Customer Service

The ‘Understanding Travel and Tourism’ case study provides useful background information about Hilton Hotels. The first three sections of this case study are based on two presentations on the theme of ‘Reach Beyond’ given to employees of Hilton Hotels UK and Ireland as part of a major staff training programme. Benefits of Good Customer Service Guests tend to leave or defect from Hilton because:

• they become dissatisfied or
• a competitor is thought to be better or because a guest simply doesn’t care (in every market there are people who just don’t care about brand choice) or
• the guest has no choice e. g. the location is not right for the traveller or, for business travellers, because company policy is to use another hotel chain.

What satisfies guests? Every guest is different, however research by Hilton Hotels has identified some ‘drivers’ that influence whether a guest is satisfied with the stay or not. Drivers of Guest Satisfaction – UK Relative Impact on Overall Satisfaction [pic] The Importance of Loyalty

Guest survey research by Hilton suggests that in a typical year only 5% of existing customers remain loyal, however loyal customers tend to spend more and they account for 10% of revenue. Loyalty is important because satisfied and loyal guests:

• will make an effort to do business with Hilton
• give 80% or more of their business to Hilton
• ignore competitive offers, advertising and discounts
• tend to be willing to accept higher pricing structures
• remain with Hilton 8-10 times longer than unloyal guests
• are worth 100 times more than unloyal guests, in the long term

It is worth noting that the importance of loyal guests is recognised by most travel and tourism organisations, and many often carry out promotions aimed directly at repeat customers. One way Hilton Hotels rewards loyalty and encourages repeat bookings is through the Hilton HHonors membership scheme, through which customers can receive points and other benefits. The more a customer uses Hilton Hotels, the bigger the rewards. Handling Complaints If no action is taken following a complaint, 52% of guests making a complaint are likely NOT to return.

Once a complaint has been handled satisfactorily, 94% of customers making a complaint will return. This is almost the same percentage of customers likely to return when there is no problem and no complaint. This slide gives more detail about Hilton Hotels’ findings from research into the handling of problems and complaints. How may I help you? [pic]Source: VisualMedia Online ICT and Customer Service Hilton Hotels uses ICT in many ways. Just a few examples are: Hilton Hotels’ e-learning training programme that can be accessed by all staff members

• the use of powerful software programmes for analysing the results of research into customer satisfaction levels
• providing excellent ICT amenities for business travellers
• making it easier to book the Hilton brand by improvements to websites and computerised reservations systems, and ‘fair deal’ agreements with external booking agencies.

In 2002/3 Hilton developed a local language website for Hilton International in the UK – www. hilton.co.uk.

The re-designed site featured lots more information. It was localised to make sure the offers were relevant and attractive for UK customers. The details on each hotel are updated at the hotel, rather than centrally, as is common practice. This ensures that the customer is getting all the most up-to-date and relevant details about the hotel and its offers as soon as possible. As part of the successful launch, the website www. hiltongroup. com promoted the new-look website www. hilton. co. uk. This included some examples of different types of potential customer and how they would use the new website.

Below is the example of a customer travelling for leisure. Quality Here is a summary of the message to staff taking part in the Hilton ‘Reach Beyond’ training scheme: Importance of complaint handling No complaintComplaint (64%) (36%) Not reported Reported (8%) (28%) No actionAction Taken (8%) Not satisfied Satisfied (9%) (11%) Why is satisfaction important? Guest stays at HiltonNot satisfiedDefects to the competition Guest stays at HiltonSatisfiedVisits againBecomes loyal For further information about Hilton Hotels see: www. iltongroup. com or www. hilton. co. uk The Leisure Traveller “Whenever I go away I always stay in a Hilton,” says Rachel Martin “I love the fact that I always get the same high service standards no matter where I go in the world. ” Rachel, a public relations consultant and a keen traveller, has been visiting Hilton hotels for over 10 years, and has been to hotels all over the world, from the Middle East to Japan. “I’ve always wanted to book on the web, but I never felt comfortable with the old hilton. com site – it always felt too American, and a little impersonal. The new www. hilton. co. uk site, however, suits Rachel down to the ground. “All the special offers on the front page are priced in UK pounds, so I can directly see that I’m getting the best value I can from Hilton. I’ve also become aware of holiday packages I didn’t know about before. ” Rachel has just booked her 2003 summer holiday using the website “I’m looking forward to my next holiday – in the Hilton in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt – where I’m going to learn to dive, something I’ve always wanted to try, but didn’t even know Hilton offered until I used www. ilton. co. uk. ” 95%77%52%62% 94% Likelihood to return How can YOU influence satisfaction?

Top 5 factors that influence guest satisfaction:

1. Have a positive ‘can do’ attitude
2. Overall quality of room
3. Staff efficiency
4. Staff friendliness
5. Comfort of room Hilton Reach Beyond Consistent, Quality Customer Service delivers the Brand Promise and recruits and keeps LOYAL Guests

Introduction Overview of the task The task of this essay is to have a research in person to pay a visit on Best Buy to discover its potential marketing problem, anticipate the consequences and provides potential solution to this problem, which from my perspective, is bad customer service. Purpose and structure of the essay The purpose of this essay is to explore the potential marketing problem of Best Buy to provide solutions to its problem.

In order to make the essay more complete, this essay will first start with the brief introduction of the Best Buy, and then a personal experience of visiting the Best Buy shop will be displayed to have an analysis of the potential problem- bad customer service. What to follow is the anticipation and analysis of the potential influence and consequence of the problem. Subsequently, solutions and recommendation will be put out to tackle the problem. Brief Introduction of the Best Buy

Best Buy is a giant retailer of entertainment and technology products and services with operations in the multiple countries- United States, China, Europe, Canada and Mexico. The Best Buy generates more than 45 billion dollars annual revenue through brands family and partnerships such as Magnolia Audio Video; Audiovisions; Best Buy; Future Shop; Geek Squad The Car phone Warehouse; Napster; Jiangsu Five Star; Pacific Sales; The Phone House; and Speakeasy.

The company is made up by about 155,000 employees who have applied their capabilities to bring benefit to the company and added value to customers through various means, for example, online communities, call centers, in-home solutions, retail locations, and websites, and product delivery. Problem of the company On March 29, 2012, the earning news released by the Best Buy which is lower than expected has revealed the trouble of this giant electronics retailer. It is said that Best buy is going to fire four hundred employees and ended up to fifty stores.

Best buy, the last standing electronics blames its difficulties on fierce online competition, for example with Amazon. com. It says that Amazon keeps stealing its business with lower price due to its sales tax free (The Crossing of Marketing and IT, 2012). One joke even goes that Best Buy and Wall-mart have became the showroom for the Amazon. What show rooming means? It means that customers walk in to a Best Buy / Wall-mart/ Sears with the only purpose to check out the real product and compare the prices with the online prices so as to buy a product in other places with cheaper price.

This is the dilemma and big problem for most of the brick and mortar retailers like Best Buy. The show rooming and price competition with online-stores should take most part of the duty for the declining profit problem of Best Buy. But it is from my perspective that the failure of Best Buy is a self-inflicted woes rather than an external hurt due to its bad customer service. The much-publicized Christmas fault of Best Buy has exposed the customer service problem. Three days before Christmas last year, Best Buy informed 30,000 awaiting customers of cancelled order due to “a combination of software and process issues” (24kmarketing, 2012).

There is no need to say that such kind of fault will kill any types of retailers. To make things worse, it took approximately three weeks for CEO of Best Buy – Brian Dunn to make an apology for this event, which has added the oil on the flame of fury of customers. The consequence is evident with shares of Best Buy falling by 34% to about $30, Since Thanksgiving. On June 14, Best Buy also announced earnings of 35 cents a share which is a penny lower than last year (Alpha, 2012). What’s more, my last experience of visiting the Best Buy shop has given more proof of it customer service problem.

Last week, I went to one of the stores of Best Buy, when I was looking for the things I wanted, the salesperson keeps roaming around me and kept fixed eyes on me which made me quite unpleasant. After a while, he asked me about my needs, however, the guy just knew nothing about the things I want and started to sell other electronics products to me. However, what I want is just some blu-ray dics. Bothering by the upsetting and annoying salesperson, I just grabbed one of the blu-ray discs. But after going home, I found that I have already got this disc and returned to ask for changing the disc.

The troublesome procedure and bad attitude of staff really made me furious. Apart from the up-selling and cross-selling, what I cannot put up with is the erosion of my privacy, questions like how much is your salary is really impolite. The hawking clumsy salesperson is the tip of the problem iceberg and just scratch the surface of the problem, what should be laid emphasis is the customer service and after-sales service quality. Potential consequence of the problem The company has reported a 1. 7% decline in it total sales and profit margins last year.

Consumers come down to the store will have high interaction with the salespersons and in-store staff (Forbes, 2012). The attitude and service quality is the cornerstone of the success. Non-savvy consumers need the help to learn more product and handling before purchase. If Best Buy cannot differentiate itself and make full use of the advantages of its retail stores, Best Buy is destined to follow the way of dinosaur. Below chart illustrates that the consequence will be like in a few years if Best Buy is unable to change customers ‘perception and values towards it.

Best Buy cannot forget the lesson of Circuit City which closed its big boxes in 2009 (Alpha, 2012). CNBC Financial Data: Solution to the problem Solutions that can be provided to the Best Buy are as follows. First and foremost, improve customer service quality through systematic plan and training. It is suggested experts in this field should be hired to make a throughout improvement plan for this company, ranging from standard speech and the after-sales service standard (Harvard Business Review, 2010). Secondly, make full use of the interaction in the stores with customers to change the perception of customers.

In this part, the attitude the promotion is the key to success. Thirdly, with fierce competition, Best Buy should improve its inventory system and internet technologies in this field. The Christmas mistakes cannot happen again. Fourthly, close some big store and change its focus to the online competition. Reference Alpha, S. (2012). Best Buy: the Writing Is on the Wall. Retrieved from http://seekingalpha. com/article/343721-best-buy-the-writing-is-on-the-wall Forbes, S. (2012). Why Best Buy is going out of Business… Gradually. Retrieved from http://www. orbes. com/fdc/welcome_mjx. shtml Harvard Business Review. (2010). Inside Best Buy’s Customer-Centric Strategy. Retrieved from http://blogs. hbr. org/hbsfaculty/2010/04/inside-best-buys-customer-cent. html The Crossing of Marketing and IT. (2012). What is Best Buy’s Real Problem. Retrieved from http://www. crossingmarketingandit. com/marketing-2/general-marketing/best-buys-problem/ 24kmarketing. (2012). Best Buy Problems Signal Need for New Retail Formats. Retrieved from http://24kmarketing. com/2012/03/best-buy-problems-signal-need-for-new. html

This essay outlines what customer service really is and what are the problems associated with it. To understand these problems let us first understand how to define Customer service. Customer service is that process by which a company provides services, provisions to its customers during a purchase, after the purchase is done and even prior to the purchase. How important a customer is depends upon the deliverance of the type of product or service involved. The success of customer service depends upon the employees who can accustom themselves to what the customers want and give them a service based on that.

Thus, if the customer is satisfied, the customer service flourishes. Further, it becomes important to understand the dilemmas that can be faced while serving a customer. The first real problem with customer service is this that, while serving the customer, organizations end up in a trap rather than actually giving the customer the substance of the service. Secondly, the tools and techniques used to serve the customer better are misused on a wider scale. And, it so appears that these tools are used to serve the symptom and not the proper sickness.

An example can be quoted here of the hospitals that people run for children. These organizations also believe in customer service and because of that they paint the walls of the children’s ward with clowns and animals and other things that they think might cheer up the kids. But what actually happened is, that rather than making the things therapeutic in nature for the children, they end up making the children scared as the children are more scared of clowns and animals than needles and medicines. Thus, here a better customer service would be to leave the walls as plain.

A failure to providing proper customer service always results in a low customer loyalty, a low satisfaction of the customer and hence a bad reputation of the organization that causes a huge loss. Hence, the proper elements in customer service lie in the fact that which parts of customer service are important and which parts are to be neglected. Also, the services should be provided to those customers who value them and not to those who do not value them. Therefore, an alignment is to be maintained between the capabilities of service that are to be provided to the customer as well as the strategies of market that are being maintained.

Hill’s Automotive, Inc. Hill’s AutomotiveInc. , is an aftermarket producer and distributor of automotive replacement parts. The business slowly expanded which began as a supplier of hard-to-get auto air-conditioning units for classic cars and hot rods. The firm has limited manufacturing capability but a state-of-the-art MRP system and extensive inventory and assembly facilities. Components are purchased, assembled and repackaged. Profits have fallen considerably. In addition, the customer service level has declined, with late deliveries now exceeding 25% of orders.

And to make matters worse, customer returns have been rising at a rate of 3% per month. I. Point of View Art Hill II. Time Context At present III. Statement of the Problem The main problem of the study pertains to the declining profitability of the company and how will this decline be solved. IV. Statement of the Objectives * To be able to prepare a plan that will help the firm back on course toward improved profitability. * To be able to identify the symptoms, the problems and the specific changes to be implemented in the firm. * To be able to show the importance of MRP played in the plan. V. Assumptions * Hill’s Automotive Inc. s known as a supplier of hard-to-get auto air-conditioning units. * Hill’s Automotive Inc. is a financial stable manufacturing company. * The whole management of the Hill’s Automotive Inc. is responsible and effective employees. * The slow expansion of the business is consistent. VI. Areas of Consideration SWOT Analysis Strengths * Hill’s Automotive Inc. is a supplier of hard-to-get replacement parts. * Hill’s Automotive Inc. is a financial stable manufacturing company. * The manufacturing company has a state-of-the-art MRP system and extensive inventory and assembly facilities. * The firm has accurate bill of materials. Weaknesses The firm has a limited manufacturing capability. * The company’s discretionary segment has put downward pressure on volume and margins. * The company is suffering from considerably fallen profits. * Customer service level declines. * Customer returns are rising. * The firm has poor quality control and low productivity resulting to acquire high cost. Opportunities * The firm has a limited manufacturing capability. * The company is suffering from considerably fallen profits. * Level of customer service and returns. * Quality level and standards Threats * Competitors * Economic change * Declining customer service level. * Doubtful quality

I’m going to do an investigation into two different organisations taking into account the principles, products and services that are offered and the companies’ customer care policies.

My first organisation is Alton Towers; a fun packed theme park aimed at all types of age groups, maybe not for the over 50’s though. It is the UK’s best loved theme park, 2 hotels, a spa, an extraordinary golf course, and nineteenth century gothic castles.

My second organisation is First choice tour operators; a leisure travel company operating in four different sectors. They have many high street stores and are a well-known respected tour operations company.

My first impression of Alton towers was quite alright, it weren’t bad customer service but we had a few problems. I and my friends had gone for a birthday party and we had pre-booked our tickets so that we could just go straight through and not have to queue up. When we got to the desk the lady couldn’t find us on the computer and asked us for our reference number, we weren’t given a ref number we just got told to show them a confirmation letter they had emailed us. There was a mix up on the computer and they eventually sorted it out. They never really apologised to us for making us wait and not explaining thoroughly what had happened. By the end of our visit we had forgot the kafuffle at the beginning as we’d had such a good day and the service throughout the day was brill!

My first impression for First Choice tour operators was fantastic. I flew with first choice to Gran Canaria in Xmas 2005. When we first got on the plane they greeted us with smiles and asked if we were ok etc. When we sat down ready for take off they all came round to check if we required anything and to see that we were all ok. I think that is good service as there job is too look after their customers and that’s exactly what they were doing. Some airlines do have good customer service but first choice just seemed to stand out to me. I’ve flown with Gold Trail before and they were horrendous, you would ask for assistance and they would come back to you in around 45 minutes; They were absolutely terrible. We were also delayed on that flight for 7 hours and didn’t receive anything for it.

The principals of customer care.

First impressions are the first sign of good customer care, for example if you walked into a travel agents wanting to find out some information on a holiday you have seen, you would want the agent to approach you first with a cheery happy face and be polite! That is a good first impression, if you walked in and you had to speak first and they looked all morbid and mardy, you wouldn’t think that was a good first impression. In any organisation the people of the company should always give a good first impression because that’s what the customer remembers.

Any company should have good company image, an appealing logo is a first, you wouldn’t go in a travel agents if they had a shabby logo on their shop, you would want it too look appealing and stand out. Employees should have a the company’s logo on their uniform as that gives a good impression, plus customers will know that they are part of that company if they need assistance.

Speed and accuracy of service is vital in customer care, you want to be served as quickly and efficient as possible. You don’t want to be waiting ages to be assisted and then they don’t give you the advice you wanted or they sell you the wrong product.

Every company should have a customer service policy; all companies should provide a helpful, friendly and reliant service.

The methods my two organisations use to monitor and evaluate their customer service.

Alton towers have a comment sheet and cards to ensure that all customers are enjoying their visit. The comments sheet/cards enable the company to understand what the customer likes and dislikes and too see if there are any problems. When you’re in the park they come round and put the sheets under your windscreen wiper so that when you return to your car you can fill it in. If you have any complaints or claims you must write to their customer relations manager within 28days of your trip to Alton towers. All complaints or claims that do not involve in injury or death, Alton towers cannot accept liability.

First choice holidays listen to their frontline employees, customer focus groups, customer feedback questionnaires and by conducting mystery shopping where a third party acts as a customer and feeds back to the company on the quality of the service they receive.

These are all good ways for company’s to monitor their customer service. There are many other ways a company good monitor their customer service; observations, feedback from team members, suggestions box or book, questionnaires and surveys, or simply just have a customer service desk if they feel they are not satisfied within the store and want to complain straight away.

The benefits of good customer service

The benefits of an employee would be that if they gave a good service within their job then they would enjoy their job as they would be praised.You would also be secure in your job as if your good at your job and can deliver a good service, your employer will want you to stay. If you are good at your job and the customers are all satisfied, your employer may give you a pay rise. Incentives can also be given to you by your employer.For example you could be set a target and if you reach it you can be awarded some money or even a holiday. The benefits to the employer would be that the sales and profits of the business would rise because of returned customers and more customers would come to you as the returning customers would tell other people.

There would be less complaints if the business had a good service, which would mean more positive feedback. If the business was in competition with other businesses they would have a better advantage as customers would want to go to their business as they deliver a better service. Customers will be highly satisfied if you give them a good service, you will be meeting their needs and exceeding their expectations, they will return and give word of mouth. Returning customers is good for every business, it is also good for both the customer and the employee as you will build a good repour. Customers will also gain your loyalty and certainly give recommendations.

Consequences of a poor service

If you give a poor service the financial side of the business will fail and lose money. The reputation of the employer will be bad and people who were thinking of applying for a job in that company will reconsider there thoughts.

My first impression of Alton towers was a poor service, we said we weren’t going to pre-book our tickets there again we would just do it the normal way, but as the day went on the service was brilliant and we had forget all about the kafuffle at the start of the day. First Choice was a great first impression at the start; we went back to them as they had delivered a good service. If they had delivered us a poor service we would not have gone back and would have told other people how rude they were etc.

In all customer service related jobs, every employee should abide by the data protection act because all customers details and personal information is confidential. If any disabled individual entered an establishment you would not treat them any different. You should not treat any individual different from anyone else, everyone should be treat the same despite race, sex, religion or any views they have on anything.

Providing excellent, and memorable, client support is important for client retention. Without exceptional support, your clients will not return. Average or mediocre support won’t keep your customers either, and bad customer service will simply drive them away. As a business owner or manager, you need to ensure that your business is focused on understanding “what is good customer service” and how to define customer service. With that understanding in place, you can work on building and maintaining great customer service, and high customer satisfaction levels.

If a customer is satisfied that means that a product of service has met his expectations and that he was not dissatisfied by it. Customer satisfaction is doubtlessly very important, and it is the precondition for repeat purchases and it prevents the customer from telling others about his disappointing experiences. A loyal customer, however, is more than a customer who frequently purchases from a company. Any serious effort to manage customer perceptions starts with a good measurement system.

Companies must be truly willing to look at the whole process of interaction through the customers eyes. An upset customer calls, using profane language on the phone. The man indicates your business can never do anything right, and it is difficult to maintain your temper and a positive attitude when an irate customer directs their anger and frustration at you. Most people take the experience personally and immediately become defensive, and often this only exasperates a difficult situation and makes it worse.

CVS “Samaritan Vans” Did you know that CVS has been patrolling the streets and highways for the past 30 years, looking to help stranded motorists? The Consumerist has a story of a woman stranded on a busy highway with a flat tire, and a CVS Good Samaritan van rolled up five minutes later and helped change her tire, and the cost for the service was only her sending in a comment card to CVS. Make it easy and convenient for customers and employees to offer feedback.

I think that the best management information comes from the point of experience, where your customers and employees do their thing. For me this is where your company lives yet it’s something too many managers never see or hear or feel, I think. Capture this priceless information by creating easy and quick ways for your staff and customers to give you feedback, and then acknowledge the feedback you receive, appreciate it and do something with it or they’ll stop sending it your way. Feedback is priceless!