2013考研英语作文写作技巧

Improving customer service

And customer satisfaction

By the end of this activity, you should have:

◆ gained a good understanding of the importance of customer satisfaction;

◆ developed vocabulary related to customer satisfaction;

◆ improved listening skills and

◆ comprehension in business situations related to customer satisfaction; and

◆ learned to summarize information and use it to make correct judgments

Task 1 What happens when customers are unhappy

Write your answers to the following question in the given spaces.

It is said that high customer satisfaction can make a difference between you and your competitors, as it generates the three vital R s - Referrals, Repurchases and Reduced cost of service. What do you think these three R s represent respectively?

1. Referrals:

2.

Repurchases:

3.

Reduced cost of service:

4. When customers are satisfied, they will recommend your products or services to other people around, and this is “referral”.

5. When customers are satisfied, they will come back and give more orders, and this is called “repurchases” or “repeat business”.

6. It costs a lot less to retain the satisfied customers than to find new ones. Therefore, customer satisfaction leads to “reduced cost of service”.

However, when customers are unhappy, it will take a great deal of time and manpower to follow up and resolve the complaint. And when customers are unhappy with your business they usually will not

complain to you – instead, they will probably complain to everyone else they know – and take their business to your competitors next time. Task 2 Complaint resolution and customer satisfaction

Fill in the blanks.

As a new customer service representative, you will be given a lecture on the topic of “Complaint Resolution and Customer Satisfaction”. Listen to the lecture and complete the notes below. More than one word may be needed for some blanks.

Speech by the customer service trainer

Many people have not realized that solving customers problems when and where they occur is not only better and faster, it's cheaper. If a

teleservice representative or a front desk clerk can solve the problem, it saves time and money. Written complaints are similar. If the person who first reads the letter can solve the problem, it costs less and results in a faster response and fewer follow-up letters and phone calls trying to find out what happened. For a financial service company like us, poor service and poor customer communication may increase the total workload by up to one-third!

That is why front-line employees are empowered to do what it takes to satisfy our customers at our company. It should be ensured that every

front-line rep has the authority, the training and the responsibility for customer recovery.

Customer recovery takes a lot of different forms. Here are a few options for you as front-line reps. You can choose to offer discount coupons that range in value from twenty to two hundred and fifty dollars, or you can speed up lost refunds or waive some minor penalties on our customers. But more often than not, a careful explanation of the reason for a decision or empathetic listening along with an apology is all that is needed.

Task 3 What every business needs to know about customer

satisfaction

Match the main ideas with the extracts.

Dr. Jack West, a leading expert in the study of customer satisfaction and the spokesperson for the American Society for Quality on the American Customer Satisfaction Index, is talking about what businesses need to know about customer satisfaction. His talk is divided into 5 extracts. When you have listened to it, match the main ideas with the extracts.

There are two extra main ideas which you do not need to use.

A talk given by Dr. Jack West

Extract One

One of the most significant changes that we ve seen during the past decade is a dramatic, continuous increase in the expectations that

customers have of the products and services that they buy. One example very easy to visualize is personal computers. We ve been measuring customer satisfaction with personal computers for about 14 years and what we see is satisfaction went down, down, down for several years and back up a little bit, down a little bit, and right now is just about exactly where it started 14 years ago. Now, if we think about the capabilities of those computers during that time, we know that they ve gone up

tremendously. But how is it that customers are no more satisfied with the computer they buy today than the one they bought 14 years ago? Well, the reason is their expectations have gone up. So standing still will put you out of business.

Extract Two

Obviously the reason we re in business is to make money. And what the research has shown is that the majority of our profits come from repeat customers. It s also shown that it takes about 8 times more effort to get a new customer than it does to retain the existing one. Research has

shown that the more you are satisfied, the more you are likely to return, and the more you re likely to refer that company to someone else. So getting that little extra edge is really what we re looking for in business. Extract Three

I was just thinking about my carpet cleaner. Why do I keep calling him again and again? One of the reasons is that besides doing a good job, while he s there, he also leaves me some spot remover so that I can treat things along the way in between professional cleanings. He also leaves me a little chart so that I can see how to take out which kinds of spots. He also sends me a reminder letter when it s time to have my carpets

cleaned again. He also encourages me to call him for some advice when I m buying a new carpet. I m trying to think, there re even more things that have kept me a regular customer to him. How could you possibly go anywhere else? I can t.

Extract Four

One of the things that you should look at early on is setting performance standards for some of the things that you expect your customer service personnel to do. Let me give an example. Bank of America has quantified smiles. Now what does it mean to have a genuine smile when you see a

customer? Ritz-Carlton has put down requirements that when you re within 20 feet of a guest, you must make eye contact with them. So think of some of these kinds of things that are out there. It is generally

because they have set up performance standards for these simple things and they ve talked them through with their employees and they monitor them and they make a real difference in the customer s perception. Extract Five

One of the examples is the automobile company, Hyundai. Think about a highly competitive industry that is mature and saturated, an industry that really you think has no room for a new entry. Hyundai started in there about 10 years ago and they started with a relatively low satisfaction rate. And they have increased that score year over year over year to now they are comparable with Lexus. That is an outstanding achievement. And what they have done is two things. One is to pay real, solid, daily attention to details in all of their operations. And secondly they have employed a lot of the quality tools that translate customers subjective desires into objective criteria.

Customer satisfaction (3 “R”s):

◆ Referrals: When customers are satisfied, they will recommend your products or services to other people around, and this is “referral”.

◆ Repurchases: When customers are satisfied, they will come back and give more orders, and this is called “repurchases” or “repeat business”.

◆ Reduced cost of service: It costs a lot less to retain the satisfied customers than to find new ones. Therefore, customer satisfaction leads to “reduced cost of service”.

Customer recovery: One organization s intentions and activities to win back the customers who no longer buy from it.

competitive distinctions (n.): superior competitive features or

qualities；

disgruntled (adj.): discontented, unsatisfied;

empathetic (adj.):同情的

;

extra edge: additional advantage;

penalty (n.): 处罚，罚款;

referral (n.): 举荐，推荐

;

retain (v.): keep or hold;

saturate (v.): 使饱和

;

waive (v.): 免除

Customer Loyalty

An expert on customer service is giving a short speech on customer loyalty

To you as a seller, gaining repeat clients is a much lower investment than finding new clients or customers who do not know you or know someone who is referring you.

So why don't people focus more on customer loyalty?

Think of some of your recent customer service experiences. Nearly every study I've seen recently shows issues with less focus on customer loyalty and more on other things - like keeping costs down.

If customers are satisfied, they are just as likely to do business with

someone else who they feel will also satisfy them. Did you know that? So all this talk about customer satisfaction is important, but not critical like creating customer loyalty is.

When customers are loyal, not only do they tell everyone about their great experiences, but they keep coming back. They are the proverbial "customer for life".

Example: Being treated like a queen or king at a hotel - the hotel industry has known about the need to focus on customer loyalty for years. From the Marriott's new beds to bonuses and perks you wouldn't expect to receive - they want us to keep coming back.

Now, think of your products and services. What keeps customers coming back? Are you working toward satisfaction, or loyalty?

Task 1 Roles of customer service

Fill in the blanks according to what you have heard in the recording. Andrew Corbett, the customer service trainer from Hanford Co., Ltd, is giving a talk to the role customer service plays in a company that aims to grow and prosper. Please complete the following summary after you have listened to an extract of his speech. Only ONE word is needed in each blank, and the word forms may be different from the original

recording.

Role of customer service

integralthe start. Properly handled, service can be a foundation for growth.

Task 2 Leadership strategies for satisfying customers

Choose the best answer from A, B, C and D.

You will hear part of the study report (1996) done by the Federal Benchmarking Consortium of USA. It tells about how leaders in the best-in-business organizations should view customer complaints and how they should demonstrate their commitment to customer concerns. Listen carefully and choose the best answer to each of the five questions.

1. The company gets to know their customers feelings

when ______.

A. they get 10,000 letters a year

B. they get 4,000 letters of complaint a year

C. the number of complaints goes down

D. the number of compliments goes down

2. The leader should _______.

A. make it easy for employees to fix problems

B. make it easy for customers to fix problems

C. make it easy for customers to complain

D. Both A and C

3. Company leaders that care about customer concerns

______.

A. invest their time in reading letters from their customers

B. spend money on recruiting more staff

C. multiply layers between customers and the chief executive officer

D. reduce the distance between management and employees

4. __________ are/is part of the management team.

A. Customers who recognize the employees

B. Head of customer service departments

C. Front-line workers

D. None of the above.

5. Which of the following does NOT reflect a company s

commitment to customer service?

A. Business hours.

B. How complaints are handled.

C. Contractor selection

D. Budget decisions

Leadership Strategies for Satisfying Customers

There is little question that the leaders in the best-in-business

companies see customers as their top priority. The leaders of these organizations knew they'd begun to hear the voice of their customers when they went from 10,000 letters a year, mostly complaints, to 4,000 a year, mostly compliments. The leaders followed two simple rules: make it easy for customers to complain and make it just as easy for employees to fix problems.

The leaders demonstrate their commitment to customer concerns by investing money for tools like state-of-the-art computers and phone

systems, and support, training and recognition for their employees. They see their job as making it easier for employees to respond to customers. They partner with organized labor to achieve results. They invest a lot of their own time in communication, talking to customers and employees and recognizing results. They flatten their organization to cut the number of layers between the customer and the chief executive officer – usually no more than three management levels between the front-line workers and the CEO. Leaders of customer service departments are part of the management team.

How complaints are handled reflects the organizations' overall commitment to customer service. In all of the best-in-business organizations, customer complaints are seen as opportunities to improve. Indeed, customer service is a core value in these organizations, reflected in mission statements, plans, performance measures, budget and personnel decisions and decisions about contractor selection and retention. Leadership communicates their commitment to customers so effectively throughout the organization that the value is pervasive. To sum up, customer service does not depend on a single leader; it has been built into the way these organizations do business.

Task 3 Something more for management

Choose the best answer.

To reinforce the ideas we have had with quality customer service, let s listen to another extract from Susan Collinson reporting on a survey she conducted on customer service philosophy on the management levels. Please decide which one of the four statements below best summarizes

its main idea.

A. Customer-oriented management should focus on improving service quality, instead of dealing with the symptoms.

B. Front-line workers like good complaint systems.

C. It is essential to determine who is to blame before fixing a complaint from the customer.

D. Routine problems can be resolved more effectively when leaders are involved.

Focusing on Quality Improvement

If routine problems are effectively resolved on the front-line, leaders can focus on improving core processes that improve service quality and customer satisfaction. One team member likened the good complaint systems she saw in service organizations to a quality program in a manufacturing plant. "The sooner these companies find out about complaints, the faster the core processes can be improved. Good

managers don't play 'gotcha' with employees. They understand that most complaints are due to the problematic procedures and policies that don't meet customers' expectations. Best-in-business companies use

complaints to find the problems that had somehow been overlooked. They told us that when employees know that the leadership is focusing on doing a good job for the customer rather than on finding someone to blame, fear and resistance go out the window – the employees want to help find and fix the problems so that next time the job can be done right."

Role of customer service: Being the foundation for growth, customer service is one of the three critical factors to business and it is an integral part of any successful sales strategy from the start.

Leadership strategies for satisfying customers:Business leaders take customers as their top priority. In addition to investing time and money, they follow two simple rules: make it easy for customers to complain and easy for employees to fix problems. Customer complaints are seen as opportunities to improve and customer service is a core value in the organizations.

integral (adj.): inseparable or essential;

liken (to) (v.): compare (to);

partner with …: 与……共同努力

;

pervasive (adj.): spreading throughout;

play 'gotcha' with employees: catch the employees unprepared;

top priority: the biggest concern or the most important issue;

retention (n.): 保有，保持

;

state-of-the-art (adj.): 最好的，最新的

Forget Customer Service. Focus on Customer Experience.

The manager of the Customer Service Department is giving a speech to the staff

Customer service is a department. It's also a job title. And, it's often the biggest obstacle customers have to get what they want.

Traditionally, customer service has focused on two functions. One is delivering the product or service after the sale. The other is resolving complaints customers have regarding the delivery of the service or product.

Looking at those two functions you can see where performance metrics might develop. Phone call length. Number of complaints. Delivery time. Fulfillment errors. Nowhere do we see anything about how the customer feels about doing business with us. Or, what their experience is.

I understand, experience is not an easy thing to measure or even define. But, it's a much more important factor in customer retention and referrals than anything else. Customer experience is the sum total of

everything we do for our customers. It's the complete picture of how they feel about doing business with us.

And it's driven by our actions. Every time we make contact with our customers we create an experience with them.

Of course we need all the functional aspects of customer service. Orders need to be fulfilled, work needs to be done and mistakes need to be corrected. But if that's all we do for our customers, we'll lose them. Eventually, they'll find someone who does it better, faster, cheaper,

closer or nicer. Great customer service is less than adequate these days. It's a starting point. It gets you in the game.

If you want to be a player though, you need to deliver a great experience.

You need to discover what your customers expect and then deliver that plus more. And you need to do it in a way that thrills them every time with no exceptions

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