...The work of Starwood's Six Sigma Black Belts centers on the creation of the Sheraton Service Promise program. This program was developed in response to low guest satisfaction scores dealing with problem resolution during a guest's stay. Black Belts applied the Six Sigma DMAIC model (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control) to devise the best solution (Krajewski, Ritzman & Malhotra, 2011, pp.215): ♣ Define - three key factors are needed in problem resolution: speed, empathy, and efficiency ♣ Measure - call logs were established to track speed, empathy of associate handling the call, and efficiency of the staff charged with fixing the problem. ♣ Analyze - Pareto charts and other techniques were used for the analysis of 15-minute resolution standard. ♣ Improve - specific processes that affected performance: telephone operators' handling of requests, procedures for determining who to call, engineering workloads, and so on. ♣ Control and monitoring - 12 to 18 months tracking, with monthly feedback to the manager or department head responsible for the improvement of the Sheraton Service Promise program. Top-Down Commitment: The Six Sigma initiative is supported from the top of the organization down. At Starwood, processes and programs are driven by the work of its team of Six Sigma experts, called Black Belts. Implementation of such a program is expensive, with well-paid managers deployed throughout United States and Canada, and internal training programs for Black Belts...
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...A well known verse from the Old Testament has been a very popular verse of encouragement amongst many people, especially those in the Christian community. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9, New King James Version).” Many Christians have memorized this verse keeping it close to their heart, especially in times of despair, holding on to the truth that God is always with them no matter what they are going through in life. When times are tough this is a verse that definitely helps get people through those particular times. This promise is guaranteed to be delivered by God and, those who live out their lives according to the scriptures have that full confidence. One marketing management concept that is closely associated with this verse is internal branding. Internal branding consists of activities and processes that help inform and inspire employees about brands (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Brand bonding occurs when customers experience the company as delivering on its brand promise. All the customers’ contact with employees and communications must be positive. The brand promise will not be delivered unless everyone in the company lives the brand (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Knowing that God commands us to be strong and full of courage never worrying or being afraid because he is with us not only informs a Christian but also inspires him. Similarly, internal...
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...Amazon.com Describe their business model and explain their supply chain strategy. Amazon is one of the leading online retailers in the world. From foundation, Amazon was an online book retailer. Their online success allowed them to move into other areas including e-books, music and other products. Jeff Bezos, Founder, started the business in his garage and has built the company on an unconventional business model that in my opinion gives Amazon a competitive advantage. Amazons business model consists of a combination of logistical processes and information services that work together to provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Amazon provides shopping convenience to consumers, products can be ordered at the click of a button without the hassle of the retail store experience. Consumers experience an easy purchasing experience with a variety of payment methods such as paypal, bill me later, and credit card payments. As an added convenience consumers can set up accounts and save payment information for future purchases. Amazon has a very fast turn-around time for items fulfilled in Amazon fulfillment centers. In many cases consumers can expect their products to be shipped within a 24 hour period. As an additional service to consumers, Amazon provides what they call “decision enabling information”. Amazon compares products and pricing, provides consumer product reviews and ratings, and provides detailed product descriptions to aid consumers in making the best product...
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...to deliver a service matching perfectly customers’ expectations. The gap model of service quality, developed by V.A Zeithmal, A. Parasuraman and L.L Berry, in Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations, will help us to understand how Jyske Bank managed to close the gap between customers’ expectations and perceptions (the customer gap). Briefly, the gap model states that an organization will improve its quality service and its services marketing (closing the customer gap) by closing the four provider gaps, which are: 1) Not knowing what customer expect 2) Not selecting the right service quality designs and standards 3) Not delivering to service designs and standards 4) Not matching performance to promise Jyske Bank managed to close the first gap thanks to a good marketing research orientation. They conducted surveys to detect customers’ expectations. Thus they highlighted that customers’ expectations had changed: factors like price, product or location had become “basics” for customers, who focused more on differentiating factors like bankers’ behavior and interest toward customers. Jyske Bank also implemented a good upward communication. Thanks to their re-organization of the structure (dissolution of headquarters), which leaded to less layers between top management and front-line employees, and thanks to a good intern communication between managers and contact employees, customers’ expectations were transmitted easily and quickly trough...
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...Operations Management Jana K. Adams BUS 307: Operations Management and Quantitive Techniques Instructor Amy Schoeppner February 6, 2012 When working for any business, it is vital that one keeps up with their day to day inventories and demand. By doing this, it allows management will follow a technique called master scheduling. The master scheduling permits management to establish targets for the demand, production and ending inventories. Having these targets will direct the companies to keep track of forecasted demands, booked orders, projected inventory levels, production quantities and units still available to meet customer needs otherwise known as available to promise. (Bozarth & Handfield, 2008, p.479) While viewing the Realco Breadmaster, the first thing that should have been completed was a master schedule such as the one below. Looking at the projected ending inventory, the inventory levels are running high. If the breadmaster production line continues to produce 40,000 breadmasters every other week while the customer demands continue to drop off, the management will need to re-strategize their production numbers. In my opinion I do not feel that Realco “overpromised”. The management however, should update their production numbers. If the production lines continue to over produce above the forecast, then the company runs the risk of over producing and the production lines will have to be shut down until some inventories can be sold. The management will...
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... Starwood introduced a team of Six Sigma experts, also known as black belts, to make the processes in the hotel more efficient and even more satisfying for the customers. The Six Sigma team used the DMAIC process, which consists of defining, measuring, analyzing, improving, and controlling. First the DMAIC process will be explained. After this the top down commitment, measurement systems, goal setting, education, communication and customer priorities will be described. * Define – in order to fulfill the customers satisfaction (or the Sheraton Service Promise), three key features were identified i.e. speed, empathy, and efficiency. * Measure - call logs were established to track speed, empathy of associate handling the call, and efficiency of the staff charged with fixing the problem. * Analyze - Pareto charts and other techniques were used for the analysis. * Improve – since there is always space for improvement, the committee is looking for ways how to make the parts of the process (such as: telephone operators’ handling of requests, procedures for determining who to call, engineering workloads) faster, more emphatic and more efficient in order to increase customers’ satisfaction. * Control and monitoring – there will be 12 to 18 months tracking, with monthly feedback to the manager or department head responsible for the improvement of the Sheraton Service Promise program. Top-Down Commitment: Top-level management commitment is crucial when implementing...
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...customer purchasing habits and market stature. The reason is that they share certain characteristics and approaches that contribute to their success as a brand and a business WHAT GREAT BRANDS SHARE • There are five notable qualities that leading brands share Three principal attributes: 1. A compelling idea • Behind every brand is a compelling idea, which captures customer’s attention and loyalty by filling an unmet or unsatisfied need 2. A resolute core purpose and supporting values • These remain in place even though the business strategy and tactics have to be regularly revised to address and take advantage of the circumstances of a changing, and in the detail often largely unanticipated, world and business environment. • Example: From the 7 Series to the Mini, the BMW brand stands for “the ultimate driving machine” – the core remains the same: to deliver an outstanding experience though superior car performance • This strategy illustrates an opportunity captured by connecting with a wider market without eroding the core purpose and positioning of the parent company 3. A central organizational principle • The brand position, purpose and values are employed as management levers to guide decision-making • “Once the enterprise understands what the brand is all about, it gives direction to the whole enterprise. You know what products you’re supposed to...
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...Bringing Strategy to Life: Aligning your corporate culture with business goals Leaders of high-performance companies understand that a corporate culture that is aligned with its strategic priorities helps the organization achieve business success. The challenge: achieving alignment and sustaining it over the long term. High Performance: As Unique as a Company Itself One of the most striking characteristics of highperformance organizations is the level of harmony between business strategy and organization culture that they manage to achieve and sustain over time. A manufacturer competing chiefly on cost and efficiency, for instance, requires a culture very different from that of a luxury goods retailer for which personalized customer attention is the ultimate differentiator. “High performance” means different things in companies competing on different strategic priorities across industry sectors. In short, the right high-performance environment is one that helps a company achieve a specific set of business requirements. In a high-performance organization, workplace practices must actively influence the employee behaviors needed to execute its strategy and reinforce its market focus. behaviors of leaders are critical in establishing a culture that aligns with the business strategy. But, certainly, this is easier said than done. In fact, many companies’ cultures are not aligned with their business objectives, because their leaders, who by and large focus on the financial and...
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...Evaluating the Strategic Role of Operations Management at Nandos Nandos can be described as a casual dining restaurant, which originated in South Africa with a Mozambique/ Portuguese theme. Nando’s got its name from one of its founders; Fernando who had Nando’s in the later part of his name. The Restaurant chain was founded in 1987 and has grown to operate in over thirty countries in over five continents. (www.nandos.co.uk) Most commonly, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Malaysia, Mauritius , Pakistan, Singapore, Zimbabwe, the united States of America and The united kingdom in which Nando’s is trying to build a finger licking tradition. They received the highest accolade for excellence ( three stars) in the best companies annual accreditation awards. It is important to high light here that amongst all the large companies which entered for this award , Nando’s was the only one who received the award. (www.nandos.co.uk) Nando’s is specialized in serving chicken and chips , rice or mashed potatoes. They specialize in selling flames peri peri chicken and from a personal point of view I think that they do no only specialize in the selling flamed chicken grills , I think that they have revolutionarised the way in which we eat chicken and chips in the united kingdom. Chicken and chips in the united kingdom can to an extent be considered staple food, but with the establishment of Nando’s in the country , its presentation and serving has been given a total over hall. The name peri...
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...Appendix 1: Customer service plan template Innovative Widgets Customer Service Charter | Welcome to Innovative Widgets! Our vision and mission: Customer service is a service of an organization offered to its customers or the interaction between the customer and organization at the stages of the purchase. Every organization should ensure quality customer service to insure the expectations of the customer. Iinovative widgets is the largest producer of widgets in Australia since 1952. Its widgets are used as components in a brod range of machinery from domestic appliance to industrial equipments. The company is family- owned operated by the children and a grand children of the founder. Organization has the werehouse where different operations are carried like purchasing, sales, accounts human resources and a customer service team. Innovative widget has a diverse team. Their largest customer is a major mining equipment equipment manufacture which accounts 40% of total and rest is to medium and small businesses and to individual and sole traders. Main vision of innovative widget business is to keep every Australian business running smoothly; using safe, quality widgets. Their main mission is to innovate new ways of manufacturing and testing widgets. Deliver constantly high quality customer service internally and externally. Keep Australian businesses buying Australian widgets through quality products and second to-none-customer service. Have the best safety record of and...
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...Forum TCS - Retail Journal July 2015 | Issue 6 Omni-Channel Supply Chain: From Backend to Forefront Foreword Pratik Pal President & Global Head Retail, CPG, Travel, Transportation & Hospitality Welcome to the sixth edition of Forum, the TCS Retail Thought Leadership journal. In this issue, we present our perspective on the changes shaping the supply chain of tomorrow. Retailers all over the world are making the transition from multichannel to omni-channel. The key to delivering the ‘order anywhere, fulfill anywhere’ promise is the supply chain. Supply chain is poised to become the key influencer of the interconnected customer experience. Based on my interactions with leading retailers across the world, it is my view that the battle for omni-channel supremacy will be fought and won on the grounds of supply chain. Retailers across the world are focused on re-architecting and recalibrating their supply chains while maintaining the delicate balance between customer experience and profitability. While earlier, significant investments were directed toward digital customer engagement, in the times ahead, investments will predominantly focus on supply chain re-imagination. In this edition, we discuss the prominent challenges and the response needed across key areas spanning the entire value chain as well as the building blocks for enabling omni-channel supply chain. The ‘plan-buy-make–move–sell’ value chain is no more linear. While the ’sell’ component of...
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...Building Service Relationships: It's All About Promises Mary Jo Bitner Arizona State University There is no one better qualified to write a comprehensive paper on service relationships than Leonard Berry-the first person to use the term relationship marketing in the services literature (Berry 1983). Not unexpectedly, he has delivered a carefully researched and motivating discussion that provides broad coverage of the field and directs us forward to new research. He has clearly laid out the convergent influences that are bringing to fruition the seeds of relationship marketing planted over the last 15 years. The heart of the contribution is in his identification of emerging perspectives and trends in the field of service relationship marketing: targeting profitable customers, multiple levels of relationship marketing, marketing to employees and other stakeholders, and trust as a marketing tool. Further development of each of these emerging themes should propel us to a deeper understanding of service relationships. Berry's vivid use of examples provides strong grounding and clear, understanding of the relevancy of the issues he raises. Being a commentator on a thought-provoking piece such as Leonard Berry's is a privilege. First, because the article is so well done and complete, I do not feel compelled to disagree or criticize. Second, because he has done the hard part of covering the full range of topics, I have the luxury of selectively building on his contribution. I will...
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...resulted in thousands of structured query able information sources on the Internet, and the promise of unprecedented information-gathering capabilities to lay users. Unfortunately, the promise has not yet been transformed into reality. While there are sources relevant to virtually any user-queries, the morass of sources presents a formidable hurdle to effectively accessing the information. One way of alleviating this problem is to develop a information gatherer which take the user’s query, and develop and execute an effective information gathering plan that accesses the relevant sources to answer the user’s query efficiently. Most organizations are familiar with Penetration Testing (often abbreviated to, “pen testing”) and other ethical hacking techniques as a means to understanding the current security status of their information system assets. Consequently, much of the focus of research, discussion, and practice, has traditionally been placed upon active probing and exploitation of security vulnerabilities. Since this type of active probing involves interacting with the target, it is often easily identifiable with the analysis of firewall and intrusion detection/prevention device (IDS or IPS) log files. However, too many organizations fail to identify the potential threats from information unintentionally leaked, freely available over the Internet, and not normally identifiable from standard log file analysis. Most critically, an attacker can passively gather this information...
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... * Customer Gap:- difference between expectations and perceptions * Provider Gap 1:- not knowing what customers expect * Provider Gap 2:- not having the right service designs and standards * Provider Gap 3:- not delivering to service standards * Provider Gap 4:- not matching performance to promises Analysis Of Axis Bank- Axis Bank was the first of the new private banks to have begun operations in 1994.The Bank as on 30th September, 2012 is capitalized to the extent of Rs. 414.53 cores with the public holding (other than promoters and GDRs) at 53.80%. The Bank's Registered Office is at Ahmadabad and its Central Office is located at Mumbai. The Bank has a very wide network of more than 1600 branches (including 169 Service Branches/CPCs as on 30th June, 2012). The Bank has a network of over 10000 ATMs (as on 30th June, 2012) providing 24 hrs a day banking convenience to its customers. This is one of the largest ATM networks in the country. AXIS GAPS GAP 1: The difference between what customers expected and what management perceived about the expectation of customers. * Being a private bank Axis bank is trying very hard to win the race from other private banks like ICICI bank , who are already ahead in the race. PSU’S are losing the race as well as foreign...
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...INTANGIBILITY In case of hotel industry, it is the intangibles that encourage guests to spend more, provide positive feedback, return for a stay in the future and recommend your hotel to others. The Oberoi hotels promises to create what they define as an "Oberoi Experience that stays with you long after your holiday ends" by using the 7P's as under: Product: The Oberoi hotel offers the guests Spa facilities, a priceless feeling of relaxation and peace, which can't be seen but only experienced. Pool side dinners, Junior chefs for the kids to learn to bake cookies, block printing classes, yoga classes, the romance of Rajputana- renewal are vows are some of the extraordinary services offered by the Oberoi. All these services offer a unique experience for different segments of customers, thus utilizing the tangibles to create an intangible one of its kind experience. Place: Serene Surroundings with unparalleled views for which the Oberoi hotels is trademarked adds on the intangible experience of the visitors. Price: Stay 5 nights, and get a complimentary night for free. With this policy of the Oberoi, the guests feel wanted and welcomed. When a luxury comes for free, what you get back is enormous guest satisfaction and loyalty. Promotion: "India by Oberoi" campaign promises India in luxury at exotic locations which invokes a feeling of excitement to explore and a welcoming gesture for the tourists. Physical Evidence: Bearing a blend of traditional and colonial style, the rooms are...
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