Marketing Services Summary

Question 1:

Service Provider: DirecTV

DirecTV provides satellite television service to homes and business. I have been a customer of DirecTV for over three years and have had a good experience with company and their service. Although their product is hardly perfect, I have found that their customer service is competent, is constantly improving in communication and motivated to improve their knowledge of my needs as a consumer and maintain a positive relationship.

Service Experience:

DirecTV has provided customer service through several means during my tenure as a customer. This service experience has included many different means including; An in-store (Best Buy) sales representative who assisted in selecting programming packages and HD receiver hardware; a third-party installer who delivered and installed, tested and provided instruction on my new equipment; A service oriented website that allows you to maintain and modify customer accounts; and an automated phone service line which happily connects to live customer support with consistently little effort.

Application of Gaps:

In the time I have been their customer I have worked with DirecTV customer service to do things such as change programming, add services, return equipment, make billing inquiries and have come away a satisfied consumer. In short, I believe that a case can easily be made for all six gaps applying to their service, but I chose two specific ones that stand out in that they have been the most critical in maintaining a positive customer relationship with me as a consumer.

Service delivery Gap 4 applies in that I found that I have often needed clarification on promotional efforts, and offers from DirecTV that would require a financial commitment or (unadvertised) personal action in order to realize the benefits being advertised.

Service quality specifications Gap 5 applies here as it represents the difference between the quality level expected by customers and the perception of the...