Executive Summary
The American Cargo and Logistics Limited (ACL) has been struggling through a crisis after customers revolted against using their services. The company is registered as a courier business, which allows it to deliver goods from merchants to customers. However, its consumers are dissatisfied with delivery services and customer care. As a result, a team led by the consumer service director, department secretary, and supply chain manager investigated the factors that contribute to the inefficiencies and associated issues. The research adopted primary and secondary data collection methods to conclude. According to the findings, the organization uses outdated information management and consumer service system. In addition, the organization is disorganized due to poor communication between personnel in different departments. As a result, the team proposes installing an advanced information management system, investing in a customer relationship management system, and training customer service staff and employees on how to use these systems. These solutions promise to enhance workflows by improving communication and facilitating faster problem-solving. Hence, they will enable ACL to meet and exceed their customers’ expectations and increase their revenue.
Introduction
The American Cargo Logistics Limited (ACL) is an organization established in 2015 to connect potential buyers to sellers and enhance the efficiency of small online businesses in the US. Many digital merchants have established their presence online but lack the resources to efficiently supply their products to a broad market. As a result, ALC leverages its size and networks to offer reliable delivery services to businesses and consumers. Thus, it serves a wide consumer base because most individuals depend on its offers to obtain goods from sellers at a lower cost. However, the organization recently faced a crisis as consumers decided to boycott its services. Therefore, the following report presents the information received from intensive research on the main issues associated with the complaints and provides recommendations to improve the business’ prospects.
I was the leading coordinator in the research with the assistance of Mr. Jack Smith, the consumer department secretary, Ms. Ellen Parker, the supply chains manager, and Mr. Richard Elliot, the customer care director. All officers had specific responsibilities and were required to report to my assistants. Nevertheless, the assistant coordinators handled different projects, including data collection, data analysis, and coming up with solutions. Therefore, Mr. Jack Smith will present information about the problem and its background, Ms. Ellen Parker will inform the audience of the techniques used in research and the findings, and Mr. Richard Elliot will cover the suggested recommendations, implementation procedures, associated costs, and potential benefits. I will conclude the presentation with some closing remarks and explain why it is necessary to make prompt changes toward enhancing consumer satisfaction.
Statement of Problem and Background Information
ALC is a company that has successfully served its customers and business owners all over the US since its inception. However, the business was recently forced to halt its initiatives because of consumers boycotting its services. Disappointed customers encouraged others to stop ordering items online using the company’s platforms unless their pleas were addressed. Therefore, the investigation aimed at identifying the issues that resulted in the high levels of dissatisfaction among customers and solutions the organization can adopt to improve its business.
The major issues that customers complained about were the organization’s failure to deliver products on time, unsupportive customer cases, and unsatisfactory follow-up in case of missed deliveries. Therefore, the team hypothesized that the organization had redundant and ineffective communication systems that resulted in confusion and high customer dissatisfaction. The research team speculated that the Covid-19 pandemic and other limitations worsened existing supply chain challenges, thus limiting the consumer departments and customer service personnel from delivering on their objectives. Nevertheless, their inability to communicate with consumers and streamline their services led to escalations. Hence, the team designed the study to focus on the company’s communication attributes and consumer care services’ relationship with customers.
Research Methods, Results, and Findings
Primary and Secondary Data Sources
The investigation obtained data using primary and secondary data collection techniques. The primary sources comprised qualitative data from the customer care staff and consumers to identify the factors that resulted in the crisis. The methods used included going through retrieved phone records, consumer feedback on the online portal, customer and staff interviews, service department questionnaires, and surveys. The secondary sources provided information to guide the theoretical aspects of the investigation. These resources consist of journals, books, company review websites, and competitor analyses. The secondary sources enabled the team to align the research with its objectives and identify factors associated with the organization’s shortcomings.
Results
The data collected from the primary sources, more specifically, the online interviews, consumer surveys, and phone records revealed the consumers were agitated because of service inefficiencies such as the delivery of wrong products and delays in delivery of ordered items. In addition, the consumers complained that they are forced to wait for extended periods before they receive any information regarding the follow-up of missing items, wrong deliveries, or undelivered products. Moreover, the customers exhibited high levels of dissatisfaction citing poor quality services due to unreliable communication channels to connect them to sellers, and lack of openness on the part of customers’ services.
Similarly, information received from data collection in the customer service department suggests that information clutter results in issues since staff members are unable to organize their work and deliver as expected. According to the data obtained, customer service personnel experience setbacks in transferring information from one system to another. In addition, the strenuous activities limit their effectiveness in tracing items shipment and communicating with customers and merchants. Moreover, the workers complained that some customers have a bad behavior of sending messages continuously without waiting for a reply. As a result, the system is always clogged with unread customer complaints. Thus, these factors prevent them from carrying out their duties as required.
The secondary resources enabled the team to obtain information regarding the factors associated with low consumer satisfaction and service issues. The data informed the research that institutions prioritize the needs and satisfaction of their customers by matching and meeting their expectations (Hameed et al., 2018). However, issues such as reduced quality of service, failure to meet implied expectations, long waits, neglecting customer messages, and service inefficiencies can lead to disappointments and negative feedback (Deyalage & Kulathunga, 2019). As a result, the research team members analyzed this information and established correlations between these components and factors identified in the primary and secondary data collection.
Findings
The results obtained from the data collection guided the team to conclude that the company’s supply and logistics chains are disorganized and not interoperable. Therefore, limitations in the effectiveness of delivery results in setbacks in the customer service departments as staff members are unable to handle the number of complaints. The main reason why the supply and delivery department is inefficient is because of using an outdated system that obligates them to transfer information from one portal to another, which introduces workflow issues. Moreover, the current system makes it difficult to trace back items obtained from specific merchants since workers are forced to search through numerous transactions. Thus, these elements affect other areas of the organization, with the customer service department experiencing the worst implications.
The analysis suggests that staff members in the consumer service department are exposed to numerous communication challenges that prevent them from delivering on their tasks. For example, the issues experienced by the supply and delivery department lead to a high influx of messages in their system. In addition, the methods used to follow up on cases are strenuous since they are not allowed access to transaction information and are obligated to work with officers in the supply and delivery department to address customer concerns. As a result, dealing with complaints takes time and is limited by the high number of messages sent by customers. Therefore, their situation makes it impossible to follow up on a case and sort out customer problems on time.
Finally, the study revealed that the technologies adopted by the organization are inefficient because they limit staff members from effectively communicating with each other, following up on customer cases, and managing data. Staff members in the supply and delivery department handle shipping and ensure the safe distribution of products from merchants to their customers. However, all issues regarding the process are forwarded to the customer service personnel, who are unable to obtain data regarding closed transactions. Therefore, the staff’s inability to collaborate on initiatives limits the organization’s effectiveness and its quality of service because it introduces workflow issues, information-sharing hurdles, and impedes customer satisfaction. Hence, the proposed recommendations focus on enhancing communication and organizing workflows.
Detailed Recommendations
Advanced Information Management and Communication Technologies
The organization fails its customers and is unable to deliver on its obligations because of an inefficient information management system. Therefore, a reliable solution to comprehensively deal with these issues is upgrading the existing system and replacing it with a modern application equipped to handle several tasks simultaneously (Fu et al., 2022). The new software system should feature solutions intended to deal with the organization’s workflows and communication issues. In other words, it must be interoperable to enable easy access to information regarding consumer transactions, merchants, and delivery plans. In addition, it should facilitate direct communication between customer service staff, personnel in the supply and delivery departments, and customers.
The costs of installing and incorporating a new software application to enhance communication between staff members and assist in information management within the organization might be high depending on the system’s complexities and features. Moreover, the upgrade might require occasional maintenance and troubleshooting, which will incur additional expenses (Fu et al., 2022). Nevertheless, improving the organization’s system will have notable effects on workflows, job efficiencies, and staff’s ability to deliver. The advanced application will ease tracking down transactions and allow personnel in different departments to communicate in real time. Thus, it will help avoid issues that result in clutter and delays.
Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)
ALC serves thousands of customers from all over the US, obligating it to cater to diverse needs. Therefore, a solution that the organization can leverage to address all their consumer’s issues in a timely and organized manner is a Customer Relationship Management System. A CRM system is a collection of computer software dedicated to dealing with customer issues by collecting information about their transactions, behaviors, needs, wants, and interactions with the company to design solutions that match their desires (Juanamasta et al., 2019). CRMs serve two principal purposes including organizing consumer data and establishing reliable communication using technologies such as telephone, mail, smart devices, and the company’s website. Thus, the software will make it easier to track consumer data and deal with issues as they arise.
Setting up and launching a reliable CRM system is a complex process that involves the efforts of several players and a wealth of resources. Moreover, integrating the new software might necessitate hiring a professional, which might be expensive. Nevertheless, incorporating a CRM into the organization’s technological resources promises a positive return on investment as it will help deal with issues of customer dissatisfaction and improve the organization’s business (Gil-Gomez et al., 2020). In addition, the consumer service staff will be better positioned to sort out customer issues promptly, meaning that they will do more work in a shorter period. Hence, CRM will enable the organization to maximize its revenue by enhancing its service quality.
Educating Staff Members on Using Technology to Enhance Communication
Creating awareness among staff members and educating customer service personnel on how to effectively use the provided solutions to enhance their communication can assist the organization in maximizing potential benefits. Enlightening staff members entails training them on how to operate the updated systems and providing them with skills to troubleshoot issues (Wijayanti et al., 2020). In addition, the initiatives should involve establishing a communication hierarchy and protocol to process customer complaints to avoid confusion and mix-up of information. These plans will significantly reduce the communication issues experienced by customers.
Training and education are not as expensive as installing computer software in existing organization settings because the institution can leverage its technological resources and cost-effective options like online resources. Nevertheless, the institution might incur some costs in hiring trainers and professionals to lead consumer awareness (Wijayanti et al., 2020). Even so, successfully educating individuals within the organizations and consumers on effective communication using the systems will help limit confusion, enhance service delivery, increase the efficiency of the customer service team, and improve consumers’ outlook on the business. Therefore, it promises a positive return on investment since the organization will deal with issues promptly and focus on achieving sustainability goals.
Conclusion
Effective communication is critical to successful business ventures because it allows individuals to focus on their tasks and familiarize themselves with their responsibilities. Yet, several issues can inhibit the flow of information in organizations, including redundant management systems and disorganization. ALC is currently dealing with a crisis since customers decided not to use their services because of high dissatisfaction and disappointment. However, the investigation established that the customer service department is overwhelmed due to inefficiencies in the supply and delivery department and poor communication. In addition, information management poses challenges as the organization uses non-interactive technologies. Regardless, ALC can leverage emerging technologies to deal with its customer service and information management issues. The team recommends installing reliable information management and communication software to enhance efficiencies within the organization. In addition, it is advisable to invest in dedicated customer relationship management software to streamline workflows and ensure that the service department meets all consumer needs. Moreover, it would be best to train staff and consumers on how to use these systems to maximize their benefits. These initiatives will comprehensively deal with all issues regarding consumer dissatisfaction and the business’s mishaps.
References
Deyalage, P. A., & Kulathunga, D. (2019). Factors affecting online customer satisfaction: the Sri Lankan perspective. International Journal of Business and Management, 14(2), 99.
Fu, Q., Abdul Rahman, A. A., Jiang, H., Abbas, J., & Comite, U. (2022). Sustainable supply chain and business performance: The impact of strategy, network design, information systems, and organizational structure.Sustainability, 14(3), 1080.
Gil-Gomez, H., Guerola-Navarro, V., Oltra-Badenes, R., & Lozano-Quilis, J. A. (2020). Customer relationship management: digital transformation and sustainable business model innovation.Economic research-Ekonomska istraĹľivanja, 33(1), 2733-2750.
Hameed, W. U., Nadeem, S., Azeem, M., Aljumah, A. I., & Adeyemi, R. A. (2018). Determinants of e-logistic customer satisfaction: A mediating role of information and communication technology (ICT).International Journal of Supply Chain Management (IJSCM), 7(1), 105-111.
Juanamasta, I. G., Wati, N. M. N., Hendrawati, E., Wahyuni, W., Pramudianti, M., Wisnujati, N. S.,… & Umanailo, M. C. B. (2019). The role of customer service through customer relationship management (CRM) to increase customer loyalty and good image. International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, 8(10), 2004-2007.
Wijayanti, T. C., Setini, M., Darma, D. C., Purwadi, P., & Alka, P. R. (2020). Connectivity continuous improvement program and employee performance. International Review of Management and Marketing, 10(1), 54.
Appendix
- To: Board Chairman
- From: The Customer Care Director
- Subject: Updates Regarding Solutions for the Current Customer Satisfaction Crisis
I write this message to update you on our progress in addressing the organization’s current customer service issues and inform you of the way forward. Over the past three weeks, our team has engaged in intensive research to investigate the issues that resulted in the high levels of consumer dissatisfaction in the organization, which enabled us to come up with some recommendations to curb the rising concerns. The organization has lost many of its customers because of service inefficiencies that arise from the supply and delivery department. However, the research revealed that these issues are the result of ineffective communication between staff within the institution and outdated communication and information management systems. Following this discovery, the team prepared some recommendations to help the organization get back in place.
The team proposes installing new information management systems in the organization to streamline processes and facilitate faster decision-making in case of issues. In addition, the committee recommends incorporating a customer relationship management system into the software and training both employees and customers on how to use these systems. The current customer issues have significantly affected the organization’s business. Therefore, the team hopes to receive your support in the meeting that we will hold at the end of the week to present the information to the involved parties. The meeting will serve to inform other members of the organization of the strategies the institution intends to adopt and the individuals in charge of the changes. In addition, it will allow for a broader discussion of the associated issues and welcome any contributions that other members may have for improvements. Information regarding the meeting will be sent via a memo to individuals in various departments within the organization.
Respectfully,
The Customer Care Director
Memo
- To: Departmental Heads, American Cargo Logistics.
- From: Lead Coordinator of Organizational Affairs.
- Date: 31st September 2022.
- Subject: Invitation to Attend a Meeting to Discuss Customer Service Issues
Dear Sir/Madam
I hope that this message finds you well. I write to inform you of a meeting being held in the institution’s main halls on the last week of November 2022. The meeting intends to address the high levels of customer dissatisfaction due to the organization’s inefficiencies. Over the past year, the organization has performed its worst and has lost many of its customers. Therefore, the meeting hopes to inform individuals throughout the department of the changes that the organization plans to adopt to ensure positive outcomes in the future. The meeting will discuss several critical issues regarding the organization’s business prospects. Therefore, all individuals in the organization are expected to attend since it will require the contributions of all staff members.
As the departmental head, you are required to attend the meeting and inform all individuals in your department to attend the meeting. Moreover, all individuals should come prepared because the committee will allow them to contribute to the discussion. On that note, you can discuss various issues with employees within your department and record any concerns that you would like to be addressed. The meeting will generally focus on solutions to increase efficiencies, high-quality service delivery, and effective communication in the institution’s internal and external environments. Hence, any ideas that focus on this topic are welcomed as they will help improve the proposed plans. We plan to communicate the exact date of the meeting through a press release that we will send to various shareholders in the organization. That being said, it would be wise to prepare for this meeting and remind everyone that the issues being discussed are a priority to the organization’s well-being. Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Lead Coordinator of Organizational Affairs
Press Release