Customer Service

Task 1
1.1 The legislation and regulations which influence customer service.
Data protection: Many people working closely with clients of a company will have
access to data or be required to gather information about customers. The Data
Protection Act (1998) is legislation that has been outlined by parliament to state the
information that needs to be protected by companies. This does not stop the business
from storing information but does state rules to be followed by those that do and can
relate to the storage of paper-based data or online information.

Consumer protection: Protecting consumers applies to those who are working in a

retail role or selling goods and services to customers directly. There is legislation in
place, in the form of the Sale of Goods Act 1979, which covers all goods that are bought
from a company, rented or purchased in any way by a consumer. The act requires that
all goods are: i) Of satisfactory quality ii) As described by the seller.

Health and Safety legislation: The basis of health and safety legislation that must be
followed in the UK relates to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This act sets out
specific things which employers must do to make the workplace safe for their
employees including: f) Carrying out health and safety assessment f) Prevent risks to
people’s health f) Provide first aid training and equipment.

1.2Explain the difference between product and service quality

Quality of the product is determined by the customer while the quality of a service is
determined by the provider. A product can be stored for future use or sale and it can be
returned to the buyer if the need arises. However, a service can be consumed the
moment it is offered and cannot be stored for future use.

Features of product quality include;

● Reliability: service reliability is a way for determining the like hood that a system,
product or service will meet or exceed production standards over time.

● Conformity: people modify their views, attitudes, actions, or perceptions to more

closely reflect those held by groups to which they belongs or aspire to belong or by
groups whose acceptance they want
 ● Durability: A measure of product life, durability has both economic and technical
dimensions.

Features of service quality include;

● Access: A service access point defines a specific user activity that send or receives
data of a specified type.

● Credibility: The speaker goals is to appear trustworthy .the speaker’s ethos, in fact,
is a rhetorical approach used by an orator to inspire faith in his audience.

1.3 Outline the example of good consumer service.

1.4 Outline the example of poor consumer service.

Quick Response Responding quickly Long wait timers Customers that
to a client complaint have been waiting
demonstrate that for an inordinately
you are long period may
check out
Problem Solving Fixing faults and Poorly trained “Is there a problem
offering clear representative with costumer
instruction aren’t service?”
enough to solve When your
costumer’s problem. company fails to
It’s all about being meet costumer’s
on time, patience expectations you
and courteous have poor.
Effective communication Customer service Transferring from Communication and
communication that one person to preparedness are
is effective two most crucial
another.
combines a elements to
personalized consider regardless
approach with of where you
efficient procedures transfer.
that save consumer
time and frustrated
while also earning
their loyalty.

1.5 Explain why effective consumer service is important to a

business.

The business I have chased is a pizza hut

Increased brand reputation- Is pizza reputation Hut Company?

Sixteen of the twenty–one pizza hut customer reviews were good, while five were
negative. More than half of pizza hut consumers have a positive experience with the
company’s product/service, according to user reviews.

Customer Loyalty score for pizza hut by industry

Technology account for 75% of the total

Restaurants accounted for 82% of the total

100%of retail

Provides a competitive advantage: Pizza hut has a competitive edge in its marketing
strategy because of its strong hold in pizza market .Which allows it to stay ahead of its
competitors.

Increases customers’ loyalty- Pizza huts simply hunting prices, pizza hut’s incentive
loyalty programmer are designed to build both emotional appeal and to speak to a
person’s desire. The idea is centered on accumulating points. Customers can choose
from a variety of detectable rewards with their earned points, which increase each time
a client dines at the restaurant or boys food delivery.

Helps to manage customer expectations- pizza huts pricing strategy pizza hut has a
price skimming strategy, in which it prices new product higher than competitors and
then gradually lowers them to watch the market average. High costs tend to elicit
excitement from the audience since they indicate high quality and excellent customer
service.

Task 2

Understand the customers of a business.

2.1 State the types of customers of a business.

Types of customers include;

● Internal customers
Internal customers have a relationship with, and within, your company, either through
employment or as partners who deliver your product or service to the end user, the
external customer.
 ● One-off customers
One-off Customers means customers who do not access their account maintained at
the Bank on a regular basis for financial transaction either physically of from an online
account platform access to which is provided by the bank.

●Returning customer
Return customer is simply someone who has bought your product or service once
before and has returned to make another purchase. It is the goal of any business to turn
first-time customers into returning customerurning customers.

● New customers
Any individual who registers with the brand after clicking on the content is a new
customer, except anyone who already has an account with the company’s brand or has
previously closed an account and registered a new one through the affiliate

2.2 Explain what influence the behavior of business customers.

In a general scenario, we’ve got five main factors that determine consumer behavior,
i.e. these factors regulate if a target customer purchases a product or not. These factors
are namely Psychological, Social, Cultural, Personal, and Economic factors.

1. Psychological Factors

Interestingly, human psychology is actually an integral factor that influences consumer

behavior although these factors aren’t exactly easy to measure. A few integral
psychological factors driving the behavior of consumers are:

 Motivation

Motivation actually becomes a considerable defining factor influencing a person’s

buying behavior. A popular motivation theory is Maslow's theory of hierarchy of
needs in which he developed a model that lays the foundation for 5 different levels
of human needs where he lays the base with psychological needs and moves on to
safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and finally heading to self-actualization
needs.
For instance, The U.S. Army’s famous “Be All You Can Be” slogan and advertising
campaigns encouraged young adults to join the army (self-actualization).
 Be all that you can be In the Army commercial 1982

Learning

Every time we purchase a product we get a deeper knowledge about it through

experience. This learning mainly depends on our experience, knowledge, and
skills.
This learning can either be cognitive or conditional.

For instance, we all seek resources through no experiential learning as we read

reviews for books and products on platforms like Amazon, learn about film reviews
through platforms like Rotten Tomatoes, and explore restaurants through Yelp.

 Attitudes and Beliefs

We’ve all got certain attitudes or beliefs that consciously or subconsciously prompt
our purchasing decisions. For instance, while your friend who believes caffeine is
adverse for one’s health may prefer tea, you who believe that caffeine energizes us,
may prefer coffee. Our attitude and what we believe influence our behavior towards
a product and also play a key role in shaping the product’s brand image.

2. Social Factors

We are all social animals so of course our purchasing decisions are impacted to some
extent by the people around. We are constantly working on imitating other human
beings, longing to fit in our surroundings. As a result social factors influence our buying
behavior regarding items. Some of these factors include:

 Family

Our families actually have a considerable role to play in impacting our purchasing
behavior. We form an inclination or aversion towards certain products from our
childhood by observing our families use that product and persist in using those
products as we grow up.
 For instance, if our family members are fond of Papa Jones, we would
subconsciously end up choosing Papa Jones over say, Pizza Hut or Domino’s.

Roles and status

We are all of course influenced by the role that we hold in society. The higher
position we hold, the more our status affects what and how much we purchase. For
instance, the CEO of a company and a normal employee would have a varied
buying pattern.

Cultural factors

We all have our values and ideologies that are shaped by the values and ideologies of
the society we exist in and the community we belong to. Our behavior is consciously or
subconsciously driven by the culture followed by that particular community.

For instance, let’s take the example of McDonald's India

India has a massive consumer base with McDonald’s has adjusted its menu to match
the tastes and preferences of the local community in whose vicinity it resides. For
instance, on account of cows being sacred and widely worshipped in India, chicken has
been put in place of beef.

A few significant cultural factors include:

 Culture

Our cultural factors are basically basic requirements, values, wants behaviors, and
preferences that are observed and absorbed by us from our close family members
as well as other significant people around us.

 Subculture

Amongst a cultural group, we have several subcultures. These groups share a

common set of values and beliefs. They can consist of people from varied
 nationalities, religions, caste, and geographies. An entire customer segment is
formed by this customer segment.

We’ve taken an easy example of Burger King here. In their advertising strategy, the
platform wished its “Ramadan Kareem” implying to have a generous Ramadan.

Burger King has adapted to the Muslim culture and created its advertisement in
Ramadan style by showing a mostly eaten burger, presented in the shape of a
crescent moon.

 Social Class

Each society all over the globe is defined and known by some form of social class.
This social class is determined collectively by our family backgrounds, occupation,
education, and residence location. Our social class is another component holding
the reins for consumer behavior.

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4. Personal Factors

Alongside social, psychological, and cultural factors, we all have factors that are
personal to us that influence our choices. These factors vary from person to person,
introducing varied perceptions and behavior.

Some of these personal factors include:

 Age

Age is one of the primary factors that impact our preferences. The vibrant and
flashy purchasing choices of a teenager would obviously differ from what an elderly
person purchases.
 For instance, as Baby Boomers proceed for retirement they are targeted by marketers
with messages regarding prescription drugs as well as other health care items such as
home, financial security

 Income

Our income definitely impacts our purchasing behavior. The higher our income, the
more purchasing power we hold and vice versa. Higher disposable income compels
us to spend more on luxurious items while a lower or mediocre income makes us
spend more on our basic needs like education, groceries, and clothing.

 Occupation

Our occupation largely steers our purchasing decision making. We all tend to
purchase the items that are relevant or suitable for our profession. For instance, a
businessman would have a different clothes purchasing pattern in comparison to an
artist.

2.3 State ways in which to measure levels of customer service .

Customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Customer dissatisfaction is the antithesis of customer satisfaction. It happens when

customer expectations are not only not meant, but also when the company fails to do
anything about the complaint.

How do you identify customer dissatisfaction?

 Five Signs of an Unhappy Customer
1. Voices frequent complaints. Customers complain frequently when you're not properly
addressing their problems, or when they have a recurring problem. ...
2. Refuses to respond to calls or emails. ...
3. Neglects discounts and special offers. ...
4. Compares you against competitors. ...
5. Lacks trust.

2.4 Assess the levels of customer service offered by a business.

 Criminal service.
 Basic Service.
 Expected Service.
 Desired Service.
 Surprising Service.
 Unbelievable Service.

Task 3

Understand how to improve the relationship with customers.

3.1 Explain how to exceed customer expectations.