Service Management Cathy Pacific

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- Intangibility: Service cannot tasted, seen, felt and touched in a form as a physical goods. Employees performance is the direct issue influence the service quality. For example, the check-in process for the passengers.

- Inability to inventory: Service is immediate and cannot be storage so that it leads the other service characteristic - Heterogeneity. For example, passengers cannot pre check-in before one day or delay. CX pre-sales the tickets that prepare the budget and staff to handle each flight.

- Variability (Heterogeneity): Services provide by people that cannot totally same in each passengers because the service provides by “people” that there are different character of different people who are emotional. And there are some outside influences such as the technologies advance. Hence, CX provides training course to the crew and set up a guideline to handle the situation.

- Inseparability: The service provider is indispensable for service delivery as the crew must promptly generate and render the service to the requesting service customer. For example, the airplanes meal delivery to the passengers by the crew on the flight via taking order or reservation system.

Base on the characteristics of service, Cathay Pacific’s goal is deliver superior service and value to each passenger and to become the best airline in the world. CX concerns the staff training to standardize the process of service delivery, and aims to decrease the heterogenic of each service. Cathay Pacific promised to meet on-time performance goals, keeping and increasing the international; route network, and increasing the flight frequencies to reach the market needs. Cathay Pacific committed delivers service “Straight from the Heart” and takes pride to make passengers feeling safe, comfortable and considerate. CX using service 3Ps to control the service quality: People, Process and Physical Evidence.

2.1 “3Ps” of Services

People

The provision of service is depending on the will of the crew involved and the main issues is determination. Motivation and politeness of the employees. And the effectiveness of the service is depending on: appearance and body language of crew, appearance and attitudes, feedback and efficiency.

Process

The processes are the steps in which a service or offered or delivered that could be difficult for CX to show passengers the benefits of a service. For example, CX difficult to show the service quality to the passengers who are not purchased CX’s ticket before. So, CX provide training to the crew and standardize the service process.

Physical Evidence

Physical evidences is the materials part of a service that using to improve the service. For example, passengers expected they can enjoy the entertainment inflight such as movies.

2.2 Quality Management

In 2014, Cathay Pacific Airways has won the “World Best Airline” award for the fourth time that is more than other airline company (The World’s best airline, 2014). The aims of Cathay pacific is to be the best airline in the world but there are different standard of different people so that CX has to find out the mid-point of “best service” to satisfy the major people. Garvin (1988) mentioned that there are 5 approaches to quality: the transcendent, the manufacturing-approach, the user-based approach, the product-based approach and the value-based approach. For Cathay Pacific, it belongings the product-based approach and user-based approach because CX premised every flight not delay more than 15 minutes and the service is straight from the heart to satisfy the requirements from different customers.

However, service quality is hand to evaluate and standardize because there are different standard of different passengers. According to the customer’s reviews and ratings of SKYTRAX, it was found that most of customers do not satisfy the catering on the flight. There are always 2/3 star out of 5 stars (Appendix 3). Hence,

2.3 Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM concerns the development of the effective system for integrating the quality development, quality maintenance and quality improvement efforts of the various group in an organization so as enable production and service at the most economical level which allow for full customer satisfaction (Slack et al, 1998).

Cathay Pacific developed a strategy that covers 5 “priority areas” to manage the total quality of CX.

- Operating the flights: improving the flights operations including in the air and on the ground, making more fuel efficient by investing the best technology and utilizing optimum flight management procedure. For example, CX ordered 85 aircraft for delivery up to 2024.

- Managing the infrastructure: CX enhances the environmental performance of its ground infrastructure and support services in Hong Kong and at destinations across network. For example, CX introduced the check-in Kiosk line since 2001 and keeping optimization it every year and now more and more passengers check-in by using Kiosk.

- Interacting with customers: CX providing the sustainable products and service to the customers.

- Work with supply chain: CX developing partnerships with it suppliers to address and improve the social and environmental impacts of it supply chain. For example, CX owns it catering service which called “Cathay Pacific Catering Service”.

- Investing in people and communities: CX supporting the workplace, empowering them to make difference in local communities across the CX network. For example, CX motivates it staff to serve the community in different area via “CX Volunteers” corporate volunteer team.

(Cathay Pacific, 2015).

2.4 Service process

Slack et al (2005, p.88) mentioned that “the process by which some functional requirement of people is satisfied through the shaping or configuration of the resources and/or activities that comprise a product or service.”

According to the service process matrix (Schmenner, 1986), Cathay Pacific is belonging service factory in low degree of interaction and customization and low degree of labour intensity that means CX is providing a standardized service with high capital investment.

Front office processes

Front office processes is deal with customers directly and the front