Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102963601
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
In 2009 the Student Loans Company took over the processing of loan and grant applications for new students from England which had previously been carried out by 130 local authorities. The Company's document scanning system was launched before being fully tested. Its failure was critical, and the Company's contingency plan was both flawed and implemented late. The Company took 33 per cent longer to process applications in 2009-10 compared with local authorities in 2008-09, and only 46 per cent of new applications had been fully processed by the start of term. By September 2009, 241,000 applications had been received but not fully processed. This led to a dramatic increase in the volume of calls, with the Company receiving over four million in September - 87 per cent of which were unanswered. The Company had failed to communicate key messages to applicants that would have helped to reduce unnecessary calls. The customer service provided by the Company in 2009 was poor. The NAO also raises concerns about the Company's performance in managing Disabled Students' Allowance. By the end of 2009, only 4,000 of 17,000 applications had resulted in a payment, taking an average of 20 weeks to be processed. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Student Loans Company underestimated the challenges in centralising this service. Neither the Department's monitoring of the Company nor the Company's Board's oversight were effective. Substantial risks remain to the successful delivery of the service in 2010.
The Customer First Programme
Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102963601
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
In 2009 the Student Loans Company took over the processing of loan and grant applications for new students from England which had previously been carried out by 130 local authorities. The Company's document scanning system was launched before being fully tested. Its failure was critical, and the Company's contingency plan was both flawed and implemented late. The Company took 33 per cent longer to process applications in 2009-10 compared with local authorities in 2008-09, and only 46 per cent of new applications had been fully processed by the start of term. By September 2009, 241,000 applications had been received but not fully processed. This led to a dramatic increase in the volume of calls, with the Company receiving over four million in September - 87 per cent of which were unanswered. The Company had failed to communicate key messages to applicants that would have helped to reduce unnecessary calls. The customer service provided by the Company in 2009 was poor. The NAO also raises concerns about the Company's performance in managing Disabled Students' Allowance. By the end of 2009, only 4,000 of 17,000 applications had resulted in a payment, taking an average of 20 weeks to be processed. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Student Loans Company underestimated the challenges in centralising this service. Neither the Department's monitoring of the Company nor the Company's Board's oversight were effective. Substantial risks remain to the successful delivery of the service in 2010.
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102963601
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
In 2009 the Student Loans Company took over the processing of loan and grant applications for new students from England which had previously been carried out by 130 local authorities. The Company's document scanning system was launched before being fully tested. Its failure was critical, and the Company's contingency plan was both flawed and implemented late. The Company took 33 per cent longer to process applications in 2009-10 compared with local authorities in 2008-09, and only 46 per cent of new applications had been fully processed by the start of term. By September 2009, 241,000 applications had been received but not fully processed. This led to a dramatic increase in the volume of calls, with the Company receiving over four million in September - 87 per cent of which were unanswered. The Company had failed to communicate key messages to applicants that would have helped to reduce unnecessary calls. The customer service provided by the Company in 2009 was poor. The NAO also raises concerns about the Company's performance in managing Disabled Students' Allowance. By the end of 2009, only 4,000 of 17,000 applications had resulted in a payment, taking an average of 20 weeks to be processed. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Student Loans Company underestimated the challenges in centralising this service. Neither the Department's monitoring of the Company nor the Company's Board's oversight were effective. Substantial risks remain to the successful delivery of the service in 2010.
Customers First: Dominate Your Market by Winning Them Over Where It Counts the Most
Author: Bolivar J. Bueno
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071787887
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
“B.J. Bueno and his team at The Cult Branding Company respect and understand what so many strategists miss: before we can be experts on product, sales, or the market, we must fi rst be experts on human nature. They have a proven track record of building healthy, sustainable businesses for some of the best brands in the world—using the very process outlined in this book.” —BERT JACOBS, chief executive optimist, The Life is good Company “B.J. Bueno yet again deftly captures the essence of what is required to build and sustain a great brand. If you want to attract and retain highly profi table “brand lovers” rather than stalk new customers, then carefully read this book. B.J. wisely outlines why this is vital and importantly, how to actually do it in today’s marketplace! —DARRYL “DC” COBBIN, president, Brand Positioning Doctors, and former VP of Marketing, 20th Century Fox “Customers First tells the truth. I got a shiver up my back reading this book: What if my competitors read this and follow B.J.’s advice? I don’t care what size business you run, you could and should do exactly as this book instructs. As I was reading, I kept thinking of ways to get my customers to tell me how to be better.” —DAVID RATNER, owner, Dave’s Soda and Pet City MASTER THE SCIENCE OF MARKET DOMINATION... Brand Lovers are the best of your best customers. They power Harley-Davidson to the top of the enthusiast motorcycle market; they’re the core of Apple’s dominant position in portable devices; and they’re the reason why no other premium grocery chain can take a bite out of Whole Foods’ market share. Customers First, by top branding strategist B.J. Bueno, shows how your business will achieve this level of extreme customer loyalty through Brand Modeling, the objective and scientific analysis of your organization’s performance across a wide range of situations. An accurate Brand Model will arm you with hard data to pinpoint and engage your brand’s most passionate customers—and give you an action plan for inspiring and empowering these Brand Lovers to be your most effective evangelists. Much more than a summary of who you are and what you do, a Brand Model maps your business’s DNA to help you build an unbeatable competitive advantage. Through examples of real-world success stories—among them, IKEA, Nike, Coca-Cola, apparel upstart The Life is good Company, Starbucks, and Southwest Airlines—and a detailed sample case study that shows effective Brand Modeling practices in action, Customers First delivers strategic insights and proven techniques for you to: Differentiate your products in ways that are meaningful to your best customers Drive growth by creating brand extensions that are a natural fit with your existing products Significantly improve marketing ROI by avoiding customers not interested in your brand Visually and verbally communicate brand values that resonate with your best customers Brand Modeling evolves the current state of marketing to a new level of sophistication. In Customers First, B.J. Bueno shows how to use this critical tool to eliminate guesswork from your marketing efforts and focus more clearly on understanding (and pleasing) your most valuable ally in the battle for market dominance: The Brand Lover. B.J. BUENO is founder and managing partner of The Cult Branding Company, the premiere Brand Modeling and consumer insight research firm. He is a board member of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association and a member of the Chief Marketing Officers board for international retailers.
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071787887
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
“B.J. Bueno and his team at The Cult Branding Company respect and understand what so many strategists miss: before we can be experts on product, sales, or the market, we must fi rst be experts on human nature. They have a proven track record of building healthy, sustainable businesses for some of the best brands in the world—using the very process outlined in this book.” —BERT JACOBS, chief executive optimist, The Life is good Company “B.J. Bueno yet again deftly captures the essence of what is required to build and sustain a great brand. If you want to attract and retain highly profi table “brand lovers” rather than stalk new customers, then carefully read this book. B.J. wisely outlines why this is vital and importantly, how to actually do it in today’s marketplace! —DARRYL “DC” COBBIN, president, Brand Positioning Doctors, and former VP of Marketing, 20th Century Fox “Customers First tells the truth. I got a shiver up my back reading this book: What if my competitors read this and follow B.J.’s advice? I don’t care what size business you run, you could and should do exactly as this book instructs. As I was reading, I kept thinking of ways to get my customers to tell me how to be better.” —DAVID RATNER, owner, Dave’s Soda and Pet City MASTER THE SCIENCE OF MARKET DOMINATION... Brand Lovers are the best of your best customers. They power Harley-Davidson to the top of the enthusiast motorcycle market; they’re the core of Apple’s dominant position in portable devices; and they’re the reason why no other premium grocery chain can take a bite out of Whole Foods’ market share. Customers First, by top branding strategist B.J. Bueno, shows how your business will achieve this level of extreme customer loyalty through Brand Modeling, the objective and scientific analysis of your organization’s performance across a wide range of situations. An accurate Brand Model will arm you with hard data to pinpoint and engage your brand’s most passionate customers—and give you an action plan for inspiring and empowering these Brand Lovers to be your most effective evangelists. Much more than a summary of who you are and what you do, a Brand Model maps your business’s DNA to help you build an unbeatable competitive advantage. Through examples of real-world success stories—among them, IKEA, Nike, Coca-Cola, apparel upstart The Life is good Company, Starbucks, and Southwest Airlines—and a detailed sample case study that shows effective Brand Modeling practices in action, Customers First delivers strategic insights and proven techniques for you to: Differentiate your products in ways that are meaningful to your best customers Drive growth by creating brand extensions that are a natural fit with your existing products Significantly improve marketing ROI by avoiding customers not interested in your brand Visually and verbally communicate brand values that resonate with your best customers Brand Modeling evolves the current state of marketing to a new level of sophistication. In Customers First, B.J. Bueno shows how to use this critical tool to eliminate guesswork from your marketing efforts and focus more clearly on understanding (and pleasing) your most valuable ally in the battle for market dominance: The Brand Lover. B.J. BUENO is founder and managing partner of The Cult Branding Company, the premiere Brand Modeling and consumer insight research firm. He is a board member of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association and a member of the Chief Marketing Officers board for international retailers.
Employees First, Customers Second
Author: Vineet Nayar
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422139069
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
Imagine a management philosophy based not upon serving a company's customers, but on serving the company's employees. Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies in India, has put such a philosophy into practice with remarkable results. His "employee first, customer second" mantra has been recognized globally as an example of organizational innovation, and was deemed a "new and radical management philosophy" ripe for the picking in the Western world by Business Week. In this book, Nayar himself describes his blunt refusal to treat the flesh and blood of HCL--its people--as "human resource" or as "intellectual capital" or even as an asset like all its other assets-and how his unique perspective led to an holistic transformation of his organization. By putting employees on top of the organizational pyramid, he argues, your company can fully realize the value created in the interface between customers and employees. This book leads managers and executives through the five core aspects of Nayar's approach, demonstrating how to create a sense of urgency, overhaul incentives and reporting structures, foster transparency in communications and feedback, provide platforms for achievement and personal growth, and finally recognize the potential of every individual in the organization. The "Employee First" philosophy should be the fulcrum of the transformation journey of any organization.
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422139069
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
Imagine a management philosophy based not upon serving a company's customers, but on serving the company's employees. Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies in India, has put such a philosophy into practice with remarkable results. His "employee first, customer second" mantra has been recognized globally as an example of organizational innovation, and was deemed a "new and radical management philosophy" ripe for the picking in the Western world by Business Week. In this book, Nayar himself describes his blunt refusal to treat the flesh and blood of HCL--its people--as "human resource" or as "intellectual capital" or even as an asset like all its other assets-and how his unique perspective led to an holistic transformation of his organization. By putting employees on top of the organizational pyramid, he argues, your company can fully realize the value created in the interface between customers and employees. This book leads managers and executives through the five core aspects of Nayar's approach, demonstrating how to create a sense of urgency, overhaul incentives and reporting structures, foster transparency in communications and feedback, provide platforms for achievement and personal growth, and finally recognize the potential of every individual in the organization. The "Employee First" philosophy should be the fulcrum of the transformation journey of any organization.
Head First Software Development
Author: Dan Pilone
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 0596527357
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 495
Book Description
Provides information on successful software development, covering such topics as customer requirements, task estimates, principles of good design, dealing with source code, system testing, and handling bugs.
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
ISBN: 0596527357
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 495
Book Description
Provides information on successful software development, covering such topics as customer requirements, task estimates, principles of good design, dealing with source code, system testing, and handling bugs.
Customer Care Excellence
Author: Sarah Cook
Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers
ISBN: 0749450665
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Emphasizing both strategic and practical aspects of customer care, this work explains how gaining customer commitment and motivating employees to deliver an excellent service at all of a company's touch points can ensure successful results and satisfied customers.
Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers
ISBN: 0749450665
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Emphasizing both strategic and practical aspects of customer care, this work explains how gaining customer commitment and motivating employees to deliver an excellent service at all of a company's touch points can ensure successful results and satisfied customers.
Customer Centricity
Author: Peter Fader
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business planning
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Not all customers are created equal. Despite what the tired old adage says, the customer is not always right. Not all customers deserve your best efforts: in the world of customer centricity, there are good customers...and then there is pretty much everybody else. Upending some of our most fundamental beliefs, renowned behavioral data expert Peter Fader, Co-Director of The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative, helps businesses radically rethink how they relate to customers. He provides insights to help you revamp your performance metrics, product development, customer relationship management and organization in order to make sure you focus directly on the needs of your most valuable customers and increase profits for the long term.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business planning
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Book Description
Not all customers are created equal. Despite what the tired old adage says, the customer is not always right. Not all customers deserve your best efforts: in the world of customer centricity, there are good customers...and then there is pretty much everybody else. Upending some of our most fundamental beliefs, renowned behavioral data expert Peter Fader, Co-Director of The Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative, helps businesses radically rethink how they relate to customers. He provides insights to help you revamp your performance metrics, product development, customer relationship management and organization in order to make sure you focus directly on the needs of your most valuable customers and increase profits for the long term.
Managing with Total Quality Management
Author: Adrian Wilkinson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 134926153X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
In this book, the authors relate Total Quality Management (TQM) to the broader organisation and environment in the context in which TQM is located, bringing in consideration of organisational culture and structure, of employee relations and the balance of power between management and employees and the role of Human Resource Management. This involves a critical appraisal of TQM, considering both the way in which employees perceive its operation in practice and the question of 'who gains what' from TQM.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 134926153X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 225
Book Description
In this book, the authors relate Total Quality Management (TQM) to the broader organisation and environment in the context in which TQM is located, bringing in consideration of organisational culture and structure, of employee relations and the balance of power between management and employees and the role of Human Resource Management. This involves a critical appraisal of TQM, considering both the way in which employees perceive its operation in practice and the question of 'who gains what' from TQM.
Customer Loyalty Programmes and Clubs
Author: Stephan A. Butscher
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317155467
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
In every industry, and any company, customer loyalty marketing is an important pillar of corporate strategy. This second edition of Customer Loyalty Programmes and Clubs, explains how the key to effective protection against competition lies in identifying and offering your customers the right combination of financial and non-financial benefits. Stephen Butscher has reviewed the developments that have taken place since his original successful step-by-step guide was published and now includes 'pricing for customer loyalty' and 'e-loyalty' along with extra case studies. He takes you through all the necessary stages to research, plan and launch a programme that builds and develops the relationship between you and your customers, and emphasises value measurement and selection of the right benefits, enabling you to integrate the loyalty programme into every part of your organization. Customer Loyalty Programmes and Clubs includes case studies from some of the most successful companies, including Volkswagen Club, Kawasaki Riders Club, Swatch the Club, Porsche and many more.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317155467
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
In every industry, and any company, customer loyalty marketing is an important pillar of corporate strategy. This second edition of Customer Loyalty Programmes and Clubs, explains how the key to effective protection against competition lies in identifying and offering your customers the right combination of financial and non-financial benefits. Stephen Butscher has reviewed the developments that have taken place since his original successful step-by-step guide was published and now includes 'pricing for customer loyalty' and 'e-loyalty' along with extra case studies. He takes you through all the necessary stages to research, plan and launch a programme that builds and develops the relationship between you and your customers, and emphasises value measurement and selection of the right benefits, enabling you to integrate the loyalty programme into every part of your organization. Customer Loyalty Programmes and Clubs includes case studies from some of the most successful companies, including Volkswagen Club, Kawasaki Riders Club, Swatch the Club, Porsche and many more.
Managing Global Customers
Author: George S. Yip
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019922983X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Highlighting the rewards of taking a step beyond global account management to create a Global Customer Management approach integrating all aspects of the relationship between supplier and customer, this book guides international companies in using their relationships with global customers to their full potential.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019922983X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Highlighting the rewards of taking a step beyond global account management to create a Global Customer Management approach integrating all aspects of the relationship between supplier and customer, this book guides international companies in using their relationships with global customers to their full potential.
The Academies Programme
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215556066
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 52
Book Description
Academies are state schools which are independent of local authorities and directly accountable to the Department for Education. This report focuses on the performance of sponsored academies (271 on 5 January 2011), usually established to raise educational standards at under performing schools in deprived areas. They have performed impressively to date, achieving rapid academic improvements and raising aspirations in some of the most deprived areas in the country. An important feature of the sponsored model is the role of the sponsors themselves: individuals or organisations who contribute financially, directly or in kind, and who bring expertise and a new approach to the schools they run. But there are concerns. There are already signs of potential financial and governance instability: there needs to be a strong framework with which academies must comply to ensure probity and effective governance across the Programme in the future. While the Department has issued guidance on internal controls and financial management, it has not made important elements mandatory, and many academies are not complying. The report notes some existing sponsors have failed to fulfil the financial contributions they originally pledged to their academies. The Young People's Learning Agency, responsible for funding and monitoring academies, are planning to overhaul academies' governance and accountability, with an emphasis on light-touch regulation. However, light-touch central regulation can only meet the standards for managing public money if it is accompanied by robust controls at academy level to ensure good governance and clear accountability.
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215556066
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 52
Book Description
Academies are state schools which are independent of local authorities and directly accountable to the Department for Education. This report focuses on the performance of sponsored academies (271 on 5 January 2011), usually established to raise educational standards at under performing schools in deprived areas. They have performed impressively to date, achieving rapid academic improvements and raising aspirations in some of the most deprived areas in the country. An important feature of the sponsored model is the role of the sponsors themselves: individuals or organisations who contribute financially, directly or in kind, and who bring expertise and a new approach to the schools they run. But there are concerns. There are already signs of potential financial and governance instability: there needs to be a strong framework with which academies must comply to ensure probity and effective governance across the Programme in the future. While the Department has issued guidance on internal controls and financial management, it has not made important elements mandatory, and many academies are not complying. The report notes some existing sponsors have failed to fulfil the financial contributions they originally pledged to their academies. The Young People's Learning Agency, responsible for funding and monitoring academies, are planning to overhaul academies' governance and accountability, with an emphasis on light-touch regulation. However, light-touch central regulation can only meet the standards for managing public money if it is accompanied by robust controls at academy level to ensure good governance and clear accountability.