Section B

Q 4. Discuss the benefits of interviews to a consultant. What is an interview?

What is an Interview - An interview is a conversation for gathering information. It involves an

interviewer, who coordinates the process of the conversation and asks questions, and an
interviewee, who responds to those questions. Interviews can be conducted face-to-face or over
the telephone. Therefore, an interview is the last step of the hiring process and the most
important. It offers you and the employer the opportunity to meet one another, exchange
information and come to tentative conclusions about “hiring” one another.

Benefits of interviews to a consultant include the following:

 Easy correction of speech: Any misunderstanding and mistake can be rectified easily in an
interview. Because the interviewer and interviewee physically present before the interview
board.
 Development of relationship: Relation between the interviewer and the interviewee can be
developed through an interview. It increases mutual understanding and co-operation between
the parties.
 Selection of suitable candidate: Suitable candidates can be selected through interview
because the interview can know a lot about the candidate by this process.
 Collection of primary information: Interviews can help to collect fresh, new and primary
information as needed.
 Sufficient information: Sufficient information can be collected through the interview process.
Because the interviewer can ask any question to the interviewee.
 Time-saving: Interview can help to save time to select the best suitable candidate. Within a
very short time communication can be accomplished with the interview.
 Less costly: It is less costly than other processes of communication. It is very simple, prompt
and low-cost method of communication.
 Increasing knowledge: Any interview increases the knowledge of both the interviewer and
the interviewee. They can interchange their views and ideas.
 Explore cause behind the problem: In business, executives need to solve different types of
problems. To explore or to find out the actual reasons behind the problem interview method
can be used.
 In depth analysis: Through planed interviews detailed information can be collected which
enables proper analysis of a problem. Abstract factors like attitudes, feelings, opinion etc.
Can be successfully evaluated or analyzed through interviews.
 Solving labor problems: Labor unrest and other disputes are very common in the industries.
Sometimes human resource managers use the interview as a means of reveling actual causes
behind the labor deputes.
 Flexible: One of the major advantages of interview is feasible. That depends on the situation
it can be framed differently.

Section C

Q1 b) Discuss the challenges in decision making process.

Following are typical challenges faced by a manager in decision making process.

Level of Decision Making Not Clear - Sometimes, there is ambiguity in the level of power a
manager holds, whether he holds the right to make modifications in the existing system. This
often leads to confusion in the minds of the manager, especially at a middle-level manager.

Lack of Time - Hasty decisions often lead to disastrous effects. However, businesses are subject
to emergencies and often, as a decision making authority, you need to take a call in the limited
time available. This can pose a most difficult hurdle for most leaders, however, an effective
leader has to go through these testing times.

Lack of reliable data - Lack of reliable data can be a major challenge/hindrance in making apt
decisions. Ambiguous and incomplete data often makes it difficult for them to make an
appropriate decision, which may not be the best suited for any organization.

Risk-Taking Ability - Any decision attracts a fair deal of risk of resulting into negative outcome.
However, it is necessary to take calculated risks for an effective decision. Also, at the same time,
casual attitude and completely ignoring risks will not result in taking appropriate decisions.

Too Many Options - A manager can be in a dilemma if there are too many options for an
effective solution. Finding the appropriate one can be very difficult, especially if a particular
decision favours a department over the other.
Inadequate Support - A manager, however good he may be, cannot work without an adequate
support level from his subordinates. Lack of adequate support either from top level or grass root
level employees may result in a great jeopardy for the manager.

Lack of Resources - A manager may find it difficult to implement his decisions due to lack of
resources- time, staff, and equipment. In these cases, he should look out for alternative
approaches which fit in the available resources. However, appropriate steps must be taken in case
he feels that lack of resources may stop the growth of the organization.

Inability to Change - Every organization has its own unique culture which describes its working
policies. However, some policies are not conducive to managers who are looking out for a
change. The rigid mentality of top-level management and the subordinates are the biggest hurdle,
wherein a manager cannot make positive amendments even if he wishes to do so.

Thus, every experience is a big teacher, and managers should take a cue from their previous
experiences, and learn to boost their decision-making capacity. Big businesses have benefited
greatly from positive changes and results, which implies that a manager should first and foremost
improve his ability to deal with risks to take a good decision.

Marketing

Question 1

The marketing concept, which takes an outside-in perspective, often leads to long-term customer
relationships. Many aspects of the firm’s value proposition contribute to customer satisfaction:

a. The core product or service offered.

b. Support services and systems

One method businesses are utilizing to improve the number of positive customer interactions that
happen every day is to leverage customer support service and systems. Here are five reasons why
these support services and systems are essential to great businesses and why they are now a core
component of many support operations…

1) Customer information storage – With so many information sources now capturing customer
information, your team needs a system to store all this data. Jumping between several systems is
time consuming and inefficient. To be more productive, leverage a centralized customer support
system that houses all customer information and utilizes support integrations to share this data
with other systems and the greater team.

2) Improved communication – If you aren’t working within a customer support system, it can
offer many ways to improve how you work together with colleagues. It’s time to retire swapping
spreadsheets and email! Instead, a customer support system provides sophisticated ticket
management features including both public and private ticket actions. This lets you have internal
conversations directly within a ticket without the customer ever seeing it.

3) Detailed customer insights – Another negative of the spreadsheets and email combination is
that they don’t provide actionable data for your business. in contrast, a customer support system
is built to track inquiries at both the customer and contact level. This enables powerful reporting
capabilities so you can determine the happiness of your customers as well as how much effort
your team puts into each customer relationship.

4) Additional communication channels – Email and phone support, should you offer both, is now
considered to be a bare minimum for a functioning support team. Adding in live chat and self-
service channels via your customer support system will not only increase customer happiness
(more ways to contact you) but also reduce ticket volume. Although some channels like self-
service take time to create and set up, they enable you to provide a form of 24/7 support without
breaking the bank.

5) Increased employee morale – The nature of support professionals is that they enjoy helping
customers solve their problems. Providing a great resolution to a customer issue isn’t just a win
for your business, it’s a win for them personally and for your support culture. Make these
moments more frequent and reduce employee frustration by implementing a customer service
system. You’ll notice employees will be happier when they spend less time hunting for the right
information and more time solving problems.
In short, customer support systems are essential to great businesses because they completely
change internal and external processes. Customers are happier because they have more ways to
contact you and get better responses. Employees enjoy the systems because they make work
easier and they can focus more on customer relationships.

c. The technical performance of the firm

d. Interaction with the firm and its employees helps to:

Productivity Resulting From Interaction - When people are happy at work, they tend to do a
better job. Errors are reduced, productivity increases and customer service improves. Having
great office interaction also improves teamwork, which makes an entire team more efficient
during times of high stress, such as holiday sales or end-of-year report production.

Develop Company Morale - The morale of your employees is directly related to the types of
interactions they get on a regular basis. As you can see from the example of Jane and Joe,
working with people who consistently create negative interactions leads to long-term morale
issues, which leaves employees feeling that no one cares whether or not anyone does their job.
This "why bother" attitude is infectious in offices and in operation centers. The best way to
resolve this is to prevent it, as much as is possible.

Consumer Satisfaction Results - A business leader should think like a consumer and get into that
mindset, when developing policies that affect people. Businesses do this when developing a
product or service, and they should place the same importance on communication and on
interaction skills. When employees are knowledgeable and passionate about helping, consumers
feel this. Employees can also tell when someone is stressed and overworked. Being in that state
doesn't create a positive customer experience. Sometimes, this isn't the fault of the worker. If a
company is understaffed, one person may be juggling too many things. No matter how much he
wants to help and no matter how much he tries, he just can't do it all. Customers sense this, and
this leads to a negative interaction with the company - not the worker per se.
Facilitating Positive Interactions - As already mentioned, an environment and company culture
of positive interactions are not achieved by accident. Google works very hard to create a
corporate culture where employees feel that they can have a personal life, can adjust their
schedules and can work on projects that they are passionate about. This has created a corporate
culture, in which innovation, creativity and passion are the underlying components of success for
the company.

Potential Risks of Fraternization - When employees are enjoying working together, it is highly
likely that friendships and even romantic relationships develop. While an employer wants
employees being friendly, bringing too much out-of-office personal stuff into the office can lead
to negative interactions in the office. This, of course, has a negative effect on team morale and
productivity. The first risk to consider with fraternization is the distraction it creates. Employees
are likely to meet and talk during work hours, and might not address work tasks. This action
could create animosity among coworkers, who must hold down the fort, while their colleagues
are nowhere to be found. It also means that those employees are not getting done what you are
paying them for. Teams may feel favoritism, and bad feelings can occur, as a result of the
imbalance.

e. The emotional connection with customers.

Builds respect - Knowing one another on an emotional level can help build a mutual respect that
is essential for a long-term, healthy relationship. Showing respect is essential in healthy
relationships. This means you value your partner, you consider their thoughts and feelings, and
you respect them as a person, not just as your partner. Being shown respect helps you feel
appreciated by your partner.

Show how this approach makes it possible for such relationships to be developed; contributes to
the growth of business.