BSBCUS501 Manage Quality Customer Proof Reading Services

BSBCUS501 Manage Quality Customer Proof Reading Services

Activity 1

Develop and document a detailed process whereby it will be possible to investigate, identify, assess, and include the needs of customers in planning processes.

The planning process covers several stages related to product development, namely, generating, testing and screening of ideas and concepts, business analysis, testing of present market trends, development of product and marketing. The product idea is developed in order to meet the needs of the customers, testing of product is conducted post to the screening of idea so as to understand its feasibility. Hence, suitable final product and services are acquired based on the needs of the customers. In order to understand the success of the product, a market research is conducted based on the need and demand of the product in the market. A certain group of people based on their geographic, social and behavioral factors are then targeted as customers in order to study the success and demand of the product before promoting them in the market so as to get a proper idea of how the final product or service is going to perform and what might be its feedback when promoted in the general market.

Involvement of the customers in a planning process can help in two main categories firstly as, development of a new product where there is a need to adhere to the customer’s requirements and demands and secondly, in the category where there is a need to bring about changes in the already active products and services in the market. Regarding the aforementioned involvement of customers in the planning of new product development, studying the present market by collection of qualitative data can be conducted. Testing can then be done by selecting few customers in the nearest locality and gathering their collective feedback in relation to the product and services. Post to that the final product can be availed in the market. Regarding the second category, where the product is existing and few modifications can suffice; collecting the feedback of the various customers present can help.

Activity 2

1.How can quality, time and cost requirements be balanced?

Before launching a product, company should consider three aspects these are cost requirements, quality measurement and timing apart from customer need and expectation evaluation. To fulfill the needs and expectation of the customers company makes some additions and alterations in the product or services to cope up with the competition in the market. But before making such changes, it is important to calculate the cost needed for the whole revamp and how long will it take to offer customers quality products. Sometimes it is observed that budget does not allow to meet all of the customer demands, in that case quality maintenance will be given priority and cost assumption will be done while keeping the budget and feasibility of the changes  in mind.

2.Choose a product that might be sold to customer. Conduct research to establish customer expectations in term of quality, time and cost specification. Market the product to the customer taking these expectations into account.

To conduct an effective research on customer experience, we could take an instance of a hotel where customers could be asked to evaluate the quality of food, maintenance of the hotel, hygiene issue and price structure of the menu. The customers could be segregated in small groups as per their age, gender; socio economic background and then the research could be done depending on a specific questionnaire. Again a coffee shop near a college would value time more than price. Since the students want their orders within stipulated time, so the owner needs to structure the menu and provide service accordingly.

Activity 3

1.Detail the method and procedures that might be used by an organisation to communicate with customers to identify and agree on product/service specifications.

Various methods can be availed to contact the promising customers of an organization based on their potential. In case of an availability of direct market survey facility in the in the related organization, marketing executives can help in the same. In case of both products and services, customer’s feedback can be availed with the help of messaging facility at the end of the time period of a service or post to the use of a product. A provision for toll free numbers can be issued in order to encourage customers to provide their valuable feedback and communicate their reasons for the same to the company. Online surveys can also be conducted and may prove to be a lot of help in the same. These calls and surveys can then prove to be useful collection of data wherein various complaints and feedbacks can be used for the improvement of the concerned products and services. 

3.What a business plan is and why is it important to have a business plan that focuses on customer service.

Every organization has certain policies and plans that need to be executed in order to achieve the aims and goals of the company. These aforementioned goals are set prior to its operations in respect with the company’s vision to reach the desired positions in the market. These plans should be made in consideration with its inspiring nature and possibilities of suiting the market trends or else, they can’t be considered as a business plan. Several tests are conducted prior to the implement5ation of these plans in the functioning of the organization, such as; 5 force analysis or SWOT analysis, listing the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of the concerned organization. In order to attain a flexible yet concrete business plan, customer’s views prove to be highly beneficial. The customers play a significant role in the revenue generation if the business plan is made concerning the satisfaction of the customers of the organization.   

Activity 4

What steps to take and the processes to 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? Against what criteria to measure performance and what actions to take if performance didn’t the identified standards

To set the standard of the company, it is very essential to give priorities to the employees as a stakeholder. Before setting company standard, the company’s position in the market should be evaluated. Company’s performance standard should be set after detailed consultations with employees and stakeholders to get a clear idea about the market trends and area of exploring possibilities for the organization. To cope up with the company standard, employees should be provided with proper training and skill development programs. After implementing the policies, feedback must be acquired from the customers. Based on these feedbacks changes could be made for improvement of product and betterment of services. Before disseminating the work, managers should consider employees capabilities and area of interest. Proper training should be provided to employees to meet company standard.

Activity 5

1.Actions to take to assist an employee achieve customer service standards that are required in an organisation.

In order to assist an employee regarding the required performance level in respect with the company standards, several steps can be ensured, such as; communicating with the concerned employees personally, who needs extra attention so as to gain knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses that has to be considered. In case of a lack in skills, proper training should be entitled in order to help the employee achieve the required specialization. Putting her under the assistance of senior workers who excel in their fields and letting the employee witness the methods used to improve sales in practical field, can help the person gain confidence with time. Introduction of incentives and rewards should be made in order to gain the interest and motivate the worker, if needed. 

2.Coaching procedures to overcome difficulties in meeting customer service standard.

In order to coach an individual regarding the various procedures to help meeting the present service standards, an individual needs to keep an open mind as it is difficult to coach with a prior assumption of the same. irrespective of the slow process of coaching of an individual as compared to that of a child, with an open mind, a person will be able to cope up with the knowledge and implement the same in a much faster and more effectively. The reasons and needs related to the requirement of coaching should be specified properly so that the learner is satisfied and hence, ensuring sufficient effort is put in the process. Group discussions should be availed so as to help them learn in consideration to all the possible nooks and corners of the related topic. Evaluation can be attained best with a thorough examination of each of the employees on an individual basis.

Activity 6

What strategies are most useful for monitoring the progress in achieving product and/or service target and standards? Why?

From the qualitative and quantitative survey, feedbacks of the consumers and other stakeholders could be gained for the betterment of the business. Comparisons of the targets and sales achieved could help in analyzing the progress of the company.  Customers’ feedback in this respect is of utmost importance in this regard. The responses of customers could be provided by customer care executives of the organization. It would give the quality checking department a clear idea about the product features that are needed to be rectified. These feedbacks would give a clear picture to the company about the products and services, their advantages, disadvantages and these responses should be compared with the targets and objectives of the organizations. It would help the company in decision making and modify future aims and objectives. Company could compare these feedbacks with actual sales statistics to get a proper analysis of the current market situation. On the other hand, to motivate employees to achieve targets, organizations should launch rewards and benefits for employees.

Activity 7

Questionnaire that could be used to obtain customer feedback to improve the provision of products and/or services

Gaining feedback from customers regarding a product or services on regular basis is important for any business. To collect this feedback, questionnaires should be made that covers various aspects related to the products or services. Name of the customers and contact numbers should be included in the questionnaire that covers important facts and data related questions about the products or services. The feedback of the customer would be recorded in the questionnaire as well. Feedback charts should be made to collect it as a future reference of the product. The questionnaire should have open and close ended questions that cover the various issues related to the products or services. It would help the qualitative data collection. Multiple choice and objective type questions should be included in the questionnaire to get a better picture of the scenario. It would clarify the market trends and help to identify the issues with clarity. Charts should be noticeable enough to evaluate the trends of collected data and reach to a conclusion based on that. Lengthy and monotonous way of asking questions must be avoided to make the customers interested in the whole survey. Questions should be crisp and precise to attract the customers.

Activity 8

Explain the link between resources procurement and creating quality products for customers and explain how resource management is related to quality management and to continuous improvement.

Obtained resource would be referred to the input and output factors simultaneously. Since the quality of the final product is dependent on both the factors, so it is essential to ensure the quality of the resource. The raw materials are the basis of the final product so company must make sure the raw materials are meeting the standards of the company. The quality of the resources and the efficiency level of the employee will decide the final outcome that will satisfy the customers’ needs and expectation. To attain sustainability in the marketplace, company should monitor and evaluate the product constantly so that the up gradation is done in continuous basis, this continuous evaluation of the product is very essential for a company to sustain in the market. Standard product cannot be obtained without quality raw materials and genuine effort from the employees’ part.

Activity 9

1.How can an organisation make decision to overcome problems and to adapt customer services, products and/or service delivery?

Overcoming problems and adapting customer services, products or service delivery is a must for any organization. Identification of an issue is the first step in providing a possible solution to the same. a long process covering the steps of identification of the problem, formation of possible solutions, discussing the same in meetings in relation with the people accountable for the same, a possible estimation of the consequences of the sketched solutions and changes made post to their testing is involved. Post to the implementation of the achieved decisions, observation can be made in order to improve the required areas and persistent problems until a logical and applicable solution is reached.

2.How can an organisation manage records, reports and recommendations within the organisation’s system and processes?

To maintain business parity, companies must maintain records. Various MIS strategies can be used in this regard. The related data can devise some recommendations which can aid in the design of a product or service. The different changes affected within the organization depend on constant recording and subsequent reporting of data. Customer satisfaction can be improved by accessing relevant customer service data. The annual financial statements provide accounting information regarding the previous financial year. This forms the basis of all improvements and changes to be applied to the business operations in the upcoming term. This data is also useful in assessing and analyzing any strategy aimed at applying the concerned changes in the organization.

Summative assessment 1

Question 1

Why is it necessary to have a working knowledge of the legislation that affects customer service operations?

Customer Service is a wide area and it involves a lot of legislation. It is important for an organization to meet the standard promised to customers. As a manager of the organization it is important to acquire information about the laws that protect the rights of the consumers. Organizations need to consider various legislations to avoid lawsuit and in this respect managers have to work hard to safeguard organization as well as consumer rights. To meet ethical principles of an organization, it is highly important to make sure that they don’t harm the sentiments and emotions of a consumer irrespective of age, race, and religion. The company needs to deliver quality products and services without hurting the emotions of the consumers. Again, company should ensure that the quality goods are provided without hurting any individual.

Question 2

Identify and explain the stages that should be followed when dealing with a customer complaint?

To provide standard customer support service, organization needs to consider customers as their top most priority. To prosper in the business organization must make sure that they are giving their customers proper service as promised. To understand the consumers it is important to communicate with the consumers and especially consider their complaint with priority. Organization needs to comprehend their customers by listening to the purchaser's complaint, speak with sympathy and comprehension, calm the consumer who are disappointed with the management, appreciate their feedback to make the consumer feel that their voice has been heard, and make subsequent meet-ups on the matter to guarantee that their question has been tackled with proper care. On the off chance that the buyer has not got the desired outcome, it is the duty of the organization to experience a similar procedure again to guarantee minimization of disappointment. It is basic for the organization to keep a customary follow up on the matters and track the advancements of the same to make sure that they can roll out improvements in the process to build client esteem through this procedure. These little steps towards consumer complaint will help in keeping up a decent customer base and furthermore hold consumers for a long time.

Question 3

Identify and explain the six steps in the problem solving process?

The most appropriate way to solve a problem logically is to identify and understand the problem first. Post to that, it is essential for them to understand root causes or the symptoms. Prior to this, the solving stage begins that focuses on the situation and develops a proper definition to proceed by gathering and analyzing the received information. In addition to this, the manager has to ensure that they are able to understand the situations and analyses or predict the impact or risks. This will help them to develop a backup plan along with the primary plan and then execute the strategy by planning and implementing the said decision. Post the implementation, the organization has to monitor and observe the situations and make changes accordingly to align with the aims.     

Question 4

Explain how to use policies and procedures to make sure compliance with an organization’s expectations in relation to managing quality customer service and following best practice?

Policies and procedures safeguard the interest of the employees and the organization as well. In order to work peacefully in an organization, the employees have to implement certain principles that are crucial in the organization. This process helps in maintaining a professional paradigm in the organization. A policy in an organization is said to be a statement that defines the viewpoint of the organization on a particular issue. These policies in a way describe the principles that shape the pathway of the organization and help them to maintain a positive atmosphere in the organization. There are times when unforeseen circumstances have taken place and therefore, organizations have to implement regulations according to that to safeguard the rights of the employee. In order to diminish any unanticipated situation, organization include a decision making process by exploring the various possibilities towards their employees. This will help them to minimize any illegal activities that harm the brand of the organization.

Question 5

Why is it necessary to clearly identify, before designing product and service offerings, customer needs, and what are some of the less obvious service aspects that might inform purchasing decision?

Before outlining a product or services, it is essential for the organization to analyze the market in a critical way and assemble information. Post information gathering, organizations need to then disseminate the information and comprehend the present scenario of the market. With technological advancements, purchasers are all around very well aware about the things in no time. With the assistance of digital media, purchasers can learn about a particular topic more efficiently and gather knowledge about the same effectively. Along these lines the organization must be well informed about these circumstances and make noteworthy change in their present items or roll out improvements to new products before launching to ensure highest customer satisfaction. Market reports about the consumer patterns help the organization to get information and data that can be used to form new strategies and procedures to ensure highest achievement rate. It is vital for the organization to comprehend the buying decision of a consumer when they plan to make a purchase. Consumers basically prefers a product based on following factors,

1.Quality of the service that organisation offers after buying

2.Quality of the product offered by the company

3.Brand acknowledgment of the organisation 

4.Price

5.Sales

6.Delivery related issues

7.Customer service management

Question 6

Describe the ways in which employees can learn the skills needed to provide good customer service?

To measure employees’ efficiency organization must ensure that they are capable of providing comprehensive assistance to customers and hold on to customers. Their efficiency could be increased by proper training and regular workshops at workplace. It is essential to train them in consumer handling. There are staffs who are new to the organization and especially fresher who does not have any idea or skill to handle the customers. It is the duty of the company to give them proper training and help them to cope up with the work pressure and balance the same. It is the responsibility of the managers to develop managerial and corporate skills in them. Often managers notice the performances of staffs and give them training as per individual requirements. This way the employees get a chance to brush up their skills and career advancement programs. To achieve this, employee needs efficient mentors to guide them in proper way and improve their performance as well as organizations’. These strategies are useful in bringing positive changes to customer care management. Organizations train their staffs to attain customer complaints and give them proper assistance to resolve the issue. The main target of the employees is to retain customers so organizations need to provide proper resources to its employees to give better service.

Question 7

What are the questions that all customers ask themselves before they commit to a purchase and how is the presented product/service bundle likely to affect a customer’s purchasing decision?

Affiliations need to strategize using the market ponder reports and grasp the present examples among the clients and make or reshape the things in like way to ensure security of accomplishment. Post this strategy; affiliations recognize the buyer buying conduct case to fathom their obtaining methodologies. For a relationship to appreciate its customer affiliation needs to consider a couple of contemplations to grasp the beat of the purchasers and they can finish it by perceiving,

1.Identifying the need of the thing

2.Willingness to get the thing

3.Benefits got from the thing

4.Relation of the relationship with its customers

5.Satisfaction with the thing

6.Value for money

7.Pricing of the thing

These are thought to be presumably the most feasible ways to deal with understand the impression of the purchasers. Affiliations need to place themselves in the perspectives of the customers and thereafter develop the likelihood of the thing fittingly. Affiliations need to grasp that purchasers purchase the thing and also pay unique personality to the organizations rendered by the affiliation. This all comes as a package and thusly affiliations need to roll out prior improvements as per that to ensure that they can hold the customers.

Question 8

Who sets quality standards and how are they set?

To sustain in the organization it is important to recognize the preferences and choices of the customers. To accomplish this company often arranges market surveys and research to learn about the trends of the consumers, their lifestyles, consumer’s expectation, choices and preferences about the products and services. KPI or Key Performance Indicator plays an essential role in this aspect. While taking decisions, quality measurements are taken into considerations. Organization needs to think about the price point of the product and make sure to keep hold of the customers. Shareholders of the company play pivotal role in developing services and products. The quality management department looks into the data and works on necessary changes to the services or the products. After that supervisors make sure that employees are following the parameters and working on the betterment of the product. Often employees of the company could be considered as customers and managers could get their feedbacks through brainstorming sessions, meetings or workshops. This would be an effective process to identify the key areas and strategies could be made based on this internal assessment.

Question 9

How can an organization encourage suppliers-both internal and external-to participate in actively ensuring quality standards are maintained so that fewer customer complaints are likely?

To maintain a cordial relationship with its suppliers, business organization should focus on certain factors. There are many such occasions when consumers directly interact with suppliers. So it is important for the company to maintain a good relationship with suppliers as they could impact the business both in positive and negative way. Company should maintain a good communication with the suppliers, the complaints and feedback of the suppliers should be taken care of by the company. It is of utmost importance of the organization to keep a transparent relationship with the suppliers. Bring in a sense of satisfaction among the suppliers is highly important for the development of business. Company could provide incentives on specific terms and conditions to encourage and motivate the suppliers. It is highly important to build up trust and dependability between the company and its suppliers. Company could ask the suppliers to attend seminars, meeting and workshops to make them feel important and valuable for the organization. This will help in building good relationship with suppliers and indirectly with the consumers as well.

Question 10:

How can you collect customer’s feedback about customer service levels, satisfaction with products and services and any complaints that they might have?

The marketing professionals want to access customer’s feedback regarding service levels and their satisfaction with the products and services. The marketing team often conducts market survey among the customers for collecting feedback about the product and service.  The marketing experts use telephones or written survey or questionnaire techniques to collect proper feedback from the customers. The survey is conducted through the on the spot interview during a sales situation. In this situation only a few question can be asked as a customers will not wish to respond to long, involved survey questionnaires.  Therefore, the organization has tom talk with their customers and makes informal enquiries about the products and service quality.  The marketing experts left the customer feedback form out on service benches or other areas where the customers can readily complete them. If the customer can be identified through electronic addressed therefore customer can send feedback form through email. In order to attract customers, the organization offers gifts, free products for fulfilling the survey forms or submit satisfaction reports. The organization has to record all complaints and complaints resolution procedures and outcomes.

Project 2

1.What is wrong with Janice’s attitude and with the organisational system?

Janice is an employee of the organization so she has certain responsibility towards the company. Again, it is essential for a company to establish some factors that bring positive ambience within the organization. In this case the attitude of Janice towards her work is quite unacceptable as she is responsible for the performance of the company. She was hired to ensure quality products to consumers instead her attitude and negligence towards her duty incurs bad reputation for the company. Instead of improving the quality of work, company distributes defective products to customers due to Janice’s negligence. Janice justifies her negligence by saying that she is only accountable for her assigned duties and does not need to look into other matters. She noticed the defective products in the past and could inform the concerned manager about it, but she kept silent. These attitudes hinders business prospect of the company. Moreover she has no experience about handling the consumers and has no knowledge about customer service. This is considered to be a serious issue for a company while improving strategies to reduce the rate of errors significantly.

2. How do you think attitude like Janice’s impact on other employees, on the suppliers- customer chain and on the organisation’s outcome?

Janice appears to feel no regards for quality of the books. Her concern was to bind the books and ship it. She appears to feel no regards for quality in order to design this certain products which are checked to ensure that customers gets what they have ordered and what they have expected. If Janice does not make appropriate checking, that is not her prime role. Therefore, mistakes will slip through and this will be slip through. This responsibility will leads to customer satisfaction of the customers.  Therefore, in terms of poor communication with other departments, the quality of products is affected. Therefore, poor communication affects the production and customer satisfaction.

Figure2: Effect of poor communication in organization

3.What do you think should be done to make Janice more aware of her responsibilities toward the organisation’s customers?

It is observed that Janice has no concern about the quality of the product; it will create inconsistency in future operations of the company. If Janice is willing to change her attitude and gives preference to quality of the products, then the discontent level of consumers will reduce significantly. So at this point it is essential for the company to provide proper motivational and skill training to Janice. This will reduce her negative approach towards work and ensure quality products and services. As the customers and suppliers are valuable assets of the company, it is very essential for the organization to instill motivation and dedication in workers’ performance. To increase the sense of responsibility among staffs, organization could form a quality management team which would be responsible to maintain quality checking levels of the organization. It would help the employees to meet the quality standards of the product and services and perform accordingly. Moreover providing relevant skills to the employees like Janice will give them an added advantage for their career prospect.

4.Why is it necessary that she understand that she has a very definite role to play with regards to customer service?

Janice was working as a part of production department in a printing organization. Her duty was to collect printed copy of book. Then she binds it and shipped it to the customers. Even she did not know the subject of the printing materials. On the other hand she had no direct communication with customers. Therefore, she even did not know customers’ requirements. Therefore, being a vendor she had full authorization to know the expectation of customers. However, the final copy of the books was released from her hand so last responsibility should be on her to check entire copy.

The root causes are to be found in the lack of customer service, training and awareness and the culture of the organization. That does not truly support a customer focus. 

Figure4: role of vendors in printing organization

5.How can these problems be overcome?

With a particular true objective to handle these issues, it is to an awesome degree critical for the relationship to give get ready and workshop to the delegates who are not prepared to perform enough in the affiliation. In order to correct Janice's slip-ups or the perspective of understanding that she has, the affiliation can organize a meeting with Janice and help her to teach about the parts and pledges. Besides that, it would be perfect for the association if they can think about a more digitalized course of action that can help keep these rates of goofs. Giving planning and feedback to the workers can help them to improve their parts and commitments. Since they are a bit of the affiliation, agents have certain additional commitments. A comparable condition rises if there ought to be an event of Janice; the affiliation has failed to teach her on her parts in the affiliation. It is essential for Janice to recognize the bungles and guarantee that these things are managed. Additionally the affiliation can introduce another post and select some person inside to control the surge of era without searching for delegates outside the affiliation. Thusly the association can decrease the imperfect things and intensification profitability keeping in mind the end goal to attract more business from the market.

Increase employees’ efficiency and earn more goodwill

Project 3

This section provides a clear idea about the understanding of customers and their focus. That indicates that the customers are aware about the capability of the organization? Similarly the organization and their employees are also capable of building a customer focus about the culture and demonstrate the understanding of the link between the good internal customer service and good external customer service. It is related with the product quality. Similarly it also related with product or service bundles.

Sometimes rough behavior of the employees has affected customer satisfaction which harms company’s liability and responsibility. In market competition, after sales servicing is comparatively important rather than sales. Sales strategy is fully emotional and influential to the customers. Therefore, after sales service and regularly touch with the customers helps to develop proper customer satisfaction.

The participation of the employees should be drawn on their own experience. The organization has to identify their valuable resources and different ideas from other library and internet resources to answer all detailed questions of the customers.  In order to answer the questions in appropriate manner, the customer representatives sometimes use examples along with proper descriptions about the situations.

Those examples support their answers and the customer tries to relate their issues with those examples and motivated them to find out solution. If any customers are complaining about defects in their product then the customer representatives have to arrange proper service on their products. If possible replace the product which will enhance customer satisfaction. The answers of the customer quarries should be properly detailed and should be properly address the performance criteria which are relevant to the study unit.

To maintain reputation in the market company should focus on data that makes sure that the organization would be able to get a hold of the market. Information collected from the consumers will help the organization to manufacture products and services according to their preferences. By using the data in constructive way, company could bring significant changes to the products and services and it would help the company to satisfy the customers and retain them for longer term. Company should include stakeholders while promoting a new product or modifying an existing product. They would help the management with valuable ideas regarding the steps that would yield positive results for the management. Stakeholders often be considered as customers so their views are also important for product modifications. This way organization would be able to utilize resources to the fullest. The conditions of market are also influential in knowing the trends of the market. Customers’ feedback is of utmost importance to measure the taste preferences and inclination of the consumers. Internal and external consumers are equally important in this regard. It is very much essential for the company to realize the character of the consumers. Social media could help a lot to gather important feedback from the customers.

Even customer service departments often utilize the social media to collect valuable responses for their database. On the other hand, monitoring of employees performance and comparing the same would give the managers a clear idea about the performance level enhancement of staffs. To measure the potentialities of the employees, company should develop a system to test their capabilities. This will help the employers to understand the employees’ ability to perform a particular task, their satisfaction, dissatisfaction and their suggestions for improvement of working conditions within the organization.

To deliver quality products, management should meet staffs in regular intervals; arrange brainstorming sessions and other creative activities to ensure quality in their services. To manage customers is of utmost importance for any company. So employees could be trained to through interesting workshops and activities to handle the consumers. This way customers’ dissatisfaction will be handled efficiently and it would be helpful for retaining the consumers for a longer terms. Through proper communications channels, company would develop good relationships with the customers and meet their demands and expectations. Online chats and auto generated email service could yield valuable feedback for the company. This would be recorded in the company database instantly and reviewed by quality checking teams more easily. This way company would be able to monitor the behavior of the consumers and make improvements in their products and services accordingly.