The Standard and the Quality of Rescue Services - Assignment Example

What is RAC’s service strategy? What has the RAC done to improve and maintain its standard of the rescue service package? RAC is a trading serviceenterprise that focuses on the customers’ satisfaction and need fulfillment. It has been the reliable brand amongst the customers for a long period of time now. In modern day R.A.C is the second largest organization that specializes in the services of motorizing. R.A.C policy terms its services based on four concepts, the hall mark of quality, reliability, precaution and return for money invested. Since the nature of profession and specialization pertains to the safety of customers while they are entrapped, the working strategy of this organization can be loosely termed as Save Our Soul policy which comes in to rescue when there are barely any other options. Over different stages, different mottos, and statements have been issued by the company, the interesting fact is that each of them has been in alignment with the customer care, and trouble shooting. The chairman Jeffrey Rose defining the service strategy stated that the main objective of the enterprise is to “restore the journey of the passengers back on the track as quickly as possible” One of the incidents quoted in the magazines affirms their determination towards customers satisfaction, in form of a 2 A.M call received by the worker, who took out a spare part from his own car just to ensure the passenger safety and putting back the car on the road. The earlier motto and service strategy of the organization were also in alliance with the customer needs. The logo was “society for protection, encouragement and development of automobilism”. By the end of the century when the company published its manifesto and statement about the company service strategy it stated the entire function range from in house to the off road services. The prime strategy is focused on the concept of rescue and savior in the time of need. When the car gives up on the passengers in the middle of the high way or in the middle of barren desert. Various variables have been targeted in past which indicate the company’s seriousness about its commitment towards the clients. One of those variables has been the customer satisfaction Index (C.S.I). The aim has always been to increase the C.S.I and capitalize on any opportunity available in benefiting the clients. The service strategy is based on the solid principles of customer satisfaction, amount of care taken in fulfilling their requirements. The prime is not just to make the effort, rather make the effort count and yield results that may speak for themselves in terms of the contributions made. Service strategy is amalgamated with the core competence and over period of time the company has earned its name for the mere reason of customers’ satisfaction and needs fulfillment which in other way is a directed strategy towards goals achievements. The history of its services and customer satisfaction trace back to nearly a century down the lane. All this time, the company strategy is focused on the principle of rescue when no other resources are available. The improvement has not been over a fortnight, rather incremental. Over period of time small incremental steps were being taken that led to making it one of the pioneers in its field. While in some cases the top management change contributed towards the success, in others the policies revamping. The means of communication adopted by the incumbent company have contributed to the success in a way as well. While it is a known fact that the communication and in time contact serves as high importance and value towards the accomplishment of task. It is directly related to the customer satisfaction and job accomplishment. Communication becomes in evitable in scenarios where emergencies are confronted and in time delivery are required. R.A.C has made sure it fulfills the criterion of rapid communication. The entire organizational unit consists of over a thousand vehicles that are dedicated for the purpose and are stand by for any emergency or call that might be received. A synchronized system is in place for mobilizing and activating these vehicles. Radio transmission system is in place for the purpose of vehicles mobilization and instructions. The service strategy and customers needs satisfaction is roughly divided into three sections, namely the Rescue service, followed by the recovery and further based on the recovery and rescue the reflexive action. As the name implies reflexive action is instinctive and is based on the situation at hand. Hence all these steps and prioritization of the tasks, along with distribution in to segments that are afore mentioned enables R.A.C achieving the standard and the quality of rescue services. All the steps and actions are well thought out and the management has ensured availability of nearly all necessary resources that might be needed in various situations. These are few of the salient features and the strategy adopted which has made its rising to this high level possible. 2-What capacity issue management can be identified in R.A.C.? What are the factors that affect the demand for rescue services and what are the critical factors and difficulties in forecasting of demand. What are the major constraints in the capacity planning and provision? What is the RAC’s strategy to cope with the capacity issue? Capacity management in generic managerial terms refers to the ability of an organization to fulfill the demand of customers and clients. In the case of R.A.C capacity management revolves around reaching the needy customers in time and helping them in the shortest time possible. However hundred percent rescue efforts and success is not possible in any organization, and there has to be relative compromise over certain cases. With ever increasing demand and need for pitfalls, the capacity constraint may be seen in days ahead. This can be resolved in form of new inductions and spreading of the personnel in different parts of the urban across the highways. Prioritization is often followed in cases since hundred percent accesses are considerably hypothetical. In terms of the forecasting policy, various critical factors are involved for this reason which include the past history consideration. The records are kept intact and it is ensured that no data is lost during the time period. Individuals and staff are recruited based on the previous forecasts. Marketing staff are of high importance in this case. Their values provided, and the research and observation conducted by them have a large impact on the future strategies that are to be created. The drafting and induction of new man power in respective areas is largely subject to the marketing staff report and recommendations. Break down structures and policies are adopted for the forecast procedure. The details can be derived from the data that is available in the tables which show the percentage of response and in time arrival of the rescue time on the spot. It is a known fact that forecasts have large impact on the overall performance of any organization. Its importance cannot be neglected in cases like emergency situations and customers’ needs. Accurate reports and figures provided is an essential to the successful forecasts. This entire process requires effective team work, along with professional methods of research observation. The factors that determine the rescue services are the amount of time taken to reach to the In terms of the rescue service, the process of gathering information and further verification was believed to be time consuming. This process has been removed by the automatic inquiry and more number of patrol routines present in the path way who on spotting the car on the side of the road, rush to them without wasting any time as in case of the past where large amount of time was being wasted in process of verification. Capacity planning and Provision: Planning in itself is an enduring and it becomes more demanding when it comes to the capacity evaluation. Since capacity has to do with the organization’s ability to stock the content, respond to the situation, fulfill the customers’ demands, therefore capacity planning in itself requires proper consideration. R.A.C has ensured planning in form of macro planning. The planning involves consideration of all the employees, the vehicles available that would be needed for fulfilling the services, the in house staff who are assigned to monitor the network and traffic stats, all the functions and jobs in R.A.C are timely organized and their activities, functions, and responses are forecasted based on the requirements per area. The table given in the sheet gives details of per hour or certain number of hours where the duties are being performed and roles are assigned as per requirement. The major constrain that is faced in case of capacity planning is the effective forecast. Any imbalance in the forecast can seriously impact the entire planning process. The provision entitles the monitoring of the activities and functions that are part of the routine. A separate discipline and professionals are employed for the provision matter who ensure that the responsibilities are being fulfilled and no lapses are found in the performance of duties and customers satisfaction. For the provision part, a totally separate and autonomous body is in place which takes in to account the level of customers’ requirements, the subsequent responses and the remedial actions or precautionary actions that may be needed then. RAC aims ensuring customer satisfaction as a priority. For this purpose, all the hurdles involved in the delivery are mitigated through different means. Regular evaluations are conducted from time to time to evaluate the company performances. For this reason, the comparisons are drawn between the RAC and other competitors. It serves as litmus test for the company and enables highlighting all those areas which are possible hurdles in the progress and customers needs accomplishment. The stats shown in the paper show that over various years RAC was the market leader amongst its competitors and it ensured customers satisfaction at different levels. Other hurdles which may stand in the way of provision are the increased percentage of recoveries being made without any considerable losses. Provisions would allow better estimation design and cost structures. These would allow the small scale breakdown which enables scrutiny of various processes and the individual activities involved in the customers emergency call situations. The solutions suggested to the capacity issue are derived in form of the adaption of the technology. Through the technology large amount of the man power is being reduced. Cameras, other wireless networks, and continuous flow of communication through various channels have given a new dimension to not only the customers need and response but also the effective working of the members. They are less prone to getting stranded in situations that are unforeseen and least favorable. However, there is still margin for improvement in this case and the think tanks are working on this agenda to further improve the entire network and reach to the customers and stranded passengers in no time. What are the key determinants of the quality of service? Gap between customers’ expectations and management perception and the management delivery of services to the customers. Are there any gaps between customers’ perception and RAC actual performance? What can the management do to improve customers’ perspective of service? Key determinants are those factors which have a direct impact on the entire services that are being provided. These constitute the variables in form of direct and indirect variables. While some have direct impact on the entire service and organization, others are indirect effecting elements which contribute in a small or slow manner. In case of RAC the key determinants are set of variables. They are as follows: The rate at which the response is intercepted and unit arrives on the spot: Since the nature of job and organization is such that in time delivery and arrival is very important. For this reason the first and foremost reason as the key determinant is the amount of time being taken by RAC in reaching the scene of incident. Next factor which is being termed as the contact establishment. Any individual, who comes across any mishap or break down of the car on the road, would want an instantaneous contact with the parent company. This is possible if the organization (RAC in this case) has many phones lines and are available to the customers without any waiting and queue. These are few of the elements that make up for the score of any organization and differentiates it from other organizations. The customers who are made to wait would definitely seek other brands and service providers who take their calls in time, and respond to them in little time. Other factors include the ability of repair on the spot. Rather than being taken to work shop or being to chained to other vehicles, they should provide solutions on the spot. This is possible if the following two conditions are taken in to account. a) The availability of the appropriate machinery. Such machinery that can find and resolve the issues which may be inside the engine or the body of any other part of the car that may have broken down. b) The second condition is the availability of the able mechanics and other technicians who can resolve the issue on the spot rather than distracting and dis-continuing the passengers journey by taking the car to the work shop or in house. Other factors may also contribute towards the good or bad performance of an individual organization. A generic quality determining factor is the response of customer. A customer can move the luck of any organization either way. Through their response either positive or negative, new customers’ orientation towards the company is determined largely. In management terms it is being said that a satisfied customer brings about nearly 3 to 4 customers to the franchise while the unsatisfied customer takes away nearly as many customers with himself. Everything is not all perfect in RAC; however there is still margin for improvement over the manner in which matters are being dealt with in RAC regarding the customers. The percentage of success and customers is definitely the area where improvement is largely possible and is achievable through detection and working out of the strategy. The management can take into account number of steps which may increase the customers’ satisfaction and over all company performance. The first of many can be the in time arrival, ensuring that the customers continue their passage without any major obstacle in the way. Management can help deriving policies that are customers centric. A step in this case can be that of deriving the comparison with the competitors and see if there is any link where the opponents might provide any better service then the incumbent. The top management can introduce policies that are both customer centric and employees centric. Customer centric means the policies may be derived in a manner that are subject to the customers’ needs and requirements. On the other hand, while it is the employees, that run the organization and have a large contribution towards all the actions that are taking place, for this reason the customers must not be pushed aside and they should be equally listened to and considered as a strong stakeholder who have a large amount of say in the entire proceedings. References: BRENDON, P. (1997). The motoring century: the story of the Royal Automobile Club. London, Bloomsbury. Hung, TK & Chambers, S 1992, Royal AutoMobile Club, London. ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB (GREAT BRITAIN). (n.d.). Royal Automobile Club year book. London, Royal Automobile Club. Read More