Customer Service Assignment 1
Inamullhassan Madarbukus
Lecture: Miss Michelle Cox
Introduction
The aim of this project is to assess the customer service of an organisation of my choice; therefore, I have chosen Ikea.
IKEA is a furniture retailer with a difference. With around a 100 giant stores operating in over 15 countries world-wide it has managed to develop its own special way of selling furniture which seems to impress customers of all nationalities. IKEA customers typically spend between one and a half and two hours in the stores - far longer than in rival furniture retailers. An important reason for this is the effectiveness of the way it organises its stores - all of which are the same in most important respects all around the world. The design and philosophy of its store operations go back to the original business which was started in southern Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad in the 1950s. At the time Mr Kamprad was successfully selling furniture, through a catalogue operation. In response to customer requests to be able to see some of his furniture, he built a showroom in Stockholm, not in the centre of the city where land was expensive, but on the outskirts of town. Instead of buying expensive display stands, he simply set the furniture out more or less as it would be in a domestic setting. Also, instead of moving the furniture from the warehouse to the showroom area, he asked customer to pick the furniture up themselves from the warehouse. This 'anti-service approach to service as it is has been described, is the foundation of Ikea's stores today.
Task 1
Summarise methods of assessing the quality of customer service provision in a business and service context
The service quality in many retail sales people naturally emphasise the quality of the products they are selling. However, from a retailers' point of view it is quality of its customer services that is important. Retail customer service should:
* Be reliable
* Be responsive to the needs of customers
* Be undertaken competently
* Empathise with the consumer.
But how do such concepts translate into performance on the store floor? Exactly what do customers perceive as good service quality? Below there is an explanation of some of the factors that make up the operational dimensions of service quality. Look at the table below which explores these issues.
Inamullhassan Madarbukus
Lecture: Miss Michelle Cox
Introduction
The aim of this project is to assess the customer service of an organisation of my choice; therefore, I have chosen Ikea.
IKEA is a furniture retailer with a difference. With around a 100 giant stores operating in over 15 countries world-wide it has managed to develop its own special way of selling furniture which seems to impress customers of all nationalities. IKEA customers typically spend between one and a half and two hours in the stores - far longer than in rival furniture retailers. An important reason for this is the effectiveness of the way it organises its stores - all of which are the same in most important respects all around the world. The design and philosophy of its store operations go back to the original business which was started in southern Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad in the 1950s. At the time Mr Kamprad was successfully selling furniture, through a catalogue operation. In response to customer requests to be able to see some of his furniture, he built a showroom in Stockholm, not in the centre of the city where land was expensive, but on the outskirts of town. Instead of buying expensive display stands, he simply set the furniture out more or less as it would be in a domestic setting. Also, instead of moving the furniture from the warehouse to the showroom area, he asked customer to pick the furniture up themselves from the warehouse. This 'anti-service approach to service as it is has been described, is the foundation of Ikea's stores today.
Task 1
Summarise methods of assessing the quality of customer service provision in a business and service context
The service quality in many retail sales people naturally emphasise the quality of the products they are selling. However, from a retailers' point of view it is quality of its customer services that is important. Retail customer service should:
* Be reliable
* Be responsive to the needs of customers
* Be undertaken competently
* Empathise with the consumer.
But how do such concepts translate into performance on the store floor? Exactly what do customers perceive as good service quality? Below there is an explanation of some of the factors that make up the operational dimensions of service quality. Look at the table below which explores these issues.
