Customer Support Management: An Overview

This presentation provides an overview of customer support management and its importance in establishing an effective relationship with customers. It discusses the key aspects of customer support management, such as effective communication, problem resolution, and enquiry handling/product knowledge. The presentation also highlights the issues faced by Eastern Sunshine Airlines (ESA) due to ineffective customer support management and provides recommendations for improvement.

CUSTOMER
SUPPORT
MANAGEMENT
An overview

INTRODUCTION
 The services or the products offered
by a company are designed as per
the requirements of the customers
(Wuyts, Rindfleisch & Citrin, 2015).
 The customers form an important
entity of the entire business process
of a particular company
(Khodakarami & Chan, 2014).
 It is very important for any
organization to maintain an effective
relationship with the customers
(Wouters & Kirchberger, 2015).

CUSTOMER SUPPORT
MANAGEMENT
 It refers to the management of the
services that are being provided to
the customers (Hussain, Nasser &
Hussain, 2015).
 The quality of a service provided
by an organization is dependent to
a large extent on the manner in
which the concerned company is
being able to maintain an effective
relationship with the customers
(Ford, Paparoidamis &
Chumpitaz, 2015).

CUSTOMER SUPPORT
MANAGEMENT: KEY ASPECTS
 Effective communication
(Misopoulos et al. 2014).
 Providing the right kind of
information to the customers
(Misopoulos et al. 2014).
 Resolving the problems of the
customers
 Treating the customers in a
respectful manner
(Misopoulos et al. 2014).
 Others

CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
AND ITS IMPORTANCE
 Helps in the establishment of
an effective relationship with
the customers (Keiningham et
al. 2014).
 Enables the organizations to
satisfy the needs of the
customers (Hapsari, Clemes &
Dean, 2017).
 Helps in enhancing the loyalty
of the customers (Hapsari,
Clemes & Dean, 2017).

EASTERN SUNSHINE AIRLINES
(ESA)
 Provides air transport
facilities to the customers.
 The company belongs to the
hospitality and the service
industry and thus it becomes
important for it to take into
effective consideration the
aspect of customer support
management.

ISSUES
 The agents act in a rude
manner with the customers.
 Proper information is not being
conveyed to the customers.
 The quality of the services is
declining.
 The customers are dissatisfied
with the services and switching
over to the other companies

ESA AND CUSTOMER
SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
 The organization ESA does not have an
effective customer support management
plan in place at the current moment.
 This is adversely affecting the business
of the concerned company both in
terms of the quality and also the net
revenue earned by the company.
 The customers because of the
ineffective support that they are getting
from the company are switching over to
the other companies (Wuyts,
Rindfleisch & Citrin, 2015).

COMMUNICATION WITH
THE CUSTOMERS
 Helps the organizations to
convey the important
information to the customers.
 Providing adequate
information enables the
organizations to offer better
quality service to the
customers (Khodakarami &
Chan, 2014).
 Helps in earning the
satisfaction and thereby the
loyalty of the customers.

COMMUNICATION AND
ESA
 The standard industry
score is 9.0 whereas
the score of ESA is
only 2.9 on this
parameter.
 This indicates the
below par
communication policy
followed by the
organization.

RESULT
 The customers are not being
able to get adequate
information regarding the
flight timings and other
details.
 The satisfaction level and
thereby the loyalty of the
customers is getting
reduced.
 This in turn affects the
revenue earned by the
company.

RECOMMENDATIONS
 Use of effective
communication process.
 Use of social media tools for
providing the relevant kind
of information to the
customers (Wouters &
Kirchberger, 2015).
 Creation of customer support
team which can offer
assistance to the customers
over the phone (Wouters &
Kirchberger, 2015).

ENQUIRY HANDLING/PRODUCT
KNOWLEDGE
 Is concerned with the resolution
of the queries of the customers
regarding the flight timings and
others.
 The representatives of this
particular team are required to
have adequate information or
knowledge about the services,
flight timings and others (Ford,
Paparoidamis & Chumpitaz,
2015).

ENQUIRY HANDLING/PRODUCT
KNOWLEDGE AND ESA
 The standard industry score is
9.4 whereas the score of the
ESA on this particular
parameter is only 3.2.
 The customer care
representatives of the company
are very rude and often provide
misleading information to the
customers.

RESULT
 The ineffective customer
handling skills of the
representatives of the company is
reducing the satisfaction level of
the customers (Hussain, Nasser
& Hussain, 2015).
 This is also adversely affecting
the quality of the services offered
by the concerned company.
 This at the same time is affecting
the loyalty of the customers

RECOMMENDATIONS
 Providing thorough
knowledge about the services,
flight timings and others to
the representatives.
 Training the representatives to
behave in a polite manner
with the customers.

PROBLEM RESOLUTION
 The customers during the course of
their booking of tickets, during
flights and others face numerous
problems and it is one of the
primary responsibilities of the
airlines companies to resolve these
issues or problems (Misopoulos et
al. 2014).
 The quality of the services offered
by an airlines company depends to a
large extent on the effectiveness
with which they are being able to
resolve these problems (Misopoulos
et al. 2014).

PROBLEM RESOLUTION AND
ESA
 The industry score is 8.7
whereas the score of the
concerned company is 2.2 on
this particular parameter.
 This means that the company is
providing below par problem
resolution services to the
customers.
 It is seen that the representatives
provide misleading kind of
information to the customers.

RESULT
 This is adversely affecting the
overall quality of the services
offered by the concerned
company.
 It is reducing the satisfaction
level of the customers and
thereby their loyalty towards
the company (Keiningham et
al. 2014).

RECOMMENDATIONS
 Training the representatives
to inculcate better problem
resolution and situation
handling skills.
 Solving the problems of the
customers in a much more
effective manner.

CONCLUSION
 The effective use of customer support
management provides various kinds
of benefits to a particular
organization.
 It helps in the establishment of an
effective relationship with the
customers.
 Helps in enhancing the satisfaction
level of the customers and thereby
earning their loyalty.
 Directly affects the amount of revenue
earned by a particular organization.

REFERENCES
 Ford, J. B., Paparoidamis, N., & Chumpitaz, R. (2015). Service quality, customer satisfaction, value
and loyalty: An empirical investigation of the airline services industry. In The Sustainable Global
Marketplace (pp. 187-187). Springer, Cham. Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-10873-5_98
 Hapsari, R., Clemes, M. D., & Dean, D. (2017). The impact of service quality, customer engagement
and selected marketing constructs on airline passenger loyalty. International Journal of Quality and
Service Sciences, 9(1), 21-40. Retrieved from
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IJQSS-07-2016-0048
 Hussain, R., Al Nasser, A., & Hussain, Y. K. (2015). Service quality and customer satisfaction of a
UAE-based airline: An empirical investigation. Journal of Air Transport Management, 42, 167-175.
Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969699714001355
 Keiningham, T. L., Morgeson III, F. V., Aksoy, L., & Williams, L. (2014). Service failure severity,
customer satisfaction, and market share: An examination of the airline industry. Journal of Service
Research, 17(4), 415-431. Retrieved from
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1094670514538119
 Khodakarami, F., & Chan, Y. E. (2014). Exploring the role of customer relationship management
(CRM) systems in customer knowledge creation. Information & Management, 51(1), 27-42.
Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378720613000918
 Misopoulos, F., Mitic, M., Kapoulas, A., & Karapiperis, C. (2014). Uncovering customer service
experiences with Twitter: the case of airline industry. Management Decision, 52(4), 705-723.
Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/MD-03-2012-0235
 Wouters, M., & Kirchberger, M. A. (2015). Customer value propositions as interorganizational
management accounting to support customer collaboration. Industrial Marketing Management, 46,
54-67. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S001985011500022X
 Wuyts, S., Rindfleisch, A., & Citrin, A. (2015). Outsourcing customer support: The role of provider
customer focus. Journal of Operations Management, 35, 40-55. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272696314000722