- Interpersonal skills needed for satisfying the following customer needs and expectations in case of Colesworths
Advice and general information
- Good communication skills
- Emotional intelligence
- Negotiation, persuasion and influencing skills
- Conflict solving and mediation
- Problem solving and decision-making skills (Orenga-Roglá and Chalmeta 2016)
Complaints
- Good communication skills for:
- Understanding the complaint
- Asking for clarification on doubts
- Giving personalized response to the customers
- Understanding and analysing the emotions of the customers (Miraz et al. 2016)
Price enquiry
- Patience
- Clear communication
- Positive attitude
- Effective listening skills (Kao et al. 2016)
- Spontaneity in checking the request of the customers and providing accurate response
Purchasing a product
- Oriental approach towards getting the details of the products
- Time management
- Judgmental decision-making skills
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Relationship building skills
- Active listening skills
- Effective negotiation skills (Koistinen and Järvinen 2016)
Returning a product
- Clear understanding about the return and exchange policies
- Awareness about the reasons why the customers are returning the product
- Sound knowledge of the date of purchase
- Sound knowledge of the initial refund period
- Consciousness towards verifying the receipts (Kaski et al. 2018)
- Organizational requirements for determining priorities for service delivery
For determining priorities of service delivery, the personnel of Colesworths needs to consider the identified and the specified goals at the initial stage. After this, development of the list of the possible activities is crucial in terms of assessing the current strategic condition (Cook 2017). Along with this, checklists are important for assessing whether the exposed performance is in alignment with the identified and specified goals. Monitoring reports are also necessary for estimating the progress in the upcoming days.
- Communication methods for informing the customers about the choices
Social media marketing can be used by Colesworths for informing the customers about the choices, which they can avail within the purchases. Joint venture with the other online shopping sites would provide the customers with the opportunity to compare the prices of the products before purchasing them (Agnihotri et al. 2016).
- Assistance for customer satisfaction
Upon finding that I am incapable in satisfying the customers, I would approach my immediate next in hierarchy, that is, my manager for seeking assistance (Kaura et al. 2015).
- Ensuring promptness in customer service
Spontaneity in responding to the customer complaints would be one of the means of ensuring promptness within the services. Consideration of checklists would help in estimating the time within which the complaints were resolved. Tracking the behaviour of the personnel while dealing with the complaints would be one of the means for ensuring the presence pf promptness within customer services (Cook 2017).
- Maintaining rapport with the customers
Seeking effective channels through which the information can be conveyed to the customers is one of the effective means for achieving customer’s satisfaction. Uploading survey and feedback forms on the social media is another option for enhancing the awareness about the specific needs and preferences of the customers. Using security cookies and policies in the official website and the profile of the customers would help in gaining trust, loyalty and dependence from the customers. Kaski, Niemi and Pullins (2018) feel that reciprocation for the investments by the customers is one of the other means through which rapport can be established with the customers. Most importantly, rationality needs to be exposed in the services for gaining dependence and loyalty from the customers.
- Differentiation of customer service in case of:
- a. Elderly customer
While dealing with the elderly customers, the staffs of Colesworths need to be respectful in their approach. Patiently listening to their issues would be productive in gaining their trust, loyalty and dependence (Koistinen and Järvinen 2016).
Customer belonging to different culture
Body language of the customer care executives would be different. Along with this, Kao, Tsaur and Wu (2016) are of the view that translators would be hired for removing the instances of language barriers. Getting depressed on the expression of negative outcomes would be against the ethical code of conduct. For this, emotional control is necessary for the Colesworths personnel in terms of dealing with the individual tastes and preferences.
Customer with disability
Respect is one of the primary attributes, which is needed in case of the Colesworths for dealing with the needs, demands and requirements of the customers suffering from disabilities. As per the opinions of Boxall, Nyanjom and Slaven (2018), assistance from the skilled and efficient supervisors would be productive in solving the issues of disabled customers. Implementation of Ethical Code of Conduct would help the personnel in handling the emergency situations in an efficient and effective manner.
Customer with limited English speaking skills
Using gestures would make the customers of Colesworths feel that their opinions is valued. Miraz, Ali and Excell (2016) thinks that at this stage, the speed of talking needs to slowed down. Shouting would be an irrational response, which can create misunderstandings. Diagrammatic representation can be one of the effective means for conveying the ideas to the customers.
- Opportunities for enhancing and promoting the services and products
Colesworths personnel can use the following for emhancing and promoting the quality of the services and products:
- Celebrity endorsements
- Social media advertisements
- Direct and indirect marketing
- Opportunities to enhance the quality of the products and services
The personnel of Colesworths can avail the following opportunities for enhancing the quality of the products and services:
- Laboratory tests
- Creating long term plans for quality improvement (Beckford 2016)
- Market research
- Journey mapping for the current quality
- Three methods for measuring customer satisfaction
Colesworths personnel can adopt the following methods for measuring customer satisfaction:
- Direct methods- survey, feedbacks, face to face conversations
- Indirect methods-customer complaints and customer loyalty (Cook 2017)
- Tracking the involvement of the customers on the news feeds on social media
- Effective monitoring of the customer service procedures
Colesworth personnel can take into account CEM Maturity Model for tracking the customer service procedures. This model would act as a framework for improving customer service. Orenga-Roglá and Chalmeta (2016) states that according to this model, organizing interactive sessions would be beneficial in terms of gaining an insight into the effectiveness, feasibility and appropriateness of the provided services.
- Customer service feedback questionnaire
Customer service feedback questionnaire, in case of Colesworths would include the following:
- Satisfaction levels of the customers towards the gym products
- Recommendation of the brand to friends, colleagues and acquaintances
- Demographic details
- Market research results
- Issues within the purchased product (Hill and Brierley 2017)
- Net Promoter Score
- Response to negative customer feedback
Spontaneous reply to the negative customers would preserve the reputation of Colesworths. As per the arguments of Bhandari and Rodgers (2018), offering for making the modifications can be one of the ways for retaining the customers, provided it is done rationally and consciously. Authentic replies to the feedback is essential in terms of maintaining the stability in the relationship with the customers. Politeness in the response would reflect caring approach towards the issues, which the customers are facing. Sympathetic approach in modifications is crucial in terms of catering to the individual sentiments of customers. Personal interactions would be beneficial in terms of delving deep into the issues, which the customers think can stall the productivity (Bradley, Sparks and Weber 2016). Involving the customers in decision-making process would help the personnel to avert the instances of conflicts, discriminations and harassments.
- Communicating and monitoring the customer service strategies
Creating customer service vision is one of the primary step for attaching good start towards effective customer service. Colesworths personnel need to conduct need analysis of the employees before communicating the created vision to the customers. Lewis (2019) states that this analysis would help in aligning the needs and the developed strategies. For this, hiring the rightful candidates would be fruitful in terms of adopting good practices for satisfying the needs of the customers. Setting goals would be beneficial in terms of monitoring the appropriateness of the developed customer services. Training the employees would enhance the awareness of the personnel towards serving the customers in an efficient and effective manner. Post training tests would help the managers in assessing the capability of the employees in making practical application of the learnt skills towards effective handling of the customer issues (Floreddu and Cabiddu 2016). Rewarding the good performance of the employees would be one of the good practices towards extracting productive performance.
- How do the following affect the business of Colesworths:
- Anti-discrimination legislation
Anti-discrimination legislation would help Colesworths personnel to avert the instances of conflicts, discriminations and harassments. Moreover, Smith (2016) points out that the legislation would prove beneficial in enhancing the organizational behaviour. This is crucial in terms of upgrading the reputation of the brand image.
Ethical principles
Implementation of ethical principles would help Colesworth to regulate the behaviour of the employees. Along with this, ethical principles would act as an effective means for respecting the individual opinions of the employees belonging to different cultures (Goldstein et al. 2018). This process would be effective in terms of enhancing the cultural diversity.
Codes of practice
Incorporation of Codes of practice would upgrade the standards and quality of the performance for Colesworths. Neill (2016) opines that this Code would enhance the awareness of the employees regarding the parameters, which would be used for judging their performances.
Privacy laws
According to Bennett and Raab (2017), using privacy laws would be productive in terms of preserving the security and privacy of the confidential records. Using security cookies would yield positive results in this direction.
Financial legislations
Financial legislations would legalize the financial activities of Colesworths. These legislations avert the illegal financial scandals, which can degrade the reputation of the brand (Abdel-Khalik and Chen 2015).
Work Health and Safety (WHS)
This is a legislation, which caters to the wellbeing of the employees during their stay in the workplace. In case of Colesworths, typical components of Work Health and Safety (WHS) would be accidental policies for averting the risks of injuries while the customers are availing the gym services (Worksafe.qld.gov.au 2019).
References
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