COURSE TITLE: CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGEMENT:-
(A) Short Answer Type Questions:-
Question 1. What do you mean by customer service? Discuss the impact of good and bad customer service on the customers. Subtantiate your answer with suitable examples.
Answer. Customer service is the direct one-on-one interaction between a consumer making a purchase and a representative of the company that is selling it. Most retailers see this direct interaction as a critical factor in ensuring buyer satisfaction and encouraging repeat business.
* Customerservice is the support you offer your customers- both before and after they buy and use your products or services -
that helps them have an easy and enjoyable experience with you. Offering amazing customer service is important if you want to retain customers and grow your business. Today's customer service goes far beyond the traditional telephone support agent. It's available via email, web, text message, and social media. Many companies also provide self-service support, so customers can find their own answers at any time day or night. Customer support is more than just providing answers; it's an important part of the promise your brand makes to its customers.
Behind the scenes at most companies are people who never meet or greet the people who buy their products. The customer service representatives are the one who have direct contact with the buyers. The buyers's perceptions of the company and the product are shaped in part by their experience in dealing with that person.
* The Cost of Customer Satisfaction: br>
- For decades, businesses in many industries have sought to reduce personnel costs by automating their processes to the greatest extend possible.
- In customer service, that has led many companies to implement systems online and by phone that answers as many questions or resolve as many problems as they can without a human presence.
- But in the end, there are customer service issues for which human interaction is indispensable, creating a competitive advantage.
- Amazon is an example of a company that is doing all it can to automate a vast and complex operation. It has to, given that it delivered five billion packages to customer's doors in 2018, and that just the purchases made by Prime members.
- Nevertheless, Amazon still offers 24-hour customer service by phone, in addition to email and live chat services. Most successful businesses recognize the importance of providing outstanding customer service. Courteous and emphathetic interaction with a trained customer service representative can mean the difference between losing or retaining a customer.
- Successful small business owners understand the need for good customer service instinctively. Larger businesses study the subject in-depth, and they have some basic conclusions about the key components:-
- Timely attention to issues raised by customers is critical. Requiring a customer to wait in line or sit on hold sours an interaction before it begins.
- Customer service should be a single-step process for the consumer. If a customer calls a helpline, the representative should whenver possible follow the problems through to its resolution.
- If a customer must be transferred to another department, the original representative should follow up with the customer to ensure that the problem was solved.
- Customeers are the foundation of success for any business, and if customers are not treated right, the business can lose its reason for existence. If you are not taking care of your customers, and your business becomes known for poor customer service, you can expect several things to happen and none of them are good news for business.
* Customer Leave:-
- Rare is the customer who will stick around through repeated experiencies with poor service, especially in a competitive market where they can easily take their business elsewhere. When your customer walks, you lose not only that revenue, but also you potentially lose the word-of-mouth of advertising that only a satisfied customer can provide. It takes more effort to attract new customers then it does to retain a volued one, so shedding customers is something no business can afford.
* New Customers Stay Away:-
- Word-of-mouth has two sides to it. Just as new customers seek out businesses based on recommendators from people they know, prospective customers will avoid a business when they have heard first-hand accounts of poor customer service. People tend to believe firsthand accounts from their friends and acquaintances more than they believe impersonal seouces such as advertising. They also give more weight to negative reports than to positive reports. Prospective customers that might have found their way to your business will instead check out what your competitors offer.
* Your Reputation Suffers:-
- It starts when dissatisfied customers talk to people they know about the poor services they get, and it escalates when they express these feelings online. Not only can tweets, Facebook posts and bad Yelp reviews go viral, but these statements can also last forever, potentially becoming only a Google search away from tarnishing your business reputation.
- Once a business is known for poor customer service, if not impossible - to repair the image. The results go beyond loss of customer, because other businesses do not want to partner or associate with a business that is sliding downaward in customer retention. If you can not trust a business to take care of its customers, it is even more difficult to trust that business agreements with its partners.
* Employees Leave:-
- Employees known when something is not right with the business they work for, If they see repeated instances of poor customer services, they are likely to start looking for opportunities with other companies. Dealing with dissatisfied customers makes their jobs more difficult and eventually the working environment becomes toxic.
- Management that does not care about its customers probably does not care about employee well-being, either. The resulting high employee turnover further tarnishes the company's reputation, and it creates more costs-because of the increased need for recruiting, hiring and training of new employees.
Question 2. (1.) Describe the importance of product knowledge.
Answer. Product knowledge is an essential sales skill. Understanding your products features allows you to present their benefits accurately and persuasively. Customers respond to enthusiastic sales staff who are passionate about their products and eager to share the benefits with them.
* Get to know your products or services:-
- Customers are more likely to trust sales people who show confidence in themselves and what they are selling. You can build this confidence by increasing your knowledge of your products or services.
* Use conventional and creative sources of information to learn about your products or services, including:-
- your own experiences using the products,
- product literature such as bronchures and catalogues,
- online forums,
- feedback sales records,
- trade and industry publications,
- internal sales records,
- your team members,
- visits to manufacturers,
- sales training programs,
- competitors information,
- be honest about shortcomings.
- If your product or services has some short comings in certain situations, be honest about them with your customers. Let them know early on if you don't think your product or service is right for them and they will be more inclined to trust you when they need something in the future.
* Turn product features into benefits:-
- As you engage customers, you can use your knowledge to lead your customer through the sales process and make their experience an enjoyable one that they'll want to revisit.
- Successful sales people know all of their products features and skillfully turn these features into benefits for their customers.
(2.) How can you build product knowledge in a retail outlets.
Answer. Knowledge is power and for retailers, product knowledge can mean more sales. It is difficult to effectively sell to a customer if we cannot show how a particular will adress his or her needs. Read on to learn some of the benefits of knowing the products you sell.
* Strengthens Communication Skills:-
- Having a thorough understaning of the products on the shelves can allow a retailer to use different techniques and methods of presenting the product to customers. Stronger communication skills will allow a salesperson to recognize and adapt a sales presentation for the various types of customers. One of the questions you should always be asking yourself is "are my employees talking or communicating?" Too many times, they are just talking. Train your employees to s3ell the benefit and not the features.
- More importantly, to see what the customer needs, not what he (salesperson) likes.
* Boosts Enthusiasn:-
- Seeing someone completely enthusiastic about a product is one of the best-selling tools. As you generate excitment for the product, you remove any uncertainty the product may not be the best solution for that customer. The easiest way to become enthusiastic is to truly believe in the product. Remember, the first sale you make is yourself, the second sale is the product. If they believe in you, they will believe in the product you are selling.
* Grows Confidence:-
- If a customer isn't fully committed to completing a sale, the difference may simply be the presence (or lack) of confidence a salesperson has towards the product or towards his/her knowledge of the product. Becoming educated in the product and its uses will help cement that confidence.
* Assists in Answering Objections:-
- Objections made by customers are really nothing maore than questions. If they, object to a product, it is likely either you chance the wrong product, or the customer needs more of your product knowledge to know why it is the best solution for them. That information usually comes in the form of product knowledge. Being well versed is not only your products but similar products sold by competitors, allow you to easily counter objections.
Question 3. Explain the factors which influence service quality expectations of the consumers relating to retail organization.
Answer. * services consists of two components:-
- A technical outcomes and a functional outcome. The technical outcome is often referred to as the what of service. It is that which is delivered to the customer. The functional outcome is often referred to as the how of service. It consists of the service delivery process. Consider a service system in a restaurant. The technical outcomes is the meal that is eaten by the customer.
- The functional outcome consists of being seated and placing an order. All service systems can be defined by these two components.
* Service can be characterized by three defining features:-
- Intangibility, inseparability, and hetro-geneity. These features are what separate services from goods. Services cannot be seen, touched, or held. They are intangible in the sense that they have no physical manifestation (Schneider & white, 2004). Service industries supply the needs of the customer without producing tangible goods. Similarly, services are perishable. They cannot be stored, resold, or returned. Consumption occurs immediately following production.
- The production and consumption of a service cannot be separated. Therefore, services are inseparable. There is no way to make a service, inspect, it, fix any problems, and then deliver it to a customer. The customer is present while the service is being produced. Therefore, the customer views and often takes part in the production process. Customer activities at the time of service delivery are often essential to the completion of the service transaction. Based on the notion that production and consumption of a service occur simultaneously, companies strive to ensure that a maximum number of customers are available to consume the service as it is being produced. Examples of this can be seen in entertainment venues, airline flights, and education systems.
- Services are hetrogeneous. The human element in the production and delivery of services results in no two service instances being identical. Customers have different demands from one another. Additionally, different service personnel will deliver the same service in different manners. This high degree of person-to-person interaction lends to the hetrogeneity of services. Services can also be different each time on individual experiences the service. Services are highly people and behavior dependent. Each individual has unique needs and expectations that he or she is seeking to satisfy.
Question 4. Explain the key areas of Customer Experience Management.
Answer. 1. Channel Unification:-
- Customer interactions with service providers typically occur across multiple channels. From the customer's perspective, the expectation is that the experience across channels will be consistent. This can be achieved only when service providers have a strategy in place to unify their channel, and then execute on that.
2. Monitoring Customer Experience:-
- Collecting feedback and Voice of Customer(VOC) are examples of techniques that are increasingly important to monitor the customer experience on a regular basis, across customer touch points, and at every stage of the customer journey. In my opinion, Service Providers would do well to incorporate "Customer Experience Data Collection Platforms" as part of their IT initiatives.
3. Process Optimization- Trouble to Resolve:-
- It's not enough to monitor customer experience and attempt to resolve issues, concerns, and complaints. What's important is to constantly optimize the Trouble to Resolve processes so that customers see a steady reduction in the cycle time it takes for their complaints to be addressed.
4. Proactive Customer Care:-
- Why wait untill a customer complaints?
- Advanced Customer Experiences Management Strategies include the ability to product when customers are going to be unhappy, and proactively initiating actions that can address, the issues. A typical example is that of the telecom service provider monitoring signal quality and 'call drops' and proactively messaging the customer with an apology (and perhaps some incentive).
5. Customer Profilling / Analytics:-
- It's time for organizations to really begin to know their customers. With the number of customer touchpoints and interactions exploding due to the digital age, there is enormous amount of customer data available. Studies have shown that customers will consent to sharing some of their data in anticipation of better services. Therefore, profilling customers based on demographics, purchase patterns, and so on is becoming inceasingly important.
6. Churn Analytics:-
- Customer churn is a reality for any business what's important however is able to understand the reasons for churn, and fix whatever is possible, for example, you might hove a mobile app that people arer downloading but not using or are uninstalling the app. Analysis of the reasons might point to a poor user experience, or perhaps insufficient functionality. Fixing this quickly can possible address the issues before it is too late.
Question 5. Describe the importance of customer loyality with examples.
Customer loyality refers to the act of opting for a particular company's products and services consitently over its competitors. When customers are loyal to a certain company, their buying decision is not influenced by the price or availability. They would rather wait - and even pay more - to get the same quality service and product they are familiar with and appreciate.
- Customer loyality is a customer's willingness to interact with or buy from a specific company on an ongoing basic. Loyality can stem from many things, but in general a loyal customer will associate favourable experience with a brand therefore increasing their likelihood to make reapeat purchases with that business. Loyal customers spend 67% more on products and services than new customers. Even through your most loyal customers only make up 20% of your audience, they provide up to 80% of your revenue.
Since its 5x easier to retain a customer than acquire a new one, if you focus on existing customers, they'll continue buying from you and will spend more over their lifetime with your company.
- Loyality programs work because they make your customers feel recognized and special which further leads to retention, more referrals, and profits. Rewarding your customers for their loyality and frequent engagement with your brand can help distinguish your brand from other competitors and also make customers feel valued. A great loyality program that adds value can accelerate the loyality life cycle.
Question 6. What do you mean by customer grievance? Discuss the reasons for customer grievances substantiate your answer with examples.
Answer. Customer complaints can be defined as the gaps between what business promises in term of the product or services and what customers get. It is a mismatch between how customers perceive the brand and where they fail to get the desired customer service experience.
* There could be different types of customer eomplaints. It could be relate to:
(a) improper communication,
(b) internal processes or
(c) poor quality of service.
Realizing that a complaint is an opportunity makes it easire to turn conflict into positive change. Customer complaints can tell you how to resolve issues - if you listen to them carefully.
* Some key advantages of customer complaints are:-
- Complaints highlight key areas where your products or services need improvement.
- Customer complaints open opportunities for your customers. These conversations can help customers feel like the vital components to your success.
- Customer complaints provide valuable insights into how trained your front-line support is an how to improve them. They can be used as training models for new team members.
- Complaints give a first-hand perspective of how your customers feel. Instead of doing expensive market research or running a feedback survey; customer complaints are actually the real feedback that you can get if you address them carefully and implement those changes. By realizing the importance of customer complaints, evaluating business areas becomes direct and easy.
Question 7. Write notes on the following?
1. Employee training:-
- Employees who have a direct contact with the customers should be properly trained in order to attend to the customers.
- For example, in a retail outlet the sales person is the one who interacts with the customers, therefore he/she should be trained in order to explain to the customers about the products and its use to them. Such training will help the sales persons to be more confident and this confidence will make the customers also to trust him/her.
2. Types of customer personalities:-
(a) The child:-
- A few customers are naive, trusting, and open, like a young child, and will believe everything, that you tell them. They are highly gullible and sales people at times take advantage of their naivety. For the more principled sales people, a duty of care is required here, that they will only sell something to this person if the sales person truly believe that it will help them.
(b) The Judge:-
- The Judge is suspicious of everyone, believing that all people are baically selfish. He will never believe what you say. He believes that you are trying to sell to them and therefore will decive them at the drop of a hot. They will judge you by their own values and high (although not all Judges follow their own rules.) The judge will tell you what they think and may prefer telling to listening. The Judge may well have 'read up on the case beforehand' and on having already made their decision. They will choose based on what independent facts they can find, for example through reviews.
(c) The Negotiator:-
- The Negotiator seeks to beat you down, no matter how good the deal. They will keep asking for more until they are certain they will not get more. A good negotiator will ask lots of questions and listen very carefully before they get anywhere near duscussing price. And then they may surprise you by how well they understand you.
(d) The Bargain:-
- Hunter type of customer is driven by value. They may include many asects of the Negatiator, they also like to reach closure and may make impulsive decisions. Handle the hunter like the Negotiator, although you may well be able to get away with far fewer concessions. The key is that the Bargain - hunter believes they have received a bargain, so focus on aspect.
(e) The Adult:-
- The Adult know just what they want and do not want to play any games. They will not negotiate. They will tell you what they want and expect you to give them your best price straight up. They may start off appearing to be a Negotiator as they ask detailed questions, but they will not attempt to negotiate. They will listen, ask your price and then decide. If they think you are playing games with them or any 'clever staff' then they will leave and ignore any apologies or pleadings.
(B) ESSAY TYPE QUESTIONS:-
Question 8. What do you mean by customer objections? Explain various ways for handling customer objections.
Answer. All kinds of customer objections can be categorized into eight main categories. These are listead below with reason as to why the sales persons feel these are objections:
1) The Customer has to real interest at this stage in what I was offering.
2) The customer gave objection in self defence because they were not expecting to hear I said. These reasons suggest that the salespeople are ignoring the customer point of view and either going into a list of 'benefits' or closing the customer to make decision too soon into the sale.
3) The customer didn't understand the offer I was making (or what I wanted them to do).
4) The customer didn't see enough value (or value for money) in what I was offering them.
- These reasons suggest that salespeople are not finding out about customers needs before presenting and closing for a decision). Not finding out means they don't have enough information match whatthe customer needs or wants to what they are trying to sell.
5) The customer felt I was lacking in empathy, interest, knowledge, skill and so on. This reason suggests that the salesperson is just going through the motions of the sale and is not showing interest in the customer or what is being sold. Studies have shown a lot of customers who go else where do so because the person they normally deal with doesn't how interest in what they are doing or in the customer's needs. This reason also shows that the salesperson lacks product or company knowledge and so can't relate needs to products. It can also indicate a lack of sales skills.
6) The customer saw a big obstacle to going ahead with the sale. This reason suggests that the salesperson is able to go further in the sole but can't quite get on to the customer's wavelength. It can also suggest that "wrong" customers are being chosen to be sold to.
On a more positive note, it can indicate that the customer has been persuaded to go ahead but can't. They raise the reason as an objection; the sales person either has enough product knowledge ans sales to succeed or the sale is lost.
7) The customer was testing me in some way to see if the offer was as good as it seemed. This reason suggests that the salesperson is too pushy (according to this the customer doesn't quite believe how good the offer is. Some customer test salespeople's zeal to see if they really do believe in what they are selling.
8) The customer was testing the offer against his or her own buying needs. This reason suggests that the customer is interested in the offer and uses objections as part of their thought process to comparre their needs and wants with the details of the offer. There is a clear need for the salesperson to recognize this and to works with the customer to reach a successful conclusion.
* To summarize we can state that objections:-
- From customers are common
- Are natural part of the buying process
- Reflect the customers opinion of what is happening.
- Are often a response to the salesperson's actions and apparent attitude as well as to what the salesperson says.
- Can indicate real interest on the part of the customer (especially categories 6,7 and
- Can indicate that the customer feels uninvolved in the sale (especially categories 1-5)
- Are opportunities for the salesperson to stop get the customer's wavelength more effectively.
- Are to advance the sale.
- Are opportunities to learn how to be a more responsive and successful.
* Listen fully to the objections:-
- Your first reaction when you hear an objection may be to jump right in and respond immediately. Resist this temptation. When you react too quickly, you risk making assumptions about the objection. Take the time to listen to the objection fully.
- Do not react defensively. Train yourself to ignore any negative emotions you may be feeling and stay focused on what the buyer is saying and the business problem you are helping to solve. Listen with the intent of fully understaning the buyer's concerns without bias or anticipation and allow your body language and verbal confirmations to communicate to the buyer that you are listening intently.
* Understand the objection completely:-
- many objections hide underlying issues that the buyer can't or isn't ready to articulate. Often the true issue isn't what the buyer first tells you. It's your job to get to the heart of the objection, and then fully undestand if and its true source.
* Response Property:-
- After you're confident you've uncovered all objections, address the most important objection first. Once you work through the greatest barrier to moving forward, other concerns may no longer matter or feel as important to the buyer.
- You should do your best to resolve their issue right away. The more you can resolve issues in real time, the greater chance you have of moving the sole forward. If you need more information to resove a specific concern, you may have to look something up. Don't wing it-buyers can sense that and it creates distrust. Long-windedn responses can seem insincere, so keep your responses clear and to the point.
* Confirm You've Satisfied the Objection:-
- Once you've responded to the buyer's objections, check if you've satisfied all of their concerns. Just because they nodded during your response doesn't mean they agreed with everything you said. Ask if the buyeris happy with your solution and explain your solution further if necessary. Some objections require a process to overcome, not just a quick answer.
Question 9. How can you understand the customers based on time, type, talk and tone? Explain the characteristics of customers based on the above criteria along with the techniques to handle them.
Often times, "tone" can seem like one of thosse many marketing buzzwords that gets thrown around, which makes it easy to ignore this important component of your copy.
- In short, tone conveys the writer's attitude towards the people reading their message.
- Tone is important because it adds another dimension to the words you're using. It implicity tells the reader what kind of relationship you believe you have with them.
- For example, someone may visit your website because they're interested in becoming a member of your gym. All they want is a place to go a few times a week to run for a bit and lift a couple weights. Their only goal is to stay active and keep their weight within a healthy range.
* Condescension:-
- If you value customer engagement, you'd obviously never want to come acros as condescending, but it's probably easier than you think.
Usually, a condescending tone is the result of copy that is too brisk.
* Apathy:-
- An apathetic tone is teening with boredom. It tells you customers that you don't even care enough to be condescending. You're just putting up with them until the closing bell.
* In the example above, when someone is requesting help because the product they purchased is no longer working, an apathetic response might be, " That is not a known issue" or " we will look into it."
* Different Situations Require Different Tones?
- In short, yes.
- A good way of thinking about the tones to use for optimal customer engagement is by looking at your buyer. Personas and where they are in your buyer's journey when they conncect with you.
* Here are four tones to consider using depending on your customer's needs.
1. Informative:-
- When someone first comes to your site, what are they after?
- They want to know what exactly your company does and how you can help them with the problem they're currently contending with.
- Therefore, you should take on an informative and helpful tone. The visitor should feel as though a very interested customer service representative just greeted them and is curious about how they can help.
Thats generally not a bad tone to keep throughout your site.
2. Authoritative:-
- However, maybe you're using your website to pitch yourself as a speaker or consultant. While you still want to be informative. It's even more important that you're authoritative. You need to convince people that they could benefit form your superior knowledgebase. The tone you use should help to impress them.
3. Philosophical:-
- Maybe what you have to offer is best marketed to someone's mind instead of their emotions.
- Instead, Ferris pitched a philosophy to potential readers there's something wrong with the way we've been taught to do things.
- In reviewing it for The Telegraph, Leslie Garner noted Ferris successful choice of tone, saying he had, "struck a chord with his critique of workers slavish devotion to corporations."
4. Witly and Funny:-
- Trying to be witty and funny with your copy can be very, very difficult. As we mentioned earlier, it's easy to come off condescending instead. You can also simply come off as unfunny, which is never desirable, either.
- Nonetheless, if you're able to pull it off, a witty tone can reap massive rewards.
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