Tea and More Case study
Major facts.
Tea and More (TAM) was acquired by Jack Reynolds and two other partners from its founders. In its early days, this company grew remarkably in terms of profitability and market share. In 2009, TAM’s revenues had marked growth of approximately US$25 million (Doyle & Bell, 2009). However, being under a temperamental leader, TAM started to experience problems such as staff turnover and poor customer service. His employees have been struggling with Jack’s attitude such as scorching emails and voicemails especially, when he is expressing discontents. In other words, under Jack’s leadership, TAM has continued to experience several challenges despite its significant expansion.
Major problem.
The biggest problem at TAM is caused by customer service. Seemingly, there are cases of under-staffing that make it challenging to offer quality services to customers. This is a problem that has been forcing this company to spend valuable in hiring and training new employees. As noted, this company has employed three sales representatives working on a full-time basis and they are expected to serve major accounts that are spread across states. Contractual staffs are also employed and they are responsible for smaller accounts (Doyle & Bell, 2009). Unfortunately, over the years, the relationship between contract personnel and TAM has been challenging. For instance, some personnel argue that they cannot afford to contact their clients regularly through phone calls because it is expensive.
At the same time, clients complain that they rarely see the sales representatives. In such cases, clients are forced to either look for an alternative or make their orders online (Doyle & Bell, 2009). This means that the clients will incur additional shipping costs, but this makes the salespeople on contract angry because they do not receive commissions when orders are made online. For this reason, it is clear that the relationship between sales representatives and customers is poor and this leads to poor delivery of services. Their pleas to be given a commission from online orders have not been successful because TAM fears that it will encourage them not to contact their clients as expected (Doyle & Bell, 2009). Consequently, customer services have been affected negatively and at the same time increasing the vulnerability of TAM to competition and loss of customers.
Possible solutions.
- Connecting with customers.
- Valuing customers and understanding their concerns.
- Keeping an open mind and encourage positive feedback.
Advantages and disadvantages of possible solutions.
On the one hand, connecting with customers, understanding their concerns, and keeping an open mind helps to improve customer service. These solutions help to make customers feel valued as well as establishing a strong relationship (Puri, 2012). They enable businesses to deliver goods and services that meet their needs and this makes their customers happy. These are solutions that enhance effective communication thereby making it easier for TAM to understand any grievances from employees. On the other hand, these solutions can hinder innovation of the business. When businesses remain too focused on meeting the needs and expectations of consumers, their creativity to produce new products can be limited. Therefore, although TAM should focus on improving their customer service, this company should also consider its level of creativity and innovativeness.
Choice and rationale
Connecting with customers is the best solution that TAM should implement to improve their customer service. They are important considerations because customers are considered as the foundation of any business and they determine its success or failure. Notably, by connecting with customers it becomes easier to understand their needs as well as increasing their satisfaction (Hose, n.d). Secondly, a positive connection with customers makes it possible to understand their concerns. In this case, TAM will understand what their customers need and respond to their concerns promptly. It will also become easier to employ marketing and advertising strategies that will generate quick sales (Hose, n.d). More importantly, when customers feel that they are valued by the company, then their confidence over products and services will increase. This means that they will come back to buy again and this will contribute to the long-term success of the business. The interaction between the business and the company will determine whether a strong relationship will emerge or not (Hose, n.d). For example, in TAM, there are a few numbers of sales representatives that make it difficult for customers to consult and make orders. Moreover, online purchases have created some grievances from the sales representatives that have undermined how they relate with their customers (Doyle & Bell, 2009). Therefore, in the case of TAM, the management should improve how they relate with their customers and address their concerns. The more customers continue to make online orders; TAM should also consider increasing compensation to sales representatives.
Implementation
The first step is to identify the problems hindering customer service. After identifying these problems, TAM should develop strategies to solve the problems. For instance, TAM should increase commissions for sale representatives to enable them to communicate with clients. TAM should also follow up to assess if their strategies are improving how they connect with their customers. Secondly, TAM should train their employees on how to relate with their customers to ensure that they will be satisfied. Its management should also take advantage of online and digital platforms to help their customers to make online orders easily. Moreover, TAM should add more sales representatives. These are actions that will make it easier to access customers as well as responding to their needs.
References
Doyle, B., & Bell, A. H. (2009). Reading the Tea Leaves at Tea and More: Resolving Complex
Supply Chain Issues. OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, 2(3), 172-177.
Hose, C. Customer importance in Marketing. Retrieved from:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/customer-importance-marketing-22741.html
Puri, R. (2012). How a tea shop mastered the art of customer service. Retrieved from: