Creating an Organizational Culture of Customer Service through Service Quality and Training Eleventh Jackson The university of the West Indies Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Science In Human Resource Development This paper outlines the stages involved in designing and implementing an effective training programmer aimed at improving the quality of service provided by customer service representatives. The training programmer is designed based on the learning theories that relate to adult learners.
Companies have recognized that , based on the imitative business environment in which they operate, in order to retain their present customers and attract new customers, they are challenged to provide customers with a consistently high quality of service from the creation of a culture of customer service. The achievement of this critical objective requires that companies ensure that their employees are highly motivate and well trained. Primary and secondary data are used to explore the factors impacting the quality of service provide by customer service representatives.
The findings indicate that the customer revive representatives lack certain key knowledge, skills and attitudes that may be learnt through training. The paper concludes with a proposed evaluation of the training programmer and recommendations to ensure that the transfer of learning is evident, based on the on the Job performance of the customer service representatives and feedback from the customers. PAGE List of Figures Abstract Acknowledgement Introduction Overview of Organizations Objective Review of Literature Training needs Analysis Research Methodology Rationale for Research Methods Data Analysis Findings Training Needs Identified
Training Design Profile of Learners Implementation of Training Programmer Limitations Discussion and Recommendations References Appendices LIST OF FIGURES I. Customer Tenure- Page it. Receptionist Display Friendly Facial Expression- Page Receptionists Inform of Other Services- Page iii. For too long, organizations have become complacent when they are leaders in their industry and it becomes especially difficult for them to make changes in their mode of operations. Many organizations need to come up with new and more radical ways of operating which will make them more effective and efficient.
Globalization as lifted the blinders from the eyes of many organizations, but there are others who continue to wear them and refuse to see the big picture. Shared visions are lacking and as a result the future will be bleak for many local organizations. In today’s competitive business environment, companies have recognized the need to place greater focus on providing their customers with a consistently high quality of service. In order to do this, management has to understand the value customers receive by consuming or using the offerings of the company and how total quality is perceived in customer relationships.
According to Simms (1996), service quality, customer satisfaction and focusing on the customer are now seen as critical determinants of success in all forms of business. Customer service is one of the most important ingredients of the marketing mix for products and services, which helps to create a customer loyalty. Customers today are not only interested in the product they are being offered but all the additional elements of service that they receive – from the greeting they receive when they enter a retail outlet, to the help that they receive when they have a complaint about a faulty reduce that they have paid for.
Successfully growing a business is often dependent upon a strong competitive edge that gradually builds a core of loyal customers, which can be expanded over time. Research on the subject of service quality and customer satisfaction shows that most of the studies were conducted in industrialized countries such as United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. This implies that there is limited amount of relevant literature on underdeveloped and developing countries, including Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean. The literature however, peaks to the fact that customer satisfaction is highly dependent on service quality.
The main objective of this research is to identify the factors impacting the quality of done by using primary and secondary data to identify the variables that influence customer’s perception of the quality of service provided by the customer care representatives. The information obtained will be used to assess the present experience of customers during their visit to the organization. The results of the analysis will identify the gaps in the customer expectations in comparison to their actual experiences at the organization.
Finally a customer service training programmer, aimed at aligning the expectations of customers with the service provided by the customer care representatives and ultimately improving the service quality delivery, will be designed. OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATIONS Digital Group Limited Digital began operating in Jamaica in April 2001. They have a broad customer base in Jamaica and 35 other countries in the Caribbean region. After 11 years of operation, Digital Group Limited has over 13 million customers across its 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific.
The company is renowned for levering best value, best service and best network. Services Since their launch in 2001, Digital has introduced a variety of service options that were previously not available to their mobile customers. The services include: Rollover minutes, GAPS data services, prepaid roaming, SMS to e-mail and multimedia messaging. Digital offers customers a wide range of services, the latest handsets and tailor-made prepaid and postpaid packages to suit all lifestyles. Digital is creating value for its consumers in many ways by offering the latest cutting-edge wireless technologies and services
LIME Jamaica (Cable and Wireless Jamaica) LIME, an acronym for ‘Landlines, Internet, Mobile, Entertainment’, is a communications provider owned by the British based Cable & Wireless Communications operating in Jamaica and several other Caribbean countries. The company formed from the integrated businesses of Cable & Wireless in the Caribbean which adopted the LIME name on November 3, 2008. LIME operates as the native incumbent telecommunications service providers in several Caribbean islands. Competitors include Digital (largest mobile competitor) and Columbus Communications (brand name Flow).
The mission at LIME is “To understand and deliver to our Government, Business and Families” Their vision embodies, “Always working to improve life in the Caribbean”. They operate on a promise of , “Building, connecting and serving our communities”. The services offered by LIME include: ; International and domestic voice telephone services; ; Data/alp services such as DADS, Frame, or KIDS; ; Mobile/Wireless services including BlackBerry; ; Satellite-based communications and television services for select countries.
For business and enterprise customers they provide fully tailored communication lotions, which help solve real business issues-from cost reduction to customer acquisition and enable them to develop. Scotia Bank Jamaica Limited The Bank of Nova Scotia was established in Jamaica in 1889, and has enjoyed a history of changes and transformations from colonialism to independence. What began with a small banking office in Kingston is today, a sophisticated island-wide network of 35 branches.
With a staff of over 2,000 in Jamaica, Scotia bank provides state-of-the-art retail and commercial banking services to the Jamaican public- customers ranking from different age ranges. Over the years, Scotia Bank has seen significant growth and development in our customers, and the variety and quality of services offered. In particular, they have kept in step with new technologies and the need for flexible banking.
They now boast one of the most modern, state-of-the-art electronic banking systems in Jamaica giving customers the ability to bank anytime, anywhere via our alternate delivery channels: Internet banking, Mobile banking, Telephone banking, Scotia bank Tams, Debit Point of Sale (POS), Merchants Multimillion Tams and any ATM worldwide displaying the Cirrus symbol and sophisticated electronic Cash Management Services (SMS) for commercial and small business clients. Scotia Bank has recognized and supported commercial and business clients’ need for greater productivity and peace of mind when it comes to security.
And as such the Electronic Data Capture (DC) was introduced for credit card merchants providing greater efficiency and fraud protection. Additionally, Scotia bank has partnered with the Society of Worldwide Interbrain Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network, the most efficient international payments systems, enabling faster processing of both f letters of credit National Commercial Bank The National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NC) had its genesis over 175 years when in 1837 the Colonial Bank of London, England, opened its doors on Harbor Street in Kingston.
Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the Bank eventually became known, in 1977, as National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited. With an asset base of $BIBB as at September 2012, NC is a leading Jamaican conglomerate committed to creating financial prosperity, while instilling social consciousness through its nation building activities. Through relationships with our employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, regulators and the wider public, we are focused on sustaining our strength and helping to build a better Jamaica.
Services NC provides a wealth of financial services through its network of 42 locations and over 170 Bombs islander. These services include checking and savings accounts, credit card facilities, personal and commercial loans, insurance, and wealth management; supported by Internet banking, along with telephone banking and a toll-free 2417 Customer Care. Their vision is, “To be the premier Caribbean financial institution delivering superior products and services to satisfy the needs of our customers while developing our employees and building the communities we serve”.
Their Values They hold a deep and abiding respect for each customer, every colleague in our companies, and all our shareholders. They commit to find new, practical and innovative ways to make the term “excellent service” more relevant to each customer – every day. They commit to the relentless renewal of their enterprise through the constant training of our people at all levels. In their merit-based culture, individual reward and recognition will be a result of measured performance. They treat all competitors as noble, but they will compete fairly and vigorously to win.
Literature Review Organization culture that cares for its customers The business environment is not what it used to be. Managers face an awesome challenge in this competitive and constantly changing environment, and this is not a passing phenomenon. With growing customer demands, global competition, deregulation of industries worldwide and the introduction of technology, it has become clear that the current instability in our marketplaces is not going away. Change is and will continue to be the only constant (Rummies and Branch, 1995).
Modern organizations across the world are going to great lengths to incorporate ‘customer care’ as in the integral part of their organizational culture. Staying close to the customer (Peters and Waterman, 1982) is now considered to be an essential part of any organizations strategy towards ensuring greater sales. Doherty and Perry (2001), for example, described the case where a workflow management system is customer orientation, quality of services and performance. Hefted (1998) and Hefted et al. 990) identified the organizational culture dimension of pragmatism, which deals with the concept of customer orientation as an important practice that could be used to distinguish organizational cultures worldwide. Moreover, they proposed that pragmatic units in organizations are market-driven, that there is a major emphasis on meeting customer needs and that the pragmatism concept is in line with the suggestion of Peters and Waterman (1982), staying close to the customer. Furthermore, Hefted et al. (1990, p. 14) state that “the popular stress on customer orientation (becoming more pragmatic … ) is highly relevant for most organizations engaged in services and the manufacturing of custom-made, quality products”. Hefted (1998) also introduced the customer interface organizational culture component, which encouraged continual interactions and face-to-face contact with customers. He further suggested that the customer interface culture is results- oriented and that “it is the customer interface people who bring in the business”(up. -1 0), and without them many organizations cannot survive. Hefted et al. (1990), for example, describe the case of a European airline company named D ELM that went through an amazing turnaround in the sass. The essence of the turnaround was that the new leadership of the organization changed its focus “from a product-and- technology to a market-and-service orientation” and that a “discipline of service toward customers”(up. 293-294) was built. The case of Hefted et al. 1990) suggests that the commitment for a market or customer orientation needs to come from the top management and the employees should be strongly encouraged to focus on the customer, assess their needs and provide the highest quality of service. Training as a Change Management tool As organizations strive to compete in the global economy, differentiation on the axis of the skills, knowledge, and motivation of their workforce takes on increasing importance. According to a recent industry report by the American Society for Training and Development (CAST), U. S. Organizations alone spend more than $126 billion annually on employee training and development (Paradisiacal). “Training” refers to a systematic approach to learning and development to improve individual, team, and organizational effectiveness (Goldstein & Ford 2002). Alternatively, development refers to activities leading to the acquisition of new knowledge or skills for purposes of personal growth. Fewer than five percent of all training programs are assessed in terms of their financial benefits to the organization (Swanson 2001). The picture changes among companies recognized for their commitment to training.
Specifically, the majority of organizations recognized by CAST for innovative training programs measure training impact at some level of organizational effectiveness (Paradise 2007, Riviera & Paradise 2006). Typical organizational performance measures in this latter sample include productivity improvement, sales or revenue, and overall profitability. Argon-Sanchez et al. 2003) investigated the relationship between training and organizational performance by distributing a survey to 457 small and medium-size businesses in the United Kingdom.
Results indicated that some types of training activities, including on-the-Job training and training inside the organization using in-house trainers, were positively related to most dimensions of Spanish firms with more than 100 employees. This study related organizations’ training policies (e. G. , functions assumed by the training unit, goals of the training unit, nature of training, and how training is evaluated) with four types of organizational-level benefits: employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, owner/ shareholder satisfaction, and workforce productivity (I. E. Sales per employee). Results suggested that training programs oriented toward human capital development were directly related to employee, customer, and owner/shareholder satisfaction as well as an objective measure of business performance (I. E. , sales per employee). The fundamental goals of several training programmer are to deliver the mission of the organization and support workers to learn the culture of the organization (German 2000). These objectives provide help to the strategic goals of business by facilitating learning chances and support organizational culture (Kettle 1999).
The requirements for technical training program for employees raised their Job satisfaction and help to understand the culture of organization, which lead to the success of the organization Components of Training and Development Programmer There is no particular method for developing the employee training, however particular significant methods that would be measured. A perfect employee training and development program must be the mixture of knowledge, career development and goal setting. These approaches will benefit the program to be more useful for the employees and organization.
Today organizations are extensively using the Information Technology systems for their learning programs. Knowledge and information systems are rapidly moving ahead and those companies cannot survive that provide up to date knowledge of I. T. To their employees. For a new task training must be given to employees so that they can easily cope with new task. It should be the responsibility of the organization to assured that employees have knowledge, skills and abilities, and these skills must be according to the required level of the Job.
Furthermore, when employees need required skills and knowledge it should be provide them on the right time without any delay. In the result thereof, companies required to make sure that employee can learn whenever they required (Gagger 1999). To complete this purpose organizations required the internet and computer based learning segments. The basic reason for career planning as quantity of employee training program is not merely to support employees to think that their employers are financing in their career, furthermore keep in mind that they help employees to manage various heartsickness of their lives and a clear promotion track.
Employers cannot make promise with employees for their Job security, but they provide them opportunities to improve their knowledge and skills, so that they can remain sustain in Job market (Moses 1999). Career development of the employees should be established on bright career path which employee can easily recognize and gave it worth (Nun 2000). To achieve this purpose, employee must classify their work, work priorities and current skills they have to do their Job. Therefore, employees can start identify the Jobs that
