Kwikfit Website Evaluation

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Kwikfit mainly focuses on its customers and their satisfaction level. As Kwikfit already exists for quiet a long time they have gathered experience in the automobile service industry. In their service design decision making they constantly have to make decisions on new ideas for their concept and decide whether they are sufficient and applicable for Kwikfit or not. By first ticking or eliminating ideas they reduce the costs of recourses.

In this report, the service of Kwikfit, will be identified and analyzed from the perspective of a customer. It will examine the availability of MOT and about the terms and conditions for booking and using the service including on how

to book an MOT. After the research a conclusion and recommendation will be drawn. (Hollins, B. & Shinkins, S., 2006)

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2. Service Offering

2.1 The service concept

The service concept is the link between what the customers expect to receive and the understanding of the staff of what they are offering. Basically, a service concept reflects the nature of the service offered. It is the guideline for employees to understand what their part is in the process and how to fulfill it. On top of that, it helps the marketers as it shows exactly what the company is offering and they can work with that (Johnston et al., 2014) (Goldstein, S.,

2002).

The concept of Kwikfit is to provide a service for customers to keep their cars maintained well and prepared for unexpected situations. They constantly update their service with new items or services related to vehicle maintenance. (Kwikfit, 2015)

The service Kwikift is providing is specified to car owners. Being active worldwide and with 600 centres in the UK Kwikfit is a highly represented vehicle service company. The site shows an overview of all specific services you can expect from Kwikfit. From fixing tires to replacing lights. Visitors of Kwikfit’s website probably already have issues with their car or expect some rough times for their car such as snow as well as a possible MOT. Users easily can search through the site to find the aspect related to their interest. An obligation for car owners is that the government nowadays expects car owners of car over 3 years old to do an annual safety check called the MOT. Kwikfit provides this service in 500/600 centers in the UK (Kwikfit, 2015). Customers can in just 1 click from the home page easily find information, a booking possibility and a reminder service on the Kwikfit website.

2.2 Service design

The first stage a company has to go trough is to set up the concept its business and to come up with the idea of the ‘offer’. After that they have to make sure they cover all aspects that occur during the beginning stage. They can do that by transforming the idea into a real offer. (Bayazit, N., 2004). A Service design process goes through a 7 stage process. Every stage adds its own aspect.

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The 7 stages of the service design concept are:

2.4.1.1 Creating a trigger

2.4.1.2 Creating feasibility of the design

2.4.1.3 Forming specifications

2.4.1.4 Generate options and develop them

2.4.1.5 Review options and make decision

2.4.1.6 Implement and launch service

2.4.1.7 Review the service to maximize potential

(Schmitt, 2003)

The Kwikfit website is a general site full of options and the possibility of making choices related to vehicle maintenance. They site is mainly focused on informing car owners on how to maintain their vehicle at best and what to do when maintenance is required. The website’s surface is very clear and

simple. What is you see is what you get. The background is white except from the header-bar which is blue. All letters are black or navy blue. This gives the website a clear, simple expression. As the target group is a very wide group from highly intelligent to less capable individuals, the site needs to be build up in such a way that everyone is able to understand it. That is why it is important to have a clear service design concept and to exclude distractions or difficult explanations (Silverstro, R., and Silvestro, C., 2003).

The different options to search through the website to the aspect of interest are indicated with blue collared letters or are located in their own frame. Kwikfit has indicated their services very clearly. It is very clear where you need to click to find what you are looking for. The blue navigation bar shows the basic searching options where after you’ll find the more specified options. For example, when you want to gather information on a MOT, you can click on the MOT-button in the navigation bar and you’ll immediately find the information about the MOT-service. (Kwikfit, 2015) (See “Appendix 1 & Appendix 2” for additional printscreen’s on Kwikfit’s home page- and MOT page’s lay-out)

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2.3 Service blueprint

A part of the service design is its service blueprint. In the blueprint the exact route is being stated which a customer goes through when participating in the companies’ service. The blueprint shows the steps and tries to isolate potential failing points in the process where it also tries to establish the duration of the stages during the journey. Where blueprinting is not only used when creating a concept it is also being used to diagnose problems within the service. The blueprint is a tool which is being used to describe the nature of a service interraction and its characteristics with sufficient details to verify, implement and maintain it. During blueprinting you’re able to identify a service’s design five main topics:

1. it describes the customer’s actions which he/she needs to do before being able to participate in the service

2. the first visible interaction with the company will be with the front office

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