...Best Practices in Customer Satisfaction Best Practices in Customer Satisfaction With quality management philosophies that are considered customer-centric such as Kaizen and the Deming Total Quality Management (TQM), quality cannot be reached without the “voice of the customer” (VOC) being heard. Satisfying internal and external customers is the root of quality. Companies that continuously strive for satisfaction with their clients use tools such as the Kano model of customer satisfaction or get ISO 9000 certified (Evans & Lindsay, 2010). Any industry that has been around for a while develops a set of “best practices,” processes that have proven themselves over time. This essay looks at some of methods used by companies to attain satisfaction, reasons for doing so, and how Maggiano’s restaurants incorporates them into their business. Customer and stakeholder satisfaction is the first of the three principles behind Deming’s’ TQM philosophy. Customer engagement and knowledge acquisition is one of the six major areas that most companies focus on when trying to implement quality with TQM. The first principle in ISO 9000 quality management is customer focus. The Baldridge concept of performance excellence states a need for processes to determine a customer’s needs as the first point to. With so many different quality practices putting customer satisfaction as a priority, it is obvious to see the importance of determining what the best methods are. Acquiring this knowledge...
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...investigate the application of measuring customer satisfaction and to demonstrate how colleges and university can enhance their existing processes for measuring the student satisfaction of their service provision. The basic goal of customer satisfaction measurement is objective quantification of subjective perception of consumers. The findings of customer satisfaction study can provide information on how to retain existing customers and attract new one. Customer satisfaction is tied directly to profitability. If your customers are happy, they tend to be loyal. And if they’re loyal they not only buy more, they refer other customers. Well-established research by Bain & Company found that, for many companies, an increase of 5% in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%. The same study found that it costs six to seven times more to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one. Customer satisfaction is the state of mind that customers have about a company when their expectations have been met or exceeded over the lifetime of the product or service. The achievement of customer satisfaction leads to company loyalty and product repurchase. Identification of Best Practices Today, competition is fierce, and customers have more options than ever -- a tough combination for smaller companies trying to gain market share. The Net Promoter score is identified as one of the best practices when it comes to measuring customer satisfaction. According to (Brown 2010), the...
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...Measuring Customer Satisfaction Week 3: Paper Submitted by: Rich De Guzman rich.deguzman32@gmail.com BSOP 588: Managing Quality Instructor: Richard Sheng September 22, 2013 Introduction Being able to provide the best customer satisfaction should be the basis for a company and their vision to succeed. Good customer satisfaction can result in confidence in the company’s products and services however; great customer satisfaction can result in more and new sales or volume. Many companies use different metrics and methods to measure customer satisfaction. This paper will explore a few measures that I have researched and how it correlates to my company or company I used to work for in addition to some recommendations. Identification of best practices One of the most commonly used methods to measure customer satisfaction is by conducting a survey. According to TechRupublic, a survey “allows you to quantify the subjective perceptions of the clients by asking them to convert their perceptions into a numerical rating. The ratings then help the project team better understand how they performed” (TechRadar, 2007). I agree in that surveys do a good job of gathering information so that companies can gain knowledge on how to act and improve their overall customer satisfaction. There are many survey methods out there such as internal and external surveys. This can be deployed in a wide range such as a multiple choice or short answer structure. Many I have seen are surveys...
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...Integrated Marketing Communication and Customer Satisfaction Rodney M. Edge, Sr. Dr. Charles Richardson MKT 500 – Summer 2011 ← Question 1: Discuss the company’s advertising strategy and how it aligns with its marketing goals. The majority of our advertising practices will make use of resources on the web. We have done multiple experiments with several events and have had fairly decent success with those events. Facebook and Twitter are excellent for spreading news about concerts, listening parties and other entertainment functions. Combined with news from our own website, this allows us the ability to quickly and effectively spread the word and create a buzz about our products and events. ← Question 2: Discuss how the effectiveness of the advertising will be measured. Effectiveness for our company will be assessed in two ways. First, our marketing initiatives can be measured through a tool called Band Equity, set up through our distribution resources. This tool assesses the effectiveness of our marketing by measuring how our advertising turns our fan base into actual customers. The second measure is attendance to live events. Though attendance measures can vary, generally a venue that is at least 50-75% capacity is considered a really great accomplishment. ← Question 3: Discuss the promotional strategies that may be used in addition to advertising. Selling compact discs generally don’t allow a lot of room for promotions. But there are a...
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...Customer Satisfaction in the Banking Industry Case Study – Barclays Bank of Kenya Ltd. Customer satisfaction is a major issue in almost all sectors. This can basically determine the success and profitability of a company as a satisfied customer would most likely to ‘spread the good word’ or would have be happy to do business again with the firm. It is an important theoretical and practical issue for market researchers and consumer researchers (Meuter et al, 2000). With positive results in most research, the significance of customer satisfaction and customer retention in strategy development for a “market oriented’’ and “customer focused’’ firm cannot be underestimated (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990). Specifically, Levesque and McDougall (1996) stated that customer satisfaction and retention are critical for retail banks, because of their impact on the company’s profit. With this, there is the challenge for banks to deliver a satisfactory quality service. After all, customer satisfaction is inarguably one of the two core concepts that are at the root of the marketing theory and practice (Spreng and Mackoy, 1996). The other one is service quality but it can be said it is not purely intertwined with customer satisfaction as a customer can be satisfied even though the service is not of high quality. But then, customer satisfaction is considered a must for customer retention and loyalty, and undoubtedly helps in realizing economic goals like profitability, market share, return...
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...Customer Satisfaction: Best Practices Customer Satisfaction is the most prominent factor in the success of a company. It is what puts the wheels in motion for a company to establish a strong foundation while simultaneously fulfilling it’s overall purpose to offer the goods and services that it is designed to provide. Consequently; in order to maintain that status and to provide valued goods or services to those customers in which any company is marketing to, it has to understand the customers needs and more specifically what provides the customer with complete satisfaction. Understanding the customer’s needs and what they require in order to be satisfied, opens up doors and provides the company with the opportunity to generate financial growth, repeat business, and a competitive advantage. In doing so, research has indicated that the best practices to measuring customer satisfaction; is to assess the goals that a company expects to deliver and identify the targeted customer, like: the existing, former, potential, or internal customers. Once a company identifies what their targeted goal is and who the targeted audience may be it is imperative that they then seek input from the customer by asking the customer for feedback. The Voice of the Customer (VOC), (Evans & Lindsay, 2011) is the “customer requirements, as expressed in the customer’s own terms (p. 201).” To develop a clear understanding of what a customer requires in their own terms, companies have been using...
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...MEASURING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION KELLER GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT BSOP – 588 – MANAGEING QUALITY BY: KACHENA BOYD When I think of the word customer, generally what comes to mind is a person or organization that buys goods or services from a store or a business. As it relates to quality management, an organizations image is very important to the customers. In any business, providing quality services delivers benefits to the business. The customers’ interaction with the organization and how this interaction is measured are very crucial. Now days’, just making a good product or service available is not enough. Customer satisfaction will be affected by how effectively, courteously, and promptly customers are served. On several occasions, I’ve witnessed customers building relationships with personnel in the organization who are knowledgeable, professional in appearance, and positive. These kinds of relationships promote loyalty. However, let’s keep in mind that even satisfied customers are likely to defect. Satisfaction without loyalty can lead to habituation and boredom. The customer is keen to experience something new and therefore changes to another business. To retain customers, organizations need to seek their input rather than waiting for and reacting to feedback provided after a problem has occurred. One good practice that I found interesting in customer satisfaction is the Kano Model. The Kano Model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed...
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...–Joseph Juran. Quality is also defined as excellence in the product or service that fulfills or exceeds the expectations of the customer. There are 9 dimensions of quality that may be found in products that produce customersatisfaction. Though quality is an abstract perception,it has a quantitative measure- Q= (P / E ) , where Q=quality, P= performance(as measured by the Mfgr.), and E = expectations( of the customer). Quality is not fine-tuning your product at the final stage of manufacturing,before packaging and shipping . Quality is in-built into the product at every stage from conceiving –specification & design stages to prototyping –testing and manufacturing stages. TQM philosophy and guiding principles continuously improve the Organisation processes and result in customer satisfaction. PERFORMANCE REPUTATIONOF MFGR./Dealer AESTHETICS – OF PRODUCT RESPONSEOF DEALER/ MFGR. TO CUSTOMER DURABILITY RELIABILITY FEATURES CONFORMAN CE COST SERVICE An ongoing effort to provide services that meet or exceed customer expectations through a structured, systematic process for creating organizational participation in planning and implementing quality improvements. If the customer does not perceive you as offering quality service you are not Customer is the Boss or’King’ Customer dictates the market trends...
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...Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) And Customer Satisfaction 1. Discuss the company’s advertising strategy and how it aligns with its marketing goals. When developing our advertising strategy, there are key issues to consider, the first issue was how to understand or define the brand. The second issue is to know how the company is positioned in the minds of consumers and where we want the company to be. We begin this process by first creating a personality for the company. FTGE is a company that was created with the working professional in mind who wants to use his or her time wisely, and are always on the go. We then build a relationship with the audience or customers based on the personality of the company, the history and the benefits that the customer will be able to receive. We will build this relationship over time, using advertising in addition to all other communications, including the way employees are trained to interact with customers. FTGE will focus on the company’s short term goals by building a customer base and getting the word out about our services. We want to let the consumers know that they can leave the shopping to us and rest assured that all of the freshest and finest ingredients that are needed to prepare their meals will be delivered right to their door without the hassle of stopping in traffic when they are just ready to get home to end their day. 2. Discuss how the effectiveness of the advertising will be...
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...This is a best practice in the measurement of customer satisfaction courtesy of CDW, one of America’s largest private companies with technology sales of more than eight billion dollars in its most recent fiscal year. CDW had been using Net Promoter to measure customer satisfaction and brand health. You get a Net Promoter Score by asking one question of your customers—How likely is it that you would recommend your company to a friend or colleague?—and then grouping the responses by promoters (those who answer the question with a 9 or 10), passives (7-8), and detractors (0-6). You subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to get your Net Promoter score. This has been a leading edge measure for many companies because it helps them identify opportunities to improve customer satisfaction. CDW decided that Net Promoter was too one-dimensional so, with the help of the person who developed Net Promoter, it went to a three-question approach that, according to Calvin Vass, CDW’s senior manager of research, looks at “different dimensions of the relationship; what the customer plans to purchase with us, if they are committed, and what they would do if we went away.” Vass is quoted in “Is Net Promoter Really the Ultimate Question?” by Drew Neisser (Fast Company, October 20, 2010). CDW segments its market into two groups, Active Customers and Less Active Customers. It surveys the first group quarterly, receiving more than 100,000 surveys per year. It surveys...
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... Introduction Customer satisfaction is vital to any business, big or small. It is one of the distinct gauges of customer loyalty. No company exists without customers and it is very important to keep customers satisfied to have a chance to gain their loyalty. There are several ways a business can keep their customers loyal to their company and measuring and analyzing customer satisfaction can help them accomplish that but also gain knowledge on how to acquire more loyal customers. Customer loyalty is important because it drives repeat business, even if there is a lower price on offer from competitor. Loyal customers come back more often to take up cross sell opportunities and are more likely to try new products from their preferred supplier. Loyal customers are more likely to recommend a business’s services. Profit tends to increase over the life of the retained customer. It can be twenty times more expensive to acquire new customers than retaining existing customers. To accomplish this, successful businesses uses customer satisfaction data to be able to compare internal quality monitoring programs to ensure internal measures match out p actual customer sentiment. It can be benchmarked against other similar companies to determine the level of business competitiveness. It can also be used to set performance targets to outsource suppliers. Help identify areas for improvement. In all these measurements there are negative feedbacks that create a customer dissatisfaction reports...
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...services. The citizen/ customer has a prominent place in these reforms. For many years the topic of customer satisfaction has been on the European agenda and in recent years this has rapidly grown in importance. According to the DGs’ resolution of May 2006, the main focus of the common European work and efforts regarding customer satisfaction should be on the collection of best practices and the preparation of guidelines for questionnaires to measure customer satisfaction. During the Austrian (first half 2006), Finnish (second half 2006) and German (first half 2007) Presidencies of the EU, initiatives were taken to address these aspects. At the IPSG and Customer Satisfaction Expert Group meetings, ways were discussed to gather and present good practices and create guidelines. Based on these good practices, the Customer Satisfaction Expert Group meeting and the IPSG meeting concluded that many interesting and valuable things could be done with these good practices and that the field of customer satisfaction was too large and too important to narrow attention only to customer satisfaction surveys and measurement, and to limit guidelines in this sense. “Measuring” satisfaction is one thing; “managing” satisfaction is another and should be the aim. Based upon the Cabinet Office document of 2006, titled “Customer Insight in Public Services”, a “primer” – in the form of this publication – was created. This publication explains the relevance of customer focus and the role(s)...
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...American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) INTERNSHIP REPORT ON Customer Satisfaction Level of Artifact Trading Limited An Internship Report Presented to the Faculty of Business Administration in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Program of Bachelor of Business Administration Supervised By: Mr. AKM Kamrul Haque Assistant Professor Management Department Faculty of Business Administration Submitted By MD Khairul Islam ID # 06-07345-3 Date of Submission: 15/08/2010 INTERNSHIP REPORT ON Customer Satisfaction Level of Artifact Trading Limited Letter of Transmittal Date: August 15, 2010 To Mr. R. Tareque Moudud FCMA, Director, Office of Placement & Alumni (OPA), American International University - Bangladesh Sub: Submission of Internship Report on “Customer Satisfaction Level of Artifact Trading Limited” Sir, With immense pleasure, I am submitting my internship report on “Customer Satisfaction Level of Artifact Trading Limited”, which was assigned to me as a part of my bachelor degree program. Despite some limitations, I tried my best to make the report an inclusive one. May I, therefore, hope that you would be kind enough to accept my internship report and oblige there by. Thanking You Sincerely yours, MD Khairul Islam ID # 06-07345-3 Major: Marketing Letter of Endorsement The Internship Report entitled “Customer Satisfaction Level of Artifact Trading Limited” has been submitted to the Office of...
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...IMC and Customer Satisfaction IMC and Customer Satisfaction In the Robinson Consultation Firm we plan to get our name out to our customer with some advertising. We will have some ads that will be located in the local newspaper to get us started. We will also use social media sites to get our name and services known. The newspaper will be a good way to bring awareness to small businesses and people who want to start their own business. Once our name becomes known we can then use social media sites as people spread the word. Some work in the beginning may be done at a discount or for free to show people that the services we offer will be affective. This will allow customer to see who our planning can help their business. Once trust is establish and the work pays off then we will have something to show to other customers. So the main part of our advertising will be to get our name known with showing that our services will work and then have our name spread via word of mouth. TV ads will not be used in the beginning stages to save on cost. The firm will have a website that clients can go to see who we are and what we can make happen for them. Just like our clients who will be on the move our advertising plans will be made to suit them. By using these methods we can effectively meet our marketing goals. Our goals will be to get our name out to the public, Let our services do the talking, and to build long lasting relationships with our customers. We can do this by pubbing...
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...Customer Satisfaction towards Retailers ICA, ICA NÄRA and COOP FORUM Author: Phuc Hong Lu Ian Grace.B. Lukoma Subject: Master Thesis in Business Administration 15 ECTS Program: Master of International Management Gotland University Spring semester 2011 Supervisor: Ph.D Bo Lennstrand ABSTRACT In the midst of stiff and fierce competition and increased number of grocery retail outlets providing a variety of products, customers have become accustomed to patronizing multiple outlets. Retailers have recognized this trend and are of the view that customer satisfaction plays a role in the success of business strategies. Therefore it has become important for grocery retail stores to try and manage customer satisfaction. This paper was thus developed to investigate the satisfaction levels of customers in supermarkets. Data was collected from three supermarkets in Visby, Gotland. The study examined the importance of overall dimensions and specific elements of customer satisfaction towards the measurement of satisfaction levels. In addition, comparative analysis was conducted between the three relative grocery stores. Customer satisfaction levels were measured. The highest percentage of customers of the whole sample belonged to medium level of satisfaction. The statistical result concluded that customers of ICA Nära and customers of ICA were higher satisfied than those of Coop Forum. The results showed that customers felt satisfied with Location, Staff courtesy and Reliability of supermarkets...
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