The Balance Between Customer Service And Resource Utilization Essay

"The Customer Comes Second" is an account of the management and leadership style of Hal Rosenbluth, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Rosenbluth International, a global travel management firm that was founded in 1892 by Marcus Rosenbluth, Hal’s great-grandfather. The premise of Hal Rosenbluth’s management style is just as the title of the book suggests; concentrate on your employees first and your customers second. I found the management practices outlined by Mr. Rosenbluth to be innovative and applicable to all types of business, not just the travel industry. I was also very intrigued by some of the creative employment practices used by Rosenbluth International as well as their fight to stay alive in the travel

product/ service bundles to meet customer needs. How can they do this and how can

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Great care is taken in construction process so that the structure is neat, attractive and follows plans accurately.

There are a number of ways a business can gain a competitive edge: excellent service, top of the range products, professional sales techniques and efficient and effective marketing strategies can contribute to the business and make us a market leader. Listening to our customers and acting on feedback can not only keep our loyal customers but encourage new customers. Having a recipe that incorporates all the above is a simple but effective method.

The services and products offered by IKEA provide value to its customers in various ways. For one, the products and services are very affordable. The products and services are not priced highly and therefore, the average customer can enjoy them. At the same time, the products are of high quality. From IKEA’s slogan “low prices but not at any price”, it is clear that the company prices its products lowly but that does not mean that the quality is compromised. IKEA satisfying its customer’s needs through providing them value for their money as they provide quality products that will last for a long time, and at affordable costs. The fact that the company has set the minimum acceptable standards for its wood, implies that it is also keen on quality and on the environmental impact of its action of making furniture ( Edvardsson, Enquist & Hay, 2006).

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tool that helps track, manage and supply information about customer’s interactions with an organization to help contribute to customer satisfaction that leads to customer loyalty. Additionally, CRM programs provide tools and applications designed to target their efforts on the most profitable customers, target new potential customers, and generate sales and maintain relationships with customers contributing to a greater market share.

Companies are misguided nowadays by the notion that customers depend on them, when the truth of the matter is that companies are dependent on those customers. Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is now essential for a business or company to survive. So what is the difference between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and how to companies and or business achieve this? Also when you have difficult customers how do you achieve customer satisfaction?

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”.

The main goal of Customer relationship management is to create a strong bond between customers and the company. The strong bond can be build by focusing on the two main objectives of CRM. Providing the organization and all of the employees that treat customers with a single and complete view of every customer at every touch point and across all channels and providing the customer a single and complete view of the company and its extended channels (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004).

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

• Looks at big picture: It helps Starbucks has consistent brand image around the world.

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.

Amazon.com Incorporated is company whose retail business is done exclusively online, formally known as electronic commerce or e-commerce. It was the book category that first caught the attention of founder Jeff Bezos, who realized that a Web store could offer more book inventory than an actual shop could offer (Cuneo, 2000). The idea was born and Amazon, a customer-centric company was created. Customer-centric is an approach that allows businesses to drive profits and gain competitive advantage by providing a positive customer experience not only at the point of sale, but also, after the sale (What is customer-centric, n.d.).

Clearly its product offering is “no frills”. In line with the Scandinavian idea of minimalism, IKEA seeks to eliminate the unnecessary in its prouducts but it makes a point out of not compromising on function or technical quality. IKEA focuses on the use of raw materials but much of its product range uses board-on-frame construction - layering of sheets of wood over a honeycomb core that gives a strong, lightweight structure with a minimal wood content.