At the end of this section candidates should be able to: • Describe customer service. • Explain why customer service is important to the success of every organisation. • Identify who their customers are. • Identify the drawbacks of poor customer service. • Explain how to promote good service. • Demonstrate an understanding of customer service needs and expectations. Indicative content 1.1 Outline knowledge of basic principles - maintaining good customer service at all times; treating all customers with respect; identifying and meeting customer needs; providing the service expected by the company. 1.2 Understanding why customer service is important to the company and to you – it helps to make the organisation successful, generates repeat business, assists profit and growth. 1.3 Identifying external and internal customers and their importance to the organisation. 1.4 Appreciate the drawbacks of not serving internal and external customers effectively, e.g. poor reputation, loss of business, loss of profit, loss of jobs.

2. Aims and Objectives of this Module
• This module enables students to gain understanding on how superior customer
service contributes to the overall performance organisations. On successfully
completing this module, the learners will be able to:
• Understand the importance of customer service to the overall marketing
effort of an organisation.
• Know the service skills required to meet the requirements of the customers’
needs
• Understand the need for setting quality standards for customer service level.
• Explain the effect of employee resourcing to service provision.
• Understand how organisations vary customer service to match individual
needs
The above objectives will be addressed by the LOs. targeting the following
skills below:
• Knowledge and Understanding
• Intellectual Skills
• Professional Skills
• General and transferable Skills

3. LO1 : Introduction to
customer service

4. OUTCOMES
• Define customer service
• Describe the features of quality service
• Understand the need to classify customers for
service provision purposes.
• Explain the different approaches to service
provision

5. WHAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE?
Customer service is the provision of services to customers before, during
and after a purchase. The perception of success of such interactions is
dependent on employees "who can adjust themselves to the personality of the
guest". Customer service concerns the priority an organization assigns to
customer service relative to components such as product innovation and
pricing. In this sense, an organization that values good customer service may
spend more money in training employees than the average organization or
may proactively interview customers for feedback.

6. What is Customer support
A customer support is a range of customer services to assist customers in
making cost effective and correct use of a product. It includes assistance in
planning, installation, training, trouble shooting, maintenance, upgrading,
and disposal of a product. These services even may be done at customer's
side where he/she uses the product or service. In this case it is called "at
home customer services" or "at home customer support.“ Regarding
technology, products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers,
software products or other electronic or mechanical goods, it is
termed technical support.

7. Define customer service
• Describe the features of quality service
• Understand the need to classify customers
for service provision purposes.
• Explain the different approaches to service
provision

8. What is Automated customer service
Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service
representative), or by automated means such as kiosks, Internet sites, and apps. An
advantage with automated means is an increased ability to provide service 24-hours
a day, which can, at least, be a complement to customer service by persons.
An increasingly popular type of automated customer service is conducted
through artificial intelligence ("AI"). The customer benefit of AI is the feel for
chatting with a live agent through improved speech technologies while giving
customers the self-service benefit. Another example of automated customer service
is by touch-tone phone, which usually involves IVR (Interactive Voice Response) a
main menu and the use of the keypad as options (e.g., "Press 1 for English, Press 2
for Spanish", etc)

9. EXAMPLES OF GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE
• Greeting the customer, when a customer enters your shop/premises
• Smiling to customers, and offering them assistance
• Explaining to the customer the technical issues of a good or service
• Charging fair prices
• Carrying goods of a customer to their car/home or destination
• Calling customers for enjoyment of the good/service’s use
• Frequently asking if the customer is happy
• Labeling correctly your products
• Showing customers where the products are placed in the shop
• Solving disputes well
• Making the customer taste the good before use

10. The Importance of Customer Satisfaction in Business
1. Brand loyalty
Why would a happy, satisfied customer ever look elsewhere or want to leave you?
You’ll see lower churn, and higher retention. And a 5% increase in retention can
increase profitability by as much as 25-95%. Let that sink in.
2. Brand buzz
A platoon of happy advocates and cheerleaders singing your praises on social media
and review sites is the absolute best publicity that money can – or can’t – buy. Work
to make it happen.
3. Brand trust
Consumers trust people – even strangers – more than they do advertising and
marketing.
“Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement.
If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it,
you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” ~H. James
Harrington, CEO of Harrington Management Systems

11. Customer Satisfaction Goals
So, what should your customer satisfaction goals include? Hard to say. No one
knows your business better than you. Your goals may not be my goals, and vice
versa.
Generally speaking, you want to keep things simple. Use the SMART goal
system (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-limited). Set only 1-2
at a time (otherwise they start competing with each other). Write them down
(studies show you’re 2-3x more likely to follow-through). Keep them realistic.
Identify the problem spots, the bottlenecks, and the frequent complaints.
After that, your goals may include reducing churn or increasing retention by
X%, reducing the number of contact points with repeat customers, decreasing
complaint response time, increasing the NPS by X%, experiment with different
communication channels, boost the number of “completely satisfied” customer
interactions, reduce shipping time, and so on.

12. Learn How to Measure Your Customer Satisfaction
Now we get to the meat and potatoes. It’s all well and good to plan and promote
customer satisfaction within your business, but how exactly does that play out in
the world?
Hubspot recommends a simple acronym to remember the steps: OCCAM (as
in Occam’s Razor, the idea that the simplest explanation or approach is usually the
best one):
• Outline goals and plan.
• Create customer survey.
• Choose trigger or timing.
• Analyze the data.
• Make adjustments.

13. Popular methods of Customer Satisfaction Surveys include:
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), which measures their satisfaction on a
particular interaction.
Customer Effort Score (CES), which examines the ease with which they were
able to have their issue successfully resolved or complete an action (like
making a purchase).
Net Promoter Score (NPS), which asks how likely they are to recommend
your business to someone else.

14. Practice Question
1. Define the following terms
a. Customer Satisfaction
b. Customer Service
2. Explain the different approaches to service provision