The Riverside Mica Home Warehouse and Build, situated in Vanderbijlpark, was founded in 2006 and the business forms part of Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest hardware franchise. This Mega Mica offers a complete range of D.I.Y tools and supplies, building material, and garden centre products all under one roof. 

They also supply all building and maintenance contractors irrespective of size as well as the home improver and home builder. Not only that, they are a dynamic team and pride themselves in providing exceptional customer service. They boast friendliness of their staff, that are knowledgeable and excited to be of service to their customers. 

Besides the products that they sell, they also boast a detailed webpage containing information regarding DIY projects that any home user can take on. For example, if you visit this page, you will see step by step guide for example “how to build a table Part 1 and 2” up to the first entry on 18 August 2014 detailing “how to make a to-do list chalkboard. The bonus of these “how to guides” is that you can purchase all the required material from the Riverside Mega Mica store – what clever marketing! Additional services include:

1. Colour matching and tinting
2. Key cutting
3. Board cutting and edging
4. Remote control programming
5. Gas filling and swapping
6. Delivery service
7. Glass cutting
8. Dedicated contractors for DIY projects
9. Building cost estimation / plan reading
10. Roof truss quotes
11. Quotations
12. Made to measure blinds

Question 4                                                                                                                                          (10)

4.1     There are several risks associated with describing services in words alone. A customer wants to repaint their house interior and needs to make use of Riverside Mega Mica’s “Colour Matching and Tinting” service. However, as you can see on their website, this service is described briefly in words alone, with the addition of a small image. Identify the possible risks (oversimplification, incompleteness, subjectivity and biased interpretation) of describing this specific service this way and point out to the Riverside Mega Mica Management what these risks could be. (4)

4.2     New services need not necessarily be revolutionary. A minor style change can also constitute a new service. Therefore, we can distinguish between several types of new services. Provide practical examples, suggesting how Riverside Mega Mica can implement each of the following new services.                                            

4.2.1 Service innovation                                                                                                                        (1)

4.2.2 New service for an existing market                                                                                                 (1)

4.2.3 Service line extension                                                                                                                   (1)

4.3     It can generally be perceived that a hardware shop like Riverside Mega Mica would mainly attract male customers. In light of this perception, The Riverside Mega Mica Management decided to open a craft section next to the garden section and offer DIY craft classes to attract more female customers. Analyse the following criteria as part of the development of this new service strategy to enable Riverside Mega Mica to generate this craft class idea.

4.3.1 The market segments to be served.                                                                                               (1)

4.3.2 The decision whether new services are intended for current or new customers.                                (1)

4.3.3 The decision whether new services should, in terms of the new service continuum discussed above, constitute entirely new innovations or style changes to existing services (or something in between these).        (1)