Write an essay answering the following question:

How might an understanding of customer behaviour improve your exchanges with your customers?

You should draw on a relevant selection of concepts from Block 1. You may use examples from any or all of the following: paid employment, voluntary work, and leisure activities.

This question asks you to apply what you have learned in Block 1 to your own situation to improve the benefits you create for, and get from, your customers. If you are having difficulty identifying a customer or customers on which to focus for the purposes of this TMA, please ask your tutor for advice as soon as possible.

The activities in Block 1 have introduced you to the concept of exchange relationships with customers in a wide range of contexts. You should now have a clear idea of who your most important customers are. The challenge of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of what you have learned by selecting and applying relevant concepts to improve exchanges with your customers.

Potential areas to explore might include how to work effectively with active customers as envisaged by Service Dominant Logic, or how to use insights from Customer Experience Management to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty (whatever that means in your particular situation). Feel free to point out potential limitations of such ideas if applied to real life situations.

Your selection of relevant concepts will depend on the kind of customers you have, and what you and they expect from exchanges. It's essential to tailor your answer to your individual situation. If you are answering with regard to business-to-business (B2B) customers you might want to discuss how applying your knowledge of decision making unit (DMU) roles might help you to improve your exchanges. If you are answering about customers in other kinds of situations, you might want to talk about how seeing their behaviour as part of a culture of practices (as in Consumer Culture Theory) might create opportunities to improve exchanges with them. For any customers, there may be ethical and and commercial issues to consider.

These are just suggestions. It's important that you apply appropriate concepts to the problem of improving exchanges with your own customers.

Concentrate on demonstrating depth of knowledge and understanding of a few well-chosen concepts applied to your most important customer(s), rather than a superficial essay listing lots of concepts but with no discussion of how they might be used to improve the benefits you create for, and get from, your customers.

It is important to follow certain conventions in writing your assignments. As a Level 2 student, you need to demonstrate that your work is rigorous, and your arguments are supported by appropriate and credible sources.

I currently work in a fulfilment company