Customer Support Management Assignment - University Coursework

This assignment delves into customer support management through a case study involving an online shopper's refund issue with Telstra. The student, from the perspective of a customer service officer, summarizes the case, identifying the problem and its impact. The assignment then proposes improvements to help desk operations, focusing on administrative, process, and policy enhancements to resolve customer issues effectively and efficiently. Finally, the student develops a user guide for a staffing calculation tool designed to optimize help desk resource allocation. The guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to use the tool, explaining data input and interpreting the results, thereby facilitating efficient customer service operations.

Running Head: CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
Customer Support Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
Qs 1. CASE SUMMARY
The given case is about a passionate online shopper who orders online products
frequently. A person who is a passionate shopper suddenly faces a problem regarding the refund
issue while shopping at Telstra. He had ordered an IPhone X from the Telstra online shop
making an online payment for the product. Unfortunately, the product was found faulty. The
customer service executive assured him of returning he money within 5-6 business working days
but even after 45 days he did not receive the refund money. The customer then decided to say
openly in social media about his problems. The customer poured out all his problems expecting
that the famous social listening team of Telstra would listen to his desperations and act
accordingly.
Qs 2. HELP DESK OPERATIONS
There are some ways by which a poor experience of the customer can be turned into a
positive one. The modesty of behavior from the part of the customer service department is much
necessary. There are situations like the above mentioned case where the customers get highly
enraged with their expectations not being met properly (Ramanathan, Subramanian &
Parrott,2017). In such cases if the customer is convinced and reassured nicely that is issues are
being taken into considerations, the chances of customer dissatisfaction can be reduced to a
greater extentThe e-commerce company must keep the payment part easy, clear and promising to
the customers so that they do not feel any kind of hesitation before investing and there is no
further discrepancy in the payment/refund issue (Chaffey,2015). If there is any money refund
case, the haste with which the payment was accepted by the company at the time of purchase, the
refund also must be equally fast. It will retain he company name and pave way for the customer
to visit the website again (Wang, Malthouse & Krishnamurthi,2015).

2CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
The implementation of a support ticket system is helpful in holding the track of problems.
Zendesk, Desk and Helpscout are some of the services that construct a management system
which records the interactions with the customers. It will confirm that the customer issues get
resolved one after another serially and timely without any error (Jiang, Jun & Yang, 2016).
Qs 3. USER GUIDE FOR STAFFING CALCULATION TOOL FOR HELP DESK
Helpdesk software help a particular enterprise from many aspects. They add importance
and value from a wide perspective. Such tools positively influence the helpdesk staff, the clients
and contacts, the end users and the entire organization as a whole. First of all, when a client has
some issues and needs to contact the support executive, they will have a fixed calling point
where they would get the help (Green et al., 2014). They will be assured speaking personally that
their issue is getting perfectly noted down and actioned under a trusted tracking system which
will not let the record get lost among other records. Apart from the client’s benefits the helpdesk
staff will also be equally helped by such software. All necessary data related to client, service
and resolution will be just aa click distant from the staff making the entire work easy for him.
Each details and the history of activities will help to smoothen the workflow. The management
will be benefitted because it will bring certain discipline within the workplace. It is a symbol of
systematic workflow and reduce errors (Sánchez-Gordón & O’Connor, 2016). When the clients
will be satisfied by the digital services, the relationship between the enterprise and the customers
will grow and strengthen. The entire enterprise will be upgraded when the business will spread
far off lands because managing remote customers via software will become easier than before.
The calculation tool is of much help and using this tool is easy. It has been prepared in an
excel sheet. In this excel data file how help desks are staffed has been described. First of all, the
data input section needs to be clicked. After opening the some coloured boxes will be visible

3CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
where the data is supposed to be written. This particular software can be used in many business
fields. it can also be used in a school or university system. In the first visible coloured box the
estimation of the business call duration serially. One point should be kept in mind that time
duration cannot be written in seconds but only full minutes. For example, if the call is of 5.5
minutes, it should be written 6 minutes. The second estimate is to look at the number of days per
year that is 365 days. After that in the box beside the less days per year not open section, the
sum of weekend offs in a year needs to be written. The number varies from company to
company. After that in the less holidays per year not open section, the sum of fixed holidays
including the national holidays or public holidays are supposed to be noted. It varies from
country to country. Next there are two sections less average sick days per year per employee and
less average training days per year per employee. These two sections should be filled according
to the company. The average turnover percentage rate section needs to be filled by considering
the number of staffs joined or left in the company. It should be written in percentage. Under the
number of productive days per year available section, the number of working hours per day,
average break time per day in hours, average administrative time per day in hours, average lunch
time per day in hours (if paid) needs to be filled up. After filling these boxes, the calculation will
provide the accurate numbers. Next, how many days open per year will give the number and
duration of calls per year easily. Number of current employees including the half timers and full
timers is also supposed to be recorded in the given section. Lastly by clicking on the calculation
section, all the calculations will be visible on a new excel sheet. This is how the calculation tool
works for help desk.
Help-desk software plays the role of web-oriented support center, from which smooth
flow of all the reliable information can be ensured. This is the way, by which inquiry

4CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
management mechanism can be operated in an effective manner. Built-in base of knowledge is
one of the key aspects of help-desk software which can have a firm impact on storing the tips and
articles effectively and use them in accordance with the requirements of clients.

5CUSTOMER SUPPORT MANAGEMENT
Reference
Chaffey, D. (2015). Digital business and e-commerce management. Pearson Education Limited.
Green, T. A., Carter, S. R., Isaacson, S. A., & Anderson, E. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,655,713.
Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Jiang, L., Jun, M., & Yang, Z. (2016). Customer-perceived value and loyalty: how do key service
quality dimensions matter in the context of B2C e-commerce? Service Business, 10(2),
301-317.
Ramanathan, U., Subramanian, N., & Parrott, G. (2017). Role of social media in retail network
operations and marketing to enhance customer satisfaction. International Journal of
Operations & Production Management, 37(1), 105-123.
Sánchez-Gordón, M. L., & O’Connor, R. V. (2016). Understanding the gap between software
process practices and actual practice in very small companies. Software Quality
Journal, 24(3), 549-570.
Wang, R. J. H., Malthouse, E. C., & Krishnamurthi, L. (2015). On the go: How mobile shopping
affects customer purchase behavior. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), 217-234.