ETHIOPIAN MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

Customer service for non-business

sectors (MLM)

Prepared by: Haddis Estifanos &

Kidan Tsehay

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

TRAINING
November 2017

Consultancy RESEARCH
Table of Contents

List of figures
Figure 1: Outcomes of customer satisfaction…….…………………………………......
Figure 2: Drivers for change………………………………………........……………....
Figure3: Formula for Attaining Customer Satisfaction………………………..…….…
Figure 4: Hostility curve…..……………………………………………………...…..…
Figure 5: Process of Complaint Handling……..………………………………….….…

List of tables
Table 1: What Customers Want?......................................................................................
Table 2: Dimension refers to Specific criteria that customers use………..…………….
Table 3: Benefits of Customers Service……………………...…………………………
Table 4: Emotional intelligence……………………...…………………………………
Table 5: Response to different level of Stress……………….……..………...………..
Table 6: The Ten Keys to Outstanding Customer Service……………….……………
 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS:
Term Explanation/definition
customer Is a person or an organization that often or regularly, purchases a service or
Customer chain It is the relationship between internal customers and external customers tha
chain.
Customer service Is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfactio
that a product or service has met the customer expectation".
Customer satisfaction When a product/service meets or exceeds a customer’s expectations, th
satisfied.
Marketing Is “the management process responsible for matching resources with oppo
identifying, anticipating, influencing, & satisfying customer demand”. UK Insti
Service Fulfilling a great number of less obvious customer needs.
Quality: is based on the perception of the customer. It is defined as whatever the c
quality.
Communication Is generally the transform of information between two or more people
understanding between them.
Group is a collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make th
some significant degree.
Extrovert Is a type of personality (or behavior) that is oriented outside,
People with this type of personality tend to be those who are more energized
They are the ones who love to chat, mingle, and socialize
Introvert Is a type of personality (or behavior) that is oriented inside or to one self. T
are far more likely to think before they speak. They prefer comforta
speculations and absorbing into personal thoughts, creative work or observat
Emotional intelligence Is the ability to manage our emotions and those of others
Conflict Is a state of disagreement or opposition between two or more persons rega
needs, values, desires or wishes
Customer Compliant Is a formal expression of service dissatisfaction with any aspect of a service
 A complaint is "An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the
Complaints
actions or lack of action by or on behalf of the organization or its staff
customer or group of customers."

Team In the organization team is a collection of individuals organized to accomplis

who are interdependent, and who can be identified by themselves and observ
Service standard Are indicators that can be expressed in time, quantity, quality, cost or in
other(s) to serve in the instrument of the level of performance in service delive
Customer Charter Is an Official declaration of an Organization’s / Business Commitment to serve
Customer Slogan Slogans are statement of norms that direct the conduct of staff in customer s
values of the company in serving customers.
Service Standards Standards are the promises that Organizations make to their customers abou
of service they can expect. They should be SMART
Performance Improvement Short Term tactical strategies for achievement of long term goals and long ter
Plans
Customer Complaints A log of customer complaints detailing time of complaint, person receiving
Registers take and feedback given to the customer
Customer Service
Performance Indicators Measures of customer service efficiency.

Body Language Gestures, postures and way in which we walk and sit or send information to th
Customer Satisfaction Pleasant feeling a customer gets when he/she receives a service or product a
Front Office Office dedicated as the first contact for customers. It is usually located at th
easy access by customers
Symbols/ Icons used in this Training Manual
Icons/Symbols What it Refers to? Description
Important notes Important notes for the participants to keep in mind
ⓘ
 Handouts Important documents, for the participant, which might be in
case study, checklists, concepts/models, action plan sheets,

 Exercises/
Activities
group or individual exercises/activities which might be done
or outdoor or at the work place
Definitions Definition of key words in each topic will be provided as par
∆ concepts

 Examples Examples relevant to the topic are provided

 Summary Important learning points from each topic

 References Sources of information used in the training material and fur

that can be helpful for the learner during or after the training.
Introduction

This Customer service training is for companies who want to create a stronger
service culture that builds loyal relationships with their customers and a better
environment for their employees. In due this it provides guidelines and best
practices for providing excellent customer service that will enable Middle Level
managers in back-up and support roles to build, maintain, and increase a loyal
customer base.
The need for leading, promoting, and enhancing a customer-focused culture is essential within
every organization. This training material will provide you with an opportunity to explore your
responsibilities within your role as a customer service agent. As you learn the various skills and
techniques, draw from your own personal and varied experiences to share elements of reward
and challenge. Consider this material as a “re-energizing one" to build and expand from where
you are now.
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy- happy
enough to pass positive feedback about your organization along to others, who may then try the product
or service you offer for themselves and in their turn become loyal customers. The essence of good
customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that individual customer feels
that he would like to pursue. In order to go about forming such a relationship, you have to remember the
one true secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; "You will be judged by what you do, not
by what you say."
The efficiency & effectiveness of the service delivery is of vital importance for a successful
implementation of changes in policy & strategy & contributes to the establishment of administrative
machinery that can face the challenge of the turmoil environment .Public sector organizations around the
world face a common set of challenges if their services are to meet the increased expectations of their
‘customers’ – both citizens and businesses. However, experience shows that while the challenges may be
consistent, the ways in which they are being confronted, and the results that are being achieved, vary
considerably.
One common challenge faced by every organization is how to service its customers better. The public
sector is no exception. Traditionally, the public sector has been seen as a passive vehicle for executing
social policy mandated by legislation. Moreover, citizens today are more aware of their rights, have better
access to information on public services and consequently have higher expectations of service levels.
Because they have become accustomed to capable private sector organizations providing high levels of
customization and other benefits, they are not prepared to accept that public sector organizations are
incapable of improving their own service delivery.
Citizens also expect a positive customer experience and better returns on the taxes they pay. In addition, a
number of countries have empowered citizens with ‘Right to Information’ legislation leading to
heightened awareness about customer rights and, consequently, customer service.In addition to this, the
need for a customer oriented focus coincides with tightening government budgets, providing value for
money is a core concern today. This is prompting the public sector to explore new sustainable models for
service delivery – models that can improve customer experience and outcomes through enhanced service
levels at the same or reduced cost.
To do so, reforms in the public sector aimed at improving service delivery have received considerable
focus during the last decade. Global trends such as rising customer expectations, budgetary constraints,
and global competition for investment, public sector reform programs and changing demographics have
transformed the environment in which the public sector operates. This, in turn, has broken down old
constraints and created new opportunities. Fundamental to the demand for better public services are the
heightened expectations of citizens – expectations that transcend economic status, geographies and the
different methods of funding, managing and delivering these services.Driven by these changing
expectations, the public sector is increasingly required to redefine its role, strengthen its customer focus
and build integrated service delivery models. If they are to realize the desired benefits, these models must
be based on meeting customer needs more efficiently and more effectively.
In general, providing a good service is crucial for Non - Business organizations aimed at satisfying the
needs & ensuring the well being of society as well as enforcing laws, regulations, & directives of the
government. Thus the course is designed to create awareness on basic concepts, methods & techniques &
practices to make trainees provide satisfactory service for their customers. Regular & tailor made
programs on the subject matter has geared constructive result for both the institute and the customer
organizations. In the process of preparing the manual an effort is made to incorporate comments obtained
from end of training evaluations, problems & drawbacks of the Ethiopian civil service in the delivery of
services, the designing team’s own experience and from books & internet sources.

This training material is made up of six chapters. The first one deal on definitions, roles & important
elements & the second chapter describes on communication skills. Chapter three focuses on how to
handle difficult customers. Chapter four is about complaint handling ,Chapter five is about managing
stress & the last chapter discusses on Essentials to customer service.
 Training Outcomes
After completing this training, successful trainees are expected to achieve the following Intended Tra

ining outcomes and objectives

Table 1: Training Outcomes and objectives for each, which will provide trainees with foundation
of knowledge and that, will enable them to:

 Develop service delivery plan that meets customer needs

 Communicate effectively to strengthen customers relationship
 Manage emotions to deal with difficult customers
 Establish effective compliant handling system
 Manage work place related stress
 Build high performing teams.

Training Outcome Guide (TOG)

Contents Assessment Learning Outcomes
Concept:  Design need 1. Develop service
assessment tools
Delivery plan that
 Meaning of Customer, service & and analyses
customer service customers’ needs, Meets customer
 Principles and concepts customer  Develop service
needs
services delivery plan
 Customers need identification and
analyses
Skill:
 Need Analysis
 Plan preparation
Issues: Meeting every customer needs
Concept:  Develop 2. Communicate
 meaning of communication communication
effectively
correctly strategy
 importance of communication  Demonstrate to strengthen
correctly Communications customers
 Type of communication skills
 Communication strategy relationship
 barriers of communication
Issues:
 manage communication barriers

Skill:
 Communication skill
 Interpersonal relation
Concept:  Identify 3. Manage emotions
 Customer Behaviors inappropriate to deal
 How to win over a difficult customer emotion with difficult
 Emotional Intelligence  Apply emotional
customers
 Managing conflict with co-workers self-assessment
 Working with different working tools
styles
 Relationship management
Issues:
 Handling difficult customer
 Managing self and others emotions
Skill:
 Problem identification
 self-control
 Analyses others’ emotion
 Problems solving
Concept:  Develop compliant 4. Establish
 definition and concept of service handling techniques effective
complaint  Apply root causes
 Importance complains analyses techniques compliant handling
 factors that influence customer  Apprize appropriate system.
complaining behavior remedy
 major sources of complaint
effectively
 design and the quality of good
complaint handling correct
Issues:
 Conflict of interest
 Immediate responses
Skill:
 empathy Listening
 Problem analyses
 Decision making

Concept: Identify the Cases of work 5. Manage work

 Definition and concept of stress related stress place
 How to manage stress related stress.
Skill:
Analyses the Cause and effect
Issues:
stress free working environment
Concept: Develop team 6. Build high
 Meaning and concepts of team building strategy performing
 Stages of team development. teams.
 Importance of team building
Issues: Tolerate individual difference
Skill:
 Interpersonal relation
 Motivational
 Team work
 Meeting management
 Pro activeness
 Identify team behavior
 Critical thinking

General Objective:
This course will enable to upgrade participants’ knowledge, skill & attitude about customer
service so that they can improve their customer handling. As a result, they will work towards
customer satisfaction, which in turn enable them to create/maintain their good will about their
organization.
Specific Objectives:
At the end of the session the participants will be able to:

 Explain the concepts of customer service.

 Describe how to communicate customers politely, efficiently & effectively.
 Explain how to deal with difficult customers.
 Express critical skills on how to handle customer complaint.
 Tell sources and mechanisms to reduce/avoid stress at work.
 Explain essentials to customer service to obtain customer satisfaction

SESSION ONE: INTRODUCTION TO CUSTOMER SERVICE

1. INTRODUCTION

Customer service touches our lives in two important ways. The service we give & the service we receive.
Customer service will help us to not only be a better service person but also a better customer. Customer
service for non- business contains lots of practical advice for getting through the everyday challenges at
work. Among other important issues it enables how to manage and develop your staff so they can become
service heroes to their customer. This chapter contains concepts, practices, roles, qualities principles and
other issues important for giving your customers the kind of service that you yourself would like to
receive.
1.1 Session objectives:
At the end of the session participants will be able to:
√ Explain the concepts & practices of customer service effectively.
√ Describe the role of customer service effectively.
√ Explain levels of services & types of customers properly.
√ Describe principles, service qualities, customer satisfaction, organizational focus & the ten
commandments of customer service effectively.
1.2 Session Content
 Definition of customer

 Levels of services

 The role of customer service in non - business organizations

 Important elements in customer service

1.1 .1 Definition on Customer, service & customer service

1.1.2 Definition of customer

A customer is a person or an organization that often or regularly, purchases a service or product. The
customer makes a purchase because he, for one reason or another, needs that service or product.
Commonly, the definition of customer is limited to someone who is outside the organization. But, it is
quite a mistake to forget the internal customers-the employees that are the other half of the customer.
Most organizations neglect the idea of including internal customers in their definition and obviously they
fail to meet their objective of implementing good customer service.

Two definitions of customer:

 Person who receives or buys/have the potential to buy
 Person with whom one has dealings
1.1.3 Definition of service
In general service can be defined as work done for others as an occupation or business or an act or a
variety of work done for others, especially for pay. The other one could be an organized system of labor
& material aids used to supply the needs of the public.
The definition of service shapes every interaction that one has with customers. The common concept that
service is only giving customers what they want is not complete as it will not have a solution for a person
asking for something that is impossible to provide. Therefore, it is good to expand the definition of
service as "fulfilling a great number of less obvious customer needs".
This includes:
 Listening with empathy to customers
 Providing options/ alternatives
 Showing friendliness to customers
 Fairness
 Providing information
1.1.4 What is Customer Service?

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. According
to Jamier L. Scott. (2002), “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of
customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation."
Customer Service is, as your job, to manage the customer’s expectations so that they do not expect more
than you are able to deliver. As a general rule, customers are satisfied if their expectations are met and
dissatisfied if their expectations are not met. Good customer service will deliver what today’s discerning
customers expect and create a bond of loyalty thereby encouraging repeat business.

Some of the conditions that make it impossible to fulfill that entire customer needs:

 Federal regulations
 The law (both federal and regional)
 Organization’s policies and procedures

1.2 Levels of services & Types of customers

1.2.1 Levels of services

Organizations will provide service that has quite different implication on the satisfaction level of
customers. The type of services that has been intended to be delivered has a prime role to create the
desired feeling in the side of customers. There are four level of satisfaction. These are:

Basic service: organizations have an option of providing what they have been mandated for As per the
explanations made, customers have certain level of expectation from the service they will gain
while they start heading to organizations. This expectation will then act as a standard to
determine the satisfaction they experience after having what they were looking for.
Organizations will provide the following four generous level of service which in return can
create different level of satisfaction on customers.

 without even considering the need and expectations of customers. Such level of services is
basic.
 Expected service: sometimes customers might get what they have been expecting when
they foot to organizations’ compound. Organizations have prior information from
experience about customers’ expectations and they are good enough to adapt with and
provide customers what they are looking for. Defiantly these service levels avoid
dissatisfaction but have nothing to add any enlightenment on the customers’ experience.
 Desired service: Alert service providers have the initiation to search for information
regarding the needs and want of customers and alter their services accordingly. They ask
what their customers are expecting and amend their operations to fill the gap they currently
have. Customers at the end of the day will have the chance to get there desire. This effort
can create satisfied customers.
 Unanticipated service: organization will have the courage to go extra-mile to delight their
customers. They provide not what customers are looking for but what they don’t even think
before. Unexpected services might put us in the position to see the laughing and thanking
customers will lots of bliss and astonishment with what s/he got from us.

1.2.2 Types of customers

Customers fall into two categories. These are:

1.The external customers: These are the people you deal with, either face-to-face or over the
telephone, who buy products or services from you.
2.The internal customer: These are the people who work inside your organization & relay on
you for the services, products, & information that they need to get their jobs done.

The customer chain: It is the relationship between internal customers and external customers that creates
the customer chain. The smoother the relationship between the two groups of customers, the stronger the
chain will be in effect. Conditions that lead to smooth relationship between internal and external
customers are:
  Personnel selection
 Training the staff
 Recognition/motivation of good work
 Control
Each interaction with an internal customer is an important link in a chain of events that always ends up at
the external customers’ feet. The quality of service that an organization provides to its customers is a
direct reflection of how the staff of an organization is treated by their immediate supervisors/managers.

1.3 The role of customer service in non - business organizations

The fact that all organizations have customers to deal with requires the organizations at least to be alert at
satisfying them by providing good services. Good service is getting help, getting a problem solved –
competently with no hassle, no run around, no delay, etc. This becomes more crucial as the number of
customers increases since the tendency of service deterioration will be higher unless necessary measures
are taken to make the service shine.

Organizations which are established as nonprofit are often known for serving a considerable
number of customers. It has been a universal truth that most of the time this type of organizations
will find themselves in the state of poor service delivery unlike that of business organizations.
However, they have to always strive to give an effective as well as efficient service due to the
following major reasons.

1.3.1 Customer awareness

Citizens today are more aware of their rights, have better access to information on public
services and consequently have higher expectations of service levels. Because they have become
accustomed to capable private sector organizations providing high levels of customization and
other benefits, they are not prepared to accept that public sector organizations are incapable of
improving their own service delivery. They also expect a positive customer experience and better
returns on the taxes they pay. Furthermore, a number of countries have empowered citizens with
‘Right to Information’ legislation leading to heightened awareness about customer rights and,
consequently, customer service.

1.3.2 Budgetary constraints

Reduced budgets for investing in public sector service delivery are the result of various factors.
Higher budgetary allocations towards pensions, education and health in many countries are
undoubtedly one of these factors. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult for
many governments to fund the public sector by increasing taxes – partly because of resistance to
this route, and partly because, in a globalised society, many of the people/businesses who pay the
bulk of these taxes are more mobile than ever before.
Tightening budgets and the need for value for money with respect to tax payments by
citizens/businesses are forcing governments to address the issue of public service delivery. In
many countries, changes have been introduced, aimed at ensuring that the public sector performs
under two key metrics: (a) quality of service – accessibility for all and satisfactory customer
experiences and outcomes, and (b) cost of service, leading to ‘value for money’. Greater
accountability and transparency
1.3.3 Drive for competitiveness
Attracting investment to fund economic growth is a priority for most countries. Increasingly,
investment fund managers regard the efficiency of the public sector as one of the factors in
evaluating the investment destination. In this context, the cost of doing business becomes an
important measure of public sector efficiency. Ensuring reduced cost calls for a balanced
approach which is aligned both to the needs of the customer and to realizing greater efficiencies
in service delivery. Thus, global competition for ‘investments’ as a means for economic growth
is also driving the agenda for reforms in public service delivery.
1.3.4 Public sector reform agenda
Many governments, especially those in the least developed and developing countries face a
common need to meet the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. The achievement of
Millennium Development Goals is closely related to the effective delivery of public services.
This necessitates improved public sector performance. Consequently, many of the funding
programs of multilateral and bilateral institutions are contingent upon these governments’
willingness to modernize their public sector service delivery capabilities

In general, unlike business organizations in which their ultimate goal is obtaining profit,
customer service in non- business organizations shall create initiative & commitment to
management & employees & enables to properly address the rights of service users to get public
services in a fair & equitable manner. Gradually it encourages to developing a successful
customer service system & culture.

1.4 Important elements in customer service

1.4.1 Customers’ Satisfaction

Quality & service are the means to the end of satisfaction & retention. Your main goal should be to
produce a satisfied & loyal customer who will stay with you over time. Customer satisfaction: when a
product/service meets or exceeds a customer’s expectations, the customer is usually satisfied.

A) Formula for Attaining Customer Satisfaction

Maximum customer satisfaction requires two basic activities: Doing the job right first time and good
customer contact (Figure1.1).
 Doing the job right Effective customer Maximum customer
first time + contact
=
satisfaction/loyalty
management

Source of
dissatisfaction

Root cause analysis

1.4.2 Customer Satisfaction Survey

Any organization which sells its products or gives service is required, before trying to invest any time,
money or effort in developing on overall strategy for product (service) improvement, to understand what
its customers want and expect from the organization.

To know what the customer wants form us we can use:-

 Providing customer services.(suggestion, compliments & complaints)

 See it from the customer perspective (ask yourself whether you would appreciate the
service they are receiving)
 Talking to more experienced staff, provide you with stories & guidelines that will help
you to identify your customer requirement.
 Staff meeting gives you information on the types of service that are valued by customers.
 Management observation identifying satisfaction issues by wondering around, talking to
people & watching interaction
 Customer satisfaction survey

As it has been said satisfaction is the customer’s evaluation of a product or service in terms of whether the
product or service has met their needs and expectation. This shows that in order for us to satisfy the
customer we have to know first what the customer really need from us. And customer satisfaction survey
is one of the means of collecting data about the customer feeling/attitude about the organization and/or a
product/service.

Why Customer Satisfaction Survey

  To get specific feedback about how satisfied the customers are with the level of service
they are receiving
 To get a basis for discussions about the company's weaknesses & strengths

1.4.3 How Customers Judge Service Qualities?

Consciously or unconsciously customers are always in a position to judge the service standard of
organizations. The parameters they use to pass decision might vary as per the given situation but the
followings are some of the consideration they made while telling others about the organizations’ service
standard.

Dimension Refers to Specific criteria that customers use

RELIABILITY Your ability to perform the • Timeliness

Delivering on promises promised service dependably • Consistency/Regularity
and accurately • Accuracy
ASSURANCE The knowledge and courtesy of • Staff competence
Staff courtesy and staff; their ability to inspire • Respect for stakeholders
knowledge trust and confidence • Credibility
• Probity and confidentiality
• Safety and security
TANGIBLES The physical representations or • Physical facilities
Representing the service • Equipment
images of your service
physically • Technology
• Employees
• Communication materials
EMPATHY The caring individualized • Access (to staff, services, information)
Treating customers as attention you provide your • Communication (clear, appropriate,timely)
individuals stakeholders • Understanding the stakeholder
• Services appropriate for stakeholders’Needs
• Individualized attention
RESPONSIVENESS Your willingness to help • Willingness to help
Being willing to help customers and to provide • Prompt attention to requests, questions
prompt service • Problem resolution
• Complaint handling
• Flexibility

The RATER Model – Service Quality Dimension

1.4.4 Principles of Customer Service

Certain basic qualities of service delivery can contribute to the satisfaction of customers. The following
are some of the principles provided to make services astonishing as per the needs and expectations of
customers.

 Quality Service Standards: statement that outlines the nature and quality of service
which customers can expect, and display it prominently at the point of service delivery.
 Equality/Diversity: Ensure the rights to equal treatment established by equality
legislation, and accommodate diversity, so as to contribute to equality for the groups
covered by the equality legislation (under the grounds of gender, marital status, family
status, sexual orientation, religious belief, age, disability & race).
 Physical Access: Provide clean, accessible public offices that ensure privacy, comply
with occupational and safety standards and, as part of this, facilitate access for people
with disabilities and others with specific needs.
 Information: A proactive approach in providing information that is clear, timely and
accurate is available at all points of contact meeting the requirements of people with
specific needs.
 Timeliness and Courtesy: Deliver quality services with courtesy, sensitivity and
the minimum delay, fostering a climate of mutual respect between provider and customer.
Give contact names in all communications to ensure ease of ongoing transactions.
 Complaints: Maintain a well-publicized, accessible, transparent and simple-to-use
system of dealing with complaints about the quality of service provided.
 Consultation and Evaluation: Provide a structured approach to meaningful consultation
with, and participation by, the customer in relation to the development, delivery and
review of services. Ensure meaningful evaluation of service delivery.
 Choice: Provide choice, where feasible, in service delivery including payment methods,
location of contact points, opening hours and delivery times.

 Official Languages Equality: Provide quality services through Amharic, and/or other
languages and inform customers of their right to choose to be dealt with through one or
other of the official languages.
 Better Co-ordination: Foster a more coordinated and integrated approach to delivery of
services.
 Internal Customer: Ensure staff is recognized as internal customers and that they are
properly supported and consulted with regard to service delivery issues.
1.4.5 Organizations' Focus towards Customer Service

In customer service, we can classify organization based on their point of concern through out their
routine. The first categories of companies could have given much attention for the satisfaction of
customers. Contrary Internal process focused organizations are always striving to manage their internal
process without considering their customers demand and expectation. The following section summarized
the characteristics of these two organization types.

Customer-Focused Organizations:

Recognition is given to staff who has good quality in efficiency and customer satisfaction;

 Focus of management is on support of staffs in doing their jobs well so that the front line
staff will focus their attention on taking care of customer needs;
 Trainings are highly focused on developing technical and interpersonal skills of employees
towards customer satisfaction
 All staff know who their customers are (external and internal) and see how they are part of
the customer chain;
 Participative management style and long-term thinking.

Internal Process- Focused Organizations

 Recognition is given to staff who has good quality in efficiency

 Focus of management is on its internal process only.
 Trainings are highly focused on developing technical skills
 All staffs may not know who their customers are (external and internal) and see how they are
part of the customer chain;
 The other part of the organization will don’t bother for external customers
 Reactive style of management.
  Exercises/Activities

Purpose: to familiarize participants with basic customer service

Materials: T raining manual( Session One)
Time: 0: 45
Discussion questions:

√ Who are your customers & what makes your customers different?
√ Identify and justify your strength and weakness of customer service in comparison to the
√ principles of customer service.
√ It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the
√ wages” HENRY FORD. DISCUSS!

 Summary

A customer is a person or an organization that often regularly purchases a product or a service.

Organizations which are engaged in business are expected to know their customers, their needs, &
expectations whenever they deliver a product/service. Base on this they can obtain repeated purchase;
good image can create loyal customers ultimately profit. The human resource should be aware of
marketing concepts to deliver quality product/service in order to compete in the market. Besides to these
internal customers should know & make practical on the commandments & principles of customer service
to go extra miles. Thus customer service is all about best practice.
SESSION TWO: COMMUNICATION SKILLS
2.1 INTRODUCTION

Customer service has, as one of the most important constituents, communication skills.
Organizations and individuals are required to possess these skills in order for them to be
successful in their service. It's true that an organization which has got products/service of high
quality to sell is unlikely to succeed unless it creates a good relationship with customers through
the application of proper communication. The same is true with service providing organizations
which have portfolios of services and lack these skills.

Session objective

After the end of this session participants will be able to:

√ Explain the meaning of communication correctly

√ Describe importance of communication correctly
√ Tell four barriers of communication correctly
√ Tell how to communicate with their customer effectively.
√ Describe how to communicate with their customer using phone professionally

Session Content

 meaning of communication
 importance of communication
 Type of communication
 Communication strategy
 barriers of communication

2.1 Basic concepts of communication

The word communication comes from the Latin word “communis” meaning “common”. Thus
for successful communication we are trying to meet on common ground, at least momentarily,
with the receivers of our messages. We are trying to establish a commonness if a sharing of
information, attitude, ideas, and understanding. Hence, communication is the transmitting or
exchanging of information or knowledge and the creation of understanding between two parts. It
is not possible to have human relations without communication. However, good and effective
communication is required not only for good human relations but also for good and successful
business. Effective communication is required at various levels and for various aspects in an
organization.

Communication is:

 Meaningful interaction.
 Information sharing.
 A link force.
 Understanding.
 Fundamental requisite of life
 A two-way process.
 Communication process happens between or among two or more parties. (Sender
and Receiver)
 Communication involves exchange of ideas, feelings, information, thoughts, and
knowledge.
Functions of communication

Communication is the very basis, which drives the process of development in all the fields.
There are four major functions that seem to dominate communication in the organizational
context. The functions are to control, motivation, emotional expression and information.

A) Control:

Communication acts to control member behavior in several ways. Organizations have authority
hierarchies and formal guidelines that employees are required to follow. When employees, for
instance are required to first communicate any job related grievance to their immediate boss, to
follow their job description, or to comply with company policies, communication is performing a
control function. But informal communication also controls behavior. When work groups tease
or harass a member who produces too much (and makes the rest of the group look bad) they are
informally communicating with, and controlling the member’s behavior.
B) Motivation:

Communication fosters motivation by clarifying to employees what is to be done, how well they
are doing and what can be done to improve performance if it has to be. The formation of specific
goals, feedback on progress toward the goals, and reinforcement of desired behavior all stimulate
motivation and require communication.

C) Emotional expression:
For many employees, their work group is a primary source for social interaction. The
communication that takes place within the group is a fundamental mechanism by which
members show their frustration and feelings of satisfaction. Communication therefore provides
release for the emotional expression of feelings and for fulfillment of social needs. The
socialization function of communication in the organization is the one that can determine
whether an individual survives well, or not at all, in an organization. Socialization doesn't mean
being "buddies" with everyone. It means being integrated into the communication networks.

D) Information:

The final function of communication is its role in facilitating decision making. It provides the
information that individuals and groups need to make decisions by transmitting the data to
identify and evaluate alternative choices.

No one of these four functions should be seen as being more important than the others. For
groups to perform effectively, they need to maintain some form of control over members,
stimulate members to perform, provide a means for emotional expression, and make decision
choices. You can assume that almost every communication interaction that takes place in a group
or organization performs one or more of these four functions.

2.2 Types of Communication Based on Communication Channels

Based on the channels used for communicating, the process of communication can be broadly
classified as verbal communication and non-verbal communication.

2.2.1 Verbal Communication

Verbal communication entails the use of words in delivering the intended message. The two
major forms of verbal communication include written and oral communication.Written
communication includes traditional pen and paper letters and documents, typed electronic
documents, e-mails, text chats, SMS and anything else conveyed through written symbols such
as language. This type of communication is indispensable for formal business communications
and issuing legal instructions. Communication forms that predominantly use written
communication include handbooks, brochures, contracts, memos, press releases, formal business
proposals, and the like. The effectiveness of written communication depends on the writing style,
grammar, vocabulary, and clarity.

Oral communication is the spoken word, either face-to-face, or through phone, voice chat, video
conferencing or any other medium. Various forms of informal communications such as the
grapevine or informal rumor mill, and formal communications such as lectures, conferences are
forms of oral communication. Oral communication finds use in discussions and causal and
informal conversations. The effectiveness of oral conversations depends on the clarity of speech,
voice modulation, pitch, volume, speed, and even non-verbal communications such as body
language and visual cues.Effective oral communication is not learned from reading: it takes
practice, practice, and more practice. It requires understanding the fundamentals of good
grammar. It involves developing a vocabulary that allows you to express your opinions, to state
your position during a dialogue relative to reaching a decision, to phrase your questions clearly
and concisely, and to make your wishes known on any number of matters.

As previously noted, all forms of communication depend on feedback. Feedback between

people who are talking includes not only the content but also observation of physical responses.
Since the majority of our communication is oral we need to be sensitive to those hidden
messages. There is no one in any organization that does not engage in oral communication of
some type on a daily basis. For those who report to you intelligent feedback sets the stage for
reaching agreement on all issues related to the work effort. Regardless of the topic under
discussion there are misinterpretations and misrepresentations that must be rationalized.Verbal
communication makes the process of communication easier and faster, and remains the most
successful form of communication. Yet this makes up only seven percent of all human
communication.
Listening

Listening is a powerful tool for shaping action. The competence of listening to the listening,
one’s owns and others, is a key communication skill. Accordingly, knowing the following four
distinctions of listening will help to develop listening competency.
a) Listening vs. Hearing

The kind of attention one is giving while the other is speaking limits and shapes the results of the
conversation. We have to be very interested in how others are paying attention in how they are
being, in how they are listening. Listening is like a filter over a light. If the filter is green, the
light will be green. Listening is like water to the fish. We are usually unaware of the listening we
are giving or are getting. All our attention is on speaking. Much of the power however is in the
listening.
Hearing is a physiological phenomenon Listening is in the
domain of attention
One is attending while the other is hearing

b) Listening to Your Listening

We are going to make some distinctions in this aspect of life called paying attention or
“listening”. It requires developing a new skill which is critical to service delivery. It is called
“Listening to your Listening”. The first place to practice is on you. The following questions are
useful for developing the competency of “listening to your listening” Are you present or
“checked out?”
1. What kind of listening are you being? What kind of attention are you giving?
2. Are you choosing the way you are paying attention? Is that the way you want
to be right now?

Reactive Listening
Reactive listening is the default setting of attention. It is the way we are being when we are not
paying attention. It could also be called automatic listening filters. They are generated from a
need to survive and are built into the design of human awareness. The following are some
examples of reactive listening.

Good/Bad Right/Wrong
Blame/avoid responsibility How can I use this?
Agree/Disagree
c) Proactive Listening

Proactive listening is an active purposeful focusing of attention and you are pulling out some
particular meaning from the sounds on purpose. You could choose to listen for:

What is possible?
Commitment
Shared values
“The gold”
Both/and
The way it is for the other/greatness in the other

2.2.2 Non-verbal communication

Non-verbal communication includes the overall body language of the person who is speaking,
which will include the body posture, the hand gestures, and overall body movements. The facial
expressions also play a major role while communication since the expressions on a person’s face
say a lot about his/her mood. On the other hand gestures like a handshake, a smile or a hug can
independently convey emotions. Non verbal communication can also be in the form of pictorial
representations, signboards, or even photographs, sketches and paintings.
Body language is a non-verbal way of communication. Body posture and physical contact
convey a lot of information. Body posture matters a lot when you are communicating verbally to
someone. Folded arms and crossed legs are some of the signals conveyed by a body posture.
Being aware of others peoples’ body language means that we can interpret fairly accurately how
they are feeling, reassuring them and provide appropriate feedback. It is also important too, to
be aware of our own body language to ensure that we are sending out signals that are appropriate
to a particular situation.

One study, reportedly, has indicated that

 55% of what we learn from others comes from their body language.
 35% comes from the tone of their voice.
 7% comes from the words they say.
Generally, action speaks louder than our word, & body language conveys messages that are more
believable than what we say. Thus your ability to read your customers' body language, and
project your own in a way that says, "I am here to help," is one of the least expensive and most
powerful skills you have.
The main aspects of body language are:
Eye contact
1. Clothing
2. Facial expression
3. Body posture ( movement)
4. Touching
5. Hand gestures
6. Physical distance.

1. Eye contact
This can be the most powerful form of body language. By the means of eye contact it is possible
to let somebody know that they have your absolute and undivided attention. Effective eye
contact, putting a soft focus on the customers' face, allows us to listen to customers' feeling and
as well to their words. Eye contact shouldn't be overdone or underdone.
2. Clothing
Look the part: look the professional and well groomed. The way in which staffs dress conveys an
image of the individual and of the organization. An employee to the customer represents not
himself but the organization he is working in. So an employee should give due attention in the
way they dress also.
3. Facial expression
It is important when dealing with customer to look friendly and interested by smiling and
looking welcoming rather than looking boarded or distracted. A relaxed and pleasant facial
expression is crucial. However, when customers are concerned or upset, you need to adjust your
facial expression to suit their state of mind. Mind you, again, both overdoing and under doing are
extremities and thus negative in effect.
4. Body posture (movement)
Posture can give an induction of how a person is feeling. For example, the posture of raised
shoulder and a lower head indicate that a person is feeling tense and negative. When the head is
raised, however, it indicates openness and interested. And tilted sideways a little indicate
interested and curiosity. Arms tightly crossed over the chest are indicative of a defensive mood
whereas a more open posture would suggest that the person was relaxed and interested. If a
person touches their nose or mouth this may indicate that they are uncertain. Tapping finger is a
well known feature of importance, while a nod indicates understanding and that a person is
listening, encouraging the speaker to continue talking, or it may indicate agreement, whereas a
shrug indicate indifference. Someone who shuffles along looks lazy or depressed. If someone
cannot sit still, they appear to be of a nervous or impatient nature.
Negative body posture (listening impatiently)
 Leaning back or stepping away
 Turning their bodies away from you
 Pushing away from their desks
 Gathering up papers
 Closing their briefcases
 Looking at their watches repeatedly.
Positive body movement (intently listening)
 Nodding
 Lean forward
5. Touching
Touch is a form of kinetics that differs from individual to individual in the same culture
and from culture to culture. Communication between individual through touch, like all
other form of communication, can be misunderstood. It can also be offensive to persons
who do not wish to be hugged or touched in any other way. On the other hand, to resist a
casual and a well intended touch may be interpreted as an insult. A hand shake however, is
a form of communication that is likely to be accepted to all individual everywhere. Good
example for touching is handshaking. Here the other person's reaction (response) tells an
indication of his/her feeling. Offering your hand in a tentative way is almost guaranteed to
create a bad first impression
6. Hand gesture
There are two varieties of hand gestures:
 Hands and objects: e.g. placing the cap on a pen and putting it in a pocket indicate
readiness to conclude the meeting or conversation. Tapping fingers, on the other
side, signifies impatience or frustration.
 Hand alone: Examples include:
o Open-hand gestures: flat hand, palm up or palm out. These are used to
give directions, convey an invitation, etc.
o Closed hand gestures: pointing with index finger signifies command.
7. Physical distance
Personal space is the distance that feels comfortable between you and another person. If
you find customers moving away from you, they may be doing so in attempt to create more
space for themselves. In that case you may step back and keep your distance. By
maintaining a safe personal zone, you facilitate communication, comfort, and trust.
Three distinct spatial zones exist
 Intimate: zone one: 0-2 feet; e.g. family, threatening attempt
 Personal: zone two: 2-4 feet; e.g. customer conversation
 Social: zone three: 4 or more feet; e.g. teacher in classroom.
Remark! Neatness is another part of body language. Being neat and organized plays an
important role in two ways:
 How we look
  How our work area looks tells a lot about us to the customer.
2.2.3 Tone of voice

Tone of voice implies how you say something but not what you say.
As it is also said earlier in face-to face communication body language accounts 55%; tone of
voice 38% and words 7%. Over the phone, tone of voice accounts 86% while words only 14
percents.
Your voice reveals what you think and feel. For example: Three things will help you to be a
winner over the telephone:
1. Inflection
It signifies the wave- like movement of highs and lows of your pitch; the opposite of monotony.
Inflection also reflects how interested you are in what you are saying to the customer.
Four things could be done to improve inflection:
 smile when talking on the phone
 practice stressing words
 breathe (deep, long, and slow)
 Exaggerate your tone.
2. Volume (Control)
If a customer is angry and speaking loudly, don't reply at the same volume. Instead behave like a
professional and start out by speaking at lower volume than the customer, gradually bringing the
customer's volume to yours.
3. Pacing (the customer)
Match your customer's rate of speech & intensity of feeling. Pacing is the best tool you have for
creating a sympathetic relationship (rapport) with your customer. As a service provider, your job
is to pace the customer, but not the other way around;

2.3 Barriers to Effective Communication

An effective communication barrier is one of the problems faced by many organizations. Many
social psychologists opine that there is 50% to 70% loss of meaning while conveying the
messages from a sender to a receiver. They estimate there are some places where communication
could be interpreted wrongly. A few barriers of effective communication in an organization are
given below.
Physical Barriers - One of the major barriers of communication in a workplace is the physical
barrier. Physical barriers in an organization include large working areas that are physically
separated from others. Other distractions that could cause a physical barrier in an organization
are the environment, background & noise.
Language - Inability to converse in a language that is known by both the sender and receiver is
the greatest barrier to effective communication. When a person uses inappropriate words while
conversing or writing, it could lead to misunderstanding between the sender and a receiver.
Emotions - Your emotions could be a barrier to communication if you are engrossed in your
emotions for some reason. In such cases, you tend to have trouble listening to others or
understanding the message conveyed to you. A few of the emotional interferences include
hostility, anger, resentfulness and fear.
Stress - One of the major communication barriers faced by employees in most of the
organization is stress. When a person is under immense stress, he may find it difficult to
understand the message, leading to communication distortion. At the time of stress, our
psychological frame of mind depends on our beliefs, experiences, goals and values. Thus, we fail
to realize the essence of communication.
Noise - Equipment or environmental noise impedes clear communication. The sender and the
receiver must both be able to concentrate on the messages being sent to each other.
Ourselves - Focusing on ourselves, rather than the other person can lead to confusion and
conflict. The “Me Generation” is out when it comes to effective communication. Some of the
factors that cause this are defensiveness (we feel someone is attacking us), superiority (we feel
we know more than the other), and ego (we feel we are the center of the activity).
Perception - If we feel the person is talking too fast, not fluently, does not articulate clearly, etc.,
we may dismiss the person. Also our preconceived attitudes affect our ability to listen. We listen
uncritically to persons of high status and dismiss those of low status. Environmental - Bright
lights, an attractive person, unusual sights, or any other stimulus provides a potential distraction.
Stereotyping - Stereotyping causes us to typify a person, a group, an event or a thing on
oversimplified conceptions, beliefs, or opinions. Thus, basketball players can be stereotyped as
tall, green equipment as better than red equipment, etc. Stereotyping can substitute for thinking,
analysis and open mindedness to a new situation. Stereotyping is a barrier to communication
when it causes people to act as if they already know the message that is coming from the sender
or worse, as if no message is necessary because "everybody already knows." Both senders and
listeners should continuously look for and address thinking, conclusions and actions based on
stereotypes.
Lack of feedback - Feedback is the mirror of communication. Feedback mirrors what the sender
has sent. Feedback is the receiver sending back to the sender the message as perceived. Without
feedback, communication is one-way.
Poor listening skills - Listening is difficult. A typical speaker says about 125 words per minute.
The typical listener can receive 400-600 words per minute. Thus, about 75 percent of listening
time is free time. The free time often sidetracks the listener. The solution is to be an active rather
than passive listener. One important listening skill is to be prepared to listen. Tune out thoughts
about other people and other problems. Search for meaning in what the person is saying. A
mental outline or summary of key thoughts can be very helpful. Avoid interrupting the speaker.
"Shut up" is a useful listening guideline. "Shut up some more" is a useful extension of this
guideline. Withhold evaluation and judgment until the other person has finished with the
message.
Physical distractions - Physical distractions are the physical things that get in the way of
communication. Examples of such things include the telephone, a desk, an uncomfortable
meeting place, and noise.

 Exercises/Activities
Purpose: to familiarize participants with communication skills
Materials: Training Manual (Session Two)
Time: 0:45
Discussion questions:
√ Discuss barriers of communication that you have in your organization & with the external customers as w
solving them.
√ Discuss how one can communicate with the customer over the phone, professionally (share experience i

 Summary
Communication is generally the transform of information between two or more people and the
creation of understanding between them. It plays a major role in employees-customer
relationships in an organization. It also affects the relationships among staff members in the
organization/ department team. Communication is an important aspect of our lives. It is hard to
imagine a life where there is absolutely no communication. Customer could not have been
communicated with us, which in turn means no service and product selling at all, that again
means no organization at all. Hence, communication is a vital, for all organization regardless of
its big, small, and business or non business. When we think of communication effectiveness is
always there. So in order to communicate with the customer with an efficient way we have to
give concern on our verbal and non verbal communication as a whole. It should also be
considered that barriers that hinder effective communication have to be identified and find their
way.

SESSION THREE HANDLING DIFFICALT COSTOMERS

3. Introduction
One of the essentials behind delivering good services is the art of handling difficult customers. To handle
difficult customers, you must see things through their eyes, feel through their heart, smell through their
nose, and touch through their fingers. In other words, you must walk in their shoes. And that is very easily
said, but difficult to do.
It may be our objective to provide our customers the best service available. It may be our goal to perform
in a manner that would make our customers happy. However, in our pursuit of such deeds, we come
across instances that leave us quite short of that resolve.
Our response to these moments defines what level of service we are capable of providing. We are judged
by our actions and it would be best to try to resolve the situation in the best manner possible. Giving your
infuriated customers the idea that you truly care about their situation will soften their stance and prevent
them from being too difficult. If you are able to defuse your customers’ tendency to be difficult, you will
be able to give your suggestions and have these suggestions accepted, followed and appreciated.
This chapter basically states five topics. It states the different behaviors of customers, emotional
intelligence, how to win over a difficult customer, managing conflict with co-workers and working with
different working styles.
Session objectives
At the end of this session Participants will be able to:
 Describe the ways as to how to win over a difficult customer.
 Describe emotional intelligence competencies that will help them serve their customers
properly.
 Describe the different behaviors of customers with out referring to their handouts.
 Appropriately tell the ways of handling conflict with co workers
 Describe the four working styles that will help them understand their styles & that of others.
Session Content
 definition and concept of service complaint
 Importance complains
 factors that influence customer complaining behavior
 major sources of complaint effectively
 design and the quality of good complaint handling correct

3.1 How to win over a difficult Customer

  Exercise 3
What are the reasons being difficult?
Common reasons for being difficult are:-
 Tired or frustrated
 Confused or overwhelmed
 Defending their ego
 Unfamiliar with the situation
 Feel ignored
 Under the influence of drug or drink
 Perception & expectation
 Do not understand
 In a bad mood
 In a hurry
 Personality
 Health & experience etc.

 Exercise 3
Purpose: To familiarize with techniques of handling difficult
Customers.
Discussion question: how do you think that you win over a
difficult customer?

3.1.1. Angry/Hostile Customers

Let the customer speak out
Remember what an angry person wants. What an angry person really wants is to vent his/her anger.
Unfortunately, they take their anger out on you and blame you for what happened, even though you are
just doing their job. Often, it’s best to let them have their say before you respond with any words
whatsoever. This allows them to vent and you will be in a better position to calm them down.
Besides, it must not be your position to judge or “correct” the infuriated customer. If they are angry with
you, never make statements. Rather your job is to service them, if you can manage to calm them down
and send them out the door in a better state of mind, then you have indeed, handled the situation
well.Moreover, no matter how you can say and do everything right, you might still not be able to defuse
the situation. A customer may hang the phone down on you or walk out cursing you. Remember that your
job is to just zip your lip.

Remember, it takes two to sustain a conflict. If you begin responding to the customer’s points while
he or she is venting, the customer has engaged you in the argument. If you respond, it will be seen as
a rebuttal. The customer will think you disagree, and the situation will escalate. Wait. Hear him or
her out.

Sometimes it seems that letting the customer vent takes too much time. What is your alternative? Until
the customer gets through his or her anger, he or she won’t be able to listen or work toward solutions.
Try to listen for and focus on the real problem. Don’t say anything during the customer’s “venting” --
except maybe “I see,” or “I understand”-- to let him know you are attentive. Let the customer vent until
you hear silence
Don’t take it personally
If you accept that in every business, difficult customers come with the territory. Simply do your best to
handle them with professionalism.
ⓘ Do not let your emotions get the better of you. Try to be objective and detach your emotional
responses from whatever caustic remarks you might hear. So be prepared for the attack, let it pass, and
move on. Don’t take the anger personally. As a professional, recognize that customers may have
legitimate concerns buried somewhere in their anger and venting. They may be overreacting, but you
need to remain objective, assess the problem, and focus on solutions.

 Whenever possible, use the customer’s name. This personalizes the conversation and makes it
difficult for the customer to attack you.

 Maintain a friendly manner. Show the customer respect, even in the face of disrespect.
Demonstrate no reaction in the face of difficult behavior.
  Use appropriate body language. Move closer to the customer and maintain eye contact. Listen
for the unspoken message. Focus on subtlety in a caller’s voice inflection, pacing, and the overall
tension level.

Empathize
To show empathy is to give a brief and sincere expression of appreciating and understanding someone
else’s feelings while not necessarily agreeing with them. Empathy helps you demonstrate understanding
of the customer’s feelings. A key strategy in this step is to communicate that you can relate to how this
person is feeling and you do this by using “I” statements such as: “I appreciate your frustration….”,“I
understand your doubt….” ,“I share your concern…”
This can also be an opportunity to let the customer know that perhaps you felt the same way at one time.
Understanding your customers’ feelings is not just an agreement but an acknowledgement of the
consequences. It is also important that customers not feel patronized because that would only aggravate
the situation. Saying you understand why they feel the way they do will have to be said in as genuine a
manner as possible.
One of the most difficult people to deal with is the customer who refuses to think they are wrong about
any thing. When you know from the bottom of your heart that someone is wrong about something, don’t
waste your breath in efforts to change this person’s point of view unless it’s something really serious. On
the other hand, if you have made a mistake, handled a situation inappropriately, or misinformed someone,
be sure to admit your mistake & say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” Or, “You’re right. Thank you for pointing
this out to me. ” This displays good character. You have to note that Empathy means always having to say
that you are sorry.However, saying sorry all the time gives the impression that it’s more of an automatic
response than a sincere apology. So it would be better to say your apologies with an acknowledgement of
the mistake and an appropriate plan to correct it. Also find other ways of expressing your heartfelt
apologies without groveling and continually saying this meaningless term.
Begin active problem solving.
Until now, you have been on the receiving end of the conversation with your customer. You can begin
active problem solving by asking questions that help clarify the cause of the customer’s problem.
As you ask the customers questions, be sure to listen to everything he says, and don’t jump to conclusions
because you may have been through similar situations before, you can easily think that you already know
the answer and miss details that are specific to this customer’s situation.
Gather any additional information you need. Customers sometimes leave out critical information because
they think it is unimportant or they just forget to tell you. When you need specific information from
customer, especially when he is off in another direction, use the bridging technique. This technique builds
a bridge between what the customer is saying and where you want the conversation to go.
Upset customers rarely present the facts of their story in a neat little package. You may have to do some
detective work to make sure that you understand everything they are telling you. Use the mirroring
technique to summarize your understanding of what the customer says and then reflect it back to them.
Mutually agree on the solution
Once you gather all the facts, you need to work with your customer to come up with an acceptable
solution to the problem. If you haven’t already discovered what will make him happy, ask. You may at
this point find it necessary to take a brief time-out from the customer so that you can do the behind- scene
work necessary to solve the problem. In this case, be sure that the customer knows exactly why you are
asking him to wait and how long it will take for you to get back to him. Finally when both agree on how
to resolve the problem, explain the steps that you will take to implement the solution.
You have to take in to consideration that you do not have to promise what you can’t deliver. Be honest
and realistic when telling the customer what you will do. It is always recommended that you under
promise and over deliver. Doing so sets an expectation in the customer’s mind that you will have a poor
chance of meeting and, hopefully exceeding.
Follow- up
You can excel your service by following up with your customer through phone, letter or email to check
that the solution worked. If you contact the customer & find out that he or she is not satisfied with the
solution, put out the back steps here, sign and continue to look for another, more workable
solution.Effective follow up also includes fixing the procedures that are causing the problem to begin
with. By spending time solving internal service delivery problems you prevent them from occurring in the
future.
3.1.2. Speakers/People speaking other than the working language of the
organization
Be patient and concentrate.

Remember, the customer is just as frustrated as you are. If you are patient and concentrate on the
conversation, you will be better able to understand what the customer is saying.

Speak slowly and distinctly.

Don’t speak so slowly that it appears to be an insult, but speak slowly enough that the customer can
follow what you are saying. Also, if you speak slowly, the customer will do the same.

Be extra courteous.

This shows that you really do care and want to help. It allows customers to relax and eases their
frustrations.
Avoid using slang or industry jargon.

Use plain, simple English. Don’t use terms or phrases that will only add to the confusion.

Speak in a normal tone of voice.

Don’t shout. Speaking loudly won’t help—it will probably only cause more anxiety. And if you speak
loudly, the customer will speak loudly.

Don’t try to listen to every word.

Listen carefully for key words and phrases.

3.1.3. Verbally Abusive Customers

Remember, the customer isn’t angry at you.

The customer isn’t angry with you personally, but at the agency, the situation, or something else
completely unrelated.

Talk quietly.

If the customer is yelling, talk quietly so that he or she has to be quieter to hear you.

Talk at a normal pace.

If you begin to talk quickly, it will only make matters worse.

Be direct.

If the customer uses abusive language or makes threats, be direct. Address the client by name and
say, for example, “Mr. Smith, I understand that you are upset, but do not use that language/threaten
me.”

Let the customer know the consequences, calmly and objectively.

“When you use this language, it makes it impossible for me or anyone to assist you. We’ll have to
reschedule your appointment/postpone the resolution of this problem until we can talk about it
rationally.”

3.1.4. Threatening Customers

Try to avoid getting into a discussion of the threat. Lead the conversation back to the fundamental
issue in dispute. Remind the customer that you are equally interested in finding an equitable
solution. Offer to get a third party involved who can evaluate the problem and options. Admit that
someone else might have another option that the two of you haven’t come up with.
 Evaluate the customer’s ability to make good on the threat and decide what to do from there.

Don’t overreact; however, there may be occasions when you fear, deep down, for your safety. Look
for signs of drug or alcohol use—they may impair the customer’s ability to be rational, and may
necessitate taking steps to ensure your personal safety.

Advise the customer of the repercussions.

Before the threats escalate, calmly advise the customer of the repercussions of the threats, of the fact
that threats are taken seriously and treated seriously, and suggest that the customer may want to
reconsider.

Terminate the interview.

If the customer continues the threats, terminate the interview, document the threat, warn/alert the
appropriate people (supervisor, reception staff, etc.), and, if necessary, contact the police.

3.2 Emotional Intelligence

 Exercise 2
Purpose: To familiarize with inappropriate emotions. Discussion question:
what are examples of inappropriate emotions expressed at work?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage our emotions and those of others. The first step is to
understand how our own emotions affect how we think and act. It is also vital to understand how our
emotions affect others. Emotions play a critical role in the delivery of service excellence. It is important
for all of us to manage or control our feelings and emotions at work. Regular outbursts of anger, sadness,
excessive worry or panic can lead to an inability to focus on the task at hand, impact negatively on co-
worker morale, affect team work and compromise both safety and productivity. Inappropriate positive
emotions such as over-exuberance or over excitement can also result in difficulties interacting with others
at work. Some people may not be aware of the inappropriateness of their emotions at work and the impact
it has on their performance and relationships with others. Awareness can be increased by being aware of
the four important domains of emotional intelligence competencies (self awareness, self management,
social awareness & relationship management)

Goleman (1998) sees emotional intelligence as a set of learned skills that may translate directly into
success in various social domains, such as the workplace. Therefore, to facilitate the situations in
developing self-knowledge and others, various activities and exercises are developed to be used in EI
trainings. Accordingly, the following activities are taken from a book called “Emotional Intelligence in
Action: Training and Coaching Activities for Leaders and Managers, by Marcia Hughes, L. Bonita
Patterson and James Bradford Terrell, 2005. The activities are targeting two competencies from each
components of Goleman’s EI mode as shown in Table-2. Moreover, to incorporate our realties and
situations, some of the activities are adjusted and customized.

Self-awareness Social-Awareness
 Emotional self-awareness  Empathy
 Accurate self-assessment  Organizational awareness

Self Management Social Skill

 Emotional self-control  Conflict management
 Adaptability  Team work and collaboration

Emotional Self-awareness
Emotional self-awareness is the major competency of EI that lay the foundational to become emotionally
intelligent. It is the ability to understand what we are feeling and why, as well as to understand what
caused those feelings. It helps us to connect with our underlying beliefs, assumptions, and values and to
know what drives us. Moreover, to get connected with other people and communicate our feelings; to stay
aligned with our true motivations, Emotional self-awareness is the key.
Accurate self-assessment
Accurate Self-Assessment is taken as the hallmark of superior performance. Having this competency will
help us to be aware of our abilities and limitations, seek out feedback and learn from our mistakes, and
know where we need to improve and when to work with others who have complementary strengths
Emotional Self –control
Emotional Self-Control competence is manifested largely as the absence of distress and disruptive
feelings. When our competency in emotional self-control develops, we will be able to get calm in
stressful situations or while dealing with a hostile person without lashing out in return.

Social awareness
This element involves individuals in perceiving and understanding other people’s emotions and
viewpoints, and showing understanding and empathy for others. It includes appreciating and
understanding what others are feeling, being able to consider their perspective and interacting positively
with diverse groups of people. Social awareness involves being able to interpret and understand others’
perspectives, emotional states and needs, which results in inclusive interactions and respect for individual
and group differences. It also involves identifying the strengths of team members and defining and
accepting individual and group roles and responsibilities. Ideally, this will result in a desire to advocate
for and be of service to others, and to respect the principles of inclusivity, equality and social justice.

Relationship management

Allows you to connect with others in ways that help them feel understood and supported. Managing
relationships is an essential emotional intelligence skill that enables you to effectively lead change or
manage personal change. Managing relationships is much more than being friendly. It takes effort and
intention (and some strategy) to get the best from a situation and manage the way people respond.Self
awareness & self management are categorized under personal competencies while social awareness &
relationship management are grouped under social competencies.

Interestingly, no one, no matter how outstanding has strengths across the board in every one of the many
emotional intelligence competencies. Effective persons typically demonstrate strengths in at least one
competence from each of the four fundamental areas of emotional intelligence. So as a service provider, it
is good to practice at least to demonstrate one of the strengths from each of the above mentioned four
areas.

3.3 Recognizing Customer Behavior

 Exercise 1
Purpose: To familiarize trainees with personality types.
Discussion question: what are the reasons behind
being difficult?
In psychology, there are two fundamentally different types of personalities. Extroverts &
Introverts.
A. Extrovert is a type of personality (or behavior) that is oriented outside, for surroundings.
People with this type of personality tend to be those who are more energized when around
others.
They are the ones who love to chat, mingle, and socialize. When given the chance, an extrovert
will talk with someone else rather than sit alone and think. In fact, extroverts tend to think as
they speak, & they often think well when they are talking. Concepts just don't seem real to them
unless they can talk about them; reflecting on them isn't enough.
When extroverts are at your place to get the service that your organization is delivering, they

 Usually speak out loud and request to be served soon.

 Give their complaints to immediate bosses of service providers.
 Ask as to why they are not being served immediately.
 If get other service users, talk unfavorably about the service providers.
 Become impatient or bored when work is monotonous. On the other hand,

B. Introvert is a type of personality (or behavior) that is oriented inside or to one self. They are
the ones who are far more likely to think before they speak. They prefer comfortable loneliness,
inner speculations and absorbing into personal thoughts, creative work or observation of the
process. Introverts tend to be those who are more energized when alone with themselves. They
are the ones who generally enjoy solitary activities such as reading, writing, and daydreaming.
When introverts are at your place to get the service that your organization is delivering, they

 Usually wait with patience until they are given the service, or try to be seen if they think
that they are not noticed.
 Politely request to be served and look for ways to get the service they need.
As a service provider, it is good to note that you possibly will face customers with both
personality types, and hence you should be aware of the strategies so as to serve them
nonviolently/diplomatically.
In order to accommodate customers with extrovert personality types,
 Listen persuasively. Show “signs of life” when they are speaking.
 When interacting with them, show evidence that you are interested & involved.
 Provide opportunities for them to interact with others.
  Occasionally respond more quickly with less pausing to think.
 Offer information: don’t always wait till you are asked.
 Let them know that you need time to reflect before responding.
On the other hand, in order to accommodate customers with introvert personality types,
 Allow time for them to get to know you.
 Don’t wait for them to offer ideas- ask them.
 Allow time for them to work through their ideas before responding.
 Provide for individual or one-on-one time.
 Allow breaks or periods of quite time during times of intense interaction.
 Listen persuasively- resist the urge to interrupt & watch out for facial expressions & body
language that suggest u can’t wait to speak.
How we handle difficult customers is critical because they can cause other difficult situations. Below are
some steps that we have to follow in order to handle the situation with difficult customers.

3.4 Managing conflict with co workers

Conflict is a state of disagreement or opposition between two or more persons regarding ideas, interests,
needs, values, desires or wishes. Such situations may arise from honest disagreements or actions or from
any other situation where human impressions and objectives differ.
Most people don't enjoy facing conflict that sometimes occurs with co-workers in the workplace. How
you manage situations of conflict with your coworkers could have a significant impact on your career.
Those who deal successfully with potential conflicts are far more likely to receive added responsibilities
in addition to the respect that come with them.
On the other hand, not dealing successfully with conflict can potentially cause you professional stress &
burnout, decreased productivity, & decreased physical and emotional well being (tension, headaches,
increased blood pressure, abdominal pain, stress, depression, mood swings or irritability) by letting you
get into fights at home with friends, family & significant others and finally leading you to quit your job.
Here are some ways to prevent conflict when possible, and manage it when it's inevitable.
1. Realize that conflicts are inevitable at work
Disagreements with your coworkers shouldn't be a surprise to you. The possibility for conflict exists in
many different types of interactions, so if you think ahead, you can anticipate where conflict might arise.
Confrontation can start from virtually any decision
made that affects others, and it should be anticipated. Whenever people are engaged, committed and fired
up, conflict and disagreement is bound to happen. This doesn’t mean you have to revel in conflict or
create trouble just for the hell of it, but it does mean that when conflict happens it’s not the end of the
world. Quite the contrary, it can even be the beginning of an interesting learning process. The very best
and most efficient workplaces are not the ones without conflicts but those who handle conflicts
constructively.
2. Don't personalize disagreements
One of the worst responses to a conflict or disagreement on a decision or opinion is to interpret it as a
personal attack and respond in kind. You end up arguing the emotions, rather than the subject at hand.
This type of response not only makes the situation even more unpleasant and difficult to resolve, but also
leaves bad feelings that could be impossible to repair.Instead of automatically viewing criticism as a
personal attack, you would do well to focus not on the tone of the disagreement, but on the facts of the
argument. Listen carefully to what the other person is saying, rather than how he or she is saying it. Take
time to think through your position, and address each of the points that person raises in a calm and
rational fashion.
3. Handle conflict sooner rather than later
This is the single most important tip to successfully resolve conflicts. It’s very tempting to wait for a
conflict to blow over by itself, but it rarely does – in most cases it only gets worse with time. 90% of
conflicts at work do not come from something that was said, but from something that wasn’t said. It’s
tempting to try and smooth things over and pretend everything is normal. That’s the most common reason
why conflicts at work escalate. Nobody does anything. Everyone’s waiting for the other person to pull
himself together and “just admit he’s wrong,” It may be unpleasant to tackle the issue here and now but it
gets even more unpleasant after the conflict has stewed for a good long while. The chance of an
uncomfortable situation just blowing over is very unlikely, the sooner you come to terms with the
situation, the sooner you resolve the problem.

4. Ask

If you think there may be a disagreement between your self and another team member on an aspect of
your job, sit down with that person and discuss the facts of the problem. While it may not always lead to a
meeting of minds, at least it enables each of you to explore and understand one another's positions. Plus,
this makes it more possible to reach some common ground. In the early stages of a conflict the most
powerful tool to resolve it is to ask. If somebody has done something that made you angry, if you don’t
understand somebody’s viewpoint, if you don’t understand their actions, just ask. Do it nicely. Say, “I
was wondering why you did ‘that’ yesterday” or “I’ve noticed that you often do ‘this’. Why is that?”
Sometimes there’s a perfectly good reason why that person does what he does, and a potential conflict
evaporates right there.
ⓘ Never assume that people do what they do to annoy you or spite you. People typically have a good
reason to do the things they do, even the things that really get on your nerves. Never assume bad faith on
anyone else’s part, instead, ask.

3.5 Working with different Working Styles

 Exercise 4
Purpose: To familiarize trainees with different working styles.
Discussion question: self assesment questionnaire

There are generally four basic personality types. The most often used personality types are: Analytical,
Driver, Amiable and Expressive. To deal with difficult people you must identify which type they are, then
deal with each individual as he or she would be done by. You should also determine your own personality
type. Understanding your working style and the styles of those around you will improve your
communication with customers, co-workers and even your bosses.
Analytical person: wants to know "how" things work. They value numbers, statistics and love details,
fear losing face, tend to be introverted. In a problem situation, the Analytical wants exact answers &
written materials, no emotional stories.
People with this style have low degree of assertiveness and emotional expression, they evaluate situations
objectively, gather lots of data before making decisions & focus on facts than feelings. Words that best
describe this style are serious, well-organized, systematic, logical, factual & reserved.They do have
strengths in that they are good problem solvers & work independently but their tendency of overanalyzing
facts in order to avoid mistake can be taken as their weaknesses. people with this style show little facial
expression, have controlled body movement with slow gestures, have little inflection in their voice, use
language that is precise, focus on specific details,& have charts graphs and statistics displayed at their
offices.
Driver Person: wants to know "what". They want to save time, value results, love being in control doing
things their own way, fear giving up control, are extroverted and show little or no emotion. In a problem
situation, the Driver wants results.
People with this style have high degree of assertiveness & low degree of emotional expression; they know
where they want to go and how they are going to get there.Words that best describe this style are decisive,
independent, efficient, intense, deliberate & achieving.
They do have strengths in that they have the ability to take charge of situations to make quick decisions
but the fact that they over look details and make mistakes when stressed and the fact that they push aside
their own and others’ feelings in order to get the job done might bring them tense situation with co-
workers and can be taken as a weakness. People with this style make direct eye contact, speak forcefully
with fast paces, use direct bottom line language & have planning calendars and project outlines displayed
at their offices.
Amiable person: want to know "why". They want to build relationships, love to give others support and
attention, and value suggestions from others, fear disagreement. They display lots of emotion. In a
problem situation, the Amiable would like reassurance
that the problem will be fixed.People with this style have low degree of assertiveness and high degree of
emotional expression, are responsive and friendly. Words that best describe this style are cooperative,
friendly, supportive, patient & relaxed.
They do have strengths in that they are good listeners and collaborators who strive for a team work. But
the fact that they have problem of asserting themselves and making decisions quickly, and their
reluctance to deal with conflict as they do not want to confront with co-workers can be taken as their
weaknesses. People with this style have a friendly facial expression, make frequent eye contact, have non
aggressive gestures, speak slowly in soft tones, use encouraging words (languages), & display lots of
family pictures at their offices.
Expressive Person: wants to know "who". They value appreciation, love social situations and gatherings,
like to inspire others, fear being rejected, and are extroverted,readily showing emotion to others. In a
problem situation, the expressive wants to be understood.
people with this style have high degree of assertiveness and high degree of emotional expression, are
outgoing, persuasive, humorous, lively, enthusiastic, friendly, and perfect to work with other people.
They do have strengths in that they are able to motivate and generate excitement to others, work at fast
pace building alliances and relationships to accomplish their goals, and are well suited to high profile on
that require them to make public presentations. But the fact that they may lash out with a verbal attack if
criticized and the fact that they communicate their feelings with a lot of intensity when upset can be
considered as their weaknesses. People with this style use rapid hand arm gestures, speak quickly with
lots of inflation, have a wide range of facial expressions, use language that is persuasive and have a work
place cluttered with inspirational times.
Customers and co- workers with different styles require different types of approaches. By
understanding and adapting to the style of the person we are dealing with, we can create
stronger rapport and deliver better customer service.
  Exercises/Activities
Purpose: to familiarize participants with handling difficult customers
Materials: Training Manual (Session three)
Time: 1:00
Discussion questions:
1. How do you think that you can manage customers with different behaviors?
2. What is Emotional Intelligence and how do you think that it would help to handle irate (difficult) customers?
3. Have you ever met a difficult customer? If so, what was the reason behind being difficult? & what did
diplomatically?
4. Think of a situation where you had a conflict with your co-worker. What was the cause for the conflict? Co
you handled it?
5. What do you think is the importance of being aware of the different working styles?
6. Self Assessment questionnaire about working styles.

 Summary
In any business, our customers are one of our most important assets. Unfortunately there are days when
not all customers want to be friendly or pleasant. On days like this, remember that, no matter how angry
or unreasonable your customer is, and no matter what "business" you're in, your ultimate goal is to handle
them, & you are there to serve.
Recognizing the different behaviors of customers is so important and as a service provider, it is good to
note that you possibly will face customers with different personality types, and hence you should be
aware of the strategies so as to serve them diplomatically. On the other hand, service providers should
also have emotional intelligence competencies so as their interaction with irate customers will be smooth.
Trying to handle the difficult customers by letting them vent and treating them in a proper way is one of
the key elements for service excellence. By the same token, service providers should also manage
conflicts with their co-workers so as their days will be free of hassle .
All in all, knowing the working styles of oneself and that of others will have a great significance in order
to manage the different difficult customers that we are going to face along our deliveries.

SESSION FOUR : COMPLAINT HANDLING

4. INTRODUCTION
There no such thing as an all time 100 percent fool-proof service to all customer, more so, there would be
occasion when service fail to come up to the expectation of the customer or ever the standards set by the
organization itself. Compliant do occur. Successful organizations are those that have realized that
prompt attention to customer complaints is an essential element of an enduring customer relation. The
customer doesn’t expect that everything will go right all the time; the big test is what you do when things
go wrong. Occasional service failure is unavoidable. Therefore this training material is concerned with
compliant handling and the system of compliant handling which helps participant to enhance their skill to
handle compliant which occurs during the service delivery.
Session Objectives
After the end of this session participants will be able to:
√ describe the importance, the definition and concept of service compliant accurately
√ explain the factors that influence customer complaining behavior
√ explain the major source of compliant effectively
√ describe the design and the quality of good compliant handling correctly
√ practice changing compliant to commitment effectively
Session Content
 definition and concept of service complaint
 Importance complains
 factors that influence customer complaining behavior
 major sources of complaint effectively
 design and the quality of good complaint handling correct

4.1 DEFINITION, IMPORTANCE AND TYPE OF CUSTOMER COMPLIANT

Definition of compliant

Although the first law of service productivity and quality might be "Do it right the first time," we
can't ignore the fact that failures continue to occur, sometimes for reasons outside the organization's
control. You've probably noticed from your own experience that the various "moments of truth" in
service encounters are especially vulnerable to breakdowns. Such distinctive service characteristics
as real-time performance, customer involvement, people as part of the product, and difficulty of
evaluation greatly increase the chance of perceived service failures. The chances are that you're not
entirely satisfied with the quality of at least some of the services that you use results in customer
complaints.
 Customer Compliant is a formal expression of service dissatisfaction with any aspect of a service
experience. A complaint is any measure of dissatisfaction with your product or service, even if it’s
unfair, untrue, or painful to hear! Complaints may be about: service content, delivery or quality,
personnel, requests, communication, response time, documentation, billing, follow up, etc.

Importance of compliant – why complaints handling matters

Most of us, though, weather in the public or the private sector do nowadays have some
accountability to our customers –whether they are buying from us, using our service or satisfied by
our services. Customer care is a concept that can be seen in many organizations nowadays. Good
compliant handling is a vital element of customer service. In some area where service provider
competes to supply a technically similar service, customer care is where an extra effort can make
one company stand out from the crowd. Good compliant handling, though, also brings other major
benefits. If you are commercial organization dealing compliant effectively will result in a net
financial gain to your business. Proper compliant handling can save your organization money by:
 Improving profits though customer retention
Dissatisfied complaints are more likely to buy your product in the future than unhappy customer
who didn’t complain at all. So by encouraging complaints you actually increase future sales. By
encouraging them and dealing with them well enough to leave customers satisfied, you can
recover 75 percent of the potential lost sales caused by the original mishap. If you don’t actively
encourage complaints, there is a good chance that people won’t bother to make a fuss.
 Avoiding unfavorable publicity- Customer who complain about a product to the manufacturer
have their compliant deal with satisfactorily are on the other hand, likely to pass on favorable
comment to their friends. Good complaints handling can also provide opportunities to generate
good public relation and at least as important can avoid some of the worst public relation traps.
 Avoid legal problems or worse- Good compliant handling also reduce the rise that people will
turn to one of the alternatives of which the most obvious is legal action.
 Saving time- Even when compliant don’t involve legal problems, they take time effort. Anger
who claims that their staffs haven’t tied to administer an effective complaints scheme expects
them to cope with difficult customers creating confrontations. People who can’t find time to
respond to complaints made to them still mange to cope when the letter is received via the
managing
 Informing management - Responsive service organizations look at complaints as a stream of
information that can be used to help monitor productivity, quality and highlight changes needed
to improve service design and execution.
 Type of customer compliant action
If customer initiates actions following service failure, the action can be of various types. A
customer who is dissatisfied can choose to complain on the spot to the service provider, giving the
company the opportunity to respond immediately. They don’t complain immediately, customer
may choose to complain latter to the provider by phone or in writing or even to write or call the
corporate offices of the company. Some customer chooses not to complain directly to the provider
but rather spread negative word of mouth about the company to fiends, relative, and coworker.
Finally customer may choose to complain to third parties such as the better business bureau, to
consumer affairs arms of the government, to licensing authority, to a professional association, or
potentially to a private attorney. No matters the action (or inaction), ultimately the customers
determine whether to patronize the service provider again or to switch to another provider.

4.2 Type of complainers

Researcher suggests that people can be grouped into categories based on how they respond to
failures. Four categories of response type were identified and these categories of complainer type
will be relatively consistent and that each can be found in all organization.
A) Passive. This group of customer is least likely to talk any action they are unlikely to say anything to
the provider, less likely than others to spread negative word of mouth, and unlikely to complain to a third
party.
B) Voicer. This customer actively complains to the service provider, but they are less likely to spread
negative word of mouth, to switch patronage, or to go to third parties with their complaints.
C) Irate. These customers are more likely to engage in negative word of mouth to friend and relatives
and to switch providers than are others.
D) Activists. These customers are characterized by above average propensity to complain on all
dimensions: They will complaint to the provider, they will tell others, and they are more likely than any
other group to complain to their parties.
4.3 Source, reason and expectation of customer compliant
Source of customer compliant
A common source of frustration results from: Inappropriate trade-offs between productivity and quality,
when a firm tries to boost productivity without thinking about its impact on customers. Perhaps some of
the product elements are poorly executed or may be the service processes in which you are involved are
badly organized, shortcomings in delivery - place; cyberspace, and time—are common. For example, a
service may be unavailable where and when you want it; or a Web site may not be functioning
satisfactorily.
Failings in physical evidence include ugly or poorly maintained facilities and dirty or poorly fitting staff
uniforms. Price and other user outlays are a major source of complaints. You can probably recall
occasions when you felt you were overcharged, were kept waiting too long, or endured unnecessary
hassles. Your disappointment with a service may also have resulted from promotion and education
strategies that promised too much (thus raising your expectations too high), or failed to instruct you
properly in how to use the service. And perhaps you were inconvenienced or annoyed at some point by
the behavior of the people in a service environment—either customer-contact personnel or other
customers.
Why do and don’t customers complain? Factors Influencing Complaining Behavior
Some customers are more likely to complain to other. They believe they will be provided compensation
for the service failure in some form, fair treatment and good service are their due in case of service
failure, they feel a social obligation to complain to help others avoid similar situation or to punish the
service provider and in some cases A very small number of consumers have complaining personalities
they just like to complain or cause trouble.
Those who are unlikely to take any action hold the opposite beliefs. They often see complaining as a
waste of their time and effort. They don’t believe anything positive will occur for them or others based
on their actions. Sometimes they don’t know how to complain. In general, studies of customer
complaining behavior have identified two main purposes for complaining. The first one is to recover
some economic loss, seeking either to get a refund or to have the service performed again. They may take
legal action if the problem remains unresolved.
The second reason is, to rebuild self-esteem. When service employees are rude, aggressive, deliberately
intimidating, or apparently uncaring the customers' self-esteem, self-worth, or sense of fairness may be
negatively affected. They may feel that they should be treated with more respect and become angry or
emotional.
When they complain, what do customers expect?
When they take time and effort to complain, customer generally has high expectation. They expect to be
helped quickly. They expect to be compensated for their grief and for the hassle of being inconvenienced.
And they expect to be treated nicely in the process. Customer expect faire treatment, specifically,
customers want justice and fairness in handling their complaints. Service recovery experts Steve Brown
and Steve Tax have document three specific types of justice that customer are looking for following their
complaints: Outcome fairness, procedural fairness and international fairness.
1. Outcome fairness - Customers expect outcomes, or compensation that matches the level of
their dissatisfaction. They expect equity in the exchange that is they want to feel that the
 company has paid for its mistakes in a manner at least equal to what the customer has
suffered.
2. Procedural fairness- In addition to fairness on compensation customer expects fairness in
terms of police, rules and timelines for the complaint process. They want easy access to the
complaint process, and they want things handled quickly, preferably by the first person they
contact.
3. Interaction fairness Above all and beyond their expectation of faire compensation and
hassle free, quick procures, customer expect to be related politely, with care and honesty.
This form of fairness can dominated the other if customer feels the company and its
employee have uncaring attitude and have done little to try to resolve the problem.

4.4 QUALITY OF GOOD COMPLAINT SYSTEM

Quality of good complaint system accommodates issues descried as follows:
 Be easily Accessibility & well publicized
 Simple to understand & use
 Allow speedy handling with established time limits for action, and keep people informed
of progress
 Ensure a full and fair investigation
 Respect people's desire and confidentiality
 Address all the points at issue, and provide an effective response and appropriate redress
 Provide information to management so that service can be improved
In order to translate the good intention of quality compliant handling system you
will need to take into account the following:
 The Customer is always right.
 Make realistic estimate of how many complaints you might expect to handle and then
staff up to meet this
 Train your staff (including managers)
 Don't use complaints as a disciplinary tool
 Empower the front-line staff to resolve complaints themselves wherever possible
 Use conciliation as a way of resolving deadlocked disputes not just as another stage in a
multi-stage process
 Formally record customer satisfaction with the way complaints are handled.
 Be positive
4.5 CHANGING COMPLAINT TO COMMITMENT
How are companies doing - Service recovery strategies
Service recovery refers to the action taken by an organization in response to a service failure. Failure
occurs for all kind of reasons stated above, and all this type of failure bring about negative feeling and
response from customer. It will become clear that excellent service recovery is really a combination of a
variety of strategies that need to work together. Each of the strategies shown below will be discuss
starting with the basic “do it right the first time.”
 Fails safe your service - do it right the first time: The first rule of service quality is to do
it right the first time. As you already know, reliability or doing it right the first time is the
most important dimension for organization service. Elements of a total service recovery
strategy will lead in a circular fashion back to this most basic and fundamental of all
service strategies- service reliability.
 Welcome and encourage complaints- Complaints should be anticipated, enraged and
tracked. The complaining customer should truly be viewed as a friend. There are a number
of ways to encourage and track complaints. Such as customer research, satisfaction
surveys, critical incidents studies, and lost customer research, employees delivering source
of customer dissatisfaction and service failure, teaching culture how to complain, toll free
call centers, email, software application are all used to facilitate encourage and track
complaints.
 Act Quickly - Complaining customers want quick responses. Thus if the company
welcomes, even encourages, complaints, it must be prepared to act on them quickly. This
requires systems and procedures that allow quick action, as well as empowered employee.
 Treat customer fairly - In responding quickly, it is also critical to treat each customer
fairly. As discussed in an earlier section customer expect to be treated fairly in terms of
outcome they receive, the process by which the service recovery takes place and the
interpersonal treatment they receive.
 Learn from recovery experiences- Problems resolution situation are more that just
opportunities to fix flawed service and strengthen ties with customers. They are also a
valuable but frequently ignored or underutilized source of diagnostic, prescriptive
information for improving customer service. By tracking service recovery effort and
solutions, organization can learn about systematic problems in the delivery system that
need fixing.
How are employees doing – how they handle compliant
If organization compliant handling system and strategies is well address then you will already be halfway
to obtaining commitment from your frontline staff because they will be able to see what you are trying to
achieve and why. As service provider it is important to do the following activities when dealing with
customer complaints:
 Listen to the Customer
 Solicit Complaints
 Record Complaints
 Focus on the Customer
 Focus on the Complaint
 Focus on process Improvement
Guidelines for effective compliant resolution
It also be noted that service provider should consider the following guide as a customer complaint
resolution process that can implement in the situation of customer compliant:
1. Act fast
2. Admit mistakes but don't be defensive.
3. Show that you understand the problem from each customer's point of view.
4. Don't argue with customers.
5. Acknowledge the customer's feelings
6. Give customers the benefit of the doubt
7. Clarify the steps needed to solve the problem
8. Keep customers informed of progress
9. Consider compensation
10. Persevering to regain customer goodwill

 Session Summary
Compliant handling is one the major strategy to create positive word of mouth and to
improve organization service. So in order to bring those benefits, service provider
should understand the concept, the benefits and strategies of handling customer
complainants.

Everyone is subject to stress at some time in their live. It may be associated with a
range of incident and situation such as problem at work, relationship with colleagues or
simply overloading of the job etc. Most people need a certain level of stress in order to
perform well (positive stress). However, the benefit can rapidly turn to negative stress
as a result of lack of managing the stress created at work or in their live. In order to
survive stressful events in their work situation, people need to be more aware of stress,
their personal stress responses and of strategies for coping with stress. What is
important is that individual service provider can no longer ignore evidence of stress and
system for managing stress or the strategy of reducing stress at work.

SESSION FIVE: STRESS MANAGEMENT

5. INTRODUCTION
Everyone gets stressed form time to time. You won’t ever totally eradicate stress from you life and work
because stresses usually caused by external situations. So, unless you choose to live alone, on desert
islands, with all your needs consciously provided for, here will always be stressful people and situation in
your work and life. The key to success is learning how to cope with stress. In this section will be
focusing on basic concept of stress, the factors which create stress and the tools and techniques you can
use to better mange your response to those factors.
Session Objectives

After the end of this session participants will be able to:

√ define stress and describe the major cause of stress accurately

√ describe how to manage stress in service environment perfectly
Session Content
 Definition and concept of stress
 Types of Stress
 Causes of stress
 Managing stress

5.1 WHAT IS STRESS?

In human terms, stress has been described as ‘unpleasant over or under stimulation’. The word
unpleasant is important here because each of us has a level of optimum stress at which we are able to
perform effectively and when things are going well, a certain amount of extra challenge can even be
invigorating. For example, if you are in a job that depends on the needs of customers, you are likely to
feel all right as long as customers present themselves in a steady stream, and you are able to deal with
their requests. But you will probably feel stressed if there aren’t any customers or if there are just too
many to deal with in the time you have available, although the stress may present itself in different way.
Stress can be defined in many ways, thus: the common response to attach, any influence that disturb the
natural equilibrium of the living body, some taxation of the body’s resource in order to respond to some
environmental circumstance, the common response to environmental change, a psychological response
which follows failure to cope with problems, a feeling of sustained anxiety which, over a period of time,
leads to disease, and the non specific response of the body to any demands made upon it.
A consideration of the above definition of stress produces a number of features of stress and the stress
response. Fundamentally, a stressor ( or source of stress) produce stress which in turn produce a stress
response on the part of the individual. No two people respond to the same stresses in the same way or to
the same extent. What is important is that if people are going to cope satisfactorily with the stress in their
lives; they must recognize: the existence of stress, their personal stress response, those events or
circumstances which produce that stress response, such as dealing with aggressive clients, disciplining
employee, etc. and their own personal coping strategy
5.2 CLASSIFICATION OF THE CAUSE OF STRESS AT WORK
Stress affects people at work in many ways and the causes of stress are diverse. These causes can be
associated with elements of the physical; environment, such as open plan office layouts, the way the
organization managed, relationship within the organization and even inadequate work equipment. The
cause can be classified as follows:
 The physical environment Poor working condition associated with insufficient space to
operate comfortably, safely, and in the most efficient manner, lack of privacy etc.
 The organization - its police and procedures, its culture and style of operation can be a
cause of stress. The way the organization is managed management styles philosophies,
work systems, approaches and objectives can contribute to the individual stress on
employee. Role in the organization- Stress can be created through for example, role
ambiguity, role conflicts, too little responsibility etc. Relations with in the organization,
how people relate to each other with in the organizational framework and structure can be a
significant cause of stress.
 Personal and social relationships- The relationships which exist between people on a
personal and social basis are frequently a cause of stress. Individual concern, all people
are different in terms of attitude, personality, & motivation and in their ability to cope with
stressors.
 Equipment - In adequate, to date unreliable work equipments frequently associated with
stressful conditions amongst workers.
The main source of work stress
Another way of categorizing stressor is on the basis of their sources.
 1. Certain stressors impact on people through their senses, such as extremes of temperature, odors,
noises, light and ventilation.
2. Other stressors cause changes in though and feelings, such as fear, excitement, arousal,
ambiguity, threat and worry.
3. The last group is associated with changes in body state, such as those crated by illness, inputs of
drugs, chemical and alcohol.
The source of stress varies considerably from person to person. However, a number of the more
common source of work stress can be considered. These are: task related factor: Work beyond the
individual mental capacity, information overload, Boredom, interpersonal factors: day to day
interaction with customer, staff, role ambiguity: The individual has no clear idea of what is
expected of him, role conflict: opposing demand made on an individual by different people, little
or no recognition for a good job done, personal threat: actual threats to a person’s safety, fear of
redundancy or dismissal and environmental factors: noise, excessively high or low temperature,
inadequate lighting and ventilation, dirty workplace, inadequate work space.
Response to stress
As stated earlier, no two people respond to the same stressor in the same way or with the same
intensity of response. There are three categories of response to stress. The three categories on
response on stress and how they affect performance are as follows:

1. Not enough going on ‘Under stresses’

Feeling Performance
Bored Distracted easily
De-motivated Keep putting things off
Restless Get preoccupied with un important details
Lethargic Low production
2.The right amount going on: “optimum stress’
Feeling Performance
Energy Sound judgment
Excitement Logical think
Confidence and optimism Creative thinking
Motivation High production
3. Too much going on: “over stress’
Feeling Performance
Irritability Forgetfulness
Fatigue Lack of concentration
Overwhelmed Irrational decisions
Close to tears Poor communication
5.3 MANAGING STRESS
How do you manage your stress?
It has been state in that if people are going to cope with the stress in their lives, they named
firstly, to recognize those aspects of their lives which create their own personal stress response.
However, some people may not even be aware of their personal stress response. In the recent year
Adams’s (1980) study, a well respected approach to deal with personal stress. Here is a range of
ideas for responding to stress; each of which has worked well for someone, somewhere
1. Become more knowledgeable about stress
2. Take a systematic approach to problem solving
3. Come to terms with you feelings or differentiate between you thoughts and your feelings
4. Develop effective behavioral skill such as be assertive, managing conflict openly and
directly, avoid blaming other for situation
5. Establish and maintain a strong support network, ask for direct help and be receptive when it
is offered
6. Develop a lifestyle that will buffer against the effects of stress, engage regularly in some form
of systematic relaxation
7. Concentrate on positive spiritual development
8. Plan and execute successful lifestyle changes
Personal coping strategies or techniques
A number of techniques and treatments are available to enable people to cope better with stress in
their live. These include:
Work environment. Positive action you could take might include: redecorating our office if you
are working in dismal or dingy surrounding, Investing one weekend of your time in clearing out
the clutter and creating a tidy and streamlined work space etc., organize your office in such a way
that makes you comfortable
Better time management- Many people suffer stress though their failure to mange their time
available effect lively. A number of remedies are available to improve time management. Such
as Priorities and allocate time-do not confuse the urgent with the important, Say ‘No’ more often
that ‘Yes’ to people seeking to take up time, concentrate on one thing at a time, break major task
down into small bits -do one small bit at a time., make a ‘to do’ list each day and tray to stick to it
 delegate to others if possible, manage other people’s expectations, especially customers, to suit
your time as well as theirs and control your use of time rather than letting time control you.
Dealing with personal crisis - People deals with crises in their roles in different way, but few
simple points should help to deal with stress. Such as stop and thin, collect and check for the
facts. Identify your objects what are the most important objectives? Plan a head. Put your plan
into operation, communicate with the people concerned. Who else is involved and/or need to
know?, evaluate how well you handled the crisis. Modify your contingency plan for the future if
necessary.
Physical exercise- Combination physical exercise, such as walking, cycling, aerobic exercise,
together with those which raise the pulse and breathing rate significantly such as running Provide
an excellent program for stress control.
Relationships - The key ways to improve relationship at work are to; remember your rights,
respect everyone else’s rights, recognize that you have your own way of working, respect other
people’s ways of working, use assertiveness skill ( say what you mean and mean what your say)
and negotiate and compromise (look for the win/win)

 Exercises/Activities

Purpose: to familiarize participants with basic customer service

Materials: Training Manual (Session Five)
Time: 1:00
Discussion questions:
1. How do you feel you are stressed? List four symptoms (mental, emotional or physical) which indicate to you that y
2. List at least five factors which cause stress for you at work:
3. Identify the factors that cause stress for you at work
4. Identify at least three things you can do to reduce or eliminate these stress factors

 Summary

Everyone is subject to stress at some time in their live. It may be associated with a range of
incident and situation such as problem at work, relationship with colleagues or simply overloading
of the job etc. Most people need a certain level of stress in order to perform well (positive stress).
 However, the benefit can rapidly turn to negative stress as a result of lack of managing the stress
created at work or in their live. In order to survive stressful events in their work situation, people
need to be more aware of stress, their personal stress responses and of strategies for coping with
stress. What is important is that individual service provider can no longer ignore evidence of stress
and system for managing stress or the strategy of reducing stress at work.

6. SESSION Six: ESSENTIALS TO CUSTOMER SERVICE

Specific Objective:-
At the end of this session participants will be able to:
√ Define the meaning of team correctly.
√ Describe importance of team in their respective work correctly
√ Tell five characteristics of effective teams accurately
√ Define standards accurately.
√ Describe techniques for developing service standards accurately
√ Tell how to convert service qualities to service standards.
√ Tell techniques of handling customers.
Session Contents:
 Definition and concept of team
 Essentials to service success
 Techniques to handle customers
 Stages of team development.
 Importance of team building

a. TEAM BUILDING

Introduction
Teams are becoming a key tool for organizing work in today’s corporate world. Teams have the
potential to immediately amass, organize, relocate, and disperse organizational resource in the
most productive manner. Teams are an effective tool of employee motivation. Teams are
becoming a key tool for organizing work in today’s organization. Standards tell service people
precisely & exactly what is expected of them. They do not have to guess about your
expectations. The best standards are created by management and staff based on their mutual
understanding of customer needs. You should review your standards at least once a year and
update them as necessary to reflect changes in your business. The last item in this session is
techniques to handle customers. A customer service which can be considered as exemplary has
good customer service habits, good service role model for its staff, simple procedures/process in
those customer can make use of its services very easily and its staff know all the “do’s” and
“don’ts” in their interaction with their customers.

b.Definition and concept of team

Definition of team

Team is a group of people working together who must significantly relate with each other to
achieve common goals. It can also be defined as a small number of people with complementary
skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they
hold themselves mutually accountable. In the organization team is a collection of individuals
organized to accomplish a common purpose, who are interdependent, and who can be identified
by themselves and observers as a team. Teams exist within a larger organization and interact
with other teams and with the organization. Teams are one way for organizations to gather input
from members, and to provide organization members with a sense of involvement in the pursuit
of organizational goals.
c.The Importance of Teamwork

Good customer service doesn’t happen overnight- it requires teamwork, knowledge, system and
motivation. Organizations series about customer service know that all staff has to be trained on
basic customer service skills like communication and follow up skills. Service breakdowns can
occur when employees are not trained or where there is a breakdown in communication or follow
up. Breakdown in communication can occur between the customer & the staff or between two
employees. That is where team work comes in. The organization has to think teamwork when it
comes to customer service. They have to realize that the customer does not classify individuals in
the company based on their business unit, department or position. They see them as one entity.
Teamwork in the organization has great importance for more than one reason. Organizations,
who have embraced the concept, have reported increased performance in work production,
problem solving, and customer satisfaction and have stimulated new growth. This team project
approach has improved employee morale and increased input when managed correctly. Perhaps
the most obvious reason for using teams is because it enables us to do so much more. It is
important because it effectively accomplishes something that never would have been possible for
just one person to do. No task is too small when we have a team that is willing to go the distance
to move mountains and achieve nothing less than success. Doing more than one person could do
alone is a large part of the importance of using teamwork in the workplace. The benefits of
teamwork can make a positive effect in the organization that incorporates this type of teamwork
approach. The following are some of the pros of teamwork.

 Alone you can only go that far but together we can go further

 The total sum of results of teams working separately is always less than teams
working together- synergy

 It encourages learning from one another

 It encourages sharing what we know

 It shares the glory of a job well done

 It facilitates solutions when things don’t go as planned

 It builds self-esteem and confidence

 Team work maximizes a leader’s potential and minimizes weaknesses

 If there is team work all the organization members are strived toward for the same goal that is to
increase customer satisfaction.

 Teams provide multiple perspectives on how to meet a need or reach a goal

d. Characteristics of Effective Teams

The concept of a team is today well entrenched and has been adopted in organizations globally as
a better approach to managing business. The question is ‘How do we make our teams more
effective?’ If an organization wants to turn around poor team performance or to increase team
efficiency, it is important to first understand the characteristics that mark effective teams.
Effective teams have certain distinguishing characteristics in the way they work together and
interact. A close examination of these characteristics can give vital clues and help identify and
deduce the factors that play a big part in effective team work. The characteristics of effective
teams are:

 Clear Direction.
 Clear Responsibilities.
 Knowledgeable Members
 Reasonable Operating Procedures
 Interpersonal Relationships
 Sharing Success And Failures
 External Relationships
 Differences are appreciated

1. Clear direction.

Clear direction means that the team is given a clear and distinct goal. The team may be
empowered to determine how to achieve that goal, but management, when forming the team,
generally sets the goal. A clear direction also means that team outcomes are measurable.

2. Clear responsibilities.

Clear responsibilities means that each team member understands what is expected of her or him
within the team. The roles must be clear and interesting to the team members. Each team
member needs to be able to rely on all the other members to carry out their roles so that the team
can function effectively. Otherwise, one or two team members come to feel that they are doing
all the work. This is one of the reasons so many individuals are initially reluctant to join teams.

3. Knowledgeable members

An effective team will be comprised of individuals who have the skills and knowledge necessary
to complete the team's task. Cooperation is essential at an early stage in inventorying the skills
and knowledge each member brings to the team, and working to determine how to utilize those
skills to accomplish the team task.
4. Reasonable operating procedures

All teams need a set of rules by which they operate. Sport teams for example, operate according
to a clearly laid-out set of rules about how the game is played. Similarly, work teams need a set
of procedures to guide meetings, decision making, planning, division of tasks, and progress
evaluation. Setting, and sticking to, procedures helps team members become comfortable relying
on one another.

5. Interpersonal relationships

Teams are composed of diverse individuals, each of whom comes to the team with his or her
own set of values. Understanding and celebrating this diversity helps to make a stronger, more
effective team

6. Sharing success and failure

Everyone wants to feel appreciated. Within a team, members should be willing to express their
appreciation, as well their criticisms, of others' efforts. Similarly, the organization must be
willing to reward the team for successful completion of a task and hold all members responsible
for failure.

7. External relationships

In the process of building a strong team, groups external to the team are frequently ignored. In
order for the team to successfully complete its task, it cannot operate in isolation from the rest of
the organization. Teams need help from people within the organization who control important
resources. Establishing clear lines of communication with these people early on will facilitate the
completion of the team's task.

8. Differences are appreciated

Differences of opinion are encouraged and freely expressed. The team does not demand narrow
conformity or adherence to formats that inhibit freedom of movement and expression. Based on
our experience of helping public sector organizations across the world to move towards best
 practice, we believe that a customer-centric strategy should incorporate the six elements
identified on the previous page.

b. Essentials to service success

i. Using customer insight to inform effective customer segmentation
One of the common qualities of successful private-sector organizations is that they understand
their customers. In order to serve them as effectively as possible, they segment their customer-
bases according to various factors including demographic profile, age and economic status. This
segmentation helps them to provide more personalized services. This is driven, to a large extent,
by the fact that these organizations share a common objective – delivering profit to their
shareholders. Satisfied customers are cheaper to serve, easier to deal with and more likely to
keep coming back.

Unfortunately, the public sector does not always have a common unifying objective – instead, a
number of different objectives will tend to exist at intra-agency levels. Another important aspect
of effective service delivery is to understand the needs of citizens where the rectification and/or
understanding of their problems is concerned. There should be mechanisms in place for the
handling and escalation of problems as they are identified. In the public sector, in contrast to the
private sector, it is crucial to understand the nature of the policy outcomes required – as well as
the customer outcomes. Unlike the private sector, where the organization is at liberty to define its
customer segments, the public sector is required to service numerous diversified customer
segments. It is therefore essential to develop clear policies to meet the needs of each segment.

The needs of these various segments can be quite distinct and will be driven by multiple factors,
including demographic attributes such as age education, income and more attitudinal factors such
as beliefs, values and willingness/ability to engage with government. Understanding them all is
critical to the development and implementation of a customer-centric service delivery strategy.
Another challenge the public sector faces is that, unlike the private sector, where customers are
treated differently according to their capacity to pay for services, the public sector is required to
satisfy the rights of its entire customer base – equally and to acceptable standards. There needs to
be a clear strategy for ensuring the inclusion of all the segments of society that must be served.
The implementation of the strategy in customer service should include the ten keys to customer
service as indicated in table 6 below.
ii. Creating multiple delivery channels
Communication between an organization and its customers has always been the foundation of
good customer service. But today, customers expect customer service to be accessible anytime,
anyplace – and by whatever means of communication they prefer. Developing a real
understanding of what customers want from the public sector creates an opportunity for
providing services through channels that will best respond to their needs. Channels are a means
for public sector organizations to deliver services to citizens and for citizens to access
government through a variety of communication and delivery methods (for example, post,
telephone, face-to-face, online, mobile, digital television, fax and kiosks).
The delivery of services may be either directly through government or indirectly through
intermediaries, such as voluntary organizations. In designing a channel strategy, care should be
taken not to force customers in any one direction. Because of the diversity of their customer
base, public sector organizations need to focus on creating multiple delivery channels. Each of
these will vary significantly, depending on the nature of the public service that is being provided
– whether transactional (passport services, utilities or land records, for example), or closer to the
services provided in health, education and law enforcement.
iii. Aligning service delivery with customer journey (needs)
Customer-centric organizations that are considered to be highly responsive gain the trust and
loyalty of their customers. Other considerations typically include:
• Organizing delivery units around customer segments
• Designing the service delivery process from the customers’ point of view, and using ‘co-
creation’ (a new form of value creation where value is co-created by the organization and the
customer). Examples of how this is achieved are through responding to customer feedback and
the involvement of customer segments in the development of services to achieve customer-
centric outcomes
• Incorporating technology into the service delivery process
• Differentiating service to customers based on their needs and preferences
• charging cross-functional teams with finding innovative ‘connected’ solutions to customer
problems
 • Offering a service guarantee with set and clear performance standards
• Creating contingency plans for possible failure points
• Deploying technologies to route callers to the most appropriate service
• Understanding customers’ expectations of the experience for each contact channel.
iv. Setting service standards
Greater customer awareness has resulted in a demand for more accountability and transparency,
forcing public sector organizations to respond in a positive manner. One of the ways in which
this can be achieved is through the passing of legislation setting out the customer’s right to
information and service standards that are mandated by law.
This provides positive evidence of the public sector’s desire to place its customers in a central
position. Setting, measuring and enforcing customer-centric service standards for public services
and agencies enables the evaluation of the public sector on customer metrics which have not
hitherto formed part of public sector Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – (financial and non-
financial metrics used to quantify objectives that reflect the strategic performance of an
organization).
To this end, it is important to establish service levels appropriate to each customer and his/her
request. For certain routine requests, many customers prefer an automatic, but easy-to-obtain and
accurate response, whereas the same customer faced with complex transactions demands a more
personal, relationship-based approach. Organizations which are adept at balancing service levels
for a variety of customers study information requests notify frequently-recurring requests and
analyze the degree of personal response required for each category of request. They also track
customer outcomes and feed these back into the system.
v. Creating and empowering customer champions

For most organizations, the strengthening of customer relationships is a key challenge. By

creating and empowering ‘customer champions’, organizations can address this challenge in two
key ways: firstly, at a strategic level, by the establishment of a high-profile customer champion
leadership role that focuses on the customer, and secondly, at the level of the front-line interface
with the customer. This approach is being followed in some government departments where
officers act as a first point of contact for telephone enquiries, requests, and complaints, helping to
deliver courteous and efficient service, providing comprehensive information and advice, and
referring more complex enquiries to the relevant departments.
Having a specific and senior appointment whose job it is to take a holistic view of the customer
(as well as the intermediaries through which services often reach the customer), helps to ensure
that the customer’s perspective is represented when key decisions are made and policies
developed. Naturally, the appointment of this customer champion leadership role needs to be
accompanied by clearly defined management responsibilities, as well as by the empowerment
needed to make things happen on the front-line.
In terms of what happens at the customer interface, customer preferences change over time and
therefore many public sector workers view their association with a customer as a continually
evolving relationship. All points of customer contact contribute to this relationship, whether
face-to-face, call centre, internet and web- or paper-based correspondence.
Because each of these contacts delivers information or services, it is necessary to connect them
so the organization can present a single face to the customer. A common view of the public
sector is that it is predominantly internally focused, with front-line personnel tending to reinforce
this perception through their customer interactions. Accordingly, the quality of customer facing
staff is critical. These are the front-line customer champions – the people who will foster a
positive customer experience by thinking widely about each customer’s needs. It is therefore
essential that they should understand the importance of their role, as well as being provided with
excellent customer orientation skills.
vi. Continuous improvement through customer feedback
Customer feedback is a powerful tool, not only for understanding customers’ experience and
satisfaction with public services, but also for developing strategies to improve those services.
Although under-utilized in the past, feedback from both customers and front-line staff can help
to ensure that service improvement strategies focus on those areas that will make the most
difference to customers. Other ways of achieving improvement through customer feedback
include:
• Distinguishing the organization through compelling customer service and support.
• Employing feedback and measurement systems to better understand and serve customers.
• Personalizing the organization-to customer relationship.
• Proclaiming customer satisfaction as the organization’s top priority.
• Engaging all customers in the feedback process through effective use of surveys.
• Augmenting customer feedback with other pertinent measurements and analysis.
• Motivating employees to embrace customer satisfaction and customer outcome responsibilities.
The questions listed alongside are intended to provide a reality-check – helping public sector
organizations to understand how prepared they are to provide the customer-centric services that
their customers increasingly require.

c. Techniques to handle customers

A customer service which can be considered as exemplary has good customer service habits,
good service role model for its staff, simple procedures/process in those customer can make use
of its services very easily and its staff know all the “do’s” and “don’ts” in their interaction with
their customers. In the following section, detail of these general considerations, and areas to
consider in the design of good customer service system, measures to be taken and customer
service audit are discussed.
i. Organization and their staff with good customer handling habits do the
following
 They are on time
o For appointment
o For office hours
 They follow up for their promises
 They under-promise and over-deliver
 They go the extra mile service the customer more than what is expected of them
 They offer their customers options
 They express empathy- that is, they understand their customers and assist
 They treat their customer as the most important part of their job.
 They treat their staff as customers
 They give the customers their name and telephone number.
 They have smiling faces where necessary.
For detail understanding of good customer handling of and the organization refer to Appendix G:
“Essential Qualities of Customer Service Providers”
ii. Organization’s good service role model for the staff
 Cheerful
 Doing the right thing – no bias among staff
  Open discussion with staff
 Supporting the staff’s decisions
 Listening
 Socializing – when sick, funeral ceremony
 Good telephone etiquette
 Thanking staff often
 Genuine appreciation

iii. The don’ts and do’s

Things that should be adopted by all staff when asked by the customer:
Don’t say Say
 I don’t know I’ll find out
 No What I can do is….
 That’s not my job This what I can help you
 You are right, this stinks. I understand your frustration
 That’s not my fault. Let’s see what we can do about it.
 Calm down I am sorry
 I am busy right now I’ll be with you in just a moment.
 Call me back I’ll call you back
 Exercises/Activities

Purpose: to familiarize participants with team work, service standards& customer handling
Materials: Training Manual (Session Six)
Time: 1:00
Discussion questions:
 What are the importance of team work for the organization as a whole to bring customer satisfaction
 Discuss some of the challenge that you have faced in your past team work experience and how you have solved the
 Does your organization have customer service standards?
If your response is yes review your standards as per table 5.2, otherwise identify general service qualities & conver
 Regarding customer handling habits, staff service role model and the staff don’ts and do’s how do you e
departments/divisions/sections staff in your organization provides. Discuss among your group thoroughly.
 In the topic “…designing an effective customer- service organization” some points areas to be considered ha
relate/adopt this point to your organization? Discuss and record the resolution.

 Session Summary
Team is a collection of individuals organized to accomplish a common purpose, who are
interdependent, and who can be identified by themselves and observers as a team. Whether in the
workplace or on the football field, or even amongst members of a community, effective
teamwork can produce incredible results.
With the creation of the new customer service standards customers & consumers can be assured
they will be treated in a fair & reasonable manner, & that they know what to expect in their
dealings with any product/service provider. The development of these common customer service
standards is obtained by converting general service qualities of the organization to specific
service standards. As the organization grows & changes, remember to periodically update your
standards. You should review your standards at least once in a year & update them as necessary
to reflect changes in your organization.
Good customer service is the life blood of any organization. It is all about bringing customers
back, & about sending them away happy- happy enough to pass positive feedback about your
organization along to others, who may then try the product/service you offer for themselves & in
their turn become repeat customers. The essence of good customer service is forming a
relationship with customers – a relationship that individual customer feels that he would like to
peruse.

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