Unit 11 P4/M3

Unit 11 P4/M3

I will now explain what contributes to consistent and reliable customer service and analyse the importance of customer service to different businesses.

Customer service is important for all businesses. Having good customer service can lead to more new and regular customers and it leads to more sales and bigger profits. Customer service is also important for company’s image, reputation and reliability. 

To have good customer service it’s necessary that your internal and external customers are satisfied.

External customers are satisfied when:

1.       Their needs and expectations are met

2.       They have confidence in the service

3.       Believe that they received value for money

Internal customers are satisfied when:

1.       They receive accurate and consistent information

2.       Receive a good service from their colleagues

3.       They are satisfied with their job

Good customer service and customer satisfaction is important for all businesses and they can benefit from:

1.       Repeat business – word of mouth. When customers are satisfied with your company’s product, services and customer service they are more likely to spread a good word about you. This means that you’ll have free advertising and be able to attract more new and regular customers. If customers are not satisfied with your product, service or customer service they’ll probably inform their friends and relatives about that. Your company will have bad reputation, bad image and reliability, this means that you’ll lose many potential customers as no one will want to buy from you.

2.       Increased sales. If your customers are satisfied they can become your regular customers. They can also advertise your company by method of word of mouth and it’ll attract new customers.  When you’re gaining more new and regular customers you automatically sell more products.

Not providing good customer service can lead to very bad consequences:

Inconsistent and unreliable internal customer service (unsatisfied employees) will lead to your business not running smoothly – if employees are not happy with their job, they are not motivated to do it properly, provide good customer service for external customer, make as much sales as possible. Unhappy internal customers will not provide consistent and reliable customer service for external customers. If external customers will not be satisfied with the way they were treated by your staff they probably won’t come back to you again. It can also mean that they’ll inform others not to buy from you, so at the same time you’ll lose possible regular customers and won’t be able to make new customers. By not having enough customers your business will not make enough sales.  

Ways of providing consistent and reliable customer service

Knowing the scope of your job role

Internal customers should know the limits and responsibilities of their job role. They should not take on responsibilities that they’re not allowed to, as most of the time they won’t be able to cope with them.  They should also know when issues should be referred to a senior employee and not be stepping outside their area of authority. Employees should use their own initiative and they should understand what tasks they would be able to do themselves and what not.

Having good product and service knowledge

Internal customers should have good product and service knowledge, as it’s necessary to provide reliable and accurate information for external customers. They should also memorise and know where to locate information.

Knowing the types and quality of the business’s products and services

Internal customers have to have good knowledge about product or service range. They should also have an ability to advise external customers on the product or service using their personal knowledge, customer feedback and media reports.

Having a positive attitude and behaviour

Internal customers should have positive attitude and behaviour towards external customer and each other. They should behave courteously and professionally. It’s important as it’ll help to maintain good relationships between employees which will lead to good atmosphere in their work. It’ll also help to make external customers satisfied and provide them with a good experience, so they’ll want to buy from you again.

Having good timing skill

Internal customers should have good timing skills as it is very important when providing consistent and reliable customer service.  Employees should know and understand when to approach or call a customer. They should understand when customer needs their help and when not. If they’ll approach to help when customer doesn’t need to, it’ll make customer feel irritated and disturbed. If they won’t’ approach to help customers when they actually need help, customers may feel that no one cares and respects their needs, so they’ll be dissatisfied with customer service. Internal customers should also not be late for pre-arranged appointments or meetings, not be late for deliveries and return pre-arranged telephone calls. Good timing skill could help to increase company’s reputation and reliability for external customers.

Knowing how to deal with a lack of accessibility/availability of business products and services

Internal customers should know how to sympathise with a customer’s disappointment. If customer is unhappy that he can’t get his product or service, employee should know the ways how to keep situation positive. Internal customers should know, that even if they don’t have product or services that customer is asking for, they should still try to find alternative. Maybe that alternative doesn’t differ that much from the product or service that customer asked. External customer will be happy that staff was trying to help as much as possible. Staff should also inform their employer about the customer’s disappointment, so it’ll reduce possibility that anything similar will happen in a future. It’ll also be helpful to review product or service deficiencies.

Knowing how to meet the customer’s needs

It’s important that internal customers are trying to meet customer’s needs, as if their needs are not met they won’t’ probably come back to you again. Staff should identify customer’s needs by listening to the customer. Then staff should match customer’s needs to the business’s products or services and try to find the best solution for the external customer. It’ll also be helpful to check if the customer’s needs have been met, so external customer feels that he’s cared after.

Knowing how to work under pressure

It is important for internal customers to know how to work under pressure and deal with difficult situations that can happen anytime in any business. Knowing how to deal with these situations will help to run business smoothly.  In these situations staff should stay calm, don’t panic, do one task at a time, put tasks in order of urgency and work as fast as possible whilst maintaining professionalism.

Knowing how to deal with customer’s problem

Internal staff should have a good knowledge how to deal with different customer’s problems. Knowing how to do it will help to run business smoothly and keep calm working environment which will help to reach business goals and be productive. Internal customer should be ready to deal with any problems that customer may have. When doing that they should not interrupt the customer when they’re speaking, check if they have all the facts, do their best to help and if the problem is greater than the limits of their job role, they should refer the problem to a senior employee.

Codes of practice

All the businesses use codes of practice to regulate consistent and reliable customer service. They are guidelines or standards of service that customer expect. The codes include information how to deal with problems, information for external customers and information and guidelines for staff. 

Levels and types of Codes of Practice 

·         Industry codes of practice – codes of practice that remain similar for businesses in the same industries.

·         Organisational codes of practice – codes for a particular company

·         Professional codes of practice – drawn out by professional bodies e.g. solicitors, teachers, doctors.

·         Ethical codes of practice – e.g. fair-trade