Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation
The Seoul Metropolitan Rabid Transit is a significant an influence transportation structure embedded in Korea’s capital, Seoul. The Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation hereinafter also referred to as “SMRT” was founded in 1994. SMRT operates the biggest and most extensive metropolitan subway system in Korea with 148 stations and serves 2.7 million passengers daily with a reach of 152 kilometers (Moon, Kim & Park, 2013). SMRT is an important component of the public transportation system in Seoul and the fourth biggest metropolitan subway corporation in the world. It has a huge customer base and more than 6,000 workers (Moon, Kim & Park, 2013). Millions of residents depend on the subway’s services daily, and it strives to stay at the forefront of faster transit service options (Moon, Kim & Park, 2013). This paper will touch on the importance of Seoul’s most influential transportation system and also highlights how the organization handles and addresses the concerns and objectives towards its success in customer relations.
Customer Feedback
Like other organizations, Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation experiences customer grievance that significantly influences its performance. The organization considers complaints by consumers extremely important as it is an opportunity for them to take that feedback and use it to help improve product and service thus providing excellent client experience and satisfaction. It values customers as they influence its operations and survival. The loss of the customer base threatens its market share, growth, and survival. Therefore, the organization’s response to a customer complaint is vital to improving its survival and efficiency. Organizational responses refer to the initial reactions by a firm to the complaint (Hokger et al, 2014). Thus, it has established “Customer Voice” to receive complaints from consumers and follows a protocol to address them.
Seoung-un Kim is an agent (customer service team member) in the SMRT customer service department. Her contact details are 02-6311-2541, and she works from Seongdoung-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Seoung-un and the other team members supervise the “Customer Voice” of line number 5, 6.7 and 8. The customer service agent (Seoung-un) is the writer of the text (customer complaint record). The customer service agent as the writer prepares the customer record indicating concerns identified by the user and actions taken to resolve the issue. This protocol assist analysts and executives for the SMRT to stay current on day to day operations an how to improve on service and operation.
The Roles of the Customer Service Agent
SMRT has endowed social authority on all employees in the organization to perform their roles. The customer service agent is considered the face of the organization and an important member of the SMRT discourse community. Overall, it takes a team of workers with several differently roles to create the big picture. The agent interacts with customers either directly or indirectly, and the decisions she makes can improve the performance of the organization or break the relationship the company has with customers. The customer service agent ensures every potential and existing consumer has a pleasant experience to improve satisfaction.
South Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation has integrated technology into its operations to improve the delivery of services to customers. With technology, they have enabled the organization to digitize its services including the submission of grievances and the resolution process of them thus providing electronic records of complaints submitted by people using South Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation. A range of methods are available to send the complaints. First, customers use the organization’s website to submit their complaints and expresses that is is convenient and faster, unlike other methods. Second, clients submit their complaints via fax including 02-6311-4283 and 02-6311-2370. Third, they use email to communicate their issues. Fourth, customers can visit the customer service center or department located in Cheonho-daero and Seongdong-gu, Seoul, to submit their complaints. The customer service center is open weekday from 9am to 6pm. Relative to the computer system, customer service agents (i.e. Seoung-un Kim) has social authority to perform the roles and responsibilities of a customer service representative. Further, the customer service agent has a role to play relative to complaints filed by customers visiting the center.
Customer service agents at SMRT play different roles including listening and responding to the needs and concerns of customers. They answer questions and resolve issues to improve the experience of individuals using the subway. The agents use the information provided by consumers to address the concerns raised. They have access to responses to questions asked by consumers and guidelines that govern the handling of complaints in the organization. The agents prepare a customer complaint record that contains the issues identified by subway users and the appropriate actions taken to resolve the problem. SMRT representatives respond to the grievances in their own unique way; however, the responses represent the actions taken by the company (Hokger et al, 2014). The organization response to the complaints as they are categorized into six groups. They include apology, credibility, attentiveness, facilitation, timeliness and redress. The organization responds differently to complaints. It offers compensation to persons affected where necessary. For instance, it provides discounts, refunds, and replacements. The compensation is considered a tangible benefit includes money. Redress entails the benefits that the corporation offers to address the complaint. An example of redress is compensation for additional travel expenses (Hokger et al, 2014).
On the other hand, compensation can consist of intangible responses or psychological compensation. Psychological compensation can be provided when the organization’s actions threaten customers’ self- esteem (Hokger et al, 2014). The loss can be compensated using different methods, including an apology. SMRT responds to complaints based on the issue raised and its effect on the client and organization. It provides monetary compensation to affected persons. It also provides an apology in the case of inconveniences caused by the delay in the provision of services. The firm can show regret for the failure to restore social equity and esteem (Hokger et al, 2014).
The staff behavior affects the response to the grievances, including sociable, empathic, informative and responsible. Favorable behavior leads to effective response as workers embrace attentiveness and credibility when handing the issue (Hokger et al, 2014). They listen carefully to the customer and explain the issue. Promptness refers to handling complaints immediately and with ease. It includes appropriateness and facilitation and refers to the capability of the firm to control the process of handling complaints efficiently and in a straightforward way (Hokger et al, 2014). The customer service agent ensures speed when handling the issues, including resolving them immediately and with ease. She ensures her behavior does not affect the process of managing complaints and embraces trustworthiness and attentiveness. She listens carefully to each customer and explains the problem to them and the solutions available. Consumers who believe the organization’s response to the complaint is the fair show higher degree of post- complaint satisfaction, unlike those who believe it is unfair. Clients perceive fairness in diverse dimensions, including distributive, procedural and interactional justice. Distributive justice entails the perceived outcome of the decision or the allocation of the resources in reaction to the complaint (Hokger et al, 2014).
It is the subjective benefits consumers get to offset the trouble caused by the organization’s failure. Procedural justice implies how the complainant sees the methods used to make decisions and resolve conflicts. A complaint procedure is deemed fair if it is easy to access and offers the complainant power over the disposition, it is flexible, and it is resolved in a convenient and timely way. Interaction justice implies how clients perceive the way they are treated. Treatment is considered fair when the complainant thinks the information is exchanged, and results are communicated politely and in a respectful manner (Hokger et al, 2014). Consumers served by SMRT evaluate fairness based on the three dimensions discussed above. Hence, the customer agent ensures appropriate methods are used to make decisions and resolve disputes to guarantee fairness. Also, the methods benefit the client by offsetting the inconvenience, and the outcome of the complaint process is communicated in a respectful and courteous manner.
Challenges
Challenges arise when providing customer services at Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transport Corporation, including handling of complaints. This illustrated by the example below:
Existing situation
Customers submit complaints via the company’s website and by visiting the customer service center, but the agent experiences problems when analyzing the complaints to find the best solution due to various challenges associated with the customer, agent and process. Challenges arise when the customer service agent does not get sufficient information to resolve the complaint submitted. One of the customers submits a complaint through the website and fails to provide enough information for the customer service agent to understand the issue, prepare a complaint record and find ways of solving it. Additionally, a problem arises when the agent is unable to solve the issue due to the lack of knowledge and skills. A client presents at the customer service center to report a complaint, and the agent listens to her, but she does not have the skills and knowledge required to manage the problem. Customer service agents should have access to guidelines and information required to resolve the problem to provide effectively quality services to customers and increase satisfaction. Besides, the customer service agent may not have an answer to the issue raised, making it hard to address the problem. For example, a customer files a complaint through the email, but the agent notices he does not have the answer after reviewing it.
Gap
The gap identified is the lack of knowledge and skills required to address the concerns raised by complainants. In addition, the agent has no answer to the problem and has to rely on other workers to get the answer. Additionally, the agent may not get enough information from the client to understand the complaint and find the most suitable solution.
Desired Outcome
The expected outcome is overcoming the gap to ensure customers are satisfied with the services provided. Customers are dissatisfied if the organization does not address their concerns. This leads to a poor relationship between customers and the organization and decreases the usage of the subway. Also, poor handling of customer complaints lead to the loss of a large customer base and decreases sales and revenue. To resolve the problem, the customer service agent asks for assistance from the supervisor or another professional in the department with the skills and knowledge required to provide a solution to the problem. The customer service agent finds the most suitable solution and communicates the solution to the client through mail, face to face communication, fax or the website.
Furthermore, the customer service agent seeks more information from the customer to aid in determining the solution to the problem. The agent requests the client to describe the problem, comprehensively, to ensure she understands it and is able determine the best solution. The agent also looks for more information on the issue by reviewing customer complaint records and company records instead of requesting the client to provide the relevant information.
The Target Audience
The target audience consists of the primary and secondary audience. The primary audiences are customers and the customer service agent. The customer service agent prepares the customer complaint record to highlight the complaint submitted by the client. She provides a comprehensive description of the problem from the customer’s perspective to help in finding the best solution. The agent is the target of the record as it facilitates the performance of her roles and responsibilities as a customer service representative. As a representative, she should have a deeper understanding of the situation and how it affects customers and the organization before deciding the best method to address the complaint. Customers are also targeted audience as they benefit from an effective process for reporting and handling complaints. The agent informs them about the conclusion reached and the possible solution. Consequently, handling of customers successfully leads to customer satisfaction and increased usage of the SMRT. The secondary audience is self, the instructor, and other students. The customer complaint record is essential for the self, instructor and other students understand how text and writings are used to improve the delivery of services to the clientele.
Desired Consequence
The desired consequence of the customer complaint record is improving customer satisfaction and experience and the handling of complaints. Gruber et al, (2009) believes that most of the organizations do not pay adequate attention to handling complaints successfully. Studies have indicated customer complaints are an important market intelligence, which organizations can use to correct the main cause of the problem and enhance service delivery or products. Nevertheless, few organizations recognized the significance of the consumer’s complaint (Gruber et al, 2009). Service failure is not sufficiently addressed by organizations when the seriousness of consumer dissatisfaction for organizations in the short-term and log- term is taken into account. The word-of-mouth and switching to rivals lead to an increase in the cost of bringing new consumers. In this case, clients are not loyal to the firm (Gruber et al, 2009). Consequently, the customer complaint record facilitates effective resolution of complaints and improve the delivery of services. The complaints are critical to understanding the challenges individuals face when using the subway and how they impact their satisfaction. The analysis of the grievances provides sufficient information on services offered and the best method of providing them. As a result, addressing the issues highlighted by customers' increases satisfaction and decreases the risk of switching. Besides, dealing with client complaints helps maintain them (Gruber et al, 2009).
The consumer complaint record ensures satisfaction by addressing the gaps identified above. Supervisors and other professionals who are experienced will use the record to deal with complaints and guarantee complaint satisfaction. Complaint satisfaction refers to the satisfaction of the person complaining about the organization’s response to the problem. In addition, complaint handling will improve clients’ loyalty to the subway and confidence in the method of handling complaints (Gruber et al, 2009). The complaint record has desired consequences on the secondary audience, including creating awareness and increasing their knowledge of the use of text and writing. The instructor and other students are satisfied with the analysis of the problem and the solutions highlighted.
Influences on the Writer
The writer (customer service agent) is influenced by the environment, and she is supposed to bring change to achieve the desired outcomes. Customers are influenced members of the community, including the customer service agent. The influence is evidenced when customers submit their complaints and the agent responds by preparing a record, analyzing the information provided by the customer and establishing the solution. The information provided by the clients influences the agent’s capability to perform the roles and responsibilities assigned by the management. Insufficient information hinders the performance of the roles and vice versa. The writer overcomes the influence by ensuring individuals filing complaints, provide all the information needed to process the complaint and improve their experience and satisfaction (Gruber et al, 2009).
The writer selects and utilizes the information contained in the text being developed (customer complaint record). The selection and usage of the information depend on the topic and things that the target audience considers important (Gruber et al, 2009). The details provided by customers may not be imperative in attaining the desired outcome as customers are not aware of the information that the writer requires. Thus, the writer conducts a primary research to collect information. Primary research on South Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation entails using questions to obtain additional information. The customer service agent determines the main issues and how they are affecting the person reporting. Besides, the agent discusses the solutions available with the clientele before determining the most appropriate method of resolving the problem. She determines the things that the complainant refers to assisting in making decisions concerning the problem identified.
Conclusion
The SMRT is an organization with many levels of operation. They take passenger experience seriously and thrive to achieve better quality transportation starting from hearing the voice from the people who ride. It is important to ensure that the people are important and embrace their feedback as valuable and profitable. From the customer service agent to the chief executive officer, all systems and the people who show up to work for SMRT have value to the life and culture of Korea.
References
Gruber, T., Szmigin, I., & Voss, R. (2009). Handling customer complaints effectively: A comparison of the value maps of female and male complainants. Managing Service Quality, 19(6), 636-656
Karja, G., & Hokger, R. (2014). A meta- analysis of organizational complaint handling and customer responses. Journal of Service Research, 14(10, s24-43
Moon, S., Kim, T. W., & Park, S. H. (2013).Multi-platform mass media strategy of Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation. Sociology and Anthropology,1(1),40-45
