unit_3_logisticscustomerservice

Unit Three Logistics Customer ServicePart One TextLogistics Customer ServiceI. Customer Service ProgramWhat is customer serviceCustomer service is what your business delivers to achieve customer satisfaction. Some businesses deliver physical products and may not see themselves as being a service business. However, their customers still measure the business on the service that they experience both pre-sale and after-sale. So customer service is an increasingly important part of a business activities.A customer service program consists of standards and training. All staff follow these standards to ensure that service is maintained at the necessary level to keep your customers happy.Why is it importantThe goal of customer service is customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is what the customer feels subjectively and sometimes irrationally. There is all the difference in the world between a customer being satisfied and being not dissatisfied ⒈.Marketing has moved from transactional marketing to relationship marketing: —Transactional marketing focused on attracting new customers and simply getting the sale.—Relationship marketing focuses on getting customers and keeping them in the longer term using a combination of marketing, quality and customer service ⒉.Excellence in customer service, using the idea of relationship marketing, can help you to retain customers. This means:—They are less likely to go to your competitors in the increasingly competitivemarkets where customers have more choice than ever.—As satisfied customers, they will recommend you to others, resulting in an increase in new business. It is said that it costs up to 10 times as much to win a new customer than to keep an existing one⒊.—They are less likely to tell other people of bad experiences. Customers experiencing poor service are likely to tell up to 20 people about their experience, which is not a good advertisement for your business. This may deter others from even trying you out, and so you will not get the chance to impress them, even with the best or most innovative products and services⒋.By focusing your attention on the customers that have the highest potential lifetime value, you can improve profitability⒌.—Your staff will feel good because of the environment and atmosphere that lead to happy customers. This can help to attract further new customers over time. What should you doMarketing is about identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs. It applies to the products you offer as well as to customer service delivery⒍. To introduce a customer service program, you need to take 4 main steps:1. Identify your internal and external customers.2. Identify which of your external customers are the most valuable.3. Find out what level of service customers want.4. Develop customer service standards and a program to provide customersatisfaction and help build loyalty.II. Customers' Logistics Service Expectations and Their Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is fundamental to business. The degree to which customers are satisfied determines whether customers make additional purchases and recommend the company and its products to others. Improving the quality of logistics service is particularly important because it increases customer satisfaction, which in turnheightens the occurrence of strategic partner and corporate profitability⒎. In logistics, increasing attention is being paid to the aspects of logistics policy that can increase customer satisfaction. An important determinant of customer satisfaction is how well the product performs. However, in competitive markets, achieving a competitive advantage by providing a product with outstanding performance is difficult. Since the major players are each striving to gain market share, product performance becomes similar. Similarly, price parity can be achieved with amazing speed⒏. Businesses can, however, have a positive impact on customer satisfaction by providing outstanding logistics services. Since high levels of logistics services are not easily copied and are sometimes ignored as a competitive tool, they can be successfully used to develop a sustainable competitive advantage.T he primary determinant of customer satisfaction is the gap between customers’expectations of logistics service performance and actual logistics service performance⒐. Specifically, logistics managers should understand and shape the customer’s pre-purchase logistics service expectations in order to increase customer satisfaction. Logistics managers can increase customer satisfaction by focusing on specific post-purchase customer interactions. For example, if a customer is dissatisfied with logistics service performance, logistics managers can increase satisfaction by listening to and promptly responding to the cust omer’s dissatisfaction.Providing superior logistics service has been used to develop a strategic advantage by many firms. Firms should not, however, attempt to provide outstanding logistics service on all dimensions. To do so will be expensive, and it is likely that resources will be wasted on services that are unimportant to customers⒑. Thus, it is critical to monitor and attempt to understand customers’ expectations regarding logistics service when developing and adjusting logistics service policies.Studies on logistics service requirements have had a long tradition. Thefollowing attributes are consistently ranked as very important by customers: 1.) Availability of Item---the ability of the supplier to satisfy customer orderswithin a specified time.2.) After Service and Backup---the ability to quickly replace defective or damageditems and subsequent follow up to determine if user is happy with the purchase.3.) Efficient Logistics Service Communications---the ability to quickly andintelligently handle customer queries about the product or service.4.) Paperwork---the ability to efficiently and accurately complete necessarypaperwork that cater to the customers’ systems.5.) Delivery Time---the ability to supply goods within the committed time with little variation.Over time, customers gain experience with various logistics services providers and develop expectations with regard to what level of logistics service they should receive. The success of logistics service programs is largely dependent upon how closely customers’ expectations of the services parallels the actual level of service provided⒒. Logistics service expectations, however, exist in association with the other components of the marketing mix. Thus, in competitive markets, it is critical f or firms to understand customers’logistics service expectations, as well as other marketing mix variables. This understanding of expectations is a key strategic element for gaining a sustainable competitive advantage.Customers have expectations of logistics service performance before they buy the product. The level of logistics service can be better than expected, equal to expectations, or worse than expected. It is difficult to entice new or maintain current customers if these customers have relatively low expectations of the seller’s logistics service, ., lower than their actual service. In such a situation, the seller should attempt to raise these expectations by touting their actual service levels⒓. However, if a customer has high initial logistics service expectations, ., higher than actual logistics service, the company should lower the expectations torealistic levels so as to reduce post-purchase dissatisfaction or improve the service. It is important to determine the source of the high expectations. Research has found that it is partly because salespeople are not accurate about what their customers want and have a tendency to inflate their company's performance levels⒔. Thus, managers should monitor salespeople's communications with their customers. Similarly, an examination of the expectation formation process has revealed that the exaggerated information source originates with another media---direct mail. Although having higher expectations than actual logistics service may entice customers to try a firm once, it may ultimately lead to lower overall satisfaction. Ultimately, lower satisfaction with logistics services reduces customer loyalty, leading to lower repeating purchases⒕.Logistics service expectations that are equivalent to actual service levels may lead to lower initial sales, compared to service expectations that are higher than actual levels. This situation, however, also results in higher satisfaction, and ultimately, greater repeating purchases. Since repeating purchases is a key success factor, the firm and its salespeople should help build realistic logistics service expectations. However, in an extremely competitive environment or when attempting to build market share with new customers, the company and its salespeople may not be ready to reduce the expectations of their logistics service for fear of losing an order to a competitor. In this situation, the company should provide customers with data on its logistics service levels versus its competitors. As long as the selling firm is in a relatively strong position, the data can help reduce the customer’s expectations for the entire industry while retaining relatively high expectations for the selling company⒖.A written logistics service policy should be provided to all customers. This helps customers develop realistic expectations of logistics service and allows for greater satisfaction with the service they receive. Written logistics service policies also enable all employees in the organization to be aware of the minimumservice standards required so that they can set appropriate objectives for their own performance, which leads to increase in customer satisfaction and retention as well. New words and expressions:achieve [ ə'tʃi:v ] v. accomplish, attain, reach完成, 达到, 实现advantage [ əd'vɑ:ntidʒ] n. the quality of having a superior or more favorableposition优势, 有利条件anticipate [ æn'tisipeit ] v. to feel or realize beforehand; foresee预期, 预料atmosphere [ 'ætməsfiə] n. a particular environment or surrounding influence 气氛, 氛围attribute [ ə'tribju:t ] n. a quality or characteristic inherent in someone orsomething属性, 特征availability [ əveilə'biliti ] n. the quality of being at hand when needed 可得到，可取得cater [ 'keitə ] v.( cater for….) provide what is desired or needed满足需要, 迎合combination [ .kɔmbi'neiʃən ] n. a collection of things that have been combined结合, 联合component [ kəm'pəunənt ] n. element, factor成分，组成部分defective [ di'fektiv ] adj. having a defect; faulty有缺陷的, 不完美的delivery [ di'livəri ] n. the act of delivering or distributing something递送, 交付determinant [ di'tə:minənt ] n. an influencing or determining element or factor决定因素dimension [ di'menʃən ] n. aspect；element方面；因素entice [ in'tais ] v. lure, tempt诱惑, 诱使equivalent [ i'kwivələnt ] adj. equal in value, force, or meaning等价的,相等的fundamental [ .fʌndə'mentl ] adj. of or relating to the foundation or base;elementary基本的,根本的gap [ gæp ] n. a conspicuous difference or imbalance差距，悬殊heighten [ 'haitn ] v. increase the quantity, degree or intensity增高,提高,加强identify [ ai'dentifai ] v. to ascertain the origin, nature, or definitivecharacteristics识别,认明,鉴定ignore [ ig'nɔ: ] v. to refuse to pay attention to; disregard不理睬, 忽视inflate [ in'fleit ] v. fill with gas or air to make it swell; exaggerate,aggrandize使膨胀；过分地或不合适地夸大或夸张loyalty [ 'lɔiəlti ] n. the state or quality of being loyal忠诚, 忠心outstanding [ aut'stændiŋ] adj. superior to others of its kind; distinguished 显著的；卓越的paperwork [ 'peipəwɜ:k ] n. work involving the handling of reports, letters,and forms文书工作parity [ 'pæriti ] n. equality in amount, status, or value相等，等值profitability [ .prɔfitə'biliti ] n. the quality of affording gain or benefit 收益性,利益率retention [ ri'tenʃən ] n. the act of retaining something 保持，保持力reveal [ ri'vi:l ] v. To make known (something concealed or secret) 显示，揭示，透露strive [ straiv ] v. to exert much effort or energy; endeavor努力,奋斗,力争sustainable [ sə'steinəbl ] a. capable of being sustained可支撑的, 可持续的tout [ taʊt ] v. to promote or praise energetically; publicize吹嘘，吹捧as long as on condition that; provided that 只要；如果in the long term in the distant future 在长期内to be aware of to have knowledge or realization of sb/sth 知道，明白，意识到to consist of to be composed or made up of sth 由...组成或构成to focus on to concentrate on 集中于某事物with regard to in connection with sb/ sth 关于，至于Special terms:after service 售后服务competitive advantage 竞争优势competitive market 竞争市场customer expectation 客户预期customer interaction 客户相互作用customer order 客户订单customer satisfaction 客户满意customer service 客户服务delivery time 交货时间direct mail 直接邮寄广告lifetime value 终生价值market share 市场份额, 市场占有率marketing mix 营销组合physical product 产品product performance 产品性能relationship marketing 关系营销strategic partner 战略伙伴transactional marketing 交易营销Notes to the text:goal of customer service is customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is what the customer feels subjectively and sometimes irrationally. There is all the difference in the world between a customer being satisfied and being not dissatisfied. 客户服务的目标是客户满意。