How To Btec Business Level 3 Unit 1 P5 Customer Service?

Customer Centric Service
Kaplan University
Unit 1 AB221
Malana Crofoot
01/10/2012

Unit 1: Customer Centric Service
When a person owns or operates a business there is an expectation to deal with persons outside of themselves. Knowing this it is best to give those people the best impression possible in order to gain customer loyalty and repeat business. If I owned a business, I would try to treat every customer as if they were my first. That first customer is very crucial to a business and should be treated with respect, consideration, care and concern. If all customers are treated this way the result will be positive feedback from them. However, if we take the tiered service system approach, which asks the question “why should the company spend the same customer service effort and expense on a one time customer…,” (Gibson-Odgers, 2008) we would take away from giving each customer the best possible customer service. It is good practice to invest good customer service in each and every customer or potential client. One thing about people is they talk about their experiences with others. Whether they have a good or bad experience makes a big difference to a company because you never know who people know or how many they can influence. Let’s take hairdressers for
example. They get many of their clients through referrals and word of mouth advertising. Word of mouth can work for or against a business. Imagine using the tiered service system in this line of work. You have a customer from out of town who you view as a one time client. Therefore, you decide to give this person less that the best service because you feel it is not likely that the customer will return. If this customer leaves feeling less than satisfied, it could be bad for business. You do not know who this customer talks to when they leave. What they have to say could hurt your business if it is negative. However, treating this customer with the same quality service as those repeat customers, will give a positive experience and when conversations arise about your business, this customer influences others to use your service because of the quality there. It is very important for a CSR to possess several skills. A CSR should always have a positive attitude, even when they are not dealing with customers directly. We can never be sure when someone sees a negative attitude, even for a brief moment, how it will affect a customer. Companies should be flexible enough to allow the CSR’s the freedom to solve problems when they arise in order to be sure the customer’s needs are met. There are times when companies or managers are so strict that the CSR’s do not have much power and need to refer to a manager for help. This wastes a lot of time when the CSR could have just used his or her problem solving ability to make sure the customer leaves satisfied. A CSR should be able to respond to customer concerns quickly and go that extra mile to please the customer. Making sure to build relationships with the customers in order to gain their loyalty is essential. There are many people who go to the same place for coffee before work, not because the coffee is just so good, but because they have a built a rapport with the staff. The CSR should have empathy and be understanding when a customer voices a problem or concern. I have gone to restaurants and see the staff holding a conversation. When they see me standing there, instead of finishing their conversation later, they resume it and leave me standing there. This is a bad feeling and more often than not I leave before they can service me. I get home and call the manager to complain because I am sure I am not the only person this has happened to. However, I was not comfortable just saying how I felt right there at the establishment. CSR’s should always be approachable. It is very important that a CSR is able to admit he or she made a mistake and be apologetic with the customer. Taking responsibility for their mistake will make the customer feel like this company cares how I feel. Last but not least, it is important that a CSR is able to be a team player. Treat your co workers and service people with the same etiquette you treat customers that pay. Employees can be customers as well as refer family and friends because they know the ins and outs of the service provided. It is sad to see when people work at a restaurant but refuse to eat there. That speaks volumes about the company. On the other hand, there are places where whole families patron the business because the employee speaks so highly of the place. Customer Service is about the customer.
Pleasing the customer is one of the most pertinent things to running a successful business. Companies that make their customers feel like they matter by giving them the best quality service they can possibly give will be the ones with repeat business, referrals, and rave reviews. Those that use the tiered service system, well, I am not sure how they keep their business running with this mindset. Treating customers any other way than the best has probably cost repeat business and or positive referrals. I like the way things were done in the old days when we followed the motto “Treat others as you want them to treat
you”.

References
Gibson-Odgers, P., (2008), the World of Customer Service, Thomson Learning Inc. Second Edition e book retrieved from: http://kucourses.com/re/DotNextLaunch.asp?courseid=6306691&userid=7093341&sessionid=0f36b0017f&tabid=aCWtx6ATJ/+5FxaoJKxvNllNzyGhFy7E+R2y7BjKhqDa0MUdbsS+6ozyBRPXywRi&sessionFirstAuthStore=true&macid=tBumIee7T6ii8Ydl1uinSnHgvalp2JuxBOzKALJKeJAwLb/UsCUMcT7yivzHMdVY8+/T8MUkiBGIyDASGW40hkhl9Qjrl1Nk7ljCbc5JHgN6ASXdNDjoaIkjHCp9ObCGERIAFxrYZLUbcypO9nvzb/L2xaul16vtii+MT7NtbnR3xo8CZXCKhVrumnjs4K/NH4O/BozAHr8kS935On60kHYuTar0U5cmYlSK27PvwbU=