Ineffective sales management of jupiter logistics vietnam joint stock company

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
-------------------------------

Le Thi Hong Huy

INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT
OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM
JOINT STOCK COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Ho Chi Minh City - 2018


UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
-------------------------------

Le Thi Hong Huy

INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT
OF JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM
JOINT STOCK COMPANY

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SUPERVISOR: Dr. Pham Phu Quoc

Ho Chi Minh City - 2018

SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE THESIS PROPOSAL SUBMITTED
FOR DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

The thesis proposal title: INEFFECTIVE SALES MANAGEMENT OF JUPITER
LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY

Student Name: Le Thi Hong Huy
Supervisor: Dr. Pham Phu Quoc
1. General comments:
• Remarks on the student’s attitude:
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
• Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality:
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
2. Overall assessment:
 Meet requirement for submitting
 Not meet requirement for submitting
3. Other remarks:
− Did the student follow the report schedule?
 Yes

 No

− The Turnitin plagiarism percentage:
Supervisor’s signature

 Other………………………….

CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................... 5
1. Background information ................................................................................................... 6
2. Symptoms of the problem ................................................................................................. 8
3. Situation Analysis............................................................................................................. 11
3.1.

Problem identification .............................................................................................. 11

3.2.

Problem Justification ............................................................................................... 18

3.3.

Causes Validation ..................................................................................................... 22

4. Proposed solution and plan ............................................................................................. 30
4.1.

The 1st Aspect – Sales team ..................................................................................... 31

4.2.

The 2nd Aspect – Sales support............................................................................... 34

4.3.

The 3rd Aspect – Sales manager ............................................................................. 36

4.4.

The 4th Aspect – Sales Management ...................................................................... 38

5. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 45
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................ 46
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................. 47


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This thesis is conducted from understanding and approaching the real company Jupiter
Logistics Vietnam in order to discover the reasons behind the significant decline in sales
in the last three years since 2014. At the same time solutions will be proposed to solve the
problem of sales of this business.
The net sales of the head office in Ho Chi Minh City was down sharply from 7.56% and
10.29%, respectively, while the remaining two branches Ha Noi and Hai Duong still had
a very good growth especially in 2016.
Further investigations reveal that the decrease in sales of forwarding services was the
main reason for the problem in the net sales of Head Office. In addition, with the loss of a
longtime client and not having any new clients in the last three years, it has been
somewhat telling the story behind the company.
Based on Problem Solving in Organization, the content of this thesis goes into the
underlying cause. This thesis is based on the information collected through:
- intake process: in-depth interview with CFO - Mrs. Le Thi Ha
- Financial statement of the stage 2014-2016
- in-depth interview with Sales and Marketing manager - Mr. Yoichi Murata
- in-depth interview with Chairman - Mr. Yutaka Kawasaki
- online research with company’s customers
After the investigation and analysis, Ineffective sales management was identified as a

central problem and the five causes were: Problem in company structure, Lack of sales
force, Poor sales leadership, Conflict of interest and Limited sales strategy.
After carefully reviewing and considering the elements as well as referencing the
research and practical examples, the solution for the company is based on four aspects:
sales team, sales support, sales manager and sales management. With each aspect,
action plans are launched with the expected time and cost and should be implemented
individually to minimize costs as well as to facilitate timely intervention when results are
not satisfactory.
5


JUPITER LOGISTICS VIETNAM JOINT STOCK COMPANY
1. Background information
Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company was incorporated as a joint stock
company under the enterprise registration certificate No.0306355377 initial registration
dated 17 November 2008.
Actually, Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company was separated from Jupiter
Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock Company which is a subsidiary of Japan Airline. Figure
1.1 demonstrates differences of shareholders between Jupiter Logistics and Jupiter
Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock Company.
Figure 1.1 Shareholders structure comparison
Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock
Company

Jupiter Pacific Forwarding Joint Stock
Company

Shareholders

Shareholders

20%
49%

51%

80%

Japanese shareholders

Japanese shareholders

Vietnamese shareholders

Vietnamese shareholders

6


The company have one head office and two branches as follows:
-

Head office is located at No.112 Hong Ha Street, Ward 2, Tan Binh District, Ho
Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

-

The Hanoi branch is allocated at Group 8, Hau Duong Hamlet, Kim Chung
Commune, Dong Anh District, Hanoi City, Viet Nam.

-

The Hai Duong branch is located at Lot B7, Phuc Dien Industrial Park, Cam Giang
District, Hai Duong Province, Vietnam. This branch was set up to conduct
operating of business cooperation contract between 3 parties.

The principal activities of the company are to provide three kinds of services which are:
warehousing, trucking and cargo forwarding services. About 90% customers are
Japanese. Three direct competitors are SAGAWA, ALL NIPON and YUSEN.
The members of the Board of Management and company structure are showed in the
table 1.1 and figure 1.2 below:
Table 1.1 The Board of Management
Position
Chairman
Members

Name
Mr. Yutaka Kawasaki
Mr. Hoang Ngoc Oanh
Mr. Nguyen Quoc Khanh
Mr. Eisuke Sawada

Figure 1.2 General Company structure
Chairman

Administration

Accounting

Operation

Warehouse

Trucking team

Sales &
Marketing

7


2. Symptoms of the problem
In general, among Head Office and two other branches, Hanoi branch often contributes
about 50% of total net sales of the whole company, Head Office takes the next rank with
18% and Hai Duong branch contributes about 11%. However, this percentage in
contribution of each branch has changed considerably recently, especially Head Office in
Ho Chi Minh City. The information of percentage of contribution can be found in table
2.1.
Table 2.1 Percentage of contribution of each branch/office in total net sales from
2014 to 2016
Head Office
(+/-)Compared to previous year net
sales
Percentage of contribution
Hanoi Branch
(+/-)Compared to previous year net
sales
Percentage of contribution
Hai Duong Branch
(+/-)Compared to previous year net

sales
Percentage of contribution
Total net sales

2014

2015

2016

21,508,890,365

19,882,801,804

17,836,232,814

-

-7.56%

-10.29%

17.68%

16.95%

15.91%

60,117,088,413

62,854,017,348

80,751,904,700

-

4.55%

28.48%

49.42%

53.59%

72.04%

12,794,262,539

13,903,633,360

16,195,330,701

-

8.67%

16.48%

10.52%

11.85%

14.45%

121,637,280,421 117,282,383,992 112,100,488,863

Ha Noi and Hai Duong Branches continue to increase sales in the past three years. In
particular, in 2016, the sales growth rate in Hanoi increased rapidly to 28.48% compared
to 2015. At the same time, the contribution accounted for 72.04% of the total net sales of
the company.
Hai Duong Branch is the smallest of the three branches, but sales growth has not
declined. In 2016, sales growth was about 16.48% last year and sales contribution
changed from 11.85% to 14.45%.

8


Only net sales in Ho Chi Minh decreased suddenly in 2015 and 2016 and this led to the
decrease in total net sales of Jupiter Logistics Vietnam Joint Stock Company. The
decrease in sales of Forwarding services was the main reason for the problem in net sales
of Head Office. The information of sales in detail is showed in table 2.2 and figure 2.1.
Forwarding services include air export, air import, sea export, sea import and domestics
services.
Table 2.2 Total sales of Ho Chi Minh Office (in VND) from 2014 to 2016

FORWARDING

AIR EXPORT
AIR IMPORT
SEA EXPORT

SEA IMPORT
DOMESTICS
SERVICES

(+/-)Compared to previous year
WAREHOUSE

2014
3,725,663,906
10,639,572
11,716,002
52,811,753
2,452,159,552
7,903,211,426

(+/-)Compared to previous year
TRUCKING

7,352,688,154

(+/-)Compared to previous year
TOTAL SALES

21,508,890,365

2015
2,712,482,169
11,042,155
0
88,763,159

1,939,503,225

2016
1,858,679,347
14,330,475
0
0
1,312,513,393

-24.01%

-32.96%

7,829,862,054

7,791,322,608

-0.93%

-0.49%

7,301,149,042

6,859,386,991

-0.70%

-6.05%

19,882,801,804

17,836,232,814

Figure 2.1 Changes in total sales in Ho Chi Minh (in VND) from 2014 to 2016
FORWARDING

WAREHOUSE

TRUCKING

9,000,000,000
8,000,000,000
7,000,000,000
6,000,000,000
5,000,000,000
4,000,000,000
3,000,000,000
2,000,000,000
1,000,000,000
0
2014

2015

2016

9


It is easy to see that in three types of services, logistics and warehousing have not

changed significantly in net sales for the three years since 2014. The only change with
rapid sales decline is the forwarding service. Net sales in 2016 for forwarding is only
about half that of net sales in 2014.
In the three years since 2014, the company has made a significant change in sales.
Trucking and Warehouse services accounted for more than two-third of sales. Forwarding
services accounted for about one-third of sales in 2014, but then it dropped dramatically
and only fell to 17.86% in 2016.
Figure 2.2 shows a visual representation of the change in the revenue contribution ratio of
the three types of company services.
Figure 2.2 The change in the revenue contribution ratio

Actual sales of trucking and warehousing in the period 2014-2016 were not large
fluctuations, so the contribution of these two objects increased was due to the decline in
sales of the forwarding service. This is not a good sign.
10


3. Situation Analysis
In this section we will have three main analysis areas: problem identification, problem
justification, and causes validation. In this analysis, we will go deeper into the situation
and analyze the information as well as the data collected through the interview process
and the support from the company.
However, this information can not avoid certain biases or subjective opinions of
individuals interviewed. So the theories and literature review have been referenced and
added to increase the objectivity and persuasiveness of the problem analyzed.
The two cause-effect maps drawn in this section give you a more intuitive view of the
problem being analyzed. The initial cause-effect map is primarily based on information
and data collected from the company. The final cause-effect map is the completed version
after performing the problem justification and cause validation.
3.1.

Problem identification

As we know net sales are calculated based on the following formula:
Net Sales = Gross Sales - Sales of Returns and Allowances

Thus the problem of net sales decreases primarily due to decrease in Gross sales (which
is calculated by the number of sales multiplied by the selling price) and increase in Sales
of Returns and Allowances.
Firstly, income statements in the company's financial statements show that less
deductions including sales returns, allowances, and discounts are recorded as zero. So the
decline in net sales stemmed from the decline in gross sales, including total unit sold and
sale price per unit.
However, “There was no significant change in price of each service from 2014 to 2016 so
the reason of price could be eliminated from the list of causes of sales decrease.”, said
the CFO.
So the price factor is eliminated so the problem is the number of order is reduced or in
other words in this case is the number of customers decreased.
Up to now, the three types of services that the company provides have a distinct customer
base. Generally, warehousing has the highest customer base and is relatively stable.
11


Trucking service has constant number of customers over the years, the most fluctuating is
the forwarding service. Details of this change are illustrated in Figure 3.1.1 and Table
3.1.1 below.

The number of customers

Figure 3.1.1 Changes in the number of customers in Head Office year-over-year

5
4
3
2
1
0
2006

2008

2010

Forwarding

2012
Year

2014

Warehouse

2016

2018

Trucking

Table 3.1.1 The number of customers in Head Office over years
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Forwarding

1
1
2
3
3
3
3
2
2
Warehouse
2
2
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
Trucking
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
Total

6

6

8

10

10

10

10

9

9

According to the CFO, “In 2014, there were total 3 fixed customers using forwarding
services. In 2015, the Head Office lost 1 customer and from then the number of customers
still has been stopped at 2”.
The decline in the number of forwarding customers has marked a sharp decline in sales
over the past three years. However, the lack of growth in the number of customers in the
two remaining services over the long term since 2011 is also an alarming sign.
After approaching and gathering information through an interview with the CFO and
sales and marketing manager, the Initial Cause-Effect Map is constructed in Figure 3.1.2.

12

In essence, the cause of the decline in sales is twofold: internal causes and external causes. Internal causes will be explored
in this proposal. The Initial Cause-Effect Map below mainly mentions to internal causes.
Figure 3.1.2 Initial Cause-Effect Map
Sale price per
unit decline
The fluctuation of the type of logistics
services and forwarding business
Decrease in
Gross sales

Competitors

Total units sold
decline

Loyal customer
leave

Number of
order decrease

Weak support from
parent company in Japan

No new customer

Ineffective sales
management

Problem in company
structure

No sales staff

Top manager’s
decision

13


The decline in the number of customers in this situation is measured by two factors:
existing/loyal customers and new customers. To get a better view we will go into each of
the elements.
3.1.1. Loyal customer leave
The CFO also mentioned that “Warehouse and Trucking services have quite stable net
sales each year because the number of customers is stable and fixed over years.
Forwarding services have been similar like that since its inception but in 2015 the
company lost a loyal customer. So until now, customers in the forwarding segment are
left with only 2 customers.”. This also means that there is no new customer while the
number of loyal one are decreasing.
According to information obtained from three interviews with CFO, sales manager and
CEO, the reason for losing a longtime customer is due to influence from competitors.
However, this factor is an external factor so we will not go into the analysis.
3.1.2. No new customer
Firstly, the reason for not having any new customer is the support from the parent
company. According to information CFO said: “In general, Japanese companies have a
strong source of foreign support from the parent company, not only financially, but also
the source of customers.
Moreover, the personality of the Japanese is quite loyal, once successful cooperation with

a partner, they often stick with that brand, so it is quite difficult to attract customers from
the opponent. The parent company must be strong enough to support the new subsidiary
to develop.
However, the parent company of our company in Japan is not as strong as other
companies, so the company in Vietnam does not have the source of customers designated
by the parent company as the competitors.”
Secondly, the question of whether the company's ability to supply qualified customers to
serve new customers is also considered.
The possibility of providing has been increased recently. “In 2015 and 2016, Trucking
services used only 60% of capacity and Warehouse services used about 90% of capacity.
14


In 2017, the company expand warehouse area from 1500m2 to 4500m2 at Binh Duong
Province.”. This means that the company is fully capable of supplying when customers
increase.
Finally, the central problem here is the Ineffective sales management. This problem is
manifested by three factors: Problem in company structure, No sales staff and Manager’s
decision.
It does not only affect the development of new customers, but also the ineffectiveness of
maintaining a partnership with existing customers in the long run. At Head Office in Ho
Chi Minh City, the company structure has the only difference which is the problem in
Sales & Marketing Department.
The CFO mentioned that: “Well, the structure of these two companies is similar but
varies in size. More than half of Jupiter Logistics employees are borrowed from Jupiter
Pacific Forwarding, with its own staff numbering only about 11 people.” Figure 3.1.2.1
shows the structure of Head Office in Ho Chi Minh City.
Figure 3.1.2.1 Company Structure of Head Office in Ho Chi Minh City

Chairman

Yutaka Kawasaki
Administration
Bui Thi
Hong Yen

Accounting
Le Thi Ha

3 employees

3 employees

Operation
Nguyen
Xuan
Hoang
4 employees

Warehouse
Nguyen Thi
Minh Tuyet

Trucking team
Nguyen
Xuan
Hoang

3 employees

5 employees

Sales &
Marketing
Murata
Yoichi

15


As it was separated from Jupiter Forwarding Company, there were many ties between the
two companies.
Firstly, the chairman, CFO, Sales manager and other important positions are both
executives of both Jupiter Forwarding and Jupiter Logistics. At the head office, Yoichi
Murata, the Japanese sales manager, said that his job at Jupiter Forwarding was too busy
and not enough manpower, so he focused mainly on Jupiter Forwarding. For the cause
of sales decline, he said: “So as I told you, the first reason is we don’t have enough sales
staff in our company and the secondary is now Vietnam country is developing more and
more and many Japanese companies, Logistics companies are coming so we have many
competitors in the same market…and before the big Japanese Logistics companies
coming, the small and medium size companies also coming to Vietnam from country side
in Japan.”
According to the gathered information, about half of employees at Jupiter Logistics are
borrowed from Jupiter Forwarding. “In fact, the chairman, sales manager and some
other positions working for Jupiter Forwarding also cover some of Jupiter Logistics's
positions. Because the initial departure is the forwarding company, almost all the key
components are in the forwarding company. Some Jupiter Forwarding employees also
work part-time for Jupiter Logistics. However, these two companies are completely
independent and do not share in profits.”, said the CFO.
Furthermore, there has been no sales staff at Jupiter Logistics company, she said: “There
is no sales person except sales and marketing manager. The initial customers of Jupiter

Logistics were partly introduced by Jupiter Forwarding when it first established, and
some of their customers were referred by their former sales manager.”, “Former sales
manager who is overseas Vietnamese from the US, he also helped sales of the company
increased quite well. Two customers on the forwarding side were also found by him for
the company. After he left, the current sales manager was loaned from Jupiter
Forwarding to cover the job. My boss is also thinking of hiring a sales manager, but he
fears the cost increases. A few months ago Mr. Kawasaki intended to recruit a Japanese
sales manager but ultimately failed to agree on salary.”
16


If not for stability from loyal customers from previous years, the company will really face
a lot of problems. In other words, the Sales and Marketing department is almost in the
name but not really in function.
Secondly, the type of service of the two companies is just only the same in the
forwarding service segment. Jupiter Logistics focuses mainly on logistics services.
Forwarding services account for a smaller proportion, ranging from 27% to 30%, of the
net sales in Ho Chi Minh City. However, in 2015 this rate will drop to 25%. In 2016, it
remained around 16%.
Although this service at Jupiter Logistics only accounts for about 2 to 3 customers. But
the problem is when new customers appear, Sales manager almost preferred to Jupiter
Forwarding Company.
Finally, the chairman of the company, Mr. Yutaka Kawasaki, has received a lot of
suggestions from the CFO as well as the managers of some departments for investing in
Sales and Marketing, in other words hiring sales staff. However, after a while, in the past
two years, he started to recruit, he said: "I interviewed quite many candidates, about 100
people, but still have not found any candidate suitable for my requirements.”
Because of the three branches, Mr. Kawasaki is extremely busy. However, without the
external factors, two northern branches with the help of a Vietnamese Sales Manager as
well as the Sales and Marketing department invested so sales growth of Jupiter Logistics

Company in the North in the recent years have grown quite well as you can see in table
2.1.

17


3.2.

Problem Justification

In spite of the information analyzed above, the central problem most pronounced here is
inefficient sales management, along with three potential causes: Problem in company
structure, No sales staff and Manager’s decision. The problem here is whether these
analyzes are subject to risks due to the reliability of the information. So, to minimize this
risk, in this section of thesis we will adopt an approach called "standing on the shoulders
of giants" through theories as well as the literature review.
Sales management
First we will look at the concept of sales management as well as the related factors.
Sales management is the function of the sales manager, including: Sales planning, Time
management, Territorial planning, Sales forecasting, Recruiting, Building environment
for motivation and Training, coaching and counseling.1
Besides, Mosca et al. also recognized that there are 8 key responsibilities that an effective
manager needs to do:2(p115)
1. setting the sales force objectives
2. structuring the sales organization and territories
3. determining the size and type of resources needed
4. creating the proper compensation plan
5. selecting and training
6. developing, coaching and mentoring
7. supervising

8. evaluating their sales employees
Good sales managers promote and help improve sales, profitability, market share, return
on investment, and the ability to win competitors as well as recruit, train, motivate and
evaluate. and compensation for sales staff, forecasting, planning, budgeting, and good
communication and control.3

18


In the case of the company we can clearly see the following issues:
Firstly, with the exception of the sales manager, there is no sales staff, so the concept of
sales force here is completely nominal and has no basis for measurement. So there is no
sales force or sales force objectives, KPI or motivations.
Secondly, this situation has lasted 10 years since the company was established. This
shows an anomaly in the company's strategy and vision. In the first years of operation, no
sales staff could be accepted, moreover, at that time the former sales manager undertook
the task of finding clients so everything was well developed. However, the actual 10-year
period is too long, while the company wants to expand the market but does not build
sales force, the shortage of personnel has become a serious issue to be considered.
Thirdly, the CEO has repeatedly received recommendations from his subordinates but
only acknowledged, not actually made a decision to act in reality. Until the problem
occurred and became more serious, he began to consider the issue of recruiting staff for
sales and marketing. This interference delay is also a cause of the company's personnel
problem.
The fourthly, according to the CEO, in the past two years, the company interviewed
hundreds of people but did not recruit anyone. There was only one Japanese candidate
who qualified but the company did not recruit because of the wage agreement. This
information is a bit unreasonable. In fact, the labor market in Ho Chi Minh City is
plentiful, especially in the field of sales. Vietnamese candidates who can speak English or
Japanese are also quite large.

To say that in 2 years but could not find employees work effectively or stick to the
company for a long time, this is not unusual. But in the case of the company, there is
absolutely no one recruited, even a probationary person.
This suggests that the company's recruiting channel is not effective or that the company
requires a slightly unreasonable request from the applicant when compared to other
companies. Moreover, the salary factor is not the only reason to attract and retain talents,
so the company can think of other effective ways.

19


Finally, the company does not set any criteria or target to force employees to complete
their work and increase their productivity. According to the information provided, the
chief cause of this situation is that the CEO wants to create a comfortable, comfortable,
unobtrusive working environment that aims to empower his or her employees to develop
themselves self-consciously. But the point here is that cultural differences have not been
carefully considered. The style of working in Japan but applying to Vietnamese staff
without appropriate adjustment will bring trouble.
What is sales force?
“Depending on the type of organization, a sales force may consist of a few salespeople
with infrequent contact with customers, or many salespeople operating in a highly
organized system with regular and frequent contact. The latter would apply to companies
selling consumer goods like confectionery where it is necessary to have a regular, day-today contact. A company that constructs bridges needs fewer salespeople as there are
fewer customers and it is more appropriate to have technical salespersons to negotiate
contracts and resolve problems that customers may face during the construction process.
The sales force provides a flow of information to the company which needs to know what
is happening ‘in the field’ to keep up with changes in demand or fashion.” 4(p.273)
Can A Company Survive and Develop Without A Productive Sales Force?
The question here is whether a company like Jupiter Logistics can grow without sales
staffs or not. According to Howard Lewinter who is known as Business Advisor Business Consultant - Business Expert throughout the United States. Howard's articles

have been published in business journals throughout the United States and he has been
quoted in the Wall Street Journal; he also guest posts on sites like Selling Fearlessly, he
said: “As a CEO, president or business owner, you can’t “hope” for business to just show
up. “Hope” is not a smart strategy in business. Waiting, watching and hoping for a sales
turnaround can only put you out of business. Instead you must find the business answers
and solutions that will bring sales to your company. Your business will not survive
without your sales force being productive.”

20


Thanks to a steady stream of available customers since its founding, the company is still
operating normally until the sales decline is noticeable from 2015. Because of the loss of
a customer, the sales person becomes more necessary than ever. The CFO and Mr.
Murata also said that this is an urgent matter that needs to be addressed as soon as
possible.
In conclusion, the company has a lot of solid evidence that sales management is
completely ineffective. This has seriously affected the retention of existing customers and
the search for new customers for the company. Sales management plays a very important
role for a company that wants to expand and grow in the long run.

21


3.3.

Causes Validation

After combining all the information, data and theories, we create the figure 3.3.1 which shows the final cause-effect map.
Figure 3.3.1 Final Cause-Effect Map

The fluctuation of the type of
logistics services and forwarding
business
Decrease in
Gross sales

Total units sold
decline

Competitors

Weak CRM

Loyal customer
leave

Problem in company
structure
Weak support from
parent company in
Japan

Number of
order decrease

Lack of sales
force
Poor sales
leadership

No new customer

Ineffective sales
management

Conflict of
interest
No clear target
and KPI

Not exploit the market of
Vietnamese customers

Limited sales
strategy

22


3.3.1. Weak customer relationship management
A research has been conducted to find out more deeply about the assessment and
evaluation of customers who used to work and are working with the company.
Due to confidentiality of customer information, the company's customer information will
not be disclosed. So the information from the research below is conducted under the
support and supervision of the sales manager.
Research focuses on customer reviews and find out why customers are not satisfied with
the company.
John A. Goodman is a member of ASQ and is also chairman of TARP in Arlington, VA.
He holds a master's degree in business administration from prestigious Harvard
University. He outlines the typical causes of customer dissatisfaction consisting of five

factors that you can see in box 3.3.1.1
Box 3.3.1.1 The typical causes of customer dissatisfaction5(p1)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Defects caused by production or service failures and/or employee mistakes.
Marketing overpromises.
Misleading marketing.
Customer error or unreasonable expectations.
Customer is incorrect but makes a reasonable mistake.

Market structure can affect customer satisfaction. As customers begin to have more
choices, companies need to improve customer satisfaction through providing higher
quality goods, better service and lower prices in order to maintain market share according
to Mazzeo6(p275–296). Because the cost of attracting new customers is higher in more
competitive markets as followed Estelami7(p. 285-300)
“Several studies in the marketing literature have considered the relationship between
customer satisfaction and performance at the firm level. Not surprisingly, the results
generally show that customer satisfaction provides economic benefits to the firm. For
example, customer satisfaction has been linked to increased revenues (Fornell, 1992;
Gómez, McLaughlin & Wittink, 2004; Rust, Zahorik, & Keiningham, 1995), more
inelastic demand (Anderson, 1996), and reduced costs for attracting new customers and
other costs associated with poor quality, defects and complaints (Anderson, Fornell, &
Rust, 1997). Reflecting these benefits, customer satisfaction has been found to positively
23

affect a firm’s profitability (Anderson, Fornell, & Lehmann, 1994; Aaker & Jacobson,
1994; Capon, Farley, & Hoeni, 1990), and its market value (Aaker & Jacobson, 1994;
Ittner & Larcker, 1998).”8(p.9)
Six questionnaires (find in appendices) were selected and sent to the company's customers
and received about 7/7 feedback (there are 3 customers using both types of services at the
same time). Chart 3.3.1.1 shows the reason that customers choose to partner with the
company. In addition, chart 3.3.1.2 will show the factors that customers are not happy
about the quality of services of the company.
Chart 3.3.1.1 The reason for customers to cooperate with the company

There are 5 factors to be taken into consideration:
• Good service quality
• The price is more favorable than other companies
• Meet the expectations of customers
• Good customer relationship management
• The two companies are used to working together.
Factors are chosen by all customers because the two companies have long cooperated
with each other over the years so they choose to become loyal customers. Quality of
service is quite good, accounting for about 86%. Prices are good at about 57%. The only
factor that is not appreciated is customer relationship management.

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Chart 3.3.1.2 Factors that customers are not satisfied with the company

The following 6 factors are used to find out why customers are not satisfied:
• Service failures and/or employee mistakes
• High price
• Poor customer relationship management

• Marketing overpromises
• Unreasonable expectations
• Less attractive incentives than other companies
About 75% of customers are dissatisfied with the company's customer relationship
management.
Because of specific characteristics of services, the quality of services provided by Jupiter
Logistics has no significant difference from other competitors. Of course, it is difficult to
avoid the problem when providing services to customers, however, according to the
certification of the manager, this problem is not significant and the past few years have
proven that.
The next reason is chosen with 63% is Less attractive incentives than other companies.
So the threats from rival companies also need to be considered.
Chart 3.3.1.3 outlines the customer's assessment of what the company needs to improve.

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