Research Articles Base: Customers Participation

Importance of the customers’ participation on a growing firm

Introduction:   This paper is about considering the importance of the customers’ participation on a growing firm. Usually, when an industry starts to make a good profit and establish its name in the corporate world. They tend to ignore the importance of their customers especially those who have been patronizing them for a long time. However, according to Edith Penrose work about the growth of the firm. It would still be part of ones achievement to be able to consider this factor because it may seem to be the reason of securing long-term success. She gently discusses these things in the “inside track”. Wherein in that notion she provided certain situations that would be very helpful among those who have been in the industry for quite several time and still wants to be in the track as time goes by. She stated that enable to achieve this long term success in the business. The customers’ ideas and concepts must be considered in the first place. So that, a certain relationship between the two might be establish well. And if its that the case, it would be very possible to have and achieve the long term success.   Start From Scratch   A successful firm doesn’t only include a list of highly quality product, a well maintained establishment and highly skilled workers.  There are a lot of things that can affect the growth of a certain firm. Part of it was the customers. In the first place, I think they are the reason why a certain industry is about to make a new product or render a new service. It’s because someone is in need of that. Technically, they need to target a certain market. And in order to make that they should provide a good strategy. Before moving into the first phase of the business. Taking risk is just always a part it.  Know the people whom you’re going to provide for. And that would be your market.  Then, know their needs. What are the things that will make their work or life easier for them? If an idea pops out in your mind then you have the thing that will provide this people what they need. Just like what Alfa Laval industry did several years ago. They came up with a certain product that will provide their people what they need and at the same time will benefit them in terms of profits. But after earning, and after several years, how do they manage to stay in there position? How do they keep there business on the right track? Then, enter Edith Penrose the Inside Track.   Keeping on the Right Track   The Inside Track simply implies the implementation of the customer relationship service in every business firm. Especially in the providing the needs in their established customers. In this case, both should be dependent in each other. Having a good customer relationship would really be a great help in an industry. In here, both will create a dialogue and in it they will both be open about anything that will not only benefit the customer but as well the industry.  The relationship might seem to be symbiotic. But it would be very beneficial at the same time. Knowing such feedback either good or bad is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted because in these things you will come up with several solutions and as well as new ideas. Nowadays, this concept is very much possible and in-demand. You can track people by the World Wide Web if it is not possible to be with them personally. This social interaction develops the ability to assimilate and exchange knowledge that is often tacit in nature, and to rapidly adjust the quality and characteristics of both existing and new products.(Uzzi,1997; Yli-Renko et al., 2001). According to Larson ( 1992 ), the frequent  and long-term social interaction builds trust and emotional bonds in customer relationships. And this is very true because the tendency is that people will tend to be closer and open to tell whatever their upbringings are regarding the firms’ product and service. They will also be more inclined to try out new product and they won’t be afraid anymore of taking the risk because they know that whatever it is that might happen, the firm would be responsible enough to console them. That’s why in able to be highly appreciated, one should do their obligations first in order to achieve the trust of the customers. If the inside track begun to be implemented and once it is highly anticipated. It would be very difficult for other new industries to merged up because in this case they really need to be competitive enough. Trust is one that cannot be easily achieved. Especially for those who are still starting to establish a name.   Once established, inside tracks can be difficult to imitate. Newcomers lacking insights into the particular circumstances and needs of customers will only to a limited extent be able to identify and respond to new product opportunities. Firms with already established customer relationships may differ in the depth of their knowledge about customer needs and also their interest in seeking out and actively pursuing new opportunities (Covin and Slevin, 1991).   Gustav de Laval ( 1885 ) states that “Alfa Laval means a 100% commitment to service. To us, it’s a total concept that covers everything, from supplying the smallest spare part to acting as a long-term performance partner. We call our approach Nonstop Performance, because that’s what service is all about.” From the mechanical cream operator to the comprehensive ranges of pumps, valves and fittings. There is no doubt that the Alfa Laval has gone a long way. They are the leading provider of specialized product and engineered solution. But how do they manage to still be competitive in spite of a lot of competitors that has been merged in? Well, it is because they keep their selves on the right tract… the inside track.  They overcome such difficulties arising in the business because they were able to come up with the right strategy. They seek for improvement and development for their company. Their goal is to provide something that will not benefit their selves alone but as well as the people. After Gustav de Laval invented the first continuously operating cream operator in Sweden. The business soon boomed in the United States of America because it minimizes the tedious task of the farmers on hand skimming the milk. Several years later, they didn’t stop seeking for new opportunities that will make jobs easier than usual. This took place by gathering and exchanging knowledge with the farmers who were by that time considered as their established customers. Although, they was a time when the competition among others was really tough. Still, they inclined with their existing customers. With the proper combination of their in-depth insights into the circumstances and particular needs of its customers and assimilation of new and substantially different skills and resources. Fortunately, they have succeeded again. Maybe that’s the reason why they stated that their approach is called a non-stop performance and all they intended to do is to serve. According to Vaughan (1992 ) , the rapid assimilation of new skills and resources in particular suggests the existence and use of potentially critical relationships and support routines. However everything wouldn’t be possible without hard work and determination. If Gustav de Laval didn’t make any further effort after the invention of his first cream separator. Then, all of the things that he did from the start will just turn in to nothing. As of now, they still manage to be competitive and still surviving.   Conclusion:   It turns out that Edith Penrose’s’ work about inside track have been very helpful among those firms seeking for stability and long-term growth.  It clarifies the usual misunderstanding among the individuals and the firms. And what she’s trying to impose in this study is that with the proper establishment of customer relationships as an important source of sustainable competitive advantage and firm growth then it follows that the more general notion that the sources of sustainable competitive advantage can be found in idiosyncratic, interfirm relationships that are not ‘owned’ or controlled by the individual firm. Part of her work is wherein she indicates the Alfa Laval as an example of what was she’s trying to explain when she was talking about the inside track. She overviews the said firms history and took it as a living example of the inside track works. By that she was able to represent a good example of what she is trying to convey. Being descriptive somehow help her study more resourceful and sensible. Although, there are still flaws to be considered on how she persuades her ideas. There are no negative outcome that has been stated so that their can be another option if things didn’t work out well in the first place. We should not become stick to the other side only or the just the positive side. Anyway this is business and we are always faced with different challenges all the time. And somehow dealing with the customers is such a tough job. Because it is simply dealing with different types of people everyday. Engaging with different types of point of views. Honestly, a lot of things are still needed to be considered. The relationship between the customers as part of the whole strategic plans in the business requires a lot of trial and error situation. If they tend to adapt the concept of one customer whose needs are a lot different from the other, then expect a little uncertainty within the firm. However, if the firm catches the right concept from their customer and it became very much welcome to all. Then it will be fortunate for them. It’s just a matter of balancing the right viewpoints of the people around you. Anyway, expect anything in business because you will never really know it ‘til you’re in there. REFERENCE:     Anon.available from: http:// www.environmental-expert.com ( accessed on 16th june 2008) Covin, J. G. and Slevin, D. P. (1991). ‘A conceptual model of entrepreneurship as firm behavior’. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 16, 1, 7–25.   Larson, A. (1992). ‘Network dyads in entrepreneurial settings: a study of the governance of exchange relationships’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37, 1, 76–104. Uzzi, B. (1996). ‘The sources and consequences of embeddedness for the economic performance of organizations: the network effect’. American Sociological Review, 61, 4, 674–98. Uzzi, B. (1997). ‘Social structure and competition in interfirm networks: the paradox of embeddedness’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 35–67. Vaughan, D. (1992). ‘Theory elaboration: the heuristics of case analysis’. In Ragin, C. C. and Becker, H. S. (Eds), What is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yli-Renko, H., Autio, E. and Sapienza, H. J. (2001). ‘Social capital, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge exploitation in young technology-based firms’. Strategic Management Journal, 22, 587–613. 
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Importance of the customers’ participation on a growing firm

Introduction: This paper is about considering the importance of the customers’ participation on a growing firm. Usually, when an industry...

DHL Customer Service

This study aims to first analyze the customer service and quality levels of intangible service nature through the operation of DHL Express of DHL International Hong Kong Ltd. (DHL) and address how the company overcomes the problems in industrial section of express industry.  The quality level will be analyzed through Service Quality Determinant and Gaps Model.  The findings indicated DHL performs more than satisfactory in industrial express service.  However, the company also needs to conduct more qualitative research and expand its offer in service differentiation.  For long-term, the company should emphasize its “differentiation” image, maintain its high quality service and keep high employee morale.   Keywords: Express industry, Services marketing, Services quality, Customer satisfaction   INTRODUCTION Customer service has been an important instrument for businesses to reach out to their customers. In turn, this feature allowed business organizations to be adaptable to customers’ specific needs and preferences. Moreover, customer loyalty is also achieved through quality and efficient customer services. At present, businesses are becoming more focused on becoming customer-oriented. This is mainly attributable to the many challenges the business industry is currently facing, particularly on the growing competition among similar organizations. But the reliance to the internal resources of the organization will not do if environmental considerations of the company are not likewise considered. These include the significant market characteristics that directly and indirectly influence and dictate the strategic business implementation and sound decision-making from the options available. The forecast of subsequent political, economic, and social implications that change will result to also needs to be identified and enumerated to ensure the success and development of the organization as well as the welfare of the general public.   DHL has managed to enter China and Hong Kong’s logistics market through the only means available to them at the time, and that was by teaming up with a Chinese company called Sinotran. DHL’s entry took place in 1986, a time when Chinese regulations on foreign businesses were very strict and the only way to join the Chinese market was to enter a joint venture with a local company. But DHL took the risk and chose Sinotran because of Sinotran’s expertise in Chinese foreign trade and export industry (Raman, 2004). After gaining a solid foothold in the Chinese market, DHL-Sinotrans then eyed expansion. Branches of this joint company where established in other Chinese cities. By 2004, they had built a network of DHL-Sinotrans all over China in only 3 years time since they started (Raman, 2004). DHL-Sinotrans is not the only logistics company in China. The American FedEx and UPS are also presenting this existing company good competition, among other companies such as TNT-Skypack Sinotran and the local China Couriers Service Company. FedEx entered China in 1984, two years before DHL, while UPS joined in 1988. Like DHL, they too established partnerships with existing local companies; FedEx with Da Tian Air Services Limited, and UPS with Sinotrans. DHL stayed on top of the competition by an expert combination of business strategies, product innovations and well-thought out company expansion (Raman, 2004). With annual revenues of nearly euro22 billion in 2003, DHL is the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry, specialising in providing innovative and customised solutions from a single source. DHL offers expertise in express, air and ocean freight, overland transport and logistics solutions, combined with worldwide coverage and an in-depth understanding of local markets. DHL’s international network links more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. Over 160,000 employees are dedicated to providing fast and reliable services that exceed customers’ expectations. DHL’s new Central Asia hub operated from Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) at Chek Lap Kok beginning on March of 2000. DHL International also formed a partnership with Cathay Pacific Airways (Raman, 2004). Among the major competitors of DHL are Fedex, UPS, TNT as well as national post carriers like the US Postal Service and Royal Mail. The success of every DHL delivery is highly dictated by the company’s complex process of supplementary service chains. This includes taking the order, taking and picking, documentation, monitoring of the supplies and deliveries for assurance purposes and control, billing, packaging, transportation and delivery, and problem resolution to address the concerns and specifications of partners and customers. Short-comings during this process along with other possible failures lead to customer irritations and complaints since the company promises on-time delivery. Other failures are normally sequential in nature as directed by the delivery process adapted by the company which comprise abandoned calls and missed pickups; over-goods and late aircraft leading to late deliveries and subsequent traces and invoice adjustment requests. There are also instances of damaged packages as well as missing documentation (DHL, 1997). This study is concentrated in DHL’s industrial express service in Hong Kong, as Hong Kong is one of the world’s busiest ports (Logistics Today, 2005) and DHL the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry, with annual revenues of over EUR 24 billion in 2004 (Press Release, 2005). Industries that DHL is targeting include manufacturing, automotive, textile, electronics, pharmaceutical, aerospace and financial services (Journal of Commerce, 2005). The specialized requirements of these industries are complicated.  Therefore, DHL has tailor-made many different types of services to fulfill the unique shipping requirements of different industrial customers.   SERVICE CHARACTERISTICS Most companies find it impossible to create any kind of sustainable competitive advantage based on product alone. It is common knowledge that every one of the successful companies sought and found a precise understanding of how it could create a customer-centered competitive advantage. Hessan and Whitely (1996) emphasized the idea to take advantage of the competitive situation not just by being better in how that product gets sold, serviced, and marketed at the customer interface. It requires that companies create breakthroughs in how they interact with customers, and design a way of interacting that makes an indelible impression on customers, one that so utterly distinguishes them from others that it becomes a brand in itself. Every year, DHL delivers 100 million shipments which includes transporting documents, parcels and weight shipments, as well as tailored products which resulted to a networks of planes, trucks and facilities monitored and controlled by the company’s IT system offering the customers lo9gistic solutions to meet demanding distribution specifications supported by state-of-the-art technology (DHL, 1997). Customer service has been an important instrument for businesses to reach out to customers. In turn, this feature allowed business organizations to be adaptable to customers’ specific needs and preferences. Moreover, customer loyalty is also achieved through quality and efficient customer services. At present, businesses are becoming more focused on being customer-oriented, considering the growing competition among businesses. In order to respond to the challenges of the business world, companies are allocating considerable resources on how to improve their customer services. As a member of the express industry, DHL is confronted with challenges that address speed and a reliable delivery system of the company as business operations essentials to compete competitively in today’s global trade business highlighting the value and importance of time. Accountability in terms of service deliveries define the success and competitive advantage of companies in the express industry in which the leading trading firms strategically manage time in their supply chains (Kosteck,i 1996). In this light, dealing effectively with customs and putting pressure to encourage rational and efficient customs operations is an integral part of managerial skills of time management in major trading firms as problems of inefficiencies and irregularities in functioning of customs in different territories significantly influences the trading environment where just-in-time supplies, electronic trading and increased internationalization govern the current  trend in the express industry (Ahanori & Nachum, 2000). DHL despite it lead among its competitors are likewise confronted with such delivery and services issues.   SERVICE QUALITY ASSESSMENT  Customer service has been an important instrument for businesses to reach out to customers. In turn, this feature allowed business organizations to be adaptable to customers’ specific needs and preferences. Moreover, customer loyalty is also achieved through quality and efficient customer services. At present, businesses are becoming more focused on being customer-oriented, considering the growing competition among businesses. In order to respond to the challenges of the business world, companies are allocating considerable resources on how to improve their customer services. The success of integrating quality in a company’s customer services depends heavily on the management. While some company management send their employees to training, some managerial factors would have to be used as well. As discussed by Zeithaml (1990), the manner to which management train, motivate and recognized their employees results to a significant effect on the quality of customer service they deliver.  The level of commitment the management provides for instance has a direct impact to the quality of customer service the company provides. According to Subroto (2003), it is a common mistake for most management to think that they are highly committed in servicing the customers with quality when in fact their commitment is only based on internal and technical viewpoints. According to Brunning, Cole and Huffington (1997), in a participative organizational management, the empowerment of employees is a typical priority. This plays a significant role in speeding up the company’s utilization of personnel for optimal effectiveness. Within an organization, an important behavior is the inclusion of constant improvement, which enables it to apply innovations and strategies that are more appropriate. Training for employees and increasing their responsibilities are some of the important organizational behaviors that are applicable for every employee. Aside from enhancing the skills, these increase the employees’ sense of pride and self-worth. All of these organizational behaviors are vital in making work teams perform more effectively. The value that the management puts on employee empowerment results to important customer service outcomes. For example, through proper employee training, employees become more efficient in handling customer concerns by providing effective solutions. Currently, customers are more knowledgeable, selective and expectant. Thus, the management must be committed in enhancing their employees to become good providers of customer service (Boyless, 2005). All these are taken into account by the DHL management which resulted to the high service quality as initiated by the members of the organization particularly the staff and employees who personally attend to the requirements and needs of the customers. This made the company reliable through strategic and efficient delivery services based on highly credited customer services by well-trained staff and employees.    SERVICE QUALITY MODEL The importance of quality in customer service has been recognized by companies worldwide. Several major companies have applied prioritized quality in customer services, resulting to positive business outcome. Customer satisfaction, loyalty, employee satisfaction and profit growth are some of the main advantages of this business practice. In order to cope with the present business challenges, several businesses have implemented different strategies that will enhance their respective customer services. Consumer studies, trainings and application of information technology are some examples of the most commonly used strategies for customer services. However, it is said that these strategies are not enough for quality integration. Values, skills and most importantly, involvement of the members of the entire organization must be part of the quality customer service framework.  According to Fitzsimmons and Sullivan (1982) is the output of the service delivery system among pure service systems which refers to customers’ appraisals of the service core, the provider, or the entire service organization (Duffy  & Ketchund, 2002). Normally, it is assumed that service quality leads to customer satisfaction thereby resulting to loyalty to a particular service delivery provider (Anderson & Fornell, 1994; Reidenbach & Sandifer-Smallwood, 1990, Woodside et al., 1989). The SERVQUAL instrument developed by Parasuraman et al (1988) provided means of measuring the perceived quality of service by analyzing the gaps between the expectations of the customers and the assessment of the finality of the service accorded using five dimensions. These dimensions include the variables of (1) tangibles, (2) reliability, (3) responsiveness, (4) assurance, and (5) empathy. According to Duffy and Ketchund (2002) tangibles are the physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of the employees providing the services. Reliability is the ability to perform the specific service requested by the customers with the promise of being dependable and accurate in delivering the services. Responsiveness entails the willingness to assist the clients immediately and as they deem demand. Assurance is the ability of the people from the service provider company to imply their knowledge and courtesy of helping the customers in order to gain trust and confidence in providing the requested services while empathy is the attention accorded by the staff on the concerns and situation of the clients in need of their services. In the case of DHL, the company makes it a point to minimize the gap between the expectations of the customers as well as partners and the output of their services. This is evident in the highly technological and dependable networks that the company maintains in order to meet the demands of the clients in delivering the requested services. For this, the company has long been established as the leading service delivery provider in the world in terms of efficiency and accountability. The advances in technology greatly contributed to the fast and on-time delivery of documents and parcels entrusted by clients to the company leading to high customer loyalty to DHL not just among individual persons availing the service but also of big firms and corporations that DHL assists. The networks of planes, trucks and other efficient delivery facilities utilized by the company made possible the success of the company in gaining a considerable market share in the express industry. Moreover, the tangible assets of DHL made possible the reliable service characterization of the company through strategic operations management and supply chin as guided by the organization’s goal of meeting the requirements of the clients. The high quality customer service provided by the company to clients characterized and illustrates the responsiveness of the organization to address the needs of the customers. As such, DHL was able to satisfy and meet the expectations of the people who avail their services as the staff try to minimize failures in delivering the shipments. The responsiveness of the customer services facilities of the company resulted to increased assurance among clients regarding the safe delivery of the shipments. The ability of the staff to empathize with the concerns and considerations of the customers lead to the success of DHL as the leading service delivery organization in the assisting the complex demands and specifications of international market players and common citizens alike.         CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The company should among others, consider the viewpoints of it customers, including their needs, interests and preferences. Rather than concentrating on personal objectives and requirements, the company should exert effort in studying their customers. By doing so, their level of commitment towards service quality significantly increases. The management however, should not only be committed to its external customers. The internal customers, or the workforce, also need committed support from the company management. Hence, they must be empowered. In order to improve service quality, it is necessary to contact employees regularly and assess their service experiences. Like the external customer, an internal customer too considers categories of service attributes, such as reliability and responsiveness, in judging the quality of the internal service. With the knowledge of the internal service quality dimensions, the service organizations can then judge how well the organization or employees performed on each dimension and managers could identify the weakness in order to make improvements. So far, DHL’s business strategies in China and Hong Kong are working well. They cater to their customer’s needs, always keeping in mind the need for speedy, efficient and safe delivery while striving to provide simple documentation needs and cheaper costs. The findings indicated DHL performs more than satisfactory in industrial express service.  However, the company also needs to conduct more qualitative research and expand its offer in service differentiation.  For long-term, the company should emphasize its “differentiation” image, maintain its high quality service and keep high employee morale. It is clear that DHL will continue to improve their strategies, especially in the presence of their strong competitors. So far, they manage to meet their customer’s needs very well.    References: Ahanori, Y & Nachum, L 2000, Globalization of Services: Some Implications for Theory and Routledg: London   Anderson, EW & Fornell, C 1994, “A customer satisfaction research prospectus”, in Service Quality: New Directions in Theory and Practice, RT Rust & RL Oliver (editors), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.   Boyles, J 2005, “How can I help you? To improve your company’s customer service levels, be courteous, communicate, and perhaps most importantly, listen to your customers”, Industrial Distribution, Retrieved October 11, 2005, from www.highbeam.com.   Brunning, H, Cole, C & Huffington, C 1997, A Manual of Organizational Development: The Psychology of Change, London: Karnac Books.   DHL 1997, Customs Report for Central and Eastern Europe, London, prepared by D. Singer and R. Kanareck of the RED Consultancy.   Duffy, JA & Ketchund, AA 2002, “Examining the Role of Service Quality in Overall Service Satisfaction”, Journal of Managerial Issues, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 240+.   Fitzsimmons, JA & Sullivan, RS 1982, Service Operations Management, New York: McGraw-Hill Company.   Hessan, D & Whiteley, R 1996, Customer Centered Growth: Five Proven Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.   Kostecki, M 1996, “Waiting Line as a Marketing Issues”, European Management Journal, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 295-303.   No Author 1999, DHL Establishes Hong Kong Hub, Forms Alliance with Cathay Pacific, World Airport Week.   Parasuraman, A, Berry, LL & Zeithaml, VA 1988, “SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality”, Journal of Retailing, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 12-40.   Raman, S 2004, DHLs Business Strategy in China, ICFAI Center for Management Research, Hyderabad India.: European Case Clearing House.   Reidenbach, ER & Sandifer-Smallwood, B 1990, “Exploring perceptions of hospital operations by a modified SERVQUAL approach”, Journal of Health Care Marketing, vol. 10, December issue, pp. 47-55.   Subroto, B 2003, “Effects of management commitment on service quality to increase customer satisfaction of domestic airlines in Indonesia”, Singapore Management Review, Retrieved October 11, 2005, from www.highbeam.com   Woodside, AG, Frey, LL. & Daly, RT 1989, “Linking service quality, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intention”, Journal of Health Care Marketing, vol.  9, no. 4, pp. 50-67.   Zeithaml, V 1990, in D. Bowen, Service Management Effectiveness: Balancing Strategy, Organization and Human Resources, Operations and Marketing (pp. 369-381), Jossey-Bass, Inc. Publishing.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

DHL Customer Service

This study aims to first analyze the customer service and quality levels of intangible service nature through the operation of DHL Expres...

How customers are classified into various groups for marketing purposes?

How customers are classified into various groups for marketing purposes?   Customer classification is an important issue in the real world of marketing, that the more understanding the business has about its customer behavior patterns, the greater the chance that more effective marketing strategies can be developed. There effective differentiation purchasing customers like the demographics and other information needed for a substantial marketing purpose.  Many studies have tried to optimize parameters of customer related system, selection of appropriate customer features to measure similarity between the input and stored marketing base and selection of appropriate instances to eliminate customer classification failures. However, customer classifications approaches have been applied independently although customers are simultaneously improve the prediction of marketing performance.   There has been proposed model involving real world customer classification which predicts customers’ buying behavior for specific product using demographic characteristics. Experimental results show that the proposed technique may improve the classification accuracy and outperform various optimized models of customer classification organization. In some cases, customer classification is important for the development of advanced logistical distribution strategies in response to the growing complexity in business logistical markets. There present innovative approach that can be employed to cluster customers before executing fleet routing in logistical operations. The approach is developed on the basis of fuzzy clustering techniques and involves three sequential mechanisms including binary transformation, generation of fuzzy correlation matrix, as well as customer clustering. Such a customer clustering method should be performed prior to vehicle dispatching and routing in the process of goods distribution (Abell, 1980; Kotler, 1984).   There clusters customers on the basis of their demand attributes, rather than the static geographic property which is considered extensively in most published vehicle routing algorithms. In addition, case study were conducted to demonstrate the potential advantages of the proposed fuzzy clustering based method thus, stimulating research on time based customer classification logistics and management. Customer classification denotes lifetime value, mainstay concept in direct response marketing for many years, has been increasingly considered in the field of general marketing. However, the vast majority of literature has been dedicated to extolling its use as a decision-making criterion, presented isolated numerical examples of its calculation/determination and considered it as part of discussions of profitability and discussed its role in customer acquisition decisions and customer acquisition trade-offs for determination of customer classification and its lifetime value.   When there consider that the last two make up the majority of why client or customer will no longer use service or buy products – it can be hard pill to swallow. After all it means they are an inactive client because they felt you didn’t care about them and your competitor did (Porter, 1980; Porter, 1985).  There makes sense when business consider that customers often purchase the service or product because they have developed relationship with the latter, there  owned another product as referred by customer friend or associate. It’s important to try to satisfy the customers with the right products and services, supported by the right promotion and making it available at the right time and location.   Customers can easily detect indifference and insincerity and they simply will not tolerate it. Long-term client and customer loyalty is a long term challenge that you must strive for every day and with every transaction no matter how big or small.  While growing business needs to constantly capture new customers, the focus and priority should be on pleasing your existing customer base. Companies that fail to nurture and retain their customer base ultimately fail. They will spend twice as much to get new clients as well as in maintaining existing customer base. Companies will also be limited in the ability to attract new clients if companies can’t hold onto and satisfy your existing customers and clients. The bottom line is that one of the key components in marketing and business growth is to spend the majority of time and effort nurturing customer relationships, so that companies get business from existing clients and customers, strategy that will move forward in increasing sales without increasing too much budget.   References   Abell, DF. Defining the Business: The Starting Point of Strategic Planning (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980   Kotler, P. Marketing Management. Analysis, Planning and Control, 5th. ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984   Porter, M. Competitive Strategy (New York: The Free Press, 1980)   Porter, M. Competitive Advantage (New York: The Free Press, 1985)     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

How customers are classified into various groups for marketing purposes?

How customers are classified into various groups for marketing purposes? Customer classification is an important issue in the real wor...

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