The Customer Revenge free essay sample

Harvard Business Review Case Study : The Customers’ Revenge by Dan Ariely (December 2007) As an introduction of this case, a little recall of the facts may not harm anyone. Atida is a 70 year old motor company, producing and selling stylish and innovative cars and they have just launched a new one on the market : the Andromeda XL. The brand has many loyal customers and devoted fans among various clubs and communities. Jim MacIntire and his colleagues from the customer service department have tried to enhance their operations by implementing various methods : For instance, the company offers comprehensive warranties, a special credit card rewarding customers with presents, and a new call center was implemented a year ago in India in order to answer customers’ phone calls. Despite such improvements, customers keep complaining, sending angry letters to the customer service and customer’s satisfaction seems to fade. As light is shed on these elements, one could wonder what could Atida do to deal with the unhappy customers ? First and for most, the company should deeply change the way it handles customers’ complaints. We will write a custom essay sample on The Customer Revenge or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They are not ennemies, they have spent a lot of money on one (or several) expensive car(s), sometimes they are truly devoted to the brand and are huge fans of it; Therefore they are entitled to be treated with consideration, especially when the product keeps breaking down (as in the case of a customer named Jessica Long). Thus when Lisa explains that  «She must get a life », her attitude towards customers is all wrong. Futhermore, thinking that a call-center (outsourced far away from the heart of the company and employing people that can hardly speak English) will solve all customers’ complaints, it’s a delusion. It only fosters disatisfaction. Indeed, it seems that the company is acting submissively and passively towards its customers and thus, Atida should develop a strong and active dialogue, thanks to regular contacts with its customers (through surveys or questionnaires, for instance) because many lessons can be learnt from them. Indeed, in an era where the Internet plays a predominent role in society, it appears that the times when managers and marketers were the only masters on board no longer exists. Nowadays, customers control the brand, can praise it to the skies or bad-mouth it thanks to blogs, social networks and YouTube. The reputation of a company and the image of a brand are no longer managed by marketers only but they are also in the hands of customers since word-of-mouth, bad or wrong, spreads like wildfire on the Internet. There is no miracle solution for Atida to deal with its customers and one should avoid opting for a Manichaean vision. Some managers may be willing to hierarchise customers according to their Customer Lifetime Value (ie. CLV, the present value of the future cash flows attributed to the customer relationship). Thus, customers like Tom Zacharelli, who have purchased several cars for the past years, that are devoted and loyal to the brand, would receive a better treatment and service (gifts, reimbursements, etc. since their CLV is higher. To the contrary, nothing would be done for customers that keep complaining because there is always something wrong (Jessica Long seems to be a good example of that kind) and are quite costly for the company. Such a classification of customers according to their CLV would be a good solution if word-of-mouth didn’t exist. Its power and the long-term effects arising from it can harm the brand, and make sales dwindle drastically. Other managers may be willing to try to satisfy all complaining customers, giving all of them nice treatments and compensations as a reward for bad experiences with the cars and the customer service. Their solution would be to forster the idea that the company treats customers on an individual basis and that it cares about them. Thus bad word-of-mouth would turn into good one, and customers would tell their relatives how the company treats them so well and they would become brand advocators. But think of the costs of such a solution. It might work for a while but it is surely not a long-term solution. As the emphasis is put on these two extreme solutions, the golden means must be found in order to deal with the unhappy customer problem. The solution would be to compare the CLV of each customer (because we know that some customer relationships are more profitable than others) with the  «word-of-mouth value » (this can be positive or negative and it is part of the Customer Social Value). An efficient Customer Relationship Management System shall be able to consider and assess the potential gains and losses for each value, so that and individual response can be found for each complaint. For instance, as I have previously explained, Tom has a high CLV but the value of his bad-mouthing is higher since he probably belongs to a fan community of Atida cars, and since, as a film-maker, he is able to make a really good video to tell people about his bad experience with the customer service and put it up on YouTube. In this case, in order to avoid huge losses and retain this valuable customer, Atida should do something to smooth over the dispute. Regarding Jessica’s case, her CLV is not as high as Tom’s but further investigations are mandatory to solve the problem : Are her complaints justified ? Is she able to spread a powerful bad word-of-mouth ? What could be the value of such a bad-mouthing ? In Atida’s case, the solution is about giving value balance and assessment of both the Customer Lifetime Value and the Customer Social Value (ie the value of the word-of-mouth).

Janis essays

Janis essays One of the most colorful music legends of the 1960s was Janis Joplin. Blues legend Janis Lyn Joplin was born on January 19th 1943, the eldest child of parents Seth and Dorothy Joplin. Janis was born and raised in the small Southern petroleum industry town of Port Arthur, Texas. Her father was a canning factory worker, her mother a registrar at a local business college. Her non-aberrational upbringing coupled with the atmosphere of Port Arthur at the time; generally restrictive, intolerant, and unnurturing must've made even Janis' early childhood difficult. By all accounts, however, Janis seems to have been a "normal" and happy child, who fitted society's usual definition of "pretty". It was in Janis' adolescence that the hang-ups and hassles that were to affect the path of the rest of her life. In a sense, her rigid upbringing played a large part in making Janis who she was. This would never have been admitted at the time, but, predictably, the "Port Arthur" ethic created a fire insi de Janis and kept it burning until her death. Janis' troubles began, when she was a teenager with her "good looks" gradually began to disintegrate, her soft blonde hair turned into an unruly brown mane. She also developed severe acne, which would scar her mentally as well as physically. Hence, Janis became something of a loner, as was named the ugly girl. She soon began avoiding mirrors, and her anxiety about her looks was made worse by the constant taunts by peers, who rejected her and often made fun of her. When Janis found that society had rejected her, she rejected it. Janis grew up on classical music and country music back in Texas, discovered the blues in Louisiana. Janis was soon inspired to both learn and appreciate music, and its roots were her idols included Odettea, Leadbelly and Bessie Smith, who would have great influence on her subsequent musical career, especially her vocal style. By the time Janis graduated from Thomas Jefferson High...

The brand perception impact of advertising for Starbucks Company Essay - 1

The brand perception impact of advertising for Starbucks Company - Essay Example This essay "The brand perception impact of advertising for Starbucks Company" analyze Starbucks's brand personality. Brand perÃ'•onality iÃ'• an attractive and appealing concept in the marketing of today. Aaker deÃ'•cribed it aÃ'• one of the core dimenÃ'•ionÃ'• of the brand identity and perhapÃ'• aÃ'• the cloÃ'•eÃ'•t variable to the conÃ'•umerÃ'•' deciÃ'•ion making proceÃ'•Ã'• on buying. The perÃ'•onality idea reÃ'•pondÃ'• to the tendency in contemporary Ã'•ociety to value perÃ'•onal relationÃ'•hipÃ'•. It alÃ'•o referÃ'• to the idea that relationÃ'•hipÃ'• are important in Ã'•ocial life. In termÃ'• of MaÃ'•low'Ã'• hierarchy of needÃ'•, it trieÃ'• to lift productÃ'• to higher levelÃ'• of need Ã'•atiÃ'•faction, like belongingneÃ'•Ã'•, love and eÃ'•teem. Brand perÃ'•onalitieÃ'• are created in different wayÃ'• and with different toolÃ'•. The creation alwayÃ'• involveÃ'• active communicationÃ'• on t he Ã'•ide of the firm: the perÃ'•onality haÃ'• to be diÃ'•Ã'•eminated to be alive. Brand equity reÃ'•earch iÃ'• an attempt to put a value on the Ã'•trength of a brand in the market, in the Ã'•ame way that the Ã'•hareÃ'•/Ã'•tockÃ'• put a value on the Ã'•trength of the corporation in the eyeÃ'• of the inveÃ'•torÃ'•. Indeed, brand equity reÃ'•earch haÃ'• Ã'•hown that the two are related – the growth in brand equity correlateÃ'• with the growth in Ã'•tock valueÃ'•, and alÃ'•o Ã'•aleÃ'•, profitÃ'•, price premiumÃ'• and employee Ã'•atiÃ'•faction. The brand equity reÃ'•earch haÃ'• two elementÃ'•: brand profiling – where your brand and itÃ'• competitorÃ'• are profiled againÃ'•t a Ã'•et of indicatorÃ'• and attributeÃ'•. The indicatorÃ'• are uÃ'•ually fixed within the model, but attributeÃ'• may be Ã'•pecific to the brand or itÃ'• category.

Answers to Finance Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answers to Finance Questions - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that since the Glass-Seagull Act that clearly defined the functions of investment banks, there has been several changes that have occurred in investment bank activities over the last few decades. These changes have been occasioned by market forces and regulatory requirements. Since the repeal of the Glass-Seagull Act in 1999, there has been increased competition in the investment banks sector due to more entry of more investment banks from commercial banks that opened investment banking wings. According to Santos, regulation are imposed to reduce risk, improve transparency as well as improve leverage. Some of these changes experienced include merchant banking, asset and portfolio management, research and security analysis, providing consultancy services during mergers, acquisitions and take-overs and banking for global funds transactions.This discussion highlights that a  money market mutual fund is where by many investors, both huge and small bring thei r funds together and invest them in short term securities. They are normally open-end funds where investors can purchase and sell their securities at will. These funds are professionally managed so as to reduce risks since the securities traded are highly liquid. Investment banks undertake to determine the levels of risk in different financial instruments and manage them so as to receive the best possible returns. Investment banks offer to trade in other financial instruments other than the conventional debt and equity securities.

Wireless Sensor Networks for Disaster Management

Wireless Sensor Networks for Disaster Management Abstract The world we are living is an event for disasters daily. Some of the disasters are naturally occurring and some occurring due to man-made catastrophes. So not only nature but also human beings are equally responsible for the happenings of these disasters. With the developments in the technologies it is very much possible to find a way to tackle these disasters. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) can be used in the developments of disaster management. Hence there is a need for development of a system for the disaster control and management. Also, keeping in mind about developing a structure which is efficient in terms of functioning and the costing. With this paper, we attempt to present some literature study and methodology used by other authors and find the pros and cons in their study. Also, we try to formulate an analysis of the proposed studies. Keywords- Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Disaster management. Introduction With the advancements in the WSNs it is possible now to detect and monitor various parameters in our surroundings. The sensors in a networks help us to monitor and keep track on the various paramenters. These parameters include temperature for fire detection, flow mesurement for detection of floods, Global Positioning System (GPS) for location trackink to name a few. With the monitoring of these parameters we can detect any disaster and with the network implementation we can be able broadcast the information. The broadcasting of information would help to reach many people and will alert the people, so that they can move to a safer place. In this paper we will be discussing about the iplementation done in the field of disaster management and would be focussing on the various aspects of the WSNs. The architecture details, componets used, networks used are some of the things to be discussed. Other than WSN, the use of Ad-hoc relay station, mobile communication, base station functions, c ell and cluster functions are also being discussed. The implementation of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) in a system has been done by many researchers over the years and there are various techniques of implementing them. Development and updating of technologies has made this even more possible. A.S Bhosle et al.[1]ÂÂ   presented classification of various sensors depending upon its function and about the different types of WSN protocols. The network consists of wireless sensor nodes, sink nodes, base stations, a gateway for information transferring, a backbone network and an observer at the output side. The WSN protocols are responsible for the communication between a sensor and the network devices in a network. The sensors can be classified based on their physical properties. These include the flow, positioning, temperature, pressure, acceleration etc. D.V Kishore et al. [2] discussed about the problems of disasters occurring at a mine or excavation location. The main concern in the article was about the blasts occurring in the mi nes and the consequences of that being an increase amount of air pollution, noise pollution and an increase in the chances of accidents in the mine area. They provided a hardware architecture using the traditional electronic components and with the help of that demonstrated the ways of tackling a mishap. S.Saha et al. [3]ÂÂ   proposed an architecture which was based on mobile communication network. The use of mobile communication concepts like cluster, cell, base station and frequency usage was discussed within the architecture. S. Rasaneh et al. [4] proposed an energy resourceful model and implementing the model with an additional communication network would make it more efficient. The model implementation included a hybrid network and a multi hop routing technique for the efficient energy usage. Also, the model implementation included deployment of sensors in various types of environments and depending upon that the sensing operations can be performed. With the use of multi-h op there will be less chances of signal loss or distortions. Thus, in this way the model can become more efficient. S.M. George et al. [5] proposed a Distress network for disaster management and the system architecture consists of 3 components; a Body Net, Sense Net, Vehicle Net Area Net. Body Net is a body worn WSN device which is used to keep a continuous track on the various aspects of a person like heartbeat, blood pressure, location etc. Sense Net is used for sensing the data and is mainly used keeping track of the monitored data. Vehicle Net is responsible for the detection of any disaster is also responsible for the transmission of information. Area Net is used for carrying large volumes of data and as it supports large bandwidth so that helps in sending images, videos and audio data. Kaur, Harminder et al. [6] proposed an architecture consisting of a cluster, an Ad-hoc network, base station, antenna and a satellite. Using these components an efficient disaster can be create d. The architecture works on the principle of multi hopping. After the literature analysis of various articles, we now focus on the methods used in the implementation part of the article. A.S Bhosleet al. [1] in his proposed model demonstrated a disaster about when fire breaks out. Consider in a network, there is a fire exposed area there are more than one sensors to sense the fire, these sensors can for example: thermistor, RTD, thermocouple etc. The wireless sensor node detects the fire and searches for the nearest sink node, then the sink node verifies the collected data with its predefined threshold value. If the threshold value is less than the received data, then a warning signal is send to the end user via base station and the backbone network. If the threshold is greater than received data, then an emergency message is send to the end user via base station and backbone network. D.V Kishore et al. [2] proposed a hardware architecture which had a transmitter and a receiver section. The sensors collected the sensed data as per their prop erty, the various sensors deployed were gas sensor, light sensor, temperature sensor and vibration sensors. The sensed value is converted to digital form by the analogue to digital converter and then is given to the multiplexer, the multiplexer then encodes all the sensed values and sends them to the transmitter and then the transmitter antenna transmits these values to the receiver section. The receiver antenna receives the transmitted values and these values are send to the de-multiplexer. The de-multiplexer then decodes the values and sends them to the microcontroller. The microcontroller then sends the decoded values to the output devices and we can see the output. S.Saha et al. [3] in proposed a heterogenous hybrid model of a network and sensors. The focus was providing a better network coverage and to limit the usage of Ad-hoc relay station (ARS). This was achieved by simply placing the ARS at the edges of the cell and with that the ARS was shared by multiple cells. Sensors no des were placed in a cell to sense various parameters like temperature, vibrations, location, light intensity etc. In a disaster situation, the sensor nodes help in detection of the survivors. After detection, the information is passed to the mobile communication network and the ARS and the base station are responsible for the effective communication between the network.ÂÂ   S. Rasaneh et al. [4] proposed a structure using a simple cluster model of a communication network consisting of sensor nodes, head nodes, second level head nodes and base station. The sensor nodes are used to sense different functions accordingly; these are seismic vibrations for earthquake, temperature for fire, flow measurement for floods, weather sensors for humidity etc. In a disaster situation, the sensor nodes in a cluster firstly sense the various parameters as per their individual sensor properties and then send the collected data to the second level cluster head and then a cluster head receives al l the data from other second level cluster heads from every cluster. Then, the base station receives all the data from the cluster heads. The data is send from a second level cluster to the cluster head to have an efficient data flow without any signal losses. This structure uses the multi-hop technique so that data can transmission can be done efficiently. Kaur, Harminer et al. [6] proposed an architecture involving usage of a mobile network, radio and satellite communication. During any disaster, the sink nodes collects data from the local sensors and ARS. The data is then collected by the base station with the help of the sink nodes in the network. The base station sends the data to the antenna and the antenna broadcasts the signals to the satellite. The satellite then sends the warning about the disaster to the local hospitals and the ambulance. There are various gaps in the above discussed articles. We cannot be relying on an architecture that is a hardware based as within any kind of disaster it cannot be accurate and depending upon the intensity and how powerful the disaster is the hardware with not withstand and would surely be damaged. Also about the deployment of ARS in the edges of cell, then the signal handling capacity of the ARS gets affected and this produces latency in the network. This affects the performance of the architecture. In the fire disaster system, the distance between the cluster and the operating network is very large and if there is any latency introduced in the network, then it would be very late for the signaling about the disaster. With the developments in the field of Wireless Sensor networks we can surely be opting on trying and formulating new ways to find solution to these problems. Also with the ongoing problems in terms of disasters there is a need to do to. After the study, there are still many developments that can be done in many aspects of the architecture, technology used and the components used. The focus must be on trying new developments and if possible go to find the solutions of the current problems related with the disaster management. WSN can help in predetermining of the any disaster and we can then alert everybody about it. References [1]A. S. Bhosle and L. M. Gavhane, Forest disaster management with wireless sensor network, in 2016 International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, and Optimization Techniques (ICEEOT), 2016, pp. 287-289. [2]D. V. Kishore, D. V. Gowda, Shivashankar, and S. Mehta, MANET topology for disaster management using wireless sensor network, in 2016 International Conference on Communication and Signal Processing (ICCSP), 2016, pp. 0736-0740. [3]S. Saha and M. Matsumoto, A Wireless Sensor Network Protocol for Disaster Management, in 2007 Information, Decision and Control, 2007, pp. 209-213. [4]S. Rasaneh and T. Banirostam, A New Structure and Routing Algorithm for Optimizing Energy Consumption in Wireless Sensor Network for Disaster Management, in 2013 4th International Conference on Intelligent Systems, Modelling and Simulation, 2013, pp. 481-485. [5]S. M. George, W. Zhou, H. Chenji, M. Won, Y. O. Lee, A. Pazarloglou, et al., DistressNet: a wireless ad hoc and sensor network architecture for situation management in disaster response, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 48, pp. 128-136, 2010. [6]H. Kaur, R. S. Sawhney, and N. Komal, Wireless sensor networks for disaster management, International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering Technology, vol. 1, pp. 129-134, 2012.

Homers Iliad :: essays research papers

General Plot Summary of Homer\'s Iliad The Iliad is a lengthy poem of some 15,693 lines, divided into 24 books (cantos) and has as its theme the anger (menis) of the Greek hero Achilles, the greatest of the heroes to sail to Troy. In the tenth year of the war, Achilles quarrels with the leader of the expedition, Agamemnon, over a slight to Achilles\' honor. In his anger, Achilles withdraws from the fighting and wins the aid of Zeus, the king of the gods, to see to it that the war turns against the Greeks. Eventually (Book 9) things begin to go so badly that Agamemnon sends a delegation to Achilles to offer him compensation and ask him to rejoin the fighting. In an effort to make good the slight to Achilles\' honor, Agamemnon promises an immense amount of treasure, but Achilles still refuses to help the Greeks. In the anger of the moment, he declares that he will only fight once the Trojans attack his own ships: at that point, he feels, he will be able to rejoin the battle as a point of personal honor rather than as Agamem non\'s hired lackey. In the course of Book 12 (the center of the poem) the Trojans bring the war right up to the fortifications surrounding the Greek ships. Under the leadership of the heroic Hector, they manage to breach the Greek defenses and are soon in a position to destroy the Greek fleet. At this point, Achilles sees the weakness of his plan: should the Trojans destroy the fleet, the Greek forces would be placed in a vulnerable position and could potentially be wiped out. Unable to rejoin the battle himself without losing face, he is persuaded to allow his loyal friend Patroclus to join the battle, disguised in Achilles\' armor, in order to win the Greeks some breathing room. Unfortunately, Patroclus gets caught up in the fighting and, contrary to Achilles\' instructions, attempts to take the city of Troy himself, only to be killed by Hector with the aid of the pro-Trojan god Apollo (Book 16). At this point, Achilles falls into an inhuman rage: his former anger at Agamemnon an d the Greeks is forgotten in his grief at the death of his friend and his desire to take revenge on Hector. In his anger, Achilles slaughters Trojans by the dozens and in a heartless manner that

Manager Roles Essay

1. â€Å"A Manager’s role is dynamic and complex.† Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to appropriate theory and practice. Manager’s role is to allocate resources and directs the operations, by making the best use of human and financial and material resources to the organization. Managers are required to do planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling. Fayol’s theory of a management function which is the POCCC allows the organization to have more effective and efficient in goods and services than other competitors. The dynamic and complex work of a manager is based on interpersonal, informational and decisional roles. Given the above roles according to Henry Mintzberg, the managers are placed in different areas to perform individual task or multiple tasks. Interpersonal roles require a manager to deal outside business like as figurehead who represent as a representative of the company to attend outside meetings a nd gathering. Commanding is required in manager to direct the department to meet its requirement and coordinating the events to ensure the process of the movement. A good manager spends more time outside his office than in his office, allowing himself to liaise to outside and deemed helpful to the organization. A manager monitors his/her own department by understanding the people involving him/herself to the conversation and receiving the information. Being a the head person, allow the first-hand news or information to receive and screen, hence given the choice of disseminating down to the people in the organization. A good manager will decide whether is appropriate to share and distribute information which is useful to others. Company spokesperson can be a manager to relate official company information to inside and outside of the organization like publicity and benefits of the company. Mainly managers are in this role which is the decisional role; allow him/her decision to plan the changes in th e good and services. Restructuring of the entrepreneurial maybe heavily depends on the managers which refer to the top management. Managers must have the power to control the internal factor like strikes, which company cannot afford stoppage of work. Important factor of dealing customer is required to ensure satisfaction of the customers. Manager must be reasonable to determine the pricing of their products sold to the customers and negotiating with them in a professional way. A good manager take cares of their people by allocating sufficient time and personnel in the organization. Pay has to be determined accordingly to individual’s work and ensuring the fairness among the fellow workers.