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Going abroad with Antipodeans Abroad: New service development: international internships

Braack, Carolijn ter (2010) Going abroad with Antipodeans Abroad: New service development: international internships.

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Abstract:Antipodeans Abroad is a travelling agency that specializes in educational and volunteer travel programs dedicated to Australian customers. Antipodeans Abroad is a small, but growing organization, with a lot of experience within the international travelling sector. The international focus of the company, has highlighted a potential new market for Australian students that want to go overseas for an internship. Global mobility is becoming more an international trend. Currently there is an increased demand for international student travel, however there are barriers that prevent students from doing this. This raises the following central question for this project: ‘What new service can Antipodeans Abroad develop for Australian students that want to do an international internship and what steps haves to be taken to implement this service?’ In order to answer the central question four research questions are formulated. The first one is: ‘What is the current situation of Antipodeans Abroad with respect to the corporate business, processes and skills of the employees?’ For answering the first research question it is important to understand the company’s mission; ‘To offer students and schools in Australia the opportunity to discover the work in an educational and personal perspective’. The current business is defined by six dimensions that underlie the business model. The corporate business of Antipodeans Abroad can be defined as a company that creates value by offering service to a variety of Australian customers and it is Business to Customer orientated. The core business of the company is to offer qualitative and reliable travelling programs to schools and students in Australia. The current business process of Antipodeans Abroad consists of 6 steps. These stapes are: 1.inquiry of the customer; 2. finding the suitable suppliers; 3. suppliers are contracted; 4. the best suppliers are selected; 5.agreeing of the offer and. the payment of the offer; 6. booking of the offer and the delivery of the service. The involvement of the staff is crucial in the new service development. Three groups of individuals are involved in the new service development process: 1. De development staff; 2. The customer-contact staff; 3. The customers The second research question is: ‘What are the opportunities for Antipodeans Abroad for developing a new service system?’ In third chapter the analysis of the opportunities is discussed. This will be the opportunities for the company to develop a new service and to determine what the wants and needs are of the students that want to do an international internship. To analyse the opportunities a New service development Antipodeans Abroad 4 questionnaire has been send to all the universities in Australia. The outcomes of this questionnaire are the requirements of the new service. The third research question is: ‘What are the requirements of a new service to facilitate Australian students for overseas development?’ The requirements of the new service are the most important outcomes of the questionnaire. The most important expectations of the respondents are: - Providing sufficient knowledge at the right time; - Staff should always be willing to help the customer and show sincere interest; - Personal attention is important; - The service system process should work as it should; - All parties involved should be well informed. The service will consists of finding a suitable internship placement and/ or getting in contact with the companies that offer an internship within their profession and requirements (both the student and the university). Assistance with visa, flights, insurance, accommodation and a language course will also be part of the service that will be offered. This service will be offered step by step by step. The steps are: 1. Registration: online or face-to-face; 2. After registration: reader with information will be sent: 3. Internship options: requirements are clear; 4. Payment: payment will be done but the customer; 5. Additional: arrange for accommodation, visa, flights and/ or insurance. The last research question is: ‘What steps could Antipodeans Abroad take to develop the new service system?’ The steps that Antipodeans Abroad should take to develop the new service system are: - Extensive training of the service personnel: because of training the personnel, they will be more qualified to execute the sew service. - Design a communication system between the customers and the personnel staff, which will play a vital role in controlling the customers’ expectations. The communication system will enable the customer and staff to identify the (future) expectations and perceptions and identify problems that will occur early in the process. Implementation of the service could be done in three steps. These steps are: 1. Implementation of the operations plan: this is the training and testing of the people involved (the staff and the customers) in the service development process; 2. Implementation of the communication strategy. This step is to determine how the company will come in contact with the future customers: 3. Market introduction.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Antipodeans Abroad, Sydney, Australia
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60076
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