Strategies in Sustaining Successful Customer Relationship as Perceived by Customers of National Bookstore Starmall Alabang

STRATEGIES IN SUSTAINING SUCCESSFUL CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP   AS PERCEIVED BY CUSTOMERS OF NATIONAL BOOKSTORE STARMALL ALABANG

Lumagui, Ma. Anne Nichole B.

Pama, Gerome D.
Pinos, Alfie A.

Surmieda, Jossedel S.

BSBA-3MM-2

Mr. Ramonito Mesina. MBA

Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

This chapter contains the Background of the study, Theoretical framework, Conceptual framework, Statement of the problem, Hypothesis, and Significance of the study, Scope and limitations and Definition of terms used.

Introduction

Companies must go beyond providing quality products and services to build sustainable relationships based on trust, confidence and a strong value proposition which are  the foundation of customer loyalty. National Book Store family takes pride in its role as an institution that supports education and enhances lives by providing the best and widest selection of educational, professional, and social communication products. National Bookstore's purpose is to serve their customers with tools that enrich their minds and improve skills to ensure their success. All their efforts are concentrated to serve this purpose. They provide the largest selection of products and services, reaching more customers through their growing branch network, and spreading the love of reading and learning through their advocacy and community campaigns. This store is more than a bookstore. National Bookstore is everyone's go-to place for all sorts of school and office supplies, also writing tools, paper products, gift wrapping needs, arts and crafts essentials. Aside from the supplies, National Bookstore also sells books and magazines. Over the past few years, the store's book selection has actually improved vastly. It will be a globally competitive Filipino company delivering excellent customer experiences through its profitable retail and learning centers and brands.[pic 5]

Background of the Study

Luck is only a small part of National Book Store's success. Through the hard work and powerful leadership of Socorro Cancio-Ramos and the late Jose Ramos with their family, the company has evolved from its humble beginnings into the biggest and strongest bookstore chain in the Philippines. The first National Book Store started as a stall shop in Escolta before the Japanese occupation selling supplies, novels, and textbooks. When war broke out, strict book censorship forced them to shift their trade to soap, candies, and slippers. They bought their merchandise from wholesalers and peddled them to smaller retailers. Liberation came, but the whole Escolta area was burned to the ground. Having all their stocks reduced to ashes left the couple with nothing but determination and an undying drive to succeed. And so their persistence paid off. They were able to rebuild a barong-barong in the corner of Soler and Avenida Rizal in time to catch the post-war business boom. They went back to business using their door as a counter for selling textbooks, notebooks, pad paper, and [pic 6]

pencils. Business went very well because during that time. National Book Store's opening was strategically timed to welcome the first postwar school year.

The brand name of National Book Store was thought by Socorro Ramos, one of the co-founders. No marketing research was conducted and was done on Ramos' impulse taking the book store name from the National Cash Register machine, a brand which was popular at the time of the book store's founding. Ramos first came up with a logo by placing the store's name in a striped wrapper with her children finding the logo satisfactory. 1996 brought significant change to National Book Store. The family decided to change the company logo and commissioned a Singaporian design company to execute the new company identity. A modernized script evolved, the stripes made solid with a bolder shade of red. This has spawned a change in the store layout as well. Color-coded signages and logical merchandise displays provide a customer-friendly atmosphere in the branches.

Over seventy years of focused energy has brought National Book Store to where it is now: the pinnacle of the bookstore industry in the Philippines. More than that, the National Book Store family takes pride in its role as an institution that supports education and enhances lives by providing the best and widest selection of educational, professional, and social communication products. The values that took Mr. and Mrs. Ramos through adversity -- hard work, shrewd [pic 7]

business skills and a strong sense of social responsibility -- remain the driving force for the whole Ramos family, their over 3,000 employees in over 200 branches, and will keep National Book Store ahead in the next century.

National Bookstore is envisioned to be a globally competitive Filipino company delivering excellent customer experiences through its profitable retail and learning centers and brands. In year 2005, Ernst & Young bestowed the second Entrepreneur of the Year Philippines award to National Book Store’s founder and chairman, Mrs. Socorro C. Ramos. This prestigious award is bestowed to an individual that best embodies entrepreneurial spirit, financial performance, strategic direction, community/global impact, innovation, and personal integrity/influence. The award is presented annually in more than 125 cities in 40 countries worldwide. Hard work, perseverance and a keen sense of entrepreneurship may be attributed to her success. Winning the award is a true testament to Mrs. Ramos’ dedication and innate passion to her life’s purpose. It was a defining moment in National Book Store’s history and one that would surely fire the flames for the future generation to carry on the company’s legacy.

Theoretical Framework

The most important theories that hold and support about sustaining successful customer relationship is the Sustainable Customer Relationship. The Sustainable Customer Relationship concept used by marketers to identify and track the decision making process of a customer’s journey from start to finish, it involves building and maintaining a strong attachment with consumers move through when buying or rendering a good or service. This evolution follows changes of business organization, such as the emergence of collaboration in network as well. The essence of the recent evolution may be recapitulated in four main orientations that serve as a framework for sustainable customer relationship.[pic 8]