Design Marketing and Management Of Services - Case Study Example

ASSESSMENT ON THE ROLE WHICH SERVICES/SERVICE COMPONENTS PLAY IN THE ENDEAVOUR OF ORGANIZATIONS TO REMAIN IN THE MARKETPLACE AND/OR IMPROVE THEIR COMPETITIVE POSITION Introduction In spite of much debate, the traditional division of product and services marketing is still, as it has always been without knowledge of services marketing. Customer satisfaction and strategic competitive advantage are not available. There are numerous challenges relating to the design and delivery of services for an increasingly diverse customer base from different cultural backgrounds. This will be critically analyzed in this paper in order to come up with the proposed clear recommendations. Examples will be illustrated and underpinned with recent research findings. Key words that are utilized in with this paper are consumer behaviour, customer expectations, perceptions and satisfaction, services encounter, customer roles, service quality, internal marketing, organisational and national culture and segmentation. Elements of Service Provision in Relation to Corporate Goals and Customer Expectations There are several elements of service provision in relation to corporate goals and customer expectations. These are efficiency and flexibility of the supplier's business processes, the effectiveness of the Information Technology applications and databases which support them and the quality and values of the people through whom customers interface with suppliers. The most highly valued elements of service, assessed from the viewpoint of a large corporate customer are seen as speed and flexibility of configuration, reliability (as distinct from service availability), and control. A rather useful axiom in the achievement of the organization's goals to increase customer loyalty is an age-old catch phrase, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." While it is indeed true that cost and convenience are still primary customer concerns, there is an emerging trend: customers now value service over merely prices or convenience of the product or service. Customers may actually be willing to pay more for better service. It is therefore very important for business small and large to realize that their strongest selling point may be to treat their costumers as they would like to be treated or better. The U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs says that consumers are beginning to feel that their needs are not met and that they are tired with putting up with poor service (Kamin, 2006). It is a good thing therefore, that companies are beginning to think along these same lines. According to the Technical Assistance Research Programs Institute (TARP) companies have realized that service indeed a vital competitive point and have begun to incorporate service in the marketing of their products. After all no establishment of any size can afford to neglect their customers and they certainly can't afford to loose them. For small companies, service is especially important as this may be a viable competitive advantage. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in Washington, D.C., conducted a three-year study which showed that businesses that put a greater emphasis on service are more likely to succeed than their big-time counterparts that put less importance on it. There are three golden rules, the first of which is to put the customers first. Paul Hawken, author of Growing a Business says that a strong customer ethic should be in place at the very start of a business's operations. He says that everybody is in service, no matter what you are selling and how. Good service begins with employees. They must be consumer-oriented and is willing to comply with standards. They must understand the value of the costumer and for those who do they must be duly rewarded. This is given that working conditions are reasonable and that, sources of discontent or annoyance is addressed to boost morale. Another rule is to stay close to your costumers. A smart company knows what is on the customer's mind and what it takes to keep him. After all it is according to the Customer Service Institute, it is five times cheaper to keep extant customers happy than to get new ones. It also pays to mind the little details. Businesses all over the world are looking for little things they can do for their clients that will be their own little trademark. These little things show the costumer a desire to go the extra mile and that the organization is really bent on their pleasure and convenience. Ensuring consumer satisfaction depends on the different components of service provision. Oftentimes, a service provider finds himself with delayed supply deliveries causing various problems in the business. The efficiency and flexibility of the suppliers' business processes is an important element of the effectiveness of service provision. A huge percentage of complaints received by call centres involve problems with supply deliveries. Orders are either delayed or were sent to the wrong people etc. aside from ensuring that the supplier will be able to deliver what is required of them at the right time incurring the least cost, the supplier should also be able to make allowances for changes in the order specifications at the shortest notice. The suppliers should be amenable to various modes of payment as well as other business process components that need great flexibility and efficiency. Remember that the business depends greatly on the suppliers' ability to deliver efficiently. Supply chain management according to Ohio State University marketing professor and author of the best-selling "From Mind to Market", Dr. Roger D. Blackwell, is all about having you're the right product exactly where and when you need it at the best price possible. It involves planning, scheduling and, control processes in the supply chain with the express objective of satisfying costumer/demand requirements as efficiently as possible. The basic idea behind supply chain management (SCM) is to reduce inventory. The supply chain consists of the sequence of organizations that mine, manufacture, assemble, or deliver materials and final products. It spans all intermediating agents in the movement of raw material, work-in-process inventory and final products from the point of first sale to the point of last purchase. Supply Chain Management essentially links supply and demand management internally and among other companies. Involved in it are all the planning and management of all activities from the sourcing, purchasing, conversion, and management activities. Thus it is a vital coordination and collaboration medium among the channel subsystem in the marketing flow. These may include suppliers, middle-men, external service providers, and clients. In supply chain management, all possible activities, events, occurrences are considered as any of these may be sources of disruption and delay in the supply chain. Through supply chain management such eventualities are anticipated and thought out to avoid problems and for maximum efficiency. Generally, supply chain management aims to solve problems on network configuration, distribution strategy, information and inventory management. Supply chain execution is managing and coordinating the movement of materials information and funds across the supply chain. The flow is bi-directional. demand chain management Refers to customer-facing information systems that provide direct input to the supply chain in order to optimize sales channel performance (http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=supply+chain+management). Effectiveness of Service Provision Effectiveness of service provision can be inextricably linked to the success of any company. Personnel play an important role in the achievement of the company's goals. The personnel of any company are constantly in direct contact with the customer. It can be said that they are effectively conducting the business. This is especially true in small businesses like bars and restaurants where the owner may sometimes moonlight as the bar keep or otherwise directly supervise the daily operation of the business. In these businesses, the staff play immense role in ensuring the continuing patronage of the clientele. For this reason, personnel management is the key to providing the best service possible. The effective use of the skills of people be they management, secretarial, utility, or professional. starting with the recruitment of qualified people and continuing with the direction and encouragement of their growth, personally and professionally, is the concern of personnel management. This also includes guiding the personnel and allowing for their advancement as they encounter problems that come up in the natural course of an organization's progress towards established goals. It should be noted that employees of high qualifications can and will get comparably better positions elsewhere if they are not properly compensated or if they feel there is a lack of room for growth in the company. Thus, providing for personnel improvement and thus qualifying them for higher positions means that not only are their morale boosted and performance optimized (as numerous studies have confirmed), in cases when the firm faces personnel shortage especially in management and specialized personnel, the firm can tap into in-house human resource. Grievances, promotion, personnel review, termination are efficient system at work for the benefit of the employees. Recommendations for Organizations to Improve Competitive Position in the Market Place For an organization to improve its competitive position in the market place, there is a need to assess the current status and relative performance of that organization. From that analysis, what needs to be done to enhance to competitive advantage of the company can be laid out. For the company to be in a better position in the market place, they must ensure that the business functions are cutting edge. In that way, the organization will not lose its competitive edge. To maintain this, the organization’s business development department usually do some preliminary market and competitive intelligence research and identified the business projects that should be investigated. The recommendations that can be gathered from the investigation should be carefully planned and implemented. Develop and enhance existing strategies. Remove strategies that are obsolete or no longer efficient and/or applicable. Since the type of business discuss in this paper is on the service sector, there is a need to put heavier focus on customer service. This might include features for self-service or use of real-time customer support. The organization may develop and implement a system to receive requirements/orders from large customers and send requirements/orders to vendors. The organization may show real-time inventory available for sale and customer order status. A new intranet-based system can be developed and implemented that supports employee human resource features such as viewing/modifying benefits, payroll viewing and deduction modification, viewing/modifying benefits, and many others An m-business capabilities can be added to existing Internet infrastructure. Audio/video capabilities to existing Internet infrastructure can be put up. An Internet-based advertising capabilities (e.g. pop-ups, banners, pop-overs, etc.) can also be taken into considerations. Develop and implement a new website or enhance an existing website to support the organization’s inside and outside sales force. Critical Approach for the Changing Nature of Service Provision and the Participants Own Developmental Needs as Providers of Services In order to change the nature of service provision, there is a need to get people and train them. Hiring people will mean provision of competitive hiring rates. This will attract more quality applicants. The performance appraisal and salary plan will promote performance. Modification in the service provision can be greatly achieved through training of the workforce. Make sure that every members of the organization are properly-oriented with their respective designations and job descriptions. Continuous education and development of the organization’s manpower is critical in achieving the desired results of the organization. There is a need to cope up with the fast changing environment. Each and every member of the organization are enjoined to give their share or contribute positively to creation of their new service provision. They are encouraged to give their share in the making of a better performing organization with excellent service. This would involve active interaction with the co-workers and customers. Aside from the active interaction, the members of the organization may think of ways on how to take care of new and existing customers and provide them with the necessary care and assistance that they need. There are a number of effective strategies for the customers. One is to provide positive public relations and marketing. These are critical, but progress should not be expected to do head-to-head with other company projects and programs in order to exist. The members of the group may exert extra effort in having a good relationship with the customers. This will be beneficial in the end for a large majority of them. As much as possible the members of the workforce should avoid conclicts, issues and problems in order to facilitate smooth and harmonious relationships within the organization. If it is important for them to have a good relationship with the customers, it is equally important to them that they have a smooth relationship with their peers and superiors. The best thing is for each of the members of the organization to provide adequate information about all options available to students and their families. The marketing officers of the company should do its best in providing marketing communications to the staff that will match the changing consumer behaviour. With the he advent of modern technology, the consumers do want to tune out of “advertising hell”. This will result to many marketing communications wisdoms to be soon become outdated. Hence, there is a need for marketers to shift to the next gear of building emotional connections with consumers when they consider the information relevant, not when the media happens to provide space for this. In a marketplace where competition is fierce, the differences in offerings better service appear minimal, a differentiated customer care strategy can make the difference between 'getting the deal' or not. There are some who have been known for doing their best to manage highly commoditized offerings while being entirely indifferent to delivering the comprehensive customer care those customers expect and deserve. This strategy can be incredibly successful over several years. Delivering on a promise of differentiated customer care should be taken seriously. With a comprehensive customer care strategy being an ever evolving and developing strategy, this will result to lessons learned, the 'before and after' view with the dramatic results to achieve in serving reducing the churn all the while growing the business and margins. References Kamin , Maxine. 2006 , Customer Service Training. Virginia: American Society for Training & Development. Kert , Robert R. (ed.). 199 8 , Consumers in the Financial Services Sector , Task Force on the Future of the Canadian Financial Services Sector. Read More