Below is an example of what an answer should look like if you had been asked to provide information on the Process element of the extended marketing mix.

 

What is 'process'?   Jones (2009) states that ".....It begins with the prospects very first contact with the service-providing organisation" and "could be a brochure, a visit, a website, making a phone call or calling into an office".  Bradley (2014) states that it focuses mainly on the service industry and is related to the 'how' aspect of service delivery' process as the way in which a service is provided.

 

Service recovery is defined as company's resolution of a problem from a dissatisfied customer, converting them into a loyal customer..... It is the action a service provider takes in response to service failure (Kotler 2016).  My experience of this was when I complained to the Holiday Inn about the quality of my hotel room.  The manager came and apologised and upgraded me to a higher quality room at no extra charge.   Dibb et al (2018) state that resolving complaints at the earliest stage is the best way to ensure service recovery takes place. In this example I was originally unhappy but the company's swift actions ensured I remain a loyal customer.

 

Self-service technologies (SSTS) is defined as ''any point of sale or service in which a customer can bypass without interacting with another human" (Davidson, 2019, p.243).     Today's self-service ordering kiosks are ....helping enterprises deliver the speed and convenience customers expect, while providing a way forward to reopening restaurants from the Covid-19 crisis" (Mintel, 2021).  

McDonald's originally trialled these in 2011 before rolling them out nationwide in the last few years.  Their aim was to improve customer service and improve customer satisfaction. (Aila, 2020).    Evidence that this is helping them comes from the Institute of Customer Service 'Customer Satisfaction Index' when McDonald's score increased from 77% to 81.5% over two years, moving them up to 21st overall in the UK (ICS, 2020)

 

 

An example of a McDonald's self-service kiosk (McDonald's 2021)

 

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing approach aimed at reaching a target audience on their mobile phones and tablets (Chaffney, 2018), One aspect of this is the use of apps which improve the ordering process.    Apps are quicker, more interactive and easier to navigate compared to websites.....websites help to create brand awareness but apps are where most sales are incurred (Brown 2018).   Domino's launched their ordering app in the UK in 2014 (Smith, 2020) and in 2020 94.3% of their sales come from online orders (Statista 2021).  The use of the app helps to reduce the time spend on answering telephone calls and taking payment details.

 

 

This is how the company promotes the use of its app to customers;

Order and pay for your food in our app and we'll start to prepare it for you as soon as you are close to the restaurant. To collect your meal........go to the restaurant entrance and they will let you know the you can go inside to collect your order(Domino's 2020)

 

This approach helps enhance the customer-restaurant relationship.... and provides the firm with a complete sales dashboard with detailed information about orders, demand, timings (Restlab 2020).

 

The benefits of delivering food direct to customers' homes means restaurants are not limited to the size of their restaurant or the number of cars who can drive through and can lead to increased sales, increased efficiency and more satisfied customers (Abercrombie 2020).  

 

McDonald's have teamed up with Just Eat to enable home deliveries to take place with the launch of 'McDelivery' (Marketing Week 2020).   However, Smith (20018) made the point that outsourcing of aspects of the process, such as Deliveroo and food deliveries, could be a potential problem for service providers.  This is an area of the process delivery McDonald's will no doubt be aware of and is why their website has details of where complaints should be made to:  If you have a customer complaint or relevant comments please contact McDonald's Customer Service (McDonald's 2020)

 

 

 

The examples chosen must be current examples from the UK

 

- You can either focus on one company for all of your examples in the section or use a number of different ones if you think it helps provide a more relevant example

USE THE ABOVE SAMPLE RESPONSE TO WRITE NEW ANSWER USING A EXAMPLE OF A UK-BASED COMPANY.