P3, M2, D2 – Customer service
P3 - Research methods a business can use to make improvements to the customer service provision.
M2 - Analyse different methods of monitoring customer service for a product or service in
contrasting businesses.
D2 - Evaluate the benefits of improvements to customer service performance for the business, the
customer, and the employee.
For a business, customer service is completely vital for their success, as speaking with an
employee so often the first point of contest for the customer and as such will be how the
customer gets their first impression of a business, which is very important, and could
determine whether or not a sale is made. As per an article called “The importance of
customer service” from Drew Stevens Consulting website, customer service is what helps to
distinguish a company from their competitors, as an example it could be difficult for
customers to be able to differentiate from two clothes stores offering the same products for
the same price and as such putting extra effort into their customer service, then one of
them gains a competitive advantage. Another reason that customer service is important for
a business is that it builds up a loyal customer base, as customers are going to be more likely
to return if they know they are going to be treated with respect, the employees are polite
and helpful, which in turn could encourage repeat purchases. Although working in a team
would hold many benefits for the business, however, there are some downsides that would
be detrimental for the business, this can include: some of the members of the team may be
incompatible with the other members and as such this would cause friction within the team,
making them dysfunctional, preventing efficient work being produced, which then results in
negative impacts on the business itself such as badly influencing the customer’s view of the
business, bad sales and loss of profits. Another disadvantage of teams is that there may be
an unequal mount of participation from the group members, in some teams there may be a
tendency for one or more of them to just sit back and let the others shoulder most of the
work. This as a result can cause resentment in the workplace, especially when merit is given
to the team as a whole and not to the individuals, this may result in conflict, which is bad for
morale and will end up with the business losing money due to lack of productivity and
efficiency. There is going to be delays that the business is going to need to compensate for.
When new ideas are being produced the team is going to need time to discuss them, usually
in meeting s and as such the business is going to need take time in making policies to make
those meetings more effective, since time is going to be spent from the team itself and from
management that is time taken out of them doing work, loss of productivity thus a loss of
money
Methods to monitor and improve customer service.
McDonald’s gives their customers the opportunity to provide them with feedback through
the use of a number to call should they have any complaints or issues on the customer
service provided or any problems with the meal given. This is a useful way of getting
customer feedback as it is available to anyone at any time allowing for a wide range of
customers feedback. However, they could improve upon this by introducing a system where