A

Project Report
On
‘‘CUSTOMER REALATIONS MANAGEMENT”
WITH
ALTER EGO LEARNING

SUMBITTED TO
BHARATI VIDYAPEETH INSTITUTE OF
ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT

FOR THE DEGREE

OF
BBA (MARKETING)

Submitted by:
NIHAR VASANT GHARAT
ROLL NO-55
BATCH:2017-2020

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

PROF. SAMEER SONAWANE
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

As a part of my educational effort I have been allotted a summer project

in ALTER EGO LEARNING, Mumbai for 45 days. I would take this
opportunity to thank Mr. ABHAY VALSANGKAR (CEO) for his
immense support extended which helped me throughout this project.

I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to PROF. SAMEER

SONAWANE the project guide and subject specialist for her valuable
guidance and suggestions provided all throughout my project. HIS
constant review and conceptual insights acted as the supporting pillar
for my project work.

I would also thank my entire ALTER EGO Team for helping me in and
out and for being present whenever needed, also I am grateful to all my
respondents who took out time to interact with me which acted as the
main input for my project.

I would also like to thank my college and internal faculties for giving
me this opportunity to get the first corporate exposure and supporting
me throughout this journey. This project helped me to learn new
concepts and gave me a practical hand on experience of the theoretical
concepts learned earlier.

MEET LALJI SHANKHALA

BBA (MARKETING)
Signature
PROF. SAMEER SONAWANE
 DECLARATION

I, MEET LALJI SHANKHALA hereby declare that this project

report is completely my piece of effort which has been carried
out in ALTER EGO LEARNING, Mumbai. I have adequately
citied and referenced the original sources. I also declare that I
have adhered to all principles of academic honesty and integrity
and have not misrepresented or fabricated or falsifies any
idea/data/fact/source in my submission.

I also agree in principal not to share the vital information with

any other person outside the organization and that I have not
submitted it for any award or any other title, degree or diploma.

Date:

MEET LALJI SHANKHALA

 PREFACE

In this era of fast changing world, mere classroom teaching is

not sufficient to attain maturity and perfection for application
theory into practice. The dynamic economy, political and
technological environment in which we live continually place
demand on us to change, improve and learn more about jobs,
superiors and subordinates.

The knowledge through project report is an essential

requirement for BBA students. The purpose of this project
report is to study the (CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGEMENT,
CUSTOMER ATTRACTION AND MARKETING STRATEGIES ) with
the special reference to ALTER EGO LEARNING

Signature
MEET LALJI SHANKHALA
(Student)
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The project is aimed at understanding consumer relations

management. It begins with consumer attraction is all about
and also analyze the company business.

Methodology used for the data collection is both primary and

secondary which is personal visit and invoice and sales report
respectively.

The study of the company profile is done in detail which

further also explains the service provided and its
organizational structure.

Further there is an analyzation of major learning during the

internship and also the SWOT Analysis of company.

There is also a study of important strategies, how to convince

customer, understanding need and wants of consumer.
 TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER NO. PARTICULARS PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION
 OVERVIEW OF INDUSTRY
 PROFILE OF THE ORGANISATION
 GROWTH OF INDUSTRY
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF
STUDY
3. CONCEPTUAL DISCUSSION
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
 NEW DEVELOPMENT OF
COMPANY AND INDUSTY
4. DATA ANALYSIS
 METHODS
5. MY CONTIRBUTION TO THE
BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
6. CONCLUSION
7. SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT
1.INTRODUCTION
 INTODUCTION TO ALTER EGO LEARNING

Abhay Valsangkar is the founder of Alter Ego Learning, A L&D centre

which has a vision to make every potential employee, a potential
employer.

Abhay Valsangkar is a Lifelong Learner and believes in the philosophy of

“The more we learn; we realize how much more there is to learn”. He has
trained over 10,000 students and is on a Mission to train 5,00,000
students in the next 5 years.

Along the journey of Lifelong Learning and training the youth on skills
that really matter, he has received few awards and recognition along the
way like:

 National Award from 13th President of India , Mr. Pranab

Mukherjee for securing an All India Rank 1 in Ministry of HRD
ISTD Diploma Program.
 Secured Best Skill Development Trainer in India at International
Education Icon Awards by H.E Mr. Daniel Chuburu , Ambassador
, Embassy of Argentine Republic
 Alter Ego Learning received the award for Best L&D Solutions in
India , at India Leadership Awards 2019, from Dia Mirza , Good
Will Ambassador , United Nations
 Received an award from Mr. Arvind Sawant , Minister of Heavy
Industries and Public Enterprises for Youth Skill Development
Abhay has had the privilege to learn from the best in the world including
the likes of Mr. Robin sharma, Jack Canfield , Dr. John De Martini ,
Brian Tracy , Gaur Gopal Das , Jeffrey Archer and vows to transfer the
lessons to the youth of country to make them more employable .
 Vision
To be the Global Centre of Excellence for Training and Skill Development
in Training and Development Sectors.

Mission
Enhancing human and organizational excellence in development sectors by
blending frontier clean energy technologies to achieve economy and
energy security.

Value
We value our drive and commitment to provide cutting edge technologies
and top quality service to our clients, sharing our knowledge and caring for
their needs.

Attitude
We constantly strive to motivate every power professional to tap his unique
human endowments, consciousness, imagination and willpower. Together
we make a difference.

Objectives
To leverage its core competency of intellectual capital for catering to the
growing needs of better employee.
Detailed Comprehensive Objectives
 To enhance existing skill sets in upcoming technologies to prepare efficient
manpower and maximize employment opportunities.

 To conduct Skill development Programs in all areas of Generation,

Transmission, Distribution, Equipment Manufacturing and Power Trading
including Renewable Energy Sources, to achieve the Ministry of Power’s
target of training and skill development of Manpower.

 Helping individuals to identify and achieve their development, growth and

career goals.
 Adopting the highest standards of quality and service, aiming at cultivating
professional competence and providing effective business and human
capital solutions.

 Maintaining a customer-focused organization with a strong partnering

culture.

 Adopting modern training methodology which emphasize trainees’ active

participation and making them part of the training process.

 Growing a balanced portfolio of business.

 Maintaining a customer-focused organization with a strong partnering

culture

 To provide skill-oriented training to meet the need of the industry and

society. To facilitate effective interactions of students, faculty and
management with industry personnel, alumni, academicians of premiere
Institutions and other stake holders.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATION

SWOT analysis provides a framework for assessing almost any business

issue. Therefore, its application in training is limited only by the
imagination of the trainer. Facilitators usually use a 2 X 2 grid to show the
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats identified by trainees.
The technique is especially useful in analyzing six fundamental aspects:
products, processes, customers, distribution, finance and administration.
Analysis yields a picture of the positive and negative aspects of the issue
in question. From this analysis, the trainer can elicit potential actions that
could be used to correct problems or leverage identified strengths.

Strengths:- Build, Maintain and Leverage

Strengths are assessed by analyzing fundamental issues that include

competitive advantages, organizational capabilities, significant areas of
experience or expertise, and advantages in price, value and quality. This
analysis highlights the strong points of the organization. From there, action
plans can be drawn up to build on these strengths, maintain them or
leverage them.

Weaknesses: Remedy Or Exit

This part of the analysis identifies weaknesses so that ways can be found
to eliminate or minimize them. Typical analysis focuses on issues, such as
weaknesses in the organization’s value proposition, gaps in capabilities,
lack of financial strength or problems with cash flow, the supply chain,
morale, commitment or leadership.

Opportunities: Prioritize And Optimize

Opportunities analysis addresses where priorities should be set or how

efforts might be redirected. Issues typically analyzed in this phase include
market developments, competitor vulnerabilities, global influences,
technological advance and potential partnerships.

Threats: Counter

The objective of the threats analysis is to identify and find ways to mitigate
potential threats. Topics might include pending legislation, environmental
issues, competitor intentions, market demand, technologies, obstacles to
current plans, insurmountable weaknesses and economic issues.

Opportunities for Trainer

SWOT analysis can be scaled from broad issues to those of limited scope.
It can be used to address anything from questions of corporate strategy to
individual career planning. This flexibility makes it a particularly practical
tool for the trainer and one of the most effective training methods for
getting learners engaged and thinking about the issues.
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 CONSUMER RELATION

1. INTRODUCTION:-

Consumer relations is to keep old customers, attracting new customers,

marketing new items or services, expanding complaint handling, and
reducing costs. Consumer relations is very important for the company to
build trust to the public and to keep their name in customers’ mind, so when
customers think about a product they will think of that company’s name.

Consumer relations is also to break the line between business and

customers; it allows them to know each other more, especially company
has a chance to know its customers needs and wants, and to provide
satisfied product or service

WHY CUSTOMER RELATIONS ?

Consumer relation is to look after the two types of customers, which are
internal customers and external customers. Internal customers refer to
those who are working in the organization, and external customers are
those who are considered as buyers. (Internal customers need employers to
listen to what they want to say and what they are promised. Showing them
that you have confidence and trust in they will make them work hard for
you.

The main things that employers need to do are to make their company
goals and missions to be understood by his employees. So when they are
interested in those goals, they will strive to succeed them. Collecting
feedbacks from workers is also a crucial idea for employers. The
second major point is to allow them to know that you appreciate their works
by saying “thankyou”

reward them salary bonus or paying them a meal. External relations, too,
require you to appreciate their needs. Customers will not think about your
company, but they will when they need something. To make your business
pop up in their minds when they need what your business has is to make
them feel that you are there for them when they need. This will not be an
easy task for you to achieve, but you will win your customers feeling when
you manage to succeed it

Maintaining your relationship with both internal and external customers is

essential. Without internal customers, you will not be able to provide
products or services to external clients. And you have to remember that
you will not make a profit (money) when you do not have external clients.

Maintaining Relation

The concepts of maintaining the relation between public or opinion leader

to the public are to communicate openly to know what publics want and
how to provide them.
Customers Relationships Management (CRM) also cross finger in term of
maintaining relations
as well.
“CRM is a strategic approach concerned
with creating improved shareholder value through the development of
appropriate relationships with key customers and customer segments.
CRM unites the potential of relationship marketing strategies and IT
[information technology] to create profitable, long-term relationships with
customers and other key stakeholders.”
The company should know how their customers from their satisfaction of
products (goods and services). The satisfaction should be derived from
experience and expectations.

The one and only objective that the company needs to maintain relations
with its customer Is economics. Companies compete for each other to
retain current customers and obtain more new customers. When it comes
to these relationship building, I think Starbuck Coffee is a good lesson to
learn. In the first principle: Make It Your Own in the Starbuck Experience
book by Joseph A. Michelli. The top managers let their partners– baristas
to work with whatever strategies base on their individual creativity to build
a relationship with customers within five principles. Those five principles
are Be welcoming, Be genuine, Be considerate, Be knowledgeable

Consumer-Generated Media

Consumer-Generated Media (CGM) is to advertise on the media that

consumers now a days usually engage in. For example, consumers mostly
spread their words of mouth to other consumers, and it is very effective
that the company, such as blogs, social media and so on. (Matthew, Terry,
& Neal, 2011)Since technology has become better from day to day, there
are two worlds. Which are the world that we are living nowadays, the world
that we do face-to-face communication; and virtual world, the world that
people can just sit in one place and can communicate with others from far
distance, it is also called massively multiplayer online world.

Online players mostly believe on comments and reviews from their online
friends before they decided to buy a product or service. Survey found that
when it comes to suggestion on a particular thing, Generation X seems to
get more trust rather than generation Y, 25 percent versus 15 percent. The
results demonstrate that customers believe in their online friends more than
they believe in advertising, even they do not know each other personally,
(Len, 2012)

Word of mouth in the digital age can be considered as a crucial point for
consumer-generated media, too. When marketers found out the psychology
of customers in the digital age, they will use some famous online users,
who are got attention by mass online users, to do promotion for their
products or services. These activities are
known as, “buzz”
word-of-mouth marketing. Mostly, buzz is used to reach the goal of
successful brand build for the company (public
relations) or promoting company’s products (marketing).
Those famous online users can be considered
as ‘opinion leader’ (Thomas, 2006)

Sometimes opinion leaders receive the word of trustworthy more than the
company or media when they share something new on their social media
account. (John, 2015)
Opinion leaders are not always to promote the product or service for the
company, but they criticize the product that they were served with a
particular company. For example, the review of
“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”
has sold world widely over 25 million copies in hard-copied since the first
publication in 1989. This non-fiction book has included about twenties
positive reviews from various people and intuitions over the world. The
decision that the author and publisher put this review is to attract and get
loyalty from new customers

Another example is “The Book Thief”, the2008 edition was inserted a

small line of words under the title, which is “The NO.1INTERNATIONAL
BESTSELLER

Consumer’s Rights

Consumer's Rights was introduced by the 35th president of the United

States of America, John F.
Kennedy, in 1962, “
Consumers by definition, include us all,”
Kennedy said in his Congressional
Statement, “They are the largest economic group, affecting and affected by
almost every public and private economic decision. Yet they are the only
important group whose views are often not heard.”

They are the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose,
and the right to be heard. There are four rights such as the right to safety,
the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. The
right to safety is to protect people from the marketing of goods that may
have the negative impact on their health or lives. The right to be informed
is to give fact information and to protect people from distortion information
from advertising, branding or other activities. The right to choose is to
make sure that people can access to a diversity of products and service at
various prices. The right to be heard guarantees that the government policy
will be interested in consumers, and they will get fair and quick treatment
in its administrative tribunals. In 1985, four more rights were included with
the four basic right. They are right to satisfaction of basic needs, the right
to redress, the right to consumer education, and the right to a healthy
environment. Right to satisfaction of basic needs is to access to
fundamental needs such as food, clothes, shelter, healthcare, education and
so on. Next, the right to redress is to receive a fair claiming ,including
compensation for misrepresentation. Right to consumer education is to
provide information to
make them aware of the concepts of consumers’’ right and responsibility
and how to act on them. And the right to a healthy environment, this right
is to make sure that the company does not do any harmful to the
environment that may affect the living condition of the whole community.
(Consumers International)
The United States President John F. Kennedy pushes those law on food
and drug protection, safer transportation, financial protection, more
effective regulation, housing costs and quality and consumer information
and research. First of all, food and drug protection, to secure harmful
substances due to many kinds of food additives, colorings pesticides are
found every year. To fix this problem, Mr. Kennedy has added2% of staff
in food and drug protection. Secondly, to guarantee safety for its citizens,
the U.S has increased the speed and congestion of transportations and
highway. After that, financial protection was implemented to save money
for people. For example, the Federal Trade Commission of the U.S took
action against false advertising on varieties of household uses such as
refrigerators, house paint, sewing machines and vacuum cleaners.

RESEARCH APPROACH

Daymon and Holloway (2002) explored the suitability of qualitative

research in the public relations and marketing communications field.
Qualitative research enables a researcher to be mindful and to understand
the lived experience of a phenomenon (Fill, 1999). Since the aim of the
present study is to shed light onto the practice of MPR in the specific sector,
the adoption of a qualitative research approach rather than a quantitative
research method was justified. The qualitative research approach enabled
the researchers to uncover and study perceptions, attitudes and experiences
of practitioners in relation to the MPR concept, since the existent literature
revealed that the knowledge and understanding regarding MPR is limited.
According to Daymon and Holoway (2002), qualitative research is mostly
associated with an interpretive paradigm which enables researchers to
understand social reality from the point of view of the research participants.
The interpretive paradigm guided the present research study since the aim
was exactly to understand MPR through the interpretations and
experiences of practitioners. The researchers adopted a case study
approach to exploring the experiences and perceptions of practitioners in
relation to MPR, as implemented by advertising and PR agencies in
Cyprus. According to Daymon and Holloway (2002, p. 105) “case study is
an intensive examination, using multiple sources of evidence, of a single
entity which is bounded by time and place”. Yin (2003) claims that the
importance of case studies has rapidly grown along with the need to
understand complex social phenomena, since it enables a researcher to
investigate in depth the characteristics of real-life situations such as
organizational and managerial processes, individual life cycles, and
international relations. According to Daymon and Holloway (2002, p.
105), the purpose of the case study is “to increase knowledge about real,
contemporary communication events in their context”. This is in fact the
case with the current study: understanding the way the advertising agencies
sector implements MPR. A fundamental decision relating to the case study
research approach is whether to use a single-case study or a multiple-case
study. In the current research study, the researcher adopted a multiple-case
design that offers the (within-limits) generalization advantage. Single case
design is generally suitable for a deep but narrow investigation of a single
phenomenon. Since the current study aimed 10 JCB Journal of Customer
Behavior, Volume 13 AUTHOR COPY at generalizing to a certain extent
the findings regarding MPR practice in Cyprus, rather than investigating in
depth the specific MPR practices used within a single organization, a
multiple-case study design was employed.

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH FINDINGS

According to a study by media-monitoring company Matrix media,

advertising revenues in Cyprus have seen a year-on-year decrease. The
study revealed that there has been a 25 per cent drop in advertising in the
previous year (2012). Television’s advertising revenues have also seen a
year-on-year drop. TV revenues dropped from € 325 M to € 293 M.
Advertising revenues for print media dropped from € 76 M in 2011 to € 58
M in 2012 (Matrix media, 2013). According to Matrix media, the media
advertising pie is traditionally divided between TV, press and radio with
70 per cent going to TV, 20 to print and 10 to radio. The result of falling
revenues for TV and print has seen media owners carry out a series of
layoffs and salary cuts to delay closure. The negative developments in the
media sector have had a direct impact on the marketing communication
strategies adopted by advertising agencies. Advertising agencies have in
fact started to redesign their marketing communication by shifting some of
the emphasis placed on advertising to MPR.

Benefits of Customer Relationship Management

A Customer Relationship Management system may be chosen because it

is thought to provide the following advantages:

 Quality and efficiency

 Decrease in overall costs

 Decision support

 Enterprise ability

 Customer Attentions

 Increase profitability

 Improved planning

 Improved product development

 Work flow of CRM

A simplified CRM workflow is as follows.

1. Collecting Customer Data and Information

Acquisition of customers and basic data including name, address, gender,
age, etc., is fundamental, but transaction data such as date, time, item, value
e, etc. at every “touch point,”
i.e.-a point of interaction when the company communicates with a
customer, or vice versa, are also essential. Information is often needed to
complement these data.
It is “a
knowledge that comes from asking questions to customers such as why and
how.

2. Analyzing Data to Predict Customer Behavior

Marketers use these data and information so that they can record the
interests and preferences of customers. Furthermore, they attempt to
ascertain purchasing patterns on the basis of
transaction records. “Using
sophisticated modelling and data mining techniques, behavior prediction
uses historical customer behavior to foresee future behaviors.
“Understanding the tendency that a certain type of customer is apt to
purchase a specific product
(“propensity-to- buy analysis”) and that certain products are often bought
with other specific
products by a particular
type of customer (“product affinity analysis”) has a beneficial effect on
making marketing decisions.

3. Marketing Campaigns: Applying the Results of Analysis

Companies conduct marketing campaigns that are designed on the basis of
the results of analysis or on hypotheses. They promote their products
through various channels, such as e-mail, the Internet, telemarketing, or
direct mail. They also contact their customers for follow-up after purchase.
And, of course, they have to monitor the results of that campaign in order
to refine future campaigns. With CRM software, they can, for the most
part, automate these processes.

4. Measuring Results, Revising Hypotheses, and Repeating This

Workflow Process
To improve their results, companies need to evaluate the effects of their
marketing campaigns. They should measure whether and how a given
campaign achieves its original goal and revises their hypotheses according
to the results. After that, they should repeat the work flow process, thereby
making gradual progress
3.CONCEPTUAL DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE REVIEW

The tendency toward presenting services and qualities has a significant

role in service industry such as insurance and bank services. Since the
service quality is very important in surviving and profit making of an
organization, it affects in customer's satisfaction and motivation after
shopping positively. And customer's satisfaction also affects in tendency
toward shopping positively. In fact customer's satisfaction and service
quality are considered as vital affairs in mostly service industry
nowadays. quality of service as a general understanding of the client or
the suitability of the unsuitable relative to their organization and services
are defined. Parasuraman, (Zeithamland Berry, 1985) quality of service
received as an international judge or superior attitudes depends on the
service provided, are defined and have noted that the judge on quality
service reflects the difference between order and route customer views
and expectations. (Jeoung-Hak Lee, et al., 2009) Quality has been
generally defined as “fitness for use” and “those product features which
meet customer needs and thereby provide customer satisfaction”
These basic definition are commonly accepted and can also be applied in
service management. However when it comes to more specific service
quality attributes and dimensions a wide variety of models and
frameworks exist and there is an intense discussion on service quality
measurement in different industry contexts). In particular, traditional
concepts and measures of service quality and customer satisfaction have
been questioned in the business-to-business environment. (Juga, et al.,
2010) Service quality can have many different meanings in different
contexts. Several scholars defined service quality based on different
theoretical assumptions. For example, (Bitner and Hubbert, 1994) defined
service quality as ‘‘the consumer’s overall impression of the relative
inferiority or superiority of the organization and its services’’.
(Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985) defined perceived service
quality as ‘‘a global judgment, or attitude relating to the superiority of a
service’’ and noted that the judgment on service quality is a reflection of
the degree and direction of discrepancy between consumers’ perceptions
and expectations. (Rajasekhar, et al.,2009)Basic
study on the quality of service by Parasuraman and colleagues took place
in 1998. Based on the definition of service quality Parasuraman Seroquel
word in a five-dimensional scale(feelings, reliability, response
capabilities, ensures and guarantees, empathy) were spread widely within
the various organizations has been used. (Zeithaml et al, 2006,10) Krunyn
and Taylor in 1994 in the development of tools Srvprf Servqual model
presented only to understand the customer scale of sufficient quality as to
the value measured. (Wong, etal.,2010) The literature is very rich in
terms of definition, dimensions, models and measurement issues in
service quality, supported by a number of empirical studies from a variety
of service-related application areas. Some of the contemporary definitions
of service quality from the literature were given among them; the
SERVQUAL scale is designed to measure service quality perceived by
the respondents from five different service categories: retail banking,
long-distance telephone, securities brokerage, appliance repair and
maintenance firm, and credit cards.

 Tangibles -Physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of

personnel
 Reliability- Ability to perform the promised service dependably
and accurately
  Responsiveness- Willingness to help customers and provide
prompt service.
 Assurance- Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability
to inspire trust and confidence
 Empathy- Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its
customers

According to this model, service quality is based on a comparison of

customer’s expectations with perceptions of the service actually received.
(Juga, et al., 2010). The authors developed SERVQUAL, a five
dimension scale which represent Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness,
Assurance, and Empathy Zeithaml, et al., 2006).According to (Zeithaml,
et al., 2006), service
is ‘‘deeds, processes, and performance’’ .
The definition suggests that service in general is nota tangible object that
can be felt or touched, which distinguishes service from tangible
products. (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry, 1990) emphasized four
basic characteristics of services: intangibility, perish ability,
heterogeneity, and simultaneity. More specifically, intangibility suggests
that services are performances only experienced by the customer. Perish
ability indicates that a service cannot be produced and stored for future
use.
Heterogeneity reflects that the performance of the producer and
customer’s perception are
often different from producer to producer, customer to customer, and
from day to day. Thus,services are inherently variable and lack
consistency. Lastly, simultaneity means the production of the services
occur at the same time as consumption. Thus, a customer
cannot judge the quality of the product prior to using it. Although the serv
ice tends to be intangiblein nature, tangible aspects of the service
organization have a critical role in delivering the
service product or experience. Berry and Parasuraman (1991) noted that,
‘‘if the core benefit
source is more intangible than tangible, it would be considered a service.
(Lee, et al., 2010)However, (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) criticized
SERVQUAL and proposed an alternative scale called SERVPERF. It
includes all the SERVQUAL scale dimensions, but uses only service
performance (perception)as a measure of customer perceived service
quality instead of the gap (between expectation and perception)approach
of SERVQUAL. (Wong, et al.,2010)Customer service has become a
distinct component of both product and service sectors and with the
developments in information technology many businesses find
demanding and knowledgeable customers. The worldwide trend toward
service quality was initiated in the1880s when businesses realized that a
quality product, in itself, is not guaranteed to maintain competitive
advantage (van der Wal et al., 2002). Many researchers recognize that
service quality can bring an organization a lasting competitive advantage
(Moore and Lewis). Quality of services can be the difference between
success and failure in both service and manufacturing firms. Service
quality, customer satisfaction and customer value have become the main
concern of both manufacturing and service organizations in the
increasingly intensified competition for customers in today's customer-
centred era (Wang et al., 2004).Asa result, many organizations are paying
increasing attention to improve service quality. In some manufacturing
industries "service quality" is considered a more important order winner
than "product quality"(Ghobadian et al., 1994). Service quality
improvements will lead to customer satisfaction and cost management
that result in improved profits (Stevenson, 2002).Contemporary service
sector firms are compelled by their nature to provide excellent service in
order to prosper in increasingly competitive domestic and global
marketplaces (Sultan and Simpson, 2000). As service firms find
themselves in an increasingly competitive and complex business
environment, they are inevitably driven to examine their service delivery
processes critically. The focus of such internal analysis is ultimately
about customers satisfaction, and how bottom-line results can be
actualized through delivering quality services to customers via flawless
interface platforms. This is not only the case in the private sector, but it
also is increasingly so in the public sector. Public sector firms are trying
to make administration more efficient and more citizen-oriented
(Scharitzer and Korunka, 2000)

The term marketing public relations was coined in the 1980s in an effort
to distinguish the use of public relations techniques in achieving
marketing objectives from the general practice of public relations (Harris
& Whalen, 2006). It is an ‘allen compassing’ term integrating concepts
and tools from public relations, marketing ,advertising and research.
Harris and Whalen stipulate that its growth was supported by the
recognition of its intrinsic value by business executives and the ability of
PR professionals to develop PR campaigns in support of marketing
strategies. MPR was in fact described as the largest and fastest growing
segment of a fast growing industry. A study of the global market for PR
services carried out by Shandwick Consultancy(1989) revealed that 20
per cent of the fee income of PR firms throughout the world was
generated
postulate that MPR refers to “the use of public
relations strategies and tactics to achieve marketing objectives
”. According to Kotler (2003),MPR plays a significant role in the process
of launching a new product as well as in the repositioning of a mature
product: it can build interest in a product category,influence specific
target groups, defend a product which experiences public problemsand
build the corporate image in a way that reflects favourably on its
products/services. Kitchen and Papasolomou (1997) emphasised the
effectiveness of MPR in winning consumers’ trust, celebrating special
occasions and sponsoring special eventsand programmes. Giannini (2010)
posits that MPR has the potential to enhance the visibility of products and
organisations, inform stakeholders in relation to issue sthat are critical
to the organisation, influence public opinion favourably towards the
organisation, as well as encourage the trial of products and increased
usage.Giannini (2010, p. 4) defines MPR as “ any program or effort
designed to improve,maintain, or protect the sales or image of a product
by encouraging
intermediaries, suchasas traditional mass media, the electronic media, or
individuals, to voluntarily pass a message about the firm or product
to their audience of businesses or consumers”. A number of studies have
been carried out in order to identify the degree of awareness of the
business sector regarding MPR. One of these is a survey carried out
among 286 Advertising Age subscribers who held marketing and
advertising positions with client organisations (Duncan, 1985). Among
the key findings were the following:
• MPR is perceived as effective in a variety of areas that
were traditionally the responsibility
of advertising• MPR is especially effective in building brand awareness a
nd brand knowledge• MPR breaks through clutter• MPR complements ad
vertising by increasing the credibility of messages• MPR is made cost-
effective by an increase in media advertising costs.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Broadly speaking customer satisfaction is a performance indicator of the

extent to which a firm has managed to meet customer expectations
through its business deliverables. Having formed the foundation of the
marketing concept for nearly half a century the attempts at harnessing the
good practices and measurement approaches is a much explored realm
when it comes to customer satisfaction (e.g. Drucker, 1954; Levitt 1960;
Gronroos, 1990).Over the last few years customer satisfaction has
received a reinvigorated interest. Possible reasons for this have been seen
as the after effects of a maturing TQM paradigm that is linked with
several recognition awards, and also, arrival of national customer
satisfaction barometers (Garvin, 1991; Johnson et al., 2001; Helgesen,
2006

Customer satisfaction is all about understanding, defining, evaluating and

managing customer requirements so that their expectations are satisfied
thus the name. This concept requires conformance to the requirements to
ensure that the project produces the output that it is expected to create. In
project management, customer satisfaction is part of the project quality
management. It ensures that the policies, objectives and responsibilities
of the project will satisfy everyone involved in the project.
Excellent project managers will speak directly to the customers and ask
them questions about the progress of the project management activities
and other information to determine whether they [customers] are satisfied
or not. The concept of customer satisfaction is used by project managers
to create quality products and services.
So how do project managers determine customer satisfaction? They
organize surveys and measure the results based on the answers provided
by their clients. Other methods for measuring customer satisfaction
include customer tracking through helpdesk, tracking repeat purchase,
social network engagement and even online sentiment tracking.
It is crucial to keep track of the satisfaction of your customers. One of the
benefits is that it allows project managers to know if they are doing well
to match customer expectations. It is also used to identify customers and
develop more ways to retain them. It can also be used to develop a system
to reward an internal organization that contributes the high satisfaction
rate of the clients. Lastly, it can help project managers track processes as
well as strategies that help achieve customer satisfaction and set them for
fine tuning.