Services Marketing AMN 444
Assignment 3
Eleven Rooftop Bar
Lecturer – Dr Sven Tuzovic
Tutor – Elizabeth Buchanan
1. Introduction
Eleven Rooftop Bar is a superior dining venue that provides a spectacular view of Brisbane CBD at the eleventh floor of the building. They serve coffee as well as a wide range of lunch and dinner dishes and beverages throughout the week. Eleven Rooftop Bar is currently providing people-processing services, where frontline personnel plays an important role in satisfying customers. Table 1 shows the analysis on the service provided in Eleven Rooftop Bar by using Lovelock’s service classification framework (1992). As it will be a challenging task to build customer loyalty as most of the customers do not have “membership” with the bar, maintaining high service levels is essential. Therefore, this report will elaborate on the rooftop’s service offerings of Eleven Rooftop Bar on both employees and customers’ perspectives to provide suitable recommendations for service improvements.
Table 1 – Eleven Rooftop Bar service classification
Lovelock (1992) service classification framework Analysis Eleven
| What is the nature of the service act? | People-processing | Customers need to be physically present at Eleven throughout service delivery. Their satisfaction will be influenced by the interactions they have with the service personnel at the bar and the servicescape of the bar. |
| What type of relationship does the service organization have with its customers? | Discrete transactions without formal relationship | The frontline personnel are less well-informed about who their customers are it will be challenging to gain customer loyalty. |
| How much room is there for customization and judgement on the part of the service provider? | High customization with low judgement in meeting individual customer needs | The bar offers their customers an array of service options for food and beverage, as well as considerable flexibility in how the service product will be delivered to them by the frontline personnel. The customer are unlikely to deal with managers or supervisors. |
| What is the nature of demand and supply for the service? | Wide demand fluctuations and peak demand regularly exceeds capacity | Unpredictable and uncontrollable demand fluctuations over time, management may need to consider the level of customer satisfactions when the demand has exceeded capacity. |
| How is the service delivered? | Customer goes to single-site service organization | Customers are necessary to be in physical contact with the service organization. |
2. Service Marketing Mix Analysis
2.1 Service Product and Positioning
Eleven Rooftop Bar offers a casual approach to lunch and dinner. The food is sophisticated with the focus on share plates. Beside this, the Rooftop bar also provides morning coffee. The bar offers various beverage types such as signature cocktails, spirits, red wines and beers. In addition, consumers can book booths and functions, such as birthdays, Christmas parties, product launches etc. The bar is also introducing seasonal events such as “Working Lunch” and “Eleven Sundays” (Eleven Rooftop Bar, 2019) (Appendix 5.1). These products fit the target market described in Table 2, since upper class business people often resort to coffee. Furthermore, these customers like to relax and unwind after a busy day at work, through either dinner or drinks.
Eleven Rooftop Bar is located at Fortitude Valley which is a recreation district with many clubs and bars. The bar provides a unique leisure experience for consumers by offering them an impressive view of the city with food and drinks.
Table 2 – Targeting and positioning
Target segment
Upper market, young to middle aged business people (25-44).
| Competitive positioning | Although claiming to be the number 1 rooftop bar in Brisbane, competitor analysis shows that Eleven is positioned as medium priced and medium quality (Figure 1). Eleven offers a different dining experience with a combination of main meals and shared plates, compared to competitors, who only offer share plates. Eleven aims to be a haven from the rushed city life, providing exclusivity and relaxation. |
Based on the analysis in Table 3, the company could improve on the reliability, empathy, assurance and responsiveness dimensions because of several customer service failures. In order to prevent common service failures, the company should implementing a consumer relationship management strategy, because companies can gain benefit from managing the customer experience (Singh & Saini, 2016). More specifically, in order to improve the customer experience, the bar should identify the company’s consumers by collecting customer information into a database. Second, the bar could also analyse the difference between consumers and understand consumers’ dissatisfaction and demand. Third, Eleven should maintain good communication with consumers. Finally, adjusting services in order to satisfy the needs of each consumer is essential for Eleven to improve their service quality (Simmons, McFarland, Lazo & Stokes, 2015).
Table 3 – SERVQUAL dimensions
Dimensions Analysis Rate
| Reliability | As the company promised, most of consumers who go to the bar have a great impression on the spectacular view. The bar offers foods and drinks and it is also a place for consumers to have fun and relax. Eleven Rooftop Bar declares it is Brisbane’s best rooftop bar. However, there are some weaknesses existing in service delivery aspects, because many complaining comments can be found on social media about customer service and food provision of the bar (TripAdvisor, 2019). | |
| Assurance | On TripAdvisor, 90 consumers give “Excellent” ratings, 67 consumers give “Very good” ratings and 41 consumers give negative ratings (TripAdvisor, 2019). In Zomato, 46% of consumers rate 4 stars for the bar (Zomato, 2019). In general, most consumers have trust and confidence toward the service. However, a portion of consumers are unsatisfied about the service. | |
| Tangible | Casual bar, cocktail bar, dining space, courtyard area and booths make up the servicescape of Eleven Rooftop Bar. Consumers can enjoy 270-degree views of the city at the bar. Employees wear neat and professional staff uniform to serve foods and drinks for consumers. Furthermore, the bar organizes events and parties for consumers to enjoy. The bar delivers physical layout, atmosphere, catering and event organization effectively to consumers. The tangibles match the image that the Rooftop Bar wants to portray. | |
| Empathy | The staff at Eleven Rooftop Bar could improve in terms of empathy. During a dining experience at Eleven, there is no dedicated staff member serving the table. Therefore, customers deal with different staff members throughout their experience, meaning few individual attention. Furthermore, lack of clear directions in different areas (e.g. inside elevator, restroom) causes confusion to customers, indicating a lack of empathy. |
| Responsiveness | Employees reply to most consumers’ comments on Google comment, but the response rate on TripAdvisor and Zomato is low. For those negative comments, employees ask consumers to contact them in order to get more information. Some consumers who have negative experience mention that they ask for help from employees, but the employees are rude and sarcastic to them (TripAdvisor, 2019). Therefore, there is deficiency on responsiveness dimension because employees should be willing to provide prompt service and help consumers. |
2.2 Pricing, Productive Capacity and Demand
One of the pricing strategies exercised by Eleven Rooftop Bar is fixed price strategy. They offer a set menu as an alternative to the a la carte dining menu (Appendix 5.2). This strategy of combining several dishes into a set menu with a single price has been commonly implemented in the restaurant industry. This may also increase the level of customer satisfaction because choices can be easily made from the designated set menu.
The pricing strategy varies from different periods as well. However, research found that restaurants like Eleven Rooftop Bar do not increase price with demand-based pricing as it may trigger customer dissatisfaction (Bergstrom & MacKie-Mason, 1991; Kimes & Wirtz, 2003). Instead of increasing the prices, Eleven Rooftop Bar offers promotions to boost demand and avoid excess capacity during off- peak period, such quiet weekdays (Bergstrom & Mackie-Mason, 1991). They provide a separate lunch menu on Tuesday to Friday with $19 for the choice of burger, pasta or salad (Appendix 5.1).
Overall, according to TripAdvisor reviews (Appendix 5.3), most of the customers recommend the bar because the price is reasonable for a rooftop bar with a premium location. Compared to competitors, Eleven Rooftop Bar is reasonably priced and has a moderate rating on TripAdvisor (Figure 1). Since the price level is similar to some competitors with lower ratings, Eleven could reduce prices to attract more customers.
Figure 1 – Perceptual Map for Eleven Rooftop Bar
2.3 Physical and Electronic Distribution
Eleven Rooftop Bar its core service is solely performed in their physical outlet, located in Fortitude Valley. This location is convenient and offers high exposure to potential customers, because it is in the heart of the Brisbane party scene, and close to the central business district. Additionally, supplementary services are provided on Eleven’s website and Facebook page, both including services such as making reservations, booking events and functions, and the transfer of information via contact forms and instant messaging (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016). A further feature of these online channels is that they enhance product distribution by displaying the product via the drink and food menu and photographs (CIM, 2009), which Eleven also does through their Instagram account.
Besides convenience of location and service delivery channels, another important factor related to product distribution is time (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016). Eleven Rooftop Bar offers extensive opening hours during weekdays (8:30am – 12am), fitting their different product categories, such as coffee, lunch and dinner. On weekends, the opening hours are suited to provide lunch, dinner and parties (12pm – 3am) (Eleven Rooftop Bar, 2019).
Although Eleven Rooftop Bar could add to their distribution strategy by engaging with delivery services such as UberEATS and Deliveroo, this would likely not improve the service. Namely, multi- channel distribution can lead to a loss in service quality, because it requires full coordination and integration between the physical outlet and electronic channels, which has been proven challenging to achieve (Sousa & Voss, 2006). Moreover, the ambiance of the service outlet contributes to the service quality (Bitner, 1992), having the food at home would diminish the experience. Furthermore, having only one service outlet to provide the core service will contribute to the positioning of the company as an exclusive brand.
2.4 Integrated Service Marketing Communication
In order for the Eleven Rooftop Bar to deliver a consistent message, it needs to integrate its external and internal communication channels carefully (Wirtz, J., Lovelock, C., 2016). Table 4 analyses the 6 Ws at Eleven Rooftop Bar in terms of communications (Aho, 2010; Geale, P., in person, April 8, 2019).
Table 4 – Integrated Marketing Communications
Ws Evidence Justification Summary
| Who | Type of events (on website): – “The working lunch” – “Office Christmas party” – “Corporate events”- Cocktail function, engagement and wedding receptionThe owner said: “We weren’t going for that younger group. We want a middle age from 25 up. It’s more for a professional crowd”. He wanted to attract “older and wealthier” customers (Crane, E., 2015). | People aged 25 to 44 years old represent the second source of revenue for pubs, bars and nightclubs in Australia. They usually have high income and no children, and have, over the last five years, increasingly asked for high standard food options and high quality alcohol, leading them to frequenting upscale bars, such as the Eleven Rooftop Bar. (Reeves, M., 2019). | – Middle age active business people between 25 and 44 years old. |
| What | – “stunning views” – “rotating menu each week”- “a space where they can relax and get away from the hustle and bustle”- “lunch, afternoon nubbles, diner and late night drinks”- “sophisticated” – “270 degree views” – “best rooftop function venue” | Referring to the Product Life Cycle stages, the Eleven Rooftop Bar is in the growth or maturity stage. Indeed, its communication content is informational and persuasive. Therefore, its communication objectives are:- “create a positive attitude relative to competitive offerings”- “Provoke an immediate buying action”- “Enhance a firm’s image” (Wirtz, J., Lovelock, C., 2016). | – They communicate on the view, the atmosphere of the bar, and the all-day venue.- Informational and persuasive content- They want to stand out from the competition and enhance their image |
| – “perfect establishment to make an impression and leave a lasting memory” | |||
| How | – online reviews of customers – picture gallery on the website- “relax and get away from the hustle and bustle” → also targets business people. | In the communication of a service, comes the problem of intangibility (Geale, P., in person, April 8, 2019). Therefore, and in order to stand out of the crowd, they need to choose a specific positioning and address specific key messages in order to attract a specific target market. (Geale, P., in person, April 8, 2019).Another way to do it is by using tangible metaphors, which are useful to communicate offerings and benefits while stressing on key difference with competition (Wirtz, J., Lovelock, C., 2016). | – They stress on the particular aspect of the bar (stunning view, fancy but relaxingenvironment…) in order to stand out of the crowd.- They share a lot of pictures on their website and on social media in order to give physical evidence. |
| Where | The different channels:- Website: info about what it does, menus, pretty pictures, special events- Instagram: special events or offers, pretty pictures, stories, repost of customers stories- Facebook: events, encourage people to come, advertise some specific products- E-newsletter: you can subscribe by providing your email address and then you receive updates about events- Advertising poster: only little posters at the entrance of the | According to Wirtz J. and Lovelock C. (2016), it exists three key sources of messages to appeal to the target audience:- “Marketing Communications Channel”: sales promotion, direct marketing, PR- “Service Delivery Channels”: frontline employees, service outlets, website and app- “Messages originated from outside the organization”: WOM, online and traditional media, social networks. | – They communicate mainly on their owned media (website and social media).- They don’t do paid media (no paid ads, or advertising)- They relate a lot on their earned media (word-of-mouth, people stories and posts on Instagram, online comments of customers). |
| building to promote the working lunch- Twitter: NO – TV ads: NO – Pamphlets: NO – Paid ads: NO | |||
| When | They do promotions for lunch during weekdays with their “working lunch” (Tuesday- Friday 12 to 3pm)Reinforce their communication for special events like mother’s day or the Easter long weekend.Otherwise their communication on their social media is ongoing (e.g.: post on Instagram every other day and about once a week on Facebook) | Promotions can help increase or decrease the demand to match the capacity of the service. It means that the Eleven Rooftop Bar would offer promotions in order to stimulate the off-peak demand, and would cease the promotion when the demand increases (Wirtz, J., Lovelock, C., 2016). | → Ongoing communication on social media→ Stress on special events several times before the events occurs (2 weeks before + 1 week before + a few days before)→ Special promotions for lunch time during weekdays when they have less customers than on Friday or Saturday nights for e.g. |
| Why | – “Brisbane’s best rooftop bar” – No real tagline- “ERB boasts impressive 270 degree views”- “The most amazing view over Brisbane”- “immaculate service”- “sophisticated food and beverage menu” | The whole communication of Eleven Rooftop should help understand why customers would decide to go to this particular bar (Geale, P., in person, April 8, 2019). | – The communication strategy of the Eleven Rooftop Bar fits the image of the brand, as taglines, special events, and social media posts, are appropriate to attract middle age business people.- The communication also really empathizes on the fanciness of the bar and the amazing view it provides. Those two points would be the main reasons why customers would choose the Eleven |
Rooftop Bar instead of any other bar in Brisbane.
In order to go deeper in our analysis, we are going to use the AIDA model (Geale, P., in person, April 8, 2019; Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016).
Table 5 – AIDA AIDA
Eleven Rooftop Bar Strategies
| Awareness | Awareness is the first step and is the most critical one in the process (Geale, P., in person, April 8, 2019). It seems that the Eleven Rooftop Bar doesn’t do much to raise awareness. Indeed, they are mainly relying on Word of Mouth and prestige. They don’t really use paid medias but more earned media. |
| Interest | Hearing from friends about the Eleven Rooftop Bar, has raised potential customers’ interest. Therefore, they may check on the website of the bar or have a look at its social medias and online comments. |
Desire Action
The communication and key messages of the Eleven Rooftop Bar on its owned media, such as the view or the atmosphere of the bar will raise desire of the potential customers.
The arguments and pictures of the bar should convince customers to take action and therefore go to the Eleven Rooftop Bar.
After the analysis it becomes evident that Eleven Rooftop Bar delivers, through their owned media, a message that is consistent with the image of the brand. Moreover, the key taglines and physical evidence appeal to the target market of the bar. This online communication further aligns with the venue’s atmosphere, its fancy decoration, the staff and their uniforms.
In order to improve their communication mix, the Eleven Rooftop Bar could start focusing on paid media. They could do paid ads on social media, like Instagram or Facebook for example, such as sponsored posts or stories. They could also create posters to promote the bar that they would display in the city centre next to offices buildings, or display advertising flyers at the offices’ receptions, in order to appeal to their target market.
Finally, they could advertise to businesses instead of advertising to specific customers, by for example advertising to event managers, in order for them to organize corporate events or receptions at the Eleven Rooftop Bar. This would permit to develop the first stage of AIDA, awareness, and thus increase the overall number of customers.
2.5 Service Process
Figure 2 and 3 describe the processes of two main services, the restaurant and bar. After analysing the fail points in Table 6 and 7, an important fail point includes the lack of signage in the elevator, which can lead to confusion. Adding signage incurs minimal costs, and can lead to a more positive image and reduced stress (Bitner, 1992). Furthermore, first impressions are essential in customers evaluating a service because it impacts their buying intention (Nguyen & Leblanc, 2002). Another possible fail point can be caused by the fact that table service is provided for guest who order food, however, the general bar area does not come with table service. Especially on weekdays when it is quiet, this might be confusing to guests. Eleven has an image and reputation of having a high service standard. Not offering table service in the bar area does not conform to that image. It is essential to provide the service that customers expect, because processes need meet expectations in order to have value for the customer. The process of a service plays a greater role than the actual outcome (Bitner, Ostrom & Morgan, 2008; Ceric, D’Alessandro, Soutar, & Johnson, 2016).
At peak hours, waiting times at the bar are long. Eleven’s queueing system of parallel lines to multiple servers is messy and can lead to customers perceiving unfair waits (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016). However, improvements can be made by encouraging designated lines to designated servers. For example, separate lines for cocktails and spirits, wine and soda, and beers. This will better balance demand and service availability, and leads to more order and increased process efficiency (Dawes & Rowley, 1996).
Figure 2 – Blueprint Restaurant
Figure 3 – Blueprint bar
Table 6 – Fail points and waiting times restaurant
| Waiting times | Take the elevator | Waiting to be seated | Waiting for food and drinks | Ask for the bill | |
| The elevator can only fit a certain amount of people, meaning sometimes people need to wait for the elevator to go up and down. | Guests often have to wait to be seated because the host is not always present in the waiting area. Since there is no sign saying wait to be seated, consumers might be left of confused. | If the restaurant is busy, the kitchen and bar staff can be overwhelmed by the amount of orders, which can cause delays. | Customers often have to wait for staff to get to their table to ask the bill. Often guests try to beckon the waiter without him/her noticing. | ||
| Possible fail points | Make reservation | Take the elevator | Waiting to be seated | Memorize order & receive food and drinks | Ask for the bill |
| It regularly occurs that guests make typos or mistakes and enter the wrong date for their reservations. | Although it should be clear that the rooftop bar is on the top floor, there is no signage in the elevator guiding customers to Eleven. This can cause confusion. | Staff errors and errors in the reservation system can cause reservations not to be recorded correctly. Resulting in guests showing up finding out that there is no availability | Staff memorize orders instead of writing it down, regularly resulting in the wrong food and drink orders being served. | Errors on the bill and unexpected costs for the client can be considered a possible fail point. |
Table 7 – Fail points and waiting times restaurant
Waiting times Show ID Elevator Order drinks Receive drinks Use washroom
| The ID and dress code check causes queues outside of the building. | As per table 6 | The bar is short and can only be employed by maximum 3 staff members. This creates long lines when ordering drinks. | It can take a while to receive the drinks after ordering since some drinks (cocktails) can be more time consuming to make. | The amount and size of the washrooms is not enough for the amount of people. Especially on Fridays and Saturdays. | |
| Possible fail points | Show identification and check dress code | Take the elevator | Find menu and order drinks | Use washroom | |
| A possible fail point before entering the bar is that people could be rejected if not dressed appropriately. | As per table 6 | The booths receive table service, however the tables in the bar area do not. Furthermore, there are no drink menus on the tables in the bar area. | Washrooms are hard to find. |
2.6 Managing People
According to the wheel of loyalty, the first step in effectively managing people is hiring the right people (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016). The advertisement of positions within Eleven Rooftop Bar via digital sources (Appendix 5.5) specifically identifies attributes that successful applicants should already have obtained skills to be competent within their roles. Furthermore, staff selection is crucial to not only provide excellent service for the customers, but also maintain that trendy vibe of Eleven.
The second step is enabling people. Although the front of house staff at Eleven is generally perceived as being helpful, polite and professional, but they do not have in the depth knowledge and empowerment to deal with specific enquiries (Goldratt, 1990).
Third, the service at Eleven is still subject to many complaints (TripAdvisor, 2019). This needs to be improved by providing better training, or allowing front of house staff to take ownership of enquiries, because proper staff training often goes hand in hand with increased service quality (Poulston, 2018). Third, beyond just hiring the people capable of fulfilling their occupation, it’s important that staff is motivated and energized. According to the service-profit chain, encouraging staff to upsell and cross-sell and providing them with rewards will increase the employee satisfaction, thus customer satisfaction, thus profitability (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016).
2.7 Servicescape and Physical Evidence
Eleven Rooftop Bar its servicescape is analysed through Bitner’s servicescape model (1992), reflected in Table 8. The views of the bar enhance their value proposition stated in Table 2. Furthermore, the relaxed feel of the décor is pleasurable for both employees and customers, encouraging them to stay (Velarde, 2007). Moreover, since the music level is adjusted to the time of day, communication is encouraged throughout the day, and a party style situation in the evenings. Too loud music may cause lasting damage to employees and customers, and can affect their mood levels negatively, causing especially customers to leave (Bruner, 1990).
(Eleven Rooftop Bar, 2019)
Booths are available to hire for extended periods of time and give an illusion of privacy. The booths and gas heaters help customers feel more comfortable, as well as giving them the feeling of status and importance. Furthermore, it encourages customers to stay longer and spend a significant amount of money (Bitner, 1992).
The point of sales is divided, with a walk up bar, a coffee server, and payment option at the entrance. Splitting these up makes sense, since different services require different payment methods. Paying a $1500+ bill at the bar can make guests feel uncomfortable, and people wanting a quiet latte won’t have to que with people partying wanting cocktails (Frutos, 1999).
Improvements can be made in terms of the layout. The separate bar and restaurant area might be easy for employees, however, it categorizes customers into groups. Furthermore, the few washrooms can cause customers not to return.
Table 8 – Perceived servicescape
Perceived servicescape Analysis Rate
| Temperature | Chilly when it is windy or raining. There are heaters but these are not always on. | |
| Air quality | Fresh air because of open layout | |
| Noise | Road noise but mitigated by in- house music. | |
| Music | Music genre is adapted to different day times. Music is louder at ‘party’ hours. Eleven has 5 regular DJ’s on rotation which will stop the mood or “feel” from being predictable. | |
| Lightning | Blue LED lights above the deck, this light interferes with pictures taken from the view. Subtle lighting inside. | |
| Layout | Separate bar and restaurant area. Restaurant area consists of booths seating around 6/7 people. Bar area is around the corner. Several tables looking out over the city. Restrooms are at the far back of the bar area and are difficult to find. Different point of sales for the different services. | |
| Furnishing | Some tables in the bar area have a tree in the middle which interrupts conversations. The use of building materials of raw stone and wooden features on the ceiling, wooden furniture. Booths have sheer tinted curtains. |
| Signage | Large signage at front of the building. However signage missing in the elevator, as well as signs for the restrooms. | |
| Style of decor | Earthy feel relaxed feel. |
3. Recommendations
Based on a thorough analyses, three short-term recommendations are provided to Eleven Rooftop Bar. First, Eleven Rooftop Bar relies a lot on word-of-mouth and reputation in order to attract customers in its venue. However, this might not be sufficient, especially during off-peak hours, such as weekday’s afternoons. The bar uses its owned media successfully, but a way to enhance their communication would be to develop their paid media. They could develop an advertising campaign, combining online and offline communication. Targeting their usual market, the Eleven Rooftop Bar could focus this campaign on their competitive advantages, such as the 270° view over Brisbane and the fancy but relaxing atmosphere of the bar. This campaign could take the form of sponsored posts and stories on social media such as Instagram or Facebook, as well as posters displayed next to business offices, and advertising flyers at the offices’ receptions. Focusing on paid media for the Eleven Rooftop Bar would permit them to attract a new clientele who would otherwise not have heard about the venue. The effectiveness of this campaign could be measured of course by the increase in visitors for the Eleven Rooftop Bar, its increase in revenue, as well as the increase in popularity of their social media channels.
Another recommendation for Eleven Rooftop Bar is to change their queuing configuration. Addressing the issue of waiting times is important since it is a common source of customer complaints (Pullman & Rodgers, 2010). Switching from parallel lines to designated lines to designated servers will lead to a more structured waiting approach. Furthermore, perceived unfairness of other customers jumping the line is eliminated (Wirtz & Lovelock, 2016). Implementing this requires some changes in the servicescape and HR practices. First, clear signage should educate customers on what line to use. Second, the bar area has to be reorganized, so that all the necessary supplies and are within reach. Third, extra staff training needs to be provided in order for this system to run smoothly and efficiently. Eleven could measure the effectiveness of these changes by analysing customer surveys and online reviews. Furthermore, a change in profitability will indicate whether these changes were successful.
The last recommendation is to provide more staff training. While successful applicants are required to have some existing skills and qualifications, we would recommend that further in-house training be performed to perfect the expected level of skill required to service a professional level of clientele. This would include front of house staff knowing the extended billing and booking requirements for booths, business meetings, parties and functions.
High performing staff could also be offered further business training to allow them to progress within Eleven Rooftop Bar its management structure, helping them feel secure and rewarded in their employment.
