PART A: SERVICE PRODUCT BUNDLE
HOSPITALS PRODUCT/SERVICE BUNDLE:
Hospitals provide a bundle of products and services to customers. Medical services are provided by the hospitals in the form of medical checkups of patients, operations, medical consultancy etc. Nowadays the trend has adapted some innovations in it and hospitals are offerings a bundle of services to its customers. For example, a bundle in which operation with 3 days room booking and four visits of patient after operation are included in a single package. All these services are provided through the doctors in the hospital so the main service provider is the doctor and service is medical consultancy (Schroeder, Goldstein, and Rungtusanatham, 2012).
TRUCKING FIRM PRODUCT/SERVICE BUNDLE:
The function of a trucking firm is to transport the goods from one place to another. Transportation services are provided by the trucking firms to the companies. For example, trucks loaded material from the manufacturing company of shoes and transported it to the retail stores that are in contact with the manufacturing firm. Trucking companies provide service bundles now to get the competitive advantage. For example ten percent discount on the delivery of the whole month, responsibility of receiving a payment from the retailer and give to the manufacturer included in the service package, etc.
LAWYER PRODUCT/SERVICE BUNDLE:
The functions of lawyer is to provide the facilities to the customers concerning with the laws and regulations of government. Its basic purpose is to provide the legal aid to the customers. Lawyers provide the following services: consultation of legal information or advice, consultation to review documents such as corporation documents, representing clients in the court, representing clients in negotiation etc. Nowadays to get the competitive advantage the lawyers are providing a bundle of services to the clients. For example, the Cases filling with representing clients in court along with legislative hearings all are included in one package.
PART B: FRONT OFFICE AND BACK OFFICE SERVICES
GROCERY STORE:
The front office services of the grocery store include: the sales employees, the customer relation employees, repairing and maintenance employees and the cashiers of the store. The back office employees include: the accountant, purchasing department employees, forecasting, order or inventory management employees etc.
- The degree of customer contacts in front office services should be high for better understanding of consumer behavior and understanding the fluctuating demands of consumer because of different factors.
- The degree of customer contacts with back office employees should be low because they are responsible for other functions of the company. So they have to collect the customer data from front office employees.
HOSPITALS:
The front office services for the hospitals include: the services by reception, services by doctors and services by nurses or ward boys. The back office services are the inventory management, accounting, procurement etc. (Apte, Maglaras, and Pinedo, 2008).
- The degree of customer contacts in front office services should be high for better understanding of what actually consumer needs and wants.
- The degree of customer contacts with back office employees should be low because their focus should be on the other sides of the company to make the services as better as they can.
APPLIANCE REPAIR FIRM:
The front office services or the front office services employees are customer relation employees, repairing engineers and the cashiers of the firm. The back office services include: availability of repairing personal on time, delivery of repairing services in time etc.
- The degree of customer contacts in front office services should be high to understand the requirements of the customers accurately and analyze the problems to give the solutions.
- The degree of customer contacts with back office employees should be low because they are concern with the back end decision making and the operations of the company. If any information regarding customer is required then they should contact to the front office employees to get the data (Krajewski, Ritzman, & Malhorta, 2007).
References
Apte, U., Maglaras, C. and Pinedo, M. (2008). ‘Operations in the Service Industries: Introduction to the Special Issue’. Production and Operations Management, 17( 2), 235–237
Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P., &Malhorta, M.K. (2007).Operations management: processes and value chains. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Schroeder, R., Goldstein, S., and Rungtusanatham, M. (2012). Operations management in the supply chain: decisions and cases. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
