can
easily tell me what to do. The employees know their role and play
accordingly. The employees of nayatel follow script very well whenever they
are being called on telephone the employees of nayatel follow script to solve
problems or satisfy customer when customers need their help.

Servuction:
The pre encounter expectation of me was high because I heard so much
about their services and I wanted to try it myself. They use high quality
equipment for their services and their communication is quite formal with
the customers and was good. Post encounter experience was highly
satisfying for me.

Customer Experience:

15

Well the customer experience as being customer of nayatel was quite high
and satisfying one. I had expected such performance for their services and
the expected performance was quite high for me and it was beyond my
expectations. Thank You Nayatel for providing such efficient services.

Conclusion:
So after concluding this technical note our knowledge of service encounter
has quite increased and it has helped us clearly understand that what
service encounter is actually? Now I can clearly understand how to analyze
and map services. Blueprinting, dramatization, scripts, roles, servicescapes,
servuction and customer experience are important parts

of service

encounter. We now can properly analyze how service industry measures its
performance and our knowledge has increased as related to services as well
as about how the employees of service industry /company follow scripts and
roles which are assigned to them.

Bibliography:

16

Principles of Services Marketing Written by Adrian Palmer 2010

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Nayatel