A 10 minute subset from Research Rockstar’s 53 minute tutorial on Customer Satisfaction Research. Learn the basics of planning a Customer Satisfaction research program. www.ResearchRockstar.com.
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February 6th, 2012 by admin | Comments OffIntroduction:
India has become one of fast growing economies of the world. It is growing at the rate of 9 per cent p.a. As an emerging market all are looking at India from an international perspective. At the stage when India is set to acquire a global position, it is essential to gauge whether the economic growth is due to successful business operations. Organizations must realize that government alone will not be able to get success in its endeavor to uplift the downtrodden of society. The present societal marketing concept of companies is constantly evolving and has given rise to a new concept-Corporate Social Responsibility. Many of the leading corporations across the world had realized the importance of being associated with socially relevant causes as a means of promoting their brands. Cause-related marketing and corporate social responsibility has provided companies with a new tool to compete in the market. CSR refers to the corporation’s obligation to all the stakeholders. It stems from the desire to do good and get self satisfaction in return as well as societal obligation of business. This could be a strategic marketing activity a way for a company to do well by doing good-distinct from sales promotion, corporate philanthropy, corporate sponsorship, corporate Samaritan acts and public relations. Now, it is assumed to be responsibility of the business houses too.
Nothing builds brand loyalty among today’s increasingly hard to please consumers, like a company’s proven commitment to a worthy cause. Other things being equal many consumers would do business with a company that stands for something beyond profits. In nutshell, CSR and cause related marketing results in increased sales, visibility, and consumer loyalty and enhanced company image along with positive media coverage.
Rural India has a population of 700 million people spread across 6,38,000 villages. Thus more than 60 per cent of India’s total population is rural by nature. A report by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) shows that rural consumers comprise more than 50% of consumers and are a prime market for consumer goods and essential services. Culture is the pillar of our country and if the pillar has strength, then it can raise our country to a top level. Organizations are helping to sustain as well as revive the rich culture of the country through their programs. Today, India’s literacy rate stands around 65 per cent, up from 52 per cent in 1991. (NSSO Survey) Considering the rate of increase, it would take some 20 to 25 years to clear this problem. Hence, the CSR agenda of corporate consider rural development as one of the important dimension.
On the other hand, a nonprofit organization is an organization, which exists for providing some benefit or assistance or a sort of self-help group. Like the name suggests, the organization will have all the properties of a profit-making organization, i.e. a mission statement, a vision, offices, infrastructure etc., but the objective will not include making a profit out of its operations. However, to run any organization, funds are needed, and this has to come in to the non-profit in terms of financial i.e. grants, subsidies, donations etc or services in terms of staff support or infrastructure support.. The sources for these funds could be individuals, the government or other charitable institutions and finally companies. These business houses through their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives contribute to the mission of social progress and growth of India.
Defining Corporate social responsibility
Definitional issues regarding “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) have been debated since many years. Early CSR models was initiated in the early 1960s.It showed the “social” aspect of CSR as referring directly to those responsibilities above and beyond economic and legal obligations (Carroll, 1979; Waddock, 2004; Matten and Crane, 2005). Many considered corporate social responsibility synonymous with voluntary and philanthropic acts by business organizations which are designed to alleviate social ills or in order to benefit a disadvantaged group chosen by the corporation’s managers.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development in its publication “Making Good Business Sense” by Lord Holme and Richard Watts, used the following definition. “Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large”
“CSR is about capacity building for sustainable livelihoods. It respects cultural differences and finds the business opportunities in building the skills of employees, the community and the government” “CSR is about business giving back to society.
Traditionally, CSR has been defined much more in terms of a philanthropic model. Companies make profits, unhindered except by fulfilling their duty to pay taxes. Then they donate a certain share of the profits to charitable causes. It is seen as tainting the act for the company to receive any benefit from the giving.
According to Philip Kotler, “Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for your Company and Cause” does a terrific job of describing the range of corporate social initiatives and suggests best practices for choosing, implementing and evaluating them.
Thus, corporate social responsibility has been a topic that has received a lot of attention in recent years (Sethi, 1995).
Need for study:
The basic aim of the study is to gain familiarity or formulating a problem or to achieve new insights into it. In this particular study, an attempt has been made to comprehend and gain insight into behavior or attitude of companies towards various aspects of social contribution. This study deals with the behavior of the corporates. It tries to identify complex behavior and set patterns in it. The present study relates to the attitude of 50 companies in India so as to predict the behavior.
Why will any company give funds or services to a non-profit? The government will provide for funds and or services as it is responsible for the social welfare of the people. Similarly a charitable institution will do the same as it is their objective to help the social cause. An individual may donate to a nonprofit due to reasons of philanthropy, or in memory of some person etc, but why does a commercial organization contribute for a social cause? The basic objective of a commercial organization is to make profits. Why will it divert substantial funds to a nonprofit if there is no return on that investment?
Objective of the study:
The objective of the study was to try and understand why an organization contributes to a social cause and what it expects to gain in the process. Is it philanthropy, is it a feeling of obligation to the society in general or is it for financial benefits in terms of tax exemptions, etc.
Research design process:
To understand the reason why an organization contributes to a social cause, it was necessary to get an insight into the organizations’ view of the business, its views , its policies , the reasons why it contributes and its objectives and relationships with all its stakeholders i.e. employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and society. The questionnaire was designed accordingly to get the relevant information from the respondents.
In this study the researchers have adopted convenience sampling. Population of study includes companies located in India.
Sources of Data Collection:
The research consists of the application of both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected by administering questionnaire.
The secondary data was collected through websites and from various journals and magazines. Reasons for contribution to CSR by organizations were a sensitive issue. Hence the researchers had to gain the confidence of the management otherwise a study of this nature was impossible.
The questionnaire was administered to various companies. Anonymity of responses was promised. While it was sent to about 70 companies, only 50 companies responded. The responses were obtained through the human resource departments of the company or indirectly through the concerned department or official handling the area. The questionnaire was coded into SPSS and then the data from the questionnaire entered into the database. While frequency and cross tabulations were used for most of the data analysis, factorization was used to group attributes, which were important reasons for contributing to a social cause.
The Analysis and Findings:
Views towards business: 82.4% of the companies seem to strongly agree that business means maximizing benefits, making money and doing your work well. No company disagrees on this point. 17.6% more agree than disagree to the same. 76.5% says that business is making money. 88.2% strongly agree as well as agree that it is all about social responsibility while 17.8% more disagree than agree.
Place for ethics in business: 88.3% believe that there is place for ethics in business. However, a small majority, 11.8% strongly feel that there is no place for ethics in business.
Business & Economic attitude: 82.3% believe that business needs only an economic attitude while 17.7% respondents felt that business does not need an economic attitude, balance feel it is needed.
Social policies: 70.6% of the corporates connect to the community through social activities, and 23.5 % through specific NGO. Only half (52.9%) have a clear-cut policy on social development. 64.7% feel that their social responsibility is towards both the community and their employees. 29.4% feel that their social responsibility is only towards their employees. 35.3% have not adopted any village or social organization. The participation of the company in various activities is mixed, with no clear-cut trend emerging.
Donations: 70.6% feel that giving a donation will not increase the image of the company. However, 29.4% give donation to benefit from tax.
However, cross tabulation of these two parameters revealed that only 71.4% respondents who said that donations do not improve its image while 28.6% respondents say that giving donations improves image building. About 50% contribute to a social cause, invest as a long-term investment. 70% responded that they do not donate for tax.
Credo of the organization:
Principal Component Factor Analysis methodology was used with varimax method to identify the relevant factors which has been consistently identified as primary by the respondents. The rotated component matrix was used, as it would be easier to determine which variables are loaded on which factor.
Factor analysis shows that 4 main factors used by organizations as their credo. The first factor 1 as company value: internal stakeholders which include humane approach, employee and customer satisfaction, quality of life.
Factor 2: Profit Maximization, which include team work and profit maximization.
Factor 3: Social Responsibility, which combines with hard working behavior.
Factor 4: Ethical Practices
CSR: Objectives and Relationships with stakeholders:
Customers: 47.1% have their objectives towards the customer as satisfying them by providing quality, and within this, 50% term their relationship as friendly. Another 29.4% objective is to give good value and satisfactory service.
Shareholders: 41.2% objectives are more towards good returns and 35.3% express the real picture of the company, while 23.5% assure profit to its shareholders.
Employees: 64.7% feel that their objective towards the employees is to motivate to achieve goals and rewards, 23.5% satisfy by fulfilling needs while 5.9% feel that their relationship is that of family feeling and another 5.9% provide them with an opportunity for self development.
Suppliers: 5.9% have their objective as mutual benefits, which also explain that it feels its relationship is that of a teammate (29.4%). Balance is equally divided in terms of relationships. Almost 47.1% company’s objective vis-à-vis suppliers are quality and price of product related.
Community: Over 52.9% of the companies have social welfare as the objective towards the community. 11.8% companies have stated that their relationship with the community is that of a family member so as to provide help to the target group who needs it and 17.6% have stated that their relationship is cordial and friendly. They are sensitive to the needs of the community and another 17.6% include community welfare in the objectives of the company
Attributes as important reasons for contributing to social causes:
The present study of the researchers is to study the reason of the company’s corporate social responsibility. The variance chart and the scree plot show that 4 components explain 83.03% of the variance. The principal component analysis was used using varimax rotation method. The rotation converged in 5 iterations. The resultant rotated component matrix was analyzed. The constituents of the four factors are identified as
Factor 1: (Customer oriented)
Customer goodwill .966
Customer loyalty .966
Philanthropy .752
Factor 2: (Ethical oriented)
Projecting the company as one with explicit moral judgment .873
Projecting an upright character of the company .944
Contributing to a specific cause .637
Bottom-line benefits .618
Factor 3: (Community oriented)
Helping the community .894
Social responsibility .889
Factor 4: (Humane oriented)
To remove the image of the company as a faceless institution. .903
Bottom-line benefits – .542
Philanthropy in the first component and bottom-line benefits in the second component seem to be out of line of the components. Else the first component talks about customer relationships, the second on moral character of the company and the third on social responsibility. Bottom-line also plays an important role.
Conclusion:
The study was conducted to find out the company’s reasons towards corporate social responsibility on cause related and its impact on the company’s brand image and sales. The important factors that influence the company to contribute are: Customer oriented, Ethical oriented, Community oriented, Humane oriented.
Financial benefits in terms of tax benefits also are important, though the responses to this issue seem to be guarded.
Companies must generate awareness to the various stakeholders regarding its contribution to corporate social responsibility through its affiliation with social cause through event management (Mumbai marathon events) & company websites as it is directly related to increase in sales and brand loyalty. India being a developing country with over 250 million strong middle class families has a large potential for any marketer & at the same time it can support quiet a good number of causes which benefits the society at large. e.g. due to operation of CRY’ a NGO 89244 children lives were permanently transformed 1013 communities experienced 100% school enrollment, 159 primary health centers began functioning and long term rehabilitation program were initiated in almost 100 tsunami affected villages in Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and earth quake relief & rehabilitation programs were initiated in 11villages in Jammu & Kashmir. So we can conclude that corporate social responsibility and cause related marketing is beneficial both for company and the society.
Limitations:
While companies have responded, 25% of them (spokesman) have requested that the source should not be mentioned – i.e. the company should not be identified. The sample size being very small, the result of the study may not represent the whole population.
References:
Carroll, A.B. (1979), “A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 497-505.
Matten, A. and Crane, D. (2005), “Corporate citizenship: toward an extended theoretical conceptualization”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 166-79.
Sethi, S.P. (1995). “Introduction to AMR’s special topic forum on shifting paradigms: Societal expectations and corporate performance.” Academy of Management Re view, 20, pp.18- 21.
Waddock, S. (2004), “Parallel universes: companies, academics and the progress of corporate citizenship”, Business and Society Review, Vol. 109 No. 1, pp. 5-42.
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February 2nd, 2012 by admin | Comments OffSeptember 2010 – The President Vaccarezza is at the centre of the ad that shows the beauty of Province of Savona and how to answer online to a questionnaire on customer satisfaction with regard to accommodation and destination.
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January 29th, 2012 by admin | Comments OffA promotional film by Link Group Ltd. Link provides new and improved homes for rent and sale, community regeneration programmes and personal support and care for individuals. We have grown to become one of Scotland’s leading providers of housing and related services.
January 25th, 2012 by admin | Comments Off
What’s the one thing starting now that you could start doing,
stop doing, or change that would have a dramatic impact on your
client relationships? It’s an excellent question and I hope you’ll take a
moment to consider your response. It sometimes takes a great deal of effort and an extraordinary amount of energy to close “a big deal.”
Never forget, it may take even more effort and energy, to keep the business after you win it. It takes courage to get the business and creativity and imagination to keep it. Consider the word VERY GOOD and all that means. To be very good is to be grand, impressive, outstanding, excellent, and even remarkable.
Many salespersons don’t think in terms of being VERY GOOD. They walk around doing a great imitation of benign mediocrity. It doesn’t take much to leap from the ordinary to the extraordinary, but it does
take effort. It’s all about leaving a great first impression, not merely a
good one. It’s about delighting your clients, not just satisfying them.
It’s about rising above the crowd, not being lost in it. Here are some
ideas for you on how to be VERY GOOD for your clients.
A – Ask good client questions.
There are two types of questions and you know salespersons consider them to be open and closed questions. Let’s raise the bar on that kind of thinking. While questions can be open and closed, they can also be wide and deep. The wide questions are surface questions i.e. “How’s it going, how’s business,” and “Any other any problems I can help you with today?” A deep question always leaves its mark i.e. “What would have to happen for you to consider us as your best supplier?” Another really inspired question is, “How do you measure success when working with your current supplier?” David Frost, the famous interviewer, once said “you can tell the quality of a question by the quality of the response.” Are you asking quality questions?
If not, why not?
W – Work your priorities and prioritize your work.
Prioritizing will make you enterprising. To be really effective you must be able to distinguish between what is urgent and what is important. Be careful not to start the very fires you’re trying to put out. For example, eliminate the following from your voice mail message, “if it’s really important page me or call me on my cell phone.” The only people who don’t possess a FedEx mentality are the people who work for FedEx. Everybody else thinks everything else is a high priority.
Get a grip, get a life, and begin everyday with the list (prioritized with numbers) of the 6 many important things you want to complete and don’t encourage the distractions. Develop the habit of sticking to your list of priorities and only deviate from your list if a higher priority lands on your desk. The best salespersons and sales managers always take care of the many important stuff first. They are not easily distracted. Set you priorities for the day and focus on them like a laser beam and only take your eyes off them for a higher priority.
E – Energize yourself every day with a positive attitude.
People with positive attitudes live longer, enjoy life more, and tend to be more likable, from their clients perspective. I learned a long time ago, we choose to affect or infect the people we meet every day.
Don’t bring your personal problems to work because they never add value to your clients. If life has dealt you a difficult set of cards right now, deal with them privately and put your troubles on a trouble tree when you leave for your first sales call. Remember, your clients have their own problems, so there’s no need to burden them with yours. People with positive attitudes are enthusiastic, animated, excited, smiling, and always expect the best things to happen. “Your face is your own fault after age 40,” according to Cicero, so check it often with a mirror. How you handle your problems says a lot about you.
S – Style is important.
If you agree, you must feel like a chameleon. Many strained interpersonal relationships are created by different styles. There is the “Driver” who is very assertive, demanding and autocratic. There is also the “Expressive” who is extremely sociable, loves to talk, and lousy with details. Then there is the “Analytical” who is very precise, organized, and extremely neat. Finally, there is the “Amiable” who is generally low-key, trusting, and very innovative. One of the biggest keys to selling success is the art of adapting your selling style to your clients’ buying style. This is easy to say and hard to do. To learn more about behavioral styles, read articles, buy books and listen to audiocassette training tapes on the subject. This is one subject where ignorance is definitely not bliss.
O – Others focused.
Another key to successful selling is the ability to build relationships while taking care of business. Here are some ideas for you: don’t make people feel invisible, always maintain good eye contact, remember, you can’t smile enough on the telephone or in person, to stay connected – ask people who get your voice mail message to leave their e-mail address and telephone number, watch your body language, buy a composition notebook to record all your
relationship-building ideas, only do dog and pony shows if your client needs a dog and pony, add the words “for you” to the end of your sentences, every four months record your end of your telephone calls to improve the quality of your calls, blaming is shaming so don’t do it, always take notes to demonstrate that you care and you are listening, and always take the time to say “Thank you” to everyone who contributes to your success.
M – Master the business basics.
Listen to your voicemail message. If it doesn’t sound up beat, enthusiastic and professional change it. E-mail is a way to communicate. Use creative subject lines and remember less is more if you want your message to be understood. Never call a meeting without first preparing an agenda. Begin all meetings on time. End your meetings on time. Secure commitments for who is going to do what and by when. Form the habit of writing personal handwritten notes using a fountain pen. It’s a great way to be a high-touch person in the high-tech world we live in today. Try being more likable, agreeable, adaptable, and relatable. Maintain your focus on the other person, especially when its a client.
E – Enthusiasm and passion are powerful attributes for professional salespersons to cultivate.
Too many people are dying on the job today and still working. Some people walk into a room and breathe life into it. Other people walk into the same room and do
their best to vent all the oxygen. Get excited about your work. If you don’t like it, change it. Your life is too important and too short, to waste it doing something you hate doing. Be yourself and avoid trying to imitate somebody else. Have an attitude of gratitude. Say “thank you” often. That kind gesture will make someone’s day a better one.
Enthusiasm is contagious and so is the negative stuff. Enthusiasm is an acquired quality and it’s FREE! Go out and get some, if you’re running low. If you want to take, your sales career to the next level learn do the unthinkable. Quit saying “I’ve always done it this way.” Quit following the crowd. Take a new path to solve old client problems. The old way may not be the better way.
If you’re too comfortable, it’s time to change. Always aim higher and
you’ll be rewarded handsomely. Being VERY GOOD is no small task, especially when the client is doing the evaluation. If you dare to be different, strive to be effective, and are attentive to your clients’ needs, you too can be VERY GOOD.
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January 23rd, 2012 by admin | Comments Off