Q10

1. Identify and briefly describe (1-2 sentences) a problem that could occur early in your focal organization's service delivery process that could go undetected by the customer until the end of service delivery. Describe the costs of service recovery if that problem is not identified until the end of the service process:

Salesforce is not only about data storage, but also about data sharing. One of the most critical issues that can be hidden under the process is an inappropriate sharing of information across the organization, for instance keeping a converted customer identified in the database as a potential customer only.

The costs of this problem may go from a system redesign - a simple one or a mayor overhaul- to overhead for recapturing the data, and in the worst case a potential penalty for problems in the system established in a mayor account contract.

2. Design a plan for assuring that quality problems which are discovered are 1) adequately remedied with the customer; and 2) are appropriate avoided in the future.

Once the problem has been identified, salesforce has to follow the following process:

a) Identify the emerging point of the problem.

b) identify what is the underlying reason this is happening: is it a user problem, an interface issue or a system sequence mistake?

c) Solve the underlying reason of the problem.

d) Create higher visibility of the issue throughout the process, in order to keep track of its progress easier by the user and the company.

e) establish a periodical audit that tracks the behavior of the system, with more frequent periods at the beginning, thus both sides will be more confident that the problem was solved.

Q8

1. Describe a place in your focal organization's service process where if capacity and demand were better matched, the service could operate with minimal waiting.

Salesforce.com services have as input the customer data fed by the sales representatives. Here the output is a series of reports for the salespeople and their manager for controlling pending leads, types of sales, media and advertising, etc. Depending on the complexity of the report, it could take anything between seconds to hours to get one. If the demand of this reports can be better matched with the capacity of their servers, this outputs would become almost realtime and the server time/capacity could be optimized for everyone.

2. Are there ways that demand and capacity could be kept more "in line" with one another?

Yes, one way is to define the frequency of standard reports, thus the system can use a automatic query for processing them so that the server time is used properly and the customer receives the reports. On the other hand, Salesforce can try (they do not do so)price discrimination or bidding for their services. i.e. If you require a huge report inmediately and you have a premium membership, there is no waiting - if you have a basic one you will have to wait longer. Another option is if you need to use additional server time you can bid on a price based on the system demand to get your reports.

Poka-yoke for Salesforce.com

Think through what aspects of your focal firm's service might suffer to do inconsistency/quality issues associated with customer inputs.

Salesforce.com is based on the use of customer inputs to help them track their potential customers and to measure how effective their marketing and sales efforts are. The service they provide is very susceptible to mistakes or omissions in the information input.

1. What are likely sources of problems?

Most of sale forces do not like complicated methods for tracking their customers, they have a cheaper/ easier method to do so with a traditional paper agenda, thus this services needs to be easy to use and deliver additional value/functions for them. This means that the likely sources of problems will be incomplete information due to a) too complicated to fill b) not evident or real need to post it

2. Design a poka yoke to help reduce the frequency or magnitude of problems.

A Poka-Yoke that can be created during the data-capture process is to create auto checks of the "required" information to fill in the CRM system, this check will not let you move forward or save the entry unless you have completed it properly. The creation of these "required" fields is an important task because whether the system users use it or not depend on them.

Another Poka-Yoke is to search for potential duplicates of entries in real time while adding a new one, this because we might duplicate records or use two different data fields for the same entry. While typing the new entry the system can open a warning window telling the user that there is a similar or identical entry already in the system, and that it is ready for use or modify.

Service from a financial institution

1. Identify a product and/or service that you use from your financial institution (e.g., credit card, savings account, checking account, student loan, etc.) and describe the characteristics/benefits of the product/service.

I consider that one of the most important services from an institution such as MSUFCU is the ATM service, the ability to withdraw cash in an easy and convenient way has a high importance to me when I have to decide whether I should open or not a bank account in that bank.

The three main characteristics I consider are:

- Convenience

- No charge

- Easy process

2. How would you rate the financial service provider’s service?

I usually rate the service under two main buckets:

- Quality of the service: ATM on service when I need them, accuracy of the service, and simplicity of the process.

- Location: whereas this is not on top of my mind, it becomes important when you travel or move from city, because in those circumstances are when you need the service and you may be under a lot of stress to get one.

3. What is your level of customer satisfaction and why?

Specifically with MSUFCU I am happy. I usually find a good service level, and convenience in Campus. I consider that I am not Extremely Happy with the service is because when I was living at Chicago I had almost 0 options to withdraw cash -with no cost- and I found the process at the ATM repetitive for the task - what I mean with this is that I have to press many options before getting my money.

4. Where do you think customer service / satisfaction fits in your financial service provider’s overall strategy? Why?

-I think that in this case is a very important part, there is a captive audience at MSU, however if we are not satisfied we all have other options that ourselves or our parents may have. These other options may not be as convenient as MSUFCU, however I consider that any problem with my money is not worth a second chance.

I also think that MSUFCU should consider the after-MSU life cycle of the customers, there are some services from MSUFCU that still may be valuable such as loans, money insurance, etc.

salesforce.com (3)

Look at Michael Porter's Generic Strategies (http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml)

1. Salesforce.com is a has a Focus Strategy at low cost. The evidence is the type of users that they have acquired, the online access allows them to reach more companies by offering an easy-to-use, low cost product, while focusing only on the CRM and sales tools for the business.

2. Oracle uses a Differentiation Strategy, by offering a highly customized service that offers a wide range of solutions under one service umbrella. SAS may be considered a Cost Leadership Strategy, because they look to leverage their analytic capabilities across a different number of industries with different business solutions.

3. Salesforce is very well positioned because they have the first mover advantage, and they have created a series of solutions around their primary business that increase the barriers to entry of possible competitors with a similar business model. Right now they are facing the transition of companies such as SAP and SAS to the cloud computing, where they could represent a credible threat if their services are successful in matching their traditional software with the cloud computing solutions they have.

salesforce.com (2)

1. Salesforce.com is located in the Service Process Matrix in the Service Shop box, though it offers something that can be considered a Standard Package with its online service, one of the main advantages it has is the fact that each customer can create/download applications for it, and also the service is scalable to the needs of each customer.
2. We can see other CRM products/services from companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAS. Microsoft Dynamics CRM may be considered a service factory with its "one size fits all" approach, where it is sold more as a software than as a service. On the other hand Oracle and SAS (Professional Service) develop specific projects for the companies they work with, most of the times the CRM is embedded in ERP applications that take a long time to customize or develop for the specific needs of each customer. The main advantage of companies such as SAS or Oracle are that they can create a whole business solution for the company, where they can connect all the different units of the company under a singles system and database.

salesforce.com

www.salesforce.com

1. I selected Salesforce.com, a company that emerged in the CRM world as an innovative solution - and that pretty much was one of the first companies to capitalize the Cloud Computing and SaS concepts.

The main idea is if I need a CRM, I go online to salesforce.com and get pay for the number of users I have - no need to buy a software suite or hire expensive customized systems. I can choose between different applications for my service, such as customized reports, dashboards, sales tools, etc., furthermore if I develop an App of my own I can upload it to the App pool.

2a. Salesforce.com is a CRM that needs no software, you can use it online on a demand basis. This is a huge advantage for small companies or groups that require a CRM, but can not afford to pay for the expensive softwares from Oracle, SAS, etc.

2b. Service qualifiers in the CRM world are the ability to use a single database for storing your customers/prospects information, also the capability of tracking these customers.

2c.Service may be lost if the CRM does not work properly, is too complicated to use, and even more if the company's information is in danger.