Improving Customer Service Operations Management - Essay Example

Improving Customer Service Operations Management In the Retail Banking Industry December 20, 2006 Table of Contents Improving Customer Service Operations Management 1 In the Retail Banking Industry 1 December 20, 2006 1 Table of Contents 2 Retail Banking Operations 3 Critical Factors in Customer Service Management 4 Assessing Clientele Service Excellence 4 Recommended Research Methodology 6 Recommendations for Improvement 7 References 9 Appendix A: Interview Questionnaire Examples 10 Appendix B: Proposed Operational Management Organisation Chart 12 Retail Banking Operations Clientele are served up through several channels consisting of: the local office system, hard cash machinery, telephone banking, and online-banking as well as liaison managers. It is directed through two business localities: Retail Banking plus Business Banking in UK. In the Retail Banking sector, there are fourteen million retail clientele, counting existing financial records, investments, mortgages and all-purpose insurance (Barclays Newsroom 2006). Neighbourhood Business endows with banking facilities to 592,000 clienteles; the Premier in UK offers banking, savings commodities and counsel to 286,000 wealthy clienteles (Barclays Newsroom 2006). The Business Banking in UK offers affiliation banking to ‘generously-proportioned’ and medium-sized sellings.183, 000 clients are provided by a set-up of affiliation and manufacturing sector expert executives (Barclays Newsroom 2006). In retail banking, every one of the products or services in the bank, a home mortgage, an auto loan, has customer information in it (Gardener 1988). But if the bank wants to treat its customer holistically to know who that customer is and all the relationships it has, it needs to extract customer information from each of those operational systems and integrate the customer information and then deliver that information back as a service to any business process, application or group of people who need to use it (Aldlaigan A and Buttle F 2005; Watkins 2000). Therefore by creating, understanding the information sources, the relationships and the business context, the retail banking facility can create a reusable high‑value service. Over time the business may expand the number and scope of information services that are available across internal and external processes (Aldlaigan A and Buttle F 2005; Watkins 2000). Critical Factors in Customer Service Management Customers are becoming more focused on the need to accumulate adequate savings for retirement, to protect these savings and to plan for the transfer of wealth to the next generation (McDonald 2002). People are also living longer, and as a result there will be increased demand for insurance products, especially products that cover long-term care for people who need constant medical attention. Customer Service is no longer the backstage assistant to sales and marketing. On the contrary: 90% of 220 UK and US companies in a recent study commissioned by the UK-based Institute of Customer Service (ICS) saw customer service as crucial to their future business success. They’re recognising that in a competitive business environment where it can cost 10 times more to acquire a customer than to keep one, it pays handsome profits to pay close attention to customer service. Moreover, ICS also notes that the loss of one customer per day, spending $50 per week, will result in the loss of $949,000 for the year (Schibrowsky J.A & Lapidus R.S, 1994). Assessing Clientele Service Excellence Quality has been discussed through history and is still of an intense interest today. It is used in many academic and trade publications, in training seminars and mostly by the media. It is perhaps the most frequently repeated word among executive and managers in organisations. Parasuraman et al. (1985) developed service measuring tool known as SERVQUAL. This measures service quality within certain service constructs, which act as service quality determinants. The two 22 items questionnaires with 5 points Likert scal answers were developed in order to measure expected and perceived quality within 10 service constructs. Later on, the number of constructs was reduced to five. These are as follows: 1. Trustworthiness: the capability to make available the vowed facility promptly, precisely and reliably. 2. Responsiveness: the ability to deal effectively with complaints and promptness of the service. 3. Pledge: Understanding and courteousness of employees and their aptitude to instigate confidence and privacy. 4. Empathy: Individualised attention the company provides its customers with. 5. Tangibles: These include: the state of facilitating goods; physical condition of the buildings and the environment; appearance of personnel; and condition of equipment. Therefore, such findings indicate that firms that do the best job of reducing customer complaints have a distinct competitive advantage. They retain more customers through customer loyalty. This advantage is a result of reducing the number of times things have to be done over and increasing customer retention rates. Moreover, good complaint management also has a repercussion on the financial performance of organisations. Recommended Research Methodology Interviewing as a data collection method1 is widespread for qualitative studies. Although ‘line-of-attack’ may be the source of the course of interviewing to be at variance, lots of processes are analogous. The investigator have to make contacts prior to the interview, get ready for the meeting by planning a discussion guide, carry out the conference using good communiqué abilities, supervise record, and make sure that the records endow with the foundation for study. Even though the procedure of interviewing can be long-drawn-out and expensive, it also can be a satisfying practice for the investigator. The interview will be developed based on the following decisive criteria: (1) what data should be wants to elicit from the interviewees; (2) who are going to be conferenced and why; (3) how to give explanation of the intends of the meeting; (4) where the meeting will occur; (5) whether to guide the conference; (6) how to examine and proceedings (if required) the meeting. In a meeting, queries must be obvious and non-intimidating; the aspirants have to speak extra then the person taking interview. The interview avoids intricate, double-barrelled, dichotomous and leading questions (Cohen and Manion 1994). Recommendations for Improvement The first alternative recommendation is to focus on altering team training on the SERVQUAL dimensions, specifically empathy and tangibles (lowest scores) as part of the customer service package. The training should focus on: The development of quality as a discipline. The complexity of defining quality. The leading approaches to defining quality. The differences between defining quality for manufactured goods and for services. The major contributors to the quality profession. Key quality management terms. Dimension Description Example for Barclays Tangibles Physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel. ATM access; lobby layout; tellers dressed professionally Reliability Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Promised deadlines met; reassuring problem resolution Responsiveness Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Respond quickly to customer requests; willingness to help customers Assurance Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence. Trustworthiness; safe environment around ATMs; polite tellers Empathy Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers Personal attention to customers; convenient hours The impact of cost in implementing SERVQUAL dimensions in team and employee training is relatviely low compared to altering the functional management operations or overall service capabilities. The major costs involved are development of training initiatives, implementations of training resources, and dissemination of knowledge throughout the team. The major costs in initiating consumer interviews include development of the research study, cost of research facilities, and research participant rewards. This will allow the facility to implement better consumer service quality, which based on the paradigms noted above will increase consumer loyalty and therefore have a direct impact of increasing profits. References Aldlaigan, Abdullah & Buttle, Francis (2005) Beyond satisfaction: customer attachment to retail banks Journal International Journal of Bank Marketing Year: Jun 2005 Volume: 23 Issue: 4 Page: 349 – 359 Barclays Bank PLC 2006 Barclays Newsroom. Registered in England. Registered No: 1026167. Registered Office: 1 Churchill Place, London, E14 5HP. [www.barclays.com] Cohen, Louis and Manion, Lawrence (1994), Research Methods in Education 4e, Routledge Gardener, Edward PM (1988) Structure and regulation of UK financial markets. Journal of European Financial Management McDonald, Oonagh (2002) The future of retail banking in Europe: A view from the top. John Wiley & Sons, 1st edition, 2002 Parasuraman A., Valarie A. Zeithaml, Leonard Berry. 1985. A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for further research. J. Marketing 48 (Fall) 41–50. Schibrowsky, JA and Lapidus, RS (1994), Gaining a competitive advantage by analyzing. aggregate complaints, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 11 No 8 Watkins, Jeff (2000) Is a Step-by-Step Approach to Change a Viable Option for the UK Retail Banking Sector? Journal of Business Research Vol 47 Issue 1 p 65-74 Appendix A: Interview Questionnaire Examples 1) Attributes: a) What are your beliefs about customer service? b) What do you feel are important quality service expectations? c) What level of agreement do you have with the following statements: d) My retail bank has adequate customer service measurements. e) Customer service representative are well trained 2) Values: a) I value my bank’s customer service quality programs b) I value an affiliation of interpersonal relationships and communication with customer service c) Customer service quality values my self-esteem, respect, motivation and dignity. d) Customer service has provided their pledged service on time, accurately and dependably. 3) Consequences: a) The customer service had dealt effectively with my complaints and promptness of the service. b) Customer service has been knowledgeable and the courtesy of workers exemplifies their ability to inspire trust and confidentiality. c) I receive individualised attention the company provides its customers with. d) There is a good state of the physical condition of the buildings and the environment; appearance of personnel. Appendix B: Proposed Operational Management Organisation Chart Read More