Reference no: EM133845328 , Length: word count:3700

Develop and manage quality customer service practices

Assessment Task: Develop customer services policies and procedures

Tasks required for this unit
This unit of competency requires that you:
research and develop customer service policies and procedures for at least three different areas of the business that meet industry standards
implement and monitor practices for quality customer service in line with above policies and procedures over four service periods
evaluate above practices for quality service provision and identify any failings.
Instructions for how you will complete these requirements are included below.
Estimated time to complete this task : 9 hrs
Maximum word count : 4000 words

Activities
Complete the following activities.
Carefully read the following information.

You have been appointed as the Operations Manager of a health resort and convention centre in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney. The resort, Blue Healer Spa, is made up of five areas: dining/catering, wellness, meeting rooms, accommodation, and reception. Each area has its own full-time manager.
The kitchen is large enough to feed over 100 people three meals each day. There are four full-time kitchen staff, three permanent waiting personnel and the rest of the staff are hired on a casual basis to cater for functions and retreats. Get top-rated assignment assistance now!
There is accommodation for 80 people in twin and double rooms. Surrounding hotels provide further accommodation when needed.
There are four meeting rooms of various sizes, and these can be opened up to make one large room for functions such as weddings and courses. There is also a service area where computers and printers can be accessed. The resort would like to encourage more courses to be held there as the full rooms and restaurant ern the company more that renting out the rooms does.
The wellness area has two saunas, a steam room, three warm water spas, four massage rooms and four consultation rooms where naturopathic consultations and facial treatments are performed. The spa runs continuously, mostly due to locals visiting, whether a course is running or not.
Reception includes the front desk and the office where the accounts are done, and records kept. It is an open plan office with 5 staff workstations. Most staff prefer to work with their own laptops, connected to the larger computer screens. The HR Manager and Marketing Manager have their workstations in this area.
One of the first things you noticed when taking on the job is that, although the resort's employees were courteous towards customers, there were no formal customer service policies and procedures. You have discussed this with the HR Manager (who has only recently taken on the job), and they agreed that developing these was important to manage, and improve, the resort's customer service practices. They suggested that it would be best to start the process by getting feedback from customers and staff on the current customer service practices.
What do I need to demonstrate?
During your practical assessments you will be required to demonstrate a range of the skills and knowledge that you have developed during your course. These include:
Develop quality customer service practices.
Gather information on customer needs, expectations and satisfaction levels using both formal and informal research.
Provide opportunities for customers and staff to give feedback on products and services.
Review changes in internal and external environments.
Integrate changes into planning for quality service.
Provide opportunities for staff to participate in development of customer service practices.
Develop policies and procedures for quality service delivery.
Manage delivery of quality service
Communicate policies, procedures and expectations to staff.
Make policies available to customers and staff.
Monitor customer service in the workplace.
Ensure standards are met.
Initiate staff training to enhance customer service.
Take responsibility for service outcomes and dispute resolution.
Act as a positive role model for professional standards expected of service industry personnel.
Monitor and adjust customer service
Seek ongoing feedback from staff and customers to improve performance.
Assess effectiveness of customer service practices.
Identify customer service problems.
Adjust policies and procedures to improve service quality.
Develop, document and communicate new approaches to customer service to staff involved in service delivery.
How will I provide evidence?
Your assessor will provide you with templates to complete each task. You will find some detailed information about providing evidence; this will include:
Internal Memos
a Customer Survey
an email to staff requesting feedback
a Briefing Report
a first draft Reception Customer Service Policy and Procedures
a first draft Catering Customer Service Policy and Procedures
a first draft Wellness Customer Service Policy and Procedures
a Reception Customer Service Policy and Procedures
a Catering Customer Service Policy and Procedures
a Wellness Customer Service Policy and Procedures.
You will need to complete each activity and submit the required task at the end of each step completed.
Tips for completing your activities
Read through this assessment and each task before you get started and make sure you understand what you need to do. If you are unsure, speak to your assessor and/or supervisor.
Stay up to date!
Stay in touch with your assessor. Ask questions, raise issues, check in, communicate.
Most importantly, ask for help if you are having trouble!

1. Develop a customer survey - 1 hour.

You are required to develop a survey that will be sent to Blue Healer Spa customers. The completed surveys will be anonymous and collated by the Administration Officer.
You may use any format you wish for the survey, but it should collect information on the following:
What customers expect of a resort such as Blue Healer.
Whether the customer's needs were fulfilled when they were at Blue Healer.
How satisfied they were with their stay at Blue Healer.
When completed, submit your Customer Survey to the Administration Officer (your assessor) who will send it to the customers.

2. Send an email to all Blue Healer Spa's staff (your assessor) - 30 minutes.

The purpose of the email is to give the staff the opportunity to give feedback on the resort's products and services and the customer service practices they experience.
Acknowledging that the resort's employees work a variety of shifts in a variety of areas, your email should ask the staff to also include the area of the resort they work in as well as the shifts they usually work, in their response.
The email should ask the recipient to send their feedback to the Administration Officer, who will keep answers anonymous and collate the responses.

3. Participate in an informal meeting with a customer (your assessor) - 30 minutes including preparation.

You are required to hold a short (about 5 minutes), informal meeting with a customer that you have just met.
The objective of the meeting is to find out how well they have been served during their stay at the Blue Healer Spa.
During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective communication skills including:
speaking clearly and concisely
using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
asking questions to identify required information
responding to questions as required.

4. Write a customer service practices briefing report - 1 hour.

Prior to developing the customer service policies and procedures, you are required to write a briefing report that summarises the current customer service practices at the resort.
Begin by reviewing the following formal research sources:
Customer Survey Results
Staff Survey Results
The internet. Use the internet to review:
Trends and changes in the hospitality environment in Australia generally and the Blue Mountains specifically.
Any relevant plain English regulatory documents that are developed and distributed by state and federal government consumer protection regulators.
Information from similar businesses about how they fulfil their customers' needs, complaints and feedback.
Also review the following informal research sources:
Internal Memos
Informal discussions with customers and employees.
Your briefing report should include, as a minimum, the following:
Whether customer needs are currently being met
What customer expectations are, and whether they are currently being met
How satisfied customers are with the products and services they receive
Other customer feedback
Staff feedback
Internal and external changes affecting the resort's customer service practices
Proposed structure of the policy and procedures documents that you will develop in the next activity.
Use the Briefing Report Template to guide your work.
When you have completed the briefing report, submit it to the Management Team (your assessor).

5. Develop customer service policies and procedures - 2 hours.

To ensure that optimal customer service practices are followed throughout the Blue Healer Spa, you have decided to develop customer service policy and procedures for the following three areas of the business:
Reception: covering the front of house and administration.
Catering: covering both the kitchen and dining area.
Wellness: covering the spa and the naturopaths.
Use the internet to review the customer service practices that other, similar businesses have adopted, as well as industry standards and codes of conduct. Use this information, and the information in your briefing report, to develop three policies and procedures for the resort.
You will be revising these documents following the training session you will conduct in the next activity, so save these versions of the documents as:
First Draft Reception Customer Service Policy and Procedures
First Draft Catering Customer Service Policy and Procedures
First Draft Wellness Customer Service Policy and Procedures.
When completed, submit these documents to your assessor.

6. Provide an information and training session - 2 hours including preparation.

This session will give you the opportunity to get the employees' feedback on the policies and procedures you are developing. The HR Manager has ensured that employees from each area of the resort, and working each of the different shifts, will be present at the meeting, so you can get a wide range of feedback.
Prior to delivering the presentation, make sure that you practice your delivery, so you are well prepared. You will be assessed on your presentation technique as well as the content of your presentation.
During the meeting, you are required to act as a positive role model for the staff, demonstrating the professional standards expected of service industry personnel.
Your assessor will advise you of the date and time of your presentation and will organise at least two other students to attend the information and training session in the role of staff members.
The meeting is an opportunity for staff members to participate in the development of the resort's customer service practices, so it is important that you provide the audience plenty of opportunities to give you their feedback. Take notes on this to guide the revisions you will make to the policies and procedures in the next activity opportunity for your audience to ask questions.
Explain your three policies and procedures to the staff, making it clear what is expected of them in terms of customer service.
Inform them that the meeting is the first of a number of staff training sessions designed to enhance the resort's customer service. Ask them if there are particular areas in which they would appreciate more training.
During the meeting you will be required to demonstrate effective communication skills including:
speaking clearly and concisely
using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
asking questions to identify required information
responding to questions as required
using active listening techniques to confirm understanding.

7. Revise your policies and procedures - 1 hour.

Review your policies and procedures in light of the feedback you received during the meeting.
Highlight your changes in yellow. You should make at least one change to each document.
Save these versions of the documents as:
Reception Customer Service Policy and Procedures
Catering Customer Service Policy and Procedures
Wellness Customer Service Policy and Procedures
When completed, submit them to the administration Officer (your assessor), who will upload them to the resort's website, so they are easily accessible to customers and staff.