1) In the case of Jackson there arises quality problem which range from poor expertise service delivery sectoral management failure as the managers in charge of their departments are not aware of some of the services or work carried within their category as well as being ignorant and giving false information to the customers the customer was continually frustrated by use of wrong information perpetually he was assured that his car would be ready soon and ready for correction but this turned out be not the case and this made his car to taken longer than it was required.
Poor expertise is seen in how the condition that was supposed to be rectified was worsened
The probable cause of so many problems were:
- Information breakdown between the inter-departments which caused them to be un ware on what was happening to the car and could not trace who was responsible for certain errors, more so charging the customer additional amount on top of what was initially due shows that the managers were victims of information asymmetric, even after a one of the service men in the service department assuring him that no money was to be charge to the client for mistakes that occurred to the car when it was in their yard for repair.
- Poor supervision of workers is another problem which arises in this service company because workers who were certainly responsible for certain wrongs committed on the clients car could not be traced and this means that there might be some form of arbitrary assignment of duties. As a way of resolving these issues surrounding Cranston Nissan Company, Jackson the managing director of the company should ensure that the following is done
- Introduce a system whereby there is real time sharing and flow of information between the departments existing within the company to avoid cases of information asymmetric within such related departments.
- The general manager should also ensure that there is optimal supervision of workers in order to ensure that they carry out their duties responsibly and also make them liable to some cases of carelessness.
- The general manager should create a customer service department that would converse directly with the customer on behalf of the other departments to avoid frustrations due to poor customer service.
- The manager should also train the service department managers on how to offer good service to customers both to their commodities and in giving correct information.
2) From this case it can be argued that the reason as to why Watson decides to engage in survey was to ascertain the claims of poor service delivery in the store as outsider since him himself as an insider could not trace such claims and that’s why he used pilot customers in both stores. Mr Watson could also have tried to employ an online survey himself by masquerading as a customer with a grievance and gauge how he was handled.
The quality at the bookstore are deteriorating as analyzed by the cases that have occurred over an extended duration of time such rudeness to previous customers as well as a student employee being in possession of drugs in the bookstore.
More so the client were not able to utilise some of the library services as depicted in the case most of them were unable to operate the computer in the bookstore and therefore.
The employees in the library are so are quite deliberate in ignoring their mandates, one customer could not complete a purchase since there were unmanned register and yet the employees were busy conversing within the reach of his eye ,this shows a breakdown code of conduct of employees in the bookstores.
The costs are of low quality since they are apportioned with a lot of bias books are sold cheaply with other items sold at exorbitant rates which is not acceptable such cheap sale of books is harming other business and it can be said to be uncompetitive in fact the book store are transferring the reduced costs in books to other item making the consumers of their products worse off.
In order to improve the performance of the company the book store should ensure that its employees are closed supervised to ensure they are committed to their duties. As well as train them on how to handle customers with a good temperament.
The company should also try and simplify their library related services to make them easier for a majority who visit their bookstore. The bookstore should also ensure the products in their store are priced fairly to avoid such imbalances and unhealthy competition with other investors in similar businesses. The bookstore would experiences some obstacles such as the need to incur huge costs to overhaul its books store services, the bookstore would lose a significant share of the market should it raise the prices of their books in a aim to bring a balance in pricing. The largest obstacle would be that of ensuring that the employees are in constant supervision, most employees would be against such a move.
Regardless of such obstacles there would be admirable changes that would come along such as
- Discipline among employees would improve should supervision be introduced as they would not engage in acts of irresponsibility such as carrying in unwanted items into the premises, more so this would create a good rapport between employees.
Reference
Robert Jacobs and Richard chase. Operations and supply chain management. london: mc Graw hill.2010.print
