Over the last two years, COVID-19 has presented huge challenges to society and the transportation industry alike. The impact of COVID has altered the way in which services are designed and delivered.

Building on Assignment 1, you are required to undertake a theoretically grounded appraisal of services provided byMerseytravel. This means that you should discuss issues being experienced by this service provider against service operations principles and concepts discussed in the academic literature.

Customer satisfaction is important to the success of service businesses. However, satisfaction is a complex phenomenon. Expectations are important comparison standards that help consumers to evaluate the perceived performance of the service offer throughout and at the end of the service encounter. At the simplest level, customers are satisfied if the experience matches or exceeds their expectations, and dissatisfied if the service performance fails to match their expectations. Therefore, you will use this assignment (2) to:

• Assess the services provided by Merseytravel and put forward well-reasoned and justified recommendations to improve service operations; (concentrate on service operations factors, i.e. issues facing service operations managers and the techniques, approaches, and elements of improvement).

This extends your previous assignment and MUST NOT repeat any of it. Information on the services provided by Merseytravel is available at:https://www.merseytravel.gov.uk

The purpose of the assignment is to show that you have understood the theoretical principles and concepts and that you have completed a wider reading of academic sources

N.B.Depth of discussion is more important than breadth, so concentrate on only one or two theoretical perspectives (e.g., process mapping, servitization and productization, lean,Service-Dominant (S-D)Logic, innovation, outsourcing, value, public sector service operations, etc).You can also combine two theoretical concepts e.g., lean and Service-Dominant (S-D)Logic.

It is important to demonstrate that you have:

• researched academic literature and discovered relevant papers (in addition to the ones provided in the course)
• read and understood these papers and can discuss them collectively in your literature review
• applied them in your discussion section, to Merseytravel.

Report structure:

1. Introduction (short and concise, identifying the services you will analyse)
2. Literature Review (section on the models and frameworks you will employ; discuss the utility of these models and include relevant academic papers on these subjects.
3. Main discussion - Apply the models to the services you identify and discuss the impact on service quality.
4. Conclusions (short summary and reflections)
5. References