Considerations when Evaluating Unified Communications Solutions - Case Study Example

Insight for Competitive Advantage Table of Contents Introduction 3 Main Findings 4 Role Service Excellence 4 Importance of Providing Customer Service Excellence 5 Impact of Poor Customer Service 7 Recommendations to Improve Customer Service 8 Conclusion 11 References 12 Bibliography 15 Introduction The perception of customer insight is fundamentally regarded to be an efficient tool that significantly focuses upon various psychological aspects of the customers such as customer values, beliefs, desires, habits, motives as well as emotions. Conversely, an efficient customer service excellence can be considered as one of the major critical success factors towards achieving competitive advantage across all business industries. This is due to the reason that it creates broad array of opportunities for an organisation to preserve its various customer segments with the intention of attaining organisational goals successfully (Centre for Good Governance, n.d.). Apple Inc. is a renowned multinational business corporation which deals with manufacturing, designing along with marketing broad assortment of products related to consumer electronics, personal computers and computer software among others. According to the present day context, the organisation is considerably regarded as one of the major global brands in terms of achieving higher customer value and brand loyalty through its offering of quality products (Apple Inc., 2011). In relation to identify the role of customer insight to an organisation, the paper intends to briefly discuss the major roles and significance of customer service within the organisation of Apple Inc. The paper will also highlight the major contribution of customer service that supports the organisation towards achieving competitive position. Moreover, the paper will further involve the impacts and consequences that could affect on organisational reputation of Apple while adopting poor customer service initiatives. Therefore, appropriate recommendations have also been discussed about how Apple might enhance its customer service for the motive of increasing its productivity as well as profitability, business reputation and most significantly sustainable competitive advantage. Main Findings Role of Customer Service Excellence Revealing insight about the consumers is incessantly becoming one of the major elements for the organisations in order to develop their different products as well as services that deliver superior value to the final customers and generate substantial profit. The idea of customer insight is typically viewed to be the collection as well as the interpretation of valuable information that ultimately facilitates a business to develop and most importantly to retain their valuable customers. It significantly involves certain major features such as gaining comprehensive knowledge about the customers’ requirements along with their behaviours that eventually raises the brand loyalty and facilitates them to accomplish competitive advantage by a significant level (Michel, 2003). In relation to determine the role of customer service excellence, it has been apparently observed that the excellence related to customer service that adopted by Apple are significantly focused upon delivering superior value oriented services to each of its customer segment. In this regard, the organisation significantly considers the offering of superior quality products as customer service excellence initiatives towards its global standing. The organisation involves effective strategy of offering value-based service with its decent product lines through understanding customers’ requirements. The customer service excellence of the organisation is considered to be one of the prime aspects for the organisation to maintain its dominant position in the global technological business market (Arthur D. Little, 2011). With regard to the customer service excellence of Apple, it has been observed that the organisation took the initiative of AppleCare Service Excellence that emphasises upon providing performance-based services to its customers worldwide. Moreover, the organisation also took another initiative of Apple Authorised Service Providers (AASPs) as customer service excellence that focuses upon delivering superior value as well as quality based service to its huge base of customers globally. Especially mentioning, the AppleCare Service Excellence of the organisation involves three major constituents like ‘Performance-Based Warranty Compensation’, ‘Performance Measurement’ and ‘Web-Based Reporting’ with the intention of providing efficient services to its global users (The University of Wiskinsin-Madison, 2010). Importance of Providing Customer Service Excellence According to increased level of globalisation and business market competition, it is imperative for the organisations like Apple to incessantly develop and effectively implement superior customer service excellence related operations at large (Slideshare Inc., 2012). This is due to the reason that the aforementioned practices would ultimately support the organisations to increase their brand loyalty and customer base levels which in turn will help them to accomplish significant competitive position over their chief business market competitors. The major importance of customer service excellence can be identified form several significant organisational aspects which encompass improved customer as well as employee retention, avoidance of price competition and reduction in costs among others (Tipler, 2009). Customer and Employee Retention Retention of both customers and employees can be considered as one of the major concerning aspects for any business organisation. In this similar context, it can be affirmed that a quality-based offering of products to the customers can generate greater consumer loyalty as well as value that might improve the business performances and the retention of the customers of the organisations by a considerable level. An effective customer centric strategy can support an organisation to retain its customers for a longer period. Moreover, a successful customer service excellence also facilitate an organisation to keep its employees motivated through providing various benefits such as attractive compensation, incentives and recognitions (Tassiopoulos, 2008). Avoidance of Price Competition An effective and value-based customer service excellence can also provide substantial benefit to the organisations in terms of increasing advertising along with promotional campaigns relating to the promotion of products as compared to their competitors. Most significantly, it can be stated that a proper as well as effective customer service in the form of offering quality products or services could ultimately lead towards the avoidance of price competition by a certain extent (Fredrick, 2007). Reduction in Costs The customer service excellence also enables the organisation to minimise the existing costs such as advertising and promotional related costs that are incurred while performing business operational functions. In this regard, it can be stated that by delivering quality and value-based services to the customers, less publicity for the promotions of the products or service would be needed. This feature might ultimately reduce the advertising and promotional cost of an organisation by a considerable level (Frederick, 2007). In relation to the evaluation of the importance of providing customer service excellence, it has viewed that Apple can be considered as one of the major global organisations that effectively develops its customer service excellence and thus attains global success. The organisation has been further observed to introduce as well as to implement effective and successful business strategy of retaining its customers and employees as well. In this regard, the customer service strategy of the organisation involves delighting and cutting-edge solutions that are absolutely focused upon customer-centric approach. This builds an effective organisational culture of customer service excellence that facilitates to comply with the exceeding expectations of its global customers by a greater extent (Thomas, 2012). Impact of Poor Customer Service It has been previously observed that an effective and successful customer service excellence can provide significant benefits to an organisation which include greater retention of employees as well as customers, reduction in costs and most importantly attainment of sustainable competitive position. But, simultaneously, a poor customer service can be a crucial factor for an organisation to improve its overall business performances and to preserve sustainable competitive advantage. A poor or ineffective customer service can impose considerable negative impact upon various divisions of an organisation such as financial, operational, marketing along with brand image and brand loyalty of the organisation (Ford, 1999). Furthermore, a poor customer service can further be stated as the major factor of losing the satisfaction level of the organisation’s workforce. The decreased satisfaction level of the employees might impose severe impact upon the productivity of the employees, operational as well as business performances, quality of the products, customer satisfaction and organisations’ working environment (Ford, 1999). Recommendations to Improve Customer Service Customer service of an organisation can be regarded as one of the major practices to maintain effective growth and preserve competitive advantage. The main role of customer service of an organisation is to effectively handle the issues that the customers face related with the products or services belonging to the organisation. Therefore, it is important for the organisations to improve its customer service for the motive of resolving the problems relating to the products of the customers, enlarging their satisfaction level and increasing brand image among others (United States Office of Personnel Management, 1997). An effective customer service can offer substantial benefits to the organisations in various ways. In this regard, it can be stated that a greater as well as a quality customer service can support the organisations to enhance their business as well as operational performances, increase their productivity and most importantly to accomplish superior competitive position. In addition, there are certain other positive impacts that can be identified through an effective practice of customer service excellence. The impacts are as follows: Enhances customer centric measures Improves morale of the workforce Develops organisation’s internal processes Improves quality as well service delivery process Helps to effectively deal with crucial customer complaints Delivers cost-effective benefits. The main objectives of the organisations to improve customer service are to increase their profitability, business reputation, brand image and most importantly to gain sustainable competitive advantage among others. Therefore, the organisations, in this competitive world are highly focused up adopting various practices in order to improve customer service to attain competitive advantage (SCONUL, 2012). On the basis of the above discussion, certain recommendations have been made for the different organisations for improving their respective customer service in order to attain expected business goals. In this similar context, the valuable suggestions to enhance customer service include formulating effective customer service linked strategies, building customer-centric culture within the organisation, empowering customer-facing professionals and introducing effective training and development programmes relating to customer services (Ford, 1999). In the context of Apple to its customer service excellence initiatives, it can be recommended that the organisation should focus to develop more its online service processes. In order to enhance the customer service excellence, it is also important for Apple to offer its customer-based services through focusing upon culturally and linguistically group of customers. Moreover, the organisation should also consider involving effective strategies to provide more improved online customer service related solutions for the customers to resolve any sort of product associated issues. In this context, the increasing number of its online customer service centres as well as web-based online sources and resolving product disputes through the facility of home delivery service among others can also enhance the customer centric level of Apple within the global technology market at large. Thus, it can be stated that the aforesaid recommendations will ultimately facilitate the organisation to sustain its global standing in the highly competitive electronic market and also to accomplish superior competitive advantage (Ford, 1999). Conclusion According to the present day context, the customer service excellence of the global organisations has been recognised to be a growing concern in order to attain competitive advantage. The organisations seek to provide extensive efforts to retain its customers through developing its various customer centric processes. In the context of rapid development in the business market as well as increased level of globalisation, it is vital for an organisation to raise its customer’s satisfaction by offering quality products as well as services and improved customer services. Customer service excellence is one of the major aspects of an organisation as it involves various major elements in order to achieve growth and sustainability. However, the impact of poor customer service can cause unexpected consequences that can lead towards low customer satisfaction and consequently can affect the financial performance of the organisations such as Apple by a considerable level. In order to improve customer service, the organisations needs to follow certain effective practices such as forming effective training programmes related to customer services and building customer-centric culture among others. In relation to Apple, the organisation needs to develop its customer services by introducing more enhanced online services and focusing upon culturally and linguistically group of customers. These particular aspects would ultimately support Apple to attain its desired business targets and also to gain superior competitive advantage by a considerable level. References Apple Inc., 2011. Form 10-K (Annual Report). Company Background. [Online] Available at: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/1925099500x0xS1193125-11-282113/320193/filing.pdf [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Arthur D. Little, 2011. WOWing Customer Service Strategies. Key Success Factors to Design and Implement Service Excellence. [Online] Available at: http://www.adlittle.com/downloads/tx_adlreports/ADL_2011_WOWing_Customer_Management.pdf [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Centre for Good Governance, No Date. Handbook on Service Excellence. Documents. [Online] Available at: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/CGG/UNPAN026214.pdf [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Ford, L., 1999. Customer Service Excellence: It’s in the Details. Why Customer Service. [Online] Available at: http://www.trainingsolutions.com/pdf/serviceexcell.pdf [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Frederick, J. H., 2007. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty as Measures for Business Success within the Electrical Manufacturing Industry. Scope of The Research. [Online] Available at: http://libserv5.tut.ac.za:7780/pls/eres/wpg_docload.download_file?p_filename=F1975355915/HattingFJ1.pdf Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Michel, L., 2003. Using Customer Insight to Build Competitive Advantage. Carlson Marketing Group. [Online] Available at: http://www.tricityretail.com/brochures/wp_customerinsight.pdf [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. SCONUL, 2012. Customer Service Excellence. Performance. [Online] Available at: http://vamp.diglib.shrivenham.cranfield.ac.uk/quality/cse [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. SlideShare Inc., 2012. Delivering Consistently Superior Customer Service. Customer Service Excellence. [Online] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/johnspence/customer-service-excellence-v-710 [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Tassiopoulos, D., 2008. New Tourism Ventures: An Entrepreneurial and Managerial Approach. Juta and Company Ltd: South Africa. The University of Wiskinsin-Madison, 2010. Performance Standards. AppleCare Service Excellence. [Online] Available at: http://apple.doit.wisc.edu/servicesource/ss/programs/HTML%20Program%20Manual_Canada/SPM_acse_Canada.html#_Toc_Canada_436997897 [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Thomas, S., 2012. Culture Through a Customer Service Excellence Lens. The New Researcher Vol. 5, pp. 12-16. Tipler, K., 2009. Importance of Customer Service Excellence. The New Researcher, Vol. 1, pp. 1-7. United States Office of Personnel Management, 1997. Improving Customer Service through Effective Performance Management. Performance Management Practitioner Series. [Online] Available at: http://www.opm.gov/perform/wppdf/custdoc.pdf [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Bibliography Cisco, 2011. Top Ten Considerations when Evaluating Unified Communications Solutions. Support for Emerging Consumer Platforms. [Online] Available at: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6788/vcallcon/ps556/white_paper_c11-604516.pdf [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Cochise County Board of Supervisors, No Date. Goal: Customer Service Excellence. Cochise County, Arizona. [Online] Available at: http://www.cochise.az.gov/stratplan/ [Accessed on November 21, 2012]. Read More