Business Letter and Literature Summary - Essay Example

Dear Mr. Oliver Beale, Thank you for spending your valuable time to contact Virgin Airlines and explain about the serious faults in our service. We regret and fully apologize for all the inconveniences that you have experienced on the flight from Mumbai to Heathrow on 7th December 2008. We are ready to assuage your feelings and importantly correct all the faults, so you will not experience such an inconvenience during your next journey on our flights. Baker (2003) stated that CRM initiatives generally fail because they are ‘inappropriately operationalised’. So, we assure you that it will be operationalised appropriately. Our Customer Satisfaction Team in co-ordination with the Ground Manager (catering in-charge) and also flight crew on the specified flight investigated the issues specified by you and have come to the conclusion that discrepancies have indeed occurred. Yanamandram and White’s (2007) mentioned that businesses should understand the factors that keep customers from switching and develop strategies based on them. However, those discrepancies occurred only with certain dishes. Speaking about those certain dishes in which discrepancies occurred, we accept that it is not right to use peas in a desert. It was a work of a newbie chef. As far as the biscuit in plastic bag is concerned, which was very tough to consume, it has come to our notice that due slight malfunction in the oven some of the biscuits reached that hard consistency. We really regret for not adequately checking the quality of the biscuits before serving to the customers. Apart from these two dishes, the other issues arose not due to professional deficiency on the part of the crew, but due to some mis-communication. All those dishes, which looked ‘odd’, are all ethnic Indian dishes, which were prepared and presented to you in a distinct Indian style. The in-flight crew were under obligation to inform you about this aspect, unfortunately they did not take the ‘initiative’. Customer service has to use both internal and external data to identify the customers’ expectations. (Shesbunoff 1999). I take this opportunity to explain what those dishes are and why it appeared to be odd to you. To start with, the yellow sponge, with which tomato was placed, was not a desert, it is actually a Gujarati snack item called ‘Dokla’. It was made with gram flour and so it gave a sponge like appearance and importantly as it is a non-sweet item, tomato was placed as an accompaniment. Even the supposed custard was not typical custard but an Indian dish called Halwa, which will normally have that consistency and look. When it comes to the main dish, you had the feeling that large quantity of Mustard was used in that dish. However, the fact is, mustard was not present in it, it is potato curry cooked with yogurt with a sprinkling of Turmeric. This was confirmed by our director of corporate communications, Paul Charles, who said it was an "award-winning food, which is very popular on our Indian routes". (qtd. by Ezard 2009). However, regarding the poor quality films, I accept there were slight malfunction in the LCD screen. We have immediately taken care of the problem and I am sure, there will not any problem regarding this aspect. Through this clarification, I am doing what my in-flight crew should have done, providing you with basic information about the nature of those dishes. So, on that aspect we really regret as well as apologize for the discrepancies in the customer service. We assure you that we have reviewed the functions of in-flight crews, and they will do the service optimally, avoiding all these mistakes. Rigby (2002) recommend that companies make a review of their strategy for CRM. Our Chairman, Mr. Richard Branson also had access to your letter and he was very appreciative of your “constructive letter” and at the same time concerned with the discrepancies in the customer service. We at Virgin Airways can give cent assurance that you will not experience these kinds of discrepancies in future and you will surely enjoy the flight journey with tasty food. We fully understand that satisfaction appears to have a positive effect on loyalty and we are working with that goal in mind (Jones and Farquhar, 2007) Works Cited Baker, S. (2003) CRM in the context of new consumer marketing, interactive marketing, 4, 4, 320-329. This article points out the characteristics of the consumer in the IT-enabled post-modern era. Baker comes up with the assertion that CRM can be viable in a very limited space. This paper focuses on the works of two research groups - Cranfield School of Management and the Cranfield CRM Research Forum Beale, O. (2009). Virgin: the worlds best passenger complaint letter? Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/4344890/Virgin-the-worlds-best-passenger-complaint-letter.html This article, which provided the primary source material for the above business letter is featured in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper. It is a personal account of an air traveller who was supposedly provided substandard food during the journey, with critics pointing out other perspectives Ezard, K. (2009). Branson ends up with custard on his face. Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/airline-business/2009/01/branson-ends-up-with-custard-o.htm This article written by Kerry Ezard focuses on the letter written by Oliver Beale. It points out the discrepancies put forward by Beale in his article. Along with those perspectives, it also provides the response of Virgin Airways particularly how the management particularly Richard Branson positively reacted to the intent of the letter as well Jones, H. & Farquhar, J. D. (2007) Putting it right: service failure and customer loyalty in UK banks. The International Journal Of Bank Marketing, 25, 161-172. The main focus of this article is the examination of the minor service failures that occurred in UK banking. Importantly how that failure impacted the satisfaction levels of the customer intentions and their loyalty behaviours. Rigby, D., Reicheld, F., Schefter, P. (2002). Avoid the Four Perils of CRM, Harvard Business Review, 80, 2, 101-110 The authors came up with this article based on the research they have done for the past 10 years analyzing customer-loyalty initiatives, which included both successful as well as unsuccessful initiatives in more than 200 companies. Authors point out that CRM backfires in part because of the lack of understanding of the executives. Shesbunoff, A. (1999). Winning CRM Strategies. ABA Banking Journal, 91. According to Shesbunofff, every organization’s survival and success, hinges on how it was able to entice the customers and build a strong customer base. Among the tools used to do that including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the key and using which organization can survive as well as succeed. White, L. & Yanamandram, V. (2007) A model of customer retention of dissatisfied business services customers. Managing Service Quality, 17, 298-316. In this article, the authors provide a theoretical framework of the factors, which influence the dissatisfied customers. Particularly, how it positively influences them to continue purchasing from the same and existing service provider. The authors focus this study mainly in the business-to-business (B2B) services sector. Read More