Kaya Skin Clinic - Case Study

THE KAYA CASE STUDYGroup Members – Sheikh Rehmatullah, Shagun

Lidhoo and Prabhav Tiwary

A Few Irrefutable Insights• India is an emerging market that is witnessing radical changes

in the lifestyles and spending patterns of customers.

• There is huge unrealized potential in the Indian Hair and Beauty Care Industry.

• There is growing desire in the Indians to look good and feel confident about their appearance, especially for recognition by others.

Difference between Product and Service Offering

• Case in Mind – Kaya Skin Clinic

Storage

A Product offering can be stored for an indefinite period of time, whereas a primary Service ends after it is executed.

(Example – Difference between Kaya Skin Moisturizer Cream Tube vs Facial Treatment at Kaya Skin Clinic)


Homogeneity vs Heterogeneity

A Product offering will be uniform and standardised in nature.A Service offering on the other hand may differ according to the person and organisation offering the service.

(Example – Composition of the Kaya Moisturizing Cream will be the same, irrespective of the place of purchase.

However, services at different Kaya Skin Clinics may differ even though efforts are made to make the offering and experience consistent and standard)


• Tangibility

Product Offering – TangibleService Offering – Intangible

(Example – Texture and consistency of the Moisturizing Cream can be ascertained by touching the cream and applying it.

Services at the Kaya Skin Clinic have little or no room for tactility. Service of Manicure can only be felt in the form of experience, but not touched. )


Ownership

Transaction involving products result in direct transfer of ownership from seller to buyer

In case of services, the concept of ownership of title is a ambiguous and service recipients cannot claim ‘ownership’ of the received service.

(Example – You own a Kaya Skin Moisturizing Cream, but do you own a hair grooming service from Kaya Skin Clinic?)

Service Offering – First Time and Loyal Customers

• In case of Product offering, the first time users may give the offering several chances till the contents of the product are over. Customer in this case more or less is aware of the needs.

• Especially in the Indian context, families tend to avoid wastage of such products and tend to give the product some time to show its claimed effects.

• For Loyal Customers, the product offering may have provided them with the desired/expected result. As a result, the standard product is purchased over a period of time and preferred over the competitors.


• In case of Service Offering, the customer is most of the times undecided about the right course of action for her skin treatment.

• Hence, the first time customers would be looking forward to inputs about ways to improve her skin’s health and look.

• Loyal Customers on the other hand have gone beyond the identification of problem and have got accustomed to a set of services provided at the service location. Sometimes they desire services to be provided by a particular person they have built a trust in.


• Example

• While buying Kaya Skin Moisturizing Cream, the first time customer has identified that the sole problem she faces is dry skin (especially during winters)

• After using this cream once, the satisfaction level decides repeat purchases and eventual loyalty to the product / brand.

• For someone who has multiple skin problems or is too cautious to take a call herself, the (potential) customer visits a particular beauty parlour and seeks the advise of the service providers.


• Kaya Skin Clinic has to step in to make their parlour the ideal centre for first time customers.

• After it has roped in customers, it has to understand the dimensions of a loyal customer in a beauty parlour to convert these first timers into regulars.

Advantages of Understanding First Time vs Loyal Customers of Beauty Parlours

• Kaya Skin Clinic, like any other service provider in the beauty and skin care industry, would want to serve not just more customers, but the same clients too.

• Hence the foremost advantage would be that Kaya Skin Clinic can develop strategies that convert their fresh clients into regulars.

• Dimensions of First Time and Loyal Customers in Beauty Parlours would be almost the same in case of Kaya Skin Clinic.


• Understanding First Time Users and Loyal Customers can help Kaya built separate strategies for the two groups.

• This will result in focussed marketing activities and the result and effectiveness on the two separate groups can be measured better.


• Questions that Kaya can ask and build their strategy on are–

What features of the parlour induce repeat visits?

What is the first thing that a first time customer expects from the parlour?

What expected features from the parlour are common between first timers and loyals?

What attribute is expected by first timers that is ignored by loyals and vice’ versa?


• What is the desired level of satisfaction for first time users and loyal customers?

• Do first timers and loyal customers expect services to standardised or is there a difference in the approach of the two groups?

• Do first timers get lured by beauty parlours through Word of Mouth? Do loyal customers discuss about their beauty parlours amongst their friend/peer circle?

Analysis of Data• Data has been collected for the two types of customers of

beauty parlours – First Time Users and Loyal Customers

• This data is further divided into three sections

• Section I data reflects the ‘expectations’ of the first time and loyal customers from a beauty parlour

• Section II data reflects the experience of both the customers with the beautician / service provider in the parlour

• Section III data reflects the final experience of the respondent against the corresponding expectation in Section I

Patterns in DataThere is a clear variation in the expectation of customers and

the final experience or the result. (Variation in Section I and Section III)

The realized output or result clearly drops in comparison to the initial expectation.

The only exception to this drop is in the expectation of the service helping the customer feel more attractive. In this case, both – the first timers and loyals responded that the result was higher than the expectation

Patterns in Data• Amongst both the classes of customers, the variation in

response about the expectation and result is more in ‘First Time Users’ than in Loyal Customers.

• In other words, according to the data, the gap between the expectation of first time users and the final experience is wider than in loyal customers.

• However, there are a few exceptions. For instance, the gap between expectation and experience of reasonable prices is (almost) the same for both classes of customers.

Patterns in Data• In response to continuing the service of the beauty parlour, the

loyal customers were more positive in their response than the first time users.

• The loyal customers are more willing to repeat visits at the parlour than first time customers.

•

Differentiating b/w First Time and Loyal Customers

• Our Understanding - To identify the differentiating aspect of decision making, we need to look for the questions which have produced wider gulfs in the response of the two classes.

• Hence, expectation of customer from employees to help with initial inquiries about products and services can be used as a differentiating factor.

• Expectation of loyal customers is much higher in comparison to first timers.

• Another differentiating factor is the willingness to continue using the parlour service. Here too, loyal customers are more willing than first time users.

Characteristics of Service Quality – Customer Response

• Section I and Section III represent two different stages of decision making.

• Section I represents decision making prior to availing the service, in the expectation level.

• Section III represents decision making after availing the service, in the experience level.

• Section II represents service quality in terms of the beautician.


• Various characteristics of service quality can be measured against different responses in the stages of decision making.

• For instance, ambience feature of parlour has a high expectation response of 4.21 and 4.27 in Loyal and First time customers respectively.

• However, the stage of service experience shows a new figure of 4.00 and 3.86


Implication

• This study and analysis indicates how a particular feature / characteristic is held in importance of expectation, and the level of satisfaction gained after the experience.

• The variation in response for the particular attribute of parlour service in decision making stage of expectation and stage of experience can be used by marketers to identify problems and devise solutions.

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Kaya Skin Clinic - Case Study