Customer Service Essays (Examples)

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…

Customer service is a fundamental service tat a business sould provide in order to increase sales and ave a returning clientele. Customer service tus becomes a very important facet of a good business and of growing profits. In tis paper various questions will be analyzed, suc as wat good customer service actually means, and wat defines suc service. A company will furter be selected, and will be analyzed from te viewpoint of good customer service.
To begin, one must analyze wat "good customer service" means. One eard tis every day and expects it from all companies. In order to appreciate good customer service one must ave ad bad experiences, suc as customer service personnel being inattentive, unknowledgeable, or not elpful. Terefore, good customer service can be defined as wen an employee takes te time to listen to a customer's concerns by genuinely expressing interest, sympaty, and eagerness to satisfy te said…

Customer Management
Description of the Business

I am going to work with a chain of sandwich shops specializing in banh mi. The concept is simple -- banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich on a baguette. They are usually quite affordable, often coming in a price point lower than the big sandwich chains. The name of the chain is going to be Uncle Ho's Banh Mi, with a tongue-in-cheek Uncle Ho as the mascot. The banh mi is typically made with a meat -- either pate or xa xiu (roast pork) and a large helping of vegetables. Tofu can also be used in place of the meat. The meat is used sparingly, but it is full of flavor. This helps balance the sandwich, which would otherwise be mostly vegetables. That there are a lot of vegetables helps keep the ingredient cost down. A variety of condiments will also be available, ranging from Vietnamese-style…

While this approach has been implemented by most of the economic agents, British retailer Marks and Spencer argues that the economic crisis is no excuse for the business institutions to postpone their green initiatives. They as such invested £200 million in their own ethical campaign, and they now implement it, while in the same time, criticizing other companies for having renounced their initiatives in the wake of the economic crisis. Marks and Spencer promoted messages such as the ones below:

"Above all, doing the right thing is doing it today, because our planet can't wait until tomorrow"

"For some retailers, green went out of fashion as quickly as it came in"

These messages carried out through the ethical marketing campaign of Marks and Spencer are presented by Mark Sweney in a 2009 article in the Guardian, entitled "Marks and Spencer trumpets ethical initiatives in ad campaign. M&S's national ad campaign pushes £200m ethical…

From a performance analysis perspective, costs of alternative support channels are first evaluated, followed by the key performance indicators (KPIs) typically used in financial services organizations to measure the performance of their online initiatives, most notably, websites. Following this discussion of performance analysis there is an analysis of resource availability and allocation of resources.
Performance Analysis

From a cost-per-incident analysis, the following table presents findings from Forrester esearch specifically in measuring the median internal costs companies are incurring as a result of each customer service channel. The objectives of this marketing plan specifically focus on driving user adoption while at the same time making process workflows efficient enough to attain the following best practices figures from Forrester esearch.

Best Practices in Services Costs by Channel

Channel

Cost per Incident

Annual Growth ate

Telephone

Web Chat

Message Boards

Knowledge Database and Website

Source: Watson, Donnelly and Shehab (2)

These best practices benchmarks must be relied on in evaluating the success of marketing…

(Setting and Measuring Service Standards)
The store then appointed supervisors to ensure that all employees were following the procedures properly and even used 'mystery shoppers 'to find out if all the measures were being implemented, and the reports showed that they were indeed being followed, about 90% of the time. Subsequently, the management of the evco Drug Store measured the number of complaints, to find out whether there had been any decrease in the number and to their happiness, they did find that the number of complaints against service had come down drastically, and at the same time, the number of happy and satisfied customers had increased significantly. This program of 'every customer, every time', was therefore considered to be a success, and the important thing to be learnt from this experience is the fact that is that the customer must be treated with respect and courtesy every time he…

Training programs are also another useful means of creating employee satisfaction as they give the sense of support in the professional formation of the individual.
The implementation of the reduced retail prices is only possible through processes of internal cost reduction. The first step is that of lowering the profit margin in the meaning of accepting reduced profits. Then, the organizational leaders could engage in conversations with the purveyors in order to negotiate the retail prices of various commodities or services. Premiums, bonuses or dividend payments could also be withheld for the duration of the economic crisis. Savings should be made relative to utility bills and invoices being deducted.

Finally, in terms of an improved organizational perception and reputation at a global level, it is advisable for C.H. obinson to invest in a marketing campaign that promotes the company and the values to which it stands true. It would also be…

So, the level of satisfaction registered by a customer is sometimes subjective. For instance, I've had an unpleasant experience with ADIDAS, a company about which I have heard only the best. I went in to buy a pair of snickers, but I could not find the right size on the shelves, and so asked for some assistance. ut the salesman was not as eager to help as I would have liked, so I left the shop a bit disappointed.

From my personal and subjective opinion I believe the following companies to have high customer service: American Apparel, Daimler-Chrysler, FedEx, Nike, Procter & Gamble and United Airlines. At the other pole of the customer service quality I tend to place ADIDAS, McDonald's, Colgate-Palmolive.

Finally, I believe that there is a significant difference between customer service and customer relationship management. The first implies the actual behavior towards customers, whereas the latter implies the means…

Customer Service at College
When enrolled and even when graduated, students continue to interact with the staff regarding counseling assistance. Having a good customer service department in a college is very important as many a times it develops and shapes up a student's idea and perception regarding the institution. If there is no department which can aid the student and help him with the problem or confusion that he faces, then this will worsen the view that he would have initially had for that particular college. This can also be a reason for him to decide not to graduate from there and get a transfer to some other college which has such services and can be beneficial for the student. It is of essential importance that customer service departments should be present in colleges. It should be there to provide them with academic and career advice and what subjects to enroll…

Customer Service at Apple
Apple's customer service is among its strongest features. Its innovative in-store checkout and support methods and its highly qualified staff of in-house technical support agents help keep Apple's customer service standards up to par with the high product standards cited in the company mission.

Among the most important of objectives for Apple when it comes to customer service is the level of knowledge possessed by each of its customer service specialists. In-store technical support personnel are identified as Apple Geniuses and, as the article by Ernst (2013) points out, they are usually able to live up to this title when handling your customer inquiries. This is the because Apple has placed knowledge among the most important features of its collective working culture.

Its effectiveness at achieving this aim may be measured by the level of customer satisfaction experienced by those completing in-store appointments or technical support phone calls. Apple's…

Customer Service Training Manual
The Ultimate Beauty Center has had a relatively successful existence and share of the market in South Bend, Indiana for 12 or so years. It has its own tastefully-designed building with modern equipment and machinery, which have attracted an increasing number of customers from adjacent towns and states. From a simple slimming shop, it grew into a center with three other departments, supplementing slimming services: hair, nails and facial care. It was previously owned by a mother-and-daughter team who observed conservative business practices.. The Center has an overall personal complement of 60, serving an average of 30 customers and walk-ins daily.

Because of its growing volume of clients, the owners decided to open a Customer Services (CS) department, directly under the owner., to handle public queries and information, promotional campaign, media and public relations, and internal MIS arm. This experimental CS department has been operating for almost two…

81 and .77, singif8icant at the .05 level, shows that the tests while valid, are not reliable in measuring ongoing performance gains. The r with complaints for Work Sample (T) of .37 and .35 also indicate that the test is highly valid yet lacks reliability in ensuring long-term customer service levels. Work Sample (T) shows that it is only sporadically valid as well with the very low r with speed and negative values for r with error rate. The Work Sample tests are ideal for capturing applicants' ability to manage complaints yet cannot be used with any validity over other areas of their responsibilities. In conclusion these tests also need modification before they can be used "for keeps" as part of the overall methodology for hiring at the company.
3. What limitations in the above study should be kept in mind when interpreting the results and deciding whether to use the…

This change over would be slower, but would have produced the system-wide gap in knowledge that afflicted IBS.
Outcomes

Although the new system may theoretically be better, the mischance suggests that a more secure and slower process of conversion in the future will necessary to prevent further occurrences of such unfortunate and inconvenient events. Also, it is critical that the concerned customers who had to pay out of pocket expenses are assuaged of their fears that this may reoccur.

Solutions

Employees affected must be given a way of identifying themselves and providing their previous social security numbers and personal and verifiable criteria to the pharmacy, so it is recorded. hen doing so, they may be given a reimbursement for all proven out of pocket expenses immediately. This will ensure all employees do give data regarding their old identification numbers and social security numbers immediately, to prevent further confusion, but convey a sense of…

It is clear that when busy employees and weary travelers are treated with respect, dignity and courtesy, it can make a profound difference in how the company operates and is perceived by customers - and potential customers -- and this is how JetBlue has succeeded in adding value through these simple but important techniques. "These guiding principles have been extended to all levels of JetBlue's operation, internally and externally, and have created unique customer appeal" (Bodouva & Bodouva, 2004, p. 317). These guiding principles have also been the driving forces behind JetBlue's efforts to gain additional market share by adding value from both the customer and employee perspective.

The impact of these foregoing value-added approaches has been significant and they have paid major dividends for JetBlue to date:

JetBlue has made significant progress in establishing a strong brand that helps to distinguish it from the competition. It seeks to be identified as…

Customer etention Strategies
Creating Exceptional Customer Service at Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines continues to lead the airline industry in customer satisfaction because their business model puts customer satisfaction and maximizing customer experiences at its center. Their leadership of the industry on customer satisfaction measures has also been seen in the result of Consumer eports studies as well (Consumer eports, 2007). What sets this airline apart from others is the belief that customer loyalty will lead to more profitable growth when combined with an extensive commitment to process, system and service standardization (Hardage, 2006).

Analyzing Why Southwest Excels At Customer Service

Southwest Airlines' founders quickly realized that their business model must attract the mid-range and casual traveler if they were to succeed. They did not initially pursue the highly profitable business traveler as their competitors were doing at the time. Instead, the company quickly built ticketing, in-flight services, aircraft operations and maintenance all around the…

Customer Service
CASE

eturns efunds and Adjustments

The advantage of one retail format or channel relative to another with regard to adjustments, refunds and returns is predicated on the supporting supply chain's agility, efficiency and capacity to respond to rapid changes in demand. It is also predicated on the relative financial contributions of the products sold through one channel over another (Stock, Speh, Shear, 2006). Companies including Amazon.com, Zappos and others have successfully used adjustments, refunds and returns as a means to increase service recovery strategies online, earning a reputation for being very customer-centric and trustworthy as a result (Forbes, 2008). All of these factors determine if one retail format or channel is more effective than others in the use of adjustments, refunds, and returns.

Analysis of etail Channels: Effects of Adjustments, efunds and eturns

The entire spectrum of retail sales channels from click & ship, brick-and-mortar, clicks & bricks, pick and take, click &…

customer service philosophy consists of two parts. First, the company's prices are highly competitive, and second, employees are empowered to "delight the customer." By offering these two components of highly excellent customer service, the company has set itself apart from its competitors. By offering targeted discounts and a specific philosophy for returning and complaining customers, the company has built a loyal customer base that has contributed to its prominence in the business world. At least this has been the case before internal difficulties began to affect the company's financial standing.
Made for You's current strategy is to act generously towards repeat customers and those with legitimate complaints. Such generosity occurs in the form of automatic discounts for repeat customers. Legitimate complaints such as delivery delays, unavailability of requested pieces, or long waits for service are compensated in terms of discounts, charge cancellations, or upgrades.

While these strategies are extremely effective in…

Customer Service Applications
Delivered on Social Networks

The impact of social networks on every facet of customer relationships continues to escalate, with more companies using Twitter and Facebook to deliver exceptional customer service experiences by solving their problems quickly, clearly and transparently online (Bernoff, Li, 2008). Social networks are pervasive in their adoption today, with Facebook having more subscribers that some nations have citizens (Woodcock, Green, Starkey, 2011). This has transformed online customer service from simply a Web-based application delivered over a website to an interactive, real-time conversation with customers online (Bernoff, Li, 2008). The intent of this paper is to evaluate how Comcast and other companies in the services industries introduced the new product of online customer service over social networks to their customers, and how these changes made the businesses more profitable and stable as a result. This paper also includes a support plan for customers who choose to…

It must be noted though that good communication in selling should be done with all honesty. Never tell your customers with anything about your product that is not true. Remember that satisfied customers always come back.
Moreover, there is a saying that "the customers are always right." Although this is not true, it is still important that you speak to your customers with respect. Even if you believe that they are not right, every misunderstanding can be resolved with proper communication.

Never push your product to your customers

Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Would you feel good if a customer service attendant is almost forcing you to buy his product knowing the fact that you are looking for something else or something specific? Customers do not like to be forced. A customer service attendant who forces his customers with too much "sales talk" can only result to pushing his customers away.…

Customer Experiences With Customer Service at My Car Dealer
A recent visit to the service department of the local auto dealership I purchased a car from two years ago forms the foundation of this analysis. As auto dealerships rely on service departments for the majority of their revenue I thought the experience would be a mix of pure efficiency and relationship building. Previous experiences with this dealership have shown them to be not as trustworthy as I had hoped they would be as well. One of the most critical aspects of transitioning customers from being treated as members of a transaction to actually being fans is trust (Gronroos, 1994). Trust is such a critical catalyst to make a customer experience successful that technologies need to better measure and evaluate this critical component as broader CM strategies (Mitussis, O'Malley, Patterson, 2006). Going in to the dealership to get a door problem…

Organization
Food Processor Company: Application of Customer Service

Customer service

What is done to improve the clients experience is known as customer service. Different clients have different ideas about what they anticipate from the customer interaction (Harris, 2010). The client service provider must know his clients and work hard to afford them with the best customer service (Harris, 2010).

A physician calling a patient to see how he or she is feeling, a hassle free return policy, timely delivery of goods, calling a client by name, receipt look up, an up-to-date map of an area or having GPS in rental cars are just some of the forms of customer service (Harris, 2010). Other forms include: being courteous or showing a little enthusiasm; giving operating manuals and having FAQs on your website; showing your clients you care; showing understanding when dealing with customer complaints or queries; suggesting a cheaper option or any other form…

Outline for Research Paper: Identifying Cost-Effective Strategies to Improve Customer ServiceI. IntroductionDuring a period in Americas history when so-called quiet quitting is replacing pride in workmanship and organizational loyalty in the workplace, it is not surprising that customer service has been adversely affected in the process. In response, a growing number of companies are seeking to identify cost-effective strategies that can be used to improve customer service (Gurnani et al., 2022). Because there are a number of different types of customer service strategies available and each has its respective strengths and weaknesses, it is important to determine which strategy or combination of customer service strategies are best suited to a given organizations customer service needs.A. Thesis: The purpose of this paper is to identify cost-effective strategies that can be used by organizations of all sizes and types in order to improve their customer service function.II. Definition of Customer ServiceAlthough there…

Exercise Equipment: Peloton BikeWhen considering the purchase of a Peloton bike, there are several criteria that should be taken into account. First, it is important to consider the price point of the bike. While Peloton bikes are generally more expensive than traditional exercise bikes, they also offer a number of unique features that may justify the higher price tag. In addition, it is important to consider the size and weight of the bike. Peloton bikes are relatively compact and lightweight, making them easy to move and store. Thirdly, it is important to consider the level of customer support offered by the company. Peloton offers a wide range of customer support options, including live chat, phone, and email. Finally, the Peloton bike offers great streaming workouts that make stationary peddling workouts enjoyable. Overall, these four criteria should be considered when evaluating a Peloton bike. This is why it can be said…

The employees should be firmly committed to the firm, they are the face of a firm (also its eyes and ears). The staff focus should be involved in the process management, also their measurement and knowledge as well as initial contact with customers, all contribute to the performance of the organization.
Firms need to provide results on a consistent basis, be innovative and should respond quickly to any changes in environment for giving exceptional results and satisfying customers. Further in continuous improvement, aspects such as redesign of processes or services, upgraded technology systems, proper paperwork should be focused upon. Continuous improvement requires all firms' members to look for opportunities to improve. Overall, the continuous improvement process involves customers, leadership, employees and quality. It is the customers who determine if the firm is providing quality. They are the judges of it. The leadership is useful for setting direction of the firm.…

Business Ethics: Using Top Quality Parts
Today, every business recognizes the importance of its customers to enhance its longevity. Indeed, customers, even more than investors, are responsible for the strength or weakness of a business. If the customer base is weak and relationships are not up to par, it is more than likely that the business will also suffer. For this reason, businesses have certain codes of ethics when entering into relationship with their customers to optimize these relationships. This is echoed throughout business publications, since a high sense of ethics fosters positive and high quality customer relationships. This, in turn, will create a positive image of the company among customers, who will in turn spread the word regarding the excellence of the company. For this reason, On-Time Technology Products (OTTP) cannot in good conscience succumb to pressure, even from large investors, to save expenses in unethical ways, including using cheaper…

itz vs. Mayo Clinic
When it comes to purchasing and spending, there are two things that perhaps do not always compare equally and favorably and that would be healthcare and hotels. Luxury hotels like itz Carlson stand out simply because not everyone can or chooses to stay at hotels like itz Carlton whereas everyone will need healthcare at some point. What draws these two firms together is that customer service is the epicenter of what they focus on and they do so in a way that is unique. Even with all of that, there are some clear differences between the two and it comes down to their motivations and why they do what they do. While both firms have impeccable customer service, there is clearly one firm that stands out from the two and it is for more than one reason.

Analysis

As noted in the introduction, both itz Carlton and Mayo provide…

Michael J Fox Foundation
Customer Service Perspective

There are three priority areas that the Michael J Fox Foundation focuses on the could also be considered the customer service perspectives for the organization (MJFF, N.d.). The first is the attempt to alter the disease in meaningful ways; preferably in something that could be considered a cure or at least significantly improve the quality of life of the patients with Parkinson's disease. This represents the top priority for the organization and they devote over half of their investment activity for this priority area.

The second highest priority area for research is summarized as defining PD. One of the critical missing links in the research is the ability to understand the biomarkers of the disease (MJFF, N.d.). If scientist could better understand the biomarkers of the disease, then it would be possible to track the progression of the disease as well as have a better understanding…

Customer Service
We shall, for the purposes of this paper, accept the proposition that we are moving from a culture that can be categorized as "you get what I give" to one where the customer is always right. In the real world, there are companies that do either, depending on their business model. But for the sake of argument we will assume the position of a company that is seeking to shift from the former to a more customer-centric vision of customer service. There are two elements to such a shift -- operational and cultural. Operations can be laid out in such a way that barriers to customer service that may have existed in the past are now removed, for example. Yet, because service is inherently customer-oriented, based on interactions, it is critical that the organization shifts to a customer-service-based culture. This is a massive cultural shift from an organizational culture…

Improving Customer Service on a Medical Surgical Nursing Unit
Quality Improvment Project-Customer service on the nursing unit

The hospital medical-surgical nursing unit is usually referred to as the "catch-all" department for different types of patients. This is because it includes renal patients, cancer patients, cardiac and surgical patient. It also includes other patients who do not particularly fall into any of these specialized units. The medical-surgical nursing unit is a conglomeration of all kinds of adults with all sorts of health problems and thus the nurses in this unit need to be dynamic, quick to respond and are almost on their toes at all times. Patients in the medical-surgical nursing unit are likely to develop changes in their condition quite rapidly and therefore they become more unstable even though they may have been admitted in a stable condition. This is because most patients in the medical-surgical nursing unit have unpredictable conditions and…

Jones (2000) explains that "Competitive advantage can be gained through customer service management (CSM) when implemented as a comprehensive approach to centering the organization on the customer. To be successful in the CSM strategy, each area of an organization must see that, directly or indirectly, achieving its objectives contributes to the customer's overall experience with the organization (Jones (2000)."
The capacity for business growth as goals are met- if customer service is good loyal customers will begin to tell others about the company and the products and services that are available through the company (Bielski, 2002). When this occurs profit could increase and many goals can be met.

Weaknesses. The weaknesses of industry as it relates to customer service are as follows;

Lack of adequate customer service training/quality assurance- in many cases industry suffers because there is a lack of customer service training that is adequate enough to meet the demands of…

This is one company that encourages the customer service representatives to develop relationships with the customers so that they can ask for individuals when and if they need to call back. I enjoyed this aspect of the job because everywhere I had worked before, we had a contact with the customers and the chances were extremely slim that we would ever hear from or speak to that customer again. There were many customers I enjoyed talking to and wished I could handle their future needs.
A learned through my experience that customer service can make or break a company. Several of the things my experience has taught me include:

set yourself above your existing competition (Customer, 1992).

A make it difficult for new competition to get a foothold in your market (Customer, 1992)."

Observations and eflections

When I first began my career in customer service I believed it was a means to an end.…

The reinforcement power of this feedback loop strengthens the customer service culture to the point where it has become for HMS Host a source of competitive advantage.
Another way in which HMSHost develops its customer service expertise is through its partnerships. The company utilizes these partnerships to institute a two-way transfer of a wide range of competencies, including technology, logistics and training (QSR Magazine, 2002). These partnerships allow partners like Starbucks and Burger King to contribute their own strong customer service values to HMS managers, who can in turn transfer this knowledge throughout the organization. This infusion of creativity allows for a wider range of ideas and best practices to be introduced into the organization, thereby enhancing organizational learning. The same occurred when HMSHost was taken over by Autogrill -- the parent company was able to influence customer service standards and bring in new ideas with regards to enhancing the…

DVD Rental
Improving Customer Service at Vista DVD Rentals

The Vista DVD Rentals store is at a crossroads. After a number of years in operation, the store is facing a critical turning point that could dictate future survival or the suspension of any further business. The transformation must revolve on vastly improved customer service. As is the case for most businesses in New Zealand, customer service has come to play an increasingly important role in Vista's relevance. Consumers have come to expect a certain level of accommodation on the part of a retail or rental operation and this imposes a high level of importance on the decisions that companies make with respect to the customer experience. Essentially, customer service can be defined as the set of standards, practices and procedures that shape the customer's experience through the course of a business transaction. This denotes two primary aspects of customer service: that which…

Management
The Challenge of Improving Upon Exemplary Customer Service: Apple, Inc.

For the purposes of this task, the organisation of focus will be the international giant, Apple, Inc. Apple is an organisation and a brand with international fame conjuring instant recognition and respect from global consumers for nearly four decades. Apple has an exceptional reputation for many aspects of their business practices such as product quality, product variety, and for the paper's purposes, customer service. As the paper will demonstrate and cite, this organisation has an outstanding reputation for customer service. Apple's customer service is ranked high both nationally (domestically) and internationally. Why choose an organisation that is so far ahead of most others? It is a formidable challenge to constantly and effectively improve upon excellence; this is the task that Apple puts before itself each year, and it is the same perspective from which the paper aligns itself.

Trends in many industries…

Emirate Airline Analysis
What follows in this report is a review and summary of the customer services aspect of Emirates Airline. The firm in question has most certainly established a name for themselves and there is the common refrain about how adept they are. Even so, there are opportunities for them to get better and all firms should commit to a culture and mindset of continuous improvement, fettering out what problems what do exist and finding common sense solutions for dealing with the same. Regardless of what problems are found, there need to be evidence-based and realistic solutions put forth, and that shall be the goal of this report. While Emirates Airlines does a lot of things well when it comes to their customer services, they could do even better and strive to do so whenever possible.

Company Summary


Before getting into the minutia of what should change and why, there should first…

Consumers also seem to become complacent, expecting poor customer service, and not demanding anything better. In addition, many consumers who experience poor customer service do not do anything about it, they simply never return to the store, and the retailer has no idea why. etailers need to remember consumers have choices. As one retailer notes, "And that's important because no retailer sells anything that customers can't get from another retailer" (atner, 2002). In addition, online shopping, for many, is a valid alternative to local shopping, because online retailers often offer a larger variety and volume pricing, enticing consumers to order with the click of a mouse. If a local retailer offers poor customer service, it is much less of a hassle to deal with a monitor than a mouthy or rude retail clerk. atner continues, "esearchers can identify the point during a transaction when the service level is most…

Employee Customer Service Training
New Employee Customer Service Training Plan

Justify the use of a needs assessment of your company's proposed employee customer service training, stressing five (5) ways in which such an assessment would expose any existing performance deficiencies.

The employees of an organization act like the 'driving force' which can either lead the organization towards success or can turn out to be the cause of its failure. A company's progress not only depends on an employee's individual performance but the way these employees communicate with the customers has its own significance. Thus, in order to run a successful organization, it is quite essential to monitor the correlation between the outcomes and the employees' input on a regular basis. To ensure employees' effectiveness, organizations usually remain concerned about training their employees.

Training means a methodical intentional process of changing behavior of organizational members in a direction which contributes to organizational effectiveness. (Hinrichs, 1976).

However,…

Recently, there was a McDonald's employee who made an error about a customer's order. There was a slight discrepancy involved because the customer wanted a breakfast biscuit with eggs, and the employee thought that since the customer mentioned "eggs" in the plural sense she wanted two of these biscuits. However, even once the customer clarified that she wanted just one biscuit, the employee continued to stating that the customer ordered two. The employee was remiss for not admitting his mistake. He was focused on being right, when he should have been focused on satisfying the customer by fulfilling her order correctly. He should have merely admitted his mistake the first time, and corrected the order as opposed to arguing with the customer.
Another time, there was a McDonald's employee working the drive-through window who was guilty of overpromising to customers. One of the customers was uncertain about which beverage to order,…

Foremost, training takes employees away from their work and therefore generates reduced operational efficiency.
Higher costs with benefits

An outsourcing contract will be simple and clear and will generally only state the object of the contract and the sum of money to be paid at established points in time. The American company would only pay the amount of money in the contract, to the manager or representative of the foreign company. The U.S. manager will not have to deal with employees or their demands.

ith internal service however, the manager will constantly have to deal with the employees and their demands. He will have to offer medical coverage, leave days, premiums and bonuses and so on. These once more increase the costs and negotiations and meeting have the ability to decrease operational efficiency.

Hiring and retention costs

Considering that the services to be offered to customers are a new line of business for the…

Alliances and partnerships that enrich the customer service experience of any online self-service application are exceptionally effective across other industries as well.
Conclusion

The introduction and support of an online self-service application is a multifaceted and highly coordinated strategy that requires system and process integration to be successful. In addition the support for roles-based access and preferences definitions is also critically important as consumers are increasingly expecting this from their online applications and will often reject and not use those that assume a one-size-fits-all mentality in their design. Finally gaining user input and designing with consideration of their needs is crucial for change management to occur. As online self-service is part of a CM strategy in many organizations (egan & O'Connor, 2002) the marketing of the application in addition to its inherent value must both be actively communication clearly.

eferences

Sven C. Berger. (2009). Self-service technology for sales purposes in branch banking: The…

However, simply hiring more people is only a part of the solution; in addition, these new employees, as well as current employees need additional training in order to allow them to serve customers more rapidly and in a more friendly manner. These goals should be tied to a compensation/bonus program for employees if the levels of customer satisfaction in the areas of improvement are enhanced. By doing so, the needs of the firm, its customers and employees are all met, thereby fulfilling the role of an effective business entity.
eferences

Brown, a. (2004, August). What's Brewing at Starbucks?. Black Enterprise, 35, 25.

Clark, P. (1999). Organisations in Action: Competition between Contexts. London: outledge.

Culpan, . (2002). Global Business Alliances: Theory and Practice. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.

John, J. (2003). Fundamentals of Customer-Focused Management: Competing through Service. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Karp, H. (1998, February). Worth More Than a Hill of Beans: Vincent Eades Leads Starbucks Coffee…

Job Task Analysis -- Customer Service
Job Task Analysis Customer Service

Position

Customer Service

Location: Corporate Office

shifts, 8-5, 4-12

Sat/Sun -- 9am-6pm

Full Time

Hourly (Entry 10.00/hour, range to $14.80/hour)

Position Objective

Call Center Agent

Preparation / Prerequisites

High School Diploma or Equivalent

Excellent Interpersonal Skills

Working Knowledge of Basic Computer Operations and MS Word and Excel

Must pass a background and drug screen

Organizational Skills

Ability to Multi-Task effectively

Clear speaking voice and good command of English

Flexible Schedule

Negotiating Skills

Typing skills of 25-30 wpm or greater

One year experience in Customer Service or Sales

Ability to problem solve and find win-win solutions

Pleasant "can-do" attitude

Excellent listening and empathy skills

Responsibilities

Work in a call center environment

Maintain customer service targets

Sales and Sales support

Consistently meets established guidelines

Effectively communicates with customers, coworkers and managers

Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness to Quality Programs

Ability to service overflow calls from sales or support

Basic Duties

Respond to customer calls of all natures

Provide customers with product and service information

Log calls for follow up or advanced technical support as needed

Process orders, forms, applications

Identify and…

To protect each party various stipulations of the agreement will define specific instances when it is valid. These different elements are important, because they are showing how these provisions are designed to safeguard both parties and provide added levels of support for a particular product / service. As a result, there are several different components that are a part of an effective service guarantee to include: they clearly state the terms / conditions, they are fair and they list the specific benefits both sides will receive. (Fabien, 2005, pg. 33) (Hart, 2000, pg. 4) (Kau, 2006, pp. 101 -- 111)
Part 2

The service guarantees that we will be examining include: PG & E. And Travelocity. In the case of PG & E, they are clearly stating what customers should expect and the conditions when this agreement will not be applicable. This significant, because the guarantee is considered to be effective…

(2009). Tipskey.com. Retrieved April 2013 from: http://www.tipskey.com/article/advanced_flowchart/
Kock, E., ed. (2007). ystems Analysis & Design Fundamentals. Thousand Oaks, CA: age.

Mind Tools, (2012). Flow Charting. Retrieved April 2013 from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_97.htm

Phone Call In

Email In

ystem Creates Automatic Ticket

Elevated and Marked Urgent

Not solved

Return to customer, follow up for satisfaction

Yes

No

Yes

Cannot solve in-house

Can solve in house, instruct technician

Elevate to upervisor

No

Yes

Implement olution from upervisor

Is this solved?

Yes

Receive Product Back - Test

end out to specialist; inform client of delay

Arrange for unit to be mailed in -- once it arrives, tag with Ticket number

Complete Ticket

File Report

Analyze and Address Issue

Analyze and Address Issue

No

Elevate and Assign to Tech…

Nordstrom began as a shoe retailer, and eventually transition into a fashion and apparel department story, but all along it was the strong desire of management to provide "the highest level of customer service" with "top of the line, high quality merchandize" (Chapter 5). This paper points to the need for Nordstrom to continue to expand its great customer service, and the risks it might take in that regard.
Nordstrom and Customer Services

How can a great company known for exceptional customer service continue to provide that service and at the same time boost customer loyalty? Given the extraordinary measures that Nordstrom already has gone to -- and goes to -- how can they continue to provide services that go above and beyond what other upscale department stores? These are the salient questions for this paper. Ideas for continuing to provide great customer care services are provided in the following paragraphs.

Child Care…

H manager: Conducing a job analysis of a new customer service positon
Job analysis

Three types of techniques can be used when conducting a job analysis in the workplace of a particular position. The first, that of job observation, takes the form of a trained workplace analyst observing the employee completing his or her tasks. While for some positions this may be useful, particularly manual tasks, other jobs are more difficult to assess visually. In these cases, managers may request a work sampling (such as a representative report) or ask the employee to keep a diary or log of their work ("Job analysis methods" 2015). For a customer service job, observing might take the form of listening to selected calls fielded by existing employees in the position. The disadvantage of this approach is that it can be extremely time-consuming. Also, the trained observers can only give subjective impressions and may not fully…

Quality, cost-competitiveness, customer service and first-to-market are all essential determinants to global commercial success. All sectors of the economic market are obliged to reduce costs and production times while increasing profits and market share. Ambitious organizations are turning to systems management programs such as Six Sigma or Total Quality Management to develop and maintain exceptional standards across the whole of an organization. This includes all aspects of production and manufacturing processes, as well as marketing, sales and distribution, financial considerations, employee motivation and customer service. Finally, product development in the form of a perennial portfolio of projects helps to ensure the viability of a company.
The incorporation of systems management programs has become integral to the renaissance and future of an organization. Often, enterprises will combine qualities from several methodologies such as integration aspects of Six Sigma with Project Management; the very topic of consideration for this essay that examines…

complaint from the customer was legitimate since being a grown up who had the trust to walk into OTTP shops to purchase a laptop computer and the employee instead mimicked a child's voice while talking to her, bearing that she was confined to a wheel chair. The client was also rightfully offended for the sales representative to keep leaning on her wheel chair, causing her personal discomfort.
In this event, Mr. MacGibson should unequivocally apologize to the customer on behalf of the company and of the employee who showed gross misconduct. He also needs to assure the client that the individual sales representative will be summoned and accordingly dealt with and that it is not the policy of the company, nor the habit of their employees to act in the manner displayed by Joanne.

The changes that Mr. MacGibson should implement should include the overall organizational policies that should make it…

Measuring Improvement in Customer Service
The use of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress in meeting and exceeding continuous improvement objectives for Customer elationship Management (CM) is commonplace in many industries. The continuous improvement goals and objectives for the CM strategies at a company of interest, Cincom Systems, are multifaceted and concentrate on measuring improvements in prospecting, selling and service strategies over time. Cincom uses a benchmarking methodology for creating a baseline of performance, and then continually measures performance gains over time across five core business units.

Analysis of Continuous Improvement Objectives in CM at Cincom

Cincom Systems is a 43-year-old enterprise software company with approximately 700 employees globally. It has a leadership position in the aerospace and defense, complex manufacturing and outsourcing industries. The metrics and KPIs that the company uses to measure continuous improvement for their CM systems include customer retention rates, sales cycle performance, cost of sales,…

contact our customer service department at an Interesting Incident of My Life
This is the narration of a very peculiar experience that I had a few years ago. I still don't know how much credibility I can account to it whenever I think about it, but it sure as hell gives me the spooks even up to this day. It all came to pass one cold, dreary winter night. The darkness almost stifling in its vast presence and the very atmosphere seemed to be tingling with apprehension and fear, though that could have been my own feeling of foreboding amplified by my imagination.

The stage it seemed, had been set for some gruesome gothic murder or something and this is what happened that fateful night:- It must have been close to 2:00 AM when I left the party, weary and tired for all the dancing and frisking that Id done. I…

contact our customer service department at the Secret of the Spotted Shell is both a mystery story and a coming-of-age story. The mystery part of the plot is driven by the question of what is so special about the writing on the spotted shell of the title. The secret is apparently so terrible, it seems to have forced a young man going on a secret mission to rescue a friend in Vietnam. The novel also tells the story of a young girl who is desperately trying to create a new family for herself in the Virgin Islands. The is anxious to solve the mystery not just because she is curious about its solution, or even because her cousin is directly involved, but because she also wishes to create a sense of peace in her new home.
The story begins as Wendy Williams is sent away to live with her relatives…

contact our customer service department at in her essay "Social Responsibility," written in 1990, Barbara Illingsworth argues that the primarily private behavior of homosexuals and intravenous drug addicts should not be curbed, even though their behavior exposes them to AIDS, because they primarily harm only themselves.
The date of the essay is significant, because history has proven her wrong. At the time of the essay, San Francisco was considering closing the bathhouses, common hangouts for homosexuals seeking casual sex, because they were perceived as an easy way for AIDS to spread among homosexual men. While this was likely true, Illingsworth argued that since they harmed only themselves, their right to behave in this way should not be curbed. Likewise, she argued that intravenous drug abusers should be allowed to continue with practices such as sharing needles because the problem remained within their social milieu.

She discusses the "weak harm principle," meaning…

Supply Chain Management
The proposed changes will hopefully improve customer service, but will also focus on improving the integration between the different units, so as to put a common front for the customer. Moreover, the changes will begin to modernize the system for tracking inventory. The reason that the customers expect to be able to track their orders every step of the way is because that is fairly common technology. Thus, a move to RFID and other technologies that facilitate real-time tracking, along with adopting a common technology platform, will serve the company's needs in a number of ways.

First, the customers will receive the tracking information that they want, and should expect from any company in 2015. This will resolve the company's major customer service issue, and thus should help to improve its customer service scores overall, which are presently being dragged down by the technological inferiority in the supply chain.…

Decor My Eyes
Bully retailer of eyeglasses

Thrives on threats, intimidation and bad publicity

Widely accused of defrauding customers monetarily and/or through fake goods (Segal, 2010)

Who are the stakeholders

Employees of Decor my Eyes

Owners of Decor my Eyes

Current Customers

Prior Customers

Credit Card Companies/PayPal

f. Legitimate owners/retailers of brands being sold by Decor My Eyes (Business Dictionary, 2016).

Interests of Stakeholders

Threats levied by people with Decor My Eyes

Fears for Safety

Being sold fraudulent goods

Being sold no goods at all

Not being able to get refund/exchange

f. Desire for prosecution of Decor My Eyes for threats

g. Desire for Prosecution of Decor My Eyes for fraudulent goods

h. Desire for Prosecution of Decor My Eyes for financial deceit/theft (Business Dictionary, 2016).

Laws/Violations that Apply to this matter

a. Threats against customers

b. Financial fraud with credit card companies or other financial institutions (e.g. Decor My Eyes owner or employee telling Citibank to drop the contesting of a charge)

c. Selling of goods that are known to be counterfeit

d.…

This irritated the client, but the situation was the worst when he took the family on an international trip and found that their seats has been reassigned to the non-Premier areas of the aircraft with less legroom. This also happened on subsequent flights, and the client felt that he was treated like baggage. (Sturm, 2004) It has already been seen that this airline is concerned about their customers, yet the airline succeeded in irritating a customer with what the customer feels is "lack of gratitude." One is sure that what the airline staff did was according to the laws, but the client was unhappy. This is generally the result of not being able to communicate in a manner that makes clients happy. Thus methods of implementation are probably as important as the policies themselves.
Let us now look at another airline from the list. Delta Air Lines chief customer service…

Even customers who are satisfied with something do not always return to that specific business, especially if the business is somewhat out of the way or relatively inconvenient to get to (Jackson, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1988).
Customer loyalty is generally thought to be achieved when a customer returns to buy something that they have bought before from the same company (Jackson, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1988). There are many other ways to measure loyalty statistically, but it basically boils down to a customer returning to a business even though there are so many other choices available (Jackson, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1988).

There are many ways to increase customer loyalty and it is significant to discuss some of them here (Rackham, Honey, Colbert, Fields, Hinson, Morgran, Morris, Sugden, & Tribe, 1971). One of the best ways is to meet or exceed many of the service standards that others in the industry have established…

Service Quality of Singapore Airline
The focus of this work in writing is the examination of the SERVQUAL model as it applies to a case study of Singapore Airlines in regards to service quality and the application of a conceptual model of service quality. This study will additionally explain the gap in service quality between firm and customer.

The work of Prayag and Dookhony-Ramphul (2010) report that the SERVQUAL model "is still the most widely used scale for measuring service quality. The SERVQUAL scale has been applied to airlines, hotels, financial services, health care, and the public sector." (p.3) uttle (1995) reports that SERVQUAL makes provision of a technology "for measuring and managing service quality (SQ). Since 1985, when the technology was first published, its innovators Parasuraman, Zeithaml and erry, have further developed, promulgated and promoted the technology through a series of publications." (p.8) It is reported that the AI/Inform database 'Global…

Customer Service and Marketing
Customer Centric usiness

The customer-centric business model is a necessary hybrid delivery system of goods and services in today's business environment. With the advent of the Internet, and e-business, customers are no longer limited by traditional geographic parameters for their purchase choices. Other factors which established boundaries to the consumer's choices, such as limited knowledge of purchase options, and time constraints, or the inability to travel, and research options before making a purchase choice have been dissolved.

Today's consumer is driving the marketplace in much more powerful ways, since he or she can sit at a desktop computer, and become aware of the options, prices, and product selection in minutes. Armed with this power, the retailer, or provider of good and services that are not also in touch with the advancing level of consumers desires will be left with full shelves, few customers, and falling revenues. Customers will find…

While this paper focuses on process-centric improvements to McCarran, the research completed for this paper highlights the critical need for an all-encompassing IT architecture that allows for data to support both processes as thoroughly as possible.
Figure 3: Combining the Check-in and retailing processes for greater efficiency

Luggage and Baggage Process Improvements

Another major area of process improvement McCarran needed to focus on was luggage and baggage handling. The airport had been losing between 10% to 30% of all bags, leading to high levels of customer dissatisfaction and many manual processes attempting to compensate for the confusion around this broken process. Relying on Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) McCarran piloted several programs for baggage tagging, management and retrieval using the RFID standard. In the retail industry, Wal-Mart has been a pioneer in establishing higher levels of performance in logistics and supply chain performance using RFID, and McCarran's many efforts have lead to…

Time Warner approaches the issue of returns and service adjustment through a series of escalation paths and programs. These are the first step in averting any potential need for service recovery. When the service disruption is their fault or the fault of weather-related causes the company, Time Warner is quick to provide a refund or at least a credit for lost service. This is consistent with the concept of reciprocation and respect for customers as well (Thanh, 2007).

Time Warner is less apt however to provide a refund or credit if there is a conflict with a customer over the quality or latency of a signal over time. This is unquantifiable from a Time Warner standpoint, but very real to a customer. The divergence between what quality level Time Warner thinks it is delivering and it actually is from a customers' perception causes the majority of churn in their customer base.…