Assignment Questions
You are required to choose ONE company from the list below and answer the case study questions:
- British Airways https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/home#/
- Royal Caribbean https://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/
- Legoland Windsor https://www.legoland.co.uk
Based on your chosen company please answer these following questions:
1) Describe the types of customers that your chosen company attracts? (LO 1) (400 words)
2) Identify the FIVE needs of each type of customer identified in question 1 and explain how they can contribute to the success of your chosen company. (LO 1) (500 words)
3) Discuss the major techniques that your chosen company can use to analyse the effectiveness of customer service within its company. (LO 2) (500 words)
4) Analyse the use and importance of a quality system that can be implemented in your chosen company to enhance customer service. (LO 2) (500 words)
5) As the future customer service executive, you have been asked to prepare short action guidelines to cover each of the major skills of customer service at your chosen company. Examine the ‘do’s’ or ‘don’ts’ you would include in your checklists for each of the following topics:
- Handling customer complaints
- Dealing with a difficult customer
- Effective communication over the telephone
- Principles of letter-writing when corresponding with customers queries
- Listening skills
Introduction
Every organisation needs an effective customer service strategy to retain customers. Customer service is an effective process of taking care of customers. The management has to provide excellent customer service by providing adequate assistance before and after sales. Importantly, customer problems must be understood by the company management, which can drive better customer relationship. British Airways is a prominent airline company, based on the United Kingdom, and It was founded in 1974. Different customer segments have been made by the company due to a diverse range of flight services. Thus, this study revolves around the customer service management process of British Airlines along with some key insights.
Finding & Analysis
Based on effective CRM strategies of the company, this comprehensive analysis contains five key questions. Answering these questions can help to derive insights regarding the current customer service strategies and the impact on external stakeholders such as customers.
Types of Customers British Airways Attracts
Based on different customer service segments, several customer segments have also been made by the company. For Instance, the primary services of the company are first class, business class, premium, and economy. For effective segmentation, demographics, geographic, behavioural, and psychographic aspects are integrated. Prominently, the company deals with both internal and external customers to offer its services and implement effective customer service strategies.
Internal Customers:
Internal customers make the first group of customers in British Airways. They include colleagues and staff, who are employees of the company. Employees are in departments, and various departments are headed and supervised by senior staff in the company. Different offices have the staff to enable the performance of different and essential duties. Among these internal customers, suppliers are also included which provide the company with infrastructure, planes, components, and technical assistance to keep operations of the company going. Moreover, directors and owners of the company ensure the proper functioning of the company so that it can be in line with business objectives.
External Customers:
The part consists of external customers is larger than internal customers because various segments represent customers of British Airways. They may present or new customers and they may be in the form of family, group, or an individual capacity. Some of these groups have been discussed in the following.
Businessmen:
One of the most important customer segments is the business class, including the business executives. Service for business executive has been designed according to their needs in terms of work and relaxation (Boon, 2019)
Family, couples, individual & Single customers
The company targets households, couples and single individuals by streamlining inbound flight experience. People with moderate or low income have been targeted by the company. Interestingly, these customers are added in the geographic segment, as services are shaped for both urban and rural areas
Different cultures (Tourists):
Travellers around the globe integrate with airline services. Based on the cultural difference and needs of tourists, the quality and differentiation process have been maintained. People with different cultural values and norms use these airline services to reach their destinations (Hasan, 2019)
People with special interests
People with special interest usually have a high income. Accordingly, the company designs luxurious flight services for these customers to meet their special needs. For Instance, these customers want to increase their social status by integrating with premium or luxury flight services. By targeting these customers in the competitive landscape, the company is in a better position to gain and sustain the competitive advantage over other rivals. The most important thing is to meet expectation of these customers, and it can also drive the competitive edge
Students:
British Airways has designed the flight services for low-income people as well. For Instance, it targets students who contain limited budget for travelling. By streamlining special baggage allowance and fares, this customer segment has been retained. According to revelations, free baggage allowance and stopover are two targeted services, which are better for customers, especially students. This service segment is designed according to the mobility needs of students.
Thus, the needs of these customer segments must be met by the company to drive financial growth and business sustainability. Based on customer needs, the management can make or change customer service strategies (Nambiar, 2018)
Five Needs of Each Type of Customers
Each type of customer has some expectations in terms of needs. Identification of these needs and wants in the competitive market seems mandatory to create a positive impact. Customer loyalty and satisfaction is triggered by incredible customer service, and British Airways is quite up to it.
Internal customers and external customers both have their unique needs under the five needs of each type of customer. These five needs are service, price, quality, action, and appreciation.
If these five needs are associated with two broad categories of customers with the company, which are internal customers and external customers, then a need-based on priority for each group can be highlighted. Internal customers have supervisors, owners, directors, who are mainly concerned with service to be improved in the company. They also want quality and action on decisions made by them. The lower level of employees in the hierarchy may prioritise appreciation along with price charged for their rendered services to the company.
There are external customers as well, which include family and individual customers as well as group customers.
One of the primary customer segments of the company is the business class, and accordingly, services are to be designed. For Instance, based on needs, needs such as outstanding standards, secluded cabins, differentiated lounges and availability of longer flights are to be met. Interestingly, people with special needs intend to pay high for high quality and differentiated services. Also, they need adequate information, flight assistance, and engagement of the management to make their journey effective (Britishairways.com, 2017).
Apart from the particular needs of customer segments, every customer contains five needs. These needs are service, price, quality, action, and appreciation. For Instance, business class and people with the special need the quality. They want to pay for the quality and feel the difference as compared to other customers. Also, the prominent need is service. They need full engagement of staff during the flight operation as well. On the other hand, customer service understands the worth of these customers and responds accordingly.
Apart from service and quality, the appropriate need of households, individual and couple, is pricing. British Airways used different pricing strategies to facilitate these customers. People with low income and limited budget will have to choose low-cost flight operations. Conversely, skimming proving strategy has been used for businesspeople and people with specialty needs. Thus, it can be said that the company targets the income level of people to offer services (Nalley, 2019)
All type of customers’ needs appreciation and action by the company. If the customer of the company intends to suggest or point out something, the company always intends to appreciate it and take actions. Taking actions according to customer complaints and appreciating the concerns of customers is the best approach to enable customer retention and relationship. British Airways are a responsible company in the competitive landscape, as it understands these needs. However, in the need identification process, the evolvement of the company is essential as well.
Contributing to the Success
After making the customer segments, British airline identifies different needs such as service, quality, price, action and appreciation. Each customer segment may contain different needs. The key success factor for the company is to make customer groups and combine these needs to come up with an appropriate solution. The customer service process of the company is in the limelight due to increased customer traffic and positive response. For Instance, in the customer service process, the CRM representatives streamline these five needs for each segment. It is a key driver for success because it can lead to business growth, sales acceleration, business sustainability, and competitive advantage (Kumar and Reinartz, 2012).
Techniques to Analyse the Effectiveness of Customer Services
There are two types of techniques. One is internal service measurement techniques, and the other is external service measurement techniques. These techniques will be discussed in the following.
Internal Service Measurement Techniques
The company can adopt call monitoring, mystery shopping, and counting complaints as techniques for internal service measurement.
Call monitoring may seem to be unethical, but for the service measurement, it is effective. When internal customers involved in customer responsiveness have to deal with external customers, then their call monitoring is justified to ensure service quality. The concept of mystery shopping can also analyse their attitudes and behaviours so that their reaction to genuine customers can be analysed. Moreover, external customers are allowed to submit complaints, and the number of complaints can help assess service quality.
The appropriate method for service measurement is to examine satisfied customers. For Instance, by using the internal service measurement technique, satisfied customers are to be divided by survey respondents. The method of measurement seems simple, as more satisfied customers will reflect the effectiveness of customer service. If there are a number of customers who are unsatisfied, then it may depict the ineffectiveness of customer service.
Comparison with Competitors
Comparison with the competitor seems mandatory for the company to measure the effectiveness of customer service. In the competitive landscape, the firm is in direct competition. Thus, the best way is to examine the number of satisfied customers. In short, if the competitor contains more satisfied customers than British Airways, then the firm has to review its customer service, management process. Also, the best way to compare the service is to engage customers of the competitor. Questions regarding the quality and efficacy of the customer service must be asked to obtain insights. Accordingly, the company can make changes or shape new customer service strategies. The customer conversion rate can also be evaluated to judge the effectiveness of customer service.
Examining the Number of Complaints:
The number of complaints can be assessed and navigated to understand customer service because it is effective and easy to interpret yardstick to examine customer service. It is easy to understand and implement a way to analyse customer services and its effectiveness. British Airways has special and separate interface for complaints and claims and has accommodated every possible option of a customer to address his or her concerns regarding services. In this category, the company has provided an effective platform for customer service (Britishairways.com, 2019).
Call Monitoring:
Call monitoring is one of the effective internal service measurement techniques because customers contact the company through telephone numbers provided on the website. Email and social media platforms are also there to have contact with the company, but they have proof or evidence of communication therefore, management of communication can be possible. However, over the call management can be possible through call monitoring, and British Airways already have the system to record calls so that they can be monitored.
Mystery Shopping:
Mystery shopping is a valuable technique for internal service measurement where British Airways may compare its services with any of the competitors. Recently, the airline industry is facing many challenges in terms of efficiency and growing competition. Customers become loyal to any airline company because of their competitive advantage. Mystery shopping is the technique to experience service of competitor so that best practices can be introduced to British Airways (Realitybasedgroup, 2019).
External Service Measurement Techniques:
Among techniques designed for external service measurement, there are unsolicited comments, focus groups, surveys, and feedback and comments cards. These techniques enable external customers to give their input into the company. External customers can communicate with the management and operations of British Airways through these techniques, and the difference between them and the company eliminates. The company has several ways to adopt these techniques.
Although unsolicited comments may not be wanted by the company, yet they provide insight into the customers’ intentions and views regarding the service. British Airways allows external customers the option to comment. However, other external service measurement techniques may also be employed like comment cards. Comment cards provide all the time and easy opportunity for customers to share their experience with the service (Hudson, 2019). The marketing department has a number of techniques to have the opinion and say of customers through focus groups and surveys along with other ways to gather feedback from the customers. This is how a company can measure services provided to customers. These techniques are suitable for external service measurement.
Quality System for enhancing Customer Service:
Quality system for any company is important, and it is also the case with British Airways. The quality system in the airline industry is crucial because a company has to come up to the expectations of customers. The use of the quality system in the company helps to ensure the provision of services as per customers’ preferences. Different models can be introduced and implemented in a company to ensure quality. The importance of quality systems is above any doubt because quality systems make different functions and actions in a way that provide integrated and united approach towards service delivery. The use of quality systems and their importance for British Airways have been emphasised in this paper, and the company can use a model for bringing quality. Servqual RATER model is a model which can be implemented in the company.
Service quality has three components mainly, and they affect customer service through the combined application of all three components. Three components of services quality are service strategy, customer results, and service performance. These three components can be there to form and shape quality system of British Airways. A strategy to offer service makes detailed plan by keeping customers in view and implementation of the strategy is also possible after its formulation. In the execution phase of the strategy, performance of strategy occurs. Performance of strategy means application of the strategy at the workplace. Customer results make third component of service quality system where customers show their results which confirm whether quality is delivered as per customer satisfaction. In the following, Servqual RATER model has been presented to ensure quality system for British Airways.
Servqual RATER Model:
The model has five dimensions, i.e. reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy, and responsiveness. Each of these dimensions contributes towards quality system for enhancing customer service. In the following, description of each dimension has been provided for implementation and adoption by British Airways (BMS, 2013).
British Airways is a notable name in the airline industry, and it has to be reliable in terms of its services for customers. The airline industry is a service industry where timely and desired services are given importance by customers. Service dependability and accuracy offers customers a standardised set of services which is delivered the same each time they come to the company. Assurance is the second dimension, which is all about the ability of the staff to display and show confidence and trust. They promise a delivery service exactly the same as expected by the customer. Tangibility is third dimension, and British Airways can implement this by working on physical facilities, equipment, appearance, and staff presence so that customer can get tangible experience as well. Empathy means each customer should be considered, and her feelings are counted. Responsiveness is the fifth dimension which ensures companies respond to customer expectations (Fripp, 2019).
Major Skills of Customer Service:
Customer Complaints Handling:
British Airways can adopt the major skill of handling customer complaints about customer service. Complaints should be tackled and responded to with sensitivity and empathy because the complainant has some problem. She cannot be satisfied through fake or hollow sympathies, but she needs their complaints to be addressed, followed by proper actions. Thus, handling customer complaints is an important guideline for customer skills (Ciotti, 2018).
Difficult Customer:
It is not always the case that the customer is communicating only to share her experience or complaint. Very few customers communicate to give positive feedback, and the majority usually complain. In extreme cases, someone may be hostile and aggressive to a level unable to handle easily. Therefore, the staff should be calm and responsive to such difficult customers.
Effective Communication on Phone:
Communication over the telephone must not belong to and be very detailed. It should be to the point because many other customers are in a queue waiting for their calls responded to by the representative. Therefore, effective communication on the phone must be observed so that the least time is consumed to get the purpose fulfilled.
Principles of Letter Writing:
Correspondence between customers and British Airways staff maybe through letter because customer queries are entertained through this medium as well. For this purpose, the staff should be aware of letter writing principles while handling customer queries. A direct approach in writing letters is more effective so that the subject is addressed with no time to waste.
Listening Skills:
Listening skills are very important and effective for excellent customer service. Being attentive and responsive to customer complaints can be possible only through listening skills. The staff at British Airways can be trained to be excellent in listening to customers’ complaints and suggestions. They should ask probing questions for findings in-depth facts about a topic.
Do’s or Don’ts
| Skills | Do’s | Don’ts |
| Customer Complaints Handling | Communication skills and Responding to their concerns | Extreme use of automation |
| Difficult Customer | Remaining calm and to the point | Being panic and frustrated |
| Effective Communication on phone | Being effective, fluent, and communicative | Taking lots of time and making the issue lengthy |
| Principles of Letter-Writing | Being direct, focused, and addressing all points of letter writing
|
Being vague, indirect, and ignoring techniques of letter writing |
| Listening Skills | Focused, attentive, and responsive
|
Ignoring words and body language of the speaker |
Conclusion:
It concludes that British Airlines can ensure customer services by implementing and shaping strategies for diverse kind of customers. Solutions to issues and concerns faced by customers can be possible if there are customer-centric strategies in the company. The analysis into the customers, their needs, company’s quality systems, and guidelines into customer services have noted that the company can implement a number of strategies and techniques to make it one of the best and most efficient companies. It is suggested adopting these points in this paper so that the company can remain successful in the long run.
References
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understanding-the-servqual-model/ [21 August 2019].
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Kumar, V. and Reinartz, W. (2012 ) Customer Relationship Management: Concept, Strategy, and Tools, Springer Science & Business Media.
Nalley, J. (2019) The Goals and Objectives of British Airways, 22 January, [Online], Available: https://bizfluent.com/list-7499971-goals-objectives-british-airways.html [21 August 2019].
Nambiar, S. (2018) British Airways launches special offer for students travelling from India, 25 June, [Online], Available: https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2018/06/25/british-airways-launches-special-offer-for-students-travelling-from-india/ [21 August 2019].
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