Customer service has been a problem addressed by not a few authors, however, for companies dedicated to cargo transport, companies in which this study is focused does not seem a trite topic and if of great importance.
The study was motivated by the lack in the entity under study of a strategy that allows it to raise the Level of Customer Service. The purpose of this research is to define a series of steps to follow that allow the entity to detect and solve problems such as non-compliance with clauses in the agreements, damage to cargo during service and delays in deliveries through some indicators. The organization also presents problems of integration, coordination and effectiveness of its methods in processes such as signing contracts and customer service, due to ignorance of negotiation techniques and personal communication; deficiencies that prevent fully satisfying customer demands.The results of the application of the proposed procedure allowed, among other aspects, to appreciate to what extent the provision of the service can be efficient as well as to determine which are the key success factors that the company has.
INTRODUCTION
At the end of the 20th century, as well as at the beginning of the 21st, the field of business management has been colored to a greater extent, by trends of improvement in customer service levels. A matter determined by the need for the production systems of both goods and services to offer an efficient response, in the shortest possible time and with the minimum cost, to the requests of its clients, which are increasingly diverse and individualized. Trends that continue to expand to all sectors of the economy.
La solución para lograr un adecuado nivel de competitividad está en situar al cliente y sus necesidades en el punto central de atención de los sistemas productivos y/o de servicios y lograr la coordinación de estos últimos a través del enfoque logístico y de cadena de suministro, ya que ofrecer una respuesta eficiente al cliente excede los límites del sistema productivo y/o de servicio y requiere de integrar todo el sistema logístico como una cadena de procesos continuos que se activan en el instante en que el cliente demanda el producto – servicio, cadena que debe funcionar “tirada” por el propio cliente.
What the customer actually demands is a service and not a product or merchandise itself. This criterion is endorsed by a group of authors (CEVEDO); (CARLZON, p. 15); (GALVÃO, p. 2); (FONTES, p. 693); (RONALDO); (8, pp. 88, 179-180); (ANDERSON). The service encompasses or is based on a product that is more comprehensive than this. A product divorced from a service does not represent much for the customer and leads to the sale of the same. Correctly understanding the needs and preferences of customers becomes a key issue to draw the competitive strategy of the logistics system.
A service is the act or set of acts by which a product or group of products is achieved to satisfy the needs and desires of the customer. When approaching customer service, three interrelated aspects of it must be properly conceptualized:
In the first place, the Demand for service, which are nothing more than the characteristics desired by the client for the service requested, as well as the availability and possibility of it to pay for it with such characteristics.
The Service Goal is another aspect that is defined as the relevant values and characteristics set as a target for the set of parameters that characterize the service that the provider offers to its customers. This goal can be set as unique for all clients, differentiated by type of client or agreed client by client. Finally, it should be noted that the Service Level is the degree to which the service goal is met; aspect that should not be omitted in this diploma work since it constitutes the main axis of the theory that supports it.
As a result of the evolution that has been manifesting itself in the subject of customer service, it has been necessary to rethink the traditional scheme of distributing what is produced to the scheme of distributing what the customer needs. For this, the company must define a service philosophy, expressed in terms of: attitude, organization and responsibility that opens the way to the establishment of a service strategy. The elements to consider to establish a service strategy are:
• The client.
• The competition
• The patterns, customs and possibilities
• The market segments.
From this new approach that is handled around the world and of course in Cuba, the need arises to know to what extent the product or service that the company identifies is satisfied; in other words, the calculation and improvement of the level of service is essential. TRANSCAR. GC, a Cuban company dedicated to the service of cargo transportation by road and supporter of the new concepts that define the business world today; agrees on the need to know how satisfied their customers are. To this end, the motive that drives this research arises, whose main objective is to calculate and raise the level of customer service through a procedure to improve this vital indicator of service provision.
The company TRANSCAR. GC, despite its status as a national avant-garde, does not renounce to continue raising its results and aspires to place itself at the top among its counterparts in the country; For this, it has been proposed to improve all the factors that affect its image and comply with the established customer service principles.
However, recently there have been difficulties such as: delays in service, dissatisfaction of customer expectations regarding the service offer and occasional non-compliance with contract closures. Added to the above is the entity's lack of a structured procedure to improve the NSC. This is why it is necessary from the existing ones to design one that conforms to the specificities of TRANSCAR. GC.
DEVELOPING
Procedure for raising the level of customer service of TRANSCAR GC.
Starting from the need of the company to raise the level of customer service and achieve an advantageous position in the market for transportation services in the maximum possible of the sectors that make up the country's economy, the following procedure is proposed (figure one); of which the steps that comprise it are carefully described.
Step 1: Formation of the work team.
This constitutes the initial stage in many of the investigations of this nature; moment in which the group that will develop the study is formed, making a selection of the specialists available to the entity or belonging to the same ministerial branch; seeking equality in knowledge on the subject. This team will be in charge of carrying out the research that supports this work; in other words, those who apply the procedure in question step by step and therefore those responsible for the success of its application. To form this group, it will be necessary to register specialists with skills and willingness to participate in the study. During the selection process, aspects related to:
• Time of experience in the transport sector.
• Area of greater specialization and with affinity to the research topic.
• Previous experiences in research of this nature.
These aspects as well as their willingness to participate in the investigation will be determined by direct interview with each one of them and a prior study of their employment records; so that the selection is correct.
Step 2: Definition of the indicators.
This is the stage in which, as its name indicates, the indicators with which the level of service will be measured will be defined; therefore service indicators, which are nothing more than: the set of data referring to the service whose analysis indicates the degree of compliance with the previously established service levels. The indicators are, in short, concepts that are going to be “measured”; that once defined for a particular Quality System, their respective objective values must be established in a certain period. In the first place, this will help to establish the Quality thresholds that must be reached and, secondly, to check to what extent these levels are reached.
In this case, the calculation of these will allow the analysis of the company's situation in this regard. The definition of these will be done by applying group work techniques and taking into account the specific characteristics of the service as well as the units of measurement and the concepts that define the daily practice of TRANSACR. GC; but very especially considering the criteria that the client has of the service provided in such a way that these indicators measure aspects that really interest them.
Each indicator will be defined according to different criteria that will provide its best understanding. Table 1 proposes the structure and definition of the
indicators.
Table 1: Structure and definition of the indicators.
Source: self made.
N: Total deliveries made in a period.
Level of Service in Hiring. (NSCo)
Conven. Establish.: Established Agreements.
Compliance with established agreements. (CCE)
Finished: Finished.
Level of Service in Freight Transportation. (NST)
Ton. Transp.: Tons Transported.
Ton. Planning Planned tons to transport.
Level of Acceptance of the Service. (NAS)
Conven Claim.: Agreements with claims.
Level of Attention to Claims. (NAR)
Claim Attend.: Claims Attended.
Level of Service in Lines by agreement. (NSL)
Asumid lines.: Lines assumed by the company in transportation.
Technical Availability Level. (NDT)
Veh. exist.: Existing vehicles in the company.
Step 3: Analysis of the current situation.
In this step, an analysis of the company's microenvironment will be carried out, which brings with it an evaluation of the current situation in which the organization is, highlighting the problems that most affect its levels of customer service.
For the fulfillment of this stage, initially the company under study must be characterized in terms of its main economic indicators; analysis that will facilitate the detection of the difficulties that in this sense affect the results of the company. In addition, as part of this initial evaluation, the calculation of the service levels that the company currently maintains will be carried out; with the aim of knowing the reality of it in this sense.
Finally, considering the current service level and the financial situation of the entity, the main deficiencies and their causes can be detected; results from which possible solutions will be made, better aimed at service levels.
It is interesting to note that during the diagnosis of the current situation of the company in question, techniques such as:
• Conducting interviews.
• Analysis of survey results.
• Financial analysis.
• Cause - Effect Diagrams.
• Teamwork.
Step 4: Analysis of the market and study of the competition.
This step allows to know what is the position of the company in front of the competition as well as the main characteristics of the same; while facilitating the adjustment of the service offer to the specific needs of customers. It also offers the possibility of carrying out more effective promotional activities that promote a greater demand for the service.
For the fulfillment of this stage, a brief characterization of the service to be offered and the level at which it is intended to be offered will be made; as well as the competition, getting to know what their strategies and current service levels are. The key components of the service relative to the client's needs and their importance will be identified, after characterizing said clients; classifying homogeneous groups according to their characteristics, desires and possibilities, being able to identify the main market segments that the company has.
The last two steps described so far (3 and 4) can be done simultaneously, because there is no dependency between the aspects to be analyzed, and this is not the case in the rest of the steps detailed below.
Step 5: Forecasting the demand for the service.
Forecasting is defined as the art and science of predicting future events. Until a few years ago, forecasting was mostly an art. However, now they have also become a science. Although managerial judgment is still needed to forecast, the manager is assisted by sophisticated mathematical tools and methods. Due to the high degree of accuracy and the wide range of possibilities that it offers in the forecast, it has been selected to carry out the prediction of the future behavior of parameters of the service demand.
The information to be used is obtained from the study of the company's files; which will refer to the main aspects that characterize the demand for the service provided by the entity. To carry out the forecast, the corresponding data will be taken into account for a period defined by the group conducting the research. It is interesting to note that the forecasting method to be used depends on the analysis performed on the graphic representation of the series, although it is also feasible, due to the possibilities offered by WinQSB, based on some error measurements.
Step 6: Projection of the goals and the level of service to guarantee.
In this step, the service expected by customers, behavior patterns, the capacity of the logistics system to provide the expected service and the situation of the competition must be taken into account, to define the goal and the level of service to guarantee for each customer group.
The projection of the service level can be done in two ways:
1. Determine the optimal level of service. In this way, the risk of not taking into account the situation of the competition is added.
2. Setting the level of service from the competition. In this case, you run the risk of not working with the optimal level of customer service from an economic point of view.
With this information, the point where the level of customer service becomes optimal can be defined. Subsequently, a comparison is established between the real and the desired level, which allows making decisions about the most appropriate strategy that enables the fulfillment of the service levels desired by the company.
Step 7: Is there a defined customer service strategy?
The main objective of this step is to check if actions are carried out in the company to satisfy and raise the level of customer service and to what extent they contribute to the increase of this indicator. For this, the results obtained up to this moment by the investigation must be taken into account; Aspects such as the current economic situation of the company and the behavior of the competition and the market are of vital importance in this regard, since they reveal the conditions in which the entity finds itself and therefore the possibility or not of carrying out said actions.
In order to comply with the objective of this stage, the most important thing will be to analyze from the known dissatisfactions, through different channels, which of them have had a response according to the requirements and to what extent the client has seen their expectations met. as for the claimed improvement. This process implies an exhaustive review of the documentation referring to each one of these claims made, as well as the monthly summaries where these types of improvements to the service are reflected.
After this analysis, and in the affirmative case, the existing strategy would be applied (step 9). Otherwise, the procedure would continue, defining the strategy to follow (step 8).
Step 8: Definition of the customer service strategy.
According to Mitzberg, Quinn and Voyer (1997), in the field of administration, a strategy is the pattern or plan that integrates the main goals and policies of an organization, and at the same time, establishes the coherent sequence of actions to carry out. A well-formulated strategy helps to put order and assign, based both on its attributes and its internal deficiencies, the resources of an organization, in order to achieve a viable and original situation, as well as anticipating possible changes in the environment and the unforeseen actions of clever opponents.
Taking the above as a fundamental theoretical reference, this will be the stage in which, based on the difficulties detected during the analysis of the current situation, the market and the competition, the path to be followed by the entity will be traced in order to raise the level existing customer service at the time the investigation is conducted. To this end, the actions to be taken and in which sectors of the entity to execute them will be defined; in such a way that deficiencies are corrected and the specific characteristics of both the environment and the customers are considered.
Step 9: Application of the defined strategy.
This stage of course presupposes the implementation of the designed strategy, determining its success or failure. For this, theoretical-practical aspects must be considered, on which the result of its implementation also depends. According to Jonson and Scholes (2001), implementation should be the time to translate strategy into organizational action through the design and structure of the entity, resource planning, and strategic change management.
Its success will depend on the degree to which these different components are effectively integrated to create, by themselves, competencies that the rest of the companies in the sector fail to imitate.
The most frequently asked questions when implementing a strategy are the following:
• Who should be responsible for carrying out the strategy?
• What structural and design changes are necessary to carry out the strategy?
• Who will be the different departments responsible for this adaptation?
• What information systems will be necessary to control the process?
The implementation of the strategy will also involve resource planning, including the logistics of implementation. What are the key tasks to perform? What changes are necessary in the mix of the organization's resources? And finally, will it be necessary to hire more staff or improve the training of the existing one? These are part of the questions that complement this process. The implementation of a strategy also requires in this case the management of strategic change, which in turn requires action by managers regarding the way in which change processes are managed and the mechanisms used to do so.
It is clear that without this being the final step of the procedure, it is now time to unify actions aimed at improvement and put them into practice as efficiently as possible.
Step 10: Is the level of customer service raised?
This stage of the research reveals how effective the defined strategy is, as well as the success or failure of the previous steps that make up the proposed procedure. To know the answer to this question, it is enough to recalculate the indicators defined by the procedure (step 2) and compare these results with those obtained during the previous analysis of the entity's current situation, carried out in step 3.
If the results are positive, it only remains to implement the monitoring of the strategy (step 11), promoting the continuity of the improvement process. Otherwise, the customer service strategy must be redefined, since it is shown that the application is not the correct one and with the new strategy, return the application process (step 9).
Step 11: Track the strategy.
This step implies the periodic review and control of the results, promoting a cyclical and systematic operation of the proceeding, since both the organization and the market are in constant movement and changes; leading to a permanent vigilance on the strategies to follow at all times with each client, the only way to stay in the market at the present time.
In the proposed procedure, feedback is conceived from the monitoring of the strategy and up to the definition of the indicators, a structure that provides continuity and continuous improvement of the tool.
CONCLUSIONS
- The procedure proposed by this research constitutes a useful tool in determining the problems that threaten the satisfaction of customers who request TRANSCAR.GC transportation and is a starting point in the design of improvement strategies that raise the level of customer service The logical-sequential structuring of the procedure, the clear and precise description of what must be done in each step described, as well as whether the return to previous stages is taken into account in order to correct deficiencies in the analysis, leads to its application becoming affordable, achieves a practical nature and also allows reducing the complexity of the processes.The procedure offers the possibility of being applied in any entity dedicated to the provision of cargo transportation services,as is the case with TRANSCAR.GC, you want to detect and at the same time raise the level of customer service. In its development, it conceives the provision of customer service (transportation) as a large system, complying with the principle of integration. The application of the procedure, as well as the associated analytical instruments, will favor the effectiveness of the decision-making processes. within the framework of the object of study of the research, as well as the necessary orientation to increase the levels of customer service, granting it the significance and the role that is demanded at the national level and the rest of the world.In its development, it conceives the provision of customer service (transportation) as a large system, complying with the principle of integration. The application of the procedure, as well as the associated analytical instruments, will favor the effectiveness of the decision-making processes. within the framework of the research object of study, as well as the necessary orientation towards increasing levels of customer service, granting it the significance and role that is demanded at the national level and the rest of the world.In its development, it conceives the provision of customer service (transportation) as a large system, complying with the principle of integration. The application of the procedure, as well as the associated analytical instruments, will favor the effectiveness of the decision-making processes. within the framework of the research object of study, as well as the necessary orientation towards increasing levels of customer service, granting it the significance and role that is demanded at the national level and the rest of the world.as well as the necessary orientation towards increasing levels of customer service, granting it the significance and role that is demanded at the national level and the rest of the world.as well as the necessary orientation towards increasing levels of customer service, granting it the significance and role that is demanded at the national level and the rest of the world.
