Luận Văn Poor Customer Elationship Quality At Company A

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UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
Phan Thi Thanh Hieu
POOR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
QUALITY AT COMPANY A.
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Dịch Vụ Hỗ Trợ Viết Thuê Tiểu Luận,Báo Cáo
Khoá Luận, Luận Văn
ZALO/TELEGRAM HỖ TRỢ 0934.536.149
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2022

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UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
Phan Thi Thanh Hieu
POOR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
QUALITY AT COMPANY A.
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SUPERVISOR: Assoc. Prof. Tran Ha Minh Quan
Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2022

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Company background................................................................................................. 7
2 Symptom....................................................................................................................... 8
2.1 A’s LTCs signed below the target in 2016, 2017 and 2018.......................................... 8
2.2 The importance of the symptom.................................................................................. 10
3 Problem identification............................................................................................... 10
3.1 Potential problems....................................................................................................... 12
3.1.1 Customers diversify suppliers to reduce risks.......................................................... 12
3.1.2 Multiple strong competitors with good service........................................................ 13
3.1.3 Customers feel not satisfied in business relationship with A................................... 13
3.1.4 Constraint of state-owned company’s policy........................................................... 14
3.1.5 Customers do not trust in A, no commitment for future shipment .......................... 14
4 Problem validation .................................................................................................... 16
4.1 Main problem .............................................................................................................. 19
4.2 Problem definition....................................................................................................... 19
4.3 Problem existence........................................................................................................ 20
4.4 Problem importance .................................................................................................... 20
5 Possible Causes .......................................................................................................... 21
5.1 Poor service quality..................................................................................................... 21
5.2 Poor company’s reputation.......................................................................................... 21
5.3 Not long enough relationship ...................................................................................... 22
6 Cause Validation........................................................................................................ 22
6.1.1 Main cause ............................................................................................................... 25
6.1.2 Main cause definition............................................................................................... 25
6.1.3 Sub cause.................................................................................................................. 27
7 SOLUTION................................................................................................................ 28
7.1 Alternative solutions.................................................................................................... 29
7.1.1 Train employees to strengthen customer-service perception and skills................... 29
7.1.2 Redesign A’s employee performance scale ............................................................. 30
7.1.3 Combine employees training and adjustment of the performance appraisal
system 30
7.2 Solution selection ........................................................................................................ 32
8 Action plan in organization ...................................................................................... 33
9 Supporting information ............................................................................................ 36
9.1 Methodology ............................................................................................................... 36
9.2 Interview transcript...................................................................................................... 37
10 Appendix .................................................................................................................... 51
Reference

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: A’s report about LTCs signed in 2016 ......................................................8
Table 4: Participants in first interview in March 2019 ..........................................11
Table 5: Participants in the second interview in March 2019................................17
Table 6: Participants in the third interview in April 2019 .....................................22
Table 7: Participants in the fourth interview in March 2019.................................26
Table 8: Participants in the fifth interview in May 2019.......................................32

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: A’s total tons of LTCs over exploitation volume from 2016 to 2018......9
Figure 2: COGS over revenue of A from 2016 to 2018 ........................................10
Figure 3: Initial cause-effect map ..........................................................................12
Figure 4: Topship following timeline....................................................................15
Figure 5: Namazie following timeline...................................................................15
Figure 6: Updated cause-effect map......................................................................16

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Executive Summary
Nowadays, the business environment has become more competitive and dynamic
that requires every firm needs to create their own competitive advantage to win over
their rivals, otherwise they are losers in the market. One of the indispensable factors
that they need to pay attention is the product and services. The product serves
customers’ needs and the service presented during the exchange facilitates the product
to be delivered promptly and conveniently. While there have been companies having
deep awareness of the very complex marketplace and take actions, the others are
struggling with their performance due to some reasons. Specifically, to Vietnam
natural rubber market, Company A ’s performance has encountered some issues during
three recent years. A’s results at signing long-term contracts (LTC) below the target of
the parent company with the consequences of the increasingly growing percentage
between cost of goods sold (COGS) and revenue. Realizing that this symptom existed
is an urgent warning to A, the author decided to discover whether A has made
mistakes towards its usual practice. Through interviews as well as the guideline of
scholar theories, A’s problem is identified as poor customer relationship quality with
the main cause is due to A’s poor service quality to customers. Although they have
been loyal customers of A due to long working time, A has treated them without any
support and enthusiasm when having troubles. To be more specific, A’s employees are
not good at customer-service skills to satisfy customers, especially when they are most
difficult. Moreover, the company’s performance scale is not realistic and imperfect
enough for employees to become motivated and engaged in taking care of customers.
Therefore, it is suggested that the company should provide employees training sessions
to perceive the important role of service quality and customers. That’s also a good
chance for employees to learn how to demonstrate professional customer-service skills
to customers. Moreover, the performance appraisal system is also recommended to be
updated for employees to feel that they are highly recognized for supporting customers
in any case. The detail action plan finalizing the thesis contains what A should do step
by step to recover its performance and regain customers’ trusts.

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1 Company background
Company A. specializes in planting, tapping, processing and trading natural rubber. A
is located in Highlands region with the total area of natural rubber is over 9,000 ha. The
company is structured by shareholders assembly, board of directors, board of supervisors
and functional departments/units, in which Import-Export department plays an important
role to bring main source of revenue for the company. The department is in charge of
ensuring the annual stable consumption by maintaining existing customers and seeking for
potentials to sell natural rubber. Besides, there is also sub-divisions handling documents
and logistics supports for shipments delivered. Instead of producing all grades, Company
A. gains its competitive advantage over other rubber companies in Vietnam by
concentrating on only specific grades including SVR 3L, SVR 10, SVR CV50/60 and SVR
L with high quality to offer mostly international tire manufacturers and traders.

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2 Symptom
2.1 A’s LTCs signed below the target in 2016, 2017 and 2018
To stabilize annual consumption, the parent company set target that every subsidiary
has to achieve the total consumption output from long-term contracts (LTCs) by at least
50% of exploitation volume. To comply with the parent company’s regulation, company
A.’s goal in three recent years is to reach 70% tapping volume for LTCs signed. However,
in the period of 2016-2018, Import-Export department did not fulfil their responsibility
when A. fell short of that target. Specifically, in the period of 2016-2018, the total amount
of natural rubber that customers signed with A. in the three years did not reach half of
tapping output as shown in below tables:
Table 1: A’s report about LTCs signed in 2016
Source: A’s Business report 2016

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As the data given, it can be seen that the amount of natural rubber for LTCs
below the target in 2016, 2017, 2018 which are 48.90%, 41.17% and 38.49%
respectively and decreased when compared with the total tapping volume.
Figure 1: A’s total tons of LTCs over exploitation volume from 2016 to 2018
Source: A’s Business report in 2016, 2017, 2018

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2.2 The importance of the symptom
From company report, the ratio between COGS and revenue increase year by year as
illustrated below:
Figure 2: COGS over revenue of A from 2016 to 2018
Source: A’s Business report 2016, 2017, 2018
The COGS over revenue of A has increased in 3 years from 81.25% in 2016 to
87.75% in 2018. When discovering deeply, the issue is that A’s inventory volume is
high due to unable to sell all finished goods or did not meet the target of signing long-
term contract with existing customers and developing new sales. That the remaining
inventory turns low quality in next year, is counted in COGS in that next year as well
as decrease in sales price in that next year. Therefore, the company’s ratio of COGS
over revenue increase in the three recent years. The existing symptom is an urgent
warning to A that forces A take further steps to remedy its performance. Otherwise, A
may suffer from loss in the near future.
3 Problem identification
From the symptom identified as above, I decided to take interviews with Import-
Export department and customers to clarify whether there exist mistakes causing to the
symptom. Participants for the interview is illustrated as below:

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Table 4: Participants in first interview in March 2019
According to Mrs. TNT- Head of Import-Export department:
“A’s strategy is that 30% for spot contracts and 70% for LTCs. To spot contracts,
customers sources are various, random and no commitment. When customers have needs
anytime of the year, they contact us for further discussion. Therefore, with substantial
exploitation volume, A sets main goals for LTCs to meet the parent company’s
requirements and actively control the customers’ consumption. For LTCs, A maintain
existing customers and also develop new sales”. Therefore, to the extent of this thesis, I
will discuss only on LTCs which A mainly focuses on as well as A has troubled with to
find causes and fix them so that A can handle this main part well and actively control its
customer sources.
Through interviewing Import-Export Executives, three existing customers and two
potential customers that A is following, the Initial cause-effect map is shown as below:

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Figure 3: Initial cause-effect map
Source: Author’s synthesis
3.1 Potential problems
From the initial cause-effect map, it can be seen that there are five potential problems
related to A’s symptom.
3.1.1 Customers diversify suppliers to reduce risks
According to the interview from A’s executives and existing customers, all three
existing customers have ordered natural rubber not only from A but also from other
producers. Specifically, Good year shared that “Actually, in Vietnam market, we purchase
natural rubber from multiple subsidiaries and other outside suppliers that meet our
standard requirements. We have variety of choices and also our back up plan in case any
supplier cannot deliver the goods as scheduled. In reality, we had trouble with several
shipments due to delayed schedule from suppliers, making us incur much loss. It’s not A,
but other subsidiaries. From our own experiences, we want to purchase from multiple
suppliers to ensure having products in all cases”. Actually, there were cases like that

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making them suffer lots of costs. Therefore, they actively control their purchasing volume
by that way so A may not negotiate to increase existing sales, leading A’s LTCs below the
target.
3.1.2 Multiple strong competitors with good service
Previously, Vietnam natural rubber market was mostly run by the group that A
belongs to. The subsidiaries’ products which were made under highly technical processes
and advanced machineries present standard quality meeting customer requirements.
However, nowadays, besides the subsidiaries of the group, customers also have choices
from private companies who can offer good products with good service. Therefore,
competitive natural rubber market has possibly been a reason that makes A hard to increase
existing sales or achieve LTCs targets.
3.1.3 Customers feel not satisfied in business relationship with A
Interviews of three existing customers show that they are not satisfied with A.
Specifically, Good year, Tong Teik and Sintex purchasing representatives all shared that
despite long time working with A, when having troubles, A caused them lots of difficulties
making them suffer large costs even though the company can help. Therefore, they are not
satisfied in business relationship with A. Because A cannot be trusted due to those trouble
cases, customers are not sure for future cooperation. Some customers even think of other
suppliers. Therefore, that may explain for decreased current purchasing volume from A of
these customers. Here are some quotations from the three representatives:
Good year “To us, satisfaction is so important. However, despite long time of working, we
have not been satisfied when working with A so we are thinking of other suppliers,
especially during the last 3 years. We feel that we are not appreciated by A. The supplier
cannot treat long-term customers like A. Therefore, our relationship is not better in recent
years. Our trust in A is losing gradually.”
Sintex opined that “Despite working with A quite long time and A products are
reliable to our customers, we feel not satisfied with A. While other suppliers are becoming
stronger by enhancing their products, services and establishing strong relationship with us,
we think our relationship with A is not good as other suppliers. Therefore, we are not sure
to sign LTC with A, no commitment in future.”

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Tong Teik indicated that “We think that due to A’s working style makes our
relationship have been worse in recent years despite working together quite long. To be
honest, we are not satisfied with the way A do business”
3.1.4 Constraint of state-owned company’s policy
As shared from the interview, Sintex is not comfortable when working with A due to
strict business policy. They stated that “Policy of private company is more flexible, not
strict as the subsidiaries of the group. For example, they offer us deferred L/C payment
while the members apply L/C at sight. Deferred L/C gives us a period of time to prepare
money for payment, so more comfortable to us. It can be conveyed that strict policy of
state-owned company is one of reasons making Sintex decrease purchasing volume from
A.
3.1.5 Customers do not trust in A, no commitment for future shipment

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Figure 5: Namazie following timeline
Figure 4: Topship following timeline
Source: A’s Import-Export department report
Source: A’s Import-Export department report
From the company data, A has followed two customers including Topship and
Namazie. However, the company still could not sign LTCs with them despite long time
chasing. As shared from the interview, the two customers opined that they were not
satisfied when working with A. Therefore, they are not willing to sign official LTCs with
A. Therefore, one of reasons making A fail to achieve LTCs target is that the company
could not develop new sales due to dissatisfying potential customers.
After the interviews and data from the company, among potential problems listed
above, the first potential problem that is “customers diversify suppliers to reduce risks” is
originated from customers. As the in-depth interview, customers, by their own experiences,
actively choose to buy from many suppliers to reduce risks of not delivering goods as
scheduled. That’s customer choices so it may not have influence if A puts its effort to fix
this external factor. The second and fourth potential problems including competitors and
state-owned company’s policy are also from external factors while the potential problem of
“customer feel not satisfied in the business relationship with A” and “customers do not

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trust, no commitment for future shipment” forces A to look back its performance to find
further reasons. Therefore, I consider this is the main problem linking to its existing
symptom that A can improve the current situation if the company finds appropriate causes
and fix them.
4 Problem validation
Some scholar theories have shown multiple discussion around the term “customer
relationship quality”. Customers relationship quality, from literatures, is illustrated through
customer’s satisfaction, trust and commitment toward the supplier (1,4). In which, trust is
built when “one party has confidence in the reliability and integrity of the other” (1).
According to Chou as cited by Barac et al. (1), commitment demonstrates the willingness
to maintain the relationship with the company. As emphasized by Garbarino and Johnson
as cited by Barac et al. (1), satisfaction coveys the fulfilled feeling that partner has from
their own experience with the company. Those researches have shown that satisfaction,
trust and commitment have direct link with the relationship quality between buyer and
seller, which is one of important indicators to company performance.
Therefore, The Updated Cause-Effect map is illustrated as below:
Figure 6: Updated cause-effect map

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The further interview is conducted with the aim of checking whether A troubled with
their customer relationships as the literatures indicated above and deeply discussed for
more findings on potential problems.
Table 5: Participants in the second interview in March 2019
Findings from the second interview
A’s products are standardized
As being shared from the interview, both existing customers and potentials have
evaluated that under well-known brand name, A’s products comply with standard quality
based on advanced production line. Hence, the product gains great trust in them. Compared
to Vietnam natural rubber suppliers, the subsidiaries create strong competitive advantages
due to reliable quality throughout the years. Customers recognize these suppliers of the
group lead in Vietnam market considering quality and quantity so they mostly choose the
products of these subsidiaries rather than ones of private companies.
Long time working but recently not satisfied in the relationship with A
As the data collected, existing customers have worked with A nearly or around 10
years. They shared that previously the reliable product quality was the most important
criteria considered from rubber buyers. However, nowadays, these customers have been
dissatisfied with A despite long-term relationships. Specifically, Good year shared that
“Recently, other suppliers in Vietnam are demonstrating their good performance, making
us feel appreciated, so when we work with A, we feel extremely not satisfied with A.
Therefore, we need to look back that whether A’s still suitable and acceptable or not.
That’s why our relationship is not good as it was: No satisfaction in working leads to no
commitment in future”

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Policy constraint is not a big deal compared to feeling bad in business
relationship with A
Customer evaluated from the interview that to state-owned company, like A, the
policy is more strict than private companies. To be more specific, Sintex expressed that
they are more comfortable with the payment method of deferred L/C rather that L/C at
sight which A requires. Deferred L/C allows them to have time to prepare money for
payment after the shipment is already delivered. However, due to good quality products in
the market, they accept the payment condition. However, customer tends to become
demotivated from some troubles. They feel that A is not supportive and so not eager to
work with A.
Customers actively diversify suppliers
From the interview, Import-Export executives shared that existing customers not only
purchase natural rubber from only A but also other suppliers. Asked for reasons, customers
told that in Vietnam market, customers purchase natural rubber from multiple suppliers in
order to back up for cases that the key supplier cannot deliver goods as scheduled. They
want to be active in all cases because in reality there were suppliers delaying shipping as
scheduled making them suffer lots of costs.
Customers do want to establish long-term relationship with suppliers who have
not only good quality but also great support
Customers emphasized that Vietnam rubber market becomes more competitive
nowadays. Private companies gradually improve their product quality and are more flexible
in supporting customers while A is not so supportive for customers, especially when
troubles happen. Therefore, existing customers told that they increasingly have more
choices. They want to work in the long term with suppliers who have good quality and
great support. Therefore, the supplier who offers only quality product is less competitive
than the ones who care about quality and do their best to treat customers well, as Tong Teik
shared that “From my perspective, A need to improve the way it treats customers. We feel
that we are not empathized from A despite long time working. As a customer, we want to
work in the long-term with suppliers who offer quality product and especially great support
because troubles are unavoidable. Support makes the relationship strong and sustainable.
We really stress when working with A while the other suppliers try to ease any problems to

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keep the relationship grow well. That cannot sustain in the long term if A does not change
its perception.”
4.1 Main problem
According to the literatures and in-depth interviews, it can be drawn that customers
are not satisfied when working with A despite long-time period so they do not trust and
commit A for future shipments. Each of them has reasons to feel that A is not good as their
expectation, leading customers have not increased or more seriously, decrease their
purchasing volume from A. Therefore, the main problem of A is its poor customer
relationship quality. Through those interviews, poor relationship quality is shown through:
- A’s products are standardized
- Long time working but recently not satisfied in the relationship with A
- Customers feel not satisfied in business relationship with A
- Customers do not trust in A, no commitment for future shipment
- Policy constraint is not a big deal compared to feeling bad in business relationship
with A
- Multiple strong competitors with good service
- Customers do want to establish long-term relationship with suppliers who have
not only good quality but also great support
On the other hand, while other potential problems present as external factors which
means the scope for dealing can involve in many sides such as competitors, government,
customers, the poor customer relationship quality with the fact that customers have not
trusted, satisfied and no commitment when working with A can be dealt in the control of A
internally. Therefore, this problem should be primarily focused on due to its scope of
dealing as well as feasibility for A to solve the current situation.
4.2 Problem definition
According to Barac et al. (1), “relationship quality” that from buyer’s viewpoint is
defined as the level of contentment of buyers in the relationship with the seller at a specific
time. Smith (2) viewed relationship quality as a tool to assess how strong the company
relationships with its customers are and the level of meeting customers’ requirements and
expectations (p.78). Levitt (3) stated relationship quality as “a bundle of intangible value
that augments products or services and results in an expected interchange between buyer

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and seller”. In the research of Garbarino and Johnson (4), relationship quality is the
combined measurement of trust, satisfaction and commitment of customers to a specific
organization that they work with. The three dimensions play a vital part in reflecting a
quality, long-term customer-supplier relationship, which both sides mutually benefit.
4.3 Problem existence
From the interview, customers show their little satisfaction and trust in A’s working
style, therefore they are not sure to cooperate on future shipments. Customers also shared
that Vietnam natural rubber market becomes more competitive nowadays when not only
the parent company members but also private companies who are enhancing their
competitive advantages by offering good quality and great support present as a good choice
of supplier to customers. For example, some private companies such as Viet Phu Thinh,
Van Xuan, Mai Thao, Thang Thang Loi… currently well serve customers. On the other
hand, when being interviewed, A’s employees thought those troubles are not their mistakes
so these are not prioritized as their current tasks. That’s the reason why in some cases,
customers may not happy with the way A support them.
To conclude, customers are not satisfied and A’s employees seem not appreciated the
relationship with LTC customers by choosing to complete their existing tasks first while
customers really need their support at that time. Besides, the market becomes more
dynamic so customers tend to strictly evaluate which supplier is worth to be cooperated.
Therefore, it can be drawn that A has something wrong with its business relationship with
customers that causes to A’s current symptom of long-term contract below the target.
4.4 Problem importance
According to Vesel and Zabkar as cited by Giovanis et al. (5), a company that
possesses a high level of relationship quality means that it forms great trust, satisfaction
and commitment from its partners. Besides, Mitrega (6) suggested the strong connection
between customer relationship quality and company performance. Specifically, the
customer relationships quality positively influences to the profitability of company.
Reflecting on the real case, it can be seen that A’s LTC below the target causes the
company’s COGS/revenue increases over the 3 recent years which signals A’s poor
performance in these years. The previous year’s inventory due to unable to attract
customers to sign LTC leads to high COGS of the company in the next year. This means

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that the profitability has negatively been affected. On the other hand, several researches
also presented the vital link between customer relationship quality in business context and
increased sales (6), future repurchase and customer loyalty (7,8). Therefore, it can be
concluded that relationship quality plays an important role to the development of any
business. A company with high-quality relationships with customers may gain strong
competitive advantages compared to others. Otherwise, it’s really hard to attract customers
to work with in the long run.
5 Possible Causes
Related to the above problem, some scholar literatures have discussed about potential
causes leading to poor customer relationship quality as below:
5.1 Poor service quality
As analyzed by Crosby et al. (8), service quality is an essential condition for the
quality of relationships at business-to-business market. According to Gronroos (7), service
quality is measured based on what customers expected and what customers received from
company’s actual performance. As emphasized by Pepur et al (9), a company can well
perform business relationships by demonstrating great service quality with its partners.
Accordingly, if a company suffers from poor relationship quality, the cause may originate
from its poor service quality that makes customers not satisfied during working time,
leading to not commit for future cooperation as the case of A.
5.2 Poor company’s reputation
As researched by Barac et al. (1), the relationship quality of a company is
demonstrated through customers’ trust, satisfaction and commitment to that company, in
which the three above measurements “should be treated as interrelated rather than separate
variables because it is hard for customers to make fine distinctions between these
conceptually distinct dimensions” in the discussion of Wulf and Thurau as cited by
Giovanis et al. (5). The impact of one factor has direct link to the other two factors. On the
other hand, Donney and Cannon (10) also pointed out a buying firm can gain trust from a
supplier who has great reputation in the market. Therefore, in the case that a corporate
supplier is not well-known in the market, customers may not trust for a business transaction
with them (neither satisfaction nor commitment as the theory indicated above), leading the

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relationship between the supplier and customers do not grow well as the case of company
A.
5.3 Not long enough relationship
Donney and Cannon (10) also revealed that besides supplier’s reputation, the length
of relationship between supplier-buyer is also an important factor affecting to the
relationship between supplier and customers. Accordingly, a supplier may have customers’
trust when they have worked with the customers during long period. The length of
relationship forms the basis for both partners to get closer and work better. Otherwise, a
short period of working may prevent customers from trusting their suppliers, producing not
close business relationship and so affecting to supplier’s performance.
To sum up, based on scholar researches, three potential causes which can lead to the
poor relationship quality of A are due to A’s poor service quality, A’s poor reputation and
not long enough relationship between seller-buyer. The third interview will deeply check
whether A makes mistakes from these above-mentioned causes or can generate other
possible causes.
Table 6: Participants in the third interview in April 2019
6 Cause Validation
Interview findings
To existing customers
Long working time
From the interview, three existing customers including Good year, Tong Teik and
Sintex shared that they have been working with A for so long, nearly 10 years or more.

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Vietnam natural rubber market has been dominated by the parent company – the one has
long history and stably offers large volume. As shared from the interview, besides the
parent company, there are also private companies doing rubber business in Vietnam.
However, they recently started their business and so not a good partner to these existing
customers due to new company profile.
Good reputation in Vietnam market
As a state-owned group, the parent company possess large rubber areas throughout
the country which allows to offer large volume for LTC customers. the parent company
also manage professional process from the rubber cultivation to possessing and producing
final products to meet required high standards, so the products have satisfied customers and
gain fine reputation in the market. Therefore, the parent company – the largest natural
rubber supplier in Vietnam earn good reputation to customers.
Employees are unsupportive when troubles happen
Three existing customers explained quite same reasons why they have adjusted their
purchasing volume from A, which have been caused by dissatisfaction in A’s support.
Besides high-quality products, the service quality during the process of selling and buying
goods is also important, which helps the shipment become smooth and the two parties’
relationship turns closer. However, as honestly shared from the interview, A did not take
great care to its service, specifically the company did not well support customers when
troubles happen. This leads customers to incur much costs and difficulties several times.
Customers share that previously, when Vietnam rubber market was mostly dominated by
the parent company, customers buying products did not have much choice. However,
nowadays, when the market becomes more competitive, both quality and service have
become determining factors for buyers to evaluate which supplier can be chosen to
cooperate.
To potential customers
Appreciate the parent company’s brand
Topship and Namazie shared that they recognize the parent company is a large player
in Vietnam rubber market. The group has lots of the parent company members whose
products are well known for high quality. Therefore, they plan to purchase sample products

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from A to test whether A meets their expectation. When sample shipments satisfy what
they expect, they will ask for signing LTC with A.
Underestimate A’s service
However, Topship and Namazie shared that they are not happy when working with A.
They did not receive much support from A when having troubles. When sample shipments
struggle with trouble at destination, A did not help although they can still help customers to
deal with (it does not matter that the mistakes are caused by A or the customers). In such
cases, customers expect to be supported as soon as possible to limit extra costs. However,
A let them wait too long to have their support. Both potential customers told that they may
not sign LTC with A because they cannot trust A’s service, especially when trouble
happens like the sample shipments. Specifically, Namazie shared that “Considering A as a
subsidiary of a good reputation group in Vietnam, we decided to cooperate with A by
trying the first sample shipment. I can feel that when the shipment is delivered, A’s
employees feel they already complete their works. Due to first cooperation, two sides have
no experience about the way of working from each side. So, my employees send lack of
information for A to prepare documents. When the shipment reaches destination, we realize
that the mistake appears and contact A for helping. However, it’s really difficult for us
because A said that that’s our fault. Despite that’s our fault, A can help and that may take
only little time of A. If some troubles continue to happen in the future, where do we have
help from? A is unsupportive so we do not want to sign LTC with A.”
To current employees
The next interview was conducted between Head of Import-Export Department and
Document staff to clarify the case. As sharing in the interview, Ms. TNT told that “It’s very
regret that customers may leave us despite long time of working. But as a the parent
company member, we think we are a reliable supplier with high quality product and we did
not make mistakes in these cases”. She continued to share her viewpoint that “With
troubles happen, I advise employees to help them as soon as possible. That’s not their
faults so I cannot complain my employees. In some cases, I can see that after completing
their current tasks, they help customers to deal with already. According to Ms. KN and Ms.
LA, because customers send wrong information and that’s their faults. Moreover, as a
document staff, she prioritizes deadlines of current shipments. If she helps these mistakes

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from customers’ side, it may take time and she may not complete her jobs, affecting to her
performance. Therefore, she can only help them to deal with trouble when she already
completed her current tasks. “In my opinion, due to not my faults, I prioritize doing current
tasks to meet deadline. Otherwise, it will affect my performance. Then, I will help
customers for their troubles”
6.1.1 Main cause
From the three interviews with existing customers, potential customers and current
employees in charge of documentation, it is noted that the customers having troubles with
shipments ask for A’s support. Instead of providing prompt service to help customers deal
with their problems, A’s employees prioritize their existing tasks, which is more important
to them and directly affects to their performance measurement, to catch up with deadlines
and let them wait for quite long. Consequently, customers feel not satisfied and after
several times like that, they are not willing to work with A anymore, causing A’s poor
performance in LTC. While A still embraces fine reputation as a subsidiary as well as has
long working time with customers, the company’s service is quite bad. Therefore, the main
cause is identified as poor service quality.
6.1.2 Main cause definition
According to Heskett et al., as researched by Ho et al. (11) service quality plays a
vital role in company success in which “a comprehensive understanding of its antecedents
and outcomes may help firms satisfy their customers and improve their business
performance and profitability”. From the research of Gounaris (12), to measure service
quality in business-to-business (B2B) market, INDSERV scale is suggested to examine
whether a company is well operating its service at four dimensions: potential quality, hard
process quality, soft process quality and output quality. Specifically, potential quality is
defined as the criteria from which customers can expect the firm to present before they
decide to cooperate with the firm. While hard quality evaluates the process of delivering
the service and consider whether that process conveniently offers solution needed for
problem, soft process quality measures the interaction between the two companies’
employees for the process to smoothly present. The soft-process quality especially
employees’ personality is one of important factors in INDSERV scale as discussed by
Gounaris (12) reflecting service quality of a company from buying organization’s

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viewpoint. Output quality measures what level the buying organization satisfies about the
service (both hard process and soft process). Therefore, the fourth interview is deeply
conducted to identify whether what A’s service has struggled with belongs to the above
measurement scale or any other dimensions.
Table 7: Participants in the fourth interview in April 2019
Findings from the interview
Customers’ complaints about not having prompt help when needed
From the interview, customers did not hesitate to share that they feel A is so strict
with the concept of “right and wrong” and ignore their needs at those tough times. The
evidence is that employees did not really listen to their problem and provide suitable
solutions, also failed to offer pleasant personality. These were cases where customers did
wrong and despite long working time together, customers had to suffer A’s poor service
quite long. A more competitive market is really coming soon, so customers nowadays have
more choices. They wish nice support so much besides the product quality. “We expect A’s
employees are sympathetic with our case. Trouble is the one that nobody likes. We highly
appreciate companies whose employees listen to our problems and eager to help as we
suggest. With the fact that the help does not take them long time, if they are happy to help,
we are more satisfied and we think our relationship with compnay will sustain and more
develop in the long run” – Good year representative shared.
Employees’ most care is about their responsibility to solve the problem
The employees who were interviewed answer that because that’s not their faults, they
put most care on getting their current tasks done first. They opined that they work for

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achievement and results and recognition. Due to A’s performance scale does not score on
voluntary support, they must prioritize their current tasks to be completed and help
customers. “Well, as an employee, it’s not my responsibility to deal with what I did not do.
Everyday, when going to workplace, I try my best to complete my tasks to achieve well
performance. The company evaluate based on what I peforms on tasks and not score on
voluntary support for customers. We want to help them but that’s not their faults so we
cannot put my priority on their troubles to deal with.”
6.1.3 Sub cause
From the interview with A’s employees, it can be drawn that the poor service quality
has been caused by two issues which are from A’s employees themselves and from the
company’s performance appraisal system.
For the first reason, despite troubles happened, A employees did not offer prompt
help to customers making them suffer lots of costs and difficulties. These customers are
those who have worked with A long time already or in other words, A have gained great
trust in them. This means the employees are not sympathetic enough to listen to customers’
problems which is a matter of soft-process quality as guided by theory of INDSERV scale.
Moreover, according to Rod and Ashill as indicated in the research of Iriadi and Susanty
(13), the insufficiency of employees who are trained required skill will negatively affect to
organizational services and customers relationship quality. In this case, customers were
served by employees who are not equipped required skills, especially customer-service
skills, so they are not satisfied with A service, leading to decreasing purchasing volume
from A.
For the second reason, based on A employees’ explanation that the company’s
performance appraisal system does not count on voluntary support for customers, so they
are not responsible and motivated for helping customers to deal with. It is entirely
understandable that those employees consider the performance appraisal system as an
important tool for them to find what they need to focus on works to achieve performance
recognition and related benefits. Therefore, when the performance review system does not
highlight on that part, the employees do not feel that they are highly appreciated to support
customers, leading to poor service quality and the fact that customers gradually decrease

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their purchasing volume from A to switch to other suppliers or A fails to persuade them to
continue sign LTC.
Therefore, the Final Cause-Effect Map is illustrated as below:

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7 SOLUTION
7.1 Alternative solutions
The two sub causes are followed by a set of solutions as below:
7.1.1 Train employees to strengthen customer-service perception and skills
As discussed above, A’s employees have had poor soft skills such as customer-
service skills. Specifically, A’s employees did not sympathize customers’ interest when
they really need their support. If they offer helps, customers will truly appreciate the
company and ready to cooperate in the long term. Otherwise, they are quite dissatisfied
with A, randomly leading to A employees’ low work performance. In this situation, A’s
employees who demonstrate company values to buying organizations have possessed poor
customer-service perception and skills. According to Ibrahim et al. (14), the essential
requirement for firms to achieve high work performance is that they need to provide
employees training and development program that are “designed specifically to instil, build
and change their attitudes and/or behaviors towards several organizational functions”.
Moreover, Ibrahim et al. (14) also discussed that employees nowadays have to obtain hard
skills and soft skills to survive in the competitive and dynamic business world. Therefore, it
is suggested that the company should train their employees in order for them to perceive
clearly about the importance of customers to company success and possess required skills
to serve customers to the fullest. The training sessions for employees will incur some costs
and also generate possible benefits:
About costs:
 Training-related costs: Total estimated costs: 99 million VND
 Register fee: 8 million per employee *9 = 72 million VND
 Travel & meal support: 3 million per employee*9= 27 million VND
 Productivity loss:
This cost appears when employees take time to participate in the training course so
their current works may be delayed dealing with, affecting to job effectiveness.
About benefits:
Employees have deep awareness about the importance of customer-service skill
specifically and the vital role of customers generally, so they are willing to treat the
customers with all their heart. After being trained, employees must realize that It’s not only

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about the personal relationship between themselves and customers but also the long-term
relationship of the company and buying organizations. Therefore, if trouble happens, the
employees will apply customer-service skills to support them for dealing.
7.1.2 Redesign A’s employee performance scale
As shared from the interview, A’s employees told the reason why they delayed
offering help to customers is they put more focus on what they need to do to have the
highest personal performance. In fact, the existing performance appraisal system has not
counted on voluntary support for customers. Hence, the support which takes time, if has,
may affect to their current tasks specifically and their performance generally. Bulto and
Markos (15) indicated the positive relationship of employee performance measurement
scale and employee motivation, in which “a fair and standardized performance scale”
strongly motivates employees. Eccles as researched by Ibrahim (14) revealed the
importance of performance scale to firms in which the monitoring and evaluation of work
performance scale greatly affect to organizational results. While the relationship between A
and customers is too important to destroy, it is also suggested that the company should
adjust the scale so that when A’s employee helps customers, they feel they are highly
recognized by the company or conversely, when they do not support, they are criticized by
A and their performance is also affected. The suggestion of improving employee
performance appraisal system has some related costs and benefits:
About costs: No costs incurred.
About benefits:
Because performance appraisal system counts on voluntary support, employees tend
to be motivated and engaged to help customers deal with trouble, especially in cases which
are caused by customers themselves. Hence, customers will appreciate A and likely to sign
more LTCs in the future with A.
7.1.3 Combine employees training and adjustment of the performance appraisal
system.
Another solution suggested is that the combination of employee training and the
improvement of employee performance scale. Here are some costs and benefits:
About costs:
 Training costs: 99 million VND

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 Productivity loss
About benefits:
The combination allows employees to be trained to obtain professional customer-
service skills and realize the critical role of customers to A’s survival. The system which is
updated as “if employees delay supporting customers in any case, they will be criticized
and greatly affected their performance and if they show great support, they are highly
recognized by the company” is an important measurement for employees to get familiar
with customer-service skills and consider it as indispensable/compulsory practice.
Therefore, employees have to put more effort in the training course in order to absorb
customer-service skills to well practice with customers as well as achieve their highest
performance.
These three above solutions are suggested to actively solve the problem that the
company A. has been struggling for a long time. Until the company A improve its
performance as expected at signing long-term contract which means its employees
demonstrate well customer-service skills and perception to serve customers, it is also
recommended that the company should install ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
system to increase the company’s management capability and control its administrative
procedures. According to Antonova (16), ERP system which integrates all department
activities of a company into one single system has contributed to company’s success and
performance with its functionalities, infrastructure and advanced Information
Technologies. With the application of ERP system, the company will have some benefits as
well as generate some costs as follow:
About benefits:
It helps A streamline its workflow effectively so, the company can provide timely
solutions in any case needed. Moreover, each department may save time and effort when
searching for data from other departments during the working time, consequently the cross-
departmental collaboration increases. On the other hand, the system can quickly deal with
large data, reports and complicated requirements from the company. Therefore, A’s Board
of Directors may check company activities on a daily basis and proceed further actions at
management level.
About costs:

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ERP system installation is a long-term project, so it requires much efforts and time
from Board of Management’s strategy to human resources to be able to smoothly use.
During the time of application, there may occur low work productivity that needs time to
adapt due to transition from old model to new one.
Cost for design and installation from service partner that makes the system fit well to
A’s situation.
Cost for training employees to adapt with the system.
Cost for system maintenance and risk management.
7.2 Solution selection
From cost-benefit analysis of the three above solutions, I took interview Mr. LVT –
General Director of Company A and Ms. TNT – Head of Import-Export Department to see
whether these alternative solutions are suitable to the company in this situation. Mr. LVT
opined that the company will try their best to narrow down the poor service quality by
applying the most effective solution.
Table 8: Participants in the fifth interview in May 2019
To the alternative 1, Mr. LVT evaluated that “the company obviously loses 99 million
VND for employees to participate training course”. However, he thought that “this solution
does not completely solve the problem because A cannot control whether their employees
who participated in the training course take appropriate actions with customers. If they still
do not behave responsibly with customers, the company may lose the chance to sign LTC
with them”. Mrs. TNT clarified that her “employees are more realistic than theory-oriented.
They work by achievement and money rather than gaining knowledge. Therefore, they
have no motivation to participate in the training course. If it is compulsory, they will take
part in, however, A cannot measure the effectiveness of the training course”. Therefore, the
solution seems not workable from their perspectives.
To the alternative 2, Mr. LVT said that “this solution has no costs incurred” while he
“prefers paying money rather than paying nothing and gain results” because he thought that

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“everything that is paid by money is more valuable than paid by nothing”. Besides, he
discussed that with this solution, A may “take risks when employees reluctantly offer
voluntary support to customers in order to be recognized/not be punished”. Therefore, they
may offer helps without care, kindness and enthusiasm. In this case, A will recognize/not
punish employees who may dissatisfy valued customers due to their dishonest behavior.
Mrs. TNT totally agreed with his idea because she opined that when having no clear
awareness, her employees may do without care about quality. Therefore, the second
solution is not chosen by the two leaders.
To the alternative 3, Mr. LVT indicated that although the solution covers some costs
such as training costs and productivity loss, the ultimate goal which is to effectively solve
the above causes can be achieved. A’s employees are expected to be trained and applied
customer-service skills in reality because their behavior is measured by performance
appraisal system. By this way, employees proactively attain soft-process quality that is
required in competitive market nowadays to treat customers well and boost A’s service
quality as well as create competitive advantage for A. Mrs. TNT said that the solution
combines two disadvantages of the two solutions and seems feasible most.
Therefore, alternative solution 3 is considered as the best solution applied to these
above causes specifically and solve the main problem of poor customer relationship quality
generally. The following Action plan part is about how to implement the best solution for
the company A.
8 Action plan in organization
As agreed by General Director and Head of Import-Export Department, here is
the action plan for the solution of combining employee training and adjustment of
employee performance measurement scale that is expected to solve the above problem.
The timeline is planned and divided by eight (08) stages as the below table.
The favorable expected time of actions starts at the beginning of February 2020 (after
Tet holiday) when the rubber trees are out of season, not producing latex so employees
are quite free at their works. Therefore, it is reasonable for them to join in training
course. The whole duration is estimated to take six (06) months ~ 24 weeks, finishing
at August 2020. In this action plan, the training is designed for employees of Import-
Export Department in the short term first. They are those who directly work with

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customers so they need to be prioritized for training. If it produces good results, it is
also suggested for all employees in the company join the training for understanding the
important role of customers to the survival of the company. The process of combing
employee training and redesigning the performance measurement scale also needs to
fit well with customers’ needs. During the process, company A. has to see whether key
long-term customers provide positive reaction or not. There is one thing that needs to
be noted is that from training to good practice takes time. Therefore, A has to follow
strictly their employees’ behaviors and be patient with them. If they still do not show
good performance in that practice, the company needs to ask for customers’ feedback
to have another solution in order to satisfy them and achieve great results of signing
LTC.
Stages Specific tasks Duration Personnel involved
Stage 1
- Inform employees current situation of A as the
analysis in this thesis
- Inform employees the plan to participate in
training course
1 week
Organization Labor &
Wages Department
Stage 2
- Make appointment with training partners to
register for employees to join
- Choose the most potential trainer based on
company profile
- Schedule participant groups for each training
session (4 people/session)
4 weeks
Organization Labor &
Wages Department
Stage 3 The first 4 employees start to join training course 2 weeks Import-Export
Department

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Stage 4
- A's leaders have meeting for discussion of
improving performance scale, in which the scale is
changed as follow:
A group of employees at Import-Export
Department (1 Salesperson, 1 document staff, 1
logistics staff) take care of specific customers. If
customers complain or stop working with A due to
any reasons related to support/service (no matter
whose faults belong to), the group fails to achieve
good performance and is lowered 01 (one) rank in
the whole year.
4 weeks
- BOD
- Organization Labor
& Wages Department
- Head of Import-
Export Department
Stage 5
The four remaining will join after the first four
come back
2 weeks
Import-Export
Department
Stage 6
Hold a meeting between Leaders and all
participants in the training course to have
feedback, share knowledge
1 week
- BOD
& Wages Department
- Import-Export
Department
Stage 7
A’s leaders notify employee the changed
performance scale and give time for employee
adaption by practicing with customers in reality
8 weeks BOD
Stage 8
Review to see customers’ feedbacks and make
necessary changes
2 weeks
- BOD
& Wages Department
- Import-Export
Department
About action plan for implementing ERP system in long-term period
The timeline from installing ERP system to executing smoothly in the
organization may last from 1 to 1.5 years depending on the complexity of business
processes. There are 3 stages of implementation that are pre-implementation,

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implementation and post-implementation. In which, pre-implementation includes
some analysis of professionals to indicate company’s current situation, consultancy
from suppliers, then supplier selection and contract negotiation for the cooperation of
two sides. This stage is expected to happen in around 4-5 months. The second stage –
implementation is that integrate business processes, documents, departments’
working scope into the system and training employees. This stage may last around 1
year to execute. The final stage is post-implementation that may include some quality
evaluation on the business process and any changes adjusted for the suitability on the
company. It also has the risk management for the system to smoothly operate.
Stages Specific tasks Duration
Personnel
involved
Stage 1
PRE-
IMPLEMENTATION
Analysis of professionals to indicate
A’s current situation
8 weeks Outside partners
Consultancy from suppliers 6 weeks Outside partners
Supplier selection 3 weeks BOD
Contract negotiation 3 weeks
BOD & Selected
partner
Stage 2
IMPLEMENTATION
Integrate business processes into the
system
32-36
weeks
Selected partner
Employees training 16 weeks
All the company
& Selected
partner
Stage 3
POST-
IMPLEMENTATION
Quality evaluation on business
processes
4 weeks BOD
Any changes for the suitability with the
company
12 weeks BOD
9 Supporting information
9.1 Methodology
The thesis is approached by two types of data which are secondary data and
primary data. The secondary data used in this thesis are business reports of A and
online scholar researches, literatures, etc. These reliable information from secondary
source provides real situation of the company as well as essential theoretical concepts
to develop the thesis further. The thesis also works on primary data which includes
ideas collected from interviews and focus group around a specific topic, forming the

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basis for the thesis to be considered as qualitative research. With this method, the
author can evaluate thoroughly by continuously following up respondent’ opinions.
The respondents who deeply share their ideas for interviewee to collect data then
analyze in this thesis vary from internal people of company A such as General
Director, Head of Import-Export department, Import-Export employees and document
staff to A’s customers such as Topship, Namazie, Goodyear, Tong Teik and Sintex.
Through the interview and analysis, main problem is identified, causes are shown and
solutions are checked in order to make the thesis valuable.
9.2 Interview transcript
First round of interview
Aim Find out potential problems
Time Mar-19
Interviewer Phan Thi Thanh Hieu
Interviewee
Mrs. TNT (Age: 38) - Head of Import-Export Department
Mr. PDN (Age: 30) - Salesperson
Mr. TB (Age: 29) - Salesperson
Mr. A (Age:34) - Goodyear's Purchasing Representative
Mr. K (Age: 28) - Sintex's Purchasing Manager
Mr. J (Age: 29) - TongTeik's Purchasing Representative
Ms. N (Age: 34) - Topship's Purchasing Manager
Ms. S (Age: 33) - Namazie's Purchasing Representative
Interview Mrs. TNT
According to sharing from Mrs. TNT: “A. have to follow the parent company’s
strategy that is all members have to maximize LTC signed for stable consumption. Each
member is compulsory to achieve at least 50% exploitation volume for LTC signed. In 3
recent years, A’s strategy is that 30% for spot contracts-70% for LTCs. To spot contracts,
customers sources are various, random and no commitment. When customers have needs
anytime of the year, they contact us for further discussion. Therefore, with substantial
exploitation volume, A sets main goals for LTC to meet the parent company’s requirements

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and actively control the customers’ consumption. For LTC, A maintain existing customers
and also develop new sales”.
Interview employees
Q: How many customers A is working with? How long has A worked with them?
A: A have been working with 5 main customers in the last 3 years. In 2018, there is one
new long-term customer. The five have been working with company A. nearly 10 years or
more. Specifically:
+ Sintex, Goodyear since 2008
+ Landmark since 2011
+ Horngmark since 2010
+ Tong Teik Pte Ltd since 2009
Q: Do customers inform the company A. to prepare the annual purchasing volume or
randomly order when needed?
A: At the beginning of every year, after planning the purchasing volume, customers
actively order company A. and proceed to sign LTC.
Q: As I know, A’s yearly exploitation volume is quite high. With the current number
of customers, why don’t the company suggest them for increasing the purchasing
volume?
A: Customers refuse to increase the purchasing volume although we suggest that.
Q: Do you think any reasons why customers do not sign more?
A: Actually, when negotiating price with customers, we know that with the same grades,
five customers have purchased 2-3 suppliers besides us.
Q: How long they started to purchase multiple suppliers?
A: A have already worked with most of them for 10 years. They started to purchase natural
rubber from many suppliers 7-8 years ago. We knew that and we convinced them that we
could offer that same number from total suppliers. However, they did not change their
decisions.
Q: Do you guys think any reasons for that decision?
A: There is a thing that in rubber industry, we negotiated the delivery time with customers
when signing contract. However, sometimes, due to some objective reasons such as the

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weather is not as expected, we cannot offer enough quantity as requirements. We think
customers signing with multiple suppliers want to have many choices in that case.
A: I think there are many specifications that customers require products need to have. Our
products specifications only present at some levels. (That made A’s quality). Depend on
their needs or their customer needs, they may order from us or other suppliers. So, to
customers needing various levels of specifications, they may order more from others.
Q: From the annual reports, we can see that the yearly purchasing volume has
changed. For example, 3/5 customers such as Sintex, Good Year, Tong Teik had
smaller purchasing volume year by year (2016-2018). So, any reasons do you think for
the decrease in purchasing figures?
A: I think based on their demand, they will require specific quantity. Maybe they need the
quantity less than that of previous years but I’m not sure that’s main reason for decreasing
the purchasing volume. I just suppose like that.
Q: What do A usually do to maintain customer relationship during such a long time?
A: The parent company have Rubber Dinner where all customers and subsidiaries have a
chance to talk, share and get closer with each other. We invite customers for visiting the
company as well as the factory, holding banquet, exchanging gift, etc. 1-2 times per year.
That’s all.
Q: So, from your perspectives, can you evaluate what level of these relationships are?
A: I think after such a long working time, we think our relationships are good enough.
Q: So, for example, do your company know about the total volume Goodyear buy
from all subsidiaries annually?
A: Actually, we do not know. But we know that Goodyear is buying from the other 3
suppliers besides us.
Q: Can you share a bit about the process of seeking for new customers?
A: We have three sources of seeking for new customers, that are customers from Rubber
Dinner, from the introduction of Board of Directors, and we also search for new customers
by ourselves. We filter out customers who require grades with specifications that we can
offer to send them introduction email, ask for meeting and further discussion. To customers
that we connect at Rubber Dinner and from Board of Directors’ introduction, the chance to
have meeting is higher than the ones we search by ourselves. Instead, these customers

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usually ask for sample products to test the quality and contact back when needed. However,
despite long time of taking care, many customers still consider and have not signed long-
term contracts with us.
Q: Why can’t?
A: It’s may be because of the strict policy that follows the parent company’s business
regulations, making customers may need long time to consider. It can also be that
customers compare products among suppliers. About our side, I and my colleagues have
worked properly with customers.
Interview existing customers
Hi. Very nice to meet you all here. Just take you a few minutes. This is my personal
research of A for my study. So, feel free to share all your ideas.
Through A’s information, I know three of you are purchasing natural rubber from A.
However, as A shared that you all also bought from another suppliers.
Q: So, could you guys please share any specific reasons?
A: Good year: Actually, in Vietnam market, we purchase natural rubber from multiple
subsidiaries and other outside suppliers that meet our standard requirements. We have
variety of choices and also our back up plan in case any supplier cannot deliver the goods
as scheduled. In reality, we had trouble with several shipments due to delayed schedule
from suppliers, making us incur much loss. It’s not A, but other subsidiaries. From our own
experiences, we want to purchase from multiple suppliers to ensure having products in all
cases.
A: Sintex: Quite same reasons with Good year. In last December, one subsidiary that we
worked with delayed to ship us three containers of natural rubber. We usually see some
same cases. Due to some reasons, the suppliers cannot deliver goods as negotiated time so
we had better order from many suppliers so that can have goods as required timeline.
A: Tong Teik: Same to us. Doing long-term business requires us become a reliable partner
to our customers. So, to gain trust, we must have back up plan in case there are unexpected
reasons. That’s why we do not want to depend on any specific supplier.
Q: During such working time, can you guys share about A’s working style?
A: Good year: “To us, satisfaction is so important. However, despite long time of working,
we have not been satisfied when working with A so we are thinking of other suppliers,

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especially during the last 3 years. We feel that we are not appreciated by A. You know
working long time already with A means that we have trusted in A for long. So, why when
troubles happened, they did not support us right when we need instead let us wait too long?
Long-term relationship means nothing to them? Several first times we accept but nowadays
the market is so competitive. The supplier cannot treat long-term customers like A.
Therefore, our relationship is not better in recent years. Our trust in A is losing gradually.
We currently still purchase the same volume from A, because we are in the process of
inspecting other suppliers. We may change to others when the inspection already done”.
A: Sintex complained that “Despite working with A quite long time and A products are
reliable to our customers, we feel not satisfied with A. While other suppliers are becoming
stronger by enhancing their products, services and establishing strong relationship with us,
we think our relationship with A is not good as other suppliers. Therefore, three recent
years, we have decreased our purchasing volume from A. Besides, we think there are also
some difficulties in state-owned company’s policy. That of private company is more
flexible, not strict as these subsidiaries. For example, they offer us deferred L/C payment
while subsidiaries apply L/C at sight. Deferred L/C gives us a period of time to prepare
money to pay for shipment, so more comfortable to us. Therefore, we are not sure to sign
LTC with A, no commitment in future”.
A: Tong Teik opined that “We think that due to A’s working style makes our relationship
have been worse in recent years despite working together quite long. To be honest, we are
not satisfied with the way A do business. So, we decrease the purchasing volume from A”.
Interview potential customers
Q: From the data given by A, it can be seen that A has followed Namazie and Topship
long time already as well as sent sample products. However, the company cannot sign
LTCs. Does it mean you have any reasons leading the decision?
A: Namazie: We have not cooperated with A yet but sample shipments. From the sample
shipment, we can see that A product is quite good, exceeding required standards. However,
we think A service is not like that. We think we can not trust in A for future shipment, so
we are not able to commit to buy A’s products. We think of other suppliers.
A: Topship: To every new supplier, we require to send us sample products for us to
examine the quality. That is also a chance for two sides to cooperate with each other.

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However, the sample unluckily had trouble and we did not see the mutual support from A.
So, we think that we cannot trust A if we cooperate with A in the future shipments with the
way A support us like that. Therefore, we decided not to sign LTCs with A.
Second round of interview
Aim
Check whether potential problems guided by theories are presented
in reality
Time Mar-19
Interviewee
Q: You guys said that the working time with A is quite long. So, how long it has been?
A: Good year: We have worked with A since 2008 after several rounds of strict inspection.
A is a member of the parent company which is dominating in Vietnam natural rubber
market about the total volume and quantity.
A: Sintex: We have worked with A since 2008, the same year with Good year.
A: Tong Teik: 1 year later the two above companies. We started working with A in 2009,
10 years already.
Q: During that working time, are you guys usually dissatisfied with A when having
trouble or just recently?
A: Goodyear: Actually, we had but at that time, looking at Vietnam market, A is a member
of the parent company dominating Vietnam natural rubber market, so A is strong at quality
products, large volume, can meet our requirements in which other outside suppliers cannot.
So, we seem acceptable. However, A has not changed their working style specially the way
of treating long-term customer like us –we think our relationship not sustainable in case the
market is increasingly competitive. Recently, other suppliers in Vietnam are demonstrating
their good performance, making us feel appreciated, so when we work with A, we feel
extremely not satisfied with A. Therefore, we need to look back that whether A’s still
suitable and acceptable or not. That’s why our relationship is not good as it was: No
satisfaction in working leads to no commitment in future.

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A: Sintex: Due to state-owned company’s policy, we feel not happy with some regulations
that we think not competitive. For example: They prefer L/C at sight than deferred L/C
which make us more stressed about paying the money on time. However, throughout the
years, A’s quality and volume is good as the leader in Vietnam natural rubber market, so
that difficulty seems nothing to us. However, if you are in a relationship but you are not
satisfied, so do you want to continue? Of course, no. Gradually we think we need to search
for other suppliers because the market nowadays includes lots of good suppliers in terms of
everything: service, product, quantity, etc. We are not purchasing only from A so that
decision does not cause us much difficulties. Previously, A was one of suppliers that we
chose to diversify our purchasing strategy in Vietnam market. From we trust A to work in
long time, now, A gain us no trust for future shipments.
A: Tong Teik: From my perspective, A need to improve the way it treats customers. We
feel that we are not empathized from A despite long time working. As a customer, we want
to work in the long-term with suppliers who offer quality product and especially great
support because troubles are unavoidable. Support makes the relationship strong and
sustainable. We really stress when working with A while the other suppliers try to ease any
problems to keep the relationship grow well. That cannot sustain in the long term if A does
not change its perception.
Q: From your sharing, can you guys evaluate A’s performance level compared to
other suppliers?
A: Topship: To us, the first cooperation is very important. A has chased us a long time
already but why just a few troubles change our mind about A – making us decide not sign
LTC with A? We feel that we are not comfortable if working with A in the long term. Feel
like A has no good impression in us because A let us know that A will consider the right
and wrong rather than the relationship.
A: Namazie: There are lots of good suppliers in Vietnam nowadays including subsidiaries
and outside suppliers. A can offer us good quality products and they also can. The
important thing is that how to make customers feel satisfied for every shipment that A
cannot achieve in the first shipment when trouble happens. Long-term relationship is built

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from first good impression of cooperation from two sides. When not satisfied in the sample
products, we may look at other suppliers.
Third round of interview
Aim Check whether A makes mistakes by guided causes from theories
Time Apr-19
Interviewee
Ms. KN (Age:35) - Document Executive
Ms. LA (Age: 32) - Document Executive
Interview existing customers
Q: Good year, can you share more detailed about your experiences that make you not
satisfied with A?
A: The parent company which possesses A is well-known in Vietnam rubber market from
large volume, its good quality, various grades, lots of subsidiaries from North to South
Vietnam. However, in November 2015 shipment, we had trouble originated from our fault
that is about sending wrong information for company A to prepare documents. When
reaching destination, we could not release goods due to wrong information on documents
so we ask for support from A. However, A said that was not their responsibility and they
were busy at that time so they would help after their works were done. We had to wait
nearly 1 week for having help from A. That caused us a lot of following difficulties. All the
things we need is the prompt support from the company A. but we did not still receive it
despite after quite long working time. Previous years, we also struggled with some troubles
like that. But nowadays, the market is very competitive. Not only the parent company’s
members offer product but also private companies are doing quite well. So of course we are
thinking other partners. You cannot work in the long-term with partner who is not willing
to support you. A service was very unprofessional.
Q: How about Tong Teik, so what do you expect when working with A?

-45-
A: “You know, we already work with each other nearly 10 years. If A think of us more
than think of only A, we are more satisfied. We sign long-term contracts every year with A,
for nearly 10 years. However, 2.5 years ago, we suggested spot contracts due to our
customer needs. We just need spot contracts sometimes. However, at that time, A told that
there are also other customers asking to buy rubber with better prices. They let us wait 1
week to sell us products – so long for us to meet our customers’ need. Actually, in Vietnam
specifically and Asian countries generally, there are many rubber suppliers. They provide
good quality products, very nice service and competitive. So, we are not happy with A.
Despite reliable quality under large brand, we are not satisfied with the way A treat us like
that. From that time until now, we have decreased our purchasing volume and searching for
other suppliers”.
Q: Sintex, can you share more detail about the reason why you are not satisfied in
relationship with A?
A: From 2016 until now, we had several troubles and we did not satisfy with A’s support.
A told that was not their fault. You know, in such cases, even not A’s faults, A can support.
We are false to give wrong information for A to do documents. But to that issue, A just
take 1 hour to help us correct it instead of letting us wait for five days, costing us too much
time and money. The too late help causes us suffer from many complaints of our
customers. With such long-term relationship, we are very disappointed with A’s very bad
support. We are testing other suppliers’ products, so the purchasing volume from A has
decreased. If A still does not improve, we have to switch to others.
Interview potential customers
Q: Namazie and Topship, can you guys please share me some experience in the first
shipment with A?
A: Namazie: Considering A as a subsidiary of a good reputation group in Vietnam, we
decided to cooperate with A by trying the first sample shipment. I can feel that when the
shipment is delivered, A’s employees feel they already complete their works. Due to first
cooperation, two sides have no experience about the way of working from each side. So,
my employees send lack of information for A to prepare documents. When the shipment
reaches destination, we realize that the mistake appears and contact A for helping.
However, it’s really difficult for us because A said that that’s our fault. Despite that’s our

-46-
fault, A can help and that may take only little time of A. If some troubles continue to
happen in the future, where do we have help from? A is unsupportive so we do not want to
sign LTC with A.
A: Topship: In the first cooperation, I know our relationship is not so close. So, as a
supplier, A need to build trust in us. A’s bad service that is due to A’s employees did not
care about customers’ need makes us hesitate to sign LTC with A. We know A’s reputation
in Vietnam but we think that from our real experience with A in the first shipment that A is
not happy when dealing things for us, A need time to persuade us more.
Interview A’s people
Q: From the interview with customers, I can see that they are quite unhappy with A,
especially when having troubles that mostly are caused by themselves. That may be
the reason why their purchasing volume from A has decreased. So, as a Head of
Import-Export department, how do you feel about these comments?
A: Mrs. TNT: According to the contract signed, we think we already complete our
responsibility, meaning delivering superior quality products and have their payment. Each
employee is assigned with their own tasks, and when they already completed their tasks
assigned in whole selling process, they are done. For example, document support
employees are responsible for preparing documents for shipment. Based on information
sent from customers, they make Bill of lading and related documents for shipment. When
trouble happens due to wrong information, I can see that mostly from customers sent
wrong information to us. “It’s very regret that customers may leave us despite long time of
working. But as a subsidiary of a well-known group, we think we are reliable supplier with
high quality products and we did not make mistakes in these cases”. She continued to share
her viewpoint that “With troubles happen, I advise employees to help them as soon as
possible. That’s not their faults so I cannot complain my employees. In some cases, I can
see that after completing their current tasks, they help customers to deal with already”.
Q: Do you usually guide employees how to deal with troubles? Or the company have
any course for training them before working at the company?
A: Mrs. TNT: Actually, my employees already worked at other companies before working
at A. so I think they have their experience. They are not young employees like who just
graduated from schools so A. do not have to train them anymore.

-47-
Q: How about you guys? Are the ones who play important role in helping troubles,
how do you feel these comments?
A: Ms. KN: Firstly, I need to say that these troubles are caused by themselves. So, I have
no responsibility to deal with. I still help them in these cases, however, in the condition that
when I finish my current tasks because if not, it will affect my performance.
A: Ms. LA: In my opinion, due to not my faults, I prioritize doing current tasks to meet
deadline. Otherwise, it will affect my performance. Then, I will help customers for their
troubles.
Fourth round of interview
Aim
Check whether A's services are caused by factors on service
quality measurement scale
Time May-19
Interviewee
Ms. KN (Age: 35) - Document Executive
Ms. LA (Age: 32) - Document Executive
Interview customers
Q: With all your sharing, are you guys planning to sign LTC with A in later years?
A: Sintex: We are considering. You know nowadays many suppliers (both inside and
outside the group) have provided good quality products and great services and tend to be
very competitive. Especially outside companies, their policy is more flexible, not strict as
the subsidiaries of the group. For example, they offer us deferred L/C payment while the
parent company members are more preferable with L/C at sight. Despite working with A

-48-
quite long time and A products are reliable to customers, we must say that if A service does
not improve, we have to change the supplier soon.
A: Good year: As a global company, our procedure of choosing supplier is quite difficult
and very strict. We take long time to decide to choose A as our supplier. However, we do
not satisfy with A’s support when having troubles or in other words, that’s A service.
A: Tong Teik: To be honest, we are quite bored when work with A because its no support.
If the service is not better, we must have switch to other suppliers.
Q: So, what do you guys mean “service” – why A service is not outstanding? Could
you please share me more details?
A: Good year: We expect A’s employees are sympathetic with our case. Trouble is the one
that nobody likes. We highly appreciate companies whose employees listen to our
problems and eager to help as we suggest. With the fact that the help does not take them
long time, if they are happy to help, we are more satisfied and we think our relationship
with compnay will sustain and more develop in the long run.
A: Sintex: We wish that the company changes themselves and willing to offer us prompt
support when needed. Moreover, the behaviour of employees is really important. If they are
happy to help, we feel less stressed and comfortable in this case to be conscious to deal
with the trouble.
A: Tong Teik: We think that nowadays the market is more dynamic than in the past.
Therefore, customers like us have more choices. So, A need to improve its service to
smoothly offer when customers need so that we are more satisfied to work with A.
Q: How about your ideas, Namazie and Topship?
A: Namazie: Quite same with three above opinions. The emotion is really important when
something goes wrong. If A’s employees behave smoothly and responsibly, we feel
satisfied and go sign LTC with A because actually A’s product is good, standardized, the
company has large volume and brand name in the market.
A: Topship: To compete with others, A needs to change its employees perception of taking
care of customers in necessary cases. They are ones who on behalf of company to help us.
So they need to know what their roles. If not, we cannot sign LTC with A.

-49-
Interview employees
Q: Do you feel regreted when customers share negative opinion about A’s service?
From your perspective, do you care about these comments?
A: Ms. KN: Well, as an employee, it’s not my responsibility to deal with what I did not do.
Everyday, when going to workplace, I try my best to complete my tasks to achieve well
performance. The company evaluate based on what I peforms on tasks and not score on
voluntary support for customers. We want to help them but that’s not their faults so we
cannot put my priority on their troubles to deal with.
A: Ms. LA: Every employee here follow the performance scale and regulation to work for.
So, quite same with Ms. LA that I really want to help them but unluckily at that time I was
busy with my current tasks, so what can I do but finishing and help customers?
Fifth round of interview
Aim Check whether suggested alternative solutions are suitable to A
Time Jun-19
Interviewee
Mr. LVT (Age: 42) - General Director of A
Q: After identifying the problems and causes of our company, I would like to suggest
three solutions as below: Firstly, training for employees to improve customer-service
skill and perception that helps them to well serve customers. Secondly, adjust our
performance scale for employees to feel motivated and resposible to help customers in
any cases. Thirdly, combine the above two solutions. The detail of suggested solutions
will be shown in this document. So can you share your ideas which solution is the
most suitable to our company?
Alternative solution 1

-50-
A: Mr. LVT: “The company obviously loses 99 million VND for employees to participate
in training course. However, this solution does not completely solve the problem because A
cannot control whether their employees who participated in the training course take
appropriate actions with customers. If they still do not behave responsibly with customers,
the company may lose the chance to sign LTC with them”.
A: Mrs. TNT: Actually, my employees are more realistic than theory-oriented. They work
by achievement and money rather than gaining knowledge. Therefore, they have no
motivation to participate in the training course. If it is compulsory, they will take part in,
however, A cannot measure the effectiveness of the training course.
A: Mr. LVT: This solution has no costs incurred. In my opinion, I prefer paying money
rather than paying nothing and gain results because everything that is paid by money is
more valuable than paid by nothing. The solution will take risks when employees
reluctantly offer voluntary support to customers in order to be recognized/not be punished.
Therefore, they may offer helps without care, kindness and enthusiasm. In this case, A will
recognize/not punish employees who may dissatisfy valued customers due to their
dishonest behavior.
A: Mrs. TNT: Yes, totally agreed with his idea. When having no clear awareness, the
employees may do without care about quality.
A: Mr. LVT: Although the solution covers some costs such as training costs and
productivity loss, the ultimate goal which is to effectively solve the above causes can be
achieved. A’s employees are expected to be trained and applied customer-service skills in
reality because their behavior is measured by performance appraisal system. By this way,
employees proactively attain soft-process quality that is required in competitive market
nowadays to treat customers well and boost A’s service quality as well as create
competitive advantage for A.
A: Mrs. TNT: The solution combines two disadvantages of the two solutions and seems
feasible most.

-51-
10 Appendix
Company documents

-54-
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