Overview of Hello Fresh Importance of Customer Actions - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Task:

key employee actions

• delivery of the HelloFresh box, providing virtual support, and sending confirmation emails.
• support proccess
• The three most important support processes that are depicted in our blueprint is technical support, creation of recipes and on-site visits to vendors to ensure operation is food safe.

physical evidence
Customer reviews
Freshness of ingredients
images of meal selection
fall points
1.Payment required before selection of meals
2. Options only available for 2 or 4 people
Common pantry ingredients are not included in the HelloFresh box

HelloFresh provides the service of allowing customers to choose recipes tailored to their conditions for example servings, delivering fresh ingredients to their door with steps on how to make their chosen recipe. HelloFresh relies on customers' ability to navigate their website. The actions a customer makes will depict the plan they end up with,the recipes they choose which will ultimately determine whether they are satisfied with the services provided by HelloFresh. When a customer initially receives their HelloFresh box If a customer is unable to prepare the recipe according to how HelloFresh recommends, then that may lead to the customer unhappy with the results of the recipe, ultimately having dissatisfaction with the service provider. Since HelloFresh is an online service there are only a few times an employee will interact with a customer influencing the customer's experience with HelloFresh. For instance the interaction between the employee delivering the box and the customer receiving it. HelloFresh must ensure that delivery terms set by the customer are met as
Service Blueprint

About the service
HelloFresh is a company which originated from Germany and now currently has operations in Australia (HelloFresh n.d.). HelloFresh allows customers to create their own meal plan catered to their desires by delivering fresh ingredients according to the recipes chosen by the customer (McCall 2021). The service of HelloFresh that this report will be blueprinting is the perspective of a ‘New user experience’ and this will illustrate how the service is carried out from start to finish for a new user who has never used the HelloFresh service before. The reason for selecting HelloFresh is because they are a unique service provider that is suitable for the context of today's time. In our fast-paced society, this delivery service simplifies cooking a delicious meal with easy directions and ingredients measured all ready to start cooking. HelloFresh themselves say on their websites “our fuss-free quick recipes are all ready in 30 minutes or less ‘’ highlighting the convenience this company provides, HelloFresh also becomes a great alternative to buying groceries for those who are social distancing or simply too busy (HelloFresh n.d.).

Customer Actions
Customer actions are critical to a successful service experience as a customer's actions entail what they do throughout the service (Gibbons 2017). Firstly, selecting a plan as shown in appendix 3 is a key component of a customer’s action as it's based on the customers decision on what they want. Selecting the plan is the most important because if a customer does not select a plan the rest of the service cannot be performed.

The first physical impression of the service comes from receiving the hello fresh box and its contents (Appendix 20). This becomes a key customer action because if the contents are not on face value holding up to expectations, then it may negatively affect the service experience as the adequate service level that a customer expects is not being satisfied (Zeithaml & Bitner 1996 as cited in William, Applah & Addo 2016, pp. 81). In order for this action to be successful it needs to be seamless and customer friendly with ingredients being fresh, the box being delivered on time and contents being correct.

HelloFresh is a business that relies upon customers understanding how the business performs and what service it provides. From this it can be understood that following the recipe card and cooking the meals is another key customer action (Appendix 22). Depending on how well the customer can follow a recipe and how they cook the meal can make or break their service expectation. The service can run smoothly up until that point but if a customer was to be unsatisfied with their cooking ability, then it's easy for them to assume that the service by HelloFresh was not performed properly, highlighting a potential customer gap within the SERVQUAL model (Appendix 1).

Employee Actions
The three key employee actions crucial in portraying a successful HelloFresh service experience are the delivery of the HelloFresh box, providing virtual support, and sending confirmation emails. These employee actions are pivotal in creating a memorable experience differentiating HelloFresh from other meal kit delivery services in Australia, enticing customers to return to HelloFresh.

Delivering the HelloFresh box to the customer’s home and ensuring the meals are delivered in the times selected by the customer is a key component as it will be the first physical interaction with HelloFresh. Successful handoff is important to customer experience as incorrect handling procedures or lack of attention to delivery preferences may result in a diminished perception of service experience resulting in a Delivery gap (Gap 3 in Appendix 1) between the service quality specification and the service delivery (Kobiruzzaman 2021).

Appendix 15 and 17 showcases the process of providing virtual support along with an informative FAQ page, and this is utilised as a key employee action by HelloFresh to ensure customer enquiries are answered correctly therefore decreasing the potential for a customer gap (Appendix 1) between expectation and perception (William, Applah & Addo 2016). Providing customers with the live support needed, from general questions about delivery, payments, placing orders to issues with ingredients after receiving their box, ensures customers have a seamless service experience throughout, with a designated place to smooth their queries.

Lastly, sending a confirmation email as depicted in appendix 6 enables customers to feel reassured that their order was successfully placed, re-confirming all the details about their order. This employee action allows customers to feel secure that their payment went through and receiving that email including information about the scheduled time, day and meals selected further prevents any confusion and a potential knowledge gap (Appendix 1) from occurring (Kobiruzzaman 2021).


Support Processes
Support Process consist of all processes in which the main objective is to enable all functionality in all key processes and operation in a business (Hunt 2020). The three most important support processes that are depicted in our blueprint is technical support, creation of recipes and on-site visits to vendors to ensure operation is food safe.

Technical support is a vital key in any process as this section in a business allows customers’ needs and enquiries to be addressed and investigated thus reducing ‘friction’ between business and customer (Walker et al 2002). Technical support is what “drives” the functionality of the on-stage technology measures of the service blueprint, and this consists of various elements within this section such as website homepage, delivery options, payment options etc (Appendix 1-5). This therefore fosters customer satisfaction as the necessary support that enables technological ease is highly maintained.

Creation of the actual recipes and meal plans is another section in the support process department and deals with what and how meals are made. Being a pivotal distinguishing feature of HelloFresh service, the meal plans and recipes is highlighted as an important support service as it shapes employee actions, customer actions and physical evidence in the blueprint, because it dictates what ingredients are needed, what vendors are needed, what packaging is needed, what plans are to be displayed and so forth.

The third support process that is represented in the blueprint is ‘on-site visits to vendors to ensure operation is food safe’. This section allows the business to regularly check on how food vendors are maintaining and taking care of allocated supplies. This is connected to the backstage employee actions and is a necessary support process before ‘fresh ingredients are being collected by vendors’ and shipped to customers. This therefore allows the business to have a first-hand look into the operations of how and where produce is being taken from and how it is taken to the next stage in the business.

Physical Evidence
Physical evidence is an important component of HelloFresh’s service experience as it facilitates the first physical association that the customer has with the brand and is a visible measure that consumers use to equate and assess the quality of service provided (Rafiq & Ahmed 1995; Milton & Johnson 2012). Customer reviews is one element of physical evidence that HelloFresh utilises to influence positive user experience. As depicted in appendix 3, customer reviews are strategically placed at the sign-up stage of the customer actions process in order to influence potential customers to sign up. Research suggests that the use of physical evidence in the form of customer reviews influences customer experience as users are more inclined to purchase if they see someone else has had a positive experience and is therefore more likely to share that experience (Elwalda & Lu 2014).

Freshness of ingredients is another important element of physical evidence for HelloFresh as it is a reflection of their business model in being able to deliver fresh ingredients from vendors to customers and is a distinguishing feature in their marketing. According to the SERVQUAL gaps model of service quality, the communication gap (gap 4) occurs when the assumed expectations of customers are not fulfilled at the time of delivery of the service, thus leading to a negative perception of service experience because expected promises are not met (Appendix 1) (Parasuraman et al 1985). Correspondingly, the level of expectation that HelloFresh customers expect from the freshness of the ingredients they receive is a direct correlation to a potential communication gap and hence can influence customer experience if they don't feel their expectations of fresh ingredients are met.

Lastly, images of meal selection can influence customer experience as studies have shown that consumers are more lured to appetising images of food rather than the smell of food, with images of food alone being able to draw in revenue before consumers taste any food (Spence et al 2016). In essence, the appealing images of food allows users to anticipate what they will be getting from their HelloFresh Box, enlightening their experience and anticipation to duplicate what they see (Appendix 8).

Fail points and bottlenecks
Payment required before selection of meals
Selecting meals is the last step taken on the service blueprint customer actions that happen on the website before receiving the product. As shown in appendix 5, it verifies that only until customers have gone through with payment are they then able to view their meal options provided by hello fresh for them to choose from. This may deter customers as traditionally you are able to choose the product you will receive before putting in payment information and checking out.

The fact that customers have to pay before they are able to select the meal options could be a potential failure point for the service provider in satisfying customers as it might be confusing to navigate. This step in the service blueprint is a major point where customers may choose to just stop the experience with hello fresh all together. Customers may forgo going through payment all together without ensuring they will be able to receive a product that they enjoy and those who choose to go through with payment might not be happy with the options provided leading to a dissatisfactory experience (Consumer Affairs n.d.). Many people have different dietary requirements which raises the question, how can customers know that the meal options will be able to meet them, for example dairy free until after payment? Thus, a potential fail point can be identified in HelloFresh inability to give customers the assurance in selecting their meals before paying.

Options only available for 2 or 4 people
The fail point of ‘display plan size options’ comes from the landing page (Appendix 2). On face value the only options it gives for the number of people that can have the meals is only two and four. It's only when a customer clicks the find my plan icon that more options appear. The options for people are not intuitive and lack variety. Only having options for two and four people is very restrictive for the business and may drive sales away. In Australia from 1911 the average number of people in a household was 4.5 and from 2016 this number has dropped to 2.6 (Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2017). Although it can be concluded that four and two are the best options to choose in Australia, there is a potential market with families of more than 4 that HelloFresh disregards with only options for 2 and 4 people and this can therefore translate to a potential fail point in HelloFresh service blueprint.

Additionally, when customers click ‘find my plan’ they will be directed to a page when more options are given. These range from myself, two people, three people, four people, five people and six plus people. While these options are available to click, upon clicking them they aren't available to use, and a customer will be redirected to either the two-person plan or four-person plan. It should not be advertised that HelloFresh has more serving options if they are not available, it will only confuse customers and could lead to dissatisfaction with the service. Browsing and selecting the plan is one of the first customer actions that takes place and if it's not an easy process it will discourage customers from proceeding to purchase the service.

Common pantry ingredients are not included in the HelloFresh box
As highlighted in appendix 9, certain ingredients are not included in the HelloFresh box as you are already expected to have them in your pantry. It should be noted that this is not mentioned until you view the recipe cards after paying and while selecting your meals. This can pose a potential fail point as it may cause an inconvenience of having to buy extra ingredients if not readily available to certain demographic groups or if not normally a pantry item in your household. Suppose that university students who live away from home find the convenience of not having to shop and having all ingredients prepacked for them an advantage of using HelloFresh, however they may be put off if they have to go out and buy extra ingredients that they do not usually have. Given the high costs in comparison to competitors, some customers have indicated that they expected to have all ingredients ready to start cooking but realised while cooking that they were missing simple items like vinegar and having to go out and buy some more (Consumer Affairs n.d.). Although this saves a huge cost for HelloFresh as a service and limits food wastage, this may present HelloFresh with segments of its target market being inconvenienced by this measure and may therefore experience a diminished quality of service experience.



 

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