Academic Assist. Customer Care Servicescape at Cisco: a Software Giant

Transcription

1 Customer Care Servicescape at Cisco: a Software Giant

2 Table of Contents 1. Introduction Background of Organisation Report Scope Literature Review GAP model Quality Customer Care in Organisations Quality Customer Care Models and Theories Customer Care Standards in Chosen Organisation Service Blueprint of Service Delivery Process of Chosen Organisation Analysis of Service Delivery Process Critical Analysis from Cross-cultural Perspective Effect of Cultural Variations on Quality of Care Managerial Implications Conclusions Bibliography... 14

3 1. Introduction Customer care or service is as important for an organization as the product. After the customer buys a product he also buys the service which is expected out of that product (Johns, 2011). Any queries have to be handled by the customer service department of the organization. Customer service department is the window through which the customer can ask his questions and get right answers. In this report an analysis of an organization customer care department will be done and also implications from managerial perspective (Business Case Studies, 2010). 1.1Background of Organisation Cisco is US based multinational company with headquarters in San Jose, California. It is also world leading company of networking equipments and solutions. Its leader in the world in networking equipments and facilitate the way people connect and communicate with each other.they believes in long term customer relationship (Cisco, 2014). It means they have to interact with people to provide them the best equipment. They also need to take feedback seriously so that they can improvise all the time. Its vision is to solve the networking challenges the businesses have all across the world. Its market leadership in network equipments can be seen in all the ranges of network equipments such as routing, telepresence, wireless LAN, switching, voice, web conferencing, storage area networks and security as seen from the picture shown below. There focus on integration and diversified product portfolio clearly shows the depth of organization leadership and their long term commitment of business (Cisco, 2012). 1.2 Report Scope The purpose of the report is to improve customer care in Cisco while also integrating the system and improving the overall effectiveness of customer care. The report starts introduction of Cisco followed by literature review, analysis of service delivery process, then managerial implications and finally summing it up with conclusion.

4 2. Literature Review The importance of customer care in organizations can t be underestimated or neglected in any organization. This has all the more important in the current era which is abundant with competition and choices which a customer or user has (Sanborn, 2004). Customer service is an important ongoing activity of the organization that is vital from the organization point of view. Customer care issues should be followed with a well defined process with TAT (Total Applied Time) (Gittell, 2002) and with relevant escalation up the matrix. This not only improves customer care but also makes customer loyal to the organization (Barnes, 2010). 2.1 GAP model As per the gap model there may be gaps between customer expectation and perception. The first provider gap is not being exactly aware of the customer expectation. The second service provider gap is not selecting to right service standards and design. The third service provider gap is not delivering as per the right and relevant service standards (Tax, McCutheon and

5 Wilkinson, 2013). The fourth service provider gap is the gap between actual service delivered and the promises made. 2.2 Quality Customer Care in Organisations Organizations need quality in products as well as customer care to be successful. If the attention to customer care is diluted it impacts the organization core promise and this also results in customer dissatisfaction (Blodgett, Wakefiled and Barnes, 1995). Quality is about meeting the expectations of a customer. It also means complying with the legal requirements. It has also to be seen that the promised quality is meeting the organization requirements (Schneider, Parkington and Buxton, 1980). Quality customer care should be as per the needs of the customer. This involves asking the relevant questions, delivering the solution which is right for the customer. At the same time quality doesn t mean promising something which the organization can t deliver (Scheider, 1991). Quality has to be timely. It means providing a solution which is right but at the same time it should not take more time than expected. Everyone wants timely solution but an

6 inappropriate one will irk the customer and may result in loss to the organization (Mathis, 2008). Quality should be accurate, means providing the solution which the customer is asking for and asking right question to the customer and then providing him the solution which answers those questions. Finally it needs to be looked at that is the customer satisfied with the solution offered. The process has to result in a happy and satisfied customer (Kim, 1991). 2.3 Quality Customer Care Models and Theories The quality customer care models and theories have been developed over several years of continuous study. A good theory links observations to decision making (Senge and Oliva, 1993). The correlation between the two is quite essential to the success of the customer care models. The main problem in measuring quality in service companies is that it is intangible and subjective. Therefore here the intent is to manage things which are measurable like expenses (Congram and Friedman, 1991). In the service quality and service capacity model, after the waiting time the customers enter the system and then they are served by the service employees of the organization. Quality customer service is more than pleasantry exchange. Rather it is delivery of the service which is as per the customer expectation. It meets the customer expectation or exceeds is something which needs to be analyzed (Garfield, 1992). As per the model shown in the picture below the model perceives that the customer has the perfect knowledge. In our model it studies the Quality goal and Quality standard. It also looks at the difference between the service quality specifications and actual service delivered (Tornow, 1991).

7 2.4 Customer Care Standards in Chosen Organisation The level of customer care in the Cisco has been very high as they have the concept of service everything. They have maintained their leadership position in their category is also testimony of the fact that the organization has a very robust customer care standards. They study what structure will best suit to give in the right kind of service is the priority (Spicuzza, 1992). The process which they follow and the kind of integration they have among the global team managers have resulted in superior standards of the quality customer care in CISCO systems. The processed and design drafts were also shared with the key clients to gather their concerns and satisfy them with relevant answers. The various challenges in the system of Cisco to provide the same customer care standards before and after the integration of their three parts of the chosen organization of the system has been taken care of by the management. The organizational design work that begun to merge the three units into one has to do the herculean task of maintaining the same standards of the service and at the same time it has to improve the efficiency of the organization (Schneider, 1990).

8 2.4 Service Blueprint of Service Delivery Process of Chosen Organisation Prior to 2010, Cisco has customer care team which was divided into three. They decided to merge them into one in There were people in multiple roles and at times client had no clue who was the right person to contact. It clearly demarcated the system with the service role with fixed accountability and responsibility. It has complete description of the service role and the description which needs to be followed by the service role managers (Heskett, 1986).

9 They finally arrived at the blueprint as shown in the table above where in they have clearly mention ownership roles and accountability of the customer care department (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985). The organization design for customer care and the roles defined as per RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or informed) gave a more optimized customer care department for Cisco.

10 Figure: Service Delivery Blueprint of CISCO This consists of several interconnected and interrelated design modules which work in endto-end strategy for security and the overall design can be analysed from figures shown above. In it every module is prepared very carefully in order to provide resiliency, service availability, to facilitate regulatory compliance and also provides flexibility so as to accommodate new services, to allow adaptation over the time (Cisco, 2014). 3. Analysis of Service Delivery Process A well defined service delivery is the key to customer care management. An efficient service delivery system helps the customer as well as the organization in understanding various aspects of the service. It also helps the customers and organization in underling what is included in the expectation of the service and what needs to be excluded (Wagenheim and Reurink, 1991). A well defined service process is the one which clearly spells out the service offerings what precisely the service offers and what is outside the purview of the offering.

11 The service delivery process of the Cisco system is very efficient as it takes into account the internal as well as external stakeholders into account to get to the efficient mechanism and provide the best and enriching customer care experience (Haywood-Farmer, 1988) Critical Analysis from Cross-cultural Perspective Culture influence the behaviour and the work pattern in which an individual works, it may have impact on the delivery of the service. Different cultures across the world have resulted in different behaviour patterns. It has to be looked at and ensured that due to the cross cultural issues between the internal and external environment doesn t result in any inefficient service delivery aspect which is not up to the mark. With the boundaries of the world becoming nonexistent and the internal and external stake holders of the organization may come across from different cultures, the cross cultural perspective needs to be analyzed and studied (Lewis, 2010). The networking between the connected and unconnected also can be a basis of gross cultural mismatch. The need to provide training to employees to undermine the effect of cross culture variations emerges from here. The culture there which is result of not being connected can be entirely different from the culture of the organization which is thriving on flow of information which it has in abundance. The success of organization and the business is at stake if there is any misunderstanding between cultures. The companies across the world are providing training to their employees to effectively interact with other stake holders (business partners, customers) of the business. This is an important step and activity which all leading world organizations are taking so that they foment a positive cross cultural environment. In an era which is expanding global economy, cross culture and adaptability are key to successes of the businesses organization. 3.2 Effect of Cultural Variations on Quality of Care

12 The effect of cultural variations on quality of care can tremendous. One culture influences the behaviour which can be entirely different from the culture of the other. One behaviour that is considered polite in one culture can be insulting in the other one. It is easy to get the service delivered when the communication is done to the persons of same cultures, but it becomes challenging when the same message has to be sent across to person of different culture (Mayberry et al., 2006). They have different beliefs, they listen differently and they may accept problems in a different. This cross culture variations needs to be studied at a length and analyzed in a proper way so as to reach at the appropriate solution (Betancourt, Green and Carrillo, 2014). 4. Managerial Implications

13 The delivery process system of the Cisco which has been mentioned above has the best feature which not only connects with the internal stakeholders as well as external stake holders. It shows that they have been able to implement and scale it to the best suited advantages of the company. Cisco is leading networking equipment company is also a testimony of the fact that the organization has reflected in various parameters. Earlier when 54 percent of team shifted roles, but after the implementation of this system 98 percent of team remained intact. The delivery aspect also thus remained consistent as there was not much shift in the roles of the service delivery team. Employee engagement scores in the customer care were higher than overall Cisco team. Client satisfaction ratings have also remained steady and it has also not seen much of the variations (Boorsma and Mitchell, 2011). 5. Conclusions Customer care in organizations is as important as or even more important than the original product. A good and quality customer care service can have an even more satisfied customer. The mapping of customer needs and the organization goal & objective needs to be done so as to arrive at the maximum benefit for both the stake holders. If this mapping is done with efficiency so as to bring maximum benefit to the customer and provide him the best of customer care while remaining in the boundaries of organizational perspective, this will bring the best of the customer care. This reiterates that quality customer care is vital to organization success.

14 Bibliography Barnes, N.G. (2010) Exploring the Link Between Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the AGe of Social Media, Society for New COmmunications Research. Betancourt, J.R., Green, A.R. and Carrillo, J.E. (2014) 'Cross-cultural care and communication', UpToDate, January. Blodgett, J.G., Wakefiled, K.L. and Barnes, J.H. (1995) 'The effects of customer service on consumer complaining behavior', Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 9, no. 4, pp Boorsma, B. and Mitchell, S. (2011) 'Work Life Innovation Smart Work: A Paradigm Shift TRansforming How, Where and When Work Gets Done', Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), Spetember. Business Case Studies (2010) An integrated approach to Customer Service : A Gale Case Study, [Online], Available: [10 May 2014]. Cisco (2012) Cisco Corpoarte Overview, Cisco. Cisco (2014) Cisco Overview, [Online], Available: [12 May 2014]. Cisco (2014) Cisco SAFE Solution Overview, [Online], Available: [14 May 2014]. Congram, C.A. and Friedman, M.L. (1991) The quality-leadership connection in service business, New York: American Management Association. Garfield, C. (1992) Second to none: How smart companies put people first, Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin. Gittell, J.H. (2002) 'Relationships between Service Providers and Their Impact on Customers', Journal of SErvice Research, vol. 4, no. 4, pp Haywood-Farmer, J. (1988) ' A Concpetual Model of Service Quality', International Journal of OPerations and Productions Management, vol. 8, no. 6, pp Heskett, J.L. (1986) Managing in the service economy., Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Johns, T. (2011) Perfect Customer Care, Random House. Kim, D. (1991) ' Systemic Quality Management: Imporving the Quality of Doing and Thinking', The Systems Thinker, vol. 2, no. 7, pp. 1-4.

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