Argos is doing many things to meet the needs of its customers. This includes the set up human resource department and customer service department. Customers are the most important assets to any business as they determine if the organisation succeeds or make profits as lack of customers means low sales.
As customers have proven to be valuable assets in terms of whether the organisations succeeds or fail it is important to keep old customers and attract new customers. This can only be achieved through customer service.
Customer service is the set of behaviours a company undertakes when dealing with the customers.
CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT
Customer service is the various ways in which a company looks after its customers. Customer service is a whole package that starts from the initial contact with an organisation to the after sales service. The customer service department is the department that takes care of the special needs of customers in an organisation. Within the last few years customer service as become very important to every organisation.
Today the importance of customer service cannot be over emphasised, this is due to the following reasons:
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Increased competition: organisations make a competitor force in a market. Competition gives customers greater choices and they will therefore become more selective and knowledgeable about various suppliers. This has therefore forced companies to be customer oriented.
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Product similarity: from the customer’s point of view it is difficult to distinguish many of our products from those of other competitors. One way of differentiating Argos from other competitors is by the means of image for customer care that its build up and the reputation it has earned from customer support.
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Customer retention: customer service department helps to satisfy customer needs. If all customers’ needs were met then they would return to Argos. For example if a customer lodges a complaints to the customer service department and the complaints is dealt with promptly, the customer would be satisfied and would keep patronising Argos.
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To enjoy benefits of having satisfied customers: businesses need customers to buy their product in order to make profit. They therefore aim to look after customers by meeting their needs. If their needs are met efficiently then the customers are kept and more introduced.
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Company’s objectives: many organisations’ major objectives is to satisfy customers. The concept of customer service can be used to realise this objective. At Argos its objective is to satisfy customer needs. To enable them achieve this the customer service department was developed.
Argos Corporate Objectives
These are the statement that governors the operations at Argos. This includes the mission statement, vision company’s aims and objectives. Argos corporate objective helps to govern its customer service programme.
Some of Argos Company’s objectives include:
Profit: the major objective of Argos is to maximise profit. Profit is the difference between the total revenue of a business and it’s total cost. Argos has consistently being recording increased profit for the past five years showing it is meeting its objectives.
Increasing sales and market share: This is a very important objective for all organisations. Argos states, “we aim to increase our market share in the UK and Ireland by providing the best service to our customers”. Increase of sales and market share can be done through expanding, advertisement, and so on. Argos has successfully been able to increase its market share through expanding by having over 550 stores.
Offer employment: Argos has done a great job employing 23 000 people. Argos objectives states, “we are committed to high standard of employment practice and wish to be recognised as a good employer”.
Care and concern for the environment: It is necessary that an organisation provide environmental services in the community it operates. Argos states, “we have a responsibility to its impact on the environment. We are committed to continuous improvement in our environmental practice through minimising waste and reducing our consumption of material”.
Offering charitable service: Argos supports a different national charity each year. This year, Argos has linked up with Whizz-Kidz, which helps provide mobility equipment for non-mobile children. Argos has a charity policy, which has helped it meet this objective.
Since the company has its own objectives to achieve and customer also have their needs to be satisfied by the company, it is necessary to set up a customer service department, which would take care of the both issues.
Below is a detailed explanation of how the customer service department operates.
CUSTOMER SERVICE AT ARGOS
Argos is a retail store, which has a separate customer service department. This department is under the operations department. The operations managers monitor this department. Argos customer service department is divided into two: one for the store customers and the other for the telephone and Internet customers. Argos has over 500 employees working in its customer service department. Argos customer service department also became visible in 2001. Argos making its customer service department visible as helped it to:
- Establish a very strong, trusted brand focused on choice, value and convenience.
- Argos customers feel more valued. Customer feeling valued help to increase sales.
- Add value to the organisation: the introduction of visible customer service structure has helped to reduce the long queue at the cash point.
From the customers’ perspective, the Customer Service Department is the most important department at Argos. It is where they come to get help with product, lodge complaints and comments and solve problems.
Argos customer service functions are:
- The main responsibility of the customer service department is to ensure that customers receive fast, high quality responses to their queries.
- Prompt resolution of customer complaints
- Detailed scheduling of delivery, installation, training and any other associated services
- Immediate notification to of any changes in terms and conditions
- Dealing with returned goods, organisation of replacements or credit, as appropriate
- Replacement of damaged goods
- Surveying customers to assess expectations and levels of satisfaction
Structure Of Argos Customer Service Department
From this structure it is clear that Argos customer service department has a flat structure with the customer service assistants at the bottom and the managing Director at the top.
Personnel in the customer service department
- Customer service assistants: these are staffs that stay at the desk to attend to customers’ query and needs. At most of Argos outlets there is usually one person at the desk.
- Store manger: at Argos the store manager assists the customer service assistants by helping them handle problems they cannot handle. He also reports to the operations manager.
- Operation director: monitors the customer service department at the store and reports to the Managing Director.
- Operations director Argos direct: deals with the Internet and telephone customers’ queries and needs.
- Managing director: oversees, reports and make decisions with the Board Of Director.
Analysis of Argos customer service structure
With this structure every need of the customers are met. This is because the store manager would deal with situations that cannot be handled by the customer service assistant. Everybody knows their role and what to do. There is always a watchdog in the department. For example the operations director could check on the store manager.
Despite the fact that Argos has a suitable structure for its customer service department, the structure has a few shortcomings. The absence of a front line manager makes it difficult to examine current measuring system to ensure they monitor customer satisfaction. This is because the store manager takes up all his responsibilities and that of the customer service department. With this structure it is difficult for all the employees to realise that they all have roles in customer care. Employees failing to recognise they all have roles in the customer care affects the whole package of customer service negatively.
Customer service skills
Management cannot teach attitudes but can positively influence existing attitudes. What can and must be taught are customer-handling skills. It is necessary for Argos to teach every staff in the company such as telephone operators, cleaners, and sales assistant skills as they are involved in some contacts with the customer.
Skills acquired taught to Argos customer service advisers by Argos are listed below:
- Communication skills: all of Argos employees have the O level in English. This to ensure that they are all able to communicate with the customer effectively. Communication skills is the very basic of customer service skills, as bad communication does not encourage customers to lodge complains. Bad communication also means that the needs of the customers are not passed across clearly. This would consequently, make it difficult for Argos to identify the needs of their customers.
- Technology skills: this involves basic IT skills. Argos does staff training to improve the IT skills of its staff. Technology skills are needed to make sure transactions are recorded appropriately. The customer service adviser at Argos would use the skills to record every complaint lodged by the customers on the computer in order to use it for the improvement of the department.
- Product knowledge: it is very important for Argos customers to have slight knowledge of the product they are selling. This is because customers are discouraged if they ask questions about the product and the staffs are unable to answer as this shows that the company does not have a good customer service programme.
The following are some basic attitudes of Argos customer service advisers:
- Strong attention to detail and organizational skills.
- Ability to work a flexible schedule based on outbound projects and inbounds call volume.
- Willing to accept and execute relevant business direction.
- Ability to adapt to new system/technology quickly.
- Ability to organize work and set priorities and meet deadlines, working
Importance of customer service skills and attitudes
It is essential for staffs in the customer service department to posses’ basic skills and attitudes as it helps the organisation as a whole. Lack of this skills and attitudes could lead to reduce customers, as they are not encouraged to keep patronising Argos. Possession of this skills and attitudes helps Argos to build their company’s service culture or image positively and helps attract potential customers. It is also necessary for them to recruit staff with the right skills and attitudes, as they would pay more training them and train existing staff.
Training
The skills required by Argos customer service adviser can only be achieved through training. Training is the teaching of skills to employees in order to perform their jobs.
It could be classified into 2, which are:
Off-site training: this is the most expensive type of training and reduces productivity, as employees off work do not do their job. It is the type of training done outside the business. It is usually done for a longer period of time.
In-job training: it is the training within the organisation. An experience employee or someone from outside the organisation does this training. It also helps to reduce cost.
Training is the long term planning of a department. The benefit of staff training is that new skills are gained by staff, giving them a competitive edge as employees perform their duties more effectively. On the other hand organisation gain from this has it helps to increase productivity. Most organisations are not encouraged to train their workforce because of the high cost required for training.
At Argos an in-job training is done once a year for all employees.
Equipments used by Argos customer service department
There are various equipments used by different organisations in their customer service department. These equipments are used to make their customer service transactions faster and easier to analyse. The following are equipment used by Argos customer service department. This equipment helps with the customer service programme at Argos.
Telephones: this is used by most organisations to communicate with customers and other staff. Argos customer service advisers use the telephone to contact the managers if there are problems they cannot handle.
Customers Stationeries slips and pens: this is a blue form in form of a slip given to the customers to write down their complaints. Argos customer service department uses it to record and monitor customers’ complains as the slip are kept and analysed.
Stock checker: this is used to check if a particular good is still in stock. The customer service department uses it to make transactions faster as they would not need to go into the storeroom to look for the good. When an exchange of good is to be made all they have to do is put in the catalogue number into the stock checker and it would indicate if the good has been sold out or not. The customer service department and every customer at Argos use it.
Tills: this is used to keep the customer service department money and used to record transactions and refunds. These tills only help monitor the amount of money received and given out by the customer service department.
Internet: this is mainly used by Argos customer service department to send out information such as offers and news to their customers.
From the above information, it shows that Argos has a well-organised customer service department. A well-organised customer service department helps an organisation to survive, as the numbers of customer is the major determinant of survival. This probably would result in Argos customer service department help to meet most of its objectives.
CUSTOMER SERVICE POLICY
Customer service policy contains details of how staff should treat both internal and external customers at all times. Looking from the consumers’ point of view, it is a guarantee that the customers would not be mistreated. It is important for organisations to have customer service policy in order to:
- Meet government requirement and legislations. This Acts are implemented by the OFR.
- Meet its legal and ethical responsibilities such as staff and visitors safety.
- Build a positive impact on its corporate image
- Meet needs of its customers such as best value for money.
At Argos customer service policy is considered important because it has a mission statement to “provide our customers with the best value of their money through the most convenient shopping experience”. In order for Argos to fulfil its mission statement it is necessary to set procedures and the customer service policy is part of the procedures set.
Examples of Argos policies are listed below. They are discussed and related with customer needs, government legislations and the organisation’s objectives.
Health and safety policy
Health and safety policies ensures that all reasonable precautions are taken to provide and maintain working conditions for internal and external customers which are safe, healthy and in compliance with statutory requirement and appropriate codes of practice.
Argos health and safety policy states:
- All Argos outlets should employ health and safety adviser and occupational health staff.
- Procedures to follow in breech of the policy.
- Ways of bring updates of the statement of intent to the attention of both internal and external customers such as pasting it in places where the external customers could see.
- Relation with the fire campaign.
This policy is important to Argos has it helps it to meet the government legislation ‘Health And Safety Act 1974’. The Act sets out the general duties and responsibility that employers have to their employees and members of the general public. Failure of Argos to meet the requirement of this legislation could lead to them paying fines. Also the health and safety policy is important as it helps Argos to meet needs of their customers, which is to provide safety. For example Argos customers expect to walk customers expect to get into the shops without tripping on any wet thing on the floor. The policy also helps Argos to meet its legal and ethical responsibility as failure of this could lead to the company been sued. The policy also walks hand in hand with the organisations objective of ‘Care And Concern For The Environment’. This is due to the fact that the policy states ways of achieving continuous improvement in its environmental practice, which is one of Argos Company’s objectives.
Returns and refunds policy
This policy was made so as to ensure that customers get the best value for their money. It was also formulated to ensure Argos meets it objective of ‘Increase Sale’. Although it may be taught that refunds policy has nothing with increase of sales but the return policy makes the customers feel valued and leads to them patronising Argos constantly. This therefore would lead to increased sales. The return policy varies from organisation to organisation, Argos policy states:
- Goods purchased can simply be returned to any Argos store within 16 days of delivery and a refund or exchange would be provided.
- Faulty goods can be returned for a refund within 7days of purchase.
- Procedures to follow if a receipt can be shown.
It is very necessary for Argos to implement this policy, as it would save them from being sued or fined. This is because lack of this policy could lead to breech of the ‘Consumer Protection Act 1987’. The first part of the Act states the company is liable for any damage done by defective products. This means that Argos has an obligation to refund money spent on faulty product to customers.
Equal opportunity policy
In order to provide equal employment opportunities and fair treatment to all internal and external customers the equal opportunity policy was formulated at Argos. The policy is to ensure that barriers to equality at workplaces are overcome. The policy states that:
- All employees are given equal opportunity
- All customers are treated fairly
- Procedures to follow in breech of the policy like suspension of staff involved.
At Argos this policy was implemented to make sure internal and external customer are not less favourable treated on the grounds of sex, religion and colour. The formation of this policy is based on some government legislation. ‘Sex Discrimination Act’ ‘Race Relations Act’ and ‘Disability Act’. This all state that people who are employees and customers must be treated fairly and equally. If this Acts are breeched it could lead to Argos being sued. It could also lead to them loosing customers, as their needs are not met adequately.
Argos employs many people from all backgrounds, different race, religion and sex. Argos takes this policy important, as a copy of the policy is visible in all their stores.
Privacy policy
Argos considers the security of their customers’ personal information important as this helps its customers to ensure a safe shopping experience. Argos holds customers’ personal information through the use of on-line shopping and exchange or refund receipt. This policy ensures that customers’ personal information is kept safe to avoid fraud or misuse. Argos privacy policy states:
- What type of information customers should release.
- How personal information should be handled
- Procedure to follow at the breech of the contract.
This policy works in relation with the government legislation of ‘Data Protection Act 1984’. This Act stipulates guidelines about how personal information of both internal and external customers should be handled by organisations such as Argos. This helps to prevent fraud and scam. Also this policy is important to Argos has it helps meet its company’s objective of survival. For Argos to survive it is necessary to reduce the risk of being sued or certificate threaten and try to satisfy customer needs. If personal information of customers is not kept safe they could sue Argos and this could result in great fines because of the government Act. This policy also helps to meet customers’ needs of little extra through providing security.
MONITORING AND IMPROVING CUSTOMER SERVICE
There has been a phenomenal growth of customer service over the past few years. This is because it is a competitive tool. There are various ways organisations monitor and improve their customer service programmes.
Monitoring and improving customer service means continually checking and analysing the limitations faced by the customer service department by finding ways it can be tackled.
At Argos satisfying the customer is a prime duty. In order to continuously satisfy their customers it is necessary that they monitor the customer service department and also try and improve.
The customer service department at Argos is monitored through the use of the following techniques:
This is a line, which customers call in organisation to lodge their complaints. It helps to suggest ways of how to treat customers in future.
At Argos there are help lines, which customers call to lodge their complaints. A customer service adviser who treats the complaint individually answers this telephone lines. These help lines are used by Argos to monitor its customer service program by recording the calls. After dealing with each call the recorded messages are sent to the customer service department. Here the complaints are matched with previous ones so new procedures and rules are set to make sure they are not repeated.
This is the process of getting an employee to check if another employee is performing his duty efficiently.
At Argos customer service department every personnel as another employee have their watchdog. For example the store manager serves as a watchdog to the customer service advisers. This is another way Argos monitors it customer service department, as everyone knows they are checked by someone else and perform their work efficiently. Therefore everyone works to make sure the customer service programme is working.
The human resource department in organisations does the staff appraisals. It is the yearly monitoring of each employees’ performance and check on the improvement.
This is a programme used by Argos to check how well its employees are meeting their set targets. The customer service department uses this method to monitor the department. If staffs do not meet the set target then the department knows that the programme is not working.
These are boxes placed in organisations for customers to post their suggestions so the company can analyse them carefully.
These are fixed at each of Argos outlet for customers to put in their comments and complaints. These comments and complaints are used to monitor its customer service programme as they are matched against their performance. Complaints are used to check if the department procedures are working.
How Argos improves its customer service department
There are two majors by which Argos improves its customer service. These are discussed below:
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Use of data: to obtain basic data, Argos collects feedback from customers as well as their own staff through customer surveys, employee surveys and customers’ workshop.
- The surveys are done using questionnaires. These questionnaires are sent to the customer service department where they are analysed. Suggestions made through the questionnaire are carefully looked into and discussed by the Board Of Director where it might be implemented.
- Customer workshops are held once a year for both its internal and external customers. During these sessions customers are invited to attend open evenings to discuss methods of improving services. Staffs in the customer service department carefully note comments and suggestions made in the workshop.
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Staff training: this is another way by which Argos improves its customer service department. This includes off-site and in-job training. This training includes ways to improve services and handle complaints and how to use new equipment. This is used to improve the customer service as after these training staffs perform their work more efficiently and customer service is a whole package of how customers are treated. Staff in-job training is held annually by Argos for its employees.
Importance of monitoring and improving customer service
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To create a company culture: it is important to continuously check that the customer service programme is working as it helps Argos to build a service culture. Improving the customer service help Argos not only to build a service culture but a good and better service culture. The service culture is important, as it is what attracts new customers and keep old customers of Argos
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To satisfy customer needs: monitoring and improving customer service helps Argos to keep their customers satisfied as their needs are identified and met. Not keeping its customer satisfied means loss of customers for Argos because they would go elsewhere.
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Meet government regulations: it is necessary for Argos to keep monitoring its customer service programme so as to be sure they are in compliance with various legislations. For example Argos has to make sure their customer service policy are in relation with the Sales Of Goods Act. If Argos services do not meet the government legislation they could be fined.
This chapter gave me a better insight on how Argos monitors and improve its customer service department. It will help me in my critical evaluation of the department.
Critical evaluation of Argos customer service
This chapter covers the following:
- An appraisal of the techniques used by Argos to monitor and improve its customer service programme
- Analysis of the effectiveness of Argos customer service using examples of good practice.
- Recommendations on how to improve Argos customer service programme.
- An evaluation of the customer service of Argos as a whole
Appraisal of the techniques used by Argos to monitor and improve its customer service
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Customer help line: this is a very efficient way of monitoring the customer service policy, as it is cheap for the customers. Argos customer help line is a free phone and encourages customers to call. The results are only useful when used in conjunction with the suggestion boxes. It is quite expensive for Argos has they incur all the expenses.
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Watchdogs: having watchdogs in Argos customer service department helps to maintain consistent standards. It is not always an effective way of monitoring the customer service as each personnel has its own duties and might be too occupied trying to watch others.
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Staff appraisals: this is not one of the best ways of monitoring customer service programme, as it does not bear the customer needs in mind. It only helps to monitor that the programme is in accordance to the company’s objectives. It is best used with suggestion boxes. It cannot be used to improve customer service but only monitor.
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Suggestion boxes: this are one of the cheapest way to monitor the customer service through customer satisfaction. A major drawback is that only motivated people fill them unless you provide some motivation.
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Use of data: this is the most appropriate way of improving customer service as the views of both internal and external customers are brought to notice and ways of meeting them are found. However the customer service personnel might find it difficult to analyse the data and misinterpret.
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Staff training: this is the best way to equip staff to satisfy customer needs. Despite this being a very effective way it is expensive to organise trainings.
Effectiveness of Argos customer service
Effectiveness of Argos customer service can be seen through the following examples:
Use of on-line trading: Argos is found out that over 90% of its customers are complaining about the serving time. This observation was only made possible due to the use of its customer service programme such as customer workshops and use of survey. Argos not only identified this problem it also tackled the problem by introducing on-line shopping. This has not only helped to reduce the queue in their stores but also helped to increase it sales by 5%. This has also helped to prove Argos to customer-orientated.
Introduction of delivery staff: the introduction of Argos customer service as also helped to identify needs of customers. Through the use of suggestion boxes in 2001, it was noticed that most customers expect from Argos after-sale services. This therefore led to the introduction of delivery staffs late that year in order to meet this customer need. Every store now has delivery staffs that help customers who have purchased heavy goods carry their goods into their vehicles or arrange for the goods to be delivered to people without vehicles.
Use of stock checkers: this was also introduced to reduce the queue line. The stock checker helps Argos customer to know if a particular good is still in stock or sold out. This has helped it customer avoid wasting time on queue lines. The customer service department also identified this problem.
Recommendations on how to improve Argos customer service programme
Despite the fact that Argos has an effective customer service programme there are still some drawbacks about customer service programme run at Argos. The best way to identify these drawbacks is to observe its customer behaviours directly and this can be done by different methods, which are:
Interview: this is done through discussions with customers. It could be through a qualitative or quantitative form of interview. This involves going into Argos and having discussions with its customers and manager and deriving using information from the conversation. The advantage of this method is that it gets accurate results because people’s true opinions are expressed. A lot can be found out by this method of research. You also get detailed information using this method.
The disadvantage is that it takes a lot of time, as you have to focus on the discussion to get suitable responses. Also the organisation would not give you an opportunity of coming into their company to interrogate their customers.
Observation: Observation means that the situation of interest is checked and a person or some mechanical device records the relevant facts, actions, or behaviours. The advantages of this method is that much information can be gathered and information got is always accurate and you could gather more information using this method its major disadvantage is that what was seen might change the next day and the information is not very detailed.
Questionnaire: This is a series of questions set for a particular people in order to analysis their behaviours. I would be using this to analysis Argos customer behaviour and what they feel about it customer service programme.
I am using this method of research because it is easy to obtain or gather information quickly. It can be analysed easily. It is the fastest way to collect information from a large number of people, as responses are straightforward.
However the disadvantage of this is that the sample taken may not represent the population or potential buyers as a whole. It might also lack adequate information. Also it cannot get information from people who cannot read and write.
For my critical evaluation I have decided to make recommendations on how to improve customer service department at Argos by first finding out the general impression the customers have about department. This would be done by the use of questionnaire. I would be using a sample size of 30 at 2 branches for more accurate information.
After collecting my data I would analyse it. The analysis will be the basis for my recommendation.
Analysis of the questionnaire
The Questionnaires were distributed at 2 branches at Argos: Walworth road and Peckham. 15 questionnaires were distributed at each branch. The following information was derived. A sample of the questionnaire is attached as an appendix.
This tells the age category of most of Argos customers. This question was asked to enable me determine if the suitable customers filled the questionnaire. The table shows that the suitable group of customers filled the questionnaire as most of Argos customers fall between the ages of 30 to 50 years. This is because they would know better how Argos customer service programme is operating.
- How often do you buy from Argos?
This shows that the customers who filled in this form buy from Argos on a regular basis and are able to access it customer service programme. It could also mean that Argos have many customers.
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How happy are you with the services provided at Argos?
From the table above it shows that over 90% of the people who filled in my questionnaire are happy with the customer service at Argos. This shows that Argos is putting in a lot of effort in its customer service programme.
- What do you like about Argos?
This question is to show mainly why people go to Argos. From the response it shows that people mostly patronise Argos because of the wide range of product offered. This also shows that despite the fact that they have a good customer service programme it is not effective to keep encouraging customers to buy from Argos.
- What do you think of Argos customer service?
This question deals with Argos customer service as a whole and it shows that most people think it is good but can be improved.
- What would you like to see change about Argos customer service programme?
From the table it shows that customers ticked more than one box. This will help to determine exactly what Argos customers are unhappy about. The table tells that everyone who filled in the questionnaire thinks the serving time is long.
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What policy would you like to see improved?
This table shows that most of Argos customers do not like its refund and return policies. This would also help me in my recommendation of what to improve about their customer service programme.
General overview
From the questionnaire analysis above recommendations can be made on how to improve Argos customer service programme as the problems are identified. Looking at the questionnaire analysis (from questions 1and 2) you can see that people who filled in the questionnaire are customers from Argos between the age of 18-50 who buy from Argos often and are in a better position to describe the customer service programme at Argos.
Shortcomings of Argos customer service departments are explained below. In addition recommendations are given.
The major problem of Argos customer service is the long serving time. The best way for Argos to tackle this problem is by opening more tills. At Argos Peckham branch there were just three tills used when I visited. All the customers through question 6 above also identified this problem thereby showing it is the major problem. Argos should buy and open more tills for the payment point and collection point.
In every store there should be a minimum of five tills or more depending on how big the store is, as it would help to reduce the length of the serving time.
Another problem identified through the last question of the questionnaire is the return policy. The response received from the questionnaire shows that most customer are not happy with the return and refunds policy. Argos could change the terms of the policy so as to satisfy customer needs. The refund days could be increased from 16 days to 28 days. This would help to increase sales, as customers would be encouraged to buy more goods as they know they could return it and have a refund or exchange.
These suggestions are important as it helps to meet various customer needs such as quick response to orders, value for money and a little extra. Satisfying customer needs means increase sales as customers are forced to keep patronising the company and telling others about it. These recommendations would also help to build a better company image for Argos and this could stand as a form of advertisement. Also these recommendations would help Argos meet it company’s objective effectively. For example if the suggestion of opening more tills are adhere to it would help Argos meet its objective of increase market share as customers keep patronising the organisation.
Evaluation of Argos customer service as a whole
During my research on Argos for this coursework I have found out that Argos as an effective customer service department. This is because of the following reasons:
- It has a well-organised customer service programme: Argos has a well-organised customer service programme, which can be seen in its structure and policies. For example its customer service is divided into two- the operations department, which takes care of customer service at different stores and operation Argos direct department that takes care of the Internet and telephone customers.
- Needs of customers are met: through Argos customer service department various customer needs such as quick and efficient service are met. More examples are listed below on page…
- Effective techniques for improving and monitoring customer service department: Argos having techniques for improving and monitoring its customer service policy shows that it has an efficient customer service.
Despite Argos having an efficient customer service department, it still has a major problem associated with its customer service.
- As Argos has a separate customer service department, all employees fail to identify that they all have parts to play in the customer service. Customer service is a whole package that starts from the initial contact with a company. Employees failing to realise this has reduced the total output of customer care therefore reducing customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
Argos is a retail store, which as a customer service department that takes care of the needs of its customers. Having identified that Argos is UK’s number 1 retail store, it is necessary to know its 2 major types customers and find out their needs. This is important because it essential to meet needs of customers to build customer loyalty so as to increase sales. Argos has been able to meet its customers’ needs by setting up a customer service department and human resource department for the internal customers. This department works to meet Argos corporate objectives. This is done by having a policy and monitoring and improving it.
Earlier in this work the structure of the customer service department was analysed. Its policies were linked to government legislation and objectives to create a better understanding.
For a company to survive it would be important to monitor its performance so also for a customer service programme to succeed it is necessary to monitor the programme. This is why the techniques used by Argos to monitor its programme were looked into and analysed carefully to provide methods for improvement.
From the critical evaluation it shows that Argos has one of the best customer service programme in UK because its programme satisfies over 60% of their customers.
Reference
To do this coursework I had to use the following websites and textbook.
Textbook
Customer care by John Wellemin
Business GNVQ by Dave Needham
Websites
Appendix
The questionnaire used for the critical evaluation is attached below. In addition a copy of Argos operating profit is also included.
This questionnaire is to be used for a private survey on the customer service programme at Argos. Please tick the appropriate box.
How old are you?
Under 18 ▢ 18-30 ▢ 30-50 ▢ 50+ ▢
How often do you shop at Argos?
Occasionally ▢
Often ▢
Always ▢
How happy are you with the service at Argos?
Unhappy ▢
Happy ▢
Very happy ▢
What do you like about Argos?
Price ▢
Range of product ▢
Service ▢
How would you rate Argos customer service?
Poor ▢
Satisfactory ▢
Very good ▢
What would you like to see change about Argos customer service?
Employee manners ▢
Employee assistance ▢
Serving time ▢
What policy would you like to see improved out of Argos service policy?
Returns and refunds ▢
Privacy ▢
Health and safety ▢
Information from: www.argos.co.uk/studentinfopack
Source from www.argos.co.uk
