Customer Service Excellence and Role of Problem Solving - Assignment Example

MARKETING EXAM Marketing Exam Word Count 750 (7 pages service excellence How is technology enhancing the requirement of excellent customer service? Provide an example of CRM and technology that you have personally experienced. (250 words) Customer service can be greatly enhanced by the fact that technology is allowing businesses to do more with less these days. A wonderful example of seeing this in action was having a patron come into the organization looking for a particular item. All the store clerk had to do was simply type in the main keywords of the item for the customer into a computerized database that the organization/company had just put in place less than a year ago or so. Luckily, the customer service desk attendant was able to locate the item needed, and then was able to let one of the service team members know exactly where to find the necessary item needed. This was a great example of customer service because the problem (finding an item) was solved almost immediately by just using the technology that the customer service desk clerk had at his fingertips. More organizations could definitely improve their record of outstanding customer service if their technologies were more fully adapted to the customers they serve. It only makes sense to place the customer’s needs as primary and most important—otherwise one would go out of business pretty fast. It’s important to remember that customer service can make or break a business, and, having said that, it is hoped that everyone involved in an organization will want to help the customer service experience be as wonderful each time on every transaction. Since the customers are the backbone of a business, it’s smart to help people. 2. Internal / external customers Many customer service providers feel it is primarily important to maintain a positive relationship with internal customers. Please explain the theory behind this approach and how it relates to external customers. (250 words) It is a good idea to maintain a positive relationship with all customers, not just those customers that one has a relationship with internally. Keeping internal customers pleased is important. However, one should also take into account external customers. If one is going to have a good attitude towards all one’s customers, then it should not matter whether the customer is internal or external. However, if one must focus on an internal locus of control—one should ensure that internal customers are taken care of with the utmost urgency. Otherwise, unhappiness of the internal customer could spill over into the deluge of external customers who are patiently lining up for business. When all is said and done—it only makes sense that all customers are treated with the same respect and dignity. This will ensure that everyone receives an excellent level of customer service. In the case that even one customer is dissatisfied, one must take immediate action in order to ensure customers are treated with the same respect and dignity. This will ensure that everyone receives an excellent level of customer service. In the case that even one customer is dissatisfied, one must take immediate action in order to ensure customer satisfaction. A company or organization depends upon great references and a stable reputation to keep customers coming back. You don’t want to have a dissatisfied customer ruining all of your other business prospects. Of course, everyone makes mistakes and there’s room for error. 3. Perceptions / expectations Explain the six techniques for exceeding customers’ expectations. Next, select two that you feel are most important in creating customer service excellence and explain why you feel they are important. (332 words) In order to exceed customers’ expectations, the service provider should: deliver services, ensure a good price, great quality, action that will be taken, and appreciation to be conferred upon the customer, with the sixth technique being having good follow-up. Delivering services is an important part of making the customer happy. In order to run a business, you have to ensure that the customer’s satisfaction is a key element in one’s success in business. It’s good to keep the positive vibes about one’s business flowing—and to try to keep that statistic of positive results about 95% or greater, if possible. Of course, ensuring that the customer gets a good price for the product or service being delivered is another important element. Great quality is another hallmark of excellent service. No one wants to pay big money for a product or service that is either useless or doesn’t work well. Therefore, it always makes sense to be on the customer’s side. If the customer wants better quality, it had really better be there. It only is common sense to deliver the product that you promised, which goes back to the action technique—underpromise and overdeliver! It’s a good idea not to promise that one can do things that technically they cannot do. So, it’s a good idea to always make promises one can keep—and for the other promises, to leave those alone. The promises kept are those which matter most to customers. Customer appreciation is very important. Even if it’s a small item like a sales flyer, customers should be given something every time they walk out of your business that they can physically hold on to—even if it’s just a piece of hard candy (if you have a store that is at a physical location versus online). This will make you memorable, and it also sets the stage for when you will follow up on the customer to make sure that your service was a pleasant experience with the company. 4. Role of problem solving A positive way to view problems is to think of them as opportunities. What does this mean in terms of problem solving and how is that idea associated with the concept of brand loyalty? (260 words) Problems can definitely be viewed as opportunities to engage, to interest, and to inspire customers to want to return to the business. The more that customers are interested in the product or service that one is delivering, the more likely it is that one’s customers will rely on your brand’s loyalty. Brand loyalty is definitely important for many reasons. When people have loyalty to a brand—such as a business—it is usually because that organization or company has something unique about itself which it offers its customers. So, it only makes sense that brand loyalty is part of promoting a project. Brand loyalty is something that cannot be advertised by a website or bought with money. Inspiring brand loyalty requires the buyer of the product or service to have some vested interest in wanting to keep the product or service well-known and popular. This is where excellent customer service comes in. With excellent customer service, the customers will almost always want to return to do business. Loyalty to a brand takes time to cultivate among customers, but once that ongoing process is in motion, there is little one can’t do to keep that organiation running with a steady stream of business. People tend to trust loyal brands more than they are likely to try something new. Therefore, it is important to always keep elements of one’s brand stable and permanent. For example, one might change some of the products offered in a store, but retain the store’s logo and location if it is found to be a trustworthy company. 5. Problem solving process Explain the problem-solving model (process) and the seven steps to determining and implementing a solution. Provide a sample problem as you navigate the process.  (304 words) 1. Identify the problem. It makes sense to quickly identify the problem at hand. For example, a customer is dissatisfied with a product. 2. Understand the problem’s unique characteristics and the possible outcomes. The problem may have unique characteristics of its own. For example, some major component may have been left out of the product. 3. Define the requirements of a possible solution considering company policy already in place. The requirements of the possible solution might be to either exchange the product, give a refund for the defective item, or to give a coupon for the defective product. 4. Identify possible solutions. The possible solutions include giving the customer their money back, if they refuse to take a coupon or exchange the product for another one. 5. Select the best solution. If the customer is willing to take an exchange or a coupon, that is preferable to the store giving a refund, since business is lost, but on the other hand, one doesn’t want this dissatisfied customer to ruin a track record of excellence in customer service. If the customer demands it, a good idea would just be to give the customer’s money back. 6. Implement the solution. Ideally, for the customer, the customer would get his or her money back. The ideal solution for the organization or company would be to either give a coupon, make an exchange for a product of equal or lesser value, or give a discount on one’s next purchase. 7. Observe and evaluate the solution’s impact. The impact of the solution can only be known if the customer is followed up with to ensure the satisfaction of the service rendered. Therefore, a suggestion box, a guest sign-in sheet, or the personal information of the customer should be entered into a database so that it can be checked periodically. 6. Empowerment / opportunities Explain how a lack of empowerment can affect a customer service provider’s ability to provide the service that customers expect? (359 words) Lack of empowerment within the customer service realm can affect the quality of customer service that customers receive. As such, it is important that customer service representatives feel empowered enough to ensure that customer service is always at a premium. Empowerment helps those who are feeling “down and out”—perhaps they’re stressed out at work. perhaps they have too many bills to pay and not enough wherewithal to ensure that those bills are paid. Whatever the reason, customer service representatives reflect the top-down effect in management, and they are definitely living in a more stressful era, with the advent of technology. This means that there are going to be more stressed-out customers as well, and thus the people who are trying to ensure that there is great customer service may be stressed out as well. If the customer service representatives who are most vulnerable to these problems, should difficulty arise, are only compounded by stress. Thus, it would be ideal if customer service could effectively deal with all these issues—but unfortunately some issues cannot be dealt with in the realm of customer service alone. For example, if the customer service desk is having a difficult time dealing with a customer, it would make the most sense if the issue was referred to the Human Resources Department or a manager at the organization. Morale should always be boosted to the extent that the customers feel like they, too, are being empowered by the people who are working in the store, organization, or company of business. So, if the customer feels like they are getting good vibes from the customer service representatives, it only makes sense that the business is going to flourish. Happy customer service representatives will make the entire organization valuable. It is so important that customers are able to feel like they have a team of people who are there to help them succeed (in doing whatever they are doing). So, basically, what is happening is that empowerment that the managers pass on to employees, will definitely be reflected in the employees’ attitudes and will therefore be affected directly by the positive customer service experience they had. 10. Methods of communication Listening is certainly a critical method of communication when dealing with customers. Identify what factors cause people to have poor listening skills and discuss why good listening is vital to effective customer service. (264 words) Poor listening skills may be the result of many things—for example, people may grow up in a large family and basically not have been taught how to listen properly. They might also have some type of problem which prevents them from being able to recognize when normal stops in conversation occur. This might also not have been a skill that was taught to the individual early on. Also, this might have been the result of disordered family systems theory working within the family structure. People who come from families who do not have adequate role models may definitely suffer from having to repeat the same mistakes that those around them made. It is important to help those who have poor listening skills to practice listening—because one only gets better through practice. Good listening skills are vital to having good customer service interactions, because good listeners will always be attentive to the clients’ needs. This means that, basically, good listeners are more likely to be promoted, have a greater chance of having upward mobility within the organization or company—and finally, good listeners will foster a spirit of unity amongst their colleagues and co-workers. Good listening skills should be taught as part of the curriculum of schools elementary-level through doctorate and post-doctorate levels. It is now more important than ever to have great listening skills in this age of changing technology and where time is at a premium. Good listening skills will increase the efficacy and efficiency of workers and it is a good policy to reinforce the habit of using those skills. Read More