Autoparts.Com Case Essay

374 Words2 Pages
1. Problem • Poor performance of customer service, resulting in negative impact on survival of autoparts.com caused by an angry but “powerful” customer – a notable figure, Mr. Adam Smith • However, Mr. Thorstein Veblen, the president, didn’t understand what the true problem was, but blamed this failure on its pricing strategy. 2. Causes • Underestimation of the influence of customer satisfaction • Lack of understanding and emphasis on monitoring customer satisfaction • Insufficient customer complaints handling procedures 3. Recommendations • The president claimed that autoparts.com was a customer-centric web business; therefore, customer satisfaction should be considered by this company as an important goal and an effective marketing tool. Internet technology enables the customers to quickly spread both good and bad word of mouth to the rest of the world; just like how Mr. Smith stated, low level of customer satisfaction would “single-handedly be the downfall of this company”, not the “wrong pricing strategy”. If Mr. Veblen still wanted save his company, he must realize this truth and act fast to systematically measure how well autoparts.com treat customers; to identify the factors shaping satisfaction; and to change operations and marketing as a result. • The company should measure customer satisfaction regularly. One of widely used measurement techniques is well designed periodic surveys which can track customer satisfaction directly and ask additional questions to measure repurchase intention and the respondent’s likelihood or willingness to recommend the company and brand to others. Those automatic sent coupons or other promotional tools weren’t enough to keep its customers happy and buying from autoparts.com. Meanwhile, the company needs to monitor their competitors’ performance too. • Without any doubt, it is critical that any companies should deal
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