1.

Develop Customer Service Communities

“The most advanced companies are using [customer service] communities to generate
product ideas and test new products. Seventy-two percent of respondents [who
participated in a Get Satisfaction survey] are using communities to get feedback on how
existing products are used; 67 percent use them to collect ideas for new products or
features from customers; and 46 percent rely on them for feedback on prototypes or
beta products.”

2. Treat Customers Like You Would Want to Be Treated

“Remember that your customer wants to see the sunny side of you and your business,
so have your filter on and put yourself in their shoes.
A good way to instill this attitude among your staff is to do some simple role play in
which they act out a few scenarios that involve both easy-going and difficult customers.
Observe how they handle the situation and coach them on areas to improve.”

3. Provide Multichannel Support

“With newer communications channels such as social, mobile, web chat, and email
becoming increasingly important to customers, companies must develop an
omnichannel approach to their customer service in order to connect with customers on
the channels they prefer to use. Multichannel support not only offers customers a
seamless transition between channels; it also prevents them from having to repeat
information they may have already provided to different call center agents, which can be
both irritating to customers and potentially damaging to a company’s reputation.”

4. Make Employee Satisfaction a Priority

“Simply put, when your employees are happy, they can provide better customer service.
Studies have proven that employees often perform better at the jobs when they feel
appreciated. Give each employee a personalized ‘thank you’ every now and then, and
introduce an employee of the month program, if you don’t have one already. If you can
help your employees take pride in their jobs, their work performance will also improve.

5. Encourage Agents to Take Ownership of Problems

“Encourage operators to take ownership of problems and spend time dealing with the
customer, rather than escalating or passing over the problem. This gives advisors a real
sense of pride in their job and means they are taking their own action and really shows
excellent customer service.”

6. Turn Customer Survey Data into Action

“Good data reflects the experiences your customers actually have with your company.
Furthermore, good data equips your company to take action. [The key is to] develop a
satisfaction survey that probes truthfully into the heart of your gaps and opportunities.”

7. Figure Out What the Customer Really Wants

“Figure out what the customer really wants, if you can solve the problem they will pay;
the value is often not in the discount you can offer but rather in the solution you can
provide.”

8. Focus on Company Culture

“The best companies put a focus on culture. They implement training programs around
their cultural values to ensure everyone shares the same values and that they are
consistently demonstrated when dealing with customers.”

9. Stay Current on Customer Reviews

“In a world that is heavily dependent on the internet, consumers are quick to hop online
and share how they feel about a product or service. Take the time to log onto the
internet and observe what people are saying about your business. Find out what people
enjoy, as well as what they’d like to see improved. The reviews you stumble across
might surprise you and introduce you to areas of improvement that you had not
previously considered. An expert from Meyers Transport Ltd says problems with
shipping and receipt of goods, especially, can often be identified through customer
reviews. Being aware of these issues is the first step towards resolving them.”

10. Offer Proactive Customer Service

“The key here is to contact your customers before they need to pick up the phone and
contact you! To be effective, these contacts should be timely, personalized and relevant
to the consumer.
The best proactive strategies make regular contact throughout the consumer lifecycle.
Examples include: payment reminders, fraud monitoring, and personalized loyalty and
reward schemes. This strategy can reduce inbound calls and improve agent efficiency.
This proves that offering great customer service isn’t just good for the consumer, it’s
good for the business as well.”

Here, sales maximization means maximization of the money value of sales. The
objective of a firm is one of constrained maximization where the firm maximizes
total revenue subject to a minimum profit constraints. According to Prof. Baumol
it is the better evaluator of performance of the firm than the traditional profit
maximization model.
1. Profit Satisficing

 In many firms, there is a separation of ownership and control. Those who

own the company (shareholders) often do not get involved in the day to
day running of the company.
 This is a problem because although the owners may want to maximise
profits, the managers have much less incentive to maximise profits
because they do not get the same rewards, (share dividends)
 Therefore managers may create a minimum level of profit to keep the
shareholders happy, but then maximise other objectives, such as enjoying
work, getting on with other workers. (e.g. not sacking them) This is the
problem of separation between owners and managers.
 This ‘principal-agent‘ problem can be overcome, to some extent, by giving
managers share options and performance related pay although in some
industries it is difficult to measure performance.
 More on profit-satisficing.
2. Sales maximisation
Firms often seek to increase their market share – even if it means less profit. This could
occur for various reasons:

 Increased market share increases monopoly power and may enable the
firm to put up prices and make more profit in the long run.
 Managers prefer to work for bigger companies as it leads to greater
prestige and higher salaries.
  Increasing market share may force rivals out of business. E.g. the growth
of supermarkets have lead to the demise of many local shops. Some firms
may actually engage in predatory pricing which involves making a loss to
force a rival out of business.
3. Growth maximisation
This is similar to sales maximisation and may involve mergers and takeovers. With this
objective, the firm may be willing to make lower levels of profit in order to increase in
size and gain more market share. More market share increases its monopoly power and
ability to be a price setter.

4. Long run profit maximisation

In some cases, firms may sacrifice profits in the short term to increase profits in the long
run. For example, by investing heavily in new capacity, firms may make a loss in the
short run but enable higher profits in the future.

5. Social/environmental concerns
A firm may incur extra expense to choose products which don’t harm the environment or
products not tested on animals. Alternatively, firms may be concerned about local
community / charitable concerns.

 Some firms may adopt social/environmental concerns as part of their

branding. This can ultimately help profitability as the brand becomes more
attractive to consumers.
 Some firms may adopt social/environmental concerns on principal alone –
even if it does little to improve sales/brand image.
6. Co-operatives
Co-operatives may have completely different objectives to a typical PLC. A co-operative
is run to maximise the welfare of all stakeholders – especially workers. Any profit the co-
operative makes will be shared amongst all members.