The Customer in Operations

Management
Prepared by: Mr. Joseph Bautista Dimaano, CTP
The customer

A customer can be seen as:

 A person on the receiving end of what the business

offers

 Someone who is willing to pay a fair price for a quality

product and wants to be neither over-charged nor
under-served

 The reason the company is in business

 Someone who has certain needs and

wants them filled

 If we cannot fill them, will go to a

competitor who will.
The customer

There is no ‘one’ customer

 Customers are all individuals and come with individual

needs and expectations

 Businesses cater to a range of types of customers,

known as target market segments

 Challenge lies in being able to provide an offering

to meet their individual needs

 We have to recognize each type of

customer and treat them as individuals

(Continued)
Customer needs, wishes and expectations
Needs

 The things customers are unable to do without

 This may be a meal or beverage.

Wishes

 Way in which our customer would prefer to satisfy a

specific need, but they may not have the resources to
meet these wishes

 They are willing to settle for less.

Customer needs, wishes and expectations

Expectations

These spring from the customers’ needs and wishes but

are also influenced by:

 The company’s image or reputation in the market

 The customer’s previous perceptions and

their experience with the company

 The company’s advertising.

Identify customer needs, wishes and
expectations
 Involve the customers in developing new services
 Organise and conduct a series of focus groups
 Actively listen to the customers
 Make decisions and act on the basis of the customer’s
motives, needs and expectations
 Wear customer spectacles and see
with the customer’s eyes
 Actively look for customer feedback
 Ask customers what elements or factors of service are
of particular importance to them
 Analyse the market trends
 Analyse the competitors.
Identify customer needs, wishes and
expectations
Use staff feedback

 Staff must be actively encouraged to provide input to

the development of quality customer service, too

 After all it is staff who are delivering the service and

they who are best placed to understand what the needs
and wants of customers may be.

How can you get staff feedback?

Identify customer needs, wishes and
expectations
Use staff feedback

Involving staff in this research process could include:

 Encouraging staff to feedback all relevant comments

from customers

 Not shooting the messenger

 Setting agenda items for staff meetings

which include ‘customer service’

 Developing appropriate documentation.

Identify service deficiencies

Common service deficiencies

 What are common service deficiencies in hospitality

departments?

 What are some ways you can improve

service deficiencies?
Involve staff in customer service planning
It helps staff:

 To understand what is required of them

 Provides them with an opportunity to make input to

areas that will ultimately greatly impact on them

 Increase ownership ‘own’ the changes

 Strive to better implement any actions

agreed to.
Involve staff in customer service planning

Getting the staff involved

Activities providing opportunities for staff participation in

the planning process include:

 The formation of quality improvement groups or ‘quality

circles’

 Establishment of group training sessions

 Introducing a variety of methods and systems to spread

information

 Keep the message in front of everyone’s eyes.

Service improvement options
Operational focus

 Create a competitive advantage over competition by

either doing something different, more superior or
cheaper

 New or revised products

 New services

 New menus

 Renovations

 New equipment with staff fully trained

in their operations.
Service improvement options
Operational focus

 New equipment with staff fully trained in their operations

 New marketing strategies to new target market segments

 New advertising campaigns with suitable attractive

packages

 New branding

 Correct staffing level and mixes

 Recruitment

 Structured training programs.

Slide 13
Service improvement options

Operational focus

 Management

 Financial support

 Changes in management style

 Organisational re-structures.

 Greater use of e-business

 Greater use of technology

 Environmental awareness.
Service improvement options

Staff focus

 Ensuring staff play an active role in improving service

standards, is a key objective for management

 Staff are their eyes and ears and are able to

communicate important information about the customer.

Slide 15
Service improvement options

Staff focus

Approaches to the staff may include:

 Creating and implanting the business concept in the

entire organisation, which helps to determine the
direction the company will take in the future

 Involving staff in planning and implementing

quality improvement

 Building a spirit of working together

towards goals.

Slide 16
Service improvement options

Staff focus

Approaches to the staff may include:

 Creating instruments and channels to disseminate the

company’s philosophy, goals and values throughout the
organisation

 Promoting a climate of open communication and

feedback

 Encouraging and recognising innovation and teamwork

 Recognising the right of every employee to understand

the requirements of their assignment, and to be heard
when offering suggestion for improvement.
Service improvement options

Customer focus

 Approaches to the customers may include:

 Making the customer a ‘member’ of the organisation

 Rewarding faithful customers

 Communicating with customers to promote

goodwill, trust and satisfaction

 Identifying customer’s unstated needs

 Ensuring customers’ needs and

(reasonable) requests are met

 Providing friendly and courtesy assistance.

Service improvement options

Regardless of the type of organisation, solutions will only

work if the customer believes them to be:

 Meeting their needs, wants and expectations

 Is of good value

 Is better than that provided by the competition.

Slide 19
Customer Interface

 the place where an organization meets its customers

 it’s something no one talks about enough, even though it
adds so much value
 evolve around the service experience
 The relationship between the customer and the service
provider, internal or external, and the demands of each
 greater emphasis on the service element

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 Establish an easy service flow

How to
Strengthen the Minimize handoffs of customers

Customer Minimize the movement of the customer through

your process

Interface with Maximize the customer’s comfort

Operations
Management
Keep customers in view

Capitalize on your space

Separate back-office processes from front-office

processes

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Establish an easy service flow

 Design a process that’s visible and clear from the

customer’s perspective.
 One point of entry
 Well-marked steps
 Personnel available to direct customers as needed

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Minimize handoffs of customers

 creating a step in the process that makes it easy for

customers to be served at their convenience or a resource
that can provide a quick and clear path through the
process

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Minimize the movement of the
customer through your process
 a customer roaming throughout your facility because the
customer doesn’t know where to go.
 increases the customer’s flow time and runs the risk that
the customer may not end up at the next correct process
step
 may be exposed to those back-office processes that
weren’t designed for customer eyes.

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Maximize the customer’s comfort

 If you must make your customers wait, make sure

they do so in comfort
 be sure to balance service and waiting areas;
make sure your waiting areas are comfortable

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Keep customers in view

 If a customer is always visible it allows employees

to make sure that the process is running as it
should be
 aids in security and, especially in retail
operations, deters theft

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Capitalize on your space

 place your facilities where customer traffic is high

 most face-to-face customer interaction occurs in
locations where the facility cost per square foot is
high relative to less congested areas
 You want high traffic or sales volume to
compensate for the cost of the location

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Separate back-office processes from
front-office processes
 Back-office processes include a restaurant
kitchen, the loan approval process at a bank, and
inventory storage spaces at big box stores.
 some companies expose traditional back-office
processes as part of their business strategy, such
as those restaurants that have open kitchens so
the customer can observe the cooking or
warehouse retailers that keep all inventory visible
in an effort to keep costs down.
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