The luxury service encounter

The luxury service encounter 

The luxury service encounter consists of e main elements:


- People
- Physical Evidence
- Surroundings


People are the most important aspect in a service encounter because they can make or break a deal. If one is dealing with unhappy employees, the customer will more often than not end up with bad service. This will not only ruin the customers experience, but also potentially lose the business a client for life, and result in alot of bad word of mouth.  In business it is said that retaining customers is often cheaper than adding new ones. This is one of the most important concerns for brands today. 

Keeping employees happy is very important in today's business world. However it is also important to understand that we can no long just expect 'service with a smile'. It has to be a win-win situation inorder for us tto get the most out of the employees in the service the brand offers.




Certain things like employee benefits, promoting teamwork, empoyering employees etc can all be used as part of customer dervice delivery experience to ensure we are are giving the best service and keeping the employees happy at the same time.

This graph shows other aspects that are part of the customer delivery experience.






Next, The Physical Evidence is extremely important.


The style and appearance of the physical surriundings are extreemly important espically when dealing with the luxury industry and client. We have certain expectations to what we expect when we check into a hotel, restaurant or spa etc.


The pictures below show us some examples of extremely stylish physical surroundings:

THE DORCHESTER (http://www.archimage.co.uk/dorchester.htm)

Ritz London (http://www.forbetterforworse.co.uk/honeymoon/the-ritz.shtml)






Lastly, surroundings are very important as well. Location is key, we expect certain hotels and restaurants to be located in posh areas because their location affects the consumers perception of the service and quality of that particular place.  The Dorchester and Ritz Carlton are both located in prime areas of london, as are members only clubs like Mortons.

The collective reflection of the class: different brands, and different feelings. I have summed these up as given below:

 

 

 Lastly, we discussed what are the things that drive consumers to brands 'Loyalty Drivers'. I have attached a snapshot of the group idea below. It is not essential to be a 100% on all of these aspects howebver I believe that atleast some of them should be check off

Reference:

Module Slides, Class Lecture: Serena Gossain and John Harrison