I will pay for the following article Classic Airlines Benchmarking. The work is to be 2 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page.

I will pay for the following article Classic Airlines Benchmarking. The work is to be 2 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page. Generic Benchmarking Worksheet Task A: Low confidence and reduced satisfaction corrected through proper and effective implementation of a successful CRM system

Instructions for Task A: In the Response row, write out the problem/opportunity statements for the scenario for each of the team members.

Response to Task A:

The Toyota Motor Sales Inc. (USA), faced critical problems in managing their North American facilities, with low sales ratio and even lower customer satisfaction. Owing to the severity of the situation, the organization, drew plans to revive its old system and switched to a new, improved management system that laid emphasis on meeting customer expectations and at the same time eliminating wasted expenditures and operating costs and put the saved resources to a more effective use.

This case is very much similar to that of Classic Airlines, wherein the company too is faced with declining sales, low customer satisfaction, and a simultaneous rise in fuel and labor costs. The analysis of the Toyota Motor Corporation’s management style and policies applied by it, could prove to be valuable in analyzing the case of Classic Airlines.

Generic Benchmarking—The purpose of generic benchmarking is to identify potential solutions to the problem statements defined in Task A. You will do this by looking at how companies in other industries have dealt with similar issues.

Topic A: Best Practices in Consumer Relations TOYOTA – (Successful)

Instructions for Topic A: In the Response row, each team member must identify at least one company that has faced and addressed similar situations (successfully and unsuccessfully).

In the Response row, identify whether the company has been successful or unsuccessful.

In the Response row, summarize your key findings for the company as they relate to the scenario.

In the Response row, identify at least one alternative solution for Classic Airlines from each company researched.

Response to Topic A:

The Toyota Motor Sales Inc. (USA), headed by Jim Cookie – the national facilities operations manager, initiated concrete steps to revive its old management policies and adopted a new performance based facilities management approach which focused on the customer relationships so as to enable it to meet all needs and expectations of its customers. This new management approach, launched about 3 years back, ensured that the managers spent more time with the customers and was hugely successful, and translated into nearly $10 million in savings over the first five years of its launch.

Toyota’s operations in North America comprise of a geographically diverse area, with several business units and branches spread across the length and breadth of the country and hence the company focused on their customer needs and expectations in order to attain optimum levels of customer satisfaction.

“In a large corporation with multiple business units, marketing may be called on to assess consumer trends as an aid to corporate planning. At the business unit level, marketing may be asked to provide leadership in developing a new, integrated customer service program across all business units” (Kerin et al, 2006, ch.2, pp.7).

The term customer encompassed within its scope, the owners, stockholders as well as the senior management. The key findings of the case are listed below:

a. Prior to initiating the new management plan, the company initiated measures to assess the needs and expectations of all its customers so as to have a better understanding of the composition of its customers and fulfill those needs and desires to the best of their abilities. Also it facilitated better decision making on the basis of the data related the individual demands of the customers.

b. One of the biggest obstacles that the company faced while implementing the new management plan was replacing the old one, which was in place since more than 30 years. This initial setback was tactfully handled by the senior management who convinced the respective parties involved about the project viability and ensured better performance by setting clear objectives about the performance accountability at all levels.

c. To facilitate better functioning of the organization under this new management plan, the senior management broadened the scope of authority across all levels of management which ensured better performance. The roles and responsibilities were hence clearly defined and communicated which encouraged open communication and information sharing amongst the managers and hence facilitated better and smoother decision making.

d. The company also set clearly defined benchmarks for measuring the success of the proposed management plan: professionalism, quality, communication and accountability. It also focused on attaining a clear understanding of the demands of the customer so as to ensure their optimum satisfaction.

“One guideline in defining the company’s business: Try to understand the people served by the organization and the value they receive, which emphasizes the critical customer – driven focus that successful organizations have” (Kerin et al, 2006, ch.2: Developing Successful Marketing and Corporate Strategies, pp.10).

e. The company has ultimately achieved their desired targets and reaped rewards in terms of high customer satisfaction and saved millions of dollars on its various business operations, a majority of them on petty tasks. In the rapidly growing competitive scenario, and the cut throat competition, change is inevitable, especially when it concerns the most vital asset of any organization – the customers. Thus embracing the “Kaizen” (moving forward) tenet, companies around the world can hope to attain maximum customer satisfaction in all its business operations to increase their profitability and improve their brand value.

Classic Airlines, is faced with a similar situation, with diminishing customer confidence in the company resulting in low customer satisfaction mainly on account of an improper CRM system. The company can largely benefit by applying and reviewing their management policies, on the lines of the Toyota Motor Sales Inc., to increase customer confidence by devising effective management policies and setting performance oriented benchmarks, encouraging autonomy in decision making, broadening the scope of authority across all levels of management and encouraging open communication and information sharing so as to facilitate better decision making on the part of the managers. This shall in turn, equip the managers with the latest data on customer satisfaction levels by exposing them to the needs and expectations of the customers.

In conclusion, a mere implementation of a CRM system is not a guarantee of high customer satisfaction. It requires continuous efforts on the part of the management in the form of timely reviews of the effectiveness of management policies implemented as well as the customer data at their disposal.

Topic B: Evaluating Customer Risk MOTOROLA (Unsuccessful)

Instructions for Topic B: In the Response row, each team member must identify at least one company that has faced and addressed similar situations (successfully and unsuccessfully).

In the Response row, identify whether the company has been successful or unsuccessful.

In the Response row, summarize your key findings for the company as they relate to the scenario.

In the Response row, identify at least one alternative solution for Classic Airlines from each company researched.

Response to Topic B:

For the purpose of this case, Classic Airlines, Iridium, a Motorola backed venture, is used to illustrate how a technologically sound product, failed to capture desired market share. Iridium is a classic case of product failure on account of serious setbacks such as weak market positioning, high cost structure and critical mass.

The mobile phone market during the early 1990’s faced several obstacles in communication such as failure in providing uninterrupted phone call service, good network, accessibility from any corner of the world etc. This was recognized as an opportunity for the growth of satellite phones, and hence Motorola decided to take a plunge in the new market segment, keeping in mind the customers needs and expectations. The customers’ basic need for communication was a major driving force for the company, to work on the new satellite technology purely on the basis of its capability to provide immense opportunities to its customers.

“There are just few service organizations competing for customers by offering enjoyable, memorable experiences rather than traditional service transactions” (Kerin et al, 2006, ch.12: Managing Services, pp.3)

Iridium provided world class services to its customers such as robust voice and data solutions, facility of calling from any location including airways, oceans or mountainous regions, without charging roaming fees and devoid of any compatibility problems, yet customers restrained from purchasing satellite phones.

“Services have become a significant component of the global economy and one of the most important component of U.S. economy. Services accounted for $4.6 trillion in 2003, which was an increase of more than 80% since 1990 ” (Kerin et al, 2006, ch.12 Managing Services, pp. 6).

This was mainly due to the fact that its high costs (expensive instrument cost and high service fees) far exceeded the benefits that it had to offer and also by the time the product was launched, there were several cheap substitutes made available to the customers by its competitors.

The case of Iridium is a substantial evidence of the fact that inaccurate prediction of customer demands, leads to a disastrous result in the form of product failure. From this case study, Classic Airlines too can draw several significant lessons in customer management, such as appropriate use of the huge amount of customer data at its disposal, a critical analysis of the competitive products available in the market as well as the scope and range of products / services that it proposes to launch. Technology alone cannot guarantee customer satisfaction, the company thus has to understand the needs and demands of the customers and fulfill their expectations to have a better competitive positioning in the highly competitive marketplace and thereby ensure their sustainability.

Topic C : Customer Acquisition and Retention PHILLIPS – (Unsuccessful)

Instructions for Topic C: In the Response row, each team member must identify at least one company that has faced and addressed similar situations (successfully and unsuccessfully).

In the Response row, identify whether the company has been successful or unsuccessful.

In the Response row, summarize your key findings for the company as they relate to the scenario.

In the Response row, identify at least one alternative solution for Classic Airlines from each company researched.

Response to Topic C:

Phillips Consumer Electronics – the U.S subsidiary of Phillips Electronics, launched a new product - the Compact Disk Interactive (CD I), during a period of fierce competition in the home entertainment industry. The CD I system was touted as a major technological breakthrough for consumers, the management believed it to be a representative of family entertainment system of “tomorrow”- a product of the future, and counted heavily on the system to carry Phillips Electronics to the next century. However, the management was faced with a major strategic failure as subsequent to the launch of the product, the sales were found to be disappointing. An examination of the marketing strategy of the company provides a valuable insight into what was perceived as innovation by the company was perceived otherwise by the consumers.

“Developing, Pricing, Promoting and Delivering services is challenging because the quality of a service is often inconsistent. Because, services depend on the people provide them, their quality varies with each person’s capabilities and day – to – day job performance” (Kerin et al, 2006, ch.12: Managing Services, pp. 14).

The launch of this new product was clearly a move on the part of the company, to retain its customer base, which, on account of availability of alternative product options were increasing switching to the rival companies, ultimately translating into low profitability for the organization. However, in a bid to retain its customer base and regain the customer confidence in the ability and potential of Philips consumer electronics, to provide quality services to the customers it hurriedly launched a new product into the market which had several technical flaws and instead led to a further decline in the customer’s perception of the company.

“In most cases, the consumer cannot (and does not) separate the deliverer of the service from the service itself. For example, to receive an education, a person may attend university. The quality of the education may be high but if the students have difficulty interacting with the instructor, find the counseling services poor, or does not receive adequate library or computer assistance, he or she may not be satisfied with the educational experience” (Kerin et al, 2006, ch.12 Managing Services, pp. 15).

Phillips Consumer Electronics faced similar problems in case of the new product that was technologically sound yet several of the features promised by the company prior to the launch of the product were found to be missing. Hence the overall customer experience derived was not found to be satisfactory and hence resulted in a major product disaster.

This case delivers valuable lessons in customer retention and improving customer satisfaction by pointing out major flaws in the policies adopted by management of respectable companies such as Phillips. Classic Airlines, can derive critical lessons from this case on what not to do, while aiming for customer satisfaction. It is inevitable that in a highly crowded marketplace, and the presence of cheap substitutes, the organizations should consider the customer data at their disposal and study carefully the needs, demands and preferences of customers and apply them appropriately while launching any new service or product. Classic Airlines can learn from this case, the importance of converting customer data into a valuable tool to capture potential customers by providing high quality services and fulfilling customer needs and demands to their utmost satisfaction, which will ensure customer retention and increase profitability.

References

Instructions for References: In the Response column, list each reference using APA format.

Response:

Kerin, R. A., Hartley, S.W., & Berkowitz, E.N.&nbsp.(2006). Marketing (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Lim, J., Klien, R., & Thatcher, J.&nbsp.(2005).&nbsp.Good Technology Bad Management: A Case Study of the Satellite Phone Industry.&nbsp.Journal of Information Technology Management,&nbsp.XVI(2),&nbsp..

Rosen D.E, Schroeder J.E, Purinton E.F, (1998) Marketing High Tech Products, Academy of Marketing Science Review, Vol 1998, No.