Vision2learn: Customer Service Unit 2 Assessment - Irina Vatamaniuc

This document presents a completed customer service assessment, specifically Unit 2: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service, for the Vision2learn course. The assessment, submitted by Irina Vatamaniuc, covers various aspects of customer service, including understanding the principles of customer service within an organization (Sainsbury's in this case), identifying customer needs and expectations, and addressing potential service delays. The assessment delves into the products and services offered, how customers are informed, the policies and procedures in place, and the implications of poor customer service across commercial, public, and third sectors. It also explores ways to identify customer expectations, how Sainsbury's meets these expectations, communication strategies when needs cannot be met, and the reasons for and impacts of service delays. The document provides detailed answers and examples to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the key concepts of customer service.

Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
Unit 2 Assessment
Assessment
You should use this file to complete your Assessment.
· The first thing you need to do is save a copy of this document, either onto your computer or a USB drive
· Then work through your Assessment, remembering to save your work regularly
· When you’ve finished, print out a copy to keep for reference
· Then, go to www.vision2learn.com and send your completed Assessment to your tutor via your My Study
area – make sure it is clearly marked with your name, the course title and the Unit and Assessment
number.
Please note that this Assessment document has 16 pages and is made up of 5 parts.
Name: Irina Vatamaniuc
Part 1 – Understanding the principles of customer service
This part will help you to evidence Learning Outcome 1: Understand the principles of
customer service in an organisation
Learning objective Place in Assessment
1. Describe the organisation’s products and services Question 1a Page 1
2. Explain how customers are made aware of the
organisation’s offer
Question 2a Page 2
3. Identify the customers of the organisation Question 1b Page 2
4. Explain how to keep up to date with the
organisation’s offer
Question 2b Page 2
5. Describe the organisation’s policies and
procedures relating to customer service and the
importance of following them
Question 3 Page 3
6. Describe the publicity available about the
organisation’s products and services
Question 2c Page 3
7. Describe the implications of poor customer service
in commercial, public sector and third sector
organisations
Question 4 Page 4
1. In relation to your current organisation (or one that you are familiar with), use the space
below to provide information on the organisation’s products / services and its customers.
a) Describe the organisation’s products and / or services. [1.1]
The Sainsbury company provides general merchandise, online grocery and other services,
including the banking sector.
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
Having both food and non-food related business activity, they strive to offer broad
varieties without compromising the high quality and reasonable price. Sainsbury has
around 15000 own-brand products.
To highlight the company's image, they always promote the freshness and premium
quality of their food products.
In Sainsbury supermarkets, the customers can buy fresh vegetable, fruits, bakery, and
dairy products. Other products that sell this supermarket are frozen food items, meat, fish
and food cupboard, cereals, biscuits, sauces, dressings, pickle, desserts, drinks etc.
Compare with other chain supermarkets, Sainsbury carefully selects his leading food
suppliers not to compromise the quality. Beside in-store shopping, they also have online
groceries purchasing services.
For the services categories, Sainsbury has in-store services such as
cafés. In the menu, customers can find British meat, fair-traded coffee and varieties of tea.
For the non-food category, this supermarket has on sale health and beauty related
products, gift shops, clothing, baby, household, home and pet-related products.
To encourage the customers to buy high quality with less money, they have Nectar Card
where every customer receive points based on how much they spend on products or
services. In case if the number of points is maximising, they can get a reward.
Sainsbury Bank represents financial services for the company and his customers and
other stakeholders. Their services include credit cards, insurance, loans, savings and
travel money convenient for customers.
They offer 24-hour telephone banking. Another advantage is energy tariff both fixed and
variable working with British Gas (partnership).
They reduce the energy bill's prices by using their green range of products to create value.
They have fuel petrol with their reduced cost, and their points are available to the nectar
card.
b) Identify the external and/or internal customers who buy / use these products /
services. [1.3]
c)
Examples of internal customers of Sainsbury are:
Sales Representatives, Customer Services Assistants, Supervisors, Warehouse team
members, General and Retail Managers, members from the Administration department,
Delivery Drivers, Pharmacists and others
External customers purchase products and services from outside of the company: persons
who order the groceries online, i.e. online shopper.
2. Provide the following information in relation to your current organisation (or one that you
are familiar with):
a) Explain how customers are made aware of the organisation’s offer. [1.2]
To ensure that all customers and interested parties receive the updated information,
Sainsbury usually uses newsletters, both printed and electronic. Based on the target
customer, the responsible team designs it uniquely to create the attention of interest.
Examples of statement highlights "Making easy" or Together 'We can', wakes customer
interest and attention. People can read kitchen advice, recipes, lottery games; discount
offers, and others in this brochures. Another tool is media advertisement such as
television, cinema and radio. They use celebrity to attract customers. They regularly
update their product offers on Sainsbury website, email, internet and vouchers.
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
b) Explain what customer service staff can do to keep up to date with the
organisation’s offer. [1.4]
In Sainsbury, the customer service staff effectively and regularly receive updated
information about the customer service procedures and company offers. Their primary
objective of this company is to satisfy customer needs. The up to date information is
available through the emails. Those emails provide information about company new
product offers and any product modification. Another way to deliver the necessary
knowledge is training seminars, presentations, communication sessions, team meeting.
The organisation manager is responsible for delivering daily any information updated for
specific products if it exists.
When hiring new staff, existing staff colleagues will help them provide the company's
fundamental knowledge. By gaining complete knowledge of the company, customer
service can solve customer queries.
c) Describe the publicity used to promote the organisation’s products and
services. [1.6]
Sainsbury creates a valuable brand image about its products and services to steal the
customer's attention. For many years this company uses the slogan "Making life taste
better" highlighting customer first choice. As marketing tools, they use Media such as TV,
cinema and radio to promote their product and services by using their brand image.
Introducing Nectar card in 2002, beside their reward program, they promote supermarket
sale promotions. Through this card, Sainsbury uses direct mailing and sales promotion
such as a 50% discount offer, buy one get one free.
Another way to make people about their seasonal campaigns they offer coupons after
shopping to encourage customers to spend more in their stores.
The Sainsbury also fulfil the responsibilities of communities to promote their brand image
in public. For example, on 30 January to 24 April 2002, the Sainsbury operates the
schools' scheme by providing free school equipment of about 8 million worth.
3. For your current organisation (or one that you are familiar with), describe the policies
and procedures that relate to customer service. Why is it important to follow these policies
and procedures? [1.5]
As one of the high-rated UK customers, Sainsbury's always focused on following customer
service legal procedures and policies.
An example is the Refund Policy, where any customer has 30 days after purchase to
exchange or to get a refund, excepting unless faulty from hygiene reasons: Baby food and
milk, Chilled and frozen products, Fireworks, Entertainment items where the seal is open,
Photo books, acrylics and canvases bought from the photoshop, Gift cards, e top-ups,
lottery tickets and scratch cards. (https://help.sainsburys.co.uk/help/refunds-returns/what-
is-refund-policy)
Procedures in customer service at Sainsbury
• Each cashier should begin a conversation, with polite questions, How are you? How
is your day?"
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
• Before customer leaves, they will say "Thank you for shopping at Sainsbury today!"
At Sainsbury, customer assistance is equally, so following internal customer service
policies and procedures gives employees and clients more confidence and trust in this
company.
4. Complete the table below by providing an example of poor customer service for each
of the three sectors and then describe the implications of this poor customer service. [1.7]
Organisation
type
Example of poor customer
service
Describe the implications of poor
customer service
Commercial
organisations
An example of poor customer
service in the commercial
sector might be Making
customers wait too long for
product information or stock
availability.
A company that does not pay
attention to improving customer
assistance quality has the risk of
losing his clients or disappearing from
the market.
Public sector
organisations
An example of poor customer
service in the public sector
might be Long holds on the
phone for people who need
more information. There are
long term terrible
consequences when a public
organisation does not meet its
legal requirements.
Adverse effects are low productivity
of the governmental organisations
and poor collaboration between its
employees and customers. Also, the
financial factor is affected due to
unsatisfactory customer service.
Third sector
organisations
An example of poor customer
service in third-sector
organisations is third sector
volunteers often lack the so-
called 'soft skills' needed to
deal with people who need
certain information or
assistance.
In exchange, those organisations
might lose their reputation and its
customers, volunteers and donators.
Now that you have completed part 1 of your Assessment, remember to save the work you
have done so far – you will need to send your work to your tutor for marking once you have
completed all 5 parts of this Assessment.
Part 2 – Identifying customer needs and expectations
This part will help you to evidence Learning Outcome 2: Understand how customer needs
and expectations are identified
© Creating Careers Limited, 2015. All rights reserved. 4

Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
Learning objective Place in Assessment
2.1 Outline ways in which customer expectations can be
identified
Question 1 Page 5
2.2 Identify how customer expectations can be met within
the offer of the organisation
Question 2 Page 5
2.3 Describe how to tell customers that their needs
cannot be met by the organisation
Question 3 Page 6
2.4 Identify reasons for customer service being delayed
and the impact of this on customers
Question 4 Page 6
2.5 Outline how to tell customers that the service will be
delayed
Question 4 Page 6
2.6 Explain why it is important to keep customers
informed of progress and delays when dealing with a
complaint
Question 4 Page 7
1. Outline at least two different ways in which customer expectations can be identified.
[2.1]
The most two popular ways of making sure that customer expectations are not
disappointed :
1. Communicating promises - Advertising campaigns are presented; all information
concerning customers are visible for everyone.
2. Customer feedback collection - Customer surveys and questionnaires are regularly
conducted to meet all customer expectations.
2. In relation to your current organisation (or one that you are familiar with), identify how
the organisation’s offering meets the expectations of its customers. [2.2]
Based on their online information at Sainsbury, the Customer service team regularly
conducts Customer Feedback and surveys via online forms. To identify customer values
every year, Sainsbury works hard to become an efficient and sustainable company closer
to society. Twice a year, Sainsbury conducts surveys of over 1.500 customers to
understand better which corporate responsibility should deal in priority order.
Using technology, Sainsbury assures its customers with promises of communication
through in-shop advertising posters, postal brochures, letters, e-mails, or conversation at
the help desk with a Customer Service Assistant.
3. When your chosen organisation cannot meet customer needs, how are customers told
about this? Describe this below. [2.3]
Depends on the affected number of customers and the gravity of the situation, Sainsbury
has various ways to communicate to customers' any occurred changes or delays.
They use in-store face-to-face conversations, e-mail adverts to their registered customers,
phone calls, radio, newspaper or television.
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
To make sure that every customer is happy with their answer and alternative offer, they
use the correct way of communication-based on every particular complaint.
4. Use the space below to address the following points, relating to delays in customer
service:
a) Identify at least two reasons why customer service may be delayed and the
impact this can have on customers. [2.4]
Reason customer service may have been
delayed
Impact
1. Staff issues There is no collaboration between
employees; all members don't follow
the procedural and legal requirements;
consequently, the company has
multiple delays, time-waste, and many
unhappy or lost customers.
2. Supply issues To not have negative results, besides
an excellent human force, some
necessary tools and materials are
irreplaceable when working with
customers, when all these missing,
considerable delays and negative
signs of progress appear.
Other:
Delays on customers
When a customer suffers a delay, he is
also financially affected meaning that
he has an emotional impact on the
company.
As a result, he becomes another lost
customer.
b) Outline how you can tell a customer that their service is going to be delayed.
[2.5]
Depending on the situation, there are various ways to deliver the right information when a
customer request details about any delay.
Using the correct voice tone and rights words, apologising and clearly explaining the
cause, creating a general or personalised approach, represent professional when
communicating to customers.
c) Explain why it is important to keep customers informed of progress and delays
when dealing with a complaint. [2.6]
© Creating Careers Limited, 2015. All rights reserved. 6

Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
Everyone from the business sector understands how essential clients' feedback is and
their satisfaction level when speaking about effective customer service.
Keeping your customers informed when dealing with a complaint or delay helps you build
strong customer loyalty.
Showing your care intention, contribute to a better company reputation and useful function.
Regarding customer complaints, the most crucial aspect is the constant and clear
communication.
Now that you have completed part 2 of your Assessment, remember to save the work you
have done so far – you will need to send your work to your tutor for marking once you have
completed all 5 parts of this Assessment.
Part 3 – Balancing customer expectations
This part will help you to evidence Learning Outcome 3: Understand how to balance
customer expectations against the organisation’s offer
Learning objective Place in Assessment
3.1 Outline the customer service offer of two
organisations to include:
• one commercial organisation
• one public or third sector organisation
Question 1 Page 8
3.2 Explain how resource and financial implications reflect
on the organisation’s offer and customers’ expectations
Question 3 Page 9
3.3 Explain how customers’ expectations are arrived at
within their organisation’s offer
Question 2 Page 8
3.4 Identify examples of when customer service may be
limited by organisational goals
Question 4 Page 9
3.5 Describe how to tell a customer that their service
expectations are outside the organisation’s offer
Question 5 Page 10
1. Complete the table below with details of customer service offers of two organisations.
One of these organisations should be a commercial organisation; the other can be either a
public or third sector organisation. [3.1]
Organisation Customer Service Offer
1.
Kaufland, Romania
One of their customer offer: If you are waiting
more than 10 minutes at the checkout you get
around 25 RON ( £5) discount from your shopping
bag
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
2.
GP centre from my local area
Their offer consists of promise that every patient
can get an appointment no longer than five
working days.
2. In relation to your current organisation (or one that you know well), explain how the
organisation identifies what their customers’ expectations are. [3.3]
Sainsbury identifies customers' expectations by surveys that have a question about
Quality or customer care if they receive service quickly and politely if all products were
available.
Based on those online customer feedback processes, customers have the information
accurate, up-to-date about the product or service and the organisation's offer.
Based on manager's notes - particular customer demand for a product at a specific time
of day. Quantity of sales per day, week. Amount of customer per hour- arrange more staff
on the floor.
Another way to identify customer expectations is to go through the feedback / positive or
negative / whether at the shop or head-office - customer care department level.
3.
a) Explain how the resources available can affect your organisation’s offer and
customer service expectations. [3.2]
Arrange suitable opening hours - Based on customer feedback, Sainsbury extends
opening hours, so now they are open later in the evening. Customers want us to do their
shopping later in the evening after they finished their work.
Because the shop is open for more hours a day, the staff has to work extended hours, but
not everyone could work extended shifts, so the management decide to hire three part-
time employers, so all extra hours are covered now.
b) Explain how financial implications can affect your organisation’s offer and customer
service expectation. [3.2]
At Sainsbury and generally, other companies have software that schedule work hours,
limiting the number of employees depending on the number of the transaction made.
However, customers are expecting more people and faster service. Sometimes this
scenario arises when one of the employees cannot give the customer but must address:
the customer complains, the faulty scale at the fresh meat counter.
The software disregards this. And the fewer people involved with customers. Those
procedures ensure that it did not grow the unnecessarily financial cost of running the shop.
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
4. Give at least two examples of when customer service may be limited by organisational
goals. These examples can relate to your own organisation or one that you know well.
[3.4]
Sainsbury's customers have asked if they can eat the food they buy from the hot deli
counter. Unfortunately, Sainsbury can offer this food only take away, as there are no
cafeteria facilities in store. Many customers would also expect hot deli home delivery;
unfortunately, there is no facility to transport hot food at home.
This supermarket cannot fulfil customer expectation, as they don't have this type of offer,
and they have to give customers negative feedback.
5. Describe what you would do / say in order to tell a customer that their service
expectations are outside of the organisation’s offer. [3.5]
"I am sorry, but Sainsbury is not offering this…., but we can provide you with something
different."
or
"I am sorry, but we cannot do this because we do not have suitable facilities. I can suggest
the management department to adopt this in our store."
Now that you have completed part 3 of your Assessment, remember to save the work you
have done so far – you will need to send your work to your tutor for marking once you have
completed all 5 parts of this Assessment.
Part 4 – Understanding how complaints are handled
This part will help you to evidence Learning Outcome 4: Understand how complaints are
handled
Learning objective Place in Assessment
4.1 Explain why customers may complain to or about an
organisation
Question 1 Page 11
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
4.2 Outline the complaints handling procedure in the
organisation
Question 2 Page 11
4.3 Identify ways in which complaints may be defused
prior to escalation to include:
· Face to face
· Written (letter, email)
· Via the telephone
Question 3 Page 12
4.4 Outline the effects of complaints on commercial,
public sector and third sector organisations
Question 4 Page 12
4.5 Explain why complaints are monitored and how the
monitoring is used
Question 5 Page 13
1. Explain why customers may complain to or about an organisation. Include at least two
specific reasons in your answer. [4.1]
Customer complains they are not satisfied with the quality of a product or service they
received. Food items from the fridge aisle are melting- probably am member of staff or a
customer left the door freezer open, or there is a technical problem.
Sometimes there are holds on service speed when people are staying in queues. People
are not happy to waste time, and there might appear complaints about this issue.
2. In relation to your own organisation (or one that you know well), outline the procedure
that is followed when handling complaints. [4.2]
Based on complaint type and to whom is he was addressing; every customer enquiry is
solved at all store's stages; / Store assistant, Cashier, Supervisor, Store Manager /.
At first, the person who is dealing with a complaint should listen carefully and get more
information as more as possible to solve the problem. Next, the customer service assistant
starts to find solutions; if they are not competent to do this, the supervisor or the manager
has to step in. Further, they apologise and show empathy that they are open to help,
offering an exchange or money refund. All complaints regarding financial transactions
must be with day cash controller. In the end, the responsible team should find out the
reason why such situations appear and find strategies. In case any staff members make a
mistake, we should retrain them to make sure this does not happen again or try to
minimise the complaint's risk.
3. Complete the table below by identifying ways in which complaints can be defused
before they escalate, using the different methods listed. [4.3]
Method How to defuse complaints
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
Face to face
It is essential to show the customer that the person who deals
with his complain try to empathise with their situation and find
practical solutions as quickly as possible. Using open-questions
and consideration by the customer service assistant, the
sympathy level rises, and the customer feels understood.This
method is often the best when dealing with customer enquiries.
Written (letter, email) When the customer chooses to send a written complaint, then
the customer assistant uses written communication. To answer
professionally and efficiently, e-mails or letter should always be
formal but likeable, including apologies for the inconvenience.
This format gives the customer a written confirmation about his
enquiry.
Via the telephone Some enquiries are handled by the phone if the customer
chooses to call an organisation with a specific complaint.
Speaking on the phone is impossible to use non - verbal
information; in this case, it is necessary to adopt a friendly, calm
and confident tone of voice. The call is ending when some
significant progress in solving problem - appears - even if it
means speaking with some employees. In these cases, the
customer service assistant needs to notify the client that they
will call him again later or ask him to hold the line.
4. Complete the table below by outlining the effects that complaints can have on
commercial, public sector and third sector organisations. [4.4]
Organisation type Effects of complaints
Commercial Complaints may have positive impacts in the commercial sector.
The way is faster and easier through social media, also when
keeping the communication process with customers.
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Customer Service
Unit two: Prepare to deliver excellent customer service (M/503/0324)
Many large business organisations now have their social media
pages. Communication with customers also usually spend part
of their website complaints and simplify and expedite handling
complaints.
Monitoring and complaint handling should improve services.
Otherwise, it could lead to lower profits, which could have
horrible consequences for the organisation's long-term future in
the commercial sector.
Public sector Complaints must be attracting too much publicity; primarily if the
government finances them, these organisations face greater
media control. Lots of complaints may lead to government cuts.
Complaints in the public sector may lead to significant
improvements, especially when are highlighted weaknesses in
the area.
Third sector Just as in the public sector, lousy publicity will primarily affect
third sector organisations such as charities, as they depend on
a full public image. As the effect of complaints is necessary to
continuously improve customer service to cut some costs,
especially for retraining employees as financial budgets are not
high.
5. In relation to your current organisation (or one that you are familiar with), explain why
complaints are monitored and how this monitoring is used. [4.5]
Sainsbury's customer service team can learn from mistakes and avoid them in the future
when monitoring customer complaints. By monitoring complaints, they can evaluate
employees' performance and improve customer service and product quality.
The store manager or district manager mostly monitors all complaints. Monitoring
complaints is useful for staff training. A major complaint is stored as Partner file notes in
the partner file and used in the disciplinary procedure.
Now that you have completed part 4 of your Assessment, remember to save the work you
have done so far – you will need to send your work to your tutor for marking once you have
completed all 5 parts of this Assessment.
Part 5 – Key customer service legislation
This part will help you to evidence Learning Outcome 5: Understand legislation relating to
customer service
Learning objective Place in Assessment
5.1 Identify customer service related legislation and
external regulations and how these may affect customer
service
Question 1 Page 14
© Creating Careers Limited, 2015. All rights reserved. 12