I’m currently site manager of F, My responsibilities in relation to managing customers are:

Providing an exceptional service – Fast process of orders and a speedy delivery.
Value for money – Looking over and maintaining accounts/prices.
Complaints – Responding to complaints in a timely manner with a positive solution.
Communication – Making sure customers details are up to date.
Day to day actions – Account payments, order processing, setting up new accounts and general customer enquiries.

Conduct an environmental scan of the business environment in which your organisation operates.
1.1

Political

Predominately Flogas is a gas company (all in the name) which started off in 1984 then expanding with the acquisition of Alta Gas in 2001, British Gas in 2002 (bottled gas only) then BP LPG in 2013. Flogas has a number of sites throughout the UK, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland.
Flogas has a number of competitors throughout the UK. As for me being site manager of St Austell covering the whole of Cornwall with deliveries, Calor is my main competitor. They are very similar to Flogas, having 1 main depot based in Truro and having a number of small stockiest/dealers throughout Cornwall.

Flogas as a company has a 33 percentage of the market, where as Calor have 52 percent. There are other companies in this which make up the other 15 percent.
As a rule, 1 company is not allowed to own more than 60 percent of the market due to certain laws and regulations. Basically if Flogas or any other gas supplier has majority of the market it would be looked at as unfair, could charge what they wanted etc as there would be no computation to drive the prices and the service that their customers would receive.
As a logistics point of view Flogas needs to comply with all the transport laws and regulations to keep their operator’s licence. VOSA or the DVSA as there now called keep tabs on all vehicles especially trucks that carry dangerous goods i.e. gas. The vehicles need to be serviced/safety inspected every 8 weeks, tyres need to be checked by a tyre company every 4 weeks, trucks are checked for minor defects by the driver’s every time it leaves our yard, any defects found must be reported and rectified straight away so running costs for the vehicles are sky high. Drivers are restricted to tachograph laws, each driver can do 9 hours driving but can extend it to 10 hours twice per week, with a max of 56 hours per week or 90 hours over 2 weeks. After 4.5 hours driving they must take a 45min break or they can have a break of 15mins then another at 30 mins as long as there is a total of 45mins in a 4.5hour driving period.

Economical

Flogas currently has 34 dealers/stockists throughout Cornwall, where as Calor currently have 30. Both Flogas and Calor developed their own bottle sizes to try and compete with each other. For example, Calor has a 15kg bottle with a 21mm valve on the top. Flogas had a 13kg bottle with a 21mm valve, had a slightly smaller bottle to appear cheaper. Flogas then brought out a 13kg bottle with a 20mm valve on the top to make it more difficult for Calor to supply the customers. The market stayed the same for many years with most of the competitors supplying the same size cylinders, price and service was the only way to keep and gain new custom. Until Flogas acquired BP LPG, they gained the revolutionary design of the lightweight fibreglass cylinder. Designed for the leisure industry i.e. BBQ, patio heater and camping. This gave Flogas the edge over Calor in this sector as they don’t have a cylinder like it. The design was patented by BP so no one else could use the design and copy it. There are only so many cylinders that can be developed for the industry and they are already an everyday product for the current market.

As more and more new houses get built across the county the regulations are changing, wanting to keep the carbon footprint/pollution level to a minimal. Flogas got on board with the challenge and started to invest into new technology. There has been an enormous project over the past 2 years, Flogas now has a renewable energy market, supplying windfarms, solar panels, heat pumps and biomass. Also Flogas has developed LNG liquid natural gas, predominantly methane, CH4 which has been converted to liquid form for ease of storage and transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state. It is odourless, colourless, non-toxic and non-corrosive. Where as standard propane is very toxic and corrosive, both properties are obviously very flammable but from a health and safety point of view LNG is more favourable.

Calor has started investing into renewable energy with their energy efficient boilers and heat pumps. So far Flogas has the leading edge on renewable energy out of the competitors. Within an ever changing market and to keep up with customer demand Flogas will continue to develop more revolutionary products to provide its customers with the latest efficient heating systems.

A lot of areas in Cornwall are off the main pipe line for mains gas, that’s where Flogas and other gas suppliers will concentrate their efforts to supply and win new custom. Most houses in these rural areas don’t have a lot of options when it comes to heating there home. In some cases this should make gaining new business an easy process to do, but with every increasing prices it makes it difficult to be competitive in this industry. The best way to keep customers is to provide a reliable service. Most of my customers like the security we provide that we’ll never let them down. Flogas also provides a lot of gas for the catering industry i.e. burger vans, restaurants, pubs etc. The farming industry is also a good market to supply, grain dryers and pheasant farms use a incredible amount of gas in the summer months. Last but not least holiday parks has to be one of the biggest markets to supply. Cornwall being a holiday hotspot, hundreds of people flock into Cornwall every year. Whether in campers, caravans, tents or even static caravans. Throughout the summer months my depot shipped a staggering 118 ton of gas to the holiday market alone.

1.2 Analyse factors that impact upon the organisation’s ability to find new customers and retain existing customers.

Successful customer retention starts with the first contact an organization has with a customer and continues throughout the entire lifetime of a relationship. A company’s ability to attract and retain new customers, is not only related to its product or services, but strongly related to the way it services its existing customers and the reputation it creates within and across the marketplace. With an ever changing market place and pressures to keep up with demand the drivers are having less and less time at a customer’s property when a delivery is being made. This makes it hard to build up relationships with new customers, it’s just as important to keep the bond with existing customers.

As Flogas is a national company the head office isn’t local, the head office is based in Syston which is in Leicestershire. Our call centre is also based there which can make it difficult to provide that local feel to a company. After conducting a small verbal survey it would appear that not many customers like using our call centre, The decision was made for the depot to take calls from our top twenty customers. After a short while just by word of mouth we were soon taking an incredible amount of calls in the depot, not just from the top 20 customers but everyone. Even though this wasn’t planned it certainly pleased a lot of customers, also this kept a lot of customers seeking out a new gas supplier. Cornwall is one of the cheapest places throughout the UK to buy gas, due to the competiveness of the other supplies its driven the price right down. But it’s also one of the most expensive places to ship and deliver gas as the closest refinery is 5-6 hours away. This creates a number of issues, cost per ton, delivery time and if there is some adverse weather. This is counter balanced with a 200 ton storage/filling plant based on the outskirts of Devon and also a 60 ton storage facility based in Launceston.

1.3
Use the results of the environmental scan, to plan strategies to improve the organisations ability to find and retain customers.

A good way to retain custom is to implement a repeat order system, this is just a simple list of customers that have the same order every week. At depot level we will put the order onto our system the previous week this will save the customer the trouble of ordering each week.

Cornwall is a fair size to cover with deliveries, I could get more trucks and drivers to provide a better service but this is expensive, as Flogas has a number of small dealers and stockists strategically placed in the more difficult delivery areas. Passing a customer over to one of these dealers is another way of keeping the customer using Flogas cylinders, not only that its giving custom to a dealer. It keeps overheads down plus most of the dealers have smaller delivery trucks which makes it easier to access the more rural areas. Most of the dealers work 7 days per week as there not restricted to the working time directive or any tachograph laws.

As a company Flogas doesn’t seem to advertise a massive amount, advertising is the only main way of getting the company name and services out to the general public. I’ve made some enquires about advertising on radio recently, it’s not stupidly expensive and will cover a large area in a short space of time. Not everyone listens to radio of an evening but a prime time is in the morning when people are traveling to work or the school run. Local papers are reasonable with their costs but the worry is do papers still sell, will it be a waste of time and money. Personally I believe TV is the best way to advertise, a TV advert has the biggest impact. Like the stupid advert from the insurance comparison website go compare, had that annoying song that seems to stick in your head. Unfortunately cost of TV advertising out way the benefits, but will be looking into nevertheless. Posting leaflets or money off vouchers is a good way to target customers in the rural areas.

1.4
Lead the implementation of strategies to improve the organisation’s ability to find and retain customers.

Leaflet drops and vouchers have been printed, over 6000 will be posted out in the first week of November.
See doc 1 and 2 for samples.

Radio has been talked about before and when I submitted my ideas to marketing the response wasn’t good. I was told that radio has been tried in the past and didn’t receive the level of custom required to cover the costs. I’ve asked for some details on this to see when and where Flogas had trailed it before. Might not have used the correct radio station or format. More research is needed I believe.

I’ve sent over some details to marketing with regards to TV advertising.
See doc 3.
These are the rates and times, the prime time advertising spot is early evening. It also seems that the west country is one of the more cost efficient areas to advertise in. I’ve emailed ITV asking for more details with how to proceed, which I’ll pass onto marketing. I’m currently making enquires to advertise on the billboards around the local area, this will appeal to a wide range of potential customers as their billboards are placed around traffic lights and busy areas, these should catch peoples eye while waiting in traffic.

In conclusion, at depot level I don’t have the authority to organise the advertising. All my ideas will have to be sent over to marketing so they can assess the budget, idea and give an outcome. The main thing I can do is to make sure the customers delivery is made within the designated time scale. Also that the drivers are professional when they arrive i.e. clean vehicles, clean uniform (or as clean as it can be while shifting dirty gas cylinder) polite and without causing any damage to a customers property.