Unit Descriptor: This unit describes the performance outcomes, skills and knowledge

required to deliver all aspects of customer service at an introductory level. It includes creating
a relationship with customers, identifying their needs, delivering services or products and
processing customer feedback.
Video Transcript

Top notch customer service

Like the famous car manufacturer Henry Ford said, Its not
the employer who pays wages. Employers only handle the
money. Its the customer who pays the wages. So looking after your customers is vital in
securing a good return for the business and ultimately keeping you in a job.
We are going to look at the best way to deliver service to customers in four easy parts:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Establish contact with customers

Identify customer needs
Deliver service to customers
Process and use customer feedback to improve service

Lets focus on the first point now: Establish contact with customers
This step is all about the first impression that you give when you
make contact with your customers. As the old saying goes first
impressions count, and its never more important than the
impression you give your customers.
In any job role where you are dealing with customers you need
to:
Greet customers in a professional manner
Present yourself well

Use your interpersonal skills to communicate

Take into account customers specific needs
Build a genuine rapport with your customers

So we can get an idea of how these points play out in a real life situation were going to join
Alex our eager receptionist at Allied Parts.
Not too long ago Alex was a job seeker, just like you. Alex has been in his new job a few
weeks now, working for the plumbing supply company, Allied Parts as a receptionist. The
company runs a warehouse that distributes all sorts of plumbing parts to tradespeople and
businesses. Allied Parts employ about twenty people who all work in the office and the
warehouse out the back.
Heres what being a receptionist is all about:

You are the first point of contact for the business you are the face of the business.
Youll need to be a great communicator.
You should be great at multi-tasking (or juggling a couple of tasks at once).
No one day is ever the same, its constantly changing.

As a receptionist, Alex is the first point of contact between customers and the
organisation. He plays a really important part in delivering service to the businesss

customers. And this is what were going to focus on first. Businesses would not exist if they
didnt have customers. They are the source of income that a business depends on so it
makes perfect sense to deliver the best customer service possible.
Video Transcript
Lets consider how Alex conducted himself when
it came to our first part of delivering customer
service. The first point well look at is:

Greet customers in a professional manner

Your business will have its own guidelines and procedures for how to present and conduct
yourself when dealing with customers and clients. You will be taken through the guidelines
and procedures during your induction and training process but it is a good idea to consult
them if at any time you feel uncertain of what to say or do or ask your manager or supervisor
to make sure.
Its really important to always greet your customers in a professional and courteous manner.
As we mentioned earlier, in his role as a receptionist, Alex is the first port of call for
customers, so making contact in the most professional and friendly manner will only
strengthen what they think of the organisation.
Starting with a professional greeting strengthens the customers impression of the
business.
When Alex answered the call he started with a friendly good morning, followed by the
companys name and then introduced himself. Following that, Alex asked who was calling
and when the customer asked to speak to Anna, he also asked what it was regarding. Doing
this simplifies the communication process in this way when Anna picks up the call she is
already aware of what the person is calling about.
Asking the caller who they are and what the call is regarding helps to streamline the
communication process.
Before he checked to see if Anna was available, Alex asked the caller if he could put them on
hold. This is a sign of good phone etiquette. Once they agreed, Alex contacted Anna to
inform her of the call. While no one likes being put on hold, its a really important practice as
having someone waiting on the phone listening to you call out or track someone down is very
unprofessional.
Alex then went back to the caller and let them know he was transferring them through. This
shows the person on the phone a high level of professionalism from your organisation.
Keeping the caller informed about whats happening is good professional practice.

Present yourself well

Another element of delivering great customer service is how
you present yourself. This also makes up a large part of how
you are seen by your customers and what impression they get
of the business.

How you present yourself reflects on how the organisation is seen by the customer.
We saw that Alex was wearing smart, casual clothes in the office. A clean and ironed collared
shirt with black dress pants and clean black shoes all of these come together to give a neat
and tidy look to the face of the business. Your personal presentation is a reflection of the
organisation that you work for. So you should dress with that in mind.
Its also important to take into consideration your personal hygiene and appearance. Make
sure that you shower at least once daily, your hair is tidy, you have fresh breath and that you
use deodorant.
Good personal hygiene is vital.
Every business will have guidelines for what clothing is appropriate for its employees to
wear. This may be a uniform supplied by the business or a dress code that employees are
expected to follow. The guidelines will be outlined in your organisational policies and
procedures.
The presentation standards that a business has to, by anti-discriminatory law, take into
account the customs of workers of different cultures and religious practices. For example, it is
common practice for Muslim women to wear the hijab (a scarf or veil which covers the head)
and men who practice the Sikh religion of India to wear a turban (cloth winding that covers
the hair). Just remember to take pride in the way that you present yourself as it reflects upon
you and also the business.
As mentioned above, there are laws that you must follow in every workplace. These laws
apply to everyone in the workplace. Some of the key laws that you need to be aware of in all
workplaces are:

Anti-discrimination legislation
Privacy Laws
Workplace Health and Safety (WHS - also referred to as occupational health and
safety)

Understanding anti-discrimination laws

Most Australian workplaces are governed by the Fair Work Act 2009. Here are some
highlights you need to know about.
What is unlawful workplace discrimination?
Unlawful workplace discrimination occurs when an employer takes adverse action (this
means threatening or unfair treatment) against a person who is an employee or prospective
employee for any of the following reasons:

race
colour
sex
sexual preference
age
physical or mental disability
marital status
family or carers responsibilities
pregnancy
religion
political opinion
nationality or social origin

Who is covered by these laws?

Everyone. It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee. This includes
full-time, part-time and casual employees, probationary employees, apprentices and trainees,
and individuals employed for fixed periods of time or tasks. It is also unlawful to refuse to
hire a prospective employee based on one of the points listed above.
Understanding Ethical Principles
Can you imagine what a nightmare the workplace would be if everyone turned up to work
and just did whatever they wanted, in any way they wanted without a single thought for
others, the law or what their workplace code of conduct requires? This would result in
absolute chaos.
We often hear about treating others the way that we want to be treated, but understanding
ethical principles needs to go a little deeper than that. The two things to remember with
ethical principles is to make sure that all of your words and actions contain the basic building
blocks of trust and respect. A great way to remember to check if your actions are ethical is
to apply the SELF test:

Understanding privacy laws

One of the main things we want you to remember is that you are required by law to keep
personal information that comes across your desk secure, accurate and up-to-date. You must
not share this information with others. If your job does require you to share sensitive
information, then you must get consent from the person concerned.
Imagine if your doctor went around gossipping to everyone about the reason for your visit.
That would be totally unacceptable. Its the same thing you have to do in the workplace to
keep a customers or employees details private and confidential. Imagine if your phone rang
at work and it was a newspaper reporter wanting hot details for a story.
They ask you to let them know what happened in todays staff meeting? What did the boss
say about the company profits? What kind of things is the company spending its money on?
What about some direct quotes to make the story a bit more spicy. A few nice personal details
about the boss, including his mobile number so they can listen in to a few voice messages?
It all sounds pretty amusing, but it is completely serious. Never give out this kind of
information to anyone. Its against the law and grounds to instantly get the sack. So
remember to always:

secure sensitive information

never talk about the details of people including customers
always get consent if sensitive information is legally required by your organisation
always dispose of records, files and confidential information in an appropriate way
according to organisational rules (like shredding documents etc.)

Workplace health and safety

All Australians are covered by laws relating to workplace health and safety under the
Workplace Health and Safety Act. The WHS Act aims to protect the health and safety of
workers, customers, suppliers and other people by eliminating or reducing workplace risks.
Your employers must make sure that your workplace is safe, all equipment and machinery is
safe to use, they provide you with personal protective equipment and provide you with
adequate information and training to be able to work in a safe manner.
As an employee, you must make sure that you always work in a safe manner, and make sure
that your actions do not put other peoples safety or health at risk. You should make sure that
you report any hazards to your manager or supervisor and wear any personal protective
clothing provided.
These laws should all be included in the organisational policies and procedures that you
follow on a daily basis in dealing with customers and building a relationship with them.

Build a genuine rapport with your customers

Alex has done a great job of making Jim feel welcome to the business and has also shown
him that hes genuinely interested in Jims needs as a customer.
Alex offered Jim a glass of water and also was genuinely amused by
Jims comment. This is an excellent way for Alex to build a stronger
relationship with his customer. Its called building a rapport.
To develop a good level of trust with your customer be genuine
and interested in their needs. Focus your attention on one
customer at a time to make them feel looked after.
When you are engaging with a customer and you want to develop a good level of trust with
them, you need to be genuine and interested in the customer and their needs. You should
focus your attention on that customer solely. Dont try and do two things at once while youre
dealing with a customer. This will make them feel like their needs are not important enough
for you to invest time in them.
Active listening (outlined in more detail in the next section of the unit) is a communication
technique that requires the listener to feed back what they hear to the speaker to confirm what
they have heard. Using active listening is an example of using your interpersonal skills in
delivering a service to customers.

Use your interpersonal skills to communicate

Interpersonal skills are the skills that you use to interact with other people. Interpersonal
skills, also called social skills or people skills, in a business workplace generally refers to
your ability to get along with other people - both your fellow employees and your customers.
Customers can include members of the public, suppliers and contacts from other
organisations.
Some examples of good interpersonal skills you can apply in dealing with customers and in
the workplace include:

listening actively to what the other person is communicating

providing the opportunity for the other person to confirm their request
questioning to clarify and confirm the other persons needs
seeking feedback from the other person to confirm understanding of needs
summarising and paraphrasing to check understanding of the other persons message
using appropriate body language and non-verbal communication
being a team player
treating all people with respect and empathy
using positive verbal communication

In the example above, you can see that Alex is personable and approachable. These are
examples of Alex using his interpersonal skills. He is warm and friendly towards his
customers both over the phone and in person making them feel welcome and looked after.
His friendly nature helps him deliver a great service to his clients.
What it means is, if you You should approach your daily tasks with a smile on your face and
a positive attitude and you will have more success than if you were flat and grumpy. Alex is
able to use a great combination of verbal and non-verbal communication interpersonal skills
to interact with people.
Effective verbal and non-verbal communication helps you build rapport with your
customers
Verbal Communication is any form of communication that involves words - spoken, written
or signed. The greeting you give to a customer, the message that you take over the phone and
the email you send to a customer are all examples of verbal communication. For your verbal
communication to be effective you should:

be clear and specific

summarise what you have said or ask the other person to summarise
make it positive
be friendly

Non-verbal communication includes body language, facial expressions, eye contact and
posture. Non-verbal communication can be used to express emotions, communicate
interpersonal relationships, support verbal communication and reflect personality. When
interacting with your customers and work colleagues, effective non-verbal communication
and positive body language includes:

smiling
maintaining good eye contact
nodding in agreement
open body language(eg.not having you arms crossed)
come down to the customers level to make direct eye contact
maintain the other persons personal space
having good personal presentation

Take into account customers specific needs

Every customer you will serve will be different in some way. Whether its age, cultural
background, physical ability, language ability or religion, there are a lot of different
influencing factors that will affect how you deal with your
customers on a daily basis. The most important thing to do is to
be sensitive to the differences of each customer.
Consider the following examples:

If a client doesnt speak English very well you will need to speak slowly and clearly,
so they can get the best understanding of what you are saying
An elderly customer who is hard of hearing or with poor vision may require extra
patience or additional assistance to read through and understand paperwork or the
costs associated with an invoice
You may need to give directions or offer assistance to a customer or client who may
require wheelchair access to enter and/or move around the building
Parents with young children have their own needs plus the needs of their children who
are often grumpy or demanding.

It takes all kinds of people to make the world go round. Realising this and being sensitive to
the specific needs of others around you is an essential part of your role in delivering stellar
customer service.
Every customer is different in some way, so take this into account when catering to their
needs.
Before we move on, lets revise what weve just covered.
Establish Contact with customers
When it comes to establishing contact with customers there are a few things you should
always make sure you do and they are:

Greet customers in a professional manner

Present yourself well
Use your interpersonal skills to communicate
Take into account customers specific needs
Build a genuine rapport with your customers