Unit 11 M4/D2

Unit 11 M4/D2

a)      I will now link and analyse the value of monitoring and evaluating to the improvements that organisations might make to customer service.

It is very important for all businesses to constantly monitor and evaluate their customer service. Doing this can help to make significant improvements to customer service which can lead to very big success of a company.

Customer service is important for all companies. Good or bad customer service can directly affect company’s profits and sales. Monitoring and evaluating customer can help to understand weaknesses of company’s customer service and after understanding those weaknesses it is easier to make improvements. It is necessary to make improvements for customer service and understand your customer needs. If you don’t you’re automatically losing customers and profits.

Monitoring and evaluating customer service leads to Improvements to customer service, which leads to:

b)      I will now explain and analyse how an organisation can make improvements to customer service for customers.

Monitoring and evaluating customer service can help to make improvements to customer service for external customers. It is important to do that because all the profits and success of a company has a very big dependence on quality of customer service.  Very important thing to do is to monitor your customer service regularly, so when level sales is going down you can make a decision what to change easier. If quality of customer service is bad, number of external customers is getting lower so automatically level of sales and profits are getting lower as well. Bad quality service can affect more different aspects but it usually leads to failure of a company.

Organisation can make improvements to customer service for customers by improving their:

·         Quality of services – it can be done by improving materials used for products that are used in a service. It can also be done by improving customer service for employees, improving staff training. If your employees will be happier about their job and will gain more skills they will be able to provide higher quality services for external customers.

·         Quality of materials used for products – it has a big dependence on quality of products. People can usually see when product is made from cheap material and no one likes buying something that is low quality or will break in few days. Package of a product should also look good, as first impression is very important when deciding to buy a product or not.

·         Quality of products – it has a very big impact on the image of a company. Good quality of products also shows your companies reliability.

·         Delivery times- delivering time should be as specified or even faster. If people are not receiving their product when they were promised to, there’s very high possibility that they won’t order from you again and inform others not to do that as well.  Improving delivery times means more happy customers. It’ll also help to gain more new customers and regular customers.

·         Reliability- it is very important that your customers trust your services or products. If they like the way they are treated in your company or they like a product they bought from you they are more likely to firstly, become your regular customers and secondly,  to spread a good word about which will attract more new customers and increase your company’s reputation.

·         Premises – redecorating premises or relocating into new, bigger premises.  People are more likely to come into spacious and nice looking shop or office, it is more attractive than small and old looking premises. Changes are always attractive for customers.

c)       I will now explain how an organisation can make improvements to customer service for employees.

Staff is very important for all companies and their performance is directly related with sales and profits.

It is very important that staff feels values and respected for what they’re doing.  If people are not happy about their job they will not be motivated to work hard, make as much sales as possible and etc.  If staff is looked after they are more likely to feel better about their job and work harder, do their job with bigger responsibility which leads to increase of sales and bigger profits.   

Organization can improve customer service for employees by using the business management theory of Frederick Herzberg

Frederick Herzberg felt that employee job satisfaction could be achieved if they have:

·         Interesting work – if people don’t find their job interesting or they’re bored doing it they usually don’t have any motivation to do it good. There should be something interesting about every job and you should help your employees to see that.

·         Responsibility – responsibilities can make your employees feel more appreciated for what they’re doing.  It can help them feel trusted by their managers and it gives motivation to do a good job and maybe gain more trust and more responsibilities.

·         Praise for doing a good job and a personal sense of achievement – it makes employees feel appreciated by other people and by themselves, it gives motivation to progress in their jobs.

·         The ability to acquire new skills- employees will be happier knowing that they’re able to progress in their career, gain more skills and learn something new. It gives motivation for them to do their work productively.

·         Opportunities for advancement e.g. training and promotion – knowing that you’ll be able to get training or promotion for to doing a good job, gives motivation to do it. It makes employees feel appreciated.

An organization can also make improvements to customer service for employees by improving the employees working environment.

d)      I will now explain how an organisation can make improvements to customer service to benefit the business.

Organisation can make improvements to customer service to benefit the business by:

·         More investments into staff training / New and improved methods of training – staff can gain new skills and they’ll be able to do more tasks. It means that and won’t need to hire other employees, will be able to improve quality of services and range of services. It is cheaper to train your staff than hire new people.

·         Improving quality of services – improved quality of services means more customers and more customers means higher level of sales. Improving can be done by improving materials used for products that are used in a service, or by improving customer service for employees, staff training. If your employees will be happier about their job and will gain more skills they will be able to provide higher quality services for external customers.

·         Improving quality of products - it has a very big impact on the image of a company. Good quality of products also shows your companies reliability. If people trust your company they’re more likely to buy from you.

·         Improving or redecorating premises - redecorating premises or relocating into new, bigger premises.  People are more likely to come into spacious and nice looking shop or office, it is more attractive than small and old looking premises. It means that you’ll possible get more customers and more customers means higher level of sales.

Monitoring and evaluating customer service is very important for all organisations. It can help to make improvements for customer service for external and internal customers and for the organization and making improvements is necessary to reach a success in a business.

Unit 11 p5

Unit 11 P5

I will now explain how customer service can be monitored and evaluated.

Why businesses monitor and evaluate customer service

 Monitoring and evaluating customer service is important, because it helps to improve customer service. Customer service is very important for all businesses and all profits depend on it. It involves customer service for external customers and customer service for internal customers – employees.

 If your employees are not happy with their job, have long working hours, low payment, no rewards for doing a good job, they probably won’t be bothered to provide good customer service for external customers. You will lose your loyal external customers and won’t be able to get new customers, this leads to low sales. This example showed that the main problem in the business was bad customer service to internal customers – employees, and it lead to further problems.

If sales are going down, you have no repeat customers, no new customers, complaints are rising, compliments are falling and you have high number of staff leaving, it shows that your business is experiencing problems and you need to improve your customer service. Monitoring these things helps to understand the problems you have and find solutions to fix them. It’s good to monitor customer service all the time, it’ll help to fix problems quicker and avoid mistakes in a future.

It also helps to understand your customer’s needs and expectations. Your customers may need different things than they needed before, it could happen because of economical fall and growth, trends changing and etc.

Monitoring customer service- getting a feedback from internal (staff) and external (buyers) customers about the customer service they received. Monitoring customer service is used to indicate progresses, check if company’s aims and objectives are being met and to indicate if business is trading successfully or not. If not, this allows making appropriate actions. Monitoring is undertaken more frequently than evaluating.

Evaluating customer service- is checking a level of sales, regular and new customers, level of complaints/compliments and level of staff turnover. Evaluating customer service is used to indicate longer term results and progresses than monitoring customer service. It identifies, why business is successful or not, what changed in business, how business met its aims and objectives. Evaluating is used to check and take the actions that should be taken in business.

Different ways an organization can monitor customer service

·         Complaint letters - this is a letter written by customer to express negative opinion about services or products they received. This letter usually outlines what was particularly bad about product/service.  This shows the weaknesses of a business and problems that business is experiencing.

·         Compliment letters – a letter writer by customer to express positive opinion about products or services they received. This letter shows what customer liked about product or service. This help to understand what strengths your business have in customer service.

·         Formal customer feedback – e.g. questionnaires and comment card – it can also be online surveys or surveys in a shop. It would be cheaper to make online survey, and it’ll probably be more accurate, as customers don’t have to face other people when they’re doing a survey and they can say what they really think.

·         Informal customer feedback – e.g. comments from customers, if customers are happy about your products/services, if they’re leaving you satisfied or not.

·         Mystery shoppers – very good way to check how your staff is providing customer service to real customers, you just need to pretend that you’re a customer as well and check how they treat you. It’s very easy to do it and very accurate as well, as you get clear understanding about the quality of you customer service.

·         Staff feedback – e.g. staff turnover, number of staff leaving or not attending or staff feedback about their job.  E.g. If staff is not attending or being sick very often, they are probably not satisfied with the job they are doing. If they are not satisfied with the job they are doing they won’t be concerned to make bigger sales.

Different issues that might be monitored by manufacturers and retailers

1.       Speed of delivery

2.       Quality of materials

3.       Costs of materials

4.       Quality of manufacturing procedures

5.       Costs of manufacturing procedures

6.       Selling and buying price of product,

7.       Level of sales

8.       Customers feedback

9.       Staff feedback

Issues that might be monitored by service providers

1.       Quality of services

2.       Costs of products used in services

3.       Costs of services

4.       Selling price of services

5.       Level of sales

6.       Customers feedback

7.       Staff feedback

Different ways in which customer service is evaluated

·         Level of sales – exact number of sales done. If sales are low, some actions should be taken to change it. It’s necessary to firstly identify a purpose of low sales.

·         Repeat customers – repeat customers’ means that people like your products or services and they like your customer service. If they feel that they were treated well they are more likely to come back to you next time. If there are no repeat customers it can mean that customer service is bad and you should put more effort into improving it.

·         New customers – new customers show that your customer service is probably good and your business has a good reputation so it attracts more new customers.

·         Level of complaint and compliment letters – level of complaint letter should be lower that compliment letters or at least it should not be rising. If you see that the level of complaint letters is rising you should take appropriate actions – analyse the purpose of those complaint letters. Complaint letters show why your customers are dissatisfied, so analysing them can be very helpful.

·         Staff turnover – staff will do a good job if they’ll like the job they are doing or if they’ll be rewarded for it. If staff is not attending or being sick very often, they are probably not satisfied with the job they are doing. If they are not satisfied with the job they are doing they won’t be concerned to make bigger sales.

Extension task 6.

Job roles and functions

I will now compare the main job roles and functions in Barnardos and ASOS.com organisations. 
Job roles and functions in both organisations are slightly different. They are different because their organisational structures are different. There are some particular functions and tasks, that one organisation need to do and other don't. Both of organisations have retail functional area - they both sell something and that's the way they raise money. But only Barnardos has "Children services" functional areas, because Barnardos is a charity organisation providing money and care for children, tehy work not for profit and Asos is completely different - they are selling clothes for men and women and they work for profit.

ASOS.com PLC is a global online fashion retailer which is established in June 2000.

ASOS.com Functional Areas

•         IT

•         Marketing

•         Retail

•         Corporate Functions

•         Customer Care

•         Logistics and Supply Chain

•         Production

•         Ecommerce

Barnardo’s is a children’s charity organisation founded by Thomas Barnardo in 1867.

Barnardo’s functional areas

•         Advertising and communications

•         Children's services

•         Finance

•         Fundraising

•         Human resources

•         IT

•         Supporter marketing

•         Legacies

•         Supporter Services

•         Policy and research unit

•         Retail

Functional Area	ASOS .com	Barnardo’s
IT	The technology team is responsible for all the websites and applications that power ASOS. IT department work across engineering, enterprise and analytics and all the stuff that brings ASOS to life.	The IT department's mission is to source and deliver excellent-value IT operations and services, deeply understand the needs of the business and in partnership, deliver appropriate business solutions and deliver strategic insight and leadership to Barnardo’s, based on their understanding of technology and the connected economy.
Marketing/ Advertising and communications	ASOS is also an independent media owner where they have dedicated commercial team working with a selection of advertisers. The marketing department is responsible for the customers interest, passion and taste. They need to be ahead when it comes to innovation, fashion and creativity.	This department is responsible for the communication that public receives about Barnardo's organization. This communication comes through the regional, national and local press, advertising campaigns or through the official Barnardo's website.
Retail	The Retail department source, select, buy and sell the fabric, garments, jewellery, handbags, shoes, beauty and the list goes on. Menswear & Womenswear Design responsible for 100% of ASOS range, their role is to give the trend and style the customer wants. Merchandising help to develop and select ASOS range and make sure they have the right products, the right quantities and at the right price. Buying team focus on developing and delivering a range that pushes the boundaries and meets the needs of the customer.	There are over 450 Barnardo's shops in the UK which sell donated items of clothing as well as accessories, quality home ware, books CDs, DVDs and much more. They sell a big range of gift wrap and cards. Their shops raise valuable funds each year to help improve the lives of vulnerable children.
Corporate functions	The Corporate Functions is fundamental in supporting the business. It is responsible for managing the accounts, looking after the customers and keeping everything in check. •         Legal Team – almost everything ASOS do needs legal review; clothing design, consumer’s issues, importing law, employment issues, etc. •         People Team (HR) – is responsible for spotting great people who share ASOS’s vision, passion and values. •         Finance Team – controls the cash within the business.
Customer care	Customer Care offer help, advice and support to customers but also responsible for reviewing orders to making sure customers are protected when they shop to ASOS. •         This department is on hand 24/7 from email to social media to offer care to all customers from around the globe. For them it’s about making the whole customer journey as seamless as it can be.
Logistics and supply chain	This department makes sure their product gets to where it needs to be, when they say it’s going to be. •         Logistic – is all about getting things to the right place at the right time. •         Supply Chain – manage all products, storage and delivery in the warehouse. •         Delivery Solution Team – make sure that every item is delivered on time and in perfect condition.
Production	Production is made up of a number of areas that all feed into making ASOS.com like: Sample Receive department is responsible for managing the journey for up to 2000 sample every week. Retouching team make sure all ecommerce imagery is perfect before anything goes live in the site. Shoot Operation keeps everything running smoothly, on time and on schedule. Copy department makes copy for around 400 products a day. The team creates product description and defines brands across the site. Still Studio uses still life photography to shoot bags, shoes, accessories and jewellery. Men's Wear & Woman’s Wear Studio creative team prepares, style and photograph the products and models.
Ecommerce	This department is all about finding new ways to improve the customers shopping experience which is split into four section: •         Fashion Finder – it’s a community platform showcasing the world’s best fashion from ASOS and selected retailers. •         Marketplace – support the sellers on the site and edit the site’s content with section like blogs and People’s Runway. •         User Experience – aim to produce an online fashion experience like no other. •         Analytics – help to understand where the customers are coming from and what they do when they are on the site.
Children's services		Barnardo's has a wide range of children’s services to offer in the UK. Those services range through family support, keeping children safe, physical and emotional health, learning opportunities, community development and different youth services.
Finance		This department is involved in activities such as financial processing, playing a key role in formulating the financial strategy of the charity. They prepare the annual budgets and statutory accounts, information which is of critical interest to the charity's donors and general public, and they also liaise with tax authorities and other statutory regulators.
Fundraising		This department’s mission is to help achieve, that children in the UK has a childhood free from poverty, abuse and discrimination. Their fundraising teams include corporate fundraising, trust fundraising, special events, legacies, community fundraising and direct marketing.
Human resources		The Human Resources team provides specialist advice on issues such as employee relations, employment law, pensions, discipline and grievance . They also provide professional support in the areas of recruitment, equal opportunities and diversity and policy development.
Policy and research unit		The Policy and Research Unit’s mission is to improve the lives of children through influencing public policy and practice. The unit is made up of policy, parliamentary and research professionals working across the UK to support evidence based practice and policy change.
Legacies		The legacies team is a dedicated group of eight people dealing with all aspects of legacy giving, from making a pledge through to receipt of the gift. They aim to talk to more people about remembering Barnardo’s by way of a legacy gift, and they also build and maintain relationships with supporters who have already pledged a gift in their will to Barnardo’s.
Supporter marketing		The team is responsible for one of the biggest income targets within Barnardo's and is a key team within the Communications section. They are responsible for recruiting new donors to the charity through direct mail, telemarketing and e-marketing, face-to-face fundraising. The team also has responsibility for retaining existing donors and creating life-long Barnardo's supporters.
Supporter Services		The Supporter Services Department is responsible for the processing and reconciliation of Barnardo’s voluntary income. They are also responsible for making sure that Fundraising and Marketing are kept abreast of UK data protection regulations and associated regulations related to supporter care, supporter care and participating in advisory groups.