Customer Experience - Assignment Example

Experience Task 1b expectation is the values and beliefs perceived by a purchaser while buying a product. The expectation of the customer is considered as a benchmark for the performance of a product or a service. The fulfilling of the customer expectation leads to customer satisfaction which initiates repeat purchase and customer loyalty (Goodman, 2014). Factors that influence customer expectations are firstly the personal needs of a customer which can be physical, social, psychological, functional needs and secondly the lasting service intensifiers which means the individual is subjected to high awareness to the service or a product which leads to high expectation. The second factor is again divided into derived service expectation which means expectation influenced by family, friend, managers, supervisors or peers and personal service philosophy which is customer’s generic thoughts or perception towards a service or product. Other factors that influence adequate and desired service expectations are explicit service promises made by the organizations personally through salesperson or impersonally through advertisements, implicit service promises which are presumed through the price level or the intensity of the after sales service of the product which increases the expectation. Then the word of mouth and past experiences also affects the customer expectation. The customer expectation depends of the segments of customers and their need. Therefore the role of marketing is to strategize the marketing plan, segment the market, target and position a product or a service in a way that would increase the value proposition of it leading to higher customer expectation and satisfying its customers. In the company Ooredoo Qatar, the customer segments I have chosen are the White collar and Blue collar. White collar customers are managers and professionals whereas blue collars are mostly skilled and unskilled labors. The white collars are generally the educated, mid level and high level management employees hailing from Qatar and the blue collars are the low-cost workers outsourced from developing countries like China or India to work in Qatar. Therefore both have different service expectation, as the white collars would depend on speed, greater accessibility and reliability on the other hand blue collars would expect service empathy, value for money and higher responsiveness. Task 1c The service quality is the linking bond between expectation and performance. An organization or its product of high quality deals with greater customer expectation, hence bridging the gap between desired and adequate service leading to higher customer satisfaction. The five dimensions of service quality are Assurance, Empathy, Reliability, Responsiveness and Service Tangibles (Goodman, 2014). On compliance to these dimensions of service it is likely for a company to gain greater customer loyalty. These service qualities are important to determine the level of customer preferences and expectation on the features or services the company Ooredoo Qatar provide to its customers. Customer preferences and awareness would also deal with their expectations towards its current service provider. Studies reveal customer experience when included with service performance leads to customer satisfaction (Goodman, 2014). Customer satisfaction is different from customer loyalty as satisfaction deals with the willingness to be loyal a service but does not guarantee customer retention as user may switch to a better service provider whereas loyalty is the preference to stay life-long as a customer to a service provider. Therefore the service quality expected by the white collars in case of Ooredoo Qatar is greater coverage and accessibility which deals with the responsiveness and reliability of the service provider whereas a blue collar would expect low price tariff which is a part of service tangibles. Hence on fulfillment of these qualities the customer expectation would be met leading to greater customer satisfaction. If the consistency of the service is maintained by Ooredoo Qatar then the satisfied customer would eventually turn out to be loyal customers for the company. Task 1d Consumer behavior is the study of the consumer’s actions on selecting, buying, using, assessing and disposing a selected product or service that would fulfill their need and increase their satisfaction. Consumer behavior is dependent on many aspects such as the economic factors, psychological factors as well as social factors. Customer loyalty and expectation differs on the basis of the consumer behavior of a particular segment. If we consider Ooredoo Qatar, the two selected customer segments are the white collars and the blue collars. Therefore on satisfying their economic, psychological and social needs the company may gain greater extent of customer loyalty. The economic factors depend on the income level, hence white collars having higher level of income would be affected positively on introduction of new tariff plans, data plans giving higher network accessibility such as 3G and 4G even though the rates of these tariff may be high. On the psychological behavioral factor both the segments would be affected equally as it deals with customer experience so fulfilling their need may lead to customer retention and the sociological factors are behaviorally influenced by the group of which the customer where both the segments might be negatively or positively influenced towards the service provider (Goodman, 2014). It can be considered that the sociological factor would affect the blue collar customer segment more as they belong to communities where the influences on specific nationalities are high whereas an economic dimension would take into account the limited spending power of that target group and the desire of many to maximize their remittances to families in their home countries. In the chapter on Approaches to Customer Analysis, Colin Gilligan & Richard Wilson in the book Strategic Marketing Management suggested that there is a shift in the traditional consumers who were considered deferential and would trust mass marketing to the new customers who think freely, unbiased, vulnerable to shift loyalty, independent decision maker, individualistic and believes in self interest. It is important for companies to rebuild bond with its different customer segments and take advantage of the power and speed of information flow in this technological era to communicate with its customers. The success of companies such as Apple, Disney and Starbucks in viral marketing is cited. Taking this approach into consideration and its impact on customer expectation, Ooredoo must make an effort to understand the expectation of its segments in order to enhance the customer experience and strengthen customer loyalty. As recent Ooredoo research has indicated, a major consideration for this target group is the ability to connect with families in the home countries at a reasonable cost. Later in this report a suggestion will be put forward as to how the marketing mix and specifically the product/service on offer can be developed to enhance the customer experience of this segment. Task 2a Customer experience is the cumulative impact of the interaction of a customer with the organization within the period of their relationship with each other. The customer experience journey passes through different touch points which are attraction, consideration, innovation, cultivation, encouragement and purchase, use of a service and feedback. The customer experience is governed by certain basic principles as it has an objective in mind before purchasing a product or availing a service which should be delivered quickly and efficiently. The four basic elements which define customer experience are Exploration, Formulation, Validation and Action. These elements are based on the framework of reliability, convenience, responsiveness and relevance. Exploration is the first stage of customer experience where the purchaser is in search of resources, information and tools that would strengthen their objective of availing a product or service (Government Communication Service, 2014). Formulation is the short-listing of the possible options. The formulation of the outcomes generated from the desired needs of the customers. At this stage a customer’s main objective is to scrutinize the features and price of different available options and decide on a particular product to buy or service to avail depending on its economic, psychological and social expectations (Government Communication Service, 2014). Validation is the stage where the customer justifies its decision to be right or wrong. If the decision taken to buy a product or service is considered as right then the customer experience is greater. The validation phase would be positive it the specific objective of the customer matches the desired outcome availed (Government Communication Service, 2014). Action is the last phase where the customer experience leads to purchase of the product or availing of the service (Government Communication Service, 2014). Customer journey for the White Collars Customer journey for the Blue Collars In Ooredoo, the two customer segments recognized, the white and the blue collars are considered to have different customer experience in relevance to their specific needs. Therefore the company should come up with marketing and promotional strategies to communicate with its different customer segments. It must develop its service features to enhance customer experience and increase customer loyalty by delivering greater value to them. Ooredoo should live up to the promises proposed to its customers offering the best features, on time and efficiently, ensuring that the features offered are personalized to the need and are meaningful. It should empathize with their customers by being highly responsive (Government Communication Service, 2014). Task 2b Customer relationship marketing (CRM) focuses on the long term relationship of the customer with the organization by enhancing customer loyalty rather than the short term goals of acquisition of customer and meeting sales target. The main purpose of CRM is to create strong mental and tangible bond with a brand so as the customer associates with the brand and promotes it on behalf of the company initiating lead generation. Customer experience management (CEM) is a set of processes implemented by the company to recognize, consider and evaluate customer-organization interaction throughout the period of customer relationship with the company (Kotler and Armstrong, 2013). CEM and CRM are both similar in its approach. In both the approaches there is an interaction of the company with the customers leading to a relationship building which occurs due to enhancement of customer experience that alters their behaviors towards the product or service in a way that affect their individual profitability. CRM is the after effect of the CEM. CEM anticipates and evaluates customer experience which leads to customer loyalty and long term customer relationship which fulfils the objective of CRM (Kotler and Armstrong, 2013). Relationship marketing is based on the beliefs of CEM which focuses on betterment of customer communication to promote brand loyalty. These interactions can be initiated by communication through phone by service personnel as well as through social media. Social media plays a major role in promoting customer interaction and loyalty. It tracks the activities of its customers providing them tailored information based on their specific need hence building customer loyalty resulting in higher customer retention. CRM software helps a company to track, record, monitor and respond to customer specific details through social media which delivers and maintains better brand image. Task 2c Value proposition is defined by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2013), as “the set of benefits or values [that a brand] promises to deliver to consumers to satisfy their needs”. Therefore value proposition is the set of promises that the company delivers to its customers to be acknowledged thereby enhancing customer experience and loyalty. A new product or service to be estimated in terms of customer experience for Ooredoo would be the 4G dongle. The segments to be targeted are the white collars who are the professional. The white collar segments are more highly educated, attending business meetings all around the world, has to make instant presentations, respond to emails, avid travelers exploring new destination and have a high income level. Customer need of the white collar segments are portable 4G dongles with greater connectivity, fast access to internet, greater speed, higher usage, higher bandwidth, value for money data allowances which would help them during travel or important meetings. Therefore the product 4G dongle can be positioned by the company as portable, enable router service, high speed, data connectivity around the world, wifi access, high data allowance plans, home delivery and service on availing it, 24 hrs helpline service. Promotional strategies like sales offers can be implemented through product bundling with 1 month free data usage or free simcard. This would attract more customers. Free installation and service would enhance customer loyalty by providing greater customer interaction leading to high customer experience and satisfaction. Vodafone has still not introduced 4G dongles as it does not have the access to 4G bandwidth hence it would be a huge advantage for Ooredoo to launch the 4G dongle which would enable them to gain larger market share and customer base. More over the 3G networks of Vodafone are slow and it has not come up with a product like dongle which also provides wifi access hence it will give a competitive edge to Ooredoo to enhance its customer experience and loyalty. A new product or service to be estimated in terms of customer experience for Ooredoo would be the low cost international calling card. The segments to be targeted are the blue collars that are the labors. The blue collar segments are less educated, working in factories, staying away from families, non travelers and low income group therefore does not have the privilege to luxury like contacting their family members internationally on a regular basis. Customer need of the blue collar segments are international call facilities at a cheaper rate with greater connectivity, low call drop, greater network, higher usage, higher coverage, value for money tariffs which would help them keep contact with their family and friends in their native country whenever they want to. Therefore the international calling card can be positioned by the company as low cost, value for money, high connectivity, larger network coverage around the world, no network disturbances, free night calls, 24 hrs helpline services. Promotional strategies like sales offers can be implemented through product bundling with 1 month free night minutes or free simcard on availing the plan. This would attract more customers. Free simcard, helpline service and feedback facilities would enhance customer loyalty by providing greater customer interaction leading to high customer experience and satisfaction. Vodafone has still not introduced this value pack as it does not have policies to such lower rate tariffs hence it would be a huge advantage for Ooredoo to launch the international calling card which would enable them to gain larger market share and customer base. More over the tariff plans of Vodafone are of higher cost, slow connectivity, lesser network coverage in Qatar therefore network disturbance is present leading to call drop and it has not come up with the free night minutes facilities hence it will give a competitive edge to Ooredoo to enhance its customer experience and loyalty (Rose, et.al., 2012). Customer experience has now become an integral part of the marketing mix. Presently customers are not treated as numbers for increasing sales but they are considered as value to the company as greater customer interaction leads to higher satisfaction and they generate future leads for the company and takes part in the brand image building. Therefore the 4 Ps of marketing which are the product, price, place promotion are now personalized and customized with the varied needs of the customer segments to enhance customer experience through touch points (Insidecxm, 2015). Hence customer experience can now be considered as the 5th P of marketing and has to be managed as specifically and with greater importance as the other marketing mixes are considered (Forbes, 2013). Task 2d Price is the monetary worth at which a product or a service can be bought, availed or sold. Perceived value pricing is the worth of the product or service that the consumers are willing to pay rather the incurred production cost or delivery cost. Pricing of a product through this approach might be arbitrary but it helps in effective marketing of the goods or service as the worth is set based not only on the cost but also the perceived value by the potential customer. The main objective of the pricing strategy is profit maximization, maximum revenue return, increased sales, operational cost recovery, surviving among completion and price stabilization. The different pricing methods are cost plus pricing which means setting a price based on the production cost plus an amount of profit margin, target based pricing which is based on the amount of investment return expected from the sale of a particular product and the value based pricing set on customer experience and perceived value of the product. Therefore Ooredoo must follow the value based pricing strategy which would also include the cost based pricing and the cost based pricing strategy. As the company is the only company selling a Wi-Fi 4G dongle in Qatar and has a monopoly in the market therefore its value proposition would be high in the white collar segment. This segment with tailored needs can avail the product from Ooredoo as their main requirement would be to get an access to the 4G bandwidth wherever they travel and on satisfying their need would enhance their experience which would lead to greater customer loyalty. A cost based call tariffs for international calls on the other hand for the blue collar segment would lead to greater success as this segment is more price sensitive therefore offering bundled product with sales promotions, free gifts and plans like free calling minutes, double simcard offer would increase customer satisfaction. Marginal cost pricing with higher usage allowances at low cost would enhance sales and pre and post sales service as well as help line and feedback facilities would help them increase their customer experience towards the product, increasing their satisfaction and leading to more customer awareness and attraction. Promotional strategies on emotional needs like communicating with their families during festivities at free call rates bundled along with the calling card and internet facility on specific festivals to interact with family and friends through Skype or other online conference software would enhance customer experience resulting is gaining customer loyalty. Task 3a Customer acquisition and customer retention are equally important in case of telecom sector. Attracting a customer and increasing sales leading to repeat sales by gaining customer loyalty as well as retaining a customer is very tough in the present scenario. In order to increase customer loyalty and retention certain measurement techniques should be put into practice by Ooredoo to enhance customer experience. Communication is important to increase customer experience through grievance and complaint resolutions, post sales feedbacks, free services. Apart from offering various services to the customer, it is equally important to measure their satisfaction level. It is a true fact that measuring or quantifying customer experience is truly a necessity to gauge whether the activities put forward by a firm are worth or not. The sole aim is to ensure company’s efforts are leading to greater customer experience. One of the most common forms of measurement the company can use is the survey method. The company can launch a post sales survey on a periodic basis for the purpose of knowing the thoughts of the customers regarding their experience. In addition, the company can also seek suggestions for improvement. The survey method can also used for complaint resolution that in turn will add to better experience (Soudagar, Iyer and Hildebrand, 2012). The survey method can be done through a simple questionnaire survey. Ooredoo should also create certain benchmarks and indicators to get better insights from the data analysis. The white colored employees can be the sample for this technique as they will be easily reachable for the company. In addition to survey method, the company can also monitor its internal CRM database to measure experience. In this regards, the company must take into consideration the internal data such as the number of complaints made, the duration of customers staying with the company’s services and the rate of separation. The blue colored employees can be the sample for this technique as they are not so easily reachable through e-mail/chat by the company and hence need to depend on the existing data. However, there is a possibility that they can be reached via voice calling and thus more relevant data can be obtained. These three factors can play a major role in measuring the customer satisfaction rate. The data to be generated from these indicators will, in fact be really helpful in gauging the customer retention and loyalty and can well act as a decider for company’s future strategy. Hence, it is obvious for the company that in addition to carefully analyzing the results from the measuring techniques being used the company should also deliver the value proposed relating to the customer need and focusing on the integrity of the company which would lead to loyalty and trust. Task 3b Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is the type of performance measurement which estimates the success of an organization or a specific activity it performs. This approach is needed to assess customer experience, satisfaction and the amount of customer loyalty gained which would help in retaining customers. Two KPI measures for the customer segments of Ooredoo are the Net Promoter Score and the Post Sale Survey (Soudagar, Iyer and Hildebrand, 2012). The Net promoter score method can be done through telephonic survey. Ooredoo may consider a sample group and call up the customers to rate the company on the basis of their satisfaction and experience level and then use those primary data to analyze the extent of customer experience fulfilled by them. Then the customers can be segregated into three groups, the Promoters, Passives and Detractors. The NPS can be calculated by eliminating the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoter and estimate the loyal customer base with greater customer experience value and hence the KPI of the company can be evaluated (Marr, 2012). The second method is post sales survey where customers would be asked to give feedbacks through online mailers or feedback forms to measure the KPI. The focus group feedbacks would be analyzed with the help of analytical approaches like cluster analysis and focus group analysis and therefore the company would be able to rate its performance on the basis of its past sales and can evaluate that whether the introduction of the new product or service features has increased or decreased customer experience level (Marr, 2012). Task 3c The need to measure and monitor customer experience KPIs by Ooredoo is because it leads to customer satisfaction, retention and enhance customer loyalty as well as it would give an insight to the company to adjust its product and service offerings. Customer satisfaction would lead to further lead generation through them acting as promoters of the company gaining more customers. They help in brand image building and retaining long term relationship with the company hence lesser vulnerability to shift to competitor companies (Marr, 2012). The higher customer experience would lead to greater customer loyalty thereby increasing their retention levels. This would help the company to measure its own performance and with the help of the customer feedbacks they can upgrade their product or service offerings tailored to the personalized needs of the customers (Marr, 2012). Ooredoo would be able to analyze its customer experience by evaluating and comparing its past sales with its present profit generation and would be able to forecast its future sales trends and would develop marketing strategies based on the performance indicators. It would also be able to structure its after sales services and feedback generations which would help them gain future customer satisfaction and experience. Task 3d The KPIs involved in telecommunication sectors are call centre, customer satisfaction, system and networks, compliance, quality, coverage. In order to enhance customer experience, Ooredoo can initiate strategies of recruiting more staffs, training them to meet up with the customer needs, better control on the quality of product or service provided, better system and process and an enhanced follow up service. Recruiting and training staffs may help the company gain more customers by providing better customer assistance which would increase customer satisfaction. Generally telecommunication service providers face a lot of customer dissatisfaction due to the unavailability of service help-lines during need. Recruiting more staff would assign lesser customer under a particular service person leading to greater customer experience. The KPI indicates past sales experience and future forecast of quality and feature enhancement. Therefore delivering better service, network coverage, system facilities and product to its loyal customers would enhance perceived value proposition of the product or service. The complaint monitoring and post sales feedback service as well as quality compliance would create a sense of belonging to the customers and they will feel proud to associate themselves with Ooredoo (Marr, 2012). The reliability and the responsiveness of the service provider would instill a feeling among its customers that they add value to the company and they would help in the image enhancement of Ooredoo. The long-term relationship would strengthen among the company and its customers leading to customer retention and building loyalty. The KPI measure would also allow the company to estimate its process and system performance and lead to implementation of strategies helping the company in the betterment of its service facilities (Goodman, 2014). Conclusion The study focused on the factors that led to the overall customer experience of Ooredoo Qatar. The assignment compared the factors leading to increase in customer expectation, service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as customer experience of the white and blue collared customers of the company. It analyzed the effect of Customer Relationship Marketing and Customer Experience Management on the customer base, role of pricing, price perception and measures to be taken to retain loyal customers. The report finally evaluated the measures on KPIs in Ooredoo Qatar and suggested effective ways to improve based on the KPIs to enhance customer experience. Task 1a Type of organization-Ooredoo can consider as multinational which divided into Ooredoo Qatar which operates locally and Ooredoo Group operates internationally. Ooredoo Qatar is the premier telecommunications company. Since its start into the corporate world in 1949, the company has emerged onto becoming one of the major telecommunication service providers in the Middle East and worldwide. It is mainly a profit seeking entity. The company has been established as a separate legal entity than its shareholders (Ooredoo, 2015). Size of organization- Ooredoo operates in more than 13 nations of the world. The company's profit in the year 2013 was approximately 33,851,340 (QAR'000) (Ooredoo, 2015). The international and the domestic share of the company have been seen to vary immensely due to constant expansion. The company plays an important role in developing the telecommunications industry of the Middle Eastern nations such as Qatar, Kuwait and Oman (Ooredoo, 2015). Range of products and services provided- Ooredoo provides services such as mobile network, wireless and wire line services, internet services and Triple play service which called "Mozaic TV” including TV, landline and broadband. Customer base- Its customer base consists of both B2B and B2C consumers comprising Qatari segments and SIO targets. Competitors- The prime competitors of Ooredoo in Qatar is Vodafone Cross-functional relationships within the organization- The managers at Ooredoo's have made the company's operations strategically aligned with its global vision, which involves developing the knowledge base of the nation and enhancing its human resources capabilities. The company has successfully developed a global team which seamlessly operates in its existing locations. The global team comprises member from different departments who work together to deliver the best for organizational development. The policies at the firm have been developed in such a manner that they foster strong relationship among employees and other stakeholders by building long term relationships through compensation and reward strategies and giving valued return for investments to its stakeholders by lowering risk (Ooredoo, 2015). Marketing in Ooredoo is the primary owner of revenue, they are defining and building the product and services. Marketing deal with technology to build the product, train the sales (front line) on how to sell product and call centre train then on what possible issues customer may ask about and how to solve it. Hence marketing work with finance to make sure when we price the product it has to achieve certain of revenue and profit margin. Other important stakeholders- Ooredoo has always remained dedicated towards enhancing the abilities of their employees through training and development initiatives, as the company believes that their man power plays an important role in their overall success. Communicating timely information to internal stakeholders and encouraging their participation in crucial organizational processes is deemed essential for Ooredoo. The internal stakeholders of the company include employees, managers, directors and administrators who are deeply associated with the success and continuity of the organization (Ooredoo, 2015) Other relevant information- The vision of the company has remained to provide services which steer overall social advancement. Qatar in the recent times has been increasingly participating in global economic operations. This necessitated the development of the communications systems of the nation radically. This was one of the prime impetuses for growth for Ooredoo. Ooredoo strives to continuously expand their existing services in the market through research and development (Ooredoo, 2015). Reference list Forbes., 2013. Customer Experience Is Now The 5th Marketing 'P' ... And Other Top CMO Insights. [online] Available at: [Accessed 1st June 2015]. Goodman, J. A., 2014. Customer Experience. USA: Amacom Government Communication Service., 2014. Customer journey mapping. [online] Available at: < https://gcn.civilservice.gov.uk/guidance/customer-journey-mapping/> [Accessed 1st June 2015]. Insidecxm., 2015. Segment, Personalize, Map Your Customer Journeys, and Be Consistent. [online] Available at: < http://www.insidecxm.com/segment-personalize-map-customer-journeys-consistent/> [Accessed 1st June 2015]. Marr, B., 2012. Key Performance Indicators (KPI): The 75 measures every manager needs to know. UK: Pearson. Link:https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WleQ-F6WC3sC&oi=fnd&pg=PT11&dq=Key+Performance+Indicators+(KPI):+The+75+measures+every+manager+needs+to+know.&ots=3uHvf6_N38&sig=bO89N6G9pKij_JkpOxIHhsvvmOE#v=onepage&q=Key%20Performance%20Indicators%20(KPI)%3A%20The%2075%20measures%20every%20manager%20needs%20to%20know.&f=false Ooredoo., 2015. About Ooredoo. [online] Available at: < http://www.ooredoo.qa/en/about-ooredoo> [Accessed 1st June 2015]. Soudagar, R., Iyer, V. and Hildebrand, V.G., 2012. The Customer Experience Edge. New York: McGraw-Hill. Bibliography Gures, N., Arslan, S. and Tun, S. Y., 2014. Customer Expectation, Satisfaction and Loyalty Relationship in Turkish Airline Industry. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 6(1), p. 66. Link: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijms/article/download/31920/19330. Hsieh, Y. H., Chen, I. H. and Yuan, S. T., 2014. FCM-based customer expectation-driven service dispatch system. Soft Computing, 18(2), pp. 359-378. 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