Customer Service is Different Depending on the Type of Business and The Need of each Individual Customer
Discuss Quality of Services offered to different Customers depending on their Behavior.
This paper intends to discuss quality of services offered to different customers depending on their behavior. Different service providers encounter diverse types of customers with different attitudes; therefore, end up dealing with each individual in a separate manner. Some customers tend to be lively and patient while others shout at the service givers demanding to be attended to first because of one reason or another. For any business to be a success, the customers need to be satisfied with the services offered to them. The service givers, on the other hand, need to exercise a lot of patience and be attentive to the customer’s needs to avoid scenarios where bad word about the is spread by one unsatisfied customer. This papers argument is based on the YouTube video Handling Complaints 2 by John Cleese and Connie Booth.
The giving of services to customers before, when making a purchase or after is referred to as customer service (Victorino, Verma, Plaschka, & Dev 2005, pp.555). I strongly agree that the service rendered to each customer is dependent on the type of business and the requirements of each customer as an individual. From the YouTube video Handling Complaints by John Cleese and Connie Booth, the restaurant attendant at the service desk deals with different types of customers and handles with each one of them differently. A lady who goes by the name Mrs. Richards demands to be attended to first regardless of the fact that another gentleman was being served. She leaves the Fawlty Towers unpleased with the services offered to her since she refuses to remain patient and wait for her turn. The needs of customers for certain types of service are entirely dependent on the industry in question (Bettencourt, Gwinner, &Meuter, 2001, pp.29). For example, the financial department will need services such as customer care, a collection of money credited and telemarketing with the government, on the other hand, offering only customer care services to its citizens. The significance of customer service over the last decade has greatly increased in the financial sector with the customers asking for guidance on financial matters from the customer care department.
The telemarketing wing deals with customers’ day in day out due to the goods and services they launch and promote to the customers. The credit collection department is always busy following the instability of the global economic situation (Grönroos 2007, pp.35). With the changing times taking place the people expect the people are expectant of world class quality services from both the private and public institutions. The central and local government are depending on the feedbacks from their customer care departments to improve the quality of the services they are offering to their customers (Grönroos 2007, pp.36). The customer care services offered may include assisting them with the administrative requests and also communicating to them during terrifying times. For example, if the country is under attack, the citizens can be reassured through an SMS channel or live broadcast.
Conclusion
For the healthcare sector, reliable and competent customer care services are required in order to assist those in need at the same time providing them with the best care. The healthcare organizations need to be ready to meet their patients’ needs whether it’s the daily check-ups or during scheduling medical appointments. The agents involved need to be quick and accurate in accessing the information about a patient’s history to avoid long queues at the front desk and also confusion in the patient’s medical requirements. With the digitalised world, the media plays a critical role in keeping the people in the loop about what is happening around the world (Ray, Muhanna, & Barney 2005, pp.625). The media’s content is reliable on the feedback they get from their customers. The concern that the media has for public opinion ensures that the information they deliver reaches to many people at the same time creating strong confidence of the channel among the audience. Different types of news websites have a comment portion where every person can write their opinion on the news they just read.
In the previous years, the retail companies have been strategizing on ways to ensure the goods and services they offer to meet all the needs of their customers. The distribution channels present include retail and online stores, social media platforms and mobile applications (Rao, &Minakakis 2003, pp.62). In order to sustain such an inclusive customer base, the retail companies need to communicate to their customers and collect information on their opinions (Galdes, & Ericson 2001, pp.78). Following the globalization of businesses, the logistics involved and the heightened customer service requirement get to a complex level and new problem emerge. For a logistic organization to be successful, customer service needs to be a fast process (Lusch, Vargo, & O’Brien 2007, pp.15). Whether or not the service required by the customer is available at that particular time the response should be quick. There are upcoming trends on how the customers like their deliveries, therefore, the logistics companies need to keep up with them so as to compete favorably in the business environment.
Another determining factor of the type of services provided to the customers is the specific needs of the business (Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes 2002, pp.24). Some organizations will be more concerned about closing more sales and increasing their call volumes while others will try to satisfy the needs of their customers by the provision of services at a personal level and give them a splendid customer care experience (Morris, Schindehutte, & Allen 2005, pp.726). The four categories under which the above service providers are grouped include; the relationship builders. They are teams made up of a small number of people and invest in creating a relationship with the customer at the same time giving each one of them a personal experience. Some people view this practice as an overstretch of the marketing strategies.
Second in the list are the masters of complexity who are motivated by the detailed demands of their customers and render services that are of an intricate nature to their customers (Goldstein, Johnston, Duffy, & Rao, 2002 pp.121). Thirdly are the late bloomers who are said to pay too much attention to their sales departments other than focusing on their customers. As the name suggests, these teams are still working towards discovering their full ability (Osterwalder, &Pigneur, 2010, pp 21). An example is the start-ups. Finally, there are the captains of scale. These are service providers who value the management of the services they give to their customers at an equal level as the management of their sales (Liao, & Chuang, 2004 pp. 41). Thereby rendering services are of world class quality. They are driven by their customers’ needs.
Conclusion
Dealing with customers is a job that requires the service provider to be patient and also handle each customer as an individual. The fate of a business’s success is dependent on the customers. If the customers are pleased with the service offered to them they will always come back and also refer their friends or relatives to the establishment. However, if they are unsatisfied with the services given to them, they refuse to return to the establishment and some of them even go to the trouble of writing and posting negative comments on social media. The culture of giving a customer a personal experience and making him/her feel that his/her involvement in the business matters goes a long way in ensuring the business is a success. Incorporation of the customer’s suggestions about their needs and also listening to the feedbacks they give after a service has led to the success of many businesses. The customer’s preferences change with the changing times hence, the businesses need to be up to date with the recent trends of what the customers prefer.
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