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Case Analysis: The Grateful Dead Creating Deadheads by Providing Drop-Dead Customer Service List of Facts The career of popular rock-band, The Grateful Dead, started in 1965. The band enjoyed popularity until 1995, when the lead guitarist Jerry Garcia died. The band started its career playing in a pizza parlor (Palo Alto, California) for $ 50 per night concert. Already in 1973 The Grateful Dead gave concert to a crowd of 600, 000 people at Watkins Glen, New York.
It was the largest crowd in American history of rock concerts. According to F. Barry James, by 1991 the attendance of public reached 99 %. The tickets were always in demand and the bands sales made up $ 52. 5 million in 1994. The fans of The Grateful Dead, known as the Deadheads, were loyal to the band. The vast majority of fans adored the band so much that they changed their way of life in order to be closer to the band.
Many fans moved to the San Francisco Bay area because it was a place where the concerts were given more often. Another part of Deadheads planned their holidays and vacations in order to match the schedule of the concerts. F. Barry James claims that as many as 2000 Deadheads ordered tickets for every concert during the summer tours of 20 to 25 shows.
The level of fan loyalty was unbelievable. The Grateful Dead, as any company, tried to keep up the level of customers loyalty. Deadheads had customer demands and expectations that defined the level of satisfaction with the service and the process of obtaining it. The expectations were as follows: Reliability and consistency of service; Availability and accessibility; Tangible factors concerning the level of service; Empathy and understanding; Responsiveness to the demands of the customers.
The group disbanded, and, naturally, lost its devoted Deadheads. In 2002 it reunited and started to give concerts. In 2003 the band adopted the name The Dead and faced a problem how to return the phenomenal level of customer loyalty. Fact Analysis Lets analyze the case study. The main stakeholders here are: The Dead (reincarnation of the old rock band The Grateful Dead) the company, and the Deadheads (fans) the customers. The Grateful Dead offered their customers a set of expectations that determined the level of satisfaction with the service and the process of obtaining it.
Lets examine each component more thoroughly: - Reliability. The rock band offered their customers an unforgettable music performance. The concerts were unusual by its structure and no two of them were ever the same. The consequence of songs never was the same. Besides, each songs performance was never repeated due to an incredible talent of improvisation.
In such a way, each concert presented a unique product that was never repeated again. The Deadheads tried to visit each concert not to miss the unforgettable show. Such air of originality and, combined with the guarantee of quality and consistency of performance, helped the band to keep high demand for the bands end product and made the customers to continue using the service (here to visit the concerts and to remain fans). - Availability. In order to increase the demand and to stimulate the fans interest, rock band played an enormous quantity of concerts (77 per year) and made special concert tours across North America in order to give all Deadheads the opportunity to enjoy the show. Easy access to bands product contributed to customer loyalty. - The band exerted all efforts to improve tangible factors, such as the best sound, unique light shows, selling tickets with artwork, to mention a few. - Empathy. As far as the band strived for the customer satisfaction, it made plenty of records of its concerts and was known as the most recorder rock-band in U.
S. history. In order to keep customers interest, the group established a trouble line where people could tell about problems with tickets, travelling to see the band, etc. - Responsiveness. In order to increase customer loyalty, the band established a hotline where the Deadheads could phone and order a ticket, or to find out about the schedule of concerts. They also made Grateful Dead ticket sales on a regular basis to give the opportunity to all Deadheads to attend desired concert. Problem Statement The case details experience of the well-known rock band The Grateful Dead and its strategy concerning the customer loyalty.
It discusses the level of loyalty and core set of expectations the customers have addressed to the service or product and the process of getting it. As far as these expectations primarily define whether customers (here the Deadheads) will be satisfied and will continue using services and / or products provided by the company (here the rock band The Grateful Dead). The central issue is as follows: the rock band was disbanded after the death of its lead guitarist in 1995. Seven years later the band was reunited and adopted the name The Dead.
The central problem in this case is to choose the best methods and strategies in order to reestablish the phenomenal level of customer loyalty. Alternative Solution Along with traditional successful methods used by The Grateful Dead, there is an alternative solution available. As far as there are plenty of loyalty programs aimed to increase the level of customer loyalty, the rock band can use of them adjusting by its needs and demands. For example, the band can give rewards and discounts to its most devoted fans, to provide their fans with better service, to be open to feedbacks and to react accordingly.
Real-time customer surveys and feedbacks will help the music band to learn what are the customer expectations and requests. Recommendations There is no single possible solution to the problem addressed but there are plenty of possible sets of solutions able to increase the level of customer loyalty. They depend on the characteristics of a company (here a rock band) involved in the decision-making process. However, there are some recommendations that can be useful to the problem at hand. In my opinion, The Dead should definitely use their previous experience about their customers expectations and set of values.
As the author of case study claims, the rock band managed to create an unforgettable atmosphere of memorable performances for its fans and a superior customer value. The core values like responsiveness, high level of reliability, availability, empathy, and other tangible factors should be taken into account to work out an effective strategy aimed to increase the level of customer loyalty. However, the rock band should take into account that new time has come and the customers changed as well as the level of competition increased (i. e. such music bands like Dave Matthews Band, String Cheese Incident, Phish, Leftover Salmon and others successfully started to use The Grateful Dead's successful experience). The Dead should use techno novelties in order to improve the items from the set of customer expectations.
For example, the band can use internet communications in order to facilitate possibility to order concert tickets, to create and support customer database, to inform the customers about future schedule of concerts, to help the customers getting a perfect set of services, and, as a result, getting the highest level of satisfaction. The best possible solution developed to meet the objectives discussed in the problem statement stage is to combine old effective strategy used by The Grateful Dead and new effective approaches proposed in order to strengthen the bands marketing position.
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Research essay sample on Level Of Customer Order To Increase
