When it comes to providing customer service, customers want quality, assurance and their demands met. Companies have a commitment to give good customer service. GE (General Electric) is ranked one of best companies that provide excellent customer service. Their commitment, training and quality to the customers for decades is how they gotten to the top. Meanwhile, AOL is ranked as one of the worst companies that provide poor customer service. There rude deposition, unethical guidelines and disgraceful quality is why they are going out of business. GE’s motto, “We bring good things to life” is definitely working for this company by gaining new customers, keeping old customers and increasing profits. Their great customer service started during the Great Depression, when the economy was down and customers were not spending but trying to save what little they had. During the Great Depression, when profits were nonexistent and many companies where going under, GE rose to its potential. General Electric knew that keeping the customer satisfied, listening to what they wanted and understood the hardships that many consumers had. They came out with consumer financing, where the customer could pay for new appliances over time. Their goal was to help them build a better home when the economy was in turmoil. Throughout the years, GE also became an investment firm, owning small business through out the world. They adopted Motorola’s management strategy called Six Sigma for Quality in which they promote and train to other smaller companies. This disciplined training teaches that “great customer satisfaction gives increased market share, revenue growth and leads to profit increases and improvement of projects” (Sung Park, 82). A p... ... middle of paper ... ...m customers are through the roof. The company needs to start focusing on key elements like customer service and stop worrying about their wealth and profits. They need to start looking at GE for some good advice if they want to keep the business alive and keep their clientele. General Electric and American Online both have different ways of dealing with customer service. GE has ultimately proven that their disciplined management training and three key elements of quality has pushed them over the top in customer service. While AOL is left in the dust, more concerned about what is in their bank account than the customers they serve. All companies should know that when the customer satisfaction is met, it leads to higher profits. AOL should take this to heart. Customer service is the key to a prosperous business; it is where it all starts.
Regarding strategic control, they were faced with determining how to move forward, and with what mix of product offerings? The leadership realized that with shrinking profits and increased competition the status quo would not guarantee long-term survival. Execution via their previously successful marketing channels would be problematic without either some sort of peace offering to dealers and installers, or a total shift in the advertising and sales process. The dealers and installers interacting with the customer were more likely to understand the customers concerns. Unless the company rebuilds their relationship with these front-line sales force, the customer service will suffer and ultimately the brand equity will continue to erode. The idea that the dealer is treated as the most valuable link to the customer and feels completely supported by the supplier, is exactly what enabled Caterpillar to survive in the late 1990’s. (Fites, 1996). Regardless of how the company addresses their root problems, a marketing channel analysis will undoubtedly conclude that both order getting and order servicing expenses will initially increase. In the short-term, the relationships must be rebuilt. In the long-term, they must shift overall strategy to remain profitable. If they elect to maintain their high-end product mix, customer expectations will increase demanding more from
Besides marketing its customer service, the company markets different programs according to its three major types of customers. Some of them being,
The customer support and customer service functions are more than departments; they are part of an essential strategy for growing your business. In the modern business climate, customers expect answers to their questions immediately. When the right information is available anytime, from anywhere in the world, customers are more likely to have a positive experience, thus customer loyalty will be increased. It is a known fact that the cost to obtain a customer is ten times higher than to maintain and keep existing customers. (Gouran, Dennis, W.E. Wiethoff, & J.A. Doelger. (1994). Mastering communication. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.) Not in Reference Pg.
Service/Satisfaction- AT&T has settle to be adequate in Customer Service by changing is “Customer Rules” to just “Earning Industry Leading Retention”. Although they have made tremendous strides in reducing their churn from 2.1% to 1.6% in two years validating their commitment to provide a better system to their customers after the merger.
Opening its doors for the first time in 1946, Lowe’s is now the second largest home improvement chain in the world, operating over 1,800 stores in the United States, generating $56.2 billion in sales and $2.6 billion in net income for 2014 (Lowes Newsroom, 2015). Employing around 265,000 personal making them one of the top employers in the nation, there is no question that Lowe’s must be doing something right. According to Lowes Newsroom, “Lowe’s professional customers represent approximately 30 percent of total sales, approximately 16 million retail and professional customers are served each week. (2015, para 3) “Never Stop Improving”, is Lowe’s slogan; encouraging employees and customers to work together to maximize their in store
The company has established good relationships with most of its customers which has assisted it to create high level of brand and customer loyalty
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.
The Internet boom of the 1990’s gave rise to the popularity of America Online AOL and Time Warner saw themselves at a crossroads where old and new media would become one. The histories of both AOL and Time Warner are extensive and have not always been successful. Time Warner itself was created by two mega-mergers. The first merger was in 1989 between Time Inc., publisher of many magazines such as Time Magazine, and Warner Communications. Both companies have histories stretching as far back as 75 years or so. In 1996, this company merged with Turner Broadcasting, which brought CNN with its founder Ted Turner. These two mergers created a company ready to lead in any form of media. The company launched the HBO television network. Time Warner, headquartered in New York, had $27.3 billion in revenues in 1999 and a market value of $112.6 billion. On the other side of the merger there is new media giant AOL, today the biggest, richest, and most successful internet company in the world. It was founded in 1985 as Quantum Computer Services and by 1994, after changing its name, had a million subscribers. In its early years, it almost fell because of the problems associated with introducing unlimited access for a fixed monthly fee. As its number of users increased, so did its capacity problems, which made many customers angry because they could not get a connection. The problem was solved when AOL made a deal with MCI WorldCom, which led merge with its rival CompuServe.
Close to the Customer: Customer satisfaction is very important throughout all the roles that the business plays. Many companies forget about their customers, whereas successful companies have an obsession with their customers. Excellent product quality and reliability will make a satisfied customer. Great service will keep the customer coming back.
304). Zappos’ emphasis on customer satisfaction has contributed to the company’s profitability tremendously. Zappos believes that great customer service experiences encourage customers to use the store again (Ferrell and Hartline, 2014, p. 454). In addition, Zappos’ long-term strategy is based on the idea that great customer service will help them expand into other product categories (p. 454). Zappos has established a method of serving customers and handling their issues that is distinctive from the rest of the industry (p. 453). Zappos employees are expected to wow customers and provide the highest levels of customer satisfaction regardless of how much time it takes (p. 453). Rather than urging customer service staff to take as many calls as quickly as possible, there are no quotas and the longer the call the better (Hollender, 2013). This is because Zappos uses customer service to market the brand (Hollender, 2013). The company takes most of the money it could spend on advertising and invests it in customer service (Hollender, 2013). Treat people amazingly well and they'll tell their
Prior to 1995, AOL was very successful in the commercial online industry relative to its competitors CompuServe and Prodigy primarily because of its pricing rate structure which was the easiest for customers to understand and plan for ahead of time. CompuServe and Prodigy offered the same pricing as AOL for its standard service, but, charged additional fees for premium services and downloading which made it more difficult for customers to anticipate their monthly spending.
Customer service is constantly evolving. A few decades ago, businesses considered customer service an unnecessary expense. Now, companies view it as a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Research reveals that “80% of CEOs believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8% of their customers agree”.
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.
“Excellent customer service is the process by which your organization delivers its services or products in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible”, (Jack Speer, 2005).
As a result of the above they were giving less importance to customer satisfaction and customer relationship building. This form of strategy conformed to short term business motives. In a globalised and highly competitive world, modern marketing is about concentrating ...