Home ›› 22 Nov 2022 ›› Editorial
Apple is known for being an innovator, and yet oddly enough the company has rarely been a true pioneer. The MacBook wasn’t the first laptop, the iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player, the iPhone wasn’t the first smart phone. And yet their products have become market leaders and dominated their respective industries.
Their key innovations come from the features of their products. Take, for example, the Apple iPod. When it launched in 2001, it faced stiff competition from established brands, such as the Sony Walkman. But the innovative features the iPod offered gave it the boost it needed to become the symbol of the digital revolution: the ability to create playlists, shuffle songs and the integrated iTunes software were all revolutionary at the time and have now become staples of any kind of MP3 compatible device. The successes of the innovative services offered by Apple are key to the “halo effect” (a good product makes consumers more likely to trust other products from the same company) that has pushed customers to utilise Apple products across a broad range of devices: it’s not uncommon for a customer to utilise Apple devices for every electronic device they use.
This is one of the many examples of how a company can expand its wings by simply understanding the customer requirements!! Another example is Toyota. For Toyota, jidoka means that a machine must come to a safe stop whenever an abnormality occurs. Achieving jidoka, therefore, requires building and improving systems by hand until they are reliable and safe.
First, human engineers meticulously build each new line component by hand to exacting standards, then, through incremental kaizen (continuous improvement), steadily simplify its operations.Eventually, the value added by the line's human operators disappears, meaning any operator can use the line to produce the same result. Only then is the jidoka mechanism incorporated into actual production lines. Through the repetition of this process, machinery becomes simpler and less expensive, while maintenance becomes less time consuming and less costly, enabling the creation of simple, slim, flexible lines that are adaptable to fluctuations in production volume.The work done by hand in this process is the bedrock of engineering skill.
Machines and robots do not think for themselves or evolve on their own.
Rather, they evolve as we transfer our skills and craftsmanship to them. In other words, craftsmanship is achieved by learning the basic principles of manufacturing through manual work, then applying them on the factory floor to steadily make improvements. This cycle of improvement in both human skills and technologies is the essence of Toyota's jidoka. Advancing jidoka in this way helps to reinforce both our manufacturing competitiveness and human resource development. Human wisdom and ingenuity are indispensable to delivering ever-better cars to customers. Going forward, we will maintain our steadfast dedication to constantly developing human resources who can think independently and implement kaizen.
Measuring and improving service quality can increase your organisation’s profits and reputation. Regardless of the industry, service quality can have a direct impact on your company's ability to satisfy customer needs while remaining competitive. Learning how to measure and improve service quality is a valuable skill, but it requires research and expertise. Service quality is a measure of how an organisation delivers its services compared to the expectations of its customers. Customers purchase services as a response to specific needs. They either consciously or unconsciously have certain standards and expectations for how a company's delivery of services fulfils those needs. A company with high service quality offers services that match or exceed its customers' expectations. The main reasons why high service quality is important to an organisation are: 1. It boosts sales. Customers that perceive a company's services as being high quality are more likely to do business with that company. Also, customers who buy from companies with high service quality are more likely to continue buying from those companies regularly.2.It saves marketing money. Retaining existing customers by offering them high-quality services is typically less expensive than attracting new ones.
It can attract quality employees. Highly performing professionals generally prefer to work for companies with high service quality. 3. It can lead to repeat business. Customers who see their issues and complaints swiftly and efficiently resolved by a company's customer service department may be more likely to buy from that company again in the future.4. It strengthens the company's brand. The reputation of a company with above-average service quality can boost sales by attracting new customers or retaining existing ones.
It eliminates certain barriers to buying.High service quality can convince a hesitant customer to make a purchase, as they know that if the service is not right for them, they can rely on strong customer service to remedy the situation.
The five dimensions of service quality are: 1. Reliability: This refers to an organisation’s ability and consistency in performing a certain service in a way that satisfies its customers' needs. This process involves every step of customer interaction, including the delivery or execution of the good or service, swift and precise problem resolution and competitive pricing. Customers have a certain expectation of reliability in buying a specific product, and a company's success usually depends on its ability to meet those expectations; 2. Tangibility
This is an organisation’s ability to portray service quality to its customers. There are many factors that give a company highly tangible quality, such as the appearance of its headquarters, its employees' attire and demeanour, its marketing materials and its customer service department; 3. Empathy:
Empathy is how an organisation delivers its services in a way that makes the company seem empathetic to its customers' desires and demands. A customer who believes a company truly cares about their well-being is likely to be more loyal to that company; 4.Responsiveness
This is a company's dedication and ability to provide customers with prompt services. Responsiveness implies receiving, assessing and swiftly replying to customer requests, feedback, questions and issues. A company with high service quality always responds to customer communication as soon as possible which can often indicate the value a company places on customer satisfaction; 5 . Assurance:
Assurance is the confidence and trust that customers have in a certain organisation. This is especially important with services that a customer might perceive as being above their ability to understand and properly evaluate, meaning that there has to be a certain element of trust in the servicing organisation’s ability to deliver. Company employees need to be mindful of earning the trust of their customers if they want to retain them.
So each and every organisations want to harness and improve on service quality in order to achieve one, more or all of the objectives as stated above. However, improvement of service quality is a journey for which a clear demonstration of the intent through the engagement on the part of employees along with C suit involvement, standard operating process, implementable action plan, monitoring against set deliverables, capturing voice of customers and commitment and communication there on to solve the issues. Periodic reviews through different measures including mystery shopping.
BlackBerry, a line of smartphones and tablets, was successful in 1998. They changed the game in the mobile industry by offering a device with an arched keyboard.A few years later, the mobile industry started focusing on more extensive touchscreen displays, while BlackBerry was more concerned about protecting what it already had. Failing to adapt to changes, in 2017, CEO John Chen announced that BlackBerry was officially out of the smartphone manufacturing business.
The writer is MD and CEO of Community Bank. He can be contacted at masihul1811@gmail.com
