A Companys Management Strategies and the Companys Ability to Serve Customers in a Flawless Manner - Literature review Example

Lecture Part B Literature Review There is a difference between a company’s management strategies and the company’s ability to serve customers in a flawless manner. Since all customers expect affordable and reliable service from the service industry, it is the duty of the management of these companies to ensure that they are able to handle customer demands and resolve any issues in a timely manner. Within the telecommunications industry, it is identified that the number of services offered by the companies operating in the industry tends to overlap and at times, the prioritization of one area affects the effectiveness of other related or associated areas. For instance, the concentration by companies on the delivery of service may ignore the welfare of employees and therefore promote poor quality service to the customers (Chan and Wan, p. 119). However, when considering the telecommunications industry within the Middle East, only a few operators are known to offer services such as voice calls, short message services, internet connectivity, and mobile banking just to mention a few. Dominant players such as Etisalat attract a large number of subscribers which requires the company’s management to not only manage service delivery but also require the aid of information systems to collect and analyze data regarding customer orders, active subscriptions, 4G covered areas, demographics of subscribers, and the speed of data transfer rates at different areas within the Middle East region. Narrowing the focus to UAE, telecommunications companies within the region such as Etisalat have two major factors to consider (Tribune Business News, para. 2-6). Firstly, increased customers are the company’s future source of income as the current customers are sources of revenue at the moment. Secondly, the increased customers demand high quality services and safety of their personal information. To address the challenge of increasing customers within a company’s market domain is influenced by four factors. Primarily, in order for companies to attract customers, they have to identify a market gap and invest in order to provide the customers with the missing service or product. Secondly, for companies to accumulate more customers, they must be able to meet the demands of the current customers without inconveniencing them in terms delivery or duration before rectification of a reported problem is done (Desouza pp. 214). Thirdly, for a company to retain its current customers, its customer service delivery system must be competitively better than that of its rivals. Fourth, for a company to sustain growth in its customer base, it has to ensure that its inputs and outputs obey the theory of the firm and therefore, working capital should sustain all short-term issues that may face the service-delivery strategies (Desouza, pp. 213-215). In order to address the issues in the delivery of customer service leading to customer complaints in the telecommunication industry, considered is the set of issues that affect this industry as well as analyzing the options that a company in the industry can adapt to manage a foreseeable challenge. Within the telecommunication industry, service delivery differs from one package to another. A package is the set of services a subscriber is entitled to at a determined fee. In addition, a package can be the set of services a subscriber is entitled to pay for after a defined period. In this case, it is identified that the telecommunication industry offers services such as voice calls, texting services, internet service, and mobile banking. These services are available to every subscriber but some are provided upon request. Following the difference in service packages, different challenges facing the company’s provision of any type of service is capable of inconveniencing subscribers of the affected package. The first reason for customer complaints in the telecommunication industry is the outage of service. Secondly, the rate and speed at which a customer problem is handled also promotes customer complaints based on how much time it took the customer to deal with the inconvenience. The third reason for customer complaints within the telecommunication industry is the subscription to services that continue to the billed in spite of the fact that a subscriber may have unsubscribed. Fourth, all customers in most industries worry about the safety of their personal details. Customers are not fond of losing data to an authorized handler and neither do they tolerate a business model capable of deliberately being involved in spying conspiracies. Within the telecommunication industry and any other industry facing complaints such as the ones identified above, management bodies are required by virtues and nature of their responsibilities to address issues that may hinder the efficient accomplishment of a company’s mission. In addition, the options on how to address issues affecting customer service delivery are costly and at times can invite losses. In this case, management is required to identify the type of customer complaints that are more frequent and classify them in a manner that they can be handled as sets of issues (Gulf News, para. 1 and 2). Through this approach, the management can identify whether the area of concern is a priority to the company or not. In addition, if the customer complaints affect a major income-generating area such as voice calls, the management should be able to identify how much in losses the company has to incur between the times of incurrence and resolving the matter. Input-output balance is a necessary management concern as too much input with little return is unable to sustain a company’s development. In addition, the concentration on one line such as the voice call service, has the potential of limiting focus on other areas. Cost-benefit analysis is a major activity that management must address when handling customer complaints within the telecommunications’ industry. As much as companies attempt to ensure that service delivery is flawless as a way of attracting more and retaining current customers, vandalism is known to be problem far reaching than a company’s preparedness. Vandalism in the telecommunications industry is concerned with the damage of fiber optic cables and destruction of GSM transmitters. In extreme cases of corporate espionage, jamming an operators signals is a known practice. However, customer complaints do not consider the actual causes of service delivery inconveniences to be their concern as the company has to handle them as risks of operation. In this case, vandalism as a cause of service outage can be managed through information systems that have the ability to show service breakdown within specific areas. By quick analysis and identification of the affected areas, a telecommunications’ company management can dispatch technicians to address the problem before customers become overwhelmed with the situation (Johnston and Mehra, pp. 145-154) .It is the fear of a management team that its decisions may influence high customer turnover. When a company’s management is unable to make the best decisions, it faces challenges from its immediate customers and its competition. The competition is the most crucial factor that management considers when handling customer complaints. For instance, if a company was to lose its customers, it is obvious that the demand for the service or product would remain the same over the industry but will decrease within the specific company Johnston and Mehra, pp. 147-148)). The unsatisfied customers continue to demand the same services and products from rival companies whose strategy may be better than the primary company’s. Following this consideration, it is seen in literature that companies such as Etisalat have supported spying conspiracies before. The effect of the management decision to rollout a Blackberry upgrade patch invited customer complaints that they did not feel safe using Blackberry devices locked to the network. Although it is not reported whether non-Blackberry users were affected, this incidence led to market wide uproar sending some loyal customers straight to the service of the competition. To prevent customer complaints associated with privacy, a company’s management is required to test the functionality of its service and pass an anti-spy test. A telecommunications’ company frequencies should be safe and secure such that interaction among users cannot be intercepted by third parties. However, in the event that two companies are involved, it is the duty of the partnering companies to ensure that the security of information and customer privacy are guaranteed at all costs. However, based on UAE’s political history, the governments are known to spy on some visitors or citizens. This fact the consideration of partnering companies complicates the number of options available for the management to prevent customers from launching further complaints. However, given global media freedom, it is the right of information users to have their privacy respected by both telecommunications companies and the governing authorities. Historically, privacy issues concerning privacy of customers where a specific brand of devices is to blame have resulted to the discontinuation of the services or trade of the devices. If collaboration or partnering with other companies undermines the service delivery efforts, rectification of the situation can consider terminating the business contract with likely settlement for breach of contract or demand for a quick solution for the problem as a team. However, recovering lost customers is unachievable through mere fixing of the problem. Attracting customers in the service industry is difficult and losing them is quicker. Retaining customers requires the management to mitigate all areas of service-delivery-problems. In addition, it is the management’s duty to not only promise quality service-delivery but also its responsibility to deliver on the promise. Priority analysis can be defined as the set of considerations that make one course of action more important than others while considering time and effect (Tribune Business News, para 2). The telecommunications industry as identified above, offers more than one services. These services serve specific purposes to different customers. Issues with any of the services is likely to trigger customer reaction. For example, the inability of a customer to access internet services while such subscription is catered for raises customers’ fury leading to complaints and in some cases lawsuits. During a period where a variety of complaints are launched, it is the management’s duty to ensure that the issues are prioritized and handled with reference to time and effect. Since most companies will upgrade their systems to ensure that customer service is monitored at all times, these upgrades have to relate to a goal of increasing revenue. However, in cases where investment does not reflect increase in productivity and revenue, management is required to re-strategize in a manner that improves the service delivery in a cost effective way. Cost effectiveness at the management level can be achieved by considering the effect of investment on revenue generation. Revenue generation can be increased in the number of sales or subscription to services recorded. Increase in sales is directly proportional to customer satisfaction and increase in customer demand for the service or product. Assumptions and Limitations Four assumptions in the answering of the management and research questions include; a. All customers’ complaints are not related and some areas are affected more than others in terms of supplying efficient customer service b. No government policies or political input is associated with control of the telecommunications’ service delivery. c. All complaints considered are published and reported based on the company’s role rather than the customers or other forces such as corporate-motivated espionage. d. Additional advantages of being connected to Etisalat as a customer, do not offset the company-led inconveniences (promotional strategies are invalid if other service delivery channels affect the experience of a customer). e. Complaints outside the UAE region are not valid in this particular research. The limitation of the research is concerned primary with data acquisition and authenticity of the claims made by various customers subscribed to the Etisalat network. Since the paper considers case studies involving customer complaint examples, one limitation is that it only considers a few case studies limiting the scope of analyzing management role in all areas and departments the company is actively managing operations with. In addition, the scope of the study is wide as it is concerned with the management’s roles and strategies that should address the areas triggering customer complaints. However, as a delimitation to these issues, the study aims at conducting complementary research to identify how Etisalat customers view their experience and how they would wish the company to address issues triggering customer complaints. On the other hand, since various management bodies are identifiable within the company, human resources and operations’ management are considered. In this case the limitation on scope is mitigated by considering operations and human resource management only. In this case, the paper aims to investigate the strategies these two management departments can adapt to ensure that customer service delivery reflects the customer expectations and in the event reduces or does away with complaints related to the departments’ areas of control and monitoring. As earlier addressed under the assumptions that complaints considered will only feature those that the company has played a direct role in, a limitation is associated with that approach. For instance, in the data collection method, views of active subscribers will be considered which may be biased in either reporting or in authenticity. Due to bias based on customer preference and tastes, participants in the research are expected to comprise of customers who never experienced service issues but do not like the network, customers who admire the company’s service delivery but are unable to switch from their current service providers, customers subscribed to two networks and with no idea which may have experienced service issues, and customers who have been inconvenienced severally but have not complained to the company due to insignificance of the issues. This limitation has no delimitation but the selection criteria involves the consideration of active or evidence of previous subscription to Etisalat network. Methodology Data Collection Two methods of data collection are at disposal in conducting this research. Firstly, the research makes use of case study method. This method was used as the preliminary collection of Etisalat’s customer complaints’ information. Case studies are qualitative methods of data collection if they are used primarily to describe the conditions of an entity as well as offer other descriptive characteristics. The merit of using case studies in this research was to find background information on the company at hand in order to ensure that the research question is relevant and backed up with reliable evidence. In the provision of answers to the research question regarding the number of options at the disposal of the management, this research considered the application of quantitative research method by considering interviews and questionnaires as primary research data collection instruments. The instruments are used to collect data useful in the analysis of how satisfied customers are with Etisalat’s customer service delivery. In addition, provided the number of options identified throughout the literature review section, participants will be required to select a coded option to show what they wished Etisalat did to minimize their complaints. Sample Selection and Size In terms of data collection, the recruiting of participants will be conducted through social media. Questionnaires will be electronically send to participants through emails or custom channels to those who provide evidence that they are current or former Etisalat’s customers. To limit the filtering task, the research will target Abu Dhabi subscribers as Etisalat is the major service network. The sample size is predetermined to be 120 subscribers randomly selected from a forecasted set of 1000 respondents. The social media generates high number of participants given that at any given time, a set of target participants is actively online and capable of completing a questionnaire. Data Analysis The analysis of data will consider the use of correlations and standard deviation to show how experiences relate to suggestions on service improvement. Satisfied participants will be coded with a 1 for each case while unsatisfied will be coded with a 0 (zero). Based on the mean of the satisfaction variable, the standard deviation will be used to show whether there is a relationship between levels of satisfaction and the quality of service provided. Quality of service provided will be tested using a Likert-5 scale coded 1 to 5 with 1 indicating poor quality service and 5 indicating high quality of service. In addition, the participants will identify which among three options the company must take based on the participant’s satisfaction level. The three level of action include; -1) The company should invest more to regulate current problems, 0) The company should do nothing 1) The company should invest in management practice to minimize current complaints and increase revenue generation. Raw Data Corresponded ID Action Suggestion Satisfaction Yes(1), No (0) Quality of Service C1 1 0 5 C2 0 1 1 C3 0 0 5 C4 -1 1 5 C5 1 0 1 C6 0 1 3 C7 -1 1 4 C8 1 0 5 C9 1 0 2 C10 -1 1 1 C11 0 0 2 C12 0 0 2 C13 0 1 3 C14 1 1 5 C15 1 1 5 C16 -1 0 5 C17 1 0 3 C18 1 1 5 C19 -1 0 2 C20 1 1 4 C21 1 1 1 C22 1 1 2 C23 0 1 1 C24 -1 1 4 C25 0 0 2 C26 -1 1 3 C27 -1 1 2 C28 0 1 3 C29 0 1 2 C30 0 1 3 C31 0 0 4 C32 1 0 4 C33 1 1 2 C34 1 1 2 C35 1 1 1 C36 -1 1 1 C37 0 0 1 C38 1 0 3 C39 -1 0 3 C40 0 0 2 C41 -1 1 4 C42 -1 1 2 C43 0 0 4 C44 -1 0 3 C45 1 1 1 C46 0 0 1 C47 -1 1 4 C48 1 0 3 C49 -1 0 4 C50 0 0 3 C51 1 1 3 C52 -1 0 2 C53 0 0 4 C54 1 0 5 C55 -1 1 3 C56 0 1 4 C57 -1 1 1 C58 1 0 4 C59 1 0 3 C60 1 0 5 C61 0 1 4 C62 0 1 2 C63 -1 1 1 C64 -1 1 5 C65 0 0 3 C66 1 1 4 C67 -1 1 3 C68 0 1 4 C69 1 0 4 C70 -1 0 4 C71 0 0 2 C72 1 1 4 C73 -1 1 3 C74 1 1 3 C75 1 1 5 C76 -1 0 4 C77 0 1 2 C78 -1 0 5 C79 -1 0 5 C80 1 0 1 C81 -1 0 5 C82 1 1 3 C83 -1 1 3 C84 0 0 1 C85 0 1 4 C86 0 0 5 C87 -1 0 5 C88 0 0 4 C89 -1 0 3 C90 -1 0 3 C91 1 0 2 C92 0 1 4 C93 0 1 1 C94 -1 0 3 C95 1 1 5 C96 -1 1 4 C97 1 0 2 C98 -1 1 1 C99 1 0 3 C100 -1 1 5 C101 -1 0 4 C102 1 1 4 C103 1 1 5 C104 -1 0 5 C105 1 1 5 C106 -1 1 5 C107 0 0 4 C108 0 0 5 C109 1 0 4 C110 1 0 1 C111 0 0 1 C112 -1 0 1 C113 0 0 4 C114 1 0 2 C115 1 0 3 C116 1 1 1 C117 0 0 3 C118 1 0 2 C119 0 0 3 C120 0 0 1 Table 1: Data on customer satisfaction, quality of service, and company options from questionnaires. Works Cited Chan Kimmy and Wan Echo. How Can Stressed Employees Deliver Better Customer Service? The Underlying Self-Regulation Depletion Mechanism. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 76, No. 1. 2013; pp. 119-137 Desouza Kelvin. Entrepreneurship from Concept to Sustained Competitive Advantage. University of Toronto Press 2011; pp. 213-230. Gulf News. Etisalat upgrade offer issue resolved. Accessed online on April 11, 2015 from http://search.proquest.com/business/docview/1366151593/C0BCB19CAEAE4F76PQ/15?accountid=44597 (1) Gulf News. Network issues resolved. Etisalat says. Accessed online on April 26, 2015 from http://search.proquest.com/business/docview/1037824764/C0BCB19CAEAE4F76PQ (2) Johnston Robert and Mehra Sandy. Best-Practice Complaint Management. Enhancing Effectiveness, Vol. 16, No. 4. 2002; pp. 145-154. Tribune Business News. Etisalat mobile users face connectivity problem. Anonymous. Accessing online on April 26, 2015 from http://www.search.proquest.com/business/docview/464776314/C0BCB19CAEAE4F76PQ/12countid=44597, 2008. Read More