Reference no: EM132607455

BSBCUS501 Manage Quality Customer Services

Activity 1

1. Develop and document, on behalf of an organisation for which you work or would like to work for, a detailed process whereby it will be possible to investigate, identify, assess, and include the needs of customers in planning processes.

Activity 2
2. How can quality, time and cost requirements be balanced?

3. a) Choose a product that might be sold to customers. Conduct some research to establish what customer expectations are in terms of quality, time and cost specifications.

b) How would you market the product to the customer taking these expectations into account?

Activity 3
4. Detail the methods and procedures that might be used by an organisation to communicate with customers to identify and agree on product/ service specifications.

Activity 4
5. a) Make a list of the steps you would take and the processes you would put in place to identify the quality and delivery standards to which teams should adhere and to monitor and manage team performance so that it consistently meets organisational quality and delivery standards.

b) Against what criteria might you measure performance and what action would you take if performance did not meet the identified standards?

Activity 5 Scenario
6. Consider this scenario.

One of your colleagues has been having difficulty providing the customer service standards that are required in your organisation. You have observed this and have noted that this person is not making the number of sales they should make. What action do you think you might take to assist them to overcome difficulty in meeting customer service standards?

Activity 6
7. Several strategies for monitoring the progress in achieving product and/or service targets and standards have been discussed in the text. Which of these strategies do you consider to be the most useful? Why?

Activity 7
8. Develop a questionnaire that could be used to obtain customer feedback to improve the provision of products and/or services. Attach to this project

Activity 8
9. Explain the link between resource procurement and creating quality products for customers and explain how resource management is related to quality management and to continuous improvement. You might need to carry out your own research to complete this activity.

Activity 9
10. a) How would an organisation make decisions to overcome problems and to adapt customer services, products and/or service delivery?

b) Contact an organisation of your choice or research online and find out how they make decisions to overcome problems and to adapt customer services, products or service delivery.

Provide an example of a problem that has been solved in this way. Do you think the problem- solving process used by the organization is sound? Why/ why not? How could the problem-solving process be improved?

Assessment 2

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

2. What are the questions that all customers ask themselves (consciously or subconsciously) before they commit to a purchase and how is the presented product/ service bundle likely to affect a customer's purchasing decision?

3. Being able to provide good customer service is not an innate skill. It requires that employees receive appropriate training and learn to understand their role/s with regard to customer service. This applies to those employees who are in direct contact with customers and those who have no direct contact with customers. Employees who have good customer service skills will generally encounter fewer complaints. Describe the ways in which employees can learn the skills needed to provide good customer service.

4. In any organisation there are both internal and external customers. These are all part of the customer-supplier chain. For the customer/ end-user to receive quality products/ services it is necessary that all aspects of the customer-supply chain meet specific quality objectives. Who actually sets these quality standards and how are they set?

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

6. How can you collect customer feedback about customer service levels, their satisfaction with products and services and any complaints they might have?

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

8. Identify and explain the steps in the problem-solving process.

Assessment 3

Project 1

In detail, comment on the below statements and attach to this project.

"Excellence in customer service is the objective of all organisations wishing to be successful. However, there is often a gap between customer expectations and management perceptions of customer expectations. Organisations often fail to get close to their customers and correctly read their expectations."

"Other reasons for customer service problems include:

• not listening to or collecting information from customers
• poor, or no, focus on the actual design of processes to turn identified customer needs into products and services
• gaps between what the organisation intends to produce for its customers and what its systems do produce
• gaps between what the system is intended to deliver for customers and what it does deliver
• cost constraints, or failure to set and meet realistic performance standards, which affect what the organisation can deliver
• poor staff attitudes, training levels and working materials
• gaps between what salespeople promise and the actual service or product quality"

Scenario Project 2

Consider the scenario below and answer the questions to follow.

Janice works in the production department of a book printing firm. Her role involves collating printed documents, binding them and preparing them ready for shipment to the customer. She has no direct contact with the customer and believes that she has no responsibility for quality management. If a mistake in the print run is made, then she is not responsible. Her responsibility is just to take the printed material, collate it, bind it and ship it.

Janice has reasonable communication and interpersonal skills. She is friendly and gets along well with her co-workers.

Although Janice prepares the products ready for shipment she does not address them. In fact, if you asked her, she would not be able to tell you who the organisation's customers were. As far as she is concerned all the knowledge about customers-who they are and what they actually want-is processed by other people in the organisation. All she does is work on the production line. This means that as far as she is concerned, she has no responsibility for customer service. Other people in the organisation are employed to provide customer service because they are good at it.

1. What is wrong here-with Janice's attitude and with the organisational system?

2. How do you think attitudes like Janice's impact on other employees, on the supplier- customer chain and on the organisation's outcomes?

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

4. Why is it necessary that she understands that she has a very definite role to play about customer service?

5. How can these problems be overcome?