Describe a situation that would cause adequate expectations to increase, thereby narrowing
the width of the zone of tolerance.
Customer expectations make up the higher end of the zone of tolerance while adequate
expectations make up the lower end (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Customer expectations can be
divided into two categories: desired and adequate performance. Customers' desired expectations
are what they want from the company, while adequate performance expectations are what they
are able to accept or reject from the company. Due to the high degree of consumer expectation,
adequate expectations fluctuate the most. Acceptance is viewed differently by each consumer.
When consumers have a wide range of choices, their expectations for adequate performance
increase. Consumer expectations are all increasing as the market becomes more competitive.
However, when there are available alternatives to services on the market, consumers' tolerance
levels drop. As a result, the amount of consumer expectations and tolerance is largely determined
by product reliability. Therefore, in a situation where market rivalry increases or there are several
competitive products, alternatives, or substitutes, consumer expectations rise but tolerance levels
fall. For example, Amazon.com is expanding its offerings to include home delivery, cash on
delivery, customer product order tracking, and post-purchase support, all of which improve the
customer shopping experience.
What might a firm do in this situation to achieve its satisfaction targets?
Consumer satisfaction is the measure to which the company provides products and
services to meet consumer needs so that the company can win their hearts and make the brand
recognizable in the market (Ferrell, & Hartline 2014). There are ways firms can utilize to achieve
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satisfactory targets. Firstly, firms should strive to make products more reliable. This can be
enhanced by seeking consumer responses and feedback via social media and other channels,
managing expectations promptly, checking the achievement of checklists and templates
regularly, and enhancing information flow in both ways. Firms should also focus on producing
more product varieties to diversify consumer needs and spread costs. Lastly, firms should focus
on improving the delivery process of services (Yadav & Goel, 2008). Best services are provided
timely and promptly. This improves satisfactory targets substantially.
Part 2
Using the organization for which you work, examine how your organization approaches the
acquisition of customers and the maintenance of customers differently. Given the
importance of customer lifetime value on long-term profitability, is your organization
investing sufficiently in customer relationship management? Explain
Customer acquisition is strategy of attracting new clients to a company's brand.
Consumer acquisition aims to advertise products in order to increase and keep customer inflow.
The strategies employed for customer acquisition vary as per the organization. I have worked at
TJ Cloth Company, where I witnessed a myriad of approaches employed in customer acquisition
and various ways to maintain these customers. To begin with, all methods of advertising and
marketing are regarded as significant gears to attract and improve the loyalty of the wide pool of
customers. The different advertising and marketing forms employed by the firm include Tv,
Billboard, social media, and print adverts. The company's approach to customer acquisition is
more scientific and instructive when using below-the-line and through-the-line advertising. TJ
Cloth Company is very keen on retaining the customers that it has already attracted. The firm can
track specific metrics through phone numbers stored in a direct mail pack.
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There is an exponential use of social media platforms in TJ Cloth Company for customer
acquisition. The networking sites that are mostly employed by the firm are Twitter and
Facebook, which provide an extensive outreach through one-on-one conversations and ads. The
average amount of money that a business estimates the customers to spend in their entire lifetime
relationship with them is termed as the Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). According to Haynes
(2018), Customer Lifetime Value is determined as the period of time of the product and the
amount of money spent by the customer in a year less the costs of obtaining the product. .
According to Haynes (2018), customer lifetime value is calculated by multiplying the number of
years a product lasts by the amount of money the customer spends in a year, less the costs of
procuring the product. LTV is used in many businesses and is considered to be pivotal for
profitability.
The Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) is employed in businesses to determine if they will
retain their customers in the future. If the value acquired after the calculation is very low, there
are fewer chances of retaining the customer, while when the LTV is high, the chances of
retaining the customer in the future are very high (Haynes, 2018). For instance, TJ Cloth
Company spent $5 on Facebook campaigns to attract a new customer whose total spending on
the company was $600 in the firm's fictional e-commerce store. The Customer Lifetime Value is
essential since a higher number translates to increased profits. TJ Cloth firm is thus capitalizing
on customer relationships adequately. The company tracks customers using friend tags, likes,
clicks, and comments on numerous social media networks. To maintain its existing clientele, the
firm has also utilized email and short messaging service (SMS) marketing.
The tactics associated with a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy vary from
stage to stage in relationship development. Evaluate the extent to which your
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organization’s CRM tactics align with its CRM goals and each relationship stage. Propose
modifications your organization should follow in its CRM efforts to improve its
effectiveness in maintaining and improving customer relationships.
Customer Relationship Management strategies are expansively employed in TJ Cloth
firm to manage the association between the existing customers and the potential customers to
nurture customer retention and loyalty (Goldberg, 2017). The efficient use of the business's CRM
process also aids in harnessing possible clients to actual customers, which translates to the
transformation of business profits or heightened revenues. In the first step of the CRM process,
TJ Cloth Company uses different marketing approaches to carry out customer portfolio analysis.
Precisely, the firm heavily relies on social networking sites, namely Facebook and Twitter, to
assess the most profitable customer section to define the company's customer target base. The
firm then uses Twitter and Facebook to identify their birthdays and buying interests, which helps
them to derive customer intimacy. This is done for many customers, and the information selected
is stored in a database. This move allows TJ company to identify the customer's buying needs
and interests, after which it develops profitable associations to improve service delivery.
The firm can do this by identifying supply chains, outsourcing markets, and employing a
pooled of skilled experts (Yadav & Goel, 2008). The firm then proceeds to develop a value
proposition for the different customers identified through social sites such as Facebook. The
company encompasses distinct styles, colors, and representations that the clients may prefer on
their clothes in the value proposition. Eventually, to maintain the customer-business relationship,
the real customer tour is planned. Therefore, the company heavily relies on Facebook and
Twitter to obtain customer data, which they then use to attract and build strong relationships with
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them. Tools like HubSpot CRM are used in the organization to manage clients (Goldberg, 2017).
While there are various strategies employed at TJ Cloth company to ensure solid customer
relationships, the associations can still be improved.
The recommendations to improve customer relationships include establishing the
customer base, the firm should prioritize profitable clients to create a value proposition and
develop faith in strategy pricing. When creating a value proposition, the firm should assess
pricing to meet the wide pool of customers' needs. Gallop (2011) provides that communication
can only be effective in a company if done with speed and efficiency. To ensure that there is
customer retention, it is vital to automate communication. This can be done by having a live chat
where the customers can address their needs and concerns and get prompt feedback from the
company's representatives.
Customers seek to optimize perceived value. There are several components of value that
can be provided via the marketing mix elements. Propose specific product, price,
distribution, and promotion strategies for your organization’s offer that could produce a
higher perceived value (total value) for the target audience. Justify the value components
you used to design a high-value overall strategy
The perception of a product by a customer beats reality in the pricing of the same item. In
this context, the customer's experience from a product is a multifaceted issue that is more than
what is often perceived. There exist various factors that quantify whether a product meets its
price. This includes its utility and emotions exhibited by the customers. TJ Cloth firm is directed
by elements of an informative value diagram that is similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. At
the base of the hierarchy, the value functional factors entailed includes appeals such as "reduces
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effort" and saves time. The emotional elements are contained in the upper part of the hierarchy.
At the top-most part of the bar, there exit social impact factors such as affiliation, belonging, and
self-transcendence. The price of the object has an exponential impact on value since a product
cannot be valuable and be cheap.
The value of a product is expansively indicated by value hence the reason why TJ Cloth
Company uses premium pricing to produce value. The perceived value is largely unequal to the
actual value of these products. The prices charged by the company for some of its goods make
them unaffordable to most of its clients. The high prices make the products more desirable as
they cannot be acquired by just anyone. The same strategy is employed by other companies such
as Apple. The low pricing strategy does not work for customers as they do not believe that one
can pay low prices for valuable products. The products from TJ have premium prices that make
them more desirable by including the perception of exclusivity. TJ focuses largely on reputation
and branding. The firm considers favorable promotion channels and marketing to build on its
overall value strategy.
Of the two types of customer expectations, performance expectations fluctuate the most.
Describe situations that might cause expectations to increase, thereby narrowing the width
of the zone of tolerance for your organization’s customers. What recommendations do you
provide for the organization in these situations to better enable the organization to achieve
its satisfaction targets?
The needs and requirements that a client or consumer assumes they will get after buying
a product is known as consumer expectations. For most firms that are successful, they ensure that
they work towards meeting the expectations of the customers (Bain & Company, 2016).
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Consumers may find many options to be viable, which may lead to a substantial increase of
adequate performance expectations. When there is intense competition in the market, the
adequate performance of the buyers is likely to increase. Nevertheless, there is a drastic decrease
in consumer tolerance when there are substitutes for services in the market. As it stands, the
reliability of the products affects the levels of consumer tolerance and expectations. Therefore,
the level of consumer tolerances decreases when the levels of competition in the market
intensifies, or there are alternatives or substitutes in the market. On the other hand, the level of
consumer expectations increases when such a scenario is experienced. As per Gallop (2011)
consumer satisfaction entails the level to which the firm offers services and products that help to
meet the needs of the consumers. This also aids in building a strong brand in the market since
satisfying the consumer's needs makes the brand recognizable. There exist a number of ways that
firms can achieve their satisfaction targets (Maminiaina, 2019). The first thing that organizations
should do is improve the reliability of their products. This can be done by seeking consumer's
feedbacks and responses from different social networking sites. Organizations should also work
on the production of more product varieties to spread costs and diversify consumer needs. Also,
firms should work on providing timely and prompt services to the consumers to enhance
satisfactory targets sustainability.
Organizations want customers to be satisfied. Imagine you’ve been asked to estimate the
relative importance of the performance factors your organization’s customers evaluate and
design a plan to increase satisfaction and decrease dissatisfaction based on your results.
Present your findings and plan.
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Different organizational performance factors can be evaluated by customers to foster
product satisfaction. Executives of a firm make better decisions once consumer satisfaction is
increased that results in heightened revenues and profits. Consumers are happier when their
needs are satisfied and when the services they receive are of high quality. These customers are
likely to visit the store more often and share the products offered on their social media handles.
More customers will be attracted once these people share their satisfaction with the world
(Maminiaina, 2019). The company where I work is focused on ensuring that their customers are
satisfied and that there is continued product quality that leads to value creation. TJ Cloth
Company has devised a plan to heighten satisfaction. This plan has been approved by a product
satisfaction committee. The following diagram provides an overview of the devised plan.
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References
Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. (2014). Marketing strategy, text and cases. Cengage Learning.
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Goldberg, A. (2017, June 27). What is CRM process? CRM process involves the activities and
strategies that companies use to manage their int. Financesonline.com;
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Maminiaina (2019). A thorough literature review of customer satisfaction definition, factors
affecting customer satisfaction and measuring customer satisfaction. International Journal
of Advanced Research, 7(9), 828–843. https://doi.org/10.21474/ijar01/9733