Customers are considered as the most important factors that are responsible for the running of the car companies in Australia. A satisfied customer would always entail positive outcome for a company whether regarding its brand endorsement or for its product facilitation. In light of such, the following content would be producing guidance for new recruits within the marketing department on the topic of customer communication establishment, favouring the automobile organisation of General Motors-Holden in Australia. The problem statement for the guidance report would be the analysis of the various customer communication techniques with suitable recommendations and an overall conclusion.
Clarity gaining
The requirements of the clients and the customers are understood by the company by maintaining the clarity of the types of communication. For the attainment of clarity, there can be put focus over questioning the client/customer regarding their demands and needs within their choice. Through such, the customer situation can be taken into understanding through a better approach. Apart from such, there can be made a quick short term analysis over the customer requirement and can be produced to meet the customer demand. Such factors are subjective to remove the doubts of customers and to have a hassle free experience.
The customer requirements are subjective of changes on a frequent basis. In relevance to the automobile company of Holden, making subsequent deliveries and catering to meet the demands of customers can produce better yields. With maintaining frequent communications with that of customers, any sort of hindrances within the product management can be exerted through an efficient manner (Landau, Zhong & Swanson, 2018). Apart from such, the implementation of changes over the customer communication aspect would be effective to anticipate the requirements of customers with producing helpful suggestions. Further, the implementation changes would be effective for producing quicker and efficient schedule.
The establishment of communication with the customers can serve in form of a valuable tool of reinforcement for solidification of the purchases. For the concern of Holden, the salespersons/employees can be produced to keep in touch with that of customers in the immediate period right after sale. Through such, the reinforcement of benefits regarding the marketing of cars can be procured along with reinforcement of customer requirements (You, Vadakkepatt & Joshi, 2015). Apart from such, there can be produced quicker responses towards the customers in case of any bothering issues within the automobile product. With producing the scale of benefits for the product usage along with producing understanding of the side benefits of the car models can also procure customer relations on longer terms.
Any sort of communication failures can cater the customers to have feeling of avoids that can sustain negative effects over the customer business relationship. In time when there would be the requirement of service from the host company (Holden), the choice of competitors can be taken as priority by the customers. Hence for such, frequent communication with the customers is a sort of compulsoriness in order to sustain longer customer relationships.
As for example, The Commission for Consumers and Australian Competition (ACCC) put a report for submission of 29,000 Australian consumers regarding issues sustaining to be consumer guarantees (smh.com.au, 2018). The complaint was subjective to produce a steeper jump to 39% for the complaint rates within 2016. Within Holden, there were also major complaints against customer misleading regarding car specifications with faults. To avoid the issue the products needs to be marketed with genuine specifications produced from the customer service executives so that there is no production of false information from the part of the organisation employees. Apart from such, there can be given freedom to the customers in order to have self-confidence and self checking for their purchase. (Refer to Appendix 1)
Another example can be treated for the company of Ford with penalties of $10 million for wasting the capital and time of several customers by marketing vehicles with faulty gearboxes in 2014 (theguardian.com, 2018). For such, there are also complaints for mishandling of complaints with faulty transmissions. For such case, the product verification stays mandatory for the company before marketing the product to the customer. For such, the factor stays evident to put the customer forward for verifying the car product by them before doing any purchasing activity. (Refer to Appendix 4)
For example, a survey was conducted by Brisbane firms over the recommending Australian car companies in which Holden was given the remark of -3. Apart from that, there were Ford and Mitsubishi with lower remarks by -13 and -14 (drive.com.au, 2018). For such, the issue might sustain to be absence of proper communication within the customers and company, or poor performance showcases by the car manufacturers. Against such, there can be procured customer satisfaction strategies through which the company can communicate with customers. Through such, there requirements can be understood with proper scales for enacting to their demand. (Refer to Appendix 3)
Again an example can be considered for Holden along with other brands such as Ford or Toyota. Holden was filed with 68% complaint rate and Ford with 65% while Toyota with 50% complaint rate (choice.com.au, 2018). The major complaints were regarding the faulty technologies that restricted the cars from proper working. To resolve such conflict, there can be brainstorming activities such as reduction of social inhibition or increasing the creativity, for the technicians to properly cater the issues arising. Apart from such, there can be taken the consideration for arranging meetings with the customers for covering up the conflict. There can also be provided coverage through producing more warranty periods along with more beneficial accessories for any sort of arising issue in later case. (Refer to Appendix 5)
Role of non-verbal communication
To have a proper non-verbal communication skill, an employee should make sure of the following
The appearance of the employee is clean and appealing
The appearance of the employee is of utmost importance for marketing of the product. When a consumer comes in front of the service providers at the store, the appearance of the service providers is the first thing that impresses the customer (Büttner, Florack & Göritz, 2014). As per the view of Leavitt, Keegan & Clark (2016), if the marketing executives happily welcome the consumer then the consumer gets more enthusiastic in the products of the company and acquires interest to hear what the employees have to say. A fresh appearance and an appealing way of talking are very important. Proper non-verbal communication turns out to be the pivotal point of marketing costly products.
Especially because it is a car company, the employees must keep in mind that customers look for perfection and finishing of the best quality. The products at Holden manufacturing houses are built with utmost care and the employees must ensure that the products put on display or for test drive are maintained properly. Jackson (2014) comments that, the cars should be kept clean and all the mechanisms should be functional properly. Moreover, the extra features like air conditioning, music systems and video systems should be properly functional.
Proper verbal communication skill should be developed by an employee so that they are able to
The employees who are talking to the customers need to have confidence in their tone. According to Roth (2014), by hearing the employee the customers must be convinced about his choice of the car. The employee should confidently direct the mind of the customer towards the best features of the car and convince him but never push him beyond the limit.
The employee who is dealing with the customer needs to be aware of the fine difference between convincing and begging in front of a customer. The employees of Holden need to convince the customers rather than beg in front of them. According to Merkin, Taras, & Steel (2014), the employees have to keep in mind that Holden has a reputation in its products and the attitude of the company should be politely displayed in the words of the employee.
The employee must always be authentic about the product in front of the customer. It is important to speak calmly to the customers and the words should be chosen well and after proper thought. As mentioned by Bird & Mendenhall (2016), the employee needs to know all the details about a particular car before dealing with a customer. The employee should be fluent while speaking and should be able to provide all the correct details and features of the product and whatever the employee says needs to be completely authentic.
An employee at Holden should be aware of the cross-cultural communication mainly because Holden is an international Company and market their products in many countries of the world. Moreover, Australia is a country of various cultures and it is necessary for the employees of the company to be fluent in all the cultures that are prevalent in a particular area where the employee is working. As mentioned in the report, due to the absence of proper cross culture awareness in our company, the customers are not satisfied with the products. The customers of Australia who are not natives of the country find it difficult to communicate with the employees of Holden and as a result prefer other companies. The satisfaction level of customers with the cars of Holden was -3% (drive.com.au, 2018).
The employees at Holden are provided with cross cultural training where experts are hired who come and teach the employees about the likings and disliking of people of various communities (Andrae & Edler, 2015). Further, they also train the employees the ways to identify the cultural background of the customer. After that, the ways in which the customer has to be dealt with is explained in details by the trainer. According to Lu & Fan (2015), trainings of various languages are also provided and the employees need to learn the languages that are required by them in the area where they are recruited as employees.
Conclusion
The study helps the new recruits of a marketing company in developing the various skills that are required to deal with the consumers. The marketing executives make the new recruits aware of the importance of customer communication aspect in their type of business. The case studies of various car companies of Australia like Holden and Ford have been taken and the various issues faced by the companies with respect to communication gaps have been analysed. The study focuses on the barriers of communications faced by the companies with respect to the conflict in the resolutions of the company. The various communication skills like non-verbal communications, verbal communications and cross cultural communication awareness have been discussed. Recommendations towards the solving of the issues that have been achieved from the various articles have been provided at the end of the study.
Reference
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