When John Lewis communicates with its customers and local communities they hold focus groups, they do customer satisfaction and opinion research and surveys, and they also have planning application processes and consultations. This helps to maintain customer satisfaction, quality and value, sustainable products and services and give support for their community needs. By communicating with its customers John Lewis is able to understand and manage the social, economic and environmental impact of their operations.
When John Lewis communicates with its suppliers it is to build lasting relationships based on honesty, fairness and courtesy. They do this by holding supplier conferences, forums and workshops, having supplier working groups & partnered projects and also by having day to day contact with suppliers, buying teams and technologists. John Lewis works with them to build sustainable businesses and provide long term, satisfying employment.
John Lewis also communicates with the government and regulators to raise awareness of the unique nature of their business and to provide a considered view on issues that impact on its customers, partners and the communities they operate in. the communication methods they use include government consultations, regular dialogue with policy makers and conferences and speaking engagements. All these methods help John Lewis to establish manual beneficial relationships and supply chain labour standards.
Many different people shop at the John Lewis to purchase their products and services. John Lewis does not have specific customers and they aim to accommodate all people.
The general purpose of communication is to ensure the smooth running of a business this may include decision making, exchanging ideas and research purposes. John Lewis uses communication to be sure that everybody involved in the business is kept happy for example they have focus groups and surveys for customers, this will help monitor the level of customer satisfaction and they also get to see a wide range of customers opinions.
Many sources of information are used within John Lewis these are internal and external sources. Internal sources function within the business where external sources function outside the business but most of the sources correspond with each other. Internal sources include financial, human resources and sales departments. The financial department gives information on profit and loss within the business these can be compared to the sales records in the sales department to monitor which products are selling well and which products are not. This is important to John Lewis because it enables the business to see the areas they are making profits. The human resources department is important to John Lewis as they may arrange training for the employees in customer service to ensure customer satisfaction. External sources include the Government who will require John Lewis to publish data regarding the sales made between the competition such as Mark’s and Spencer’s.
There are two different types of communication used these are formal and informal. Informal communication is most likely to be used when communicating with friends/family and colleagues, types of informal communication may include text messages, telephone calls and notes. Formal communication is more professional and would be used when communicating with a business, types of formal communication may include letters, fax, spread sheets and emails.
The table below demonstrates the types, sources and purposes of information used within an organisation.
In this assignment I have found that John Lewis communicates with everybody involved in the business using different methods of communication and sources, I now realise that communication is very important in a business as it helps the business to run smoothly ensuring a strong future and happy customers.
References: (Last assessed 24th August 2012