People and Business

ABU NASIR 11C People And Business

CENTER NUMBER: 10410 CANDIDATE NUMBER: 3358

Introduction:

My task is to investigate a medium to large sized business, showing that I understand the importance of people in business. For this task my chosen business is Richer Sounds. I have included the following information in this portfolio;

The importance of stakeholders
The organisation of the business, job roles and working arrangements.
Employee rights and responsibilities, including procedures on how they deal with disputes and with health and safety issues.
Employee recruitment and training.
Customer service

The Importance of Stakeholder

A stakeholder is someone or a group of people who have an interest in the business, such as employees, the government, and local people etc. Stakeholders are people who the business has a link with even if it’s not directly; it’s people who are affected by the business. There are two types of stakeholders, internal stakeholders are people who have an interest in the business and are inside the control of the business such as the owners, managers and the employees. The second is external stakeholders, they are people who have an interest in the business, but are outside of its control, such as the customers, suppliers, creditors, competitors, local community and the government.

Every business has to keep their stakeholders happy or they will occur problems running the business. Making one stakeholder unhappy can cause the rest to be unhappy as well, such as if they don’t keep their business and the area around the business clean, then people wouldn’t want to shop there. This will result to the business losing customers, if they lose customers then they will lose money and if they have no money then they won’t be able to pay government tax or loan repayments.

Richer Sound’s main stakeholders are:

The customers – people who purchase goods and services from the business. (External stakeholder)
Their colleagues (employees) – people who work for the firm. (Internal stakeholder)
The owner – owns the business (Internal stakeholder)
The stock suppliers – people who supply goods to the business (External stakeholder)
The Third Party distribution company – people who sell goods on behalf of the business (External stakeholder)
The financier (bank) – Is where the business stores its money or takes loans from. (External stakeholder)
The community (Persula foundation) – people living near or around the business. (External stakeholder)

The customers are affected by the business because they purchase from the business and they would want the business to give them quality goods and services, which are good value for money this is what Richer Sounds do for their customers. The customers provide the business with the majority of its revenue. That’s why it is important for the business to know exactly what the needs of the customers are in order for the business to continue having large amounts of revenue coming in; this is done through market research. Also the business must try to keep their customers loyal so that they return in the future and become a regular purchaser.

The colleagues have an interest in the business because they want good and fair pay of wages and will want job security. They are affected directly by the business, since their pay levels and job security will depend on the performance and the profitability of the business. The employees perform the basic functions and tasks of the business, such as producing output and delivering goods or services. Richer Sound’s colleagues get financial rewards if hard-work is shown, this way fair payment is given out and colleagues are happy. Richer Sounds have changed their policy in job security to a no redundancy policy, this means if one of their stores goes out of business, then the people working there won’t lose their job and instead they will be transferred to another store or location of the business.

The owner’s interest in the business is to make sure that the business is profitably successful, because in not doing so could result in the owner not owning anything. Since Julian Richer is the sole shareholder of Richer Sounds, there is less worry of pleasing other external shareholders. This way it’s easier for Richer Sounds to focus on keeping their prices competitive and there would be more money available for employee wages, because they won’t be giving parts of their profits to external shareholders.

The stock suppliers’ interest in the business is to sell goods to reliable businesses which will pay them on time, because they too are a business themselves. They would want regular orders from their businesses so that they too become a successful business. The suppliers are an important part of the business because they provide the raw materials required for the business to produce their output from and if they don’t have a supplier then they won’t have any materials to produce goods from. It is essential for the business to keep good relations with their suppliers so that if required raw materials can be ordered and delivered at a short notice, at Richer Sounds it is the purchasing department’s responsibility to do this. Richer Sounds have good background record of their payment to all their suppliers’ so that problems don’t occur in future. The company is an unlisted public limited company; this allows their accounts to be prepared to meet the highest standards.

The Third party distribution service has interest in the business because they sell goods for Richer Sounds directly from the warehouse to the buyer or they deliver to the stores. Their interest is to continue receiving orders for goods because as well as Richer Sounds, the warehouse that sell also get cut from the profits.

The financier is affected because they have given Richer Sounds loans and overdrafts. This means that bank will always be linked with the business until their loans and overdrafts are paid off. The financier is the most important stakeholder because the fact that they have financial security, it enables the business to plan for bigger things more confidently for the future.

The community is affected because they are surrounding the business; this means that noise and pollution will affect them a lot. For business to have a really good reputation in the community it is ideal for the business to take part in sponsoring events and other good causes, such as charity work. This is what Richer Sounds have done; they give 5% of their profits to the Persula charity foundation this will make their business stand out more.

Conflicts between Stakeholders

Customers and the Business – Customers will be disappointed if an item that they have purchased isn’t working properly, even if the business offers a refund or an exchange, the fact that the goods were poor quality will make the customer unhappy. This may cause the customer to no longer be loyal or a repeat purchaser to the business. In order for this to be resolved the business must make sure that it has designed a number of strategies to satisfy unhappy customers. The business should pay back any financial loss that that the customer might have incurred and should persuade them to remain loyal to the business and to keep shopping from the business.

Suppliers, The Business and the Customers – The customers may want a product which is not in stock, this may result in the customer going somewhere else to buy goods from. The reason why the goods are out of stock may be because of the not giving prompt payments to the suppliers or it may be late delivery which is outside the control of the business. If late payments continue then the suppliers may refuse credit to the business or may even cease all dealings with the business. If late deliveries continue then the business may choose another supplier to buy raw materials from. Since both the suppliers and Richer Sounds are businesses themselves, they will need to resolve the problem or it will cause more problems. The suppliers should buy more vans or recruit more employees if this is the cause of the late deliveries. The business (Richer Sounds) should be prepared one step ahead when paying the suppliers for stock.

The Organisation of the Business;

Job Roles & Working arrangements

Job Roles

The Manager – Managers play a vital role in the business. The manager for Richer Sounds I’m going to use is Clive Lambert who is a store manager as well as an associate director. Clive’s responsibilities are to maintain day to day running of the store, to deal with customer problems and queries, to make sure that the staff working there are healthily active, to do security check up on the store and has to make sure that the store meets its sales targets and operates within the set budget. He has to do this by ordering the right amount of stock at the right time, this way money won’t be spent unnecessarily on goods that aren’t required. All the managers of Richer Sounds are involved in colleague training for the store they are working at. They are also involved in first-level disciplinary matters, such as punctuality, which is very important to all businesses. The role of a manager can change, depending on how much effort the manager puts into his/her work. Managers can be promoted to a higher level of management, which is what happened to Clive Lambert, because from one store manager he is now responsible for 3 – 4 stores and he is now an associate director of Richer Sounds. Most managers’ jobs are secure, because they usually have permanent full time contracts. Managers’ often have a professional qualification in areas such as accountancy or finance. They will need to be good confident communicators, able to use IT and will need to use time effectively to help the business. Managers’ pay varies according to their priorities. At Richer Sounds the average pay for managers is £32,535 per annum. Managers at Richer Sounds can get up to £1000 promotion if one of their colleagues is promoted to manger and £500 is their colleague is promoted to assistant manager.

The Director – Board of directors are at the highest level of management in a business. They are responsible for setting broad targets for the business, and they will also decide on broad policies for the business to achieve the targets set. For Richer Sounds I am using Lee Nelson who is the field sales director. Lee Nelson’s responsibility is to ensure that there is consistency throughout the Richer Sounds stores. His duties also include in appointing senior staff for the business and maintaining & improving staff morale etc. Director’s jobs are also secure because as mentioned they are ...

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The Director – Board of directors are at the highest level of management in a business. They are responsible for setting broad targets for the business, and they will also decide on broad policies for the business to achieve the targets set. For Richer Sounds I am using Lee Nelson who is the field sales director. Lee Nelson’s responsibility is to ensure that there is consistency throughout the Richer Sounds stores. His duties also include in appointing senior staff for the business and maintaining & improving staff morale etc. Director’s jobs are also secure because as mentioned they are in the highest level of management and they are also employed on a permanent basis. Their pay also varies according to their priorities. Also by law the directors have to look after their shareholders’ interests and they will need to decide how to share out the dividends from the company profits, with Richer Sounds the directors won’t need to do this because they have no shareholders.

Sales Assistant – Sales assistants are in the low level of management, because normally they don’t have many responsibilities apart from selling goods and assisting customers. For Richer Sounds Andrea Day, she is a store sales assistant. Her duties are to be as helpful as possible to the customers, answer customer queries, to help out at the cash-till during busy periods and to sell home cinema and Hi-fi equipment. The sales assistants will also need to be good communicators as they will be talking and solving customer problems. Sales assistant jobs aren’t very secure; then again it depends on the type of contract they have signed, because permanent contracts will be more secure than temporary ones. Sales assistance pay doesn’t vary much because they don’t have many responsibilities and normally aren’t given extra ones either or unless they are promoted to a higher level of management; Richer Sound’s average pay for them is £17,195 per annum.

Suggestions on how to contribute to the success of the business and what changes should be made

The Manager – The managing director of Richer Sounds can contribute to the success of the business by investing the salaries he gets back into the business, not all of it off-course. By doing this he is increasing the business’s capital and this will make it easier for the business to consider expansions etc, if required for the future of the business, but contribution from everyone will be required one person may not be enough and it wouldn’t be fair.

The Director – The director can contribute to the success of the business by spending the business’s profits wisely, because it’s the board of directors who mainly decide how the profits should be spent. They should concentrate on spending money on things that will increase the awareness of the business in the local area, such as printing their company name/logo on their delivery vans, which is what most businesses do and it’s very effective. They shouldn’t spend money on unnecessary items, such as buying more vans when the amount of deliveries hasn’t increased for the business.

Sales Assistant – The Sales assistant probably has the easiest way to contribute to the success of the business, and they won’t even need to invest their own money into the business. The sales assistants need to keep the customers interested in the business, so that people don’t get bored of shopping in the same place over and over again. They will need to explain to the customers how Richer Sounds offers good value for money for the goods and services they provide.

Working arrangements at Richer Sounds

The majority of the people Richer Sounds employ are employed on a permanent basis. All these people are issued with a written contract of employment. Permanent workers are given a 20 day paid holiday each year, this increase after six years by 1 day extra holiday per year, so if they work for 10 years they can get up to 25 days paid holiday a year. They are also entitled to sick pay, where they will be paid their normal wage for the first 10 days, then half of the wage for the next 20 days and after 30 days they will need to claim for government statutory sick pay.

People who come to work on a temporary basis wouldn’t be issued with a written contract of employment. Temporary employment is mainly done during busy periods such as Christmas, where colleges will be employed for a short time and their work will end as soon as the sale period is over.

Most colleagues in Richer Sounds work full time although their hours vary, because not all stores have taken the new working arrangement, which is to work from 12 noon to 7pm. A normal working week will be a total of 42.5 hours per week and for the stores who have changed to the new working arrangement it will be less.

Contract of employment

The contract is a written legally binding document provided by the employer for employee, the contract states in detail of what the employee’s terms and conditions are.

The terms of employment for colleagues in Richer Sounds are that they obey the rules of employment and codes of conduct; these are the two main and most important terms in Richer Sounds. The rules of employment are split into two sections. Section A are rules that Richer Sounds have decided for the company and section B are rules for the colleagues of Richer Sounds.

Section A contains rules such as paying salaries on time (at the end of each month), to give colleagues an early notice if their needed to work over time etc.
Section B contains rules such as wearing the company uniform, to abide by the company’s policies, never to smoke on company premises etc.

The contract of employment can help and protect both the employee and the employer.

The name of the employer protects the employee; this tells us who is responsible for the employee if an accident occurred within the business. For example if the shelf stacker went into a store room and a whole load of heavy boxes dropped onto the shelf stacker, then the company can’t say that the person doesn’t work for them because the contract of employment proves this.

The way the contract helps both employee and employer is because it states the number of hours the employee is meant to be working for. This means that Richer Sounds cannot force a colleague to work more than the number of hours stated in the contract of employment, unless the colleague is working over time. It also helps Richer Sounds because if a colleague doesn’t turn for his/her shift then they can fire that colleague or can take other serious actions against them and the contract of employment is their proof, because it states the number of hours that the colleague agreed to work for.

Richer Sounds gives up to 20 days paid holiday, so colleagues can’t take a holiday for more than 20 days, unless the colleague has worked for more than 6 years, or they have permission to do so. If the colleague doesn’t get paid for the 20 days holiday then they can use the contract of employment to protect them, because the contract states that the colleague is entitled to 20 days paid holiday.

The contract of employment can also be used if the colleague isn’t being paid the amount fixed on the contract. This can also be used vice versa so the colleague cannot demand to be paid extra unless he/she has worked over time.

Employees’ rights

Some these are part of the Employment Rights Act 1996;

Employees have the right to be treated reasonably and equally fair, amongst other employees.
They are entitled to view statements of their employment detail.
They have the right not to be unfairly dismissed.
They have the right to receive redundancy payments. This means that if the store they are working for goes out of business, then they get compensated, depending on how long their contract is with the business.
If a dismissal occurs then a written statement should be provided stating the reasons for their dismissal. So that the employee has legal written proof of the reasons for dismissal.
They have the right to take a max of 20 days a year of paid holiday. (more than 20 if they have worked for more than 6 years in the business)

Employees’ Responsibilities

Have to come to work with a positive attitude, towards time keeping and attendance and to work flexibly during busy periods such as, just before and after Christmas.
Colleagues must try to avoid taking holidays between the months of October and February, apart from religious ones or family emergencies, this is because this is the business’s busiest time of the year.
Colleagues must abide by the company’s security and confidentiality policies. This means that colleagues must never cash personal cheques or credit cards through the company tills and they must not give out information about their customers to any external person or organisation.
Colleagues must wear the correct company uniform if they are working inside the Richer Sounds stores and they must also wear their name badge at all times, so that they can be identified and for security purposes. This stops intruders from getting inside the company.
Colleagues must never smoke whilst on the company premises and they must not eat onions, garlic or drink alcohol during the work hours or up to 12 hours before coming to work, this includes lunch breaks. This is bad for the staff who communicate face to face with the customers, because onions and garlic can cause really bad breathe.
Colleagues must also attend training courses and seminars at least twice every year, as these are provided at the company’s expense, so all colleagues have to worry about is to attend the courses.
Colleagues must follow the company’s health and safety regulations, as these are important for the colleagues’ personal well being, as well as for others.

Health & Safety

Richer Sounds are always trying to minimise the risks, through regular risk assessments and by encouraging colleagues to report risks no matter how serious it is. Colleagues are also advised to attend health and safety training courses. These courses specifically focuses on the main types of hazards and risks and will teach colleagues how to escape these problems if one occurred and will also minimise the risk of one taking place. Richer Sounds health and safety policy states that it is their duty to ensure that the staffs are working in safe conditions and to ensure that members of the public aren’t at any risk, when inside the company stores. The manager of health and safety in Richer Sounds is Lee Lynane who is responsible for the health and safety for the colleagues and customers of the business. His responsibilities in the business are to ensure that;

Regular risk assessments are carried out on the existing store/work locations
All the stores new and old meet the health and safety standards
Annual check ups are done on all electrical devices, so that colleagues aren’t in the risk of being shocked with volts of power.
All accidents are reported, this is to ensure that the same accident doesn’t occur twice within the business. As this can cause colleagues to feel insecure or unsafe within the business.
Trained first aiders are available if required in emergency.

Resolving Disputes with employees over their rights and responsibilities

Disputes are resolved through company policies and procedures on equal opportunities, sexual harassment and HIV/AIDS. These written to prevent any discrimination from occurring, between different colleagues. Colleagues who don’t take the policies seriously will be disciplined or if necessary dismissed from working with the business.
Disputes can also be solved through the company’s grievance procedures. These procedures are there to make colleagues feel more confident in taking action anytime, when they feel they have been unfairly treated.
Disputes can be resolved through disciplinary procedures. This is used if a colleague does not abide by his/her Contract of Employment or Terms and Conditions of employment and for those who will not take any formal advice. This is also used if serious offences such as theft are committed.

Grievance Procedures

First the colleague must approach the direct Head of Department/manager and discuss the matter thoroughly.
After discussing the matter and if it is not resolved to the colleagues satisfaction, then the colleague must seek advice from the director or the colleague representative. If it is a case of suspected dishonesty amongst colleagues, then the director should be consulted directly.

Disciplinary Procedures

This provides warnings to be given to those who fail to meet the company’s standards of job performance, conduct, (whether it is during work hours or outside work hours) attendance and for violating any of the terms and conditions of employment. The procedure isn’t contractual.
The procedure states that disciplinary actions can be taken after the case has been fully investigated. If it arises then the colleague may be suspended for a short period with pay, so that the case can be investigated.
If the company comes to an agreement that a colleague has committed gross misconduct, then the company may dismiss that colleague without a notice period or pay in lieu of notice.

Disputes can also be resolved through trade unions. When an employee can’t resolve anything from talking to the manager directly then it is ideal for that employee to join a trade union. This way the trade union will negotiate on behalf of the employee, until they come to an agreement. Trade unions can help to obtain higher pay, better working conditions, shorter working hours and legal protection against unfair dismissal.

ACAS is another organisation, which aims to prevent and end industrial disputes. ACAS stands for Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

The organisation provides advice and information to firms, trade unions and individual employees.
It provides conciliation, which means taking both sides of the story in an industrial dispute, so that it can find an agreement to end the dispute.
It arbitrates between the two sides, so it listens to both sides and then decides what a fair settlement is. Both sides then must agree in advance to accept the ACAS’s verdict.

Recruitment at Richer Sounds

Richer Sounds Advertise for new colleagues by advertising their vacancies within every edition of the in-store catalogue and website. Usually these vacancies are for needs of new sales person or need of new employees to work in the departments. This generates ongoing applications (CVs) from many interested people. If there are no vacancies at the time, then the company keeps a record of all the people who have applied for Richer Sounds, for a max of six months. These adverts saves the company major amounts of money, because if they were to publish it on the newspaper then they would have to pay a certain amount of money to the newspaper company, therefore the idea of publishing vacancy adverts on their catalogues and website is a really good way to save money. If the company doesn’t receive any phone calls or reply from any people regarding an interest in the job, then the company will have to publish the ad in the newspapers, this way a wider range of people would be able to view it.

Colleagues in Richer Sounds are also advised to introduce his/her friends or relatives to the business; however these applicants must also follow the same rules of the application process as all others do.

The Recruitment process in Richer Sounds

The business identifies any available vacancies within the business.
Advertises the vacancies, on their catalogues and website.
Then the company look’s through all the CV’s, looking for relevant ones for a store or department.
They schedule interviews with the appropriate store or department manager.
The successful applicants are then given a trail day to work at Richer Sounds.
If all is successful, the interview and trial day, the candidate will then send an application form stating whether he/she is agreeing to work for Richer Sounds
The new Candidate has to meet either, Jez Aves, John Clayton or Lee Nelson for their final approval.
When the company receives the form, the business then sends the forms for references and as the candidate gets one more good reference he/she is then offered a job. Then a letter is sent to the candidate, which includes the statement of terms of employment.
The final step for the company is then to send off the letters to all candidates who gave an interview, regarding that they have given the job to someone else. This is done so that the candidate will know if he/she got the job.

Why the business uses the Recruitment methods & Evaluation on how to improve

By giving the applicant a trail day, helps the applicant to get to know where he/she will be working and how and it helps them to understand what the business is about. It makes the applicant more confident and enthusiastic in wanting to work for the business, also the applicant gets paid on their trial day, which may increase the applicant’s choice of wanting to work for the business. Richer Sounds will also benefit from this because it helps them to know how their future colleague will be working and it will show if their future colleague is confident and determined to work for the business. There is also a downside to this method, because Richer Sounds only give one trial day, it may not give the applicant enough time for them to show their skills and abilities, some applicants may be scared to show off their skills and abilities. So what is suggested is that applicants should be given more time for their trial and before the trial day, the business should get as much info as possible on the person’s skills and abilities so that the applicant isn’t afraid to use it, as the business will already know of it, which will help the business to encourage the applicant on the areas they have good skills and abilities in.

Training at Richer Sounds

Richer Sounds are very keen in giving each and every one of their colleagues training to develop their skills and become multi-skilled or to learn new ones. They also believe that training and development can give their colleagues the following benefits;

Their colleague can give better customer service if they are trained how to give excellent service.
The customers would also gain from this because now they can obtain special advices on any particular product from the colleagues. For example the customer may ask which product offers good quality at a low price; and specially trained colleagues will now be able to ask questions like these.
Colleagues will also benefit, because now they will find their job more interesting and challenging and as they get trained, it would improve their skills and they could be in a position to ask for a promotion.
Richer Sounds also benefits from this because now their colleagues will work for a longer time period for them, because they will be able to develop their skills as they continue and also by gaining more customers due to better customer service, the company will be secure.

Training Programmes at Richer Sounds

In Richer Sounds there are many different sets of training programmes such as;

Training for new colleagues
Technical Training
Management training
Ongoing training

Training for new colleagues

All new colleagues who join Richer Sounds have to take a three-day induction course. This course is taken by Julian Richer (owner) and David Robinson (Managing director). Normally the course takes place in Julian Richer’s house in Yorkshire. The three day course is called the Virgin Seminar.

During the three day courses the new colleagues will learn;

The company Procedures, this includes health and safety
Who’s who within the company
How to give the best customer service
Everything about the company benefits.

When they receive and complete this course they will become junior sales assistant and as they get 25 excellent customer feedbacks, they will then become a sales assistant.

Technical Training

All the new colleagues are also introduced to the A – Z Hi-Fi, during the Virgin Seminar. To develop more skills every store manager trains his/her store colleagues, those who attend the listening sessions get to learn about the technical aspects of the equipments.

The technical training also features awards to be won such as;

The first test is to take the bronze technical award test. Colleagues who are successful in completing this test, with a certain number of marks, receive a bronze award certificate.
After that it is the silver award. There is a requirement for this award, which is that this award can only be taken if the colleague has attended to more than six listening sessions.
Finally it is the gold technical award, in this stage in order for the colleague to take part; they must have been to 12 or more listening sessions.

Some of Richer Sounds manufacturer who makes the equipment that the company sells also give technical training. This training is usually taken by managers, who then teach their colleagues.

Management Training

Richer Sounds have an internal promotion policy, which means that colleagues who wish to progress their level to a manager level, will need to pass this level. However passing the level doesn’t mean that they get it straight, it just secures a place for them so when there is a vacancy for managers, then they can apply for a promotion to that role.

Any colleague can apply for this training course and normally no refusals are made for a colleague not to attend the training course. This is because Richer Sounds wants their colleagues to develop more skills more skills on their own, at their own pace, so that the colleague becomes confident in what he/she is doing.

The Training Course includes;

Managing & motivating other colleagues within the business.
Learning how to interview candidates.
To learn all the disciplinary rules.
How to deal with customer Queries and their problems.
Managing in crises
Health and Safety. How to carry out risk assessments in stores.

It is a three months course and comprises seven separate sessions. Each session takes up a full day. After completing and passing the course, the colleague will receive a £500 pay rise.

Ongoing Training

These include the following types of training;

Training seminar, this training course is held 2 times a year and as mentioned in the terms of employment, every colleague must attend it. This seminar helps Richer Sounds to keep their colleagues up to date on every aspect in the business. From technological developments to technical advances.
Train colleagues in health and safety at induction.
They provide internal training courses in administration and in first aid. They also support colleague request to attend external courses. Which normally lead to qualifications related to their own area, such as finance IT and marketing.
Training for all new upgraded systems. For example the Cromwell EPOS system, all managers needed to attend this course. Then they were responsible for holding these training sessions.

Promotion Policy

Richer Sounds have strict promotion policies; they don’t like the fact of employing new people at higher levels such as management, unless they really need a person working at that level or if the person has some specialist skills.

Richer Sounds policies are that;

All colleagues start work as sales assistants, but this only applies to permanent staff.
All the colleagues working in the different departmental areas start at the same assistant level. They will also take the same training as store colleagues.
All colleagues that work their way up to higher levels through promotion would have the respect of their junior colleagues. Due to them working their way up, they would have also experienced and done the same jobs as their junior colleagues. This makes it easier for managers to help out their colleagues when faced with a problem as they too went through the same process.

Why the business uses the Training methods & Evaluation on how to improve

Induction training – Richer Sounds use this training because it helps the employee to get to know the business even more, it allows them to get comfortable with their workplace and their job. They use this method because it also allows the employee to get to know other people within the firm, people who they may be working long aside and it gives them time to identify any particular needs of their new colleague.

Training programmes – They use this because this makes colleagues earn their position in the business, it shows that the colleagues are dedicated to the business, buy attending training programmes and achieving them, which allows them to progress even higher, shows that they want to achieve themselves as well as helping the business at the same time. By using the method of letting colleagues work their way up, it also allows colleagues to learn new and more skills. This will make them multi- skilled so that they can perform a variety of tasks and it allows the business to use the workers flexibly. Also by making a colleague multi-skilled it saves money and time for the business, because instead of wasting time in recruiting someone for the skills required they can just teach those skills to the colleagues that are already working for them. The business will have to pay extra wages if they recruit new colleagues, they will pay less if they teach those skills to the staff already working, all they will need to do is increase the pay of that colleague. The business will need to pay for training the colleague, which is an ideal risk to take if the business believes that the colleague will be successful in the training, because it will increase the output of the business.

The Importance of Customer Service

Richer Sounds believe that their profits aren’t the most important measure of their success. They believe the most important measure of their success is to provide great customer service and satisfaction. This is because any organisation can increase their profits by increasing the prices of their goods; they can buy cheaper low quality goods and can cut down on the number of employees at work. Richer Sounds believe that this will reduce the quality of customer service that is provided by the business, due to fewer employees and high priced goods. Customers won’t buy expensive goods which are poor quality; and through this the business will lose customers and keep on losing them. Customers will go else where to buy goods and services from and the business’s reputation will be really bad.

The company believes that once a customer purchases a product from the business and thinks that it was at a low price and also sees that it is at good quality, with excellent service provided when they bought the goods. The customer will tend to come back to purchase more goods and also the customers may tell their friends and families about the prices and quality of goods and service that Richer Sounds provide, this will benefit the company, because they will be getting continuous new customers, that is if the customers are fully satisfied with the quality of goods and services.

How Richer Sounds aim to provide great customer service

Richer Sounds will strive to achieve great customer service. They will do this through;

Management commitment – This means that every director and manager states that great customer service is most essential to the business. The business is also willing to spend money to improve the excellence of their customer service. Richer Sounds aim is to provide such service, which they call ‘legendary’ customer service, so that their customers will be talking about them for years to come.
Recruiting and Training the right people – During interviews colleagues are looked at their personalities and attitude, more than how many qualifications they have or how much experience they have. This is because they want their colleagues to be loyal and respectful to the business and its customers. To achieve this all colleagues that are employed by Richer Sounds are given a 3 day induction course which also concentrates in training the new colleagues on how to give excellent customer service.
Motivated Colleagues – If all colleagues are treated well and valued, then they will give great customer service to the customers, because this shows that the company values them. This is why the colleague support function of Richer Sounds is so critical.
Measuring the results – The best way to get the right results is to ask the customers themselves. Richer Sounds does this through its sales questionnaires. Richer Sounds also operate a mystery shopper scheme, in which they look at how well the colleagues manage their customers and how greatly they give customer service. They also continuously monitor their internal telephone call systems, which are recorded to check the level of customer service that the colleagues provide, by answering to customer problems and queries.
A customer Friendly environment – Richer Sounds have put an ease for customers of walking around the store. The store layout has been changed so that it’s easier for customers to find exactly what they are looking for. The company insists that all their colleagues to wear smart clear clothes with clear name badges when greeting all their customers. There are also other ways in which Richer Sounds welcome and satisfy their customers, for example;

They provide hot drink machines for their customers in all stores free of charge.
They have supplies of lollypops which are given out by hand.
At Christmas they give out mince pies and on a summer bank holiday they give out sticks of rock.
Umbrellas are given out on raining days, to stop customers from getting wet and unwell.

Customers Expectations

Customer’s expectations are always changing, so the businesses will also need to change in order for them to meet their customer expectations. Customers always expect to receive great customer service from the business and to be able to purchase goods, where the quality of the product matches the value.

The typical expectations of customers are;

To be able to view an appropriate range of goods and services. Most customers expect to get a wide range of choice, when they are buying a product. Richer Sounds range isn’t very big as they only provide electrical goods, such as televisions and audio systems etc.
To be able to buy good value products. Most shops range the quality of their goods along with its value, so one would suspect that the higher the price of goods, the higher the quality will be of those goods. Customers take this fact into account; they expect the value of the product being purchased to reflect on the level of quality that is in the product.
Customers expect their problems and enquiries to be dealt with rapidly. Most customers get frustrated if their problems or enquires aren’t dealt with quickly. It is ideal for a business to set targets in dealing with customer problems in the least amount of time as possible, so that customers are satisfied with the service provided.
When customers call in with problems and enquiries, they expect to receive clear and good communication from the business. It is the business’s duty to provide clear communication, whether it is telephone calls, letters or face to face communication. Any faults in communicating with the customer can lead to a customer’s opinion of the business being lowered; this can result in a bad reputation for the business, if word is passed on.
Providing after sales service is probably what all customers expect a business to give. If the goods or service that has been purchased isn’t at reasonable quality, then customers will be very angry towards the business. That anger can be stopped if the business offers a full refund or an exchange for the goods or services purchased.

Why the business uses the Customer Service methods & Evaluation on how to improve

Richer Sounds use management commitment, so that colleagues from high level of management also understand that customers are their top priority in the business. This method makes sure that no matter what level of management you are at, your customers will always be a top priority. This is a really good and effective method; it shows that the level of customer service Richer Sounds offers is high, because they have chosen that customers are their top priority.
They use recruiting and training the right people, because they want people with good attitude, because if people who have bad attitude are recruited then it may lead to a downfall in the business. A colleague must be able to control his/her temper if customers started arguing. Richer Sounds give an induction training course to all their colleagues, so that problems like these don’t occur and so that they keep on increasing the level of customer service provided, to satisfy their customers.
They use their mystery shopper scheme, because this allows the business to know exactly what level of customer service the business is providing, it allows them to know where the business is going wrong and where they need improving.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that Richer Sounds is a stable company, who have good relations with all their stakeholders, as they understand the importance of them. The working arrangements is flexible for all colleagues as all colleagues benefit from a 20 day paid holiday and more if they have worked for more than six years with Richer Sounds. Employee’s rights are taken into account very seriously in Richer Sounds, but they are also suspected to take responsibility for their actions as well as it is mentioned in employee responsibilities. Richer Sounds have two main procedures which they use when dealing with disputes, one is the grievance procedure and the other is disciplinary procedure, the procedure they use depends upon how serious the dispute is. The recruitment process in Richer Sounds is simple and a fair way of recruiting. It is fair because everyone who applies has to go through the same recruitment process; no one is exceptional even if the person has been introduced by a family relative or a friend, who works for Richer Sounds. Training in Richer Sounds is done using four different training programmes; each one is at a higher level than the one before it. This means that if colleagues complete the 4 training programmes, then they will be at management level and will have the opportunity to apply for a role in management only if there is a vacancy for a management role. Providing great customer service is Richer Sounds top priority, which all the colleagues agree with. Customers are the stakeholders that provide the business with its output, which is money and profits. The level of customer service that Richer Sounds provide is high, because colleagues are trained continuously on how to deliver excellent customer service. They are trained continuously because customers’ expectations are always changing so the business will need to retrain their colleagues in how to satisfy their customers’ expectations.