Customer Relationships
In the world of business, there are two types of industries: goods and services. As identified by O?Sullivan and Sheffrin, the goods industry consists of companies that provide consumers with tangible products that are either considered necessity or luxury (2007). Such types of companies rely on advertisements to differentiate their product from those similar in the market, and must receive repeat purchases of their product from customers to ensure financial success (Libai, Muller, & Peres, 2009). Meanwhile, service industries must establish a longstanding relationship with their customers to ensure a repurchase of the service (Berry, 1999 as cited in Libai et al, 2009). As time wears on and more service industries
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Burgelman (2015) agrees, claiming ?happy customers tend to be loyal customers? (p. 34). Simply put, the better the experience a consumer has, the more likely he or she is to return to a company (Kumar et al., 2015).
Customer Service
To foster such excellent relationships with their customers, businesses must first have well-trained employees that engage with customers cheerfully on a regular basis. The first step is to establish quality leadership that can both guide and empower employees on how to interact with consumers without seeking out corporate for consistent guidance (Bhattacharjee, Moreno, & Ortega, 2016; Chapman, 2015). While determining a vision for employees to follow may be easy, translating what was imagined in the boardroom into real life can pose some challenges for employers (Bhattacharjee et al., 2016). Not everyone?s customer service style is the same, as noted by Dixon, Ponomareff, Turner, & Delisi in their ?global, cross-industry study of 1,440 frontline service representatives? (2017, p. 114). Seven types of personality types were defined in the study, but two were specifically highlighted: the Controller and the Empathizer.
The former was ranked number one in dealing with customers in an efficient manner, with a fifteen percent proportion of all participants studied. Per the literature, Controllers ?are driven to deliver fast, easy service and are comfortable exerting their strong personalities in order to demonstrate their expertise? (p. 113),
All ought all employees should be involved in best customer service delivery possible there should be place for executive service leaders and managers within the organisation. A person who successfully creates a customer-focused culture would have a huge impact on business success through employee retention and customer loyalty.
Throughout The Marketing Era the tables have turned from producers to consumers, which changed the market with alluring choices. This was when businesses began to develop brands, to differentiate themselves from their competitors, helping their customers identify various unique products. Last but least The Relationship Era is where businesses aim to build long-term relationships, because they believe a satisfied customer can become great assets for a business. A satisfied customer is a loyal and businesses rely on customers to spread the word on their goods and services.
4. Control – When handling a customer you have to be in control of every situation that you are stuck in.
Two different customer service models that most retail and online retail organisations use are the cheap prices and convenience model and the personalized in-depth model. The cheap price model is controlled by management and ensures policies and procedures are in place that can be easily measured and constantly measured. This is the one that we at Flanagan’s use more than the other model. However, the other models the personalized and in depth model is used predominately by our other section of the organisation. This is the hotel and leisure and building maintenance side of the business. This is face to face and allows our agents/advisors to be more personal with them. Good use of
As you know, customers satisfactory level depends on how well your employees treat your customers. Researching data on the topic of your customer’s happiness, we found that keeping
I tailor every interaction with my customers to their specific needs and desires by simply giving them a chance to talk and by asking a few simple questions.” This explains that a successful leader is constantly having to adapt to situations as well as current and future employees as well. The example of the car salesman reminds me of Fielder’s LPC theory. By being compassionate with the LPC’s or directing, the work professionals around the LPC are constantly evaluating how the leader commands and treats everyone on the employment
Tangible goods, or rather manufactured goods, have been the dominant medium of exchange for centuries. However, recent decades have proved that it is no longer the case as there has been a prevalence of being service oriented (Vargo and Lusch, 2004:1-2). Services, as defined by Vargo and Lusch (2004), are “the application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills) through deeds, processes, and performances for the benefit of another entity or the entity itself (p.2).” Utilizing services gives businesses an edge, a competitive advantage, particularly in an evolving competitive market, something which Metalfrio is definitely part of (Vargo and Lusch, 2004:9). Those businesses that learn to adapt tend to do well. In addition, Vargo and Lusch (2004) write this shift to services is also a shift from producer perspective to a customer perspective (p.2). Thus, it leads to more of a collaborative effort where co-creation leads to adding value to the service rather than a product having value (Vargo and Lusch, 2004:6). Also, customers rather develop relationships with those that can provide a range of related services over an extended period of time, thus allowing businesses retain their clients for the long term (Vargo and Lusch, 2004:13). Overall, service oriented marketing is a direction that businesses should be headed towards to ensure that they can remain relevant and competitive in the
Customer loyalty is much harder to obtain that customer service satisfaction. The most important first step is to satisfy the customer by meeting their expectations. Customers only give a company one chance and if they aren’t satisfied they will not do business with that company again, as well as tell others of their experience. The next step would be to exceed the customer’s expectations. If a business goes above and beyond to assist the customer they begin to build loyalty. The next step is to truly surprise the customer. In order to dominate the marketplace the company must find a way to make them selves stand out with their product or service, accompanied with phenomenal customer service. Once this has been done customer satisfaction and loyalty will be gained. “Acquiring a new customer can cost four or five times more than keeping a current customer” (Bestmark, 2013). So it’s essential to keep the current customer’s happy and coming back for more.
The critical factors in the successful transformation of British Airways were changing the culture of the organization for the employees and the consumers. British Airways embarked on an aggressive media campaign that helped change the “face” of the airline. Their new tag line was “The worlds favourite airline”. Customer service became the number one priority for all employees. Lead by Colin Marshall, “an enabling culture (was put) in place to allow customer service to come out, where rather than people waiting to be told what to do to do things better, it’s an environment where people feel they can actually come out with ideas, that they will be listened to, and feel they are much more a part of the success of the company” Jick (2011)(p.30). A “Putting People First” (PFF) program was instituted for all front line employees. This helped to unify the employees with the new vision of customer service first for the company. During these two day mandatory meetings, all front line staff interacted with all levels of managers and leaders on an even playing
Today’s organizations fail to realize the value of their customers when it comes to the success of their business. Without customer loyalty the success of your business will always be uncertain. Organizations must sensitively tailor the designs of a successful firm to the particular challenges of understanding, attracting, and keeping valuable customers. “Having satisfied customers just aren’t good enough”. Kenneth Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, co-authors of Raving Fans, believe this concept is needed to have a successful business. I agree with this concept of customers being the focal point of any business. I would want more than just a satisfied customer; I want a “Raving Fan”.
It is imperative to satisfy customers and give them an amazing experience at the company. While it cost less to sell to existing customers and companies can increase profit by selling to the same customers; if customers are satisfied, there is more chance they will come back for more services or products. Satisfied customers are a free marketing for the company. However, it is the opposite if customers are dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customer will tell 8 to 10 people about his or her experience (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004). If by any reason, representatives see that the customer is not satisfy, they should act fast and fix the problem. Furthermore, there is more chance for sale representatives to sell to an existing customer that to a new customer. A good strategy for customer retention is to reward good customers. Companies can easily do
Handling people in a friendly and professional manner is a skill, and one that I consider to be something of a super power. That may sound cheesy to some, but in truth, outstanding customer service is the lifeblood of most every business today. In comics, those with super powers are often the champions of cities and nations. In the modern world, those with customer service super powers are the champions of good business and industry.
Study findings show that strong leadership systems focus on customers, motivate employees, and implement their customer service vision. They also focus great attention on gathering the information needed to track customer satisfaction, and employees overall performance. Customer service should be designed and delivered seamlessly from the customer's point of view. Customer-driven operations lead to success. Decentralized, uncoordinated customer service provision makes for a most frustrating experience for customers.
Title: Discuss the four dimensions of customer service in a company. Give examples to illustrate your points.
Hire customer-obsessed, empathetic employee and Iterative customer involvement: He doesn’t ask consumers what they want- they will come up with obvious or unrealistic answers or, they simply can’t answer because they