Question

Ali recently became a manager at a local furniture store that employs three managers and 55 non- managerial employees. As larger furniture stores such as IKEA and Home Center are coming to the area, the owner is concerned about losing customers to competition based on the price of products.

The management team met and discussed their strategic response to this problem. The team agreed that if profit levels did not rise in the next few months, some employees would need be terminated. It was decided that the furniture store would compete using customized designs and better customer service. Ali’s responsibility was to train all non-managerial employees in good customer relation skills, and was given a budget of AED65,000 for this.

After contacting several training providers, Ali has narrowed down his options to the following three training programs:

Expert Trainers Inc.

Al Jumeirah Consultants

Al Areej Training Services

Training Program: How to Build Long-Lasting Customer Relations? Three-Day workshop for AED35,000

Method: Lecture, Group Discussion, and Activities

Maximum Trainees: 50 per session

Training Program: Customer Service Skills One-Day Seminar for AED8,000

Method: Lecture and Question-Answer Session Maximum Trainees: 70 per session

Training Program: Customer Satisfaction Training for Sales Staff Three-Day workshop for AED25,000

Method: Customized Simulations with Feedback

Maximum Trainees: 25 per session

Each of the three options has its own advantages and disadvantages. Ali has been comparing these three options and is unsure if he should pick one of these or go with a different approach altogether. At this stage he is not even sure if training the employees would even help.

Case Questions

1. Differentiate between training and development. Which of these functions is more important for the organization in the current case?

Answer 1

Difference between training and development:

Training: It is a short term process through which non-managerial employees learn a specific set of skills to help them accomplish their job better. It is related to the development of a particular skill set and is job oriented.

Development: It is a long term educational process that focuses on the overall growth of the employees to make them better professionals. It is related to the development of conceptual and general business knowledge and is career-oriented.

In the current case, training of employees is more important for the organization. As the organization is anticipating entry of big brand competition and has decided to compete on customization and better customer service, it is important for the organization to train its non-management employees in customer servicing and prepare them to deliver a better experience for the customers. Training to all the employees will ensure standardized and uniform service delivery across the organization and help present customer service as a USP for the business.