Page 174 - DMGT546_INTERNATIONAL_TRADE_PROCEDURE_AND_DOCUMENTATION

Unit 7: Logistics and Characteristics of Modes of Transportation

Notes

Case Study Delivering a Superior Customer Experience

he reputation of a business may be affected by what its customers think and say
about its products or services. This is driven by the experience of customers when
Tdealing with the business. High quality customer service will encourage customers
to become regular or repeat users or purchasers. On the other hand, a poor customer
experience may damage a business through loss of consumer confidence.
TNT was founded in Australia in 1946 by Ken Thomas with a single truck. Today, TNT is
a global business and the market leader in business-to-business (B2B) express delivery
services, delivering up to 150 million items per year. It has the largest individual share of
the national market and employs over 10,000 people across the UK and Ireland. TNT
operates in the tertiary (or service) sector of the economy which provides widely varying
services to other businesses and to consumers. The tertiary sector is the largest sector of
the UK economy, ahead of the primary (extraction) and secondary (manufacturing) sectors.
In 2008 TNT recognised that the increasing expectations of customers meant the business
had to make major changes to ensure it could meet their needs.

In-depth research showed that customer satisfaction depended not just on the process of
delivering the service, but also on how the service was carried out. This resulted in TNT
adopting a core strategy focused on delivering a quality customer experience. It developed
a two-year programme to implement and communicate its Customer Promise to employees
and customers.
In order to achieve the levels of process innovation and continuous improvement that the
customer focus strategy required, TNT also needed to ensure the capabilities of its people
were aligned to this, particularly in delivering a high quality customer experience. A
review of new employees to the company showed that only 10% held qualifications above
Contd...

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 169