BSBCUS501C: Manage Quality Customer Service Assessment 2: Why is it necessary to clearly identify, before designing product and service offerings, customer needs, and what are some of the less obvious service aspects that might inform purchasing decisions? Customers are fully aware that if a company is not able to provide them with a service or offering to meet their needs, one of the competitors will be able to. With this in mind, it is essential for business’ to research and communicate with their customers to gain the relevant feedback required prior to development. Development should reflect research findings and should meet customer and market needs. Internal and external customers provide business with information about how their products are used, new opportunities for their business, trouble-shoot issues with their product, and organise workloads.
They also expect a professional level of service. Choose a product that might be sold to customers. Conduct some research to establish what customer expectations are in terms of quality, time and cost specifications. How would you market the product to the customer taking these expectations into account? Activity 2.2.docx Detail the methods and procedures that might be used by an organisation to communicate with customers to identify and agree on product/ service specifications.
To do this it will be necessary to review the actual customer data for the service in question for past periods. Customer service data helps identify the factors, both positive and negative, that influence new business. By understanding the relevant patterns and conditions it is possible to create new customer service delivery plans that maximise desired influences while minimising those that are undesirable. ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 3: Describe the process for researching customer needs and analysing and interpreting the outcomes to establish business options and opportunities. Consideration of past performance and analysis of the new data and records currently held in the organisation will give
Kudlers plans to do this by better understanding the customer needs, this can be obtained by tracking the purchases of the current cliental. Once Kudlers knows what products are purchased more often, the company can purchase these product in bigger quantities allowing the company to offer these goods at a cheaper price. Once the prices drop this should bring the loyal customers back more often. Strategies and
Benchmarking is “discovering how others do something better than your own firm so that you can leapfrog the competition” (Kerin, Hartley, Berkowitz, Rudelius, 2006). Using the frequent purchase program, Kudler can collect new data from its customers. Through the use of market surveys, similar to the 2006/2007 market survey, Kudler will be able to determine what its customer catering needs are, if there is a demand for it, the types of pricing the customer would find acceptable and ways in which to promote it, in addition to adding to its marketing mix (also known as market orientation). As with market surveys, Kudler can conduct research on the types of food available on the market and determine what new products are popular with consumers through its food marketing trends studies. Pricing Kudler wishes to offer competitive pricing relative to other caterers.
In order for Kudler Fine Foods to develop a functioning frequent shopper program, it must track and monitor consumers shopping behavior. The drive of market research is to collect data on consumers and prospective consumers. The collected statistics support business decision making, which therefore diminishes the risks involved in making these conclusions. This type of research would also benefit the consumer by lowering the cost on items bought most, while giving them personalized incentives to return. As a result, legal matters concerning privacy of the consumer has risen and established far more attention.
The consumers will benefit by obtaining the quality goods Kudler provides as well as customized promotions based on personal shopping patterns. Tracking the shopping patterns of the customers will help develop a marketing strategy for Kudler. This strategy will allow Kudler to offer certain products at times when an increase in demand has been determined by shopping trends. Kudler will also benefit from this program with an increase in revenue and a more stream lined business process. This program will keep track of individual customers purchasing behaviors, which will allow Kudler to know how much of a certain product to stock.
4. (TCO 6) Discuss the role of intermediaries in B2B. Distinguish between buy-side and sell-side intermediaries. (Points : 35) The major role of intermediaries in B2B transactions is to make sure that buy-side and sell-side conditionals coincide. Buy-side transactions focus on one buyer purchasing goods/services from many different sellers.
There is difficulty in determining forecast turning points that are, from increasing to decreasing sales. Opportunities and suggestions The opportunities that Kudler has in terms of technology include improved loyalty and profitability of customers, which results from various marketing strategies. Another opportunity for Kudler involves customer purchase behavior patterns. These patterns are recognized through the current system and would help Kudler refine its processes and offerings to best satisfy its valued customers. It is vital for Kudler to continue reviewing and improving its information system to ensure its appropriateness to the changing characteristics and needs of its customers.
The company will have to forge alliances with partners to participate in the loyalty program which will affect the sales department as well as upper management. Operational The loyalty program should be functional during the times that the company is open for business. It should passively collect customer data as customers swipe their loyalty cards during transactions. The system should make reports available to management so that they can focus on reducing the cost of orders and stock-outs while increasing customer purchase behavior with targeted offerings.