Karwa Taxis in QATAR - Case Study Example

Running Head: Karwa Taxis in QATAR Name Course Lecturer Date Karwa Taxis in Qatar Karwa is the official taxi service in Qatar. The name Karwa was given by the Amire of Qatar Shiak Hamed Bin Al- Thani. Karwa taxis are the public taxi service providers within Qatar. Karwa is brand name for bus and taxi services operated by the State owned Transport Company of Qatar known as Mowasalat. The company is headquartered in Doha Qatar at location known as the Karwa City. This facility is well structured to ensure that all requirements from staffs and huge fleet of vehicles are well handled. Covering an area of about 500,000 square meters, the facility shelters employees accommodations, eateries, a mosque, leisure and sports services, and parking areas. Thus, 10,000 workers and 6,000 Karwa vehicles are accommodated at the facility. The concept behind the Karwa city is to facility services provision under one room or rather in the same area. As such, the Karwa City concept is highly an accolade due to the fact that it has bridged the gap and compressed space between workers and their requirements. Thus, they do not have to waste time traveling from work place to other areas in a bid to fulfill their daily requirements. Thus, convenience and efficiency are increased by the Karwa city facility. In addition to Karwa City facility, Karwa Taxis runs it own driving school, workshops, fuelling stations, and automated high capacity car and bust wash stations. Karwa Taxis have been termed the most convenient and flexible mode of transport within the country, as the cars are well equipped and comfortable, clean, brand new as well as spacious sedans. The taxis are also air conditioned, and to best serve their clientele they are fitted with most up-to-date communication and direction-finding equipment. Moreover the taxis are connected to ever open call centre that is equipped with latest technology monitoring system. Additionally, the taxis are driven by highly qualified drivers in uniform. As such, it is very easy to differentiate the drivers from the rest of the vehicles` drivers. Furthermore, the Karwa Taxis can be easily recognized by their aquamarine color. Generally, the taxis are metered and fairly economical (LonelyPlanet, 2011). The company has well established system of administrations and operations. The company`s well defined procedures, rules and working instructions enhances it success. The management plays a vital role in the development and advancement of the company. Service Dimension Tangibles: Karwa Taxis vehicles are ultra modern. As such, customers a comfortable while using them. As well, the vehicles aquamarine color is very attractive. All Karwa vehicles go by the same color making it easier for customers to identify them. Reliability: this means that the company is very reliable when it comes handling customers’ problems. There are several ways that customers can place their request to the company. Responsiveness: the company responds quickly to customers` requests. This is evident especially incase whereby customers have lost their items. Assurance: Karwa taxis are well known for their safe driving. This generally means the safety of people taking the company`s service. Empathy: handles the customer politely and take time understand their needs and expectations. By so doing, they enhance customers’ loyalty which makes them repeat clients. Karwa Taxis Core Values Karwa Taxis is a customer oriented company. As scholars argue that the fundamental pillar of every business is the art of consumer satisfaction. For that reason, businesses which design with consumer needs, preferences and behaviors in mind, ensures their services` safety and sustainability. Indeed, Karwa Taxis have highly employed this theory. The company`s general values are turned into to specific: goals, objectives and standards. The company`s main core value is the customers as it most important asset. Thus, they have worked towards customers’ wants and preferences. This is done with the knowledge that the service clients get dictates future condition of the company. Transparently, integration and punctuality, so they promote those value for the people first. Because the behavior will be according to that believe. To facilitate the same clients can make travel arrangements and other services in 3 ways including, a call centre, online and local travel agents (Surovitshikh, 2007). Additionally, to narrow down the vision, Karwa Taxis looks at satisfying customers, growth and development of financial goals and growing to and extend regionally. For that reason, Karwa Taxis can expect to reap the competitive advantage. Above and beyond, transport industry is an evolving industry. And as the world-economy is changing and more and more individuals can travel, it necessitates future travel professionals to be more skilled to provide up to date services for the growing clientele. Companies that fail to answer the changing needs are likely not going to survive. To be relevant in future, current trends must be well analyzed to be able to understand future behavior of consumers and work towards that. At Karwa, this has been well integrated hence it has remained on top. Is service performed right at the first time? If yes explain how. If No, explain the problem and what were the solutions used Just like in many businesses the service offered may not be exactly right from the word go. Many problems may arise causing a not-pleasant service. Despite Karwa Taxis engaging in train their employees to drive in a certain ways and follow particular rules, the employees may deviate from the same at times. For instance, some drivers may follow a longer route especially if the client is not familiar with the place so as to increase their sales. Additionally, they may start driving fast creating a bad image of the company. Handling Complains at Karwa Taxis At Karwa Taxis, clients complain and feedbacks are of great essence. This is because they are used to measure the view of the company service quality to outside world. Therefore, complains and feedback systems at the company are readily available. The complains can be made through Karwa Taxis website or by just calling the customer care desk at the company`s call centre. On receiving complain and the information they act right away. The right information required includes driver`s number, vehicle number plate, and the specific time as well as the routing. Based on this information they are able to trace the culprit and action taken against them. Culprits are punished through financial penalizing through deduction of salaries or even loosing the entire pay for period of mistake. At the point of extreme misconduct the culprit can lose their job with the company and the victim can be compensated if need be. The amount collected from salary deductions are put in one account until they get 1 million or 1.5 million and later on activities that benefits the staffs in general. These activities include New Year parties and some event that promote cultural bonds between employees, as well as to create social bonds among staffs. On the other hand, if the information obtained is also taken, categorized and given to the training and operations department as a feedback in a bid to improve the company`s life cycle. For instance, complain about employees bad manners is given to operations department while complain on reckless driving is sent to training department. Unreasonable Complains With it high feedback monitoring system, the company receives all manner of complains from genuine to fake and from serious customers and those that are in bad moods generally. To handle complains that are not genuine is tricky and sensitive as how it is handled paints the whole picture of the company. For instance, there are those clients who demands to see the driver`s driving license and if not provided they complain the company hires unqualified people. However, the company`s policy allows the driver to hold their original driving licenses for security purposes. Additionally, Karwa Taxis has a specific place that holds lost items for its customers. However, to trace any lost item customers are required to give full details of the same. With full information is the only way that employees can action on customers’ requests. However, many customers will not cooperate and just make demands. In view of the above, Karwa Taxis has always tried to solve such problems in a very professional way. Several techniques are employed to ensure effective handling of these unreasonable complains through; refreshing training for it staffs to enlighten them more on handling clients’ demands, and through motivation, whereby employees who follow the rules and handle the problems wisely are rewarded accordingly. Training Employees at Karwa The company provides ability based training to it employees to ensure competency in the transport industry within the region. The company uses the latest international training standards so as to enhance transport industry in Qatar. This is well reflected in the schools` values which includes; synergy, excellence and integrity. The training center consists of three parts; commercial transport training, development and administration (Mosawalat, 2006). The Karwa Driving School, also known as Karwa Transportation Training & Development Centre (KT-TDC), is run by a panel of qualified experts. These experts are multilingual driving instructors who are fully equipped with the expertise of fully understand customer preference and expectations. Karwa Driving School is school that is continually expanding, and that offers it client,e with a high range of quality driving school facilities. It is also well-situated and all-inclusive in driving courses. Additionally, the school is continuous in development of quality services that is experienced through the world class learners` theory classes. The session therefore provides Karwa driving school graduates with the safe driving verification. The school has one of the most competitive and affordable training fees in the country. This Training Centre and its teaching materials are accredited by the “City & Guilds” and “Smith Defensive Driving System”. It has also been the first driving school to receive the ISO 9001:2008 Certification in Qatar. They offer educational chain ranging from training the drivers by giving the etecate classes and taxi language course classes; They offer special type of training which involves language skills (Taxi Language), and defensive training specializing on means of how to avoid accident as the probability of making accident augment as the driving time increase. Etiquette training: this consists of lessons to teach the driver on being polite, personal grooming as well as how to handle clients and their baggage. Training on taxi language; this involves training on language skills. The centre provides English language courses for drivers to make sure they can handle international clients as well. This so because majority of international visitors can speak English language. This ensures the drivers get to know the English names for directions and areas. The Biggest Challenge The biggest challenge of Karwa Taxis ever was during the Asian Games in Doha Qatar in year 2006. For the country to host the games meant increase in demand for transport especially taxis for foreigners who may not be very comfortable with shared public means. In less than six months when the games were to kick off, the company was demanded to increase it drivers and number of taxis with about 4,000 drivers in addition to the 1000 buses. Bearing in mind the visiting foreigners, maintain a good image from the company meant the image for the entire country. As such, regardless of limited time and the increased number of passengers, the quality of the service had to be maintained. All in all, Karwa Company successfully handled the same that lead to customers’ satisfaction - both local and international. Own Brand In addition to its own driving school; Karwa Transportation Training & Development Centre, the company runs it own fuelling station. This means that the taxis get fueled at specific points that enhance convenience. Additionally, the company has its own workshops and automated high capacity car/bus wash station. Thus, the vehicles are washed and handled by qualified personnel. Also the driver does not have to go pay for the taxis cleaning at other places. Furthermore, Karwa Taxis Company builds its own vehicles. The company use the available spare parts which they assemble together to make their vehicles. This means the company do not buy ready made vehicles, rather they make their own brand- KARWA by paying for the best spare pieces which are then assembled by the company`s car experts in order to maintain high quality. This is done right in the company`s high-tech garage. This is how the company has managed to make their own vehicle brand exclusive for its own cars and buses. According to Mr. Jassim Al sulaiti, the Karwa garage and spare parts will in the future available for public to use as part of the company`s advancement strategy. Finally, Karwa has 10% extra taxis and buses for replacement when need be. Maintenance service for Karwa vehicles is always done after every 300 to 500 km covered by the vehicle (Mosawalat, 2006). ISO Certification The general Mowasalat Company ISO is all about what you say is what you do. Consequently, consistency involves being aware of what the company does. As such, it should be done in a spontaneous way to maintain the service quality in provision of the service. For quality management systems, Karwa Taxis Company uses ISO 9000:2008 fundamentals and vocabulary. This was easily acquired and the company did not face major troubles to meet the standard for ISO certification. The company has acquired several advantages by use of ISO certificate; Has formed more competent and valuable operations Has lead to increase in customer satisfaction as well as rising customer retention level Use of ISO has enhanced motivation for employees, self-esteem and responsiveness Has aided in reduction of waste and improve productivity In this case, Karwa is greatly making progress in regard to service quality through customers` satisfactions. This clearly indicates the company`s commitment towards quality of service offered, and the need to be of highest degree. That in addition to the company`s leadership, valuable performance strategies in operations, and observance and devotion to maintain international transport standard have gained the company respect and credit. Karwa Taxis and Media Karwa Taxis are ever in the news. Their operations, achievements and other details are largely seen in the mass media and social networks. Media is extremely powerful and important in the sense that an adequately functioning media ease linkage in sophisticated social structures within a nation. According to scholars, there has been more or less powerful effect of media on the public. Influence as a form of mind control is the power of media to influence people. The influential power of media is particularly effective if its participation is consistent with interest of attracting the public attention (Kavanaugh et al, 2011). As such, Karwa Taxis involvement in media gives the company the competitive advantage. On social media Karwa Taxis are on facebook with an immense number of followers. The number of social media users has risen worldwide due to efficient technology development that promotes communication. The site has enabled people share content, insights, opinions, perspectives and experiences. Through the site people have been able learn more about the Karwa company. The daily development of the company as well as question and answers are provided at the site. The main advantage of these social networks is that messages are conveyed and instant feedbacks are received. In regard to mass media, Karwa owns two major magazine publications. The first one is the “Darb and Salama” symbolizing two children characters. Karwa uses these two characters in teaching children about safety as the company visits schools. Secondly the Mawasalat Company in general owns the “Masarat”. This magazine is published quarterly and reaches every corner of the country. The magazines aim at educating, informing and entertaining. Immense information about the country as a whole is readily available in the magazines. People who are unfamiliar with the country`s specific places like shopping malls and entertainment spots can get hardy information from the same. The major other features included in the magazines are, general activities, business, safety, technology, traditional, entertainments, pictures and “rehlat wnasa” for the young generation. Moreover, the magazines are very reliable source for Karwa Taxis information (Mosawalat, 2006). References Kavanaugh, A., Yang, S., Sheetz, S. Li, L, T., and Fox, E. A. (2011). Between a Rock and a Cell Phone: Social Media Use during Mass Protests in Iran, Tunisia and Egypt . Virginia Tech: ACM Trans LonelyPlanet. (2011). Taxis in Doha. Retrieved 11 04, 2012, from www.lonelyplanet.com: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2002735 Mosawalat. (2006). Training. Retrieved 12 04, 2012, from eng.mowasalat.com: http://eng.mowasalat.com/site/topics/static.asp?cu_no=1&lng=0&template_id=280&temp_type=42&parent_id=271 Surovitshikh, S. (2007). Positioning of Selected Middle Eastern Airlines in The South African Business and Leisure Travel Enviroment. Pretoria: University of Pretoria . 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