I need a 300-word discussion post and 75-word peer response

Week 1 Discussion – Customer Service

Please respond to the following:

• Introduce yourself to your peers by sharing something unique about your background. Explain how you expect this course will help you move forward in your current or future career.
• From the Zappos articles, evaluate the different way(s) that Zappos creates a superior customer service experience. Describe how operations and management activities impact the management of goods and services that Zappos provides.
• Compare the customer service experience at Zappos with the service provided at a store you shop from often, and highlight the differences in how the customer service is best delivered.
• Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts.

Peer Response

Joshua Underwood

Good day,

My name is Joshua and I have been in the supply and logistics field for about 12 years. Something unique about me is that I don’t take enough time for myself. What I mean is that I sustain my job and I am currently trying to position myself to be a better qualifying candidate for future positions. While also trying to be a good son in supporting my father through one of the most challenging times in his life, his fight with stage 4 colon cancer. Also trying to be the best dad I can be for my daughter, which of whom I have custody of. I have raised her for the last 10 years. In addition to all of that, also try to further my education that I have failed at for the last couple of years or so from my lay off in 2020. Maybe that was too much information, but that’s it.

I hope to have this class to give me a better understanding on the ins and outs of operations. Just in the first two chapters of the reading I have found some things to take back to work to see how or if they are being applied to our operation. We shall see what happens. I do have a tendency of opening up can of worms…

Zappos creates a superior customer service experience by investing in the community. The Downtown Project was an investment in local community members to start their own small business. Mr. Hsieh wanted to cultivate a community that was innovative and give inspiration to those who helped made his business prosperous. The operations and management activities of the goods was to provide a superior footwear to their consumers anywhere. By getting acquired by Amazon, the company was able to provide their footwear online and were able to provide free shipping and returns. They realized that their product was in demand when their customers would purchase their shoes from Amazon prior to ever trying the shoes on.

I personally never experienced a shoe from Zappos and haven’t heard of them prior to this assignment. But after reading the articles, they clearly show that their customers are important to them. They think of Zappos as family and many cultures family takes care of their own. I think that comparing this mind set with other local business, some business lose sight of that. Yes, the bottom line is an important and critical part of the success of that business. But how we treat our customers and make them feel like they are part of something more, a grand picture if you wish, should be the underlining function of any business. Without our customers, what business do we really have?

Week 2 Discussion – Operations Strategies

Please view, read, and comprehend the Goods vs. Services Continuum Download Goods vs. Services Continuum[PDF] and then use it to respond to the following:

• Choose two companies with which you are familiar.
• Describe the good or service offered by each of the two companies you chose.
• Using the numbers 1 through 7 on the infographic, determine where each of these two companies falls on the Goods vs. Services continuum, and justify why you think each company fits in the areas you selected.
• Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts.

DOUGLAS BRISTOW

Greetings Dr. Guevarez and students,

Welcome to week 2 in this course on Operations Management (OM). This week we will be learning about and exploring Operational Strategies. Operations Management is the fundamental “guts” of how the company operates. OM encompasses the organization’s ability to deliver, source and design products and services and it basically surrounds all functions or activities as these products and/or services transition from the company to the consumer. Operations Management as the process, stems from the idea for a product or service, to the delivery of a product or service and all the details that transpire to make it occur. The organization that develops OM as a strategy and not just a tactic will be highly successful. It can also provide the means to establish a competitive advantage in the industry you are serving. Strategic management is the process by which a firm manages the formulation and implementation of its strategy. A very vague definition but one that holds value. The organization must examine the Who, What, Where, When, How and one important aspect I feel often overlooked is the “what actions will we take” portion of strategy formulation. I say this because it is important to determine what needs to be done in order to implement the strategy. It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to target senior citizens for P90x classes, but it would make sense to target them for dietary and nutrition classes. I believe that by overlooking what actions a firm will take will limit the effectiveness of the campaign. Strategy can be defined as: the coordinated means by which an organization pursues its goals and objectives. I take away the feeling that is not always a “win/lose” scenario. In many cases different organizations will cooperate and compete with one another in order to achieve the level of results desired in the process of strategic management.

We now know that an organization’s objectives will include the sale of goods and/or services. Therefore, it serves to reason that logically there is a connection between strategy, performance, and a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is defined as: “A firm’s ability to create value in a way that its rivals cannot (Carpenter & Sanders, 2009).” There are three forces or perspectives that push/pull upon competitive advantage which are internal, dynamic, and external. Internal forces are those resources at the organization’s disposal that rival cannot mimic or duplicate. Dynamic forces include the opportunities to develop unique resources to create a disruptive change or to shape interconnected markets. The external forces are those that influence your organization’s ability to take advantage of industry opportunities and gain the edge. Demand will serve as that special variable that comes into play in many various forms. In the simplest form as well as the one that best serves the purpose for this discussion, is that demand is the degree or level at which your goods and/or services are sought after. If consumers are lined up for days or pre-ordering your products months in advance, it is a good indicator that a high demand exists. Even before Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, they used the public’s anticipation levels to gauge initial success. The more the consumers are talking about the product, the more exciting it can be for a manufacturer. I look forward to your view on Goods vs. Services Continuum and it helps to shape the competitive advantage for the two organizations you selected to discuss this week.

References:

Carpenter, M. A., & Sanders, W. G. (2009). Strategic Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.