Customer Service Management Procedures

Customer-driven activities are those geared towards favoring or giving priorities to serving consumers' vested interests, such as giving them all the advantages in providing excellent services to them.

Steps Involved:

The Marketing Department performs the functions:

• Market Survey
• Marketing Mix
• Marketing Strategy

First up, market surveys need to be conducted. Follow the sub-checklist and fill out the form fields below in order to ensure that you don't miss a step.

Know and understand the target market. Identified consumers by launching demographics survey (i.e. statistical data of a population (age, gender, average income, education, profession, family backgrounds, etc.). If your target markets are unmarried young female professionals or married male professionals with children, you should know and understand their preferences and characteristics particularly their buying habits.

Locate target markets based on geographic locations such as county/town, cities/states.

Launch market surveys on product, pricing, place of distribution, and promotion to identified target markets. It involves getting inputs or 'ideas' from prospective customers, including one-on-one. conversations, on-line talks, phone dialogues, etc.

Conduct collating process of raw data (from demographics and markets survey). Collating process include collecting, examining, comparing, verifying, integrating, arranging data to convert it into a organized presentation of comprehensive information.

Now you need to formulate your various marketing strategies. Use the form fields below to record these.

Product Positioning Strategy

Launches product-positioning strategy which is geared towards developing consumer perception of products and services. It answers the question of how the product is viewed by the consuming public.

• Generates 'customized consumer image relative to identified target markets via sponsorships and advertisements by hiring advertising agencies and public relations (PR) firms to help project the intended image to the consuming public.
• Know and understand product positioning of competition by studying it carefully.
• Make them believe that your product is better than that of the competition by emphasizing superior product features.
• Make them perceive that your product answers their preferences by launching TV commercials projecting such intention.
• Conduct product satisfaction survey by distributing forms to be filled-up by customers in malls and supermarkets. Through that form, consumers can rate the product and make suggestions to make the product more responsive to their needs.
• Hires advertising agency to launch its product and services.
• Builds 'a positive, attractive public image' among target markets by launching multimedia campaigns.

Click the link for more information: http://otmmarketing.com/Portals/42226/docs/product_positioning.pdf

Product Pricing Strategy

• Launches pricing strategy based on demographics and market survey. 
• Set Pricing Objectives relative to target markets, demographics and market survey by:
  • Set Price to beat the competition and gain significant market share.
  • Set Price to achieve sales forecast.
  • Set Price to capture identified market segment.
• Set Flexible Pricing Scheme by setting lower price in low-income district, higher price in high-income district, offering certain percentage of price discounts based on volume of sales orders to wholesalers. 

Click the links on pricing strategies: http://www.netmba.com/marketing/pricing 

Place of Distribution Strategy

• It could launch intensive distribution strategy by selling low-priced consumer products to distributors with far-reaching capabilities with a network of retailers under its supervision.
• It could launch exclusive distribution strategy by selling the products through exclusive distributors with market dominance over well-defined geographical locations.
• It could launch selective distribution strategy by selling the products through selected marketing outlets. 
• it could launch services distribution by franchising approach especially in fast food chains and couriers/forwarders serving specified market segments in certain geographical locations.

Click the links on place of distribution strategy: http://www.learnmarketing.net/Place.htm and http://www.consultancymarketing.co.uk/place.htm#.U3xztk2SxMM

Production Promotion Strategy

• Launches product promotion strategy. This involves giving 'promos' to attract more customers, capturing sizable market shares, increasing strongholds on geographic markets.  
• This entails hiring again advertising agencies in conjunction with a public relationship (PR) firm or consultant to provide "incentives" to the consuming public to purchase the product. 
• Maximization of the utilization of current internet-based technology to forecast sales, analyze sales reports, and improve customer rapport through on-line  consumer services.
• Sports-event sponsorships.
• Charity-event sponsorships.
• School campaign sponsorships vis-a-vis creating a culture of healthy lifestyle.
• Sponsorship of medical missions to far-flung areas, especially to marginalized sectors of society.
• Evaluation of customer relationship management strategies through annual gatherings of customer-relations strategists. 
• Conducts periodic brain-storming sessions towards improvements of customer relations.
• Periodic revisions of marketing strategies in response to internal and external factors.

Provides Various Customer Services particularly in hotel & restaurants, resort (beach and mountain enclaves), barber shops, spa services, dry-cleaning and laundry services, call-centers, etc., still revolves around the four P's of marketing, while this time it focuses on providing highly-desired special services.

Service Positioning Strategies

• Projecting your services towards intended target markets in such a way that they are positively perceived.

Service Pricing Strategies  

• Conducting market surveys on pricing on specific service industries in order to produce flexibility in pricing decisions.

Services Location Strategies 

• Proposing strategic locations of service centers such as spa, barber shops, repair shops, etc. considering the demographics factors (average age, income, profession, gender, cultural parameters, etc.) in finalizing strategic decisions.
• Services distribution strategy is carried out through services franchising. 

Services Promotion Strategies

• Providing prompt and efficient services to customers, etc.
• Giving hassle-free services to consumers, so that more customers will patronize services offered.
• Giving incentives to customers such as discounts or more free-of-charge services to entice customers to patronize services.