Marketing and Management Retail Business

Question: Discuss about the Marketing and Management for Retail Business. Answer: Introduction: Zie energy, which is an energy distribution company, its operation is based on retail sector. Since last 15 years it has shown a significant growth in its retail business. Reason behind this growth is acquisition of large number of customers and very strong customer base. Customer base represents the set of customers who are the source of revenue of a business. It has been observed that there is increase in customer base by 1.6 million in the past 2 years with the help of acquisition of port energy and William energy retail business. While there is growth it is inevitable that there will be opportunities as well as challenge. Collection of data and the processes are very important aspect of any business but the businesses which Zia acquired were very poor in that. As a result these were the challenge for Zia to assimilate those data; it was very difficult for the call centre executives to resolve the issues of the customers. Retail transformation project was launched by Zia, which fo cused on accumulation of all processes. SAP has brought new revolution in managing business operations and customer relations more way that is efficient. The aim of this project is to offer better experience to their customers. This new technology will provide executives more detailed information about the customers, so that their query can be resolved quickly. This will give impetus to grow more. Operating in large scale with new technology has huge upfront cost. Five million customers were added from South Australia and Tasmania. Initially there was a great success in terms of customer service but with the increase in customer base it is quite challenging for the company. So management is now aiming to train employees as main purpose of this project is to enhance support to their customers and to facilitate smooth services. Laws in Australia about customer services: Customer service is an important part of any business. So main focus is to protect and promote rights of customers. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission promotes fair trade practice and competition to benefit consumers, businesses and community and it regulates infrastructure services. It ensures that businesses and individual act in accordance with Fair trading, consumer protection law. Australian consumer law is applied all over the Australia to all Australian business. Business and Australian consumer law is applied to all business sectors. It forbids unfair and harmful practices, ensures safety of consumer products and services related to products, provides consumer rights, regulate transactions between business and consumers. A good service is always appreciated by customers and through them only one firm can embark the success (Australia.gov.au 2016). Software used in customer services: There exists various type of software, which are implemented in different companies to improve the customer services. To provide services to the customers of a company is very important aspect to attain desired level of growth. Now-a-days prevalent use of SAP software is observed which is used to process data and it is related to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Business operations are managed with the help of this software. Basically it collects and integrates data from different aspects of business. SAP includes many modules such as sales and marketing, designing of product and development, control of production and inventory, finance and accounts, which enables one firm to operate at large scale (toughnickel.com 2016). Enhancing customer service: Customer service refers to provide range of services to the new and existing customers before, during and after purchasing the product. Customer service is said to be good when it offers quick and simple solution to the customers. In addition to that representative CSR must be polite, patient and pleasant. She must be able to build up the trust by conversing with the customer, that consumer can explain their issue promptly and can get solution instantly. To support consumers in an efficient way, it is required that the executive must have product and process knowledge. They must be able to make understand of the solution to the customer that they can follow the instructions properly. Increasing productivity of employees: In any firm employees is one of the most important channels to generate revenue. Productivity is one aspect to measure the efficiency of an employee. So to attain higher level of revenue and growth one firm must focus on the aspect of productivity. Productivity can be increase by providing attractive economic incentives, flexible work hours, opportunity to work from home etc. In addition to these respecting employees, providing adequate training, setting targets for employees and providing them with appropriate feedback can help them to increase productivity. Adequate amount of break acts as stimulator that employees can relax for sometimes and can get back to work. Building trust with the team: A healthy work environment is build upon the trust among employees and employers. To attain desired level of growth firms must possess harmony between mental satisfaction and stability of the employees. Trust can be build up by establishing and maintaining integrity, by aiming the mission and values of the firm, practicing fair and equitable practice to all employees. Focus must be on achieving companys goal rather than individual goal. Leaders must appreciate the works of employees. Idea of team work plays an important role to achieve the success. A leaders prior job is to motivate employees by admiring the new ideas and thoughts given by employees, to listen employees voice and implement their plans. Managing conflicts within teams: To manage conflict within the team a leader must understand and acknowledge the conflict. Understanding the situation and then resolving the issue is needed. A leader only can make or break the team. He must ensure a good culture is followed within the team, when a conflict arises, team members might get insecure regarding their job and organization. Leader can motivate the entire team by giving credit to the deserving employees. He must ensure the employees that they are the most important part of the organization. Growth can be achieved by minimizing internal conflicts. Value of each person in a team must be well-known to everybody and all team members should respect each other and this must facilitate by the leader. Improvement in customer services to motivate employees: A firm whose primary operation is based on customer services, its revenue depends upon the feedback of the customers. A customer gives feedback when he gets some services from the company. A happy customer is always a channel to acquire more customers, and that is one important aspect of growth of a firm. If a firm grows then employees will be benefited that will get additional benefits. So customers can generate the chain of profit. So a firm must focus on the aspects from which a consumer gets the most out of their service. Enhancing the customer services that the customers can be served in better way and they must come across better service and experience the best. Medium available to customers: There are various channels such as telephone, e-mail, chats through which customers can contact the support help desk. Availability of various channels requires high volume of employees with multiple skills. This indeed invites high cost. However if a firm can address quick resolution to their consumers then, that generates higher revenue. Phone and chat support provides instant solution to the customers in case if it is not routed to other department. So customers prefer phone and chat support rather than e-mail support. In e-mail supports CSRs tries to clear the queue on the basis of first come first serve manner, but still there are situations when customers need to wait for the resolution. References: Australia.gov.au, 2016.Consumer protection | australia.gov.au. [online] Available at: https://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/public-safety-and-law/consumer-protection [Accessed 14 Jun. 2016]. ToughNickel, 2016.What is SAP Software System?. [online] Available at: https://toughnickel.com/business/What-is-SAP-Everything-you-need-to-know-about-SAP-software [Accessed 15 Jun. 2016].