BSC Flexibility & the Customer Perspective 2
Google Inc has been a dominant force in the internet services industry and has over time maintained its broad customer base by ensuring satisfaction. The customer service perspective is an approach used by organizations and companies to evaluate their competency and levels in which their market and particular customers are contented with the services offered. The feedback from customers is used to improve the product, brand or in this case, the services offered. Google’s vision in line with the customer service perspective is to ensure that all customers remain loyal to the brand, and opinions or concerns raised by them are used to improve service delivery.
There are major objectives set by Google as it seeks to improve service delivery through the involvement of customers and other stakeholders. Its first objective is to ensure that there is a structure that enables customers to give feedback easily regarding services and products offered. The performance metric or measure for this objective would be increased efficiency in service delivery. As such, the expected level of performance is that customers should be more free and willing to give their opinions and feedback regarding services and products offered by Google Inc. To ensure successful implementation of this objective, Google Inc should set up a section on online platforms that is easily accessible to the user to type in suggestions and complaints (Niven, 2014). This strategy is more preferable compared to the common strategy of setting up a suggestion box at the entrance of its branches.
The second objective of Google Inc is to ensure that its customers are involved in decision making processes. Customers are considered stakeholders of the organization, and thus, their views and opinions are highly valued. The performance metric for this objective would be increased productivity as customers would work hand-in-hand with other stakeholders of Google. For this objective, the expected level of performance is a significant improvement in productivity, which would give Google an upper hand over competitors. To ensure successful implementation of this objective, Google ought to recruit staff to represent customers in decision-making processes, and this would see the creation of more customer care departments (Niven, 2014).
Google Inc may be a dominant or probably a monopoly in the internet services industry due to the little competition it faces from rival companies such as Yahoo. However, it has managed to satisfy the needs and demands of customers through the provision of a wide range of services. This has been achieved by its third objective, which is to provide timely response and feedback to issues raised by customers and to pay attention to trends and patterns in the internet services industry. For this objective, the performance metric would be an increase in the quality of services offered to customers. As such, the expected level of performance would be provision of services of higher quality than those of competitors such as Yahoo. To ensure successful implementation of this objective, Google should prioritize customer’s complaints and issues and formulate ways of tackling the issues (Niven, 2014).
The above customer service objectives of Google Inc are related to its financial objectives in that they help in the achievement of financial objectives such as profitability and increase revenue generation in the long run. The customer service objectives enhance customer loyalty and ensure that more customers are attracted as well, leading to the achievement of the financial objectives. Customers are the backbone of organizations, and thus must be prioritized more than anything else, and this makes customer services objective more important than finance-related objectives.
The first assignment objective write-up is in agreement with the fact that customer satisfaction is important for Google Inc as it seeks to increase productivity, efficiency, and profitability. In achieving these, Google participates in various programs and activities such as expos and seminars, whereby the company representatives get a chance to interact with customers and potential individuals who contribute to innovation and improvement of brands. The assignment is also in agreement with the fact that difficulty might be experienced in the interaction between Google and customers in case needs or demands are not satisfied. It gives the suggestion that Google has to constantly device new methods to obtain feedback from customers. One of the ways of obtaining feedback from customers is through questionnaires, which seemingly, are more effective than other strategies of obtaining feedback as it allows for anonymity and confidentiality. This methodology requires the full cooperation of the clients hence motivation. Feedback from customers and good relationship with customers would enable Google to improve its service delivery without difficulty. The first assignment objective write-up also suggests that Google Inc should ensure independence of the customer care department and that it is operational at all times, to ensure concerns or opinions of customers are noted. The first assignment object write-up also suggests that Google can achieve improvement by hiring qualified personnel, with competence, skill, knowledge, and aggressiveness (Niven, 2014). With these, achievement of financial objectives is inevitable, and thus no changes should be made to the first assignment objective write-up.
Reference
Niven, P. (2014) Customer perspective. EPM Review. Retrieved from http://www.epmreview.com/resources/articles/item/85-customer-perspective.html