CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGEMENT AND NEEDS

QUESTION

I would like to brief my initial framework of the management changes I would be bringing. In the process of doing so, I would be addressing all requirements of internal as well as my external customers. Internal customer requirements can be fulfilled by stable service delivery, time management and regular upliftment of the services for all internal customers as they have been associated with us since long time, apart from this I would also work on some changes towards external customers as well, external customer requirement says that there should be rigorous marketing of our services, nice and attractive payment options and good plans for them and a strong advertising so as to make ourselves aware and well known among our external customers. The customer service standards that I would be implementing is timely service delivery and no delay in time committed by our channel persons, safe and easy movement of all goods without any damage is our goal, if any damage occurs due to transportation error from our side, we would be paying the loss to the client so that long term relation and good faith is there in us. The procedure I would be following for managing this standard are: excellent training sessions of the newly joined drivers and regular monitoring of their actions by means of first level supervisors who will act as team leaders to those workers and junior level employees. A separate safety department will be formed which will monitor performance check of the employees. In order to handle complaints and grievances, grievance handling cell and officers specifically designated for this purpose will be assigned. [EUPAN, 2007]

SOLUTION

In the process of analyzing the level of customer return service requirement, it was seen that there are 3 major firms which have decreased their orders to the company after taking service for the first time, it was also found that the driver delivering service to all three was the same person.  In order to analyze the situation and find out the problem, I would be firstly asking the all 3 firms to give a feedback for the services, analyze the past record of that respective driver, analyze the past records’ of other drivers and their delivery rates so as to find out the level of accuracy and the gap between those two.  The possible reasons for the driver to be non performing could be family pressures on him which bounded him from giving timely delivery to those clients, there may be lack of motivation for that employee to perform well which means that management reward and recognition policy is not satisfying to the drivers association, thirdly it may be possible that there were some errors in the vehicle being used by the driver, this could have made him slow and problematic for 3 consecutive client deliveries, this can be a serious issue as vehicle issues means lack of maintenance in the mode of transport, some misunderstanding can also be one of the reasons like problem in finding the way, misunderstanding with the partner available in the vehicle, misunderstanding with the management or so, any such kind of fact also can distract 1-2 day delay or may be lack of proper training and communication about the exact timeframe of delivery.  From all these, factors traced were lack of motivation, regular family issues which made him dull and less responsive, other priorities like family matter to be resolved, company not satisfying him to the fullest and feeling of unhappiness towards the work, misunderstandings were also there like no firm communication was given to him about the time frame as there should have been a written order or so for the time boundations but he was orally told about the delivery time. Therefore it was seen that driver was suffering from many problems that demoralized him from performing well, it is that he was not properly motivated towards the work. Possible actions for rectification of the issue is that firstly in house training should be promoted more so that drivers remember their job and its seriousness even in adverse conditions, mentoring or counseling can also be used as a motivational aspect as drivers must be counseled before very delivery by their first line officers so that necessary changes could be made if any driver is having any issues in priority, defining career path of the drivers by means of their career path designing for short and long run which will motivate them to work with zeal and in future get promotions and high rewards for up to date performance. Apart from this, the path or distance could also be changed as per convenience of the driver, and regular time of being provided to them so that they could rest and consider their job as flexible. There should also be provision for dismissal of those drivers who are not performing properly for more than two attempts; this can be possible only when counseling and mentoring is very strong so that all issues could be resolved on earlier fronts only. [Gerson, 1993]

Assessment-3:

Questions to the driver:

1. What problems you are facing from management side that is obstructing your performance?
2. Are you having family issues?
3. What are your key factors of motivation?
4. How do you want to work?
5. Is there any terror in the vehicle?

Questions to the customers:

1. Sir, what mistakes from our end made you decline the business frequency?
2. What is the best facility of our services?
3. What is the worst facility of our services?
4. Did you encounter any lack of service delivery?
5. What factor of service is most important for you?

Assessment-4:

1. In the space provided, you are to provide Step by step process on how to deal with customer complaints?

• Firstly there should be proper grievance handling cell where the customers must be promoted to put their complaints on time management issues of the delivery
• There should be a time frame for resolution of the problem and a commitment by the management that such time related delays and driver related issues won’t happen in future
• The customer must be realized that their service is our primary motto and we are continuously dedicated towards achievement of the same.
• Complaint resolution must be noted and duly satisfied by the customers for its accomplishment, for e.g. Customer must be asked after resolution of the issue that he or she is satisfied with the resolution or not?
• In order to tackle with the complaint it is very important that the respective driver must be informed about his flaw and rectification is required. For that the driver can be sent to counseling session or mentoring session and should be communicated about no further mistakes is our guideline. [Isreil]

1. Why are customer complaints important?

Customer complaints are important because they give feedback to the firm for the scope of improvement and also let the management know about their mistakes and loopholes which they could improve for their betterment. Customer complaints give insight into our management techniques and policies.

1. What strategies you would implement to identify customer needs?

• Analysis of customer satisfaction through feedback forms
• Frequency of their complaints and matters included primarily in complaints registered.
• Analysis of external environmental factors and competitors so that customer needs analysis is done by knowing their level of goals setting and its accomplishment.
• Regular surveys i.e. telephonic or through internet by marketing executives and relationship managers
• Interviews face to face done by the business development mangers with the Human resource or other official’s of the client firm.

1. List three factors to ensure customer feedback is effective?

Three factors required ensuring customer feedback is effective are similarity in feedback of more than two client companies or their executives, feedback received matching with the senior level employees realization of the loopholes and matching the received feedback with some past records so that continuation of the issue could be traced.

1. List  six different interactions made with customers in every business?

• Service delivery and its efficiency
• Time management as communicated and committed
• Relationship maintained by the reporting channel persons and their behavior in the client company
• Grievance handling and receiving customer complaint
• Implementing ideas and tactics for future continuity of the business with the same firm
• Quality assurance and its delivery being confirmed with the customer

1. List and explain eight different factors necessary for superior service to customers?

• Effective human resource team of competent employees
• Efficient top management and supervisors
• Innovations and regular transformations from time to time
• Maintaining work life balance of the employees
• Effective brand management and quality assurance team
• Highly competent suppliers and distributor
• Time management and its training to al employees
• Grievance handling on priority basis of the customers]

7. Why is following up with the client important, explain your answer:

Following up with the client is important because it helps the management to keep direct and regular touch with them, it also accounts for better customer relationship and regular monitoring of the services delivered. Following up with the client is an important area of attention as effectiveness of customer satisfaction is prime goals of any business.

1. What are the two dimensions of service?

The two dimensions of service are customer satisfaction and profitability of the firm, these both are the two major areas for which the whole other scenario is managed and maintained. All other factors work for accomplishment of these concepts.

1. Describe five elements of quality service?

Five elements of quality service are timely delivery of services, quality assurance and no damage or destruction caused regular follow ups by the Host Company, grievance handling and complaints being resolved and feedback being taken by the clients or customers.

1. Describe the following service culture component?

Service mission: it is the mission statement that describes the goal of the management towards service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Products and services: products and services are the told of management to receive profits for the firm; they are the components which are sold in the market.

Delivery system: it stands for the chain of management involved in delivering the goods and services to the destination and the system of transportation being used for it.

Training: it is the mode of induced learning being promoted where individuals are taught technical aspects of the business they are dealing with.

Motivators and rewards: these are the Human resource tools for motivating their employees for good job and high productivity. Motivators like non monetary rewards are accelerators for good work.

Policies and procedures: it means the legislations which the company follows and the procedures or already formed way of accomplishing the tasks which cannot be transformed as per individual need. [Hildebrand & Klosek, 2003]

1. List eight different words or phrases that damage customer relationship?

• Sorry I can’t do it!!
• I am not assigned this work by my firm
• Low contact
• No follow up
• We can’t help on this
• Lesser attention to customer complaints
• Regular delays and quality decrease
• No complaints will be listened here

1.  How to deal with assertive customers?

To deal with assertive customers, we need to be polite and try to solve their queries first on priority basis as assertive customers can stop business with small misunderstandings as well. They can be more and more convinced for the relationship with the firm and its commitment towards customer satisfaction as being prime motto of the firm.

1.  Identify 6 customer needs and how would you address them:

• Service delivery is the major need and it can be addressed by motivated workforce towards satisfaction of the customers.
• Time management is another need of customer which can be achieved by proper training and counseling of employees.
• Handling of complaints quickly which can be addressed by grievance handling cell
• Professional behavior of the channel sales is the need of customer which can be handled by highly competent and experienced employees
•  Quality assurance of the products and services which can be achieved by quality control department and its monitoring.
• Regular follow up by their channel partners or dealers so that customers feel recognized and this can be achieved by having efficient marketing chain of management. [www.media.wiley.com]

1.  Describe the following behavioral styles:

Style: dominance

Definition: the act of overpowering any individual due to factors like overconfidence or lack of grace.

Strategy to deal: it can be dealt with heavy humbleness and thorough communication of the ideas of self so that the person couldn’t overpower your thoughts and behavior

Style: influencing

Definition: the act of mesmerizing by impressing without any pressure or rigidity

Strategy to deal: influencing could be dealt with firmness on the vision and mission of the self and no flexibility in moving from the position which has been taken even if influenced a lot.

Style: steadiness

Definition: the behavior of rigidity without much justification or solid grounds for the respective action

Strategy to deal: steadiness can be dealt with help of slow movements towards flexibility as slowly moving and trying to remove the act of no change.

Style: compliance

Definition: the act of complaining against the mistakes or un satisfying activities.

Strategy to deal: solving the problems and complaints soon and trying to work flawlessly so that this tendency could be avoided by high performance and no chance for complaining.

1. Service breakdown occurs whenever anyone fails to meet the customer expectations, describe the steps you would take to rectify service breakdown

The steps to tackle service breakdown are preventive measures being adopted in the firm so that such issue do not come in future, apart from this, it can also be handled by means of quick controlling techniques like managing with emerged problem instantaneously having extra back up so that service breakdown is never met with.  Having a team of management especially for the purpose of managing with the service failure and look into the reasons so that it can be rectified soon.

1. What factors may reduce/restrict or prevent service recovery?

Service recovery can be reduced by means of negligence on the part of management towards recovery of the breakdown, no consultation with the client firm about the recovery options being implemented, delay in managing with the recovery options and again repeating the same issue or mistake in front of the customer.

1. What information one should try to find out from existing customers while researching needs?

Informations needed to find out from existing customers are:

•  level of their satisfaction,
•  disorders in delivery, if any,
• Relation with the supplier or distributor being healthy or not? Most liked factors of firm,
• most disliked factors of the firm

1. What information one should try to find out from potential customers while researching needs?

• Their description of quality
• Their desire from service delivery end
• Loopholes which should not be there
• Most influencing factors

1. List and explain Ten things one must know about their customers?

• Choice
• Basic demand
• Quality standard
• Financial status
• Ability to find competitors
• Market responsiveness
• Readiness for buying
• Interest area
• Importance of time
• Level of flexibility

1.  Explain six different strategies to obtain customer feedback:

• Questionnaires
• Personal interviews
• Feedback forms
• Competitors analysis
• Market trends
• Sale and revenue analysis

1.  Describe the importance and impact of variable quality in products and services offered?

Variable quality is a good measure of giving the customers those options which they may search in competitor products. Variable quality goods help to increase market capture as variety is always the attraction for customers of all tastes and choices. The importance of variable quality in products and services also lies in high level of brand recognition in the market which popularizes the product thereby increasing the profits.

Assessment-5:

Assessment activity-1 Develop and document on behalf of an organization for which you do or might work, a detailed process to investigate, identify, access and include need of customers in planning process.

Planning process can be made more effective by including the need of customers into it. It will help to modify the marketing strategies according to customer needs. It can be firstly done by implementing market segmentation.

• Segmentation is the process of segmenting the market as per customer base and its high density which will help the firm to concentrate only on main areas.
• Secondly organization should opt for targeting, targeting the value customers and understanding needs of only those people who are really the customers of the firm.
• Thirdly, positioning of the product and services in the targeted area can be done so that customer needs could be focused on.

Apart from these three techniques, for identifying the customer needs and including it in planning process, firm needs to include marketing strategies of long run into planning of the firm, this will help the firm to have the reports of all surveys that could fetch desired results.

Assessment 3:

1. Detail the method and procedure that might be used by the organization to communicate with customers to identify and agree on product specification.

The process of identifying product specifications by the customers can be achieved by means of informing old customers about the newly launched products and their features. Already existing customers are the biggest source of getting feedback which can be utilized by communicating through their mail ids, seminars in malls, telephonic quiz on product specifications, the best idea is to mail to existing customer the presentation of product specification and ask for feedback also. It may help the firm in long run.

Assessment 3:

Q. no-2 considering this scenario, you have been asked to explain to employees what the business plan is and why is it important to have a business plan that focuses on customer service. Write a transcript of what you would say to them.

Business plan is a long term and short term planning of the ideas and strategies that are to be implemented in the organization in order to achieve desired goals. It is important to have a business plan related to customer satisfaction as customer satisfaction is a very big source of profitability of the firm, the main reason for marketing is to generate new customers and satisfy existing customers so that business is always in high profits. So each employee must have customer service as a focus in their mind and then should move towards planning done by the firm and their individual planning should correspond with it.

Assessment 5:

Consider this scenario, one of your colleagues have been having difficulty in delivering customer service standard of the organization, you have observed this and have noted that this person is not making the number of sale he should make, what action you might take to assist them to overcome difficulty in customer satisfaction?

There are several ways of overcoming difficulty in customer satisfaction:

• I would have asked the sales person to always be energetic and positive on the job so that customer feels positive energy in you.
• I would have said the employee to understand the exact demand of the customers and try to give services and the product specific to those demands
• I would have suggested him to increase his presentation skills in front of the customers with help of well dressed attire, pleasing personality, well shaved and also a good and clear communication
• Above all what could be followed is that customers are highly volatile and I have to have an impression where the customers will come again and again to me as a sales staff, the level of impact and service perfection should be so high.

1. Considering this scenario, a colleagues have asked you to coach them to overcome difficulties they are experiencing in meeting customer service standards, explain how would you go for doing this. To answer this question, you need to research the coaching process then demonstrate that you understand how the coaching process can be applied and why is it necessary in such situations to have understanding of adult learning needs.

Coaching is the process of identifying learning needs of individuals and implementing strategies to overcome them. Coaching is important because adult learning needs are very stiff and cannot be easily transformed. Coaching in case of customer satisfaction can be done by means of noting down the points of importance which has to be learned, as per the learning need analysis, coach must convey his strategies and point of view with full explanation, a professional way of coaching should be followed where learning should be supported to achieve desired goals. The structure and methodology of coaching being used should be corresponding with the challenges of the employees. [Elsevier, 2008]

Develop a Questionnaire that could be used to obtain customer feedback to improve provision of product and service.

We would be grateful if you spend a few minutes and fill this questionnaire for customer satisfaction:

1. Are you a regular user of this product/ service?

• Yes
• No
• Can’t say

1. Are you satisfied with the product?

• Yes
• No
• Can’t say

1. How would you rate our responsiveness in dealing with you?

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

1. What factors you dislike most in the product or our service delivery?

• ……………
• ……………
• ……………

1. Our product/ service met with your expectation in terms of quality and performance?

• Yes
• No
• Can’t say

1. How would you rate our delivery on time and commitment to meet them?

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

1. Does our product represent the best competitive product in the market?

• Yes
• No
• Can’t say

1. Are you satisfied with the technical or no technical complaint resolutions on time?

• Yes
• No
• Can’t say

1. How would you rate our firm in the market competition?

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

1. Any feedback for further improvement?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Assessment tool-2: AT-2

1. Why is it necessary to clearly identify before designing service and product offerings, customer needs and what are some less obvious service aspects that might inform service decisions?

• Identifying customer needs before hand is important because it helps to design the product and service in the way as customer demands,
• If customer demands are well known to the firm it will be cost effective method as no further need for changes will be there and identified customers needs can be easily included in planning of product strategy and marketing.
• Identifying customer needs beforehand will help the firm have stable service delivery, time management and regular upliftment of the services for all internal customers as they have been associated with us since long time.
• Identifying customer needs beforehand can help the product to catch the market faster as compared to competitors.

1. What are the questions the customers ask themselves [consciously or subconsciously] before they commit to purchase and how is the presented products/ services likely to affect customer purchasing decision?

Customers are highly prompt while purchasing on following aspects:

• Price is complimenting the product or not?
• Is it the best option for me in the whole competitive substitutes available
• Is the brand a known one or not?
• Will the product be useful and have long term sustainability.

The presented products affect the customers mostly because they are being seen by them in the market and if the features and price and other specifications of the product are nice, then the chances of it being purchased increases. [Somerville, 2004]

Q-3 Being able to provide good customer service is not an innate skill. It requires that employees receive appropriate training and learn to understand their roles with regard to customer service. This applies to those employees who are in direct contact with customers and those who have no direct contact with customers. Employees who have good customer service skills will generally encounter fewer complaints. Describe skills which can help the employee get better customer service delivery?

For better customer service delivery, employees should focus on some aspects mentioned below:

• High energy and positive vibrations while attending customers
• Understanding needs and demand of the customers.
• Promising efficient service delivery and assuring the quality being good
• Handling their queries with ease and confidence
• Focusing on long term relation with the customers
• Keeping trade practices fair and justifiable

1. In any organization, there are both external and internal customers, these all are part of customer supplier chain, for the customers-end users to receive quality product/services, it is necessary that all aspects of supply chain meet specific quality objectives,  who actually sets quality standards and how are they set?

It is a prolonged and continuous process where quality standards are set by both external and internal customers to some extent. Major role play is by external customers who act as external environment mirror to the firm and they have to work accordingly to sustain in competitive market.

These standards are set by the top level management with mutual consent of all marketing and Senior professionals, all innovations are firstly scrutinized in R&D wing where the success rate of the product is judged and it’s a continuous process where quality control department, HR professionals for finding out key managers who would be assigned the job,  top company officials who are the stake owners etc are included and then from top level management after being assured about the product specifications, they are communicated to the lower level management for executing and implementation.

References:

1. EUPAN, 2007, Customer satisfaction management, European institute of public administration, viewed on 27 April, 2012, <http://new.eupan.eu/files/repository/20101215131727_EU_Primer_English__FINAL_LR.pdf>
2. Richard F. Gerson, 1993, measuring customer satisfaction, Thomson course technology, viewed on 27 April, 2012, < http://www.axzopress.com/downloads/pdf/1560521783pv.pdf>
3. Jeff T. Israil, alternative designs and methods of customer satisfaction measurement, viewed on 27 April, 2012, < http://www.satisfactionstrategies.com/Alternative_Methods_For_CSM.pdf>
4. Mary J. Hildebrand and Jacqkline klosek, 2003, brand management strategies, , viewed on 27 April, 2012, <http://www.goodwinprocter.com/~/media/Files/Publications/Attorney%20Articles/2003/Brand_Management_Strategies_10_Key_Points.ashx>
5. www.media.wiley.com, Strategic management, viewed on 27 April, 2012, <http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/70/EHEP0007/EHEP000770.pdf>
6. Elsevier, 2008, customer need analysis, viewed on 27 April, 2012, < http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/yangxi/Kano.pdf>
7. Ian Somerville, 2004, quality management, viewed on 27 April, 2012, < http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/resources/IanS/SE7/Presentations/PDF/ch27.pdf>

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