Profit (revenue & cost)
Profit is often defined as a financial gain, especially the difference between revenue and expenditure. This performance indicator is integral to the success evaluation of any business since it represents the very economic essence of the business. It has often been termed the engine oil of businesses, since its lack could nail a business in its coffin forever. Profits can be increased by either reducing costs or increasing revenues, holding other factors constant. At StarLife, one of the resources used to boost revenues is Sales and Marketing. This resource is used for winning new deals through aggressive sales (both mass and personalized) and enticing advertising, retaining existing deals through effective account management. The Risk resource is then used for soundly investing clients’ premiums into interest earning instruments,
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This is no surprise since the industry is purely service-based. Also, an insurer can hardly attract repeat and new business if it does not pay claims adequately and on time, nor will it benefit from third-party recommendations.
It is for this reason that StarLife uses the Customer Service and Claims resources to achieve business success. It must be noted that the ethos of customer-centricity are constantly embedded in all employees of StarLife, however these two resources have been used as vanguards of this much cherished ethic. These resources aim to give clients the best of professional relationships and experiences that can hardly be replicated by any other players. They also endeavor to fast-track the processing and payment of claims.
It is therefore no surprise that StarLife is seen as a top customer-sensitive insurer, an image which was given a national seal when it won the Corporate Customer Service Ambassador Award in
Carl Sewell’s book “Customers for Life” is devoted to teaching the businessperson of today ways in which they can turn one-time buyers into customers for life. He states that every customer has the ability to be worth 332,000 dollars to your business if you can keep them for life. Mr. Sewell is the number selling luxury automobile dealer in the country. He started from the bottom and manipulated his automobile business into a 250,000,000-dollar business. In his book he explains the things that he has found to work for his business in great detail so that you may also apply them to your business. The entire book revolves around these 10 commandments to customer service:
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We probably all agree that the primary objective of any business is to achieve revenue and attain a certain profit. But then here is the question that we might ask, is profit the only element that should be considered when making business decisions? In my point of view the answer is no as I will try to demonstrate throughout this paper. One quick alternative of what should be the first top priority of a business is creating a customer as Dr.Peter Drucker said. According to him “The customer is the foundation of a business and keeps it in existence. He alone gives employment. To supply the wants and needs of a consumer, society entrusts wealth-producing resources to the business enterprise.” (Santayana, George. Is The Tyranny Of Shareholder Value Finally Ending? )
There are three stellar rules for customer service that I extrapolate as the most important. Per Raines (2013), Rule one for stellar customer service indicated that a house divided will not stand. This reminds me of the motto, “United we stand, divided we fall.” I am more vested in going above and beyond my job description and functions for former employers who have treated me well, which motivates me to pay it forward towards customers with stellar customer services. According the author, “get internal house in order, treat employees well and pass treatment to customers (p. 272).”
Many companies have benefited from improvements of quality and service both internal and external aspect in global market which performance in company revenues increasing, higher margins, cost reduction, reputation of the company enhancement and some other positive effects on social or public perception. However, quality is an item that has visible and invisible inherent characteristics which can satisfy customers’ requirements (Dale, 2003). Therefore, quality of product is fundamental to firms, customer satisfaction will affect the profit of companies directly and quality improvement strategy is an effective approach to get financial return. In addition, as another form of definition of quality to exist, service for customers also an important reason for firms’ financial benefits. Using quality service to make customers feel more satisfied or resolve their problems to change dissatisfied emotion usually increase their loyalty (Dale, 2003). As a result, the problem of product often can be made up by quality service even brings new customers. In others words, it can not only avoid the loss, but also get more benefits to some extent.
Measures of profitability enable a company to evaluate its profits with respect to a given level of sales, a certain level of assets, or the owners’ investment (Gitman et al., 2015). Essentially, a company can compare its expenses and other relevant costs incurred during a specific period of time. Companies use the net profit margin to measure the percentage of each sales dollar remaining after costs and expenses – the higher a company’s net profit margin, the better (Gitman et al., 2015). Figure 4a indicates that IPG’s net profit
In 2014, after being encouraged by his friend, Tom decided to finally consider the life insurance industry as a full time career. Having watched how his early investment in his friends agency had allowed it to balloon into a nation wide company and how well this company had weathered a decade of financial storms. It became clear that the life insurance industry could be a good fit that provided financial stability. At first Tom though that he did not have what was needed to be in a sales related position but he quickly learned that all the past positions, relationship building skills and his attention to details ready him to jump in to being a Life Insurance Advisor with Prosurity, Inc. Having come from and worked in a variety of backgrounds makes it easy to quickly relate to his clients. Working as an agent out in the field Tom quickly realized that while life insurance is important, this was just one small piece of the financial puzzle for many of his clients. This realization that there is more to offer lead Tom to start investigating options and systems that could help him to better server his clients. Today Tom is excited to be a part of 21st Century Financial and is looking forward to many years of helping his clients realize their financial
Customer service is valued as a competitive tool by many organisations. It gives you the ability to gain customer loyalty while meeting the customer’s expectations. Staff will have many skills and knowledge that will provide a competitive edge. Most organisations are known for the quality of their customer service. This means that they are known for good customer service or poor customer service. However, being known for good customer service will attract customers. It will also attract customers who are usually hard to reach.
3. We endeavor to be dedicated, disciplined and loyal, providing consistent value and great service to all the clients.
The insurance industry needed a vehicle to transfer billions of dollars of catastrophe risk to an entity capable enough to manage it. The only entity able to cope with these large risk...
Providing great customer service and having the ability to retain customers require consistency in delivering the anticipated services. Customer service encompasses having the ability to provide a service or product to customers by means in which it was promised. However, there are times when unforeseen circumstances may occur, resulting in customer service breakdowns. Understanding the effectiveness of customer service relations provides the assurance needed to handle complicated service related issues. A well qualified customer service representative has the acquired skill to effectively defuse a potentially damaging service related matter. Service recovery influences customer retention and improves customer satisfaction.
There are four key resources that can be broken down into categories; human, financial, physical and intellectual (Martin, 2015). Effective key activities are vital pieces of the puzzle that help the business deliver its value propositions ("20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy," n.d.). These activities need to be carried out so the product or service that was promised can be delivered ("20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy," n.d.). These particular activities coincide with the revenue stream building block, which is a procedure a company follows to get their chosen customer segments to purchase the service or product. A revenue stream can be generated seven ways; an asset sale, a usage fee, a subscription fee, lending/leasing/renting, licensing, a brokerage fee, and finally advertising (Martin,
a) Good customer service is a critical component of a quality product. Collier (2011) states that service needs to be consistent, continuous, thoughtful and available. These are crucial in meeting and exceeding customer expectations. Collier also continues on to state that staff providing customer service must have appropriate skills, knowledge and personal attributes to execute a high standard of service. These skills have been identified by Collier as listening skills, punctuality, courtesy, integrity and grooming. The skills and qualities identified are reflected by the five key components of customer service tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The five components have been provided by the SERVQUAL service measuring
When you have a strategy that addresses your both your cost management and revenue generation concerns, you will have the best solution to the profitability
Customer service has been around for many years. When customer service first came into place in the business world, it was in stores. In society today customer service is with any job with any company. “Customer service is not a department, it’s everyone’s job. -Anonymous”. (Walter). Customer service is taking care of your customers. Every customer needs to be treated the same with excellent customer service no matter the business or the age of the customer. All employees need to adapt to each customers’ needs in order to provide the best experience possible.