Learning Team A reviewed 15 articles to ensure their research supported the team’s research questions and hypothesis. Team A’s research question is, “What services and merchandise should Company X improve and which one should they change”. Team A focused their research on product quality, customer service and satisfaction, customer loyalty, costs and why consumers switch service providers. While deliberating and converging upon both dependent (customer’s response to service and merchandise) and independent (service and merchandise) variables Company X must place emphasis on “…consumers are active forecaster, taking future considerations into account in their decision-making efforts.” (Lemon, Tiffany, & Winer, 2002). Therefore, it is …show more content…
While trying to achieve equilibrium between excellent quality and customer’s service can become a prodigious task, Company X’s management must not let any obstacle deter the company from striding to attain both. Scott, Peng, & Prybutok (2015) states, “Quality is an essential framework for any organization, and by continuously improving the quality of products and services, companies can contribute to the value of the good or service and create loyalty and satisfaction.” The authors go on to state, “….cell phone product quality and cell phone provider quality have on overall cell phone quality, which in turn can be effective in quality management practices”. Company X had to research whether customer satisfaction will increase due to altering the data plan’s they offer. The article “An exploratory study of the determinants of switching and loyalty in prepaid cell phone users. An application of concept mapping” discusses some obstacles Company X might encounter with trying to reach resolutions to this issue. Data was gathered that showed why customers might discontinue their affiliation with a cellular company. This article discussed in depth some of the most important reasons consumers will lose interest in continuing service with their current cellular carrier. Pricing, quality of the service in the network, keeping up with technological advances and
Having this information from the previous two methods we will have solid information about customers' preferences, taste, behavioral and attitude in the future. Which will enable us to take the right decisions for strategic planning which will enhance our performance in the coming future.
The generation of talking face-to-face is slowly fading away, and the technology era is going to keep on growing. One of the most widely used technology services known today is the cellular phone industry. According to the Pew Research Center’s website, 90% of American adults own a cell phone. Of that 90%, the smartphone ownership is at 64% (2013). Verizon Wireless, along with the other major carriers, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T, have taken this data and comprised a growing industry where competition arises from all angles. These companies have battled one another on pricing, plans, and customer service for many years in order to stay on top. Unfortunately, these are major factors in whether or not a customer will choose the particular company over another.
For different types of companies, quality might refer to quality of products or quality of service. Compares with quality of products, service quality is much more difficult to measure because service is intangible and acts and processes only existing in time. In addition, service has unique characteristic which cannot be found in products, such as customer influence, inseparability of production and consumption, heterogeneity, perishability and labor intensity (Nie & Kellogg, 1999). Even though, there are still many practitioners and academics are keen on measuring service quality because it has already emerged as a key strategic issue. Companies want to better understand service quality, and to establish methods for improving quality to achieve competitive advantage and build customer loyalty (Abdullah, 2006). Based on the importance of service quality, an increasing number of literatures and companies pay attention to measuring
Through analysis, a need for a new pricing strategy was evident. From the research, it was determined that consumers viewed the monthly usage fee as a tax and deeply resented it, they did not want to pay an activation fee and only wanted to pay for services used. Through the competitor analysis, it was found that Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) had a strong distribution channel and was primarily directed to upper-class income individuals who used cellphones as a status symbol. As they were essentially a monopoly, their marketing costs were low. From a customer perspective, consumers were impulsive and wanted different rates for local calls, long distance and international calls. With interview with over 5000 current and potential customers, it was also determined that there was low brand loyalty, high consideration scores on activation cost and disliked the monthly fee.
The quality management completely says about the reputation of organization. Maintaining quality of the product helps to meet the stakeholder’s requirements.
Customer satisfaction and service quality are the two important components that direct anyone’s attention in every concept related to marketing, services, etc. (Spreng and Mackoy, 2006). In today’s competitive era, the success lies in
In this argument, I will exhibit the process of the total quality management within the Fox Car Rental, Inc. and the Apple, Inc. Firstly, I will provide a history of both companies and the industries of which they are involved. Secondly, I will provide a meaning of the term total quality management, and argue how this system is integrated into both the Fox Car Rental, Inc., and the Apple, Inc. I will also describe the total quality management process that is implemented in these organizations, and the effects of this systematic management process of both companies. The Fox Car Rental, Inc. and the Apple, Inc. will also be compared against the principles of the ISO 9000:2000 quality management process, and among each other. I will also provide recommendations for the development of the Fox Car Rental, Inc.; an organization of which I was recently an employee.
Quality is the perception of value of product from the customer’s point of view. Quality plays an important role in increase in the competition and customers being well informed and educated.
In order to operate a successful and profitable business, certain strategies must be put in place. One very important strategy is customer relationship management. To ensure that every customer has the opportunity to receive exceptional customer service and the ability to become a loyal customer, an organization must follow these steps. First, the organization must evaluate their current customer service strategies and organizational goals. This will help decipher strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Once the organization’s weaknesses are determined, action must be taken immediately. The weaknesses should act as opportunities, while the strengths can be used as something to capitalize off of. If an organization lacks a loyalty program, their next step would be to design one that correlates with their business model and organization goals. Once an organization redesigns their customer service strategies and customer loyalty programs, they will need to accurately apply metrics to successfully measure the value of the changes being made.
Within every company there is a customer, regardless of what your line of business is it is being done for the consumer albeit an external consumer or the internal consumer. The customer’s needs and expectations should be the driving force behind the decisions we make and the problems we solve…the customer, not our own personal or monetary gain. As quality improves we have to make sure that we are improving what matters to our customers not want we want to improve upon for own sake.
The benefits of supplying quality customer service are well documented for creating value for the business. Customer service leads to profitability and brand reputation (Armistead and Clark, 1992); Quality customer service leads to higher levels of competitiveness (Chan et al. 2005); Quality customer service reduces costs and boosts profitability (Crosby, 1980); and quality customer service increases customer retention and improves brand image (Stamatis, 1996).
The cost of quality (COQ) by definition, is the cost that is resultant of bad quality or the cost of implementing quality systems to ensure good quality within an organization [1]. The concept of quality saving money, time and effort was advocated by Phil Crosby who strongly contributed to quality management theory and famously stated that ‘Quality is free; it’s non-conformance that costs’ [1]. Furthermore, poor quality has been shown to be common and costly amongst various industries [2]. The positive and encouraging evidence for implementing COQ programs, to ultimately produce higher quality services or products while saving resources, is widespread and abundant. Successful examples are numerous and include Motorola, Xerox and Westing-house; companies which have cut quality costs by 30% to just 2 and 3% of sales over a period of time in endeavour to gain a competitive advantage on the market [2]. Despite the obvious benefits of assessing quality costs and implementing quality measures to provide better
Quality is a word which has been used for a very long time, lots of books have been written about it, and many of the world scientists have defined it in many different ways. In this research paper, I will emphasis on the Quality Management System, why is it important? What is it used for? What is the importance of having a Quality Management System? Many people think implementing QMS costs a lot and all the benefit is a piece of a paper which say that your company is certified in having QMS so you can only hang this picture or certificate on the wall and tell your smart customer that you have it. In fact, no blames on them, they have not used this system yet, they do not know that this system save a lot and a lot of money
Service quality represents a fundamental aspect of delivery, which strongly influences consumer satisfaction and, as a result, loyalty. In today’s global market a customer’s service expectation has to be met and exceeded eventually in order to retain customers as well as achieve success. Perceived quality of a product or a service is becoming one of the major competitive factors in the business world and has led to the innovation of the ‘Quality Era’ (Peeler, 1996). In simple words, the comparison of customer expectations with service performance is service quality. On the other hand, customer satisfaction is defined as a pleasurable fulfilment response toward a good, service, benefit, or reward (Oliver, 1997). Both of these
Researchers conducted by (Aydin and Özer, 2005; Aydin et al., 2005; Aydin and Özer, 2006; Chadha and Kapoor, 2009; Gerpott et al., 2001; Junaid-ul-haq et al., 2013; Lai et al., 2009; Qayyum et al., 2013; Santoridis and Trivellas, 2010) that provide the definition of customer loyalty being the attitude of customers towards the existing carriers that focuses on the customer repeat business, clientele, and not wanting to use the service from another provider. From the literature review, it was found that the key elements of customer loyalty consist of three components: (1) Repurchase Intention, (2) Resistance to switching to competitor 's product that is superior to the preferred vendor 's product, and (3) Willingness to recommend preferred vendor 's product to friends and associates.