Customer Services At Datatronics

Introduction:
Datatronics is a leading organization which serves their customers with Enterprise resource planning integrated solutions. Matt, leading a small team of developers at E-Z RP for fully integrated CRM/ERP/service management suit for small and medium sized enterprises. Matt’s team was working actively for sales and customer group. EZ-RP was able to manage the profitable business in SME and it has made a name for itself in the world of business which had attracted the Datatronics to acquire and merge it in them. E-Z RP was able to showcase their success on the grounds of the customer service and customer satisfaction. During the acquisition all the employees of the E-Z RP were also acquired remained employed with the Datatronics. Matt and his team was appointed to manage the customer services
which they were least aware.

Problems identified
As a newly appointed manager of the customer service, Matt was able to identify few issues with the service as soon as he took in charge of it. He tried to explain his supervisor about the lack in the customer service performance and how it has been running as more of a cost center than as a means to understand more about Datatronics product and customer needs. He also explains about some of the weak points that Datatronics customer service departments is facing. The new representatives who were being acquired used to get a crash course in the company’s products before they actually face the customer questions. The department was in lack of new or updated technology.

Poorly designed website for a service representative to serve their customers with accurate information. The department was feeling the pressure because of the budget been cut by 10% of the actual cost for past 10 years. Costs seemed to be the driving force behind the department, everything used to carry out keeping cost in the mind instead of the customer satisfaction.

Recommendations
After the Matt’s review on the situation of the customer service department at Datatronics, I will replace Matt by me and would like to suggest the below recommendations to the department. Before providing any case sheet in order to improve the customer service at Datatronics, first we need to have the following information about the department. Like how many customer service representatives are working. Then what is the current data and knowledge of the products. How much time a representative is spending on a customer. Customer service representatives – First step to improve the standards is to change the way of hiring and acquiring the representatives in to the department and giving them the proper training about the company products. Making them to learn the ethics and communications skills so that they will be able to properly attend the customers and this in turn will lead to customer satisfaction. Budget allocation – According to the Joel, their first and foremost priority in the company is to manage the budget.

But instead of managing it they were decreasing the costs that should generally go to the customer service department. So I would recommend that instead of decreasing the costs which is not beneficiary we should be able to balance the budget and increase it. Taking authority of customer services – The top managers should be able to take the ownership. It is very important to design a certain team pattern to run the service department which should include each and every one working in it. Right from taking calls to the finalizing the budget every module should be perfectly designed in such a way it leads to smooth performance of the department. Maintaining website –The way of transmission of the information should be improved and at the same time there should be a set of standard format in the information is being entered into the database.

Company website need to be redesigned and unified across all product groups. And also the website should include frequently asked questions tab for the customers where they easily find the answers to commonly asked question which will be helpful for the customers to simplify their question without calling the customer services. Feedback by customer- I think it’s essential to have a record of all the customers with their feedbacks and at the same time a log of happy and complaining customers depending upon it. A feedback message or a call should be included after the attending to their question is completed. This way we can increase our productivity. SWOT analysis – Including SWOT analysis into the customer service department will give a structured planning method to evaluate the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that may occur anytime in services. Team work – It is always advisable to have work ethics and respect to every fellow member in the team. There should always be a perfect business and structural plan to showcase organizational benefits.

Conclusion
As E-Z RP has been acquired by the company like Datatronics there will no change in its present reputation and always top priority for every company to maintain it. The main reason for which the Datatronics was attracted by the E-Z RP was because of the customer services they have. In spite of having less knowledge with the customer services, Matt and his team should definitely try to get knowledge of as soon as possible to get used to the Datatronics environment. Matt should work hard to get the job done assigned to him perfectly and that is to improve the standards of the present customer services in Datatronics. He should be able to explain Joel clearly about the finding and the solutions to improve them. This will give the organization to grow with the weaknesses they have

Reference

McKeen, J. & Smith, H. (2012). IT Strategy: Issues and Practices (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.