Gap Identification in Service Market

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Contents

Service Company Background (Virgin Active):        

Brief History:        

Current Company Missions and Values:        

Gap Identification:        

Customer Gap:        

Not knowing what customers expect (Gap1):        

Not delivering to service designs and standards (Gap3):        

Not matching performance to promise (Gap4):        

Closing the Gaps:        

Proposed App:        

App Design:        

How the gaps are closed        

Customer gap        

Gap 1        

Gap 3        

Gap 4        

Illustration of Gaps being closed        

Bibliography        

Service Company Background (Virgin Active):

Brief History:

This company was first launched in 1998 in Preston Lancashire as part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group and now have their head office in Milton Keynes (Unknown, 2002).  In South Africa the company bought the assets of the 'Health and Racquet Club' chain after the latter's parent company. In 2002, by which point the company had 350,000 members, Branson sold 55 percent of the company to Bridge point Capital and in 2005, Branson bought out Bridge point’s stake in the business (Unknown, 2005). It subsequently expanded its operations in 2004 to Italy and by 2005 the company had 25 clubs in the UK, 77 clubs in South Africa and 12 clubs in Continental Europe it also then opened its first Australian club in Sydney in late 2008 (Hammond, 2009). On 1 November 2006 it took over the UK-based operation increasing its UK chain of clubs from 24 to 72 overnight (Fildes, 2009).  On 26 April 2011 it announced the takeover of UK gym operator Esporta's 55 clubs increasing the UK business to 124 clubs. The current Group CEO is Paul Woolf, who succeeded founder Matthew Bucknall in late 2013 (Fildes, 2009).

Current Company Missions and Values:

Virgin Active's mission is to bring positive change to people's lives, because, according to their website “Life's more fun when you move”. With 88 Clubs and many more in the pipeline, they are getting people moving and feeling great all over South Africa. Their values include; Fun, Innovation, Challenging the norm, Excellent customer service, Value for money, If you're moving, you're alive, you feel good, You're instantly on the path to health and wellness, We make this path as fun and enjoyable as possible (Unknown, 2015).

Though Virgin Active is vast a growing and strong company with many good marketing strategies in place we have identified a few gaps in their service delivery which will identify and discuss below along with an app design in order to fulfil these.

Gap Identification:

We have identified the following gaps with relevance to the services within Virgin Active:

• A Customer Gap
• Not knowing what customers expect (Gap1)
• Not delivering to service designs and standards (Gap3)
• Not matching performance to promises (Gap4)

Customer Gap:

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The customer gap is the difference between customer expectations and perceptions, where customer expectations are standards or reference points that customers bring to the service experience where as customer perceptions are subjective assessments of actual service experiences (Wilson, et al., 2012).

I identified this gap with Virgin Active because of surveys that I have conducted and in 100% of the surveys with relative questions people felt that they expect more but got less, mainly due to the fact that most people want immediate results when it comes to fitness and health but don’t understand the concept that it takes time, dedication and motivation to reach their goals. Some people’s goals might take longer than others because of the individual progress time each person’s body and health adapts to and works on. Virgin Active has the best equipment there is on the market and keeps their promise of delivering the best there is but it doesn’t mean that their equipment has super powers and that is what forms the customer gap.

Customers need to understand the point that Virgin Active can only help them to a certain point and no further. The rest is entirely up to the customer and its work ethics and dedication, Virgin active will supply personal trainers, meal plans and the service, results lie further in the dedication of the customer. This not made very clear to customers by Virgin Activity and needs to be rectified.

Not knowing what customers expect (Gap1):

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This is the difference between customer expectations of service and a companies understanding of those expectations. (Wilson, et al., 2012)

Sometimes a service company can see the service as just a trend in the modern age where people will join Virgin Active just because the whole world started living a healthy lifestyle and started joining gyms and health clubs. Virgin Active will need to distinguish between people that are already fit and want to build muscle and those needing to loose fat through cardio workouts and diet plans. Customers expect these major health clubs to know these types of things and know the customers needs. Virgin Active health clubs should rather focus on building a personal relationship with their customers rather than worrying about how many new memberships they can get. All their members are the face of their company, so they should focus on helping those who want to get fit and healthy so that it could also shine a positive light on their image.

Not delivering to service designs and standards (Gap3):

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This is the discrepancy between development of customer driven service standards and actual service performance by company employees. (Wilson, et al., 2012)

This is the motivation stage for Virgin Active which will help them close this gap between their service and the customer’s standards. If Virgin Active keeps on improving their service they will not be worried about letting their customers down and under delivering their service. The service they deliver is the standard that customers are going to be used to unless they come from a far more superior gym. If Virgin Active delivers their service slightly different in the wrong way they are going to miss their customer’s zone of tolerance and under deliver their service. So Virgin Active is going to constantly need to work on their improvement of service so that they can exceed customer expectations to avoid any disappointed customers.