milan's blog

it is all about where is the service being delivered. Physical Evidence is the element of the service mix which allows the consumer again to make judgments on the organisation like If you walk into a restaurant your expectations are of a clean, friendly environment.or other example is on an aircraft if you travel first class you expect enough room to be able to lay down! Physical evidence is an essential ingredient of the service mix, consumers will make judgement based on their sight of the service provision which will have an impact on the organisations perceptual plan of the service.in a retail store a consumer would not only do they need to easily find their way around the store, but they will often expect a good standard or presentation.

for first direct physical evidence is really irrelevant because first direct is an online internet and telephone based business they dont have any private place like lyods TSB,NATWEST to offer to customer. things such as banking enquaries, problems of customer is done in the telephone itself the only physical evidence that first direct can have is their headquaters headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.first direct have setup this centre because customer and people who are willing to join the venture can do theoir enquires,problems and get some new information about the business

Process: Process is associated with customer service and they are number of process included which will give them feedbacks of how business its doing and can even help improve the business more like finding out customer needs and later providing them with sufficient needs of customer on a particular product, e.g. processes for handling customer complaints, processes for identifying customer needs and requirements, processes for handling, booking, control, payments, procedures.

For first direct have a unique way of connectingand communicating with their customer they do their usual banking throught the means of e-marketing internet, telephone etc so processing is a really important factor because they want to get more view of what customer wants and needs whether they are really satisfied with their business or not, to do this they do surveys take customer complaints and comments in internet and telephone later they collect all their feedbacks from customer and can take necessary actions on it making more improvements offer more special offers to the product itself etc

People: people are quite important factors as well because they are the one who delivers services, promotes and sells products; good service quality of an employee is a skill of customer services. Customer service is a vital factor for modern day business to promote their business and expand profit because Customers are likely to be more loyal to business which provide them with good service if the business and its employees have good relationships then they can work together and help themselves a lot they can get more customer and expand their business, earn the amount of profit.

people plays a key factor in first direct for the business to run properly, like i said in the top customer service plays a really vital role for the business first direct have to manage every stuff through telephone and internet, the people(employee) talking with people have to tackle customer problems,complaints and have to well deal withh them, they are also more friendly,easygoing and understanding,positive in phone,email etc they make customer more aware of what the business could offer more to them, what is business later planning to do this will make the first direct customer more happy thus having good relong relations with customer and even attracting other customers who are more likey to be interested in business. they ahve won many big awards for having a good customer service.
cool brand awards 2009.
dadi postcast awards 2008
cool brand awards 2007
best internet banking awwards 2006

Place: place is as important as any other factor mentioned it plays a very vital role in running their business properly and is also a very important factor in marketing mix. place is about considering where and to whom you sell your product must also including who your target audiences are and which niche of the market you are aiming for. The quality of the product will help determine who your target audience is and where you should place your product. There are many different ways in which you could distribute your product and the right placement is the key to this criteria.
· Location
· Frequency of Service
· Transportation
· Distributors
· Inventory
Place is an important factor for business such as first direct beacuse first direct is the one and only banking business to have ever done their buying and selling service to the customer in places such as online internet(their website),telephone banking. this is their USP point for the business.first direct is only registrered and used for people living in britain they can provide the serive to their customer through means such as telephone and their website, first direct doesnt really have a place to sell their product to customer thorugh the same means of telephone and internet, first direct is privately owned by leading global bank HSBC and First Direct has headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. the picture pasted below is where first direct have setup their offical business centre where customer and people who are willing to join the venture can do theoir enquires,problems and get some new information about the business.

Promotion: promotion is the way on getting the product to the market and communicating it with the customer it factor will include how it is described and represented to the public. Promotion is very important factor for a business when they are selling any kind of product. Promotion is about making public or the customer aware of when they are launching the product because without any awareness the public wouldn’t get the chance to review the product thus the business cannot make enough profit without advertising it. There are many ways of available such as media to gain public attention such as newspapers, television, radio, trade shows and the Internet, magazines, newspapers and leaflets. One of the most important aspects of promotion is to make the customers think they need your products you should convince them through advertisement to buy your product.
· Publicity
· Sales Promotion
· Personal Selling
· Advertising
· Mailing List
Promotion is an important factor in business such as first direct wants more customer coming into their business, they do this by advertising themself in public places where more people can get a veiw of what they are like and can convience themself into the business. the places where they can advertise themself could be through their website and internet first direct can do sales promotion by conviencing customer to come into their business by offering more special offer such as giving them £100 pound free if they join their business, first direct doesnt really do personal selling because they do not take an interst in particular single customer itself, fisrt can also do other form of promotion such as using mailing list, they provide consumer with emails,mails where they have information about them which is another form of advertising

this is a popular form of first direct advertising they have mixed colour of black and white which inovates the customerin joining the first direct. this is a gd example of promotion.

first direct can also promote themself through the use of their online shopping and the special offer which they give out to attract more customer a gd example would be that anyone willing to join the bank would get an extra credit of £100 and they also their offer speical morgage tax, credit cards and saving accounts in the business.

Price: price is offered to match the on the cost of the customer like how much they will pay for it and it is also made to match the competitive prices on how much they increase or decrease to get more customer buying their product . Price is one of the most important factor for the customer because they buying two identical they would more likely want to buy the cheaper one offering such as buy one get one free might be offered to attract more customer on their side. The price of the product is not only the factor based to attract more customer things such like brand, quality and service offered might affect the buying and sales of product.
List Price
Discounts
Credit Terms
Inclusive/Not
Remoteness
Price is and important factor for the first direct although first direct doesnt have a phyical product itself they do not have list pricing,discount,remotenes but they try to sell their product throuh service,special offer like they offer more less amount of interests bank than any other banking busines, they offer good credit terms such as they offer more morage rates for more longer peroid of time, they give out loans etc which makes them more competetive than any other business.in first direct you have to have a salary of at least 1500 pound a month if not they charge you a £10 a month to keep on with the bank there is also a charge of 12.19% if you have over drafted more money from the bank other competive business such as lyods charge you about

£20 a month and achrge of £6 a days which to me seems first direct is lot better in comparision of prices to lloyds.

Product: product is anything that would make a customer happy and satisfied Product excides the features and includes benefits of the particular one, it also includes how it’s packaged, the style of the product like way it looks like and other further extras stuff such as guarantees and warranties. Products are designed to match the needs of the customer or cuonsumer.
· Features
· Optional Services
· Product Quality
· Staff Quality
· Style
· Brand Name
· Packaging
· Parking
· Scenic Beauty
· Guarantees
product is the most important factors in 4ps for any business to run sucessfully, similerly for the first direct it is the same thing because for first direct product is their bank cards and service such as credit/debit cards, cashpoint card also mentioning the special travel insurance,loans, savings account, investment into the business,morgage tax that they offer, they want to get out as many as cards as possible to the customer so that they will be more frequent usage of their bank cards,first direct has a strong brand name to it, its simple and its more easier for the customer to understand first direct might make their cards even more appealing to the customer by adding style to it like the colour of the card, they might add stuff into it like the warranty of the product like how like it can be used up to and there have good features in their product such as saving account, bonus savings account mobile internet banking etc the prouct service quality is really high in first direct as well as being run by the global leading bank company HSBC , their website itself looks very appealing in black and white colour and they have won several awards for their quality itself. the guarantees,staffquality,packing,parking,scenic beauty is really irrelvant to the business because it is a bank business its only offers cards and there nothing else physical that it can sell to the customer.

the list of product first directed has offered is mentioioned on the top part of their website in tabs.

Any business which would want to be successful have to consider seven ps
· Product
· Price
· Promotion
· Place
· People
· Process
· Physical evidence

INTRODUCTION:
FIRST DIRECT is a division of the HSBC Bank. It provides a range of banking services, offering customers products such as current accounts, credit cards, savings accounts, insurance and loans. What is different is that first direct does not have a branch network. Customers access services over the internet or by telephone or through mobile phone banking services and text messaging. first direct has been providing online banking services for almost 20 years. It now has more than 3,000 employees and 1.1 million customers. Over 80% of transactions use the online channel. For customers that wish to contact the bank by phone, first direct’s UK call centres work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They receive more than 200,000 calls each week.

the unique selling point of first direct are:
a) free banking
b) £250 free overdraft (you pay only interest while overdrawn
c) both PC and true internet banking are provided. So you can manage your finances from any PC (with the internet banking option)
d) telephone banking remains an option for dealing with the more difficult transactions (eg electronic transfer of funds for house purchase). The backup of telephone banking is also a great boon if your partner is not so online minded (as mine isn't) or for those times when the online system fails/crashes etc which would leave you totally cut off from your funds with a solely online organisation
e)full baking services are available from current account through mortgages, loans, credit cards etc
f) the mobile phone option can be set up to warn you by SMS when funds get low, deposits/payments etc are made so you are alerted to do any necessary funds transfers or whatever
g)cashcard provides free withdrawls at Natwest and HSBC ATMs - about the biggest network on offer.

first direct has limited stuff in market segmenting their prioritize customer they only segment them with their age the amount of money they earn also known as their income and where they come from or their location.

Planning control and evaluation process:

Planning control and evaluation process is a "living document", and one that will give you a means of rating performance in key areas, critical for success. Metrics can be financial and non-financial. The financial will cover: sales targets and trends, profitability, ratio analysis (e.g., liquidity, return on capital employed, etc.). The non-financial will cover aspects such as: customer satisfaction, market share, innovation, complaint levels, benchmarking, etc. Usually there will be a mix of both sets of metrics.
The purpose of evaluation and control is threefold:
Targets are set to measure performance
Performance is monitored against targets
Variance analysis can flag where corrective action is needed
The control system should be a continuous loop, linked to information systems – with staff and customers being part of that loop.
The bottom line is that goals are vital, and because these goals are the result of a thorough planning process they will be of strategic value – moreover, they will be:
SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound.

first direct really take a use of planning control and evalutation process and it is very important to them because like any other business does first direct always wants to know the customer ratio their interest and want to know what they want, to do this they have to first make a plan of their business they try to acheive a certain target and later move on to their next one to do this they have to take two things on account such as non financial stuff their filled in surveys, number of customer complaints of telephone, webstie itself beside all this they also take a look on their competitors levels what have they done and what can first direct do to get more invovled to customer then them and stay ahed of competitors. they can also take a look on their financial accoutn such as how good is the business doing this year, how much profit has been earned have they acheived their current sales with all this it will help them a make a more stronger and better target for future which will contrbute in improvements getting more customers and making more profit.