An exhaustive note on important business responsibility and are the various responsibility which a business have towards customer
- To produce those goods that meet the needs of the customers of different classes, tastes and with different purchasing power.
- To establish lowest possible price, consistent with quality, efficiency and reasonable profits to the enterprises.
- To provide prompt, adequate, courteous and friendly service to customer.
- To ensure a fairly wide distribution of product among all sections of the customers.
- To make the product more satisfactory to consumers thought product research and study of customer needs. The idea is that management should offer a product that the customer wants by finding out his desires and not on the basis of what management thinks the customer needs. Besides this, responsibility should be viewed in its long-term perspective. Businessmen should meet not only the immediate demand for products, but also look ahead and make provision for producing goods to be required by the customer in the future. Businessman should make efforts to constantly improve product. Produce development, therefore, becomes a continuing in particular. There is, however, a conflict of interest in this regard which need to be carefully resolved. Customers in general, prefer a large variety of styles of products, whereas the manager desires a few varieties of products that he can produce more cheaply. In general, standardization, simplification and specialization should form an integral part of a sound programmer of product development.
- To handle customer complaints more carefully, and analyses them properly to determine what causes them and how they can be corrected.
- To disseminate information about the product, service and company, organization and its policies and to enquiries relating to company, organizations and its policies and to ensure that statements made to customer regarding prices, quality or service facilities are truthful, and Nir exaggerated.
- To answer customer enquiries relating to company, its product either specific datum in understandable terms and thus help the customer understand quality and other characteristic of the product.
- To co-operate with groups and associations representing customers. Thus, where consumer have launched a co-operative movement for the distribution of good quality goods at reasonable process. Business executives should seriously think of providing useful suggestions and rendering necessary help to them.
- To carry on consumer research for better understanding and helping the customers.
This list may
not be called a complete or exhaustive, because a fundamental aspect of
responsibility to consumers is that the enterprise must have a firm foundation
of sound customer policy and standards, and the basic attitudes and philosophy
of management towards the consuming public must be spiffiness in alienable
terms. Responsibility to the customer should not be relaxed even when goods are distributed thought the
middlemen. Consumer criticism of the business community is often echoed in
respect of factory like prices, quality, service, production and distribution.
Business executives are often charged with supplying substandard quality of
goods, fixing Higher process offering inadequate services. Ensuring fair
standard with respect to these matters will go a long way to protect and
effectively safeguard the interests if consumer. However, social responsibility
of business towards consumers should not be viewed as one sided affair.
Consumer’s cooperation and actions in right direction she also very useful for
proper discharge of this responsibility by the business community. Some of the
important variables involves in this kind of interaction are considered firm
ten point of view of prices and on the other hand, the consumers association.
Businessmen’s
responsibility towards price is an important factor in the direction of social
responsibility of business should be fair and reflect the purchasing power of
the consuming public. At the same time prices should be fix so as to allow
recovery of list with average efficiency, and ails enable management to earn
reasonable rate of return on capital employed. However, standards with
reference to which fairness of price is to be judge are by no meaning easy to
apply and they do not remain static.
Consumers’
protection can also be assured by the stability in process. It can also provide
degree of certainty to the business community. Although rose in process apart from
the business factor is also an inevitable factor, yet still worse is the fact
that rising process are generally followed by anti-social activities like
hoarding, cornering, and artificial-scarcity which led to victimization and
exploitation of consumers.
In many cases,
the consumers have also contributed to creating situations of hoarding and
black marketing. Thus, consumers are found indulging in the purchased of goods
much above their normal requitements and actively participating in purchase of
goods in the black market without significant resistance or disapproval,
consumer need to desist from resorting to such acts, which are likely to
contribute to their victimization and they should themselves take necessary
steps to achieve protection for the consumers as a whole.
Consumer Association:
Every sufferer
is expected to convey his grievances to his fellow suffers. Similarly, the
consumers should convey the need for social responsibility to them fellow
consumers. They should organize consumers’ associations or councils at
district. Region and state levels, and if possible also at nations level. They
should organize consumers’ resistance movement and refuse to purchase in black
market, and also report cases of adulteration, profiteering, cornering and
hoarding to the concerned state agencies for legal actions and discouraged.
Attempts by the
business community to standardize their product should be responded favorably
by them. Consumers should also be educated not to buy substandard articles.
Another important step on this direction can be, to study periodically the
problem of consumers and take them up with retailers’ organizations., trade
associations, chambers of commerce and whatever, necessary with Governmental
agencies. Consumers’ grievances regarding process, quality etc. should be duly
checked and reported to the concerned business community, as a form of
consumers’ self-help, consumers co-operate societies should also be encouraged
at a wider level in the country.
On the other
side, the management of business undertakings should also encourage the
establishment of consumers’ associations, so as to represent the grievances and
complain of the customers, to be resolves at the business levels. Law is not
always well equipped to effectively combat social irresponsiveness, Disciplined
committee of businessmen themselves should be formed so as to take note of any
economic offences such as hoarding, cornering, adulteration etc. and punish
those found guilty of this offence by black listing of boycotting them, the
suggestion of George Goodier regarding including a clause of social
responsibilities in the memorandum of education is also being talked about the
business houses, however. It will take its own time to implement this
programmer.
Whole of state or the central government:
The state had
to play a positive role to make the business community more conscious of its
social responsibility to consumers.
The Government
can set a buffer stock particularly for essential commodities and thus
stabilize process and at the same timer counteract any economic maneuvering by
businessman to artificially manipulate the process to can also promote both
economic and legal measures to deter and prevent the business community from
indulging in undesirable activities like the hoarding, black marketing and the
like, minimum and maximum process for certain specified goods can also be fixed
by the different rules (being subject to revision due to the changing
circumstances), keeping in view the primary idea that the due protection is to
be provided to the consumers.
Government can
also enforce some sort of legal requirements for ensuring compulsory quality
control. Because maintaining high quality standard is an important aspect of
social responsibility of business toward of customers. Many difficulties and
problems may arouse by all the parties, because the quality by all the parties
, because the quality council cannot be ensured in every type of manufactured
goods or in the services, quality consciousness can be promoted through state
agencies like bureau of Indian standards (ISI), among the consumers and
entrepreneurs, the consumer should be impressed upon the purchased the quality
goods bearing quality mark or Agmark (for food products) are gaining momentum
but a decisive impression in the minds of the consumers had not the quality or
standard are yet improved. The primary cause of this shortcoming is that
firstly, they is not apply to many essential goods and article of necessary and
secondly, thy have had not the backing of public i.e., consumer and producer
and inculcating a high spirit of quality consciousness among producers and
consumers will also result in promoting better quality standards, of consumers
are fuse to purchase substandard goods and third indignation get poor quality
it will have a remarkable influence upon the management to be quality conscious
and produce goods conforming to some acceptable standards. When consumers
associated can be very effective in foreign countries to safeguard consumers’
interests through social and economic resistance there is no fundamental reason
why they should not succeed in other countries including India. Although this
process remains slow bat continuous generation of the consciousness should be
prevailed upon.
Business
executives should organize a quality control section in every year unit of
production; trade association should lay down quality specifications and urge
upon members to produce goods according to prescribed standards. Attempts
should also be made to create voluntary agencies if business man themselves to
exercise effective checks on members over quality of goods produces by them.
Business ethics
is another important aspect of social responsibility of business toward
customer. Advertising has come to be accepted as a power in the business world.
And firms are convincing that it pays to advertise, but there is also the wider
problem of misuse of this weapon. It is not infrequent when consumers are
misled by false advertisements. Produce are sometimes able to use advertising
as a tool for creating demand for undesirable products o for products not
actually required for the consumers, sale of adulterated medicines and spurious
food with the help of advertisements ethics make the consumers suffer in terms
of money, quality and health and danger to the morale of the business
undertaking as well as of the business undertaking as well.
Ethics in
business, along with the social responsibilities of the business has been often
discussed. Ethics is a system of morale, a rule of behaviors professional
standard of conduct, as human beings have generally accepted way to behave,
businessmen also must have a code of conduct, business created goods and
services and satisfied needs of the society. It always indulges in malpractices
which is harmful to the society, businessmen indulge in hoarding ( where a
shortage exists or is feared), and sell their products at Highter price and
make bigger profits and make bigger profits. These business houses charge a
price good quality material and sell substandard material. They weigh less and
indulge in adulteration even in the food stuffs on a large scale. Their
indulgence in foreign exchange racketeering and supply of poor-quality material
in the public construction corks ( dams, bridges, building. Etc.) has become a
common feature of corrupt practices subsequently making the Government
machinery corrupt and harming the morale of the society in general.
As all this is
going on since ages, there is a need to evolve some kind of checks. State has
also tried many checks and control through enactment of rales and regulations, even
the religious and moral forces could not work. However, some marginal and
temporary remedies could be noticed.
In modern
times, attempts have been made to male businessman conscious of their social
responsibilities, there has been a lot of coaxing and cajoling, a central
minister of a cabinet rank. While speaking at the golden jubilee celebration of
federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industries lashed out at
businessman accusing them of began cheats. Realizing that the practices and
image of the businessmen are not complimentary, bodies like federation of
Indian chamber of commerce and industries have tried to impress upon their
member, the need to be ethical. A fair-trade practices association has been
impressing upon its members to behave ethically. A code of conduct has been
drawn along with the less of dos and don’ts. but is difficult to say as to how
far these will leave its impact on the ethics of the business men.
Although the
primary purpose of the business is to earn profits, but the problem becomes
precarious when the profit making overtakes all sense of prosperity and making
quick money as the sole object. One cannot say as to where these practices will
stop. Therefore, the question of ethics shall always be questioning mark in the
business.
There is a
widespread feeling in the society that advertisements need to be fairer and
constitutes high advertising ethics. The business community should display a
greater sense of self-disciplined and social consciousness. It would be better
if social and economic resistances and disciplined with regard to advertising
ethics is supplemented by law.
Consumer’ protection:
The common laws
of most of the countries say consumers beware of bareness of the buyer. Of the
businessmen can be so unethical. The need to protect the consumer becomes of
paramount importance. The consumer may not always be careful and get hood
winked inspire of caution the law has given the protection (from time to time )
to the consumer, but it has been found usually inadequate. Exemplary punishment
used to be given to dishonest businessmen. The fear of an unhappy life may work
as deterrent.
Suring these
days, the attempts to provide protection of consumers have been made at the
level of businessmen, consumers themselves and at the government level.
Bodies like
FICCI., and fair-trade practices along with the strict provision of the
different rules and regulation of the government, consumers are also being made
more conscious of their rights, and they have been encouraged to form
consumers’ co-operative societies, with active government aid and
encouragement. Government has also opened fair price shops, but at the level of
consumer, the most patent weapons has been consumer resistance to exploitation
by businessmen./ consumers and general publics’ dissatisfaction with business
foul practices find the expression through the consumer movement.
Consumerism is
the reaction and an increasing organized reaction of consumer to their
dissatisfaction and unrealized expectation and they effort the gave these
perceived injustices remedied.