Customer and customer Service

Firmographic Information
• Characteristics about a company such as:
– how many employees they have; – the kind of business they are in; – whether they are retail, wholesale, or a service provider; – their hours of operation

• • • • •
Characteristics such as:
– – – – – – – sex ZIP code occupation household size mobility patterns ethnic background religion
•
age income marital status education stage in the family lifecycle home ownership
Excellent customer service in business organisations should lead to greater sales because of the benefits it brings such as: JSatisfied customers JMore customers through repeat business and recommendations (greater market share) JA good public image JAn edge over the competition
• Customer Attributes - Characteristics that allow customers to be categorized according to demographic, psychographic, or firmographic information.
Demographic Information
Types of Customers
• External - outside the organization (people who pay the bills.) – End-user customers – Manufacturer (OEM) for suppliers. • Internal - people within your organization who receive your work • In many situations, producers have multiple customers and therefore find it useful to identify “core customers”
According to Jamier L. Scott. (2002)
“Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation."
Why is Customer Service important?
• Business organisations depend on customers to buy their goods and services. Without customers, businesses cannot succeed. Giving excellent customer service plays an important part in helping business organisations keep their customers and attract new ones.
What is “customer service”?
Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. According to Jamier L. Scott. (2002), “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation."
It is very important that all members of staff give a high level of service to each other because they are dependent on each other for customer service as a whole to be successful. Benefits to the staff and the organisation include: JA more pleasant place to work because of a happier and more efficient workforce J Improved job satisfaction – enjoy working at that organisation, gives a sense of fulfilment. J Improved chances of promotion within the organisation – if the organisation is successful then it will grow and need more staff at all levels. JGreater co-operation and teamwork – because everyone is working towards the same goal.
The slogans "the customer is king" or "the customer is god" or "the customer is always right" indicate the importance of customers to businesses - although the last expression is sometimes used ironically.
However, "customer" also has a more generalised meaning as in customer service and a less commercialised meaning in not-for-profit areas. To avoid unwanted implications in some areas such as government services, community services, and education, the term "customer" is sometimes substituted by words such as "constituent" or "stakeholder". However, some managers in this environment, in which the emphasis is on being helpful to the people one is dealing with rather than on commercial sales, comfortably use the word "customer" to both internal and external customers.
Some Data on Customer
• (Source: Winning Back Angry Customers, Quality Progress, 1993) • An average customer with a complaint tells 9-10 people; if it is resolved he/she only tells 5 people. • For every complaint received, there are twenty others that are not reported. • It costs 5-10 times more in resources to replace a customer than it does to retain one. • Companies spend 95% of service time redressing problems and only 5% trying to figure out what made the customer angry.
Psychographic Information
• • • • • • lifestyles modes of living needs motives attitudes reference groups • • • • • • culture social class family influences hobbies political affiliation etc.
The word derives from "custom," meaning "habit"; a customer was someone who frequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods of the sort the shop sold there rather than elsewherபைடு நூலகம், and with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or her "custom," meaning expected purchases in the future.
The Customer
A customer, also called client, buyer, or purchaser, is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services. However, in certain contexts, the term customer also includes by extension anyone who uses or experiences the services of another.
Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites.