Using Service Standards to Meet Customers' Needs - PowerPoint Presentation Example

 Our Vision 5 Our Promise 5 Our Values 5 Introduction 6 Rights of customers/guests 6 Commitments to the guests 7 Responsibility of the manager in the future in relation to customer service 8 Internal and external customers 9 Identification of guests need 10 Using service standards and procedures to meet customers’ needs 10 How services are measured against standard by Etihad 11 Conclusion 11 Reference 12 Our Vision To be the best airline in the world Our Promise Inspirational experiences provided with warmth and respect Our Values Introduction Customers play a pivotal role in any business organization, whether small or large.

Accomplishment of any enterprise depends largely on the level of customer satisfaction. Businesses, therefore, needs to employ qualified staff who strive to ensure that this goal is achieved. All businesses need to come up with appropriate business templates that have all the contents necessary for comprehensive heights of customer satisfaction. It should be conducted with an aim of improving customer satisfaction, improving customer loyalty, maximizing customer value, and obtaining and acting on customers’ feedback.

Acknowledging the significant role customers play in a business is a step in the right direction. As such, any findings on improving customers’ satisfaction should not be merely on paper, but should be acted on by senior management. Rights of customers/guests By virtue of provision of services to customers, a business enters into a legally binding contract. The essence of a contract is that, it has certain responsibilities and rights that come with it (Parry, 2012). During my workplace orientation at Etihad Airways, I was able to discover that customers do have rights that must be respected to the latter during business operations.

The management ignores such rights at their own peril. In fact, violation of these rights can completely bring down even the largest business organization. It is prudent to recognize that, under the Supply and Services Act, a service provider such as Etihad Airways, must carry out its services with reasonable skill and care and also provide timely services at a fair price, in case the prices are not pre-determined by the customer. This is to say that companies, in the course of service provision, must strive to shun negligence and complacency since this can be very costly in the end and can adversely affect the overall objective of achieving customer loyalty.

Additionally, it is sound that customers are provided with services in compliance with the terms of contract. For instance, Etihad Airway has an option of providing hotel accommodation when clients are making bookings. The company, therefore, has a responsibility of ensuring that this is done without any inconvenience to the customers. Moreover, it is the right of guests to be provided with sufficient information regarding physical and postal address of the company, charges for services and details for terms and conditions for service delivery.

Commitments to the guests For a business to win customers loyalty, it must show some commitments to its guests. It is more expensive to acquire new clients, than to keep existing ones. Due to this, Etihad ought to show commitment to maintaining customer loyalty through ensuring quality service provision. This is achievable through hiring of competent and qualified personnel who have excellent communication and public relation skills. Lack of competent staffs can culminate into business loosing potential clientele.

Etihad Airway needs to conduct constant staff appraisals and rigorous staff recruitments to ensure that they have competent and highly qualified personnel. The company’s nature of operation is such that it is highly service oriented and hence, quality and impression that the workforce displays to clients is key to its success. The Human Resource Department needs to have structures in place that ensure personal goals are marched with company’s broader objective, skills are consistent with the set standards, and that employees are ready and willing to act as a team.

The company must commit to conducting a proper market research on key aspects of customer service. This will help to improve and monitor staff performance. The company also needs to give an assurance to its customers that the business is a going concern, and it is not about to curtail its scale of service provision, any time in the near future. Responsibility of the manager in the future in relation to customer service A manager is literally the face of a company and, therefore, his strategic decision acumen is very handy to business success.

Drucker says that, as a manager, one need to be very industrious and with immense skills and vast experience on various aspects of the business ( 2009). As a manager, I will give customer service department the weight it deserves. First, I would acknowledge its importance to the company and employ strategies that ensure it is effective and operational. I must have in place a dedicated human resource team that would ensure proper trainings to employees on issues of service delivery and coping with current market trends on customer service delivery.

If you train your employees, your customers are satisfied and the business benefits. Motivation plays an important role that cannot be ignored in a business (Bruce, 2006). Employees can be motivated in several ways, through good remuneration packages, provision of good working conditions, and other fringe benefits. Once employees are satisfied, it amounts to quality service delivery and, consequently, a satisfied clientele. The aspect of improved customer service can also be viewed from customer’s point of view, where customers are engaged in effecting decisions that are friendly.

Market research is conducted where views of customers are taken into consideration. They can be asked to propose changes that they deem relevant to be introduced and those that they feel aggrieved with removed. This way friendly customers service delivery structures acceptable to customers are designed. Such an arrangement will improve customer satisfaction because they fill part of the decisions and structures implemented. Internal and external customers Any business organization broadly consists of both internal and external customers.

Interestingly, these two groups often have conflicting and competing interests. Internal customers compete with the needs of external customers. External customers are the real clients who engage in the purchase of company’s products and utilization of its services, whereas internal customers are the departments within the organizations. Management normally tends to lay more emphasis on promoting and wooing external customers, than it does on internal customers. They are completely oblivious that these two groups of customers are compliments and cannot function to bring the expected results if any group is ignored.

External customers are responsible for boosting revenues of a company, but the input of internal customers provided the infrastructure for the company’s operations. Internal customers need to be motivated just the same way as external customers are lured into loyalty to a business output. Etihad external customers include passengers and cargo, while internal customers include departments like sale, finance, and promotions. Identification of guests need Identification of customers’ needs is a sure way of gaining a competitive edge in a murky business arena.

The earlier you identify your customers’ needs the better it is for your business. Identification of customers’ needs starts with proper communication channel that engages customers. This will help to find out how their needs can be satisfied better. It also involves designing a structure that allows for recording of feedbacks from customers and then using such information to make important decisions on marketing strategy .Accurate identification of customers’ needs results in attraction of more customers and increase in revenues.

Customers’ needs are generally influenced by safety, performance, appearance, comfort, economy and durability (Drucker, 2009). Using service standards and procedures to meet customers’ needs Service deliver standards are always modeled around some principles, which must be met if customers are to derive maximum satisfaction. Empathy is an important standard that should not be ignored in the quest for ensuring that customers are satisfied. The employees should be flexible enough. They should be able to understand customers concerns and act on them accordingly.

Additionally, conformity is a key standard and it dictates that management should know the expectation and objectives of customers and align employees to meet these expectations. Moreover, focus also plays a big role. Focus ensures that the workforce stays committed and avoids unnecessary distractions that may hamper their service delivery. Lastly, the benchmark of flexibility is equally important. Employees need to be able to explore new approaches of doing things to adjust to changes in customers’ requirements in time.

How services are measured against standard by Etihad Etihad gives priority and values its customers. As such, the interest of their customers is their first priority. Etihad ensures that they operate within the recommended yardstick as far as customer service is concerned. They have a mechanism in place to ensure that all their staff is competent and highly trained and as such, they have the capacity to serve customers with satisfaction. They also have arrangements that guarantee adequate interaction between customers and business to ensure that all their reactions are attended to in good time.

Conclusion In conclusion, Etihad has a bright future ahead. It has mechanisms that guarantees highly resourceful and motivated workforce that are highly adaptable to team spirit and possess outstanding personal relations dispositions. The unrivaled quality service delivery has given Etihad an edge over its competitors. However, the company should be in constant competition with itself if the current market share is to be retained and expanded. Reference Bruce, A. (2006). How to motivate every employee.

New York, NY: Mcgrow Hill Companies Inc. Drucker, P. F. (2009). Management:Task, responsibility and practice. London: John Willey and Sons. Parry, D. (2012). Consumer law: rights and responsibity. Chicago: Legacy Law Books.