Handling Customer Complaints and Managing Service Recovery

Customer complaints and service recovery are the most important things for a business, they both have potential to affect customers level of satisfaction. They also provide a chance for the customer to offer their different opinion, thereby improving the business service. As shown in Figure 12.1, when there is service failure customers elicit different responses. Due to this variation of behaviour; the business would never know what the customer is thinking without understanding customer complaint behaviours. Moreover, once the business knows what makes a customer unhappy, they need to quickly respond to the customer.

One in four customers has a problem with products purchased. If the item purchased is relatively low in price, only one in five will register a complaint (Eccles & Durand 1998). Most of the customers will not complain even though they have a problem with the product. For example, when people buy flowers from Canary Jane’s Flowers, once they get home and find the flowers are not fresh, they probably won’t go back to the shop and complain because the cost of time complaining does not seem worth it.Instead they may decide not come to the shop again. Therefore, Canary Jane’s Flowers needs to make a different plan for customers, making a complaint strategy to maximise customer satisfaction, such as recording the customer mobile phone number and make a call to them after the customer purchase. The business should always be proactive to gather information from the customer (Blazevic & Lievens 2007).

Once the business receives the complaint from customer, there are many steps to recover services. The most effective way is returning the money to the customer if there is a big problem with the product, or apologise to the customer and attempt to find out why they’re dissatisfied, thereby the business can provide adequate explanation to persuade the customer to come back again. In addition, the business should build blueprints to help the manager to go through every fail point of the service, and avoid it happening again, this is another method of service recovery.

References:

Eccles, G & Durand, P 1998, 'Complaining customers, service recovery and continuous improvement',Managing Service Quality, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 68-71.

Blazevic, V & Lievens, A 2007, 'Managing innovation through customer coproduced knowledge in electronic services: An exploratory study', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 138-151.

The Role of Customers Within the Organisation

The “key characteristic of a service is that it takes place at the interface with the customer”, therefore without customers the service does not exist (Maull, Geraldi & Johnston 2012). The role of the customer within a florist is to identify their needs and wants and communicate as effectively as possible to the service provider.

There is significant variance in the amount of participation that customers apply, and the optimal level may not always be reached (Gallan et al. 2012). As illustrated in Figure 11.1, a florist’s customer’s optimal level of participation is moderate. A florist like Canary Jane’s Flowers requires customer inputs for an adequate outcome but the florist still provides the range of flowers. It is not considered high participation because the client participation does not guide what flowers you buy, and customer does not co-create the outcome, like a personal trainer would.

The customer needs to be able to demonstrate the desire to search for information or a particular product, or able to create a flower arrangement order. In Canary Jane’s case the customer would either want to search for information about what they want, whether it be flowers or a gift, or have the ability to understand what type of flowers they want and order an arrangement. The employee provides product knowledge, organisation offerings and an end result; regardless if there is a sale or not.

It’s important to highlight that Canary Jane’s is a family friendly business; they sell some children toys and therefore attract a lot of adult customers with infants. Children can be stubborn and not obedient when they are told not to touch items, you can only control children to a certain extent. Due to this these customers are not able to perform their role in the service. However, Canary Jane’s have implemented a strategic method of dealing with such customers, they have put all the unbreakable and not precious items on the low height so this way the children can still touch items but there is no issue of them breaking these items.

The organisation, although a service, creates tangible aspects to support the intangible service. For instance, at Canary Jane’s Flowers they provide a business card of contact details on the gift bag with the purchase as well as a physical copy of the debit card receipt, (refer to appendix photos 11.21, 11.22, 11.23) therefore the business played their role in this encounter but if the customer does not follow through with their implicit role of storing their receipt for a reasonable period, then a resolution in order to resolve post purchase issues from the customer’s side has not been fulfilled. Since Canary Jane’s Flowers has attached their business details, it’s the customer’s implicit responsibility to contact the store if an issue arises; this is in both parties best interest. This leads into complaint behaviour and how to deal with complaints.

References: 


Maull, R, Geraldi, J & Johnston, R 2012, 'Service Supply Chains: A Customer Perspective', Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 72-86.

Gallan, A, Jarvis, C, Brown, S & Bitner, M 2012, 'Customer positivity and participation in services: an empirical test in a health care context', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 338-356.

Integrated Marketing Communication Strategies

The most important part of integrated marketing communication for Canary Jane’s Flowers is the communication between customers and employees. As shown in Figure 9.1 this form of communication is considered interactive marketing on the triangle and relates to delivering the promise. Canary Jane’s promise is to give customers the freshest flowers that are locally sourced and deliver exceptional service, their interactive communications plays an important role in creating consistent service to deliver this promise. Since Ms. Stacey doesn't have an advertising agent, she relies mainly on this form of communication to promote the business. She focuses more in delivering an excellent service in order to gain a good reputation and customer retention. This is evident by the review comments that have been uploaded by the customers, who have dealt with Canary Jane’s Flowers.

Interactive marketing involves having skilful and qualified frontline employees that understand what each customer requires. Canary Jane’s Flowers once had a customer who wanted to give his girlfriend a yellow flowers for Valentine's Day, the staff explained to him that yellow flowers symbolise friendship and suggested a different colour, the customer was impressed by their knowledge and went along with their suggestion. This illustrates that the staff intend to understand the customer's needs and offer the best service.

Interactive channels must be integrated to create consistent service promises. As part of advertising strategy Canary Jane’s Flowers uses social media such as Facebook. Their Facebook page is very interactive and up to date with lots of colourful pictures to appeal to the market. Canary Jane's Flowers was also featured in Frankie magazine, which is another form of unpaid advertising for the business. This proves that the staff are very active and consistent with the service provided.

Horizontal communication, also identified as lateral communication, is the passing of messages between entities and groups on the same level of an organization (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2013, p.434). Horizontal communication assists in the production of high quality exchange because it happens directly between people in the same environment, therefore it is also more efficient. Floristry is an artistry profession and fully depends on what the customers desires. Since there is only a small team of three at Canary Jane’s Flowers, horizontal communications is more significant and suitable. On the other hand, where there is an open channel between sales and operations things are more complicated (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2013, p.434). This is why Canary Jane’s Flowers communicate information through various strategies. For instance, horizontally; there is a system where all the staff uses to check for updates and also the orders. Vertically; in situations where there is a matter that requires the owner’s permission for decision making, such as a price change, then the information is sent to Ms. Stacey's email address. In addition, the rules, policies, procedures and regulations are all passed down from Ms. Stacey to all the staff members causing a downward flow of information. The communication returns upwards with the end of the day performance reports, complaints, feedback, etc. Communication can be difficult if employees do not effectively fulfill their roles.

References:

Zeithaml, V, Bitner, M & Gremler, D 2013, Services marketing, McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York.

Service Quality and Service Guarantee

Service quality defines the level a customer is satisfied because it is the critical element customers use to evaluate service (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2013, p. 87). Therefore in a consumer service experience within a store, service providers must reach out to customers and listen to their desired fulfilments while also assisting their journey from enquiries, selection process, purchase process through to the possible post purchase issues. Ensuring service quality and eliminating the need for service recovery is “doing it right the first time”, this shows the business is reliable (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2013, p. 201). Canary Jane’s Flowers is a floral service combined with highly priced yet small sized gift goods, for example candles, rosedale hankies and hand creams. The higher costs of the small gift products would naturally create an implied higher service quality. “The intangibility and unpredictability of services generally cause consumers to perceive a higher risk associated with a service” (Sharma & Varghese 2013). Customers can have uncertainty and be unconfident of the service quality for particularly high priced stores, like Canary Jane’s (Sharma & Varghese 2013).

A method to reduce consumer’s uncertainty with the quality of a product is guarantees, which ensure the customer is 100% satisfied (Hart 1988). “A service guarantee is a promise by a company to compensate the customer in some way if the defined level of service delivered is not met.” (Sharma & Varghese 2013). There are several characteristics of effective guarantees that will be explained relating to Canary Jane’s Flowers and the benefits of having an effective guarantee will be illustrated. Effective guarantees should be unconditional, meaningful, easy to understand and easy to invoke (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2013, p. 202). Canary Jane’s guarantees that the flowers will last at least 4 days after buying them, this is unconditional because it “promises customer satisfaction unconditionally, without exceptions” (Hart 1988). This guarantee is meaningful because it covers the aspects of the service that is important to the customer, which is the freshness and quality of the flowers. It is also meaningful financially; a full refund or replacement is given. The guarantee is easy to understand as it is simple and pinpoints the promise (Hart 1988). A guarantee must be easy to invoke, as explained by Hart (1988) “A customer who is already dissatisfied should not have to jump through hoops to invoke a guarantee.”

“Service guarantees have been advocated as a potentially powerful weapon today in trying to differentiate between services and gain the competitive edge” (Sharma & Varghese 2013). Another benefit of service guarantees is maintaining quality (Zeithaml, Bitner & Gremler 2013, p. 204).The organisation can maintain quality as the guarantee is an indicator of what the service should provide, for instance at Canary Jane’s Flowers they guarantee same day delivery if you order before 2pm. By having this benchmark an employee knows the minimum needs that need to be met for the customer, which in this case is getting the flowers delivered to the customer on the same day. Canary Jane’s Flowers uses Murphy Alan Johns for the delivery of their orders and if for any reason there is a disruption with the process, then the staff will assist with the delivery to ensure that the guarantee is met. Small to medium enterprises often bestow less service guarantees due to less workers to help achieve promises, avoiding over promising is considered safe in the employer's eyes. The low number of apparent written and verbal guarantees from Canary Jane’s will ultimately impact the “willingness of the customer to make frequent visits” (Sharma & Varghese 2013). Ensuring the guarantees are used effectively, they will benefit the business. Canary Jane’s will increase loyal customers through the use of guarantees, which equates to profitability in the long run. Guarantees are irrelevant if the organisation does not monitor whether they are successfully delivering a quality service.

References: 

Zeithaml, V, Bitner, M & Gremler, D 2013, Services marketing, McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York.

Sharma, K & Varghese, M 2013, 'Influence of Service Guarantee on Consumer Behavior in organized retail stores', Romanian Journal of Marketing, vol. 1, pp. 10-17.

Hart, C 1988, 'The Power of Unconditional Service Guarantees', Harvard Business Review, vol. 66, no. 4, pp. 54-63.

Dynamics of Social Media in the Global Market Place

“Social Media platforms allow easy access to the target market whereby consumers become actively involved and engaged ultimately influencing customer behaviour” (Jones et al.  , 2015). 

Social media, nowadays utilises different avenues for businesses and everyday people to take advantage of.  Some of these include faster communication, marketing and data collection.  These avenues allow businesses to get access to a wider audience and even the global marketplace.  So what are the dynamics of social media and how does it play its role in determining the success or failure of a company? Well there are lots of reasons.  The cost of using social media and the risk of benefits from it.  Also, whilst communication maybe 24/7 online there are some drawbacks to using social media.  Furthermore the benefits of social media through the use of small and big data has changed the way we market our products and ultimately gain competitive advantage over one another. Change is integral to a business’s survival. If the majority of consumers want to move into an online market where they are open to all forms of social media messaging and communication then businesses need to be ready to change, adapt and apply this new technology into their everyday lives. It goes without saying “Build it, and they will come” only works in the movies. Social Media is a “build it, nurture it, engage them and they may come and stay.” – Seth Godin (Lazzaroni, 2014).

Social Media has seen a new era of marketing.  Digital marketing through the use of social media websites is rapidly becoming the new way to market on a global scale.  Although with this comes some advantages and disadvantages.  If we look at the global marketplace and how social media has shaped the online presence for most business’s we cans start to understand just how much companies are pouring their money into social media advertising.  It’s no coincidence why either, the cost comparison of running a TV ad or using Digital Marketing is huge.  “The cost of 30 second television advertisement aired at 7:30 could cost companies between $30,000 and $35,000” (Davidson, 2012).  “In comparison to social media, twitter can cost companies between $1,000 and $4,000 a month and Facebook can cost between $2,000 and $9,000 a month” (Thomas, 2012).  As we move into a more technological world more and more people are using social media.  Some statistics from the Search Engine Journal, found that 71% of organisations use Facebook and 59% of companies use Twitter as a form of marketing (SEJ, 2011).  The statistics show that as we move toward social media and the digital age, more and more social media is exploited for its diverse demographic and efficient communication pathway.  Although Facebook and twitter might be cheaper than say TV ads or even Radio ads, the real investment comes from change.  If we look back on a company and see that they have restructured and reorganised how they sell over the years, changing with trends and moving with the crown and looking at what customers want.  Then they have a much higher chance of being successful.  We live in a dynamically changing world where technology is consistently updating.  “Social media made customer review become more accessible and extensively which can Strong the power of the consumers. when customers engaged in networks of brands like agree/disagree on Facebook, or write comments on site which means social media can make company and customer relationship more close so that can also increase the customer loyalty and endorsement” (Jacqueline, 2014). 

“Folkens wrote that social media brings strategic communicators closer to their audience by utilising the human conditions of listening and responding.  He argues that social media has softened the barrier between the company and the audience” (Folkens, 2011).  Folkens wrote that social media brings strategic communicators closer to their audience by utilising the human conditions of listening and responding.  He argues that social media has softened the barrier between the company and the audience, (Folkens, 2011), making audiences feel as though they are communicating with a company that listens and takes action on their requests.  Social media has facilitated two-way communication as customers can comment on blogs or YouTube videos, like and comment on company statuses and photos on Facebook and tweet companies their feelings about their products.  Social media allows consumers to engage with companies wherever they want, whenever they want, making a company more accessible to its customers.  This means that although information is getting out there faster, there is “increased the potential for complaints and the visibility of this negative outcry” (Royse, 2011).  People can write reviews of products and can negatively affect the brand name just by writing a single bad word.  The problem arises when companies don’t realise how public there message really is, and also who is reading that message.  Another dynamic that can combat this is how fast communication is projected in real time.  If we look at social media and how fast information is getting out there we can see that PR problems can be resolved far more quickly and with less hassle than through traditional methods.  “Social media allows for strategic communication consultants to distribute their message as it happens, keeping their company’s message as up to date as possible with the concerns of their audience.  Communication in real time also allows for companies to tweak and alter their message or image to suit the current trends at that time.  Twitter and Facebook have trending sections on their sites that allow people to see what is popular at the current moment.  When a trending subject is clicked on, it takes the user to all the posts and tweets concerning that subject that is trending” (Cuce, 2014). 


As social media has grown and developed into our everyday lives we see more and more how businesses are trying to pry at our eyes, and ultimately get our attention for a second hoping that we will go out and buy their products. The everyday consumer is learning and understanding the value of these messages but mostly what we do goes unseen. When we talk about social media we think of the website and instant messaging on a global scale, but what we sometimes miss is all the data that flows from the millions upon millions of people clicking and typing there details into social websites. This data is called big data. “Nowadays companies are using smaller data which consists of focusing in on what customers want to buy and understanding their purchasing habits so they can target certain products towards them.  When consumers are faced with significant lifestyle events like having a baby, getting married, or buying a house, they are more open to changing their purchasing habits” (Revis, 2016). Data collection through the use of social media can be seen as strategic investment as it provides the company with a wealth of knowledge about their customers and their interests.

References:

Davidson, D, 2012, ‘Ten, Nine…network count down cost of prime-time spots’, The Australian, 26 March, viewed 7 May 2014, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/media/ten-nine-networks-count-down-cost-of-prime-time-spots/story-fna1k39o-1226309686889

Folkens, D, 2011, 3 Ways Social Media Is Changing Public Relations, Top Rank, online marketing, blog post, viewed 7 May 2014, <http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/02/social-media-changing-pr/>

Henrikson, J. U, 2011, The Growth Of Social Media: An Infographic, SEJ Search Engine Journal, blog post, 30 August, viewed 7 May 2014, http://www.searchenginejournal.com/the-growth-of-social-media-an-infographic/32788/

Jacqueline, I 2014, social media marketing influence customer behavior, viewed 23 March, 2016, <http://www.blastmedia.com/2014/07/30/3-ways-social-media-marketing-influences-consumer-behavior/>. 

Jones, N Borgman, R & Ulusoy, E 2015, Impact of social media on small businesses.  Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 22(4), 611-632. 

Lazzaroni, D 2014, ‘75 Quotes to Inspire Marketing Greatness’, Linkedin,

Revis, L 2016, ‘Social Media Trends’, The Blog, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/layla-revis/social-media-trends-2016_b_8914190.html

Royse, M, 2011, Seven Ways Social Media is Changing PR, Spin Sucks, blog post, 4 April, viewed 7 May 2014, http://spinsucks.com/social-media/seven-ways-social-media-is-changing-pr/