Question

Service Management:

Kris Karate has been teaching martial arts at a community college for some years.  Recently he moved to the Portland area and accepted a part-time job teaching for a private studio. Enrollment in Kris's class increased every month for the first 4 months.  In the last two months, the enrollment and attendance at his classes began to decline and the management noticed that future enrollment sign-up was on the decline. Kris and the owner of the studio asked you to meet with them as a service management consultant. What questions would you ask them and how might you approach their problem. Share with them at least three different strategies to gather good information and use that information to make adjustments to Kris's program.

Answer 1

It is certain that Kris's new part time assignment has much to do what is happening at the academy. Most probably Kris is not being able to give enough time to his students at his old company, which is affecting their training and also level of satisfaction. It is generating bad word of mouth among the prospective students and preventing them from being enrolled. There may be other reasons as well, which need to be investigated.

The questions to be asked to the team members.

(a) What time did Kris devote to his Karate students previously and has it changed after his joining of a new job.

(b) How many enrolments were done through referrals out of the total numbers.

(c) Analysis of past years' reviews and their comparison with those of the current year.

(d) How has been the performance of the students of academy in the competitions at different levels. Has it changed recently.

(e) How did the company advertise its services. Has there been a change in the policy.

(f) Has there been a negative incident at the facility, that has generated negative word about the academy.

Three strategies

On the basis of the answers to the questions listed above, following three strategies need to be employed.

(a) Internal analysis - Critically analyse the pattern of decline in the enrolments, Has it started happening after Kris accepted new role. What is the percentage of referrals among the total numbers, and how it has changed over time. Has there been a sense of dissent from the students regarding quality of training or for any other reason.Has there been something which has projected the academy negatively among the prospective students. Have there been any unresolved issues. Has the customer satisfaction level declined over the time as ascertained from feedback.

(b) Customer reviews - The current as well as past students should be involved in a survey meant to find out the root cause of the problem. They should be asked in detail about their experience t the academy, quality of instruction, value addition, value for the fees paid and overall satisfaction index. They should also be asked whether they will refer it to their friends and known.

(c) Market analysis - The overall enrolment trend in the market should be analysed with number of competitors and their activities. Maybe some competitor has come up with more advanced facilities or trainers at its end and attracting the students. Maybe some competitors has given excellent results in the competitions over last year and attracting more students. Maybe there is a decline in overall enrolment in the city. Maybe there is some negative publicity about the company by some competitor which needs to be tackled to send positive message in the market.

On basis of three strategies, the root cause may be found and addressed to.