PTMBA 3RD YEAR marketing Div A 23/07/2011

Customer Relationship Management in Customer Service - The Titan Experience

Case Analysis

The case is about customer relationship Mangement in Customer Service in Titan Industry. Titan s business is into manufacturing watches for every segment .But the main issue in this business is about servicing the watches and that to in the fastest , effective & a way that wil create a very good experience overall The Service Philosophy at Titan is 1) Repair the hurt feelings of the customer 2) Repair the watch 3) Repair the Damage caused to the Titans reputation by repairing the above two. The case talks about how the company trains , motivates the employees to achieve customer satisfaction and how the different parameters of measures are made to achieve this sucessfully

Q1) CRM is more important in Services Marketing than in Product marketing Do you agree with this statement? Justify your Answer Give one practical example in support of your answer.
There are three other aspects when its comes to Service marketing viz. People, Physical Evidence and process Management. Today CRM is the integral part in every business. If its Product marketing then also the service marketing come into the picture. Service means cemented the relationship and to provide sustainable superior values to your customers. So, Customer Relationship Management is pivotal part. Service industries means to be customer-focused, and no one denies the importance of the customer Relationships. the services offer unique CRM opportunities to get to know and retain the customer. Why C.R.M. is key for Service Business: Managing your customer relationship is important for all businesses. Service Businesses rely on contacts,repeat customers, ongoing contracts and referrals. In order to manage a good relationship with your customer you should maintain some important aspects viz. -Customer Contact Information - Multiple contacts per account: with contact info for each - Multiple addresses per account - Track & Manage Current Service Requests - Record Service History etc. In the service industries, the perception of quality is more dependent on customer expectations than in the marketing of goods. Sometimes lower expectations can make for greater satisfaction. Word-of-mouth is of special importance in the journey toward a services purchase. Then Social networking Web sites demand more of the marketer's attention. What's more, the real-world community is a more important player in the market. Here I would like to quote the example of ITC Maurya Sheraton at New Delhi. the best example of "service plus" and "effective customer relationship management" is the flawless arrangements at the time of the US President, Bill Clinton's stay at the Hotel, which is also evident from Bill Clinton's two-line note in the Visitor's Book: " Thank You for the beautiful suite, fine food and marvelous hospitality. Bill Clinton, March 24, 2000." This is not just a noting, it is rather, a "certificate of appreciation" and an international benchmark for the Indian hospitality industry. ITC Maurya might have had and handled 100 per cent occupancy several times before, but the scene was very much different on this occasion for the schedule of, virtually, every occupant of the 500 rooms was linked to the Presidents movements. For instance, on the day when President was to go to Rajghat, the Room Service simultaneously received orders fro 100 breakfasts and all of them had to be delivered in 10 minutes since the media wanted to reach the venue before the President. With the entire White House practically operating from the Hotel, the housekeeping staff was kept on his toes. As many as 40 rooms were converted into offices. The technical staff was instructed to have contingency plans ready for any eventuality. Even the elevators had to be synchronized since the Secret Service would inform the Hotel authorities at the last minute which elevator was required for the President on 16th Floor. And, perhaps, the most daunting task for the Hotel was to ensure smooth check-in and check-out for the White House and the media. More than 150 guests were checked-in in less than 20 minutes on their arrival at the Hotel. ITC Maurya Sheraton at New Delhi can easily be distinguished for the worldclass quality of service. In the year 2000, it was patronized by the Presidents of the USA and Russia, Prime Minister of Japan, and the Captains of industry like Bill Gates and Mechael Dell. Each one of these guests, especially the first three, was a challenge for Maurya to prove itself and a most coveted opportunity for everlasting goodwill. But, it was easier said than done. So the critical success factors lies on these issues of service.

Q2)What should be Ten Key Parameter for measuring Customer Satisfaction Level? List down these parameters inn Descending order of importance.
Customer Satisfaction is measured across various parameters. Ten Key Parameter as follows: 1. Overall Satisfaction This covers the overall sense of satisfaction, and in its own should be taken as a separate parameter instead of aggregation of the other parameter, as many a times it is found the the two dont match. 2. Sales Experience
y y y y y y

Level of product Knowledge with Sales staff Timeliness and quality of response to customer queries on product. Level of understanding of customers needs and unique perspective. Availability and quality of brochures, sales material. Presentation, communication and mannerism of sales person. Project of honesty and trustworthiness.

3.
y y y y y

Product Delivery Experience Timeliness of product delivery Sharing of status while work-in-progress Quality and sophistication of delivery/product pack Behavior and mannerism of delivery staff. Level of congruence between what was sold and what was delivered.

4. Product Experience
y y

Level of product quality vis--vis expectation. Level of need fulfillment vis--vis expected

5. Product Servicing
y y y y

Timeliness of product servicing Quality of product servicing Cost of product servicing Mannerism and conduct of servicing staff

6. Relationship experience
y y y

Frequency and quality of contact Knowledge of company products and customer opportunities Conduct and Communication of relationship person.

7. Complaint resolution / Grievance Handling

Timeliness of complaint resolution Quality of complaint resolution Level of iterations till the complaint was resolved. Empathy of the customer servicing staff Knowledge of customer servicing staff

8. Collection Experience
y y y

Communication quality and information for collection Conduct and communication of collection staff Channel and Ease of giving payments.

9. Date of Customer Satisfaction Survey response y This dimension is used to understand the time-trend of customer satisfaction score. A customer sensitive company may conduct quarterly customer satisfaction suvrey and study the movement of the scores over time.

10. Customer Satisfaction score band y This dimension is used to segment customers as per the level of satisfaction they have. For example if I want to find how many customers had more than 80% satisfaction score for sales experience in north american region, I will need to refer to 3 dimensionsChannel (region), Customer Satisfaction Parameter and Customer satisfaction Score Band.

Q3) A fully satisfied motivated & trained Employee only can satisfy a Customer How is this achieved in Titan Services?
In service industry Employees are the important link to customers. They are the face of the company during Sales & also during customer issues handling in service department.At titan, Employees know the mission - to provide superior value to customers on a sustained basis - repair the hurt feelings of the customers & damage caused to the reputation This is achieved through -Recruiting the right front line employee & service personnel - Dedicated training program called Front Line Performance Improvement Program(FPIP) -Increasing the product Knowledge, responsiveness , Personality of employees - KPA set for employees - Right set up given like ambience , advertisements ,availability to help employees achieve their targets Employees Satisfied -right salary Employees Motivated through -Awards like Best Service Center Award -Top 3 Service teams honoured in National Service Conventions

Employee Trained through -Customer responses - latest Machinery & Know -problem understanding -timely delivery ofwatches All this leads to employees all needs taken care so this in turn reflects in their working &leads to Satisfied Customer

Q4) Develop Vision Statements for Titan Services and Titan Watches separately.

Vision Statements for Titan Watches: To be a world-class, innovative and progressive organisation and to build Indias most desirable brands.

Vision Statements for Titan Services: To be the best service provider and the best in Customer Satisfaction.

Achived through Following Mission Total customer orientation - Customers take precedence over all else, always. Employee appreciation - value and respect Titanians and endeavour to fulfill their needs and aspirations. Performance culture and teamwork - At Titan Industries, high performance is but a way of life and is nurtured by teamwork. Creativity and Innovation - Driven by innovation and creativity, we focus on smarter approaches and newer technologies. Passion for excellence - In all our pursuits, we ceaselessly strive for excellence. Corporate Citizenship - ensure that a part of our resources is invested in environment and community betterment.

Q5 ) What are the Five Dimension of Servqual and How they are taken care of in Titan Services?
Five dimensions of servqual are a) b) c) d) e) Tangibles: Physical facilities , equipment & appearance of personnel & communication material. Reliability: Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and prompt service. Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence Empathy : Caring , individualized attention the firm provides its customers.

At Titan Five dimensions of servqual are taken care by a) Tangibles: From the tangibility point of view in the showroom they provide a wide range of stylish watches thats suits to the personality of customers hey provide them catalogue and then identify the customers choicest hey never irritate with the customers and also show them new arrival watch collection. During festive season and wedding season they have discount facilities, gifts in order to delight their customers. Sometimes they gifts to their premium customers having signature of their brand ambassador Amir Khan. They have proper computerized billing system, beside that there is facility of customer watch care centre for repairing work if required. One more thing is that if anyone purchase watch from Meerut or anywhere they can have the facility available to go to any of the customer service centre in India in case of any problem. But what we personally feel regarding tangibility that the showroom is lacking in providing some facility like parking facility, sitting facility. They have very less parking area nearly 600 square feet available in front of the showroom and its not sufficient to park even more than 4-5 cars at a time, and there is no guard outside the showroom to welcome and open the door. The other thing is that inside the showroom there is no sitting facility. And it may be difficult for an old person to stand for a long time. There is also no security system at the main entrance those are generally available in almost many showroom likes Big Bazaar, Vishal Mega Mart. One more important thing we analyze that the showroom is not very spacious, its about 500square feet. And if there will be more than 10- 15 people comes inside showroom then its become difficult to feel comfortable b) Reliability: When a customer comes in the showroom they give proper help or direction to the customer to choose their products they first try to know that up to what range the customer want to purchase and what actually they want thats suits their personality. A customer basically looks for attribute and quality with minimum price. For example, a youth of age 18- 25 years looks for sporty and funky design. Then its become easy for Titan people to prefer them to go for the brands like Fast rack or Octane. And if their business class or upper class people visit in Titan showroom then they prefers them to go for brands like Nebula, Orion, Raga etc. Whatever they prefer to the customers most of them choose those brands. In this way whatever they promise to their customer they are able to deliver those promises every time, accurately and consistently c) Responsiveness: Titan people says that customer service is in our priority list and they try their best to give 100% customer care facility. They say that their customer care facility is available not only in India but it is available all over world. Customer can easily access to our service as a quick service initiative has been taken by the World of Titan. They say that their customer service unit is information technology driven and special initiatives have been made to link the service network through a web based application. Service centre are fully computerized and able to transfer data and daily basis information to the company about product and service deliverables. According to them all the employee of showroom are willing to help the customers. They talk with customer very politely and rendering their services and take care of their demand for services.

While purchasing watches showroom staffs help the customer and explain the features, qualities, prices of the watch d) Assurance: hey have one of the largest service networks in the watch industry in India. A quick service initiative has been implemented at certain of their service centres, which they believe has further improved their customer relations. They recently used external surveys to track changing customer expectations and have provided enhanced training programs for the staff, which are aligned to customer needs. Their Customer Service unit is information technology driven and special initiatives have been made to link the service network through a web based application. Service centres which have been computerized are able to transfer data on a daily basis to the Company on product performance and service deliverables They have set some challenging service deliverables in the area of post product servicing in India. They aim at creating a platform to extend this high quality service delivery for their product. And what we personally observe regarding assurance that in Titan exclusive showrooms the staff have proper knowledge and skills to deliver best services to the customers. As in the showroom there has three ladies well trained, dressed, maintained and educated. Since as we enters in the showroom all of them stands and one of them come forward and greets us by saying welcome sir, what you want sir, may I help you sir. In this way they are respectful to their customers and able to convey the trust and confidence among the customers e) Empathy: In response to that question the Titan people says that there is three lady, one manager and one watch care person. So, normally when more customers visit simultaneously to the showroom it will be difficult to handle all of them one time. Staffs are not able to provide the individualized attention to each customer. They try their level best to satisfy the need of the customers. Basically they face such type of problem in festive and marriage seasons. They want to know the customers need through formal conversation with them and it will little bit become easy for Titan people to access to their customers. They provide information through the catalogue and try to give 100% satisfaction by identifying their choice and preferences. They paid attention to the servicing aspect which involved not only the care of watches but also the projection of company image.

Q6) What are your suggestions to further improve the Quality of service in Titan Services?
Suggestions: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Company should give the real-time status of the watch through Repair Status Number to each customer More service centers per geographical area Better Trained service Personnel to Better understand the problem& satisfy the aggrieved customer Door to Door collection and delivery of watches to customer Quick response to suggestions & quick implementation.