Peace of Mind

Nowadays it’s rare to hear about someone who did not shop or order a product online. I remember my first time I decided to buy a book from Amazon since year 2000 and I felt that I’m not going to receive the book and the money I paid is gone as I didn’t shop online before. The second step after placing the order is the invoice; there were multiple options for shipment based on duration and the higher the duration (number of days from placing the order to delivery) the cheapest it costs. As a result, Amazon allows me to adjust my invoice based on my preferences and urgency on receiving my order; I place my choice as the most urgent as I remember it was three days. Next day my friend told me that I can track the shipment then I login to Amazon and look for tracking shipment, it was showing that my order has left the U.S. and it’s in London ready for shipment to Bahrain. At last I got my book after three days as I requested and I was happy and surprised at the same time.

Amazon packages

How Can Amazon or any online shopping portal handle customer orders shipment? Do they do it by them self or do they outsource it to other company?

When I receive my order it was packed in FedEx box then I realized that Amazon is outsourcing the function of online tracking,
handling delivery and customs clearance.

We have learned from our first session that Operations Management has ten critical decisions and one of them is supply chain management. It is obvious that Amazon supply chain manager find outsourcing logistics is advantageous in improving delivery reliability and speed.

As Amazon is focusing in its core business, the concept of outsourcing supply chain is now entrenched as best practice in most sectors. Whether the business is shipping within Asia or across the globe, FedEx is in the business of providing integrated supply chain solutions to customers. The many benefits of an efficient supply chain will help contribute to the business most important goal – improvement of bottom-line profits.

Benefits that can be achieved by working with FedEx include:

  • Visibility of inventory flowing through the company supply chain
  • Reduction of unnecessarily high inventory levels
  • Enhanced customer service by meeting tight deadlines and complex requirements
  • Reduced warehousing costs

 

Is FedEx more efficient in handling shipment, delivery and custom clearance than if Amazon did it by itself? Is Amazon driving down cost by having FedEx as a partner ?

Watch the amazing video about FedEx http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdm2t952jYg

For more information about FedEx please visit www.FedEx.com

Winning with Customer Service

 

 

Operation management in the banking sector is challenging for me since I’m holding the duties of branch manager. Last class we have learned about operation management in the service sector. I didn’t realize that what I’m doing is considered as operation management. As you all know customer wants and satisfaction is the success measure of any business; i.e. if customer left our branch dissatisfied he will be unwilling to deal with the bank and it will affect the bank reputation.

I have just faced customer complaint last week when his car loan application went into a long process over our bank departments. He was saying that his friend applies for the same in other bank and he got the car after three days only. When I contact the other department asking about the reason for the delay it was not reason that will stop processing the loan and the loan can be processed now and then the customer is going to provide us with the requested document.
What I have realized here, bank departments that have no direct customer interaction will not do their job based on customer is first, what they do basically is to make sure that all documents needed are provided.

What do you think about operations, credit and risk department? How can they be involved in providing excellent customer service?

Moreover, the customer was complaining that the customer service representative was not clear about the missing document. I have talked to the customer service representative and realized that she did not read the document properly before sending it to the concern department and at the same time the car loan were approved from three departments without realizing the missing document.
I think the problem was from all departments starting from the front line to the back line. At the end his requested was processed in exceptional bases because the bank policy prohibits processing such loan without the required document.

Do you think the bank policy is a source of not meeting customer expectations? What about exceptions? Does it meet customer expectations?

At the end, the customer gets his car in the same day he raised the complaint and he left the bank satisfied and happy. He will be dealing with the bank as his loan will last for seven years which will leads for a strong customer relationship. As you all realized the problem was from the front line at the beginning, I have explain the problem with the customer service representative and instruct her how to deal with such cases.

How can the customer service representative avoid customer complaint? Is training enough?