Question 1.

The current process for fulfilling a room service request at the Luxmark hotel can be described as follows: After the tray is prepared at the room service station, the server proceeds to the room, knocks on the door, sets up the meal, has the customer sign the check, asks if anything else is needed, and then returns to the room service station.

a. Draw a flowchart that describes this process. (5 points)

b. From the perspective of creating a high level of customer satisfaction from this experience, what improvements might you suggest to enhance this process?  Think creatively! (5 points)

NOTE: Please be professional when you are answering this question. Please do not draw on the piece of paper and take the picture and upload that picture. I am sure everybody has Microsoft Word and at least you can draw in that software.

Question 2.

Analysis of customer complaints at the Lauren Elizabeth Apparel Company revealed errors in five categories, such as billing, shipping, etc.

a. Use the appropriate tool to analyze the data (5 points)

b. Determine the next step in the improvement process. (5 points)

Error category

Frequency

 Billing errors

995

 Delivery errors

795

 Long delays

680

 Electronic Charge errors

5220

 Shipping  errors

2310

NOTE: You DO have to send Microsoft Excel file for Question 2. (Please use ONE EXCEL FILE in different tabs for question 2 and 3 with different sheet)

Question 3.

The manager of the RiosDeLibros bookstore  is trying to determine whether sales of a new children’s book are correlated with the dollars being put into local advertising. Weekly book sales versus advetising dollars are shown in the table below. Plot a scatter diagram and compute the correlation using Excel tools. What do your results indicate? (10 points)

Week

Advertising

Sales

1

700

1595

2

620

1505

3

650

1536

4

620

1466

5

600

1466

6

570

1390

7

590

1440

8

540

1340

9

575

1390

10

580

1400

11

515

1290

12

520

1310

13

590

1455

14

700

1580

15

720

1635

16

730

1650

17

760

1670

18

665

1538

19

675

1550

20

660

1553

21

640

1515

22

665

1536

23

675

1538

24

650

1550

25

545

1338

26

560

1385

27

540

1385

28

575

1390

29

555

1400

30

600

1466

NOTE: You DO have to send Microsoft Excel file for Question 3. (Please use ONE EXCEL FILE in different tabs for question 2 and 3 with different sheet)

CASE STUDY FOR CHAPTER 11

The Morgan Company

Please look at the Morgan Company Case study in your book and answer following questions (page 591).

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER FOR HW3 FROM CHAPTER 11

1.    How did management fail in its strategic planning? (10 Points)

What principles and ideas discussed in chapter 11 might have helped this organization succeed in meeting the new strategy? (15 Points)

GENERAL QUESTION

Thinking about organizations that you encounter in your daily life (your college, grocery store, restaurants, etc.) identify examples of customer focused practices from Table 3.1 that are evident in these organizations. (15 Points)

FOR EXAMPLE: My favorite store in terms of customer satisfaction is Trader Joe’s.

Here are the key customer-focused practices for performance excellence for Trader Joe’s include (based on my perception and please note that my answers are shorth here, since I would like to give an example):

·       Identifying the most important customer groups and market segments;

Trader Joe’s knows its customer group and select the products accordingly. They sell a lot of organic products in a small package with high quality.

·       Understanding the voice of the customer through effective listening and learning strategies;

Trader Joe’s is focused on product innovation and selling groceries and wine at a cheap price. Because customers know they can get high-quality stuff at a low price, they pack Trader Joe’s stores.

·       Understanding the linkages between customer needs and design/production/delivery processes;

Trader Joe’s offer a lot of organic products at cheaper value. Product variety is impressive. Eighty percent of Trader Joe’s products are in-house, meaning that customers can’t get them anywhere else and the grocer can sell them at lower prices. The creativity of the in-house products creates loyalty to the brand.

·       Creating a customer-focused culture that contributes to customer engagement; managing and resolving complaints effectively, and measuring customer satisfaction, engagement, and dissatisfaction, and acting on the results to improve organizational processes.

Stores are always clean, workforce always answer customer questions about any products, workforce is very engaged with customers and solve their problems immediately.

GOOD TO GREAT Companies for HW3

Please look at the companies that I assigned to everybody to prepare yourself a Good to Great writing for HW3 (please see below for your assigned companies based on your surname). Some of them are listed as great companies, some of them are listed as direct comparison of great companies, and some of them are listed as unstained companies. Some of them are I just assign them since we think they are great or good. (30 points).

a. Identify their strengths and weaknesses.

b. Why did they select as great, good and unstained companies, why some others not even made the list? If you have a new company, how do you rank.

c. What is their current situation?  What are their stock market values for now or do they still alive? Why and why not?  Are they still great, good or unsustain based on your research?

d. Especially for the new companies (like Google, Trader Joe’s, etc) are they great, good or unsustain based on your research and based on the Good the Great book descriptions?

PS: Please note that not all the questions are applicable for all the companies. Also, only one company has been assigned to you.