Premier Courier Ltd. (PCL) is an innovative overnight delivery company that helped change the way companies do business. It was the first company to offer an overnight delivery system, but the company markets more than just a delivery service. What PCL really sells is on-time reliability. The company markets risk reduction and provides the confidence that people shipping packages will be “Absolutely, positively, certain their packages will be there by 10.30 in the morning”.
In fact, PCL sells even more than reliable delivery. It designs tracking and inventory management systems for many large companies. In other words, its customers buy more than just delivery service they buy a solution to their distribution problems. For example, a warehouse designed and operated by PCL is part of the distribution centre for a very large computer firm. In other organisations, customers can place an order for inventory as late as midnight, and the marketer, because of PCL’s help, can guarantee delivery by the next morning. PCL has positioned itself as a company with a service that solves its customers’ problems,
Questions
(1) What is PCL’s product? What are the tangible and intangible elements of this service product?
(2) What are the elements of service quality for a delivery service like PCL?
(3) In what way does technology influence PCL’s service quality?
Answers
Answer:
1 Premier Courier Ltd. (PCL) is an innovative overnight delivery company that helped change the way companies do business. It was the first company to offer an overnight delivery system, but the company markets more than just a delivery service. What PCL really sells is on-time reliability.
2 In other words, its customers buy more than just delivery service they buy a solution to their distribution problems. For example, a warehouse designed and operated by PCL is part of the distribution centre for a very large computer firm. In other organisations, customers can place an order for inventory as late as midnight, and the marketer, because of PCL’s help, can guarantee delivery by the next morning.
3 a warehouse designed and operated by PCL is part of the distribution centre for a very large computer firm.
Explanation: