Research Project

Posted: August 25th, 2021

Student’s Name

Professor’s Name

Course

Date

Research Project

Introduction

Customer loyalty remains a major component of business projects across the continent. In the modern world, consumers’ expectations depend mostly on their previous experience with service delivery and the level of innovationsused to promote certain brands. By definition, personalised service, also known as differentiated or customised service, is a marketing approach aimedat providing favours to potential, new, and loyal consumers mainly to entice their preferences and requirements. It is not easy to attract new buyers given the high level of competition and theirlow shopping capacity as they tend to align themselves to some established organisatiions. On the contrary, retaining existing customers is easier; hence, enterprises have an opportunity to grow well and sustain their source of income. Therefore, companies can compete adequately by assembling a large pool of loyal consumers. Successful commercial corporations have secured stronger customer satisfaction and brand loyalty because they have invested in personalised customer services.

Understanding the Concept of Personalized Customer Services

Nothing assures consumer satisfaction and loyalty more than quality service. Irrespective of the nature of the business, tourist and hotel, banking or even transport sector, an organisation can uniquely begin a platform which is secure and convenient for its clients (Mugobo andBaschiera 40). Meeting customers’ expectations is a better competitive strategy than trying to produce what other companies are marketing (Ting 45). While most studies have established that service personalisation, consumers’ satisfaction, and switching costs are the primary determinants of shoppers’ loyalty, the direct association involving switching costs has remained unclear (Ting 45). Following the advancement in technology, different commercial enterprises have increased the manner and mode of conducting their businesses. In fact, most organisations have made use the benefit of the internetto promote one-to-one marketing, especially its availability and reliance together with the increased number of IT-based products including computers and smartphones (Tong et al. 106). Although this approach is yet to develop fully in the 21st century, the chances are high that upon internet’s complete integration into various business units, it will be able to discover consumers’ expectations (Tong et al. 108). Besides, this innovative move will raise the desire among company owners to build customer relationship management infrastructure to offer tailored services purposely to meet specific needs by the loyal customers (Ting 45). Therefore, across the world, all enterprises should not only adopt service personalisation as a tool for successful performance but also increase their customer level.

Customer satisfaction is another factor for consumer loyalty and a perfect measure of how a firm retains its loyal buyers from joining other competing businesses. Based on previous service experience, it is possible that satisfied clients will often return to their trusted service providers and will stay for as long as the business exists (Tong et al. 105). However, the unsatisfied ones will walk away and find similar services elsewhere. Now, the greatest challenge facing these commercial institutions, particularly those involved in service delivery,is keeping their consumers loyal (Tong et al. 108). In the banking sector, for instance, there is a higher likelihood that people would own more than one bank account for convenience and security reasons. In Hong Kong, the Deposit Protection Board has issued limits of about HK$500,000 forcing those with higher amounts to consider other banks (Tong et al. 106). In such cases, it is more probable that customers with more than one account can stop dealing with selected banks if they are uncomfortable with the services offered. Thus, service personalisation poses a positive influence on overall customer satisfaction (Tong et al. 107). In general, consumers have raised their need for more advanced value, services, and products as well made their satisfaction a priority for future transactions.

Personalised customer service is a good avenue used by investors to give their consumers the voice that has been missing in the previous years. Even though some clients’ preferences could be unrealistic and unattainable, larger organisations understand that by letting the customers speak out, they can meet those demands better (Tong et al. 105). As a result, such institutions are consistently looking for options that could influencetheir product to meet the buyers’ specific expectations, abilities, or desires (Tong et al. 106). For instance, in the retail industry, enterprises are keen to make sure their clients can access different consumer options through automation of services offered (Phu). While most scholars have insisted on the use of digital platforms to increased customised services, others feel it is the most essential thing that ever happened to both the business people and their respective customers. Adding value to customer choices might be complicated but at the same time beneficial (Phu). For instance, providing opportunities for buyers to choose one option from an several others should be aimed at adding value to their experience (Mugobo and Baschiera 44). A company hoping to keep its customers for long and build a stronger working relationship has no choice but to provide self-service tools to allow these loyal clients to fix problems from their end (Mugobo andBaschiera 43). As a result, there is a pressing need for any investor to ensure proper strategies that can exclusively facilitate the storage of customer data for purposes of consistency (Tong et al. 110). The same approach should be applied when providing cross-platform service delivery.

Understanding how Other Businesses Provide Personalized Customer Services

The next major challenge is understanding how other business organisations have managed to apply customised services and whether they have succeeded or not. It is true that one-to-one marketing is the latest strategy used by investors to promote and increase their consumer base in the competitive market (Phu). Whereas in the past decade pricewars used to be a determinant of consumer loyalty, this strategy is no longer applied. As shown in Figure 1 below, excellent customer services can attract and retain up to 92% of the buyers (Barbier). Interestingly, price adjustments only captures 88% (Barbier).

Figure 1. Factors affecting customers’ trust in companies (Barbier).

A different generation of buyers is developing in which individuals focus more on their experience and good working relationship as opposed to the changing cost of goods and services (Tong et al. 105). A majority of business units have opted for the use of business analysis tools to provide customised services to their clients. These tools, mostly technology-based, are becoming important for the smooth running of businesses (Tong et al. 105). For instance, by including them into commercial operations, the owners of such organisations can understand their customers better by examining their interaction levels as opposed to the feedback given (Tong et al. 106). Monitoring has remained a significant challenge for most institutions due to the extra time it consumes accessing the raw data to get provisional knowledge about customers’ satisfaction and experience. Nevertheless, it pays off remarkably in the delivery of personalised customer service. The advantage these tools guarantee to business owners is the ability to understand repeated behaviours to introduce a real-time response (Tong et al. 106). Moreover, the choice of the tools determines how possible it becomes for the enterprises to honour their clients’ trust (Tong et al. 107). Generally, businesses must now align their structures towards motivating their customers as opposed to focusing on profit alone.

Some larger corporations have assessed and understood changes in the market trends caused by improved technology. In order to fit well in this new system, firms are coming up with strategies that encourage customer-based thinking (Phu). Organisations are now learning how valued and important a customer can be to the success of their investment. Thus, for a company to survive, it needs customers most (Phu). For the company to grow, it must find better ways to retain its existing conditions while focusing on attracting more clients into its current pool. That is why leading organisations have realigned their structures to operate around their leading customers (Phu). It is not worthwhile, therefore, for institutions to target internal growth alone without considering consumer inputs, which can include their needs and demands as well. It has become apparent that business institutions with functional customer-centric approach understand the conditions of their survival, which is entirely customer-generated (Mugobo andBaschiera 42). As a result, through powerful and irresistible buyer experiences, these businesses have set themselves apart from their threatening competitors (Tong et al. 106). Employees have been behind this intervention. Any commercial enterprise intending to boost its customers’ trust must begin by empowering its workers to attend to the customer requirements.

Finally, shifting to customer relationship management is the most important thing happening to most business institutions. It provides serious benefits to firms that have embraced and adopted it as part of their usual operations (Phu). Typically, this approach sets opportunities for such organisations to design and improve their relationships with the existing and loyal customers. More importantly, the introduction of customer relationship management model is becoming an important component of a marketing sector because it can facilitate increased sales revenue through customer retention (Tong et al. 107). Although there are debates on the possibility of failure in this approach, its implementation in itself is a step ahead. Customer relationship management offers technologies capable of providing routes for managing and analysing the level of interactions using the available data obtained from customers’ life cycle (Tong et al. 106). In other words, the CRM maximises customer loyalty through identification and provision of strategies to influence consumer behaviours (Phu). Therefore, any organisation hoping to fit in the 21st-century era must introduce proper communication strategies to aid in acquiring, satisfying, and retaining their loyal customers while focusing on how to recruit more in their plans.

The Benefits of Personalized Customer Services

Most businesses, especially those that have implemented personalised services, have realised a series of benefits. Firstly, such organisations have been able to raise their ability to compete in the market (Mugobo and Baschiera 40). Competition has gone extreme in the recent times and markets are flooded with thousands of products. Now consumers decide which brand to choose depending on their desires and tastes (Mugobo andBaschiera 41). However, the availability of specific outstanding features can make some firms more appealing to buyers than other institutions (Phu). Some organisations have introduced extra value to their commodities mainly by focusing on customers’ satisfaction. Therefore, despite the similarity in quality and prices of given products, provision of customised services would mean the company does not just value its consumers but also treats them with dignity and respects their tastes and preferences (Phu). Secondly, having a loyal customer is the basic strategy an enterprise can adopt. Substantially, these loyal customers contribute mostly to the financial position of a company (Ting 45). Typically, maintaining customer base comes at a cost, particularly at the managerial level and in advertisement sectors.

Hidden Cost of Customized Services

Usually, the provision of personalised customer services comes at a cost. However, the hidden costs decrease gradually as business receives and begins to enjoy returns from its accumulated loyal customers (Ting 45). One of the reasons why introducing this approach could be expensive at the initial stages is the need to recruit a new and competent team that will help in collecting databases of potential customers and tracking them in cases of future changes (Ting 45). Such decisions demand an increase in service and management costs. Interestingly, most institutions consider each client as an independent aspect, which means it leads to overloading workers (Mugobo andBaschiera 40). In such a case, there are chances of ignoring some customers resulting in a change of allegiance to other service providers. It means that such organisations will incur opportunity costs arising from losing a section of loyal consumers. Nonetheless, this error lasts shorter than one can imagine. Once the process is systematised, service automation will be fully achieved making it possible to lower itsoperating cost.

Conclusion

Personalised customer service is a worthy investment that has made some corporations moresuccessful in a competitive market setup. Those firms which have invested in this new field feel more comfortable in attracting and retaining customers than those which did not appreciate this brilliant strategy. Most consumers have opted to purchase their services from companies that serve their interests better. As opposed to the previous years, prices and quality of goods and services are not as important for modern buyers. However, personalised customer services are. It is the latest competitive advantage that business enterprises have chosen to embrace to become both relevant and appealing to more customers. Therefore, every institution must be prepared to use customised services to boost customer loyalty and to increase its profit generation.

Works Cited

Barbier, Lola. “Personalized Customer Service: How to deliver and Drive Loyalty.” Aircall Blog, https://aircall.io/blog/customer-experience/personalized-customer-service/. Accessed 20 Mar 2019.

Mugobo, Virimai Victor, and Marina Giacoma Baschiera. “The Impact of Personalized Engagement with Customers and Efficient Stock Management Software Systems on Customer Service at a Clothing Retailer in Cape Town, South Africa.” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, vol.6, no. 1, 2015, pp. 40-49, http://www.mcser.org/journal/index.php/mjss/article/viewFile/5433/5242. Accessed 18 Mar 2019.

Phu, Nguyen Hoang. “The Significant of Personalization in Customer Experience Design.” Theseus.Fi, 2017, www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/128080/The%20Significant%20of%20Personalization%20in%20Cutsomer%20Experience%20Design.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Accessed 18 Mar 2019

Ting, Shueh-Chin. “What Influences Customer Satisfaction When? Product and Service over Time.” Journal of Management Research, vol. 8, no. 3, 2016, p. 45-59. doi:10.5296/jmr.v8i3.9538. Accessed 18 Mar 2019.

Tong, Canon, et al. “The Influences of Service Personalization, Customer Satisfaction and Switching Costs on E-Loyalty.” International Journal of Economics and Finance, vol. 4, no. 3, 2012, pp. 105-114. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4462/ca6d904f3ccfce5aa9729c81cc5c97a47fdd.pdf. Accessed 18 Mar 2019.