Over View Of Implementing Benchmarking Program In Company Marketing Essay

Over View Of Implementing Benchmarking Program In Company Marketing striveBenchmarking is one aspect of consummation management that is used to check and analysis the activities and elements of any organization. It is used to look for ruff practices of any activity that organizations needs to develop. Moreover, it is not an independent technique as it is considered to be a natural progression from the implementation of total quality management. Successful organizations assess themselves against the stovepipe in their menage and bench marking is used as tool for doing that.Benchmarking ImplementationIn align to implement performance management outline in an organization it is important to do a benchmarking. As a senior manager in a telecommunication social club (Etisalat) I was request to by the CEO to do a benchmarking course of instruction to improve the performance of the company as it is fallen below target. The performance point that I was requested to check is the cu stomer satisfaction that was fallen below the expected target that was set by the companys management based on the latest survey do on the market and decrease in depend of subscribers, who moved their service to the another(prenominal) market enemy.The benchmarking answer does not vary signifi atomic number 50tly with the three categories of partners selected congenital organisations, direct competitors, or non-competitors. Therefore I am vent to compargon the customer satisfaction in the telecom company with Emirates Airlines. The undercoat why I choose Emirates Airlines is that it is a precise large multi-destination charge company with a very large spell of passengers. Etisalat was established in 1976 with a low number of landline subscribers and increased to 100 million subscribers in the world. Emirates Airlines established in 1985 with 260,000 passengers that year. The number of passengers increased dramatically to 27 million till March 2010 and 108 world destinatio ns. That shows how customers with the service provided by Emirates Airlines in a pitiful period and while other big airlines argon going bankrupt during the world financial crises.The reason why we should go for benchmarking is to improve methodologies that result in high crosswayivity and lower cost. Benchmarking is particularly reformatory in validating proposals for change. Moreover, it often results in creative imitation and the adoption of new practices that overcome previous industry barriers. Furtherto a undischargeder extent, this search for diversity and for innovative breakthroughs applied.There are eight misuses in order to do a benchmarking areSelect the subject.Forming the team and the project road act.Performance indicators and findrs.Selecting partner.Data collection. summary. consolidation and action.Benchmarking processSelect the subjectBased on the point highlighted by Etisalats CEO, there is a puzzle in the customers satisfaction that was targeted this ye ar. node satisfaction is a measure of how products and work supplied by a company meet customer expectation Based on the market survey and hassle investigation, we found that problem is due to the followingQuality of service.Customer support.Incident handling.Productivity.Pricing.After investigation and looking at the problem from other angle, we found the reason beyond losing customers satisfaction is concentrating on the development projects and reducing the operational costs in order not to lower down the impact of the world financial crises and compete with the competitor (du) from productivity point of view.In order to solve the problem of losing customer satisfaction, a movement has to be done in order to provide more qualitative after sale service and that can be done by spending more on developing the operational processes and spending more on operations as well as the employees as employees satisfaction is the key towards customers satisfaction. Moreover I am going to c oncentrate on Etisalat customers satisfaction in the UAE only.Forming the team and the project road mapA team needs to be formed and a project road map developed. These are integral activities in the subject selection step. The team that I created accommodates 5 members are experts and represent the respective(a) functions affected by the project. The teams composed of staff personnel who are capable of setting recommendations that meet operative resistance during implementation.Each team member will work on studying the each of the below causes, visit the related sections, highlight the drawbacks and set recommendations forQuality of service.Customer support.Incident handling.Productivity.Pricing.And I am going to follow-up and manage this project as a team leader.Performance indicators and driversThis part begins with the documentation of processes and practices associated with the subject. The primal goal is to identify the vital few performance indicators that confirm superi or performance and to identify those processes and practices that drive performance. This search for cause and effect will be followed by the identification and documentation of internal process variables and attributes. That is a major part that each of the team members will have to take an ownership in order to study each of the processes practices and complete its documentations.Selecting partnerThe selection of partners often involves the use of external info and information sources. Partners fall into two general categories other internal units and external organisations. External organisations may include direct competitors Industry peers that serve a different market Companies that serve the same market in a related but different industry Organisations outside my industry that performs similar functions. As I mentioned above, I decided to choose Emirates Airlines, an organization outside telecom industry and serve the same market. Moreover, Emirates has great initiatives to develop its services that are provided to the passengers. Therefore, Emirates Airlines is almost receiving a yearly awards for its services such as best airline from Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2009, Best In- pip Entertainment from Skytrax Airline Excellence Awards 2009, enceinte Food Service by a Carrier Middle East 2009 from Pax International clip Readership Awards, etc.Data collectionData collection can be the most difficult step in the Benchmarking process. The primary objective is to gather information and data to confirm superior performance and to unwrap best practices without burdening the partners with long, time-consuming data collection methods. Although data and information are collected in establishing service line measures and in selecting partners, the majority of the data for most projects are collected in this step. The following elude shows a summarized comparison amidst the points that lower down the customers satisfaction of Etisalat and compare it with Emirates Airlines.EtisalatEmirates AirlinesQuality of serviceMedium lavishlyCustomer supportLow nobleIncident handlingLow gameProductivityHighHigh with value added servicesPricingAverageHighAdvertisementHigh for newly released productsHighPromotionsOn goingOn sessionsLoyalty programAvailableAvailableCRMLowMediumAnalysisThe objective of the analysis step is to identify the best performing organisation and to determine the reasons for the superior performance. The performance indicators define the benchmark standard and the gaps in performance for each participant. The processes and practices of the best organisation are the benchmark performance drivers that each partner will try to creatively imitate. Identifying this cause and effect relationship between performance drivers and the resultant measures is the most challenging part of benchmarking.When we look at the above comparison table in the data collection part, we can find that there are some differences in the services pr ovided by the two organizations. If we start with the quality of service, we can find that Etisalat is providing medium quality of service. For example, for the old and abiding services like mobile service and internet the quality is very good, but if we look at latest services like eLife the quality is very low. While in Emirates Airlines, it is always high so far for new destinations.Customers support and incident handling in Etisalat is very low as the customers whenever they want to house a complaint or have inquiry, mostly they will be forwarded from a section to another or from a call centre number to another without having a single point of contact. Moreover, whenever you dial the call center, you have to wait on the phone for more than 10 minutes till soul pick the phone and register your complaint that if it is required advance troubleshooting, the case will not be solved in less than one day and may continue for a month. On the other hand, Emirates Airlines representa tives will answer your inquiries clearly and are very helpful to handle your complaints with ownership.The productivity in Etisalat is very high, however due shortage in advertisement and products information sharing for all the products, most of the products are messed by the customers and even the employees. Moreover, the advertisement done by Etisalat is only for the newly released products. However for Emirates Airlines, it is high as the customers is always loyal to the airline and may keep it as the first choice for travel anywhere and he is always expected to have more value added services in flight entertainment.The prices of Etisalat product are average compared to the quality of service provided to the customers, but the customers will always see it high as the after sale services are low. The prices of Emirates Airlines are high, but the service the passenger is receiving before, during and after the flight is high.The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Etisalat i s very low and only done by move updates to all customers through email and SMS for the new products. On the other, Emirates Airlines are send a monthly newssheet to all their customers by email, normal postage, to keep them updated with all the changes, offers and new destinations. Sometimes, they are requested to provide a quick feedback on a questionnaire.Integration and actionThe objectives of the integration and action steps are to arrest organisation buy-in, initiate projects to close gaps and implement plans developed in these projects. So based on the analyses done above the organization has to rectify the problems that leads to losing customers satisfaction. Some of the recommended suggestions are1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings2. Respond to Messages forthwith Keep Your Clients Informed3. Be Friendly and Approachable4. Have a Clearly Defined Customer Service Policy5. Attention to Detail6. Anticipate Your Clients Needs7. Honor your PromisesTo be effective, Benchmarkin g works best in an environment in which teamwork and management support is evident. Teams need to focus on results as mensural by performance indicators, but the organisation must change the performance drivers to achieve benchmark standards. derriere setting alone, without changes in the organisation culture, other structural factors, processes, and practices, can only bring temporary relief.