Customer service

First of all, it is important to define what is it – customer service? So, 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. Customer care is extremely important to a company’s success.

When you deal with service department you can meet some irritating things, for example, when you try to deal with SD by phone you can be put on hold, speak to a disinterested person, have to dial several numbers before getting to the right person, find the Customer Service number is continuously engaged, be cut off. When you deal Face-to-face with SD you can meet unhelpful customer service personnel, indifferent staff, salespeople with poor product knowledge, too few staff at peak times, no company policy on customer service or complaints. Repairs and refunds – delays on repairs, delays in getting one’s money back, no replacement equipment while repairs are carried out.

So, companies need to know how to deal with customer complains: show the customer that you are listening by checking that you understand; allow the customer to show emotions if they are upset or angry + show that you are sorry; Admit that the problem was your fault as soon as possible, be firm if you are sure of your facts; Make sure you get full details of the problem; Ask the customer to put the complaint in writing; Try to find out what result the customer wants; Concentrate on the situation not the personalities.

Good customer service is about exceeding customers’ expectations. New technology can help improve customer service. For example. Marks and Spenser have a unit at their till points that when customers pay they can press different buttons and say whether they were happy with the service they received today.

Companies are increasingly aware of the importance of “word-of-mouth” advertising – when customers talk to others about their experience of products and services. In the increasingly competitive service sector, it is no longer enough to promise customer satisfaction. Today customers’ delight is the stated aim for companies battling to retain and increase market share.

Surveys showed that customers receiving good service will stimulate new business by telling up to 12 other people; those treated badly – to up to 20 people. Interestingly, 80% of people who feel their complaints are handled fairly will stay loyal.

New challenges for customer care have come with the rapid growth in obtaining goods and services via Internet and telephone call centers. Preventing, avoiding “phone rage” – induced by delays in answering calls, being cut off in mid-conversation or left waiting for long periods – has been tackled by vast investment in information technology and training courses for staff. The staff should be trained to answer quickly, with their name, job title and “we are here to help attitude”.

Many people do not like talking to machines. Banks, for example, encourage staff at call centers to use customer data to establish instant rapport with them. The aim is to make customer feel they know you and that you can trust them.

It is very important to prepare staff to give the best customer service. For example, in Harrods,The first step is to welcome customers within one minute entering the Department, so customers are treated as guests and when they walk into the store or into Department they are greeted in some way. So it may be a smile, that may be a more formal good morning or good afternoon, or it may simply be eye contact. Company need to train stuff monitor customer’s behavior and look for an appropriate time go and start a conversation with the customers. Staff should use their product knowledge and select items to meet customers needs. Of course, the staff are encouraged to thank customers and invite them to return.

Recommended ways of inducing customer delight include: under-promising and over-delivering (saying that a repair will be carried out in 5 hours, but getting it done within 2); replacing a faulty product immediately;throwing in a gift voucher as an unexpected thank you to regular customers; always returning calls even when they are complaint.

Aiming for customer delight is all very well, but if services do not reach the high level promised, disappointment or worse will be the result. That can be eased by coupling an apology and explanation of why the service didn’t meet usual standards with empathy and possible solutions (replacement, compensation).

Airlines face some of the toughest challenges over customer care. Competition has convinced them that delighting passengers is an essential marketing tool, while there is great potential for customer outrage over delays caused by weather, unclaimed luggage and technical problems.

Recommended ways of improving customer service include: giving key customers special discounts;organizing research to find out what customers need;investing in staff training programmes in customer care; customer-focused procedures – the customer is always right; acting quickly with complaints.

25)

Globalization both homogenizes and fragments. On one hand, it allows nations and

citizens of the world to share common events, values and knowledge, often

instantaneously thanks to advances in telecommunications and information

technology.

Douglas W. Blum: In a study of three globalizing states and cities in post-Soviet Eurasia - Russia (Astrakhan), Kazakhstan (Almaty), and Azerbaijan (Baku) - Douglas W. Blum provides an empirical examination of national identity formation, exploring how cultures, particularly youth cultures, have been affected by global forces. Blum argues that social discourse regarding youth cultural trends - coupled with official and non-official approaches to youth policy - complement patterns of state-society relations and modes of response to globalization. His findings show that the nations studied have embraced certain aspects of modernity and liberalism, while rejecting others, but have also reasserted the place of national traditions.

Globalisation (or globalization) describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of political ideas through communication, transportation, and trade.

A reasonable conclusion is that nations gain more from with other nations than from national isolation.