Citigroup analyzes its customer satisfaction based on the three levels of Analysis: organizational, team and individual performance. The three levels interlink to ensure that the bank has proper customer satisfaction and improved customer retention. The levels also facilitate the achievement of the strategic objectives of Citigroup, as the goals and the vision of the company can easily be achieved through increased output regularly (Caniato et al., 2019). Specifically, Citigroup focuses on organizational performance to ensure that the overall key performance indicators and supportive metric performances are obtained. These performance indicators include regular client communication and feedback, sale of high-quality products and development of the proper distribution channels.
In addition, Citigroup focuses on team performance to ensure that the objectives are defined in a structure in which the customers and its clients can easily feel taken care of in events of company operations. The team management level assists the bank in ensuring that the overall sales growth is attained. It also focuses on establishing stable customer relationships through frequent internal systems checks. Finally, Citigroup applies individual performance analysis to ensure that each team member contributes to the general sales growth and customer satisfaction.
The department goals and organizational objectives are aligned through individual performance to achieve common goals. Establishing these performance management levels of techniques assists Citigroup in ensuring that it continually serves its customers adequately and that prompt feedback is offered to improve customer satisfaction. The organization designs a proper team structure and communication process, ensuring that the goals that have been set are sound so that the general public and the customers are satisfied (Dias and Lerapetritou, 2017).
4Vs
Using these techniques, Citigroup can perform extraordinarily by ensuring that the key organizational weakness and strengths are balanced to attain proper customer satisfaction. The 4Vs include; volume, variety, variation and visibility. Through the volume aspect, Citigroup has ensured that it gains the customers’ confidence regularly by ensuring that the products and services are available in large volumes. Therefore, the bank can retain the customers through its standardized rates and the availability of products that are in large volumes. Besides, the bank conducts itself by ensuring that the products are available in different varieties. The bank has diversified its products and clientele base to ensure that customers promptly achieve the goods and services.
The company’s supply chain process has also been diversified to offer various services to customers depending on their needs. In the logistics department, Citigroup has diversified into air, road, railway and shipping services to ensure that each customer’s needs are taken care of effectively. The bank also offers flexible services based on its supply chain and overall output, enabling customers to obtain the services based on their location and convenience easily. These services, therefore, add value to the supply chain process of Citigroup, which would, in the end, contribute to customer retention.
The bank also focuses on variation analyses to determine the demand level changes over time. These variations are based on natural factors and other factors which may be considered beyond the control of the Citigroup operations. Thorough Analysis of variation, Citigroup adjusts itself promptly and adequately to ensure that the customers and the general clientele are not affected due to changes in the external market. For example, during the Covid-19 period, Citigroup resorted to using digital platforms for its supply chain process and delivering its services to consumers. Through digitalizing its operation, the bank attained high sales volumes from various customers globally, increasing its growth margins and scale.
In addition, Citigroup also includes all its services in a common pool of supply chain processes to increase customer visibility. The visibility analysis is conducted through this process to ensure that the customers have a taste of the goods and services offered by the company. The bank uses tracking software to ensure that the long chain of products available in both the supply and the overall process are easily visible to all the stakeholders (Hofmann et al., 2018). Therefore, these strategies and Analyses favor the bank since they allow customers to access all the products efficiently, improving customer satisfaction.
Performance Objectives
Through the performance objectives, Citigroup can define its goals and align them with the staff competencies and the number of employees to achieve common customer satisfaction goals. The bank, therefore, continuously assesses its performances based on various strategies to ensure that they communicate the organization’s objective to the employees, which facilitates understanding of employee tasks and responsibilities. In addition, the company’s supply chain process has been improved to ensure that the commodities and products are not delayed, enhancing customer satisfaction.
The company focuses on quality as its key objective in ensuring customer satisfaction in all its processes. The quality of the bank services ensures that the customers increase in numbers, reducing the turnover, which affects the business operations favorably. The supply chain process has been simplified to ensure minimal wastage and consistency in the flow of communication and distribution channels. Therefore, this strategy helps the company meet its standards and expectations over time, boosting the firm’s growth potential. In addition, Citigroup has focused on the speed of its delivery to customers and clients. The speed has been facilitated by ensuring customers’ direct contact with the company.
The company can receive the customers’ complaints and act on them swiftly, reducing the delays caused by exceptional communication. In addition, the goods and services are purchased and delivered promptly to minimize the time taken for the whole process. The company’s various services have been automated to ensure that customers can access the products on digital platforms. Citigroup has made its services more reliable and dependable to the customers by ensuring that the right products are available for all the customers (Kain and Verma, 2018). The clients have access to the key information regarding the bank’s various products, increasing customer loyalty and improving sales growth.
A real-time management process is implemented in the bank, ensuring that the customers are updated constantly and regularly on the company’s service. Due to the flexibility of the market and customer needs, Citigroup has ensured that it quickly adopts the market demands and various changes that the growing overall customer demands have facilitated. The company has implemented software solutions to ensure that the new products are easily updated to the customers’ lists so that the various types of markets can access these products (Wibowo et al., 2017). The company’s supply chain process has also been diversified in a manner that adapts to the delivery times and offers technical services to its customers.
Literature Review
An organizational supply chain process is responsible for the overall channel strategy decisions and coordination of the various sourcing and delivery of the raw materials in the firm. In addition, the process facilitates customer relationships by scheduling the orders, processing, managing the inventory and arranging for delivery and transportation of the goods the customers have purchased. Citigroup inc. Therefore has integrated its supply chain process to improve the coordination of customer services.
In this firm, the management has considerably selected a supply chain process that is both value-chained and customer-oriented. This process has been implemented in the bank to ensure the proper flow of information and effective communication to the customers and other players in the market. Due to the wide range of services the bank offers to the public, it has diversified its supply chain process and integrated its services to ensure that different customers can receive the updates and their products at their convenience across various parts of the world.
An effective distribution channel is a key to proper communication between various stakeholders in the supply process, and Citigroup has undertaken this to ensure that the customer’s order and the delivery are done promptly to reduce the time taken for goods and services to reach their final consumers. In addition, the business has proper arrangement and organization of its establishment, which has aided access to the rightful products when customers require them (Dias and Lerapetritou, 2017). The bank uses the material information and the financial performance as the key measures to evaluate its performance and the level of customer retention through the established supply chain process. In addition, there is a structured flow to ensure that the goods and services ordered by the customers reach the final destination within the time set and minimal wastages in the whole supply chain.
Application Of the Performance Management Techniques in Its Operations
Citigroup has integrated its operations to offer its customers short- and long-term opportunities and value. The bank also offers cross-border operations where customers from various parts of the world can easily access their services at their convenience. Therefore, to ensure that the customers are constantly satisfied with the bank’s operations, there is the rapid integration of the whole supply process to ensure that different customers’ needs and demands are satisfied through the improved services it offers. Citigroup has implemented various techniques in its operations to ensure customer satisfaction through the supply chain process.
The company has integrated its supply chain process to boost the service delivery and enhance the customers’ access to the process offered. Citigroup has established various distribution and logistics channels, from internal organization to customer level. The usual chain process of the company begins with verifying the orders and requisitions, availing of the right quantities at the right time and ensuring timely deliveries to the stakeholders. In addition, the company has established partnerships between various players in the market, ranging from vendors, wholesalers, and consumers. This partnership, therefore, improves the loyalty built by the customers, and there is mutual performance due to the established linkages. This study, therefore, focused on the supply chain process of Citigroup inc. to establish how they facilitate customer satisfaction.
The study employed the survey designs where interviews and questionnaires were administered among the client of Citigroup to evaluate and assess their satisfaction level. There were 350 customers randomly selected from a population of 875. The selected customers were given questionnaires, which were later collected for Analysis. From the customers’ feedback, there was a general conclusion that Citigroup had improved its services, specifically the logistics services, which improved the strong relationships between the customers and the bank. In addition, the bank also implemented key performance management techniques throughout its processes, which aided in its organizational output as sales grew over the years since its establishment. With the increase in sales output, the company realized earnings that grew over the same period due to the measures implemented.
Through the analyses of the 4Vs, Citigroup inc. has ensured that the products delivered to the customers are of value, variety and visible to all. To achieve this goal, the company has ensured that it focuses majorly on technological innovation to improve the company profile by availing its products on various platforms that customers can easily access. In addition, the company regularly analyzes its performance based on the three key analysis techniques of organization, team and individual performance. In the Citigroup company structure, every staff is held accountable for their action, and the final output is determined by how the company performs in the market. The company also analyzes its performance through the objectives set and implemented where the products are availed to their customers at the rightful quantity and promptly to reduce the time spent for deliveries.
Data Collection and Analysis
The data was collected from 350 randomly selected customers based in Washington DC, where the bank operates. The customers were also interviewed to provide more insights on their satisfaction level and the types of services they occasionally received from the bank. The key areas of our focus were on the overall supply chain process and how it facilitated quick deliveries and customer feedback. We received an average of 210 questionnaires from the sampled respondents filled and returned. In addition, the interview was conducted on the 350 customers without following any criteria; hence it was considered a random selection criterion.
Based on the feedback we received, the customers’ overall feelings proved that the bank’s supply chain process had been implemented to ensure that the customers are effectively updated on the progress of their requests and the services offered by the bank. In addition, most customers argued that the bank had improved most of its services as they could access both the physical and online services from the bank. The bank handled the regular requests by each customer, which improved the customers’ loyalty. In addition, most customers affirmed that the bank regularly conducts follow-ups to ensure that each customer’s goods and services reach the final destination. These services, therefore, proved that the bank had an improved and effective supply chain process that integrated the various techniques to ensure that the customers were satisfied.
Conclusion
From the customers’ feedback and the analysis results, it is evident that the bank has focused on ensuring customer satisfaction through availing right products at the bests convenience and the requested period by the customers. The company’s supply chain process has enabled it to achieve its goal by ensuring that the right distribution channel is implemented and the various transactions performed in a manner that the customers are satisfied allows. In addition, the customers have expressed their confidence in the satisfaction they attain from using the products and the whole supply chain of the company. The bank adjusted its operations to an online platform to ensure its customers could continue receiving their services.
This integration and technological advancement assisted the bank in realizing proceeds from its operation by ensuring that the products were readily available to customers from various parts of the world. However, despite the achievement and regular customer retention, the bank should continue implementing and simplifying its operations further to ensure that its long-term growth plans and objective are attained. The various areas for improvement by Citigroup should include; establishing a long-term friendly relationship between its vendors and the company to aid access to the commodities at various demand levels. In addition, the company should also venture into improving its services to cater to all various demands which continue growing in irregular periods to reduce the shortage of the products.
Reference List
Caniato, F., Henke, M. and Zsidisin, G. A. 2019) ‘Supply chain finance: historical foundations, current research, future developments’, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 25(2), pp. 99-104.
Dias, L. S. and Lerapetritou, M. G.(2017) ‘From process control to supply chain management: an overview of integrated decision making strategies’, Computers & Chemical Engineering, 106, pp. 826-835.
Hofmann, E., Heines, R. and Omran, Y.(2018) ‘Foundational premises and value drivers of blockchain-driven supply chains: supply chain finance: risk management, resilience and supplier managemnt’, Kogan Page, pp. 225-255.
Kain, R. and Verma, A.( 2018) ‘Logistics management in supply chain—an overview’, Materials Today: Proceedings, 5(2), pp. 3811-3816.
Wibowo, M. A., Sholeh, M. N. E. and Adji, H. S. (2017) ‘Supply chain management strategy for recycled materials to support sustainable construction’, Procedia Engineering, 171, pp. 185-190.