On an early Tuesday morning of 30 Aug 30 2016, SMRT train service… On an early Tuesday m

On an early Tuesday morning of 30 Aug 30 2016, SMRT train service… On an early Tuesday morning of 30 Aug 30 2016, SMRT train service on the North-South Line was affected by a track fault. This resulted in commuters experiencing significant delays and slower trains due to congestion.Normal service only resumed more than three hours later at around 9.10am.In response to media queries, SMRT’s vice-president of corporate information and communications, Patrick Nathan said the delays were caused by a fault that was traced back to track-side signalling equipment near Choa Chu Kang MRT station. On social media, commuters said the track fault had occurred near Choa Chu Kang station. Several complained of crowded platforms and long queues at some stations. The crowd situation was so bad that commuters complained that they were not allowed to enter the Choa Chu Kang station due to fire safety reasons. Senior systems specialist Aarati Bathula, 46, said she boarded the train early at Bukit Gombak station. “The train really slowed down a lot, and it took very long to get from station to station.” Commuter Dick Chan said on Facebook he boarded the train at Jurong East station at around 7.15am, but as of 8.13am he had yet to reach Choa Chu Kang station. As a result of the train fault at the North-South line, the delays spilled over to the Circle line. Many commuters were late for work and school. What was worse was that the train fault affected many Singapore Polytechnic students who were sitting for their exams that day. To cater to students held up by the morning train delays, Singapore Polytechnic – located along Dover Road – said in a tweet it would push back the start times for exams to 9.15am instead of 9am.SMRT later said intermittent signalling issues were to blame for the delays, which caused longer travelling times during peak hours until the end of service. QUESTIONS(a) Identify and briefly explain which classification of service category the SMRT is in. (b) The SMRT train faults and delays do not augur well for the train company. Its corporate vision of “Moving People, Enhancing Lives” and to be a “world-class transport service” do not sit well with commuters and the public when breakdowns and delays seem to be the new normal.If you are a regular commuter on the SMRT or know of someone who is, briefly describe the three levels of customer expectations. Provide an example for each service level of customer expectations to illustrate your discussion.(i) desired service level(ii) adequate service level(iii) predicted service level (c) Describe a commuter’s zone of tolerance of SMRT’s service and if it had met one’s expectations. Provide examples to support. (d) Recovering from service failures require commitment, planning and clear guidelines. Discuss how SMRT can enable an effective service recovery strategy that is: (i) proactive, (ii) planned, (iii) trained and (iv) empowered. (e) At the first Singapore Rail Technology Conference held on 18 November 2016, SMRT chief executive officer, Desmond Kuek announced that the North-South (NSL) and East-West (EWL) MRT lines achieved the best-recorded performance in the 29-year history of the two lines.Despite the CEO’s claims, the public remained unconvinced and disillusioned by SMRT’s performance, given that in the first half of 2016, there were several delays and its last major breakdown was as recent as August 2016.In the light of this public announcement at the conference, identify the most likely gap from the GAP Model in service delivery and recommend how to close the gap.   Arts & Humanities Communications Marketing MKT 363 Share QuestionEmailCopy link