MNG93003 Industry Research: Analysis of BIC Services Client Decline

This report investigates the factors contributing to the decline in existing clients at BIC cleaning services, an Australian-based company. The study examines the impact of customer relationship experience, employee performance, and customer loyalty on client retention. Conducted through secondary data collection, including interviews with company managers, the research highlights the importance of employee performance and customer service quality. The findings reveal a need for improved customer relationship management, better staff-client interaction, and employee training. The report recommends strategies to enhance customer satisfaction and retain existing clients, emphasizing the significance of communication, loyalty programs, and sales tactics in maintaining a competitive edge in the service industry. The study also includes a review of relevant literature, a discussion of the research findings, and ethical considerations.

Running head: INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Evaluating the factors leading to decline in existing clients
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

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Executive Summary
The study is reflecting on factors lead to loss of existing customers of service industry and
improve over customer satisfaction. The satisfaction level of customers are varied from
person to person and also from service to service. The rate of satisfaction is dependent on
other factors like customer service experience, customer loyalty and sales tactics. This
research study is seek to evaluate factors lead to the customer dissatisfaction and loss of
existing customers. The selected industry partner is BIC cleaning services operated in
Australia. The research study is being conducted to analyze three independent variables such
as customer relationship experience, employee performance and customer loyalty. The study
is conducted using secondary data collection method by interviewing four managers from the
selected company. It is facilitated to analyze the factors of customer dissatisfaction based on
the secondary data research. The researcher also included ethical considerations for
performing the secondary research.
The findings of the study showed that there is a strong relationship between employee
performance as well as customer satisfaction. In the company, the managers and employees
are providing most concern to service quality as well as service price rather than customer
relationship. There is lack of interaction among staffs and clients lead to not solving
customer’s complaints. The study is recommended to focus on customer relationship manager
to retain existing clients. The customers are expected to get better cleaning services, better
interaction with staffs and training of staffs to gain skills.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction and research problem.....................................................................................4
1.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................4
1.1.1 Background of the study and overview of industry partner.................................4
1.1.2 Purpose of study and summary of report structure..............................................4
1.2 Research problem........................................................................................................5
1.2.1 Problem statement................................................................................................5
1.2.2 Research aim and questions.................................................................................5
2. Literature review................................................................................................................6
2.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................6
2.2 Factors lead to decline in number of existing clients..................................................6
2.2.1 Poor customer service experience........................................................................6
2.2.2 Out of date sales tactics........................................................................................7
2.2.3 Failed loyalty programmes...................................................................................8
2.3 Comparison of the three factors.......................................................................................9
2.4 Role of communication to retain existing clients of BIC.................................................9
2.5 Impact of bad customer relationship on loss of clients..................................................11
2.6 Strategies used to retain clients......................................................................................12
2.7 Conceptual framework...................................................................................................13
2.8 Summary........................................................................................................................14
3. Research design................................................................................................................15

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3.1 Research Approach........................................................................................................15
3.2 Research Design.............................................................................................................15
3.3 Research Philosophy......................................................................................................15
3.4 Data collection...............................................................................................................16
3.5 Data analysis..................................................................................................................16
3.6 Sample size.....................................................................................................................17
3.7 Sampling method...........................................................................................................17
3.8 Ethical consideration......................................................................................................17
4. Research findings.............................................................................................................19
4.1 Customer Relationship...................................................................................................19
4.2 Employee Performance..................................................................................................20
4.3 Customer Retention........................................................................................................22
5. Discussion........................................................................................................................24
5.1 Implications of the findings.......................................................................................24
5.2 Comparison of findings with the literature................................................................24
5.3 Answer to the research questions..............................................................................25
6. Recommendations............................................................................................................26
7. Conclusion and limitations...............................................................................................28
References................................................................................................................................29
Appendix..................................................................................................................................35
1. Interview data from the managers.................................................................................35

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1. Introduction and research problem
1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 Background of the study and overview of industry partner
Globalization is increasing competitive tendencies in market, therefore it becomes
easier to the business to cross their borders and compete in the market. Due to advancement
in technology, change in expectations of customers as well as high market competition are
significant cause of issues related to quality of the customer services (Yang, Guo and Wang
2018). This study is reflected on evaluating the factors which can lead to decline in existing
clients of the service industry.
In this research study, the industry partner is BIC cleaning services Australia, has
delivered personalized and integrated cleaning services to property owners of Australia since
1989. It is operated in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. The company has
servicing sites across Australia are 3,250 client sites. My relation with the organization is that
I am working in the organization and my building working site address is 45 Clarence Street,
Wynyard, Sydney. Working with the partners, the service industry delivered full range of
cleaning services like cleaning, window cleaning, waste management as well as hygiene
services. The management approach of the company is building strong relations with their
clients for creating sustainable as well as bright future ( Ngo and Pavelková 2017). The
cleaning services is located at high competition in Australian market, as other companies are
providing same services. However, the company faces issues like they are losing their
existing clients due to poor customer service expectations and failed to gain customer loyalty.

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1.1.2 Purpose of study and summary of report structure
The purpose of this study is to identify the factors which can lead to reduce of the
existing clients of BIC. Due to losses of clients, the service industry faces issues of bad
customer relationship influences in loss of clients and loss of market value in Australia.
Therefore, this study is conducted to evaluate those factors and implement strategies to retain
existing clients. This study is also focused on evaluating how the management
communication skill helps the company to retain existing clients.
Introduction section d4scribes the research problem, questions and background of the
study with introducing the industry partner. Literature review section supports the theoretical
arguments of the selected title. Methodology is used to provide details of methods used to
collect data for this study. Findings will represent the results of the analysis in order to
selected research questions. Results are being interpreted in light of selected questions plus
discussed in discussion section with other literature. Recommendations section provides
guidance based on report findings and related to the theoretical base. Finally, conclusion will
discuss the implications of the research results and literature review.
1.2 Research problem
1.2.1 Problem statement
The problem of this research is that due to loss of the existing customers, the company
had lost the number of contracts in past couple of weeks. The company has lost around 40%
of the existing clients lead to lessen their market value and profitability in the service
industry.
1.2.2 Research aim and questions
The aim of this research study is to evaluate the factors leading to decline in number of
existing clients in BIC.

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Research Question 1: To what extent does management communication skill helps to
retain existing clients of BIC?
Research Question 2: To what extent does bad customer relationship influence the loss
of clients?
2. Literature review
2.1 Introduction
As per the research done by Ascarza (2018), customer loyalty to particular company
or brand is getting decreased. Customers today do not hesitate to switch brands, pointing out
that in near future the rule of 20 percent customers accounting for almost 80 percent of the
companies’ turnover will get changed. There are high chances that this famous rule can turn
into 60-40 ratio gradually becoming a 50-50 rule. This shift in behaviour of the customers
raises questions on the marketing tactics being used. Loss of clients can be attributed to many
reasons such as much number of available options, better services offered by competitors and
lack in communication skills of the customer service department.
2.2 Factors lead to decline in number of existing clients
2.2.1 Poor customer service experience
As per the research done by Bernabé-Moreno et al. (2015), customer service can be
said to be one of the essential services in digital age. The ultimate aim of a company or brand
is to attract customers and retain the old ones. Poor customer services offered is supposed to
be one of the major reasons behind the loss of clients. Studies suggest that providing bad
customer services and lack of focus on the client base can have drastic effect on company as
a whole and not just the bottom line. The customers want quick response to the issues raised
by them and expect that their issues are resolved as soon as possible. The companies who fail
in render quick services lose customers. The customer services offered by a company can be

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said to be as the main pillar of the business. There are many reasons behind the failure of
companies such as BIC to cater to the needs of the customers. Lack in communication skills
plays a major role and then comes keeping the issues ticket raised by customer pending for a
long time. The unavailability of customer service executives when the customers are trying to
reach is considered as one of the reasons for the loss of clients. The clients’ expect that the
company should give their issues a priority and resolve them as soon as possible but when
they find the company is failing to do this they prefer shifting their choice (Alshurideh 2016).
There are instances where the client did not get satisfactory answers for his issue or the
customer executive could not communicate well which made him give bad reviews about the
products and services of the company. Whenever a client comes to a company he expects to
get best services and gets disappointed if the services offered are not up to mark.
2.2.2 Out of date sales tactics
As per the research done by Hamilton, Rust and Dev (2017), outdated sales tactics is
one of the major reasons for loss of clients. In the era of internet, customers are already
informed and knowledgeable about the products and services of a company and thus they do
not like to waste time on lengthy calls from customer service executives. Talking over phone
with a sales representative to get an idea of the services is an outdated sales tactics. At present
the prospects are almost 60 percent through sales cycle, even before talking to any sales
representative. Sales representative at BIC are overburdened with tasks such as emailing,
entering data, prospecting and researching leads, scheduling calls and meetings. They spend a
lot of time on these activities which should have been otherwise used in selling. Spending a
lot of time on unqualified leads as well as prospects is another outdated sales tactics. In order
to qualify a lead, a sales representative has to indulge in hours of conversation resulting in
loss of valuable time that could have otherwise be used in selling. Sales representative use the
same universal pitch which results in loss of clients. Developing a common pitch for all

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customers hep save time but buyers today have different requirements and want that they are
addressed as per their specific needs (Madheswari, Suganthi and Josephine 2016). Sales
representative have to dial the main phone line of the company and depend on switchboard
operators to direct the calls to the prospects which can be called a outdated process. This is a
lengthy process and there are low chances that the sales representative will be able to reach
out to the intended target. The businesses are becoming dynamic in nature and thus they
require new techniques to retain their clients. The old tactics will result in loss and damage
the brand name of the company.
2.2.3 Failed loyalty programmes
As per the research done by Lee and Fay (2017), loyalty programs are of great help in
boosting customer retention. BIC failed in loyalty programs that led to almost 40 percent of
the loss of its clients. Failure of loyalty programs are a result of good strategy and proper
planning. The company is not aware of its client’s requirements and lacks in the ability to
understand how they can attract new and retain the old customers. The loyalty programs fail
due to unappealing rewards, least emotional connection, lack of proper communication and
lack of awareness. Erroneous selection of rewards can also be attributed for failure of loyalty
programs. The terms and associated conditions of the loyalty programs are most of the times
not defined properly and the customer fails to understand how he will be actually benefitted
from the same. Thus chooses to let it go and shifts to other brands and companies. The values
that are being offered through the program are not conveyed well to the customers thus
failing to convince them. Most of the times, the customers are not aware of the loyalty
programs and thus do not feel connected to the same. The company needs to take proper
initiatives to develop the interest of the customers in their services. Failing to communicate
with the potential customers about the loyalty program is another major cause for the failure
of the same. Loyalty programs are not just incentives and benefits as customers look up to

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building a relationship with the company. Studies suggest that communication plays a vital
role in the success of loyalty programs (De Haan, Verhoef and Wiesel 2015). Failing to build
an emotional connection is another major reason for failure of loyalty programs. The
undefined term and conditions of the loyalty programs fail in attracting customers.
2.3 Comparison of the three factors
The three factors that have been mentioned above have vital roles to play in retention
of clients. The fast factor that is customer experience is the most essential one as it is the
experience of the customers that makes them suggest the company to others or defame the
company. A customer who gets disappointed with the customer services offered will never
get back to the company. The customers want that their issues are listened to and the
company accepts and appreciates their feedback and not finding these they chose other
companies. On the other hand, the second factor depends on the frequent update of
technologies so that it can catch its contemporaries in this field. Sticking to the same old sales
tactics will neither attract new customers nor will it help retain the old customers. The sales
representatives are overburdened with work as the company is not updating the sales tactics
which can certainly affect their work leading to loss of clients. Poor customer services
offered can be mitigated by proper training given to the employees while on the other hand
by deploying new technologies the second factor of old sales tactics can be checked (Ascarza
et al. 2018). The last factor that is failed loyalty programs that depend wholly on the
management. This reveals that the loyalty programs have not been discussed well by the
management. The failure of loyalty programs can be attributed to the lack of proper strategies
by the management. It is the responsibility of the management to define the terms and
conditions of the loyalty program and ensure that customers are well aware of the same.

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Thus, from these three factors it can be said that poor customer experience contributes
maximum to the loss of clients of a company.
2.4 Role of communication to retain existing clients of BIC
Customer retention is keeping the customers happy with the product and services
offered to them. Communication is a key to convince clients and proper communication with
the existing customers can help BIC in retaining them. The company needs to communicate
values that mean the customer purchase history must be noted so that in future he does not
have to repeat the order. This small step can make the customer feel that the company give
their order a priority. The existing customers if provided with useful informations about the
products and services will help them keep engaged. Communication skills should be strong
enough to interact with the customers and understand what they expect from the company.
Convincing customers totally depends on the communication skills of the sales
representatives (Preikschas, Cabanelas, Rüdiger and Lampón 2017). Lack of proper
communication skills can create misunderstandings and it can happen that the customer does
not get what the actual benefits of the services are.
Another major factor is being quick at providing response to a customer. Quick
response is considered one of the attributes of effective communication and helps in
enhancing the growth of businesses. Customers want that their issues are resolved as soon as
possible and this is possible with proactiveness and proper communication skills. The
problems of the clients should be responded to on time. Customers expect quick response for
the issues raised by them and this can happen only if representatives can communicate
properly. The way in which a complaint is handled can either lead to loss of client or help in
retaining the client. The customers can be asked for their feedback which will give them a
feeling that the company values their opinion. The existing customers at BIC can be retained
by the help of proper communication.

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As discussed earlier, lack of communication results in failure of loyalty programs as
well thus the employees of the company should be given proper training on how to
communicate with the clients so that they be successful in retaining them (Hill and Alexander
2017). Now-a-days the customers do not want to listen to the prospects rather as they know a
lot they want to be listened to. Thus the customer service representatives must be patient
enough to listen to the queries of the customers and answer them properly instead of sticking
to the common pitch for all. The customers should be updated with the new products and
services of the company and this requires frequent follow ups.
2.5 Impact of bad customer relationship on loss of clients
Bad customer relationship is the major contributor to the loss of clients in a business.
When customers do not get proper services they search for new company and better brands.
This directly can be related to the loss of the clients affecting the growth of the company in
the long run. As per the research done by Wilson, Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler (2016), bad
customer relationship not only is responsible for loss of clients but also results in spoiling the
image of the company. The reviews of the existing customers are important to get more
clients and if the existing ones have bad experience the company should forget about new
clients. Bad customer experience includes untimely response to the issues raised by clients,
lack of proper communication and incapability of solving the problem (Johnson, Park and
Bartlett 2018). The client gets dissatisfied with the services offered and thus prefers
refraining from buying products or services from the company. They even advice their near
and dear ones to avoid going to that company which can be a major loss for the firm. If the
existing clients are kept satisfied with proper services they can suggest the company to their
close friends and family members that can provide the company with new clients.
On contrary to this bad experience can result in loss of clients as well as be a
hindrance in the marketing of the product and services of the company. Poor services in this

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case lead to loss of clients and have a drastic effect on the image of the company as well. As
per the research done by Kaura, Prasad and Sharma (2015), lot of patience is required to deal
with different customers and thus the representatives must be well trained to handle the same
as little mistake can lead to loss of clients. It can be said that the bad customer experience has
a direct link with loss of potential clients. The sales representative should have proper
communication skills as on the basis of how well they explain about a product decides
whether a product or service is purchased by a customer. The representatives who lack in
proper communication cannot handle the requests of the customers in a proper and quick
manner (Yang, Huang and Chen 2019). Communication skill is required in order to retain the
clients and it can be understood from the fact that without proper communication skills the
customers would not be satisfied with the answers given by the customer service
representative.
2.6 Strategies used to retain clients
In order to retain clients various strategies can be used and some of them are listed below:
1. Offering surprises- This can be a really good tactics to retain clients as by giving them
surprise in form of discounts and may be offers such as if purchasing one service can get
them a discount on the other (Nyadzayo and Khajehzadeh 2016). They can also give weekly
discounts so that the customers stay engaged with the company and keep a check on the
updates.
2. Prioritizing orders- In order to make the customer feel that they are valuable for the
company, they can certainly prioritize customers as per their order history. This will help in
motivating the customers and will certainly be taken in the form of appreciation (Kristensson
et al. 2016). The customers who order on a regular basis can be tagged as potential customers

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and their request can be added to favourites so that in general they do not have to repeat the
order details all the time.
3. Setting customer expectations- Customer services should not be restricted to attend the
queries of the customers but it should be ensured that customer representatives meet the
expectations of the customers as well. Now-a-days customers want to be empowered rather
than being controlled (Scott, Lundgren and Thompson 2018). One possible way in which
customer expectations can be met is by being honest at the time of offering services or
updating them about new ones.
4. Building trust by making good relations- Trust plays a vital factor in businesses and
thus the company should come up with quick response policies so that customers trust their
services and are assured that the queries raised by them are being addressed properly (Khadka
and Maharjan 2017).
5. Adopting new technologies- The Company can adopt new technologies such as
Customer relationship management or CRM to properly manage interaction with the current
as well as the potential customers (Ponnam and Paul 2017). This makes use of data analysis
thus helping to improve business relationships with the customers.

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Loss of business
client
Poor Customer
Relationship
Outdated Sales
Tactics
Failed Customer
Retention/Loyalty
2.7 Conceptual framework
Figure 2.1: Conceptual framework of research study
(Source: Created by author)
From the above figure, it is analyzed that the independent variables are poor customer
relationship, outdated sales tactics and failed customer loyalty lead to loss of the business
client, which is dependent variables.
2.8 Summary
It can be said that BIC lost its 40 percent clients mainly due to its bad customer
services. The clients preferred other companies as they were dissatisfied with the services
provided by the company. There can be many reasons for bad experience and the major one
is lack of proper communication skills. BIC has to adopt certain new technologies such as
CRM which can help them to manage customers. Proper training can be given to the staffs so
that they enhance their communication skills. Patience plays an important role in attending to

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the queries of the customers and thus it should be ensured that the customer service
representatives handle the queries with patient and behave properly with the customers.

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3. Research design
3.1 Research Approach
Research approach refers to the plan and procedure that comprises of certain steps of
broader assumptions to detailed methods related to data collection, data analysis and their
interpretation. In this research qualitative approach will be used as it provides transformative
knowledge claims. This research has been selected on this case as it provides greater insights
to the problem that the company is facing (Flick 2015). This will provide a depth as well as
detail to the problem being encountered by the company. In order to understand the problem
in a better way qualitative research will be appropriate for this purpose. Thus in this case the
approach selected is qualitative approach so that the problem faced by the company can be
understood properly.
3.2 Research Design
There exist three different types of research design that are exploratory research
design, descriptive research design and causal research design. A particular research design is
selected depending on the problem that is being addressed or researched. In this case the
exploratory research design can be used because this particular design will help in
discovering ideas as well as insights so that possible explanations can be generated (Kumar
2019). This research design will help in coming up with priorities so that the problem can be
investigated further. This does not require following planned questionnaire or associated
sampling. This research design will help in getting deep insight to the research.
3.3 Research Philosophy
Research philosophy refers to the sources, nature as well as development of
knowledge. It deals with the ways in which data can be collected, analysis done and made use
of in the research. There are various types of research philosophies such as pragmatism,

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interpretivism, realism as well as interpretivism. The research philosophy will provide
author’s important assumptions and the assumptions act as the basis on which research
strategies are developed (Antwi and Hamza 2015). Here in this context interpretivism can be
selected small samples are involved and qualitative approach has been chosen. This will add
to the in-depth analysis of the research and facts can be understood in a better way.
3.4 Data collection
Secondary data will be used in this research and these are easily available from
existing sources. The data can be collected from both internal as well as external sources.
Secondary data are of dual nature that is qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative data can be
collected from newspapers, transcripts, dairies and many more such things while quantitative
data can be got through surveys and related statistics (Pruzan 2016). Here in this context,
interview with the managers will be conducted to understand the problems being faced by the
company.
3.5 Data analysis
There are two different types of data analysis qualitative and quantitative. In this
context qualitative data analysis will be used which deals in non-numeric information that
include interviews, or theoretical analysis and many more such things. There are five
different categories of qualitative data analysis that are content analysis, discourse analysis,
grounded theory, narrative analysis and framework analysis. In this context the most
appropriate will be content and narrative analysis. Content analysis involves categorizing
behavioural data for the purpose of classification, summarization as well as tabulation of data
(Basias and Pollalis 2018). Narrative analysis involves reformulation of the stories that are
presented by the respondents considering the context in each of the cases along with different
experiences of each of the participating individuals.

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3.6 Sample size
Sample size refers to the number of individuals taking part in the interview that is to
be conducted. The size of sample plays an important role in research as the accuracy of the
data collected depends majorly on the sample size. Here in this context, four managers of
BIC will be interviewed and their opinions considered. The managers of the organization will
have a better understanding of the problem that the company is facing and thus interviewing
them will help to understand the real scenario (Brannen 2017). Sample size directly
influences findings of a research and thus has a vital role to play.
3.7 Sampling method
Sampling technique is used by the researchers to reduce the number of cases
associated with the research. Sampling requires clearly defining the target population,
selecting the frame for sampling, choosing proper sampling technique, determining sample
size, collecting data and assessing the response rate. Sampling can be made use of to come to
conclusion about the population or at times to make generalizations related to the existing
theories (Engwa and Ozofor 2015). There are two different types of sampling techniques that
are probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling. In case of probabilistic sampling all items
included in the population has equal chances to be a part of the sample while in case of non-
probabilistic sample is associated with qualitative research mainly. In this context qualitative
research has been chosen thus non-probabilistic sampling will be appropriate for the same.
3.8 Ethical consideration
In a research, ethical considerations can be considered as one of the vital parts and
while conducting a research these ethics should be given utmost priority. The participants of
the research should not be harmed either in physical or mental ways. Their consent should be

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taken before conducting the research. The findings of the research should be reported
honestly and data should not be manipulated. There should not be any biasness while
recoding data or taking the opinion of the participant in the interview. While collecting and
analysing data it should not be ensured that nor careless mistakes are made as this can affect
the research in an adverse way (Flick 2015). The confidentiality of data should be kept and
sensitive information should be protected. The laws and regulation related to work being
should be awared off and the participant should not be forced to be a part of the research. The
data collected should be topic relevant and no such data should be collected that is not related
to the topic. The sources that have been referred to should be cited and work of others
acknowledged.

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4. Research findings
The sample size selected for conducting the qualitative study is 4 managers of BIC
cleaning services in Australia. The data are collected by using interview method. The
findings of this research study analyzed based on three themes- customer relationship,
employee performance and customer retention. The findings are included the analyzed results
from the interviews of the four different managers such as operation manager, general
manager, customer relationship manager and general manager by means of the secondary
data collection procedure. The following are themes emerged from the qualitative data and
table of the themes are provided in the Appendix part.
4.1 Customer Relationship
BIC cleaning services includes long waiting time as well as inconvenient operating
hours for their customers. Among all this, the company is not making easier to reach the
appropriate staff person and wide waiting time for receiving the cleaning services. Based on
the interview data, it is also found that there are some clients those are always complaint, no
matter in what way time as well as energy is provided in cleaning. Losing of the existing
client is a part of running a cleaning business as the clients are leaving due to various reasons
(Yang, Guo and Wang 2018). A cleaning services provide with quality customer experiences
as well as maintain a good relationship with the existing clients. The trust of the customers
are gained to provide them innovative business services, will help the company to expand
their business all over Australia.
In order to compete in the market, BIC cleaning services is required to increase in
their competition from other organization. As per the interview data, it is seen that the
company is believed to gain trust as well as loyalty of the customers so that they can provide
innovative services in order to expand their services in Australian states (Olayiwola et al.

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2018). The company is using CRM software for managing retention and helping to manage
cleaning services. The services are more focused on quality along with price of the cleaning
services. Most of the employees are not providing good services to their customers due to
their undisciplined behaviour and rude to the customers. The physical representation of
cleaning services of BIC is quite clean that the customers can evaluate the quality of their
services. There are well dressed employees, attractive visual appealing signs, logo and
comfortable physical layout of the equipment used to provide the cleaning services (Guo and
Qin 2017). The main operating areas of BIC are cleaning, window cleaning, waste
management as well as hygiene services. The cleaning services contribute to the evaluation of
customers towards the service quality. As per the interview, the company is focused more on
quality of the services as well as their price rather than customer services and relationships
(Chan, Wan and Chu 2018). The cleaning services are failed to create positive emotional
experiences with the customers that also drive to customer loyalty. The result is that 40% of
the clients have switched to other business due to poor customer relationship. As per the
interview with the managers, the main reasons for poor customer relationship is the client are
not feeling appreciated and they are not able to speak to the person who can deliver they
required services (Ngo and Pavelková 2017). Due to unhelpful employees and rude customer
experiences, it leads to loss of existing clients.
4.2 Employee Performance
The employees have lack of experiences as well as knowledge to meet and understand
the customer expectations. Interaction among the employees is also not perfect as the staffs
are not able to understand how to communicate with the clients. Communication is a way to
know the problems like uncleaned areas and unhygiene services. In most of the cases, the
customers those left the services due to employee poor performance is back to the services
(Fernández, Márquez and López-Campos 2018). The company are always hope for

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recovering lost contract, therefore it is required to rectify the problems at the exit process.
After making improvements in the employee services, the customers are updated to let them
know that the company has changed for better from their feedback. The goal of the company
should make improvement over their company’s image as well as listen to their clients (Heri
2017). A sincere thank you message can always go for good to retain the customers, therefore
the company is focused more on it.
A better personality of the employee helps to build stronger relationships with them.
Customer loyalty is mainly required to retain the customers (Mostert, Petzer and Weideman
2016). The employees are always showing respect and always behaving well so that they
would become repeated customers of BIC cleaning services. As per the interview data and
manager’s responses, some of the behavior as well as performance of the employees are not
good and well mannered.
Losing of the clients due to poor performance of the employee is preventable. Regular
training is provided to the staffs against the complaints of the customers. The company is
tried to invest in quality programs as well as implement training programme through the year
to train the employees facing customer services and their complaints. At the time of
Christmas, the customers are leaving with coupons for their extra free services and discounts
on the next cleaning. The managers are talking with the employees about their difficulties and
problems faced on weekly, daily and monthly basis. Weekly basis meetings with the
employees help them to change their behaviour and attitudes towards the customers
(Swaminathan 2016). Management meetings are performed to discuss the problems with
them. Sometimes, the managers emailed the employees some details about their individual
performance as well as behaviour.

23INDUSTRY RESEARCH
The managers also concluded that training is a best way to communicate with the
employees and teach them how to face customer’s complaints and queries. An employee
feedback portal is followed in the service company to write down the key points of the
employee’s behavior as well as discussed with them by face-to-face meetings. Feedback is a
way to make improvement over the performance of the employees and increase in employee
engagement (Martinaityte, Sacramento and Aryee 2019). Acting on the manager’s feedback
is vital for engagement of the employees. In the face-to-face meetings, the employees are
asked about what they think as well as what problems faced while handling the queries of
customers. Therefore, communication is a best way to manage undisciplined employees.
Interact with the employees is helpful to provide them with new suggestions and ideas on
customer relationship as well as engagement.
4.3 Customer Retention
In case the customers are dissatisfied with the cleaning services, instead of getting
angry, the employees thank them instead. It deserves their appreciation to have been
supported the customers. It is not required to provide stress to the customers as doing it will
lead to bad mouth of advertising and negative reviews. Communication is helpful in this case
to retain the existing customers (Jasin, Hakimah and Faisal 2019). Interacting with the
customers over the phone as well as in-person can be helpful to understand their expectations.
If it is not feasible, then the employee should think about feedback by taking their survey.
The feedback is valuable to retain dissatisfied customers. Listening to the customer’s
complaints and responding to the complaints quickly is also required. As per the interview
data, the company is responding to the complaints in 1 week, while it is not helpful as the
customer have to wait for one week to solve their problems. Therefore, minimum 24 hours
customer services are to be helpful to deal with the complaining customers.

24INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Once the customers are lost, the managers are used to evaluate the former responses
of the customers. It helps to determine causes of loss of existing clients and deal with the
problems. If the customers are lost due to poor services, then review the documentation on
the cleaning services issues with the client account (Zablah et al. 2016). The staffs are going
through the emails received from the client side for tracking possible performance problems.
Based on the manager’s interview, a management meetings are conducted on weekly basis to
discuss the performance and customer service issues to avoid it in the future.
From the collected secondary data, it is analyzed that most of the managers are
thinking to use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to improve customer retention
and compete in the market with other organization. CRM helps the company to know their
existing clients in better way and know about their demands and expectations. CRM software
is not used to manage retention of the customers by itself, while it is used to help manage the
service activities around the customer engagement to improve over customer experiences
(Hill and Brierley 2017). The essence of this dimension is meeting with the customized
services that the customers are providing with good services and providing individualized
attention. Estimation of the client is done through giving the client with business cards, list of
the cleaning services provided, references as well as residential cleaning checklists. The
clients are always loved to see confidences, as it can relieve stress and worries and let them
know that the cleaning services is into good hands. In order to retain the customers, the
employees are required to listen to the customer’s complaints perfectly so that it is not
repeated in future (Musa et al. 2018). The employees are created positive emotional
experiences with the customers so that the customers are satisfied and also used their services
on continuous basis. The managers are focused to improve over the customer value and
loyalty.

25INDUSTRY RESEARCH
5. Discussion
5.1 Implications of the findings
The above findings show that the cleaning service industry has lack of employee
management which lead to dissatisfaction of the customers. The employees are not trained
enough to provide good customer services as well as good behavior with them. There is lack
of communication as well as interaction among employers as well as customers lead to
customer dissatisfaction. Due to increase in dissatisfaction level of the customers, there is
40% loss of the existing customers from using the cleaning services of BIC. Therefore,
employee performance dimension is a negative predictor towards the customer
dissatisfaction. The customer are perceived low assurance to get better cleaning services from
them to be dissatisfied (Ogilvie et al. 2017). There is a relationship between employee
performance as well as customer satisfaction. The company is focused mainly on their
feedback system to take real time responses from the customers about their experiences by
using their cleaning services. It helps them to get to know if the customers are happy, if not
happy what are possible reasons and issues faced by them. The cleaning services listen to
problems of their customers and value their feedback from different sources like survey,
emails and service review and also response to the queries (Schmidt and Pohler 20188). The
complaints of customers are taken at highest priority, and solved them in 24 hours’ time
period. The feedback of the customers are responded through phone calls, chat and email
responses so that immediately there is change in experience of the customer services.
5.2 Comparison of findings with the literature
From the literature study, it is seen that the factors which can lead to loss of existing
customers are poor customer service experience, out of date sales tactics and failed loyalty
programmes. After comparing data from literature review and findings, it is found that lack of

26INDUSTRY RESEARCH
communication among customers as well as employees lead to poor customer service
experiences. Sometimes, the customers are not able to talk to the person whom they get
services previous time (Wang and Xu 2017). Therefore, it is possible that the customer whom
satisfy with their services previously will not same services at that time. It leads to increase in
customer dissatisfaction. The feelings of the customer satisfaction raises when they compared
perceptions of their actual cleaning services with their own expectations. The satisfied
customers can lead to good experiences and if the customers are not satisfied with behaviour
and attitude of the employees and their performance, then the service industry will suffer a
loss. Customer trust and loyalty is gained to determine future intentions as well as behaviour
towards their cleaning services (Mostert, Petzer and Weideman 2016). As the company is
mostly focused on quality and price rather than customer relationship, therefore it leads to
poor customer loyalty.
5.3 Answer to the research questions
The first research questions is, to what extent communication can lead to retain
existing customers. Communication will help the company to aware of customer
‘expectations as well as demands, helps to build good customer-employee relationship. When
the customers are facing problems, then communication is way to understand their queries
and problems to solve it over phone calls, chats and email replies.
The second question is, to what extent does bad customer relationship influence the
loss of clients. A bad customer relationship impacts on expectations and wants of the
customers. It raised when the customers are put on hold of long time and wait for their
problems to be resolved. New clients are seek to business through word of mouth, therefore if
one customers can lost and avoid to take their cleaning services, then it would provide effect
on entire customer services.

27INDUSTRY RESEARCH
6. Recommendations
Based on the research findings and results, it was found that management of the
communication skills will help the company to retain their existing clients. The employees
are required to listen to their customers and act on their complaints so that it helps them to
gain customer loyalty. Therefore, it is recommended to effectively communicate with the
customers. BIC cleaning services is required to keep trying on gaining customer loyalty as
well as implement efficient customer retention strategies to improve over customer services.
As the organization is facing issues of poor customer service experience, therefore it is
recommended that the service industry should invest in customer retention. They should
require to know their customers in better way by knowing their expectations, wants as well as
demands. Efficient retention strategies helped the company to track as well as sell to their
customers those are likely to become a long term sources of the business revenue. Customer
retention is required for growing in business sales.
The company is recommended to care more about their existing clients. It is because
the existing clients should use the cleaning services from BIC, unless they are getting
disappointed experiences, they will use the services again and again from same company. As
there is a huge competition in the market, therefore gaining of new customers is quite
difficult for BIC. From the analyzed secondary data, it was found that establishment of client
trust and inspired confidence in the product or service is required to identify their
requirements. The company should recommend to spend less time as well as effort to find
new customers as well as convince them to use their services. Building relationship with new
customers is costed 16 times more to maintain the existing clients. The company should
recommend to improve offers as well as rate of customer satisfaction by listening to their
complaints and going through their feedback on cleaning service usage. Gaining of existing
customers lead to high profit as selling to the existing clients is less focused on the price. The

28INDUSTRY RESEARCH
existing clients should always trust the services and it is also easier to influence them to
become attentive in the services. As the company faces problem of lack of customer loyalty,
therefore they should recommend to keep a better customer base and customer value by
providing them quality cleaning services. It helps them engaged in addition to happy with the
services.

29INDUSTRY RESEARCH
7. Conclusion and limitations
The limitation of this study is that this research study has conducted with a small
timeline with limit of the researcher to only secondary data collection method. The data
collected using secondary data collection method from using interview method of the
managers of BIC cleaning services Australia. The data gathered from the interview of 4
managers of BIC includes their comments on the interview questions. The limitation of this
study do not provide effect on the research results as well as findings. There is also limited
scope of this study as the investigation work is focused on three factors lead to reduce
existing clients of the service industry. Therefore, in the future research, the researcher
recommended to evaluate other factors lead to client losses and select more managers for the
interview session.
Based on this research study, three of the independent variables are Poor customer
service, service failure and failed customer loyalty which are main factors of customer losses.
The secondary data collection method showed that customer retention is required to gain
customers by providing their quality services, focusing on customer’s complains and taking
steps to increase in business productivity. Most of the time the managers of the service
industry are not able to manage their disciplined employees and face huge competition in the
market. In such an environment, the service providers are compete in the market with their
competitors. The challenge is that they are facing issues to find ways for retaining existing
clients by winning their loyalty.

30INDUSTRY RESEARCH
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Appendix
1. Interview data from the managers
Interview Questions Respondent 1
General
Manager
Respondent 2
HR Manager
Respondent 3
Operation
Manager
Respondent 4
Customer
Relationship
Manager
Customer Relationship
How do you deal
with customers who
are dissatisfied with
your service?
Interacting with
the customers
over the phone as
well as in-person
can be helpful to
understand their
expectations.
In case the
customers are
dissatisfied, our
staffs instead of
getting angry,
always thank
them instead. It
deserves their
appreciation to
have been
supported the
customers.
We believed that
communication is
the best way to
meet with
customer’s
demands and
expectations.
The feedback can
be valuable to
retain dissatisfied
customers.
How do you plan to
tackle the increasing
competition from
other organisation?
We believed to
gain trust of the
customers and
provided them
innovative
BIC is using
CRM software to
manage retention
of the customers
by itself, while it
The cleaning
services of BIC is
focused on service
quality and price of
their services.
We are providing
them offers like
extra free services,
coupons and
discounts on their

37INDUSTRY RESEARCH
cleaning services
to expand all over
Australian states.
is used to help
manage the
service activities
around the
customer
engagement to
improve over
customer
experiences.
next cleaning.
Employee Performance
What steps should be
taken to ensure that
there is harmony
among the team?
Communication
is a way to know
the problems like
uncleaned areas
and unhygiene
services.
A better
personality of the
employee helps to
build stronger
relationships with
the customers.
We conducted
management
meetings on
weekly basis to
discuss the
performance and
customer service
issues to avoid it in
the future.
The employees are
always showing
respect and always
behaving well so
that they would
become repeated
customers.
How often do you
talk with their
employees about
their difficulties or
grudges in work?
On monthly basis On weekly basis On daily basis On daily basis
Do you give your We are conducted Emailed them We implemented We emailed the

38INDUSTRY RESEARCH
employees a briefing
of their work every
day at work about
what to focus on
more today?
management
meetings to
discuss on
individual
performance of
each employees.
about their
individual
performance
performance
management
system to measure
performance of
each employees.
employees on daily
basis with data on
their daily
performance.
What steps you
usually take once
you have identified
the employees who
have been
performing poorly at
work?
Invest in quality
programs
We trained our
employees to
provide quality
services to
customers and
trained to behave
politely with
clients in case
they are
dissatisfied.
Conducting
training
programme
Implement training
programme to train
the employees
facing customer
services
How do you manage
the undisciplined
employees?
We provided
them the
behavioral
feedback on the
employee portal.
Followed
employee
feedback portal
Communicate with
the employees
regarding their
problems
We followed
documents to write
down the key
points of the
employee’s
behavior and
discussed with
them by face-to-
face meetings.

39INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Customer Retention
What steps have you
taken till now to
increase
productivity?
Improvement
over the customer
value and loyalty
Responding to the
customer’s
queries in 24
hours
Focused on CRM
software to manage
customer’s services
Create positive
emotional
experiences with
the customers
Have you ever
stepped forward to
help your team to
cope up or come up
with new plan for
deal with
complaining
customers?
We are providing
the team with
training to
manage the
customer’s
complaints
Interact with the
employees to
provide them new
suggestions and
ideas
Implement training
programme
We told the team to
always listen to the
customer’s
complaints
perfectly so that it
is not repeated in
future.
What immediate
steps do you take at
work once you lose a
customer?
A sincere thank
you message can
always go for
good to retain the
customers. We
are focused on
customer loyalty
programme to
retain the lost
customers.
The complaints of
the customers are
solved within 24
hours and their
complaints are
taken as first
priority of the
company.
BIC evaluates the
former responses of
their lost customers
to determine causes
of loss of their
existing clients and
deal with the
problems. After
identifying the
problems, we
updated the
customers through
Review the
documentation on
the cleaning
services issues with
the client account
to know reason of
customer’s loss.