Discuss Service Marketing

It was mid-morning on August 10, 2015. Courtney Bayer, a recent college graduate with a life- long passion for interior design, was managing her new boss’ social media. Bayer spent what felt like a long summer working as an assistant to Kelly Daniels, the owner of Elevate Home Staging. This small business specialized in redecorating homes to sell quickly and for top dollar. It accumulated a number of glowing online reviews and was featured on a Home and Garden Television (HGTV) show. Despite these successes, Bayer had sensed some frustration from customers. A visibly angry customer named Annie Masters stormed into the office and said, “Is Kelly here? Once again, she’s not responding to me.” Although Bayer’s authority was limited, she needed to salvage Masters’ service experience and prove her value to Daniels if she wanted this summer job to turn into a full-time position.

Bayer’s thoughts immediately went to the text messages she recently exchanged with Masters. Had she followed through on her promises to Masters? (Please see Exhibit 1 for the text messages between the two women.) Daniels was on a last-minute family vacation to the mountains and would not be back in the office for another week, so Bayer was left to manage a number of projects. Bayer wanted to rectify the situation as best as she could and asked Masters if she could help with anything else. Masters’ was obviously agitated, but explained,

I called Kelly in May because we wanted to get our house ready to sell before school started in August. Basically, all I needed was some help arranging my living room furniture and hanging pictures. Thanks to Kelly’s vision and charm, a small job soon became a big job that included staging the entire house as well as redecorating the master suite, office, playroom, and back porch.

Masters handed Bayer a copy of her contract. As Bayer glanced over the document, she was surprised to see that Masters agreed to pay Elevate Home Staging $75 per hour for an estimated 20 hours of work. The project would cost $1500, which was well above the median amount of $675 that was spent on home staging in 2015. Masters continued,

My biggest mistake was giving Kelly a $500 service retainer and a $400 deposit for furnishings. After that, she seemed to lose interest in my project. It often took her days to respond to my text messages. A few times, she told me she’d call me, but she never did. That’s when I started texting you. I didn’t want to be rude, but I needed somebody to respond!

There was ALWAYS a dramatic excuse for her lack of availability, though. In the last two months, she has moved or cancelled appointments because of church camp, illness, injury, a missing family member, a robbery, and the Little League playoffs. One or two of these excuses is understandable, but it’s always something new and the work never gets done.

I swear, I didn’t see her for weeks at a time, which left my family living in a dishevelled mess. Not only that, but she didn’t deliver ONE of the many contractors that she promised to provide. I wasted a lot of my vacation finding a painter, furniture repairman, and upholsterer. So far, I have paid $900 for Kelly to set up a Pinterest board, arrange my living room furniture, hang some pictures, pick a terrible paint colour, buy a curtain rod, and deliver a table. That’s all she’s done!