A Model Of Customer Value For Consumer Market Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Satisfying customers wishes is a challenge for many companies in the todays rapidly changing and keenly competitive environment. A thorough knowledge of customer needs is even considered to be the foundation on which a company is built. (Mohr-Jackson, 1996) Hence, the researcher in this research has decided to focus the research on customer values.

2.0 Definition of Customer Values

Walters (2002) explains that "value is an interesting concept. The underlying motivation for changes in customer expectations is a shift in the consumer perspective of value which has moved away from a combination of benefits dominated by price towards a range of benefits in which price, for some customer segments, has very little impact. Value is assumed to be the benefits received from a product choice less their costs of acquisition". The benefits can be measured in price, quality, convenience, flexibility, response time, dependability of delivery, style and fashion, ethical issues, technology and personalization. All these values are very important especially for the first time customers as in this high competitive business environment, customers will compare the value of product or service the competitor is offerings. The more values a company willing to provide, the more likely the customers are willing pay for the product or service.

3.0 Customer Value Models

According to Fuller (1993), identify customer's characteristic and develop customer value model are a very important part in satisfying the customer needs. The product and service characteristic must be produced and delivered and these tasks raise questions concerning the capabilities and capacities.

Diagram 1: A Model of Customer Value for Consumer Market

According to Day (1990), the original idea of "value equation" and emphasizing customers' perception. This model (Diagram 1) integrates descriptive and normative points of view about consumer behaviour, including the consumer values expectation before purchase, customer value evaluation at the time of buying, and value actualization in consumption or possession.

According to social psychologists, people's perception of objects and events is influenced by their cognitive traits such as personality and attitude, personal values, and consumption schemata. Besides that, it can also be influenced by the demographics such as age, education, income, wealth, and time resources. As indicated in Diagram 1, these factors of "Customer Characteristics" are the background of the customers' perception.

The buyers' evaluation of a product purchase begins from their perceived product benefits. The earlier discussions of consumers' product valuation have proposed a framework about how the customers perceive product benefits based on their terminal personal values and instrumental consumption values. In addition, the discussion has suggested and illustrated a typology of generic product benefits with eight categories. As indicated in Diagram 1, the model suggests that "Perceived Product Benefits" could be a single type or a combination of the eight categories of product benefits.

The model suggests that customer value is a consequence of subjective evaluation which in turn results from the summing up of the various perceived benefits and perceived costs, taking into account the differently weighted factors. In other words, the "perceived customer value" in the model is defined as the surplus or the difference between perceived benefits and perceived costs (Day 1990).

Diagram 2: Value Expectation Identity Market Based Alternatives

Diagram 2 has shown how the customer value been positioned into the market. In order to understand what value the customers are looking for when they intend to purchase something, customer benefits and acquisition costs must bring into consideration. Once customer value expectations have been determined, the values will be evaluate and position into either product or service characteristic to come out a value proposition plan. The value could be measured in capacity or capability. For example like a buy one free one offer or a long lasting tyre. All the customer values will be delivered based on the 5W's & H theory.

Diagram 3: The Value Transfer Model

Cost

Cost is one of the most direct value attribute as perceived by the consumers. Consumer will worry what does the product or service cost for the total time of ownership. For example, when a person decided to buy a house, the main concern is not just to worry about the price of the house. He or she might also worry about the interest that he or she needs to pay for the loan taken to buy the house, the cost of renovation, the cost of buying new furniture and the future value depreciation of the house.

Quality

Quality can be described as the fitness for use. Consumers may concern about the quality of the product or service that they consume whether it meet their specifications as different people may have different perception of quality. For example, when a person decided to buy a car, he or she might select the car based on the manufacturer of the car. Some people may feel comfortable with local made car, but some might only feel confidence with the car which is made in the foreign country. Besides that, some of the consumer may refer to the features of the product for example whether the car comes with air-bags or not. Some others may look at the durability of the product as they are looking for a long lasting product. When we talk about service quality, it may refer to the way of the staff serving the customer.

Response Time

Response time means how fast can the customer get the product or service that he or she is looking for. Does he or she need to wait for a long time? For example, when a customer uses Poslaju to deliver a letter, means he or she may expect the letter will be reached to the recipient within 24 hours.

When the response time is important to a customer, he or she might willing to pay more to enjoy the privilege. For example, many patients would rather to pay higher price to visit the private hospital instead of waiting in the government hospital because they are not willing to wait.

Dependability of Delivery

Dependability of delivery means how reliable for a person especially in service industry to deliver the product or service that you have requested for. For example, when you ordered a drink with less ice in a restaurant, did the waiter deliver a cup of drink with lesser ice?

Convenience

Convenience means how easy can a customer get the product or service that he or she is looking for. Does he or she need to go far or put too much effort to get it? For example, customer can easily get a can of Coca-Cola in the convenience shop or a restaurant. He or she doesn't need to walk far or put too much effort for getting it. Whereas, if a person wants to buy a Louis Vuitton bag, he or she might need to go to the particular shop which has the exclusive rights to sell the bag.

Style and Fashion

Style and fashion may refer to the packaging of the product or the renovation of a shop. For example, people willing to pay more for a cup of coffee in Starbuck instead of a cup of coffee in the hawker stall. This is because of the brand name and also the packaging of the coffee.

Ethical Issues

Ethical issues may refer to the business acting responsibility. Nowadays most of the organizations are very concern about their corporate image due to the pressure from both government and customers. There are three types of concern for the organization, which are customer welfare, environment and philanthropy. Customer may want the product or service he or she uses is safe and without harming the environment. At the same time, it will be good if a company carries out charity acts which are benefit to the society.

Technology

Technology in here means does the product or service need to have a technical skill for a person to use it? Most of the customer would prefer to choose the product which allowed them to be self-taught for example a new television may come together with a manual which allows customer to learn how to function the television. Whereas, some of the products may need a specialist to guide you how to use. For example, a photocopy machine with multi functions may need a photo copy machine specialist to guide you how to use it.

Flexibility

Flexibility means can a business adapt to different types of situation. For example, a Chinese restaurant will place more tables outside the restaurant during the peak hours in order to serve more customers.

Personalization

Personalization in here means customization. For example, when you walk in to an optical shop, they will base on your requirement to customize contact lenses for you. Another example, a Citibank credit card holder can have a special entrance to purchase movie ticket in every TGV cinemas.

5.0 Benefit to a company (If focuses in Customer Value)

It is good if a company is focusing on the customer values in their business as it will provide more reason to convince the customers to purchase the company's product or service. Apart from that, concentrating in customer values may help the company to differentiate themselves from their competitor as the customer will compare and choose the company which willing to offer them more values which mean they are getting more benefits by purchasing the product or service. By this way, company can easily gain the competitive advantage and this will help to increase the company sales in order to bring in more revenues.

Besides that, if a company is able to deliver all types of customer values to its customers, it may create a good reputation as well as public awareness and this will directly bring in a positive impact to the company as the sales of the company may be increased because of this.

For example, Company A and Company B are selling hair shampoo as their company product. Both of the companies are offering same price and same quality for their product. In order to attract more customers to purchase, Company B has decided to run a one month promotion. During the promotion period, customer can redeem a small tester set of hair conditioner whenever they purchase a bottle hair shampoo. The sales of Company B may be increased for that particular month as Company B is delivering more values to the customers if compare with Company A.

6.0 Limitation to a company (If focuses in Customer Value)

If a company focuses on customer values, it will limit the company to expand in future. For example, Company A reduces the product price in order to compete with its competitor, the price reduction may attract many customers to purchase Company A's product, but price promotion is not a long term plan to run. Company A has to set a promotion period, once the promotion period ends, the product price will back to normal. Once the promotion period ended, customer will feel that the price of Company A's product has increased. Reason being, customers had purchase the same product at a lower price during the promotion period. Besides that, it also limits Company A to increase the product price as customers already used to the promotion price.

Pro-forma A

Company Profile

The researcher has chosen Maxis as the research company. Maxis is one of the largest telecommunication company in Malaysia which has almost 14 million subscribers. Maxis providing variety kind of mobile services such as post or prepaid call plans, mobile internet data plans, international roaming, residential fixed line service, high-speed fiber internet plan and many others value added services.

Product Description

In this research, the researcher has chosen mobile internet service as the research target. Maxis mobile internet is a mobile internet service which is providing by Maxis to its Post and Prepaid users. There are different types of mobile data packages to fit every mobile internet user's needs. For example, there is a pay-per-use service for those casual browsers, customers will only need to pay for what they have used. There are also time-based passes and monthly passes to cater heavy mobile data users, more than 5 types of data plan are available at different price and quota for customer to choose. One of the latest data plan in Maxis is Surf More data plan. Customer can select the most suitable and affordable data plan to subscribe. Besides the traditional data plan, Maxis is also providing Facebook internet plan for those customers who always surf Facebook.

Research Method

Research method can be divided into two categories, which is qualitative research and quantitative research.

3.1 Qualitative Research

Qualitative research means the researcher gathers information from non-numerical form. For example, the data may come from an open-ended questionnaire, unstructured interview or an observation. All the data gathered from this research are mostly based on descriptive data. Hence it is very hard for the researcher to do analysis. Having said that, this research method is very useful for studies as it is the way of people think or feel. For example, a case studies written by an author.

To do an analysis from the qualitative data gathered is difficult as it requires accurate description from the respondents. For example, the researcher needs to sort the questionnaires or interview answers from the respondents or interviewee.

3.2 Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is a research method which gathers data in numerical form. The data can be put into categories, rank or it can be also measure in units of measurement. This type of research data can be used to construct graphs or tables of raw data. Quantitative data is preferred to use in experiments as it concern a lot in the measurements.

However, other type of research methods such as questionnaire and observation can be produced as both quantitative and qualitative information. For instance, five-point likert scale or closed questionnaire may generate quantitative data as it can generate result in either numerical data or data that can be put into categories, such as "Yes" and "No" answer.

3.3 Types of Research Undertaken

The researcher has used both qualitative and quantitative research in this research. For example, the researcher has used five-point likert scale to generate the information which is concerning about the customer value which customers are paying the most attention to when they intend to subscribe to the Surf More data plan.

At the same time, the researcher has also used the open-ended questionnaire to gather feedback from the customer service consultants.

Research Objective

The objective to have this research is to identify what type of customer values customers are looking for when they intend to subscribe to Maxis Surf More data plan. In this research, the researcher will investigate how Maxis deliver the customer values to its customers and assess the impact of the company's activities in delivering the customer values on the value chain.

Question Design

The researcher has decided to do a survey by using questionnaire to gather information from Maxis' customers. This particular questionnaire is designed to obtain the feedback from Maxis' customers to investigate the customer satisfaction based on the Customer Values.

This questionnaire will be divided into 5 sections, which include:

Section A: Personal details of Maxis' customers. For example, age, race and monthly income.

Section B: Customer's Perception of the 7Ps of Maxis

Section C: Customer value which customers pay the most attention to when they intend to subscribe to the Surf More data plan.

Section D: Ranking of impotencies of the customer values in relation with the data service.

Section E: Customer's overall opinion towards Maxis and the data plan service it offerings.

Definition of Scale

A psychometric response scale primarily used in questionnaire to obtain respondents' preferences or degree of agreement with a set of statements. Likert scales are a non-comparative scaling technique and are unidimensional in nature. It will only be measured in a single trait. Respondents are asked to indicate their level of agreement with a given statement by way of an ordinal scale.

6.1 Type of Scales

Most common seen as a 5-point scale ranging from "Strongly Disagree" on one end to "Strongly Agree" on the other with neither "Agree" nor "Disagree" in the middle. However, some practitioners advocate the use of 7 - 9 point scales which add additional granularity. Sometimes a 4 point scale is used to produce an ipsative measure where no indifferent option is available. Each level on the scale is assigned a numeric value or coding. Usually it starts at 1 and incremented by one of each level.

6.2 Identify the Types of Scale

Section A

For this section, the researcher has decided to use multiple choices to gather respondents' information. Following is the sample question of this section:

 

 

 

 

Gender

 

 

Male

 

 

 

 

 

 

Female

 

 

 

 

Section B

For this section, the researcher has decided to use satisfaction scale to gather respondents' information. Following is the sample question of this section:

Level

Very satisfied

Satisfied

Neutral

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

1

2

3

4

5

Section C

For this section, the researcher has decided to use agreement scale to gather respondents' information. Following is the sample question of this section:

Level

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

1

2

3

4

5

Section D

For this section, the researcher has decided to use important scale to gather respondents' information. Following is the sample question of this section:

Level

Very

Important

Important

Neutral

Unimportant

Very

Unimportant

1

2

3

4

5

Section E

For this section, the researcher has decided to use open-ended question to gather respondents' information. Following is the sample question of this section:

What is your overall opinion of the Maxis Surf More data plan?

Type and Amount of Respondent

The researcher has decided to target 50 existing and new Maxis Surf More data plan subscribers to answer this questionnaire set.

Administration of Questionnaire

In order to be more accurate in gathering respondents' feedback, this researcher has decided to carry out this research in the following way:

9 a.m. - 11 a.m. = 10

12 p.m. - 3 p.m. = 20 Responses

5 p.m. - 8 p.m. = 20

Post Research Review

The researcher has encountered few barriers when doing the customer survey. One of the major barriers is the security guard in Maxis Centre doesn't allow the researcher to run the customer survey in Maxis Centre reason being is it will interrupt the customers. In order to continue the customer survey, the researcher has sent a request to the head of Maxis Centre and the request has been granted.

Data Analysis

A questionnaire exercise was carried out at Maxis Centre, KLCC on 22nd March 2013. Following is the analysis of the data collected through the research:

Section A

Gender

Gender

No. of Respondent

Percentage

Male

32

64%

Female

18

36%

The above data shows breakdown in terms of gender - Male (64%), Female (36%) as can be seen the majority of the respondents are male while a smaller minority are female. The reason why the majority of the respondents are male could be because of male customer is more willing to spend money on the data plan compare with female customer.

Age

Age

No. of Respondent

Percentage

Below 20

1

2%

20-30

21

42%

31-40

19

38%

41-50

7

14%

Above 50

2

4%

The above data shows the breakdown in terms of age as - below 20 (2%), 20 - 30 (42%), 31 - 40 (38%), 41 - 50 (14%), Above 50 (4%). As can be seen the majority of the respondent are 20-30, while a small majority are Below 20. The reasons why the majority of the respondents are 20-30 could be because of the value proposition for the customer age between 20-30 is different from the other age groups. They are satisfied with the values provided by Maxis. Hence, they subscribe to the service.

Race

Race

No. of Respondent

Percentage

Malay

21

42%

Chinese

18

36%

Indian

10

20%

Others

1

2%

The above data shows the breakdown in terms of 4 races as - Malay (42%), Chinese (18%), Indian (20%), Others (2%). As can be seen the majority of the respondent are Malay while a small minority are other races. The reason why the majority of the respondents are Malay could be because Maxis is focusing in Malay market. Hence it attracted a bigger amount of Malay people to walk in to subscribe or enquire about the Surf More data plan.

Occupation

Occupation

No. of Respondent

Percentage

Self-employed

10

20%

Private Sector Worker

21

42%

Government Sector Worker

12

24%

Others

7

14%

The above data shows the breakdown in terms of 4 types of occupation as - Self-employed (20%), Private Sector Worker (42%), Government Sector Worker (24%), Others (14%). As can be seen the majority of the respondent are Private Sector Worker while a small minority are others. The reason why the majority of the respondents are Private Sector Worker could be because they are only able to walk-in to Maxis Centre during weekend.

Monthly Income

Monthly Income

No. of Respondent

Percentage

Below RM1,000

1

2%

RM1,000 - RM2,000

1

2%

RM2,001 - RM3,000

14

28%

RM3,001 - RM4,000

22

44%

RM4,001 & above

12

24%

The above data shows the breakdown in terms of monthly income as - Below RM1,000 (2%), RM1,000 - RM2,000 (2%), RM2,100 - RM3,000 (28%), RM3,100 - RM4,000 (44%) RM4,100 & above (24%). As can be seen the majority of the respondent are earning RM3,100 - RM4,000 a month while a small minority are earning less than RM1,000 or RM1,000 - RM2,000. The reason why the majority of the respondents are RM3,100 - RM4,000 could be because they are afford to pay for a better data service which provided by Maxis.

6. Number of Year as a Customer of Maxis

Number of Year as a Customer of Maxis

No. of Respondent

Percentage

1 - 2 Years

27

54%

3 - 4 Years

11

22%

5 - 6 Years

8

16%

More than 6 years

4

8%

The above data shows the breakdown in terms of the number of year the respondent as Maxis' consumer as - 1 - 2 years (54%), 3 - 4 years (22%), 5 - 6 years (16%), more than 6 years (8%). As can be seen the majority of the respondent have stay in Maxis for just 1 - 2 years while a small minority have stay in Maxis for more than 6 years. The reason why the majority of the respondents have stay in Maxis for just 1 - 2 years could be because they found that Maxis is offering what they need in terms of customer values.

Type of Maxis service plan currently consuming

Type of Maxis service plan currently consuming

No. of Respondent

Percentage

1 - 2

27

54%

3 - 4

11

22%

5 - 6

10

18%

More than 6

2

6%

The above data shows the breakdown in terms of the type of Maxis service plan the respondent is currently consuming as - 1 - 2 (54%), 3 - 4 (22%), 5 - 6 (18%), more than 6 (6%). As can be seen the majority of the respondent is currently consuming 1 - 2 types of Maxis service. The reason why the majority of the respondents is currently consuming 1 - 2 types of Maxis service could be because of they are the mobile call plan subscribers.

Conclusion Section A

Based on the data provided by the respondents, seems like most of the Surf More data plan subscribers are male, 20 - 30 years old, Malay, work in private sectors, monthly income is around RM3,001 - RM4,000, have stay in Maxis for about 1 - 2 years and currently is consuming 1 - 2 types of Maxis service. The reason why the subscriber will subscribe to the Surf More data plan is because Maxis is providing the values that they are looking for and they feel satisfied to what Maxis is providing to them.

Section B

 

No. of Respondent

Level

Very satisfied

Satisfied

Neutral

Dissatisfied

Very Dissatisfied

1. The pricing for the Surf More data plan.

0

2

4

19

25

2. The design of Maxis Surf More dongle

10

26

14

0

0

3. The level of skill and knowledge of Maxis' customer service staff

0

2

19

20

9

4. The location of the Maxis KLCC outlet

9

18

16

5

2

5. The early bird offer given by Maxis'

14

20

13

2

1

6. The process of ordering and receiving the Surf More data plan

 9

 20

 10

10 

 1

7. The environment (E.g. Furniture, lighting & carpeting) offered at Maxis KLCC outlet

 5

 4

 11

 20

 10

Conclusion Section B

The questionnaire result for Section B has shown that majority of the Surf More data plan subscribers are satisfied with the design of the product, the place of Maxis centre KLCC located, the promotion and the process for ordering and receiving the Surf More data plan.

Having said that, a part from the respondents feel dissatisfied to the price, skill and knowledge of Maxis' customer service staff and the environment provided in Maxis centre KLCC outlet.

Section C

 

No. of Respondent

Level

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

1. The Surf More data plan is competitively priced.

1

18

20

6

5

2. The level of quality of the data plan service is much better than competitor's data plan.

28

10

5

5

2

3. The Maxis service staffs are able to deliver quickly the Surf More data plan after order are placed for it

1

5

11

21

12

4. Maxis KLCC outlet is strategically located (In golden-triangle)

15

20

5

7

3

5. Maxis uses the latest technology to deliver Surf More data plan to the customer

1

5

11

14

19

6. Maxis is able to deliver Surf More data plan no matter what the level of demand for it

6

16

20

3

5

Conclusion Section C

The questionnaire result for Section C has shown that majority of the Surf More data plan subscribers have agreed that Maxis is providing cost, quality, convenience and flexibility values to them. Minority of the Surf More data plan subscribers have shown their disagreement on the technology and response time provided by Maxis to deliver the Surf More data plan.

Section D

 

No. of Respondent

Level

Very

Important

Important

Neutral

Unimportant

Very

Unimportant

1. The pricing for Surf More data plan

30

14

6

0

0

2. The level of quality offer in the Surf More data plan

16

29

5

0

0

3. The ability of Maxis service staff to deliver the Surf More data plan after order placed for it

37

10

3

0

0

4. The Maxis KLCC outlet's strategic location

10

12

25

2

1

5. Maxis use of the latest technology to deliver the Surf More data plan to the customer

21

17

10

1

1

6. Maxis able to deliver the Surf More data plan no matter what the level of customer demand for it

29

20

1

0

0

Conclusion Section D

The questionnaire result for Section D has shown that most of the Surf More data plan subscribers are very concern about the cost, quality, dependability of delivery, convenience, technology and the response time provided by Maxis.

Conclusion Section E

Question 1

The overall opinion gathered from the questionnaire result is the Surf More data plan subscribers feel that the price of the data plan is very expensive and the quality of the Surf More data plan doesn't meet their expectation.

Question 2

Most of the Surf More data plan subscribers will recommend the Surf More data plan to their family and friends. Reason being, Maxis is providing most of the values they are looking for.

Question 3

The respondents have suggested Maxis to provide more training to the customer service staff in order to be able to answer and solve customer's enquiries. Apart from that, the respondents suggest Maxis to revise the price and improve the quality of the Surf More data plan.

List of Customers Value

The customer values which customers pay attention to when they intend to subscribe to Maxis data plan are cost, quality, response time and convenience.

Priotising Customer Values

Maxis data plan subscribers have ranked the customer values as follows:

Cost

Quality

Response Time

Convenience

Pro-forma B

1.0 Are Basic Customer Requirements Noticed by Product or Service Provider?

According to Ms. Chan May May, Maxis do concern about the customer needs. In order to understand more about customer experience and purchasing behavior, they do run a customer survey on yearly basis. This is one of the channels they use to approach the customer to understand their requirements and create a way for the customer to express their opinion to Maxis and the services it providing. Ms. Chan May May has indicated this is how they justify which customer values to be offered to the customers.

1.1 Is Customer Value Considered in Product Material or Service Element?

According to Ms. Chan May May, Maxis has a dedicated team to monitor the quality of the Surf More data plan service. They are very concern about the quality they provide to the customers. For example, Maxis is bringing in 4G LTE technology to Malaysia. It is the most advance mobile data technology in world.

Besides quality, Maxis is also focusing on few more customer values such as convenience, flexibility and response time. For example, customer can easily subscribe or convert to Surf More data plan by using mobile phone service, website, wapsite, call to Maxis customer service centre or walk-in to the nearest Maxis centre.

Refer back to the interview session the researcher had with Ms. Chan May May, she mentioned Maxis is providing response time value to its customers. For example, all the customer complaints will be solved within 1-3 days.

1.2 Is Customer Value Considered in Product Package or Service Presentation?

According to Ms. Chan May May, product packaging and service presentation are very important as customer may be paying attention to this value. Hence, Maxis is very particular in creating or designing its own product packaging.

1.3 Does Product or Service Provider Has Any Service Mechanism to Measure Customer Satisfaction?

According to Ms. Chan May May, they do have a mechanism to measure the customer satisfaction. They run a customer survey every year to understand what value customers are looking for and at the same time, there is a team in Maxis responsible to work out a strategy plan based on the customer survey result they have collected in order to be able to offer most of the values customers are looking for.

1.4 Discuss Any Other Aspect of Customer Value Which is or is Not Considered by Product or Service Provider

According to Ms. Chan May May, Maxis is not focusing on personalization value. Reason being, there are various requirements from customer. It will be very difficult to customize a data plan based on every customer needs.

Besides that, Maxis is also not focusing in the other two values which are dependability of delivery and ethical issue. The explanation from Ms. Chan May May is because the senior management team in Maxis feels that the company should focus more on what the majority of the customers are looking for instead of being distracted by other values.

Pro-forma C

Sales Activities

According to Ms. Chan May May, in order to provide dependability of delivery value to the customers, Maxis is providing training to all the customer service agents. This is to ensure all the customer service agents are able to solve all customers' enquiry.

1.1 Account, Billing and Receivable

According to Ms. Chan May May, they have enhanced a new payment model for their prepaid customer such as from weekly payment convert to monthly payment. This is to ensure customers have the flexibility to adjust their bill payment.

1.2 Customer, Materials and Information

According to Ms. Chan May May, there is no any impact in this area.

1.3 Procurement and Distribution

According to Ms. Chan May May, in order to provide the latest technology to the customers, Maxis has outsourced the entire technical division job to a mobile technology agency. This could help to make sure the service provided by Maxis is updated and also a specific team to monitor the service status.

1.4 Retail Stock and Stores

According to Ms. Chan May May, Maxis device team has increased their inventory store to store the devices. This is due to the successful of data bundling service with the device team which caused the demand on mobile devices has increased.

1.5 Recruitment

According to Ms. Chan May May, there is no any impact in this area.

1.6 Design

According to Ms. Chan May May, in order to provide the fashion and style value to the customers, Maxis has outsourced the product design to a product design agency. This is to make sure the product design is fit to the customer requirement.

1.7 Order Fulfilment

According to Ms. Chan May May, Maxis has changed their ordering process from walk-in subscription to various type of subscription way. For example, before the changes of the ordering process, customers are required to walk-in to Maxis customer service centre to subscribe to the data plan. After the changes of the ordering process, now customers are able to subscribe to Surf More data plan via different types of channel such as mobile phone service, Maxis website or call in to Maxis customer service centre. The changes are to fulfill the convenience value.

1.8 Customer Service Support

According to Ms. Chan May May, in order to deliver the response time value to the customers, Maxis has provided training to its customer service staff. The training is to allow the customer service staff to understand more about the products and services which is very useful for them when handling customer's enquiries.

Besides that, Maxis has implemented a service-level agreement to serve their customers. All customers' complaints are required to be solved and closed case within 1-3 days.