Service Marketing

Dr/ Omnia Mokhtar

Ahmed sayed Mohammed

Ahmed salem Mahmoud
Amr Mohamed Wahid
Hania Mohamed Saleh
Michael Nabil Fahmy
Mohamed Mahmoud Eltantawy

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Table of Contents
1. Company overview….………...…..………………………........3
2. The meeting process…………………………………………....4
3. The service quality gaps .............................................................. 4
a. The knowledge gap ............................................................ 4
b. The policy gap ................................................................... 5
c. The delivery gap .................................................................... 7
d. The communication gap ................................................... 8
e. The perception …………………………………………12
f. The service gap ..………………………………………13
4. Our recommendations ............................................................... 14

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1. Company overview
 Capiter is a B2B marketplace that brings together micro, small, and
medium enterprises (SME) businesses with a single platform that
allows retailers to order a wide range of inventory, obtain delivery,
and access an embedded BNPL solution all from a single platform.

 Using cutting-edge technology and machine learning, the Capiter

solution also helps brands and manufacturers to gain critical insights
into the markets they serve, enabling them to access real data to
refine their distribution strategies and increase efficiencies.

 Currently, it is serving over 50,000 merchants and + 1k sellers with

a team of close to 1500+ people.

 Egypt’s $100B+ market, has over 1,9m underserved retailers.

Capiter’s platform offers them a reliable and convenient solution for
their daily purchases in a few clicks. It also improves distributors'
reach and brings fair pricing and transparency to the market.

 Capiter’s main goal is to become the one-stop-shop for merchants

across different industries offering 3 solutions; Ordering, Credit, and
Payments.

 Capiter was fulfilling the food & beverage market only, dealing with
retailers like supermarkets, kiosks, cafes, canteens, cafeterias…etc.
delivering for them their orders within 24 hours or 48 hours
maximum, now capiter has started to enter the electronics market
delivering electronic products like smartphones, laptops, flash
memory, memory cards and other electronic accessories like
headsets and others, the company’s strategy is to expand both
vertically and horizontally, it was covering Cairo and Giza only after
that it entered Alex, then Mansoura, the company is looking forward
to cover south Egypt and all of the other governments, it is also
planning to allocate by the end of 2022 in 5 countries. Regarding the
vertical expansion the company is willing to enter the fashion and
furniture markets in 2022 after the great success achieved in the
electronics market.

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2. The meeting process
We already have our friend Amr who is working in capiter in the HR
department and he set up a meeting with the marketing manager which was
very useful to understand the essence of the gaps and how companies deal
with them professionally. And according to the meeting done we are going
to explore the different gaps and how capiter company deals with them and
our recommendations to make the process better.

3. The service quality gaps

a. The knowledge gap

 First we need to know exactly what ideal company should do:
o Research studies should be done from time to time using field
research like questionnaire or interviews.
o The feedback system to determine the satisfaction level and
solve complains.
o Interaction with the management.
o Also we need not to forget the communication between the
front line employees and the managers.
 According to the interview we have made with the marketing
manager:
o Capiter company already established a community support
department which concerned with all the complains of the
customers as the delivery man when delivering the goods and
the customer is not satisfied and has complains, the delivery
man creates a ticket with the customers’ details and his
complain.
o The customer himself can make a complain using the hotline.
o No direct interaction between customers and the management.
o They do an event called “All hands meeting” monthly in
which all employees and all mangers meet together and the
CEO starts talking about what the company status this month
and remind all the employees about the company strategy and
inform them about what is required and what should be done
and achieved in the next period. After that he starts to answer
the questions that were sent to him by the employees before
the meeting and then answer on spot questions during the
meeting.

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  Finally, there is the evaluation of that gap and how good the
company deals with it:
o We recommend the company to make a questionnaire online
to determine their weakness points and solve them.
o The feedback system and dealing with complains in the
company is good but it can be improved if they added an
option in the application which allows customers to send their
complaints and recommendations as well.
o There is no interaction between the managers and the
customers which actually is a big gap cause the customer need
to feel more important than dealing only with the delivery
men so we suggest that mangers can make field visits with the
delivery men from time to time specially with the class-A
customers.
o The communication between the front line employees and the
mangers is good and I think there is nothing need to be added
in that area.
o The company application support only android which need to
change and support also the iPhone system.

b. The policy gap

 To be a successful company there are some practices that have to be

done where:
o The policy gap reflecting the difference between
management’s perception of customer expectations and actual
customer service specifications. In this scenario, management
may have an accurate understanding of customer expectations
but that understanding hasn’t been effectively implemented as
an operating policy. Specificity is the key here.
o Policies should be developed with the SMART – Specific,
Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Timely. Note,
however, that situational factors can complicate matters. A
policy that is actionable when things go according to plan may
not work when staff calls in sick or there’s an unexpected
influx of customers or a power outage.
o Hiring employees who are able – and empowered – to
improvise to achieve the overall customer satisfaction is the
best.
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 o In order to address the policy-practice gap, companies should
clarify, train on, measure, and reward performance relative to
customer service standards.
o Clearly articulate service levels and business (i.e., budget)
assumptions
 According to the interview done:
o Capiter uses a rigorous, methodical, and client-centric
approach to customer service process.
o Develop, communicate and train to specific customer service
standards.
o Capiter core service occur through an application and dealing
with humans is mostly done with the delivery men and sales
staff.
o So capiter already standardized work activities to assure
consistency and dependability by replacing hard technology
for human touch and enhancing work processes by spending
more in ongoing development at the interface to make it
simple to use.
o Measure performance and adjust resources as required to meet
service level objectives: Employees at Capiter are made aware
of and embrace the company's quality standards via rigorous
training, weekly workgroup meetings for each team, and
monthly meetings with the company's senior management.
o Monitor industry service level standards and update policy as
appropriate: Tiered goods were established by Capiter to
enable clients to self-segment by providing more than one
product level in each category of items to meet their specific
demands, for example, Capiter distributes (Pepsi, Coca, Sina)
cola.
o The company has a good system that keep track of complains
through the entire process to keep the service at high quality
levels as for example if the products delivered have defects a
ticket can be done with the customer details by the delivery
men or he can call the hotline and make a complain.
o The most important part is the employees and make them
understand the goals of the company and the standards of
quality to deliver to the customer and that’s why there is a
weekly meeting for every team and a monthly meeting where
all the employees, managers and the CEO meet together and
CEO show them what they have achieved in the last month
and what is their target for the next month.
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  Our recommendations to fill in the policy gap:
o As we have seen above that the company already have done a
good work and already most of its service is done through an
app with the less human interfere.
o The company already offer variety of products that allow all
the customer segments to order what they want like the
different types of soda and trademarks.
o They monitor their service process carefully and try to get the
less complains and try to solve them fast as possible.
o They train their employee well and they have periodic
meetings for them on weekly and monthly basis.
o I think they have done a great job to fill in the policy gap and
I think they don’t have that kind of gap in their company.

c. The delivery gap

 Ensure that performance Meets Standards and the customer
understand the quality level of delivery our company already follow
the following steps:
 Ensure Customer service team are motivated and able to
meet service standards
1- Selection of new team build on competency assessment
and personal qualifications ensuring to have a team with
same mentality, attitude, and common preferences
2- After hiring; new team members pass through training
programs starts with induction training to the company
internal processes; mission; vision; objectives to clarify
employee role, and onboarding sessions for new
employees to educate them about each department in the
company and its role.
3- Next training program is on job training which help them
to understand how their job contribute to customer
satisfaction in addition to wise training on the service with
standardized KPIs and soft-skills training,
4- Last level is orientation of the team across different
services to build strong cross functional service team that
can offer customer centric.
5- All the team before starting their job; they have
performance appraisal meeting to clarify employee’s role
and ensure that they understand their jobs and their KPIs

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 relevant to how to deal with customer satisfactions,
expectations, perceptions and problems
6- Performance appraisal to be done quarterly which help in
rewarding outstanding performance team and individuals
as well.
 All the team is provided with needed tools; laptops;
mobiles, mobile lines, software access
1- Using upgraded devices with needed software and instant IT
service to support any breakdown.
2- Record customer calls and provide rating survey to evaluate
customer service employee.
 Manage customer service quality.
In parallel; Capiter used to conduct special trainings to their
customers on how to use the service and the actions to be done
when facing specific problems or challenges.

 Our Recommendations:
According to the above tools the company already uses all the available
tools to deliver their service with high quality although we can say that
they don’t have a clear incentive system for its employees which may
reflect badly on the employees’ performance. So we recommend to make
a clear and powerful incentive system for its employees.

d. The Communication gap

Funding startups that help manufacturers and sellers distribute products
and merchants access them on a single platform keeps increasing across
Africa.
Today, Cairo-based B2B e-commerce startup Capiter continues that trend
by raising a $33 million Series A round. The investment was co-led by
Quona Capital and MSA Capital. Other participating investors include
Savola, Shorooq Partners, Foundation Ventures, Accion Venture Lab and
Derayah Ventures.
 Educate mangers responsible for sales and marketing
communication about operational capabilities:
- According to the interview made their advertisements are not found
easy and they mostly depend on word of mouth.
- Through their periodic meetings the managers usually hear from the
front line employees to understand the needs of the consumers.

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 - The marketing team usually preview the advertisements they do
before the customers exposed to them although they are few and
need to be more.
- Capiter was launched in July 2020 Capiter solves problems around
reach and insights for suppliers and manufacturers.
- Many of the manufacturers in Egypt do not have the right
infrastructure of the supply chain in place to reach merchants.
Manufacturers can only reach 30% of merchants in the market, but
with Capiter, that number goes up between 80% to 100%.
- Also, a large portion of the manufacturers’ end trade happens via
traditional channels where there is basically no transparency over
data or market insights.
- Using machine learning helps these manufacturers gain critical
insights into the markets they serve, the products they sell and how
they fair with competition.
- For merchants, Capiter attends to three problems. The first is the
inconvenience merchants have to deal with engaging several
suppliers to find the right product. The second is transparency,
which involves some back and forth between merchants and
manufacturers on pricing. The third is that merchants often have
little or no access to working capital to get the right product and the
right time.
 Ensure that communications content sets realistic customer
expectations:
- A questionnaire and surveys should be carried out to determine how
far the customers get from the company’s messages which is not
present in the company.
- Capiter merchants can order products from FMCGs and wholesalers
while the company delivers them. Capiter also provides fair pricing
and matching techniques that showcases a wide range of inventory
for merchants.
- It affords working capital to them to buy more products even when
they are strapped for cash. Capiter partners with local banks in
Egypt and the Central Bank to perform this.
- Capiter has more than 12 merchant types on its platform, including
mom-and-pop stores, hotels, restaurants, cafes, electronic shops,
supermarkets, grocery shops and catering companies, each with its
own customized solutions.
- Capiter is able to get the data from the products they buy. So they
offer them the best solution on what they should sell, at what time

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 and peak seasons, including when are the offerings happening. All
of these are customized solutions that we offer.
- The company’s revenues are derived from little margins on the
products bought from manufacturers and sold to merchants. Then on
rebates for the suppliers and commission from the working capital
provided to merchants. Capiter also makes money from providing
market insights and data services to manufacturers and FMCGs.
- Capiter’s CEO Mr. Ahmed Nouh has attended interviews on
different TV channels and programs like Sada El-Ballad, Ahmed
Moussa’s TV program, Tamer Amin’s TV program and with Essad
Younis (Sahbet El Saada), believing that these TV shows are the
most viewed by the segment the company is targeting to increase the
awareness about capiter and the services it is providing.
 BE specific with promises and manage customers understanding
of communication content:
- After closing the deals with their customers and the goods are
delivered there should be a system of surveys through their app
to determine the satisfaction of their customers and the
company’s overall performance and if they did achieve their
goals or not.
- Typically, B2B e-commerce platforms operate either asset-light
or inventory-heavy models. Capiter chose to use a hybrid model
by making deliveries without owning any trucks to ensure
scalability and owning inventory, especially for high-turnover
products helping the company with high availability and better
pricing. This way has enabled them to scale the business in a very
fast manner and at the same
time, efficiently and reliably. Regarding warehouses and trucks,
they don’t own them; they rent them. they deal with third-party
logistics for transportation and we manage them.
- Over 50,000 merchants and 1,000 sellers use Capiter. The
company has provided up to 6,000 SKUs. Also adds that the
company is targeting an annualized revenue of $1 billion by next
year.
- They’re on a very good trajectory for achieving this. In terms
of team members, they have a team of more than 1,000 people at
the moment, including in warehouses, delivery, etc. So they’ve
seen good traction across all board.
- Capiter has built an asset-light way to aggregate retailers and
suppliers and facilitate credit into the system through a
comprehensive multi-product offering such as commerce, credit
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 financing, digital payments, bookkeeping and inventory
management for SMEs, According the company, Capiter will
expand into new verticals like agriculture and pharmaceutical
offerings.
- Capiter has attracted a global team that brings together expertise
from companies like Careem and Flipkart needed to achieve the
company’s targets.
- The team, alongside the provision of financial services via
partnerships with banks and its hybrid model, are ways the
company stands out in a competitive market with the likes of
Fatura, Bosta and MaxAB. Following this investment, the
company plans to expand vertically (in terms of the buyer type)
and geographically within the next year.
- capiter want to serve every single SME in the MENA region and
expanding inside Egypt and globally. They add that Savola
Group, one of its investors and the largest investor for FMCG
products in the MENA region, will prove pivotal to this
growth. Capiter also plans to diversify its financial services
offerings to include payments.
 Our recommendation:
- To apply a systematic training specialized in the communication
skills to the first line employees (delivery men) and how to deal with
customers not only for till them about the company’s app but also to
read their body language and understand their needs.
- According to the meeting done they need a campaign to make more
merchants understand what the company can offer to them and that
could be through billboards and social media ads.
- Their service is standardized and their rules are clear however not
all the merchants understand the incentive scheme made for them so
we recommend to make some kind of events to the merchants every
quarter to make them know better about the incentive the company
offer and to give their rewards to the merchants who deserve it (the
golden pound).
- A questionnaire and surveys should be carried out to determine how
far the customers get from the company’s messages which is not
present in the company.
- After closing the deals with their customers and the goods are
delivered there should be a system of surveys through their app to
determine the satisfaction of their customers and the company’s
overall performance and if they did achieve their goals or not.

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 e. The perception gap
Perception is seen as the (active) process of assessing information in your
surroundings. A perception gap occurs when you attempt to communicate
this assessment of information but it is misunderstood by your audience.
Assessing information in your surroundings is strongly influenced by
communication.
So all companies have to make service quality tangible and communicate
the service quality delivered through:
 Develop service environment and physical evidence cues that are
consistent with the level of service provided.
Capiter have a point of difference that are consistent with the level
of service provided which include environment and physical
evidence:
- Easy use application (physical evidence)
- Availability of a lot of products in one place (environment and
physical evidence)
- Free delivery for 24 hours (environment and physical evidence)
- Competitive price in market (physical evidence)
- Customer service for 24 hours (environment and physical
evidence)
- Discounts and cash back in your wallet (physical evidence)
- Discounts in specified products (environment)
From what mentioned above which derive that capiter develop service
environment and physical evidence that are consistent with the level of
service provided with efficiency and effectiveness. But this application
work on android mobiles only which makes it lose a lot of customers which
use ios mobiles which can be considered a gap.
 For complex and credence services keep customers informed during
service delivery on what is being done, and give briefings after the
delivery so that customers can appreciate the quality of service they
received.
o Capiter have an internal program for taking the orders from
customers then notify the nearest inventory to serve it then
deliver it to the customer if the customer order is done before
10 pm the order will be in his store after 10 pm of next day
which means orders delivered from capiter to customer
through 48 hours no more.

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 o If the customer order in Thursday before 10 pm he/she can
choose delivery on Friday or Saturday.

From what mentioned above capiter have a good delivery system to

ensure quality and availability all weekdays. But the customers don’t
know the internal process from taking his order to deliver it and it’s
a gap that the company have to take it in consideration.

 Provide physical evidence

Capiter have 24 hours customer service to take all the inquiries from
customers and comments about the delivered products if it is
damaged or expired and the customer need to change it otherwise
the delivery agent do this when he delivers the products for the
customers. And that improve the quality, efficiency, effectiveness of
capiter processes which is one of the important physical evidence.

f. The service gap

As mentioned above the service delivered by Capiter is a B2B

service, in which it facilitate to its customers to order their products
through mobile application and instead of dealing with several
representatives from different manufacturers or dealers they can deal
only with Capiter and their order will be delivered to them after 24
hours free of charge, they can also benefit from the cash back
promotion, discounts placed on some products and winning a gold
pound after reaching a specific target, all of these factors encourage
Capiter’s target audience to deal with it, and after addressing all the
previous gaps mentioned before and apply the recommended
recommendations for each gap the company will enhance its service
and can increase its market share to become the market leader.

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4. Our Recommendations:
 We recommend the company to make a questionnaire online to
determine their weakness points and solve them.
 The feedback system and dealing with complains in the company is
good but it can be improved if they added an option in the
application which allows customers to send their complaints and
recommendations as well.
 There is no interaction between the managers and the customers
which actually is a big gap cause the customer need to feel more
important than dealing only with the delivery men so we suggest that
mangers can make field visits with the delivery men from time to
time specially with the class-A customers.
 The company application support only android which need to
change and support also the iPhone system.
 Make a clear and powerful incentive system for its employees.
 To apply a systematic training specialized in the communication
skills to the first line employees (delivery men) and how to deal with
customers not only for tilling them about the company’s app but also
to read their body language and understand their needs.
 They need a campaign to make more merchants understand what the
company can offer to them and that could be through billboards and
social media ads.
 A questionnaire and surveys should be carried out to determine how
far the customers get from the company’s messages which is not
present in the company.
 Their service is standardized and their rules are clear however not
all the merchants understand the incentive scheme made for them so
we recommend to make some kind of events to the merchants every
quarter to make them know better about the incentive the company
offer and to give their rewards to the merchants who deserve it (the
golden pound).
 Make the customers know the internal process from taking his order
to deliver it.
 After closing the deals with their customers and the goods are
delivered there should be a system of surveys through their app to
determine the satisfaction of their customers and the company’s
overall performance and if they did achieve their goals or not.

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