Chuyên đề thực tập: A Study on the Customer Relationship Management in Mathnasium Times City and Some Suggested Recommendations to Futher Improve the System

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56CAs a program consultant at Mathnasium Times City, the author has theopportunity to observe the attitude of the clients daily and directly w

History of foundation and development of Mathnasium in general

Mathnasium Group, headquartered in Los Angeles - United States, is a system of Mathematical Thinking Center for children at the aged of 4 to 15 years old by an American Mathematics Professor, Larry Martinek.

Mathnasium now is at the forefront of the growth rate of specialized math education for children worldwide Within more than 42 experience years in the United States, Mathnasium has more than 1.000 centers in US and 17 other countries, more than 5000 students worldwide and more than 40 centers in Viet Nam with 1.200 Vietnamese students.

Mathnasium in Viet Nam is headquatered at SH08 Garden Court 1, Phu MyHung, Tan Phong Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City Mathnasium Vietnam has excelled over many other countries in the world to be honored and awarded theOutstanding Achievement Award 2018 by the US Mathnasium at the 14thAnnual Meeting of the global Mathnasium System With this award, MathnasiumVietnam is once again certified by the US Mathnasium for its outstanding quality andtraining effectiveness.

Background information of Mathnasium in Times CIfy

Mathnasium Times City is established in 2016 in BO3 The Boutique — Times City, 458 Minh Khai Street, Hai Ba Trung District, Ha Noi City.

Currently, the center manager is Mrs Nguyen Thi Tra My MathnasiumTimes City is the second largest center in the North, always leading in the number of students and revenue.

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Initially, Mathnasium Times City was established with the aim of opening Math classes for students from 4 to 15 years old.

Mathnasium Times City has three main programs.

1 FIRST STEPS (4 — 6 years old) The First Steps program establishes the foundation for each student’s future Math studies and success and at the same time boosts their logical intelligence development process.

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C

The Key Steps program helps create both solid logical and creative thinking skills, strengthen fundamentals by its practice and approach to acquiring advanced Math concepts.

3 KEY STEPS (11 — 15 years old) Key Steps program is a combination as well as enhancement of theories and applied problems Throughout all topics, students are assigned a variety of problem-solving exercises, which help perfecting problem solving skill.

L Program Consultant First Steps' Teacher

Figure 1.1: The organizationalStructure of Mathnasium Times City (March, 2020)

(Source: Center Managerment of Mathnasium Times City)

There are two main departments in Mathnasium Times City including Sales Department and Teaching Department.

In detail, Sales Department is responsible for looking for new customers and caring for existing customers, as well as collecting responses and feedback from all customers to create future business plan.

In Teaching Department, teachers directly run the classesin Mathnasium Times City Their duties also prepare and update new lessons daily, keep in touch with students’ parents to satisfy them.

Last but not least, Center Manager contributes to the success of the business of the company by motivating the performance of individuals, supporting problem resolution and decision-making, monitoring and controlling expenses and budgets and tracking and reporting scorecard results to senior management.

1.4 Missions and Vision of the company

Mathnasium Times City’s mission is to focus on developing children’s critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills, preparing a firm foundation for children’s success in their future.

In the future, with a view to accessing a new method of learning, Mathnasium has a tendency to upgrade the teaching quality as well as services to offer Vietnamese students a chance to experience the best educational method in the world at an affordable price

1.5 Some competitors of Mathnasium Times City

In Ha Noi, the demand for tutoring Math classes are dramatically increasing, so many educational firms grasp this oppoturnities to extend their businesses Thus, nowadays, competition among these kinds of businesses becomes more and more severe Within a radius of 5km in Times City, parents can have at least three following choices apart from Mathnasium The author based on the SWOT analysis model by the Stanford Research Institutewhich is a useful tool used to understand Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in a business organization to evaluate competitive ability among four following organizations.

Mathnasium Mighty Math | CMS UCMas

(Aplus Math ) Singapore Age of | 4-15 4-15 3-10 4-14 students

Location B03 Shophouse | B05 Shop House | 31/61 Lac

Bountique, Shophouse 05 Park II| Trung street,

Hai Ba Trung, Ha Noi.

Khai, Vinh Tuy, Hai Ba

Program It is a copyright program from

US, based on personalized method, develops comprehensive math skills according to the training program at school systems in Vietnam.

It is an English math program, science development, reading comprehensio n skills according to Singapore's curriculum standards

This program helps children understand better about basic math concepts based on the Common

Standard, focusing on practicality and applicability to a wide range of life issues.

It also support in developing critical thinking, problem solving skills, creativity, analysis, synthesis, teamwork and the development

This helps program kids train their brain through UCMAS arithmetic tool as well as improve the ability of observation,visualization,concentration,memorization and super fast calculation for the children.

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C of mathematical principles periodically.

Copyright on material are from American.

Tuition is high curriculum, compared to the because in other addition to

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C competitors calculating math, there are also forms of math with solutions, math problems and geometry.

Vietnamese as | world students with well.Schools ability to in Hanoi are quickly organizing calculate the many math multi-number competitions calculations. in English like

Threats Its competitions | Times City is | Times City is | Times City is a are a tough and a tough and tough and complimenting | competitive competitive competitive many discount market market market. promotion program

Tuition fee | 250.000VND/ho | 200.000VND/ | 190.000VND/ | 150.000VND/ ur hour hour hour

Table 1.1: Some competitors of Mathnasium Times City (2019)

(Source: Summary of the author)

2.1 General understanding of Customer Relationship Management

2.1.1 The definition of customer, customer relationship and customer relationship management

“A customer is a person or company that receives, consumes or buys a product or service and can choose between different goods and suppliers”, according to Market Business News Customers and consumers are not the same people For example, if the parents buy babies food, the parents are the customers, but the babies are the consumers.

In the one hand, customer relationship has been witnessed with many different definitions Hobby (1999), for example, defined it as “a management approarch that enables organizations to identify, attract and increase retention of profitable customers by managing relationship with them” The relationship involves marketing communications, sales support, technical assistance and customer service.This is measured by the degree of customer satisfaction through the buying cycle and following receipt of goods or services It is also defined as

“an effectively communication with your customers and promptly addressing complaints and treating them as opportunities for improvement” (John Borillo,

However, all these definitions present the same approach that the goal is to retain existing customers and to gain new ones by providing the best customer satisfaction they can, and hopefully, to find better customer services than those their competitors provide If managers understand exactly what customer relationship is, then they can answer the question how to build a customer relationship management system effectively.

In the other hand, there is also a variety of definitions of customer relationship management It is “an approach to manage a company's interaction with current and potential customers”, according to Brain and Company (April

02, 2018) It uses data analysis about customers' history with a company to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth As a result, a company can optimize revenue and profitability while promoting customer satisfaction and loyalty.

2.1.2 A Customer Relationship Management model (IDIC)

Missions and Vision of the COMPANY .-‹ ccs sn*s ssveresee 8

Mathnasium Times City’s mission is to focus on developing children’s critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills, preparing a firm foundation for children’s success in their future.

In the future, with a view to accessing a new method of learning,Mathnasium has a tendency to upgrade the teaching quality as well as services to offer Vietnamese students a chance to experience the best educational method in the world at an affordable price

Some competitors of Mathnasium Times City ô5s +S<<sse+ss+ 8

In Ha Noi, the demand for tutoring Math classes are dramatically increasing, so many educational firms grasp this oppoturnities to extend their businesses Thus, nowadays, competition among these kinds of businesses becomes more and more severe Within a radius of 5km in Times City, parents can have at least three following choices apart from Mathnasium The author based on the SWOT analysis model by the Stanford Research Institutewhich is a useful tool used to understand Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in a business organization to evaluate competitive ability among four following organizations.

Mathnasium Mighty Math | CMS UCMas

(Aplus Math ) Singapore Age of | 4-15 4-15 3-10 4-14 students

Location B03 Shophouse | B05 Shop House | 31/61 Lac

Bountique, Shophouse 05 Park II| Trung street,

Hai Ba Trung, Ha Noi.

Khai, Vinh Tuy, Hai Ba

Program It is a copyright program from

US, based on personalized method, develops comprehensive math skills according to the training program at school systems in Vietnam.

It is an English math program, science development, reading comprehensio n skills according to Singapore's curriculum standards

This program helps children understand better about basic math concepts based on the Common

Standard, focusing on practicality and applicability to a wide range of life issues.

It also support in developing critical thinking, problem solving skills, creativity, analysis, synthesis, teamwork and the development

This helps program kids train their brain through UCMAS arithmetic tool as well as improve the ability of observation,visualization,concentration,memorization and super fast calculation for the children.

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C of mathematical principles periodically.

Copyright on material are from American.

Tuition is high curriculum, compared to the because in other addition to

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C competitors calculating math, there are also forms of math with solutions, math problems and geometry.

Vietnamese as | world students with well.Schools ability to in Hanoi are quickly organizing calculate the many math multi-number competitions calculations. in English like

Threats Its competitions | Times City is | Times City is | Times City is a are a tough and a tough and tough and complimenting | competitive competitive competitive many discount market market market. promotion program

Tuition fee | 250.000VND/ho | 200.000VND/ | 190.000VND/ | 150.000VND/ ur hour hour hour

Table 1.1: Some competitors of Mathnasium Times City (2019)

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . c<<<<<<e<<2 12 2.1 General understanding of Customer Relationship Management

A Customer Relationship Management model (IDIC)

The IDIC model was developed by Peppers and Rogers in 1995 This model suggests that companies should take four actions in order to build, keep and retain the long-term one-to-one relationships with customers This model name stands for the first letter of four actions including identify, differentiate (value, need), interaction and customize.

Information to the organization, to

| identify the needs of the customers

Identify Differentiate - Differentiate Interact Customize

Customers as Customers by I Customers by the Organizations Products and

Individuals and value to the needs they have need to interact services of the develop relations organization from the ep with customers lộ organization with them organization on their needs, based on based on their customers’ their value to the needs

Information to customers, relating to the process through which their needs are |

Figure 2.1: The IDIC model of customer relationship management (Peppers and

Rogers, 1995) (Source: Shruti Thakur and Priya Chetty, March 7, 2019)

The first task in setting up a relationship is to identify, individually, the party at the other end of the relationship Also, enterprises need to “know” each customer in as much detail as possible including the habits, preferences, and other characteristics that make each customer unique.

The differentiate task will involve an enterprise in categorizing its customers by both their value to the firm and what needs they have.

The next task is that enterprises must improve the effectiveness of their interact with customers Each successive interaction with a customer should take place in the context of all previous interactions with that customer because effective customer interactions provide better insight into a customer’s needs.

Finally, the enterprise should adapt some aspect of its behavior toward a customer, based on that individual’s needs and value to customize them.

These implementation tasks are based on the unique, customer-specific and iterative character of such relationships A successful relationship will lead each

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C party to trust the other In fact, the more effective and successful the relationship is, from a business-building standpoint, the more it will be characterized by a high level of trust.

2.1.3 The importance of the Customer Relationship Management

Peppers and Rogers in the book “Managing customer relationship” published in 2004 mentioned that in the new business era, managing individual customer relationships means an enterprise will apply the knowledge gained from relationships to develop the quality of the overall customer experience. Consequently, it is the enterprise’s responsibility to understand what establish a relationship, how relationships are set up, and how they can be reinforced or weakened “Many different perspectives have been developed about what comprises customer relationships and how businesses can profit from them” (Peppers and Rogers, 1995).

From a modern business point of view, almost businesses nowadays must not only provide more value to customers than other competitors but also create and retain loyal customers because the profits of businesses are mainly due to loyal customers In other word, customers are the vital issue of any organization, that is the goal of thousands of employees in order to push sales as well as promoting trade Successful businesses are organizations that are good at managing the entire procurement cycle of customers, rather than just successfully completing each sale Managing customer relationship has been become one of the most important tasks of the top management levels Thus, businesses need to choose customer relationship management strategies and build customer relationship management models, processes and measures.

2.1.3.1 The importance of the Customer Relationship Management to new customers

A customer is a person that receives and buys products or services and can choose between different goods and suppliers In business, a new customer is a person who decides to consume a product or service for the first time.

To new customers, Customer Relationship Management helps businesses learn about their customers, including who they are and why they purchase your products, as well as trends in customers’ purchasing histories This allows businesses to better anticipate their customers’ needs and, as a result, fulfill them. Effectively using customer relationship management can also provide a strategic

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C advantage Well organized customer data helps companies select the correct recipients for promotions and new products.

Moreover, Customer Relationship Management allows businesses to optimize their customer satisfaction As a result, existing customers will recommend others such as their friends or their relations This is regarded as word-of-mouth marketing or friendly recommendation which made over dinner and is the cheapest way a brand can find new customers because you don't have to spend money on advertizing to attract and influence them.

2.1.3.2 The importance of the Customer Relationship Management to existing customers

In contrast, existing customers of a company are people who already bought its products or services before The same as word-of-mouth marketing, focusing on re-engaging customers can save time, effort and money of a company by minimizing the process of marketing and sales In another word, the easiest and most predictable source of new revenue is right under your nose: it comes from the existing customers Therefore, it is customer relationship management which play the most important role to allow businesses to improve their customer satisfaction, and then increase the company revenue and profit.

2.1.4 Factors that affect to the customer relationship management

Firstly, the author lists out all factors that might affect to the customer relationship management through previous research papers of other experts in the following table:

No Factors that affect to the customer relationship | Researchers management

The top management support Daniel, E.M and

Customer relationship management objectives | McDonald, and goals M.H.B(2001)

The Human factor (people) Alejandro Marius,

The Technology Maria Pérez, Anna

3 E-customer relationship management strategy Nguyen Van

Commitment of senior leaders Thuy(2017) Consulting team

Project team Business process Data quality

Banking culture Monitoring and measuremen Table 2.1: Factors that affect to the customer relationship management

(Source: summary of the author)

Among 16 factors listed above, the author only applies three factors including the processes, the human factor and the technology mentioned in the research “Critical success factors for a customer relationship management strategy published in 2006 of Luis E Mendoza, Alejandro Marius, Maria Pérez, Anna C Grimán because the author finds that this framwork fits with all the basic elements Mathnasium Times City have been focused in its monthly meeting recently and partly due to the limitation on time and comprehension.

2.1.4.1 The processes of customer relationship management

The processes of customer relationship management is one of the most management in organization, and “ within the customer relationship management strategy, the evolution of this processes is directed toward a common goal: to satisfy and create a long-term relationship with the clients” (Luis E Mendoza,

Alejandro Marius, Maria Pérez, Anna C Grimán, 2006) The processes through which the customer relates with the organization, according to Luis E Mendoza, Alejandro Marius, Maria Pérez, Anna C Griman, are marketing, sale and service and commence from getting to know customers and building good relationships with customers based on the behaviors of targeted groups An organization needs to make customer as the foundation for relationship building through the construction of complete customer databases that are accessible by the organization Each customer should be analysed in order to understand his or her need and attitudes, which are the basis for good relationship building and ongoing relationship maintenance The customers management processs cover recording and registering customer, analysing customer for improved customers understanding.

Employees are seen as the central to an effective customer relationship management, and firms must manage the relationshipwith their employees if they have any hope of fully serving customer needs and that this is especially important in firms where employees are the eyes of customers It is evident that

“human factor is a crutial factor in a customer relationship strategy” both from organisation and employees, and from customers (Luis E Mendoza, Alejandro Marius, Maria Pérez, Anna C Grimán, 2006).

Factors that affect to the customer relationship management\

Firstly, the author lists out all factors that might affect to the customer relationship management through previous research papers of other experts in the following table:

No Factors that affect to the customer relationship | Researchers management

The top management support Daniel, E.M and

Customer relationship management objectives | McDonald, and goals M.H.B(2001)

The Human factor (people) Alejandro Marius,

The Technology Maria Pérez, Anna

3 E-customer relationship management strategy Nguyen Van

Commitment of senior leaders Thuy(2017) Consulting team

Project team Business process Data quality

Banking culture Monitoring and measuremen Table 2.1: Factors that affect to the customer relationship management

(Source: summary of the author)

Among 16 factors listed above, the author only applies three factors including the processes, the human factor and the technology mentioned in the research “Critical success factors for a customer relationship management strategy published in 2006 of Luis E Mendoza, Alejandro Marius, Maria Pérez, Anna C Grimán because the author finds that this framwork fits with all the basic elements Mathnasium Times City have been focused in its monthly meeting recently and partly due to the limitation on time and comprehension.

2.1.4.1 The processes of customer relationship management

The processes of customer relationship management is one of the most management in organization, and “ within the customer relationship management strategy, the evolution of this processes is directed toward a common goal: to satisfy and create a long-term relationship with the clients” (Luis E Mendoza,

Alejandro Marius, Maria Pérez, Anna C Grimán, 2006) The processes through which the customer relates with the organization, according to Luis E Mendoza, Alejandro Marius, Maria Pérez, Anna C Griman, are marketing, sale and service and commence from getting to know customers and building good relationships with customers based on the behaviors of targeted groups An organization needs to make customer as the foundation for relationship building through the construction of complete customer databases that are accessible by the organization Each customer should be analysed in order to understand his or her need and attitudes, which are the basis for good relationship building and ongoing relationship maintenance The customers management processs cover recording and registering customer, analysing customer for improved customers understanding.

Employees are seen as the central to an effective customer relationship management, and firms must manage the relationshipwith their employees if they have any hope of fully serving customer needs and that this is especially important in firms where employees are the eyes of customers It is evident that

“human factor is a crutial factor in a customer relationship strategy” both from organisation and employees, and from customers (Luis E Mendoza, Alejandro Marius, Maria Pérez, Anna C Grimán, 2006).

If companies do not take care of their employees, they cannot take care of the customers Businesses should give employees all they need to be happy and absolutely enthralled to be there In addition, companies also should give their employees more training class which teach them know to satisfy customers effectively because employees who interface with customers need to be empowered to address customers concern promptly.

Nowadays information technology is used as the tool for organizational communication, knowledge management, and strategies (Laudon, & Laudon, 2002) Likewise, customer relationship management technology is the important strategic tool of an organization to attain success in customer relationship management owing to the basic structure of information technology and information from customers databases (Torres, 2004) Primarily, the customer management strategy requires a center to store all customers’ news and information This center must have efficient information technology architecture that is adjustable according to the changing environment It must contain a systematic customer relationship management in order to communicate with customers through direct dispatching of information to customers, strategy for retaining customers with the organization Besides, the quality of information sent to customers also affects the building of good relationship with customers.

In this respect, application of technology can upgrade the information qualities.

A study related to Customer relationship management (The model of

Customer relationship management is regarded as an important tool for

"delivering revenue growth through improved customer experiences, retaining and growing existing customer bases, increasing customer acquisition rates and influencing the development of new product and services" (IBM's Global CRM Study, 2005, p 12).Various researchers have analyzed customer relationship

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C management critically such as “Customer relationship management in practice” written by Francit Puttle in 2001,Customer relationshipmanagement strategy (Tamilla Curtis, Donald Barrere&Tom Griffin, 2008), or Electronic Customer Relationship Management, Customer Satisfaction, and Customer Loyalty (Mohsen Malekalketab Khiabani (2016), ect.

Among those, Parasurama is one of the pioneers in researching service quality The SERVQUAL questionnaire has been described as the most popular standardized questionnaire to measure service quality It is widely used by service firms, most often in conjunction with other measures of service quality and customer satisfaction The SERVQUAL instrument was developed as part of a broader conceptualization of how customers understand service quality This conceptualization is known as the model of service quality or more popularly as the gaps model.

Because the success of the model is a major breakthrough for businesses to apply to improve service quality, and the quality assessment must be through the perception of customers who are using the services of the business, the author chooses this model to apply to the customer relationship management system of Mathnasium Times City, which might fit well with Mathnasium business sector.

Figure 2.2: The model of SERVQUAL (Parasurama, Zeithaml] & Berry, 1988)

(1) Reliability: the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately

(2) Assurance: the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence

(3) Tangibles: the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication materials

(4) Empathy: the provision of caring, individualized attention to customers (5) Responsiveness: the willingness to help customers and to provide prompt service

In the research named “SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality” was published in 1988, Parasurama, Zeithaml & Berry mentioned five above factors as “five dimensions of service quality that form the basis of the individual items in the SERVQUAL research instrument (questionnaire)” Businesses use the SERVQUAL instrument (i.e.

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C questionnaire) to measure potential service quality problems and the model of service quality to help diagnose possible causes of the problem The model of service quality is built on the expectancy-confirmation paradigm which suggests that consumers perceive quality in terms of their perceptions of how well a given service delivery meets their expectations of that delivery Thus, service quality can be conceptualised as a simple equation:

P is the individual's perceptions of given service delivery

E is the individual's expectations of a given service delivery When customer expectations are greater than their perceptions of received delivery, service quality is deemed low When perceptions exceed expectations then service quality is high The model of service quality identifies five gaps that may cause customers to experience poor service quality In this model, gap 5 is the service quality gap and is the only gap that can be directly measured In other words, the SERVQUAL instrument was specifically designed to capture gap 5.

In contrast, Gaps 1-4 cannot be measured, but have diagnostic value.

Gap Brief description Probable Causes

Gap 1 , Inadequate upward service and management's oe The Knowledge Gap communications perceptions of the target

| Too many layers of market's expected service management

; commitment to service quality management's perceptions

Employee perceptions of Gap 2 of customer expectations l ma oo infeasibility The standards Gap and the translation into

Inadequate goal setting service procedures and ae Inadequate task specifications ơ standardisation Gap 3 Difference between service | Technical breakdowns or

The Delivery Gap quality specifications and malfunctions the service actually Role conflict/ ambiguity delivered Lack of perceived control

Poor employee-job fit Poor technology- fit Poor supervision or training

Difference between service | advertising agency Gap 4 ee

delivery intentions and Inadequate communications The Communications ;

G what is communicated to between sales and operations

: the customer Differences in policies and procedures across branches or divisions of an entity

Table 2.1: Summary of Gaps with Diagnostic Indications (Parasurama, Zeithaml

(Source: Zeithaml, V.A., Berry, L.L and Parasuraman, 1988)

Nyeck, Morales, Ladhari, and Pons (2002) stated the SERVQUAL measuring tool “appears to remain the most complete attempt to conceptualize and measure service quality” The SERVQUAL measuring tool has been used by many researchers across a wide range of service industries and contexts, such as healthcare, banking, financial services, and education.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IN

Customers’ expectation toMathnasium Times City 24 3.2 The structure and process of the customer relationship management system 1n Mathnasium Times City - << + 1333210111111 1391111 99v ng re 26

Researching market to capture the needs and desires of customers plays an important role in Mathnasium Times City to success in managing the customer relationship managerment system and increasing customer satisfaction, according to Mathnasium Times City’s Sale Department report in 2019 In this study, the author also based on the results of customer satisfaction surveys to draw conclusions about customers’ expectations in Mathnasium Times City.

@ Preparing to pass an entrance exam of a specialized school

Figure 3.3: Customer expectation in Mathnasium Times City

According to the research model called SERVQUAL (Parasurama, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988) mentioned in chapter 2, there are 5 influencing factors which contribute to customer satisfaction including reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness Obviously, the level of customer satisfaction is also based on the ability to meet their expectations In terms of reliability, most customers expect this program to support their children to study well in school, and then achieve high score (44%) In addition, they also hope that Mathnasium Times city will help their children have better calculating skills (20%), develop logical thinking (14%), improve concentration ability (10%). Very few parents (6%) choose Mathnasium Times city to help their children to prepare for an entrance exam to a specialized school system in Hanoi because each specialized school here will have its own programme structure and curriculum And as mentioned in the table 1, comparing the strengths and weaknesses of Mathnasium Times city to other competitors, Mathnasium is a copyrighted math curriculum of the United States, focuse on the importance of fundamental issues, core values and individual strength, so it will support their children well in understanding the nature of mathematical problems, simplify abstract concepts, help students not to lose their basic knowledge, and learn according to each individual's curriculum Because this method limited in training for a specialized programme, only about 6% of parents choose Mtahnasium Times City for this purpose In addition, 6% of the parents surveyed had other expectations such as hoping teachers to help children to build an active learning spirit, stimulating a passion for math, etc.

In addition, according to the monthly student care reports of program consultants and teachers in Mathnasium Times City, with an extra-curricular program outside of the school, these busy parents would pay more attention to empathy and tangibles Clearly, changing a student's academic performance will require a whole process which takes at least 6 months which is long enough for every student to understand the method and practice it by themselve Therefore, before parents can see their children’s progress, the factors that keep their parents allow their children upgrade in the next 3-month-course are empathy and tangibles In other words, customers in Mathnasium Times City expect much more on the way teachers and program consultants’s care, monitoring their

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C lesson, communicating to parents to let them know how each lesson works, and facilities to ensure their children have a safe and effective class.

3.2 The structure and process of the customer relationship management system in Mathnasium Times City

In Mathnasium Times City, there is no customer relationship department.

As mentioned in the company's general introduction, the organization structure is quite simple The customer relationship management system is in charge by both consultants and teachers under the supervision of the center manager.

Figure 3.4: Customer relationship management process

(Source: Center Management in Mathnasium Times City)

Thus, at the pre-enrollment stage, the program counselor is primarily responsible for giving the customer a background knowledge about Mathnasium Times City and making it become “reliable” which is “the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately” according to the model of SERVQUAL (Parasurama, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988) Then, once a student has registered and become an existing customer who is experiencing the curriculum at Mathnasium, teacher will be in charge of managing and taking care of this student Teacher’s mission includes teaching, interacting with parents weekly through a contact book as well as other forms such as phone calls, texting, emails and face-to-face meetings However, when students finish the ongoing course and prepare to upgrade to a new course, the program consultant will work with

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C parents to report the student’s progress and announce the next course information All steps are monitored and directed by the center manager.

Customer relationship management process is conducted according to the following table:

Introduce teacher, program consultant incharge and course information

Two week before midterm test

Two week after midterm test

Inform study progress and inform midterm test information

Inform midterm score, collect parent feedbacks and arrange tutoring sessions (if needed ) Teacher

One week before final test

One week after their final test

Inform study progress and inform midterm test information

Inform final test score, collect parent feedbacks and follow-up next class

Table 3.1: Customer relationship management Timeline

(Source: CenterManagement in Mathnasium Times City)

All information gathered from the calls will be aggregated on excel and then shared for all staff including teachers and program consultant Through this monthly report, all staff members can collect parents’ feelings, and understand parents' needs and expectations promply as well as know the ability of each student to support them immediately.

However, the author also conducted a survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the customer relationship management system for 12 employees at Mathnasium Times City According to this survey, there are many channels of communication between parents and staffs here, including meeting face to face after class hours, telephone, zalo, email, ect. l Meeting face to face TM@ Telephone

Figure 3.5: Channels to collect customers’ information to customers in

Zalo is the most frequent communication channel between employees and parents (47%), because as the author mentioned earlier, parents in Mathnasium Times City are very busy and are not willing to answer the phone during office hours Zalo is a popular communication channel used in many companies and organizations, so parents can update messages on zalo more frequently and conveniently than other applications Moreover, it does not cost as much as normal texting via sms or phone call Besides, meeting and exchanging information directly their parents accounts for a high proportion (30%), and is considered the most effective way Calls are primarily made to collect parents’ feedbacks according to the process outline above.

However, this process lead to a problem Normally, parents' feedbacks are probably only stored on excel if calls are made through the steps of the above process While the most popular and most effective communication channel is zalo and face-to-face meetings, the recorded and exploited information is only

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C transmitted verbally between employees, even without being shared Therefore, information about each student is often incomplete, which it is difficult to take care of and manage it.

3.3 How the customer relationship management system in Mathnasium Times Citysatisfied its customers?

Customer satisfaction is considered to be the most accurate measure of the effectiveness of a company's customer relationship management system In this study, the author also conducted a survey of customer satisfaction at Mathnasium Times City based on four elements of teacher, service, facility and policy.

There are 50 customers taking part in the survey Each rating is calculated as 1 point at every level The author performs the following formula to convert to percentage units:

% Level of satisfaction = (score at that level: 50) * 100%

The results are shown in following table:

1 Teaching qualification and ability | 56% | 26% | 18% | 0% 0% to communicate to students

2 The open, friendly attitude | 80% | 20% | 0% 0% 0% towards the students

4 The way to communicate with| 14% | 22% | 54% | 10% | 0% parents to understand students’ inside and then take care of them.

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C school hours, tuition, and extracurricular programs to parents

6 Ensure students’ safety all the | 46% | 34% | 20% | 0% 0% time when parents take them to and pick them up from Mathnasiumn Times City

7 Friendly and supportive program | 52% | 34% | 14% | 0% 0% consultants

8 Solve complaints quickly and | 18% | 58% | 14% | 10% | 0% satisfactorily FACILITIES

9 Classrooms are clean, airy and | 82% | 18% | 0% 0% 0% creative

11 | There is plenty of open space for} 0% | 34% | 28% | 38% | 0% students to take a break

12 | Water, paper towels, medical 24% | 34% | 42% | 0% 0% equipment,

13 | Promotion program for students | 10% | 34% | 56% | 0% 0% when registering for the next course

14 | Discount for the second child | 58% | 20% | 22% | 0% 0% studying in Mathnasium Times City or discount when parents introduce relatives and friends to the center.

15 | Policies of make-up class, reserve | 0% | 34% | 46% | 20% | 0% and transfer fees

16 | Extracurricular activities for 10% | 22% | 68% | 0% 0% summer, holidays, birthdays

The author conducted a survey of teacher’s customer satisfaction in Mathnasium Times City including teaching qualification and ability to communicate to students; the open, friendly attitude towards the students; class standing style and the way to communicate with parents to understand students' inside and then take care of them.

Obviously, teachers play a very important role in conveying the company’s message as well as ensuring customers fully receive the values which the company provides Teachers in Mathnasium are always the top priority of the company that there are many strict requirement for recruitment and trainning. Mathnasium Times City has a total of 10 teachers, including 6 primary and secondary teachers and 4 kindergarten teachers All teachers graduated from the pedagogical university and majored in Mathematics, then are trained for at least three months in accordance with the teaching method of Mathnsaium They are only taken to the teaching in center if they passed the final test.

Therefore, customers at Mathnasium are very satisfied and trust the teacher’s quality The following results of the survey also make it clear.

Very satisfied Satisfied Neutral Not satisfied

Teaching qualification The open, friendly Class standing style The way to and ability to attitude towards the communicate with communicate to students parents to understand students students’ inside and then take care of them

Figure 3.6: Customer satisfaction of teacher

Despite being highly regarded for professional quality, teachers at Mathnasium Times City are still limited in their ability to analyze and understand customer inside That's why 10% of customers in the survey were not satisfied

Satisfaction in facilities of Mathnasium Times City

Currently, facility is also an important factor to improve customer satisfaction at every educational institution.

Classrooms are clean, Well-prepared learning There is plenty of open Water, paper towels, airy and creative materials space for students to medical equipment, take a break

Figure 3.9: Customer satisfaction of facility

Classrooms, learning materials and other equitments in Mathnasium Times City are highly appreciated, the satisfaction level reaches over 50% It is thanks to the effort of the Mathnasium in classroom decoration as well as well-prepared teaching tools However, with the design of a 5-storey building, the entertainment space for students is too limited that there is no open space outside this building Therefore, while students are waiting for class or waiting for their parents to pick up, there is no activity other except for watching cartoons. Allowing students to watch cartoons also receives controversial feedbacks from parents There are parents willing to let their children watch for entertainment, but others object it because they do not want their children to be exposed to too much on television.

Policy mVery satisfied Satisfed @Neutral Not satisfied

Figure 3.10: Customer satisfaction of pocicy

The four factors considered in terms of policy A, B, C and D in the above chart are promotion program for students when registering for the next course; discount for the second child studying in Mathnasium Times City or discount when parents introduce their relatives and friends to the center; policies of make- up class, reserve and transfer fee and extracurricular activities for summer, holidays and birthdays.

Monthly, depending on the business situation, the center will have different promotion programs to push sales and reach the company's target Currently, tuition fee in Mathnasium is VND 13,990,000 for 6 months In the first three months of 2020, the discount program has not changed Students, including new students and re-enrollment, will receive a 15% discount on tuition The second children in a family will be discounted more 5% On holidays such as Children's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, Halloween, the center will organize small sweet parties for students at the center.

However, the tuition is quite high compared to other compititors while the policy of payment in Mathnasium is not really flexible The fact is that most of the parent's complaints about this policy Students can reserve a maximum of 4 lessons if there are more than 50% of tuition left In addition, make-up class will not be effective after the final day of the course Therefore, for some students

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C who have a very busy schedule and cannot change it, it seems very difficult to arrange for make up classes in the course This has made parents dissatisfied

After analyzing the data collected from questioning staff as well as company’s figure, the author comes to make a conclusion of the real situation of customer relationship management in Mathnasium Times City before giving recommendations in the next chapter As mentioned in chapter 1, Mathnasium Times City gets into trouble with the customer satisfaction To solve this problem, the company also makes so much effort to improve the customer service Base on the survey results in this chapter, it can be clearly seen that more than half of customers of this center highly appreciated the customer relationship management system Nevertheless, this system also has some shortcomings which dissatisfy a group of customers in this center On the other words, this system still needs to be changed and improved to be suitable with all customers in this centre.

In the next chapter, some suggestions will be made with the view to improve and perfect the current customer relationship management in Mathnasium Times City.

CONCLUSION HH TH ng ng cự 36

After analyzing the data collected from questioning staff as well as company’s figure, the author comes to make a conclusion of the real situation of customer relationship management in Mathnasium Times City before giving recommendations in the next chapter As mentioned in chapter 1, Mathnasium Times City gets into trouble with the customer satisfaction To solve this problem, the company also makes so much effort to improve the customer service Base on the survey results in this chapter, it can be clearly seen that more than half of customers of this center highly appreciated the customer relationship management system Nevertheless, this system also has some shortcomings which dissatisfy a group of customers in this center On the other words, this system still needs to be changed and improved to be suitable with all customers in this centre.

In the next chapter, some suggestions will be made with the view to improve and perfect the current customer relationship management in Mathnasium Times City.

RECOMMENDATIONS . G Go S11 c2, 37

The structure and process of the customer relationship management system

The figure 1 showing the structure of Mathnasium Times City is too simple that there are only two department under the supervision of the Centre Manager. Although both consultant department and teaching department run the customer relationship management system quite well, it is clear that the number of students in Mathnasium Times City is continuely increasing will put much more pressure under these department in the coming time because it is presented in the result of the second question in survey questionaires for mathnasium times city’s staffs on customer relationship management system that at the present, each program counselor is incharge of roughly 130 students while each teacher is responsible for at least 40 students apart from other daily main tasks As of March 2020, there are 438 students in Mathnasium Times City, but this number is expected to rise up to approximately 500 people in the end of this year, acccording to Mathnasium report in 2019 At that times, program counselors have to focus on both new students and ongoing students Actually, in the survey for staffs, 100% program counselors shared they felt be overloaded, and similarly, all of teachers also cannot manage the time between teaching and taking care of students. Therefore, it will be better if there is a professional department which can take charge of customer care As a result, the structure of the company will be more specialized and effective.Luckily, this propose has mentioned and considered in the meeting regarding finding measures for a stable and strong development in the end of 2019 to implement in the coming time Besides, customer care department is obviously a very popular basic demand for every businesses in service sector, so this change is possible to put into operation in Mathnasium Times City.

Result of survey evaluating the effectiveness of the customer relationship management system for 12 employees at Mathnasium Times City shows that there are many channels of communication between parents and staffs here,

Thái Thị Hạnh - 11141363 - Business English 56C including meeting face to face after class hours (30%), telephone (10%), zalo (47%), email (10%), ect However, all of information staffs gained from these communication method was collected or recorded in a various tool including Mathnasium software system (8%), excel report (25%), personal notebook (50%) and self remembering in head (17%) It probably leads to a problem that the information of every student will not be accurate and obvious Therefore, it will be better if all staffs work together to choose an only student information place.

As aresult, staffs can save time to find any information and easily control student data And based on Centre Manager recommendation, Mathnasium software system which only Mathnasium’s staff can access to is the best choice This system allow staffs to create a new student account which will be existing forever and update ongoing student information such as fee, study process, exam result and note Therefore, in note area, every staff can update the student information daily, then others can easily get all students’ information themselve.

As the author mentioned above, teachers in Mathnasium used a variety of method to keep in touch with students’ parents, however, it is difficult for these very busy papents to follow and remember all the information they discussed. Therefore, it is neccessary to give them a tool called online-contact book which they can access to all important information of their children such as previous lesson, today lesson, homework, comments via a phone or a computer This tool is quite popular among other educational centres, but it is friendly to use and much more convenient than other traditional contact-books This online-contact book will enhance the relationship between student’s family and Mathnasium Times City.

In another hand, the survey for Mathnasium Times City staffs shows that despite being highly regarded for professional quality, teachers at Mathnasium Times City are still limited in their ability to analyze and understand customer inside 72% staffs said in the survey that they take training session every three month per time, and 28% staffs even only attend such classes when there is a new policy of the Management Board.To futher improve customer satisfaction, alls staffs gave extra recommendations in the survey that staffs should be taken part in more training sessions Such classes will give them a chance to learn communicational skills, which help them to know how to understand students inside easily.

Regarding some extral recommendation for the company 1n the survey, 44% parents expected Mathnasium Times City to prepare snack which students can eat before class The author has already hold an interview to Centre Management for further instruction and recommendation about this issue “ This expectation is completely reasonable, and the cost for this meals is within the monthly budget allowed by the company The snack can be milk, bread, rice cake,ect”, the Centre Manager in Mathnasium Times City shared.

In addition, the center should also provide transportation assistance to students who study at Vinschool or live in buildings in Times City, because this not only makes parents more satisfied, it is also a very effective way of local advertising For example, Apax English in Times City are very successful in using this method They have become more popular to parents here since they launched the campaign which they help parents to pick up students at home or schools However, such service takes a lot of time to put into effect because the centre needs to draw an detail plan including hiring part time staff, cost and direction to make sure the safety for students.

Classrooms, learning materials and other equitments in Mathnasium Times City are highly appreciated, the satisfaction level reaches over 50%, however, it still can further improve to reach the 100% customer satisfaction.There are parents willing to let their children watch for entertainment, but others object it because they do not want their children to be exposed to too much on television. Thus, instead of allowing students to watch TV while they are waiting for classes or waiting for their parents to come and pick them up, Mathnasium Times City should prepare some smart games like uno, billionaire chess, broken cat, ect. These games both help students exercise their brain, limit the time too watching

TV and even increase interaction among students at the center.

Most customers in Mathnasium Times City is from referal channel (60%), according to result of survey for customer regarding customer satissfaction. However, there is currently no policy to encourage and thank those parents for their recommendation Besides, the table 1 show competitiors are complimenting many discount promotion program is the biggest threat to Mathnasium Times City.

Therefore, the center should have more policies for referal customers such as gifts, discount vouchers This is also a good way to improve customer satisfaction and is an effective marketing method.

In this paper, the advantages and weaknesses of existing customer relationship management of Mathnasium Times City was addressed and analyzed following two research questions: “How much does the customer relationship management system satisfy customers in Mathnasium Times City?” and “What are some suggestions to futher improve the customer relationship management in Mathnasium Times City?”.The result supports various success factors identified by previous authors: the SWOT analysis model by the Stanford Research Institute, the IDIC model of customer relationship management (Peppers and Rogers, 1995), and the model of SERVQUAL (Parasurama, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988) Besides, the author also did two survey both for twelve staffs and fifty ongoing customers in Mathnasium Times City to evaluate the effectivenesss of the customer relationship management system and customer satisfaction.

Followingly, it can be said that Mathnasium Times City basically satisfies parents thanks to the customer relationship management system with a quite clear structure and a quite detail process along with a team of dedicated staffs, good services, well-prepared facility and acceptable policy However, it still has particular drawbacks which need to be improved soon For example,despite being highly regarded for professional quality, teachers at Mathnasium Times City are still limited in their ability to analyze and understand customer inside In addition, due to difficulties like cost and human resource, services such as pick- up support, snack before classes and smart games are not available to meet customer demand, and tuition is quite high compared to other compititors while the policy of payment in Mathnasium is not really flexible.

To deal with these drawbacks, the author based on the result of two above surveyof this research as well as the company development situation to raise some suggested recommendations to futher improve the customer relationshipmaanagement Firstly, the author proposed to add customer care department into the company structure, so the structure of the company will be more specialized and effective Secondly, following the interview to Centre Manager, the author suggested to used Mathnasium system as a only tool to collect and follow all student information instead of too many previous tools like excel, notebook Thirdly, to improve staff communication skills, Mathnasium

Times City should hold more traning classes for staffs here Regarding services, the author recommends to give snack before class as well as pick up assistance for students living or studying in Times City in the wake of collecting extra recommendation from the survey related customer satisfaction for customers. Next, the author agrees to customers to provide more smart games for student while they are spending time on waiting for class or parents instead of watching