Adopting a Successful Customer Service Strategy - Essay Example

Running Head: Understanding Service Understanding Service [Institute’s Explore the internal supplierservice strategy a company should have in place at people, process and organisational levels. Discuss the impact such a strategy can have on a companys relationships with its partners in the external supply chain. Introduction In this extremely aggressive business scenario, it is essential to know the need for developing as well as executing a customer service strategy. A customer service strategy covers the way company will interact with its clientele. A key fault of several businesses is management’s ignorance towards customer service approach. “Affiliates of the C-suite are not able to comprehend the strategic prospect” (Kirby & Wallace, 2012, p. 341) of utilizing service as a medium to develop market share as well as to gain market control. Actually, customer service strategy should constantly be part of a company’s marketing strategy. Moreover, a service plan should be a necessary component of all marketing plans, so that a recent product or service is never initiated until customer service has been planned and checked. For this paper, the company chosen is Reckitt Benckiser (2014). Discussion One of the key features of effective customer service strategy is that it should concentrate on hiring and then retaining good workers. The idea is that competent employees who are compliant as well as reasonably recompensed offer better service, require less supervision, and are a lot more expected to continue the job. Therefore, their clients are expected to be more contented. Research as well indicates that employee turnover and customer satisfaction are directly linked - on average, “higher turnover rate means that there is lesser agency scores in offering quality service” (Vandousselaere et al, 2012, p 89). Besides, it is usually noted that employee turnover is a costly issue, with considerable expenses essential to appoint as well as train new people. Managers must encourage the formation and checking of innovative plans and be openly ready to modify current practices to incorporate advancements. A company cannot modify without the involvement of its workforce, hence it should concentrate on hiring workers who carry the customer service vision. The expenditure of hiring people who do not carry the customer service idea is huge. Besides, the company should develop career paths that let successful ‘customer focused’ workers to stay on the leading edge. In an attempt to serve the customers’ needs more efficiently, Reckitt Benckiser applied a dual-phase scheme that revamped as well as enhanced its extensive external supply network. This plan involved two interconnected supply chain projects that influenced Reckitt Benckiser on multi-country as well as on multi-category level. The common objective of the plan was to generate the capacity to deliver goods to UK and Ireland more efficiently and was to be attained by a comprehensive as well as intricate restructuring of supply system. The outcome had to be the formation of an additionally agile logistics solution, bringing internal customer service enhancements in warehousing as well as in transportation network. The long-term objective of this activity was that Reckitt Benckiser could then “leverage the new level” (Zeithaml et al, 2012, p. 140) to optimize cross-category deliveries as well as dual storing options. This would carry on driving investments within the company’s network and facilitating it to offer customers a better service - with respect to both product mix as well as responsiveness. The projects were divided into different stages. The initial stage involved with developing space to stock various products at a single location, as a result, facilitating the company to generate opportunities for collective system of supply in the future. Major investment was made to expand the current supplying network with the intention of accommodating the products. This guaranteed commitment across all levels of the supply chain both internally (scheduling, delivery, quality, and customer service) as well as externally (the retail clientele, intermediary suppliers, and contractors). A few of the major challenges were in fact handled by the quality assurance group to recognize which products could be securely stocked and transported supplied with others. The results achieved are effective supply chain management, teamwork and harmonization across the entire company. There has been a compliance to challenge current procedures and techniques of working with the aim of attaining what had previously felt to be a very complex as well as unattainable task. Application of “professional project management expertise, risk management and having the proper resource to deliver the projects” (Hawkins et al, 2013, p. 77) facilitates the company to be successful in execution of the plan. The achievement of this plan lies within customer relationship management - the company’s capability to identify when internal processes have the potential to influence “customer satisfaction and maintenance” (Zeithaml et al, 2012, p. 136). If the organizational values are set upon strong interdivisional or cross-functional associations, then the customer service strategies should be developed on the similar associations. Customer service management is a synchronization approach to match the operational participants or divisions within the company, in an attempt to unite all business functions to form a particular valuable product. Customer service strategy needs to concentrate on business process enhancement with the intention of identifying those features of your business which have the capability to influence the customer. Technology can also include competence to the customer service strategy. With the aim of forming a business process that integrates customer service, the company should first identify the various associations that are present because of existing business structure. Business processes should support the operations and generate ability to “record and retrieve response” (Gummesson et al, 2014, p. 233) with the aim of regulating standards of practice targeted at enhancing customer awareness. A good example of back office restrictions is when a producer’s agent assures a customer’s sales order just to realize that production is not capable of meeting the set lead time. This issue could arise from a further basic breakdown within “capacity planning” or “revenue forecasts” (Gummesson et al, 2014, p. 239); however if this customer is of significance to the business, and the business wants to keep hold of the benefaction, then customer service should be able to indicating the enhancement process. External operations signify the external supply chain that is essential to fulfil customer expectations. Precaution should be taken at the time of explaining vendor contracts to ascertain that retailer’s or service provider’s lead times are in-line with order quantities as well as with customer lead time anticipations. While defining the external operations business processes, the company should be diligent to recognize where its retailer’s personal business processes could potentially affect its own clientele in negatively. Developing an outstanding customer service strategy is among the most crucial success factors. Company’s problems with the strategy can put a stop to the general efficiency of an otherwise well thought-out structure. Moreover, companies should consider customer service strategy as a product or service aimed at internal customers. Similar to any product or service, this strategy should be instilled with clearly identified worth, priced suitably, and offer after sales assistance. The company should patiently recognize existing CRM positive and negative points; come up with a financial plan; initiate at small level and after that grow to larger customer service plans; contact retailers with a particular problem statement; appreciate the importance of customer service incorporation; and evaluate the accomplishment of customer service strategy. All of these points for success offer prospects for particular actions that let the company to understand the complete potential of customer service. External supply chain environments for companies are incessantly developing into further intricate as well as complicated organisms. Handling this rapid development and progress needs more diverse internal as well as external connections than what is needed earlier. To ascertain that these connections are customer centric, a sound customer service approach is a crucial success requirement. This approach guarantees to supply professional analysis irrespective of the position within the supply chain. Further major modifications within the external supply setting that prompt supply to the advantages of customer service are (1) requirement of comparatively smaller time frame for taking decisions; (2) better concentrate on value in both development as well as delivery; (3) further stringent description of customer contentment - each and every supply chain factor has a lot more better performance anticipations from all the factors of supply chain; and (4) additional stress on internal as well as external partnering for the company. Customer strategy provides the company with a combination of ideas, expertise, design, and organization necessary to smooth the process of objective realization within intricate as well as complicated supply networks. “Progressive supply experts are in continuous search for ideas, methodologies, as well as systems that support performance development all over the external supply system” (Gebauer et al, 2010, p. 118). Well planned customer service gives an overarching style that contains individual supply partner’s requirements by thoroughly incorporating ‘network wide’ customer focused control. Continued success with external partners is inextricably linked with its capability to come up with the befitting strategy needed for long-term performance development. Reckitt Benckiser successfully connects its customer service strategy and supply chain activities to improve customer contentment as well as productivity, which makes it two times more profitable as those companies that do not adopt this approach. Hence, making Reckitt Benckiser three to four times more expected to attain better performance in sales, market share, customer service as well as other critical measures, and a lot more likely to produce better shareholder returns. Similar to Reckitt Benckiser , a number manufacturing and retailing businesses have revamped the “back end” (Hawkins et al, 2013, p. 92) of their functions, introducing new integrated customer service strategies as well as technologies that have decreased expenditure and lessened time cycles within distribution of products. Other consumer businesses have concentrated on the “front end” (Hawkins et al, 2013, p. 94) by means of new and innovative approaches as well as systems that have enhanced retention and productivity. Such companies have been able start initiatives in both customer service and external supply chain, and have successfully connected their customer operations and supply chain. Conclusion While trying to adopt a successful customer service strategy, that positively affects the external supply chain, companies first have to recognize their current potential in both fields. To be an integrated value partner needs firm incorporation among customer service and external supply chain functions. For instance, a company that modifies its offers in accordance with customers’ requirements, with high likelihood long-term value, should as well ascertain that its supply chain activities flawlessly go along with its customer service activities for that particular client. This shapes the foundation of an integrated customer service approach. Companies that do integrate their approach are more accomplished as compared to those who do not integrate. In addition, companies that join a customer service focus with excellence in external supply chain collaboration are placed well for success. In particular, these companies get a competitive gain by (1) cooperating both internally as well as externally with partners in supply chain, for instance dealers, retailers, and consumers, and (2) evaluating as well as surpassing their objectives for “consumer loyalty” as well as “retention” (Vandousselaere et al, 2012, p. 102). They are mostly supported by latest technologies and innovative approaches which facilitate them to improve collaboration and extend associations across a network of suppliers and customers. As a result, this let them to differentiate in the method they select for creating value for all customers. As companies do well while integrating customer service with other systems, they can further “decrease inventories, enhance customer receptiveness, and enhance customer loyalty as well as shareholder value” (Zeithaml et al, 2012, p. 135). Simple by acting early, companies can get excellence in customer service, and can start to improve their performance while putting tough barriers for its rival companies. References Gebauer, H., Fischer, T., & Fleisch, E. (2010). Exploring the interrelationship among patterns of service strategy changes and organizational design elements. Journal of Service Management, 21(1), 103-129. Gummesson, E., Kuusela, H., & Närvänen, E. (2014). Reinventing marketing strategy by recasting supplier/customer roles. Journal of Service Management, 25(2), 228-240. Hawkins, D. I., Mothersbaugh, D. L., & Best, R. J. (2013). Consumer behavior: Building marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill Irwin. Kirby, C., & Wallace, C. (2012). Service strategy maturity: A model for business performance. Journal of Customer & Contact Centre Management, 1(4), 338-352. Reckitt Benckiser. (2014). Official Website of Reckitt Benckiser Company. Retrieved on April 30, 2014: www.rb.com Vandousselaere, S., Larivière, B., & Matthyssen, P. (2012). Implementation of a service strategy, OUP. Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (2012). Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Cases. Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Cases, 9(11), 130-142. Read More