BSBCUS301 Student Book V1.0715

STUDENT
BOOK
BUSINESS
COLLEGE
CERTIFICATE III
BUSINESS
Deliver and
monitor a service
to customers
BSBCUS301
COURSE CODE
Student Workbook
BSBCUS301 Deliver and monitor a
service to customers
1st Edition 2015
Part of a suite of support materials for the
BSB Business Services Training Package
Acknowledgement
Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council (IBSA) would like to acknowledge
HASCOM Pty Ltd for their assistance with the development of the resource for
BSBCUS301A.
Revised for BSBCUS301B by IBSA.
Revised by IBSA for BSBCUS301 (2015)
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Published by: Innovation and Business Industry

Skills Council Ltd
Level 11
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East Melbourne VIC 3002
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www.ibsa.org.au
ISBN: 978-1-925328-74-5
Stock code: BSBCUS3011D
First published: June 2015

1st edition version: 1
Release date: June 2015
Table of Contents
Introduction
Features of the training program
Structure of the training program
Recommended reading
Section 1 Identify customer needs
What skills will you need?
What is customer service?
Identifying customer needs
Communicate effectively and discuss options
15
Provide customer service within your organisation
23
Legal requirements and codes of practice
32
Section summary
40
Further reading
41
Section checklist
41
Section 2 Deliver a Service to Customers
42
43
Following organisational requirements to deliver a service
43
Developing rapport
49
Customer complaints
53
Identify opportunities to promote products
59
Section summary
63
Further reading
63
Section checklist
64
Section 3 Monitor and report on customer service
65
66
Principles of quality customer service and best practice models
66
Monitoring customer service
70
Measuring customer satisfaction and service performance
78
Monitoring team performance
85
Reviewing data and making recommendations
91
Recording and presenting data and recommendations
95
Writing professional reports
98
Section summary
101
Further reading
102
Section checklist
102
BSBCUS301 Deliver and monitor a service to customers

Glossary
103
Answers to selected learning activities
106
Appendices
109
Appendix 1 Melbourne Car World business plan
109
Appendix 2 Melbourne Car World organisational chart
110
Appendix 3 Melbourne Car World customer service policy
111
Appendix 4 Melbourne Car World policy and procedures for customer

consultation
112
Appendix 5 Melbourne Car World Customer service charter and consent

form
115
Appendix 6 Melbourne Car World Customer segment profiles
116
Appendix 7 Melbourne Car World Product comparison information
117
Appendix 8 Melbourne Car World Customer satisfaction survey
118
Appendix 9 Melbourne Car World privacy policy
119
Appendix 10 Melbourne Car World anti-discrimination policy
122
Appendix 11 Melbourne Car World customer service survey
123
Appendix 12 Survey examples
124
Appendix 13 How to insert a graph in Excel 2007
126

Student Workbook
Introduction
Introduction
Features of the training program
The key features of this program are:
Student Workbook Self-paced learning activities to help you to develop an
understanding of key concepts and terms. The Student Workbook is broken down
into several sections.
Facilitator-led sessions Challenging and interesting learning activities that can be
completed in the classroom or by distance learning that will help you consolidate
and apply what you have learned in the Student Workbook.
Assessment Tasks Summative assessments where you can apply your new skills
and knowledge to solve authentic workplace tasks and problems.
Structure of the training program

This training program introduces you to deliver and monitor a service to customers.
Specifically, you will develop the skills and knowledge in the following topic areas:
1. Identify customer needs
2. Deliver a service to customers
3. Monitor and report on service delivery.
Your facilitator may choose to combine or split sessions. For example, in some cases, this
training program may be delivered in two or three sessions, or in others, as many as eight
sessions.
Recommended reading
Books
Bartol, K. and Tein, M., 2004, Management a Pacific Rim focus, 4th edn, McGraw
Hill, NSW.
Botton, R., 2002, People skills, McPhersons Printing Group, Australia.
Connolly, R. and Rock, P., 1999, Managing Australian business: corporate, human
resources, operations, 3rd edn, VCTA Publishing, Melbourne.

Dwyer, J., 2006, The business communications handbook, Pearson Education,
NSW.
McColl-Kennedy, J. R. and Kiel, G. C., 1999, Marketing: a strategic approach,
Nelson ITP, South Melbourne.


Page 1 of 126
Introduction
Student Workbook
Websites:
Change Factory, viewed June 2015, <http://www.changefactory.com.au>.
FAQs, Do Not Call Register, viewed June 2015,
<https://www.donotcall.gov.au/consumerfaq.cfm>.
Institute of Customer Service, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com>.
Documents within websites:

ACMA, 2015, Understanding spam, Australian Communications and Media
Authority, viewed June 2015, <http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/understandingspam-i-acma>.

Australian Government, 2011, The Australian consumer survey report, Australian
Consumer Law, viewed June 2015, <http://www.consumerlaw.gov.au/content/

Content.aspx?doc=consumer_survey/survey_overview.htm>.
Australian eMarketing Code Development Committee, 2005, Australian eMarketing
Code of practice March 2005, Australian Communications and Media Authority,

viewed June 2015, <http://archive.treasury.gov.au/documents/1083/PDF/
australian_guidelines_for_electronic_commerce.pdf>.
CR Kit, Conflict Resolution Network, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.crnhq.org/pages.php?pID=12>.
Handling complaints, Institute of Customer Service, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/168-2158/Handlingcomplaints.html>.
Fact sheets for use in the workplace, Australian Human Rights Commission
Information for Employers, viewed June 2015, <http://www.hreoc.gov.au/

info_for_employers/fact/index.html>.
APP quick reference tool, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner,
viewed June 2015, <http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-resources/privacyguides/app-quick-reference-tool>.

Model work health and safety Act, Safe Work Australia, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/model-whs-laws/model-whsact/pages/model-whs-act>.
Codes of practice, business.gov.au, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/selling-products-and-services/fairtrading/Pages/codes-of-practice.aspx>.
Please note that any URLs contained in the recommended reading, learning content and
learning activities of this publication were checked for currency during the production
process. Note, however, that IBSA cannot vouch for the ongoing currency of URLs.
Every endeavour has been made to provide a full reference for all web links. Where URLs
are not current we recommend using the reference information provided to search for the
source in your chosen search engine.

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Student Workbook

This section looks at the skills and knowledge you need so that you can to identify
customer needs. In particular, this section focuses on:
defining customer service
identifying important customer service skills
using interpersonal skills to identify and clearly understand what customers need
and expect
using clear and easy-to-understand communication to discuss product and service
options
following organisational and legal requirements.
Scenario: Melbourne Car World

Melbourne Car World is a growing business. It was founded in 2007 by CEO Florence
Mehra and business partner Sven Berg. It started out as a single Melbourne car
dealership in the citys north. Since then, the business has expanded to include two
other dealerships: East and West.
Melbourne Car World places a great deal of emphasis on customer service and
business ethics.
To show company values and to make the most of the growing market trend towards
larger working families, Melbourne Car World has partnered with XYZ Childcare to run
childrens play and learning centres in all dealerships for staff and customers.
Members of the customer service teams at the dealerships are expected to follow
organisational requirements and legal requirements to provide quality customer service
to customers.
Requirements include:
building customer relationships through interpersonal skills such as active
listening
uncovering customer needs
understanding how urgently the customers needs should be met
asking for advice and assistance.


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Student Workbook

To provide customer service, you will need to:
define customer service and customers
use interpersonal skills to understand a customers needs and expectations
discuss options with customers that match their needs
follow organisational and legal requirements.
What is customer service?

Customer service is the way an organisation
interacts with a customer to meet their needs. A
customers needs could be their expectations about
the quality of the product, delivery time and easeof-use. Providing service to a customer can include:
additional services that are provided to
customers during, before and after a

purchase, for example, tracking on parcels
that are being sent to customers so that they
know where there parcel is
ensuring that the customer is satisfied with
the product or service

meeting the expectations of customers
through products or services. 1
Products and services

A product is a physical item
such as food or a car. A service
is an action such as providing
labour, or giving advice.
An organisation may sell
products, or sell services, or sell
a mixture of both.
If you go to a hairdresser for a
haircut, you are purchasing a
service. If you decide to buy
shampoo while you are there,
then the hairdresser is also
selling you a product.
Organisations provide different types and levels of service to customers. Some

organisations mainly provide services such as medical clinics, resorts, restaurants, legal
firms or accounting organisations. Other organisations provide customer service in
addition to the physical products they sell such as a car dealership or a mechanic.
Customer service can be delivered through a
number of different channels. In other words,
customers may interact with the organisation
online, over the telephone, or face-to-face.
Generally, the type and level of customer service
offered through these channels should meet or
exceed customer expectations.
Customer service channels
A customer service channel

refers to the way customer
service is delivered to a
customer. Examples include:
internet
face-to-face
telephone.
Adapted from Turban, E., 2006, Electronic commerce: a managerial perspective, 4th edn, Prentice Hall,
New Jersey.
1

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During and after the purchase, the customer will

interact with a customer service representative
(CSR). The customer service representatives are the
public face of the organisation because they are the
people that support the customer. The goal of an
organisation, and the CSR, should be to ensure that
the quality of customer service meets or exceeds the
expectations of the customer.
Key customer service skills include:
effective listening and communication skills
product and pricing knowledge
What is a CSR?
CSR stands for customer service
representative.
CSR is a general term that can
apply to many industries and
jobs. In some jobs, a CSR will
have a job title that is specific to
that role. In a bank, a bank teller
is a CSR, sales person in a retail
shop is a CSR, as is a
receptionist in a doctors office.
relating well to others

making your presence felt letting the customer know you are happy to serve them
giving the customer enough personal space.
Learning activity: What is your definition of customer service?

Reflect on your own experience with customer service.
Write your own definition of customer service.
Discuss with your peers.

What is similar or different about your definitions?


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Student Workbook
What is a customer? Who is a provider?

A customer is someone who receives a product or
service from someone else. Usually a customer is
buying the product from a shop or organisation.
The product can be a tangible item or it can be a
service. A tangible item is something physical that
you can see or touch including an object like a car
or mobile phone.
The provider is the organisation or individual who
is providing the customer or service.
Tangible
A tangible item is something
physical that you can see or
touch including an object like a
car or house or even a pet.
The word tangible can also be
used to mean something that is
easy to understand; it is not
imaginary or unclear.
It is easy to recognise the customer/provider

relationship when you buy bread from a baker. You are the customer, the bread is the
product, and the baker the provider.
Types of customers/providers
There are two main types of customers: external customers and internal customers. An
external customer is one that does not work for the organisation that he or she is
receiving the product or service from. When you buy bread from the bakery, you are also
an external customer. When you visit a doctor, you are an external customer.
An internal customer receives a service from someone inside the organisation. For
example, a secretary who types a letter for a manager to sign is providing the manager
with a product (the letter). In this example, the secretary is the provider and the manager
is the internal customer.
Remember, customer service representatives may be internal customers for products and
services which they, in turn, provide to (external) customers.
Example: Internal and external customers
In the diagram above, each person is expecting someone else to provide a job or
service, even though some of those people are internal customers who work within the
same organisation!
Think about jobs that you have done.
Who were your internal and external customers?

Have you had to struggle in a job because people didnt treat you like a
customer?

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Student Workbook
Learning activity: Who helps who?

Look at the flow chart and think about where customer service relationships may exist
within an organisation and with external customers. Who are the customers and who
are the customer service providers?
Before we begin to look at techniques for identifying customer needs, it may be useful to
step back a moment and consider your own experience with customer service.
Learning activity: Survey to identify and reflect on customer service experiences
Have you experienced poor customer service? Were you an external or internal
customer?
Yes
No
Have you ever been treated poorly when receiving a service?

Have you ever had to stand and wait to be served?
Have you seen disgruntled customers?
Have you completed a customer feedback form?
Have you waited on the phone for prolonged periods for customer service?
Have you ever complained about poor service?
Have you ever stopped buying a product because of poor customer service?
Reflect on an example of bad service you have received.

What did you need from the service or organisation?


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Student Workbook
What did you expect to get?
What skills did the customer service representative (CSR) demonstrate?
What advice would you give to the CSR to improve?
Identifying customer needs

Customers have come to your business to receive either a product or a service. These
services might be for business use, personal use or for leisure activities. It may be that
these products or services are purchased by the customer or are provided free to them.
Some of these are necessities while others are items or services they desire.
Think about the following situations and work out what customers want, need or desire:
Purchasing bread from a bakery.
Ringing to enquire about an
advertisement seen in the paper.

Ringing to place an advertisement in
the paper.
Going into a shop to enquire about
something seen in the window.
Having a haircut.
Getting a car fixed.
Going to the movies.
Buying new clothes from a shop.
Booking holiday flights over the
Purchasing a meal at a fine dining
phone.

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restaurant.

Student Workbook
Identify types of customer needs

To provide a useful service to customers, you must satisfy their needs and expectations.
There are six basic types of customer need. 2
Information
Customers need information at all stages of the buying process.

1. Identifying a need or a problem: For example, what do I need?
Do I need a desktop computer or a laptop?
2. Researching and information gathering. For example, what
kinds of laptops are available?
3. Thinking through options: For example, what are the features
and benefits of various types of laptops?
4. Purchasing/using.
5. Seeking after-sales information or support: For example, how do
I replace a faulty disk drive?
Choices
Customers need choice, whether it is in the range of products and

services or in finding solutions to problems. The CSR will need to think
of different options to satisfy customer needs in a variety of
situations.
Control
Customers need to feel that they are in control of the buying process,
not that they are being forced into buying a product or service they
dont want.
Fairness
Customers want to get a fair price and be treated as well as other

customers.
Friendliness
Customers need to be welcomed, respected and accepted.
Empathy
Customers want service providers to demonstrate understanding

that they can walk in (the customers) shoes.
To provide a customer service, you will need to find out what the needs of your customer
may be. Using information about customers that has already been gathered by your
organisation can help you understand what future customers may be.
Information sourced and used with the permission of Kevin Dwyer and the change factory:
Customer needs analysis, Change Factory, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.changefactory.com.au/our-thinking/articles/customer-needs-analysis/>.
2


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Student Workbook
Use information gathered by the organisation

Organisations may use a number of different methods for identifying customer needs. The
following list provides some common examples of ways to find out more information
about what customers need:
suggestion boxes
telephone interviews and
questionnaires
paper surveys/email questionnaires
previous point-of-contact questioning,
internet questionnaires
during a customer interaction.
focus groups
In face-to-face interactions with customers, customer service representatives can benefit

greatly from information gathered in the ways above. This information you can save time
by focusing CSRs on what the customers are most likely to need. For example, if you are
selling mobile phones and you are talking to a person who has identified themselves as a
manager in a large firm, you may know from research that such people often require
email access on their phone. So, you might begin asking questions about corporate email,
rather than starting by asking questions about what colour they want the phone to be.
Use interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills are the skills that help you to clearly communicate with others and
relate to people from a variety of backgrounds (e.g., people with high and low incomes,
people from all sorts of cultural backgrounds, people of all ages).
To understand customer needs, you will need to demonstrate interpersonal skills such as
the following:
active listening
provide opportunities for the customer to
confirm their request

ask questions to clarify and confirm
customer needs
seek feedback from the customer to confirm
your understanding of their needs

summarise and paraphrase what the
Active listening
Active listening uses actions and
feedback to improve listening.
Active listening improves the
listeners ability to understand
and remember what is being
said. It also helps the speaker to
feel understood and respected.
customer is saying to check your

understanding of their message
use appropriate body language to show your interest and understanding.
Learning activity: Interpersonal skills

Why do you think the following skills are so important to have when dealing with
customers?
Listening actively to what
the customer is
communicating.

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Student Workbook
Questioning to clarify and

confirm customer needs.
Seeking feedback from the

customer to confirm
understanding of needs.
Summarising and
paraphrasing to check
understanding of the
customers message.
Using appropriate body
language.
To engage with customers effectively to uncover needs, customer service representatives

need to use customer information gathered previously by the organisation, ask questions
and listen effectively. Lets look at listening in more detail.
Use active listening

In a face-to-face or live customer interaction (for example, an interaction over the phone
or online chat), demonstrate your respect for your customer and their needs by using
active listening. Active listening comprises four processes. The four processes are: asking
questions, paraphrasing, using verbal prompts and demonstrating commitment. Active
listening is a skill that requires practise and will develop over time if you work at it.
Using verbal
prompts
Use words such as yes, I see, and OK whilst the other person is
talking to show youre paying attention. Take care to use these
words meaningfully. Do not say OK or I see in order to make the
customer feel better when you dont actually understand what they
are saying.
Asking questions
Try to engage with the person you are listening to by asking

questions. Show interest in what they are saying and try to build a
positive relationship. Seek clarification of the issue to find out what
the core problem is. Be empathetic, not assertive.
Paraphrasing
From time-to-time summarise or recap what the person has said to

you. This serves two purposes: to confirm to yourself that you
understand what has been said, and also to let the other person
know that you have been listening.


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Demonstrating
commitment
Student Workbook
Demonstrating commitment serves two purposes to show the

person you are listening to that they have your full attention, and
also to ensure that you dont get distracted during the
conversation. Demonstrate commitment by making eye contact, or,
over the phone, by eliminating potential distractions such as
background noise. It is really important when listening to someone
over the phone that paperwork, the computer and background
sounds dont distract you. Firstly you will miss the subtle message
behind what the customer is saying communicated through tone
of voice, the speed of their voice, changes in their volume. Also,
customers will hear paper rustling or the keyboard being tapped
which they may find distracting or they may think that you are not
paying full attention to them.
Learning activity: Active listening YouTube

Watch this video on YouTube to learn called active listening presented by Jeffrey
Berman: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AxNI3PhvBo>.
After watching the video, spend a few minutes with another person and practise active
listening. Take turns to talk on any topic that you like, and once you have both had a go,
summarise the conversation that has just taken place. Ask your partner for feedback
and how you made them feel.
Lets look at two active listening skills in more detail: asking questions and paraphrasing.
These skills are particularly important for understanding customer needs, service
problems and proposing relevant advice and solutions.
Use effective questioning

When you ask customers questions, you be trying to find out:
what product or service the customer
is interested in
what the urgency of the purchase is

whether there are any opportunities
for enhancement.
what the customers specific needs
are
There are two main types of questions closed questions and open questions. Open
questions start with:
What
Who
Why
Where
When
How
Open questions force people to talk more and open up. Encouraging people to talk further
by using periods of silence, or using specific phrases to encourage people to talk is an
important skill to master to help customers relax and encourage them to share their
needs with you. There are five basic categories of phrases that encourage people to talk:
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Encouraging
Can you tell me more?
Clarifying
When did this happen?
Restating
(paraphrasing)
So you would like to move to another room if we cannot

fix the air-conditioning by three oclock, is that right?
Summarising
Confirming the most important ideas expressed by the

customer.
Validating
I appreciate your understanding while we take the

necessary steps to resolve this matter.
Use closed questions to clarify and verify what the customer thinks. Closed questions
have a strictly limited number of possible answers. Closed questions will result in short
answers, often single words such as yes/no, a date, or dollar figure, for example.
Knowing which type of question to ask is extremely useful in determining what your
customer actually needs. You will need to know when to use open and closed questions
depending on when each is needed during the customer contact. Basically, open
questions are used to explore, while closed questions are to get to the details.
You should choose the appropriate type of question for the situation you are in and the
amount of information you require. For example, a car salesman might start by asking a
customer an open question such as what sort of driving they do.
Having identified that they drive mainly alone and use the car for doing errands around
town, some closed questions might be introduced such as:
What is your budget?
How much space do you need?
Do you need to be able to tow a trailer?
Summarise and paraphrase

Summarising and paraphrasing your customers needs is a very useful tool when it comes
to understanding and confirming what your customer wants.
Paraphrasing is basically putting what the customer has said into different words in order
to make sure you understand them correctly.


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Student Workbook
Lets take a look at some examples of paraphrasing:

Examples: Paraphrasing
Here are some examples of how you use paraphrasing in a question to make sure that
you understand a customer correctly:
So what youre saying is that this experience made you really upset?
Are you saying that youve tried many fitness programs but none of them have
met your needs?

So, you think that you would feel a lot more confident if you were shown how to
do this?
So youre saying that the directions must be followed to the letter to ensure
mistakes are not made?

You seem a bit worried about that.
You think that the problem should have been resolved differently, is that correct?
Learning activity: Identify customer needs

Consider your own organisation, or an organisation you are familiar with. Locate
relevant policies for customer interactions. If you cannot find a suitable organisation,
use Melbourne Car World and the policies provided in the appendices of this Student
Workbook.
1. List information on customer characteristics.

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Student Workbook
2. Write a short script in which a customer approaches a customer service

representative and the CSR proceeds to use active listening to uncover customer
needs. Use both open and closed questioning techniques. Include summarising
and paraphrasing.
Communicate effectively and discuss options

Good communication helps a customer feel like you care about their needs and it also
helps the customer service representative to understand the specific needs of the
customer. Good communication is important regardless of the channel that is being used
face-to-face, on the telephone, through email, or online. CSRs will need to assist
customers to explain their needs using techniques discussed above and use
communication skills to clearly explain options for meeting customer needs such as
different products or services or different combinations or packages of product/service
offerings.
Use appropriate language

The way we use words is important. Words can have a strong effect on customers; their
moods, feelings and their attitude to themselves and others. If you treat everyone with
respect, dignity and equality, you are less likely to cause offense. Try not to make
assumptions about your customer because of the way they look or speak.

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Student Workbook
There are a few things that you should keep in mind about the words you choose to use in
your customer interactions.
Address a customer by their name This is a good way to help them understand
that you are treating them as an individual and that you want to know what their
specific need or problem is.
Avoid nicknames and informal terms Referring to a job title or group of people
using nicknames, or your own terms can sound demeaning. For example, referring
to the IT technician as the IT kid can make that job sound trivial; it is
unprofessional and does not communicate respect.
Avoid technical language Be as clear; technical terms or jargon can confuse
customers if the terms are not properly explained. Think back to your first day in a
new job or in a new class and remember how difficult it was when everybody
seemed to speak a language you didnt understand. Where possible in the
workplace, avoid the use of technical terms unless it is necessary. Where
necessary, make sure that your listeners understand the terminology, and explain
any terms they are unfamiliar with.
Be aware of body language

Your body also speaks to customers through your stance, movements and mannerisms. If
you are not careful, you can communicate unfriendliness or boredom, for instance,
without even knowing it.
Make eye contact with your customer, when appropriate, and position yourself so that it is
clear that you are paying attention. Always maintain a posture of openness and
involvement and show that you are interested. People are very sensitive to unspoken
messages and will often put more value on how the person appears, than on the words
they use to say it. There are six basic types of non-verbal communication:
Kinesics
The way you move your body. Does the way you move show that you
are relaxed or that you are tense, for example?
Gesture
Deliberate movement to mean something: some gestures have

particular meanings (e.g. three fingers for the number three).
Facial
expressions
Expressions carry most of our nonverbal meanings: expressions for

happiness, sadness, distress, fear, anger and surprise are similar
across cultures.

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Spatial
relations
Friends are more comfortable standing close to each other than

strangers. Women are usually more comfortable standing closer
together than men. Similarly, people from some countries, such as
the USA, are more comfortable standing closer together than, say,
people from Australia or the UK. Standing closer to someone can
indicate friendliness. On the other hand, standing too close to a
customer may be intimidating. Make sure that you watch the facial
expressions and manners of your customers to adjust your position
according to how comfortable or uncomfortable they appear to be.
Touch
Touch may be used for control, for teaching or for showing affection.
Naturally, touch needs to be used carefully and within ethical and
organisational requirements. Touch, however, could be an effective
way to guide a customer through the process of adjusting clothing,
for example. Touch may indicate to your customer both your
friendliness and confidence.
Display
Presentation of self (clothing, decoration of space). Many

organisations will have policies and procedures for dressing
appropriately for the workplace.
Avoid potential misunderstandings

Misunderstandings in customer service will occur from time to time. In some instances,
this may be a result of a misunderstanding of communication.
Communicating verbally, especially over the telephone, has potential for creating
misunderstandings. We continually distort, delete mishear and misunderstand what other
people say to us.
Miscommunication may be influenced by:
Our values people reject what offends their values rather than listen for the
message.
Our mood people misunderstand or ignore much of the communication when they
are in a bad mood. As they are concentrating on themselves, they mishear because
they are not listening.
Our upbringing and experience people filter out what they have heard a thousand
times before.
Our personality if you are an outgoing person listening to a detailed precise
person, for example, you may stop listening after a few minutes because the
communication does not interest you.
When dealing with customers, you will need to make sure that you are aware of possible
misunderstandings. Listen carefully and ask questions to ensure your understanding of
the customer is correct. Likewise, you should be aware of ways the customer may
misunderstand you.


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Remain calm if a customer is becoming aggravated. If you respond in a similar manner

when a customer is becoming irritable, it is likely to make the situation worse. Again, ask
questions to ensure you are not misunderstood. Be prepared to explain yourself using
other words or actions.
Learning activity: Reading your customer
The table below lists behaviour or actions that can occur during customer service
interactions. The right column lists possible interpretations of that behaviour.
Complete the table below. In the far right columns show if you agree or disagree with the
possible meanings.
Behaviour or
action
Remaining silent
when accused of
doing something
wrong
Nodding and
saying mmm
What it means
Agree
Disagree
Agree
Disagree
I am at fault.
I am upset at being falsely accused.
I am agreeing with you.
I am only listening, but not agreeing.
I understand all that is said. I am fine.
Silence
I do not understand anything. I am shy.

I am not interested or listening to you.
Behaviour or
action
Smiling
Eye contact
What it means
I agree and enjoy what you are saying.
I disagree with you and this is how I show it.
I am polite and respectful. To look away
would signal dishonesty and avoidance.
I am challenging you.
Poor eye contact

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I am not listening and being disrespectful.

It is rude to engage in eye contact.

Student Workbook
Behaviour or
action
What it means
Agree
Disagree
I intend to carry out my threat and this is a

signal.
Verbal threat
I am using a harmless way of expression

frustration and having fun. Threats do not
have any real meaning.
I am interested in what youre saying.
Asking questions
I am attacking you by asking questions.

I am ignorant and have not prepared for the
meeting.
Ask a friend or classmate to also complete this activity and compare your answers. You
may be surprised how different their answers may be to yours. What sorts of differences
did you find?
How can you check understanding and recognise misunderstanding when it
occurs?
What can you do if misunderstanding occurs?


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Discuss product options

You will often need to provide customers with a range of options to satisfy their product
and service needs. Often, organisations will package products and services to meet the
needs of typical customers. You will need to identify packages appropriate to particular
customers, taking care to follow all associated rules. For example, telecommunications
providers may offer bundled packages in which customers with a minimum number of
services may receive discounts. Rules would apply as to what services and which
customers are eligible. Similar packaging or bundling options are offered by utility
providers.
You need to know the products and services that your company supplies or know how to
find the information that you dont know. You need to be able to refer your customer to
the correct person to meet their needs is vital in keeping your customer happy.
Product/service classifications
Products/services can be broken into three main elements:
Core: looking at the benefits the product will provide
Actual: the products in tangible terms
Augmented: after-sales service and other additional features of a product or
service.
Example: Consider a computer

Consider a laptop computer. When you buy a laptop,
you are thinking in terms of:
Core product creating documents, using the
internet, carrying important information with you

when you travel, storing photos and other
information, entertainment.
Actual Product you consider the tangible
features such as the speed, hard disk capacity,

amount of RAM, colour, size, weight, shape,
battery life and accessories (power cord, printers, memory cards).
Augmented product brand image, warranty, delivery, maintenance, service
centres, included software.

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Consumer products can also be classified into: convenient products, shopping products,
speciality products and unsought products.
Convenience
products
These products appeal to most people. They are used regularly

and are purchased often. Examples include most household items
such as food and personal care products.
Shopping
products
These products are consumed less frequently compared to

convenience products. Consumers are happy to spend more time
and money when looking to purchase these products. Examples
include clothing products, furniture, electronic products, and
personal services.
Specialty
products
Customers usually already know which product they prefer and

will not shop to compare products, but may compare retailers that
provide the best value and service. Examples include high-end
luxury automobiles, expensive champagne, and celebrity perfume.
Unsought
products
These products are purchased by customers who don't initially

have a planned idea of what they are going to buy. Marketing
plays an important role because most customers buy unsought
products based on impulsive decisions.
Features and benefits

A very useful way of categorising products or services is to consider features and benefits.
Features are the actual qualities of a product or service. For example, a mobile phone
may have several features:
video calling
8 Megapixel camera
email functionality.
It is very important to be able to explain the features and specifications of various

products or services. Often organisations may offer a range of very similar products. In
such cases, you will need to carefully compare product features.
Benefits may be unique to individuals or types of customers. For example, not everyone
wants or needs a mobile phone with an 8 megapixel camera. So, while the camera is a
feature of the phone, not all customers will see it as a benefit. Important questions you
should ask yourself when interacting with a customer are:
How is my customer going to use this feature?
How will the feature benefit the customer?
How will I explain the benefit?
Do I know enough about my customers needs or lifestyle to explain the benefits of
various features?

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You need to be able to provide the customer with all the necessary information so that
they are able to understand how the product/service will benefit them:
Will it improve my lifestyle?
Will it solve problems?
Will it save time?
Will it impress others?
Will it increase efficiency?
Learning activity: Product and service features and benefits

Watch the video BSBCUS301A: Product and service features and benefits on IBSAs
YouTube channel at <http://www.youtube.com/ibsachannel>.
1. Eric Koundouris mentions five points at the beginning of the video. How do some
of these tips benefit customers?
2. As Eric explains how they run the supermarket, write down three ways that the
supermarket is managed to provide the best service for customers.

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Provide customer service within your organisation

In order to provide customer service in the context
of your organisation, you will need to consider:
organisational policies and procedures
your role and responsibilities
your organisational structure
your communication networks and processes.
Lets look at these in more detail.
Policies and procedures

Organisations develop policies
and procedures to communicate
the behaviour that is expected
from employees. A policy sets
out principles and guidelines for
behaviour. A procedure is a set
of instructions on how to do a
particular task.
Organisational policies and procedures

Most organisations will have policies and procedures for customer service
representatives to follow. Customer service policies often appear as part of an
organisations overall approach to customer service. To deliver a service in a way that
satisfies all organisational requirements, you will also need to be aware of organisational
culture, in other words, the way things are done in a particular workplace.
Customer service policies and procedures guide employees on how to act and how to
complete tasks. Generally, a policy is a statement of how the organisation intends to act
with regard to a part of the business such as customer service. A policy may include:
a purpose statement the context of the policy, why it is required, and the desired
outcome (the standard to be met and the overall objective of the policy)
scope What area of the business the policy covers (particular location,
department, etc.)
resources additional documents, related forms, etc.
roles and responsibilities who is responsible for the tasks discussed in the policy
reference to legislation that the policy specifically complies with.
A number of policies may apply to customer service. These support the objectives that are
written in the customer service plan. The policies include, for example: complaints
policies, returns policies, performance management policies and training policies.
Procedures or work instructions are developed to support the implementation (the way
that the policy should be acted on) of the relevant policy. A procedure states the
instructions for completing an activity covered by the policy. Procedures could include the
following:
step-by-step instructions for doing tasks and processes
standards for doing tasks
training requirements
the way the task needs to be monitored, reviewed and reported
how the task needs to be documented and what records are to be kept
pictures or diagrams to clarify steps when necessary.


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Example: Complaints procedure
Effective policies and procedures will make sure that everyone in the organisation to
works together by making sure that they all complete tasks in a the same way. Policies
and procedures should also support and reinforce company culture.
Make sure you have read through procedures carefully, ensuring that you dont miss any
steps, so that you do not make any mistakes.
Your role and responsibilities

When you first start in a customer service role, you
may undertake an induction or be given
documentation describing your role. An important
document is your role description. This document
may also describe who you need to report to or gain
authorisation from when required.
Induction
An induction is when you are
introduced to your job; the tasks
you are required to do, the
culture of the organisation and
the policies and procedures you
will be required to follow.
You should ensure you are aware of all tasks that

you may be required to complete. Remember, your
responsibilities may not necessarily always be limited to dealing with external customers;
you may have internal customers that you need to provide services to.
You will need to follow organisational policies and procedures and work within the limits
of your role to identify customer needs and ensure customer satisfaction.
Identify needs
You will need to use active listening skills to uncover a range of needs. When the need is
clearly for advice or information, you also need to use communication skills. You will need
to identify the specific information required while following organisational policies and
legislation. Identifying what information is required is not always easy as customers do
not always know exactly what they want; that is why they seek help. You will need to listen
carefully and check understanding. Policies and procedures will often describe the
process of discovering needs.
Gather information
You may be required to gather a range of information to help your customer, and a variety
of procedures may determine, for instance, who customer service representatives should
refer to for what type information and under what circumstances. You should check
organisational charts and role descriptions if policies and procedures are unclear.
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Assess customer needs for urgency

Customer service representatives will often need to determine how urgent customer
needs are. Does the customer need goods or services immediately? To satisfy
organisational requirements, not all goods and services may be available immediately to
everyone. Organisational policy may require you to refrain from making delivery promises
until you know when the customer requires a product or service.
Fortunately, not all customers need goods and services immediately. A good practice is to
use your communication skills to uncover the real customer need then to aim to satisfy
that need in accordance within the ability of the organisation. In fact, immediate delivery
may disadvantage a customer. For example, some customers may have limited space to
store the product they are buying (if it is a large item, such as furniture). They may require
a product in a months time, which is when they will have room to store the product.
Identify limitations
Many organisations will offer a one-stop-shop for resolving customer sales, enquiries
and complaints. In a one-stop-shop, customers should be able to call and have all their
enquiries, sales and complaints addressed by a single customer service representative.
The sale, issue, or enquiry is handled to the customers satisfaction and the customer has
no need to be transferred to or to contact anyone else. However, customer service
representatives may not be able to solve every issue or satisfy every customers need
immediately. Organisational policies and procedures will exist for:
escalating issues (passing the issue on to a senior employee)
transferring calls to different departments
referring customers to outside parties for information.
You will need to follow organisational procedures for dealing with such situations. For
example, a customer may request a refund for an amount that is above what you are
allowed to authorise. You will need to escalate the issue to a person with the required
authority. In addition, you may recognise that you dont have the knowledge or the skill to
satisfy customer requirements. You will need to refer customers to other people in your
team or other departments to complete the delivery of products or services.
Learning activity: How can I help?
Consider your own organisations policies and procedures and your role.
Note: If you are unable to locate policies or procedures, consider the Melbourne Car
World policies and procedures in the appendices of this Student Workbook.
You are serving a customer who asks you for a particular product that you no
longer have in stock. They desperately need this product, and without it they
cant finish a job. What can you do to assist this customer?


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A customer has called saying the item they were having delivered from your
organisation has not yet arrived as scheduled. They need this product for their art
display that evening. What can you do to help this customer?
Compare your results with a partner.
Your organisational structure

Within any organisation there will be a number of roles and responsibilities. Although
some members of staff dont directly deal with external customers, in some way they
have helped get the product/service to the customer. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of
the customer service members to deal with the customer, but it is everyones
responsibility to contribute some form of customer service for the customer to happily
walk away with their product/service.
Departments in an organisation
Within an organisation there are a variety of departments that make up the business and
provide direct and indirect support for customer service. Here are a couple of examples of
how an organisation may look.

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Example 1 Structure of large national organisation.
Example 2 Structure of medium-sized organisation


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Learning activity: Create an organisational chart

Every organisation will have a different structure. To provide effective customer service
you need to know how your organisation is structured.
Interview someone about the structure of their organisation. On a separate piece of
paper, re-draw the departments to create an organisational chart using these pictures.
Your communication networks and processes

A range of communication techniques are available in the workplace. Face-to-face
communication can lead to good relationships at work, but is no good for communicating
with a large number of staff. Many organisations will send out information via email if
there is something they need everyone to know. An organisation can also produce
newsletters; ring people personally or post something on the notice board within a staff
room. From the point of view of a customer service representative dealing with external
customers, it is important to use communication processes and networks to gather
information for customers.
Types of communication networks
There are a variety of ways in which a network can be formed to allow communication. For
internal customers, a persons position in the organisation will determine who they
communicate with within the organisation.

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Example 1: Who communicates with who

In this organisation only the manager speaks to the other staff members.
The model below allows everyone to speak to everybody else. Having everyone
communicate is a much more effective way to ensure everyone knows what the
organisation wants to be done. In addition, staff serving external customers can take
advantage of a wider network to gather information from.
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems

Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to those organisational activities
designed to establish and maintain strong links with customers.
An electronic customer relationship management system (CRM) can help customer
service representatives to gather instant information about customer needs and possible
requirements. Large organisations use computerised customer relationship management
systems that include an integrated database of information about all customers, activity
schedulers and reports.
Typically, the database can provide instant access to all the information held about the
customer: preferred name, family relationships, past purchases, and past complaints.
This enables all staff members who come into contact with the customer to be able to
carry out the interaction with a full history and profile of the customer at their fingertips.


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CRM systems can also schedule calls, meetings, invitations or mail-outs as appropriate
for the particular customer.
CRM systems can also integrate with other aspects of the business that relate to
customer service and provide timely information. CRM systems, for instance, may
integrate with inventory, distribution and accounts management systems.
CRM systems can also act as an information gathering opportunity. Information about the
customer that is collected through the CRM system can be used by other internal
departments such as the sales department. The CRM information provides knowledge
about opportunities within the business or the market, for example.
Learning activity: Investigate customer relationship management systems
There are several computerised customer relationship management systems available
to purchase. Some of the more common systems are listed below:
Oracle
SAP
Microsoft dynamics
Use the internet as a source to gather information about a variety of systems. List the
common features below.
Consider a business you are familiar with. List some ways that a computerised CRM
system could help improve the delivery of customer service.
Some of the computerised systems that you investigated involve a significant cost to
purchase and operate and are intended for large organisations. The benefits that they
provide, however, can often be achieved manually or through less expensive or
complicated systems.
Smaller organisations that deal with many clients may use database systems to quickly
access customer details. Instead of manually searching a phone book, organisations use
a variety of programs specifically designed for their business use. Databases allow
organisations to track the contact they have with customers. This can prevent errors from
occurring with orders, and subsequently lead to fewer complaints. The figure below is a
simple example of a store using a database to keep track of their videos and suppliers.
They organisation also has a database that keeps track of their customer spending
habits, and what is currently on loan.
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Example: Product details and suppliers
Meetings and information briefings

Meetings and information briefings can be effective ways for management and team
leaders to communicate with front-line customer service staff. Regular meetings or
briefings may be used to introduce and explain new products or communicate new
marketing information about potential customers. They can also provide opportunities for
staff to feed back information about customer needs to management for higher-level
customer service planning.
Learning activity: Communication
Consider your own organisation, or an organisation you are familiar with.
What processes exist for internal communication?


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What processes exist for customer service representatives to gather information
for external customers?
Legal requirements and codes of practice

In addition to organisational requirements, customer service representatives must comply
with relevant legislation. Legislation is a collection of laws, for example, Australia
legislation is the set of laws that apply in Australia. In order to deliver customer service,
you will need to become familiar with legislation and industry standards.
The federal and state governments have responsibility for different areas of legislation so
it is important to know exactly what applies in your workplace. Listed below are some
good starting points for finding information about legislation.
Commonwealth Government
<http://www.comlaw.gov.au>
<http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/>
Australian Capital Territory
<http://www.legislation.act.gov.au>
New South Wales
<http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au>
Northern Territory
<http://www.nt.gov.au/lant/parliamentarybusiness/legislation.shtml>
Queensland
<http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au>
South Australia
<http://www.legislation.sa.gov.au>
Tasmania
<http://www.legislation.tas.gov.au>
Victoria
<http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au>
Western Australia
<http://www.slp.wa.gov.au>
Lets look at some important legislation for customer service in more detail.

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Anti-discrimination legislation
Laws about discrimination are made at both the Commonwealth (federal) and the
state/territory level. These laws aim to prevent discrimination based on race, sex,
disability and age among other things.
All businesses need to be familiar with relevant legislation to prevent incidences of
discrimination in the workplace. Some relevant anti-discrimination Acts are listed below.
Age Discrimination Act 2004
Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986
Disability Discrimination Act 1992
Racial Discrimination Act 1975
Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
These laws provide a basis on which individuals may lodge a complaint including
discrimination because of race, sex, disability and age. Generally, it is unlawful to
discriminate on the basis of the following 19 characteristics:
age
physical features
breastfeeding
political belief or activity
employment activity
pregnancy
gender identity
race
impairment or disability
religious belief or activity
industrial activity
sex
irrelevant medical or criminal record
sexuality
lawful sexual activity
social origin or migration status
marital status
personal association with someone
parental or carer status
who has, or is assumed to have, any

of the above characteristics.
Anti-discrimination legislation may be relevant to customer service policies dealing with

the treatment of both customers and employees. For example, all customers should be
given the same access to services regardless of the characteristics listed above. Similarly,
the performance management, coaching or training of employees must be carried out in a
non-discriminatory, fair manner. 3
As a general rule, customer service representatives should try not to make assumptions
or ask questions about customers with respect to the above characteristics. If you need
such information to help a customer, request permission to ask and ensure this
information is directly relevant to the product or service you are delivering. You may need
to explain how the information is relevant. In this way, you will ensure that you avoid
causing offence, avoid treating someone unfairly by accident, or even give the
appearance of unfairness.
Fact sheets for use in the workplace, Australian Human Rights Commission information for
employers, viewed June 2015, <http://www.hreoc.gov.au/info_for_employers/fact/index.html>.
3


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Learning activity: Anti-discrimination legislation

Think about your workplace, a workplace you are familiar with, or a workplace you wish
to research.
How do customer service representatives ensure they handle customers in a fair
manner?
What policies and procedures exist that refer to anti-discrimination?
Privacy legislation
The Privacy Act 1988 aims to prevent people misusing customer information. The Act
covers such things as:
how personal information is collected
how the information is then used and given to people
the accuracy of the information and how securely it is kept
customers rights to access that information.
With respect to customer service, privacy legislation may be relevant to policies dealing
with the treatment of customer details and record-keeping.
The Privacy Act 1988 regulates the handling of personal information about individuals.
This includes the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information, and
access to and correction of that information. The Privacy Act includes 13 Australian
Privacy Principles (APPs) that apply to the handling of personal information by most

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Australian Government agencies and some private sector organisations. The principles,
as stated by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, are as follows. 4
1. Open and transparent
management of personal
information
Ensures that APP entities manage personal information in

an open and transparent way. This includes having a clearly
expressed and up to date APP privacy policy.
2. Anonymity and
pseudonymity
Requires APP entities to give individuals the option of not

identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym. Limited
exceptions apply.
3. Collection of solicited
information
Outlines when an APP entity can collect personal information

that is solicited. It applies higher standards to the collection
of sensitive information.
4. Dealing with unsolicited

personal information
Outlines how APP entities must deal with unsolicited

personal information.
5. Notification of the
collection of personal
information
Outlines when and in what circumstances an APP entity that

collects personal information must notify an individual of
certain matters.
6. Use or disclosure of
personal information
Outlines the circumstances in which an APP entity may use

or disclose personal information that it holds.
7. Direct marketing
An organisation may only use or disclose personal

information for direct marketing purposes if certain
conditions are met.
8. Cross-border disclosure
of personal information
Outlines the steps an APP entity must take to protect

personal information before it is disclosed overseas.
9. Adoption, use or
disclosure of government
related identifiers
Outlines the limited circumstances when an organisation

may adopt a government related identifier of an individual
as its own identifier, or use or disclose a government related
identifier of an individual.
10. Quality of personal

information
An APP entity must take reasonable steps to ensure the

personal information it collects is accurate, up to date and
complete. An entity must also take reasonable steps to
ensure the personal information it uses or discloses is
accurate, up to date, complete and relevant, having regard
to the purpose of the use or disclosure.
APP quick reference tool, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-resources/privacy-guides/app-quick-reference-tool>.
4


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11. Security of personal

information
An APP entity must take reasonable steps to protect

personal information it holds from misuse, interference and
loss, and from unauthorised access, modification or
disclosure. An entity has obligations to destroy or de-identify
personal information in certain circumstances.
12. Access to personal

information
Outlines an APP entitys obligations when an individual

requests to be given access to personal information held
about them by the entity. This includes a requirement to
provide access unless a specific exception applies.
13. Correction of personal

information
Outlines an APP entitys obligations in relation to correcting

the personal information it holds about individuals.
Most organisations have their own privacy policy that seeks to establish guidelines and a
set of minimum acceptable standards for protecting the privacy of customers.
Learning activity: Collecting information
Most retail stores rely on keeping up-to-date with customer trends by collecting various
types of information.
Consider your workplace, a workplace you are familiar with, or a workplace you wish to
research. Locate the organisations privacy policy.
Which of the following ways of using customer information would be considered
appropriate? Why? Why not?
1. Collecting a customers postcode at the point-of-sale, and using it to determine
how many people shop at that store from a particular neighbourhood.
2. Selling a customers contact details and shopping statistics to numerous

marketing companies.
3. Storing a customers details onto the company database after the customer has
placed an order via email.

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4. Recording a customers internet address, domain name and date and time they
visited the companys website.
Work health and safety (WHS) legislation

Work health and safety (WHS) legislation 5 is enacted and enforced by each state and
territory. For example, in Queensland the current relevant legislation is the Work Health
and Safety Act 2011.
State and territory laws all set out a similar set of requirements for all workplaces. These
are:
to make sure that work is performed in a safe manner and does not have any
negative effect on workers health

to make sure sufficient information and education is provided so that the work can
be done safely
to make sure that workers have a say in the safety of their own workplace by
recognising and acting on risks and hazards in the workplace

to implement monitoring and control to make sure that WHS activities are effective
to make sure equipment and machinery is maintained in a safe condition.
Work Health and Safety legislation may be easily overlooked when considering customer
service related legislation. Nevertheless, given that WHS legislation aims to lessen any
risk to health and safety involved in any workplace activity, WHS is an important
consideration with respect to transactions with internal and external customers.
Note that new federal legislation was endorsed in late 2009, known as the Model Work
Health and Safety Act. The main aim of this legislation is to harmonise WHS legislation
and to create nationally consistent WHS legal standards and obligations.
By agreement, state governments and the Commonwealth have committed to enact laws
that reflect the model work health and safety laws. For example, Queensland WHS
legislation mentioned above has been designed and enacted to reflect model legislation.
For more information about the Model Work Health and Safety Act, visit Safe Work
Australia:
Model work health and safety Act, Safe Work Australia, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/model-whs-laws/model-whsact/pages/model-whs-act>.
Previously known as occupational health and safety (OHS).


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Learning activity: WHS legislation

Go online to find the WHS legislation for your state or territory. Describe the features of
the legislation which could affect customer service in your organisation or an
organisation you are familiar with.
Australian consumer law

Australian consumer law is set out of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Up until
recently, the Competition and Consumer Act used to be called the Trade Practices Act
1974. Australian consumer law applies to all Australian businesses across Australia in all
states and territories.
Australian consumer law is important for customer service because it guarantees
consumer rights with regard to, for example:
standard contracts
lay-by agreements
warranties
options for consumers to seek
redress
product safety
conditions of sale such as the right
to return unsuitable items
solicitation, such as telesales, and
marketing.
Generally, organisations will incorporate any obligation under Australia consumer law into
policies and procedures so that CSRs can more easily comply with the law.
Industry codes of practice

Mandatory industry codes of practice
Mandatory industry codes of practice provide practical guidance and advice on how to
achieve the standard required by legislation. Codes of practice are developed through
consultation with representatives from industry, workers and employers, special interest
groups and government agencies.
A code of practice is not law, but it should be followed unless you can achieve the same
or better standards through a different course of action.

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Voluntary industry codes of practice

Voluntary industry codes are not enforced under any Act or Regulation. In contrast to
mandatory standards, discussed above, voluntary codes exist mainly to encourage
consumer confidence in the service level to be expected within certain industries. They
also allow industries to self-regulate and promote ethical practice.
For example, the Australian Retailers Association sponsors the Scanning Code of Practice.
This code protects consumers when buying items that are scanned for pricing details.
Industry codes of practice may be developed and sponsored by industry groups or
developed in partnership with government agencies and regulatory bodies. Although
industry codes are generally voluntary, there may be cases where a statutory body
mandates that organisations must follow a code of practice.
Learning activity: Standards and codes of practice
Think about your own organisation, or an organisation you are familiar with.
What specific standards or codes of practice are followed?
How does following these codes affect customer service? Give some examples.
Ethical codes
Finally, a code of ethics is a set of rules or standards that help guide staff to determine
how to behave on ethical issues during their daily interactions with internal and external
customers. Like codes of practice, with respect to the law, ethical codes may be voluntary
or mandatory. However, every employee has an obligation to create and maintain an
organisations ethical culture.

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Example: Melbourne Car World Code of ethics

We are committed to customer-centred service and quality outcomes for
customers.
We value and support individual professional performance.
We work towards building a harmonious, non-discriminatory working
environment.
We recognise and value the contributions made by people to the organisation.
We demonstrate transparency and fairness in all our dealings with internal and
external customers.
We respect the essential dignity of all people.
We recognise our corporate social and environmental responsibilities.
We care for the social and natural environment.
We value and support the right to confidentiality.
Learning activity: Codes of ethics

Think about your own organisation, or an organisation you are familiar with.
Does the organisation have a code of ethics?
How does following the code affect customer service? Give some examples.
Section summary
This section focussed on background information and specific skills and knowledge
required to identify customer needs. Section 1 covered:
definition of customer service
different types of customers, including external and internal
explanation of customer needs

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interpersonal skills to identify needs

communication skills to discuss product and service options
organisational requirements, including policies and procedures, roles and
responsibilities, organisational structures, communication processes, networks and

systems
legislative and ethical requirements.
In the next section we will focus on completing delivery of customer service.
Further reading
Botton, R., 2002, People skills, McPhersons Printing Group, Australia.
Change Factory, viewed June 2015, <http://www.changefactory.com.au>.
Dwyer, J., 2006, The business communications handbook, Pearson Education,
NSW.
Codes of practice, business.gov.au, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/selling-products-and-services/fairtrading/Pages/codes-of-practice.aspx>.
Section checklist
Before you proceed to the next section, make sure that you understand how to:
define customer service and customers
use interpersonal skills to understand a customers needs and expectations
discuss options with customers that match their needs
follow organisational and legal requirements.


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Section 2 Deliver a Service to

Customers
Section 2 addresses skills and knowledge required to complete delivery of a service to
customers. In particular, this section focuses on following organisational procedures to
deliver the required standard of service. This includes
providing prompt service
providing assistance for specific needs
establishing rapport
handling complaints and difficult customers
identifying way of promoting and enhancing services.

Melbourne Car Worlds mission, as stated in the organisations business plan is as
follows:
Melbourne Car World provides customers with top automotive
value and the most responsive and effective customer service
available anywhere.
Melbourne Car World believes it can only succeed with continued customer support
and positive word-of-mouth. As a result, taking care of our customers to the highest
possible standard is one of the organisations highest priorities.
Accordingly, the organisation ensures that all customer service representatives are
properly inducted, regularly trained and informed of organisational policies and
procedures.
Policies and procedures must be closely followed and define the standard of conduct
required by CSRs with respect to:
providing prompt service to customers
discovering needs
providing assistance or responding to customers with specific needs
establishing and maintaining appropriate rapport with customers to build on-
going and positive customer relationships

handling customer complaints and difficult customers to retain custom
identifying and using opportunities to promote and enhance services and
products to customers through following procedures and gathering customer

feedback continuously.

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To deliver customer service to required standards, you must be able to:
provide prompt service to customers to meet identified needs
provide assistance or respond to customers with specific needs
establish and maintain appropriate rapport with customers
handle customer complaints
identify and use opportunities to promote and enhance services and products to
customers.
Following organisational requirements to deliver a

service
Organisations will often have a list of rules that should be followed when dealing with
customers. These rules are often called policies and procedures. A policy is a written
plan that describes what an organisation aims to achieve and procedures are individual
tasks that need to be done to achieve the organisations aims.
To deliver a service in the workplace, you will need to follow organisational requirements
or standards. These requirements may be explained in policies and procedures or
outlined in your role description. You will need to follow organisational requirements with
regard to, for example, promptness of service, dress codes, addressing specific needs,
and following up. Finally, you may need to self-manage to coordinate tasks and
responsibilities to deliver a service to the required standard.
Deliver prompt service

Greeting the customer when they ring or walk through the door is the first step to
effectively serving your customer. Use the persons name if you know it. Use the
customers verbal and non-verbal cues to guide you in best serving them, and in
completing the sale/inquiry without delay.
Often, policies and procedures will mandate precisely how long you may wait before
initiating contact with a customer. For example, you may need to address a potential
customer who walks into your shop within five seconds. You may need to answer the
phone within three rings.
Delivering customer service via different channels may require standards to be adjusted.
Appearing prompt can be a little difficult as a telephone operator. Many times your
customer will have been waiting on the phone for you to answer. Although you are
responding as quickly as you can, the customer has been waiting, perhaps getting a little
annoyed. Apologising as soon as you speak to the customer and using their name makes
the experience a little more personal. Make sure you deal with all the customer enquiries
and then ask them if there is anything else you can help them with.


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Learning activity: Prompt service

What is your own definition of providing great customer service on the phone?
Is there any difference between providing customer service via the phone or via email?
If so, what do you think is different?
Can you think of the last time you received prompt service when you went shopping?
How did it make you feel?
What are some customer service channels you can identify? Describe prompt service
for each. Suggest a rule of standard that could be applied.
Follow dress codes

When you wear a uniform you are representing an organisation or a business, and you
must act appropriately. Some organisations will have policies regarding dress code, which
may include specific requirements for grooming, makeup, nails or jewellery. You will need
to make sure you read through your induction manual properly to see what your
organisation expects.
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Learning activity: Does appearance matter?

List five different organisations/job roles. List the clothing items worn by the staff in
each of these organisations.
Why do they need to wear that clothing?
Organisation/Job role
Type of clothing
Reason for it
Why do you think organisations have different uniforms or accepted appearances?
Why is it important to dress appropriately?
Address specific needs

To deliver customer service to the standard required by the organisation and by
legislation you will need to use communication skills described in Section 2. You will need
to be aware of the different ways that people may use to communicate. Language and
culture may be barriers to clear communication. You need to demonstrate that you deliver
great customer service to everyone regardless of cultural and other differences.
It is very important to be aware of customers cultural differences and try to avoid
misunderstandings caused by cultural differences. In Australia, most organisations

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customers will come from diverse cultural, family and individual backgrounds. Just as
organisational culture can describe how people behave at work, customers too will have
their own behaviours and values. These may influence how they understand you.
In addition, some customers may have physical or intellectual disabilities. You will need to
ensure that you treat such customers to the same level of respect and service that you
give to all other customers.
Some personal attributes you must ensure you do not discriminate against include the
following:
age
language
beliefs/values
religious/spiritual observances
culture
breastfeeding
disability
sexual orientation.
gender
Discrimination is unethical, illegal, and prevents you understanding and delivering on

customer needs. Ensure you familiarise yourself with your organisations policies and
procedures with regard to handling customers with specific needs fairly. Ensure you read
you organisations anti-discrimination policy.
Learning activity: Address specific needs
Review the customer service policies and procedures for customer service for
Melbourne Car World.
How do policies and procedures help customer service representatives treat
people with special needs fairly and in accordance with legislation?
What is the relevant legislation?

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Identify three possible scenarios in which service delivery may have to be
adjusted to maintain equal service levels. What adjustments would need to be

made?
What improvements or additions would you make to procedures to ensure
customer service representatives always provide the same level of service to

everybody?
Consider the above questions in relation to your organisations customer service

policies and procedures.
Follow up
Organisations may require customer service representatives to follow procedures to
follow up on customer interactions when a service was not completed at the time of first
contact. Follow-up procedures may include reasonable timeframes for following up as well
as acceptable methods of communication such as email, social media comments or
messaging, business letters and phone calls.


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Self-manage
Finally, after your induction you should be aware of all the tasks your employer is asking
you to do. These tasks will make up your roles and responsibilities, or job description. You
must develop or demonstrate the ability to self-manage to plan, coordinate and timemanage the completion of all tasks and responsibilities to the standard required by your
organisation. Consider the following:
If you have a position within an organisation that involves directly serving customers,
then you need to continually stay on task and be prepared to serve them or locate
information. Customers dont want to wait because you werent prepared.
Although you are serving a customer, there may also be many other customers who
need to be served. You need to stay on task, but at the same time use effective
communication skills and verbal and non-verbal cues so that the other customers
know that you will get to them as soon as you can and the customer you are serving
is aware that you have other customers waiting (some customers are very chatty and
it can be hard to move them on).
If a customer approaches you to find something for them, you need to follow up the
enquiry and point the customer in the right direction, or to another staff member who
can help them out. Alternatively in some situations you might find out the answer and
contact the customer at a later time.
Remember that within the workplace you will have internal customers to deal with. When
completing set tasks for these customers you must stay on task. If you are late submitting
something, a chain reaction can occur that might make a report, presentation or a
deadline difficult to achieve. If you have been asked to complete a task or follow up on a
report, presentation or query, make sure you do as asked: you need to show you are able
to work independently and complete all tasks required of you.
Learning activity: Self-manage
Consider your organisation and role.
List several competing tasks or responsibilities you may need to manage at the same
time.

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How do you ensure that all tasks are completed to the required standard? For example:
What techniques do you use?
What technology do you use?
Developing rapport
Building rapport with a customer means that you are friendly and understanding towards
the customer while you make an effort to understand their needs and communicate
clearly with them about their needs.
To make sure customers receive the best first impression and to ensure consistency,
organisations may require employees to follow standard procedures for greeting
customers, engaging with customers and developing rapport. Most policies will include
advice on how to:
Greet/acknowledge
the customer
Engage with
the customer

Develop relationship
with the customer

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1. Greet or acknowledge the customer

Greeting the customer
Greeting the customer is an opportunity to make them feel welcome. It should always be
done genuinely most people can see through a false smile. Depending upon the specific
organisations procedures, greeting can involve:
Eye contact Make sure the other person is comfortable with maintaining eye
contact. Some people may find it uncomfortable or intrusive for personal or cultural
reasons.
Smiling A genuine smile will be received well by most people.
First words Think about how you would greet the customer if you had invited them
into your home. Its unlikely that the first thing you say to everyone at home is
Hello, how may I help you? You might say any of the following, dependent upon the
organisations procedures: Hi/Hello, good morning/afternoon/evening. Use an
expression that feels natural for you given the organisations procedures and the
person youre speaking to.
Introducing yourself Introduce yourself in an appropriate manner for the situation,
social customs and organisational requirements. Some business settings will

require a formal introduction, while answering the phone as a doctors receptionist
might require something along the lines of Hello, (your name) speaking.
Welcoming someone back If you recognise the customer, say welcome back. If
you know the customers name; use it.
Acknowledging the customer

Sometimes, you may find yourself too busy or already engaged with a customer to do this
all the time, but its important to ensure that all customers are aware that they have been
noticed as soon as they enter or contact an organisation, be it a shop, restaurant, hotel,
bank, reception desk. In a busy organisation, this acknowledgement may initially be:
a smile
eye contact
a wave
a nod
a sentence like, Ill be with you in a
answering a call and asking if the
moment
caller can be put on hold.
Small organisations (such as family bakers, grocers, butchers etc.) use a bell on the door
so that when the keeper is at the back of the shop they can call out to say theyll be out in
a minute.
2. Engage with the customer

Engagement is more than serving. Its an opportunity for you to relate and build rapport
with the customer. Such rapport must be genuine and honest. Consider the examples
below of inappropriate rapport:
being false, e.g. saying that something suits a customer when you dont mean it
being dishonest, e.g. saying a dress fits a customer when it is the wrong size.

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Such dishonest rapport will often result in a customer not returning having realised
theyve been misled, the customer will lose trust in the organisation and take their
business elsewhere. In such circumstances, its better to be honest and redirect the
customer to something that is more likely to fit or suit their body type. They will likely
appreciate your honesty.
Engagement allows you to give the customer more than they expected. Different
organisations will want to promote different types of engagement, for example:
a high-class hotel may want you to take care of a guests every wish, even if they
are being demanding

a surf shop might encourage you to talk about the sport with customers.
Look for opportunities to engage with the customer. Is the customer wearing something
that you can compliment? Is there a child with the customer that you can smile and say
hello to? Is the customer wet because of rain you could always sympathise and
complain about the weather!
Engaging with customers should result in a more rewarding experience for both the
customer and you in your job. If the customer doesnt ask about a product or service,
begin a conversation about any appropriate topic and begin to ask them about their
needs as a customer.
3. Develop a relationship with the customer

Once you have greeted the customer appropriately, engaged with them and developed a
level of rapport, you may begin to develop the customer relationship. This relationship
may be only short term and dependant on a particular service at one time. In other
situations, it may be longer term and extend into continual and repeated interactions.
Wait staff in a restaurant or cafe will always treat customers politely, but regular
customers are usually treated a bit differently because of the ongoing relationship. Wait
staff might ask a regular customer about their holidays, or their children. Staff are also
more likely to share information about new ingredients or coffee beans depending on the
customer and their level of interest.
In some roles you are able to develop ongoing personal relationships with your
customers. Developing rapport can help you to quickly respond to what the customer
wants. For example, if a customer has an account with your organisation, once you have
developed the initial client relationship you will be able to continue this relationship with
each meeting. Its a much more personal experience when you are able to call the
customer by name and anticipate their needs.
Even if the relationship is not personal, following organisational standards for developing
rapport with customers can allow a relationship to develop between the customer and the
organisation. The customer for example, will know that no matter who they interact with,
they will have a similar quality experience. Organisations with a focus on customer service
develop brand loyalty and repeat custom in this way.


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Learning activity: Role-play Developing rapport

Using the Melbourne Car World procedures from Appendices 3, 4 and 5 (customer
service policy, policy and procedures for customer consultation and customer service
charter) with a peer, complete a role-play about greeting and developing rapport with
your customer. One person is the customer and the other the customer service
representative.
As the CSR, find out about the customer and what they are seeking. Once you have
done this, reverse roles.
List the questions you and your partner found to be the most helpful when finding
out what the customer is seeking.

List the actions you found helpful to develop rapport.
List possible improvement to the procedures to enable inexperienced CSRs to
develop rapport to the same level as other more experienced CSRs.

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Customer complaints
Many organisations have their own procedures for dealing with complaints. In some
organisations staff will deal directly with the complaint or refer it to management. Make
sure that you read through the procedures for dealing with complaints so that the
problem can be dealt with as promptly as possible and to the standard required by the
organisation; this will minimise problems.
Customer complaints need to be followed through; customers need to know that you
value their feedback. Without customer feedback its hard to know if you are providing a
good service or how to improve. Follow procedures to record details of complaints to
enable continuous improvement of customer service.
It is important to understand that if you deal with a complaint to the customers
satisfaction, you will retain the loyalty of that customer. If you do not address complaints
adequately, then it is most likely you will lose that customer and they will tell their friends
about their bad experience.
A basic general model for handling complaints, which often forms the framework for
specific organisational procedures, is the listen, respond and resolve model:
Listen
Respond
Resolve
Following this model, you will need to listen in order to identify unmet needs. Then, you
will need to respond appropriately. Finally, you will need to resolve the issue in a
satisfactory way and in accordance with organisational policy.
1. Listen to identify needs

The first step in managing customer complaints is to listen to the customer. As discussed
in the previous section, you should use the four processes of active listening. The four
processes are: ask questions, paraphrase, use verbal prompts and demonstrate
commitment (you may want to review these processes from page 11).
Customer service representatives should listen carefully for what the customer wants
not only in terms of product or product features, but also other customer needs, such as
emotional needs. CSRs should follow the process below:
1. Identify gaps between the need or expectation and the service that was given by
the organisation. Did the customer require information that was not provided? Did
the customer require confirmation or follow up? Did the customer require
politeness or compassion? Did the customer require a level of product quality?
2. Identify a range of options to satisfy the customers need. Perhaps you will need to
ensure you satisfy a customers need to be heard and understood. Perhaps an
apology will be needed. Perhaps you will need to offer a refund or a replacement to
satisfy unmet needs for product quality. You may need to discuss alternative
products and services. Take notes or make a mental list before responding to the
customer.


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3. Remember that the range of options you discuss with your customer needs to be
consistent with organisational requirements such as policies and procedures.
Procedures may specify options such as refunds, discounts and replacements
under specific circumstances. You cannot, for instance, offer a refund if the
customer does not meet organisational rules and requirements.
4. If no options are immediately suitable, other options may include the following:
a. pass the complaint on to senior employees
b. use an independent person or organisation to help with the complaint
c. complaints handling procedures
d. referral to other organisations.
5. Continually check with the customer to ensure that you understand the customers
needs before responding and proposing solutions. Restate or paraphrase the
customers needs to make sure you understand what they are.
Remember, active listening does not mean remaining silent. Actively encourage the
customer to explain their needs. Ensure you have a complete picture of the customers
needs before you respond.
2. Respond
The second step is responding. In the responding stage, customer service representatives
will tell the customer how they propose to solve their problem. Of course, you may need to
propose a range of appropriate solutions and let the customer choose from among them.
You will need to make sure your response is delivered in a polite, professional,
sympathetic way in order to meet all customer needs.
Some general tips for responding include:
assume that the customer is telling you the truth
never argue with a customer
be honest if you dont know the answer to a question
acknowledge the customers feelings, but concentrate on the facts
apologise if appropriate
use active listening to find out as much as you can and clarify complaints
ask the customer how they would like to see their complaint resolved
offer what the customer wants (if within your authority)
if above your authority, explain what you are authorised to offer
if unaccepted, explain that you need to refer the complaint and explain to the
customer who will contact them and when they can expect to be contacted
make sure that you refer promptly and someone gets back to the customer at the
promised time.

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Above all, you should make sure that your response is customised to meet the customers
unique requirements. Any promises you make should be consistent with organisational
policies and procedures. Make sure you have the ability to follow up on your commitment
to the customer to resolve their issue.
Learning activity: Responses to complaints
Think about when you have complained to an organisation. What did you like about the
way they responded and what did you dislike?
Like
Dislike
3. Resolve
In this stage, you do what you have promised to the customer. For example, if you have
promised the customer a refund within your authority, process the refund following your
organisations procedures.
In many cases, you will be able to resolve the customers issue immediately and before
the end of the customer contact. In this case, you should explain the steps you are taking
as you proceed so that the customer can understand that you are taking steps to help
them out. As discussed previously, many organisations try to implement a one-stop-shop
policy for resolving customer sales, enquiries and complaints. Often, an important
component of this policy is that complaints are resolved on-the-spot where possible.
If the complaint cannot be resolved on-the-spot, ensure that you make arrangements to
follow up and then schedule a time to actually follow up as planned. Use a physical diary
or electronic calendar to schedule the follow up. Email calendar functions contain handy
features that can remind you when you need to contact the customer.


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Learning activity: How to be a good waiter and handle complaints

Watch the video How to be a good waiter: how to handle customer complaints on
YouTube at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzXH3T0WtuM>.
Write down at least three key actions that the waitress followed to help resolve the
customers complaint.
1.
2.
3.
Handle difficult customers

When managing difficult or emotional customers, it is even more important to follow
procedures, listen, respond, and resolve appropriately.
What do difficult customers want? 6
Help to resolve what is frustrating them so badly.
Provide choices to solve the problem they have.
Acknowledge that their problem is important.
Difficult customers have had a problem which has caused them to want their problem
resolved now! Often the problem has started as something minor which was not resolved
at the point of contact.
Adapted from Bacall, R., 2010, Defusing hostile customers workbook, 3rd edn, Bacall and
Associates.

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Difficult customers want help in one of three ways:

help to know what to do to solve the problem
help to solve a problem in your control
help to solve a problem outside your control.
Difficult customers may display the following emotional states:

neutral
emotional
angry.
Examine the matrix on the following page for some tips on handling difficult customers
depending on their emotional state and the kind of help that they are looking for.
Help me
know what
to do
Neutral
Emotional
Angry
Understand problem
Soothe customer
Solve problem
Understand problem
Protect other
customers and staff
interests
Solve problem
Calm customer down

Understand problem
Solve problem
Help me
solve a
problem in
your control
Understand problem
Soothe customer
Solve problem
Escalate only if
necessary
Understand problem
Solve problem
Protect other
customers and staff
interests
Calm customer down
Escalate if necessary
Understand problem
Solve problem
Help me
solve a
problem
outside your
control
Escalate
Soothe customer
Understand trade-offs
Escalate
Make trade
Make trade
Protect other
customers and staff
interests
Calm customer down
Escalate
Make trade


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Internal complaints
Remember, internal customers can also make complaints. For example, if you are
expected to report to someone else and provide them with information, sometimes these
people can be dissatisfied with the work you are doing. Informal complaints can be made
within organisations about productivity. Managers must attempt to deal with these
situations so that they can maximise productivity and professionalism in the workplace.
Dealing with stress

Difficult customers can be very wearing and some jobs can place employees under
considerable stress. If you feel that you are having problems or are not coping with
particular tasks, you should arrange a meeting with your supervisor to try and fix the
problem before it gets worse. Your organisation should have policies in place to deal with
employee stress so that help is available to you.
Difficult peers can also cause stress within your workplace. Try to deal with the situation
professionally yourself, but if this is not possible, talk to someone who can help you to
make your workplace a happier place to work, such as a human resources officer.
Learning activity: Complaints: Put it all together!
Customer service departments often create scripts for customer service team members
to follow.
1. Review the complaints handling procedure for Melbourne Car World in the
appendices of this Student Workbook.
2. On a separate piece of paper, write a script in which an angry customer has a
complaint and a customer service representative from Melbourne Car World
handles the complaint following the procedure. Refer to the matrix above for
guidance.
3. Act out a role-play based on the script with a peer.
Learning activity: Research complaint training videos

Search the internet for a site where you can view peoples reviews of organisations
(such as Urbanspoon, You Tube or twitter). Find difficult customers, dealing with
complaints, customer service or training videos.
Share your findings with your peers.
As a third party reading the review or watching the clip, how do you find it?

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Now place yourself in the position of the sales assistant How does your opinion of the
situation change?
How should you deal with a customer who is rude or aggressive?
Identify opportunities to promote products

Providing more than the customer expects may involve no cost to the customer, or it
could involve the customer realising the need for and buying more than they initially
intended. In both cases, the objective is to make the customer feel that the customer
experience was better or more beneficial than they expected.
The offering of free extras is often built into the organisations policies and procedures for
customer service to maintain a level of customer service that exceeds customer
expectations.
Reflection: Service enhancement nil or negligible cost
Some of the ways that companies can make you feel good about their customer service
dont take much money or time at all, for example:
You sit down at a restaurant and the waiter provides some olive oil and bread on
the house.
You are queuing at a supermarket and someone calls you over and opens an
adjacent till.
You are waiting for a haircut and the hairdresser invites you to help yourself to a
tea or coffee.
You run onto the train platform just as your trains doors close. The driver spots
you and opens them again for you.

Your car is towed to a garage and you need to call for a lift. You ask if there is a
public phone nearby and the assistant says use ours.

Can you recall a time when you, as a customer, received a little bit more than you
expected. How did you feel?


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Providing free extras is often a low-cost strategy to increase customer loyalty. In the
examples above, the cost of providing extras is either very small, or rolled into the price of
what you buy. The restaurant and hairdresser will add a few cents onto their prices to
cover the cost.
Service enhancement can also take the form of offering extra products or services that
cost more but also provide extra value for the customer. These extras may not have been
considered by the customer and are often suggested by the alert customer service
representative after discovering the needs of the customer. Even if the customer does
not, in the end, buy the suggested extra, they very likely will appreciate the offer as a sign
of attentive and customised service.
Reflection: Service enhancement additional cost
Service enhancement (improving the service) can also occur when a customer is
offered an additional product or service. Here are some examples of service
enhancements.
Your TV breaks down and when buying a new one you are asked if you want to
extend the warranty for a discounted price.

You buy a drink in the supermarket and get offered three for the price of two.
You are offered 2 cents off each litre of fuel if you spend $5 in a supermarket.
To maintain the same standard of service across the organisation, organisational

procedures may also require that customer service representatives offer certain
additional services or products to customers. These extra products or services may be of
particular importance to the organisation because they are highly profitable. Alternatively
the offered extras may simply be offered (at cost) to improve the customer experience in
order to build loyalty and long-term customer relationships.
Extra products or service may take a number of different forms, such as:
extended time lines
extended warranties
packaging or bundling of multiple
express delivery of goods
products or services often at a

discount
generous returns policy.
Improving customer service can also be achieved through some long-term and systematic
approaches. These methods may include:
using a system to record complaints
updating customer service charter.
An organisations procedures for customer complaints may require you to record

complaint details. These details may be analysed to improve customer service or to avoid
future complaints by identifying opportunities to improve performance, for example,
through quality control or customer service training.
A customer service charter is a document that identifies the standards of customer
service that the customer may expect from the organisation. An organisation analyses its
performance and identifies customer needs so that it can improve its service in the areas
that really matter to customers.

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The organisation sets standards so that the appropriate level of service is consistently
delivered to customers. The standards are then published in the form of a pledge to
customers; this is the customer service charter. The charter should inform customers on
the level of service to expect and attract customers who may have been previously
unaware of the high level of service offered.
Learning activity: Enhancing service 1
Consider the last time you received customer service when you made a purchase.
Describe the customer experience:
What needs did you have?
Were they satisfied or exceeded?
Did the CSR offer any additional products or services that you did not ask for
initially?
If so, how did this attempt to enhance the customer experience work? Did it
improve your experience?


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Recall the script you created in an earlier learning activity (see page 15) for identifying
customer needs at Melbourne Car World.
What additional (free or extra-cost) products or services are offered (in addition
to the basic car)?
Add an example of offering an appropriate additional service or service enhancement.

Follow organisational policy. Act out the script with a peer.
Locate the Melbourne Car World customer service charter in the Appendix 5.
What does the charter offer to customers?
How does the organisation ensure customers are aware of the charter?

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Locate your organisations customer service charter.

How could you improve it or improve its promotion to deliver enhanced service?
Section summary
required to deliver customer service to legal standards and the standards required by the
organisation. Section 1 covered:
delivering prompt service
providing assistance to customers with specific needs
building rapport for short or long-term customer relationships
managing customer complaints
enhancing service to customers
completing the above while adhering to organisational requirements.
In the next section we will look at how you can systematically evaluate and continuously
improve customer service.
Further reading
CR Kit, Conflict Resolution Network, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.crnhq.org/pages.php?pID=12>.
Handling complaints, Institute of Customer Service, viewed June 2015,
<http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com/168-2158/Handlingcomplaints.html>.


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Section checklist
Before you proceed to the next section, make sure that you understand how to:
provide prompt service to customers to meet identified needs
provide assistance or respond to customers with specific needs
establish and maintain appropriate rapport with customers
handle customer complaints
identify and use opportunities to promote and enhance services and products to
customers.

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Section 3 Monitor and report on

customer service
Section 3 addresses skills and knowledge required to monitor and report on customer
service. This section focuses on:
identifying principles of customer service and best practice models
defining customer service quality
monitoring systems
regularly seeking customer feedback
regularly monitoring team performance
continuously identifying opportunities for improvement
writing professional reports to more senior management.

Melbourne Car World places a great deal of emphasis on customer service. It is
presently undertaking a review of its customer service policies and procedures to
ensure continuous improvement to match industry best practice models and voluntary
codes of practice.
The key elements of the system (reflecting the principles of customer service) are:
quarterly monitoring of data: sales data, customer feedback, and reporting to
senior management
use of performance measures of customer service staff and regular performance
management in accordance with the performance management policy

customer service policies and procedures
developing and maintaining supplier relationships in accordance with the
procurement policy to ensure delivery times

quarterly and yearly senior management review of the effectiveness of the
customer service system including standards, strategies and performance

targets.
It is now the end of the 2012 financial year. Your manager, sales and customer service
general manager, Phil Anderson, has asked you to review overall customer service and
performance data and prepare a report with recommendations.


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To evaluate customer service in your workplace, you must be able to:
identify principles of customer service and best practice models
define customer service quality
follow monitoring systems to:
regularly seek customer feedback
regularly monitor team performance
continuously identify opportunities and make recommendations for
improvement
write professional reports.
Principles of quality customer service and best

practice models
Quality customer service provides an organisation with a competitive advantage over
other organisations. 7 To ensure that customer needs and expectations are met,
organisations will often take a systematic approach to customer service. The principles of
quality customer service are as follows:
Research and
diagnose customer
needs
Find out what your customers consider to be good customer

service. Determine your customers needs and expectations for
service. Develop strategies (such as the use of politeness,
empathy, price guarantees, etc.) to meet needs based on
research on what drives customer behaviour.
Actively seek
feedback
Ask customers in person, via email, over the telephone, using

surveys, etc. how they feel about the service they have
received. Follow up on both positive and negative feedback to
improve bad service or to recognise, encourage and consolidate
good customer service behaviour.
Implement
continuous
improvement
Continuously look for ways to improve customer service.

Implement regular monitoring, reporting and improvement
practices.
Adapted from McColl-Kennedy, J.R. and Kiel, G.C., 1999, Marketing: A Strategic Approach, Nelson
ITP, South Melbourne, p. 345.
7

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Coordinate your
approach to
customer service
Integrate customer service strategies and techniques into all

aspects of the organisation. For example, communicate
customer needs and expectations across the organisation,
conduct training, improve recruitment, budget appropriate
resources, maintain relationships with suppliers to ensure ontime delivery, etc.
Support an organisation-wide culture of providing customer
service excellence through training, communication, etc.
Lets look at some models of quality customer service.
The RATER model of quality service

Customers think about a range of factors when they measure quality of customer service.
There are models available to help you measure quality across all these factors. The
models look at how a customer measures the quality of a customer service experience,
how they feel about a customer service interaction, whether they enjoyed the experience
and got what they needed. One of the most commonly used models is the RATER model,
which was developed in the mid-1980s by Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry. RATER
stands for reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness.
Customer service researchers believe that customers consider the following five
measures of service quality:
Dependability and accuracy of goods or service.
Reliability
Employees courtesy, knowledge, confidence and trust.
Assurance
Appearance of employees, building, equipment, communication.
Tangibles
Care and attention paid to customer.
Empathy
Provision of help, service and problem-solving.
Responsiveness


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Organisations may decide to track performance of customer service representatives on

each of the above measures when monitoring customer service quality. In this way, when
developing recommendations for improvement, they can focus on more specific issues
and problems.
Moments of truth
When a customer contacts an organisation, there are several points in time called
moments of truth. These are times when customers are really paying attention to quality.
Customers are likely to decide at these moments whether the service quality is
acceptable or not. So these moments are very important for the business to get right if
they want to retain business and build strong, long-lasting customer relationships.
Example: Airline moments of truth
Some examples of moments of truth when making travel arrangements with an airline
are:
when you call to make a reservation to take a flight
when you arrive at the airport and check your bags
when you pick up your ticket at the ticket counter
when you are greeted at the gate
when you are taken care of by the flight attendants on board the aircraft
when you are greeted at your destination.
If customer service fails at any of these moments, the resulting impression on the
customer is of poor quality customer service.
Organisations will often account for moments of truth and promote specific procedures.
From a monitoring perspective, they may choose to observe these moments more closely.
Customer value
Perhaps the most important effect of customer service quality is a customers idea of the
values of the product or service whats in it for the customer?
Customers values include the satisfaction of all needs, including:
satisfaction of external needs such as the real need for product features, speed
of service, etc.
satisfaction of social needs to belong to a group, to be respected, etc.
satisfaction of psychological or emotional needs such as the need to be
understood.
When customers make buying decisions, they will balance cost against the value or
benefits they think they will get. For example, two products with the same price and
features may be seen as having different values if one product includes friendly,
dependable customer service.

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It is important for organisations, managers, team leaders and customer service

representatives to understand that different customers may think of value differently. For
example, people with low incomes may not value a service as much as someone with a
higher income. Great service may not benefit the consumer as much as other things, such
as low price. It is important, therefore, to know your customer and how your customer
thinks about value.
Voluntary standards and best practice models

Many organisations adhere to voluntary standards in order to inspire consumer
confidence in the quality of goods and services provided.
Two voluntary standards of relevance to customer service are:
The International Customer Service Standard (ICSS:2010-14)
AS ISO 10002-2006 Customer satisfaction Guidelines for complaints handling in
organisations (ISO 10002:2004, MOD)

Product and service standards are often based on best practice models, which typically
include the following characteristics:
demonstration of customer focus:
establish a clear understanding of customer needs and customer

expectations based on research
defining quality in terms of customer expectations and perceptions
striving to meet and exceed customer expectations
establishment of customer service charters which communicate:
the level of service that customers can expect to receive
continuous improvement of work processes and evaluation of the organisations
performance compared to the performance that customers expect

supplier relationships and supply chain that is well developed and maintained in
order to deliver consistent value to customers

commitment of everyone in the organisation to providing quality customer service;
all management and employees should be trained and demonstrate attitudes and
behaviours that reflect commitment to customer service quality.
Australian e-commerce best practice model

An example of a best practice model is the Australian Guidelines for Electronic
Commerce. These guidelines exist to encourage consumer confidence in electronic
commerce. The guidelines provide guidance to businesses on how to deal with
consumers when engaged in business to consumer electronic commerce.


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Learning activity: Principles of quality customer service and best practice models
Consider your own organisation.
Does the organisation follow principles of customer service?
What voluntary standards and best practice models are followed?
Answer the above questions in relation to Melbourne Car World.
Monitoring customer service

Monitoring customer service performance and customer satisfaction ensures that you are
aware of how your organisation is tracking. It helps you to identify what needs to be done
to make sure that individuals and departments are performing up to standard.
In your customer service role, you may be required to monitor individuals performance
using a monitoring system. It may also be your job to maintain the system used for
monitoring. A good monitoring system regularly provides you with the information you
need in order to understand how well the organisation is performing against targets and
what changes are needed to keep performance on track. It allows an organisation to
manage customer service systematically rather than reacting to and resolving individual
crises as they arise. A system for monitoring customer service might involve things like:
regularly surveying customers for their opinions on products and services
starting a continuous improvement register (if one does not already exist)
regularly checking the continuous improvement register to see what needs to
change
regularly checking performance information of individuals in the organisation
regularly checking performance information of departments or the organisation as
a whole.

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Example: Melbourne Metro

Melbournes transport company, Metro, regularly monitors their delivery of train
services. They publish their performance each month in the areas of punctuality and
reliability. When their performance targets are not met, eligible customers can receive
compensation for Metros underperformance.
Metro follows a system of measuring all their train arrival times as well as their
cancellations and disruptions to service. This data is then used to show their levels of
reliability and punctuality as a percentage, and published on the tenth of each month.
You can see their performance data at:
<http://www.metrotrains.com.au/performance>.
Individual customer service performance issues may arise. However, following a system
(such as Metro in the example above) ensures you notice the issue in the first place, act
to resolve the problem, and ensure that fixing the problem does not distract you from
helping to managing team performance as a whole.
To follow the principles of customer service, monitoring systems should be maintained
within a framework of continuous improvement. Lets explore the set-up and maintenance
of a monitoring system within the framework of the plan, do, check, act (PDCA) cycle.
Plan, do, check, act (PDCA) cycle

A well-known system structure for monitoring quality and continuous improvement is the
PDCA cycle. PDCA stands for: plan, do, check, and act. The PDCA cycle is a simple and
adaptable monitoring tool.
The PDCA cycle can be easily applied to customer service. Using PDCA, organisations can
develop and implement customer service policies and procedures, check performance
and gather data, and then take actions to improve service performance.
4. Act
1. Plan
3.
Check
2. Do
Lets look at the PDCA cycle in action.


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Step 1: Plan
The first step in monitoring customer satisfaction and service is deciding what it is that
should be monitored. To determine this, you should think about what is most important to
your organisation. For example, you could focus on RATER measures (you may want to
review the RATER model on page 67):
reliability
empathy
assurance
responsiveness.
tangibles
You also need to consider significant risks to the organisation and include them in your
monitoring program. For example, there might be a legal requirement to inform customers
of certain rights, obligations, or risks associated with the product or service. An
organisation with these obligations should monitor their CSRs to make sure that they are
consistently informing customers of these rights.
Once you have identified what is most important to your organisation, you need to decide
how to measure it. Each area of performance should have targets that you can measure
against, and that the data required to measure performance is easily accessible. For
example, in a call centre operation customer care might be important for organisational
success, which can be measured by the following performance areas and measures.
Time
How long does it take to answer a call?

How long does it take to resolve the customers query?
How many customer issues are resolved in the first call?
Quality
How many customers have to make a repeat call to resolve
their issue?
Customer
Satisfaction
How satisfied are customers with the service they receive?
It is important to determine the way you will go about monitoring satisfaction and what
tools you will use, such as surveys, questionnaires, feedback forms, customer relationship
management (CRM) software, and interviews.
Finally, to ensure your monitoring system is effective, make sure stakeholders such as
colleagues and management understand the monitoring process and how it applies to
them. Designated persons should also understand the system itself and how it will be
applied in the context of the organisation and its culture.
Recording and reporting

To plan effectively, you will need to determine, follow or create record-keeping and
reporting procedures. Ensure these procedures adhere to all organisational and legal
requirements. Your organisation should have clear policies and procedures in place
governing the use and storage of all customer information and customer service
performance information. Reporting should be carried out frequently and, as discussed in
the previous section, in accordance with all organisational requirements.
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Step 2: Do
Once you have planned your monitoring activities, you will need to implement them. You
should develop and follow implementation plans or schedules.
Implementation plans should contain all the information necessary to implement
customer service monitoring and monitor associated targets. Plans should include goals,
resources required (such as equipment that needs to be purchased, the people who need
to be involved, and the software that is required), steps, timelines and accountabilities
(i.e., who is in charge of each step). Each step should include enough detail to enable you
to complete the step by the given deadline. You may include sub-steps to organise tasks
under milestones.
Tip: Estimating time
One useful formula for estimating time is:
+ + 2
4
O= Your most optimistic estimate of time required.

P= Your most pessimistic estimate of time required.
B= Your best estimate of time required.
You may also wish to include dependencies in your plan. Dependencies are the steps that
cannot be started until something else has happened. For example, if you were baking a
cake, you could not put the ingredients into the oven until you mixed the ingredients
together. So the step of putting the cake in the oven is dependent on the step of mixing
ingredients together.
You may determine that some tasks do not need to begin directly after a previous step
and may be performed simultaneously with other tasks. Using the cake example again,
the step of letting the oven heat up can be performed at the same time as mixing the
ingredients. These two steps are not dependent on each other. Determining
dependencies can help you to understand the quickest way to achieve an objective.
Lets look at an example monitoring action plan.
Scenario: Monitoring customer service at Melbourne Car World
Objectives
Determine satisfaction levels in all dimensions of customer service quality
Delivery and analysis of quarterly customer service performance
Resources
You, sales and customer service general manager, senior management including
operations manager, etc., consultant analyst, customer service representatives (CSRs).


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Action
Responsible
Due date
1.
you
Jan 3
Investigate monitoring needs, organisational

needs, and seek pre-approval from senior
management:
consult with senior management
study policies and procedures
general manager
senior management
consultant analyst
survey legal environment

consider second quarter customer
satisfaction and service performance

results.
2.
Develop or revise draft monitoring tools:

consult with relevant stakeholders.
Dependent on (1).
you
Jan 5
general manager
consultant analyst
CSRs
3.
Develop draft monitoring practices and work

instructions:
consult with CSRs
Jan 5
general manager
consultant analyst
coordinate implementation with
performance management and other

managerial systems.
Dependent on (1).
4.
you
Finalise monitoring tools and work

instructions:
revise policies and procedures.
CSRs
other relevant
managers
you
Jan 12
general manager
consultant analyst
Dependant on (3).
5.
6.
Determine training/communication needs.
you
Dependent on (1).
general manager
Gain final approval for monitoring from

relevant stakeholders as per organisational
policies and procedures.
you
Dependent on (4).

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Jan 5
Jan 13
general manager
senior management

Student Workbook
Action
Responsible
Due date
7.
you
Jan 31
you
Feb 15
Deliver required training:

information gathering systems
survey design and implementation
integration of monitoring with job roles.
Dependent on (6).
8.
Delivery of quarterly customer satisfaction

survey.
consultant analyst
Dependent on (7).
9.
Collection and assessment of customers

service information:
survey data
you
April 1
general manager
consultant analyst
customer feedback.
Dependent on (8).
10.
Reporting of results of analysis to senior

management.
Dependent on (9).
11.
Senior management consultation on

continuous improvement:
changes/improvements to customer
service strategies
changes/improvements to monitoring.
you
April 14
general manager
consultant analyst
you
April 21
general manager
consultant analyst
senior management
Dependant on (10).
12.
Communication to relevant stakeholders:

changes/improvements to customer
you
April 31
general manager
service strategies
changes/improvements to monitoring.
Dependent on (11).
Step 3: Check
After you have gathered customer satisfaction and performance data, you need to review
the data. Then you will be able to see how actual customer service performance
compares with the performance the organisation aims to achieve. You may review the
data yourself or in your team, or alternatively, you may decide to use a consultant
analysts to help with analysis and reporting.


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Depending on organisational requirements, you may need to produce regular reports for
others in the organisation to assist with improving customer service performance.
Step 4: Act
Finally, the organisation will need to take action where required to improve customer
service performance. Some possibilities for action include:
improving individual performance through training, coaching, mentoring or
performance management
increasing peoples understanding of the monitoring system through training or
communication
enforce regular reporting, following organisational requirements
improving the quality and availability of products
taking system-wide action such as revising plans, policies and procedures
making changes to the monitoring system itself:
improving performance measures

improving monitoring tools such as surveys and information gathering
systems.
These possible actions will be discussed later in more detail in connection with reporting
and making recommendations.
Learning activity: Monitoring scenarios
Read the following scenarios and suggest how monitoring could be used in each
scenario to improve customer service.
Scenario 1
Several customers call or email Dorothys organisation to make a complaint each day.
Dorothy is the only person that responds to these complaints. Dorothys supervisor,
Anthony, has told her that he wants to know how many of these complaints are about
product faults and how many are complaints about dissatisfaction with customer
service. Anthony wants to be able to update management about these numbers each
month.
What can Dorothy do to monitor the complaints so that she can give Anthony the
numbers he wants?

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Scenario 2
Ezra and Noa own a sandwich shop in a shopping mall. The sandwich shop relies on
the business it receives at lunch, between 12 pm and 2 pm. Customers are usually
busy during their lunch time, so Ezra and Noa need to make sure that customers are
served quickly to compete with the other lunch options in the mall.
What kind of monitoring options could Noa and Ezra use to make sure that their service
is meeting customers need for quick service?
Scenario 3
Belle Feet is a store that sells Australian made wool slippers. Sometimes, customers
have ordered slippers that Belle Feet do not have in stock. Customers then have to wait
additional delivery times while Belle Feet order additional stock.
What kind of monitoring can Belle Feet use to prevent this problem from happening?
Learning activity: Schedule implementation of monitoring systems

Consider an organisation you are familiar with.
Plan a monitoring system that you could use to monitor and analyse customer service.
If no organisation is available to you, plan a monitoring system for Melbourne Car
World.


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Measuring customer satisfaction and service

performance
Customer service performance can be measured using a variety of tools, strategies and
methods. These include:
internal reports and audits
loyalty programs
benchmarking data
verbal feedback, surveys
market research
evaluation forms.
meetings with customer service staff
Lets take a more detailed look at some of these methods.
Internal reports and audits

Internal reports and audits may include information on a range of customer service
performance measures. Reports and audits include information on:
the quality of goods and how often
they are returned

lapsed customers
complaints
accounts, such as revenue and sales
data.
Data that provides information about the quality of service and the goods provided by the
organisation is called quality assurance data. This data may also provide information on
supplier delivery times. It is important for organisations to ensure that suppliers are of a
high standard so that customers can receive a high quality product and service.
Organisations keep data on complaints and lapsed customers to provide information
about where problems occur and what goes wrong for customers. This information helps
the organisation to address problems and reasons why customers do not continue to do
business with the organisation. Lapsed customers may be an important source of
feedback.
Organisations keep sales results to monitor financial performance and the turnover of
products. They need to be aware of products that are selling/not selling well, sold out or
faulty. This data can help organisations be better informed about what customers are
interested in purchasing (sales trends). The data can also indicate whether customers are
happy with the products/services that the organisation is providing. A decline in the
standard of customer service can result in a decrease in sales which then shows up in the
sales data. Sales results may be tracked through the organisations accounting system
and may be linked to individual performance.
Benchmarking data
Benchmarking data can be useful for organisations to determine how well the
organisation is doing compared to similar organisations. Benchmarking data is often
provided (for a fee) by external organisations with access to a wide variety of information
source. Benchmarking can help organisations identify areas of relative underperformance
to improve customer service quality.

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Market research
Market research involves gathering information about the people, specifically about the
kind of products they buy, how much they spend, who they buy for, and other purchasing
behaviour. It is important to study the market so that the organisation can offer products
that meet the needs of the market.
Organisations also need to be aware of the competition. Competitors are other
businesses who sell similar products or who sell:
Are they selling the same product or service as you?
At what price are they selling it?
Do they have the same product range as you?
Do they offer the same type or level of service you offer?
Market research and competitor analysis may be conducted by the organisation or by a

consultant or an organisation that specialises in market research.
Additionally, organisations may choose to gather detailed information from a small group
of representative customers in focus groups. Potential customers may be interviewed in
depth about spending habits and lifestyle. Although the information gathered can be
highly detailed, complex and difficult to analyse, it still helps organisations can gain
insight into the needs of their target customers. This detailed information can be difficult
to gain from broad market research. Focus groups can provide a good starting point for
research. You can find specific consumer behaviour and opinions that are highlighted in a
focus group, and then use those factors as the basis for a larger-scale survey.
Organisations need to constantly monitor the changing needs of target markets in order
to deliver what customers want or expect from the organisation.
Meetings and team briefings

Meetings and team briefings may be held primarily to allow management to communicate
to staff. Usually team meetings will inform staff of things like product or service changes
or changes to performance management which may affect staff. Such meetings also
provide an informal opportunity for management to gather feedback on the experiences
of customer service staff and to hear what customers are telling them directly and which
is not being recorded in any other way.
Loyalty programs
Many organisations have developed loyalty programs. These programs encourage
customers to return to gain loyalty points, rewards, and sometimes, free products.
Customers are given incentives to make repeat purchases, For example, every 6th coffee
is free at a cafe; or customers get a percentage off when they reach a particular value of
purchases at a fabric store.
Importantly, loyalty cards provide an opportunity to gather information about customers
(within the limits of the Privacy Act). These cards allow the organisation to monitor how
many times the customer visits, how much they spend and the types of products they buy.
This data can be collated to look at what customers are buying and how much they are
spending.

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Gathering verbal feedback at point of sale

Having a good relationship with customers is one way for an organisation to gain
feedback. It is essential to gather customers immediate reflections on both satisfactory
and non-satisfactory experiences.
Verbal feedback on a daily basis from a customer is a great way for organisations to
informally collect data. If collected more systematically, this information may be tracked
in databases or automated customer relationship management software. Monitoring and
acting on this feedback is a great way for an organisation to continually improve their
customer service operations.
Customer feedback surveys

Perhaps the most common way of gathering customer feedback is by using surveys.
Surveys need to be quick and user-friendly. They can be developed in a variety of ways,
but all have the same goal; to find out what organisations are doing well and what they
can be doing better with respect to satisfying the customer.
There are a variety of ways in which you can design surveys. Some could be:
tick the box
rank your preferences
scores (for example a score out of
ten for reliability)

short-answer questions
range (Likert scale, for example, in
response to a given statement, does

the customer: strongly disagree;
disagree; neither agree nor disagree;
agree; or strongly agree?)
yes/no questions
detailed answers.
Choosing an appropriate survey design should depend on what you particularly want to
find out. What are your information objectives? If you want short, specific answers then
specific, perhaps closed questions need to be asked; if you need detailed results then
you will need to provide more open questions that require and encourage detailed
answers (for a review of open and closed questions, see page 12).
You will also need to consider your customers. How time poor are they? What language
will they understand? What language will encourage them to complete the survey?
Example: Customer service survey
Complete the survey below. Base your results on the customer service you received the
last time you purchased something, like a new CD/video/computer product/phone.
Did the customer service member know the product they were selling? Rank their
knowledge:

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How long were you waiting before you were served?

1min
2min
3min
4min
5 min
longer
Were you happy with the service you received? Yes No

What could be improved to make your next visit a little better?
Rate the following with regards to how important the following is to you:
Price of the product Important average not important
Quality of service Important average not important
Location of the shop Important average not important
Would you buy a product from this store again?
Never
Definitely
Surveys can be conducted in a variety of ways, each having their own advantages and
disadvantages. Some ways to survey customers are:
verbal surveys
in person
written surveys
at point of sale
questionnaires
telephone
email
internet surveys.
Some types of surveys are more suitable for particular products or services than others.
Think about how a beautician might survey customers, compared to a store that sells
electrical goods. Do you think one type of survey would be better than another for these
purposes?
Learning activity: Advantages and disadvantages
In your own opinion, use the table below to write advantages and disadvantages
associated with the different types of surveys.
Types
Advantages
Disadvantages
Verbal surveys
Written surveys


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Types
Advantages
Student Workbook
Disadvantages
Email feedback
General
conversation
Point of sale
feedback
Telephone
survey
Internet survey
Which type of survey do you think is the most effective? Why?
Please refer to Appendix 12 of this Student Workbook for examples of surveys.

Learning activity: Design a survey
Consider you own organisation or an organisation you wish to research.
Based on the organisations approach to customer service and the organisations
target market, design a survey to help determine customer satisfaction.

Ensure your survey meets audience requirements and is designed to provide
useful information to improve customer service performance.

Design a survey to capture the results provided in the appendices of this student
Workbook for Melbourne Car World.

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Customer feedback forms

There are a variety of ways in which feedback forms can be designed and used. They can
be set to collect different types of information, depending upon what you want to find out.
Some organisations will just have a form where customers can fill in their thoughts on
customer service; these are normally located at the main desk of the organisation. This is
a quick, but not necessarily targeted form of gaining customer feedback.
On the other hand, such forms are a quick and anonymous way for customers to provide
valuable feedback.
Example: What do you think? (For external customers)
Name:
Contact details:
How was your visit (please circle one response)?

Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Will you return again in the future (please circle one response)?
Yes/No
Are you happy with the service you receive (please circle one response)?
Yes/No
In what areas could we improve?
List something you like about this organisation.
Feedback from internal customers can also be collected and used to improve processes
within the organisation. Consider the example below.
Example: What do you think? (For internal customers)
Name
Department
Does your department meet its targets
on time?
late?


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What does your department do well?
In what areas could your department improve?
List something you like about this organisation.
Learning activity: Further measuring of customer satisfaction.

Watch the video BSBCUS301A: Further measuring of customer satisfaction on IBSAs
What is one question that Tim Cameron asks his customers? Describe why this
question is asked.
What other methods could be used within the supermarket to gather customer
feedback?

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Monitoring team performance

In dealing with customers and completing roles and responsibilities there will be targets
and requirements that customer service staff will need to achieve, whether it is how many
customers they serve, how many products they sell, how many people they call or how
many enquiries they handle.
As a manager or team leader, following a monitoring system may mean that you need to
set or negotiate performance measures and targets and observe performance.
Performance targets are usually set using key result areas (KRAs) and key performance
indicators (KPIs).
KRAs, KPIs and targets

Customer service departments develop and use key result areas (KRAs), key
performance indicators (KPIs) and targets to monitor the performance of customer
service team members.
Key result areas (KRAs) are areas of performance that are important to the business.
Common KRAs include:
financial (level of contribution to profit)
people (performing work duties)
customers (level of contribution to
process (following correct processes).
customer focus, satisfaction)

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a number, percentage, or ratio that serves as a
measure of performance. KPIs are directly related to specific targets that have to be
achieved for each KRA. Targets detail what is to be achieved, in what timeframe, and are
then used to measure actual performance.
For example, an organisations objective could be to ensure customer satisfaction. The
associated target could be that all calls are answered within ten seconds. The
performance indicator could be the average time taken to answer a call (in seconds).
KPIs and targets are typically applied at an individual level but can also be used to
measure the performance of an organisation or department. Regardless of whether they
are applied individually or to a department, the principles for setting targets and
measuring performance are the same. Where targets are not met, a performance
improvement plan can assist them in achieving their targets.
Customer service KPIs and targets

Customer service KPIs are objective measures of performance that facilitate monitoring
and allow for the assessment of performance against service targets.
Customer service KPIs may include some of the following:
time taken to answer customer calls
percentage of complaints resolved on the same day of complaint
customer satisfaction scores, number of actions or activities.


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Targets may include:

achieving an agreed customer satisfaction score in feedback
undertaking an agreed number of customer feedback activities
undertaking an agreed number of customer need identification exercises.
Building performance targets

Lets step through the development of KRAs, KPIs and targets.
The first step is to determine the key result areas for the CSRs. Look at the some common
key result areas:
financial
people
customers
process.
Then, develop the areas further. For example, in a call centre making sales for the
organisation, the key result areas could be expanded in the following ways:
Financial: contribute to sales; ensure that phone expenses are minimised, offer
customer discounts only where appropriate.

Customers: ensure customers are satisfied with the service they receive; resolve
customer complaints and enquiries within appropriate timeframes (ideally within

one instance of customer contact).
People: support team members; participate in team meetings.
Process: adhere to policies and procedures.
The next step is to determine how the key result areas can be measured. Lets take the
financial contribution key result area as an example.

How many sales per month
Dollar value of sales per month
Length of sales calls
Number of customer discounts offered per month.
Finally, you will associate individual targets with the KPIs. In the example we are working
with, measurable targets could be set as follows

Target sales per month: 180 sales per month.
Target dollar value of sales per month: $36,000
Target average call length duration per customer: 8 minutes
Target number of customer discounts offered: 5 discounts offered.

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Usually, the KRAs and KPIs are placed in a table to display performance:
Jennifer Henry
KRA
Target
Financial
To achieve 180 sales per month.
Achievement
To achieve $36000 sales per month

To average 8 minutes calling each customer
To offer 5 discounts a month
Comments:
Tip: Visual management

When managing a team who are working towards common targets, make the KPIs and
targets visible along with the actual performance. The team can instantly see how well
they are doing towards their group goals.
For example, telephone call centres display KPIs and current performance such as:
KPI Average Maximum Call Duration: Target: 3 minutes
Actual Average maximum Call Duration: 3 mins 15 secs.
Learning activity: KPIs and targets

For a particular KRA (such as customer-focus), write two or three KPIs and targets for a
customer service role you are familiar with.
Consider:
following policies and procedures
discovering needs
following legal requirements
responding to special needs
developing rapport
enhancing service.


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Learning activity: KPIs in the supermarket

Watch the video BSBCUS301A: KPIs in the supermarket on IBSAs YouTube channel at
<http://www.youtube.com/ibsachannel>.
What explanation of KPIs is given in the video for the deli department of the
supermarket?
In what other departments would KPIs be used within the supermarket?
Observing customer service

As a manager or team leader following a monitoring system you may need to observe
performance of targets. A common method is the checklist.

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Learning activity: Observe customer service contacts

Using the KPIs you developed in the previous learning activity, develop a check list for
observing team members completion of targets and requirements.
Use the following template:
Did the CSR...
Respond to the customer within X seconds?
Comments:
Another method of (indirectly) observing performance is the use of mystery shoppers.

Mystery shoppers are often employed to pose as regular customers performing particular
taskssuch as buying a product, asking questions, registering complaints or behaving in
a particular way. The mystery shopper provides detailed reports or feedback about their
experiences to the organisation. Mystery shoppers are most commonly hired by retail
stores, restaurants, fast food outlets, banks, cinemas and similar businesses where
providing high levels of customer service is the backbone of the organisation.


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Example: Mystery shopper observation

Did the sales person approach you promptly?
Yes
No
Under two
minutes
Over two
minutes
Did the sales person act professionally/use manners?
Yes
No
Did the sales person manage themselves staying on

task, following up enquiries?
Yes
No
Did the salesperson use verbal and non-verbal cues?
Yes
No
Did the sales person have solid knowledge about the

product/service?
Yes
No
Satisfied
Unsatisfied
How long did you have to wait to be served?
At the end of the sale were you:

Learning activity: Mystery shopper
The next time you purchase a product or service, observe the communication skills of
the sales person or customer service representative.
Then fill out the following checklist.
Did the salesperson...
Yes/No
Did the salesperson (if applicable) address customers by name?

Did the salesperson use appropriate titles?
Did the salesperson use easy to understand language?
Did the salesperson match word choice to customer appropriately?
Did the salesperson (if applicable) make eye-contact?
Did the salesperson use open, welcoming body language?
Did the salesperson show interest?

Did the salesperson ask questions to find out more about the
customers needs?
Did the salesperson demonstrate listening by paraphrasing, etc.?

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Reviewing data and making recommendations

During the implementation of a monitoring system, you may have responsibility for
gathering information from a number of sources to review and provide recommendations.
You will need to carefully examine the data to discover trends and indications of customer
service performance levels. Drawing on your evaluation of the data you will need to
develop recommendations for actions to improve customer service.
Approaches to review
Several approaches to reviewing data are possible. We will look at four approaches:
1. Review actual performance compared to performance targets.
2. Review organizational performance compared to competitor performance.
3. Review performance of individual employees and each department.
4. Review the monitoring system.
Firstly, you may look at key result areas for the organisation. Look at how the organisation
is performing with respect to important goals or targets. Determine if there is a gap
between actual results and targets. You must then determine reasonable ways to close
the gap.
The second approach is to look at benchmarking data for similar organisations. Compare
the organisations performance with the performance of other organisations. Are there
areas of relative underperformance? If there are, you should consider recommendations
to bring your organisations performance into line with industry averages. If the
organisation does not act, there is a risk the organisation will fall further behind and
develop a reputation for poor customer service.


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The third approach is to look at the variation between the customer service offered by
different parts of the organisation or by different individuals. The performance of some
individuals may be outstanding, but if the overall, average performance of the
organisation is not at a more or less similar (and high) standard the organisation will have
trouble developing a reputation for consistency. In cases of high variation, consider
targeted actions such as extra training to bring poor performers up to standard.
Lastly, if the data provided to you by your monitoring system is inadequate to take any of
the above approaches, you should consider making changes to the system itself or the
monitoring tools used to gather data. Perhaps you are asking the wrong questions in your
feedback surveys. Perhaps you are not observing regularly or widely enough to provide
enough information.
Recommendations
One common recommendation in the face of poor results is improved, regular training.
Some organisations will provide regular training that is required for their business to
continually run successfully. As products/services change, members of the organisation
need to be kept up-to-date so that they can pass this information on to the customer.
As business technology is continually being updated, organisations need to provide
regular training for staff, especially in areas such as using the sales register, accessing
customer databases and product manufacturing processes.
The many benefits of training include:
improved ability to achieve organisational goals and objectives
greater potential to increase productivity
a more motivated work force
lower incidence of accidents and lower associated costs
greater product knowledge
greater awareness of work health and safety (WHS).
Unfortunately, more training for everyone is not the solution to every customer service
problem. Other possible recommendations for action may include:
taking action with individuals to improve individual performance, such as individual
training, coaching, mentoring or performance management

increasing awareness or understanding of the monitoring system through training
or communication
enforce regular reporting, following organisational requirements
improving the quality and availability of products
taking system-wide action such as revising plans, policies and procedures
making changes to the monitoring system itself:
improving performance measures

improving monitoring tools, e.g. surveys and information gathering systems.
Lets look at some possible recommendations and application in more detail.
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Recommendation
Application
Coaching and
mentoring
In a coaching scenario, a coach (usually, but not always, a more

senior or skilled individual) consults with an individual to find
ways for the individual to achieve or exceed performance goals.
Mentoring, on the other hand, always involves a more senior
individual providing advice or training a more junior or less skilled
to improve performance in a role or career path. A mentor may
shadow or buddy with a less skilled worker on the job as part of
induction.
Coaching and mentoring are often key parts of performance
management. They may be options to maintain and improve
performance in a systematic way. Coaching and mentoring may
not be appropriate when individuals simply lack skills that require
formal training or are unwilling to perform.
Additional,
targeted training
Additional training should be recommended when individuals or

teams lack basic skills or knowledge to perform in their job roles.
Performance
management
Performance management is a systematic way to improve

performance and address underperformance as well as enforcing
rules for all levels and roles. It may include:
induction processes
training processes
coaching and mentoring
regular performance evaluations
disciplinary and dismissal processes.
A systematic and objective approach to performance

management is essential to maintaining levels of performance
and ensuring fairness. Consider introducing such a system if your
organisation lacks one to ensure fairness and legal compliance.
Monitoring
suppliers and
supply chains
If complaints or sales data indicate problems with product quality

you may need to address supplier issues:
monitor and audit suppliers regularly
find alternative sources of raw materials or wholesale
products
negotiate supply and delivery issues.


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Recommendation
Application
Improving
communications
processes
Clear communication processes allow information to flow to those

that need it. If customer service representatives continually lack
up-to-date information to inform customers about products,
delivery times, consider improving communication processes by:
clarifying communication channels and reporting pathways
encouraging staff to develop internal and external networks
to encourage the flow of information

finding alternative ways to make policies, procedures and
work instructions available

considering technological solutions: intranet, databases,
CRMs.
Revising
documentation
Policies and procedures may be unclear or not detailed enough to

provide adequate guidance. In such cases, consider rewriting or
reorganising.
Improving the
system
You may discover that the monitoring system you are following or
have introduced is inadequate to allow your organisation to
maintain or improve customer service quality. In this case,
consider:
improving data collection tools such as surveys and
observation checklists
improving, rewriting and renegotiating unfair, irrelevant or
unclear performance targets

revise schedules to ensure more regular observation and/or
reporting
improve communication about the system so that
everybody understands its features and importance to the

business.
Learning activity: Reviewing data and making recommendations
Consider the Melbourne Car World scenario at the beginning of this section. You are a
consultant customer service analyst who has been hired by Melbourne Car World to
review customer service and provide a report to management.
1. Review Melbourne Car World simulated business information and specifically the
data in the Melbourne Car World customer service survey in the Appendix 11 of
this Student Workbook.
2. Develop 23 recommendations to improve customer service, including a brief
explanation why the recommendations will be effective.
There is space provided to write these recommendations on the next page.

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Recording and presenting data and recommendations

To provide support for recommendations or to present data in a way that will promote
understanding, you should develop skills to present data effectively. Organisations may
have different ways of presenting data and recommendations. Lets look at some
examples.
Example: How long did they wait?
The following chart shows how many minutes customers had to wait to be seated at a
new restaurant that had received a lot of media attention because of its well-known
chef.
After week 2, the delivery of customer service was changed. By comparing weeks 3 and
4 with weeks 1 and 2 the organisation can see whether the new approach has reduced
customer waiting times.
200
Mon
Tues
150
Wed
Thurs
100
Fri
Sat
50
Sun
0
Week 1
Week 2

Week 3
Week 4

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The graph shows that the change in customer service technique was effective; there
was a shorter waiting period for the customers. Although some days still had a longer
waiting period than some days in the first two weeks, the overall daily comparison
showed improvement.
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Friday
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Overall the delivery of customer service has improved; it is recommended that Fridays
results can be improved through continuous performance coaching to consolidate
gains and promote a culture of continuous improvement.
It is important to present data in a clear way and in a way that will help employees at your
organisation understand what the data shows. You may have to present information
differently depending on who will see it. For example, you may be able to present
complicated information to management because they are more familiar with the
processes involved in the running of the company. At a team meeting with new recruits,
you might have to break that same information up into several charts so that you dont
overwhelm them with unfamiliar information.
Who will look at the graphs or charts? Organisations encourage sales staff as well as
more senior management to look at performance data so they are aware of how they are
going and how their customers are responding. Staff discussions are a useful way to
reflect on the useful implications of customer feedback and performance data.
Within each organisation there will be a number of people interested in the results of
surveys and data collection. Obviously, management will want to track these results so
they are able to develop customer service skills or look at particular products and how
well they are selling. Being able to use data from previous reports gives individuals and
organisations perspective to see how they are performing over time. Knowing if they are
achieving their goals is essential for organisations to evaluate performance.
When feedback and performance data is presented effectively to promote understanding
and accurate analysis, an organisation can identify the specific areas they need to
improve. Using these results will improve the service your organisation is providing to
customers. 8
Adapted from interview with Brigitte Sneyders, Customer Research, 2009.

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Putting feedback results into a spreadsheet

There are several programs you can use to write up reports or show results. For these
examples, Microsoft Excel has been used to create charts and graphs. If you are unsure
of how to create a graph in Excel, basic instructions can be found in Appendix 13 of this
Student Workbook. Alternatively, use the online Help provided in Excel.
Tip: Tracking Surveys in Excel
If you conduct monthly feedback surveys, you may want to track these in Excel. These
results will come in handy when evaluating data
Learning activity: Present data

The Melbourne Car World complaints register (below) that shows the number of
complaints that come in each month. Use the data to construct a chart in Excel.
Experiment with different types of charts to best display the data.
Jan 12
Feb 15
March 11
April 14
May 20
June 8
July 22
Aug 16
Sep 22
Oct 13
Nov 17
Dec 25
cut and paste the chart into a Word document

write an explanation of the data under the graph
write one recommendation supported by the data
consider previous the previous years results and chart the data.
Previous years results:

Jan 8
Feb 22
March 13
April 13
May 24
June 16
July 18
Aug 19
Sep 24
Oct 15
Nov 12
Dec 21
write an explanation of the data comparing data in the two charts

write one recommendation supported by the data.


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Writing professional reports

Workplace reports vary a great deal in length, content and complexity. Some reports are
very lengthy and complex, but usually, reports to your manager will be concise and simple.
In order to write an appropriate workplace report, you should always follow organisational
requirements for reporting. Your organisation may have templates or style guidelines that
provide guidance or mandate how documents are to be produced, regardless of their
content or nature. Organisational requirements may include directions for use of company
logos, headers and footers, page numbering and file naming protocols. You should ensure
your report follows all necessary guidelines, contains all the relevant information and is
presented professionally.
A standard management report consists of four key sections:
summary
body
conclusion
recommendations.
Lets look at the sections of a typical managerial report in slightly more detail.
The summary should briefly:
state the purpose of the report
1.Summary
provide background information

summarise the main ideas and recommendations of the
report.
The main body of the report should detail the key findings of
your review and analysis. The body of your report should
include:
data collection techniques/methods used
2.Body
findings or results
analysis, discussion and explanation of your findings.
The body should be presented in a logical sequence using

sentences and paragraphs. If the body is longer than one
page, it should be divided into sections outlined by heading
and subheadings.
3.Conclusion

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The conclusion should summarise the key points from the

main body of the report. It should clearly relate to the
objectives of the report. No new information should be
included here.

Student Workbook
This section should include your recommended strategy or

course of action based on the findings of the report.
Recommendations must be supported by the data presented
in the body of your report.
Consider the following important points. Recommendations:
4.Recommendations
are based on analysis of data and conclusions

are suggested options (or choices) for solving the
problem/s
should contain some indication of how they can be
achieved
should be sensible and feasible.
Example: How long did they wait? A report

The following report follows on from the restaurant example from page 95. This report
has been written by the wait staff team leader, Jenna, at the restaurant managers
request.
Jenna has been asked to make a short report on wait times to hand out at the monthly
team meeting.
How long did they wait?
Summary
This report shows how long it takes for customers to be seated after they arrive at
the restaurant doors.
Our restaurant received a lot of positive press before opening our doors one month
ago. While the press has been great for our finances, we run the risk of deterring
customers from returning because of how long it takes for us to seat customers.
Times did decrease after week 2 when some improvements were made, but ideally
we can make further improvements to satisfy customers.
I recommend that we hire two more wait staff and serve drinks to customers who are
waiting for tables.
Body what the data shows
We hired one more kitchen hand after week two. We also improved the running of
staff by assigning sections to wait staff to improve efficiency. These changes have
resulted in a decrease in the wait times for being seated as you can see from these
results:


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Customer wait times for being seated

200
Mon
Tues
150
Wed
Thurs
100
Fri
Sat
50
Sun
0
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
We are unable to seat more people because of space, but we can continue to
improve the time it takes to serve and then clear meals, as well as the time it takes
to clean and organise seating arrangements as customers leave the restaurant.
Our current staff are working well at their jobs, but are simply overwhelmed with the
level of work they are required to do. They are unable to increase their efficiency
because they are already working at 100%. (Good job wait staff!)
Other restaurants with similarly lengthy wait times offer drinks to their waiting
customers. This improves customer satisfaction, and also increasing beverage sales
for the restaurant. However, we need to be aware that, due to our beverage license,
we can only offer drinks to customers waiting inside the door. Alcohol cannot be
served to those waiting outside.
Recommendations
Based on the data and our current processes, I have two recommendations to make:
Offer and serve drinks to customers who are waiting inside the premises to be
seated.
Hire two more staff for the following activities:
One staff member to wait on the floor with the same duties as our
current staff members
One staff member to act as a runner. This person can take orders and
serve drinks to waiting customers. This person can also clear tables
when other wait staff are too busy to do so, focusing on clearing,
cleaning and organising seating for new tables to come in.

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Learning activity: Management report

Consider the Melbourne Car World scenario at the beginning of this section. You are a
consultant customer service analyst who has been hired by Melbourne Car World to
analyse customer service and provide a report to management.
1. Review the data in the Melbourne Car World customer service survey in the
appendices of this Student Workbook.
2. Prepare a short summary
3. Prepare a page body of the report, including graphical representation of the data.
4. Prepare a short conclusions section
5. Prepare a recommendations section to be included in a management report
including:
23 short term recommendations for changes
a brief explanation why the recommendations will be effective.
Note: you may wish to use the recommendations you developed in an earlier learning
activity.
Section summary
required to monitor and report on customer service. Section 1 covered:
principles of customers service
models of quality customer service
monitoring systems following the PDCA cycle of continuous improvement
methods of monitoring customer satisfaction and service performance, including
feedback surveys
methods of monitoring team performance, including observation checklists and
mystery shopping
reviewing data and developing recommendations supported by data
presenting data in charts
writing professional reports.


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Further reading
Bartol, K. and Tein, M., 2004, Management a Pacific Rim focus, 4th edn, McGraw
Hill, NSW.
Connolly, R. and Rock, P., 1999, Managing Australian business: corporate, human
resources, operations, 3rd edn, VCTA Publishing, Melbourne.

McColl-Kennedy, J. R. and Kiel, G. C., 1999, Marketing: a strategic approach,
Nelson ITP, South Melbourne.
Section checklist
Before you proceed, make sure that you understand how to:
identify principles of customer service and best practice models
define customer service quality
follow monitoring systems to:
regularly seek customer feedback
regularly monitor team performance
continuously identify opportunities and make recommendations for
improvement
write professional reports.

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Glossary
Glossary
Term
Definition
Active listening
Active listening uses actions and feedback to improve

listening.
Active listening improves the listeners ability to understand
and remember what is being said. It also helps the speaker to
feel understood and respected.
Audit
Systematic measuring and examining of sales and other

information in an organisation.
Note: The term audit is often used in business to refer to an
independent financial audit.
Benchmarking data
Information about standard practice across other

organisations. For example, benchmarking performance data
is the standard number of sales and amount of revenue made
by other similar organisations.
Channel
The term channel is used generally in business to mean the

way that a message is communicated to the intended
audience. Channels can include: direct marketing, social
networking sites, word-of-mouth, television advertising, etc.
Customer
A customer is somebody who receives customer service from

a service deliverer.
Before, during or after the purchase, the customer receives
customer service from a CSR.
Customer loyalty
Loyal customers are those that keep returning to the same

business to buy products rather than buying from different
companies.
Customer loyalty can be strengthened through building
customer relationships, by meeting customer needs and by
regularly communicating with the customers to identify
emerging needs.
Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is the feeling that a customer gets

when he or she is happy with the product and/or customer
service that has been provided. Customer satisfaction
involves meeting customer needs and expectations.


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Glossary
Student Workbook
Term
Definition
Customer service
Customer service describes the support that an organisation

provides to its customers to meet or exceed their
expectations. Customer service takes many forms, such as
complaints handling, after-sales repair or replacement,
product guarantees, customer support phone line, etc.
Customer service plan
A document describing the total, coordinated approach of an

organisation to customer service. A customer service plan
may contain the following:
a customer service vision and mission
customer service objectives
product and/or service standards
a customer service policy
action plans and implementation milestones.
Customer service
representative (CSR)
A CSR delivers customer service to customers. He or she is

the public face of the company and is responsible for applying
the principles of customer service in interactions with
customers. A CSR may also be responsible for answering
customer enquiries, handling customer complaints, building
customer relationships, and generating sales.
Escalate
Pass the issue or enquiry on to a senior employee.
External customer
An external customer is an individual or business (outside the

organisation) who purchases a product or service from the
organisation.
Internal customer
An internal customer is anyone who receives something from

another person or department within the same organisation.
Interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills are the skills that help you to clearly

communicate with others and relate to people from a variety
of backgrounds (e.g., people with high and low incomes,
people from all sorts of cultural backgrounds, people of all
ages).
Lapsed customer
A customer who no longer purchases products from your

organisation.
Likert scale
A rating scale used to measure peoples level of agreement

with a statement. This scale is often employed in
questionnaires used to measure customer attitudes or
reactions.

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Glossary
Term
Definition
Moment of truth
An important point in time at which a customer comes into

contact or interacts with a business and forms an opinion of
the overall quality of service. At these points, key products or
services are delivered (or not delivered) to satisfy customer
needs and expectations.
These points have a greater effect on customer perceptions of
the customer service they have received. It is usually
appropriate to pay particular attention to these moments of
truth because they form customer opinions about customer
service as a whole.
'Moments of truth' are the points in a transaction, service
delivery or customer relationship at which customer
expectations are at their sharpest and most demanding.
Performance indicator
A measure which is indicative of current and future

performance. Performance indicators may be analysed and
used to help determine the need for proactive performance
management activities such as coaching or training, for
example, to improve future customer service performance by
staff.
Performance
management
The management of how well people or departments do their

jobs. Performance management involves setting goals for the
person or department and measuring their work towards
those goals. If the goals are not met, then performance
management involves efforts to improve the performance.
Rapport
Rapport is a close relationship based on understanding,

concern and good communication.
Building rapport with a customer means that you are friendly
and understanding towards the customer while you make an
effort to understand their needs and communicate clearly
with them about their needs.
Stakeholder
People who have an interest in an organisation, its activities

and its achievements. These may include customers,
partners, employees, shareholders, owners, government, and
regulators.


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Learning activity: Product and service features and benefits
Watch the video BSBCUS301A: Product and service features and benefits on IBSAs
1. Eric Koundouris mentions five points at the beginning of the video. How do some
of these tips benefit customers?
Any of the following are appropriate answers:
Love your job: happy staff will treat customers well and provide help.
Know your business: understanding the business means knowing what
customers want. If the owners/managers know the business well, then
they can satisfy the needs of the customers.
Keep your people happy: happy staff will treat customers well and provide
help.
Choose the right location: A good location will be easy for customers to
access.
2. As Eric explains how they run the supermarket, write down three ways that the
supermarket is managed to provide the best service for customers.
Example answers:
All fresh produce is handled carefully as though they were eggs. This keep
produce fresh and appealing to customers.
Produce is fresh from the markets; customers can rely on consistently
good, fresh produce.
The supermarket keeps their figs fresh which is valuable for customers in
this Italian area who want to have figs available.
The supermarket focuses on dedicated staff that put in the hours to get the
business right which results in more customers.
Staff can only become managers if theyve worked their way up from
trolley boy through different departments so that the supermarket is
managed by people who know how to smoothly run a store.

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Learning activity: Further measuring of customer satisfaction.

Watch the video BSBCUS301A: Further measuring of customer satisfaction on IBSAs
1. What is one question that Tim Cameron asks his customers? Describe why this
question is asked.
Example answers:
Question: Are you doing a full shop or top up?
Reason asked: To find out customer buying habits and to establish if customers are
interested in a full shopping purchase at the location.
OR
Question: Have you been able to find everything you need in the larger sizes?
Reason asked: To find out customer buying habits and to establish if stock sizes
are adequate.
OR
Question: How would you rate the value and pricing?
Reason asked: To find out customer opinions on perceived purchase value and
pricing.
OR
Question: Have you shopped at breakfast point before?
Reason asked: To find out how many new customers are visiting the location.
OR
Question: How would you rate the store layout and ease of shopping?
Reason asked: To gather opinions on shopping comfort, ease of stock location and
purchasing by the customer.
2. What other methods could be used within the supermarket to gather customer
feedback?
Example possible answers:
A survey form could be handed to customers to fill out and return with the inclusion
of a gift to those customers who return the survey.


Page 107 of 126
Student Workbook
Learning activity: KPIs in the supermarket

Watch the video BSBCUS301A: KPIs in the supermarket on IBSAs YouTube channel at
<http://www.youtube.com/ibsachannel>.
1. What explanation of KPIs is given in the video for the Deli department of the
supermarket?
Example answer:
The instructor explains that KPIs are the main areas in the business that need to
be monitored. There only needs to be five or six of them in your area, but they
are the key tools you will use to track your performance in your department.
2. In what other departments would KPIs be used within the supermarket?
Example answer:
Meat department, fruit and vegetable department, and specific product lines.

Page 108 of 126

Student Workbook
Appendices
Appendices
Appendix 1 Melbourne Car World business plan
From Melbourne Car World business plan
Melbourne Car World is a growing business. It was founded in 2007 by CEO Florence
Mehra and partner Sven Berg as a single Melbourne car dealership in the citys north.
Since then, the business has expanded to include two additional dealerships: East and
West.
Melbourne Car World holds a valid motor car traders license from the Victorian
Business Licensing Authority # 9876543, issued 1 April 2007.
Mission
Melbourne Car World provides customers with top automotive value and the most
responsive and effective customer service available anywhere.
Vision
Within five years, Melbourne Car World will have established itself as the number one
dealership in the Melbourne area. Melbourne Car World will have expanded to a
number of key locations, including in the Melbourne CBD. Melbourne Car World will
have established itself as the number one choice for families.
Values
Customer-focus.
Actively encourage excellence, innovation and continuous improvement.
Work collaboratively and consultatively with integrity, professionalism and
teamwork.
Family- friendly.
Strategic directions
The strategic context in which Melbourne Car World will achieve its mission and vision
is through:
increasing sales and reducing expenditure
engaging with customers
supporting people to perform via training and performance management
monitoring product and service quality.


Page 109 of 126
Appendices
Student Workbook
Appendix 2 Melbourne Car World organisational chart

Page 110 of 126

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Appendices
Appendix 3 Melbourne Car World customer service

policy
Melbourne Car World can only succeed with customer support and purchases, and in
particular, repeat customers. As a result, taking care of our customers is our highest
priority. At Melbourne Car World the customer always comes first!
Melbourne Car World adheres to:
The International Customer Service Standard (ICSS:2010-14).
AS ISO 10002-2006 Customer satisfaction - Guidelines for complaints handling in
organisations (ISO 10002:2004, MOD)

Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) Code of practice.
Customer Complaints
Demanding customers force us to be our best and resolving complaints satisfactorily can
even increase customer loyalty if the complaints are handled properly.
When faced with a customer complaint:
listen to the full complaint without interrupting or getting defensive
follow the Melbourne Car World complaints policy.
Telephone Courtesy
It is everyones responsibility to answer the phone. Always try to answer the phone
promptly, within three rings. Always answer in a friendly, polite manner: good
morning/afternoon/evening, welcome to Melbourne Car World, how may I help you?
If you are certain of the answer to the customers question, you should respond clearly
and politely. If you are uncertain, ask the caller if you may put them on hold for a moment.
If there is a staff member close who can provide you with the correct information, then
return to the call and provide the customer with the necessary information. If there are no
staff members close by that can help promptly, then ask the caller for their name and put
the caller through to a manager, making sure that you brief the manager on the callers
name and the nature of their enquiry. Always thank the person for calling.
Dress Code
All employees of Melbourne Car World are expected to represent the business, and dress
accordingly. All customer service staff members are required to wear business attire.
Shirts and skirts or trousers should be ironed and neat in appearance, shirt tucked in and
a belt worn with the trousers. Closed toed footwear with rubber soles is required.
Updated/Authorised
02/2010 Cameron White CFO


Page 111 of 126
Appendices
Student Workbook
Appendix 4 Melbourne Car World policy and

procedures for customer consultation
Melbourne Car World Customer Consultation Policy and Procedures
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to ensure the management of customer

contact is carried out consistently, fairly and transparently and in
accordance with organisational requirements.
Scope
The scope of this policy covers the management of customer contact

by employees and contractors of Melbourne Car World.
Resources
Specific procedures for the implementation of this policy are available

below.
Responsibility
Responsibility for the implementation of this policy rests with

employees and management of Melbourne Car World with
responsibility for managing customer contact.
Relevant
legislation and
standards
Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth)
Updated/
authorised
02/2012 Cameron White CFO
To serve customers
All customers should be acknowledged within the first five seconds of entering the
dealership. All calls must be answered within three rings. When you are busy with another
customer, this acknowledgement can be one of the following:
a wave and smile
saying youll be with them soon/placing them on hold.
Procedure
1. When free, engage the customer in the following ways as appropriate:
a. smile
b. make eye contact
c. if you know the customers name, use it
d. if youve seen them at Melbourne Car World before, welcome them back
e. if youve not seen them before, introduce yourself by name
f. if the customer doesnt ask for help, start a conversation with them
g. talk in an energetic manner
h. give them your full attention.

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Appendices
2. When greeting the customer, ensure you (as relevant):

a. acknowledge customers arrival/call
b. greet with a genuine smile
c. maintain eye contact during conversations
d. introduce yourself in a friendly manner
e. recognise repeat customers
f. start a conversation
g. talk with an energetic tone
h. give the customer your full attention.
3. Identify customer needs and match them to products and services.
4. Identify (if possible, with sensitivity and without the risk of causing offence)
customer special needs relating to, for example, culture, disability, pregnancy, etc.
Take all reasonable steps to deliver an equal level of service to the customer. This
may involve providing additional assistance such as taking extra time to explain
products and services, reading text for customers, and physically assisting
customers, where there is no risk to yourself.
5. At end of consultation/s with customer and after all needs have been discovered,
add up cost of all products and services. Summarise package offered.
6. Confirm that the customer is satisfied with the offer and willing to complete the
purchase. Do not proceed if the customer is not satisfied and continue discussions
about their needs.
7. If the customer is satisfied with the offer, have them complete consent form.
8. Fulfil customer order as negotiated.
9. Ask customer to participate in customer service feedback questionnaire. Assist
customer to complete the questionnaire only where they request assistance.
10. Submit all documentation and records to manager for storage in accordance with
record-keeping policy and privacy policy.
To manage complaints
1. Greet the customer courteously and give them your name.
2. Apologise for any product fault or poor service. Be sympathetic. Thank the customer
for bringing the complaint to your attention. Never argue with the customer.
3. Listen fully to what the customer is saying. Try to gather all the facts about the
complaint and jot them down. Ask questions and summarise what they are saying.
4. When you have all the details about the complaint, ask the customer how they
would like it to be resolved. Always suggest replacements or credit notes over
refunds and discuss product options to suit customers needs.
5. Refunds and discounts must be within your authority to offer. Request
authorisation from the manager of dealership for amounts above your delegated
authority.


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Appendices
Student Workbook
6. At end of complaint summarise complaint and how you commit to resolving the
complaint. Gain customer agreement. Submit notes on complaint to manager:
a. nature of complaint
b. resolution of complaint.

Page 114 of 126

Student Workbook
Appendices
Appendix 5 Melbourne Car World Customer service

charter and consent form
Our pledge to you, our customer (in accordance with the VACC code of practice):
Melbourne Car World will observe proper standards of conduct and act honestly
and act fairly in their dealings with you, the customer.

Melbourne Car World will not commence repairs without authorisation from the
customer or agent.
Melbourne Car World will advise customers of any necessary variation to negotiated
offers and agreements.

Melbourne Car World will carry out only those tasks for which they are properly
qualified and equipped.

Melbourne Car World will ensure any goods or parts sold are of merchantable
quality and fit the purpose for which they are required.
Melbourne Car World will not knowingly mislead a consumer in relation to the sale,
purchase, service or repair of a motor vehicle or accessories and not be party to any
improper practice.
Melbourne Car World warrants that all repairs and services provided, including sub-
contracted services, shall be of good quality and workmanship and all parts
supplied free of defects and such warranty shall apply for a specific number of
kilometres or period of time.
Melbourne Car World guarantee clear title to any vehicle offered for sale.
I understand that my personal information given to Melbourne Car World to facilitate my

purchase and provide customer service feedback will be used in accordance with
Melbourne Car World policy and Australian law.
I understand and agree to:
the total cost of the sales/service package negotiated
my obligation to pay or arrange financing for the negotiated price at required date
all conditions associated with this purchase explained to me by the sales
representative.
Signature:

Date:

Page 115 of 126
Appendices
Student Workbook
Appendix 6 Melbourne Car World Customer segment

profiles
Business
Friends and Fun
Income above $90,000.
Income $30,000$50,000.
Prefer to be addressed by last name
Prefer to be addressed by first
and title.
name.
Luxury and comfort important.
Friends, dating is number one
concern.
Looking for a deal on large fleets.
Luxury nice but unimportant.
Prepared to spend big if looked
after right.
Prestige important.
Often conservative, pro-family.
Highly price sensitive.

Progressive, green politics.
Family and fun
Adventure family
Prefer to be asked for form of
Prefer to be addressed by first
address.
name.
Safety is number one priority.
Family camping and off-road
activities are top priorities.
Family fun activities are a close
second.
Safety is relatively important.
Luxury nice but unimportant.
Luxury and comfort important.
Prestige not as important as other
Prestige important.
things.
Knows what they want.
Needs lots of assistance to
understand features and benefits.

Must-have priorities, but wants to
save money to spend on family

activities.
Wants respect for self and life
Needs respect.
Sometimes arrives at dealership
with kids.
Sometimes requires non-standard
modifications.
choices.
Wants understanding of family
needs.
Sometimes arrives at dealership
with kids.

Page 116 of 126

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Appendices
Appendix 7 Melbourne Car World Product

comparison information
Vehicles
RCV
Rover
IMOK
Cruise
Ascot
Ranger
($42,000)
($38,000)
($25,000)
($55,000)
Airbags
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Electronic stability
control (ESC)
Yes
No
No
Yes
1,200 L
1,500 L
400 L
1,200 L
Seats fold to increase

capacity
Yes
No
Yes
No
4WD
No
No
No
Yes
Leather seats
No
No
No
Yes
Fuel
8.0 L per
100 km
7.5 L per
100 km
6.5 L per
100 km
10 L per
100 km
Towing
1 tonne
1 tonne
No
4 tonne
Bluetooth hands- free
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
MP3/iPod connectivity
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
# Passengers
Cargo
Features
TOTO
Freedom
Modifications and additions

Towbar
Yes: $200
Yes: $200
No
Yes: $200
Sunroof
Yes:
$2,000
Yes:
$2,000
Yes:
$2,000
Yes:
$3,000
Reverse camera
Yes:
$1,000
Yes:
$1,000
No
Yes:
$2,000
Roof racks
Yes: $300
Yes: $300
No
Yes: $350
Window tinting
Yes: $400
Yes: $400
Yes: $300
Yes: $500
Backseat DVD player
Yes: $400
Yes: $400
No
Yes: $500
Yes:
$1,000
Yes:
$1,000
Yes:
$1,000
Yes: $2000
Extended 4-yr warranty


Page 117 of 126
Appendices
Student Workbook
Appendix 8 Melbourne Car World Customer

satisfaction survey
Please answer the following:
Yes
No
Were your needs as a customer met?

Was a vehicle comparison provided?
Did the comparison allow you to make an informed decision?
Were the vehicles features and benefits explained to you?
Did the vehicle meet your budget constraints?
Did the sales person source a vehicle that met your requirements?
Were at least three additional products or services identified?
Was the service centre accessible to you?
Did you have enough information to make an informed decision about
aftermarket products?
Did the sales person communicate with you regularly and effectively?
Would you use this sales person again?
What was good/bad about your experience?
Where could the sales person improve?
Signature:
Page 118 of 126
Date:
Student Workbook
Appendices
Appendix 9 Melbourne Car World privacy policy

Melbourne Car World is committed to protecting your privacy. It is bound by the national
privacy principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 and all other applicable legislation
governing privacy.
Melbourne Car World will handle personal information in accordance with relevant
legislation. Our respect for our customers privacy is essential. We have policies and
procedures to ensure that all personal information is handled in accordance with national
privacy principles.
This privacy policy sets out our policies on the management of personal information
that is, how we collect personal information, the purposes for which we use this
information, and to whom this information is disclosed.
1. What is personal information?

Personal information is information or opinions that could identify you. Examples of
personal information include: your name, address, telephone number and email address,
or documents that include this information, like a resume.
2. How does Melbourne Car World collect and use your personal information?
Melbourne Car World collects personal information during customer transactions, when
you send a job application, when you email us or interact with our website. These uses
are discussed below.
3. What happens if you dont provide personal information?

Generally, you have no obligation to provide any personal information to us. However, if
you choose to withhold personal information, we are unlikely to be able to respond to your
application or query.
4. To whom do we disclose personal information?

We engage third party service providers (including related companies of Melbourne Car
World which may be located outside Australia) to perform functions for Melbourne Car
World. Such functions include mailing, delivery of purchases, credit card payment
authorisation, trend analysis, external audits, market research, promotions and the
provision of statistical sales information to industry bodies.
For our service providers to perform these functions, in some circumstances it may be
necessary for us to disclose your personal information to those suppliers. Where
disclosures take place, we work with these third parties to ensure that all personal
information we provide to them is kept secure, is only used to perform the task for which
we have engaged them and is handled by them in accordance with the national privacy
principles.


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Appendices
Student Workbook
5. How do we protect personal information?

At all times, we take great care to ensure your personal information is protected from
unauthorised access, use, disclosure or alteration. We endeavour to ensure that our
employees are aware of, and comply with, their obligations in relation to the handling of
personal information. Only properly authorised employees are permitted to see or use
personal information held by Melbourne Car World and, even then, only to the extent that
is relevant to their roles and responsibilities.
Your personal information will not be sold to any other organisation for that organisations
independent use. Further, we will not share your personal information with any
organisations, other than those engaged by us to assist us in the provision of our
products and services (as described above).
6. What about information you provide in job applications?

If you submit a job application to Melbourne Car World, we will use the information
provided by you to assess your application. In certain circumstances, Melbourne Car
World may disclose the information contained in your application to contracted service
providers for purposes such as screening, aptitude testing, medical testing and human
resources management activities.
As part of the application process, in certain circumstances, you may be required to
complete a pre-employment health questionnaire. You may also be asked to undergo a
pre-employment medical assessment.
If you refuse to provide any of the information requested by Melbourne Car World, or to
consent to the disclosure of the results of your medical assessment to Melbourne Car
World, we may be unable to consider your application.
7. Is the personal information we hold accurate?

We endeavour to maintain your personal information as accurately and reasonably
possible. However, we rely on the accuracy of personal information as provided to us both
directly and indirectly. We encourage you to contact us if the personal information we
hold about you is incorrect or to notify us of a change in your personal information.
8. How can you access or correct the personal information we hold about you?
Wherever possible and appropriate, we will let you see the personal information we hold
about you and correct if it is wrong. If we do not allow you access to any part of the
personal information we hold about you, we will give you reasons, consistent with the
Privacy Act, as to why we cannot allow your access.
9. Melbourne Car World internet policy

Melbourne Car World generally only collects personal information from its website when it
is provided voluntarily by you. For example, when you send us a message with a query
about Melbourne Car World or its services, we will generally use your information to
respond to your query, to provide and market our services to you or as otherwise allowed
or required by law.
For the same purposes, Melbourne Car World may share your information with other
members of the Melbourne Car World strategic partners (including companies who are
located outside Australia) and their respective service providers, agents and contractors.
If we do this, we require these parties to protect your information in the same way we do.
Page 120 of 126

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Appendices
When you visit this website or download information from it, our internet service provider
(ISP) makes a record of your visit and records the following information:
your internet address
your domain name, if applicable
date and time of your visit to the website.
Our ISP also collects information such as the pages our users access, the documents they
download, links from other sites they follow to reach our website, and the type of browser
they use. However, this information is anonymous and is only used to statistical and
website development purposes.
We use a variety of physical and electronic security measures, including restricting
physical access to our offices, firewalls and secure databases to keep personal
information secure from unauthorised use, loss or disclosure. However, you should keep
in mind that the internet is not a secure environment. If you use the internet to send us
any information, including your email address, it is sent at your own risk.
You have a right of access to personal information we hold about you in certain
circumstances. If we deny your request for access we will tell you why.
10. Use of cookies

A cookie is a small message given to your web browser by our web server. The browser
stores the message in a text file, and the message is then sent back to the server each
time the browser requests a page from the server.
Melbourne Car World makes limited use of cookies on their website. Cookies are used to
measure usage sessions accurately, to gain a clear picture of which areas of the website
attract traffic and to improve the functionality of our website.
When cookies are used on this website, they are used to store information relating to your
visit such as a unique identifier, or a value to indicate whether you have seen a web page.
We use session (not permanent) cookies. They are used to distinguish your internet
browser from the thousands of other browsers. This website will not store personal
information such as email addresses or other details in a cookie.
Most internet browsers are set up to accept cookies. If you do not wish to receive cookies,
you may be able to change the settings of your browser to refuse all cookies or to notify
you each time a cookie is sent to your computer, giving you the choice whether to accept
it or not.
11. Customer service satisfaction data

In accordance with company policy all volunteered customer service data will be treated
in the strictest of confidence. No data will be given to third parties except to advance the
cause of improved customer service. No information will be used to market additional
products or services or be given to third parties for this purpose. All customer data will be
stored securely as per company record-keeping policy.


Page 121 of 126
Appendices
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Appendix 10 Melbourne Car World antidiscrimination policy

Melbourne Car World anti-discrimination policy
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to ensure transactions with clients,

tenants and other employees is handled fairly and transparently and
in accordance with organisational and legal requirements. Generally
it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of the following 16
characteristics:
age
parental or carer status
breastfeeding
physical features
employment activity
political belief or activity
gender identity
pregnancy
impairment or
race
disability
religious belief or activity
industrial activity
irrelevant medical or
criminal record
lawful sexual activity
marital status
sex
sexuality
social origin or migration status
personal association with someone
who has, or is assumed to have,

any of the above characteristics.
Scope
The scope of this policy covers all employees and contractors of

Melbourne Car World.
Resources
Specific procedures for the implementation of this policy are

provided in employee induction kits.
Responsibility
Responsibility for the implementation of this policy rests with all

employees, contractors and management of Melbourne Car World.
Relevant
legislation and
standards.
Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth)

Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic)
Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cwlth)
Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cwlth)
Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cwlth)
Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cwlth)
Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cwlth)
Updated/
authorised
Page 122 of 126
6/2012 Riz Mehra, CFO

Student Workbook
Appendices
Appendix 11 Melbourne Car World customer service survey

500 customers, completed at the end of financial year 2012. Information from survey is kept confidential in accordance with record-keeping
and privacy policies and procedures.
Question 1
Yes
No
Do we normally meet your customer service expectations?
325
175
Question 2
1. Exceeds
2. Meets
3. Poor
4. Very poor
50
275
100
75
Very
important
Important
Slightly
important
Not
important
275
150
50
25
Reliability
Assurance
Tangibles
Empathy
Responsiveness
On scale of 1 to 4, how would you rate our customer service in relation to

your expectations?
Question 3
How important is our customer service in retaining your business?
Question 4
Please rate the importance of aspects of customer
service in order from 1 to 5. 1 is of most importance and
5 is of least importance.
Average rating
Customer service performance monitoring program results

Number of customer service issues or complaints
reported and categorised into types.
Reliability
Assurance
Tangibles
Empathy
Responsiveness
50
50
60
60
50
Total issues: 270


Page 123 of 126
Appendices
Student Workbook
Appendix 12 Survey examples

Page 124 of 126

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Appendices

Page 125 of 126
Appendices
Student Workbook
Appendix 13 How to insert a graph in Excel 2007

Step 1: Enter the figures into excel
Step 2: Highlight the two columns, go to the insert tab and click on the column chart icon.
Step 3: Choose the type of graph you feel is most appropriate.

Page 126 of 126


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STUDENT

Part of a suite of support materials for the

BSB Business Services Training Package

Published by: Innovation and Business Industry

First published: June 2015

Features of the training program

Structure of the training program

Section 1 Identify customer needs

What skills will you need?

What is customer service?

Identifying customer needs

Communicate effectively and discuss options

Provide customer service within your organisation

Legal requirements and codes of practice

Section 2 Deliver a Service to Customers

What skills will you need?

Following organisational requirements to deliver a service

Identify opportunities to promote products

Section 3 Monitor and report on customer service

What skills will you need?

Principles of quality customer service and best practice models

Monitoring customer service

Measuring customer satisfaction and service performance

Monitoring team performance

Reviewing data and making recommendations

Recording and presenting data and recommendations

Writing professional reports

BSBCUS301 Deliver and monitor a service to customers

1st edition version: 1

Answers to selected learning activities

Appendix 1 Melbourne Car World business plan

Appendix 2 Melbourne Car World organisational chart

Appendix 3 Melbourne Car World customer service policy

Appendix 4 Melbourne Car World policy and procedures for customer

Appendix 5 Melbourne Car World Customer service charter and consent

Appendix 6 Melbourne Car World Customer segment profiles

Appendix 7 Melbourne Car World Product comparison information

Appendix 8 Melbourne Car World Customer satisfaction survey

Appendix 9 Melbourne Car World privacy policy

Appendix 10 Melbourne Car World anti-discrimination policy

Appendix 11 Melbourne Car World customer service survey

Appendix 12 Survey examples

Appendix 13 How to insert a graph in Excel 2007

1st edition version: 1

BSBCUS301 Deliver and monitor a service to customers

and knowledge to solve authentic workplace tasks and problems.

Structure of the training program

resources, operations, 3rd edn, VCTA Publishing, Melbourne.

Nelson ITP, South Melbourne.

BSBCUS301 Deliver and monitor a service to customers

1st edition version: 1

Documents within websites:

Authority, viewed June 2015, <http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/understandingspam-i-acma>.

Consumer Law, viewed June 2015, <http://www.consumerlaw.gov.au/content/

Code of practice March 2005, Australian Communications and Media Authority,

Information for Employers, viewed June 2015, <http://www.hreoc.gov.au/

viewed June 2015, <http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-resources/privacyguides/app-quick-reference-tool>.

1st edition version: 1

BSBCUS301 Deliver and monitor a service to customers

Section 1 Identify customer needs

Section 1 Identify customer needs

Scenario: Melbourne Car World

BSBCUS301 Deliver and monitor a service to customers