management plan
NAME AND ADDRESS of (the division of) the organization or company you have chosen to examine. Be wary of using a military or
military-related organizations as most do not operate in a necessarily free, competitive environment. Many students who had
opted for such organizations in previous terms found themselves in difficult positions in later modules.
The organization’s MISSION (what business it is in or what it is supposed to do).
What is The Organization’s SITUATION? (Assuming that you work for a company, I am looking for a statement describing the
company, including: its Products – goods and/or services (What does the firm/company/division/department sell))?
Does the organization give ADJUSTMENTS, handle RETURNS, and/or give REFUNDS? That is, what are the company’s policies toward
adjustments, returns, and refunds?
Does the organization’s policies with regard to ADJUSTMENTS, RETURNS, and REFUNDS provide it with a sustainable competitive
advantage? If so, why? If not, what can the company do to attain that sustainable competitive advantage?
SLP2
Is CHECKOUT TIME at your company used to meet the needs or requirements of its (served and/or prospective) target market(s)?
If so, how is checkout time used to attain a sustainable competitive advantage? If not, what does your organization need to
do so that it can use checkout time to attain a sustainable competitive advantage?
SLP3
Are HOURS of OPERATION (in particular those hours during which customers are served) and DELIVERY at your organization used
to meet the needs or requirements of its (served and/or prospective) target market(s)? If so, how are hours of operation and
delivery used to attain a sustainable competitive advantage? If not, what does your organization need to do so that it can
use hours of operation and delivery to attain a sustainable competitive advantage?
SLP4
Is CREDIT at your company used to meet the needs or requirements of its (served and/or prospective) target market(s)? If so,
how is credit used to attain a sustainable competitive advantage? If not, what does your organization need to do so that it
can use credit to attain a sustainable competitive advantage?
SLP5
Does your organization use measurements (i.e., METRICS) to develop and meet continuous improvement objectives in customer
relationship management? If so, what measurements are used and how are those measurements used to develop and meet continuous
improvement objectives in customer relationship management? If not, what does your organization need to do so that it use
measurements to develop and meet continuous improvement objectives in customer relationship management?
Assuming that you work for an organization or company, it might be an interesting project to do the customer service audit /
customer relationship management plan for that company. If information about your organization or company is proprietary, or
if you do not have ready access to the information required in the customer service audit / customer relationship management
plan, you might want to consider creating an audit/plan for a company that is publicly held and/or on which there is a lot of
easily accessible information about it on the Web.
WARNING: It has been my experience, over the past sessions, that students who choose their military unit often run into
significant problems. Some of the reasons are that the military and its organizations do not necessarily operate in a
competitive environment where customers/recuits/personnel may not have choices in their patronage decisions, etc. Thus, if
you are to select a military outfit, you should definitely look through all the modules and make sure that you will not be
stuck at some point.
It is suggested that the organization or company you choose for this assignment should be one in which you have easy access
to the non-proprietary information that you will be asked to cover in your paper or presentation. If you work in an office of
an organization or a company and that organization or company says that it
deals with customers and
is willing to let you have access to the information that the project requires
Much of the work on your SLP will be re-writing what you obtain into the prescribed format. If a military unit to which you
have access is involved in customer service activities, then you could use that unit. For example, if you work at or shop at
the base PX, you could audit the customer service activities of that unit.
Although many of the examples in this course are based on how retailers handle their customers, I figured that all of us in
one way or another deal with retailers, if you have access to the information, you could tackle an audit/plan for a
manufacturer, wholesaler, or supplier that sells products (goods and services) or a vendor that only sells a service.
Note that if you are evaluating the customer service policies and procedures of a manufacturer or wholesaler, the firm you
are auditing might have more than one product (good and/or service)and you should limit your analysis to only one of the
markets.
If you do not have access to company or organization information as an insider, I suggest that you pick a publicly held
organization or company. The reason for this will become obviously shortly: if the organization or company is publicly held,
to attract investors, it publishes detailed information on the customer service it provides.
The organization or the company you chose for your Session Long Project can be the one on which any of the Cases are based.
Or it can be any of the companies mentioned in the background information for any of the cases.
Once you have read the Overview and selected the organization you will audit, start compiling basic information about your
organization. Information collection will be time consuming. You need to collect and document this information as early in
the session as you can.
Excluding your title page, in which you include the < name of the organization you have chosen for your SLP >, I expect all
of your SLPs to be approximately 2-3 pages,
For SLP1, please use section headings for each of the topics outlined below. Following each section heading, what you write
should be organized, succinct, and professional. This assignment asks you NOT to prepare a detailed essay. Instead, it asks
you to use a business style of writing found in management reports and textbooks. In other words, be fairly brief in you
answers to the following questions:
NAME AND ADDRESS of (the division of) the organization or company you have chosen to examine.
The organization’s MISSION (what business it is in or what it is supposed to do).
What is The Organization’s SITUATION? (Assuming that you work for a company, I am looking for a statement describing the
company, including: its Products – goods and/or services (What does the firm/company/division/department sell))?
Does the organization give ADJUSTMENTS, handle RETURNS, and/or give REFUNDS? That is, what are the company’s policies toward
adjustments, returns, and refunds?
Does the organization’s policies with regard to ADJUSTMENTS, RETURNS, and REFUNDS provide it with a sustainable competitive
advantage? If so, why? If not, what can the company do to attain that sustainable competitive advantage?
Some of the above information may not be available. If the information is unavailable, make a note that you could not find
the missing information and that a more complete audit will need to include that information. The missing information that
should be included in a more complete audit will be included in your list of recommendations that you’ll make at the end of
your audit report. If you believe an issue addressed above does not apply to your organization (for example, there are no
competitors) do not leave that issue un-addressed. State that ‘ The issue is not addressed because, ‘ then state why it is
not addressed.
Please, cite all sources at the end of your paper.
