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Customer Service II

PG Diploma in Hospitality Management

Customer Service and Quality Systems – Session 2

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Objectives

• Understand importance of good customer service

• Use good listening and questioning techniques

• Follow standards of good practice when using the

telephone

• Understand the principles of handling customer

complaints

• Design a training course on “Handling Customer

Complaints”

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Review Questions

• Why is Customer Service important?

• What is meant by an internal customer and why is this idea important?

• What expectations does the customer/guest have of the organisation?

• What expectations do employees have of their working environment?

• What expectations does the employer have of the employee?

• Why is it important to project a professional image?

• What should you do to project a professional image?

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Life-time value of a customer =Estimated Annual sales x Potential no. of years as customer

• Mrs. Brown spends an average of £100 a week, which is £5,200 a year

• Let us assume she uses our establishment for ten years

• Life-time value of this customer = £5,200 x 10 = £52,000

Life Time Value of a Customer

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Ripple Effects

• That’s not all, the ripple effect says that an upset customer tells, on average 11 other people, who in return will tell 5 more people maybe even more, so the actual loss could be:

• No of people likely to hear of the loss:

1 + 11 + (11*5) = 67

• Loss of business from each : £5200 p. a.

• Total loss in a year = 67 x 5200 = £348,400 p.a.

• This could lower the sales figures, which in turn could mean job cuts!!!

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Face-to Face Communication

• What can you do to ensure that you are effective at face-to-face communication?

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Communicating

• When communicating we want to:-

• Be listened to

• Be understood

• Have our ideas accepted

• Have some action taken as a result

• Have a follow-up check to make sure that the action did take place to the receiver’s satisfaction

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Effective Communications

• Increases quality of service• Saves time• Improves customer care• Avoids misunderstandings• Builds good relationships• Creates a positive atmosphere • Encourages open discussion• Allows for achievement of goals

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Ineffective Communications

• Hampers relationships• Wastes time• Affects customers and colleagues• Destroys morale• Creates a negative atmosphere• Builds a negative reputation• Hampers achievement of goals

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Four Messages

• What you mean to say

• What you actually say

• What the other person hears

• What the other person thinks they heard

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Listening

• Chinese whispers

• Why do people find it difficult to listen?

• Do not understand

• Think we hear things that are not said

• Make things up

• Tiredness

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Good Listening

• Look at people• Turn off negative

thoughts• Lean towards people• Start with the first

word • Don’t jump ahead

• Do not interrupt• Nod• Ask Questions• Stick to the subject

• Use their name and use “you”

• Ask closed questions to check understanding

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Questioning Technique

• Open QuestionsWho - What - Why - Where - How – WhenUsed to find out what the guest is thinking

• Give examples of open questions

• Closed QuestionsDo you?, Are you?, Is it?, Have you?To summarise and check back the facts

• Give examples of closed questions

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Questioning Exercise

• Working in pairs, you are to write a play script for a customer service problem.

• One student should adopt the point-of-view of a guest who has the problem of a minor annoyance that he was not intending to complain about.

• The other student should use open-ended questions and closed questions to find out about the problem and to begin the process of resolving it.

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Using the Telephone

• What do you use the telephone for?

• What standards should be applied when:– Answering the phone?– Taking messages?– Transferring a call?

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Why use the Phone?

• To assist in providing customer care

• To take bookings

• To make arrangements

• For information gathering

• Looking for customers

• Solving customer problems

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Telephone Answering

Smile … as you answer the phone

• Aim to answer within 4 rings

• Offer a greeting - as appropriate

• Avoid asking people to hold

• Say “Company / Department / Your Name”

• Offer help e.g. “How may I help you?”

• If you do not answer within 4 rings say to the caller “Thank you for waiting”

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Handling the Call

• When you have found out the caller’s name, use it

• Deal with the specific enquiry

• Ask if any other assistance is required

• Say ‘Thank you’ and ‘Goodbye’

• Let the caller put the phone down first in caser they wish to ask anything else

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Transferring the Call

• Explain to the caller why the call is being transferred and to whom you are transferring

• Explain to the person you are transferring to, the caller’s name, and what the call is about - be factual but not emotional

• Use the caller’s name

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Transferring cont.

Transferring:

• If no-one answers offer to:– Transfer to another person / department

– Attempt to deal with it yourself (if appropriate)

– Put the call back to switchboard / Take a message

• Take ownership

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When taking a message take all the details and repeat the message and any information back to the caller :

– Name

– Telephone Number (including STD Code and extension as appropriate)

– Brief message

– Name of the person / section the message is for

– Time and date of the call

• Take personal responsibility to make sure messages are passed on quickly to the correct person / section

Telephone Messages

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• Always respond to any messages from a caller – whoever they are – remember you are projecting the image of the company

• When you receive messages, do not wait for callers to call you – you will be less in control of the situation if they ring you back first

• Get as much information as possible about the situation before you call people back – create a professional image

Acting on Messages

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Customer Complaints

• For each customer who complains, how many are dissatisfied but do not tell you?

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Handling Complaints

What are they?An opportunity to:• make things right • turn dissatisfied customers into

delighted customers • show you care • turn complainers into ambassadors

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Calming Customers

Listening Actively show you are listening

Empathy

Show that you do care and are concerned

Agreeing on Common GroundFind something to agree with

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Your LAST Chance

• Listen

• Apologise

• Solve

• Thank –

• Make the most of your LAST chance!

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Designing a Training Course

• Define your delegate profile

• Identify your learning objectives

• Decide how to enable your delegates to learn these points using different activitieseg. Listening to the instructor, class discussion, group discussion, reporting back to the whole group, role play

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The Lesson Plan

• Introduction

• Activities

• Conclusion

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Exercise

• You are a junior manager in a top quality hotel. You have been asked, at short notice, to give a short training course to new recruits inexperienced in the industry, on the subject of “Handling Customer Complaints”

• Design a lesson plan for your training session