JOBS IN Sales Management

Service Systems Skills &

Objectives

• Skills required for Developing Service Systems.
• Skills required for implementing Service Systems.

Read the ROLE PLAY profiles as mentioned below:

Sharad:

You work as a billing clerk at ‘Gadgets & Gadgets International’ department store and your customer comes back with an item to return. Your organization has a policy to take down customer complaint in a pre-designed form so that you can present it to the manufacturer, which could be either your company itself or a third party. You have a replacement offer against new bill or a credit bill that the customer can get free service on any defect on any purchase made in the store within the next 45 days.

Anjali (Customer):

You bought a home appliance at ‘Gadgets & Gadgets International’, a department store down town, about 12 miles away from your home. On returning home you found that there is a manufacturing defect. On your next visit downtown, you take the gadget for an exchange. It is the last day for you to get free service and repair. You go straight to the billing clerk and explain your problem. You don’t want to get into formalities of filling forms as you are afraid the free service period will expire, hence you are eager to get the replacement or service on that day only.

Through the above role play derive, that although company had service standards for repair and replacement but the same should also keep in mind the customer’s expectations and train it’s workforce on all the situations that may arise at workplace or during customer interactions.

The Knowledge and Skills Required

• Knowledge of customer expectations.
• Ability to translate customer expectations into specific behaviors and actions.
• Develop standards that would be ‘goals to reach’ for such behaviors and actions.
• Develop measurement parameters.

ROLE PLAY

Sandra:

You are the customer relations’ manager of MM Electronics Plc. that manufactures home electronic systems for comfort and entertainment such as Laundromats, dryers, microwave ovens, televisions, VCD/DVD players, satellite receivers, air conditioners etc.

You have invited ten of your customers, prospects for a focus group discussion to find out customer expectations from a 24-hour help line (a call center).

Prepare a brief for the focus group discussion to be announced to the group members (directions for discussion) and conduct a focus group discussion.

Customers:

You own at least one item manufactured by MM Electronics Plc. You have been invited to participate in a focus group discussion.

Q. identifies the skills required to fulfil these parameters. Classify all the skills as human and technical skills.

Skills Required

Technical Skills

• Technical skills are ability to understand the process and carry out actions in providing the service.
  
• Example: skill of operating the billing system in a supermarket, knowledge of brewing the espresso at the coffee house, laying the dishes beautifully on the customer’s table

Human Skills

Human skills are the skills that make your customer feel happy, satisfied, understood

• Example: Listening to your customer patiently, answering with a reassuring tone/voice, trying to organize the customer’s delivery a day early

QUESTION FOR YOU:

Choose any of the following services in groups, envision the extent of technology and human interface required in such a service and the process and prepare a service blueprint starting the customer encounter of the service, complete with both onstage and backstage process and physical evidence.

1. Multi-specialty diagnostic and treatment clinic.
2. Car rental service.
3. Savings Bank.
4. Customer service (hardware and system software) center of a computer manufacturer.
5. Supermarket.
6. Airline.
7. Business process outsourcing (Marketing).

Summary

Skills required in developing service systems are:

• Communication skills to understand customer expectations.
• Understand processes, as the customer would like to go through.
• Ability to develop service process blueprint.
• Ability to translate expectations into behaviors and actions.
• Ability to create standards and measures.

Skills required for effective implementation of service systems are:

• Technical skills – operate/carry out processes as per blueprint.
• Human skills – being friendly, reassuring, answering with a reassuring tone/voice etc.