Customer Issues in Financial Services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Customer Issues in Financial Services - Essay Example The next aspect, pricing, depends on who has the upper hand, whether the buyers or the sellers. If the goods are freely available and competitively priced, definitely, it is the buyers who have the upper hand, but if there are shortage of goods and its suppliers, with high demand, definitely it would be the sellers who would call the shots. The aspect of penalties arises due to non-fulfilment of contract, or breach of trust on the part of the concerned parties. This could be due to external or internal factors, but which nevertheless influence the performance, or non-performance of the contract, to such an extent that Courts award penalties to be paid to the aggrieved parties. Under UK Contract Act, there is a commitment on either side to deliver, and breach of this delivery could give rise to penalties. However, it is to be borne in mind that Courts assess the penalties based upon actual losses sustained by the aggrieved parties, and not on contingent, or assumed profits. Thus, it would be well within the powers of the Court to allow for actual losses sustained by aggrieved parties, but not future loss of profits. Coming next to the aspect of exclusions, it is often seen that... Thus, the fine print in contracts is sought to absolve parties of their commitments and responsibilities under covenant bindings. Again, the main areas that need to be covered would be in terms of customer satisfaction, complaint handling and how to handle disputes. The main aspect with regard to customer servicing would be in the event when things go wrong between the sellers and buyers. In the present context of retail trade in UK, it is seen that the standard of client servicing has deteriorated over the years, leading to greater proportion of complaints, litigation, etc. It is quite possible that sellers may try to absolve themselves of blame by citing negligence or lack of product knowledge or care in usage by buyers. It is seldom that vendors would accept responsibility for defective goods or lowered quality, or timeliness of services. Therefore, it becomes necessary "To protect consumers from being misled or pressured by a supplier's promotional activities (for example, most countries place restrictions on investment advertisements)." (McKiernan and Cha 2008). This writer believes that this statement could have limited application in the real commercial world of financial services. This is because financial services organizations need to comply with statutory norms, not only in terms of their performance but also in terms of financial reporting. It is now necessary to consider certain decided case laws in UK to understand the impact of contract laws. The first would be the case of Hedley Byrne & Company Ltd v. Heller & Partners Ltd (1964). In this case, the applicant, Hedley Byrne brought action against a bank that vouched for the financial soundness of a client company, albeit with a disclaimer that the

Crisis Management Plan and Media Communication Essay

Crisis Management Plan and Media Communication - Essay Example It is important for institutions with strong performance orientation to develop viable promotional plans and crisis management techniques that enhance growth. Researchers and marketers assert that institutions with growth aspirations need to advance their crisis management capacity including effective media identification to ensure that the information relayed reaches prospective individuals. Dispute resolution requires superior plan, and execution of activities to facilitate problem awareness and development of amicable solutions. Similarly, it entails proper identification of viable and effective media system that would enable wide coverage of information with an aim of enhancing decision-making. . It is proper for companies to integrate their systems with strong media communication plan that is economically viable and socially relevant to avoid unwarranted disputes. The design should be issue oriented and customer focused with an aim of providing essential information that advance s customers knowledge about available services. As noted marketing planning and media, identification has been a prevalent factor that has affected growth in most companies. The impediment requires effective strategies and policies to advance realization of excellent output including satisfaction of stakeholder needs. Indeed, media provide a superior communication channels through which companies relays basic information to consumers and receives various feedbacks for purposes of adjustments. Such communication may cause crisis in service delivery including unwarranted disputes with the potential to stall operations in various operating sectors. Therefore, institutions need to a