Customer Relationship Management Essays (Examples)

Customer elationships

Managing relationships is one of the critical success factors in managing sales. What form might relationships between selling organisations and customers take?

There are many forms that relationships taken between selling organizations and customers. The most critical determinant of how the relationships and selling organizations is the business model of the company itself. For those companies whose business models are predicated on solving complex, intricate problems for customers, direct selling relationships are the most common. The reliance on a consultative, relationship-based selling strategy is often used by companies whose business models focus on complex, challenging problems other businesses have. This approach to selling often puts the role of being a trusted advisor at the center of the selling relationship strategies (Czerniawska, 2005).

In companies who have products that rely primarily on price and availability, the selling relationship are focused on direct selling, persuasive selling, and price-based selling (Leibowitz,…

References

Fiona Czerniawska. (2005). The New Business Consulting Landscape. Consulting to Management, 16(4), 3-6.

Leibowitz, J.. (2010). Rediscovering the art of selling. The McKinsey Quarterly,(2), 117.

Generally, the principal means of achieving that essential integration of functions is through modern data information systems capable of storing relevant information and connecting it in ways that are conducive to promoting sales opportunities. In addition to the functions of information storage and processing, technology also provides a degree of automation that allows the easy accommodation of processes that would be either extremely difficult and time-consuming or completely overwhelming if they were performed by human beings repetitively and one task at a time (Russell-Walling, 2007).

Personal Experiences with CRM Issues

My only experience with CRM systems was within an organization that was not particularly successful at maximizing their potential. The new system was installed and employees received demonstrations of the available capabilities, but only one or two functions was ever fully exploited. The organization treated the CRM system more as a one-time IT initiative and less as a new way…

Sources Consulted

Kinicki, A. And Williams, B. (2005). Management: A Practical Approach. New York:

McGraw-Hill.

Robinson, R.A. "Quick Study: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)" Computer

World Magazine, February 28, 2000. Accessed 2 Aug 2011, from:

Lastly differentiating on the extent of experience our customers have had with Internet-based software is useful in defining how much extra time is necessary for software application training.

Discuss your efforts to create customer intimacy.

As our company relies intensively on long-term relationships with customers, taking a very active approach to creating customer intimacy is critical to our business. Our approach is to first concentrate on total accountability for our software by having our CEO visit each and every customer just after an installation to show a high degree of support and accountability. Next, we offer each customer the opportunity to join a customer advisory council specific to their industry and special interests. At present there are three customer advisory councils which give customers an opportunity to discuss their concerns, interested in new product ideas and see what is presently in development.

How will you customize your offering for particular…

Once contractors and employees recognize that CUTCO is interested in making changes, they will willingly provide the company with the information they need to better understand what the customers want and need, and how they can best meet their need. When people talk poorly of a company, customers will hear this news much more quickly than they will hear about the positive gains the company has made or intends to make. When people talk negatively word spreads much quicker. Because of this, CUTCO needs to make amends to the individuals it wronged, and provide an accurate description of its practices so it can begin building a strong customer base. Once CUTCO does this, it can then concentrate on its brand. CUTCO already has a good branding strategy; they must simply ensure this strategy aligns with their objectives and the objectives of the people and contractors working with and for them.…

References

Alcas Corporation. (2007) CUTCO Cutlery: Company Info, Alcas Corp, Retrieved November 27, 2007:  http://www.cutco.com/company/companyInfo.jsp 

ConsumerAffairs.Com Inc. (2007) "Students Sue Knife Promoters,"

ConsumerAffairs.Com Inc., Retrieved November 27, 2007:

 http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/vector01.html

Britannia links CM to the customer knowledge. It emphasizes on complete knowledge of the customer to engage in meaningful conversations, to identify with them and to assist realize their needs. Such an intimate relationship accomplishes its own presentations and assists to generate a win-win situation. Implementation of CM in Britannia involves segmentation of its customer base in accordance with the customer value that incorporated the present value views and also the life time value views. It has the complete recognition of its two million customers. (CM: getting it right, at last)

Such information rests in its customer information database that it applies as the basis for all its activities-beginning from its sales strategies and marketing campaigns to the logistics of automation in feeding leads, with scripting extended to the branch and call center personnel. Such efficacies in CM have declined the cost-income ratio from its direct marketing from about 7:10…

References

Britannia Building Society selects Alterian, MDB and MarkIT. 24 May, 2001.

Retrieved from http://www.alterian.com/Press_Releases_1.asp?category=1&news=23666&id=18825&id=18519Accessed 10 November, 2005

CRM: Getting it right, at last. January, 2005. Retrieved at  http://www.fineos.com/resource_centre/features/shiftkey.htm . Accessed 10 November, 2005

Customer Relation Management. Darin Executive Studies. Retrieved at http://guide.darwinmag.com/technology/enterprise/crm/. Accessed 10 November, 2005

Customer Relationships

Nordstrom, Inc. has long enjoyed a reputation for providing superior customer service. This paper examines Nordstrom strategies that the retailer employs to build customer relationships and promote customer loyalty.

Nordstrom is one of the nation's leading fashion specialty retailers, with 204 stores that are located in 28 states. It was founded in 1901 as a shoe store in Seattle, and today operates 115 full-line stores, 86 Nordstrom Racks, two Jeffrey boutiques, and one clearance store. Nordstrom also serves its customers through its website and through its catalogs (Gonzales, 2).

Nordstrom's business strategy has been called "greed through love" (deFelice). The 110-year-old retailer owes its success to customer-friendly policies that are well-known, widely admired, and frequently imitated in the U.S. retail industry. Nordstrom employees work to form customer relationships, and the company is known to have one of the most customer friendly merchandise return policies in the global retail…

Works Cited

Brzozowski, Len. "Customer Service: A Culture, Not a Department." 2011. Xavier University. 20 April 2011. <  http://www.xavier.edu/xlc/about/Customer-Service-A-Culture,-Not-a-Department.cfm >

DeFelice, Alexandra. "A Century of Customer Love." 2005. DestinationCRM.com. 20 April 2011. <  http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=42958 >

Farfan, Barbara. "Customer-centric Choices Lead Nordstrom From Distress to Success." 2010. About.com. 20 April 2011. < http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailtrendsetters/ig/2010-U.S.-Retail-Store-Openings/Nordstrom-2010-Store-Openings.htm>

Gonzales, Kristen. "Nordstrom announces beneficiaries for Christiana Mall store opening gala." 2010. Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Solutions. 16 December 2010.

Also, while there are numerous similar products being sold in the market, the Apple products make statements, and this -- combined with the multitude of features and the high quality -- stimulates clients to pay the larger price for the Apple products.

Apple's interest in the consumers and what they have to say is immense and it can be observed in all instances, from the manufacturing of the products to integrate customer opinions, to the interaction with the customers before, during and after the purchase, even to the design of the Apple stores. Unlike any other technology creator and retailer, Apple has opened fashionable and appealing stores, in which customers from all over the world can first hand test the Apple products. The employees in the stores encourage visitors to test the products, introduce them to the features and they encourage the visitors to give their feedback.

At a more…

References:

2009, 11 effective strategies Apple uses to create loyal customers, Focus, http://www.focus.com/briefs/11-effective-strategies-apple-uses-create-loyal-customers / last accessed on July 15, 2011

In contrast, Harley-Davidson is selling more of an experience and also a lifestyle change. For Harley, the open road and freedom is the catalyst of their unique value proposition. For Dunkin' Donuts, the trust they have created and sustain makes them a perfect choice for millions of consumers rushing to work in the morning who may have skipped breakfast at home. Harley-Davidson is all about a lifestyle change and freedom while Dunkin' Donuts has become a trusted source of excellent coffee, bakery items and excellent service.

American Express Video

After viewing the American Express video, can you identify a card that might fit your needs?

The Optima card which allows a card holder to carry a balance would be best, as the work I do has unequal payment dates. Freelance work pays irregularly so the Optima card would work best.

Also describe a credit card that you have. Is the…

But in a world that changes so drastically in such short periods of time and in a market filled with fierce competition and customers which change and increase their needs on daily basis, achieving customer loyalty is quite difficult; ergo, Apple's need to develop and implement better and stronger CM policies.

Current Features of Apple's CM

Given the specific nature of their businesses and the fact that after the purchase has been completed, several customers need additional services, the Apple Corporation encourages all current and potential customers to address their questions and complaints to an Apple representative. The corporate website contains detailed information on how customers can contact a service support department within both Canada and the United States.

In addition, for a specified fee, Apple customers can benefit from AppleCare, a service of extended support for the Apple products. There are large numbers of Apple customers who declare themselves…

References

Hafner, K., August 23, 2007, at&T Overstuffed iPhone Bills Annoy Customers the New York Times

Lyons, C., 1993, Disk-based, interactive marketing yields greater response rates, Business Perspectives, Volume 6

Payne, a., 2006, Handbook of CRM: Achieving Excellence Through Customer Management, Elsevier Science and Technology Books, ISBN: 9780750664370

CRM = Customer's don't Really Matter, IntelliNova,  http://intellinova.com/crm/crm-customers-dont-really-matter/last  accessed on February 21, 2008

Effects of CM on the Hospitality Industry

At a very strategic level, CM has made the hospitality industry much more attuned to the preferences, wants and needs of guests. It has also created a more responsive industry by capturing the needs of customers more efficiently and economically than was ever possible before. Specific areas that have changed the most include more of a focus on making multichannel strategies, from websites to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, more responsive to the needs of the guest to provide feedback (Lim, Saldana, Saldana, Zegarra, 2011). There are also more effective analytics being used than ever before, creating greater insights into guest's patterns of purchasing not only accommodations but amenities as well (Phillips, Louvieris, 2005). CM's effect on the hospitality industry is very significant, bringing a strong customer orientation to the industry and also giving hoteliers and service providers much greater insights into…

References

Ivanovic, S., Mikinac, K., & Perman, L. (2011). Crm development in hospitality companies for the purpose of increasing the competitiveness in the tourist market. UTMS Journal of Economics, 2(1), 59-68.

Lim, S., Saldana, a.Z., Saldana, P.E., & Zegarra. (2011). Do market oriented firms adopt web 2.0 technologies? An empirical study in hospitality firms. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 7(4), 465-477.

Murphy, J., Olaru, D., Schegg, R., & Frey, S. (2003). The bandwagon effect: Swiss hotels web-site and e-mail management. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 44(1), 71-87.

Phillips, P., & Louvieris, P. (2005). Performance measurement systems in tourism, hospitality, and leisure small medium-sized enterprises: A balanced scorecard perspective. Journal of Travel Research, 44(2), 201-211.

VW on CM

Customer elationship Management (CM) highlights the significance of the ability of companies in managing customer relations, current and future ones (Kumar & einartz, 2012). The concept occurs as a win-win for customers and companies. Customers benefit with desirable customer service delivery. On the other hand, companies can capitalize on the opportunities in customer-company interaction to enlighten the customer on new products and services. CM occurs as the foundation of contemporary marketing strategy utilized by companies. It is crucial to pay attention to the aspect of CM as it carries benefits and demerits alike.

Lack of a proper design plan of the CM that relies on company objectives could see the company lose companies, current and prospective ones. The success of the CM depends on three elements of People, Process, and Technology. Out of the three, people occur as the most critical element. The aspect of Process describes…

References

Buttle, F. & Maklan, S. (2015). Customer Relationship Management: Concepts and Technologies. New York: Routledge

Kumar, V. & Reinartz, W. (2012). Customer Relationship Management: Concept, Strategy, and Tools. New York: Springer Science & Business Media

Bloomberg Business (2015, July 20). Volkswagen China Sales Decline for First Time Since 2005. Bloomberg Business. Retrieved from  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-29/man-camp-exodus-spurs-real-estate-crisis-across-u-s-shale-towns 

CNN Money (2015, July 29). World's biggest carmaker is worried about China. CNN Money. Retrieved from  http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/29/news/companies/autos-china-volkswagen/

This is significant, because it allows a particular restaurant to use this technology to improve the customer experience by: creating a unique solution that will reach out to everyone. Over the course of time, this will help them to be able to build their brand image, while being able to maintain a low cost structure in achieving these different objectives. The information for understanding how and when this applies was located through the source titled Making Customer Relationship Management Work (2001). It was found based upon the specific background reading that we were required to look at as a part of the assignment itself. ("Making Customer Relationship Management Work," 2001)

When it comes to in house CRM solutions, many large corporations that have information that they need to protect will often utilize this kind of platform. For example, a large bank will more than likely have some kind of onsite…

Bibliography

Barclays Bank PLC. (2009). Microsoft. Retrieved from: http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/featured-customers/case-study-details?casestudyid=4000004155&title=Barclays-Bank-PLC

CRM. (2011). Webopedia. Retrieved from:  http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/CRM.html 

Making Customer Relationship Management Work. (2001). University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved from:  http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=390&CFID=36709485&CFTOKEN=96362038&jsessionid=9a30fd71d42e213b6970

The performance of each team member depends on the performance of all others, this being a team project. Constraints include time and financial resources; as such improvement requires permanent improvement effort.

isk Management. No risk has been identified related to the project's completion.

Monitoring and Controlling Mechanisms. The data analysts will develop a metric system to measure each member's performance on a weekly basis. This weekly performance will be submitted to the project manager for potential adjustments.

V. Operations management plan

Operations Strategy. An easy way to understand the meaning of operations strategy is to break the word into the two separate words: operations and strategy - these words being the opposite of each other (Slack & Lewis, 2002). 'Operations' is about the functions and procedures regarding the day-to-day processes, while 'strategy' is about the direction and scope of an organisation over a long period of time. The operations strategy…

References:

Aberdeen Group. 2008. Operational KPIs and Performance Management -- Are Your Daily Decisions Based on Fact?,  http://www.aberdeen.com/ 

Cooper, M. & Lambert D. 2000. Issues in Supply Chain Management. Industrial Marketing Management, vol. 29: pp. 65-83.

Johnson, J. C. And Wood, D.F. 1996. Contemporary Logistics, N.J.: Prentice Hall Upper Saddle Creek.

Keah C.R.K. And Handfield, R.B. 1998 .Supply Chain Management: Supplier Performance and Firm Performance. International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Management: pp.2-9.

As our CEO is known for being technology-savvy when he started using the new CM in pilot mode on his laptop and started giving presentations based on the analytics applications still in testing, it suddenly became commonplace for see Vice Presidents, Directors and managers all doing briefings using analytics from the new CM system. The CEO had been able to squelch negative politics by making use of the analytics data ground-breaking. Our CEO also praised people and departments he found feely sharing data to make the new CM system function more efficiently. In this regard he was using a positive reinforcement strategy to unify potentially conflicting teams (Lui, Chan, 2008). This was very effective as soon Vice Presidents sent out e-mails telling everyone to look for opportunities to collaborate with other divisions, and discuss how the data they had could help other divisions. This made the task of system analysis…

References

Bernoff, J., & Li, C.. (2008). Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(3), 36-42.

Craine, K. (2007). Managing the Cycle of Change. Information Management Journal, 41(5), 44-46, 48, 50.

Lui, K., & Chan, K. (2008). Rescuing Troubled Software Projects by Team Transformation: A Case Study With an ERP Project. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 55(1), 171.

Maurer, R. (2009). Get Your Team Involved. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 32(1), 28-31.

This irritated the client, but the situation was the worst when he took the family on an international trip and found that their seats has been reassigned to the non-Premier areas of the aircraft with less legroom. This also happened on subsequent flights, and the client felt that he was treated like baggage. (Sturm, 2004) It has already been seen that this airline is concerned about their customers, yet the airline succeeded in irritating a customer with what the customer feels is "lack of gratitude." One is sure that what the airline staff did was according to the laws, but the client was unhappy. This is generally the result of not being able to communicate in a manner that makes clients happy. Thus methods of implementation are probably as important as the policies themselves.

Let us now look at another airline from the list. Delta Air Lines chief customer service…

References

American Airlines adds extra feature and more self-service machines" (16 September, 2005)

Airline Industry Information. Retrieved at  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CWU/is_2005_Sept_16/ai_n15397415Accessed  7 October, 2005

Delta Air Lines aims to climb customer satisfaction table" (6 October, 2004) Airline

Industry Information. Retrieved at  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CWU/is_2004_Oct_6/ai_n6228361 . Accessed 7 October, 2005

All those nice customer-friendly marketing techniques notwithstanding, hite notes, customer-centered personalization can't work well without being linked with high-quality, high-visibility customer service.

Even some of the most successful corporations, like IBM, apparently stumbled along for a time, totally failing to "get it" when it came to customer-centric strategies. According to the industry publication Chain Store Age, in the early 1990s, a customer-centric culture "was foreign to Big Blue" - and to al-Mart - until fairly recently. The writer goes on to explain that when considering al-Mart and Target (two retail giants that are becoming "more alike than different"), "sameness" is a "trap" that happens when a company "takes its eye off the brand to focus on the numbers, loyalty goes by the wayside. It happened to Sears," the article asserts.

RESISTANCE TO CCS/CRM: In the Jossey-Bass book, Designing The Customer-Centric Organization (Galbraith 2005), the author suggests that businesses that hesitate…

Works Cited

Angel, Robert. (2004). Sustaining Profitable Customer Relationships Requires Real Leadership.

Ivey Business Journal, 1-7.

Berry, Leonard L. (2001). The Old Pillars of New Retailing. Harvard Business Review on Customer Relationship Management.

Chain Store Age. (2006). The Retail Life Cycle. Retrieved 10 Jan 2007 at  http://www.chainstoreage.com .

Even customers who are satisfied with something do not always return to that specific business, especially if the business is somewhat out of the way or relatively inconvenient to get to (Jackson, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1988).

Customer loyalty is generally thought to be achieved when a customer returns to buy something that they have bought before from the same company (Jackson, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1988). There are many other ways to measure loyalty statistically, but it basically boils down to a customer returning to a business even though there are so many other choices available (Jackson, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1988).

There are many ways to increase customer loyalty and it is significant to discuss some of them here (Rackham, Honey, Colbert, Fields, Hinson, Morgran, Morris, Sugden, & Tribe, 1971). One of the best ways is to meet or exceed many of the service standards that others in the industry have…

Bibliography

Achrol, R. & Stern, L.W. (1988). Environmental Determinants of Decision Making Uncertainty in Marketing Channels. Journal of Marketing Research, 25: 36-50.

Assael, H. (1987). Consumer Behavior and Marketing Action. Third Edition, Boston, MA: PWS-Kent.

Bitran, G., and Hoech, J. (1990). The Humanization of Service: Respect at the Moment of Truth. Sloan Management Review, 31(4), 89-96.

Boyan, l. And Enright, R. (1992). High Performance Sales Training. New York: AMACOM Division of American Management Association.

When comparing the theoretical wins of customers targeted with the budget upside program with its incremental cost, the difference is $1,927, which amounts to 4%. This is significantly less than the results of the frequency upside program, but nonetheless a positive value that resulted in profit. The initial investment in this program is also significantly lower than that of the frequency upside program.

Harrah's CM strategy is to focus entirely on customers and their potential behavior. It is assumed that everything Harrah's gives them has an effect upon customers' future gambling decisions. Hence, the Gold Card program is used to collect customer profiles, which in turn are used in it direct marketing efforts targeted towards customers who have shown the potential for loyalty. In this way, the programs are conducted in an integrated way to target customers who are most likely to be loyal in the future of Harrah's.

Specifically,…

References

Berndt, a., Herbst, F. And Roux, L. (2005, Fall). Implementing a Customer Relationship management Programme in an Emerging Market. Journal of Global Business and Technology. Vol. 1, No. 2. Retrieved from:  http://www.gbata.com/docs/jgbat/v1n2/v1n2p7.pdf 

Buttle, F. (2008). Customer Relationship Management. Butterworth-Heinemann.

Trevino, L.K. And Nelson, K.A. (2010). Managing Business Ethics. John Wiley and Sons.

elationship Marketing

You have been hired as a consultant by a community college to help them increase the profitability of their athletic program. Discuss the recommendations that you would make regarding the use of relationship marketing to benefit the athletic program.

The most critical aspects of any aspect of attracting, selling and serving a customer base is how consistent and positive the customer experience they have with a given brand. The role of customer relationship management is essential for any business or organization to succeed. In the case of a local community college looking to increase the profitability of their athletic program, what is most important is the continual reinforcing of the value of the experience to the present and potential donors and fans. This can be accomplished through the use of relationship marketing that seeks to create a connection with every potential and present fan and giving them a…

References

Hulten, B. (2007). Customer segmentation: The concepts of trust, commitment and relationships. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, 15(4), 256-269.

Palmer, A. (2010). Customer experience management: A critical review of an emerging idea. The Journal of Services Marketing, 24(3), 196-208.

Wang, Y., & Feng, H. (2012). Customer relationship management capabilities. Management Decision, 50(1), 115-129.

Whalen, P., & Patti, C.H. (2012). Three keys to successful customer experience management. Singapore Management Review, 34(1), 1.

Relationship Marketing- Pepsi Cola

Customers play the most important role in determining a company's success and for this reason, great amount of attention has always been paid to attracting new customers. But in recent times, a shift has occurred and instead of only attracting new customers, companies are trying to build programs to retain old customer. This has given rise to the CRM programs or relationship marketing strategies (Pearson, 1994). customer gained is thus a consistent source of income found provided the company knows how to keep that customer coming back. In other words, firms are now beginning to realize that it is more important to retain customers than attracting new ones since it costs less to achieve the former. ttracting new customers is certainly important for enhance sales but what if a company keeps losing its old customers because of unsatisfactory service or quality. Relationship marketing is a new…

Author not available, Pepsi secure one of the most lucrative sponsorships in sport. PR Newswire; Date: 03/17/2003

Parker, Roger C. Repeat Customers: Relationship management focuses on client

SoftBase; Date: 01/30/2001

Managing Organizational Change

It is reasonable to suggest that companies of all types and sizes have integrated information technology systems of some sort to help them manage their businesses and achieve a competitive advantage in recent years. Because computer systems tend to become obsolete rapidly as Moore's Law continues to hold true, many companies have accumulated a mish-mash of various computer types and capabilities that may not operate efficiently in a networked environment. When these legacy systems are replaced by a standardized array of compatible computers, the transition may introduce a number of challenges and obstacles that can adversely affect the company's ability to remain agile and responsive to internal and external customer needs. To determine how the transition from an older legacy system to an improved set of computers can be achieved in an efficient fashion, the key stakeholders who are involved in the process, and the potential lessons…

References

Johnson, J. & Andrews, M. (2003, July). New markets, old technology: a strategic mismatch.

Risk Management, 50(7), 48.

McGinn, D., Kudyba, S. & Diwan, R. (2002). Information technology, corporate productivity and the new economy. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.

Nakata, C., Zhu, Z. & Kraimer, M.L. (2008). The complex contribution of information technology capability to business performance. Journal of Managerial Issues, 20(4), 485-

. The mobile business market has seen significant of uptake of 2E (mobile sales-force and field service) solutions and Microsoft has the chance to develop its offerings around its acquisitions, adding mobile functionality. Microsoft partners with many application vendors across the board and moving too heavily into the application space would incense many. However, there is viability in developing a mid-market mobile application proposition, given the unconsolidated nature of offerings from operators, traditional ISVs, start-ups and mobile middleware players.

Threats

In the device OS market, as at desktop level and in the server-room, Linux clearly represents a threat to Microsoft, and one it expends much energy playing down. Although there has been little uptake of Linux to date specifically as an operating system for multimedia cell phones, there are many who are not keen to implement end-to-end Microsoft solutions. Linux will give these companies added freedom in choosing applications, middleware…

Bibliography

Ovum Research (2006) - Worldwide Multimedia Cell Phone Forecast.

Source: Credit Suisse First Boston Analysis of the Multimedia Cell Market (2006)

Flextronics (2006) - Annual Report and key investor5 briefing materials. Accessed from the Internet on November 29, 2006  http://www.flextronics.com/en/Investors/ConferenceCalls/tabid/69/Default.aspx 

IDC (2006) - Worldwide Multimedia Cell Phone Forecast. Framingham, MA. Published July, 2006.

Tesco, the largest UK company, employs 260,000 people. This corporation has global aspirations and has come a long way in a relatively short period of time" (2003, p. 3).

According to the company's promotional literature, the employment figure for 2003 has almost doubled today, as shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1

Current Key Figures for Tesco

Category

Statistic

Staff worldwide

472,000

Staff in the UK

287,669

Stores worldwide

5,008

Total stores in the UK

2,545

Extra

13

Homeplus

Superstore

Metro

Express

OneStop

Number of markets

14

Which markets

China, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Slovakia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, UK, USA

Note: Facts correct October 2010

Source: Tesco Quick Facts 2010

Figure 1. Respective Number of Tesco Retail Formats in the U.K.

Source: Based on tabular data in Tesco Quick Facts 2010

A brief summary of the company's guiding corporate strategy is provided in…

The real estate concept is very different in Great Britain. It consists of a system of bidding and auction. Still this obstacle did not stop Countrywide's management from seeing a wave of change. Many other companies had already seen Great Britain as an entry point into the rest of Europe. These success stories are Safeway, al-Mart and Pizza Hut to name a few. The means to acquiring a ready-made company within Great Britain was the next step. At this point, it was understood that independently opening a Countrywide branch there would be too risky. The strategy was to acquire or create a joint venture with a company that already existed where Countrywide could slowly take over meanwhile slowly introducing that workforce to American mortgage knowledge and skills (Globalhomeloans.com, 2005). The irony in this situation is that Countrywide may have been cocky. After all, the situation is very favorable and almost…

Works Cited

About Countrywide History. 19 Jan. 2005.  http://about.countrywide.com/history/History.aspx?is  Printable=Yes>.

AllDirect.com. 19 Jan. 2005. Company Profile. http://www.alldirect.com.html..

Globalhomeloans. 19 Jan. 2005. Company Web site. http://www.globalhomeloans.co.uk/mainsite/..

Lardy, Susan. 15 Jan. 2005. E-Marketing and Strategy within Countrywide Homa Loans,

Information Technology

Building Streamlined Supplier elationships Within the Organisation Using SAP

Organisations are continually recognising the benefits of enterprise resource planning systems (EPs) to streamline business processes. EP systems typically address an organisations logistical, distribution, routine shipping and inventory needs. An SM system typically addresses an organisations supply chain management system, which includes reducing costs, managing organizational performance, overseeing production centres and transportation planning. SM's help integrate critical business processes from the supplier to the enterprise. The supplier provides the organisation with products and services as well as information vital to the organisations well being.

Companies are continually recognising the benefits of enterprise resource planning systems and SM to streamline business processes. Multiple vendors currently offer EP systems that are helping transform business processes by integrating materials resource planning with other key business practices including those of accounting, human resources, marketing and materials management.

SAP is an SM product that…

References

Duplaga, E. & Marzie, A. (2003). "Implementing ERP in manufacturing." Information

Systems Management, 20(3): pp. 68-75.

Ferrell, O.C. & G. Hirt (2003). Business: A changing world, fourth edition. McGraw-Hill

Irwin, Boston.

management styles used by JC Penney's management and pros and cons of each era of management. The paper begins with a general introduction of the management and then by answering the questions asked. The paper also evaluates company's management styles and problems faced by the company. Importance of innovative management style and a suitable style for JC Penney is also considered in the given paper.

Management

Penney being one of the 'largest retailers in the United States of America' was founded in the year 1902 by James Cash Penney. At its inception the company owned three departmental stores. The company now owns and operates a chain of more than 1050 department stores in the country. (Hoover's Company Profile, 2014) Throughout the period of more than a century of its operations the company has witnessed many changes in management and operations, all directed at making the company and its stores widely…

References

Bhasin, K. (2013). JC Penney's Senior Management Team Knows There's Only One Way Out Of This Mess. Business Insider, 18th March.

Bhasin, K. (2013). Inside JC Penney: widespread fear, anxiety, and distrust of Ron Johnson and his new management team. Business Insider, 22nd February.

Chernev, A. (2012). Two questions haunting J.C. Penney. Retrieved from:  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-13/two-questions-haunting-j-dot-c-dot-penney  [Accessed: 25 Jan 2014].

Daft, R.L. (2012). Management. Australia: South-Western.

2 of the respondents were self-employed and 11.2% of respondent were white-collar workers with 1.2% of respondents being blue-collar workers. The following chart shows the factor analysis results with VARIMAX rotation of traveler's perceptions of hotel attributes in the study of Choi and Chu (2000).

Factor Analysis Results with VARIMAX Rotation of Traveler's Perceptions of Hotel Attributes

Source: Choi and Chu (2000)

The following chart shows a 'regression analysis results of hotel factors according to Asian and Western travellers overall satisfaction levels.

Regression Analysis Results of Hotel Factors According to Asian and Western Travelers Overall Satisfaction Levels

Source: Choi and Chu (2000)

2.3 Loyalty

2.3.1 Definition of customer loyalty

Kandampully and Suhartanto (2000) define a loyal customer as "a customer who purchases from the same service provider whenever possible, and who continues to recommend or maintain a positive attitude toward the service provider" (p. 346).

2.3.2 Loyalty dimensions

There is…

Bibliography

Andreassen, Tor Wallin and Lindestad, Bodil (1998) Customer Loyalty and Complex Services: The Impact of Corporate Imagine on Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty for Customers with Varying Degrees of Service Expertise. International Journal of Service Management Vol. 9, No. 1, 1998. MCB University Press.

Bowen, John T. And Chen, Shiang-Lih (2001) the Relationship Between Customer Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction. The International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 13/5 2001. MCB University Press.

Kandampully, Jay and Suhartanto, Dwi (2000) Customer Loyalty in the Hotel Industry: The Role of Customer Satisfaction and Image. Vol. 12 Issue 6. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Abstract Online available at  http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=A7BB20EB4B5CF3B4A2F5E96AD85BD78B?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkpdf&contentId=867348 

Lindberg-Repo (nd) Word-of-Mouth Communication in the Hospitality Industry. CERS Center for Relationship Marketing and Service Management. Hotel School Cornell University. Online available at http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/pdf/showpdf/chr/research/wordofmouth.pdf-my_path_info=chr/research/wordofmouth.pdf

The employees should be firmly committed to the firm, they are the face of a firm (also its eyes and ears). The staff focus should be involved in the process management, also their measurement and knowledge as well as initial contact with customers, all contribute to the performance of the organization.

Firms need to provide results on a consistent basis, be innovative and should respond quickly to any changes in environment for giving exceptional results and satisfying customers. Further in continuous improvement, aspects such as redesign of processes or services, upgraded technology systems, proper paperwork should be focused upon. Continuous improvement requires all firms' members to look for opportunities to improve. Overall, the continuous improvement process involves customers, leadership, employees and quality. It is the customers who determine if the firm is providing quality. They are the judges of it. The leadership is useful for setting direction of the firm.…

References

Brown, S.A. (1998). Breakthrough Customer Service. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons.

Buttle, F. (2004). Customer Relationship Management. Amsterdam: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Els, W. (2003). Winning at Service. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Horrell, E. (2006). The Kindness Revolution. New York: AMACOM.

anking and financial services includes such firms as investment banks, commercial banks, brokerage firms, and credit card institutions. The common it pulse throughout the daily operations of these organizations involves utilizing systems to communicate between branches and subsidiaries, establishing operations throughout the world, communicating with the end customer in order to facilitate transactions, and analyzing customer and market attributes in order to reduce uncertainties in such aspects as pricing policies" (p. 24). Some of the more salient issues affecting the financial services industry today are described further in Table ____ below.

Table ____.

Examples of utilization of information technology in order to enhance efficiency and productivity by the financial services industry.

Area Impacted

Description of Impact

Credit card institutions store, retrieve, and analyze vast amounts of demographic customer information enabling them to more accurately target potential markets for new products and also identify less-attractive, credit-risk customers.

This allows them to…

Bibliography

Brewster, Chris, Hilary Harris and Paul Sparrow. (2004). Globalizing Human Resource Management. New York: Routledge.

Cocheo, S. (2006). "Does Your Product Line Need a Trim?" ABA Banking Journal, 98(7), 7.

Das, Dilip K. (2004). Financial Globalization and the Emerging Market Economies. New York: Routledge.

Dennis, Charles and Lisa Harris. (2002). Marketing the E-Business. London: Routledge.

In short, Microsoft has been successful in relationship marketing in their core businesses in addition to sustaining momentum in the global application and software development community. The company has struggled however in its effort to use relationship marketing in the areas of Internet-based advertising models, sales of enterprise server components and applications including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM). These are all enterprise software areas that require an inordinate amount of trust and continual relationship building to be successful. In these areas Microsoft is challenged. Add to this the fact that Microsoft's channel strategy has at times been contradictory, and there is ample evidence of the company not being trusted in many reseller and indirect channels globally.

Recommendations

Microsoft's success with developers and the willingness to openly collaborate with them in the creation of entirely new applications underscore what researchers have found to…

Customer Satisfaction and Customer PrivacyCustomer relationship management (CM) has become critical for modern business organizations because of the value of potential and current customers. Despite the significance of CM, service providers tend to overlook the contribution to satisfaction from other customers in the service environment because of difficulties in creating a customer mix. Customer mix basically provides insights regarding customer segments currently being serviced by the business organization. Firms can manage the customer mix by determining the desired optimal behaviors from customers. Businesses should determine the behaviors they desire from customers in terms of participation in the service delivery process, customer-to-customer interactions, and the treatment of service personnel (Fisk, Grove & John, 2013). This should be followed by developing a clientele that fits the portfolio. The next step in this process would involve identifying the right customers, customer education, and ensuring compatibility with other customers as part of producing a…

ReferenceFisk, R.P., Grove, S.J. & John, J. (2013). Services marketing: An interactive approach (4th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Much marketing research has been done on analysing customer behaviour and retention. As a consequence, it is crucial for online companies to create a loyal customer base, as well as to monitor the profitability of each segment (Reinartz and Kumar, 2002)

Definition of customer e-loyalty

Customer loyalty has been defined as "a deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour" (Oliver, 1999). This general definition appears to apply to e-loyalty as well. Another briefer and more specific definition is provided by Anderson and Srinivasan (2003), who define e-loyalty as "the customer's favourable attitude toward an electronic business, resulting in repeat purchasing behaviour" (p. ____).

Since it is considered difficult to gain loyal customers on the internet without directly contact (Gommans et al., 2001),…

Bibliography and Reference

Journals

Anderson, R.E. And Srinivasan, S.S. (2003), E-satisfaction and e-loyalty: a contingency framework, Psychology and Marketing, Vol.20 No.2, pp. 123-38

Arregle, J.L., Borza, A., Dacin, M.T., Hitt, M.A., and Levitas, E. (2000), Partner selection in emerging and developed market contexts: Resource-based and organizational learning perspectives. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 449-67. In Everett & Lo, p. 17.

Bailey, Scott and Schultz, D.E. (2000), Customer/brand loyalty in an interactive marketplace. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 40, No. 3, p. 41.

Amazon is the largest internet-based company in America with headquarters located in Washington and Seattle in the United States. The company was founded in 1995 by Jeffrey Bezos and it started as online bookstores then diversified to selling videos, CDs, MP3 and DVDs. Today, Amazon offers about 4.7 million books, computer games, DVD and a wide variety of items of all kids. Ever since Bezos opened the doors of Amazon, online retailing has been defined and redefined for the rest of the Internet retail worldwide, and today it offers the customers a superior shopping experience through the provision of a high level of customer service. This research paper will discuss the impact of the Amazon's mission, vision and primary stakeholders' overall success, while analyzing different forces of competition and how they impact the business of the company. SWOT analysis will also be performed to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and…

References

Amazon.com. (2014). Digication e-Portfolio. Retrieved October 21, 2014, from  https://stonybrook.digication.com/gilbert_ 

Bensoussan, B.E., & Fleisher, C.S. (2008). Analysis without paralysis: 10 tools to make better strategic decisions. London: FT Press.

Bruce, M. (2008). SWOT analysis: a tool for making better business decisions.. London: U.S. Dept. Of Agriculture, Risk Management Agency.

Jurevicius, O. (2013). SWOT analysis of Amazon. Amazon SWOT analysis 2013. Retrieved October 19, 2014, from  http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/SWOT-analyses/amazon-SWOT-analysis.html

Profitable Customer Relationships

Until about two years ago I was a long-suffering customer of Sprint. During the time I subscribed to their service, there just always seemed to be a problem that needed resolution: Billing disputes over services I didn't subscribe to. Dropped calls even though I lived within their alleged coverage area. Expensive calling plans. Customer service people who weren't empowered to tie their shoelaces. I could not wait for my contract to expire so I could switch to another cell phone carrier and be abused by them instead.

So in preparation for writing this paper, I googled cell phone customer satisfaction surveys, and which company is right there at the top? None other than Sprint. For a moment I thought I must have misspelled Sprint. S-P-R-I-N-T. But no, there they were. Just to be sure I wasn't hallucinating, I looked at older surveys, and there was the aha…

Hamilton, Glen. The Top Ten Customer Service Principles. 2011. Retrieved on 19 April, 2011.

The Marriott Management Philosophy. Marriott website. 2011.Retrieved on 19 April, 2011 from

Luna, Lynette. "Latest customer satisfaction survey ranks Sprint at all-time low." 20 May, 2008.

I think it is very important to create and maintain profitable customer relationships for any business, no matter how large or small. Some companies seem to think they have a monopoly on goods or service, and so they do not have to offer good customer service. I think in the end, no matter what the product is, companies who do not truly respect their customers will not last. People want to be treated decently, with respect, and as if their patronage matters, no matter who they are or what their needs are. Creating profitable customer relationships recognizes these needs, and is a win-win situation for any organization. Big organizations such as McDonald's or Home Depot (just as an example), often seem to have grown so big they forget this, and so people become "things" when they deal with them. I think that is wrong, and I will attempt to avoid…

Customer Service

We shall, for the purposes of this paper, accept the proposition that we are moving from a culture that can be categorized as "you get what I give" to one where the customer is always right. In the real world, there are companies that do either, depending on their business model. But for the sake of argument we will assume the position of a company that is seeking to shift from the former to a more customer-centric vision of customer service. There are two elements to such a shift -- operational and cultural. Operations can be laid out in such a way that barriers to customer service that may have existed in the past are now removed, for example. Yet, because service is inherently customer-oriented, based on interactions, it is critical that the organization shifts to a customer-service-based culture. This is a massive cultural shift from an organizational…

References

Brady, M. & Cronin, J. (2001). Customer orientation: Effects on customer service perceptions and outcome behaviors. Journal of Service Research. Vol. 3 (3) 241-251.

Homburg, C., Muller, M. & Klarmann, M. (2011). When does salespeople's customer orientation lead to customer loyalty? The differential aspects of relational and functional customer orientation. Journal of the Acad. Mark. Sci. Vol. 39 (2011) 795-812.

Leggett, K. (2014). Forrester's top trends for customer service in 2014. Forrester. Retrieved March 22, 2014 from  http://blogs.forrester.com/kate_leggett/14-01-13-forresters_top_trends_for_customer_service_in_2014 

Linnenluecke, M. & Griffiths, A. (2010). Corporate sustainability and organizational culture. Journal of World Business. Vol. 45 (2010) 357-366.

Relationship Marketing and Its Impact on Consumer Behavior

Research Questions & Sub-questions

Research Design & Methodology

Organization of Study

Secondary Research

his report explores Customer Relationship management. In [articular the investigation seeks to understand the impact of relationship Marketing and Its Impact on Consumer Behavior. his issue has proven problematic for businesses because many do not have the ability to form effective relationships with customers. his deficiency costs companies customers and profits. he report sought to present effective ways to better customer relations at the business level. More specifically, the investigation saught to determine how businesses can determine what their customers really need and how will meeting these needs affect the customers' behavior? A review of the literature suggest the customers are effected by the attitudes of employees that they come into contact with. he attitude of a saleclerk can often have an impact on a customers decision to do…

These relationships can be with co-workers, with casual acquaintances, with spouses, and with many others. Even though they have these relationships very few of them are committed and close in nature (Clark, 1990). More of them are much more open and lacking a commitment that would really be needed to have a close personal relationship with someone (Clark, 1990). Because many of the relationships in their personal lives are not close and committed it is difficult to understand how businesses can actually expect these same individuals to hold close and committed relationships with a particular company (Clark, 1990). Some consumers have argued that the amount of requests that they receive for improving relationships between customers and businesses is so staggering that people find them meaningless (Clark, 1990).

Some people indicate that they receive as many as 10 mailings from various companies every single day and if they ever leave on vacation the accumulated amount of these offers is so great that they end up throwing them away instead of opening them and looking to see if there is something really worthwhile inside (Johnson, Johnson, & Maruyama, 1983). In other words, so many companies seem interested in marketing a relationship that their efforts become meaningless because they do not offer anything unique to the consumer (Johnson, Johnson, & Maruyama, 1983). Even those companies that do offer something that may be unique and valuable to a particular consumer often do not get any benefit from marketing to them. The benefit is never realized because there are so many other pieces of marketing given to these consumers that they do not take the time to read them and look for the value contained in all of the meaningless mail (Johnson, Johnson, & Maruyama, 1983).

Because so many companies flood individuals with advertisements regarding their relationships, some believe that it really makes no difference which company

Technology Strategies Anticipated to Accomplish Business Goals

GE Lighting Division's expectations for SharePoint were not realized, and as a result, the division moved to adopt a globally-based Partner elationship Management (PM) system that includes integration to both reseller order capture and distributed order management systems so that all channel partners could place orders and track them through manufacturing to fulfillment. GE Lightings' channel management had found that through discussions with resellers that of all applications designed for the five objectives, having a coordinated order capture and order management system was critical. Second, the objective of managing pricing both in terms of quotes and handling pricing exceptions was accomplished through the development of a Special Pricing equest application. As Columbus (2003) has stated, the automating of special pricing requests is one of the highest OI activities for a channel organization to pursue. Third, the automation of lead generation and escalation in…

References

AMR Research (2003) - Configuration is the Heart of Customer Fulfillment for Complex Product Manufacturers. AMR Research Report. Monday March 31, 2003. Retrieved from the Internet on May 31, 2007 at http://lwcresearch.com/filesfordownloads/ConfigurationIstheHeartofCustomerFulfillmentforComplexProductManufacturers.pdf

Columbus (2003) - Squeeze the revenue out of your Special Pricing Requests. AMR Research Alert. Tuesday November 11, 2003. Retrieved from the Internet on May 31, 2007:

http://lwcresearch.com/filesfordownloads/SqueezetheRevenueOutofSPRs.pdf

Management

Assessing the Many Management Challenges George Faces

Having stepped into Stevenson Company transportation department as its new supervisor, George is quickly overwhelmed by a department in disarray, chaotically operating without any leadership or guidance. The major management issues George faces is predicated on the lack of clarity regarding roles, authority and organization structure and clarity of performance expectations. In short, the management issues George faces are what happens when senior management abdicates leadership of a given area of a business, allowing personal agendas and resentment to ester instead of implementing clear performance expectations. The lack of willingness to change and improve is more attributable the managers of dysfunctional teams than the teams themselves (James, Wooten, Dushek, 2011).

The first and most significant management issue is getting the transportation department integrated back into the company. The many symptoms of its malaise and dysfunctional nature can be attributed to its lack…

References

James, E.H., Wooten, L.P., & Dushek, K. (2011). Crisis management: Informing a new leadership research agenda. The Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 455.

Jaques, T. (2012). Crisis leadership: A view from the executive suite. Journal of Public Affairs, 12(4), 366.

Kovjanic, S., Schuh, S.C., & Jonas, K. (2013). Transformational leadership and performance: An experimental investigation of the mediating effects of basic needs satisfaction and work engagement. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 86(4), 543.

Mathis, R.L., & Jackson, J.H. (2011). Human Resource Management (13th ed.). Cengage Learning.)

Management

The Manager's Basic esponsibility

It has been said that the manager's most basic responsibility is to focus people toward performance of work activities to achieve desired outcomes. Is this a true statement? Certainly, it describes part of the manager's role and that part of the manager's role is a significant one. However, focusing people towards the performance of work activities is only part of the manager's role and may not be the most crucial part. A manager might have other responsibilities that are more basic and more essential to their role. At the same time, this description of the manager's role may actually undermine the manager's ability to perform their job effectively. These issues will now be considered further.

Management is defined as "the attainment of organisational goals in an effective and efficient manner through planning, organising, leading, and controlling organisational resources" (Daft 1997, p. 8). This definition includes…

References

Bruch, H & Ghoshal, S 2002, 'Beware the busy manager', Harvard Business Review, vol. 80, no. 2, pp. 62-69.

Daft, R 1997, Management, The Dryden Press, Sydney.

Furedi, F 2005, 'Treat employees like adults', Harvard Business Review, vol. 83, no. 5, pp. 22-23.

Mintzberg, N 1975, 'The manager's job: Folklore and fact', Harvard Business Review, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 49-61.

I will address the group with a general overview of the problems the company is facing, with the assertion that I believe it can be rectified. I will ask each employee to work together for the good of the company and its survival in the e-business world. The purpose of the conference will then be to involve every employee in restructuring the company in a more effective way.

To achieve this, I would divide the employees into smaller groups of 10 members or so each. The first issue to address is the vision, mission and goals. Each group will be asked to come up with suggestions. The second step will be to identify the various actions to reach the goals, and the third step will be to more effectively restructure the company. For the latter, the groups will be provided with a list of the divisions within the company. They…

Management of Diversity

From America's elementary schools to the common parlance of the evolving American workplace, diversity has become one of the most popular buzzwords of today's current public discourse. How do we prepare our future leaders for a diverse and increasingly global marketplace? And more pressingly, a human resource manager must answer, in conjunction with the rest of the company leadership the question of how to manage the current world of American diversity with an eye upon the future? Management theorists Patrizia Zanoni and Maddy Janssens have noted a greater understanding of diversity management can either enable or constrain employer's success, depending on how the company chooses to deploy such diversity efforts. A company that is proud of its diverse employment and its diversity-positive policies will overall have greater success in managing relations between existing employees, and capitalizing upon its diversity-positive policies in a way to enhance its corporate…

Works Cited

"Dell Supplier Diversity." (2005) Dell Inc. Retrieved from website on 23 Jun 2005 at  http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/sup_diversity/en/index?c=us& ; l=en& s=corp& ~section=009

Janssens, Maddy & Patrizia Zanoni. (2005) "Many diversities for many services: Theorizing diversity (management) in service companies." Human Relations, Vol. 58, No. 3, 311-340.