Customer Service and Building Competitive Advantage - Essay Example

Service ID] [Lecturer] To start with, we need to delve into what marketing concept actually is. The sales concept is basically making sure a product is produced and hence sold through proper distribution channels while on the other hand a marketing concept entails the pre-production activities related with a product, selling and marketing it extensively when its on the shelves of the retail outlet and looking after the post purchase dissonance, if any there is found. Similarly, customer service would mean their retention and eventual further selling of the product. Hard sell of the product can come under the marketing concept but then again soft sell is a strategy that tries to smoothly get into the purchase cycles of its intended customers and hence make a sale. The evaluation of the marketing concept is made possible due to the hard line policies drafted by the people who were in charge of carrying out the sales concept which was simply to produce a product and thus sell it, without gaining proper insight as to whether or not this product met the intended requirements of the customer or it had some defect which needed to be repaired at the earliest. Next we shift to the methodology and rationale behind building competitive advantage. This is something that is build over time and requires synchronization between the tactics, activities and the overall strategy of the company which is producing the product(s). (Eder, 1990) Competitive advantage is developed when there is a differential undertaking on the part of the customer. This could be in the form of lower prices than the competitors, better quality, efficient sales services and support and a number of other features. Thus customer service and indeed satisfaction is something which cannot be measured by a standard set of parameters. It has to be experienced always with different set of offerings that are made available. These offerings could be in the form of better quality products, higher and more efficient services or a bundle of both high class product and state of the art service, in which case it would not be categorized under either of them rather as a mixture of both. The pertinent market dynamics suggest that the competitive advantage can only be achieved when the customer is given what he wants. The customer expects value for money and thus the best possible product at the most effective rate, thus it would be correct to understand his point of view and then go about changing the product offerings, prices and the value thus provided. (Fulton, 1996) Marketing concept has taken its basis from the selling concept which is simply producing a product and then selling it for a nominal return. However marketing looks at defying the odds and aims at conquering the mind, heart and soul of the customers. The terms like share of heart and share of mind come into the equation and not to forget the share of trial which looks at the customer trying a product for the first time in order to seek purchase back and forth. Share of heart means that when a customer is asked about naming a certain brand out of the selected list of brands in the related category, the first one or two brand names that he comes up with are pretty close to his heart. Similar meaning lies with respect to the mind when we speak of the share of mind. (Toothman, 2004) Share of trial is the moment when he actually uses that product and thus it comes under his play and eventual judgment whether or not the product lived up to his expectations. Marketing aims to show the customers what they need and then telling them what is best for them. It is not only there to solve their problem. Rather its usage is much more varied. It pinpoints the exact places where the product might be justifiably used, executed or tried for. Marketing is thus a battle which is going on in the minds of the consumer and the seller rather than something else. It needs to be understood in the proper scheme of things. (Mehta, 1999) Furthermore, a marketer cannot think of high sales as being directly proportional with his customers getting satisfied out of it rather he needs to find out what are the actual areas of weakness and the potential ones that need to be worked upon in the coming times, be it in the short term or in the long run. (Bounds, 1991) The rationale for consistent customer service and satisfaction stems from the fact that the customer makes a return purchase for the same product. This comes under the heading of his satisfaction but when he comes back and asks for the same product and when he is told that it is out of stock for some reason and he waits for it to come back, then this is a state of customer being in awe of the product or in other words he is delighted with its role that it has in his life. He just cannot seem to live without its company. If this happens on the part of the company which is producing the product, it is remarked as the ideal situation for their business. (Bassett, 1992) This also means that the company makes to strive even harder as they have already progressed in the right direction, one that will eventually make them the leaders in their trade. It is a fact that organizations in the present times are doing their utmost in order to know more and more about their valued customers and thus devising ways to up their respective customer service tenets. For this, they have devised certain strategies which are in line with the values that their business has set for itself. These values are thus deeply intrinsic within the mission and vision statements of the company. In order to gain further knowledge about the customers, research is being given proper emphasis which would eventually discern the exact basis for the customers to come and make that vital purchase. Even when the same has been done, the need is to find out how the same customers can be retained and in what manner they will come back for the repeat purchase of the product. (House, 2004) Organizations do their best to conduct research which will harness their business outcomes as well as help them achieve positive results in the light of unbroken grounds, at least in the marketing and business circles. They want to reach out to the customers in whatever capacity they can and for that they aim to find out the best and most efficient means possible. In order to gain this deeper understanding, they are seeking in depth research from third party research affiliates like A C Nielsen, Dunn & Bradstreet and others. These research companies find the exact basis for the company to reach out to the potential customers as well as hit upon the ones who are actually buying the competitor products and are simply unaware of their product or do not want to use theirs due to certain malice, prejudice, immoral or disliked advertising campaigns and a host of other reasons as well. To quote as an example here, McDonald’s believes in satisfying its customers all over the globe as there is a premise to regard the customers as the most important entity for the existence of this international fast food chain. The customers for McDonald’s mean everything for them as they are the people who introduce new and fresh concepts into the restaurant industry every now and then. Workers at the restaurant are given the tasks to grill, preparing French fries, working the front register and lastly taking orders at the drive through windows present at the selected McDonald’s outlets. McDonald’s has a network of authority starting from the workers, crew chiefs, shift managers, salary managers and up till the owner of the outlet in essence. (Lowenstein, 1997) McDonald’s has enforced within the fast food chain an impartial application of rules and policies so that there is no compromise on this tenet at any cost. McDonalds has maintained highest quality standards, personalized greetings at the registers and doors as well as at the drive through windows. McDonald’s has attained the role of being a bureaucratic chain more so because it is the most efficient means of managing a diverse set of people across varied geographic locations and societal segments. This leaves one to wonder as to why the process of ‘McDonaldization’ has attained so much success when one thinks about McDonald’s. One must attach special linkage with fresh changes and mind-blowing conceptual moves when there is a visualization of McDonald’s in the local fast food markets. There is a strong basis for this judgment more so because it has always been at the center of bringing in fresh and exciting ideas and techniques within its ranks which puts its customers at benefit nonetheless. These aspects have included the changes and innovation processes coming into place as far as bringing in new deals and packages are concerned, which are kept in line with the needs of the customers and their preferences. Then there is the issue of local challenge where local competitors tailor their packages to mar the deals provided by McDonald’s and thus McDonald’s has to make a move which leaves its impression in the best manner possible as well as come out as the leader in this communication and value adding phenomenon. McDonald’s has offered the best possible opportunity to get away from the hunger pangs and remain contented with fun and satisfaction, coming along with the family in a complete manner at all times. One must realize that in a globally changing marketplace this is indeed quite important since present day society has become a fish market and people are always in a rush to get from a place to another. (Russell, 2006) For this reason, the quick and efficient setup provision of McDonalds has allowed consumers to eat a fast food meal without even leaving the domains of their car. The reason for the same is that McDonalds has made sure that there are no concerns when it comes to quick and timely food – just right for each and everyone. (John, 2003) There needs to be no tension and worry when McDonald’s is there to provide the best appetite there could be, at least in the fast food segment. Also the fact that the people know that they will get the same burger on each and every visit in the quickest period of time also is a source of happiness and contentment for them. McDonald’s has made sure that the reinforcement is done on a continuous basis through the sheer use of advertising and other public relations tools. To state as a matter of fact, with the changing competition regimes, the same is increasing with the day and the companies are bringing in additional deals that create value for money and thus cater to the mass strata of the society. Similarly, supermarkets are doing their bit at rethinking their business strategies whereby they are placing only those goods at their shelves that fulfill the needs of their direct customers. (Guest, 2002) They think twice before putting up with something that would not strike a fair deal with the intended audience. With that, they increase different kinds of offerings in the form of bundle packs, contests, prize moneys, giveaways, sweep stakes, etc which at the end of the day only help and facilitate in bolstering the business of the store in particular and of the products which are on its shelves in general. In the end, it would not be wrong here to suggest that consumer service holds the key for the company to remain in business and thus compete with its competitors. Without the customers, there would be no product offering and hence no company as a result. Thus in order to make sure that the company deliver quality and value over time, it needs to draft its policies in the light of all that has been stated in the above paragraphs with particular emphasis on breaking the clutter amongst the different competitors and coming out with the best possible message, one that clearly identifies itself with what the company can actually deliver without delving too much into the company’s goals, values and mission or vision statements, as these are the least concerned when seen from a consumer’s standpoint. Therefore, customer service is pretty inherent within a business. (Varey, 2001) If a business cannot satisfy a customer, it need not remain in business as then starts a downfall for its different activities and processes, until and unless it realizes its shortcomings and comes up with something pretty drastic which will eventually make others to become the company’s loyal customers. Bibliography BASSETT, Glenn. (1992). Operations Management for Service Industries: Competing in the Service Era. Quorum Books BOUNDS, Gregory. (1991). Competing Globally through Customer Value: The Management of Strategic Suprasystems. Quorum Books EDER, Peter F. (1990). Advertising and Mass Marketing: The Threat and the Promise. The Futurist, Vol. 24 FULTON, Richard L. (1996). Marketing to the Mind: Right Brain Strategies for Advertising and Marketing. Quorum Books GUEST, Jim. (2002) Consumers and Consumerism in America Today Consumers Union HOUSE, R. J. (2004) Culture, Leadership and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies SAGE Publications JOHN, Joby. (2003). Fundamentals of Customer-Focused Management: Competing through Service. Praeger LOWENSTEIN, Michael W. (1997). The Customer Loyalty Pyramid. Quorum Books MEHTA, Abhilasha. (1999). Using Self-Concept to Assess Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 39 RUSSELL, Steve. (2006). "Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast": Growing Customer Innovation at McDonalds. Human Resource Planning, Vol. 29 TOOTHMAN, Ellan. (2004). Mention Customer Service ... and Then Run. School Administrator, Vol. 61 VAREY, Richard J. (2001). Marketing Communication: Principles and Practice. Routledge Word Count: 2,150 Read More