Business Report:
Introduction
The company Clayton UTZ is one of the top Australian firms providing the services to the large. They are providing the service across the spectrum including litigation and dispute resolution, restructuring and insolvency, taxation, intellectual property and industrial compliance etc. the company is planning to transform from the traditional legal-centric to the client-centric mindset at all the levels. For transforming this change in the organization, management tries to have change in the culture also. For this company has to perform functions of management which includes planning, leading and organizing the activities and the organization. Without using these functions in the company the business issue cannot be resolved. The change in culture is done to have better handling of the customer. For this company can adopt the theories or models like value creation components in business model design-customer centric orientation (Ordenes, Theodoulidis, Burton, Gruber & Zaki, 2014)
Defining and framing the Issue
Customer centricity is the mindset and set of processes. The issue of transforming the traditional legal-centric thinking to the customer-centric mindset is required at all the levels in the organization. This issue arises because of the several reasons. The customer wants the customization in the services provided by the Clayton UTZ Company. Customization basically refers to the doing the work according to need and requirement of the customer (Sheth, Sethia & Srinivas, 2011).
Another reason for transforming the traditional to customer-centric is that the customer wants something extra in the services. This means that only offering the basic services and solutions to the customer is not enough nowadays, but also creating the new ones and anticipating their behaviour (Trainor, Andzulis, Rapp & Agnihotri, 2014).
The need of the value creation has been rise by the customers. Value creation here refers to not only selling the services but give something extra with that service to the customer. Innovation is the lifeblood that keeps the creation keeps on going. The model can be examined through the following internal and external factors affecting the company.
Customers
The first dimension in the model of value creation design of business is customer, customer value, customer proposition and customer relationship. These elements are important for designing and creating a customer-centric value-based business model framework. Customer information is necessary for all the types of business irrespective of its size and nature. Customer information is gathered to know the requirements and needs s of the customer and what value can be created while providing the service to them.
Internal factors
Another dimension of the business model is the internal factors affecting the performance of the company. These internal factors include the employees, organisationa;l culture followed in the organisation, organisational structure , ploicies and procedures followed, assets, revenues and cost structure, value networks and delivery channels, value mechanism, key activities and key processes. Internal factors also affect the financial aspect of the business, the value created by them (Spiess, T’Joens, Dragnea, Spencer & Philippart, 2014).
External Factors
The third dimension is related to the business macro level business environment. The external factors are those factors which influence the performance of the company from outside. The general environment factor has indirect impact on the performance of the company and these include the technological environment, sociocultural, legal and economic environment. The other task environment factors which have direct impact on the performance of the company include shareholders, investors, government, suppliers of the company. The performance and reaction of these people affect the company’s stability. The industry, competitors, threats to new entrants, substitute’s products and services are the elements affecting the performance of the business (Issa, 2016).
Functions of management
Planning
The planning can be defined as the process of deciding in advance what to do, how to do and by whom it should be done. In other words, planning bridges the gap between where the company is standing today and where company wants to reach. In Clayton case the company wants to reach to the customer centric approach and work according to the needs and convenience of their clients (Weber, 2015).
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Organising
Organizing is the process of grouping and defining the activities and establishing the authority relationship among the employers and employees. In Clayton business of legal services, the need for managing the customers and employees are there. The new skills and set of knowledge regarding the technology needs to be communicated to the clients for their safety. Organizing will also help in making the relationship within the organisation, which has report to whom to that the hierarchy in the organization can be maintained.
Leading
Leading can be the third step which is accomplish by communicating, motivating and inspiring and encouraging the employees towards the higher level of services to clients. In Clayton UTZ, the leading function of management is important as it helps in communicating with the employee and the clients. Motivating the employees to perform to their best services to business clients and communicating with the effectiveness and efficiency (Craig, Paul & Martin, 2010).
Addressing the Issue
Customer centricity is the broader issue which leads to the direct links up with the development and dissemination of the mindset in an organization. Understanding the needs of the individual and give performance accordingly will lead the organization to achieve more. Customer centricity is not limited to the analysing needs, preferences and behaviour of the customer. These change in the mind of the customer works as the catalyst for the change. Customer centricity involves the change in the strategic thinking and the direction of the organization at the highest level and goes down to the development of services and solutions at the ground level. The common thread throughout the organization is to get connected to its customer and giving the solutions to their problems (Bolton, Gustafsson, McColl-Kennedy, Sirianni & Tse, 2014)
To establish the customer-centric culture in the organization one needs to find the approach through the organization can adopt this. To have the customer-centric culture in the organization, the company should follow the ethical norms in the business and everyone has to understand the needs of the customer. Marinating the relationship with the customer is the essence of the service industry. As Clayton is also providing the legal service to the customer so it should be done in the effective and efficient manner.
The model of moving towards the customer-centric approach in the organization is done to understand the levels that will allow designing the desired culture. Also, the understanding of the current culture state in order to determine the gap between the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ (Lusch & Vargo, 2014).
(Source: Expert 360, 2017)
Strategy
The strategy is the long-term plan formed or designed by the business. The strategy requires the organization to not only articulate their customer strategy. But also helps in ensuring that the employees understand this strategy as well as the individual objectives linked with it (Agnihotri, Dingus & Krush, 2016).
Leadership
Leadership is the quality which is formed by the company itself in the market by giving the quality services to their customers. The leadership in the business helps the company to have the large share in the market. It is the duty of the leader to have coordinated all the information with their customer and their problems too (Fornell, Morgeson III & Hult, 2016).
Structure and networks
The structure and network formed by the companies are important in maintaining the relationship with the customer. Structure and network are important in the organization to identify the most effective operating model in the business to support the customer strategy and tries to maintain the changes in the organization which is implanting in the market. Often the customer information is shared among the marketing, sales and customer service department so that each department can maintain the relationship with the customer (Stallings, Brown, Bauer & Bhattacharjee, 2012).
People and Performance
People and performance here refer to the internal factor the company that whether the company has skilled knowledgeable employees to deal with the problem of the customer. If the customer’s problems are not completely understood the employees then the result will also come in the opposite directions. Understanding the problems and giving the solutions to the customers by the employees are the responsibility of the Clayton Company. The performance also includes the behaviour and metrics done by the employee in front of the customer while communicating with him. The employee performance can be increased in the company when the company has any policies to give rewards and incentives (Paul, Mittal & Srivastav, 2016).
Decision Making
Another step in the model is related to the decision taken by the company in relation to their customers. These decisions are related to the identification of these processes that will be helpful in reducing the complexity for the customer and allow employees to effectively provide the customer care. This also includes the identifying the roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of the impacted by the process changes and ensuring that employees understand and support the changes to their roles and accountabilities (Amin, 2016).
Communication
Communication is the essence of the business without communicating to the employees the problem cannot be understood. The communication done between the customer and company should be two-way communication so that all the problems and suggestion should move in the right direction. The communication should be done while maintaining the moral and ethical behaviour (Expert 360, 2017).
The new approach that company is going to follow will work according to their client convenience. The functions of management are very efficient in implementation this new strategy in the organization. For solving the business issue of the Clayton UTZ, the company can adopt the approach given by the Henri Fayol. The approach or theory relates to the fact that the human resources can work better when functions of management are used in the organization. The planning and organising function must be given the highest priority in the company so that all the work in the company related to the customer must be done accurately.
The planning of who will attend the customer, what will be the criteria to deal with the customer will be decided in the advance by the company. All the men, material in the organisation should be located at a same place; rotation or change of position will not be followed. The implementation of unity of command will be followed in the organization so that the only one boss one employee rule will be followed. This rule will be helpful in the company when the rules and regulation are issues. Everyone should use the same function. It will lead to the proper functioning in the company and it can easily moves towards the customer centric organisation (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2015).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the maintaining the relationship with the customer is as important in the business as maintaining the adequate funds in the business. There is need to change in the traditional way of doing the business. For change in the organization, the changes took place in the functions of management. From the report, it can be evaluated that to have the competitive advantage in the business, customer centricity in the culture should be followed. More importance is given to the customer by managing the operations and functions of the management. New methods are adopted by the business so to have existed in the market. The companies can make stand in the market by using the new technology and using the digital transformation in the business. The model has been adopted by the business to have the customer-centric culture in the organization. The customer satisfaction is important in every type of business.
Recommendations
Mass communication
The company should do the mass customization that means finding the best possible proposition to the given customer so that the customer remains satisfied with the performance of a company.
Designing
Clayton should try to design the process according to the needs and requirements o the customer. Designing the process includes the how a company will move into the case further and it will be in accordance with the customer. Structure the case according to the needs and requirements of the customer (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).
Enablement of the front line staff
The front line staffs are always available in the company to handle the queries of the customer. The frontline staffs are responsible as they directly interact with the customer. The planning should be done in advance that will be available in the front line staff by the top level management.
Information
The company should be able to get accurate information about the customer, its background and their case. This will help a company to make a better relationship with their clients (Craig, Paul & Martin, 2010).
References
Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M. Y., & Krush, M. T. (2016). Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, 172-180.
Amin, M. (2016). Internet banking service quality and its implication on e-customer satisfaction and e-customer loyalty. International journal of bank marketing, 34(3), 280-306.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Craig M., Paul S. & Martin H. (2010). Is Customer Centricity A Movement Or Myth? Opening The Debate For HR Retrieved from: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/lums/cphr/centricitymyth.pdf
Expert 360. (2017). 4 tactics CEOs must use to create customer centric culture and Strategy. Retrieved from: https://expert360.com/blog/5-steps-creating-customer-centric-culture/
Fornell, C., Morgeson III, F. V., & Hult, G. T. M. (2016). Stock returns on customer satisfaction do beat the market: gauging the effect of a marketing intangible. Journal of Marketing, 80(5), 92-107.
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