5.2.1OFFER DISTRIBUTORS COMPLETE SUPPORTING SERVICE
When direct-selling firms proceed with resource prediction and demand planning for sales representatives to react to the market change, Amway uses sub-systems including the coordination and integration of planning, recruiting, training, evaluation and salary of human resource management system to become the key resource of maintaining lasting competitive advantage.
Sales representatives are not employees of direct-selling firms because firms restrain them only based on contract, and the turnover rate is high in this industry, especially in the loosen organization like direct-selling firms. People’s loyalty and turnover rate have great influence on the operation of the company. Therefore, direct-selling firms indirectly complete their long term human resources planning by helping sales representatives develop their business.
Helping sales representatives develop business is the basic function firms can offer sales representatives. Firms can provide multi-functional places, order service, chances of joining public activities and after sales service for sales representatives.
In addition, Amway make new participants understand 5 principles, which are participation method, knowing Amway, recommendation system, training program and promotion rules.
Furthermore, Amway also offers sales representatives 4 platforms to help them develop their business. The 1st one is communication platform. Sales representatives can make use of distributor conferences including big annual award ceremony, Amway business workshop, product presentation, distributor communication meeting and customer helpdesk to deliver their opinions. The 2nd one is training platform. It designs different training programs to different pin level of distributors. The training contains functions of teaching, communication and recognition to improve their capabilities of running business and planning career life. Amway establishes academy in 2007, offering compulsory, elective and physical courses to different pin levels of sales representatives. The 3rd one is knowledge learning platform such as database on the public website, including homepage, products windows, audio and visual, Amway theme exhibition, online download material of product training, and distributor only area. The platform shares and spreads knowledge through training, meetings, workshops, journals and website. The 4th one is a platform for business opportunities.
Through complete experiencing, sales representatives can correctly understand Amway’s products and business opportunities without exaggeration, improve their professional images and management capability. Those abilities help sales representatives convince customers and offer them better service.
Amway has a full training program, organization, commission and bonus system, promotion and demonstration method, advertisement, public relation, and so on to help sales representatives successfully display features of products in front of customers accompanying various changes of environment.
The main marketing force is word of mouth in the direct-selling industry, hence, firms’
exceptional performance of logistics supports make sales representatives have complete backbone to develop their business.
5.2.2IMPLEMENT AND STANDARDIZE THE CONCEPT OF EXPERIENCE
The main function of physical channels is to serve customers, offer various interactive resource and logistic support and deliver image. Pine & Gilmore (1999) regarded customer experiencing as an economic products. They held that experiencing occurs in the organization, intending to use service as a dancing stage and products as props and tools to surround consumers to create activities consumers recall. Products are visible; service is invisible; experiencing creation is unforgettable.
Product and service are external to consumers, but experiencing is internal, gain from emotion, knowledge and spirit. When interacting with potential consumers, if sellers can make them have unforgettable and unique feelings or make them feel like VIPs, and emphasize whole experience through consumers’ senses, and experience of affections to appear a marketing of life style and an activity recognized by society, the potential consumers will become clients.
Many direct-selling firms are using physical channels to build experiencing platforms to implement the experiencing concept raised by Schmitt. They hope customers to be stimulated and motivated to agree to their products and then buy the products. It will increase product value and avoid depreciation of brand and product value after entering physical stores.
Regarding the connection between experiencing in physical stores and consumer purchasing behavior, Chien-Jung Huang and Tai E (2007) concluded that the better experiences in senses, emotion, thinking and action a sale representative has, the stronger belief the sales representative has in the direct-selling firm, and is more willing to continuously buying products and accepting service, and actively do word of mouth marketing. The research result also shows direct-selling firms make sales representatives generate affection toward the firms and brands through offering them feelings of happiness, excitement, beauty and satisfaction. That also encourages sales representatives to re-evaluate products. With the products, atmosphere and stimulus in the display centers, sales representatives also can understand longer life style and customers’ related experiences to associate with themselves, ideal selves, others and culture, and generate sense of recognition and belongingness of he brand. Those consuming experiences will keep strengthen the trust consumer have in firms.
Amway implement the experiencing concept through the whole marketing and sales process.
Amway focus on the service before customers buy products, and it is Amway’s technique core. In addition, sales representatives concentrate on the experiencing service, and this are key moment for consumers to buy products. Thus, sales representatives shall obey a series order of behaviors through learning, training and communication with others. This forms elements of theater theory, the standard of operation of experiencing areas such as “Amway’s big events in chronological order”,
“Successful distributors list” and “Product and life showcase” becomes the best scenes for distributors to introduce product and business. Moreover, “Product selection area” and the “R&J cafe” are the properties and tools for distributors to randomly use. In other words, distributors in the drama are leading characters; assistants in the experiencing area are supporting roles. After customers buy products, the after sales service which distributors offer are the key factors of creating satisfaction and long term relation due to the completion of the upside and downside relation.
In order to ensure the service quality of the experiencing areas, Amway adopts directly-owned management. Except for the logistics and customer service about visiting, Amway duplicates the operation of the experiencing areas and promotes them to each province of China. Under this whole-controlling operation model for experiencing areas, Amway can request employees in these areas to offer better service to represent Amway’s entire brand image.
VI.CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION