The Process of Customer Engagement - Essay Example

CUSTOMER SERVICE Name Course Professor Institution Date Customer service entails the acts that an organization does to provide the customer needs before, during and after meeting customer requirements. The actions should be helpful, professional and of high-quality service to meet customer desires. A high-quality service entails promptness, politeness, and personalization. The services involve respectful treatment of a customer, follow up with feedback, gracefully handling complaints superseding customer expectations, and understanding client needs. Customer service is critical to any business model for a business to be successful. Therefore, an organization should meet needs of every customer including the potential, new and existing ones. There are several benefits of customer services. First, a business gains loyalty from customers. The customers spread positive things about business through word of mouth thus enhancing company reputations. The enterprise customers increase. As a result, a company gains more profits from more customers. Also, customer service decreases possible barriers that can be realized when the customer is purchasing a product or service. Through the experience, I got to understand the significance of customer service and the necessities of building up a relationship with a diversity of customer. The paper seeks to discuss different levels of customer service, and relevant experience gained through voluntary at a range of events and activities. There are varying levels of customer service. The customer services levels include criminal, basic, expected, desired, surprising, and unbelievable services. Criminal services entail inadequate services that violate minimum customer expectations. The customer may call to complain or never want to purchase the product or services again from the enterprise. Basic services comprise of disappointing services, but the customer may not call to complain. Expected services consist of average and general services without anything special. A client may come back to purchase the product if no better options exist. Desired services entail services that a client hope for and prefer. Surprising services include special treatment of customer with things like gifts, and this makes clients enjoy coming back for the products. Unbelievable service includes amazingly fantastic treatment that customer may not forget thus spreading the news to friends about the services. As a volunteer, I had to deal with a variety of clients. Before I joined British Heart Foundation, I learned of the different levels of customer services. I was determined to offer the best services, but it is hard to deal with different type of customers. After joining the Foundation, every day was a learning process on ways of improving customer services. At first due to my character, my accent and language barrier; as English was not my first language, I offered basic services. Through the learning process, I improved and provided expected services to the customers. I continuously tried to cope with the customer needs and presently I am proud to provide desired services. In future through collaborative efforts with the organization, I hope to provide surprising and unbelievable levels of services. To do this, the foundation should offer gifts and aid in the fantastic treatment of customers. Surprising and unbelievable services are a bit expensive but significant for customer loyalty and increase in customers in general. As a volunteer at British Heart Foundation, I interacted with a diverse range of customers. Some were friendly while others were harsh. The customers were of different social, economic and cultural groups. To satisfy the customers, I used polite language and tried to understand their needs so as to fulfill them. I faced different clients on various occasions. On one occasion a rude customer who seemed offended by our foundation. So the client stormed our shop and demanded an explanation on how we spend the income generated given the fact that the organization had not assisted his son who had a heart disease. I spoke to the customer, but the customer abused me and referred to the Foundation as thieves. I was determined to be polite no matter what and I spent time trying to explain to him how his son could get help. With time, the customer cooled down, and I explained in detail how the organization works. In the end, the customer appreciated my efforts and even purchased a product. I learned that patience is significant in addressing the clients. Different clients should be treatment according to their characters (Collins & Henry, 2007). In another occasion, a customer was from different culture and could not speak English. My fellow volunteers could not understand the language of the client either. Therefore, I had to figure a way out to help the customer. I searched the internet and found an institution that dealt with translation. I gave them a call, one of their representatives came and translated the client's message to me. I was able to assist the customer, and I sold the product he needed. The customer wanted to know more about our shop, and I explained to him. He was not comfortable with some of the services like lack of a translator, and I promised him that I would pass the feedback to the management. I informed the manager and in collaboration with the local translator company, they had an agreement on how to provide translation services to our Foundation. I learned that customers may come from different cultures and with different beliefs, but when one should create a favorable environment for the customers, they feel secure and are satisfied with the services (Meyer & Schwager, 2007). While at British Heart Foundation, I changed the approach of my services to the clients based on the customer’s character and background. Some of the customers were more sensitive than others, and I had to be more courteous with what I said to them. There are some constant services that I provided to the customers so as to build a relationship with them. First, I welcomed every client to our shop and asked how I could assist them. Secondly, I had to be polite and understand the customer’s needs. I made sure to serve the customer from the moment he or she entered our shop to the moment the person left. This helped me develop relationships with the customers I was serving. Building relationship was significant to the client loyalty and Foundation reputation (Bowden, 2009). Customers who experienced the satisfaction of services spread the word to others making more people to come to our shop. Also, the loyal customers kept coming to our shop to buy products. This, in turn, helped to generate more revenue to go to British Heart Foundation. The capital gained went a long way to help persons with heart disease. These are some of the reasons that encouraged me to build customers relationships (Caruana, 2002). The relevant theory that applies to the voluntary customer service work at British Heart Foundation is the two-factor theory of customer service. The concept focuses on the outcome of selling more products to generate capital for the British Heart Foundation. Therefore according to Elwood, (2013), customer service does not entail but do-it-if-you-think-of-it characteristics but rather maximizing wealth created. Elwood (2013) states that proper understanding of the client events leads to efficient delivery of the customer services. The customer service events persuasive perceptions include emotional, solutional, accessible, informational, relational and aptitude dimensions. The research shows that superior customer service delivery leads to more profits. Hence, the theory helps an organization change how they see their clients. When the Foundation changes how they see their customers, the clients also change how they see the organization. An excellent treatment of clients leads to a proper relationship between an enterprise and the client. According to Elwood, (2013), organizations should hire employees who provide excellent customer services. Therefore, as a volunteer with ambitions of gaining more experience in customer service, British Heart Foundation has helped me gain more skills and experience. In conclusion, customer service to clients benefits an organization directly and indirectly. The company earns client loyalty and good reputation. As a result, the organization generates more revenue. Therefore, every company should consider on ways to improve customer services. The enterprises should focus on customer satisfaction not only in customer service department but also the quality of the products. Hence, the company should hire employees with excellent customer service skills. Also, it is significant to provide gifts to customers and if possible additional services that will make them not forget the experience the organization provided. This will act as a marketing strategy as the clients will spread the word about the merits of buying products or services from the organization. As a volunteer at British Heart Foundation, I am proud to have helped raise funds for the people with heart diseases and in the process; I have gained more experience that will boost my resume in future (Kinni, 2011). Reference Bowden, J.L.H., 2009. The process of customer engagement: A conceptual framework. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 17(1), pp.63-74. Caruana, A., 2002. Service loyalty: The effects of service quality and the mediating role of customer satisfaction. European journal of marketing, 36(7/8), pp.811-828. Collins, C., & Henry, M. (2007). Customer service. New York, Distributed by Insight Media. Elwood, D.L., 2013. Two Factor Theory of Customer Service: A comprehensive, easy to read guide for increasing profits. AuthorHouse. Kinni, T. B. (2011). Be our guest: perfecting the art of customer service. Meyer, C. and Schwager, A., 2007. Understanding customer experience. Harvard business review, 85(2), p.116. Read More