UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business NGUYEN-DINH THIEN TAM Student ID: 22150055 HIGH CUSTOMER COMPLAINT RATIO FROM MEDENT CO., LTD MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City – 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business NGUYEN-DINH THIEN TAM Student ID: 22150055 HIGH CUSTOMER COMPLAINT RATIO FROM MEDENT CO., LTD MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: TRAN HA MINH QUAN Ho Chi Minh City – 2019 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Executive Summary The dizzying turn of the "digital" revolution in today's life has made intellectual property more important than ever. The intellectual property, which is often considered the most important asset in all organizations, needs to be well identified and studied. In addition, in this digital age, adaptation is being viewed as a strong competitive advantage. In the current economic context of Vietnam and especially in commercial enterprises.
Organizations need to ensure they operate in a way that can help them meet and grow sustainably by addressing these two issues. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the causes of high customer complaint ratio through the current problems with customer at Medent Co. The findings of the study revealed the awkwardness and embarrassment of catching up with the changes of the times as well as the rapid change of customer demand in which the "information" factor is extremely important. Not only do you have to provide them enough "information", but also provide solutions that will enable them to apply into their work.
The findings are discussed in details in the research along with some recommendations for the company and management board to solve the problem of the actual needs of customers, towards sustainable development and reduce customer complaint ratio in Medent Co. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge all who supported me during my studies without whom I wouldn't be where I am today. I would especially like to thank my supervisor – Professor Tran Ha Minh Quan for all his advice and guidance, without his help this could not have been possible. I also would like to show my gratitude to my colleagues at work and classmates at ISB for their continuous support.
I also send my sincere thankfulness to my parents and friends for their support and encouragement. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES 1.1 The company background .2 Company structure and mission .1 Cause –and –effect map .3 Final Cause –and –effect map.1 The first alternative solution: Establishment of a "multi-function" R&D center .2 The second alternative solution: conduct collaborative research programs with medical universities and dental associations. ORGANIZATION OF ACTIONS. 43 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.
Medent organizational structure Figure 2. Increasing ratio of customer complaint (compare with previous quarter) Figure 3. Increasing ratio of customer complaint in the last three year Figure 4. The satisfied ratio with the services and products of Medent - 2018 data Figure 5.
The Gap Model Figure 6. Initial Cause Effect Map Figure 7. Final Cause Effect Map TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Fixed cost of building center Table 2: Fixed cost of Team training & recruiting Table 3: The cost of projects in 2017 Table 4: Action plan TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 The company background Company name: Medent Co., Ltd Established year: 1994 Industry: Dental supplies and services. Huỳnh Thanh Đạm Medent Co., Ltd is one of the largest providers of dental care products and services to office-based dental and dental practitioners in Viet Nam.
Medent is a subsidiary company of the Medent Group; the largest group provides dental care products in Vietnam. The company also serves dental laboratories, government and institutional health care clinics, and other alternate care sites in the field of dentistry. A company with more than 23 years of development history and serves thousands of clients in the dental industry throughout Vietnam.2 Company structure and mission Regarding the structure, there are multiple services and products that the company provides. Moreover, it also includes value-added solutions in order for operative practices and high-quality care to be achieved.
Medent oriented to operate through a centralized and automated distribution network, with a selection of rich and diverse product portfolio from over 10 global brands from reputable multinational corporations in the dental industry. Plus, special assistance and various advanced technical aids are also available to customers in need, as claimed by the company. Specifically, these consist of financial aids, software and utilities that are specialized in internet trading. Headquartered in Tan Binh District, HCMC.
The company's sales reached a record 200 billion VND in 2016 (Medent Group sales revenue 2016 is 900 billion VND in 2016). For more information, visit the Medent website at http://medent. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2 BOD CEO Supervisory Board Board of Assistant 6 Director of 6 Medent Co., Ltd subsidiary company Managing Director of Medent Group VP VP VP Supporting Group Operational Group Business Group Technical Services Dental Equipment Marketing Manager Manager Sales Manager HR & Ware house & Dental Surgical Administration Logistic Manager Sales Manager Manager Finnance & Customer Relation Dental Labo Sales Accounting Manager Manager Manager Import-Export Dental Implant R&D Manager Manager Sales Manager IT & System Purchasing Management Manager Manager Figure 1. Medent organizational structure (Source: Medent Human Resource Department) TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
PROBLEM CONTEXT High ratio of customer complaint Symptom: High ratio of customer complaint. We have had data from Customer Services Department that they have received an increasing number of complains as follows: On average, from July 2017 to July 2018, the number of complaints increased 3.8% in average each quarter in a year when compared with the average number of previous year, we calculated by taking the total number of complaints of each quarter of this period from Q3 2017 to Q2 2018, add up their sum and then divide by 4, then use this result to compare with the average of the previous year, thereby calculating the average percentage above. In addition, we also compared the growth rate of complaints in the quarters corresponding to the previous years, namely Q3 2017 compared to Q3 2016. On the other hand, we also compared this average of this year compared to the previous two years.
The issues mentioned above will be explained in the following two charts: TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 4 Increasing ratio of customer complaint (compare w ith previous quarter) Increasing ratio of customer complaint (compare with the corresponding quarters in the previous year) 4. Increasing ratio of customer complaint (compared with the corresponding quarters in the previous year) (Source: Medent Customer Relation Department) While in the past two years, the number of complaints only increase 0. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 5 Increasing ratio of customer complaint in the last three y ear Increasing ratio of customer complaint in the last three year 3. Increasing ratio of customer complaint in the last three year (Source: Medent Customer Relation Department) Recognizing the importance of the matter, Medent has conducted a survey on customer satisfaction with the simple Yes / No question: Are you satisfied with the services and products which Medent is offering? As a result, 42% of customers were not satisfied with the company's current products and services.
Medent has done the research with 100 customers (in more than 5000 of their customers in Viet Nam). Their method is to take randomly on the company's customer list. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 6 The satisfied ratio with the services and products which Medent is offering Unsatisfied 42% Satisfied 58% Unsatisfied Satisfied Figure 4. The satisfied ratio with the services and products of Medent - 2018 data (Source: Medent Customer Relation Department) 3.1 Cause –and –effect map After the study above, Medent has realized this is an unusual indicator, but it is very difficult to conduct an investigation on large samples with specific subjects like dentists is very difficult, after discussing with the board of directors, everyone has come up with a preferred solution: conducting a follow-up research by doing 7 in-depth interviews with 7 different dentists in HCMC and Hanoi.
The interview results indicate that there are three main causes for the high ratio of customer complaint. TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 7 INITIAL CAUSE & EFFECT MAP Products provided do not meet the expectations of customers Customer service is not good High ratio of customer complaint Installation and delivery are not good Figure 6. Initial Cause Effect Map To build the first proposal, I choose the first cause as a potential central problem. The reason why I remove the others includes two reasons: Firstly, I start conducting theoretical searches and find out that service and its quality has become an fascinating phenomenon in the fields of research, operation management (OR) and service marketing management (SMM) (Nejadjavad & Gilaninia(2)).
The term “service” can be defined in numerous ways. Although the term has been presented differently through the definition of numerous researchers, it still ends up in the same field which depends heavily on the satisfaction of customers. In accordance with American Society for Marketing (2008), a service is known as a specific product that can be sold or trade. Reversely, as Kotler(3) stated, the same term is seen as the outcome from the interaction between the supplier and the customer.
There exist a great number of service types in the literature, one of which is TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 8 supplementary service. It is the extra help that customers receive after attaining their desired items or products. As Goyal stated, two types of services are presented. The first one is core service, indicating the desired results that are equal to the price a customer has to pay for a product.
If a refrigerator is bought, for instance, the user will expect it to be able to freeze food and keep them fresh. The second type of service is, according to Lovelock and Wirtz(4), is supplementary service, aiming at improving and assisting the core service. Following this specific model, a company should offer core service and supplementary service to its clients. With the former, the main interests and benefits requested by customers are attained.
The supplementary services are bound to enhance such items. According to Lovelock et al.(9), The Flower of Service is created to explain the two types of supplementary services supporting the core product. They are facilitating supplementary services and enhancing supplementary services (2009). I found out that the problem Medent was facing was information and consultation.
Secondly, when I read again the results of the interview, I discovered that despite many causes for customer complaints, one of the most important causes we need to pay attention is the change in nature of the products which the company provides. They changed from pure tangible products (dental devices) to intellectual products (solutions for dentistry, we can see through the interview content, including the client side, namely dentists and the company side, namely sales, marketing and customer service which we collected during the next interview. Hùng– Director of Dr. Hung Dental Hospital shared that: The majority of Medent's complaints come from the company's services.
You see, as you have recently converted from selling products to selling solutions that I have not seen this in practice. You are only bringing values to customers sporadically because you lack a lot of core values. The reason, simply because you do not understand correctly and specifically what you need to do. For example, when you combine multiple treatment technologies together, that does not mean "one plus one equal two" that you are changing the behavior and TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 9 treatment method of the doctor, you need to help them.
Do it in a practical way, not just on theory.