Introduction
Customer satisfaction is the primary goal of every business company. Many authors and scholars do add that it is the only way to succeed if the company wants to be successful in the market (Gomez-Mejia et al., 14). This is certainly true even for a dental clinic. So, there exist a few conditions the company should accomplish to achieve customer satisfaction. Two of them are quality of service and brand image formation. These two factors cannot be achieved without proper communication and good relations among the staff of a company. In our case we have exactly this situation; a change in communication between staff members and the subsequent image ‘damaging’ in front of customers.
Communication and image formation
As we have mentioned above, for a company to have a good and positive image in front of the consumer public is a strong factor. It will certainly help that company perform better in the market. The same could be said about proper communication among staff. This proper communication certainly has a positive influence on the formation of good image to the customers, but it also has a major impact. It has a direct impact on staff performance and quality of work done. This is evident in the case we are discussing here. Maria had formed during the years a stable and positive relationship and communication with Sharon.
Due to this positive relationship their work ran smoothly and with a high performance and quality of execution. The fact that they had developed an excellent communicative relationship made it possible for them to know very well their work along with where to help and how to help each other. Communication served as an intrinsic incentive which has a direct impact on increase of labor efficiency (Taylor, 45). Now the situation has changed where the substitute of Sharon, Kathy, began to work with Mary. The excellent bridge of communication Mary and Sharon had was broken and Mary found herself without proper ‘support’. She has to develop a new work culture with Kathy and it is difficult for her to dismantle the ‘old paradigm’ of Sharon and replace it with a newly formed one with Kathy.
I believe this is what is happening in the present situation. This change of paradigm has caused severe problems to their work relationship. It is not a question of professional preparedness of Kathy but a question of confidence to be built among her and Mary. This situation has begun already to influence negatively the brand image of the clinic. The fact that Mary questioned Kathy’s professionalism in front of the patients (customers) is a severe ‘hit’ to the positive image the clinic has in the market. If this situation continues this image could be reverted and the clinic will slowly begin to lose customers. This lack of confidence between them will also impact negatively their work performances which in turn will undoubtedly negatively impact company’s revenues and profits.
Conclusion
I recommend that the company removes for a certain period of time both Mary and Kathy from the contact with patients. They could do another ‘background’ job for this period. This is a period which is meant to help them build confidence with each other. During this time they will have the possibility to communicate freely with each other without the pressure of the patients which requires the work done as soon as possible at the highest quality possible. Also, a colloquium could be made with them to encourage them both to build confidence with each other and build positive communicative bridges for the benefit of their work.
Bibliography:
Gomez-Mejia, Luis R.; Balkin, David B. and Cardy, Robert L. Management: People, Performance, Change, 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
Taylor, Witch. Introduction to Management, 9th Edition. Prentice Hall: New Jersey, 2006.