Health Care office Solutions, Inc

Health Care Office Solutions, Inc.

(A) Key Marketing Issue Challenge

The key marketing issue for Health Care Office Solutions, Inc. (HCOS) is customer satisfaction. The recent problems of HCOS include:

o Poor quality products and late orders from subcontractors

o Increased customer complaints

o Rate of growth has begun to slow

o Losing new business at an increasing rate

A focus on the key issue of customer satisfaction, will result in solving the problems of poor quality products and increased customer complaints, which will in turn increase customer retention and ultimately lead to a better industry reputation. With highly functional operations, and increased customer satisfaction, the sales force can focus more on selling and gaining new business, with less customer service demands from existing clients.

(B) Solutions/Alternatives

HCOS is a strong, well-established company that has successfully targeted a niche market and expanded on that success with a wide range of product and service offerings. The company’s recent problems are not unique and are felt by a variety of other businesses. As companies grow, a need for change in internal operations is inevitable. And as competition increases, a need for a new marketing strategy is crucial. To deal with the key marketing issue facing HCOS, one possible solution would be to reorganize the sales efforts. And a second possible solution would be to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) model.

(C) Evaluation of Solutions/Alternatives

Reorganizing Sales Efforts: As the environment, objectives, and marketing needs of HCOS changes, its sales force must also change. “The best sales organizations vary with the objectives, strategies, and tasks of the firm” (Johnson & Marshall, 2009, p. 109). As can be seen by the increasing customer dissatisfaction, the marketing goals and operations of the company must change, as well as the sales organization as well.

Of the options to consider for reorganization, it is recommended the company consider organizing the sales force within an East and West geographical region by customer type. The four districts in each region would no longer be applicable and the sales force would service customers based on the size of their operations. In addition to this main objective of reorganization, it is recommended HCOS hire 2-4 supporting sales staff.

While the geographical organization of the sales force that is currently in place at HCOS has many advantages including simplicity in serving the customer and cost savings, there is a major disadvantage in that