Customer Relations Management in BP - Essay Example

Task Relations Management The British Petroleum Company (BP) is an international company that is involved in the supply petroleum products. The company has its control center in London and employs over a hundred thousand employees around the globe. The company is esteemed as the biggest producer and distributor of natural gas and petroleum products in many countries across different continents (Ingram 56). As a regular consumer of petroleum products, I have frequently visited their petrol stations and have always received a different reception from their members of staff every time I visit their stores. This type of treatment makes me feel that the company is not apprehensive about their customers because the employees do not put in an extra effort in associating with them. The behavior of staff members towards their customers also makes me feel that the company neglects and demoralizes its customers from consuming and frequenting their stores. This negative image results from their staff members’ lack of concern for customers and unfriendliness. According to the treatment that the company staff gives their customers, I would suggest that the company does keep a centralized repository for their data. This is because their respective branches do not share information concerning their customers. This is evident from the fact that despite visiting a specific branch for a certain amount of time and purchasing large amounts of the product, I still receive no recognition from the other branches. Their customer management strategies do not also seem to emphasize on the importance of strengthening their customer relationships. This is clearly depicted from the indifferent behavior that their members of staff have on their customers including me every time they come to their business premises. The Bank of England, which was officially incorporated in the year 1694 as a joint stock company is another company that I frequently visit. The banking institution is responsible for offering cash along with credit facilities to a wide range of customers across the nation. The bank has opened branches in several areas of the country and their staff members regard their customers with high esteem. This is evidenced by the reception I receive any time I visit any of their branches across the country. Their reception is warm, friendly and caring with most of their staff seeming to know me despite them being strange to me. This tends to make me feel valued by the company and it has increased my confidence when dealing with them. The company seems to keep a distributed repository for their data as evidenced by their staffs’ ability to know their customers and having their personal details. The bank’s values emphasize on putting their customers first along with making their main objectives customer oriented. The Bank of England involves itself in several activities to fully identify their customers in the broadest possible form. These include the activities of brainstorming, conducting market research, marketing, creating their customer profiles, and the provision of questionnaires. It also includes the activities of evaluating customer needs through carrying out of surveys, conducting interviews directly with them and offering promotions. Finally, the bank involves itself in the activities of strategizing and copying recruitment activities of their competitors in the industry. These activities greatly assist the bank in the identification of their different customers across the country. The bank involves itself in the activities of knowing their customers by interrogating various groups of experts and technicians concerning their most likely markets. They gather information concerning their customers’ financial abilities along with their sources of income. This greatly helps the bank to determine how they will manage and retain their customers whilst remaining profitable. Performing market research involves the evaluation of their customer’s needs and how best to satisfy them (Peppers & Rogers 78). The financial institution involves itself in the conduction of research around their market to determine how to effectively attract customers. This has eventually helped them in expanding their customer base across the country. Marketing involves the activities and processes of establishing and communicating valuable materials for the sake of managing the relationship between a business and its customers (Peppers & Rogers, 158). The financial institution indulges in the activities of marketing for the purpose of attracting customers into their business. An increase in the number of customers they serve implies that their deposits will increase thereby augmenting their institutions profitability. Additionally, marketing helps the company in enhancing the public’s awareness on the services being offered (Ingram 25). The bank uses marketing methods such as billboards, television and radio, newspapers and magazines along with the display of banners in public places. Creating profiles for their customers helps in the classification of customers for the effective satisfaction of their needs. Customer profiles help in grouping customers according to their preferences, their financial capabilities along with their needs. The bank creates customer profiles to determine which levels of customers exist within their economies. This greatly assists them in deciding how to attract and retain the valuable customers to the business (Trebes & Mitchell 103). Creation of customer profiles is carried out by groups of experts and individuals who have sufficient knowledge of the market to effectively address the issues being raised. Issuing questionnaires involves formulating questions that the intended customers will answer. This activity usually aims at determining the preferences of customers in the company (Peppers & Rogers 89). It also helps in evaluating how best the bank will satisfy their customers’ preferences. The bank of England has been issuing questionnaires to the public to ascertain what favorable conditions will attract them into joining the organization. Conducting surveys involves the examination and recording of the features and characteristics of the market in order to enable the management to conduct plans for their future (Trebes & Mitchell 127). The bank involves itself in examining the spending and saving patterns of their customers to determine which customers they will target to remain profitable in their industry. The bank conducts surveys into its markets to decide on how best to tailor their products to promote of their customers’ satisfaction. The suitability of their products to various customers will assist them in increasing their profitability levels. The financial institution regularly conducts surveys on their customer bases to determine how best they can attract newer customers to their business. Experienced personnel carry out the surveys, and they are knowledgeable in their customers’ earnings and spending patterns (Peppers & Rogers 128). Interviews are oral examinations carried out on prospective would be customers for the purpose of ascertaining their preferences and needs. They greatly assist an organization in ascertaining how best to improve on the quality and attract customers to their business (Trebes & Mitchell 89). They may also be helpful in assisting the financial institution to attract new customers into the business. The bank of England frequently sends out professionals to interrogate customers and the public for the purpose of attracting new customers and maintaining them in their institution. The interviews are carried out for specific reasons that will help the business in increasing their clientele. The bank of England participates in promotion activities that enable an institution to increase awareness for the products and services on offer. The result of effective promotion is that an organization gets more customers along with an increase in sales (Peppers & Rogers 93). The bank uses promotional activities in identifying its customers by judging according to their interests in their services and goods. Use of promotion by the bank has greatly helped the management in their expansion efforts as they get more customers it. This has resulted in an increase in the institutions profitability along with an expansion of its activities across their various branches. Strategizing involves the creation plans to achieve specific objectives in the long term. Creating strategies for attracting new customers will enable the organization to determine the problems they are likely to encounter in attracting new customers to their institution. The bank indulges in the creation of various strategies to bring in new customers to their institution on a regular basis. These strategies include the development of cheaper products that will increase their effectiveness in their provision of goods along with services. Copying the successful methods in use by their competitors in customer satisfaction and retention also helps an organization in bringing new customers to their business. These methods include advertising for low interest rates and better financial packages to suit the people living in different areas. These activities have resulted in the bank attaining many new customers who find these packages favorable. The Dun and Bradstreet software will be the best software to handle the above activities. This is because it is a global leader in offering business information and has been used for over a hundred and sixty years while offering very good results. It has records for over a hundred million businesses and offers a wide variety of information to customers (Kane 406). It is also important as it assists the managements of several organizations in making crucial business resolutions. It can also be used by customers to mitigate the risks they would face when dealing with certain solutions. Finally, this software will enable the efficient and fast dissemination of information to customers who are in faraway places since it relies on the Internet infrastructure. Works Cited Ingram, Graham. Managing Change, a Guide to British Economic Policy, 2000. Manchester: Manchester university press. Kane, Edward. Implementing TQM at Dun & Bradstreet Software, 1992. National Productivity Review, 11: 405–416. Peppers, Don & Rogers, Martha. Managing Customer Relationships, 2004. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Trebes, Barry & Mitchell, Bronwyn. Managing Change, 2005. New York: Thomas Telford Publishers. Read More