Manage Quality Customer Service

Develop and document, on behalf of an organization for which you do or might work, a detailed process whereby it will possible to investigate, identify, assess and include the needs of customers in planning processes. Private Schooling

The first process is investigating why Parents would choose Private Schooling for their child/ren. The School would investigate the following. Investigate the needs of families in the local area. This does change depending on different areas. For example the fees and how much people in the local community are willing to pay and also see what the other schools in the area are charging. Look at the numbers of students in each class and the quality of teaching. Executive meeting are important when investigating what the school will be able to offer. It is important to develop an operational plan so that they are aware what we are able to sell to the Parents of the local area when choosing a school for their student. The Executive will have to do this regularly as the needs of Parents and Students will change. Secondly, the school need to identify the pros and the cons of private schooling and how the school can continually improve what is offered. The Executive need to keep asking the questions and listening the current families on how they can improve the school. An exit survey for families who are leaving the school is always helpful as well as Year 7 survey into Year 8.

They have been in school for a year and now have the opportunity to tell the school what is working and what isn’t. The sureys are for the parents and the students. Holding meetings with middle management asking them how we could improve and what systems we could implement would be beneficial for customer service and satisfaction. Listening to concerns or encouragement from current families would also be a beneficial thing to do for customer improvement. Our school needs to be on top of providing great information within the community such as advertisement, open days, carnivals, sporting events so that our school can be properly advertise and other people in the community can see how good our school is. Answering all phone enquires promptly with great employees also help with the ongoing enrollments of the school as good personal relations is also important for great customer service. Another thing we must look at is the care of the students within the school, if we don’t look after the students and have them feel safe and secure then we will see our enrollments fall and parents withdraw their children from the school. We have policies and procedures in place to help with making them feel secure and loved.

Assessment Activity 2
1. How can quality, time and cost requirements be balanced? When selling a product to a customer there must be a balance in what is being delivered so for quality. You must give the customer what they are paying for. The quality must be everything that you are advertising. When selling a product or service you need to be sure that it is available when you said it would be, ordered on time, supplied to the customer on time. Time management is key to keeping good customers. The cost of the product needs to be competitive. Customers shop around and if this is not balanced then you will not get the customers that you need. So having all 3 elements balances if key to having constant customer flow.

2. Choose a product that might be sold to customers. Conduct some research to establish what customer expectations are in terms of quality, time and cost specifications. How would you market the product to the customer taking these expectations into account? Music Academy

A music Academy runs singing lessons, instrument lessons for children and adults. Customer expectations are that the teacher is running on time so that there is no waiting around for lessons, the lesson goes for the amount of time that is advertised and paid for and cost you are getting what you are paying for in regards to the quality of teacher, performance time, certificates, concerts and development of the students. You want to see improvements every week. This shows that what you are paying for is worthwhile.

SECTION 2
Assessment Activity 3
1. Detail the methods and procedures that might be, used by an organization to communicate with customers to identify and agree on product/service specifications. Firstly good communication with the customer is necessary. Identifying exactly what the customer needs and expectations are and why they are purchasing from you. This could be because your company is providing the cheapest cost etc… Business plans help the company who is providing the service understand in writing what the customer is purchasing and what they are expecting to receive. This way all managers and employees from the organization can see what they are to provide to the customer. The business plan is a statement that gives goals and objectives including strategies that enable the supplier to reach those goals both future and present. For the running of a day to day business, it is good to have an operational plan in place so that the customers receive the expectations that is promised to them. Having effective resource management is very key to having a great level of production and productivity. This helps with accountability so that the level of what is expected from the organization to the customer is fulfilled. Customer profiling helps with collating important information which identifies the customer needs and specifications.

2. Consider this scenario. You have been asked to explain to employees that you supervise what a business plan is and why it is important to have a business plan that focuses on customer service. Write a transcript of what you would say to them. A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization, customer or team attempting to reach those goals. The planning process produces a number of benefits for your business and customer service. The process:

* forces an early consideration of essential goals and policies * helps challenge old ideas and create a climate for new initiatives that may help with customer service and growth for the business * gives you a clear focus on what needs to be achieved

* enables problems to be recognised that call for external sources of information and assistance * increases objectivity
* prevents the business viewing the future in ways the facts do not support * increases the business personal motivation and that of your employees which will help with customer service. * enables the capital requirements of growth to be determined in advance * provides feedback of information and periodic reappraisal against established objectives and performance standards. Having a business plan help employees and managers see day to day goals and objective that need to be fulfilled. Depending on what the company has to offer, business plans can help with daily customer service or what they of product, service or material is provided to the customer. So as we look at what we are offering here, we need to make sure that we are continually looking at the goals and objectives that are placed before us so that the customer service is always done according to what is expected, this way we will see the company be productive and provide quality goods and services. Assessment activity 4

Make a list of the steps you would take and the processes you would put in place to identify the quality and delivery standards to which teams should adhere and to monitor and manage team performance so that it consistently meets organizational quality and delivery standards. Again what criteria might you measure performance and what action would you take if performance did not meet the identified standards? a) List of steps

* Ensure all staff know the goals and objectives when it comes to the organization * Induct each staff member on performance standards
* Give each staff member agreed criteria’s that they will be measured upon KPI’s * Job Description for themselves and also other members of staff they work with so they understand who is responsible for what area * Team building

* Clear descriptions on daily and weekly targets I would conduct weekly meetings and email communication to all my staff to notify them of what is current and what needs to be achieved in the weeks to come. b) In the meetings that are conducted I would cover all areas of what is expected and from the week before outline what improvements needed to be made. Making sure that your employees are fulfilling what is required is most important for a success business. Data Collection of what has been achieve by your team is important to measure performance for example….. -product/service quality and what has been delivered

– the productivity of the team an what has been achieved
-Communication with the team
-Employee appraisals where KPI’s have been reviewed
-Viewing data collected that relates to performance and tracking it against expected performance. In order for teams to be effective they need, good communication, performance measure and growth opportunity. It is important for managers to make sure that their teams are operating well in order for the business or organization to grow. All team members need to understand what is expected. If this is not happening the employee needs to be notified and given opportunity to fix what they need to. Some key ways to help employees improve is giving them the opportunity to go to performance counseling, give them incentives for improvement, endure that the employee feels supported with good communication and extra training. Assessment Activity 5

1. Consider this scenario. One of your colleagues have been having difficulty providing the customer service standards that are required in your organization. You have observed this and have noted that this person is not making the number of sales they should make. What action do you think you might take to assist them to overcome difficulty in meeting customer service standards? As a leader it is important to know where your employees are at and if they are having any difficulties. In a case where you have noticed that one of your employees are having difficulty, it is necessary to get alongside them and put some programs or ideas in place to help them. Some suggestions are: * Helping the employee understand the customer service standards my reviewing what the policies are. * Training in their department, formal and informal

* Send them to workshops, a conference or seminar
* Providing them with a coach or mentor
* Do Performance reviews with KPIs

2. Consider this scenario. A colleague has asked you to coach them to help them overcome difficulties they are experiencing in meeting customer service standards. Explain how you would go about doing this. To answer this question you will need to research the coaching process then demonstrate that you understand how coaching procedures can be applied and why it is necessary, in such situations, to have some understanding of adult learning needs. A coach is specific in the task that the employee is having difficulty with and is work related. It is normally short term. In this time, what the employee is struggling with is identified and then worked on by the coach and the employee. The role of a coach is to help develop and guide the employee to understand what is expected and how they can overcome what they are finding difficult. There needs to be support and understanding given by the coach during the time so that they employee feels confident and is able to overcome the current struggle.

The coach may implement programs, professional development that will help with learning new skills both for work and personally as well. It is important to understand as a leader that people do learn differently. Doing courses for leaders is important as well so you can understand how best you can lead. If I were a coach to an employee who had learning difficulties as an adult, I would need to identify how they learn best and then work alongside them as a coach to help them with what was expected and show them, using their learning type for example an Interpersonal learner by putting them with someone in their department who can be a buddy to them. These types of learners like to talk to people and join groups. They tend to learn well by communicating, leading people and relating to others. Support Support Support is the only way I can see that someone who has difficulty learning or with customer support will grow and me as their leader holds the responsibility to see and make sure that this happens.

SECTION 3
Assessment Activity 6
1. A number of strategies for monitoring the progress in achieving product and/or service targets and standards have been discussed in the text. Which of these strategies do you consider to be the most useful? Why? After reading all of the standards, there are great benefits to all of them and I would think that every one of them need to be utilized in an organization. The 2 in particular were the ones about KPI’s and KRA’s. I believe these are very important because this way you can keep track of how each employee are doing and from this you can see that the work is being done. The other was monitoring the performance of employees. As I said above I believe that this is important because you can see what is being achieved. If you have good employees and they have a good attitude about the work environment and the product that is being offered, you will see success. If there is problems with any employee you need to jump on the issue straight away and confront the problem.