BUS541: Customer Service Excellence Report - Analysis and Discussion

This report provides a comprehensive overview of customer service excellence, exploring its definition, characteristics, and evolution. It delves into different types of customer service, including self-service, social media, and live chat, and examines the shift from traditional to omnichannel approaches. The report discusses customer expectations, particularly in the context of 2019 and beyond, and highlights the importance of customer service excellence in achieving business success. It also explores the role of technology, including the impact of social media, and provides examples of business sectors facing customer service challenges. Furthermore, the report analyzes the perception of customer service excellence, emphasizing the significance of quicker responses, customer knowledge, and fixing mistakes. The report also includes a discussion on the role of customer service in achieving excellence, including listening skills, responsibility, and the use of customer data. Finally, the report concludes by emphasizing the importance of long-term planning and encouraging feedback to enhance the customer experience.

Running head: CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE
CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Customer Service:..................................................................................................................2
Characteristics of customer service:.......................................................................................3
Types of customer services....................................................................................................4
Evolution of customer service................................................................................................4
Customer service- The Past:...................................................................................................5
Expectations of customer service during 2019:.....................................................................5
Omni-channel customer service:............................................................................................5
Customer service- 2020 and beyond:.....................................................................................6
Customer Service Excellence.................................................................................................6
Perception of Customer Service Excellence:.........................................................................7
Role of customer service for customer service excellence....................................................8
Impact of Technology on customer service.........................................................................10
Examples of business sectors...............................................................................................12
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
The one-to-one direct interaction amongst customers in enabling the
purchase process with a defined representation of an organization is known as
customer service. Customer service can also be considered as the offerings a
customer experiences prior, during and post the purchasing process. Efficient
customer service can be evident from its attentiveness, quality, and timely services
to the target consumers. Customer service should always aim at offering a positive
influence on businesses and companies (Xu et al. 2017). Customer service function
is considered crucial for the success and competitiveness of an organization. The
significance of services associated with offerings is increasing with elevating
competitiveness. The purpose of the paper is to present a discussion on the theme
of customer service excellence with the role of customer service. The paper will also
reflect the impact of technological advancements on the customer service. The
paper will present a few instances of the business sectors that have experienced
challenges in accomplishing customer expectations. In this report, my personal
experience will also be demonstrated in relation to the application of social media
platforms for framing feedbacks and complaints. The paper will be concluded by
summarizing the significance and role of customer service excellence in the
competitive market.
Discussion
Customer Service:
The act encompassing the accomplishment of all customer needs in
association with product and service offering is known as customer service.
Customer service depicts the assistance that is offered to the customers before,

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during and after the sales of a product. Customer service offers the provision of
creating a complete experience for the customers in order to maintain the loyalty or
association with the organization or brand. Offering effective customer service is
significant for every business to sustain in a competitive scenario. Customer services
are not limited to responding to the queries but it extends to offering additional value
to the customers for long-term association. Customer service complements the
components of an organization like pricing and product innovation (Ross 2019).
Application of good customer service has become significant in the 21st century
where several players are fighting for the common share of the market. Customer
service directly contributes to the complete sales process engineering effort, the
significant role of the customer service influences revenue and income (Goodman
2019). The contribution of customer service should mark the incorporation of
customer service under the aspect of a systematic improvement approach. The
group of customer services is known as customer support. Customer support helps
in adding values resulting in cost-effectiveness and increased functional values of
the product.
Characteristics of customer service:
The characteristics of customer service determine the effectiveness in reaching out
to customer demand.
Promptness: Timely delivery of the offerings by restricting the aspects of
cancellation and delays regulate the promptness of the customer service
Professionalism: Professional behavior and atmosphere is most significant for
enabling the abilities expected from customer service (Spector and McCarthy 2012).

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Politeness: Professionalism does not mean only delivering what the professional is
intended to do as politeness and the eagerness to assist a customer with the
purchasing decision and after use is also important for effective customer service.
Personalization: Customer loyalty and strong long-term association with customers
can be maintained by involving customization in offering customer services, which
will be completely based upon the needs and queries of customers (Lopes, Brito and
Alves 2018).
Types of customer services
There are various types of customer service based upon the medium of responding
to the needs and concerns of the customers.
 Self-Service Knowledge Base
 Social media provision as customer service
 Live Chat support
 On-site customer support
 Telephonic support
 Email support
 FAQ customer service
Evolution of customer service
The evolution of customer service has been marked by the intervention of
technology and digital media. Customer service helps in influencing innovative
approaches in business. The evolution of customer service has depicted a steep
shift from the application of traditional media such as telephonic and face-to-face to
enabling the use of digital and social media for reaching out to the customers. The

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evolution path of customer service can be understood by learning about the stages
of framing assistance; letter, telephonic, email, self-service, and chatbot.
Customer service- The Past:
Customers have experienced a very different picture of customer service in
the past as it involved a high rate of waiting time and unmet grievances. Customer
service was not completely convenient, thus it was never perceived as value
addition. The information or knowledge received during the past through customer
service was inadequate and could not resolve several concerns. The instant
response and communication through the traditional medium of twitter, email,
messaging was very infrequent. However, the customer service started evolving for
accomplishing the excellence of a complete customer journey.
Expectations of customer service during 2019:
The primary expectations of the customers with customer services in the year
2019 were higher quality, convenient channel selection and availability 24/7.
Customer service has extended its roots and is more applicable through social
media, which respond to the demand and queries promptly. Customers expect the
resolution of their concerns about customer services through self-service without the
hassle of communication of constructing a thread of complaints. However, this form
of customer service requires a convenient and effective medium for enabling self-
service support. The long-standing challenge of customer service concerns was
addressed by adding the characteristics of promptness and no-time response.
Omni-channel customer service:
The evolution of customer service and varying expectations of the customers on the
basis of the type of product and value addition, the organizations started selecting

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more than one channel instead of one for better customer journey and experience.
The support that is offered by customer service in the 21st century involves the
amalgamation of multiple channels, enabling the customers to switch seamlessly
and is popularly termed as Omni-channel. The demand, degree of concerns and
assistance context can determine the medium or channel of resolving a customer
service need. The main purpose of omnichannel customer service is to offer
convenience and consistent quality. In accordance with the research of Salesforce,
customer service functions of organizations should invest in robust multi-channel
assistance, which can directly reflect on customer retention and loyalty.
Customer service- 2020 and beyond:
In the 21st century, the main expectations amongst customers about
performing business decisions are directed towards multi-channel customer
excellence and convenience. Customers in today’s world prefer options, which can
be assigned through multiple channels. The expectations for effective customer
service can be framed through the incorporation of augmented reality (Daugherty,
Bolumole and Grawe 2019).
Customer Service Excellence
In business, customer service excellence reflects the better navigation of
customers to a complete and valuable customer journey. Customer service
excellence allows an individual to enable the smooth and efficient navigation of
customer experiences (Sritoomma 2018). The characteristics of customer service
excellence can be understood by the following aspects:
 Quicker response: Customer Service Excellence involves the factor of speed,
specifically in terms of responding to clients’ requests and concerns even if a

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solution cannot be allotted at that moment. The response time can bridge the
gap between the goals of excellence in customer services.
 Knowing the customers: Effective interactions and complete knowledge about
the customers' groups in regards to their customer service needs should be
intact with the organizations. For instance, with the motive of knowing its
customers, Starbucks conducted a campaign where it offered free lattes with
the self-introduction by customers by mentioning their names.
 Fixing mistakes: Customer service excellence does not only mean the attempt
of presenting a perfect form of customer experience, but customer service
excellence also depicts the recognition of mistakes and responding to the
gaps with strategic actions and transparency. Fixing a mistake can also mean
resolving a mistake, which may not be caused by the company's inefficiency
or even due to customers' fault, an organization should be able to categorize
the urgency of responding to the need or concern for resolving the complaint
tab as quickly as possible.
 Approaching towards the extra mile: Approaching towards the extra mile does
not only result in creating happy and indebted customers but it also helps in
establishing brand loyalty amongst customers.
 Long-term plan: An organization should always focus on creating a long-term
plan rather than only satisfying customers for a new product or pricing
strategy.
Perception of Customer Service Excellence:
The perceptions of Customer Service Excellence in the 21st century are as follows:
 Technology improves the experience: In the 21st century, the application of
human interactions has decreased with the advancement in technology.

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Technological implications can be easily witnessed in customer service
channels and platforms for a better experience. Customers perceive
excellence in customer service if they undergo a technological interface. With
the dominance of digitalization and technology, customers associates
excellence with ‘human-less’ customer service.
 24/7 Customer Service: In the age of globalization and the global economy,
the organizations are expected to deliver customer service 24/7 for a
complete customer journey.
 Customers hold the control: Increasing competition and improving
transparency in the organizations results in the perceived nature of customer
service to be reliant on the control of customers. This action of the brands can
be answered by the amalgamated workflow actions that can transform the
flow amongst different channels seamlessly.
 Company aware of customer information: In the 21st century, every
customer expects an organization to deliver services without having to ask
multiple questions. A well-maintained data should come into the picture for a
better response approach.
Role of customer service for customer service excellence
Excellence is the ultimate goal of any organization, especially offering
services with products. Customer Service Excellence can be accomplished by the
intervention of customer service. The following factors or influencing aspects of
customer service can result in the state of excellence in customer services:

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 Listening skills: This is one of the basic elements of customer service that can
contribute to the accomplishment of excellence. The practice of effective
listening can help the customer service representatives to act according to the
asked assistance (Wang et al. 2017).
 Responsibility: Responsibility and accountability is the pillar of responding to
any query effectively. Customer service operates with the base of being
responsible for creating happy customers and design solutions (Piaralal et al.
2016).
 Knowledge and customer data: A customer service representative thrives by
collecting significant information about customers, which can help in
customizing the pre and post-service delivery. Customer data should be
recorded in technological portals or interface for designing efficient and direct
responses for the customers (Bolton 2016). CRM is a tool that can be used to
record customer history and interactions to frame future customer service
delivery with excellence.
 Supporting customers with a team approach: Team approach is the core
function of customer service. Customer service associated with the
intervention of every internal stakeholder can be the journey towards
customer service excellence as every individual adds value to the solution or
response for a customer need (Dharamdass and Fernando 2018).
Establishing open communication lines in the team is very important as it
ensures a timely and responsive approach.
 Encouraging feedback: Encouraging feedback instills a sense of importance
and control amongst customers (Cao, Ajjan and Hong 2018). In my online
purchases, such as after purchasing products from Amazon, the online e-

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commerce platform and social media pages allowed me to lodge feedback
against a purchase, which received immediate responses and also helped
other buyers in drawing upon the experiences.
 Using the data of feedback: The role of customer service is to encourage and
incorporate a portal of receiving customer queries and feedbacks. However,
the contribution of customer service in accomplishing excellence can be
witnessed if the representatives are utilizing the data of customer service
(Chauvet, Bourbous and Liston 2016). Zara utilizes the feedbacks generated
from physical and online stores for framing better customer experience. I have
posted numerous feedback on the website about the convenience of stocking
up a wide range of sizes that are available in the physical store for the
complete advantage of the online shopping experience, which has received
responses and action.
Customer Service Excellence can be accomplished with the role of customer
service in maintaining consistency and responsiveness towards the end goal of
loyalty and long-term relationship.
Impact of Technology on customer service
Technological advancements have been one of the significant influencers of
customer service. The impact of recent technological advancements on customer
service is given below:
Technology in refunds and payment: The recent technology of transferring funds
online has made the whole customer service experience more convenient and
easier. The cashless approach of the customer service approach results in an
accuracy of response and timely connectivity (Ordenes and Grewal 2017). The

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refunds in Amazon are generated through technological efficiency with the direct
transfer from the company to my account upon refund.
Technology in interactions: Technological advancements such as live chat
benefits by increasing the interactions between an organization and customers.
Business flourishes when the functions focus on constructing healthy and long-
lasting relationships with customers (Padma and Wagenseil 2016). The e-commerce
sector is expected to offer a 24/7 interactive portal for deriving customer support.
The interactive portal also helps in engrossing the timely and effective attainment of
customer feedback.
Technology for customer engagement: Customer engagement is considered to
be the most crucial function for ensuring success as it contributes to co-creation.
Customer engagement can be enabled by the application of technology (Piccoli, Lui
and Grün 2017). An interactive and attractive landing page, displays containing
product features and informative push notification are some of the instances of
customer engagement techniques that impact the effectiveness of customer services
(Kasim, Umar and Juanil 2018).
Internet of Things and customer experience: Positive customer experience can
increase with the elevated use of the Internet of Things by ensuring connectivity
(Wirtz and Zeithaml 2018).
Technology and personalization: The sense of importance amongst customers
can be attained with the support of technology like CRM (Customer Relationship
Management) software for utilizing the recorded history or data for customizing
services (Lam, Huo and Chen 2018).