Subject:

Marketing
Topic
Customer service and
information

Submitted to: syed akbar shah

Submitted by:
kazmi
Registration # 55203

Date:
 Customer service:

Customer service is the provision of service to customers

before, during and after a purchase.

According to Turban “Customer service is a series of

activities designed to enhance the level of customer
satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or
service has met the customer expectation."

Its importance varies by product, industry and customer;

defective or broken merchandise can be exchanged, often
only with a receipt and within a specified time frame.
Retail stores will often have a desk or counter devoted to
dealing with returns, exchanges and complaints, or will
perform related functions at the point of sale; the
perceived success of such interactions being dependent on
employees "who can adjust themselves to the personality of
the guest, "according to Micah Solomon quoted in Inc.
Magazine.

From the point of view of an overall sales process

engineering effort, customer service plays an important
role in an organization's ability to generate income and
revenue. From that perspective, customer service should be
included as part of an overall approach to systematic
improvement. A customer service experience can change the
entire perception a customer has of the organization.

Some have argued that the quality and level of customer

service has decreased in recent years, and that this can be
attributed to a lack of support or understanding at the
executive and middle management levels of a corporation
and/or a customer service policy. To address this argument,
many organizations have employed a variety of methods to
improve their customer satisfaction levels, and other KPIs.
 Customer support services:
Customer support is a range of customer services to assist
customers in making cost effective and correct use of a
product. It includes assistance in planning, installation,
training, trouble shooting, maintenance, upgrading, and
disposal of a product.

Regarding technology products such as mobile phones,

televisions, computers, software products or other
electronic or mechanical goods, it is termed technical
support.

Automated customer service

Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales

and service representative), or by automated means.
Examples of automated means are Internet sites. An
advantage with automated means is an increased ability to
provide service 24-hours a day, which can, at least, be a
complement to customer service by persons

However, in the Internet era, a challenge has been to

maintain and/or enhance the personal experience while
making use of the efficiencies of online commerce. Writing
in Fast Company, entrepreneur and customer systems
innovator Micah Solomon has made the point that "Online
customers are literally invisible to you (and you to them),
so it's easy to shortchange them emotionally. But this lack
of visual and tactile presence makes it even more crucial
to create a sense of personal, human-to-human connection in
the online arena."

Automated means can be based entirely on self service, but

may also be based on service by more or less means of
artificial intelligence.

Examples of customer service by artificial means are

automated online assistants that can be seen as avatars on
websites.[6] It can avail for enterprises to reduce their
operating and training cost.[6] These are driven by
chatterbots, and a major underlying technology to such
systems is natural language processing.

Instant feedback
Recently, many organizations have implemented feedback
loops that allow them to capture feedback at the point of
experience. For example, National Express, one of the UK's
leading travel companies invites passengers to send text
messages whilst riding the bus. This has been shown to be
useful as it allows companies to improve their customer
service before the customer defects, thus making it far
more likely that the customer will return next time.
Technology has made it increasingly easier for companies to
obtain feedback from customers. Community blogs and forums
give customers to give detailed explanations of both
negative and positive experiences with an organization.

A challenge working with customer service is to ensure that

you have focused your attention on the right key areas,
measured by the right Key Performance Indicator. There is
no challenge to come up with a lot of meaningful KPIs, but
the challenge is to select a few which reflects your
overall strategy. In addition to reflecting your strategy
it should also enable staff to limit their focus to the
areas that really matter. The focus must be of those KPIs,
which will deliver the most value to the overall objective,
e.g. cost saving, service improving etc. It must also be
done in such a way that staff sincerely believes that they
can make a difference with the effort.

One of the most important aspects of a customer service KPI

is that of what is often referred to as the "Feel Good
Factor." Basically the goal is to not only help the
customer have a good experience, but to offer them an
experience that exceeds their expectations. Several key
points are listed as follows:

1. Know your product – Know what products/service you are

offering back to front. In other words be an information
expert. It is okay to say "I don't know," but it should
always be followed up by "but let me find out" or possibly
"but my friend knows!" Whatever the situation may be, make
sure that you don't leave your customer with an unanswered
question.

2. Body Language/Communication – Most of the communication

that we relay to others is done through body language. If
we have a negative body language when we interact with
others it can show our lack of care. Two of the most
important parts of positive body language are smiling and
eye contact. Make sure to look your customers in the eye.
It shows that we are listening to them, not at them. And
then of course smiling is just more inviting than someone
who has a blank look on their face.

3. Anticipate Guest Needs – Nothing surprises your customer

more than an employee going the extra mile to help them.
Always look for ways to serve your customer more than they
expect. In doing so it helps them to know that you care and
it will leave them with the "Feel Good Factor" that we are
searching for.

Importance of ccustomer
service:

Most anyone will agree that customer service is one of the

most important parts of your company's overall strategy to
conducting business. Without customers you really don't
have a business. If this is the case, why is it mostly
everyone as consumers can easily mention examples of poor
customer service in their daily lives? Every company either
has or thinks it has good customer service. However, if
certain steps are not taken to ensure this, the reality of
their situation is often far worse than their current
perceptions.

In any successful business or organization, the commitment

to customer service always begins at the top, the company's
leaders must buy into the fact that they not only need to
meet their customer's expectations, they must strive to
exceed them. They must develop a company culture that
understands, embraces and executes this concept. In today's
world, business competition is tougher than ever. If you
can't provide goods or services when somebody wants or
needs them, there are often four or five other companies
immediately ready to fill this void. You only get one
chance to make a good first impression. If the company's
leaders do not accept this fact, or are not willing to
provide the necessary resources to meet their customer's
needs, they will soon find themselves scrambling for
business.

Proper training is one way to develop a company culture

that embraces excellent customer service. Every employee
must understand implicitly what is expected of them when
interacting with customers. Is there an established,
uniform way to answer the phone? Are there set procedures
in place for instances when a customer has a question or
problem? Is there an established chain of command to make
sure that issues are handled in a timely fashion? And most
importantly is everyone trained to carry out these company
procedures? How you handle the problem is far more
important than the problem itself. A customer must always
be made to feel as though their best interests are being
given serious consideration, even when you can't give in to
their demands. It is far better to say 'no' with a smile,
than 'yes' with an attitude.

Customer feedback is an excellent way to track and measure

your level of service. You should not only benchmark your
company against your competition, but also against the
goals you set for yourself. Once again, you must remember
you are trying to not only meet, but exceed your customer's
expectations. Written surveys are one way to gage customer
satisfaction. This can be useful to obtain feedback on a
wide variety of company functions. Always allow for written
comments, as these usually will help shed light on problem
areas. Management's interaction with customers is an
excellent way to not only measure overall efforts, but to
also show the level of commitment the company has towards
their needs. A manager who does not spend anytime with
customers is likely to be detached and unaware of what
their employees do and what their customers want. You
always feel better if you have the chance to talk to
someone who actually sets policy, not just someone paid to
carry it out.

In today's world of bigger, faster, better you need to be

the company that gets it right the first time, and if you
don't, you must quickly rectify your mistakes. If you
consistently make this part of how you conduct business,
your customer's loyalty will continue to grow. The surest
way to continued success and future growth is to not only
meet your customers expectations, but to exceed them at
every possible turn.

Good customer service is the foundation of any business. It

provides a platform for continued growth and helps to build
your businesses reputation. You can offer promotions and
slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want,
but unless you can get some of those customers to come
back, your business won't be profitable for long.

Good customer service is also about sending them away happy

- happy enough to pass positive feedback about your
business along to others, who may then try the product or
service you offer for themselves, in their turn becoming
repeat customers.

Customer information
An information system (IS) - or application landscape - is
any combination of information technology and people's
activities using that technology to support operations,
management, and decision-making. In a very broad sense, the
term information system is frequently used to refer to the
interaction between people, algorithmic processes, data and
technology. In this sense, the term is used to refer not
only to the information and communication technology (ICT)
an organization uses, but also to the way in which people
interact with this technology in support of business
processes.

Some make a clear distinction between information systems,

and computer systems ICT, and business processes.
Information systems are distinct from information
technology in that an information system is typically seen
as having an ICT component. Information systems are also
different from business processes. Information systems help
to control the performance of business processes. Alter
argues for an information system as a special type of work
system. A work system is a system in which humans and/or
machines perform work using resources (including ICT) to
produce specific products and/or services for customers. An
information system is a work system whose activities are
devoted to processing (capturing, transmitting, storing,
retrieving, manipulating and displaying) information.

Part of the difficulty in defining the term information

system is due to vagueness in the definition of related
terms such as system and information. Following the
pioneering work of Ronald_Stamper, Beynon-Davies argues for
a clearer terminology based in systemics and semiotics. He
defines an information system as an example of a system
concerned with the manipulation of signs. An information
system is a type of socio-technical system. An information
system is a mediating construct between actions and
technology.

As such, information systems inter-relate with data systems

on the one hand and activity systems on the other. An
information system is a form of communication system in
which data represent and are processed as a form of social
memory. An information system can also be considered a
semi-formal language which supports human decision making
and action.

Information systems are the primary focus of study for the

information systems discipline and for organisational
informatics.

Components
It consists of computers, instructions, stored facts,
people and procedures.

ISs can be categorized in three parts:

1. Management Information System (MIS).

2. Decision Support System (DSS).
3. Executive Information System (EIS)
 Importance of customer
information:

Here is answer to this question The emergence of a global

economy, transformation of industrial economies,
transformation of the business enterprise, and the
emergence of digital firm make information systems
essential in business today. Information system is a
foundation for conducting business today. In many
businesses, survival and the ability to achieve strategic
business goals is difficult without extensive use of
information technology. There are six reasons or objectives
why businesses use information system:

1. Operational excellence.
Business improve the efficiency of their operations in
order to achieve higher profitability. Information systems
are important tools available to managers for achieving
higher levels of efficiency and productivity in business
operations. A good example is Wal-Mart that uses a
RetailLink system , which digitally links its suppliers to
every one of Wal-Mart's stores. as soon as a a customer
purchase an item , the supplier is monitoring the item ,
knows to ship a replacement to the shelf.

2. New products, services, and business

models.
Information system is a major tool for firms to create new
products and services, and also an entirely new business
models. A business model describe how a company produces,
delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth.
Example: Apple inc transformed an old business model based
on its iPod technology platform that included iPod, the
iTunes music service, and the iPhone.

3. Customer/supplier intimacy.
 When a business serves its customers well, the customers
generally respond by returning and purchasing more. this
raises revenue and profits. The more a business engage its
suppliers, the better the suppliers can provide vital
inputs. This lower costs. Example: The Mandarin Oriental in
manhattan and other high-end hotels exemplify the use of
information systems and technology to achieve customer
intimacy. they use computers to keep track of guests'
preferences, such as their preffered room temperature,
check-in time, television programs.

4. Improved decision making.

Many managers operate in an information bank, never having
the right information at the right time to make an informed
decision. These poor outcomes raise costs and lose
customers. Information system made it possible for the
managers to use real time data from the marketplace when
making decision. Example: Verizon Corporation uses a Web-
based digital dashboard to provide managers with precise
real -time information on customer complains, network
performance.. Using this information managers can
immediately allocate repair resources to affected areas,
inform customers of repair efforts and restore service
fast.

5. Competitive advantage.
When firms achieve one or more of these business
objectives( operational excellence, new products, services,
and business models, customer/supplier intimacy, and
improved decision making) chances are they have already
achieved a competitive advantage. Doing things better than
your competitors, charging less for superior products, and
responding to customers and suppliers in real time all add
up to higher sales, and higher profits. Example: Toyota
Production System focuses on organizing work to eliminate
waste, making continues improvements, TPS is based on what
customers have actually ordered.

6. Day to day survival.

Business firms invest in information system and technology
because they are necessities of doing business. This
necessities are driven by industry level changes. Example:
Citibank introduced the first automatic teller machine to
attract customers through higher service levels, and its
competitors rushed to provide ATM's to their customers to
keep up with Citibank. Providing ATMs services to retail
banking customers is simply a requirement of being in and
surviving in the retail banking business. Firm turn to
information system and technology to provide the capability
to respond to these.

Information systems are the foundation for conducting

business today. In many industries, survival and even
existence without extensive use of IT is inconceivable, and
IT plays a critical role in increasing productivity.
Although information technology has become more of a
commodity, when coupled with complementary changes in
organization and management, it can provide the foundation
for new products, services, and ways of conducting business
that provide firms with a strategic advantage.

Challenges:
Customer service and customer information management has
many positive aspects. But it has many some challenges also.
It is costly for the companies.
Some times data about customer is not correct.
Some customers want to keep them secret.

Conclusion
Customer service and customer information has become a part
of business in these years. To make high volume sales, and
profit margins better customer service and customer
information is very important.
But his can be done by each company due its cost.