From Downturn to Upturn, An Economic Lift of Local Business Entrepreneurs in Qatar as Affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenology

Background: Globally, local entrepreneurs have experienced an economic downturn brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Local businessmen in Qatar are not an exception. Method: This qualitative research paper utilized the phenomenological approach as it sought to understand the lived experiences of business owners in Qatar who are experiencing financial decline relative to the central question: “How do local business owners deal with financial decline brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic?”. Findings: The verbal ponderings and statements of the respondents revealed three major themes that local business partners had experienced before their businesses finally reached an upswing. These are (1) CUSTOMER RELATIONS, dealing with Acknowledging Achievements, Attaining Customer Values, and Operating Responses, (2) ADJUSTMENT REMODELING, focusing on Building Foundations, Adapting to Changes, and Coping with Mishaps, and (3) BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT which is about Dealing Impacts, Relieving Stress, and Addressing Liabilities of the businesses impacted by the pandemic. Conclusion: Local Business Partners had a continuous downturn to a series of events revolving around its business, however, most of the respondents are satiated with operating the facility under circumstances. Recommendations: This study recommends that business owners here in Qatar enable themselves to be knowledgeable of the phases behind the strategies of managing a business. These can aid the entrepreneurs in their decision-making skills for the business to prosper. The upcoming related studies should further enlarge the concept of businesses as it will help begin a broader perception of the local businesses. Keywords: Qatar Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Finance, Recession, Financial

Predictions from an Empirical Study in the Turkish Mobile Telecommunications Market on the Determinants of Mobile Customer Churn

Acquiring new customers compared to holding the existing ones is costlier and more troublesome for businesses, so customer retention is of great importance in today's intensely competitive environment. It is crucial in customer relations management to identify and analyse customers whose loyalty decreases and who tend to leave, and prevent churn through various methods under resource constraints. This issue is especially prominent in the mobile communication market. This paper uses a binomial logit model based on a survey with 637 mobile users in Turkey to determine the factors affecting customer churn and how they find their effect. Results indicate that, among various factors, network quality, billing, tariff level, tariff plan, and education level are the determinants affecting customer churn and associated with the intention to switch. Our findings demonstrate implications for both managers and rule-makers in the mobile telecommunications sector.

Opportunities and Challenges of Companies from the Romanian E-Commerce Market for Sustainable Competitiveness

Consumer behavior differs from country to country, which may implicitly influence the financial performance of e-commerce companies. The paper’s objective is to study the characteristics of the companies from the Romanian e-commerce market for sustainable competitiveness. The empirical analysis was a quantitative and qualitative one. For the qualitative analysis of the studied sample, variables that represent the specific characteristics of companies were taken into account, the most relevant of which will be included as control variables in econometric models. Research results highlight that the recognized companies registered lower values of financial performance, they influence each other and for the company to improve the customer relationship, they have to invest in brand consolidation. The practical implications can be for managers to focus on companies’ branding, improving customer relations, disclosing more information about the company, the products they sell online, and sustainability actions to have sustainable competitiveness.

Persepsi Karyawan Mengenai Peran Public Relations di Perusahaan Mobil

Pentingnya peran PR di sebuah organisasi atau perusahaan untuk melakukan hal teknis hingga manajerial, dalam menjalankan perannya ke eksternal maupun internal perusahaan. Tidak adanya divisi khusus PR di PT Bestindo Car Utama, dan perannya dijalankan oleh customer relations officer dan marketing communications, menyebabkan fokus perusahaan yang hanya menjalin hubungan dan menciptakan citra positif publik eksternal perusahaan, sehingga karyawan di ruang lingkup perusahaan pun memiliki persepsi yang kurang baik terhadap peran PR perusahaan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui faktor dalam diri pemersepsi, faktor dalam diri target, dan faktor situasi dari karyawan di PT Bestindo Car Utama mengenai peran PR perusahaan. Metode penelitian yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah metode penelitian kuantitatif dengan studi deskriptif. Teknik pengumpulan data yaitu menggunakan angket, wawancara, observasi, serta studi literatur, dengan populasi ialah karyawan PT Bestindo Car Utama. Data yang terkumpul pada penelitian ini dianalisis menggunakan teknik analisis data deskriptif. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa persepsi karyawan mengenai peran PR di PT Bestindo Car Utama ditinjau dari faktor dalam diri pemersepsi adalah positif, dari faktor dalam diri target adalah positif, dan dari faktor situasi adalah positif. Kesimpulan dari penelitian ini adalah persepsi karyawan mengenai peran PR di PT Bestindo Car Utama adalah positif.

Electronic Complaints: An Empirical Study of Negative Reviews from Amazon.com Users

Unprecedented advances have been seen in E-commerce with the spread of digital commerce and customer relations on commercial websites, such as Amazon. As a result, investigation of this type of communication has opened up new horizons for discourse analysts. This study aims to identify the complaint strategies used by customers and the reasons behind them. With this in mind, the researchers formed a corpus of the most helpful negative reviews posted on Amazon. Similar to previous studies on complaints in spoken communication, the present analysis investigated the different complaint strategies speakers used to formulate their complaints. Additionally, politeness strategies and face concerns were examined in these complaints. The results indicated that customers used eight different complaint strategies, the most frequent being showing their disappointment, anger and annoyance while making their complaints. The reasons for their complaints were delivery problems and unhelpful customer services behaviours.

Identifying Factors of Indian Health System and Their Influence for Providing Good Customer Care

Customer relationship management is important for any service industry as a satisfied customer is likely to remain loyal, spread publicity thereby ensuring profits to the organizations. Healthcare is an important and fast-growing service industry in which patient is the customer and maintaining good relationship with them is highly profitable. Good customer relationship comes from an understanding of patients’ expectations and what factors lead to patient satisfaction. WHO in its report in 2000 introduced the Concept-Responsiveness, which deals with ‘meeting the universal, legitimate expectations of the patients. This study identifies factors related to patients’ expectations, satisfaction and hence good customer relations in Indian health system. Structural equation modelling was used to measure the influence of the factors suggested. The results show significant influence of patient’s expectations on customer relationship.

Implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the gig economy- Revolutionizing the digital transformation

Gig economy has played a significant role in the country's economic development and has led to the growth in the employment of the people worldwide by supplementing the primary income of the people. With the security and autonomy that the gig sector promises, people choose to work as gig workers rather than traditional workers. Almost every company uses an enterprise resource planning system (ERPs) to some extent or the other to improve its performance and competitiveness. This paper devises a conceptual model describing how ERP systems help improve the human resource management of the gig workers, maintain customer relations, and bring digital transformation to its business. The research model would provide an understanding of diagnosing how the ERP system can help improve the conditions of the gig workers and the potential problems faced by them in the areas where the ERP system is not working efficiently. The framework would provide insights in simplifying the implementation of ERP in the gig sector that would be useful in the future.

Strategi Customer Relations dan Kekayaan Media PT Mandiri Cipta Sejahtera Pada Masa Pandemi COVID-19

The impact that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic with the determination to work from home (WFH) which resulted in the obstruction of face-to-face communication activities with customers, thus requiring a strategy to establish relationships and maintain good communication with customers. The purpose of this study is to identify and describe the strategy of customer relations and the use of video conferencing using Zoom Cloud Meeting. The concept of Customer Relations Strategy used is Qutlip and Wood and Smith's Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) Theory and Daft and Lengel's Media Richness Theory. Research at PT Mandiri Cipta Sejahtera uses a qualitative approach with descriptive methods and uses the postpositivism paradigm. Data analysis uses Huberman and Miles data analysis, namely Data Reduction by collecting field data such as interviews, videos of the Zoom Meeting, data from the company's website and social media. The results of the study: (1) the company's customer strategy has met the stages of the customer relations strategy, namely; Fact Finding, Planning and programming, Taking action and communicating, evaluation, and the company has carried out customer relations activities, namely superior service to customers, excellent service (service off excellence) and good relations with customers (good relationship). (2) In the use of Zoom Cloud Meetings as a media resource, the implementation of Zoom Meetings is not fully media capable of sending many signals, and able to provide immediate feedback, can perform various languages, symbols and share data, also able to focus on delivering messages. Keywords: Strategi Customer Relations, Video Konfrensi, Computer Mediated Communications, Kekayaan Media

PERANAN CUSTOMER SERVICE DALAM MENINGKATKAN PELAYANAN TERHADAP NASABAH DI PT PT. BTPN PURNA BAKTI KC PADANG

The purpose of this study was to determine how the role of customer service in providing services to customers at PT. BTPN Purna Bakti KC Padang. This research method uses descriptive research analysis that is to provide a clear picture of the role of customer service in improving services to customers at PT. BTPN Purna Bakti KC Padang. The results of the study indicate that customer service is very useful for improving services as well as efforts to promote the good image of PT. BTPN Purna Bakti KC Padang is the receptionist, deksman, salesman, customer relations officer and as commiunicator.