BA 105 WFW | Case Study 3: Gulf Coast BankBonnevie, Alexandra | Magalin, Ayesha | Nuruddin, Mardheeya | Pansar, AmenahCASE PROBLEMTo survive in an industry as competitive as the banking industry, companies must continue innovating programs to ensure that they provide exceptional service to their customers. The Gulf Coast Bank has put in place a service guarantee program that serves as a promise that they can and will provide customers with superior service along with baseline bank features. The objectives of the service guarantee program is to gain competitive advantage through superior service. It also aims to set a new corporate culture to be the leader in service quality. The program was designed to provide three specific guarantees: accuracy in checking and savings account statements, personal commitment in home and auto loan applications, and Gold service telephone line guarantees. Sarah Coleman, the banks service guarantee manager, was the only member of the team behind the program to ask questions and have doubts regarding the success of the program. Given that all the other banks are following the trend of the service guarantee initiative, how can Sarah Coleman and the team assure the success of their banks program?ANALYSISIn determining what actions to take for the improvement and successful implementation of the service guarantee program, the following factors must be put into consideration:a. Evaluation of the current service guarantee program - The summary reports show that $860 payout were incurred for 10 months in 300 branches. There must be a criteria to determine whether the $860 payout is good or bad. An ideal criterion for this is a cost-benefit analysis but the program doesnt employ a way to determine the benefit of this program to compare with cost. This poses a problem because GCB leaders cannot determine whether the program directly affects employees performance in a positive way.b. Establishment of a measurement system in rewarding performance - A reward system will motivate and induce employees to perform well at work. However, GCB was silent on how employees are compensated relative to the reduction/elimination of service upsets and errors being committed. This could increase the likelihood of poor employee response with regard to the implementation of the service guarantee program.c. Provision for adequate and timely feedbacks- A systematic evaluation of the program is needed to determine the effectiveness of the plan on customer satisfaction, and overall performance. The service guarantee manager has questions in her mind because of the absence of monitoring procedures. The bank failed to employ a way to determine the effects of the plan to the company performance and how to improve it.RECOMMENDATIONTo address the issues aforementioned, we recommend that the team take the following courses of action to ensure the success of Gulf Coast Banks service guarantee program:(1) To maximize the benefits from the service guarantee program, the payout to customers should be deducted from the salary of the employee involved. This will ensure that the programs promises will be met because employees are further incentivised. Since they will bear the cost of their own shortcomings, they are motivated to do even better and provide improved service. In addition, this is also advantageous to the company because it will not carry the burden of the payout.(2) There must be a feedback mechanism/system to monitor the effectiveness of the program. This will aid the development and advancement/improvement of customer service. The feedback system should not only be customer-oriented but also internally-generated to gain insights from both sides.(3) The company can also redesign their incentive system so that bonuses will vary depending on the marks an employee receives in customer-satisfaction surveys. Through this, not only will the employees be able to monitor their capacities and abilities but also serve as a control procedure to ensure that the employees get what they deserve. The employees are enticed to fulfill their duties and responsibilities in excellence to get the most out of the program.(4) In addition to bonuses, compensation should be given to employees with zero infractions. The compensation can be in the form of stock option, cash or non-monetary recognition. This benefits the company as a preventive control procedure. The employees would exert more effort to avoid upsetting the customers because of the additional motivation and reward. (5) The company should also offer payouts on other services such as remittance, bills payment, opening an account, and loan application. By doing so, exemplary customer service will be extended to the other several services of GCB which could lead to customer satisfaction.