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This paper is set out to analyse the experiential aspects of service product and how these experiences affect my view of the product using the multi-segment model (MS model) (See Appendix). The chosen service is Yarra Trams ¨C Melbourne. In this paper I will examine and analyse the experiential factors of this service that is an ¡°intangible action directed at intangible assets¡±. I will also explain why these experiences affected my view of Yarra Tram service and its delivery.
The easiest way to understand Yarra Trams service from my ¨C the customer¡¯s perspective ¨C point of view is analysing it using the MS model. Starting in the product quadrant, the entities (E) are tram timetables and information, trams turn up at right time and right location, ability to carry passengers. The marketers activity (MA) is making sure all information about the trams, route and timetables is correct and available, ensuring the ability to carry passenger punctually and timely. The buyers activity (BA) is obtaining information, timetables, realising the needs for using trams service instead of driving, bus or train... Clearly, because of the characteristics of this service, the interaction (I) between marketer and buyer is low. It could be asking the driver some information out the route or way to go to some particular destination. The interaction could also be considered as buyer ¨C passenger ¨C reading information, brochures on the trams or announcements.
In the product delivery quadrant, E is the way the information being communicated to buyer ¨C either announcement, in person, brochures or on the internet ¡ E is also the schedule of trams and drivers. In this quadrant, the MA consists of implementing the schedule and timetables, making sure the trams arrive safely and punctually. The BA consists of showing up at right time and location, checking information, timetable and schedule, getting on the right tram, buying ticket, getting out at the destination. The interaction between buyer and marketer is just obtaining more information or announcing any changing.
In the auxiliary services quadrant the E could be friendliness of drivers, cleanliness of the trams, convenience and safety at waiting areas. The MA is friendly, courteous and timely of all Yarra Trams staff (driver, inspectors, announcers¡). Marketers activity will also be providing useful information of local areas, for example, Yarra Trams give away local maps for passengers. The BA consists of responding courteously to and taking advantage of services offered. Interaction occurs when I greeting or asking information any Yarra Trams staff.
In the additional marketing quadrant the E includes providing information through free telephone number (1800 800 166), e-mail and Yarra Trams homepage website (www.yarratrams.com.au). The MA is maintaining and updating the website with news and information (changing route, announcements, new projects¡), answering the free telephone number. The BA could be browsing Yarra Trams website or calling info-number to get timetables, routes¡ With this system I can even log my complaints or suggestions to Yarra Trams. Whenever I use these facilities, interaction between Yarra Trams and me ¨C the buyer ¨C occurs.
Now we will analyse in detail how those experiential aspects of Yarra Trams service affect my view. There are two types of trams, the old Yarra trams and the others that are newer with cutting edge design and aerodynamics looks. The new trams have more look of Japanese bullet train. The interiors are also very different between these trams. The old one has leather trim seats but not very spacious. While those new trams have the seats cushioned and they are big and pretty roomy. The seats organising on the new trams also make it more easily to access. Another problem with the old trams that really bother me is the seat vandalised and drawn that makes them so uncomfortable.
The ticket system inside the trams is fairly easy to operate. The good thing is those machines are always in service where the passengers can purchase the ticket for the trip. Pricing is also fair since it gives reasonable price to the public as seniors, low income and children under 1 can get concession tickets which are cheaper. The downside of ticket machines is it accepts coin only which is pretty inconvenience. So if someone doesn¡¯t have sufficient amount of coins to purchase the ticket, he/she better not try to cheat as the Yarra trams service also has inspectors where they go one to inspect for validate tickets. If one gets caught for travelling without a validate ticket, the penalty is quite high. For the doors of the trams are different ways in opening. The one type is manually down by the driver with the doors opened by pushing the button. While for the new type it has a safety appliance where it protects the door. The door can be opened by the driver and also by the passengers. But for the passenger the door can only be operated when the trams stop and the light indicators are on. For the driving operating of trams are different. The old one is much noisier and not very smooth, while the new one is much quieter and smoother and doesn¡¯t cause noise pollution. However, both have the same power and the driver controls the speed of the tram. In the driver area, the one is much open, it has a door and a plastic window from the driver to the passenger. But the new trams are all covered up and neither driver nor passenger can get close to another which is hard for me as passenger to get any information from the driver. However, I found that in both trams no matter open or close the driver are always friendly when asked for directions, they are quite useful when giving the passenger which route and tram to take to get to destination. Yarra trams allow passengers to bring in prams, bicycles, and pets but one thing is on certain time only. The trams have become the first choice of the public therefore sometimes normally during rush hour it is crowded and because of this passengers have to stand. Fortunately, all trams have bars and handles where passengers can hold on to it while standing. The trams run from morning till midnight. Both of these trams often give the public safe and punctual transportation. From this view, Yarra tram service is providing a good service and because of this they make sure they do their best to give themselves a good reputation to the eye of public.
Clearly, transportation becomes more and more important in this 1st century, this is because people today need to travel conveniently in a short time. Therefore, Yarra trams appears in Melbourne to fulfil people¡¯s wants and needs. However, to compete with other competitors like buses, taxi, trains¡ they have to make sure that their services are on the satisfactory level. Yarra tram service consists of seven locations, including four depots, with a fleet of 01 trams carrying 60 million passengers and more than . kilometres per year. The differences between trams and other public transportations are trams are easier to take since they stop in every traffic lights while other transportations have to find the stop and also wait for a longer time.
Yarra tram service is successful because of the privilege of transportation in the area since it brings a lot of advantages and convenient to the public. First of all, the advantage of using trams is the trams can carry more people compare to buses and taxis. According to Yarra trams report their capacity is 60 million passengers per year with the fleet of 01 trams. The operation hours of tram service are normally between 5am to midnight Monday to Saturday and 8am to 11pm Sunday. This brings me as a passenger a lot of conveniences since I don¡¯t have to worry about my transportation for the whole day from early morning to late night.
Clearly, Yarra tram service has been keeping me away from driving because using the service I don¡¯t have to worry about traffic-jams, petrol, finding a parking lot and parking fees. The service also helps me avoid accidents if I have to drive early in the morning and come home tired. The fare of the trams is also cheaper compare to driving cars and using taxis. Once I know the timetable ¨C which I can easily obtain the information by asking the drivers, looking up at tram stops, calling the information line, checking in Yarra trams website ¨C then it is really just getting in and enjoying the trip with worry-free.
Every selling and purchase must involve the seller and also the customer only can consider as a business. Therefore, the degree of consumer involvement is the basis of satisfaction or dissatisfaction response. Lovelock et al (001) shown that empirical work that has examined low-involvement products indicates that the customers¡¯ expectation interact with the post-purchase experience to produce customers level of satisfaction. Again, Lovelock et al (001) said that for high-involvement products, pre-usage expectations might be a less important influence on the evaluation of the product than the actual product performance. In Yarra tram service, the things can be touched can categorise into low-involvement. The service is high-involvement because it is popular among the public, almost everyone had experienced it, it is cheap and the passengers use the tram service over and over again.
According to the SERVQUAL scale (Lovelock, 001), it used to measure and model perceived service quality. In this scale, responsiveness is part of the dimensions. Responsiveness means promptness and helpfulness. In Yarra trams service, the responsiveness of the tram are not very high since there is no any staff in this service tell the passenger exactly when the service will be performed. This brings the problem to the passengers who are the first time users. There is no staff to explain the guideline how to use all operating machine like ticket machine and bell. The passengers only learn to use these things by following other passengers or read the brochures that allocated next to the ticket machine. Such an excellent service will always help the passengers and will give explanation as well as other information face to face and this will get lose to the passengers and easy for the company to fulfill customer¡¯s wants and needs.
Another dimension in the SERVQUAL is assurance. Assurance means capability, politeness, credibility and security. This means that operating skill of the drivers must be safe and sound. The drivers can ensure the customers¡¯ confidence by showing them with an orderly uniform. By showing this image to the customer, it will give good impression and also show the professional image to customer. Other than that, the driver must be consistently being polite to the passengers. This is because the driver is the only one available on the tram to represent the Yarra tram service that can communicate and answer the question of passengers. For example, the drivers must courteously answer my request ¨C as a passenger ¨C and have enough knowledge to show me which tram and route should I take if I require for information.
Clearly, for any service, customers are the most important force to make a business successful or fail in the market. Among the marketers¡¯ activity, Yarra tram needs to fully understand the customers. They need to identify who are the passengers, how often they travel, how much they are willing to pay and how they choose between available transportation services. Marketers might opt to use segmentation to create a success in service market. The marketer has to divide the passenger into different distinctive groups that called market segmentation. Market segment is a group of passengers that are alike based on some characteristic.
When the Yarra tram service are used in various areas of the marketplace, it makes sense to use geography as a basic for market segmentation. Geographic dissimilarities between regions include climatic condition, location, surroundings, distance and terrain (Hanna & Wozniak, 001). In order to attract more people to use the service, Yarra trams should think of the comfort of the passengers. For example, is the tram stop easy to find? Since the tram is stoping at every traffic light so that the passenger will be able to catch a tram easily as their first choice of transportation. It is worth noting that passengers like me will only go to the place where is safe. I will not go to the stop that looks dangerous or dark and creepy. Therefore, the stop must be located at place that looks bright, crowded, clean and also safe to wait for the tram. The problem of distances is another important point why the passengers like to choose this service. This is because if I have to walk a long distance to be able to reach the stop, then I would rather go for other transportations. In the other hand, the stop also must be located near the place where it is solid cover up rather than full of mud collected from the holes after the rain or other condition that make it difficult to stand and wait for the tram to come by.
According to Hanna & Wozniak (001), demographics are the most basis for segmenting consumer markets. The variables such as age, gender, income, occupation, education, nationally and religion are commonly relate to consumer preferences, needs and usage rates. In this service, no matter how old the passengers are if they can sit in the tram, they will be sent to their destination. For the elder above 65 years old, they can use the service for free. While for the children under 15 years old, they can purchase the ticket by paying cheaper ticket ¨C concession fares.
Psychographic segmentation is partitioning of the market based on lifestyle and personality of the consumers (Hanna & Wozniak 001). Personally encompasses those relatively long-lasting personal qualities that allow the consumers themselves to respond to the world around them. Some of the passengers may be rude and never queue to get into the tram. There may also a part of passengers let the people who want to come down first then only they start moving. Each individual has a variety of personalities, some of these may be more desirable and some may even be undesirable.
Follow by the segmentation, consumers are divided into subgroups based on their attitude towards, usage of, commitment of, or reaction to the service. The actual product or service-related consumer behaviour, such as usage rate, benefits sought and brand loyalty is a suitable point for delineating market segment. Usage rate refers to the frequency or quantity in which consumers buy or use a particular product or service (Neal & Quester & Hawkins, 000). For the Yarra tram service the passengers like me should travel more than once if the trams provide a good service by sending the passengers from location to destination by just few minutes and also it is cheaper and convenient. Some of the passengers are loyal to the service or product once they find out the advantages. For this tram service, most of the passengers are loyal just because the tram can bring a lot of convenient to them.
Understanding wants and needs helps company to identify with how customers react to the service delivery experience. According to Bowen and Schneider and others argue that several fundamental needs include security and respect. Security is needs by passengers like me to feel secure and unthreatened. For example, who want to sit the tram that is speeding and dangerous? For that reason, the driver must make sure that drive slowly and realise the desire for protection and stability of passengers. For me the respect can be demonstrated by a) the waiting time; b) how pleasant the waiting experience is at the stop; c) the way of staff or drivers giving information to passengers; d) the convenience of operating hours and location. I found that Yarra trams have fairly excellent performance, which make me feel safe and respected by the service.
As a passenger of Yarra trams, I have my own demand for the service provided and my expectations are very important for the provider to improve quality of the service. However, every passenger has different expectation, background, attitude, motivation, emotion, personality and also lifestyle. If Yarra tram service wants to successfully develop their image in transportation industry, it is essential for them to analyse consumer behaviour to understand the attitudes that they drive it.
Attitudes are consistent inclinations ¨C whether favourable or unfavourable ¨C that passenger hold towards Yarra tram service. They can be formally defined as learned predispositions to respond in a consistent manner in respect to the services (Lovelock, 001). The attitude is characterised by consistency. This means that attitudes take time to develop and are stable and enduring. Therefore, Yarra tram must always keep the good image like reach on time, the seats and around are clean for the passengers and so on as long as making passenger feel comfortable. This is because once if I have negative attitude towards the service, it is very difficult to change.
Consumer attitudes are responsiveness. They judge the service by experience it (Lovelock, 001). For example, they would try the tram service at least once to judge how the trams provide their service and see whether it is safe and convenient to use the trams for transportation.
The cognitive component is what we think we know about an attitude object. The beliefs are based on knowledge (I experience documents that the tram will send me my destination within a short time), opinion (inconclusive beliefs based on travel by trams will cut down the percentage involve in accident) and values system (passengers should have heard government advice to cut down the traffic and pollution).
The affective component includes feeling of like and dislike, representing the reaction to the cognitive. For example, after experiencing the effective services from Yarra tram like avoid traffic-jam, save time, convenient, cheap and safe I begin to form positive feeling and start to use it all the time.
The behavioural of an attitude represents the tendency to respond to an attitude service. A series of decisions to use the tram or not, or to recommend it to friends, would be the behavioural components of an attitude towards Yarra tram service.
Attitude change is a shift in the valance of an attitude from positive to negative or vice versa. This is because people are easy influenced by the environment and by the way the world is keep changing. Firstly, changing in cognitive component. A common effective approach to change the attitudes is to focus on the cognitive component. For example, to attract more passengers, Yarra trams service has presented the advantages to the public like the pollution, avoid traffic-jam, save petrol and time. Secondly, changing in affective component. It is increasing common for Yarra tram to influence passenger¡¯s liking of its services without directly influencing either belief or behaviour. If Yarra tram can increase the liking it will tend to lead to more positive beliefs lead to a product category arise.
Clearly, emotion easily influences customers¡¯ perceptions and evaluations of their experience. Emotion includes anger, fear, disgust, interesting, shame, joy and surprise. For example, when I have to pack myself into the crowd on a tram I would feel frustrated and impatient to get out. This might cause a bad impression to me and I would not use the tram any more. That¡¯s why some of passengers consider taking a tram is very troublesome compare to driving and also don¡¯t have to spend time waiting at the stops. However, after trying to sit the tram for first time, they may surprise how convenient and enjoy their whole journey.
Although Yarra tram is one of the major transportations in Melbourne, I found that they always try to improve the services. Clearly, they just want to make sure that every passenger that uses their service feels comfortable and also reposition the tram service as a modern and appealing mode of transport.
In my opinion, the service experience could have been enhanced if Yarra tram had done these A) Yarra tram should provide a longer tram, which include more seats for the passengers. Normally, the seats only provide for about 40 passengers, while others have to stand and I found this can be dangerous and uncomfortable especially when the tram starts and stops. Other than that, Yarra tram should equip some seats for children, which are smaller. This is because it is difficult for children to keep balancing on those normal seats, so after providing this option, they can sit and also it is much safer for them and the family so they don¡¯t have to carry them all the way in the trip. B) Yarra trams service should design a footstep where it can help disable people to get into the tram in a more convenient way. I often saw how hard diable passengers get in the tram. C) Yarra tram service should put some entertainment on the tram such as music or small TV to provide information, news. Yarra tram service may send some staff to conduct in the tram in certain time to provide needed information. Yarra tram can also cut down the ticket price on off-peak time to attract more passengers.
In conclusion, I think Yarra tram is really providing an exceptional service. Their intangible actions that directed at intangible assets are their staff and driver uniform that make me feel safe and convenient. The intangible aspects also are the customer service, cleanliness, and friendliness of staff. There are a lot of competitors in the market, as a result the Yarra tram must differentiate itself from other by using those intangible aspects to attract passengers.
Yarra tram should understand that customer involvement is very important for the service since it shows customers¡¯ satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The easiest way to examine Yarra Trams service from my ¨C the customer¡¯s perspective ¨C point of view is analysing it using the MS model. The model is used to analyse Yarra tram service by four quadrants ¨C service, product delivery, auxiliary service and additional marketing. Each quadrants will study the service under four segments ¨C Entities (E), Marketer action (MA), Buyer action (BA), and interaction (I). The analysis shown that Yarra tram has been providing an exceptional service. Their service and product delivery quadrants shown that the service has interacted well with passengers and satisfied their wants and needs. The auxiliary service and additional marketing shown that Yarra tram has to improve to exceed passengers expectation.
REFERENCES
Hanna N. & Wozniak R., 001, Consumer Behaviour, an applied approach, Prentice Hall, New York.
Lovelock, C.H., Patterson, P.G. & Walker R.H., 001, Service Marketing, An Asia Pacific Perspective, Prentice Hall, Australia.
Neal, C. & Quester, P. & Hawkins D., 000, Consumer Behaviour, Implication for Marketing Strategy, McGraw-Hill, Australia.
Ward, Tony & Newby, Leonce. 00. MRKT 106 Marketing of service products Study Guide, winter edition, Division of teaching and learning service, CQU, Rockhampton
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