Bsbcus 501C AT3 Project PDF

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Project management
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Australian professional Skills Institute...

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AT 3 Project 1 Course Code: BSBCUS501C

Unit Name: Manage quality customer service

Assessment strategy 3: Project 1 You are required to undertake the following project Project 1 Excellence in customer service is the objective of all organisations wishing to be successful. However, there is often a gap between customer expectations and management perceptions of customer expectations. Organisations often fail to get close to their customers and correctly read their expectations. Other reasons for customer service problems include:  Not listening to or collecting information from customers  Poor, or no, focus on the actual design of processes to turn identified customer needs into products and services  Gaps between what the organisation intends to produce for its customers and what its systems do actually produce  Gaps between what the system is intended to deliver for its customers and what it actually does deliver  Cost constraints, or failure to set and meet realistic performance standards, which affect what the organisation can actually deliver  Poor staff attitudes, training levels and working materials  Gaps between what sales people promise and the actual service or product quality Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Berry (1990) Comment, in approximately 2000 words, on these statements.

Project 2 Consider this scenario. Janice works in the production department of a book printing firm. Her role involves collating printed documents, binding them and preparing them ready for shipment to the customer. She has no direct contact with the customer and believes that she has no responsibility for quality management. If a mistake in the print run is made, then she is not responsible. Her responsibility is just to take the printed material, collate it, bind it and ship it. Janice has reasonable communication and interpersonal skills. She is friendly and gets along well with her co-workers. Although Janice prepares the products ready for shipment she does not address them. In fact, if you asked her, she would not be able to tell you who the organisation’s customers were. As far as she is concerned, she has no responsibility for customer service. Other people in the organisation are employed to provide customer service because they are good at it. 1. What is wrong here – with Janice’s attitude and with the organisation system

Dilson Ferrari Junior APSI/Staff/Business/DipBusUnitFolder/BSBCUS501CManageQualityCustomerService/AT3Project/V1.1/Nov2011Page 1

AT 3 Project 1 Course Code: BSBCUS501C

Unit Name: Manage quality customer service

2. How do you think attitudes like Janice’s impact on other employees, on the supplier-customer chain and on the organisation’s outcomes? 3. What do you think should be done to make Janice more aware of her responsibilities toward the organisation’s customers? 4. Why is it necessary that she understands that she has a very definite role to play with regard to customer service? 5. How can these problems be overcome? Project 3 Draw on your own experience, the text in this resource, and other library or internet resources to answer, in detail, the questions. Where appropriate, use examples and descriptions of situations to support your answers. Organisations that intend to be successful need to design products, services and product/service bundles to meet customer needs. How can they do this and how can they ensure that the organisation’s plans achieve quality, time and cost specifications agreed with customers? What data and records might be drawn upon to make plans intended to meet customer needs? What monitoring and evaluation procedures might be followed to ensure that the organisation keeps up with changes in customer needs and in market conditions, procures and disburses resources appropriately and is able to consistently meet product quality and delivery standards/ How can customer feedback be collected and used and why is it necessary to consult with customers (internal and external) and with other stakeholders when monitoring and assessing the organisation’s progress toward achieving quality targets/ Within the organisation there will be groups of people or teams which work toward goal achievement. How can managers and supervisors ensure that team members have the skills needed to communicate effectively with customers and to provide excellent customer service? How might they assist colleagues in overcoming difficulties with meeting customer service standards? What procedures might be followed to identify problems and with appropriate individuals and groups to adapt customer services, products and/or service delivery so that it continues to meet customer needs? For further information and to assist with this project a strategic plan would assist. Free online planner on web site www.planware.org/strategicplan.htm. You can submit this plan to incorporate the above. A briefing session will be introduced prior to the project to outline the requirements. __________________________________________________________

Portfolio It will be necessary for you to develop a portfolio to include all supporting evidence to your project. Documented evidence should include a thorough review, accurate and timely information for management.

Project 3 Dilson Ferrari Junior APSI/Staff/Business/DipBusUnitFolder/BSBCUS501CManageQualityCustomerService/AT3Project/V1.1/Nov2011Page 2

AT 3 Project 1 Course Code: BSBCUS501C

Unit Name: Manage quality customer service

Draw on your own experience, the text in this resource, and other library or internet resources to answer, in detail, the questions. Where appropriate, use examples and descriptions of situations to support your answers. Organisations that intend to be successful need to design products, services and product/service bundles to meet customer needs. How can they do this and how can they ensure that the organisation’s plans achieve quality, time and cost specifications agreed with customers? What data and records might be drawn upon to make plans intended to meet customer needs? One of the most unforgiving errors is not understanding your customers needs. This most basic information is essential to the success of any product or service offering. There are many ways to ask customers what they want or think about a product or service. Among others:

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Interviews Questionnaires Surveys Complains Record of warranty, repair and return issues

Unfortunately, determining the real needs of a potential customer is not as simple as only asking them what they want. Many people are unable to clearly articulate their most pressing and compelling product or service requirements because determining how products could or should be improved is not forefront in their mind. Customers don't always know what they want. They don't spend much time thinking about what they want or need. There may be some things they wish a product could do. Some of these things may be easy for users to articulate, while others may take more thought and reflection before they can clearly formulate and articulate them. Another thing is that customers rarely know the products as well as the product managers and developers do. Most do not know what is possible given the fast pace at which technologies evolve. This limits their thinking, and therefore their ideas. More broadly and most importantly, the customer makes a number of assumptions when they articulate what their needs are. They might want a cell phone that is half the size of their hand, but the technology may make that an impossibility. On the other hand, a customer might assume it is impossible to have such a small cell phone, and as a result, they don't even mention the appeal when asked, even though it would result in a clearly compelling product. Most product designs fall under one of two categories: demand-pull innovation or inventionpush innovation. 

Demand-pull innovation happens when there is an opportunity in the market to be explored by the design of a product. This product design attempts to solve a design

Dilson Ferrari Junior APSI/Staff/Business/DipBusUnitFolder/BSBCUS501CManageQualityCustomerService/AT3Project/V1.1/Nov2011Page 3

AT 3 Project 1 Course Code: BSBCUS501C



Unit Name: Manage quality customer service

problem. The design solution may be the development of a new product or developing a product that's already on the market, such as developing an existing invention for another purpose. Invention-push innovation happens when there is an advancement in intelligence. This can occur through research or it can occur when the product designer comes up with a new product design idea.

To learn what customer really needs, we must not only talk with them but also watch them. We must be sure we understand their concerns and overall business issues. Only by thoroughly understanding the broad environment that customer lives and their specific detailed issues and concerns, that we will be able to apply the creative efforts necessary to design compelling solutions that will be successful.

What monitoring and evaluation procedures might be followed to ensure that the organisation keeps up with changes in customer needs and in market conditions, procures and disburses resources appropriately and is able to consistently meet product quality and delivery standards? Learning to glean real customer needs and requirements is critical to the success of any business. We need to know our customers and their businesses extremely well. We must move beyond simple conversations and do more than just asking them what they want in a new product or service. The simplest and most efficient method is to simply watch them as they do their day-to-day tasks. Try to find customers that will let us shadow them. Notice where and how they spend their time. What do they do? How do they work? What things prevent them from making huge contribution increases to their businesses? Based on these observations we are likely to see (literally) some interesting things, which will lead to thought-provoking questions such as:--Why don't you take your cell phone to your meetings?--Do you normally spend so much of your time reconfiguring the network router? Why?--Why do you use graphics software to create text documents?--Why do you spend so much time talking to that department?--What one thing, if changed, would enable you to significantly improve your results? While physically watching a customer may be ideal, it's not always essential. These techniques can be applied in an interview or meeting format as well. The key is to recognize the customer requirements and blind spots that are often overlooked. I found an interesting example on the internet. A furniture manufacturer's wood supplier made a visit to the plant. During a facility tour the supplier noticed part of the manufacturing process included the lamination of two pieces of particle board. When asked about this step, the manufacturer stated that the supplier didn't offer particle board in the required thickness. The supplier didn't understand the need for this product until they saw the manufacturing line. Business discussions between the two firms had never resulted in the identification of this need.

Dilson Ferrari Junior APSI/Staff/Business/DipBusUnitFolder/BSBCUS501CManageQualityCustomerService/AT3Project/V1.1/Nov2011Page 4

AT 3 Project 1 Course Code: BSBCUS501C

Unit Name: Manage quality customer service

The manufacturer had assumed, since they couldn't get exactly what they needed, they had to fabricate it themselves. The supplier assumed the manufacturer was completely satisfied with their offerings. Interestingly, neither the manufacturer nor the supplier preferred to have the manufacturer laminating particle board. As a result of this interaction, the supplier began offering the new thicker product and the furniture company was more satisfied. Lower costs resulted from the simplification of the manufacturing process, specifically in an area where the company was not adding value critical to their business. The wood supplier has a new profitable product to sell and a more loyal customer.

How can customer feedback be collected and used and why is it necessary to consult with customers (internal and external) and with other stakeholders when monitoring and assessing the organisation’s progress toward achieving quality targets? There are many ways to collect and use feedback from customers to assess the organization’s progress toward achieving quality targets. Some examples of common tools are:  Interviews  Questionnaires  Surveys  Records of complains  Record of warranty, repair and return issues. Never then less, with the advanced of the internet, on-line services and on-line sales are becoming more and more common and they are responsible for a huge part of the business now a day. Following this trend on-line Customer feedback managements are being develop and are showing really helpful to collect customer feedback. In fact, a 2011 study conducted by Aberdeen Group showed that companies using customer feedback management services and social media monitoring have a 15% better customer retention rate. Various online CFM services use different approaches. The aim of most methodologies is to measure customer satisfaction, with some models also measuring related constructs including customer loyalty and customer word-of-mouth. The methodology behind each service has an important impact on the nature of the service itself, and is the main differentiator between them. The main feedback management methodologies are:  Feedback analytics  Surveys and polls  Idea management  Interactive customer evaluation Feedback analytics services use customer generated feedback data to measure customer experience and improve customer satisfaction. Feedback data is collected, then, using key performance indicators and feedback metrics, turned into actionable information for organization’s improvements. A feedback button is visible at all times on each of the site's pages. Feedback

Dilson Ferrari Junior APSI/Staff/Business/DipBusUnitFolder/BSBCUS501CManageQualityCustomerService/AT3Project/V1.1/Nov2011Page 5

AT 3 Project 1 Course Code: BSBCUS501C

Unit Name: Manage quality customer service

analytics provide page- and website- level actionable data, and enable a website owner to read and manage feedback, as well as to get back to the users. Feedback collection can be passive (using a feedback button), or active (using a feedback form set to appear in certain conditions), or both. Surveys and polls provide administrators with a high-level understanding of user behavior on their site. By asking users a set of pre-defined questions using a pop-up questionnaire (sometimes criticized by website users for being an annoyance), surveys can provide a statistical review of their answers. Surveys and polls are also characterized by their focus on the “site-level”, providing answers about the users' experience on the site as a whole and the website's general performance. With answer to questions such as “Where did you hear about our site”, “What are you looking for” or “How old are you”, website owners are able to get a high-level understanding of their site’s users, though not to find and fix specific issues at the page-level. Since survey data is statistical, it is a methodology that works best for large websites with significant traffic, meaning that not all lines of businesses can benefit equally from it. Idea management systems allow website users to suggest ideas, report problems, and vote for other users' ideas. Resembling a live forum, and displaying open discussions between users, idea management systems can reduce support efforts, allowing users to share their common knowledge, and to know if a problem or a solution has been reported previously. The idea management approach may also be useful for businesses looking to have their users publicly vote for their next development steps. A downside of public user management systems is the potential brand damage, when, for instance, users' complaints are displayed on a regular basis. Interactive customer evaluation (ICE) is commonly implemented in web based applications. Its purpose is to provide feedback. The ICE system allows customers to submit online comment cards to rate the service providers they have encountered. It is designed to improve customer service by allowing managers to monitor the satisfaction levels of services provided through reports and customer comments. ICE provides the following benefits: These are just some of the tools, methods and systems there are available to collect customer feedback. Researching on the internet I could found hundreds of other and much more complex ones, showing how important customer feedbacks are.

Dilson Ferrari Junior APSI/Staff/Business/DipBusUnitFolder/BSBCUS501CManageQualityCustomerService/AT3Project/V1.1/Nov2011Page 6

AT 3 Project 1 Course Code: BSBCUS501C

Unit Name: Manage quality customer service

Within the organisation there will be groups of people or teams which work toward goal achievement. How can managers and supervisors ensure that team members have the skills needed to communicate effectively with customers and to provide excellent customer service? How might they assist colleagues in overcoming difficulties with meeting customer service standards? Management is essential in every walk of life. In the same way, a team must be managed effectively to expect the best from the team members. The team leader plays an essential role in managing his team well to ensure that team members have the skills needed to communicate effectively with customers and provide excellent customer service. For effective team management, it is important that the team leader is more of a mentor to his team members rather than just being a strict boss and ensure that each and every team member willingly participates in team discussions. The team members must be motivated on a regular basis and should be avoid loose talks, blame games and dirty politics in the team.

Defining a clear goal and establish a timeline are important so the group understands what it is trying to achieve. Without a clear goal or purpose, the team may not be able to identify when the task has been completed or finished. With a clear goal, the team can unify and focus on the objectives rather than determine what the objectives should be. When selecting team members, it is important to select the “best” team members. “Best” in this circumstance could be defined as the right team members with the necessary skills and abilities to function together as a team. However selecting the best team members can be very difficult. Thus it is important to have a process in place to assist in team selection. The proper selection will lead to better inclusion. Identifying experience is important for group confidence. Experience in particular areas can help the group identify with individuals and allow individuals to shine in their appropriate areas. Identify attributes are important as this can either help or hurt the group cohesion. Identifying whether potential members are aggressive, passive, compassionate, dedicated, or motivated can directly influence the speed and accuracy of the completion of team objectives. It is important to have a well rounded team so they can effectively challenge and complement one another. Indentify specialty interest, passions or non-passions among team members can help to identify individual’s motivation. If a team member does not care about the outcome of the project, their motivation and contribution may be limited. On the other hand, someone with extreme passion may be overbearing and inhibit team success. Finding individuals with the appropriate interest levels must be balanced.

Dilson Ferrari Junior APSI/Staff/Business/DipBusUnitFolder/BSBCUS501CManageQualityCustomerService/AT3Project/V1.1/Nov2011Page 7

AT 3 Project 1 Course...