Developing and Maintaining Competitive Advantage by Synergizing Customer Service Efforts in Select Book Stores in the Kingston Metropolitan Region in Jamaica.

By

Acknowledgement

I hereby, take this as a platform to acknowledge my gratefulness to those who have guided me continuously to make this piece of study a success.

Declaration

I hereby declare that the dissertation I am submitting is an original and authentic piece of work written by myself that satisfies the University rules and regulations with respect to Plagiarism and Collusion.

Abstract

With increased competition as a result of globalization it is becoming difficult for organizations to survive in the market and achieve substantial growth. Customers are considered as the key asset for any business, the ultimate objective of a firm is to maximize their sales and minimize their costs. Customers enable organizations to accomplish these goals by purchasing their goods and services. Hence, it is essential for companies to ensure that they deliver better quality services to its customers to gain competitive edge and successfully survive the competition in the industry. It is imperative for organizations to satisfy the needs of customers through efficiently resolving their complaints and queries. Furthermore, it is also essential for workers to be closer to the action to be able to understand the problems of their customers. Therefore, employees work location is considered as a key factor in meeting customer needs and developing and maintaining competitive advantage. Organizations can achieve this goal through achieving synergy. Human resource development is an essential factor for influencing organization's performance; therefore, it is significant for the management to train its employees to have the required knowledge regarding the products and services to guide the customers.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTi

DECLARATIONii

ABSTRACTiii

iv

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION1

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION9

REFERENCES10

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION

Customers do not intend to maintain long-term relationship with the organizations that treat them poorly. The quality of services provided to customers creates a significant impact in levels of retail operation of the company (Guest, 1992, 111-132). Thus, it is essential for all the workers regardless of location to have the same mindset and follow the same policies (Dawson, 2000, 119-148). The researcher has conducted a thorough explanatory research to explore the impact of integrating management's/company's customer service policy with employee work locations and customer expectation for friendly and knowledgeable staff on service quality which may lead to the development of competitive advantage for select book selling stores in the Kingston Metropolitan Region.

Interview survey has been carried out with employees, customers and an in-depth interview conducted with Mr. Ricardo Fuller, Director Training and Development at Kingston Bookshop Ltd to determine their perspective regarding the need for integrating customer services policy with employee working locations. The purpose of the research was to ascertain if there is a positive impact of standardizing the customer services all over the stores of Kingston.

It is imperative for companies to ensure that they develop customer service policy by incorporating employees' courtesy and making conscious efforts to assist a customer in finding what he/ she needs in resolving a problem (Campbell, 1998, ...