Customer Services in Sony Corporation - Essay Example

SERVICE SERVICES IN SONY CORPORATION services are activities anorganization or firm offers to those who buy their products or services. There are various interpretations of what good customer services means, but generally, good customer service entails offering good products that add value for the customer to buy. Customer service is viewed as an activity, although sometimes it can be a performance measure. So to say, customer service has a wide dimension and it is very complex to complete everything. Any business organization will not be complete in the absence of customer services. Customer service is the engine behind the moving of any successful firm. Good customer service involves selling the right product, which has good quantity and that which cannot harm the intended customer (Cavinato, 2001). This paper presents a detailed discussion of exceptional customer service offered by Sony Corporation. To do this, an evaluation of the company’s customer service success will be explored, and the customer service policies that have had an impact on its performance determined. Sony Corporation, originally known as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (TTK), was established on 7th May 1946 in Tokyo Japan. Initially it was a radio repair shop before its development. The word Sony was derived from the Latin word ‘sonus’ which means sound as it dealt with the production of electronic materials that produced sound, and the slang word ‘sonny’ in American English. It widened its marketing from Japan and entered America, specifically the United States, before opening other branches in Spain, France and Germany. As per 2011 it had more than 168,000 employees and more than 100 branches spread worldwide making it one of the largest companies in the world (Kottler, 2001). Basically, sonny deals with electronic. Along the years since its establishment, sonny has produced some of the best and durable media formats like radios, televisions, laptops, memory sticks, and blue ray discs among many others. Sonny has its leading sales in the United States, Europe and Japan. It is a company that has a wide series of measures to enhance its operations with a mission of developing more innovative multimedia services for entertainment (Cavinato, 2001). Good customer relations and rapport can be established by providing customers with products at a set price, with the best services and convenience to their time schedule. A customer will always be happy to work with a seller who is flexible and reliable. This implies that if a customer misses to receive a product as per the stipulated time, he or she will be dissatisfied and will not come back to the seller in future. Maintenance of a good customer relationship is the key item in any firm. Some of the services that will keep a customer coming, and which enhance a positive attitude to an organization are; best price, offer in transportation costs, promotions in products, and at large levels offers in warehouse costs. Working along these customer service offers, a firm achieves best customer relations crucial for the success of it in the market place (Cavinato, 2001). Customer services may go to the extent of providing financial credits and offering repair to achieve a competitive advantage. Sonny has various customer policies that are specifically meant for the customer needs. In some of its customer service policies, customers have a right to be provided with services without any discrimination; customers are different and so each customer should be handled as per his or her wish and character and customers should be given the best treatment. The organization ensures customers are offered the best services, offered with rewards to motivate them to keep coming back and that their feedback is received and responded to in time. Statistics indicate that Sony receives 85% positive feedback from customers daily, has all payment methods for customers, has contest and price offers for customers and has on time delivery of products to customers with professional packaging (Cavinato, 2001). Sony gives room for its employees to have freedom and power to make decisions but in accountability of any damage or loss that may arise due to empowerment. This has improved working relations among employees in that it has reduced the stress of being supervised during work, and thus the employees do their work with satisfaction. This has led to the employee s’ involvement in the contribution of the rise of Sony. Self supervision has enhanced more commitments of the employees to their work. Thus, it is worth noting from Sony that lack of empowerment leads to a decrease in self motivation and that lack of accountability leads to a drop in an organization’s performance as a result of more over sights. The implication behind this is that, empowerment must go hand in hand with accountability for the growth of any company (Kottler, 2001). Sony has 24 hours customer service contacts that work seven days a week. This type of communication has made it attract customers as their views are tackled at all times. Sony also has sales people who meet with customers face to face and listen to their considerations about the Sony products, and then respond immediately to any complaints or suggestions of anything that should be implemented in Sony for the good will of customer services. This kind of communication makes the customer feel appreciated and hence continue buying the Sony products (Sony Corporation, 2011). Sony also has programs that are aired in various television stations. These programs involve sending an expert to an international TV station like CNN in order to reach a wide number of customers within the same time. In these programs, the expert explains to customers how their products operate, the advantage of using their products over others, and how their products should be handled in order for them to last. Some of those programs discussed for the benefit of the customer are on how to use a Sony laptop battery for long durability. In turn, customers raise issues concerning their products and they get feedback from the television programs immediately. This is one way of communicating to customers that is highly valued as a wide number of customers is reached. Sony also has social sites where customers can chat about Sony products like sony.com. This is in consideration of the new generation and advancement of technology in ways of communication (Kottler, 2001). As much as Sony is good in terms of its services to customers, complaints do arise. Sony has set measures on how to solve these complaints to the satisfaction of its customers. Sony has a system where, if a problem arises from their product at the hands of the customer, it recalls the product back at their expense. When a Sony laptop exploded in April 2006 in Japan, they had to recall all the 4.1 million laptops that were released at that time to investigate the problem. The problem was later solved and the customers were compensated (Sony Corporation, 2011). Customer service environment has its strength and weaknesses. Some customer services cannot work in an environment where there is; a low level of employment, lack of technological awareness, restriction by government policies, cultural barriers to delivery of customer services or lack of income. In the same vein, some factors may create a good environment for customer services such as energy availability, quick access to information and high levels of technology. In order to improve these strengths and weakness for the benefit of the customer services, the following suggestions should be considered. Customers should begin to be enlightened on the benefit of doing away with some cultures that affect their services. According to Reiman, M (2008), the background of a customer greatly influences how services are assessed. Customers do not allow services that do not conform to their cultural expectations. The government should increase technological advancement. Technological advancement aids in the marketing of products to customers. If customers are not in a position to access information about a certain product, then they will not buy. Availability of technology is the best way to strengthen customer service. Customers should be educated on the benefits of doing away with political issues with matters relating to business. Customer services will only be efficient if politics are excluded (Kottler, 2001). In a place where there are political crises, customer service will not be efficient. The impact of politics in customer services is the biggest challenge in the modern world as various political revolutions are taking place globally. This creates a bad environment for the delivery of customer services. Politics should be handled with care in case of any crisis. Peace resolution measures should be put in place. Customer services should be given first priority in any organization. A ‘customer first’ attitude is the key item because a company earns the customer’s trust and support. This is done by listening first to customers and ensuring the customer is attended to efficiently. If customers run away from a company, then it will collapse. If a company looses customers, then it loses a source of income. Customers should thus be given the first priority for the growth of any organization to be realized (Sony Corporation, 2011). In general this piece of writing had attempted to explain how good customer services leads to success. Sony being among the thriving companies has been brought in to exemplify how its good customer service has led to its success. Reference Cavinato,J.L. (2001). How to Keep Customers Coming Back For More. Washington: Revlon, Inc Sony Corporation (2011). Responsiveness and Customer Service. Retrieved 9 Dec. 2011 from http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/csr/quality/customer/index.html Kottler, P. (2001). Marketing Management, Millennium Edition. Prentice-Hall: New Jersey Read More