Individuals:
Various problems can happen while a customer is shopping from your company. You should always aim to be polite and friendly. If the customer is looking confused you should always go and ask if they need help, as they can by shy to ask.
If you are dealing with the customer face to face with complaint, you should always stay calm at all stages, even if the customer is really angry, as they can be quite intimidating. Staff should show empathy proving that they understand the situation, they should also ask for a management to assist and support them.
Non-English speakers:
Business should employ staff who can speak fluent other language, For example Hindi, Punjabi, French and etc. this can make the customer feel more at home, as he will have someone there to ask questions from, if he/she are unable to speak English. This will also make your company popular as you will have different groups of people visiting your company.
People from different cultures:
People coming from different countries can have different point of view of things in mind, because rules can be different in there countries. For example: queuing up can be something new for them. I know this because I’ve been to Thailand and rules were very different there, people there don’t queue up, they just push in. so when people are moving here or even visiting the countries for holidays, businesses should bare in mind to put a sign up for queuing. Businesses also need to keep a large range of food caters, as some people might be vegetarian. If it’s a shopping mall, then businesses should keep a variety of clothes, as different people might have different choices according to there cultures.
Young children
Young children’s are vulnerable and therefore special consideration needs to be made for them in terms of customer service. As a business you have to make sure that you are providing a safe environment for little children’s. As they can harm there selves, children’s often get lost and separated from their parents in big supermarkets. As a staff you should always make sure that you are calm while speaking to them. You should always speak to them in a gentle voice, so that they don’t get scared. Keep re assuring them that there parent will be here soon and that you are going to find them. To make them feel better you should always have sweets or toys that they can get busy with. As a person you take a lot of care, especially if the child is young.
People with specific needs:
There can be all sorts of people with specific disabilities, all these people have rights and should be treated with respect and care. For example: people on the wheelchairs need help with going up the stairs or going through the doors, in these cases businesses should have the facilities, such as automatic doors and lifts. These little things can mean a lot to people with needs. As a business you should always be polite to them and always ask them for any help. You can also help them with employing staff with skills like sign languages, so that it makes it easier for deaf people to understand. It is important that you are meeting there needs and treating them with respect.
Groups:
Groups of customers can be difficult to deal with because they might all be complaining at the same time. For example: if you have lots of customers complaining about a specific problem then it can be difficult to deal with. Speech much be clear to ensure that all customers can be satisfied, possibly staff can position themselves in the correct place so that everyone can see and hear, also the staff should make sure that he/she is calm at all time. Each customer should be treated equally, so that they don’t feel neglected, you should also deal with everyone amongst the group in the same way as kindly as possible.
Business people:
In some circumstances business people can be difficult to deal with, as they can be more demanding, special favors, discounts or extra services. As business customers can be there loyal or regular customers, for example: business people travel abroad to make business deals and attend meetings, they might choose one specific airline to travel from, that airline should make sure that they are treated like their loyal customers and with extra service. If at any time you are in doubt then confer with your supervisor or manager, however staff must remember that at all times they should keep smiling be polite and have respect.
How customer service responses are adapted to the needs of the customers
Predictable and unpredictable situations
Customer service within a business will have to be trained to deal with predictable and unpredictable situations. An example of a predictable situation is that if you are horrible to a customer then they will come back to the business to complain. This is a predictable situation because you know that it is going to happen but they usually happen quit regularly. An example of an unpredictable situation is if there was a fire or if your credit card doesn’t work. These are unpredictable situations because you don’t know when it is going to happen. Staff would have to be trained for these issues so they can deal with them properly.
Examples of how these predictable situations can be solved
- If there is Complaints about the staff behaving rudely, then who ever is dealing with the situation should always be calm and polite. You should always apologies and assure them that this kind of behavior will not happen again.
- Complaints about the products being expired and broken, you can easily replace them with another product and apologies.
- If the product is out of stock, and the customer is angry because they traveled a long way to buy it, then find something similar to the product as soon as possible so that they can be happy and satisfied with the customer service.
Example of unpredictable situations
There can be a situation where a Customer may ask you for a discounted price or a special deal, or you have friends who expect you to do accounting favors for them for free. For example putting the prices down or not charging for products.
This can puts you in an awkward situation, especially if you don't have some tactics ready to respond to such requests.
How you can deal with an unpredictable situation
You should refuse them calmly, and always remember, the moment you discount one client, your other client is going to find out. Keep fee honesty by charging everyone the same amount for the same service. When someone asks you for a discount, let them know how that it would be unfair to your other clients
Providing knowledge and information
Staff within the customer service of a business will have to know about all the different types of products and have knowledge on them because if there was a customer who wanted to know something they would have to have the knowledge about the products to answer.
Examples: customers might ask is where something is how much it is or do you sell something. By the staff knowing knowledge about there business they will be able to be more helpful to there customers.
Another example of providing knowledge, if the customer is under age for example 15 and he/she is in the video shop trying to buy over 18 movies, you should always ask about ID’s.
Information at different levels of understanding
When the business has information they need to know they have to have knowledge of it. They need to know it at different levels because people have different levels of understanding. Are people that speak different languages, people with learning difficulties and well-educated people? If they have a good knowledge then they will be able to help the customers as much as they want. Different people may or may not know what they want so you have to be aware of this when you are dealing with them.
Dealing with sensitive situations
The business has to train their staff to deal with different issues such as sensitive issues. For good customer service you have to make you customers satisfied and happy because if the customer is in a sensitive situation, and you are unable to understand his feelings then he may turn away from you or your company and seek help or suggestion from some else, this can lead your company in to losses as you will be losing customers. Another thing they have to be trained in is what is said or written. Some examples or both of these are people with different religions, people with different believes disabled people and if something is said about another member of staff, which gets back to them.
You should be very careful dealing with customers for example: discussing sensitive issues such as death of a partner or family member, divorce or registration as blind or disabled.
When customers have to be referred to some one else
In some cases customers will have to be referred to some one else, some of these situations are when a customer has a complaint which may have to be taken to the manager or if a member of the public went in and wanted a job then the staff that where on the shop floor would probably not know what they have to do so they made need to go to a member of staff higher up the organisation. One other examples of having to be referred to another member of staff are if the customer loses their credit card they will have to be transferred to the security. There will also be a lot more situations where customers will have to be referred to some one else which you made not realise has to be done. Some other situations where some has to be referred to some one else is when a delivery comes in they might need to see a member of staff and some customers might need to change a ticket that they have brought e.g. if it was a train station that they brought it from.
Legal requirements
Within a business there are a lot of legal requirements that have to be met concerning information suppliers; these have to be met because otherwise the company could be shut down. The company would make sure they made these requirements by the mangers telling there staff to keep working the right way and to the book.
DATA PROTECTION ACT (1998)
Data Protection Act:
Any organisation that holds or processes personal information must be registered to the Data Protection Act. The Data protection Act means that a company holding personal information cannot pass on personal details and the data must be kept secure. There are 8 principles that state that data must be obtained and used lawfully. Ways of protecting information:
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Passwords
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Lock the room
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ID cards
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Alarms
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Back ups
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Secure computer
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Anti virus software
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Firewalls
The legislation is to protect the subject of any personal information. The act prevents personal information from being passed on to people who may misuse the information. The act states that all data should be processed fairly and lawfully, should be obtained for a specified purpose, Should be adequate, relevant and not excessive, should be accurate and up to date, shouldn’t be kept for any longer than necessary and should allow the subject to know who the data controller is.
