The Need for Customer Satisfaction - Term Paper Example

CUSTOMER FOCUS AND SATISFACTION IN RELATION TO MERCURY ENGINEERING OF UNITED KINGDOM Student’s Name Course Tutor Date Customer focus and satisfaction in relation to mercury engineering of United Kingdom Introduction Customer satisfaction has become a critical competitive advantage in every aspect of production in the construction industry. As a matter of growth, the importance of customer satisfaction has become part and parcel of the construction industry strategy to capture the market. Construction firms therefore use customer satisfaction parameters to develop, monitor as well as evaluate product and service offered to the customers. Customer satisfaction also comes in handy to an organisation, for it improves the nature of communication between different parties thus facilitates mutual agreement and evaluation of goals. In the modern world, top construction companies have cordially put forth customer satisfaction and orientation as a result of stiff competition and shifts in customer demands as a response to tastes and preferences. The need of customer satisfaction in construction industry The need of customer satisfaction has been extensively studied by construction industry experts as demonstrated by studies undertaken by Lehtonen (2006, pp 3-11). Their works has gained widespread attention in the construction industry as noted from both academics and industry players. As is the case in the developed economies such as the United Kingdom, construction business players have adopted fresh strategies in striving to win the hearts of the dynamic clients. In fact, the whole field of construction is rapidly transforming to service business which has been necessitated by various change and development factors in the industry. Construction companies are therefore extending their operations on the life cycle of projects. This is currently demonstrated through developing projects close consultation and co-operation with the clients. For example, most UK construction firms offer customers wide range of financing options and various management services. Such features are widely witnessed in the public and private partnership projects (PPP). The internal policy practices in the construction industry are also changing very rapidly and thus the ways of project implementation are increasing to offer clients the chance to select the project that best suits their resources and goals. Company of choice The firm of choice in this case is Mercury Engineering, a United Kingdom construction company that offers world-class solutions ranging from building services to management contracting. This is a privately owned organization headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. It has a revenue base estimated to be in excess of €500 million on an annual basis. The company is famous for its excellent services such as high quality as well as consistent delivery of projects in regard to time and stipulated budget. All these have made the firm to be a choice by many customers for over three decades. Despite the challenges brought about by world economic recession, the firm has initiated extensive geographical expansion over the last few years thus it has its presence in the traditional market, United Kingdom and other places most notably, east and central Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, North Africa, Russia and Canada. As stated by the company’s business development manager, the firm has been able to complete quite a number of large-scale projects because of the best human resource and state of the art tools and management processes. The company has over 2000 staff. Features of customer satisfaction in Mercury Engineering In Mercury Engineering, customer satisfaction is basically determined by the extent to which a product (physical facility) and the service (construction process) meet and go beyond the expectations of the customer. This is in recognition of the significance of understanding, defining, evaluating, and excellent management of expectations aimed at meeting the demands of the customers. As mentioned by Johnson (2001, pp. 217-245), this calls for compliance to specifications and suitability of use. The company also emphasises the responsibility of management for any meaningful success essentially requires the participation of every team member although it remains the sole responsibility of the management to ensure that resources for success are provided. In construction industry, the completed structure refers to the physical product that is on the ground after completion of all the related work that also includes the interactions between the contractor and the customer. As suggested, all these processes are known as contracting service. It is suggested that quality in construction encompasses a product and service in relation to quality dimensions. The satisfaction of the customer with the constructed facility is some of the defining parameters of project-level quality. In construction industry, customer relations are therefore very dynamic and non-recurrent. It is marked by a lot of complexity even though customers are not in abundance. Mercury Engineering has distinguished two dimensions in the relationship between the customer and the contractor. A contractor is mandated to produce the physical product for the customer as well as other service processes to the person requiring the project. It is in this aspect that more players are required now to create the desired entities. Construction firms therefore form networks to act as a source of increasing their chances of profitability through improvement of management services to meet the needs of the customers. A construction company such as Mercury Engineering having direct links to customers has been trying to make sure that the service entity is in fulfillment of the needs of the customers. In fact, in construction industry, the relationship between the contractor and the customer should be mutually beneficial and should demonstrate symbiotic relationship. A chain of service is then formed between the producer and the end user (John 2003, pp. 56-72). Concepts and attributes of customer satisfaction in Mercury Engineering In the construction sector, giant firms such Mercury Engineering are characterised by steady flow of management relations. In such firms, reliability and efficiency is of great value. As a consequence, for the customer, the decisions regarding the choice and evaluation of a construction firm to carry out specific activities is of great value. The company therefore attaches a lot of interest on the project feedback. This focuses on the core business of the organization for the achievement of value addition for strategy improvement. The company also objectively identifies and compares its production processes standings with the competitors hence gives a lot of emphasis on investigations as opposed to relying on assumptions of how others are making it. In Mercury Engineering, feedback is normally collected and the overall satisfaction of the customer is adequately measured upon project completion. The company uses customer listening tools at the strategic level for the development of strategic initiatives such as management of customer relationship and SWOT analyses. On the tactical aspect, the company uses the customer feedback data in analysing demanding incidents and solving customer complaints. Analysis of satisfaction and transaction studies are very essential in developing the processes of customer feedback for an organisation thus Mercury Engineering is known to pay full attention when it comes to linking programs of customer satisfaction with necessary actions. Business experts argue that customer feedback systems may not achieve their objectives unless the important information they contain are linked, deployed and aligned with the organization (Lin et al. 2005, pp. 355-365). For Mercury, feedback is a critical source for learning. It is the prerequisite for ample learning in the industry both at the company level and the project level. The company has a well organised feedback mechanism to minimize development of problems or enable quick and timely response. Effective feedback mechanisms have enabled the company to foresee critical changes in the business environment hence adapting to such changes in good time. Additionally, communication skills and functional channels of communication at the firm have been of great help. Due to the nature of the industry, there have been quite a number of challenges in regard to communication. It is not easy to provide feedback and at the same time portion it to the right party which then hinders the objective of continuous learning in an organisation. A feedback system as demonstrated by Mercury Engineering is a critical component of the communication system of a company and no organisation can achieve its objectives and goals without proper communication. All organizations are not immune to making mistakes but what matters most is the way the mistake is handled so as to steer everything back to line (Egan 2002, pp 51-64). A learning organisation such as Mercury place emphasis on what is termed as generative learning. This kind of learning encourages continuous experimentation and feedback in the criteria of knowing and solving issues. Companies with sound management systems are making use of certain components of business administration thus, systems thinking, shared vision, personal mastery, mental models, and team learning. As mentioned by Levitt and March (1995, pp 11-37), learning organisations have five main skills that includes organised problem solving, carrying out trials with noble approaches, learning from past history and own experience, learning from the best practices and experiences of others, and quick transfer of knowledge in an efficient manner in an organisation. Organisational learning takes place when a company comprehensively learns about its operating processes and environment thereby improving them. The main purpose of organisational learning is to enable creation of a mechanism for continuous improvement so as to create processes, knowledge and values in dealing with uncertainties. It has been stated that most programs have failed because most construction firms do not see and consider the fundamental truth: continuous improvement calls for total commitment to organisational learning. Without adequate learning, firms may just repeat the same old practices under new banner. Efficient process of innovations in stable companies can therefore be created through what is known as adaptive learning. However, a learning organisation such as Mercury makes use of generative learning for the creation of new processes in their daily operations. The only challenge for a company’s management is the creation of appropriate conditions for continuous organisational learning. Constant improvement in customer handling requires a total commitment to learning. For significant learning from experience, a relatively simple feedback system regarding actions is essential (Bluestein, Moriarty & Sanderson 2003, pp. 113-129). The company has been emphasising on the need of inclusive customer orientation which can only be achieved by the use of what is referred to as market-in concept that duly acknowledges that every process of any work being undertaken is principally in stages. The company therefore takes customer feedback so as to improve the performance of its personnel during all stages of the service delivery process. The company understands that all parties in a construction process have different distinct roles thus processor, supplier, and customer. The construction company is the business developer hence should carefully translate the requirements of the owners into plans and process them for implementation (Kano, Seraku, Takahashi & Tsuji 1984, pp.39-48). There has been tremendous shift from traditional concepts of construction towards customer relations and focus. In the traditional way, success of a project is basically measured by the level of achievement in regard to the objectives of the project which is expressed in terms of cost, time, and quality. For example, Mercury Engineering has set the main performance indicators for measuring the success of its projects. The company’s approach combines the traditional and modern operational measures. It therefore determine functionality, quality, the satisfaction of the client and the satisfaction of construction team as subjective measures as opposed to objective measures that includes unit costs, construction time, and the present net value. The main indicators of performance offer a variety of perspective as far as achieving project success is concerned. According to the company management, quality of projects is regarded as the fulfillment of satisfaction on the side of the customer and fulfillment of professional role on the side of the company. The company therefore heavily stresses the significance of harmonious working relationships between the employees to achieve customer satisfaction and good market image. The input of the customer has a lot of implications on the general outcome of any project undertaken. The customer therefore has a very important responsibility in ensuring that there is successful realization of a project. Industry experts such as Kanji and Wong (1998, pp 133-140) have carried out extensive studies on the relationship between performance indicators and project interaction. It then emerged those projects having low levels of interaction have high costs and schedule growth not leaving the numerous modifications to be undertaken. On the other hand, projects that have high levels of interaction have admirable and consistent indicators of performance. The modern way of shifting to customer focus as opposed to striving for profit maximisation is rapidly transforming organizations to do ethical business. This is so because companies are now being compelled to optimally utilise their resources so as to do or provide quality work or define a shift in customer focus from striving to maximize the company’s profits in a project by optimizing the utilisation of the company’s resources for purposes of customer satisfaction. The tendency is now shifting from the need of short term profitability towards long-term optimisation of the total value hence perpetuating a relationship that maximises a company’s profit and image in the long run. One of the main advantages of involving a customer in a project is that he/she duly participates in the production process of a service. As realised by Mercury Engineering the customer should actively take part in the various diverse factors of construction. Strong involvement of the customer in a construction process is very relevant to service provision by a constructor hence excellent service delivery that meets the specifications of the customer (Karim & Adeli1999, pp. 368-378). Conclusion As demonstrated by the management of Mercury Engineering, measurements of performance are can not be overemphasized on the management criteria of modern day construction industry. Increasing stiff competition, changing nature of work, shifting global standards, change in taste and demand and the power of information technology (IT) are compelling traditional and modern construction companies to closely monitor and incorporate customers in the projects. Bibliography Bluestein, A, Moriarty, M & Sanderson, R.J 2003, The Customer Satisfaction Audit. Axminster: Cambridge Strategy Publications. Egan, Sir J 2002, Accelerating Change, London: A Consultation paper by the Strategic Forum for Construction. John, J 2003, Fundamentals of Customer-Focused Management: Competing Through Service. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. Johnson, M.D, Gustafssonb, A, Andreassenc, W.T Line Lervikc and Cha, J 2001, "The evolution and future of national customer satisfaction index models". Journal of Economic Psychology 22 (2): 217–245. Kanji, G.K. and Wong, A 1998, Quality culture in the construction industry. Total Quality Management. Vol. 9 Issue4/5, pp. 133-140. Kano, N., Seraku, N., Takahashi, F. and Tsuji, S 1984, Attractive quality and must-be quality. Journal of Japanese Society for Quality Control. Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 39-48. Karim, A. and Adeli, H 1999, CONSCOM: An OO construction scheduling and change management system. Journal of Construction Engineering & Management. Sep/Oct99, Vol. 1 Issue 5, pp. 368-378. Lehtonen, T 2006, Partnering Relations – Justification and Success Factors from Facilities Management Services Perspective. Dissertation - Helsinki University of Technology Construction Economics and Management. Levitt, B. and March, J.G. (1995) Chester I. Barnard and the Intelligence of Learning, In: Oliver E. Williamson (ed.): Organization Theory, From Chester Barnard to the Present and Beyond. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 11-37. Lin, C., Chow, W., Madu, C., Kuei, C-H and Yu, P. (2005). A structural equation model of supply chain quality management and organizational performance. International Journal of Production Economics. Vol. 6, pp. 355-365. Read More