Investigating customer service levels to achieve competitive advantage in the SME home entertainment rental industry

All too often, marketers of homogenous products fail to identify their competitive advantage, resulting in dismal results. Similarly, SME participants find it difficult to identify such competitive advantages. Fortunately, the Franchise Model facilitates the notion of 'being in business for yourself, but not on your own'. The reason for this case is to facilitate competitive advantage within a Home Entertainment SME Franchise environment, enabling participants to successfully compete with the corporate environment. The outcome is to identify and implement Service Profit Chain (Heskett et al, 1997) initiatives, linking customer service to long term profitability and growth. The home video industry is a product of technology. Prior to the introduction of the home VCR in 1976, there was no way to watch movies at home, except as shown on broadcast television, and no one had thought of a retail store where movies could be rented for the night. In the course of the past quarter-century, those VCR's and those video rental stores became the foundation for a US$ 17 billion industry. This study researches the Home Entertainment Video Rental industry, consisting predominantly of SME home entertainment outlets. The particular analysis is in a leading South African Franchise system, consisting of family owned 'Franchisees'.