BSBCUS401B: Customer Service Strategies - Unprofessional Customer Service - Assessment Answer

Customer Service Strategies Assignment

Assignment Task

1. What is the difference between an internal customer and an external customer?
2. Detail 2 elements of quality customer service
3. Detail 2 elements of unprofessional customer service
4. Detail the four levels of customer service
5. Detail 2 different ways you could collect information about customers and their experiences dealing with your company?
6. How are complaints beneficial to an organization?
7. What is Total Quality Management? Explain in detail.
8. What is the purpose of establishing service standards for an organization?
9. What characteristics do effective service standards hold?
10. What is a quality circle? Explain its purpose
11. In your own words, you are to explain why customer service is important in the business
12. What are the key features of trade practices and fair trading legislation?
13. Describe the purpose of the following legislation / codes of practice.

• Equal Opportunity
• ethical principles
• codes of practice
• National Privacy Principles
• work health and safety
• Employer rights and responsibilities
• anti-discrimination

What is the difference between an internal customer and an external customer?

Answer: Internal customers are the people of the company or the partners to whom the company delivers its products and services. Internal customers generally rely on the assistance on another to fulfil their job duties (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2016). External customers are the actual people who buy the company’s products and services (Communities.bmc.com, 2016). External customers play a major role in the success of the company as they provide the revenue to the company through their purchases.

2. Detail 2 elements of quality customer service.

Answer: The two elements of the quality customer service are:

• Respect: Respect the fact that customers pay our salaries and are a source of income to the company. Every customer should be treated as an individual and not cipher so that they feel important and should be treated in a good manner and be appreciated. One has to be polite while dealing with customers even if they are irritating and must apologise when necessary. In this way it will improve the services provided to them.
• Understanding: Understand, identify and anticipate the needs of the customers. Customers really don’t buy the products and services. They buy the solutions to their problems. Understanding their problem to solve it in a better way will be appreciative and have better experience in dealing with the business. Always engage in the communication with customers and exchange ideas and thoughts so as to understand their needs and therefore can satisfy them with better products and services. (Amini, 2013)

3. Detail 2 elements of unprofessional customer service.

Answer: The two elements of unprofessional customer service are:

1. Being unresponsive: People usually fail to answer emails or calls of the customers. They do this usually to avoid the uncomfortable situations. Failing to answer to the customers will have a bad impression on them. No work is easy. Being available to the customers to answer their queries will help to get a positive feedback from customers.
2. Being fake: Being fake is widely practised in the business. Being fake is bad. Giving false information about the product and services of the company will have bad impression on the customers and the relation with the customer will be spoilt (Expert in Unconventional Leadership, Strategy, Culture & Innovation, 2013).

4. Detail the four levels of customer service.

Answer: The four levels of customer service are:

1. The first experience: The first level of the customer service is when the customer talks to a representative of the company for the first time. This can be online, over the phone or in person. The company should make a good impression at the first time as it will decide if the customer will make any future transactions with the company. This experience will convince him to be a repeated customer.
2. Customer satisfaction: The first interaction with the company will have satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the customer. If the customer is satisfied he/she will view that experience positively and will be the beginning of a healthy customer relationship. If the customer is not satisfied with any criteria it will be a pressure on the company to find new customers.
3. Repeated customer transactions: This will help the company to get good revenue. The best approach is to make every member of the company to communicate with the customer and promise about the brand. By introducing new service features to the customers the frequency of their visits will be increased.
4. Branding: If customers know about the quality of the brand then it will be spread easily to everyone. Even the cost to advertise about the brand and company will be saved. If the same level of customer service brand is maintained more and more customers will be approached and high profit can be achieved (Work.chron.com, 2016).

5. Detail 2 different ways you could collect information about customers and their experiences dealing with your company?

Answer: The 2 different ways to collect information and feedback from customers are:

1. Customers can be given a form to fill their personal details like name, address, mobile number etc. And feedback also can be taken through the same method by answering some of the questions related to the company and their experience.
2. Another way to collect information from the customer is by online filling the details which can be used for the card purpose as well. The data will be stored in the database and can be retrieved easily. Feedback can be taken by approaching them in person and taking a small survey which includes all the questions regarding the company and experience.

6. How are complaints beneficial to an organization?

Answer: Complaints are a way to get valuable feedback from the customers. These complaints are a way in which companies can make improvements by taking it in a positive way. Rather them thinking as a mark of failure the complaint has to be analyzed the core reason for the complaint has to be found. This will help the company to rectify their mistakes and serve the customers in a better way which will also lead to customer loyalty. When the complaints are rectified customers will gain confidence in the company and will be a loyal customer (Complaintexpert.co.uk, 2016).

7. What is Total Quality Management? Explain in detail.

Answer: Total quality management is an approach of the management to have long term success through customer satisfaction. In this process all the members of the company participate in improving the process, products, services and the culture of the work. TQM requirements can be defined separately or can be included in the company’s established standards. TQM can be applied to any kind of organization. TQM was originated in the manufacturing sector and since then has been adopted by almost all the organizations. TQM process is divided into four sections: plan, do, check and act. In planning phase people address the problem, find relevant data and identify the root cause. In the doing people develop and implement solutions. In checking phase people confirm the results and in acting phase people document their results and inform to others about the process changes (SearchCIO, 2016).

8. What is the purpose of establishing service standards for an organization?

Answer: Using service standards offers powerful business and marketing tools. Customer standards will set the expectations for the customers about the organization. It’s important not to set unrealistic expectations to the customers as it will pose problem to the organization. It also expects employee’s expectations. By having proper establishes service standards it will increase the sales. Even customer loyalty will be increased who recommend the company to family and friends. Customer service standard is also used to build a good image and reputation in the market and brand name. Satisfied customers will also help to have a good working environment. Company’s which have good customer service standard will gain appreciation from customers.

9. What characteristics do effective service standards hold?

Answer: The characteristics of effective service standards are:

1. Make meaningful connections: Company’s make their representatives to have personal and professional connections with their customers. Customer service agents will be hired and trained to develop soft skills like honesty and transparency. With meaningful connections with customers they will have deeper connection with the brand.
2. Appreciating the customers: Employees should give thank you to the customers. They can also thank by sending gift cards, flowers etc. Much company’s keep a budget for this and have a good customer relation.
3. Taking ownership: Customers problems will be considered as the company’s problem and should be given importance and solved. Listening to the customers will help the company to better know about them and show care.
4. Timely and accurate: Customer service is best when it is prompt. Customers hate to wait for a representative to attend them. The timely response to request and question is the first step to solve the problem. Also the information provided to the customer should be 100 % accurate (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2016).

10. What is a quality circle? Explain its purpose

Answer: Quality circle is work group of employees who meet frequently to discuss their quality problems, investigate causes, recommend solutions, and take corrective actions. Employees who work together face similar types of problem. The size of QC should not be big. Generally 6-8 team size is considered as ideal. The purpose of the Quality circle is:

1. To improve the quality of the products manufactured by the company.
2. Improve the methods of the production.
3. Development of the employees participating in Quality circle.
4. Promoting morale of the employees.
5. Respect humanity and create a happy work place.

11. In your own words, you are to explain why customer service is important in the business.

Answer: Customer service is very important in a business as it the base to build trust among customers. Customers who trust the business and its products will appreciate the company as well as spread a positive feedback to their family and friends. This will help the company to target new customers. Word of mouth is very powerful and will spread awareness among all about the business. This will help the company to save cost for the ad campaigns. By providing the best customer service people will gain trust and will have a good experience with the business. Any business will have problems. By focussing on providing a good customer service many problems will be solved. Customers who know that their problem will be handled in limited time will feel more comfortable doing business with the company. Earlier business was just about sale. Nowadays even treating customers in person is also very important who wants more from the experience.

12. What are the key features of trade practices and fair trading legislation?

Answer: The trade practices act is a federal law that deals with almost all parts of the marketplace including unfair market practices, product safety, price monitoring and industry codes of practice. Its main feature is to eradicate unethical practices carried out by the competitors and ensure customers that they adhere to high standards. Businesses should also adhere to fair trading laws which is

These state it is unlawful to:

Make false claims about a product or service

Operate in a misleading or deceptive way that might mislead or deceive your customers

Take unfair advantage of vulnerable customers – unconscionable conduct.

13. Describe the purpose of the following legislation / codes of practice.

13. Equal Opportunity: to encourage the identification and elimination of discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation and their causes, and to promote and facilitate the progressive realisation of equality.
14. Ethical principles: It is the standard in which the country’s government is supposed to operate and dictate the conduct to its members.
15. codes of practice: A Code of Practice is a practical guide to achieve the standards of health and safety required under the model Work Health and Safety (WHS) Act and model WHS Regulations.
16. National Privacy Principles: The ten National Privacy Principles regulate how large businesses, all health service providers and some small businesses and non-government organisations handle individuals’ personal information. The NPPs cover the collection, use, disclosure and storage of personal information. They also allow individuals to access that information and have it corrected if it is wrong.
17. Work health and safety: The main object of this Act is to provide for a balanced and nationally consistent framework to secure the health and safety of workers and workplaces.
18. Employer rights and responsibilities: All employers have the right to appoint and dismiss workers in accordance with proper procedures and to expect reasonable performance from their employees. However employers do not have the right to: discriminate against existing or potential employees or allow sexual harassment victimisation or vilification to occur in the workplace.
19. Anti discrimination: establishes a legal responsibility on employers to provide workplaces free from discrimination, sexual harassment, victimisation and vilification.

14. Provide detailed explanation of 3 different legislations which are relevant to ethical customer service.

Answer: a. Ethical principles: Employees should behave ethically in their workplace. Even when they are not observed employees must behave properly in order to help customers. Treating customers ethically is also very important as they are the source of revenue to the company. This involves being financial honest which means giving the right price to the customers, refunding money if dissatisfied etc. The relationship between business and its customers is very important and should always avoid putting its customers in dangers and risk.

1. National privacy policy: The policy describes what should a company do while collecting personal data including what they can collect. It also describes how an organisation will use and disclose the customer’s information. An organisation should make sure that it holds accurate data related to the customers and should keep it away from unauthorised access. Organisations should also have policy which describes how it manages the data of customers and who are allowed to access it. It also describes how it manages sensitive data such as health, criminal record etc.
2. Anti discrimination: The Company makes sure that the work place is free of discrimination and harassment. The discrimination is prohibited against co-workers, customers, managers etc. Race, colour, gender, religion, membership, caste, Disabilities, illness, sensory impairments or learning difficulties, age etc are some of the discriminations which are totally prohibited in the workplace.