Customer Service

CUSTOMER CARE Submitted By: Minu Pauline, D3, FIAT

INTRODUCTION To know about who is customer & what is customer services. And through this we need to find out the types of customer & the basic needs of a customer, their expectation, customer satisfaction and how the customer perception is related to service evaluation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all I would like to thank the almighty. Then I would like to thank Mrs.Meena for giving this opportunity for doing this assignment & her great co-operation. I would also like to thank all the staff of FIAT Cochin. At last I would like to express my thanks to all my colleagues.

Who is a customer ?

A customer is someone who makes use of the paid products of an individual or organization. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services.

A customer is not an outsider to our business. He is a definite part of it. A customer is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. A customer is doing us a favor by letting us serve him. We are not doing him any favor. A customer is not a cold statistic; he is a flesh and blood human being with feelings and emotions like our own. A customer is not someone to argue or match wits with. He deserves courteous and attentive treatment. A customer is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. A customer brings us his wants. It is our job to handle them properly and profitably - both to him and us. A customer makes it possible to pay our salary, whether we are a driver, plant or an office employee. - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

What is customer service?

Customer service also known as Client Service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.

According to Turban et al. “ Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation.”

Its importance varies by product, industry and customer. As an example, an expert customer might require less pre-purchase service (i.e., advice) than a novice. In many cases, customer service is more important if the purchase relates to a “service” as opposed to a “product".

Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites.

Customer service is normally an integral part of a company’s customer value prop

Types of Customers

There are two types of customers they are: internal and external. If one department, individual or process within an organization supplies another such within the same organization with goods, information or services then the latter is described as the internal customer of the former. an external customer is the ordinary customers that purchase the companies products they include the general public

Internal Customers

Internal customer(s)is from within an organization e.g.. a person or group of people already in the employ of the same organization.

People working in different branches of the vendor's organization

For example, a dispatch department may be the internal customer of a packing department, which in turn may be the internal customer of the manufacturing process.

External Customers

Individuals

General Public

The Six Basic Needs of Customers

1. Friendliness Friendliness is the most basic of all customers needs, usually associated with being greeted graciously and with warmth. We all want to be acknowledged and welcomed by someone who sincerely is glad to see us. A customer shouldn’t feel they are an intrusion on the service provider’s work day!

2. Understanding and empathy Customers need to feel that the service person understands and appreciates their circumstances and feelings without criticism or judgment. Customers have simple expectations that we who serve them can put ourselves in their shoes, understanding what it is they came to us for in the first place.

3. Fairness we all need to feel we are being treated fairly. Customers get very annoyed and defensive when they feel they are subject to any class distinctions. No one wants to be treated as if they fall into a certain category, left wondering if “the grass is greener on the other side” and if they only received second best.

4. Control Control represents the customers’ need to feel they have an impact on the way things turn out. Our ability to meet this need for them comes from our own willingness to say “yes” much more than we say “no.” Customers don’t care about policies and rules; they want to deal with us in all our reasonableness.

5. Options and alternatives Customers need to feel that other avenues are available to getting what they want accomplished. They realize that they may be charting virgin territory, and they depend on us to be “in the know” and provide them with the “inside scoop.” They get pretty upset when they feel they have spun their wheels getting something done, and we knew all along a better way, but never made the suggestion.

6. Information “Tell me, show me – everything!” Customers need to be educated and informed about our products and services, and they don’t want us leaving anything out! They don’t want to waste precious time doing homework on their own – they look to us to be their walking, talking, information central.

Business Definition for Customer Expectation:

The needs, wants, and preconceived ideas of a customer about a product or service. Customer expectation will be influenced by a customer's perception of the product or service and can be created by previous experience, advertising, hearsay, awareness of competitors, and brand image. The level of customer service is also a factor, and a customer might expect to encounter efficiency, helpfulness, reliability, confidence in the staff, and a personal interest in his or her patronage. If customer expectations are met, then customer satisfaction results.

Needs and Expectations

Customer needs may be defined as the facilities or services a customer requires to achieve specific goals or objectives. Needs are generally non-negotiable, but may be optional or of varying importance to the customer. In any transaction, customers seek value-for-money, and will often consider a range of vendors' offers before settling on a purchase.

Customer expectations are based on perceived values of facilities or services as applied to specific needs. Expectations are influenced by cultural values, advertising, marketing, and other communications, both with the supplier and with other sources. Expectations are negotiable and modifiable.

Both customer needs and expectations may be determined through interviews, surveys, conversations or other methods of collecting information. Customers at times do not have a clear understanding of their needs. Assisting in determining needs is a valuable service to the customer. In the process, expectations may be set or adjusted to correspond to known product capabilities or service levels

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction , a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced Scorecard.

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of business strategy

Co-relation between Customer Perception & Service Evaluation

Customer perception and service evaluation both are co-related.. If then service provided by us is up to the customer’s perception and expectations then that creates a happy customer that helps us in our organization’s growth. In an organization we are not just selling our products we are in fact rendering our service also.

Customer’s perceptions of mechanic clues are positively related to their expectations of the service, humanic values dominate the influence of mechanic clues. Ideally, managers should orchestrate both humanic and mechanic clues to deliver a consistent service message.

Customer service skills

Attracting new customers costs more than retaining existing customers.

Customer service costs real money

Understand your customers’ needs and meet them.

Good process and product design is important.

Customer service must be consistent.

Employees are customers, too.

Open all communication channels.

Every customer contact is a chance to shine.

People expect good customer service everywhere.

About the service provided in the company I visited

The company that I visited was of a very small crew and among them the number and this made the customers to wait for long and due to that may o the customers got irritated and the employees of this company didn’t show much interest in taking the suggestions and attending the complaints of the customers. These all negatively affected the business and the goodwill of the company.

And if I was in charge on the above mentioned company. First of all I will take some important steps to improve the service

I will definitely make sure that the sales crew is adequate to attend the customers. Proper training will be given to all the sales executives. Will never compromise the goodwill of the company for anything. Will definitely consider the suggestions and complaints of the valuable customers. By doing all these I will be able to keep the perception and expectation of the guest about my company.

I will take necessary steps to be in touch with the customers to get feedbacks and from that feed backscan improve in our future

Conclusion

In this assignment I was able to understand the co-relation between customer satisfaction & customer expectation & also the inter relation between customer perception and customer satisfaction. I could also understand how feedbacks are important in the growth of our company.

Reference