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CUSTOMER SERVICE IN KSFE
Customers are the key elements in all the modern Marketing concepts. Earlier,
caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) ruled a sales transaction, but now the
satisfaction of customer is more important. The seller of a product or the provider
of a service finds out what his customer needs and does his best to meet it. Selling
(a product or service) has become a science of human relations and an art of
getting along with people so effectively that sales resistance may be reduced to the
minimum.
Thoughts of MAHATMA GANDHI on Customer Service
A Customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on
us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption on our work. He is the
purpose of it. He is not an outsider on our business. He is a part of it. We are not
doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an
opportunity to do so.
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION
The first step in gaining customers is to have a thorough understanding of the
behavior of the customers in the market. Consumer Behaviour is the process
whereby individuals decide what, when, how and from whom to purchase goods
and services (Walters and Paul). Consumer behavior is very complex and dynamic
and therefore the managements need to adjust with the change, otherwise market
may be lost.
The motives which induce an ultimate consumer or user to obtain a product or
service are known as buying motives. The seller must discover the customer’s
primary motives (for they are often unaware of these) and direct his appeal as
effectively as possible.
Finally, the deal can be struck through influencing the decision making process of
the customer. The need of the customer may be an urgent and compelling one
demanding urgent attention; or it may be one the satisfaction of which can be
delayed for a considerable period or postponed entirely. The marketer must keep in
mind that the customer’s activities in this decision stage are internal and not
observable. However it is true that the decision is in terms of the individual’s past
experiences and understanding as well as his innate characteristics.
Some Strategies for New Acquisition
1.Understanding the market and consumer behavior
2.Gaining full knowledge of the product/service (to be offered) and also that of the
competitors
3.Identifying the target groups/individual customers and approaching the right
customers with right product at the right time with right tools and techniques
4.Projecting the salient features/strength of the product/service, motivate the
customers and influence their decision
CUSTOMER RETENTION
As discussed earlier, acquiring new lot to its fold is definitely a difficult task in the
present competitive world. Equally challenging is the retention of the customers so
acquired.
A BIRD IN HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH
In simple terms, improved customer service is the basic funda for customer
retention. Service personnel are more important in all organizations but more so in
an organization involved in providing services. The behavior and attitude of the
personnel providing the service is an important influence on the customer’s overall
perception of the service and he can rarely distinguish between the actual service
rendered and the human element involved in it. As a marketing manager you have
to be concerned with ways in which you can improve the quality and performance
of your service personnel. This can be done through:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Careful selection and training of personnel
Laying down norms, rules and procedures to ensure consistent behavior
Ensuring consistent appearance
Reducing the importance of personal contact by introducing automation and
computerization wherever possible.
As a manager one must analyse your service at the Customer Benefit Concept. The
service which one offers in the market place must have its origin in the benefits
which the customers are seeking. But the problem is that customers themselves
may not have a clear idea of what they are seeking or they may find it difficult to
express or it may be a combination of several benefits and not a single one. Over a
period of time, the benefits sought may also change. This change in customers may
come about by a satisfactory or unhappy experience in utilizing the service,
through increased sophistication in service use and consumption, and changing
expectations.
The two main elements in a service delivery system are the people and the physical
evidence. The competence, observance of etiquettes, public relations ability etc. of
the personnel represents the people component while the appearance and ambience
of the office building, facilities in the premises etc. are all elements of the physical
evidence. The physical evidence components have also been called ‘facilitating
goods’ and ‘support goods’. These are the tangible elements of the service and they
exert an important influence on the quality of the service as perceived by the
customers.
CUSTOMER NETWORK EXPANSION
A satisfied customer of any organisation will facilitate the addition of more to its
kitty. The continued growth of any organisation will be determined by its ability to
deliver superior customer value.
The reason for growing emphasis on customer satisfaction is that satisfied
customers lead to a stronger competitive positioning, resulting ultimately in loyal
customers, increased market share and profit. All the industrial segments are under
mounting pressure to demonstrate that their services are customer-focused and that
continuous performance improvement is being delivered. It is essential that
customer expectations are properly understood and measured and that, from the
customers' perspective, any gaps in service quality are identified and then
remedied.
The existing satisfied customers of a Company will:
i.
ii.
iii.
Refer more customers who are otherwise alien (to both the Company and to
him)
Help adding friends and relatives to the Company’s fold
Campaign for the Company in the formal and informal groupings (like their
Clubs, Associations etc.)
Effective Customer Communication
Relevance of communication is seen as key in overcrowded, competitive markets
where service differentiation can be difficult. Documents that add value to the
customer relationship add to differentiation. For any service oriented businesses
effective communication is a major factor in improving customer addition,
retention and network expansion.
Chief Marketing Officers are adopting Customer Communications Management
because it heralds a world of new opportunity and a new way to develop customer
relationships.
Some Tips on Customer Service
1.The purpose of your business is to create customers
2.Customer is the boss
3.Put yourself in Customer’s shoes
4.Customer is the profit; Everything else is overhead
5.Communicate continuously with your customers
6.Develop Customer oriented policies and procedures
7.Listen, Listen, Listen…to your customers
8.Each of your employees should visit your customers
9.Solve the small problems of your customers today itself
10.Customer must be given the best possible service
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management, a well-defined business strategy, is a fusion
of a series of functions, skills, processes and technologies which together allow
companies to more profitably manage (acquire and retain) customers. CRM is a
comprehensive strategy and process of acquiring, retaining and partnering with
selective customers to create superior value for the company and the customer.
Now a days CRM is driven by technology in a big way. CRM is a discipline as
well as a set of discrete software software technologies which focuses on
automating and improving the business processes associated with managing the
customer relationships in the areas of sales, marketing, customer service and
support. The important elements of an effective CRM are – having Customer
Insight ( All information about the customer), Customer resource optimization,
customer profitability, personalizing customer interaction and achieving superior
customer experience.
BRANDING
One of the most significant product policy decisions an organization has to
confront is how to identify its products. Branding is a way for an organization to
identify its offerings and distinguish them from those of competitors. A brand
name is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers
and to differentiate from those of the competitors. Brand names should not be
confused with trade names. Brand refers to a product. Trade name refers to
company. The name of the firm is its trade name. The brand name can come from
its trade name.
The basic purpose of branding is to fix the identity of the producer of a given
product. The other purposes are for legal protection and as a basis for promotional
efforts. The continued use of brands to present times in business has been largely
due to: i) growth in competition; ii) growth of national and local advertising; iii)
growth of packaging; iv) the development of consumer and brand consciousness.
There are three recognized degrees of brand identification:
a. Brand insistence where consumers insist on a brand when they perceive it as
having few close substitutes. Brand insistence is the ultimate goal of
production differentiation and market segmentation
b. Brand preferences may stem from habit or experience. Preferences exist
among groups of consumers for almost all well known brands
c. Brand recognition results when consumers remember having seen or heard
of a brand but make no special attempt to purchase it because they are
satisfied with their present brand
A brand image is the impression of a particular product that has formed in the
consumer’s mind
Marketing effort is the most important reason for branding. The purpose of the
marketing programme is to convince the consumer that the organisation’s product
will satisfy his wants and desires. For achieving this purpose, the consumer is first
acquainted with the brand and recognize if he would want it. It is through the brand
that this recognition is sought.
Importance of Branding
a. To seller, it works as a vehicle by which the goodwill of the public for the
article presented for sale may be organized and made effective as a
cumulative force in selling. It may prove a valuable asset to the seller
b.The seller achieves greater stability of sales volume and greater stability of
price through transforming his product, to the maximum possible degree in
speciality goods.
c.Consumers used trade marks originally to identify the maker. But now a
days, they are almost exclusively interested in the identifications of products
rather than the source.
d.Consumers look upon the brand name as a symbol of product quality of a
product’s characteristics and features and as a symbol of the satisfaction
product supply.
e. Branding is an insurance of merchandise comparability when the customers
use more than one source of supply.
f. Branded products tend to improve quality over the years. Competition forces
brand owners to constantly seek new ways to differentiate their products in
order to secure a stronger market position.
g. The brand is often of greater help in demand simulation than the company
name or the technical aspects of the product.
The most popular branded chits of KSFE, viz.Ponnona Chittikal and Pravasi
Bandhu Chittikal, are the recent typical examples. The branding has brought
exponential growth to the Company’s business as also amassed customers sans
frontiers.
CUSTOMER LOYALTY
Customer Loyalty describes the tendency of a customer to choose one business
or product over another for a particular need. Loyalty is demonstrated by the
actions of the customer. Customer Loyalty becomes evident when choices are
made and actions taken by customers. Customers can be very satisfied and still
not be loyalty. Customer Loyalty is the result of well-managed customer
retention programs; customers who are targeted by a retention program
demonstrate higher loyalty to a business. All customer retention programs rely
on communicating with customers, giving them encouragement to remain
active and choosing to do business with a company. Customer Loyalty has
become a catch-all term for the end result of many marketing approaches where
Customer data is used. You can say Relationship marketing or Database
marketing or Permission Marketing or CRM, and what you are really talking
about is trying to increase Customer Loyalty. The addition of loyal customers to
its fold has become the order of the day in this highly competitive corporate
world.
PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION
This is strategy under which the Companies attempt to single out their market
of products (or Services) from their competitive ones in the market. They do
this by creating sales appeal differences or a difference in a product. The
different sales appeals may centre around the distribution channel, pricing or
promotion.
When products of the competitors are virtually identical, or when they are
competing in the same market, a firm may attempt to develop uniqueness in its
products and in its availability in the market. Similarly the firm may come out
with promotional sales appeal. Secondly, a firm may wish to sell a number of
market segments without making significant modifications. In this case the firm
tries to penetrate the market by talking about the product differently, pricing it
differently or by using different distribution channels. The choice selection of
the firm out of these two strategies will depend on a number of factors such as
size of a market in terms of monetary sales, customer response to product
availability, price differences, type of product and the number and types of
competitors.
The KSFE adopts product differentiation as a strategy during the seasonal
campaigns. A number of rewards are being offered to the customers. Various
other promotional efforts are being taken up. Distribution Channels are being
strengthened in some or the other way.
CHANNELS OF DISTRIBUTION
The Distribution Channel can be defined as the movement of goods and
services between point of production and the Point of consumption through
organisations that perform a variety of marketing activities. The major
participants in the distribution channel are producers, intermediaries and
consumers. In the context of service sector organisations the branch network
expansion, engaging the selling and collection agents etc. are visible examples
for operationalizing the distribution channels.
“Every producer seeks to link together the set of marketing intermediaries
that best fulfill the firm’s objectives. This set of marketing intermediaries is
called the marketing channel or trade channel or channel distribution”
-PHILIP KOTLER
Generally
when business expands it is felt expedient to take assistance of
professionals in distribution of the product, specially if the market to be covered is
dense and large. Here comes the role of intermediaries who bridge the gap between
producers and consumers most efficiently.
Agency system in KSFE is an example for marketing channel. As a Manager for
marketing you have to be concerned with ways in which you can improve the
quality and performance of your Agents, if any. This can be done through- i)
Careful selection and training of personnel, ii) Laying down norms, rules and
procedures to ensure consistent behavior, iii)Ensuring consistent appearance before
the targets/customers, iv)Monitoring and follow up of sales and service activities
v)Taking corrective actions/strategies, if required.
Generally, the functions of marketing channels are:
a. Promotion - Development and discrimination of persuasive communication
about the product
b. Contact - Searching out and communicating with the prospective
clients/customers
c. Matching - Shaping and matching the offer to the customer’s requirements like
standardization, grading, assembling and packaging
d. Distribution and/or Delivery – of the products and services
Multi-Channel
Marketing System (MMS) occurs when a single firm uses two or
more marketing channels to reach one or more customer segments. MMS will
facilitate in increasing the market coverage, lowering the channel cost and to
increase the customized selling. It is understood that KSFE has ambitious plans to
adopt this strategy more effectively.
ADVERTISEMENT AND PUBLICITY
Advertising denotes a specific attempt to popularize a specific product or service at
a certain cost. Whereas Publicity is the non-personal stimulation of demand for a
product, service or business unit by planting commercially significant news about
it in a published medium or obtaining favourable presentation of it upon media or
stage that is not paid for by the sponsor. It is obvious that Advertising is a method
of publicity.
Basic Features of Advertising
1.It
is a mass non-personal communication – reaching large group of consumers. It
is not delivered by an actual person nor is it addressed to a specifies person.
2.It
is a matter of record – giving information for the benefit of buyers
3.It
persuades buyers to purchase the products advertised – For this, the advertiser
makes the products customer-satisfying.
4.It
is a mass paid communication – to impart information, develop attitudes and
induce action beneficial to the advertiser (ie.Sales)
5.The
communication media is diverse such as print (newspapers and magazines),
broadcast (radio and television), and direct (mail, billboards, motion pictures).
6.It
is also called printed salesmanship because information is spread by means of
the written and printed words and pictures so that people may be induced to act
upon it.
Advertisement performs the following functions:
i)Promotion of sales, ii)Introduction of new product awareness, iii)Creation of
good public image, iv)Mass production facilitation, v)Carry out research,
vi)Education of people, and vii)Support to press/media.
PUBLICITY is unpaid for exposure which is derived by getting coverage as a
news of editorial item. It is possible to get publicity when the service which you
are offering is unique and therefore, newsworthy, by holding a press conference in
which you can associate your service with some issues of greater social relevance
or by involving the interest of the newspaper in covering your service (For
example, the CSR activities undertaken by KSFE). The important point about
publicity is that your choice of the news paper, magazine and journal should be
correct. The vehicle which you choose must be credible and enjoy a reputation of
being trustworthy. A wrong choice of media vehicle will result in adverse
publicity.
PROMOTIONAL POLICIES IN BUSINESS
Promotion is an attempt to 'Influence'. Promotion is, in fact, any marketing effort to
inform or persuade actual or potential consumers about the merits of a given
product or service for the purpose of introducing a consumer either to continue or
to start purchasing the firm’s product or service at a given price. Selling an
promotion are often used synonymously. Selling is the personal or impersonal
process of assisting and/or persuading a prospective customer to buy a commodity
or service, or, to act favourably upon an idea, that has commercial significance to
the seller. On the other hand, promotion is the all inclusive term representing the
broad field-advertising, personal selling and sales promotion.
The purposes of promotion are, broadly, to communicate, to convince and to
compete. Communication is the basis of marketing, it is not enough merely to
communicate, but communication should be convincing enough to supplement
and provide adequate advantages as compared to competitor’s product/offers.
The broad objectives of promotion are:
a.To provide information
b.To stimulate demand
c.To differentiate the products
d.To
highlight the utility of the product
e.To
counter competition and stabilize prices and sales
and
f.To
build image
Promotion is an intricate part of the marketing mix. The marketing mix includes
[P]roduct, [P]rice, [P]lace and [P]romotion (4 Ps). The activities of the first three
Ps -- product planning, pricing and place of distribution -- are performed mainly
within the parent organization or between the firm and its marketing
partners.With the last 'P', [P]romotion, a firm communicates directly with
potential customers, and hence is one of the most crucial elements in forming a
brand identity.
All promotional activities must be integrated to deliver a consistent and positive
message. A multi-media promotion campaign is usually more effective than any
promotional activity alone. In developing a promotional campaign, a company
must first determine the target audience and the ideal avenues to reach them. Also
determine a promotion budget and then design the promotion activities
accordingly.
The policies and practices adopted by the KSFE while designing the business
promotion campaigns are centered on such and other objectives as mentioned
above.
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