Firm Response (Case Study Sample)

оmint Наndling
Student Name
Institution
Firm Response
According to the response presented by China Southern Airlines customer relationship manager, Mr. Wang, the poor service quality I experienced, and probably other customers experienced, is attributed to the massive employee change that at the airline. Mr. Wang also attributes the cases of insufficient food at their lounges to instances of delayed flights that results in higher food demands. Mr. Wang further responds that they have modified their employee examination and verification system to enhance customer experiences. Finally, they indicate that they will be instituting a new system whereby they will foster greater cooperation with local taxi operators in order to address the challenges of their customer pick-up services.
It is regrettable that such responses are not sufficient and fail effectively to address the challenges the airline is facing. Such inadequate responses reveal a poor customer relations management system in the airline. According to George, Graham & Lennard (2007), responsiveness is one of the core principles of customer complaint handling mechanisms in any company. By virtue of the fact that China Southern Airlines made efforts to investigate and identify the causes of the poor service quality, they effectively show that they are responsive and committed to ensuring customer satisfaction. Conversely, it is disturbing to hear that a company of its stature takes so much time to recognize the existence of a problem in customer service. In essence your quality control systems should recognize and address instances of poor service quality in real time, (Ombudsman Western Australia, 2010).
Attributing the instances of poor service quality to employee change is unacceptable and a manifestation of management failure in handling human resources efficiently. Employee change is a regular occurrence that should not be used as an excuse or explanation for poor service delivery. Further explaining that issues of food shortages at the lounges was as a result of delayed flights only works to expose the elevated management failure in the airline’s operations.
The company needs to institute a collective responsibility for addressing customer complaints. Any complaint lodged, be it with the wrong persons, those individuals with whom the customer has first contact with should take a responsibility of forwarding the complaint to the relevant department, (Belobaba, Odoni & Barnhart, 2009). Such an action will be a show of the airline’s total and holistic approach to service excellence, (Fojt, 2006). Such a holistic approach can be achieved through instituting effective teamwork and collaboration among all the airlines.
Fojt (2006) explains that staff training is fundamental in ensuring high-quality customer service. Mr. Wang, in his response, attributes the failure in service delivery to employee changes whereby the new employees have not been well trained and lacked adequate experience in handling its operations. He however fails to indicate any action the airline has taken or will take to address this problem. Such a failure indicates that the company has not made adequate efforts or shown any commitment to prevent a reoccurrence of inadequate service delivery. As such...