Customer Service Relations

What is Web-based customer service and why is it important?

Provides an excellent channel for both pre-sale and post-sale customer support. Customers assume that businesses have a website and that it provides useful information.

Describe three examples of "verbal disciplining" your self-talk.

Replacing any judgmental phrase such as "what an ugly dress" with more neutral descriptions such as "she dresses interestingly." Examples should reflect non-judgment.

What are some aspects of a company's appearance and grooming that should be monitored for appropriateness?

Any unsightly, messy, untidy, or poorly maintained facilities. Common ones: unattractive store or office, poor merchandise display, cluttered work areas, or dirty restrooms.

Explain the distinction between attitudes and behaviors. Why is it important to focus on behaviors rather than attitudes when seeking to improve customer service?

Behaviors are distinguished from attitudes by the fact that they are explicit actions that can be observed, measured, and learned. While behaviors may reflect a person's attitudes, only behaviors are visible.

What are the three vocal qualities that must be varied to create interest and hold listener attention?

- Change in voice pitch. - Loudness. - Rate of speed to hold listener interest.

Summarize the advantages to a company having "call centers" rather than having an employee handle phone calls.

- Company can better monitor call quality. - Company can provide more intense training. - Employees with specialized call handling training can project a better image to customers, creating stronger relationships.

Tech-savvy customers, especially young people or "Net-geners" hold certain expectations about what businesses should offer or provided. Describe three customer service expectations as discussed in this chapter.

- Customization - Scrutiny - Integrity - Collaboration - Entertainment - Speed - Innovation

What four things can you do to tactfully close a phone conversation?

- Summarize the call and what has been decided. - Speak in the past tense. - Say "Thank you for calling." - End the call positively.

Describe four ways we can greet customers like guests.

1. Initiate conversation promptly. 2. Speak up. 3. Greet customers with your eyes. 4. Get customers committed.

Describe four positive steps to better listening discussed in the chapter.

1. Reinforce the customer with positive nonverbal and verbal cues. 2. Solicit clarification. 3. Minimize gatekeepers. 4. Take notes.

What are the two most common challenges to telephone use effectiveness that can negate the benefits of such customer communication?

1. Some employees are unaware of basic telephone use professionalism necessary to convey a good business image. 2. People cannot see the person they are dealing with, thus eliminating visual cues that may clarify.

The text describes six "core competencies" which provide a foundation for superior customer service. Name and briefly describe four of these.

Core service competencies - those unique skills that make your work distinctive - include communication effectiveness, job ownership, empowerment, knowledge management, change management, and continuous improvement.

What is a company's "culture?" What are some key characteristics of the culture at Yum! Brands, Southwest Airlines, and Zappos?

Culture is an organization's personality as revealed by behaviors. Yum! Brands - Emphasizes recognition. Southwest - Stresses having fun. Zappos - Creating fun and delivering "wow"

If you do not work directly with customers, of what value is the information in this book? In what way is "customer service" relevant to you?

Customer service principles can be applied to all kinds of relationships and can lead to greater life satisfaction and happiness.

Define what the word "customer" means in the context of this chapter and discuss the two different kinds of customer that every business has.

Customers are anyone with whom we exchange value. Organizations have external customers (usually buyers) and internal customers (employees).

Describe FAQs and other knowledge bases. How can these provide helpful customer service?

FAQs are frequently asked questions which may also tap into knowledge bases. Typically FAQs include key product questions with short answers. They are often hyperlinked into more detailed information.

What do we mean by the "use of gatekeepers?" Why is this a potential problem in customer service?

Gatekeepers are people who preview incoming information and decided if we need it or not. Gatekeeping can be a problem for service when customer messages are blocked or when the customer must convey messages through several people and those messages get distorted.

Explain the difference between hearing and listening.

Hearing is purely a physical activity where by acoustic energy is transmitted to the brain. Listening involves psychological processes which allow us to attach meaning to what we hear.

How can our listening capacity be overburdened, and thus made less effective?

Listening capacity can be overburdened with too much or too little information.

Your author cites Ockham's Razor - a logical approach which asserts that, when trying to understand a situation, the simplest explanation is usually the right one. What does this mean in the context of the K-Mart / Wal-Mart comparison in this chapter?

The simple fact that many more customers choose Wal-Mart over K-Mart accounts for Wal-Mart's superiority of results, despite many similarities between the two stores.