Behaviour Prediction

Customer response is the reaction by the organization to the queries and activities of the customer. Dealing with these queries intelligently is very important as small misunderstandings could convey unalike perceptions. Success totally depends on understanding and interpreting these queries and then working out to provide the best solution. During this situation if the supplier wins to satisfy the customer by properly answering to his queries, he succeeds in explicating a professional and emotional relationship with him.

Responses have numerous combinations of features and aspects by which questionnaires can be easily produced.

Following are the situations a customer can fall into after they get responses.

• Customers can be totally satisfied by the type of response with a positive feeling towards the respondent.
• They can be totally satisfied but without any sort of strong feeling towards the respondent.
• Slightly satisfied with the responses but with or without any feelings towards the respondent, depending on the efforts and type of responses provided by the respondent.
• They can also be totally dissatisfied by the responses but no hard feelings towards the respondent as the respondent could have delivered the things correctly and efficiently.
• They can also be totally dissatisfied by the responses and with negative feelings towards the respondent as the respondent could have messed everything.

As discussed above the customer can fall under any of these situations and develops a perception in his mind regarding the organization depending on the quality and types of responses he gets from the respondent. If the organization succeeds in satisfying the customer then he wins in developing and maintaining a relationship with that customer and can easily retain him. Contrarily, if the customers find the quality of responses as low and unsatisfactory and supplier’s attitude as unfamiliar and negative then they will surely diverge their way to other organization for better alternatives. By this the organization could finally loose the business with that customer. Hence, customer response is very important aspect for all organizations to create business relationship and good customer satisfaction and loyalty with their customers. In the same way, for customers it’s a very essential way to judge their suppliers and determine if they can be good suppliers for them or not.

Good customer response is an essential asset for an organization and directly or indirectly always helps them to grow substantially in business. For example, a customer buys toothpaste from a shop. After opening it he finds the tube half empty from inside. He immediately sends a notification to the manufacturer by launching a complaint. The company in turn promptly sends an apology letter with a new tube of toothpaste. The customer will obviously become happy and satisfied with the prompt response and the fruitful service provided by the manufacturer. This satisfied customer will propagate the concern shown by the manufacturer for even this small deal to all his friends and family. By this quick and positive response, the manufacturer turned that customer to a business ambassador to increase the sales and productivity of business.

Before developing the strategies for customer responses, it is important to understand the master plan which indicates how the responses should be modeled according to customer’s attitude which is different in different situations. Giving the right response at right time is the only key factor for successfully building the relationships with customers and influencing them to have long-term business deals.

After emphasizing on customer response and its advantages it is also important to know how to measure these responses and what can be achieved after accurate measurement. For this it is necessary for an organization to incorporate following performance indicators:

• Productive Performance Indicator: The productive performance indicator determines the number of customer orders processed per human-hour. This order processing must be done is such a way that the time taken for processing is minimal to increase the productivity. Strategies used in customer service automation can bring immediate improvements in call center automation, internet ordering, contact management automation, EDI’s etc. Web integrated customer response systems cuts off the need to hire more employees as everything is automated.
• Financial Performance Indicator: The key financial performance indicator is Total Response Cost (TRC). By the use of TRC organization can easily compute the cost incurred for customer responses workflow, assets used, infrastructure used within organization, medium charges like internet and phone, income of executives etc. Some extended use of TRC is also to indicate the profitable aspects like which response was profitable and which was not. It can also compute which customers are profitable for the organization and which are not and which are they who can continue to give more profit in future. Total response cost is a powerful system which helps improving the financial aspects of organization by limiting the investments made by the organization and always keeps a check on customer response to enhance financial features.
• Quality Performance Indicator: The Primary quality performance indicator is Order Entry Accuracy (OEA) and First Time Fill Rate (FTFR). OEA is formulated as specific orders produced by customers per total order produced. FTFR is calculated by total products delivered per total products requested. There are many other indicators which help measuring quality performance of customer responses like Invoice Accuracy and Order Status communication accuracy. Invoice accuracy tool keeps a regular check on Invoice automation system and measure the accuracy of them. It is generally formulated as the total invoices with accurate match of items, prices and quantities etc per total invoices received. More the percentage produced by these tools more is the customer response value. It is necessary to measure quality performance so that the customers receive best services and customer satisfaction index always remain on top.
• Response Cycle Time Indicator: Response cycle time indicator is indicated by Order Processing Time (OPT). This calculates the time taken for the order; from time it was entered till the time it is delivered. One more important indicator called Order Entry Time (OET) is also installed which calculates the time taken from intimation of order until the order is captured or entered in the CRM system. This shows the time elapsed in the telephonic conversation or internet. By this the overall entry time taken by the executive to enter the details in the systems can be calculated. This is an important factor and can be used for increasing the productivity and for trying to reduce the time taken for order processing. Lesser the time taken to process the orders and entering the relevant information in the system, more are the chances to consume large number of customers in a given specific interval of time.

The responses can be provided through any of the following media:

1. Face to Face Interaction: Face to face interaction is the most efficient medium and provides the probability to judge the emotions and body language of the respondent. When a customer visits the supplier’s premises and supplier receives him respectfully and spends some time with him, giving him all the attention, listing patiently for the purpose of his visit and determining feasible actions, then the customer feels high and confident towards the supplier’s gesture. Hence it is important that the supplier should pay full attention towards the customer. If in between he receives any call or indulges himself in other works, then it creates an indication to the customer that he is unwanted or the supplier does not want to attend him efficiently. Such a thing creates negative or wrong feelings in customer’s mindset towards the supplier and acts as a staggering block in future business relationship. It is also seen that most of the senior members of the organization does not find any time to interact with the customers face to face which is not the correct approach as customers are

The key revenue generators of business and attention should always be given to them to understand their needs and make them satisfied. The way the suppliers present themselves during a face to face conversation or interaction reflects their sincerity and commitment to the customers. In case they fail to provide such interaction, they may have to pay a heavy price both in short as well in long run.

2. Telephone Communication: Telephone communication is also effective and plays an important role. A telephone call should always be answered when a customer calls, and if by any chance it is missed a return call should always be made. Sometimes the supplier does not want to entertain the calls from aggressive and irritating types of customers. This could also happen when the supplier has any sort of commitment with the customer which he is not fulfilling due to some unrealistic reasons. By doing this the situation does not tend to solve but aggravates in course time. The key is to talk to them and explain the actual situation and reasons by taking them into confidence. By doing this the customer will always think that supplier is promptly attending his calls and is concerned about him. It is also important to interpret the purpose of the caller, what the customer is actually asking for and then after patiently listening and analyzing the facts a correct and satisfied response must be provided. If the details asked by the customer over a call are not answerable instantly, then the call can be hung up by telling that details will be provided to him as soon as possible. Thereafter it is necessary to take those points of customer’s queries into consideration and analyze those to come up with exact details. These details should be provided to him by calling him again. Efficient telephonic interaction always pays off when responses are given effectively.
3. Writing Communication (Post, Fax, Email): The writing communication should always be acknowledged immediately and should be replied in detailed format. The advantage of written communication over face to face and telephonic communication is that it is least misinterpreted as it is saved and can be read many times. But the disadvantage is that it lacks in total communication. Hence it is always important to send the written response in details so that any of the relevant point is not omitted in the response.