Customer Service Management: Problems And Solutions

Background/Issues to be Addressed

Discuss about the Customer Service Management.

BizOps Enterprise is an organisation that is known for its products that are highly customisable. This customisable nature of the products has attracted a lot of customer base for the company. But as of late it has been observed that the sales of the organisation has been diminishing, thus placing a huge negative impact on the business of the organisation and complaints has been arising with regards to various sections and functioning of the organisation (Award-Winning Customer Service, 2007). This report is to understand the issues that the organisation has and to properly come up with a plan to mitigate such issues.

The following are the problems and background issues that need to be addressed for redresses:

1. As per the email that has been received it is to be noted that there has been a lessening of the demand of the products manufactured by BizOps Enterprises. Managers are unwilling to stock the products from the product line of the organisation. This lessening of the demand has placed an unexpected negative impact on the sales income of the organisation (Brink, & Berndt, 2004). The email also states that there has been certain complaint from customers pertaining to the time that is being taken in filling out special orders. This arises due to the lack of knowledge of the service team of the product range of the organisation.
2. As per the online sales report attached within the e-mail, it is noted that there is something wrong with regards to the approach made towards online sales dispatch. On an average the organisation has been receiving at least two complaints from its consumers. The complaints often are revolving around the fact that the orders put forward by the consumers have not been dispatched within the stipulated time as promised. It is being estimated that the organisation looses at least one order in a month when a customer cancels an order that they have placed when the same has not been dispatched within the stipulated time (Choi, 2016). This is placing a huge impact on the online sales of the organisation.
3. From the customer service report that was attached herewith the email, it is to be noted that primarily the customer complaints have been focused on the time taken for dispatching the special orders that are being placed online (Conlow, & Watsabaugh, 2009). This problem is arising from the fact that the team of personnel that are being employed in the warehouse do not have proper knowledge about the product range of the organisation. It has been observed from the employment panel that a number of new personnel have been hired by the organisation to work in the warehouses. But it is not known if the warehouse personnel have been put through the same induction training programme as the other employees of the organisation in the service and the sales team.
4. From the same customer service report, it is also being observed that the organisation has lost two of its major clients. Both clients were in need of modified products that are manufactured by BizOps enterprises. The clients needed them over a period of 18 months. But it has been observed that after the purchases made by them initially they did not return for the rest. It has been stated by the clients that BizOps is disorganised, the stock supply of the organisation is unreliable, the products that were being sold by BizOps were often poor in quality and it was not always possible to converse with the same sales person, thus making it difficult to form a familiarity with the needs of the clients (“Customer Value Creation by Customer Knowledge Management”, 2013).

1. Furthermore, the same customer service report consists of two complaints from the customers, one being a case where the consumer has not been receiving their loyalty bonus. This was due to the fact that the customer details were sent to a wrong email and as such the consumer made multiple purchases without being provided with any discount. The second complaint is from a retail shop owner, who is frustrated on the organisation as they have been losing their business due to the organisation (Eisingerich, & Bell, 2008). It is stated that the products that are placed are never delivered to the retail outlet on time. Thus the retail store manager is seeking compensation from the organisation for the loss in business.

As per the section herein above, the problem nos. 1-3 is primarily a problem that is arising within the organisation, especially in the service team. Thus a possible solution is being stated for mitigating the problems stated in the previous section under the nos. 1-3 and second customer complaint at stated in no. 5.

• The recruitment process of the organisation needs to be looked into.
• The Service team is understaffed and thus a huge burden is being place on the individuals who are working in the Service Team.
• A proper job description needs to be made as per the requirements or qualifications of an individual required to be hired as a member of the Service Team (Fan, & Ku, 2009).
• It is to be made sure by the HR department of the organisation that the Service Team undergoes the same induction training programme that the Sales Team goes through. This will help the Service team in better understanding the products that are available in the product range of the organisation (Gale, 2014).
• It has been noted that the Service Team has the highest rate of employee turnover, which needs to be addressed by providing them with proper workplace. The Warehouse for the organisation needs to be revamped and cleaned and organised to provide them with a proper working area.
• Hiring of a number of new employees for the Service Team is not the solution as the team needs to train them as well. A proper training program needs to be setup for the Service Team to help them in understanding the products of the enterprise along with being able to provide excellent support to the enterprise through their work (Nätti, Halinen, & Hanttu, 2006).

Pertaining to the Problem no. 4 as stated herein above it is to be noted that serious allegations have been brought forth against the enterprise and these can harm the reputation of the enterprise and ultimately leading to loss of business. A basic outline is being provided to solve the problem.

• A proper quality assurance management process has to be inducted. There is a need to appoint a Quality Check Manager, whose sole purpose shall be test the quality of the products that are being sold by the enterprise (Goodman, 2000).
• The inventory system of the enterprise needs to be revamped and modified. With the use of digital tools and modern technology, we should build a new inventory list that is always automatically updated. This will help in the organisation being more organised as also have a constant check on the products that are in stock and the ones that needs to be stocked before they run out (Wu, 2007).
• There is a need for a system within the organisation that stores information about the clients that each sales representative has handled. This history or information shall allow the organisation to re-assign tasks pertaining to sales to a fixed organisation to one particular sales expert, thus allowing a familiarity between the client and the enterprise.

As per the first complaint as stated in the section above under no. 5, it is being stated that the following should be done to mitigate such problems and to avoid the same in the future.

• A proper system needs to be setup that retains all customer data. The system shall control whether a discount shall be provided or not and also check if a customer is eligible for extra distribution (Managing for results, 2010). The need for manual intervention in the system is being removed to avoid any error due to human negligence.

The primary points that have been discussed in the report are being stated herein below:

• The dip in sales of the enterprise due to the loss of business.
• The condition of the employees in the Service Team
• The need for proper recruitment process to hire appropriate staff for the Service Team
• The need for proper induction training programme for the Service Team employees to keep them updated with the product line of the enterprise (Piercy, & Lane, 2009).
• There is also a need for a data management system and inventory systems for the organisation to keep the details updated and at the same time handle the customer data effectively.
• There is also a need for quality assurance cell for checking the quality of the products that are being sold by the enterprise.

Conclusion

This report has outlined the various problems that the organisation/enterprise is facing in the recent times. Based on the background issues that are affecting the sales of the enterprise a basic recommendation is being made through the report to solve the various issues (Goodman, 2009). Although, there is a need to study the issues in much more details for providing a detailed solution, but the solutions provided in the report forms a basic outline of the solutions that needs to implemented for improving the sales of the organisation as well as lifting up the service provided by the Service Team of the organisation.

References

Award-Winning Customer Service. (2007) (1st ed.). [Place of publication not identified].

Brink, A., & Berndt, A. (2004). Customer relationship management & customer service (1st ed.). Landsdowne, South Africa: Juta.

Choi, S. (2016). Customer Knowledge in Knowledge Management Systems: The Source of Superior Customer Service. World Journal Of Management, 7(2), 31-50. https://dx.doi.org/10.21102/wjm.2016.09.72.03

Conlow, R., & Watsabaugh, D. (2009). SuperSTAR customer service (1st ed.). [Rochester, N.Y.]: Axzo Press.

Customer Value Creation by Customer Knowledge Management. (2013). International Journal ON Advances In Information Sciences And Service Sciences, 5(10), 1242-1253. https://dx.doi.org/10.4156/aiss.vol5.issue10.145

Eisingerich, A., & Bell, S. (2008). Perceived Service Quality and Customer Trust. Journal Of Service Research, 10(3), 256-268. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094670507310769

Fan, Y., & Ku, E. (2009). Customer focus, service process fit and customer relationship management profitability: the effect of knowledge sharing. The Service Industries Journal, 30(2), 203-223. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02642060802120141

Gale, B. (2014). Managing customer value (1st ed.). [Place of publication not identified]: Free Press.

Goodman, G. (2000). Monitoring, measuring, and managing customer service (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goodman, J. (2009). Strategic customer service (1st ed.). New York [etc.]: AMACOM.

Managing for results. (2010) (1st ed.). [Washington, D.C.].

Nätti, S., Halinen, A., & Hanttu, N. (2006). Customer knowledge transfer and key account management in professional service organizations. International Journal Of Service Industry Management, 17(4), 304-319. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09564230610680631

Piercy, N., & Lane, N. (2009). Strategic customer management (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

Wu, C. (2007). The impact of customer-to-customer interaction and customer homogeneity on customer satisfaction in tourism service—The service encounter prospective. Tourism Management, 28(6), 1518-1528. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2007.02.002