Out of the 4P’s in the market mix is `people’ who reflect the services purchased or availed by them. The company therefore has to be `people’ –centric’ today. It is here that concept of training assumes importance. The company personnel have to be trained enough to satisfy the customers needs.
Research has suggested that only 3 out of 6 service providers have managed to score constantly high marks on all aspects of training personnel. Frequently the smaller companies demonstrate a more contentious approach to customer servicing.
Customer care programs will typically be comprised of mix main stages as follows:-
*Objective settings: – define the program objectives.
*Current situation analysis:-conduct a customer service audit internally and externally.
*Strategy development:-develop a strategy for raising levels of customer service from current to desired standards.
*Functional planning: – properly defining training needs and various other requirements (team building, problem solving sessions etc.) so that the strategy could be executed in full.
*Implementation: – training and other initiatives have to be implemented through seminars and workshops. The program should be promoted both internally and externally and internal marketing programs should be developed.
Monitoring: – training methods are evaluated by the test results, is the obtained through customer and employees service. The program should be improved and updated so as to be totally in tune with the changing market conditions on a continuous basis.
Ascertaining the overall value of customer care programs to the company and their impact on organizational profitable is an extremely difficult exercise. The various methods employed in this regard are based on customer and employee satisfaction surveys and the monitoring of customer complaints. The value of customers care program is often reflected in the balance sheet of accompany in tangible ways. For example-the `putting people first’ campaign of some X Airways turned around its loss making situation into a profitable one. However, this campaign required a substantial investment which involved training over 36, 500 personnel. The reported cost was well over 24million pounds.