Question

Strategic Marketing- W3-A2 ( USE WALMART AS THE ORGANIZATION)

Presume that the organization you selected Walmart. (USE Walmart as the Organization).

1. Summarize the key product/service offered by your organization, including the role of the customer service department or direct service required to make a sale to the customer.

2. Create and defend a diagram or flowchart detailing the service delivery process. The chart should clearly identify each contact point (e.g. frontline employee, supervisor, delivery, etc.) before, during, and after the purchase. Your defense of the diagram should detail the role of each contact and assess why each role is critical to the entire service delivery process.

(For assistance, review Service Delivery lecture.)

Service Delivery Process

Every business sells either a product (a physical item) or a service (something intangible), or both. Many businesses develop one first, and extend into the second.

Product / Service

Optimizing your business’ product / service delivery requires analyzing what your customers are really buying. Sometimes, if you look past the obvious product / service that customers purchase, you can see their real need. By meeting that real need, you can open up new opportunities and also distance your business from its competitors. For example, Dell makes and sells computers, but so do lots of other companies; the difference is that Dell allows its customers to create a computer to their own specifications, adding or subtracting features to get exactly the machine they want within their budget. Other companies often force customers to buy computers that have already been assembled in pre-decided configurations. Dell understands that their customers are not just buying a computer, they are buying a computer that they have designed themselves to meet their own specific needs.

Maintaining Service Consistency

All businesses are “people” businesses. In other words, organizations depend on staff to deliver the product or service, whether it is a haircut, hamburger, automobile, accounting services, a meal, or a flight. The challenge faced by all businesses is consistency of service delivery. Businesses depend on the training they give their staff to ensure that similar transactions are handled the same way in the clients’ experiences every time.

The flow of activity from the potential customer’s first contact with the organization until the transaction or experience is completed can be described as the Service Delivery Process. Let’s consider a traditional brick and mortar example:
Imagine that you walk into your local discount retailer to purchase a new writing pen (e.g., Walmart, K-mart). As you walk in the door, you are greeted by a person standing near the entrance. After you walk past a couple of aisles, looking lost, an employee asks if he can help you find something. You describe your desired purchase, and the employee takes you to the correct aisle and shows you the pens. After asking further questions about color of ink and other details, the employee helps you narrow your choices to the pen you want. Later, you make your way to the check-out lanes where the clerk asks if you found everything you needed. Finishing the purchase, you walk back out the doors past the original greeter who now thanks you for shopping at the store. You’ve just experienced a service delivery process.

3. Analyze at least three possible contact point failures in the service delivery process for your organization. Why do you consider these to be possible contact point failures?

4. Justify recommendations to prevent or address the potential contact point failures and enhance service delivery in your organization. Be sure to consider how customers will benefit by your recommendations.

5. Defend a statement positioning the brand around the new/improved services.

Present your analysis as a 7- to 8-page report in a Microsoft Word document formatted in APA style.

On a separate page, cite all sources using APA format.

Answer 1

1. Assuming the company as Walmart and selling a product to a customer as a direct sales agent, below are the details

Walmart is a hub of products ranging from a toothbrush to mobile accessories. Therefore, customers who walk in have a lot of choices to buy. In order to help the customer make the right choice, it is always important to have a sales agent who can advice the customer on choosing the best product amongst the alternatives present at the store. The below scenario is that a customer walked in to buy a Deodrant. The customer is not sure on which brand to buy as he would randomply pick any deodrant and walk off. But his last experience was not good and he wanted a good fragrance this time.

So, in this case, there is an opportunity for the sales agent to interact with the customer and impress the customer. Since the customer is not sure as to which brand to purchase, the sales agent should first ask the customer for his preferences and then pitch the product. Apart from the preferences, the sales agent should also ask whether the deodrant that is being purchased will be used for daily purpose or only occasionally so that accordingly he can suggest the fragrances to the customer. Once the sales agent is aware of the requirement of the customer's product, he should quickly present the best options available and ensure these fragrances are liked by the customer. This would be easy if the sales agent asks the right questions and has properly understood the need of the customer. After he has presented options to the customer, he should be able to explain the customer, which would better suit as per his need and suggest him a product which would be affordable as well as per his budget. Once the customer has made the choice, the sales agent should appreciate the customer for choosing the best product. This makes the customer happy and there is a healthy relation created between the customer and the sales agent. Once the sale is done, the sales agent should ask customer if he can assist him in any other product. Based on the customer's response, the sales agent should try to upsell some additional product like a deodrant for the ladies by asking him the members in his family and suggesting to buy another product so that he can get a special offer if there is an offer for the product or accordingly he can suggest, given the offers available at the store. Once the deal is closed,the customer should not be left on his own and guided towards the billing counter. Here the role of the customer care representaive comes into picture whose duty is to ensure that the customer's dont wait for long in a queue and get the billing done for their purchases. The customer care representative should assist the customer towards the billing table which is handling less customers so that this customer does not have to wait for a long time. Once the customer reaches the billing table the customer should be greeted and there should be a smooth onboarding of the customer. This is the duty of the billing or customer care representative. The customer should be attended quickly and in a polite manner and once the billing is done, then he should be greeted and guided towrds the exit.