business

This paper seeks to incorporate the importance of managing customer relationships within the stated case company’s business objectives and marketing strategy. Further discussions will involve applying the metrics used to measure the effectiveness of the efforts towards managing customer relationships and differentiating the various segments of customer loyalty. Also, the paper includes an evaluation of technologies related to customer relationships management, programs designed to manage customer loyalty and strategies on client services. This project is based on an existing business that lacks a customer relationship program as part of its general customer service practices.

1. Current Situation

a. Company Goals and Marketing Strategy

Comcast Corporation is a media and technology firm incorporated in 2001. The company has primary business subsidiaries which include NBC Universal and Comcast Cable. Comcast Cable functions through Cable Communication while NBC Universal operates through various segments including Filmed Entertainment, Theme Parks, Cable Networks and Broad Television. Comcast Corporation’s mission is to bring together the best aspects of media and technology while driving innovation towards developing the planet’s best online and entertainment experiences. Through Comcast Cable division, the company can provide the largest video, phone and high-speed internet to residential clients and business under the XFINITY brand. NBC Universal produces news, sports cable and broadcast networks among other services (Comcast, 2016).

b. Current Customer Service

According to Spokal (2014), Comcast Corp is notorious for providing bad customer service, something that affects the company’s consumer relationship profile. The firm’s customer service is awful based on the numerous complaints by clients who profess to being treated rather unprofessionally by some employees. A famous blogger, in his determination to expose Comcast’s poor customer service, recorded a terrible call of him conversing with one of the company’s employee. Throughout the call, the worker tried everything in his capacity to trigger the cancellation of the service. In its defense, Comcast stated that they were not going to change their customer retention program at the expense of quality products. Furthermore, employees at the company grieve over the quality of customer service encouraged by the business culture which made the company rank as the worst ranking firm in customer relationship.

The IDIC model collects all information relating to the needs of the client throughout his or her lifetime. This approach developed by Peppers and Rodgers provides an alternative process for creating and managing customer relationships. Furthermore, the framework focuses managing customer relationship while making use of the web to build sustainable relations (Yurtbay, 2016). The Identify, Differentiate, Integrate and Customize framework (IDIC), is the most efficient strategic model for implementing customer relationship management and consists of four operational steps. These measures include customer identification, customer differentiation, customer interaction and customer communication.

Customer identification stresses the need to identify each client when they make their first visit and the subsequent visits. Conventional techniques to enable identification include offering cookies to customers or requesting customers to log onto the company website (Zabanga, 2016). Verifying and updating customer information is important since the data collected becomes obsolete with time. At Comcast, employees get trained on how to recognize their clients when they make continuous visits of patronage to most of their outlets. However, the company fails to make consistent efforts towards recognizing and remembering customers through unique and detailed profiles that carry their preferences and other noticeable characteristics.

After reviewing customer feedback and comments towards Comcast’s customer services the indication was that company tries to understand the habits and preferences of its clients. Some employees are known to ask common questions such the name as the names of their clients, their nationality, and the reason behind their decision to work with the company and where they work. However, to some extent, some staff members fail to open up to all clients and treat them as close friends (Spokal, 2014). Some customers reported that employees at Comcast use slightly harsh tones in their conversations contradicting the scenario where employees are expected to be casual, friendly and highly active.

The next element is customer differentiation which involves building a designed profile that assists segmented customers. This aspect focuses on developing appropriates services for each clientele category such as the top clients, large clients and those who often purchase from competitors (Dyon et al., 2016) At Comcast; customer differentiation is ineffective as the program set up to perform this function fails to segment the entire clientele properly. Furthermore, rarely does the company focus its available resources on clients who bring the most value to the firm and devise customized strategies that will satisfy the individual need of customers while improving the consumer experience. Even though special discounts are given to customers within the expandable group, most customers complain that the discount rate does not compensate the high volume of business that they bring to the firm. The outcome of this imbalance is a string of unsatisfied customers who lose morale in patronizing the company again since their loyalty is not sufficiently reciprocated.

Customer interaction constitutes the different forms of communications provided on the site such as customer tailored questions aimed at addressing the needs and experiences of significant clients. These interactions always depend on the customers preferences. Comcast is notorious for not abiding to this principle as the company determines the channel for interactions in most cases. A number of customers state that they were unable to choose their most preferred avenue when conveying their concerns. Failing to have a better insight into the needs and wants of customers wastes the time of these individuals every time the staff asks the same question. Customer customization is the final element that involves personalizing or customizing content according to the level of segmentation identified at the acquisition stage. Furthermore, the step means making additional market research to evaluate whether products can be tailored to meet the customer’s specifications. One of Comcast’s values is to shape the future of media and technology through current and tailored innovations (Comcast, 2016). This element shows the firm’s commitment to providing custom-made products and services to improve on communication and retaining its clients.

2. Redesigned Customer Service Policies and Strategies

Effective customer retention programs provide the best and simplest way of increasing customer loyalty, reducing cases of churns and growing revenues. Research information from a recent study conducted by the Harvard Business Review indicates that increasing customer retention by a margin of about five percent results in twenty-five to ninety-five percent increase in total profits. Also, engaged clients generate 1.7 times more income than other customers (Beard, 2013). The statistics from this study show that a company that develops efficient programs for retaining and keeping clients adds significant revenue to the bottom line. This section focuses on creating a program or policy that will address the customer service situation at Comcast. Furthermore, the program will base on the principles of the IDIC model as discussed above.

The most efficient program for Comcast Corp is the integrated customer service that focuses on three main components. These components include providing proactive customer service, tracking customer satisfaction and offering consistent customer service. This program formalizes the various levels of customer service by providing the underlying goals and practices one can follow to achieve high levels of customer retention and loyalty (Queensland Government, 2016). Commitment from all staff is important in the establishment and implementation of this program successfully. The employees should be involved in the planning, development, execution and sustainability stages. Also, workers need to be trained and provide feedback on the program.

The most important steps considered when creating this program include taking into account the need of customers. This stage involves thinking about what the company’s client might need and developing a list from them. Creating a list ensures that all requirements have a chance to be addressed while also preventing cases of repetition. The second step involves planning how to meet all the needs of customers by writing a document that outlines the aims, details and activities of the program. The paper provides material for future reference and a mode of communicating the process to all employees within the business.

The third step constitutes training the company staff on the new system to ensure that all individuals are conversant with the program. This process promotes the overall success and effectiveness of the scheme. Implementation is the fourth step where the program gets initiated after making sure that all employees have confidence in and fully support it (Queensland Government, 2016). The fifth step is sustaining the program by reviewing the ever-changing customer needs and feedback. At this stage, the company will evaluate the needs of each client segment thus ascertain which one has undergone some form of alteration over a given period. Finally, the firm will encourage and support its employees who promote the functionality of the program through a staff recognition platform. This platform will award those employees who have shown commitment and diligence in ensuring that the customer service program attains its goals and objectives.

The designed customer service program will focus on three main elements. The first element involves delivering a proactive customer service by anticipating issues before they take place and providing solutions to these problems. Comcast needs a customer service system that prevents problems from occurring or getting out of hand. The system will also cater to the client related problems that arise within and outside the company by providing instant procedures of how to solve these issues quickly and efficiently (Beard, 2013). This element assists in satisfying the identification and customization segments of IDIC technique by offering the firm the opportunity of identifying the various needs of consumers beforehand and customizing their efforts to meet the desired needs. The proactive service will anticipate and address the concerns of clients before they can even share them on any communication platform. This occurrence increases the company’s overall ratings when it comes to customer service delivery.

The second element of the program involves tracking the trends in customer satisfaction. This aspect focuses on measuring customer satisfaction that provides insight into levels of happiness among clients. However, most clients prefer avoiding repurchasing a company’s product rather than disclosing their dissatisfaction. This dynamic forces the firm to develop and use a tool that measures customer satisfaction by proactively gathering customer feedback showing how happy or unhappy they are with your service. Also, tracking the changes in the levels of customer feedback enables one to assess whether the implemented strategy has a positive or negative impact. This element ensures that the company is able to perform effective customer differentiation and interaction efforts that align with the universal IDIC model.

The third part constitutes offering consistent customer experience to build loyalty. Consistent experiences ensure that clients regardless of their segment do not defect to any competitor. This aspect also promotes the lower rates of defection within the promoters or loyal customers assisting the company to build healthier and profitable relationships with the respective clients. Within this element, all departments including sales, marketing and customer support need to communicate regularly to enable the provision of consistent and reliable customer experiences. The realization that the clients interact with different sections of the company serves the purpose of customer identification by encouraging mutual engagements between employees and customers (Queensland Government, 2016).

3. Strategies and Programs to Promote Customer Loyalty

Promoting customer loyalty and retention relies on improving customer satisfaction which is an indicator of overall business performance. Also, satisfied clients represent a share of loyal clients who tell others and further advertise the benefits of one purchasing the company’s products and services. This element is an essential marketing tool for any given business hence the need to develop strategies and programs that can promote customer loyalty (Dutu, 2010). The loyalty program requires the full cooperation of the staff in order to make it successful. Comcast employees should strive to put the need of the client first before their interests. Team members should interact socially with customers at the highest level of professionalism by viewing them as individuals and listen to their complaints and requests. Maintaining a great customer service attitude throughout the entire staff portfolio promotes customer loyalty as clients feel valued and important.

The program or system adopts a particular process that encourages customer loyalty through an unmatched buying experience. By altering the way clients interact with and purchase from the company, the system creates a smooth and attractive process that appeases the customer to return for the second, third or fifth purchase. To improve customer loyalty, the program will record the standards of services offered to clients and relate them to the business goals and objectives. Also, the system will determine the most efficient point of sale and incorporate it into every transaction system within the company. Furthermore, the program will reward the most loyal customers by the use of discounts, free gifts and privileges that will keep them coming back for more. Establishing a customer complaint policy is also important to enable clients to convey their dissatisfaction through secure and appropriate means. Also, the program will recognize and reward employee behaviors that most loyal customers want them repeated during their next visit (Queensland Government, 2016).

4. Customer Loyalty Segments

Segmenting customers constitutes dividing the clientele into groups of people who are similar in certain ways that are relevant to marketing. Customer segmentation adopts categories such as gender, age, spending behaviors and interests. Segmenting the loyalty program according to Comcast’s customer base involves creating incentives that speak differently to customers within their respective levels. The differentiation of customers uses various metrics related to spending, product and service offerings and consumer attributes. Segmenting customers based on their amount of expenditure takes into account the volumes each category purchases or the money they bring to the company. The loyalty program will create classes of customers based on their spending levels and reward each segment accordingly. An example is the Gold and VIP level programs (New North, 2014).

Another section categorizes clients according to the products and services offered by the company. In this part, the loyalty program takes into account the amount of offerings used by clients. Assessing the lifecycle and frequency of product assists in determining which segment of customers purchase more or are loyal. The customer also attributes assists in defining loyalty aspects such that a client’s proximity and affinity to the company products and services allows one to segment them based on reliability.

5. Technology-Related Tools (CRM)

Current technological innovations ensure the success of effective customer relationship management programs and strategies. These technologies allow companies to interact effectively with their clients through enhanced processes, quality data and personnel engagement. One important technology is the VoIP that generates a louder buzz within contact centres. The tool is efficient in cutting costs and erasing location barriers while enhancing customer service. VoIP can augment the client service centre with remote and outsourced individual’s transcending the idea of geographic handcuffs (Bailor, 2016). Social networking is another tool that assists employees to uncover all possible relationships with clients hence improving the frequency of finalizing sales transactions. By providing new sources of data on sales deals, social networking applications help sales representatives to establish who knows who within the market or organizational level. Social apps enable firms to look out for relationships between customer accounts and contacts within the CRM program. Speech based applications are known to reduce costs while increasing the sales transactions a given firm can process without increasing the number of employees. Examples of these tools include the self-service speech application that enables contact centers to strike a balance between reducing costs and satisfying their prospective clients. The tool combined with VoiceXML creates speech based pictures that can handle a broad range of transactions per minute.

6. Metrics to Measure the Success the Customer Service and Loyalty Programs

We can use the same metrics to gauge the performance of the customer service and loyalty program since the two programs result in close to similar outcomes. These results include customer satisfaction, improved business performance and overall appeal of the company. To measure Comcast’s programs, the point system is the most basic metric that can be used to measure success (Graham, 2014). Within this system, regular clients earn points after purchasing a good or service using a membership card. The points accumulate in the form of discount or customer advantage which provides a useful metric for measuring the success of the programs. An increased number of points awarded to clients indicate the frequency with which individuals purchase and get satisfied with the company’s customer service. This outcome also shows the client loyalty index.

Another useful metric is the rate of customer retention that involves measuring how long customers stick to given company. When clients stay longer with the firm, this indicates the success and effectiveness of service and loyalty programs that are responsible for increases retention of clients. The Net Promoter Score is the most common consumer satisfaction metric that gets derived from simple customer feedback and comments. The tool measures the success of the programs by analyzing the percentage of detractors against promoters. When customers frequently recommend the products and services offered by Comcast, then the programs will be a success since the client data indicates excellent customer service and loyalty (Graham, 2014).

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