Soft Customer Standards

Not all customer priorities can be counted, timed, or observed through audits. As Einstein once said, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted, counts.” Understanding and knowing the customer is not a customer priority that a standard that counts, times, or observes employees can adequately capture. In contrast to hard measures, soft measures are those that must be documented using perceptual measures. We call the second category of customer-defined standards soft standards and measures because they are opinion-based measures that cannot be observed and must be collected by talking to customers, employees, or others. Soft standards provide direction, guidance, and feedback to employees in ways to achieve customer satisfaction and can be quantified by measuring customer perceptions and beliefs. These are especially important for person-to-person interactions such as the selling process and the delivery process for professional services.

Behavioral Observation

There are several steps;

• Conduct a preliminary assessment
• Specify problems
• Decide how many behaviors to record
• Decide who should collect data
• Decide when and where to record
• Train the observer
• Collect baseline data.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Contracts between Employers and Employees

If an employee has contract to be employed for a certain firm for a specified period of time, and the employer breaches the contract by dismissing the employee, damages recoverable would generally be the unpaid salary at the time of dismissal. Some courts allow the employee to collect wages up to the period of time at which a new job is found, as long as the employee “mitigates damages” by actively seeking employment. On the other hand, if the employee walks out without cause, then the employer may recover the cost of replacing the employee. This would include any additional salary that must be paid to the new employee which is greater than the previous employee’s salary.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

External Sources of Information

Much of the information for the firm’s MIS comes from external data—data generated outside the firm. This information is of two types—primary and secondary. Primary data consist of data being collected for the first time during a research study. In contrast, secondary data are previously published information. Although the researcher will typically exhaust all likely sources of secondary data before deciding to begin the collection of primary data, both types offer specific benefits for the decision maker.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Baselining

One of the most distinctive and helpful features of single system research involves collecting information on the client’s problem/situation before intervention actually begins. This is called baselining. The period of time over which this information is collected is called the baseline. The information or data that you collect is called the baserate, which involves systematic collection of data on the client’s problem prior to the implementation of your intervention program. The data that you collect during baseline continue to be collected throughout your intervention program. They provide an important basis for evaluating your effectiveness, since the baseline is almost always the first phase of your design.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Material Requirements Planning (MRP)

A production plan may be broken down into three major parts:

1. The master production schedule (MPS)
2. The material requirements planning system (MRP)
3. The detailed shop schedule.

Each of these three parts is often complex. Remember that the aggregate planning level aggregates both products and resources. MPS and MRP are at the one lower tactical planning level: resources remain aggregated, but products are dealt with at the individual product level. MRP aggregates resources by simply assuming any product can be produced by waiting a given lead time. The detailed shop schedule takes the schedule proposed by MRP and produces from it a more realistic schedule that considers actual machine availability. Customer orders basically drive the MPS, which in turn drives MRP, which orders raw materials and production of various stages and quantities in order to meet demand in a timely fashion.

The control of the production system has three parts, each of which uses as input the output of the previous part:

• Part A—Collect and integrate the information required to develop the master production schedule.
• Part B—Determine the planned order releases using MRP.
• Part C—Determine detailed shop floor schedules and resource requirements.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Availability of Warranties

In countries where consumer rights are protected, the seller makes the written warranty terms available to the prospective buyer before the sale. The text of the warranty is often displayed next to the product, or on the package in which the product is enclosed. Warranty terms can also be collected in notebooks in the department that sells the goods and may even be microfilmed, so long as the prospective buyer can readily use the microfilm reader. The maker of the warranty is required to make the text of the warranty available to sellers in forms that sellers can readily use, such as providing copies of the written warranty with each product, or on a tag, sticker, label, or other attachment to the product, or on a sign or poster. These warranty requirements also cover catalog and door-to-door sales.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Internet Support to Marketing

Market Research

1. Market information
2. Competitor information
3. Customer information
4. Miscellaneous information
5. Collect saving ideas

Database Building

1. World-wide club
2. Dynamic relationship marketing

Customer Service

1. Self-servicing customers
2. Self-service customer abuse
3. Self-service cost savings

New Product Development

1. Collecting new ideas
2. Tailor-made products
3. Accelerating new product development

Internal Communications

1. Intranets
2. Extranets

Cost Reduction

1. Print and distribution
2. Phone calls
3. Customer service
4. Collecting cost-saving tips
5. Revenue generation

Distribution

1. Products
2. Services
3. Purchases

Selling

1. Few fairytale  sales stories
2. New markets
3. Small value, big turnover
4. Sales management tool

Promotion

1. Have a presence
2. Interactive advertising creative sponsorship
3. Sales promotions
4. Public relations
5. Database marketing

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Purchase Decision Process

The act of buying is a significant part of everyone’s life. It is such a routine activity that we rarely consider in detail the mental process involved in product purchases. Just what are the steps in the purchase decision? Buyers usually pass through five stage process when they buy a good or service:

1. Stage 1: Problem Recognition. The buyer recognizes a need, desire, or problem. The marketer tries to determine which needs, desires, or problems stimulate the buyer to begin the purchase process.
2. Stage 2: Information Search. The buyer collects information about purchase alternatives. The successful marketer knows the sources of buyer information and their relative importance to the buyer.
3. Stage 3: Alternative Evaluation. The buyer evaluates purchase alternatives in light of various criteria. Since these criteria may differ in each purchase decision, the marketer determines which criteria are appropriate to that decision.
4. Step 4: Purchase Decision. The buyer selects a product from among the purchase alternatives. Up to this point, the marketer has done as much as possible to influence the buyer to buy his or her product.
5. Stage 5: Outcome. The buyer experiences some degree of satisfaction with the purchase decision. Knowledge of this satisfaction is crucial to the marketer.

Only when this decision process is understood can an effective marketing program developed. This analysis of the decision process in five distinct stages draws attention to the fact that the buying process begins before the purchase decision is made.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

The Selling Process

It is difficult to manage something without a solid understanding of what it is you’re trying to manage. Unfortunately many people have a number of misconceptions about the selling process, the activities carried out by salespeople, and the personal characteristics necessary for a successful performance. To complicate matters even more, various selling roles can involve very different tasks and require different skills and abilities from the people who do them. The role of sales force should evolve from simple order taking to building long term customer relationships with retailers, for instance, the firm’s salespeople need to develop superior interpersonal skills, the ability to work effectively as members of cross-functional teams, greater knowledge of each market and competitive situation, and the technical and marketing skills necessary to collect and interpret large amounts of sales and cost data related to the product categories in each store they call upon.

Selling process begins with an examination of how organizational buyers make purchase decisions and how salespeople can facilitate and influence those decisions. It covers a variety of activities, tasks, and decisions involved in different types of selling situations.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.