In 2017, the owner of Onnie Jewellers in Leamington, Ontario, and her daughter were preparing for their annual summer promotion event. Held in mid-August, the invitation-only summer promotion event at the store had become hugely successful and very popular with Onnie’ Jewellers' clientele. The owner and her daughter were reviewing data from the previous year’s event and discussing potential changes that would improve the customer's shopping experience.
This case examines how a premium credit card company, American Express Canada (Amex Canada), is attempting to differentiate itself from its competition and to realize value for—and from—its cardholder members through a focus on providing apt quality services and servicing. In April 2011, the president and chief executive officer of Amex Canada is considering his options in sustaining the company's stance in the ultra-rich end of the premium payment cards segment in the face of competition from credit card companies that previously targeted the Canadian mass market. The situation is compounded by the after-effects of the economic downturn that began in the United States in 2008. Amex Canada has to develop a viable strategic and operational plan to realize its vision of becoming the most respected service brand, an ambition that is founded upon what it calls the Total Service Experience it provides to its card members. The case looks at the history of the company, provides an overview of the Canadian payment card industry, and explores core service and servicing issues salient to the design and provision of the Total Service Experience that Amex Canada hopes will not only satisfy existing cardholders but will attract new card members across its array of payment card options.
The vice-president and general manager of Totalline Transport wants to eliminate late appointment fees in delivering to one of Canada's premier electronic shops - Electronics International. Totalline Transport is hired by suppliers of electronics goods to deliver to retailers. The vice-president sees an opportunity to solve the problem of congestion in the parking lot of Electronics International's warehouse and eliminating unnecessary soft costs such as missed appointment fees and detention charges. The bottleneck in the process is the waiting time for all of the trucks to unload. If the carrier arrives late, the retailer will charge the carrier $1,000. If the carrier is waiting in line due to a backlog at the warehouse, the carrier will levy a charge of $50 to $60 per hour. Beyond these costs, the vice-president realizes that suppliers and retailers are spending one day per week investigating problems with shipments. He is eager to make his customers (suppliers) successful. He sees three central options in cutting down traffic: to request two dedicated doors at the warehouse; cut down on time for Electronics International by applying stickers at Totalline's consolidation point on all the deliveries so that Electronics International could immediately accept shipments into inventory without handling; or deliver direct to Electronics International stores.
With the hope of changing the way Canadians think about purchasing flowers, the owner of Bloom the Flower Company recognized the importance of the Wow! factor and the European florist model in her design of Bloom. Opened in 2002, the Toronto-based florist was continually stocked with a unique array of exotic, cut flowers for everyday purchase or individual or corporate events. Bloom's service delivery was based upon a friendly, welcoming and laid-back approach that focused on providing meaningful solutions to an individual's floral needs. Bloom's success had not gone unnoticed as several additional younger and hipper floral shops had been started in the area since Bloom opened. A number of business and service management issues have to be addressed in order for Bloom to grow.
The president of Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Fund is faced with the decision of how to expand the Dabbawallahs of Mumbai service. The service could be expanded in terms of product offering or geographical setting. This is a supplement to Dabbawallahs of Mumbai (A), product 9B04D011, and asks students to examine the opportunities and challenges in growing the service, and decide upon the most appropriate course of action.
The president of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust had just returned to his office after meeting with Britain's Prince Charles, who was on an official visit to Mumbai. The Trust was the managing organization of the dabbawallah meal delivery network. The dabbawallah's service was cited internationally by management scholars and industry executives as an exemplar in supply chain and service management. The service had acquired a reputation for its delivery reliability in Mumbai. International interest in the dabbawallahs was largely due to a 1998 article published by Forbes. However, many observers now expressed concerns over the future viability of the dabbawallahs' service given the difficulty in duplicating its delivery network elsewhere, the emergence of other lunch competitors in Mumbai, and an array of environmental changes affecting both its customers and the workforce. The case allows a discussion of service and supply chain management issues related to operational excellence.
The owners of Country Paws Boarding Inc., a large boarding facility for dogs, customarily took every opportunity to get to know each dog's likes, dislikes, behaviors and tendencies in order to minimize separation trauma. This required ongoing dialog with each dog owner and observation of each canine. The owners were always eager to chat with those boarding their dogs at Country Paws in the hope of identifying potential new services and improving existing offerings. In response to dog owner expectations for canine socialization and recreation, new offering being considered was the community playground. They must determine how this offering would fit with their current line of services and what other services were worth considering.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its newly appointed music director, performed a rarely heard composition. The musical performance was, by all accounts, superb. While most in the audience cheered the performance, a few of the audience members stormed out of the concert hall. These audience members were largely reacting to the high-tech mixed media show designed by a well-known artist that accompanied the performance. This performance was one of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's recent occasional and innovative breaks from concert tradition. The vice-president and general manager of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra recognized that opportunities existed onstage and offstage for broadening and enriching the orchestra's services and the concert experiences of its audience, in order to facilitate growth.
Blinds To Go (BTG), a Montreal-headquartered producer of made-to-order window coverings, had made the decision to enter the Florida market by opening eight retail stores. As a result of this decision, the senior vice-president (SVP) of operations for BTG was faced with the dilemma of deciding if and when an assembly plant should be built to support these and future Florida retail stores. The most recent plant, built in Lakewood, New Jersey, had experienced operational problems during its startup, resulting in the eventual replacement of most of the supervisory staff and a significant portion of the plant employees. This led to additional start-up costs and customer service problems. Faced with this expansion into Florida, the SVP set about devising an operating plan that would achieve the goals of the Florida expansion without the growing pains of past efforts. As the stores were to be opened in six months, a plan would have to be finalized soon.
One of the founders of a small business owners' purchasing cooperative organized four months earlier, was reflecting on its successful performance. The members of the co-op were willing to share responsibilities in the management of the co-op's primary activities of obtaining price quotes, invoicing members, and making delivery arrangements. The members were currently considering the possibility of extending the types of materials purchased collaboratively to services such as photocopying and printing of brochures and business cards. She wondered how best to promote the growth of the purchasing co-op and therefore, needed to create an action and implementation plan, considering: membership size, types of products and services purchased, qualitative and quantitative benefits of co-op involvement, vendor management and allocation of resources.
Fell-Fab Products is a manufacturer of interior coverings for airlines, bus companies and passenger rail services. A secondary business for the company is the manufacture of other sewn and welded textiles such as mail bags, tents, etc. One of Fell-Fab Products' important airline customers asked the company if it was interested in diversifying into service by taking on a contract to manage all aspects of the interior coverings business. The president of Fell-Fab Products must assess the differences between service management and manufacturing, decide whether Fell-Fab is capable of doing a good job at service and determine whether the business makes economic sense for the company. This case and the accompanying Fell-Fab Products (B) case (product 9B00D022) explore some of the implications of manufacturers diversifying into services.
Shortly after Fell-Fab Products went through the decision-making process of whether to move into service management in addition to manufacturing, it learned that European Airlines, one of its major European customers, would no longer purchase products directly from Fell-Fab Products. Instead, European Airlines instructed Fell-Fab Products to sell to Aircraft Interior Refurbishment. The president of Fell-Fab wondered how this information would affect his decision. This supplement to Fell-Fab Products (A) (9B00D021) raises the possibility of a strategic alliance.