Quality Customer Service

OBJECTIVES :

• To describe the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge require to manage customer service quality.

• Discuss how to develop and monitor management strategies to enhance and oversee the delivery of quality customer service.

• Discuss how to develop proactive approaches to service quality issues with some strategic and leadership focus.

QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE

is very important to any business. You may have a very good product, but if the customers are not treated well, they will not come back.

CUSTOMERS are the lifeblood of any company. If they are satisfied, they will become your regular customers. Good customer service helps you form a better relationship with your clients. It is a tool which can help you achieve your sales goals. Happy and contented clients refer you to other business prospects.

EVENTS SERVICE COMPONENTS

Event environment is quite different as events are generally run over a short time span with temporary staff, and there is little opportunity to develop service relationships with customers at personal level.

FISHBONE DIAGRAM or ISHIKAWA DIAGRAM • It’s orinaginator named Kaoru Ishikahawa• Japanese quality pioneer• Known as the cause and effect diagram

Fishbone is brainstorming in a structured format.

Traditional heading for fishbone diagram are : * Method * Machines* Manpower* Materials* Measurement* Environment

These diagram indicate how key components can be broken down into increasing detail. The aim of the diagram is to illustrate the scope of the customer’s experience.

DEVELOP APPROACHES TO ENHANCE QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE

FORMAL RESEARCH – is structured and can be analyzed statistically if the sample is big enough.

INFORMAL RESEARCH – is also useful and often the only tool available to the event manager of a small one-off event.

Formal and Informal research on customer needs both involve:

Talking to customers Seeking feedback from service delivery colleagues Analyzing the competitive environment Analyzing industry and market trends

Example

Qualitative research can be done by talking to customer focus groups, while Quantitative research may involve a rating survey, can be presented both numerically and graphically.

Customers service issues and standards may relate to :• response times• service guarantees• pricing guarantees• product quality• complaint management processes

FACE TO FACE COMMUNICATION with the event customer is often limited, most of it occuring online, by email or by telephone.

WHY PLANNING IS IMPORTANT ?

An event organization has to develop standards to address key quality service issues such as provision of IT support or audio visual services to exhibitors and conference presenters.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Confirming timing for conference presentations 24 hours beforehand• Arriving at least one hour before the first presenter’s rehearsal• Assisting conference presenters in the use of the audiovisual equipment• Providing help with use of portable media (e.g. CDs, USBs)• Connecting user laptops to audiovisual system• Helping with rehearsals of the presentations prior to the live presentation• Ensuring issues that arise are actually with supplied equipment, for

example, by testing problems against the standard PC provided before the conference session commences

• Checking the physical security of the venue equipment • Issuing and recovering microphones, laser pointers, etc. and ensuring

batteries are replaced when required• Ensuring that mobile contact numbers are prominently displayed if the

technician is not present for any reason ( this should not occur during the conference )

• Ensuring end user instructions are available on the lectern• Remaining on call from 7 am to midnight on the conference dates.

MANAGE THE DELIVERY OF QUALITY SERVICE

Service standards and expectations need to be explained clearly to colleagues in the event workforce, including employees of the event organization, employees of the venue organization, service and supply contractors and volunteers.

Sureshchandar et al. (2001) point to the absence of focus on systematization of service delivery, and this is highly pertinent to the event industry. They believe that if the primary service is not seamless from a systems point of view, customer satisfaction will not achieved, no matter how convivial the service provider is.

Sureshchandar et al. identify several dimensions for systemization of service delivery having a highly standardized and simplified delivery process so that services are delivered without any hassles or excessive bureaucracy; having a highly simplified and structured delivery process so that the service delivery times are minimal; enhancing technological capability in order to serve customers more efficiently; providing adequate and necessary personnel for good customer service, and ensuring adequate and necessary facilities for good customer service.

Lashley’s (1998, 2001)

Where the two variables forming the axes are variability ( customised and standardised) and tangibility ( high and low) of the service product. By way of explanation, marketers refers to the goods and services components of the product, goods being tangible ( such as food items ) and services being intangible ( providing information and advice)

Event organization would place themselves in the appropriate quadrant and develop policy procedures according to the qualities that define the particular quadrant.

MONITOR AND ADJUST CUSTOMER SERVICE

CUSTOMER SERVICE PLANNING is reliant on the detailed planning and careful integration of the needs of the various stakeholders and the organization that present the final product to the customer.

The quality of the feedback received can be further enhanced by giving more specific directions t the mystery customer.

PLANNING takes place over long period, implementation is very brief and evaluation is essential for continuous improvement.

It is essential to monitor changes in the internal and external environments that may affect quality service planning particularly with the events that are planned over many years.

External Environment change that might affect service planning includes cultural change, such as trends in music.

PROCEDURAL PLANNING can also occur on the spur of the moment when something unexpected happens such as IT problems with ticket scanning.

THANK YOU!!