High-quality products and services are the ones that allow organizations to reach the high customer satisfaction and earn high profits. In order to provide people with the best options, companies need to work hard and predict all the needs and requirements that may occur in the process of delivering goods or services. When a case of untimely delivery happens, it undermines people’s trust in the organization and minimizes the chance that dissatisfied customers will use its services in the future. Therefore, it is necessary for companies to make sure that their orders are processed in a timely manner or at least correct the situation as soon as possible to ensure customers that it was a single occasion, and that they can still trust the organization that disappointed them.
Personally, I have not experienced situations with bad services frequently. However, there was a case that struck me with the company’s irresponsibility so much that I will never use its services in the future. I love unique presents, so I ordered a beautiful edition of J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” for my younger cousin from www.thriftbooks.com. I placed my order on November 22, over a month before Christmas, so I expected to have it ahead of time and not to worry about looking for any substitutes. However, what was supposed to be a lovely gift turned into a nightmare. After making a payment, I was told that the order would be delivered in four days. I did not worry much when nothing arrived within that time since I had enough days to spare. However, when I did not get the book in a week, I contacted the company and required some explanation. After all the apologies and several promises to deliver it as soon as possible, I finally received my order on December 28. I did give it to my cousin, but the holiday was spoiled for me, and I felt extremely disappointed and irritated. Moreover, the company’s failure to process my order in a timely manner also made me feel embarrassed because I could not give the present to my cousin when it was expected.
However terrible the situation looked, the company did not take much action to correct the situation. They did not listen to my request when I asked them to control the delivery process during the first two weeks. They did not reply my calls or emails during the rest of the time. Only once did a manager write an apologetic email. It was on December 27. He told me that he was sorry for the delay, and that the book was on the way. That time, it was true, but I did not believe him much after many days of waiting.
There were many ways in which the store could have mitigated the conflict. The ultimate thing I would like them to have done was to give me a discount on the book since I had much unpleasant experience while waiting for their delivery. However, there were other, much smaller, things they could have done to save their reputation and make me feel less offended. First of all, they should have acknowledged their mistake and should have apologized sincerely (Cockerell, 2013). By doing so, they could have made me less irritated and disappointed. Also, they needed to evaluate my needs as a customer appropriately (Allen, 2015). They should have realized that I had a concrete date when I needed their delivery, and it was inadmissible to postpone that date without any explanation.
There are several possible reasons why the company did not complete my order in a timely manner. The first issue is that there may be problems with its total quality management (TQM) system. The company may have chosen an ineffective TQM tool, which led to gaps in the arrangement of delivery. There are several helpful tools that may be employed in the TQM (Modi, 2017). The company either chose a wrong tool or did not apply the principles of TQM at all. The second problem may be associated with employee empowerment. The employees who were dealing with my order might not have been satisfied with their work conditions, which led to low job satisfaction (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). When are not satisfied with what they are doing or how they are being rewarded for their work, they naturally show little interest in customers’ needs.
Taking into consideration the possible reasons for the delay of delivery, two potential areas for improvement may be outlined. The first one is related to choosing the most favorable TQM tool. I would recommend the company to employ flowcharts as tools for organizing the data and histograms as instruments for identifying problems (Heizer & Render, 2012). With the help of these tools, the company will be able to trace the difficulties in its operations and deal with complications at different levels. The second area for improvement is concerned with employee empowerment. I would recommend revising the system of rewarding the workers and giving them more freedom in the decision-making process (Fernandez & Moldogaz, 2013). By doing so, the organization’s manager will reach the best outcomes both for employees and customers.
References
Allen, E. D. (2015). Keys to delivering amazing customer service. Houston, TX: EAC Media.
Cockerell, L. (2013). The customer rules: The 39 essential rules for delivering sensational service. New York, NY: Crown Business.
Fernandez, S., & Moldogaz, T. (2013). Employee empowerment, employee attitudes, and performance: Testing a causal model. Public Administration Review, 73(3), 490-506.
Goetsch, D., & Davis, S. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence: Introduction to total quality (7th ed.). Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited.
Heizer, J., & Render, B. (2012). Operations management (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Modi, J. A. (2017). Essentials of operations management. Delhi, India: PHI Learning Private Limited.