Amy's Ice Cream

Résumé du document

The case study we examined and presented on was entitled Amy's Ice Cream and came from the chapter on service encounter. This report will outline how we as a group organized and managed our presentation and detail what we would do differently if given a second chance. The planning for Amy's Ice Cream presentation began at the beginning of the 3rd week of the midterm break. Of the five group members, only three of us could be physically present for the first meeting as the other two team members were visiting their home countries. Therefore these team members were contacted a number of days before the meeting was scheduled and an agreement was reached where we would use instant messenger to liaise with each other as the meeting progressed. We used instant messenger to consult them on ideas and points which were being raised during the physical meeting in Dublin. This allowed them to express any ideas, questions or concerns as regards the project in hand. We felt that this was an excellent compromise as we benefited from the input of all team members and also it avoided confusion which would result upon their return to Ireland on April 1st.

Extraits

[...] Also the presentation format may not have suited some of our team members whose skills lay more so in writing etc. rather than speaking/demonstrating and in general presenting. Finally timing problems arose for us in that the original times we had assigned to sections of our presentation were not adhered to. This came as a result of the ambiguous nature of the role play (Student participation could not be timed beforehand and thus we had to allot enough time for this section of the presentation to be completed). [...]

[...] organisational culture and employee selection procedures. What we should have done was examined the theory of the whole chapter and toward the end included issues such as customer as a co producer'. We should have raised these types of issues at the end, asking the class is customers could become co-producers at an Amy's Ice Cream store, and the impact this would then have on their organisational culture and service encounter as a whole. Conclusion In conclusion, this report has highlighted what we aimed to do in our presentation, how we planned it, what we did and some of the issues regarding what we thought should have been included in it. [...]

[...] This gave us a very broad perspective when considering points and also allowed us to form novel insights into the material and questions at hands. Also, some members of the group had very strong personalities and were unwilling to except points without explanations and the assessment of alternative views which could be considered. This helped ensure that the highest quality ideas were developed and implemented. How the Group Made Use of Time and Resources Fortunately our group had the foresight to begin the seminar preparation three weeks before it was due. [...]

[...] In terms of the positives, the presentation format firstly allowed us to see all of our work coming together. After three weeks of planning and preparation the presentation summed up everything into one thirty minute period. It also allowed us to see what worked well and what didn't work as well as we thought it would. Things on paper always look different in real life and our presentation showed us that. By completing the presentation we were also able to notice some of the mistakes we made. [...]

[...] The current selection procedure (using abstract questioning, situational vignettes and role playing) could be used in a larger organisation but regarding Amy's Ice Cream's application form (The white bag) a detailed form would have to be included with the application so that appropriate details of applicants could be gathered. This allowed for the creative aspects the white paper bag brought to be kept on. As for the service encounter and the organisational culture, we proposed that they could be maintained through the performance of training programmes for managers. Communication Strategies Employed To communicate the material we were covering in our presentation our group came up with a four step process. We would begin by naming our point and would continue by detailing it and expanding on it. [...]