Service encounter journal and analysis - Essay Example

?Service encounter journal and analysis Strategic marketing is the process of analyzing the way a company can achieve the satisfaction of its s and thus, enlarge its profits. Strategic planning is of huge significance to any organization and is fundamentally directed from the top management. It is governed by several principles that include but are not limited to understanding the requirements of customers, setting clear objectives and delivering value (Sekirin, 2011). In order to gain competitive advantage, it is imperative that a company determines the sources of its products’ demand and draw a clear competitive landscape whereby the customers want its products more than its competitors in the market. In order to achieve this, the company should divide customers into individual segments and look out for techniques to gain their consent and satisfaction. This is a very challenging task as the needs of different segments call for different marketing mixes. One of the most important principles of strategic marketing is the establishment of clear objectives of the company in terms of its position in the market. Market share is a key variable for this principle because a company keeps its prices higher and its long-term position in the market is stronger when it dominates in a specific segment of consumers. In addition to satisfying the individualistic needs of consumer segments and gaining increased share in the market, it is equally necessary for a company to add value to its product. This provides a company with a strong foundation upon which it can build its strategic marketing planning. Customers should be given tangible advantages for using the products of a particular company or brand. Management philosophy is one of the prime determinants of customer service quality. Management philosophy can be defined as, “guiding real world managers to make better decisions, meaning to take a course of action that helps an organization as a whole to better achieve its goal” (Schragenheim, 1999, p. vii). Management philosophy has been adequately explained by the theory of constraints (TOC). Rahman (1998) has made a comprehensive analysis of the usefulness of TOC. Mabin and Balderstone (2000) also conducted a meta-analysis of the TOC and found that application of TOC in the work resulted in the reduction of cycle times by 65 per cent, inventory levels by 49 per cent and lead times by 70 per cent. With this reduction in the respective times, companies successfully managed to deliver the customers their products on time. Their performance in the delivery dates upon application of the TOC was improved by 44 per cent. Application of TOC was also profitable for the companies in terms of revenue as it increased the profit by 76 per cent. I know some of the most renowned companies that are currently offering the worst customer services around. Good customer services can provide these companies with great competitive advantage particularly in these years of financial crisis when there are more companies than ever before in the market to produce the same goods or services along with equally increased expectations of the consumers (Milakovich, 2003, p. 62). Unfortunately, not many gurus have realized this simple formula to success. In this paper, I have discussed my five experiences with different companies in which, I have been given a poor customer service. Some of the companies I shall discuss are very famous and my complaint might sound inconsistent with the quality of service generally given by these companies, but I am writing what happened to me anyway! May be I am a bit too particular about what good customer services mean… I had a slight problem in the working of my laptop few months back. I took it to the Apple Genius Bar for checking. I can understand that these bars are very busy and have a lot of work to do. I was not the only one to have taken my laptop to them. They have hundreds of customers coming to them on daily basis for the same reason. So it would have been quite acceptable to me had the customer services agent given me a specific time and date after checking his log book, when I could bring my laptop to him. But his inflexibility irritated me. In the contemporary age, it is extremely essential for companies to go an extra mile to earn the favor and confidence of the customers because if one company would not do that, there are hundreds more where the customer can take a chance. “Customer service training is important because customers have many choices. If they are not happy with the way they are treated, they can take their business elsewhere” (Evenson, 2011, p. 14). This realization is exactly what I found missing in the customer service agent’s dealing. He made me feel like he did not care how important my laptop was to me or how important my time was. He would make me wait for full three weeks for a three hour job just because that was how the system was. In an attempt to follow the bizarre system, he upset me so much that I gave the service “1” on the level of satisfaction scale in the encounter form. I also am least likely to avail the repair services given by Apple Genius Bars in the future. After a lengthy discussion with the genius, I first thought about lecturing the genius, but then I thought better of it because this was one of the systemic issues of the customer service given by Apple. Even if I raised my voice and get angry at the customer services agent, that would speak neither good of me nor of the service provider. I get my car operated upon by my mechanic in less than an hour whenever I have to, and I don’t expect him to have as good a system in place as these Apple Geniuses. It was certain that the Genius Bar I went to was inflexible and uncompromising for the least, if not inefficient to me. Zemke (1998, p. 5) identifies four benefits that customers basically look forward to getting, namely form, place, time and possession. Of these four, the third benefit i.e. time of delivery is what I was looking for in this case. The customer services given by the Barnes & Noble Booksellers is very bad. I am sure I am not the only one complaining as I can read the complaining posts of hundreds of customers like me in magazines and online discussion forums. I have particularly experienced problem with the membership pressure. They are compromising upon their values and rapport with the customers in an attempt to increase their number of members. In order to successfully convince the customers to avail their services or acquire membership, companies should base their strategies on a foundation of standard and proven marketing practices and principles. Most effective marketing forums include but are not limited to social media, television and advertisements. Successful marketing strategy takes care of four Ps, namely product, price, promotion and place. The “P” of concern here is “promotion”. The customer service agent was making use of inappropriate ways to promote the membership scheme of Barnes & Noble book-service. The best way to promote the product or service, particularly for young consumers, is by conveying the message to the consumers through use of social media websites like facebook or twitter. “For baby boomers, direct mail or print advertising might be the appropriate practice” (Payton, 2011). Social media websites are particularly suitable for advertisement and promotion of products because the consumers do not have to listen to the biased speech of the product promoters like I had to. Instead, the critical analysis generated by the open commenting tendency of the social media websites users makes the service transparent, and the consumer is better able to decide whether or not to avail it. I agree that to promote their membership scheme, Barnes & Noble needs to inform their customers of the benefits of membership, but they have no right to plead the customers to gain it. One of the most fundamental and important requirements of good customer service is “emotional intelligence”. Emotional intelligence has been defined by Dan Goleman as “knowing and managing one’s emotions, empathizing with others, and handling relationships effectively” (CED Magazine, 2006). I had contacted the help line for service recovery. Actions taken by a company to rectify a failure in the service are referred to by the term “service recovery” (Gronroos, 1988). Recovery management is considered to have a significant impact on customer evaluations, because customers are usually more emotionally involved in and observant of recovery service than in routine or first-time service and are often more dissatisfied by an organization’s failure to recover than by the service failure itself. (Smith, Bolton, and Wagner, 1999, p. 356). In my encounter with the A Tech company’s technicians, the first technician got fired because of his bad behavior. I was also irritated with the wait of several minutes when the first technician told me to hold, and ultimately the call ended without anyone answering. This is a violation of the customer services principles. I appreciated the act of the manager as well as the second technician because they displayed a good sense of emotional intelligence. They knew that I was hurt because of the behavior of the first technician, and dealt me with extreme care. They made me feel important by telling me that they had fired the first technician because of his misconduct with me. My experience in the Bread & Butter grocery store was very traumatic. I can still not believe that a customer service agent can poke his nose into the way I look or can suggest me my menu for the breakfast instead of minding his own business. And the general manager was there to make my experience all too worse. I think that that general manager was actually responsible for the misconduct of the customer services agent. If he does not mind his employee passing remarks onto the customers, why should the employee take care anyway? The behavior of that general manager totally violated all principles of customer service. By upsetting me further instead of doing his bit to improve the company’s impression upon me, the general manager particularly violated the requirements of the management philosophy. I did not expect the general manager to be so indifferent towards me. I left the peanut butter bottle there and then, and left the store. I am sure I was not over-acting because nobody has a right to study and comment on my body figure, either directly or indirectly, particularly when he/she is nothing like a friend to me. Service to customers is based not just on systems, processes and procedures but also on personal effort and creativity of those who serve. Encourage, support and reward personal initiative in exhibiting creative ways to serve others both inside and outside the organization. (Wallace, 2010). This experience was the most unique and different of all the experiences I have shared so far. Accordingly, there is a different kind of offense that I had to face in this experience. I was sexually harassed!!! I was surprised. I had heard about men harassing women sexually but I had hardly heard about men sexually harassing men. Also, it can be thought of a customer to sexually harass the customer services agent, and not the other way round. We normally come across such statements in headlines and news, “A woman this weekend was sexually assaulted while at work…by a man posing as a customer” (Mullins, 2010) and such unfortunate incidents as, “A 2009 case involving a city cab driver accused of sexually assaulting a customer remains before the court. Gurmail Singh Plaha is accused of kissing the alleged victim and squeezing her breast” (Pritchard, 2011), but we hardly come across such experiences as mine. What could be worse? I held his hand in my hand and shook it off with a jerk. He immediately picked up the warning signal and went away to wash his hands. I placed the money on the table and left the shop, never to return to it again. In order to make sure that no employee ever makes an attempt to sexually harass a customer, it is imperative that the employer lay out clear definition of behaviors that are deemed unacceptable. Employers need to inculcate a strong sense of abhorrence against sexual harassment in the organizational culture, so that prevention of sexual harassment becomes one of the most fundamental norms of the organization, that every employee has to follow. There is a lot of valuable information available in videos on youtube, whereby employers can actually help the workforce learn the unacceptable behaviors that the actors in these videos actually exhibit. Once the employees are alarmed on this subject, they would never make an attempt to sexually harass anyone, be that a colleague or a customer. In my case, the barber’s shop was too small a business to have such a system in place. For such people, government should spread anti-sexual harassment culture by making the people aware of the legal consequences of their act if they are proven guilty of having harassed a customer sexually. Customer loyalty is achieved by having a relationship with your customers. The stronger the relationship, the more loyal your customer becomes. Relationships are built upon trust, communication, and interaction. Every customer interaction is an opportunity to further enhance communication and improve trust. (Hamilton, 2011). Dan Goleman (cited in CED Maganize, 2006) has proposed a plan comprising five basic steps to deal with tough customers. His steps are as follows: 1. One should control one’s own emotions. By not getting upset, an individual can stay calm and resolve the confusion. To achieve this, one may need to breathe deeply or count from 0 to 100. Different methods suit different people. One should see what works for one and do that accordingly. 2. When one feels that the anger has receded, one should proceed to deal with the tough customer. One should actually make best effort to listen to the customer’s point and determine the underlying causes of the customer’s abusive behavior. For this, one needs to come out of one’s shell and think from the perspective of the customer. 3. Most of the times, after these two steps, one is able to draw the conclusion, though one must not. It is better to wait and give the customer full chance to say whatever he has to. Any questions found through the process must be asked to the customer in a very polite manner and sympathetic tone. 4. The fourth step is when one needs to show one’s sympathies for the customer. One should say that one understands that the customer is upset… 5. Finally, one should see what can be done to resolve the issue. There are two possibilities; either the problem can be solved or it can not be solved. It is great if it can be solved, though if that is not possible, one should be sympathetic and apologetic. Most of the times, all the person at the other end is asking for is sympathy to get which, he/she displays extreme attitude. References: Construction Equipment Distribution Magazine. (2006). How to talk to a tough customer. Retrieved from http://www.cedmag.com/article-detail.cfm?id=10922036. Evenson, R. (2011). Customer Service Training 101. USA: Renee Evenson. Gronroos, C. (1988). Service Quality: The Six Criteria of Good Perceived Service Quality. Review of Business. 9: 10–13. Hamilton, G. (2011). The Top Ten Customer Service Principles. Retrieved from http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/The_Top_Ten_Customer_Service_Principles.html. Mabin, V. J., and Balderstone, S. J. (2000). The World of the Theory of Constraints: A Review of the International Literature. St. Lucie Press. Milakovich, M. E. (2003). Balancing customer service, empowerment and performance with citizenship, responsiveness and political accountability. International Public Management Review. 4(1): 61-83. Mullins, J. (2010, June 21). Woman sexually assaulted at work in Toronto. Digital Journal. Retrieved from http://digitaljournal.com/article/293704. Payton, S. (2011). Marketing Principles & Best Practices. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_6375964_marketing-principles-practices.html. Pritchard, D. (2011, July 28). Cabbie charged with sexual assault: Allegedly groped female customer. Winnipeg Sun. Retrieved from http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/07/29/cabbie-charged-with-sexual-assault. Rahman, S. (1998). Theory of Constraints: A Review of the Philosophy and its Applications. International Journal of Operations & Production Management. 18(4): 336?355. Schragenheim, I. (1999). Management Dilemmas: The Theory of Constraints Approach to Problem Identification and Solutions. St. Lucie Press. Sekirin, E. (2011). Principles of Strategic Marketing. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/list_6855544_principles-strategic-marketing.html. Smith, A. K., Bolton, R. N., and Wagner, J. (1999, August). A Model of Customer Satisfaction with Service Encounters Involving Failure and Recovery. Journal of Marketing Research. 36: 356-372. Wallace, K. (2010). 15 Principles for Complete Customer Service. Retrieved from http://www.customerservicemanager.com/15-principles-for-complete-customer-service.htm. Zemke, R. (1998). Best practices in customer service. USA: HRD Press. Read More