Solutions in Customer Support - Coursework Example

Solutions in Customer Support Institution affiliates Name Case Summary There was a complaint about poor services in the restaurant. Initially, the customer waitress got her order wrong, and they had to wait for about 20 minutes. But, the food served was cold. . However, they were later served but it took long and the customers were not happy about the delay. I apologized for the poor services and assured the customers that they complaints would be handled correctly. As a way of sympathizing with the client, I gave them a discount on their bill. I assured that that was not what they should expect from the restaurant, and promised to use their feedback to improve XYZ restaurant services. Helpdesk operation XYZ should also ensure that service quality is reviewed to ensure customer satisfaction. These meeting should be helped at regular intervals, in this case after the client had issued a complaint about a wrong order, such issues should be discussed with the help desk to avoid reoccurrence. Such meetings form a basis for considering service expectations and actual delivery. Once they note that the services delivered do not conform to the agreement, they should be corrected immediately. The restaurant should also establish metrics to measure performance at the different level of customer services. A help desk should be monitored to keep a record of all incoming calls as well as the number of complaints. These metrics help in improvement of the service levels. The types of information that are included are some problems, problems resolved and unresolved, some calls, and changes implemented. Monitoring staff utilization is essential by analyzing the amount of workload. Research shows that there are inadequate policies that can protect help desk information security. XYZ restaurant should adopt policies that meet its risk profile. These policies set of rules that the organization should follow. The help desk support staff should understand these policies, as well as the circumstances in which they can be used in daily activities. In other words, the policies are only effective only if the staff understands how they should comply in a procedural way. In the case of XYZ restaurant, the manager should establish a rule that the waitress should take customers order within five minutes. Help Desk Operations in Meeting Users Needs A help desk is crucial for any organization due to it is diverse and intangible benefits that can be realized. Intangible benefits are associated with business continuity that is related to customer loyalty, business inflows, customer retention, as well as operational flexibility. However, help desk value is primarily measured in customer satisfaction and can also be quantified by an increase in productivity. For example, increased sales from repeat customer can occur due to quick and efficient customer service. Increased sales can also occur as a result of information dissemination attracting new customers. In this case, if XYZ restaurants customers do not receive adequate customer support, they may look for alternatives where they feel valued. Therefore, the business and any associated profit margins are lost. Research shows that cultivating customer relationship is more expensive than retaining new customers. Customers want to be assured that they have a voice into an organization that listens to them. For this reason, it is help desk responsibility to ensure productivity through the use of technology is maintained at the highest levels possible. Despite the advancement in technology, customers still want to contact and communicate with humans since they can empathize and resolve their issues. Thus, the concept of a help desk always follows the need to improve customer support and accommodate a change. This paper will analyze the pre-requisite that need to be in place to achieve and maintain successful help-desk operations. Setting Customer Support goals and standards Goal setting is a crucial component of help desk operation. Setting appropriate objectives and rules for help desk service that matches organizations' aspiration is imperative for the organizations performance. Research indicates that if the goals are too low, the employees' commitment and motivation will also below (White, 2005). Similarly, higher attainable goals that are accepted by the workers' results for increased performance. Helpdesk primary role is to provide adequate support for the services that are delivered to customers. It usually provides support for customer and often coordinates with overall support process. When goals are customer focused, the employees actions will always be directed towards satisfying customers, efforts is expended to satisfy customers, and the workers will strive to achieve their goal, pleasing the customers. However, involving employees in setting goals increase the chances of accepting those objectives. Helpdesk goals and standards must be set based on customer research data. Asking customers their wants is the most important part of setting help desk aims and standards. Various methods can be used to determine customers need such as interviews, customer feedback, questionnaires, and focus groups. Once customer research has been done and help desk goals and standards have been established, employees can align themselves with the organizations goals. For example, if XYZ help desk goal is to make a restaurant reservation for its customers, employees will need to determine customers need and test with customer focus group if they understood. The help desk goals include ensuring customer satisfaction, supports the retention of clients, and identifying customer training requirement. In other words, goal setting should be used as a guide, as the incentive to increase performance, as a way of promoting pride in accomplishment. Measuring customers need Quantifying customers' needs, satisfaction is an essential requirement for help desk operation. Usually, a help desk provides support levels to enable a focused response to problems and system failures. A help desk structure is classified according to various categories, front line support, second level support, and third level support. The customer supports at the front line are the initial people that a customer reports a problem in the organization. The role is to record accurate information regarding the client complaint and categorize the problem. However, the support staff can identify a solution to the complaint, or refer to the next level. Similarly, the second level of help desk operation consists of staff with higher technical or specialized skills than frontline level. The third level consists of staff with expertise that evaluates and advise customers on the problem and then provide a solution. Training In help desk operation, communication skills are critical to a higher level of technical know how involved delivering organizations services. Even though it is not mandatory to have highly advanced technological systems, however, the staff should have adequate knowledge of technical skill that are necessary to identify correct level of technical support. The help desk staff should be trained in communication skills development. Communication is the most fundamental process of transforming information to adapt the environment. Research indicates that help desk staff should have skills to effectively convey ideas and information (White, 2005). Additionally, they should be able to understand customers and ask questions about the complaints. Effective verbal communication refers to the ability to communicate with different people, build rapport with the customer, as a way of maintaining customer reaction. Effective communicator should also be outspoken and speaks clearly so that they can be understood. However, nonverbal communication is paramount as it provides the customer with the underlying message that the support staff cannot convey through verbal communications such as upset or unsure. Listening skill is also crucial competency for an efficient help desk operation. These skills include the ability to respond to other questions, to use response clarify issues so that they can ensure that others in the team have heard what the customer is pointing out. When the client support staff fails to listen to customer feedback and complaints, these problems are likely to occur since they do not take action based on feedback. The ability to listen without distraction sounding interested and ability to capture what the customer is saying is crucial in help desk operation (White, 2005). Helpdesk support staff should also be trained on stress management as stress is associated with lack of flexibility. To ensure flexibility of help desk, stress should be maintained as low as possible. A help desk can be a stressful environment especially when you have to deal with rude or disturbed customers, working with new technology. Stress management refers to the ability to perform under pressure that makes completing work very difficult. Thus, support staffs that stress tolerant can remain productive even in times of crisis. Helpdesk support staff should also be trained in handling phone calls technique. Research indicates that help desk support staff must have the ability to apply appropriate telephone technology. Other skills include the capacity to retrieve information from the database and typing skills. An effective help desk customer support will possess basic telephone skills such as how to greet customers, how to refer to their names throughout the interview process, typing skills, and computer literacy (White, 2005). The primary role of customer handling skills is to increase customer satisfaction levels. The main focus is to support the aim long term customer retention through building a strong and efficient working relationship between client and support staff. Controlling potential problem areas Reducing potential problem areas through practical application of change management is a good strategy to avoid reoccurrence of problems. Change management is vital since it allows the use of standardized procedures and controls to proposed amendments in customer service deliveries. These methods help the support staff to handle activities in a structured manner. Change management can thus be applied in areas such as communication, support systems, maintenance procedures, and so on. Effective problem management The primary reason for complaint management lies in the identification of an issue in particular incident and a solution to avoid future reoccurrences of such problem through elimination problem. However, effective problem identification solely relies on a formal management process (White, 2005). Consequently, the first step should be control process, to avoid increased incidences of complaints. Problem escalation management refers to the involvement of top management whenever the problem remains in unresolved. The problem level classification is a critical aspect of problem management. For instance, in case of a crucial problem in XYZ restaurant such as food poisoning should be automatically notified to the manager after the customer notifies the help desk about the issue. Similarly, a less priority problem such as wrong order would only be notified to the manager once resolved. Conclusion Efficient help desk operation is essential for the success of a business. Thus setting help desk goals and standard and involving the staff during this process ensures that they always work hard to achieve the targets. Also, positive training in various areas such as communication skills, listening skills, stress management, and handling phone calls will also help in reducing the reoccurrence of complaints. The organization should also incorporate change management process to reduce potential control areas where problems have a higher likelihood of occurring. Lastly, the organization should ensure that priority problems should be referred to a manager immediately so that they can be resolved in time. References White, C. (2005). Core Competencies of a Call Centre Agent. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 2 3 (2), 41-47 Read More