Customer Experience Archives - IPM

Ekuiti Jenama Dalam Perusahaan Perunding Kejuruteraan: Impak Pengalaman Pelanggan

IPM — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 12:26:17 +0000

Pengarang: Michael ANG | 24 Oktober, 2018

Dalam beberapa dekad kebelakangan ini, perkhidmatan perunding kejuruteraan mendapat banyak permintaan disebabkan peningkatan pertumbuhan sector pembinaan dan industri bangunan di Malaysia. Percambahan projek-projek infrastruktur besar yang diperkenalkan oleh Kerajaan Persekutuan Malaysia seperti ‘Mass Rapid Transit Line 2’ (MRT2), ‘Light Rail Transit Line 3’ (LRT3) dan Lebuhraya Pan Borneo telah membangkitkan industri pembinaan di Malaysia. Selain daripada itu, pelbagai koridor ekonomi telah diperkenalkan, seperti Iskandar Malaysia (IRDA), ‘Northern Corridor Economic Region’ (NCER), ‘East Coast Economic Region’ (ECER), ‘Sabah Development Corridor’ (SDC) dan ‘Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy’ (SCORE) telah mengukuhkan lagi pembangunan hartanah di kawasan serantau. Walaupun terdapat peningkatan permintaan dalam perkhidmatan perunding kejuruteraan, firma-firma kejuruteraan masih menghadapi pelbagai cabaran untuk mendapatkan projek-projek baharu terutamanya bagi firma-firma kecil dan sederhana.

Persaingan yang tiggi dan kualiti perkhidmatan yang sama adalah sebahagian daripada cabaran-cabaran yang dihadapi oleh firma-firma kejuruteraan dalam mendapatkan projek baharu. Bilangan firma perunding kejuruteraan telah meningkat naik dalam tahun-tahun kebelakangan ini. Berdasarkan direktori Lembaga Jurutera, terdapat hampir 2,000 firma awam dan struktur dan hampir 1,600 firma mekanikal dan elektrikal di Malaysia. Persamaan yang tinggi dan kualiti perkhidmatan yang sama menyebabkan klien menghadapi kesukaran untuk membezakan sebilangan besar firma-firma tersebut dalam penyediaan kualiti perkhidmatan dan prestasi.

Mewujudkan jenama ekuiti yang positif dalam firma perunding kejuruteraan adalah satu strategi alternative intuk firma perunding mempromosikan dan membezakan perkhidmatan mereka daripada pesaing-pesaing lain. Jenama ekuiti yang kukuh sering memberi imej jenama yang berkesan kepada klien dan secara tidak langsung membentuk satu kelainan dan pengaruh positif terhadap sikap pembeli. Klien mampu untuk membayar lebih, mempromosikan jenama, memperkembangkan jenama, bahkan berulang kali membeli jenama yang disukai sekiranya kesetiaan jenama bersama pelanggan telah diperoleh (Biedenbach, Bengtsson, & Marell, 2015). Maka persoalannya adalah: Bagaimana firma-firma boleh meningkatkan jenama ekuiti dan lebih cemerlang daripada persaing-pesaing lain?

Adalah menjadi satu sifat semulajadi bagi perkhidmatan perunding kejuruteraan memerlukan interaksi peribadi yang tinggi antara jurutera dan pelanggan semasa pemberian perkhidmatan. Pengalaman pelanggan yang luar biasa harap dapat dicapai melalui pendekatan penciptaan bersama. Penciptaan bersama membolehkan penglibatan antara klien dan fima-firma dalam pelbagai interaksi sepanjang proses penghasilan, dari rekabentuk ke penggunaan. Kajian menunjukkan bahawa penjenamaan dalam segi ini bukan lagi mengenai pengiklanan atau aktiviti penjenamaan, tetapi ianya adalah mengenai mewujudkan satu proses untuk membantu pengalaman sesuatu pelanggan (Frow & Payne, 2007).

Kajian sebelum ini mencadangkan penglibatan pelanggan adalah salah satu kriteria yang sangat mempengaruhi prestasi sektor perkhidmatan profesional disebabkan interaksi pelanggan yang tinggi dan penglibatan aktif dalam proses penyampaian perkhidmatan tersebut. Klien diminta untuk menyediakan maklumat yang cukup dan terlibat secara aktif dalam rekabentuk sebenar dan proses penghasilan. Oleh itu, adalah sangat penting bagi syarikat untuk memberi tumpuan kepada pengalaman pelanggan dengan mewujudkan hubungan syarikat-pelanggan yang efisien, memastikan komunikasi yang lancar dan meningkatkan kemahiran komunikasi dan interaksi pengurus atau pegawai barisan utama (de Brentani & Ragot, 1996).

Kajian terkini terbukti di mana, semakin hebat pengalaman pelanggan terhasil daripada interaksi peribadi, semakin tinggi ekuiti jenama firma perunding kejuruteraan dapat dicapai (Ang, 2018). Pengalaman pelanggan yang hebat bukan sahaja memberi kesan kepada jenama ekuiti bagi

sesebuah firma perunding kejuruteraan secara keseluruhan, tetapi juga memberi kesan positif kepada setiap komponen hierarki jenama ekuiti, iaitu, kesedaran penjenamaan, pakatan penjenamaan, kualiti yang dikenali dan kesetiaan jenama.

Hasil penyelidikan adalah tidak mengejutkan kerana pengalaman pelanggan itu sendiri adalah merupakan pendekatan secara langsung untuk klien menilai prestasi sesebuah firma perunding kejuruteraan. Pengalaman pelanggan yang baik secara amnya berhasil daripada kualiti kerja yang tinggi, maklum balas yang pantas, harha yang berkemapuan, penyampaian yang cekap serta perakuan pihak berkuasa yang pantas. Jika kesemuanya dapat dicapai, ekuit jenama sesuatu firma pasti dapat ditingkatkan.

Secara kesimpulannya, pengurusan pengalaman pelanggan tidak hanya dijaga oleh pihak pemasaran atau pengurus pembangunan perniagaan, jurutera-jurutera yang mempunyai interaksi secara langsung dengan klien juga perlu mengambil peranan penting dalam memastikan kepuasan pelanggan dalam penerimaan pekhidmatan. Ketika pengalaman perniagaan diuruskan dari pelbagai segi, jenama ekuiti itu sendiri perlu ditingkatkan dan menjadi kelebihan persaingan anatara firma-firma yang ada. Dengan itu, firma-firma dapat dibezakan dari pesaing-pesaing lain dan memiliki peluang yang lebih baik dalam memperoleh projek baru dari klien-klien.

Michael ANG
Pengurus Pembangunan Perniagaan
IPM Professional Services Sdn Bhd

Rujukan:
[1] Ang, E.H. (2018). Brand equity in engineering consultancy firms: Impact of customer experience.
[2] Biedenbach, G., Bengtsson, M., & Marell, A. (2015). Brand equity, satisfaction, and switching costs. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 33(2), 164–178
[3] de Brentani, U., & Ragot, E. (1996). Developing new business-to-business professional services: What factors impact performance? Industrial Marketing Management, 25(6), 517–530.
[4] Frow, P., & Payne, A. (2007). Towards the “perfect” customer experience. Journal of Brand Management, 15(2), 89–101.

**This Malay translation is for reference only. If the meaning of the Malay translation is inconsistent with the original English version, the original English version shall prevail.

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Brand Equity in Engineering Consultancy Firms: Impact of Customer Experience

IPM — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 09:52:45 +0000

Author: Michael ANG

In recent decades, engineering consultancy services are gaining its demand due to the rapid growth of the construction and building industry in Malaysia. The mushrooming mega infrastructure development projects introduced by Malaysia Federal Government, such as Mass Rapid Transit Line 2 (MRT2), Light Rail Transit Line 3 (LRT3), and Pan Borneo Highway, had significantly boosted the construction industry in Malaysia. Besides, the introduction of various economic corridors such as Iskandar Malaysia (IRDA), Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) and Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) had even further concreted all kind of property developments in the regions. Despite the increasing demand of engineering consultancy services, firms are still facing a lot of challenges in securing new projects, especially for small and medium scale of firms.

High competition and intangible service quality are among the challenges faced by engineering consultancy firms in obtaining new projects. The numbers of engineering consultancy firms had been increased tremendously in recent years. According to Board of Engineers Directory, there are nearly 2,000 civil and structural engineering firms and nearly 1,600 mechanical and electrical engineering firms available in Malaysia. The high similarity and intangible service quality had made clients hard to differentiate these huge numbers of consultancy firms in term of their service quality or performance.

Creating positive brand equity in engineering consultancy firms is possibly an alternative strategy for the consultancy firms to market themselves and differentiate their consultancy services from competitors. Strong brand equity often implants the meaningful brand images into the mind of clients and eventually creates differentiation and influence the positive buying behaviour. Clients prepare to pay more, perform brand recommendation, consider brand extension, and even repeatedly purchase the favourable brand if the brand loyalty of the clients had been achieved (Biedenbach, Bengtsson, & Marell, 2015). So now the question is: How firms could enhance their brand equity and excel themselves from competitors?

The business nature of engineering consultancy services required high level of personal interaction between engineers and clients during the service delivery. Outstanding and perfect customer experience is expected to be achieved via co-creation approach. Co-creation enables the engagement between clients and firms in dialogue and interaction throughout the production processes, from designing to consuming. The study suggested that branding in this sense is no longer about advertising or branding related activities, but is creating a process to facilitate the customer experience (Frow & Payne, 2007)

Previous study suggested customer participation is a one of the criterion that remarkably influence the performance of professional services sector due to the high clients’ interaction and involvement during the service delivery processes. Clients are required to provide sufficient information and participate actively in its actual design and production processes. Therefore, it is critical for firms to focus on customer experience by creating the efficient company-client relationship, ensuring seamless communications, and enhancing the frontline personnel communication and interaction skills (de Brentani & Ragot, 1996).

It is proven from the recent study, that the better the customer experience as the result of the personal interaction, the higher the brand equity of engineering consultancy firms could be achieved (Ang, 2018). Good customer experience not only impact the brand equity of engineering consultancy firms as a whole, but also impact every single component of brand equity hierarchy positively, i.e. brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty.

The results of the research are not surprising. Due to the intangible characteristic of services, customer experience is the most direct approach for clients to judge the performance of engineering consultancy firms. Good customer experience is generally generated from high work quality, prompt response, reasonable price, timely submission, and fast authority approval. If all the above are achieved, brand equity of firms are definitely enhanced.

In conclusion, the customer experience management shall not only taken care by marketing or business development personnel, the engineers who have the direct interaction with clients shall also take an important role in ensuring the satisfaction of clients in consuming the services. When the customer experience is managed from all angles, brand equity shall be enhanced and be a competitive advantage of the firms. By that, firms could be differentiated from the competitors and stand a better chance in pursuing new projects from clients.

Michael ANG
Business Development Manager
IPM Professional Services Sdn Bhd

References:

Ang, E.H. (2018). Brand equity in engineering consultancy firms: Impact of customer experience.
Biedenbach, G., Bengtsson, M., & Marell, A. (2015). Brand equity, satisfaction, and switching costs. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 33(2), 164–178
de Brentani, U., & Ragot, E. (1996). Developing new business-to-business professional services: What factors impact performance? Industrial Marketing Management, 25(6), 517–530.
Frow, P., & Payne, A. (2007). Towards the “perfect” customer experience. Journal of Brand Management, 15(2), 89–101.

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