Retaining Customers Essay Example for Free

Retaining Customers Essay BT is one of the largest communications companies in the world. One of the services they offer is residential or personal communications solutions. Even though they now have competition from other companies offering consumers substitutes for their service, they still hold the largest market share of providing residential customers with telephone lines. For BT to maintain this market share, they must retain the customers they have. I will be recommending how they can retain their customer base as well as winning new customers. I will be looking at several models and theories in order to do this. * Making Customers into Champions * The case of the complaining customer * The tip of the Iceberg Model From BT a customer receives a core service. Telephony. The customer expects the telephone in their home to be working when they pick it up. They are not going to be wowed by the service if it is just working. However, when the customer makes contact with BT to enquire, change or add something they will use this opportunity to form a perception of BTs Customer Service. Most people who move to a different telephone provider do so because they perceive indifference in the people they do business with at their current company. Customer feedback tells BT that one of the biggest drivers of dissatisfaction is the difficulty in registering their complaint with BT. A large part of this dissatisfaction stems from a lack of promised callbacks and an initial difficulty in escalating their issue. This feedback has been substantiated by OFTEL in that the number of customers contacting them to complain that they have not received a promised call back has been increasing. OFTEL have given BT a very clear indication that they expect this situation to be addressed and therefore it is paramount that the following recommendations are implemented immediately. * Own, Decide, Do Training to be rolled out to all Customer Service Advisors. When a complaint is received in the 150 call centres the individual must own the complaint, make a decision about what to do with it and follow any promised action up with a call to the customer to let them know what happened. * Keeping the customer informed With some complaints resolution may not be speedy. There may be some technical difficulties, which hold resolution up. The customer does not know this and will perceive any periods of silence as the indifference of BT to their complaint. Keeping the customer informed of progress or news (good or bad) will enhance the customers perception of BT * EDCSMs (Event Driven Customer Service Measures), the service that BT offer customers must be analysed in order to measure its success. Through BTs sophisticated SMART datatbase, every contact with the customer is logged with the id of the advisor who took the call. This way trends can be spotted as well as training areas The barriers for the customer to successfully register their complaint are as follows: * The BT shunt BT is a huge business with over 20 large call centres taking in the freephone 150 (customer service) calls. It is very easy for complaints to get lost in the system. * The call steering system. There are many different numbers to press for different departments. It is difficult to speak to a human * The Call Handling Time that advisors are encouraged to adhere to. This measure the amount of time they are talkng with each customer in order to keep the Percentage of calls answered as high as possible. * Poor training and coaching target based coaching instead of skills based coaching In the longer term there are some other changes that should be implemented by BT over a period of time in order to instil enhanced behaviours in all employees. Traditionally employees of a company see a complaining customer as being a nuisance. BA challenged this when they introduced the Making Customers into Champions Model. This model can be directly applied to BT, who is, itself, striving to provide World Class Customer Service. This model labels different sectors of the customer base and how likely they are to contact BT with any dissatisfaction they may have and how easy it is to register this dissatisfaction. If the customer has a complaint and they cannot register this in any way, they may feel tempted to try a different provider. If the complaint is not registered then BT has not had a chance to resolve the complaint. If BT has a chance of resolving the issue, if it is resolved skilfully and well, research suggests that this could actually enhance the customers perception of BT. So, in short, a customer complaint can turn in to a glowing report for BT. Furthermore, if we make BTs customers in to champions, BT can learn from the mistakes they have made that might have caused complaints in order that they do not occur again. * A dissatisfied customer will tell between 10 and 20 other people about their problem * A customer who has had a problem resolved will tell 5 people about their situation The case of the complaining customer is a valuable study that BT should already have taken heed of. The problems experienced by Mr Shelton almost mirror the experiences some BT customers have when things go wrong and customer relations are tested to the full. It may be tempting for some employees working for such a huge cash cow as BT to believe that BT can afford to lose difficult customers. This study shows that whilst few customers actually take the time and energy that Mr Shelton did to complain, there are actually many other dissatisfied customers (Mr Shelton is just the tip of the Iceberg). These customers are the missing in action group and will just quietly take their custom elsewhere and thus impact significantly on BTs profit margins. The article points out that whilst it would be easy for us to read Mr Sheltons contacts with the company as neurotic, in actual fact Mr Shelton has responded very emotionally to the way he feels his complaint has been dealt with. Customers should be allowed to vent their feelings, feel listened to and valued before their problem is resolved. They are experiencing feelings of powerlessness and this will be compounded if they feel that an advisor is not listening to them. Paraphrasing can be a useful tool here, to show empathy and check for understanding. TARP published a graphic representing the Tip of the Iceberg Principle. It indicates that consumer complaints to a third party are only a small portion of those that exist. Theyre just the visible portion and reflect the much broader picture. This demonstrates how important it is for BT to be proactive in gaining feedback from customers at every possible opportunity. It was not the tip of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, and it will not affect the business greatly if just those visible customers were dissatisfied with BTs service. Those that leave quietly will have the greatest impact and BT will have little or no information as to why they left. BT must strive to deal with any customer requests the first time every time. Here is a list of my recommendations for BT for implementing across the board over the next 12 months in order to retain customers. * A review of the training process all training should be underpinned with updated balance scorecard and appropriate coaching given by line managers * Quality must come before quantity. If all customers were dealt with the first time they called, there would be less calls * Approach customer complaints as a chance to dazzle and delight customers and enhance a customers perception of BT through a training programme * Work together with different departments and not as adversaries. Promote teamwork * Introduce an incentive scheme for teams and individuals who achieve excellent customer relations * Use customer feedback more effectively (EDCSMs)- find out what customers want/expect then exceed this * Give staff more responsibility and authority to deal with complaints. Allow then to be flexible when it comes to procedural rules. Stop quoting BT policy. * Allow a measure of redress such as goodwill payments and compensation payments In implementing the above and re-training staff, BT will retain greater numbers of customers. Existing customers (especially those we have information about) are an ideal group to market new products to as well gain information from about how to improve on the products and services BT has.

A Students Reaction to Used Car Websites :: Sell Websites Buy Web Sites

A Student's Reaction to Used Car Websites Getting a used car instead of a new car is becoming a trend in America today. People do not want to spend money for new cars cause of the fact that cars’ values diminish significantly. This is exactly what my friend thought when he bought his used Acura CL 2.3 Coupe 2D for 13,500 dollars last years from a local dealer. Now the question is whether the price he paid really makes sense considering the current options and conditions of the car. Unfortunately, my friend didn’t even do any research before he bought this car. Thus, he bought this car with a relatively higher price than the price that he actually could have. Based on some of the used cars sales websites like kbb.com or edmunds.com which will be discussed later, he can actually buy that car for 12,585 (kbb.com), or 12,233 (edmunds.com). Inspired by my friend’s experience, I did some study on websites that can help you to negotiate for a used car like a pro. I come up with these two websites that I mentioned earlier—kbb.com and edmunds.com. Both these websites have their advantages and disadvantages. Later in the discussion, I will present all the features of each websites, and compare both websites. The question about which websites is better again depends on the user’s needs. The first website that will be evaluated is the kbb.com. This website which was created by Mike Kelley in 1981 is an online version of the standard Kelly Blue Book guidelines for all used cars. Why this website is trusted by a lot of people has a long history dated back to 1918 when Les Kelly, the Pioneer of this service, created the Kelly Blue Book. The background of the existence of the Kelly Blue Book will not be discussed too much since it is beyond the scope of this paper. However, this online version makes it much easier for people to browse through the internet and find out about the appropriate price they can bargain for with the local dealers or with the private owners. How so? This question can be simply answered by the user friendliness of the website itself. The graphic is simple, and the features are well organized so that it is easy for people to go from one feature to another.

Middle Age Religion

During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the sole church in Europe, where it has its own laws and its own treasury. The church was considered as an important law-making body, recognized not only by the people, but also by its leaders. The heads of the Catholic Church played big roles in the government, as they used their influence to get their way on things. Bishops were rich people at that time, and has come from a line of noble families. They have a tight hold on the people, especially since they are the ones who are â€Å"closer† to God.The lives of the people living in the Middle Ages were greatly dominated by the church. The church’s influence is limitless, from peasants, to noble lords and even the Kings – they all succumb to the will of the Church. Many of the medieval people dedicated their lives in the service of the Catholic Church and the religion they are in. They offer a life of service to the people of the Church, in hope that their actions w ould be acknowledged by God, the creator. This had been the usual threat being issued by the people of the church in order to get what they wanted from the people (Carr).During the early years of the Christian religion, its growth was being suppressed by the Roman Empire. This is because the Christians have refused to worship the Roman gods or acknowledge the power of the Roman Emperor. Christians have been persecuted all throughout the empire. These persecutions ended during the reign of Emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Constantine the Great then proclaimed himself as the emperor of the Christian people, thus spreading the religion throughout the Empire (Middle-Ages.org.uk).The beginning of the 5th century saw the crumble of the Roman Empire. This is caused by invading Germanic tribes conquering the city of Rome. This has led to the period referred to as the Dark Ages. The fall of Rome however, signals the rise of the Christian C hurch. The Dark Ages became a stepping stone for the Catholic Religion to flourish. From the Dark Ages up to the Early Middle Ages, the only accepted Christian religion was the Catholic religion. Catholic means universal, or as a whole. Any sect that was established was viewed to be as acts of heresy and the people are heretical (Middle-Ages.org.uk).The power of the Catholic Church in the middle ages was so great, that it owned lands, imposed its own taxes, and created its own laws. It is a very powerful institution that even Kings succumbed to its influence. The Church also accepted gifts and special offerings made by those who wanted to make sure that they have a place in heaven. The influence of the church extended to various lands. They were alongside the kings and rulers of Europe when it comes to power. Those who oppose the Church will instantly receive excommunication – they would go straight to hell when they die (Oakley).One of the major events in the Catholic Religi on in the middle ages occurred in the latter part of the middle ages. This is when the Eastern and Western Christian Churches split because of issues which arise from the crusades. This is called as the Great Schism, separating the two halves of Christian Churches. Another split occurred in the Western Christendom when two Popes have been elected and established at two different places. This is caused by disagreement in the elections. This continued to a few decades, up until the issue was healed at the Council of Constance, and the Catholic Religion finally became known as the Roman Catholic Religion.Works Cited:Carr, Karen. â€Å"Medieval Religion†.   1998. November 4 2007. .Middle-Ages.org.uk. â€Å"Middle Ages Religion†.   2002. November 4 2007. .Oakley, Thomas P. â€Å"Religion and the Middle Ages†.   2007. November 5 2007. .

Benefits Of Being Outdoors Depression - 907 Words

Essay 2: Benefits of Being Outdoors Depression is a devastating disorder, though one may find it hard to understand or take seriously. You can’t see it or touch it, but when it settles over you or your loved one, it can affect nearly every aspect of daily life. Depression can disable everything from waking up in the morning to going to work, even sleeping at night. Sufferers experience feelings of intense despair and hopelessness. Activities they used to find joy in no longer interest them and in some cases may lead to attempted suicide. Infact, Depression is the leading cause of medical disability worldwide and accounts for over 210 billion dollars each year in medical expenses and missed days of work. Antidepressants are prescribed at an all-time high and fail to consistently do better than placebo pills (Wittenborn, 551). I myself have experienced this first hand, shelling out money I didn’t have for antidepressants that had little to effect or just made my symptoms worse. However, emerging evidence focuses on an alternate therapy used in alleviating Depression, and it’s based in nature. Termed ‘ecotherapy’ by Mind, a charity group based in the UK that facilitated this research, ecotherapy is described as a whole range of green activities that can be beneficial to people’s mental health and well-being; things like gardening, cycling, and conservation (Jackson, 8). Professor Jules Pretty, Head of the Department of Biological Research at the University of Essex described aShow MoreRelatedMental Health Issues And Levels Of Participation1725 Words   |  7 PagesLiving in a state of positive, stable mental health benefits individuals in all areas of life. Attaining a positive state of mental health seems simple enough, but can be difficult when juggling many different responsibilities and leading a busy life. 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