S-D Logic

“Bind them, Torture them, Kill them” or BTK for short. That was the moniker that convicted Serial Killer Dennis Rader went by in Wichita Kansas. Most neighbors described him as “Just a Regular Person.” He worked as a city law supervisor, Boy Scout leader, Church Elder. He had loving parents and siblings. But behind that mask was a sexually-driven “Monster.”

The purchasing goods & services have throughout the years begun to lead to a new perception of consumer relationship and in ways businesses conduct their operations. Not only is a business concerned with the buying and selling of goods & services but to further maintain that relationship with their customers to correlate between both parties. As this being the prime functionality of businesses, each business must differentiate themselves with other businesses offering different and wholesome services, which overwhelms their competitors, thus adding their own individualistic value to the marketing

Nowadays, services dominate economy and generate most new jobs. This service encounter report aims to compare and contrast my own real-world service experiences using services marketing theories. Firstly, it will compare my two satisfactory encounters journals in East Coast Car Rentals and Ambient Hotel Colina to get the most satisfactory one. Secondly, two dissatisfactory encounters in Ray White Alderley and Myer will be compared to gain the least satisfactory one. Finally, I will give 3 recommendations for the least satisfactory encounter. Theories of level of tangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability; level of customer service;

Effective value chain as a competitive advantage can contribute significantly to the prosperity of a firm in the competitive arena, but it can cause dire situations if not operated properly (Guy, 2011). However, there are conflicts among companies as to how stakeholders think they gain competitive advantage. Porter (1996) suggests: A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve. It must deliver greater value to customers or create comparable value at lower cost or do both.

The value chain is one of the critical elements of a company’s strategy in today’s competitive world, because company’s profit depends on how the successful and efficient it runs its operations and how the end product appeals to the customers at a price that covers all the expenses of the company.

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

Value creation means increase the value of products, service and even business to meet the customers’ needs and requirements so that they can get competitive advantages. (Business Fundas, 2012) As we analyzed, fast food industry’s threat of new entrants is low and the availability of substitutes is high. It’s a fare market which the buyers have strong powers.

Service firms are increasingly using customer service to develop sustainable competitive advantage – through value generation as well as differentiation. This

AACSB: Business Knowledge & Analytical Skills | Management: Creation of Value | Dierdorff & Rubin: Strategic & systems skills

Today, more and more companies find that cultivating customer loyalty is a key factor to achieve success. Customer relationship management (CRM) focuses on the relationship between customer and company. Due to this feature, many companies are trying to establish their own CRM system for helping them to connect new customers and boost old customers’ long-term loyalty. CRM systems include operations and analysis, and relationship marketing strategy and supporting, customer-centric business processes (Buttle 2004). With the development of information technology (IT), using CRM system

“More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, COMBINED” (“Youth Suicide Statistics”). One of the leading causes of suicide is Clinical Depression. However, clinical depression is rather hard to track because it is under reported in most people. Many with this disease do not feel the need to seek help, even though it could be the difference in life and death. This disease comes in many shapes and forms. In fact, it effects no two people the same. Genetics, life events, and childhood problems are three of the main causes of Clinical Depression (Goldberg).

A product can be a product or a service. If your product provides sufficient value to customers, they will buy - no matter how good or bad the economic situation is, if they perceive value they will pay the price (Wood, 2010).

An effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program can be used to identify, retain, satisfy and obtain customers by using technology to optimize strategies for understanding customers’ needs to manage business interactions with current, former, and prospective customers. Additionally, CRM also enables companies to maximize internal, external, marketing and customer service operations to better address the needs of the customer building a better relationship with customers that a more profitable. (Ahmad & Buttle, 2001)

Customer relationship system or we called it CRM, which is the one of the information system that has been used by Prudential Assurance Malaysia Berhad. Customer relationship management is a type of software application. Employees can manage customer information by using CRM. The relationship between company and their customers can be grown in long-term and stable. This system’ primary concept is to keep the business operational through finding and maintaining clients. All departments in the same building can keep track of other department processes such as customer service. Technology is required for customer relationship system to organize and analyze business processes.

Today, customer relationship management is very important to the business world. Most of the companies established a department and the programs to manage their relationship with the customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy which designed to help a company to understand and look forward to the needs of its potential and current customers (Anderson & Stang, 2000). Customer data is being collected in several different areas of the company, stored in a central database, analyzed, and distributed to key points (Anderson & Stang, 2000).The business world once was “product-centric”, the companies just provided what they could produce. However, it is now become “customer-centric”, they provide products and service