IMPLEMENT CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS CANDIDATE RESOURCE & ASSESSMENT BSBCUS403A

IMPLEMENT CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS CANDIDATE RESOURCE & ASSESSMENT BSBCUS403A

Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd 44 Bergin Rd, Ferny Grove, QLD 4055 Email: info@precisiongroup.com.au Website: www.precisiongroup.com.au BSBCUS403A Implement Customer Service Standards ISBN: 978-1-74238- 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 1968. 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, email info@copyright. com.au or visit www.copyright.com.au 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.

Table of Contents 2 Legend 3 Qualification Pathways 4 Qualification Rules 5 Introduction 7 BSBCUS403A/01 Contribute to Quality Customer Service Standards Key Points Access, interpret, apply and monitor customer service standards in the workplace in accordance with organisational standards, policies and procedures Make contributions to the development, refinement and improvement of customer service standards, policies and procedures 19 True or False Quiz 21 BSBCUS403A/02 Implement Customer Service Systems Key Points Encourage all personnel to consistently implement customer service systems Review customer feedback in consultation with appropriate personnel and analyse when improving work practices Identify customer service problems and make adjustments to ensure continued service quality Communicate adjustments in service delivery to all those involved, within appropriate timeframes Coordinate and manage delivery of services and products to ensure they effectively and efficiently meet agreed quality standards 29 True or False Quiz 31 BSBCUS403A/03 Implement Team Customer Service Standards Key Points Plan and implement team and work activities to meet customer needs and expectations, and to minimise inconvenience Identify resources required to undertake team tasks while meeting required customer service levels 41 True or False Quiz 42 Summary 43 Bibliography 45 Assessment Pack 1

Use considered risk taking in your grey area...and others will follow you! Legend This symbol indicates the beginning of a new element. These will help you to find the information 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 beginning of each element to indicate the summary key point. This symbol is used to indicate an answer to the Candidate s questions or notes to assist the Facilitator. 2

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

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

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 your skills and priorities in the workplace. It will help you with the skills you need to demonstrate competency for the unit BSBCUS403A Implement Customer Service Standards. This is one of the units that make up Certificates in Business. This manual is broken up into number distinct sections. They are: 1. Contribute to Quality Customer Service Standards: First we will discuss how every person in the organisation contributes to the customer experience and understand why they do. 2. Implement Customer Service Systems: Then we will discuss how to consistently achieve a great experience for customers. 3. Implement Team Customer Service Standards: Finally, we will examine how to make it happen every time! 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 competent completion of the assessment, you will have demonstrated your ability to contribute to quality customer service standards and to support personnel to implement customer service standards and systems within the organisation. 5

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ELEMENT 1: Contribute to Quality Customer Service Standards Key Points Element 1 The organisation has to be prepared to hire and fire based on customer service performance. Service standards are necessary for you to perform well, knowing what your employers expect of you in relation to your job role and to ensure a consistent, positive customer experience. Customer Service Standards are a short statement describing the level of service a customer can expect from your organisation. An organisation should develop a structured approach to preparing the Customer Service Standards. 7

Key Points Element 1 continued Consultation on providing a useful set of service standards for their Customer Service Standards is essential. Options would include asking customers for their views. Clear lines of action need to be established so that the outputs from the process are used to effect change. A failure to make use of consultation outputs will also be apparent when organisations seek customer input once more at measurement stage. 8

Why Set Standards? Customer service is critical to nearly every organisation. All organisations have customers of some kind, and so you need to ensure that you have standards set so that your customers have a set level of expectation with regards to what your organisation is able to provide for them. The customer is always right, is a common expression that I am sure you have heard a number of times in your career, and for the most part, it is very accurate. However, another point of view that you may like to take is, the customer will always win. You may think that you have got away with poor customer service for example, but by the customer never coming back they have won! So, you need to have a series of standards in place that allow you to measure overall performance within the organisation with regards to the customer service levels that you have. By doing this, you can ensure the service you deliver is consistent and effective. Setting the Standards The standards that you set for your specific organisation will be different from that set at nearly every other organisation. Think carefully about your customers: Do they need personalised help? Do they expect to leave the organisation excited about coming back? Will the products we provide them with always meet their needs? What is your core value with regards to service? This will assist you in determining where you need to head with regards to customer service standards within the organisation. Comparing Your Customer Service to Others A very effective way of measuring just how well you are doing with regards to overall customer service is to look at what you are doing and compare it to what others in the same market are doing. Where do you stand? Are you better? Worse? Where could you change? What are you doing the best? This might allow you to rethink your whole customer service philosophy. Checking Out Your Customer Service You should also be considering what you are doing. Measuring the level of your performance and knowing exactly where the issues lie and what you need to do better. 9

Developing Standards Service standards are necessary for you to perform well, knowing what your employers expect of you in relation to your job role and to ensure a consistent, positive customer experience. The standards are designed around the organisational vision, mission and goals and are usually provided to a new employee during induction. If you are not sure where to find these standards and expectations, speak with your supervisor or manager because they will know how to assist you in accessing them. Many organisations keep a folder with the performance standards detailed in them, adding new ones as new situations occur and reviewing to remove those which are superseded. What are Customer Service Standards? A customer service standard is essentially a statement that outlines the level of service that your customers should consider to be appropriate when they visit your organisation. Such a statement should: Outline the commitment that the organisation has towards its customers and the service that it provides for them. In fact this is often written right into the mission statement. It should define, in clear and simple terms, the level of service that must be provided. It should outline in detail the manner in which complaints should be made and the way in which the complaint will be handled (with its own level of standards). It should provide the customer with details on who to contact with regards to the service that they have received. There are various types of service standards that an organisation may implement. Depending on the nature of the organisation they may: Cover a single department, the entire organisation, or the entire chain of stores They might only deal with routine interactions They may only deal with external or internal customers They may define the ways in which the customer is responsible for certain aspects of service delivery It may outline how service to minorities could be different It might cover regular and new customers differently. The Customer Service Standards that you set must: Cover what is most important to the customer, rather than trying to cover everything that an organisation may be doing. Focus on the way that the external customers are dealt with, rather than the internal customer (for the most part). 10

The preparation of customer service standards is something that should be prepared (where possible) before the organisation actually begins operating, but for some companies who are already operating, this may not be possible. In these cases, the standards should be set as soon as a need for them is recognised by the organisation itself. As we mentioned above, the standards that you set should ideally only cover the external customers of an organisation, but there may be a need to set internal standards, where a given department has a large number of critical internal customers. Think for example of the medical records section of a major hospital. The major customer in this case will be internal staff, and they require a good level of service. So in this case the internal customers may be critical and standards should be set. The internal and external customer standards will more often than not be separate from each other. This will make the changes more appropriate and in line with the way that the given departments operate since the standards required of each will differ so dramatically. A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. They are not dependent on us we are dependent on them. Source Unknown 11

There are a range of steps that should be taken when you are drawing up a set of service standards for an organisation. The typical steps that you should follow are: 1. Begin by taking the matter to senior management. It is here where the initial commitment must come in order for any changes made to stick. 2. Then begin looking at who should be involved in actually being responsible for the changes that you are proposing to make. 3. Next, establish a team to help in the development of the standards. This could be made up of stakeholders, managers, staff and important customers. 4. You must then ensure that the process is communicated to all staff, so they are aware of the changes and the impacts that those changes could have on the organisation. 5. Then, you need to actually begin writing the standards and considering the ways in which the changes may impact on various other procedures and aspects of the organisation s work. This may include looking at: Quality systems Quality standards Requirements for staff appearance Dress codes Procedure manuals Improvement systems. We have already looked at the initial planning stages of the process, let s now take it one step further and begin examining the core stages of setting standards. The four stages that need to be considered are: 1. Consultation with Customers / Stakeholders 2. Making a commitment to changes in standards 3. Evaluating your performance 4. Reporting on the changes made and the overall results achieved. Supports at Organisational Level Any change within an organisation requires consultation. Staff, stakeholders, customers, clients and managers all need to be involved in a change process for it to stick. The provision of any such standards needs to be made by asking staff what they expect and what they feel is achievable given their current levels of skills and knowledge. Where appropriate, you may need to put further support in place for your staff to ensure that they are able to meet the expectations that you set for them. This may include you in: 1. Communications The standards that you set and put in place within your organisation may represent a major change to the way in which you do business. The culture within 12

the organisation may be affected for the worse. In order to make sure that your staff are comfortable with this and what you are doing communicate with them. If you stay silent, rumours will develop and this may lead to more detrimental effects than if you had been open and honest with what you were doing. 2. Training As you create service levels for your staff, there will be a need for you to sit down and think about whether your staff are up to meeting those standards. You may find that you need to implement training sessions that raises the skills base and knowledge of your staff to a place where they could feel confident about achieving the goals and objectives that you have set for them. Once you have written your standards make them known to everyone around you. The more people that are aware of the standards, the greater the effort they are likely to put in to trying to deliver on those same standards A successful set of standards is likely to be one which is easily obtainable. If staff are not reminded of their expectation levels they are likely to quickly forget them and go back to the old way of doing things in their organisation. You may put them on a poster or provide internal brochures for your staff outlining these standards. Any such information should outline: Why the service standards have been written Why measuring performance and improved service standards have been put in place What standards of service have been committed to How customers may complain How complaints will be handled Contact details for senior customer service staff within the organisation. Service standards should also be made public. Do not simply allow the standards to be known to your staff. They are also a great tool for making your customers aware of the standards that you have put in place for your staff. It could inspire more confidence in the organisation and the work that they do. There are a range of ways in which you could do this. Some of the most common communication tools that you might consider using include: Posters these allow you to inform both staff and customers. Making them bright and cheery helps you make a positive impression about the standards that have been put in place Brochures sent to customers you may consider sending out leaflets or letters to your customers (or at least your best customers) outlining the changes that you have made. They are cheap to produce and can be sent to a specifically targeted range of people. Your website use the website to publicly put your new standards out there. There should be a link on your home page to the service standards so that everyone is aware of what to expect when visiting your organisation. Emails signatures allow you to put a link to the standards this may be particularly appropriate for any email sent from the customer services department. 13

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitide. Thomas Jefferson Press releases if you have a huge customer base, a major change to the way that you handle customer services may be of interest to the news media. A press release may get a story in a local newspaper. Meet with the customers you may bring together your customers and discuss the changes made with them (or you may discuss the changes one-on-one on the shop floor). Think about the various presentations and seminars that your staff may give the changes to your customer service standards can be outlined during these major opportunities Advertising placing an ad in the mass media may be an excellent way of reinforcing the changes that you have made Publications annual reports, leaflets, and other media that you produce could all incorporate such information. Remember that all your customers are different and may need the information in different formats. Therefore, use a range of different types of opportunity rather than placing all your eggs in one basket. You may also like to consider ways of measuring how many of your customers are aware of the changes that you have made, in order to assess the effectiveness of the actual media that you have produced as a result of the changes that you have made. 14

Consideration should also be given to measuring awareness levels of the Customer Service Standards and the commitments it contains among customers. Review of the Customer Service Standards The standards that you have set are never set in stone. They can always evolve into something different, or develop during your overall practices for improvement within the organisation. Any reviews that you make should consider: Changes to the products and services you offer Changes to the management structure Changes in the markets you deliver to Feedback that you have received on your previous standards An analysis of any complaints received A commitment to further quality improvement among your staff. How Can You help? Let s now consider some pointers for making effective consultation with your staff and customers: Always prepare for consultation by attempting to think of questions that you feel need to be asked Provide your stakeholders with an initial list of questions or standards and seek their comments on them Remember to include as wide a range of stakeholders as you can in the consultation process Consultation should always go both ways Ask their opinions and give your own Write down the experiences that your stakeholders express and use these to refine the set of objectives and standards that you have originally written Respond to questions asked by your stakeholders in a friendly and informative manner Plan the consultation well in advance, never try to do it on an ad hoc basis Always include customers and staff in the consultation Use surveys and telephone conversations for consulting with customers you do not see often 15

Try to determine the types of customers who matter most to your organisation and ensure you consult with them Find ways of consulting with customers who do not purchase with you, they may provide you with some invaluable insights into what you are doing wrong Commit to changes after the consultation process and provide the same stakeholders with an opportunity to see your new and improved standards as they are written. Let s now consider some of the specifics of the consultation process: Inclusive Consultation When you are consulting with people about making changes you need to ensure that you include a representative sample of the types of people that you have as customers and ensure that they all participate in the process as much as possible. A representative sample should include: Different geographic locations Different social backgrounds Different ages Both sexes A broad range of income levels Customers who have differing experiences with you (both positive and negative). Below is a brief outline of some of the most common ways in which you can consult with your customers: Surveys we mentioned these above. Surveys are often a very effective way of getting opinions because you set the questions and keep the responses focussed on what you really need to know. You can gather opinions quite quickly and the fact that the opinions are often confidential makes it easier for some people to give negative opinions (as opposed to trying to do this face to face with staff and managers). Customer panels most large organisations have their own customer panel. This is a group of representative customers that are brought together on a regular basis in order to get opinions and ideas on what the organisation could be doing better and what they are doing well. Try to bring this same group together often and you will be able to track how the changes that you are making are affecting their opinions over time. Focus groups these differ from customer panels in that they are generally only brought together once. They are useful in that they are open ended and allow you to seek a range of ideas and opinions on different topics with the people that you have involved. Comment cards and suggestion boxes again, they have the benefit of being quite confidential, making them much easier to gather information and complaints. The comment card also is a continual way of gathering feedback, in that they are always being received, rather than just being received when they are sent out. This means operational issues can be quickly identified and resolved. 16

Face-to-Face Interviews The major benefit of this method is that it allows your organisation to build up a rapport with customers and allows you to really dig deeper into the way that the customer is feeling about you. They are, however, complex and costly to undertake. Whichever method you decide to use for the consultation processes that you undertake, ensure that you are working with the requirements that we outlined on the previous page in order to ensure the processes are most effective for the organisation. How to use the Consultation Results? We now have a range of information that allows you and the organisation to assess where they are at in regards to what your customers want. How can you now use this information to improve your standards? Make sure that you identify the most common issues that have arisen Based on these issues, identify actions that you can take and build these into your service standards Consider how you can change the current way in which services are delivered Introduce new services Set the standards based on the expectations that you have observed from the information that you have gathered. 17

Activity One Discuss the Customer Service System and Standards available in your organisation. How is it monitored? What support is available to assist you in meeting the Standards? 18

Element 1 - True or False Quiz Please tick True False Once you know what the standard is, you can relax and focus on a new initiative. Quantitative research allows you to get views from a widely representative group of users (and non-users) and can give statistically reliable information. A key factor in a successful Customer Service Standards is accessibility. The best way to improve your customer service, benchmark it against others in your industry. Before engaging in any consultation process an organisation has to be quick and spontaneous to capture the moment. The Customer Service Standards should be a concise, easy-toread document, probably in the form of a brochure or poster. Publication of the Customer Service Standards may depress staff and drop customer service levels. When consulting you should include only your most regular customers. The key question an organisation should ask itself is: Have I made this as easy as possible for customers to participate? Organisations will have to balance the twin objectives of experimenting to seek the best consultation methods while also having a consistency in approach that will allow comparison of results over time. 19