QSTH-311_PRELIM-REVIEWER.pdf

in a term originated by Bruce Laval of The The competition for guest loyalty and Walt Disney Company dollars (and euros, rupees, w...

in a term originated by Bruce Laval of The The competition for guest loyalty and Walt Disney Company dollars (and euros, rupees, won, yen, yuan, Customer-guests are, to the extent possible, etc.) is intense and will only grow more so studied scientifically (the -ology in in the future. New hospitality organizations guestology). spring up every day. Although opening a Guests’ behaviors within the hospitality hospitality organization like a hotel, organization are carefully observed. Their convention center, travel Web site, or wants, needs, capabilities, and expectations airline costs a lot of money, for thousands regarding the hospitality guest experience of restaurants, travel agencies, sports bars, are determined. and convention services organizations, the The service product is tailored to meet their amount of start-up capital needed is demands and those of future guests means comparatively small. These smaller simply that all the organization's employees organizations, like the larger ones hoping to must treat customers like guests and survive and prosper in this competitive manage the organization from the guest's environment, need to master and practice point of view. the principles of guestology. If they don't provide the experience their guests expect someone else will. Customers come to a service provider with certain expectations for themselves, their businesses, and/or their families. First-time A common way to think of service is as the guests may have general expectations. For intangible part of a transaction relationship example, a first-time guest of a major hotel that creates value between a provider may simply expect a nice room, a organization and its customer, client, or comfortable mattress, clean surroundings, guest. More simply, a service is something satisfactory meals, and a reasonable price. that is done for us. Services can be provided A repeat guest may have more specific directly to the customer (e.g., a spa expectations based on past experience. treatment, a haircut, and medical procedures) or for the customer (e.g., finding and purchasing tickets to a show, lawn care, and car repair). The services can be provided by a person (e.g., by a service In addition to public consumers, the associate in a restaurant or by a travel hospitality organization has within itself agent) or via technology (e.g., by booking a many internal customers, persons, and ticket online or using an ATM). And, of units that depend on each other and course, services can be provided as a “serve” each other. The principles for combination of these characteristics. providing an outstanding service experience for external customers also apply to these many internal customers. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in a) Service Product d) Understanding the Guest - Another, perhaps even more - To well-managed hospitality common, meaning of service refers to organizations, guests are not the entire bundle of tangibles and statistically entitled to vague concepts intangibles in a transaction with a or abstractions. They understand that significant service component. One within the heterogeneous mass of necessary distinction to realize is that people they serve or want to serve, the service product does not refer each is an individual, each is unique; specifically to the tangible items that some companies use the term VIP to may accompany the transaction, remind their employees that they are though it can include them. serving "very individual people." Each b) Service Industries guest brings to the guest experience a - Just as the service product is a different bundle of needs, wants, mixture of tangible and intangible capabilities, and expectations. elements, so are the entire industries ▪ The first step in understanding that provide these products. Although how to manage the guest some industries have traditionally been experience then is to referred to as service industries, understand the guests that are marketing writer Theodore Levitt made in their target market, to an important point about service as whatever extent possible. early as 1972: "There are no such Ideally, this understanding things as service industries. There are would include: only industries whose service (1) the traditional components are greater or less than demographic breakdowns of those of other industries. Everybody is age, race, gender, and guests' in service." home locations. c) Goods to Services to Experiences (2) the psychographic - A characteristic of the contemporary breakdowns of how they feel, economy that hospitality organizations what their attitudes, beliefs, were the first to understand is that, for and values are, and what kind many consumers, receiving well-made of experience they need, goods or well-rendered services may want, and expect the no longer be sufficient. hospitality organization to - B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore deliver; and were among the first to note that just (3) the capabilities (their as we had moved from an industrial to knowledge, skills, and abilities a service economy, we have now [KSAs]) to coproduce the transitioned to an experience economy. experience. A term that we have already repeatedly mentioned and will recur many times in the following pages is guest experience. It is the sum of the experiences that the guest has with the service provider on a given occasion or set of occasions. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in To provide each guest with a seamless Though the three elements that the three-part guest experience-service hospitality organization has to work with product, service setting, and service often blend seamlessly into one experience- delivery-each part of which will at least and should do so we can for the purpose of meet the guest’s expectations and the sum discussion break them out into the service of which ideally will make the guest say, or product, setting, and delivery system. Here at least think, "wow!” In a simple service is a fuller description of each. situation, the entire guest experience might A. The Service Product be delivered by a single person in a single - The service product, sometimes moment, but for the typical guest called the service package or experience, speaking of a service delivery service/product mix, is why the system seems more accurate. customer, client, or guest comes to the organization in the first place. Guest experience = service product + service setting Most service products have both + service delivery system tangible and intangible elements and can range from mostly product with little service to mostly service with little if any product. B. The Service Setting Because incidents and occurrences are - The second component of the never exactly the same for two people- guest experience is the setting or whether at a theater, hotel, vacation resort, environment in which the restaurant, or on a cruise ship-no two guest experience takes place. The term experiences are exactly alike. Even if the servicescape, the landscape within incidents and occurrences were exactly the which service is experienced, has same, your experience of them would be been used to describe the physical unique because the wants, needs, tastes, aspects of the setting that preferences, capabilities, and expectations contribute to the guest's overall you bring to the experience are uniquely physical feel of the experience. The yours and may change from day to day. Add servicescape is also extremely in the intangibility of service itself, and the important to the themed uniqueness of each guest experience "eatertainment". cannot be questioned. That uniqueness is C. The Service Delivery System what provides the primary challenge to the - Including the human components hospitality service provider. The old saying (like the restaurant server who has it that "you can't please every guest," places the meal on the table or the but the hospitality organization has to try, sound engineer at the rock even though everybody is different. concert) and the physical production processes (like the kitchen facilities in the restaurant or the rock concert's sophisticated amplification system) plus the organizational and information systems and techniques that help deliver the service to the customer. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in The term service encounter is often used to Services and manufactured products have refer to the person-to-person interaction or different characteristics. Manufactured series of interactions between the customer products tend to be tangible; produced, and the person delivering the service. shipped, and purchased now for Although both parties are usually people, consumption later; and lacking in much if the many situations or interactions any interaction between the manufacturer between organization and guest which are and the consumer. Services tend to be now automated-the automatic teller intangible, purchased (if not always paid machine, check-in kiosks, and online for) first, then simultaneously produced and transactions being familiar examples-may consumed, and accompanied by also be considered service encounters. considerable provider-customer An encounter is the period of time during interaction.' which the organization and the guest 1. Services Are Partly or Wholly Intangible interact. The length of a typical service If the service rendered includes a tangible encounter will vary from one service item (the Mickey Mouse hat, Mardi Gras provider or organizational type to another. beads, a good meal), then the total guest Service encounters or interactions, and experience is the sum of the service- especially certain critical moments within product mix, the environment within which them, are obviously of crucial importance to it is delivered, and the service product's the guest's evaluation of service quality; delivery. Because all or part of the service they can make or break the entire guest product is intangible, it is impossible to experience. assess the product's quality or value At the moment of truth, a server or other accurately or objectively, to inventory it, or organizational representative is typically to repair it (although we will talk later about present and attempting to provide service. correcting service failures). Some writers include interactions with 2. Services Are Consumed at the Moment or inanimate objects as potential moments of during the Period of Production or Delivery truth. The moment-of-truth concept is very Even if the guest takes home the Mickey important: Each guest may have only a few Mouse hat, or the plastic beads, or the full moments of truth during a single guest stomach, or even if the luncheon was experience or many moments in a lifetime prepared an hour before the customer had relationship with a company, but each one it, the service as a whole and from the needs to be positive. customer's perspective was consumed as Another term often used in the services delivered. The customer can take home the literature is a critical incident. Dwayne hat, beads, and the memory of the Gremmler, in his review of the technique experience but not the service itself. In for collecting data on critical customer addition, the experience must at least equal experiences, describes its uses, advantages, that which the same guest had in previous and disadvantages. His extensive review of visits. The hospitality organization must the technique offers a helpful checklist of think through the service delivery process how to use it and interpret its findings. by working from the guest backward. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in 3. Services Usually Require Interaction between the Service Provider and the Customer, Client, or Guest. This interaction The major responsibility for fulfilling the can be as short as the brief encounter expectations created by the marketing between the customer and the order taker department and by the past experiences of at a McDonald's drive-thru, or as long as the repeat guests lies with the operations side lifetime relationship between the patient of the organization. If what guests and the family physician. These interactions experience falls short of what they have can be face to face, over the phone, on the been led to expect or have learned to Web, or by mail, e-mail, or texting. expect, they will be unhappy. When the interaction is face to face, customers and employees must be taught how to coproduce the experience in some systematic way. When the experience happens at the moment of its consumption, then the organization needs to plan on how they will remember their unmet to ensure that new, untrained, expectations as poor service and a bad inexperienced, and unknowledgeable experience customers get the same service experience tell their friends about their terrible quality and value that the returning, experience trained, experienced, and knowledgeable angry customers can use social media to ones get. rant about their bad experience post their complaints on established Web sites or blogs dedicated to providing a means for customers to convey their experiences with different organizations or Guests arrive with a set of expectations as products (ex. TripAdvisor) to what that chosen hotel or restaurant can and should do, how it should do it, how the people providing the service should behave, how the physical setting should appear, what capabilities guests should have to anticipate guest expectations as accurately perform their roles or responsibilities in as possible and then meet or exceed them coproducing the experience, how the guest the expectations are high in fine-dining should dress and act, and what the cost and restaurants, fancy cruise ships, 5-star value of the successfully delivered service hotels, business class airline bookings, should be. exclusive clubs and memberships providing comfort and convenience even during peak hours/season first impression last too good to be true KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in Organizations must be careful not to over- deliver to the point of making guests feel uncomfortable or unpleasantly surprised. If 1. Guest Complaint: Lying, dishonesty, customers enter Eat ‘n' Run, which looks unfairness. and sounds like a fast-food restaurant, and Guest Expectation: To be told the truth and see white linen tablecloths, they may feel treated fairly. that they are about to experience 2. Guest Complaint: Harsh, disrespectful expensive, leisurely, “fine" dining and incur treatment by employees. a bigger cost than they expected. Guest Expectation: To be treated with respect. 3. Guest Complaint: Carelessness, mistakes, broken promises. Guest Expectation: To receive mistake-free, careful, reliable service. 4. Guest Complaint: Employees without the 1. First, it will spend the time and money to desire or authority to solve problems. train its employees to be alert to customer Guest Expectation: To receive prompt cues, signals, and body language so they solutions to problems from empowered can fine-tune their interaction with their employees who care. customers. 5. Guest Complaint: Waiting in line because 2. Second, it will constantly survey or ask its some service lanes or counters are closed. guests what they thought about the Guest Expectation: To wait as short a time experience, to ensure that guests receive as possible. more service value than they expect but not 6. Guest Complaint: Impersonal service. so much more as to detract from the Guest Expectation: To receive the personal experience. attention and genuine interest from service employees. 7. Guest Complaint: Inadequate communication after problems arise. Guest Expectation: To be kept informed Most guests have the same general about recovery efforts after having or expectations when they go to a hospitality reporting problems or service failures. organization for service. Surveys and 8. Guest Complaint: Employees unwilling to interviews are not required to determine make extra effort or who seem annoyed by that most guests expect cleanliness, requests for assistance. courtesy, responsiveness, reliability, and Guest Expectation: To receive assistance friendliness. Customers complain when rendered willingly by helpful and trained they do not get what they expect or when service employees. they have an unpleasant experience. 9. Guest Complaint: Employees who don't Another way to get at what customers know what's happening. expect is to examine their complaints. Guest Expectation: To receive accurate answers from service employees knowledgeable about both service products and organizational procedures. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in 10. Guest Complaint: Employees who put their C. Cost own interests first, conduct personal - One source of cost difference to a guest business, or chat with each other while the having lunch today at your restaurant customers wait. rather than someone else’s is, of course, Guest Expectation: To have customers' the price of the meal. In addition, interests come first. experienced restaurant and other hospitality managers appreciate that the guest has also incurred other, less quantifiable costs, including the so-called opportunity costs of missing out on A. Quality alternative meals at competing restaurants - Two "equations" can help make clear what and foregoing experiences or opportunities quality, value, and cost mean to the other than eating at a restaurant meal. guestologist and why we say that quality D. Cost of quality and value are determined not in any - An important concept in service absolute sense, as they might be in other organizations is the cost of quality. Cost of situations, but entirely by the guest. quality is often used as a reminder not of The quality of the entire guest experience how much it costs the organization to or of any part of it is defined as the provide service quality at a high level but of difference between the quality that the how little it costs compared to the cost of guest expects and the quality that the guest not providing quality. gets. If the two are the same, then quality in this special sense is average or as expected; you got what you expected and you are satisfied. If you got more than you Because service is intangible and guest expected, quality was positive; if you got expectations are variable, no objective less than you expected, quality was determination of quality level (and negative. therefore of value) can be made. In some - The first equation that follows describes areas of business, a quality inspector might these relationships for the quality of the be able to define and determine the quality guest experience, Qe. It is equal to the of a product before a customer ever sees it. quality of the experience as delivered, Qed, In the hospitality field, only the guest can minus the quality expected, Qee. define quality and value. Qe = Qed – Qee B. Value - The value of the guest experience (Ve) is equal to the quality of the experience (Qe) as “calculated” using the first equation While guestology is obviously most helpful divided by all the costs incurred by the in organizing knowledge about the guest to obtain the experience: management of hospitality businesses—like hotels and restaurants, which have traditionally spoken of their clientele as guests—it can be used to study and understand any organization in which people are served in some way. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in A saying in business is, “Price, quality, All hospitality organizations practice speed—pick any two.” The implication is product differentiation to an extent; all that no organization can do it all, so no want to be perceived as offering a service customer should expect it all; the product—the guest experience itself—that organization must determine the basis on is different in ways their customers find which it hopes to compete. favorable. Many try to attract guests by According to strategy scholar Michael emphasizing these differences rather than Porter, an organization usually employs one by offering low prices. or more of three different generic strategies. a) First, it can aim to be the low-cost producer and low-price provider in its industry, area, or market segment. A major way to differentiate one’s service b) Second, it can differentiate its product from those of competitors is through the or service from those of its creation of a strong brand image. A brand competitors. represents a promise to guests of what the c) Third, it can fill a particular market quality and value of experiences associated niche or need. Successful hospitality with that brand will offer them, every time organizations establish a strategy that and every place they see the brand. A may include one or more of these strong brand promise reduces customer generic strategies and stick with it. uncertainty about the hospitality experience that the organization offers and, consequently, creates a brand preference and increases customer loyalty. “We will not be undersold!” The low-price provider tries to design and provide pretty much the same service that the competition sells, but at a lower price. Management’s focus is on maximizing operational or Finally, an organization can try to find and production efficiencies to minimize the fill a particular market niche or gap. It can organization’s costs. The lowprice provider focus on a specific part of the total market tries to offer the service at a price so low by offering a special appeal—like quality, that competitors cannot offer the same value, location, or exceptional service—to service and value at a lower price without attract customers in that market segment. losing money. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in The strategies just discussed are not The environmental assessment, or the long mutually exclusive. An organization can look around for opportunities and threats, seek to differentiate its product from all in turn defines the strategic premises. others in the market (Strategy 2) by These premises are the beliefs of the positioning the product in people’s minds as managers assessing all long-term aspects of the best value for the lowest cost (Strategy the external environment and trying to use 1). This combination of strategies requires them to discover what forces will impact the organization to use both effective their business in the future and especially marketing techniques that reach this best- what customers will want in that future value, lowest-cost market segment and environment. operating efficiencies that allow it to make money at the low price. The internal assessment, or the searching look within for strengths and weaknesses, Picking and following a strategy is an defines the organization’s core important decision for any hospitality competencies and considers the manager seeking to find the best match of organization’s strong and weak points in the company’s mission with present and terms of its ability to compete in the future. emerging uncertainties. If drastic change is It is here that the organization determines forecast, the organization might even have what it does well, what it does not do well, to reinvent itself and learn new core and how its strengths and weaknesses pair competencies. A strategy might be to get with what it wants to accomplish. cheaper, or better, or faster. These are all reactive operational strategies that most organizations could adopt as circumstances change. These three generic strategies—competing on price, finding a niche, and differentiating—may each work for a while, but they also have potential shortcomings. If you compete on price, somebody is eventually going to undercut your price. Also, the costs associated with establishing a close and lasting relationship with guests are difficult to cover if you stress your low price. If you find a niche and succeed there, an imitator eventually will join you in the niche, and soon it will be just another market segment. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in The process described in Figure 2-1 seems Among the many factors that the hospitality to many like an attempt to apply rationality organization must forecast for the uncertain to an irrational world and to predict an future, it must try to predict potential unpredictable future. It will, therefore, lead changes in demographics, technology, to errors, wasted time, and frustration. social expectations, economic forces, Nevertheless, the planning process is competitors, other relevant groups worthwhile. There is an old saying that (suppliers of resources, capital, and labor), those who fail to plan, plan to fail. and surprise factors. As shown in Figure 2-1, the hospitality Assessing future demographic trends and planning process begins with a long look their effects may require both qualitative around the environment. Here, the and quantitative forecasts. Hospitality organization carefully studies the organizations already know a lot about their opportunities and threats the future holds future guests since so many of them are for both it and its industry. Figure 2-2 already here. presents the three categories of factors that A. Generation X, Generation Y or the should be included in an environmental Millenniums, and the Next-Gens assessment: those in the overall ▪ Many future market environment, the industry environment, opportunities can be identified and the company’s operating environment. by reviewing information already known about baby boomers and the Generation X and Generation Y segments of the population. The 46 million Americans born in the years 1965–1976 make up Generation X. Generation Y Americans are those born in the years 1977–1997, and Generation Next (Next-Gens) are those born after 1997. In 2008, these segments represented 15, 27, and 13 percent respectively of the population of the United States. The roughly 81 million Americans of Generation Y, also called the Millennium Generation, between the ages 13 and 33, represent a significant demographic category and constitute the current entry level workforce. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in B. Leadership Ambitions (Bresman & Rao, D. Managerial Implications of Generation Y in 2017) the Workforce ▪ We found that across the ▪ Generation Ys are young globe, becoming a leader was people who have been called important to 61% of Gen Y, the “most praised 61% of Gen Z, and 57% of Gen generation,” as their entire X respondents. But responses young lives have been filled varied by country: For with positive feedback from example, in the Nordic parents, teachers, coaches, countries respondents were and others. They won soccer significantly less likely to covet trophies as children just for leadership roles than those in showing up, ribbons for Mexico. Among Gen Y participating in school events respondents, 76% of Mexicans and were routinely told they said attaining a leadership role were special. Now as is important, but only 47% of members of the labor force, Norwegians said the same. they require different 77% of American Gen Y strategies to manage; as professionals said that gaining customers, they require a leadership position was different strategies to satisfy. important to them. C. Demographic Implications ▪ These statistics have several implications for all organizations serving the Several developments other than the public; some of them will have population trends that are changing the special impact on the labor- workforce and customer base will affect the intensive hospitality industry. strategies of hospitality organizations. As aging baby boomers press Dramatic changes in technology will for allocation of more continue to have a major influence on both government dollars to their organizations and the industry. While many growing health care and demographic trends shift slowly, changes in retirement needs, funding for technology, especially information education has come under technology, occur rapidly, and so they and pressure. their impact are difficult to forecast. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in Another factor in an organization’s long An organization has existing competitors, look around is society’s changing potential competitors, and indirect expectations for all its institutions, including competitors that offer customers a those in the hospitality industry, as well as substitute or alternative service. These emerging social trends and institutional competitors can be local, national, or even changes. “Dashboard cuisine” with its use international. of wraps did not exist as a food-service category until recently. Changing social trends led to this new category as very busy families sought a way to find food that they could eat in their cars without making a 1. Resource Suppliers mess. - When Red Lobster adds a new seafood item to its menu, it must first check to be sure that demand for it doesn’t exhaust the world’s supply of that item. Because Red Lobster has so many restaurants, adding or removing a menu item can have a major impact on the supply of that product. 2. Capital Suppliers - A second major interested group is the suppliers of capital. As the capital market has become more global and the availability of electronic transfers makes movement of capital easier and quicker, the organization may need to spend more time forecasting the availability of capital for its business and industry. If capital availability is driven by the next quarter’s financial report, the impact on the organization’s decision-making and planning horizon Many environmental factors already will be considerable. covered have an economic aspect. Economics is such an important issue, however, that it deserves special discussion. The organization must consider the effects of governmental economic policies on its suppliers of capital, the ability of its customers to buy the service, its own cost structure, and direct and indirect competitors’ ability to compete. The economic meltdown of 2008 had a major impact on the hospitality industry. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in 3) People were trying to adjust to a newer, more complicated way of The final external issue to address in this life. Older people were looking for long look around at the environment is the relief from the many social and potential for surprise. While one cannot political changes occurring during often predict real estate or financial market the 1960s, and young people were crashes, terrorist attacks, wars, volcanic looking for changes that they could eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, or other handle. Thomas notes, “In a funny natural disasters, thoughtful planners way, the old-fashioned decor and consider these possibilities. the Tiffany lamps provided a novelty for the young adults and nostalgia for the older generation at the same time.” 4) People were on the move. Any All the changes described above will have business had to accommodate this varying effects on the organization. But not restless mobility. all factors are equal in either their impact 5) People were ready for an upscale on the organization or in terms of our hamburger place. He felt that ability to forecast them fully. Some are many people had grown up loving predictable and simple, such as the hamburgers but were not satisfied estimated number of teenagers available with the product generally for work in ten years. available at fast-food outlets. The hospitality organization draws The definition given by management conclusions about the future of its industry strategists Hamel and Prahalad is helpful: and market from its environmental An organization’s core competence is the assessment, and then uses this information bundle of skills and technologies that gives to make the assumptions, called strategic the organization an important difference in premises, on which its service strategy is providing customer benefits and perceived based. Strategic premises are educated value. guesses. Dave Thomas’ 5 trends 1) 1. People wanted choices. They were tired of living in a prepackaged world; they wanted An internal audit includes an assessment of some influence over the products all the organization’s internal assets. Each they were buying in the organization has a reputation, a pool of marketplace, and they wanted human capital (its employees), managerial something new. capabilities, material resources, and 2) People were fed up with poor competitive advantages based on its quality. He saw a big interest in technology. It also possesses patents, brand things that were fresh and natural. names, copyrights, and customer loyalty, all of which help define its core competencies. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5  in A. The Vision Statement Berry’s Four Components of Excellent Service - A vision statement articulates what the 1. The excellent strategy emphasizes quality. organization hopes to look like and be like 2. An excellent service strategy emphasizes in the future. Rather than presenting value. specific principles, goals, and objectives, the 3. An excellent service strategy is that it vision presents hopes and dreams; it focuses the entire organizational effort on creates a picture toward which the service. organization aspires; it provides inspiration 4. The service strategy should foster among for the journey ahead. employees a sense of genuine achievement. B. The Mission Statement - An organization’s mission statement Supporting Strategies: Service Product, Environment, articulates the organization’s purpose, the and Delivery System reason for which it was founded and for which it continues to exist. The mission Once the service strategy has been defined, statement defines the path to the vision, it provides the basis for ensuring that the given the strategic premises and the customers’ key drivers are addressed, by organization’s core competencies. determining what the organization’s service (1) What you do (What is the product or product should be, what the service service you are providing to the customer?), environment in which the service product is (2) Who you do it for (Who is the targeted provided or delivered should look and feel customer?), like, and how the service delivery system (3) How or where you do it (Where is the makes the service product available to the product or service going to be provided to guest. the targeted customers? Place, niche or market segment?) A. The Design Day - A basic problem for many hospitality Once the external and internal assessment organizations is that demand is uncertain, factors have been examined in light of the and capacity is fixed. An important concept corporate vision and mission, the hospitality in capacity planning for hospitality organization is ready to define its service organizations is the design day. strategy. B. Yield Management - A capacity-management concept that has gained substantial favor in the airline, lodging, restaurant, spa, cruise line, and convention industries is yield management Usually, the best way to know what your (YM)—managing the sale of units of customers want or expect is to ask them. capacity to maximize the profitability of The organization should not only look inside that capacity. Also called revenue to evaluate its core competencies but must management, yield management involves also ask its customers to determine the key selling the right capacity to the right drivers of customer satisfaction. customer at the most advantageous price, to maximize both capacity use and revenue. KAYE O. | 4 Y1-5