Imagine that you are a Service Operation consultant, who has a task to advise a start-up business (in any sector of your choice) on how to develop excellence in customer service. This is a newly founded organisation (less than 10 years old) in any sector that you wish to choose, and must be a real company*. Your advice must be based on best practice, e.g. if the start-up is a delivery service, you can identify best practice from Amazon, Deliveroo, Uber, etc. Additionally, you can describe challenges to providing optimal customer services, again drawing from the examples/case studies of the established companies.

Assignment Guidance: 2000 words plus or minus 10% (min. 1800, max. 2200) –

Title: “Delivering Excellence” – 60%

 

Imagine that you are a Service Operation consultant, who has a task to advise a start-up business (in any sector of your choice) on how to develop excellence in customer service. This is a newly founded organisation (less than 10 years old) in any sector that you wish to choose, and must be a real company*. Your advice must be based on best practice, e.g. if the start-up is a delivery service, you can identify best practice from Amazon, Deliveroo, Uber, etc. Additionally, you can describe challenges to providing optimal customer services, again drawing from the examples/case studies of the established companies.

 

REMEMBER IT IS A REPORT NOT AN ESSAY – There is a difference! Use headings and subheadings. Graphs, tables and diagrams can be included and placed in the appendices, after the Reference List.

 

Include these sections, each on a new page:

 

• Title sheet – Your full name, student number, title (Delivering Excellence) and word count.

 

• Table of contents – Give page numbers for each section, e.g.:

Abstract p.2

Introduction           p.3

etc.

 

 

 

• Abstract/Executive summary (150-200 words).

 

Write this last. Explain briefly what the report is about, the main points from the Discussion and Analysis and main conclusion(s).

 

• Introduction (250-350 words).

 

Introduce the service concept for the new company. Who are the competitors? Who will

be the target market (main customers)? How do the successful companies, in the

same market, communicate their service concept? What is the learning from this that

could be applied to the start-up?

 

Give a thesis statement for the report. What will the report do?

 

• Discussion and Analysis (1200-1400 words)

 

Present your main points. Divide these into:

 

Customer service – use any of the theories discussed in class – again look back over the

PowerPoints and coursework case studies. Explain how the service can obtain feedback from the customers and what do they do with the feedback? How do they

improve/adapt their service. Illustrate your findings with best practice and challenges

(and how they were overcome) from other service providers. (500 – 750words)

 

Continuous improvement – use any of the theories discussed in class – “Lean

Principles”, “Kaizen”, Total Quality Management. How does or will your company

continually improve? Give practical examples and explain the theory. Discuss resistance

to change and potential barriers to improvement and how these could be overcome.

Again, you could discuss best practice from other companies to illustrate your points.

(500 -750 words).

 

• Conclusion (200-250 words)

Summarise the main points from the Discussion and Analysis; the key elements of theory.

and most important recommendations (practical points for implementing an effective strategy).

 

• Reference list (not included in word count)

 

Use Harvard style and ensure all your citations in the body of the report have a matching full reference.

 

 

Think about the start-up you’ve chosen to write about for the final report. Which issues does it have? Make notes and try to categorise the issues into different areas like this :

Issue 1—–Solution1

Issue 2—-Solution2

Issue3—–Solution3

* The following websites might help you choose a startup:

https://www.fundz.net/startup-companies-ultimate-guide (all industries)

https://www.cloudways.com/blog/best-startups-watch-out/ (all industries)

https://www.crunchbase.com/hub/delivery-startups#section-overview (delivery companies)

https://risnews.com/10-hot-retail-startups (retail companies)

https://travelmassive.com/lists/20292/50-travel-startups-to-watch-in-2020 (travel companies)

https://angel.co/hospitality-1 (hospitality companies)

https://www.expresscomputer.in/category/startup/ (tech companies)

 

You may also find a suitable start-up by reading business news articles, e.g.

https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/startups

https://startups.co.uk/news/

https://www.wired.co.uk/topic/startups

https://www.businessweekly.co.uk/news/startups

 

Some Theory need to be covered

Principles of Six Sigma

Customer driven objectives

Uses evidence

Structured improvement cycle

Training to promote improvement

Organisational structure to promote improvement

Process capability

Process design

Process improvement

Six Sigma steps

Define

Measure

Analyse

Improve

Control

 

The five Principles of Lean

Source: https://theleanway.net/The-Five-Principles-of-Lean

 

Strategic Benchmarking

Used when businesses need to improve overall performance

Examines long-term strategies / general approaches that have enabled high-performers to succeed

Considers high level aspects e.g. core competencies, developing new products / services + improving capabilities for dealing with changes in external environment

Changes may be difficult to implement + take a long time to materialise

 

CITATION

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