Customer Service Effectiveness of Employee Training Programs in Customer/Employee Satisfaction and Increased Profitability

Customer service is an important part of keeping a business profitable. However, in a changing business and cultural environment, it is difficult to ascertain exactly what values or features will accomplish that mission. This research attempts to identify the new aspects of the customer service-profitability equation and describe a model for effective use of employee training in creating both customer and employee satisfaction, as well as increased profitability.

This research is important to the stakeholders in the equation as well, service providers/product manufacturers and the consumer.

Chapter I: Introduction and Hypothesis

Chapter II: Review of Literature

Chapter III: Methodology

References

Appendices

Introduction and Statement of the Problem

Statement of the problem: Good customer service does not happen by accident, but rather by instruction in very specific methods of ensuring customer satisfaction, loyalty and repeat purchases. The question in the current business environment is: Are employee training programs in increasing customer and employee satisfaction effective in enhancing profitability?

Chapter II: Review of Literature

In answering the main question, there are a number of additional issues that need to be clarified or integrated into the findings relative to the stated problem: How effective are employee training programs in increasing customer and employee satisfaction and increasing profitability?

Below is a review of a small sample of the recent literature concerning those issues.

Customer service defined

It seems to be easier to define what customer service is not rather than what it is. In a recent report, the Institute of Management & Administration noted that customer service cannot be an occasional thing, used only when addressing a particular issue or complaint (IMA, 2003). It is also not simply avoiding mistakes in customer contact situations (IMA, 2003). In fact, customer service is not simply behavior that creates satisfaction; the same report noted that despite increasing levels of customer satisfaction generally, customer loyalty was generally...

One can infer from this, then, that there is no part of business which is not customer service, as a customer may be influenced by anything from the product or service in question to the answers he or she gets concerning manufacture, to the attitude of the accounts receivable employee...and more. In addition, in fact, the inference can go beyond that. If one is looking at all people with whom a business makes contact as potential customers, then every interaction in the business setting is an opportunity to display customer service....and exactly what that is depends on only one thing, as it always had: the customer is always right, even when the customer is wrong.
Effectiveness of employee training programs in creating customer and employee satisfaction and increasing profitability

An article in Public Management explained how managers in Janesville, WI, "transformed the local government from a traditional into a customer-oriented organization. The strategy showed improvements in people's satisfaction with the local government's services (Shieffer, 1998). In addition to the external customer service, the city also began internal information networks: "A series of employee focus groups evaluated the internal communication process" (Shieffer, 1998), and that function, and others were funded because of the positive effect they had had on the city's financial situation.

Similar results were also reported from a diametrically different industry, amusement parts. Knott's Berry Farm reported that training programs for video game personnel boosted revenue by 35%, and a second program increased customer satisfaction by 350% (O'Brien, 1994).

Customer satisfaction per se

Customer satisfaction is the aim of customer service.

One can consider mergers of two companies to be the ultimate customer service opportunity, one that is very often botched. Diekmann, writing for Credit Union Journal, espouses 'cultural due diligence' as a way to blend merging workforces (2004). It would likewise be a way to ensure customer satisfaction; it is impossible to have a satisfied customer if, for example, your company sells red shoes but all people of…