Customer Service Guide Online Tutoring

Scenario 1

  1. The first thing to consider before dealing with Kim Chin is whether she is a regular customer. If she is a regular customer, she should be given more time selecting her pair of shoes. Either ways, she can be politely asked by the salesman, whether it will be easier for her, if he helps her finding the right pair of shoes. This way, the frustration building up both ways (the customer as well as the salesman) can be relieved to an extent. The sales man should ask specifically the kind of colors and the style that she would like. The sales man can provide the options she specifies. If she likes one of those, the deal is closed. If she can’t find the right choice from the options given, the sales man should politely state that his shop doesn’t have the style she is looking for. This way the preoccupation with Kim Chin can come to an end quickly (Giese & Cote 2000).
  2. The policy of the company is to provide extra time, if needed, to the regular customers. However, if it is too much or the customer is not a regular customer, the step by step process is provided dealing with these kind of customers:
  • To understand the specification the customer wants
  • To show the variety the shop has to the customer
  • Closing the deal if the customer likes one of the variety shown
  • If, not politely admitting that the shop doesn’t have the variety needed by the customer (Han et al. 2008).
  1. The person to the deal with the issue is the salesman attending the customer. It is because the customer is interacting with him regarding the kind of item she wants to purchase and the salesman has the requisite knowledge regarding the availability of the same (Giese & Cote 2000).
  2. Whether, the customer found her choice or not, a simple form is asked to be filled by her that is related to her contact details and her preferences related to the choice of shoes she prefers. Consequent e-mails are sent to her related to latest items that has come to the shop and that tallies with the choices and sizes she has specified in the form. The salesman who attended her would be asked to send her mails so that the effectiveness of the e-mail is high as he personally knows the choices of the customer (Han et al. 2008).
  3. The business should record this incident so that the follow up information sent to her considers the issue she had on the store. This would overcome any mistake done by the shop dealing her. Also, her choices or the difficulty of her finding the right choice can be under the consideration when sending her the follow-up information and drawing her again into the store (Han et al. 2008).

 

Scenario 2

  1. The person in charge of the repairing should first admit to himself whether the defective carburetor is fixable by him or not. If the carburetor is fixable he should go extra mile to explain Christine how it is repairable and there by assuring her that she won’t have to come to the shop and the head of repairing is guaranteeing her that. If, it is not repairable, then an honest confession should come from the head of repairing that it is beyond their ability to repair. She should be apologized to in that case that she wasn’t told before that it is not repairable. She should be refunded also the payments she made in the previous visits (Jones et al. 2002).
  2. The policy of the company is to admit the incapability of repairing and telling that candidly to the customer. However, it was not done because the repairing person might be thinking that he would be able to. Thus, a new policy should be developed that in case there is more than 80 percent chance that it cannot be repaired the customer should be told that it is not repairable. This will reduce the ordeal of customers like Christine and the company is safe from a faceoff (Jones et al. 2002).
  3. The repairing person dealing with the customer is most responsible for dealing with the issue. He should have reported the condition of the carburetor to the head of the repairing and after discussion they should have taken the decision whether to proceed with Christine or not (Anderson & Sullivan 1993).
  4. A small form should be given to Christine to fill up for information regarding her contact derails, the vehicles she possesses, the vehicle types, the year of purchase etc. This will help sending her promotional materials regarding the latest technology used in the shop and the new advent of equipments, the type of vehicles this shop specializes in and so on so that she visits the shop again. The repairing person should be trained that if he finds the fault in the vehicle as problematic, he should immediately contact the repairing head instead of taking decision on his own. This will help the company’s face saving from the customers like Christine (Caruana 2002).
  5. This should be recorded by the business as an exemplar of a lesson learnt to deal with the situation like this. The message is to say ‘no’ to the customer if the chance of repairing is low and to consult the head of repairing when faced with difficulty in repairing (Cina 1990).

 

Scenario 3

 

  1. The first thing I do is to ask him to stand in the queue as that is the rule. Second, I explain him briefly, that this not way to do it and I might make mistakes because of the confusion the customer is creating. And third, I shall call the security person to maintain proper queue for everyone (Fornell 1992).
  2. There is strict company policy that payment line should be in a queue and that is applicable for everybody, under all situations. However, to implement that policy stricter vigilance is required from the security team. Thus, the rule need to be developed is that the security team should keep a vigil that the queue is maintained at all time for customers no matter his/her personal problems or whatever be the amount of purchase (Fournier & Mick 1999).
  3. The best person to deal with the issue is the security guard responsible to maintain the queue (Fournier & Mick 1999).
  4. After the situation is mitigated the customer trying to bypass the line should be explained that this sort of things hampers the payment clearing process and further delays the procedure. The security guard should be given a briefing that he should be vigilant enough that this sort situation doesn’t arise again (Fournier & Mick 1999).
  5. This particular incident need not be recorded as these are commonplace when vigilance from the security team is not around. However, the care should be taken with respect to the security team so that their vigilance is stricter (Gronroos 1994).

 

References:

 

  1. Anderson, E.W. & Sullivan, M. (1993) “The antecedents and consequences of consumer satisfaction for firms”. Sci., 12, pp.125-43.
  2. Caruana, A. (2002) “Service loyalty. The effects of service quality and the mediating role of customer satisfaction”. European Journal of Marketing, 36(7/8), pp. 811-828.
  3. Cina, C. (1990) “Steps to Service Excellence. Journal Of Service Marketing”, Spring, pp. 39-47.
  4. Fornell, C. (1992) “A National Customer Satisfaction Barometer. The Swedish Experience”. Mark, J. Stockholm, 56 (4), pp. 6-12.
  5. Fournier, S. & Mick, D.G. (1999) “Rediscovering satisfaction”, Journal of Marketing, 63, pp. 5- 23.
  6. Giese, L. & Cote, J. (2000) “Defining Consumer Satisfaction”. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 1.
  7. Gronroos, C. (1994) “Quo vadis, marketing Towards a relationship marketing paradigm”. Journal of Marketing Management, 10, pp. 347-360.
  8. Han, X., Kwortnik, R. & Wang, C. (2008) “Service Loyalty. An integrated model and examination across service contexts”. Journal of Service Research, 11(1), pp. 22-42.
  9. Jones, M.A., Beatty, S.E. & Mothersbaugh, D.V. (2002) “Why customers stay. Measuring the underlying dimensions of services switching costs and managing their differential strategic outcomes”. Bus. Res., 55, pp. 441-50.