3.4 Good Customer Service Flashcards
What does good customer service involve
- Meeting customer needs before, during, and after the sale
- All employees focused on meeting customer needs
What is customer service
The method used by a business to look after its current and future customers
What are the different stages of a successful sales process
- Know your good or service
- Providing appropriate display and information
- Engage with the customer to create a positive experience
- Finalise the deal and agree the sale
- Provide good payment options
- Good post sales service
What does knowing your product or service in the sales process involve
- Staff being informed and trained before they try and sell goods and services
- Staff need updating as new goods, services, and offers are introduced
- Also applies to e-sales
What does providing appropriate display and information in the sales process involve
- Selling displays and presentation is important both in stores and online
- Customers need some time to process information
- Engaging the customer too quickly may lose sales opportunities
What does engaging the customer to create a positive experience in the sales process involve
- Appropriate timing and language
- Explanation of the goods and services and their benefits is required
- Engagement is a two way process which requires listening to each customer carefully and identifying their specific needs
What does finalising the deal and agreeing the sale in the sales process involve
- Negotiation
- The agreement to purchase may be verbally agreed or online
- Agreement is likely to include how and when payment will be made
What does providing good payment options in the sales process involve
- Payment processes should be efficient and should meet customer needs and fulfill the agreement made
- Payment may be immediate or involve credit
What does good post sales service(after sales service) involve
- Instructions, manuals, and having helplines
- Service contracts often offered
- Follow up calls and emails may be undertaken to gain customer feedback
What are the different methods of good customer service
- Product information knowledge
- Customer engagement
- Post sales service
- Goods or service meets needs of customers
- Manage customer expectations
What does product information knowledge involve
- Information provided is accurate and accessible
- Staff are well trained and have thorough product knowledge
What does customer engagement involve
- Positive customer experience
- Staff build a good relationship with each customer
What does the good or service meeting needs of customers involve?
The good or service must meet customer needs in terms of function, reliability, safety, and quality
What does post sales service involve
- Dealing promptly and fairly with complaints
- Exchanging faulty or unwanted goods
- Delivery within timescales
- Goods under guarantee repaired
What are the benefits of providing good customer service
- Increased sales as satisfied customers will try out other goods or services provided by the same business
- Customer retention and loyalty as satisfied customers make repeat purchases
- Word of mouth promotion as satisfied customers will recommend products to others
- Enhanced public image which helps build a brand and provides protection if there is a slip up in customer service
- More effective workforce as employees receive customers appreciation which motivates them
- Lower costs as there are fewer complaints, less staff needed, and fewer refunds/replacements required
- Improved profitability as a result of increased sales revenue and reduced costs
What is customer satisfaction
The extent to which customers are pleased with the products they have bought and whether they would make repeat purchases
What is customer loyalty
A businesses customers make repeat purchases because they prefer the businesses products to those of its rivals
What are the dangers of providing poor customer service
- Loss of loyalty
- Loss of sales
- Damaged reputation
- Customers may not report problems, so sales will be lost without information to explain why
- Unhappy customer spread the word; verbally or via social media
Why does poor customer service occur
- Businesses promise too much; raising customer expectations but not providing to that level
- Poor communication; if a business does not make it clear to customers what their level of service is, customers may be disappointed
- Poor management; business not managing its resources correctly
- External factors
How can poor management lead to poor customer service
- Business may have the resources to fulfil its promises, but not able to manage them well enough
- e.g. staff not allocated the correct jobs, or equipment is not scheduled to be used effectively
What external factor leads to poor customer service
Delays from suppliers
What is word of mouth
A process in which information about a business’s activities is passed informally between interested stakeholders
What is ICT
Information communication technology refers to the computing and communication systems a business uses to exchange information
What ICT methods can help businesses to offer good customer service
- Websites
- E commerce and m commerce
- Social media
- Data analysis
How can websites help offer good customer service
- Gives customer information about the business to help the customer make a well informed decision about whether or not to buy the product
- Helps advertise a small business to a much larger group of customers leading to increased sales
- Includes answers to frequently asked questions
- Offers advice to current customers if they have a problem with the product they have bought; this helps with good post sales service
- Display of images provide customers with a good insight into the goods and services offered
What is e-commerce
The act of buying or selling a product using an electronic system such as the internet
What is m-commerce
The act of buying or selling a product using a smart phone or similar handheld device
What are the benefits to a customer of using e-commerce
- Convenient as products can be viewed and purchased at any time of day from any part of the world
- Ability to see reviews of products which can inform purchasing decisions
- Access to online support or chat to help with product selection
- Prices may be lower as online businesses do not have to pay expensive high street rents
- Customers are able to compare products between different firms to gain the lowest prices
- Personal information and payment details can be saved to make checkout faster
- Preferences can be saved and products recommended based upon purchase history
What is social media
Websites or application allowing users to create and share content or take part in social networking
What are the benefits for a business using social media
- Provides quick and easy ways to communicate with large numbers of existing and potential customers
- Helps raise awareness of the business and its products
- Provides and easy way to monitor satisfaction and collect feedback
- Promotes customer engagement by informing customers about the benefits of its products
What is the drawback of social media for a business
Poor customer service stories can spread quickly to large numbers of people, affecting the reputation of the business
What is data analysis
Involves gathering and examining data to provide useful information that can be used for decision making
How does data analysis allow a business to identify trends and changes in the market
- It can remarket products to you when using the internet, relevant advertisements about thing you have been searching for will be promoted
- It can recommend products it knows you will like as it has tracked your shopping and browsing history
- It can change the price according to the day, time, or month to encourage you to buy based on what you have done in the past
What is the advantage of data analysis to a business
- Identify trends and changes in the market
- Helps to predict customer needs and meet them
- Helps to predict changes in the market, which allows a business to schedule when to order certain things, where to order them to, and at what price; this increases efficiency
What is a drawback of data analysis to a business
Customers may view it as a violation of their privacy, and boycott the business
What is customer engagement
When a business puts customers requirements at the heart of its operations and result in customers having a good experience with the business
What is post sales service
Meeting customer needs after they have purchased a product
What are premises
Building used by businesses which may include offices, shops, and factories
