Wednesday 6 March 2013

Customer Service & Knowledge of the Business

There are several concepts which are used interchangeably with Customer Service and Knowledge of the Business and these ideas may have been around for  a lengthy period of time. Training may have been provided through various Sales and Marketing Courses or other forms of developmental sessions to assist in the development of this area. Sometimes we review Customer Service through evaluation forms based on experience or marketing surveys or sometimes when we are in tune with the business we can move with the flow and adjust our needs according to our expectations and review the results.  Sometimes persons study the results and plan for "unforseen" needs. For example a person who has clients on certain days may check the list of public holidays and schedule appointments to recognise that persons may not want to have certain types of sessions the day before a holiday or they may want to cover certain items at their locations so that it may be near impossible for them to meet appointments set for those dates so that if your expectation is that a certain number of visits will be met over a period of time, then you may not meet those deliverables. Some other examples of good customer service are the items which a supermarket will place on special the week of a holiday as well as  their adjustment of working hours at Christmas time. Where persons may not have had to deliver or be assessed on customer service to a whole organisation due to the organisation being large, then in a smaller entity where there is the expectation of adaptability and willingness to change this person may be seen as non performing or not a good fit.
Knowledge of the business can be tied in to Customer Service in that this can be developed through attempting to serve customers or it can be developed through formal knowledge. In organisations which are in the developmental stages, acquiring the formal knowledge may take years as this is built up along the way, through trial and error. Some persons compare this acquisition of knowledge using the example of formal eduation versus work experience.  With formal education, one learns through courses and programmes written, while acquiring knowledge through work experience one learns through doing. In learning through doing one may  learn based on the speed and complexity of the task, the dexterity of the teacher and may learn to take into account  factors such as the weather as well as other things which may affect the outcome. With formal education, these may not be considered in the lesson plan.

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