Assignment Code: BRL–004/TMA/2022-23

Course Code: BRL-004

Assignment Name: Customer Service Management

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Attempt all the questions.

(A) Short Type Questions. 10x7

Q1) What is word-of-mouth communication? Explain its importance to a retailer.

Ans) Word of mouth, often known as viva voce, is the spoken transmission of information from one person to another. It can be as straightforward as informing someone the time of day. A frequent method of word-of-mouth communication is storytelling, in which one person tells another a tale about a true incident or a made-up one. Word-of-mouth marketing occurs when a consumer expresses interest in a brand's goods or services in casual conversations.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing Important

The majority of individuals are more willing to believe the advice of people they know than advertisements from complete strangers. When a friend, family member, neighbour, co-worker, or someone else in their life gives a product a positive review, most people assume that person is being honest about their interactions with the brand. After that, they frequently agree to try the product.

Additionally, word-of-mouth advertising spreads on its own, which enables passive consumer acquisition. For instance, if someone shares information about a new office supply store with their co-workers, those co-workers may subsequently spread the word to their friends and relatives. Repeating the process could result in a network of potential clients learning about a business. Customers practically give away free publicity, and the business has to put little to no work into this kind of marketing.

Q2) Describe the attributes of a successful team?

Ans) A team is a group of people who work well together, appreciate the power of decision-making, and consistently seek to better the company. The group facilitates the organization's alignment around a shared vision. Teams have improved performance and reduced costs in firms that have implemented them.

Attributes of a Successful Team

Commitment to Team Success and Shared Goals: Team members are dedicated to the project's success and their common objectives. Teams that are successful are driven, involved, and committed to performing at their best.

1. Members of the team must be aware of their roles and communicate their objectives to the rest of the group.

2. Each team member receives esteem and acclaim in groups.

3. Teams that are successful are driven to succeed.

4. They ought to enjoy and be content with their employment.

Interdependence: Team members must foster an environment where their combined contributions will be much greater than their individual ones. Teams perform best in a good setting.

1. One cannot succeed without the other group members also succeeding.

2. The group can do more as a whole than any one of its members could do on their own.

3. Team members communicate with one another to support one another's success and work together to complete the task.

4. Never should a team member be entirely independent or self-sufficient.

5. Team members frequently have the authority to complete things that are out of their respective purview.

6. Team members develop their collective knowledge so they can later perform better individually.

Interpersonal Skills: includes the capacity to communicate honestly and trustworthily with the team about problems. Teammates are treated with respect.

1. People must show each other care.

2. Members are obligated to defend and help one another.

3. Respect must be shown between participants.

4. Give and accept criticism in an unflinching way.

Open Communication and Positive Feedback: A productive work atmosphere can be created by actively listening to the wants and concerns of the team members and appreciating their contributions.

1. Open up lines of connection and conversation.

2. Encourage teamwork.

3. Be frank and sincere.

4. Encourage group members to express their emotions.

5. Consider every thought and emotion.

Appropriate Team Composition: It is essential to building a productive team. Members of the team must be completely aware of their individual responsibilities within the group and comprehend what is expected of them in terms of their contributions to the group and the project.

1. Clarify each member's obligations, relationships, and roles.

2. Discuss the unique contributions that each team member makes to the project.

Commitment to Team Processes, Leadership, and Accountability: Accountability for team members' contributions to the team and the project is necessary. They must be knowledgeable about the team's procedures, best practises, and fresh concepts. The effectiveness of a team, including shared decision-making and problem-solving, depends on effective leadership.

1. Consensus is used to make decisions.

2. We need effective leadership.

3. Try out different approaches to operate more efficiently.

4. should be receptive to innovation, change, and inventive, collaborative problem-solving.

5. Follow the group's development.

6. Look for best practises from other teams and divisions of the business 

Q3) Building customer loyalty is not easy; it requires trained staff and problem-solving skills to reach out to the customers. Comment.

Ans) The possibility that a customer will do business with you again is measured by customer loyalty. This results from consumer happiness and surpasses other elements that generally influence purchasing decisions, such as availability, price, and others. Customers that are devoted to a good, service, or brand are prepared to wait for a replenishment or pay a little bit more for it. Several factors make customer loyalty crucial.

The main ones are as follows:

1. In general, repeat clients spend more money than new ones. Existing clients are more likely to make larger purchases than new ones since they have a greater level of trust in your company and its goods or services. In actuality, their spending tends to rise over the course of their interactions with your company.

2. Higher conversion rates are produced by devoted clients. The average conversion rate for returning clients is between 60 and 70 percent, whereas the rate for new customers is between 5 and 20 percent. In other words, when devoted clients visit your website, you benefit more.

3. Customer retention increases revenue. Your profits will increase as your consumer base becomes more devoted to you. In fact, a mere 5% improvement in client retention could boost profitability for businesses by anywhere from 25% to 95%.

4. Client retention is less expensive than customer acquisition. While acquiring new clients is crucial, it may be expensive—about five times as expensive as keeping an existing client. It is considerably more cost-effective to just keep existing clients who are loyal, as they generate larger revenues at a lesser cost.

5. Regular shoppers are loyal customers. Repeat clients are more likely to make purchases from you because they've already had good encounters with your brand. This is particularly true during the holiday season when people are shopping for gifts and spending more money than they normally would.

6. Customer loyalty makes it easier to make plans. When you have devoted customers, it is easier to plan ahead financially and to execute your marketing strategies.

Q4) Describe the ways through which customer loyalty can be effectively built?

Ans) Gaining a customer's loyalty is a difficult undertaking that demands qualified workers that can reach out to them and have problem-solving abilities. Building a client database first allows for proper planning, which is needed to create customer loyalty.

There are a few strategies that may be used to build consumer loyalty, and they are as follows:

1. Communication: Customer loyalty is greatly influenced by communication. The customer must be informed if the marketer has introduced a new product to the market, either through marketing or personal selling. He must be able to draw customers in and convince them to buy the goods, which will finally meet their wants.

2. Customer Database: A proper customer database should be created with the consumers' preferences in mind. Each consumer is unique, as are their needs, and as a result, different products or services should be offered.

3. Customer Service: The businesses should offer adequate customer service in order to foster client loyalty. The relationship continues and is a continuous process; it does not terminate with the sale. Customers should receive post-purchase support.

4. Customer Incentives: If customers are offered particular incentives, they will be thrilled and eager to come back to the business to make purchases.

5. Employee Training: Employees that interact directly with consumers should receive the appropriate training to care for them.

6. Product Awareness: Customers won't use a product for the first time until they are properly informed about it, which means they should understand what it is, how to use it, why it is utilised, and how it will benefit them. Customers would use the product if the corporation provided adequate answers to these queries.

Businesses should establish a contact centre where consumers' issues or concerns may be addressed in order to strengthen their relationships with them. The establishment of such a centre would allow the business to meet client needs.

Q5) Discuss the prerequisites for selling from a salesperson's point of view?

Ans) Finding, obtaining, and building a demand for a specific good or service includes both personal and impersonal operations known as selling. Selling is the process of educating and persuading a market about a good or service, according to William J. Stanton. It serves the purpose of promotion.

Prerequisites of Effective Selling

Knowledge of Your Company: The majority of things, particularly pricey and complex products, are not evaluated on their own merits. They are assessed based on the reputation of the firm that makes them. Thus, salespeople need to have a corporate mindset. Most customers view a salesperson as representing the entire business, or the corporation.

Knowledge of Your Product: A salesman should know all about his product:

1. Materials from which it is made,

2. How it is used and how it is maintained,

3. Product features,

4. Customer benefits,

5. Selling points of the product in relation to its rivals, and so on.

Knowledge of Competition: A salesperson should continually research the goods given by his rivals to ascertain their advantages and disadvantages in relation to his own goods. Knowing the competition allows a salesperson to, if necessary, compare his product to the rival's on the features the customer appears to be most interested in. Competition should only be mentioned if a buyer demands comparisons.

Knowledge of Your Customers: In order to please customers, a salesperson needs to be sufficiently knowledgeable about both the items offered by the company and the demands and wishes of the customers. Without knowledge of your clients, who represent the demand side of the match, supply and demand cannot be matched. A salesperson must learn as much as they can about the needs of the client. Products can be modified to meet those particular needs. The sales presentation ought to be closely tied to the purchasing process of the customer. Perception, motivation, and learning processes all play a role in buyer behaviour.

Knowledge of Selling Process: The selling process and the consumer's purchasing process are closely related. The salesperson engages in the steps of the selling process, namely prospecting, preparation, presentation, and post-sale activities, to move the consumer through the stages of the buying process. The marketing function of prospecting is comparable to seeking. Salespeople identify customers who have the ability and desire to buy. The matching of supply and demand in preparation is comparable to the matching function in marketing. The customer buying process and the sales presentation are closely intertwined.

Q6) Service recovery is a combination of the variety of activities that need to work together. Comment.

Ans) Service recovery is the culmination of numerous tasks that must cooperate. Zeithmal and Bitner have outlined the recovery tactics based on their research on benchmark firms and their effective service recovery methods. The techniques are:

1. Do the service right the first time itself. When done that way, there are no failures, hence there is no need for recovery. Effective whole quality service management is necessary. Zero service defects should be the goal for the businesses. Employees of the service company understand the value of dependability and take appropriate measures to please each customer when such a culture is present. They consistently seek out methods to enhance the level of service.

   
   

2. Welcome and Encourage Complaints. Despite the fact that many service firms strive for total service excellence, mistakes do happen. Service providers use a variety of strategies to respond to consumer concerns. They consist of informal consumer encounters, lost customer research, customer feedback, toll-free call centres, e-mail, pagers, etc.

   
   

3. Act Quickly. In the process of restoring service, prompt customer complaints response is crucial. System and process support is needed for quick action, as well as employee empowerment. To address client issues as quickly as possible, the staff members must receive training and support.

Treat Customers Fairly. Customers anticipate that their issues will be handled fairly. They search for justice across three dimensions. Those are

1. Outcome Fairness: Customers anticipate a variety of consequences that correspond to their level of unhappiness. The result that is anticipated could be monetary compensation, an apology, lower service fees, replacements, error correction, or future advantages. They seek equality in treatment as a sign of justice.

2. Procedural Fairness: Customers want fairness from businesses in terms of policies, procedures, laws and regulations, and timeliness of the complaint resolution process. Customers like businesses that adapt their rules to the amount of recovery work that is necessary for each case.

3. Interaction Fairness: Customers also anticipate interactions to be fair. Customers find the company's employees' callous behaviour repulsive. They expect the business to treat them with respect and with sensitivity.

Learn from Recovery Experiences. Correcting a problem shouldn't be the end of the service recovery process. There is a chance that the same issue will come up repeatedly.

Learn From Lost Customers. An essential service recovery method is learning from clients who have defected. Customers' switching behaviour could be due to a variety of factors.

Q7) Write a short note on the following:

Q7) (a) Barriers to Customer Service

Ans) Barriers to Customer Service

1. Unhelpful Attitude: Customers are an integral component of the salesperson's role, not an addition. The salesman should be aware that providing excellent customer service takes precedence above making sales.

2. Laziness: Laziness won't improve the interaction if you try to avoid the customer.

3. Poor Communication Skills: Lack of effective communication abilities leaves the consumer perplexed and hinders their ability to make decisions.

4. Poor Time Management: Customers dislike having to wait a long time to be attended to. Poor time management causes customers to wait for a lengthy time without necessity, which causes a client to leave.

5. Lack of Knowledge: Customers anticipate that you will be knowledgeable about the goods you are promoting. If the buyer doesn't get his queries answered, he could be unable to decide whether to buy the product, which could lead to you losing a customer.

Q7) (b) Customer Experience Management

Ans) A business strategy known as customer experience management focuses on and redefines the company from the perspective of the customer. In order to elevate the value proposition to the level of an experience, CEM presupposes that products and services are no longer sufficient to satisfy the client. Organizational experience, which defines value for both customers and workers, is at the centre of the CEM strategy.

CEM unlocks the best ideas through the experience of its workers, resulting in exceptional value and first-rate customer service. Additionally, it encourages a partnership in which consumers and businesses are on an equal footing as well as a constant exchange of ideas that heightens and lengthens relationships. Businesses who have adopted CEM strategics have given their employees and consumers a bigger role in the design and delivery of the experience.

(B) Essay Type Questions. 15x2

Q8) (a) Briefly explain the reasons for the customer grievance due to employee interaction.

Ans) Six factors that Robert Warlow has discovered contribute to customer complaints about employee interactions.

1. Bad Attitude: Nothing can be done to avoid it. Every day is a dreadful day for some folks! The way they interact with individuals is enough to alienate even the politest of customers from your business. They behave as though the client is interfering with their usual activities. These are the people who continue to talk on the phone while you are standing in front of them and never acknowledge your existence. Such workers are not wanted in customer-facing professions. Such staff should be isolated from clients by retailers who can identify them.

2. Not Willing To Seek a Solution: These are the people that may recognise a customer's issue but just don't care to find a solution because it would be too much work. "I can't help," is the standard response. It is corporate policy. The phrases "I can't," "yes, but" "won't," and "shouldn't" are among their favourites. There is nothing they can do to benefit the client. If this occurs, your clients will perceive you as a "can't do" company rather than a "can do."

3. Not Giving Full Product Explanations: Even if your product is the best in the world, you will still have one dissatisfied consumer if it doesn't fulfil their needs. Additionally, the salesperson might not comprehend how the good or service satisfies the customer's demands, or they might be overly eager to close the deal and convince the customer that the item is perfect even though it obviously does not fulfil their needs.

4. Not Willing To Admit a Mistake: What a relief to hear someone remark, "You're right, you know that. We made a huge mistake here." When you receive this as the first sentence of a complaint, you know you're in business.

5. Not Keeping You Up To Date: Everything can be done according to procedure in any good complaint handling process, but if the client is not kept informed, it could all be for naught. Days of silence after a complaint allow resentment and mistrust to resurface. Find "strong" characters that won't be intimidated and are eager to solve issues to deal with the complaints.

6. Broken Promises: Probably the most common cause of dissatisfaction among people is this; "I do that for you, yes. Let me handle it." What transpires? Nothing! The message conveyed is that your staff simply doesn't care or that the client is unimportant. Make sure your personnel understands the value of keeping their word. Any violated promise will intensify a grievance.

BusinessWeek magazine polled its readers on their interactions with customer service. It was discovered that hostile customer service agents, uniformed customer service agents, and delayed response times were the main causes of consumer complaints.

Q8) (b) What are the five stages in the customer complaint management process?

Ans) The management of consumer complaints goes through five stages:

1. Complaint Registration: It is the initial step in the complaint handling procedure. Management Companies must create systems that make it easier for customers to file complaints. Customers should find it easy to express their complaints to the business. ‘ The system should reduce client expenditures associated with time, energy, and other expenses. It need to motivate the client to file grievances.

2. Classification of Customer Complaints: The complaints that have been filed ought to be categorised according to the type of complaint, the product or service, whether it is major or minor, the department, etc. This grouping of the complaints aids in the analysis of the causes and speeds up the resolution process.

3. Analysis and Reporting of Trends: Data from complaints should be analysed and reported on frequently once they have been categorised. Finding themes or trends in front-line service delivery is the aim of analysis. This is done with a focus on both legal issues and things that help customers have a better experience.

4. Management Action: Issues must be addressed in order to enhance the provision of front-line services. This can entail strengthening communications, upgrading customer service standards, or giving staff members more product/service training. Systemic problems should be fixed by actions. To make sure that efforts result in fewer customer complaints, changes should be regularly evaluated.

5. Continuous Improvement of Complaint Process: Despite the possibility of a complaint handling procedure. It's critical to understand how well it's functioning. Ask pertinent questions to users of the system, such as whether they consider the procedure to be open, simple to use, and fair. This will highlight areas that need work. It is crucial that customers who complain are satisfied with the complaint management process because research shows that complaints handled professionally and promptly lead to customers continuing to do business with a company.

Q9) What are the ways through which a company builds a positive culture among employees in a Retail Store? Discuss with examples.

Ans) A specific link between employees inside an organisation is referred to as organisational culture. Experiences and case studies are the best ways to understand a positive culture. A democratic process is facilitated within the organisation by a favourable culture. Positive organisational culture aids in the organization's ability to adjust to the ongoing changes. The retail sector is one where this is particularly true. Instead of defining culture, it is best sensed and experienced. A healthy culture produces interdependence and teamwork as by-products.

Principles

We all need to understand that one of the crucial factors that might distinguish one firm from another is culture. Businesses with a positive corporate culture instil the following values:

1. Fun and Responsibility: You may have extensive HR manuals, but they may be useless if the team members are not motivated to work with excitement each morning. A healthy workplace culture can be developed if employees love their jobs and are given the freedom to take responsibility for their duties.

2. Constructive Confrontation: If something has gone wrong, the company's or the group's leader should be able to apologise. The main issue is that most individuals have trouble saying sorry. For instance, the office's body language was incredibly depressed when the company's head requested someone to leave. Except for the head, the rest of the staff thought it was unfair to ask the concerned individual to leave.

3. Taking care of your team: Managers should continually consider ways to improve the work that their team members do. Instead of reacting, they ought to be proactive. They shouldn't hold off until a circumstance arises in which the workers express their desire to leave the company. If one of the team members becomes ill, another member should be able to step in and take over. If an employee is experiencing a crisis in his family, the manager should go to the individual. Organizations that have managers who look out for their teams consistently outperform rival organisations.

4. Having a Non-Hierarchical Driven Organization: Who goes to whose chamber to settle a problem or discuss a matter the boss with the underlings or vice versa should not matter. Instead of contacting the sales executive to his office, the mall manager should be able to visit the area where he is located and ask him about the day's sales situation.

Examples on haw companies build a positive culture through innovative methods when new employees join the corporate office.

Making new hires feel welcomed and significant is a part of the human resource manager's duties. The process of integrating the new hires needs to be more fully owned by managers and employees because their skills will increase the team's likelihood of succeeding in its objectives.

To increase the enthusiasm of and for the new recruit, managers can think about utilising one or more of the "celebration tools" listed below:

1. A phone call from the CEO or general manager welcome them to the company.

2. A request from the CEO or general manager to stop by their office on their first day.

3. A letter of welcome from the CEO or general manager.

4. On their first morning, they were welcomed into the "family"/team with cake and candles.

5. A luncheon for new hires to meet the team on their first day.

6. The CEO and everyone else signed the welcome banner for their cubicle.

7. On the first day, take a team photo and have everyone sign it.

8. Give them a T-shirt that is fully signed.

9. On the first day, hand them copies of the department's short-term plan, organisation chart, and mission/vision statement.

10. Give them an address book.

11. During the first week, ask them who they would like to meet and have the appointments planned.

12. Before their first day, have their business cards delivered to their home.

13. Set up a series of one-on-one sessions in advance with the new employee to learn about their concerns and issues before they worsen.