​Case study
​Bella & Taylor Jewelry Co. Ltd., located in the coastal city Qingzhou, is a small jewelry company founded by two friends Bella and Taylor. In business since 2004, it offers products decorated with pearls, jadeite, rhinestones and charms. As a fashion accessory retailer that distributes products to small retailers, B&T insists the business principles of Customer Supreme, Services Prior and standing with these principles, the company has already become one of the top ten in the jewelry industry in this small city.
​For now, the orders are mainly divided into two kinds: online orders processed by foreign companies and orders from the local companies who would rather visit the office themselves. The company has its own website and updates it regularly when it restocks its products.
​Bella is a successful jewelry designer and she mainly deals with the desien department with three youme desieners working under her leadership. Taylor, on the other hand. is mainly responsible for the marketing and how to get ahead in fierelv eompetitive markets is her biggest concem. This process involves foming the business strategy that has better and deep understanding of the customers, competition and the markets, which often makes her overwhelmed and sometimes she loses temper in workplace, which makes other colleagues very nervous.
​Taylor's brother Michael is responsible for dealing with raw material suppliers, which is quite a demanding job for a young man who just graduated from the university a year ago. Most of his time is absorbed by the day-to-day running of the business. At the same time, he has to deal with complaints from customers, most of time he cannot prompt the settlement of complaints.
​The company employs one Administrative Officer, one Administrative Assistant and one Cashier. Besides, there are ten Sales Representatives who are paid commission on the number of orders they secure, so the work environment and culture is very competitive. One long serving sales representative resigned recently as she was fed up with others ‘poaching his clients’ and the endless overtime. The Administrative Officer adheres to a rigid leadership style, which can work well some times, but it leads to horrible employee engagement in the long run and causes lots of dissatisfaction among members of the staff.
​Now and then, B&T receives complaints from local companies for bad service, such as a long-time waiting because the sales representatives will refuse to deal with them as they feel the commission they will earn is not worth the effort. As for the foreign customers, the common complain online is the delivery delay. If a customer complains, the current procedure is that the Administrative Officer must take details of the complaint and then let Taylor deal with it.
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​1. With the increasing competition from online organizations, explain why it is important for B&T to ensure that they provide clients with excellent customer care?
​2.Discuss the key factors that contribute to excellent customer care.
​3.B&T has to deal with both external and internal customers:
​a. Explain the concept of external and internal customers.
​b. Give examples of internal and external customers from the B&T
​case study.
​C. Explain why it is important for B&T to identify and meet the
​expectations of their internal and external customers.
​d. Make suggestions, with justification, for improvements that B&T
​could make for their external customers.
​4. What advice would you suggest for B&T staff when dealing effectively with customer complaints/problems? Your response must give examples of at least two different types of complaints/problems.
​5. What is ‘customer aftercare' and how can the maintenance of customer care contribute to improving levels of customer satisfaction for B&T?
​6. B&T is aware that it should be getting qualitative and quantitative feedback from its customers:
​a. Suggest and justify ways that B&T could do this.
​b. Explain how B&T could monitor the feedback received.
​4. What advice would you suggest for B&T staff when dealing effectively with customer complaints/problems? Your response must give examples of at least two different types of complaints/problems.