Module 1
Learning Unit 1 : Process Structure of Customer Satisfaction System
A company can either use this process structure as a checking list for customer service quality or use it as blue print to rebuild the customer service system. The seven key elements of the system are as follows:
| 1 | Develop Customer Service Satisfaction Concept and Policy |
| This is because of the existence of a long- standing tradition of treating customer service expenses as reducible operating costs rather than marketing investments like sales promotion and advertising. One of the most important jobs as top manager is to have a philosophical commitment to customer service. The mark of a total customer satisfaction system is management’s readiness to commit resources as well as moral support to customer service for a practical reason: to create competitive advantage. It is extremely important that policies are highly specific and that they are practical and doable in terms of the resources available to all service related activities. | |
| 2 | Market Research and Customer Needs Analysis |
| The management should understand that the market is more than just the customer. In its broadest sense, the market environment includes the company’s supply chain and merchant partners as well as intermediary customers and end users. It is therefore necessary to survey one’s customers frequently, systematically, directly, and personally. Customers should be segmented so that demands can be met more directly and profitably. | |
| 3 | Customization of Product and Service Planning |
| Customers should be surveyed for their opinions, ideas, feelings, likes, and dislikes about products or services before new concepts and plans for products and services are being developed. Customers should be explained how they can influence managers by making them understand their needs; products and services should be created that meet those demands. Products and services should be refined and customized and their effectiveness tested. | |
| 4 | Marketing and Selling of Products and Services |
| All the links in the value chain should be made sure and channels of distribution should be secured. Competitive pricing, advertising and promotion strategies should be established. Employees should be trained and developed as an integrated system for processing orders tailored to customers’ needs. Customers that fit one’s business should be explored at, and the ways to choose them should be developed. | |
| 5 | Delivery Customization |
| Delivery options should be offered broad to become the “supplier of choice”. Delivery systems to fit the needs of core customers should be customized, in particular by creating channels of communication and service offerings to meet their demands. Customer delivery requirements should be identified through a complete understanding of the impact that previous distribution had on a customer’s business. |
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| 6 | Provide Customer Service Satisfaction |
| A primary “point of contact” between employees and customers should be established, instillation in customers the feeling that their needs are being met personally and promptly. Cross- functional cooperation by training employees to understand and enhance the entire customer experience should be built, holding them responsible for customer satisfaction. It should be made sure that each employee has at hand all information needed to process a customer’s request promptly and efficiency. | |
| 7 | Collection and Analysis of Customer Satisfaction Information |
Customer profiles should be designed and built using a common database to track customer information. Service information should be established by studying how customers products and services. Customer performance and satisfaction should be measured through both internal measures such as sales growth and revenues, and external ones such as industry analyses and customer satisfaction surveys. These measures will allow a company to:
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