Customer Focus Essay

Correcting Bad Customer Service

Research a company
that has had recent bad customer service and explain what you would do
differently as the owner of the business. Please use class related topics from
this week’s learning material.

The requirements below must be met for your paper to be accepted and graded:

Write between 750 – 1,250 words
(approximately 3 – 5 pages) using Microsoft Word in APA style, see example
below.

Use font size 12 and 1” margins.

Include cover page and reference
page.

At least 80% of your paper must be
original content/writing.

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No more than 20% of your
content/information may come from references.

Use at least three references from
outside the course material, one reference must be from EBSCOhost. Text book,
lectures, and other materials in the course may be used, but are not counted
toward the three reference requirement.

Cite all reference material (data, dates, graphs, quotes, paraphrased words, values, etc.) in the paper and list
on a reference page in APA style.

References must
come from sources such as, scholarly journals found in EBSCOhost, CNN, online
newspapers such as, The Wall Street Journal, government websites, etc. Sources
such as, Wikis, Yahoo Answers, eHow, blogs, etc. are not acceptable for
academic writing. ; ;

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Customer Focus

This lecture focuses on customer satisfaction. Until a
few years ago, this was a topic that was thought to be only a “marketing”
activity and out of the area of responsibility of quality, human resources, or
production and operations managers.

Things changed when the TQ movement got underway. What
was formerly reserved for a few specialists in “consumer behavior“
within the “marketing research” discipline became a
topic of concern to quality professionals and managers at every level. The
focus on TQ has helped to change the former attitude. Objectives of this
Lecture are:

Raise awareness of the concept that of the three determinants of profitability
– productivity, cost, and quality – the most significant factor in determining
the long-run success or failure of any organization is quality.

To appreciate that creating satisfied and loyal customers is perhaps the most important aspect for
long-term competitive success.

To learn that key customer–focused
practices for performance excellence include identifying the most important
customer groups and market segments; understanding the voice of the customer
through effective listening and learning strategies; understanding the linkages
between customer needs and design/production/delivery processes; creating a
customer-focused culture that contributes to customer engagement; managing and
resolving complaints effectively, and measuring customer satisfaction,
engagement, and dissatisfaction, and acting on the results to improve
organizational processes.

To define Customer satisfaction
is “the result of delivering a product or service that meets customer
requirements.” Customer engagement refers to customers’ investment in or
commitment to a brand and product offerings.

Develop an appreciation for customer
engagement, which refers to customers’ investment in, or commitment to,
a brand and product offerings. Characteristics of customer engagement include
customer retention and loyalty, customers’ willingness to make an effort to do
business with the organization, and customers’ willingness to actively advocate
for and recommend the brand and product offerings.

importance of Customers

Satisfying Customers

To meet or exceed customer
expectations, organizations must fully understand all product and service
attributes that contribute to customer value and lead to satisfaction and
loyalty.

Meeting specifications, reducing
defects and errors, and resolving complaints.

Designing new products that truly
delight the customer

Responding rapidly to changing
consumer and market demands

Developing new ways of enhancing
customer relationships

Customer Focus in ISO 9000

The standards require that the organization determine customer requirements, including delivery and
post-delivery activities, and any requirements not stated by the customer but
necessary for specified or intended use.

The organization must establish procedures for communicating with customers about product information and other
inquiries, and for obtaining feedback, including complaints.

The standards require that the organization monitor customer perceptions as to whether the organization has
met customer requirements; that is, customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction drives profitability. The typical company gets 65 percent of its business from
existing customers, and it costs five times more to find a new customer than to
keep an existing one happy.

Customer Engagement

Characteristics: customer retention and loyalty, customers’ willingness to make an
effort to do business with the organization, and customers’ willingness to actively
advocate for and recommend the brand and product offerings.

Identifying Customers

Consumers – those people who ultimately purchase and use a company’s products. Internal customers – the recipient of another’s output (which could be a product, service or information) External customers – those who fall between the
organization and the consumer, but are not part of the organization.

Building a Customer-Focused Organization

1. ;
Making sincere commitments to
customers

2. ;
Ensuring quality customer contact

3. ;
Selecting and developing customer
contact employees

4. ;
Managing complaints and service
recovery

Customer Contact Requirements

Technical: response time (answering the telephone within two rings or shipping orders the same day) Behavioral requirements (using a customer’s name whenever possible)

Complaint Resolution

Acknowledge that a customer had a problem (“We’re sorry you had a problem”) Express empathy for the inconvenience
that the customer encountered; willingly accepting the complaint (“Thanks for letting us know about it”) Describe corrective action concisely and clearly (“Here’s what we’re going to do about it”) Appeal to the customer for continued
loyalty (“We’d appreciate you giving us another chance”).

Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Engagement

1. ;
Discover customer perceptions of how
well the organization is doing in meeting customer needs, and compare
performance relative to competitors.

2. ;
Identify causes of dissatisfaction
and failed expectations as well as drivers of delight to understand the reasons
why customers are loyal or not loyal to the company.

3. ;
Identify internal work process that
drive satisfaction and loyalty and discover areas for improvement in the design
and delivery of products and services, as well as for training and coaching of
employees.

4. ;
Track trends to determine whether
changes actually result in improvements.

Lecture Summary:

Key customer-focused practices for performance excellence include identifying the most important customer groups and market segments; understanding the voice of the customer through effective listening and learning strategies; understanding the linkages between customer needs and design/production/delivery processes; creating a customer-focused culture that contributes to customer engagement; managing customer relationships to build loyalty and engagement, measuring customer satisfaction, engagement, and dissatisfaction, and acting on the results to improve organizational processes.

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