MANAGE QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE FACILITATOR MANUAL WITH SIMULATED ONLINE BUSINESS ASSESSMENT BSBCUS501A

Transcription

1 MANAGE QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE FACILITATOR MANUAL WITH SIMULATED ONLINE BUSINESS ASSESSMENT BSBCUS501A

2 Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd 9 Koppen Tce, Cairns, QLD, info@precisiongroup.com.au Website: BSBCUS501A Manage Quality Customer Service ISBN: Copyright Notice No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information retrieval system without written permission from Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd. Legal action may be taken against any person who infringes their copyright through unauthorised copying. These terms are subject to the conditions prescribed under the Australian Copyright Act Copying for Educational Purposes The Australian Copyright Act 1968 allows 10% of this book to be copied by any educational institute for educational purposes, provided that the institute (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. For more information, info@copyright. com.au or visit for other contact details. Disclaimer Precision Group has made a great effort to ensure that this material is free from error or omissions. However, you should conduct your own enquiries and seek professional advice before relying on any fact, statement or matter contained in this book. Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd is not responsible for any injury, loss or damage as a result of material included or omitted from this material. Information in this course material is current at the time of publication.

3 Table of Contents 2 Legend 3 Qualification Pathways 4 Qualification Rules 5 Introduction 7 BSBCUS501A/01 Plan to Meet Internal and External Customer Requirements Key Points Investigate, identify, assess, and include the needs of customers in planning processes Ensure plans achieve the quality, time and cost specifications agreed with customers 21 True or False Quiz 23 BSBCUS501A/02 Ensure Delivery of Quality Products and /or Services Key Points Deliver products and / or services to customer specifications within organisation s business plan Manage team performance to consistently meet the organisation s quality and delivery standards Assist colleagues to overcome difficulty in meeting customer service standards using leadership, supervision, coaching and mentoring 33 True or False Quiz 35 BSBCUS501A/03 Monitor, Adjust and Review Customer Service Key Points Develop and use strategies to monitor progress in achieving product and / or service targets and standards Develop and use strategies to obtain customer feedback to improve the provision of products and / or services Develop, procure and use resources effectively to provide quality products and/or services to customers Make decisions to overcome problems and to adapt customer services, products and/ or service delivery in consultation with appropriate individuals and groups Manage records, reports and recommendations within the organisation s systems and processes 43 True or False Quiz 44 Summary 45 Bibliography 47 Assessment Pack 1

4 Use considered risk taking in your grey area...and others will follow you! Legend This symbol indicates the beginning of new content. The bold title matches the content of the competency and they will help you to find the section to reference for your assessment activities. Activity: Whenever you see this symbol, there is an activity to carry out which has been designed to help reinforce the learning about the topic and take some action. This symbol is used at the end of a section to indicate the summary key points of the previous section. This symbol is used to indicate an answer to the Candidate s questions or notes to assist the Facilitator. 2

5 Qualification Pathways There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it s easy. Source Unknown This unit of competency is provided to meet the requirements of BSB07 Business Services Training Package although it can be used in a range of different qualifications. The BSB07 Business Services Training Package does not state how a qualification is to be achieved. Rather, Registered Training Organisations are required to use the qualification rules to ensure the needs of the learner and business customer are met. This is to be achieved through the development of effective learning programs delivered in an order that meets the stated needs of nominated Candidates and business customers. 3

6 Qualification Rules You re either part of the solution or part of the problem. Eldridge Cleaver Qualification requirements include core and elective units. The unit mix is determined by specific unit of competency requirements which are stated in the qualification description. Registered Training Organisations then work with learners and business customers to select elective units relevant to the work outcome, local industry requirements and the qualification level. All vocational education qualifications must lead to a work outcome. BSB07 Business Services Training Package qualifications allow for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) to vary programs to meet: Specific needs of a business or group of businesses. Skill needs of a locality or a particular industry application of business skills. Maximum employability of a group of students or an individual. When packaging a qualification elective units are to be selected from an equivalent level qualification unless otherwise stated. 4

7 Introduction Whether as an individual, or as part of a group, real progress depends on entering whole-heartedly into the process and being motivated to make you a more deeply satisfied human being. Source Unknown This unit of competency is all about being able to manage quality customer service in your workplace. It will help you with the skills you need to demonstrate competency for the unit BSBCUS501A Manage Quality Customer Service. This is one of the units that make up Diplomas in Business. This manual is broken up into three distinct sections. They are: 1. Plan to meet internal and external customer requirements: First we will look at the process of examining what customers want and how you can provide customer service advice to your organisation. 2. Ensure delivery of quality products and / or services: Then we will examine how you go about selecting customer service strategies and ensuring you have planned their implementation to ensure it goes smoothly. 3. Monitor, adjust and review customer service: In the final section we will examine how you can monitor the performance of your customer service staff and look for ways of improving overall performance. At the conclusion of this training you will be asked to complete an Assessment Pack for this unit of competency. The information contained in this resource will assist you to complete this task. On conclusion of this unit of competency you will have demonstrated your ability to develop strategies to manage organisational systems that ensure products and services are delivered and maintained to standards agreed by the organisation and the customer. 5

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9 PART 1: Plan to Meet Internal and External Customer Requirements Key Points Section 1 In order to ensure that your business provides quality customer service it is crucial to ensure that you know exactly what it is your customers want. In order to know what your customers want you need to know: Who your customers are What they buy How they buy Where they buy When they buy Why they buy Your customer service plans should be written taking into account the desired quality, costs and time requirements that your customers expect. 7

10 Why Do We Need to Know Our Customers? It is a fact in business that no matter how good the product or service you offer is, no-one will buy it if they don t want it or believe they don t need it. You also will not be able to persuade anyone that they want or need to buy what you re offering unless you clearly understand what it is your customers really want. This process is often referred to as understanding buyer or consumer behaviour. Knowing and understanding customer needs is at the centre of every successful business, whether it sells directly to individuals or to other businesses. Once you have this knowledge, you can use it to persuade potential and existing customers that buying from you is in their best interests. In this first section, we will examine what you need to know about your customers, how to use this information to sell to them more effectively, and how to win business from your competitors. Understanding your customers is so important that large companies spend millions of dollars annually on market research. This type of research is very important to large organisations, however if you are a smaller company, it is likely that you can avoid this expense. For the most part, the owner or manager of a small company will know their customers personally. From this an owner can build an understanding of their customers through systematic effort. These efforts attempt to build an understanding of customers by understanding their fundamental qualities. These qualities are outlined in the diagram following: What You Need to Know About Your Customers. Who Why What Qualities you need to know How When Where What Here you need to understand what your customers are buying as goods toothpaste, hammers, video games, houses or as services which are helpful dentistry, building, theatres, medical care. This provides you with a fundamental understanding of what it is that is being bought, but it is important to understand that there is more to understanding what it is your customers are buying. As well as buying a specific product or service, the customer wants a specific benefit that using that product or service will provide. Your customers don t just buy toothpaste; they buy a nice taste, whitening abilities or cavity prevention or in the case of dentistry, they are buying preventative diagnosis, or care of their dental problems. 8

11 The reason that you might buy a hammer is not because you are interested in hammers; you might need nails hammered, a picture hung or any other use for a hammer. It is buying a hammer that is appropriate for the use you want to put to it you need it to be at a good price, and of a reasonable quality. Video games are great fun to play. Your customers may be purchasing them for entertainment, as something the family can do together, to help introduce kids to how to use computers, development of personal dexterity, or for other reasons. However some customers (perhaps hotel owners as an example) buy video games as they represent a potential source of income, a means of attracting buyers to their premises, or perhaps a competitive move. Different customers will have different motives for buying the same product. Managers are looking to establish a high level of satisfaction among their customers. This requires you to know exactly what it is that they are seeking and how you can assist those customers in getting there. Think for example about buying a cake, the actual ingredients generally do not matter and the technical names are not known, but the actual end product the cake is what is most important in these processes it is this that will bring about the level of required satisfaction. So, think about the products that you sell. Generally the actual benefit behind any product you sell doesn t change over time. What does change, however, are some of the basic attributes like colour, features and quality. A company that looks primarily at the way it produces quality benefits for its customers is more like to be profitable. Organisations look to attempt to enhance these benefits in order to make their customers willing to spend more on those products. Why An important consideration to consider is why a person purchases a given product. This reason may seem logical from the point of view of the customer but may be impossible to work out for the organisation. Remember, however, one important point: Everyone is different Every one of your customers has a unique set of needs that require a unique set of benefits to be resolved. Consider carefully: The pressure a person feels when choosing a product The considerations they make The benefits they want to achieve The perceptions a customer has. By carefully examining the benefits they want to achieve you can put yourself in a position of actually meeting and even exceeding those needs. 9

12 Customers however can be difficult creatures. They often hide the exact reasons why they are making a purchase - in some cases they may not even know themselves or you may find that there are multiple reasons for a given purchase. Think about purchasing a new house... you may want: More room A nice garden Lower council rates These in some cases work together and others are opposed. The reasons are often very complicated to work out. Reasons could be trivial, reasons could be intimately related to just not liking a specific brand or store selection may be completely random. However, knowing that rationale behind buying decisions, no matter how they are made, is critical. Now consider the time when a purchase is made. This is highly dependant on a number of factors which we will consider in this section. A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. They are not dependent on us we are dependent on them. Source Unknown 10

13 When In order to make a sale, the seller must be ready to sell at the same time the buyer is ready to buy. If not, there may be an opportunity lost to make an effective sale. Customers buy when: They have the needed resources There is an opportunity for a sale The need is great. Often you will find that the consumers lifecycle dictates certain purchasing patterns, you may find for example that nappies are brought when a new baby is due. Some of the major events that occur for retailers and manufacturers to consider are: Important Lifecycle Steps for Retailers Marriage Divorce Buying a home Getting a new job Getting injured Pregnancy Having an operation Looking after children Reaching milestone ages Retirement Organisations may, for example, begin recording some of these important dates and times, they may keep a record of birthdays, anniversaries, and the like. You should also consider seasonal reasons for buying: Weather Holidays. While the time of year or time of life is important, buying decisions may come down to time of day as well: Some customers can only shop after work Can only shop on weekends Can only shop on public holidays. So, there could be a need to alter your offerings depending on this. For example you may make sure you have more staff available at 5pm-8pm than any other time of day, especially for large organisations like supermarkets. 11

14 How Why is Knowing How Your Customers Buy Important? Ensuring that as an organisation, your product and service offerings exactly meet the consumer s needs You can ensure that you are able to influence those who have the most effect in making buying decisions You can ensure that you are able to make sure that the customer returns again and again. The way in which people buy is always different, but generally follows a similar process: 1. A need is found - this may be a desire or a problem 2. Once this is discovered the consumer sets out to fulfil that need or desire. As we mentioned earlier, everyone is different and approaches the buying process in different ways. The process itself may depend on: The significance of the purchase The effort willing to be expended The budget they have. When examining reasons for purchase, consider where the consumer is in their life as well as trying to identifying everyone who has influence over the particular decision being made. Everyone is influenced by different people and this needs to be understood in order to make those customers happier with their experience. Think about the many reasons: Change in circumstance Change in lifestyle Lack of knowledge causing someone to seek friend s advice Budgetary constraints. This is all part of what is referred to as the search stage. At this stage the individual will seek out advice looking for input into what they should do. You need to make sure that your customers are satisfied by the advice you give and the products that you offer. You may find that annoying staff or a poorly designed store reduce the chance of purchase at this early stage. Make the positive points of your products as strong as possible, in order to keep the customer in your store and to make the decision to purchase in your store. Ensure your store is welcoming and try to make your customers more open to purchasing from your store. If you manufacture products make them as easy to use as possible. 12

15 Some attributes that should be considered include: Exclusive benefits Friendly staff Attractive packaging Simple to use products Easy to read manuals Good post-purchase service. There is sometimes an emergency reason for making a specific purchase. Some examples include: Medication for sickness Flowers for a funeral Rain coats for the rain Tyres when one deflates A new car battery. In these cases you might find that little consideration is given to different brands, rather easy access is the key to making a specific sale. The more options that you are able to provide to your customers the better. Other considerations that may affect this type of purchasing decision include: Product availability Brands that are available. Where Where to shop is quite a difficult decision to make for many customers because there are a wide range of factors that affect the choice of store. Location is commonly thought to be one of the deciding factors. The majority of your customers will come from the suburbs directly surrounding your location. Those customers who have limited choices tend to shop with the store that is closest to them; however there are other options that make the store choice more difficult: Mail order Home delivery Internet shopping. 13

16 The range of factors that may influence buying decisions can be quite broad and may include: Product being purchased Type of store Price Breadth of product offering Quality of goods supplied Layout of the store Quality of the staff Perceptions of the speed of the service. In order for a store to make a sale, the consumer must actually understand that the product is available for sale at a given location. This is where promotional tools such as advertising become important. They allow you to put out a message into the market that certain products can be purchased. Other sorts of promotions, like competitions and sales may also assist in injecting some desire to shop at a particular location. Sales promotion works to bring people in for a given period and can be extremely effective at achieving this. Let s think of a good example of a product that on the face of it seems quite homogenous, but when you delve deeper there are subtle yet important differences, the supermarket. For the most part there are four key supermarket types to consider. Try to think about where your local supermarkets fit and how this affects your purchasing decisions: Different Supermarket Styles Quality products and high price Being the cheapest supermarket Being quick to check out of Providing friendly and knowledgeable service Who Identification of customers and prospects makes targeting of your marketing and sales efforts possible. Small business owners pride themselves on knowing their customers personally and thus being able to tailor the experience to the customer s needs in tremendous detail. In the industrial field, understanding of each major customer and buying influence is essential. When dealing with a large number of customers, however, individual familiarity is not a realistic goal. This means that department stores and discounters must group their customers, whose reactions to offerings are similar, into groups known as segments. Then they design an appropriate marketing program for each segment. 14

17 Strategies between segments may vary considerably. A small firm might prosper by concentrating its resources on one segment. However this can mean that an organisation is vulnerable to sudden change in its target segment s custom. This means that most companies address several segments simultaneously. Although expensive, a strategy of employing different tactics for different segments can be profitable. Other firms scatter offers to just about anybody. They hope that segments will select themselves. Mass merchandisers generally use this approach. There are many methods that can be used to segment your market. As a customer service manager you will need to look at the various strategies open to you and consider which will provide the most benefit to you and the organisation as a whole. Sometimes you will find the who question involves a range of different answers and responses depending on exactly what is required. Often this will be broken down into: Who Where Why How. You can begin by looking at where your customers are actually located. This may divide up a market into: Streets Towns Suburbs Countries. Treat every customer as if they sign your paycheck because they do. Unknown 15

18 Depending on the nature of your organisation and the services that they provide, a strategy to segment your market works well because: It allows you to quickly get an overview of the differences and similarities among your customers Allows you to take cultural differences into account between the customers you may have Allows you to adjust your offerings according to the difference in climate provided. You can then undertake a segmentation of the market by considering the demographics of the market. Demographic variables include: Age Gender Income Social Class Religion Lifecycle. By understanding these variables, the products and services that you provide can be adjusted to better meet the needs of your customers. Psychographic segmentation works in a very similar way, but segments the market by psychographic rather than demographic variables such as: Lifestyle Values Influence. Why Do Your Customers Need You? We can now move on to consider the reasons why a customer may shop at a particular location. This can be examined by looking at specific reasons for shopping in one place rather than another. This is often distilled down into a Unique Selling Proposition (or USP). A USP can be found by answering the question: A customer will only shop with our store because... USP are never set in stone, as they change with your market and your customers. You are trying to think about exactly why a customer would only buy with you, rather than with others what makes you unique? 16

19 For example: The USP for a certain pizza chain could be we will deliver your pizza still hot, or it is free. This USP is effective because it is driven by a specific attribute that the customer is looking for when choosing where to get their pizza. Give me hot pizza. What Do You Know About Your Customers? Earlier in this section, we addressed the type of information you need to know about your customers in detail. It is also important to establish exactly what it is that we already know about our customers and how we can go about learning more. One of the simpler methods that can be adopted is to simply ask them. Talk with your customers and get to know them that way. You might: Ask them what they are buying Ask them why they are buying it Ask them if there is anything else they would like to see. This is, in essence, some very basic market research aimed at attempting to gain an understanding of your customer base. You should also go over any other market research that has been conducted by your organisation in order to build up a picture of exactly what your customers are like. We will examine this in section three of this manual. The Customer s Current Supplier In order to establish why your potential customers are buying from someone else rather than from you, you need to consider a number of points. These allow you to attempt to convert a customer from one store to another - to yours. What You Need To Know Who is currently supplying your customer? Are the customers happy with that supplier or unhappy? Would buying from you supply benefits not available to them from other suppliers? It may seem like quite a difficult thing to actually obtain where do potential customers currently shop? But the easiest way to find out is to simply ask them. People are usually quite open about providing this sort of information and it is very valuable to you as an organisation. They will generally also be quite open as to whether they are happy with their current supplier or not, and this information can be used to target your offerings to exactly the customer s needs. 17

20 Some More Things You Need To Know About Your Customers Income Feelings Expectations Thoughts about you? Thoughts about the competition? Your product and service offerings will be more successful if your customers can actually afford what you are offering. What preferences do they have? What makes them happy? You need to achieve what you want them to achieve, so by meeting or even exceeding their expectations you can make a strong relationship and a repeat customer. What is it they like about you? What don t they like? What is it they like about them? What don t they like? By understanding the specific needs and desires of your customers you can begin to better plan exactly what you need to do to make your organisation grow and have a better customer base to build from. Essentially you need to: Understand your customers Define their needs Design a solution to meet their needs Implement this solution. Developing Plans for Improving Service Service problems are inevitable. They, however, can assist you in building stronger relationships with your clients if they are able to be resolved as quickly as possible. In this section, we will look at how you can accomplish this. There are four key factors that can be obtained from customers: Steps to Improving Service What is the problem? Who has the problem? How important is the problem s solution to the customer? How valuable is the problem s solution to the customer? 18

21 What is the Problem? It may seem logical to know this, but many people do not actually know what the problem is. If you do not know what the problem is, it can be very difficult to identify the problem and find a way of resolving it. Think from the customer s point of view Define the problem the customer is having clearly Make sure you understand the importance of that customer to your business before attempting to resolve an issue. Who has the Problem? There are a range of customers who may have a problem and identifying who that person is can be critical to a successful resolution. The three major types of customer are: 1. External paying customers 2. Suppliers 3. Staff members and other stakeholders. How Important is the Problem s Solution to the Customer? When attempting to resolve an issue, it is very important to consider the importance of the problem to the end user. An unimportant problem will require less resources and time to resolve than a highly important one. Discuss problems one-on-one with your customers to identify those areas which are of key importance. How Valuable is the Problem s Solution to the Customer? Finally look at the impact of the problem on your organisation and the income it is making, are there significant implications to not addressing the problem? Is the customer a large one? Can we do anything to make them continue on being a customer of ours? 19

22 Activity One What is your organisation s USP? How does the service you provide allow you to reflect this USP? Facilitator s Notes for Activity One The USP is the unique sales proposition of the organisation. The Candidate should have identified WHY customers use their product or service above the competition. The Candidate should have then discussed how what they provide lives up to the USP. 20

23 Section 1 - True or False Quiz Customers will usually only buy from a store that provides them with what they need or want. Knowing and understanding customer needs is at the centre of every successful business. True False You only need to know who your customers are. When they buy, why they buy, how they buy, what they buy and where they buy are all important to know! All customers will buy a product for the same reason. Different people may have different motives for buying the same product. Businesses will always understand why a customer buys a product. This is a key thing to know, but it is not always easy to establish. Sometimes the reasons why customers buy are trivial. Keeping track of customers birthdays is not useful to do. This type of information can be used to personalise a shopping experience. Buying methods are a process. Store location is not an important consideration when making a purchase. Research suggests that it is. All stores should have the same USP. A USP should be unique to a given store to be successful. 21