Zurich Financial Services Australia - Case Study Example

Name) (Instructor) (Course) (Date) Customer complaints Introduction Business is the act of buying and selling goods or services at a profit. There is need for good relationship between the buyer and the seller for business operations to flow well. In case a seller mistreats the buyer, he or she goes on complaining and as a result, decide to do business with other people. Business companies or organization should therefore ensure their employees handle or treats their customers in a fairly and respectful way so as to satisfy them. Lack of fully customer satisfaction makes them complain to the company and such complaints should be solved appropriately so as to maintain such customers. A customer may send his or her complaints to the company or organization via; face to face, over the phone or in a written form such as a letter or mail (Wellington, Pg. 29). Question one In the three customer complaints case scenarios, the following conversations will be done with the respective customers so as to understand the nature of the complaint and how it can be solved. Case scenario one: Face to face customer complaint. Office customer assistant: how are you? Customer: I am fine Office customer assistant: how can I help you? Customer: I purchased a phone last week but it has now stopped functioning well, I cannot make calls clearly. Office customer assistant: Which type of a phone is it? Customer: Nokia 100 Office customer service: Can I have the receipt for the phone purchase? Customer: Here it is. Customer office assistant: Go to the sales department, room 16 second floor, they will assist you Customer: Thank you Scenario two: Over the phone customer complaint Office customer care: Hallo, this is STP Phones company, who am I talking to? Customer: you are talking to Tom. Office customer care: Yes Tom, how can help you Customer: I bought a phone from your company last week and now I cannot make calls. Office customer care: Just come to our office we are available throughout the week and you will be assisted. It must be a very minor problem. Customer: I coming right now, thank you. Office customer care: Welcome. Scenario three: Written customer complaint. A letter from the customer: Dear sir/ madam, I am Tom Mugo, I purchased a phone, Nokia 100 from this company last week but I cannot make calls through it now. Can I return it? Kindly respond. Thank you. A letter from the office Hi, Tom, we received your letter concerning your Phone complaint. We are glad to inform you that we value our customers so much. Just come to our office with the receipt and you will be assisted. It is a normal minor problem. Thank you. Question two Zurich Financial Services Australia Ltd Company outline Zurich is a financial service in Australia operating as a single branch as the only global financial services company. The company offers various services such as general insurance, investment and superannuation products and life risk. The company was found in the year 1920s in Australia (Gore, Pg. 32). With its continuous growth, the Zurich is now among the big international companies serving customers globally with its headquarters in various countries where they employ approximately 5000 staffs. The most common causes of complaints found in the company Despite the fact that Zurich Financial Services Australia is among the successful companies, it has some weakness just like with the nature of human beings; no one is perfect. Various complaints from customers are normally reported to the company where appropriate solutions are usually found in an attempt to maintain the potential customers. Some of the complaints are usually concerning, payment of premiums; in some cases a customer may have not received a full compensation according to the agreement with the company. These are the main complaints the company receives from customers (DiJulius, Pg. 27). Procedures for handling the complaints The company usually performs some procedures in handling such cases. First with the premium payment cases, the in charge department spends some time with the client in going through the information documents. The customer is normally asked to provide his or her payment receipts from the company as an evidence of the actual payments made. Through the receipts and the company records, the company realizes where they went wrong or where the customer got confused and as a result, such a customer gets satisfied. Zurich Company advises all its customers to store well all the payment receipts they receive from the company so as to easy handling of such cases (Barlow, Pg. 29). Customer relation procedures Zurich Financial Services Australia Ltd sets some measures that enhance a good relationship between the company and its customers. Such procedures are like the online web page that the company has where customer can post their comments and views concerning the services they receive from the company. The company therefore takes into consideration every comment or idea from a customer and comply accordingly (Wellington, Pg. 36). In doing so, the relationship with its customers is very strong which makes Zurich to maintain its customers. Staff Authority In taking rectification of complaints, staffs are always allowed to solve the issue up to their maximum level. Where one has no idea on how to handle the issue, he or she is supposed to refer the customer to the next level. There are some cases in which a staff member is not supposed to handle in such a case; the staff refers such a complaint direct to the senior management without even trying to solve it (Gore, Pg. 45). How the company appraises its level of customer service Through the company’s good relationship with its customers, they always ensure their customers are satisfied. By allowing their customers to post their comments and complaints concerning the services they receive, Zurich uses this to corrected their mistakes and weaknesses and hence fully satisfying its customers. Financial services regulations and requirements Zurich Financial Services Company requires its employees to serve their customers fairly with no form of discrimination. Any case reported concerning a poor customer treatment by an employee is normally taken with a lot of seriousness which may even result to such an employee getting fired. For this reason, employees in the company ensure that they serve a customer in a fairly way and in good standards following all procedures required in serving a customer (Barlow, Pg. 51). Some even ask the customer, in a cutesy way if he or she is satisfied with the kind of services given before leaving the company. Conclusion From all the above explanations, it can be concluded that, customers are like the backbone of a company. Without customers, no business can exist. However, companies have some weaknesses that leads to customers become less satisfied by the kind of services they receive. By purchasing a product or a service, the main aim of the customer is to get satisfied through consuming it while the company wants to maximize profit by selling the product or a service. Due to the weaknesses companies have, customers usually send some complaints to the company in case one fails to derive satisfaction from the product. Companies therefore should set rules and regulations to ensure that customers are treated in a satisfactory way so as to maintain them. Employees are the ones who spend much time with clients and therefore they need to be equipped with good communication skills so as to communicate well with them. Works Cited Barlow, Janelle. A complaint is a gift recovering customer loyalty when things go wrong. 2nd ed. San Francisco, Calif.: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008. Print. DiJulius, John R.. Secret service hidden systems that deliver unforgettable customer service. New York: AMACOM, 2003. Print. Gore, Albert. Serving the American public: best practices in resolving customer complaints : Federal Benchmarking Consortium study report. Washington, DC: National Performance Review :, 2009. Print. Wellington, Patricia. Effective customer care. London: Kogan Page, 2010. Print. Read More