Answer all 3 questions please, the reading is for problem 2

Questions 1. Budget has used marketing research to measure customer satisfaction. How else could the firm use marketing research? 2. Based on a description of the "players in the marketing research industry, dis- cussed in the first part of the chapter, what is Touchwork? Why? 3. Why is customer feedback so important to a company like Budget? Is it just as important to other types of businesses like Home Depot or Duke Energy Corporation (an electric utility company)? REAL-LIFE RESEARCH. 2.2 Budget Rent a Car Drives a Message Home As part of the global Budget organization, Budget Rent a Car in South Africa operates a large network of over 80 branches located throughout South Africa Namibia and Bouwana. In terminal branches at all major airports are that no matter how custom erschoose to reach their destination. Budiger Rent a Car is never far away In the highly competitive car rental business, Budget strives to consistently deliver world-dais cutemer service and continuously find ways to funhet imprew the experi ences of its customen. With the relative case of moving competitor the need to retain existing customers and build brand loyaliy is critical for success It is especially important to immediately identify customers who are dated with Budget and to rapidly address their concem. Budget contra primarily to the busine traveler, so the lifetime value of each customer is substantial As most travelers are busy and in a hurry to put to their ner destination Budget strives to minimise the time is tales come to collector foruma car. As an emple the Budga Fabecak programmeves the necesay for the customer to sign any docum mentation the time of vehicle collection. On amival, the customer simply proceeds dincly to the Faithak dedicated cater, where the keys are handed over. Unfortunately these and other programs limit the opportunity to interact with customers at a personal level and obtain feedback about their experiences with the car or service they received was Ber Vorset. Badget bonines support ming Customers who have had a negative experience in me instance, do not have chand to complain and simply move to a competitor the cut time they bite a car while sharing their negative experience with friends and colleagues Low Response Rate To get customer feedback. Hadget in the past had wd prepaid reply wurvey cards However, the effectiveness of this method in capturing and immediately responding customers wary poet, and the overall response rate stylow. I typically took up to 3 months for a customer to get a reply to a complaint as the survey cards had to be delivered to a central point at the head office manually captured into a computer tem. med by a customer service representative in terms of type of complain and then an appropriate response had to be formulated. In most cases the customer simply received a form letter from the Budget CEO advising that the sue was being looked ints and steps were being taken to void stocurrence. This delayed and imperial method of communication had the potential of further alienating customers and driving them to competiton In 2004 the Budget corporate customer service management team was introduced to the customer feedback management system developed by South Africa and research firm Touchwork. The system captures and provides customer feedback wing cellphone based test moving festing Budget immediately act on negative feedback and address Customer concem. Badget realised that this approach would solve many of the short coming of the reply cand prices and enable it to further differentiate itself from competitors Bestille tesarch 221 With the widespread use of cell phone to all sector of the population and the growing use of text messaging, Budget also wanted to be seen as an innovator in wing new technologies to further enhance its reputation as a leader in its pace Core Part The ongoing customer satisfaction campaign was launched in May 2004 and forms core part of Budge's customer satisfaction and performance management initiatives Budget determined that the following six survey questions represented the most critical issues related to a customer experience. A simple y no reponse to cach quer tion was deemed adequate to identify service delivery inox and initiate follow-up REAL-LIFE RESEARCH. 2.2 Budget Rent a Car Drives a Message Home As part of the global Budget organization, Budget Rent a Car in South Africa operates a large network of over 80 branches located throughout South Africa. Namibia, and Botswana. In-terminal branches ar all major airports ensure that no matter how custom- crs choose to reach their destination, Budget Rent a Car is never far away, In the highly competitive car rental business, Budget strives to consistently deliver world-class customer service and continuously find ways to further improve the experi- ences of its customers. With the relative case of moving to a competitor, the need to retain existing customers and build brand loyalty is critical for success. It is especially important to immediately identify customers who are dissatisfied with Budget and to rapidly address their concerns. Budget caters primarily to the business traveler, so the lifetime value of each customer is substantial. As most travelers are busy and in a hurry to get to their next destination, Budget strives to minimize the time it takes customers to collect or return a car. As an example, the Budget Fastbreak program removes the necessity for the customer to sign any docu- mentation at the time of vehicle collection. On arrival, the customer simply proceeds directly to the Fastbreak dedicated counter, where the keys are handed over. "Unfortunately these and other programs limit the opportunity to interact with customers at a personal level and obtain feedback about their experiences with the car or service they received." says Bev Vorster, Budget business support manager. "Customers who have had a negative experience, in most instances, do not have a channel to complain and simply move to a competitor the next time they hire a car while sharing their negative experience with friends and colleagues." Low Response Rate To get customer feedback, Budget in the past had used prepaid reply survey cards. However, the effectiveness of method in capturing and immediately responding to customer issues was very poor, and the overall response rate very low. It typically took up to 3 months for a customer to get a reply to a complaint as the survey cards had to be delivered to a central point at the head office, manually captured into a computer system, assessed by a customer service representative, sorted in terms of type of complaint, and then an appropriate response had to be formulated. In most cases the customer simply received a form letter from the Budget CEO advising that the issue was being looked into and steps were being taken to avoid a recurrence. This delayed and impersonal method of communication had the potential of further alienating customers and driving them to competitors. In 2004 the Budget corporate customer service management team was introduced to the customer feedback management system developed by South Africa-based research firm Touchwork. The system captures and provides customer feedback using cell phone- based text messaging, letting Budget immediately act on negative feedback and address customer concerns. Budget realized that this approach would resolve many of the short- comings of the reply card process and enable it to further differentiate itself from competitors