Brief Description Of The Negative Service Encounter Marketing Essay

Brief Description Of The Negative Service Encounter Marketing Essay In recent times call centres play a vital role in the service chain. Further they are the first point of contact for the customers. This invariably means that performance management is of prime importance to organisations with special focus on customer satisfaction. If organisations are not successful in providing value to their consumers, there will a long term loss for the stakeholders and so it is vital to pay full attention to them and adopt strategies to improve upon the services provided. In this report the way organisations rationalise and manage customer satisfaction in a call centre setting is explored. Out of many things revealed it is crucial to note that current measures of performance are often counter-productive to reaching customer satisfaction. An attempt has been made to review customers purchasing, its after sale services and other related factors through which they feel satisfied and follow it up with recommendations to improve the same. Many call centres consider that operating procedures such as call extent are pointers of customer satisfaction Evidence indicates that they are not; they are only measures of proficiency, which in turn is seen as basis of commercial performance. Most call centres seem to miss the important link between employee satisfaction, service quality, customer satisfaction, and profitability. Formal Introduction: The Saudi Telecomminicaiton (STC) group offers mobile network, fixed land line and broadband communications facilities to more than millions of customers across the world. In the last few years, STC underwent a massive expansion plan across the world. Further, it formed a network of businesses and investments in a number of countries including Asia and Africa. Out of many international customers it has its presence in Kuwait, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, South Africa and Bahrain. Background: STC services are divided into three broad categories: Jawal (mobile network), Kitaf (landline  network), and  Internet services. Call centres are changing the way companies communicate with customers and are a strategic asset in delivering exceptional service quality. Companies that focus on customer loyalty are increasingly using their centres to differentiate their product or service offering and drive customer satisfaction. (Miciak et al, 2001) STC  is the only provider for telephone lines in  Saudi Arabia. For this reason customers have to pay two fees, one to  STC  for activation of the  ADSL  service across the telephone line, and a second to an  ISP  to provide Internet service across the  ADSL  line.  STC  has been highly criticized for their service in providing  ADSL  access as customers had to wait many months to receive ADSL service on their phone lines. Out of the many reasons considered for their service being unpopular the major reasons are the excessively expensive prices and unable low-quality service. In few countries its services have been refused due to lack of experience, unprofessional staff, and outdated usage of equipment. Module 4: It is important to have an extraordinary customer service to materialise a deal. When customers are not made to feel important, welcomed or wanted they would not prefer to invest their time and money into a product. This requires a good knoweldge of correct forms of customer service and detail knoweldge of service marketing. It seems as though the lack of good customer service in the telecommunications industry is leading to people withdrawing from purchases and contracts.  Ã‚  The youth are more likely to leave their service providers behind, compared to older customers who are more set in their service provider ways.  However with the upsurge of social media and improved consumer awareness, the cost of customer frustration is sizeable. Parameters to judge the customer satisfaction in the above case. The figure clearly depicts the customer expectation in terms of service offerings. It shows the parameters on which the customer bases the services and these are the major fail points where the organisations is not able to stand up to the customers expectations. The lesson is clear. In order to turn first time customers into repeat customers and repeat customers into lifetime customers, you need to ensure every call is handled efficiently and politely. You need to be different-and better-than the average contact center today. Brief description of the negative service encounter While recalling the service of STC it is disappointing to state that the waiting time was over the phone was too long and at times the maintenance problem would take more than 24 hours to resolve. The complaints used to pass through a long hierarchy. Travellers used to suffer a lot due to bad connectivity and most of the time the connectivity used to be very weak. No satisfactory explanation was provided of new services when a customer gives a call, instead he is directed to check it online. Module 5: Customer service is perceived as most important, even more important than product value while deciding on customer loyalty and behaviour while making a purchase. Customer service is, indeed, more important than perceived product value in predicting customer loyalty, the amount of money spent in the visit and the range of products purchased (Leung,2006). In this case the price of the services was not declared properly and many times the bill used to have many hidden charges. The invoice that used to come at the end of the month was far beyond the actual usage. The value of a product reflects the owner(s)/buyer(s) desire to retain or obtain a product. An individuals level of desire to retain or obtain a product depends on how much the product details and/or its performance agree with the value system of the individual (Neap, 1999) However the customers were quite annoyed since the service did not match its value outcome. Module 6: An IMC strategy comprises carefully merging and synchronizing the various fundamentals and tools of the communications mix to convey a clear and reliable message. (Hoffman et al, 2010, pp.169) In this case the organisation promised too much than they could deliver and and raised the expectations to unrealistic level. It should improve upon its communication pattern, which can be done through Module 7: An organisations exterior appearance, interior design and othe tangibles objects create a compendium that surrounds the service. (Hoffman et al, 2010, pp.201) The service scapes directly influence the organisms behaviour. Remote, self-service, the service settings ambience, overall expectations and emotional and mental state to moderators and environment are the major factors of it. However there was total neglect of sensory cues in this case. The organisation had not changed its interior and exterior design since last many years and the furniture and fittings looked very old and out-dated. Even the entrance gate was cluttered and the main board was rusted and not even painted properly. Module 8 The boundary spanning personnel are also the organisations personal representatives. They accumulate material from the surrounding and transfer it back into the organisation, and they also communicate with the environment on behalf of the organisation. ((Hoffman et al, 2010, pp.232) Role, client and interclient conflicts are the main sources of struggle. A service organisation must satisfy its workforces in order for customer satisfaction to become a unfailing reality and the venture made in this will surely pay off. The contingencies which managers should rate to their service organisations depends on the its business strategy, technology, its tie with the customers, the environment of the business and the type of leadership. The main characteristics of service leader are that they lead by example and inspire their service employees to deliver high levels of customer service. Service leaders are enthusiastic about doing the service right the first time. They value the goal of zero deficiencies, motivated continually to improve the consistency of service. (Zeithmal et al, 1990, pp.15) Module 9: The service encounter was not satisfactory in the above case due to the hindrance by the consumers in the exchange process. They were not effectively managed because the relationships were unhealthy due to long waits and dissatisfaction in compliant solving. Eight principles of waiting are given to minimize the customers frustrations related to long waits. A customers degree of satisfaction with waiting or with the service received in its whole is reliant on on the actual performance of the delivery system, the customers anticipations regarding that performance and the customers sensitivity of the service encounter.  (Mark M. Davis, Janelle Heineke, pp.21 34, 1994) The ultimate way to handle difficult customers as stated by Peppers Rogers is through exceptionality. Every relationship is different. The organisation must be prepared to participate in different exchanges, remember different accounts and engage in different behaviours towards different customers. (Peppers D Rogers M., Managing Customer Relationships: A Strategic Framework, pp.56, 2004) Recommendations: For delivering customer service it is increasingly important to focus on Call Centre performance. The performance should not be judged in isolation from the whole organisation. It is vital to note that they are not disconnected procedures with an unsociable mission of bringing down costs. They form a fundamental part in delivering of services and contribute to the value chain. Therefore, the performance measures of call centres need to reflect the strategic direction of the entire organisation. A more balanced approach to measuring performance based on strategic objectives is valuable, especially if visual representations of service delivery and value creation are used. This facilitates easy communication of overall performance and puts productivity aims in consideration. Best practice seems to lead and the following areas of performance as well as their consumer satisfaction increases when companies meet four key needs: proficiency, suitability, positive commitment and customization.   The following measures help to track quality of call centre service. (Feinberg et al, 2000) At the outset by reducing the average speed of answer, followed by the time caller is in the line for answer. Subsequently the percentage of callers or abandoned the call prior to answer should be analysed. Further the average work time after call needs to be speeded. The service for customers who receive call block message may also be improved. Lastly the organisation needs to develop a professional attitude in its functioning and make the customers feel appreciated.