 Quality customer service

- Dissatisfied customer
- Satisfied customer

 Customer service - Provision of quality service going beyond the customer’s expectations or what the customer asked for and
deliver the service efficiently so that the customers are content, loyal and keep coming. - Important of customer service is that
builds good customer relations which are necessary for the success of a business or organization

Dimension Of Service Quality

• Reliability – dependable, accuracy and performance
• Responsiveness – helpfulness and promptness
• Tangible – physical facilities, equipment, personnel and communication material
• Competency–qualification, professional training & skills of providing customer service are essential in providing quality
customer service.
• Courtesy – politeness, respect, consideration, and kindliness
• Communication – keeping customer informed and listening to customers
• Empathy – ability to understand other people’s feelings and experiences
• Assurance – guarantee and promise to the customers that the service provider is committed to giving them relevant and
reliable services on time.

Factor Impacting Customer Service

 Customer Strategy
• Customer segmentation - dividing customers into district group based on their characteristics
• Service standards - develop a service standard
• Sensitization workshop and orientation programs - assist to equip their customers with necessary skills to capture and
manage records
• Marketing of services - Carry out some marketing activities
• Feedback from customers - is capable of helping service provider to monitor and detect changes in customer needs
• Dealing with customer complaints - welcome complaints to satisfy customers

Channel Strategy - give customers easy access to service

Product Strategy
• Customer needs - should first compile profile of their customers
• Consultation of customers - have to respect and accommodate ideas and suggestions of customers
• Availability of the product needed by customers - develop tools that help customers to easily locate information the want
• Promptness of the services - customers should no be kept waiting for a long time

Infrastructure strategy
• Human resource
• Expected behavior of service providers
• Atmosphere
• Tangibles
• Technology

Challenge to provision of quality Customer Service

 Caliber of records officers  Inadequate staff  Lack of vital records management tools  Retention schedules  Security and
protection of Archives and Records  Inadequate and poor storage space  Lack of cooperation from customers
Records life cycle :- a) CREATION b) DISTRIBUTION c) USE d) MAINTENANCE e) DISPOSITION

 According ISO15489 (2001), the process of managing records systematically include :

1] Capture
2] Registration
3] Classification
4] Access and security classification
5] Identification of disposition status
6] Storage
7] Use and tracking
8] Implementation of disposition

1. CAPTURE
 the process of determining that a record should be made and kept.
 This includes both records creation and received by the organization such as correspondence and memos.
 It involves deciding which documents are captured, which in turn implies decisions about who may have access to those
documents and generally how long they are to be retained.

❖ Decision about which documents should be captured and which are not needed are based on an analysis of the organizations’
business and accountability.
In paper records system, capture can be affected by:
• Physically placing a document into a chronological sequence within a file or folder that contain a title.
• Papers added progressively to file maybe dated or numbered sequentially to provide additional security in defining the
series of action.
• Additional indexing points maybe added subsequently to the file to ensure that the specific document can be located and
retrieved.

❖ Electronic records systems capture documents in a more deliberate process.

❖ Systems that capture records also need to capture metadata associated with a record in a way that:
• describes the record both for what it contains and the context of the business taking place,
• enables that record to be a fixed representation of action, and
•  enables the record to be retrieve and rendered meaningful
 2. REGISTRATION
• Its purpose is to provide evidence that a record has been created or captured in a records system.
• It involves recording brief descriptive information about the record in a register, and assigning the record a unique
identifier.

Registration specifies the following metadata as a minimum.

 a unique identifier assigned from the system such as:
▪ ▪ document name or title, ▪ text description or abstract, ▪ date of creation, ▪ date and time of communication and receipt, ▪
author (with his/her affiliation), ▪ sender (with his/her affiliation), ▪ recipient (with his/her affiliation), ▪ classification
according to the classification scheme, ▪ business system from which the records was captured, ▪ application software and
version under which the record was created or in which it was captured, ▪ details of embedded document links, including
applications software and version under which the linked record was created, ▪ templates required to interpret document
structure, ▪ access, ▪ retention period, and other structural and contextual information useful for management purposes. ▪
the date and time of registration ▪ a title or abbreviated description; ▪ the author (person or corporate body), sender or
recipient.

➢ 3. CLASSIFICATION
• Classification system that related to business functions may provide a systematic framework for records management.
• Analysis for the purpose of developing the business activity classification identifies all of an organization’s activities and
locates them in the framework of its stated or mandated mission or purposes.

• Classification system provide an organization with a tool to :

 organize, describe and link its records  link and share interdisciplinary records, either internally or externally to the
organization  provide improved access, retrieval and dissemination of its records as appropriate.

• The structure of a classification system is usually hierarchical and reflects the analytical process as follows.
 The first level usually reflects the business function
 The second level is based on the activities constituting the function
 The third and subsequent levels are further refinements of the activities or groups of transactions that take place within
each activity.

The example of hierarchy for personnel might be set out as follows.

1.0 Managing Human Resources
i. Determining Allowances
ii. Establishing Conditions of Employment
▪ Appointments ▪ Apprenticeship ▪ Childcare ▪ Flexible work arrangements
iii. Calculating Leave
▪ Accrual ▪ Entitlements ▪ Holidays
iv. Recruiting Employees
v. Determining Salaries
▪ Deductions ▪ Overtime ▪ Remuneration ▪ Superannuation

Indexing – is a mental process of determining the filing segment by which record is to be stored in an order that follows a
particular system.
1. Indexing name for filing purposes
>Select the filing segment - complete name, subject, number or location
2. Divide the filing segment into filing units
> part of the filing segment and may be a word, a letter, a number or any combination of these
3. Determine the order of filing units
> filing unit considered first in a filing segment is called the key unit

 Indexing Rules for Business Names

 ARMA (The Association of Records Managers and Administrators). Indexing rule for business name follow ARMA’s Simplified
Alphabetic Rules
• Rule 1: Order of filing units
• Rule 2: Minor words and Symbols in Business Names
• Rule 3: Punctuation and Possessives
• Rule 4: Single Letters and Abbreviations
• Rule 5: Title and Suffixes
• Rule 6: Prefixes – Articles and Particles
• Rule 7: Numbers in Business Names
• Rule 8: Organizations and Institutions
• Rule 9: Identical names

4. ACCESS AND SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

 Reasonable security and access will depend on both the nature and size of the organization as well as the content and value of
the information requiring security.
 Reasonable security can be described as the level of security needed to protect the information from any unauthorized access,
collection, use, disclosure, deletion, alteration or destruction.
 Reasonable for one organization maybe a locked filing room, while for another it may be locked, guarded, and limited-access
filing room with video cameras.
 “Access classification’ apply to people, both those who are responsible for managing the access-classified records and others
with right to access.

LEVEL OF ACCESS (Example: In Court Environment)

 Level 1 - For court users (e.g., clerk’s office staff) who individually have different privileges on the system but collectively can
enter data and records, access most data and records, and change some data and records. The system, data and records must be
protected from unauthorized access.
 Level 2 - For official users outside the court who frequently submit filings and need information from the system (e.g.,
attorneys of record), there must be protection from access to unauthorized sections of the system, from submission of incorrect
data and records, and from direct entry of data and records (i.e., only Level 1, users would be permitted to enter data and records
directly into the system).
 Level 3 - For unofficial users (e.g., the public), there must be protection from any access that goes beyond viewing limited
sections of the system’s data and records.

Access to records may be restricted to protect:

 personal information and privacy
 intellectual property rights and commercial confidentiality
 security of property (physical, financial)
 state security
 legal and other professional privileges.

Assigning rights or restrictions to access involves similar steps to activity classification:-

 Identify the transaction or business activity that the record documents
 Identify the business unit to which the records belong.
 Check the access and security classifications to establish whether the activity and the business area are identified as areas of
risk, or have security considerations and/or legally required restrictions.
 Allocate the appropriate level of access or restriction to the record and specify appropriate control mechanisms for handling.
 Records the access or security status of the record in the records system to signal the need for additional control measures.
5. IDENTIFICATION OF DISPOSITION STATUS
The identification of disposition status usually can be done before records created, before records keeping system are designed,
before disposal and when required.  The process requires reference to a disposition authority of a more or less formal nature
depending on the size and nature of the organization and its accountabilities.

The disposition authorities may prescribe permanent preservation, either within the organization or in a separate archives
institutions such as National Archives of Malaysia.
It involves the following steps:
1. Identifying the transaction or business activity documented by the records
2. Locating the transaction and records in the appropriate records class in the disposition authority.
3. Allocating the relevant retention period and identifying the anticipated disposition action.
4. Recording the retention period and future disposition action in the record system.
5. Determining the extent to which it is necessary to retain metadata about records that have been transferred to
an external storage service provider or to an archive or that have been destroyed.
6. Monitoring and review.
6. STORAGE
 Without proper storage, records cannot be retained or kept for as long as it needed.
 Appropriate storage conditions ensure that records are protected, accessible and managed in a cost- effective manner.
 The 3 basic factors for selecting storage supplies and facilities are as follows:
• Need for storage supplies and equipment
• Facility consideration
• The cost realized.

1. Need for storage supplies and equipment

 The kinds of records to be filed and controlled  The frequency of use for each kind of record during the day  The
number of people working at the files at one time  The volume of records to be handled in a given period of time, such as
six month or a year  The method of filing best suited to handling the records- alphabetic, geographic, subject, numeric or
a combination of these methods.  The type of charge out and follow out of system used  The transfer method used 
The physical characteristic such as weight, floor space required, need for temperature and humidity control, and the
particular physical preservation requirements for the records media.  The security and retention requirements of the
records  The organization and distribution of records (centralized or decentralized)

2. Facility consideration
The facility needs to consider the following factors:-
a) Location The location should be easily accessed and should not be areas of known external risks.

b) Building Structure The building structure should provide the suitable range and stability of temperature and humidity
level protection, protection against water damage, protection from contaminants, safety measures, controlled access
to storage areas, detection systems for unauthorized entry & protection against damage caused by insects or vermin.

c) Availability of Equipment.
• Manual retrieval equipment
Vertical file cabinet, Lateral file cabinet  Shelf files  Tub files  Mobile shelving  Suspension files
• Mechanical Retrieval Equipment
File storage equipment with an engine. Records are delivered to the filer by some kind of motor-driven
• Storing other records
Catalogs and directories  Large and Odd sized records  Mixed Media

3. Cost of Supplies Storage and Equipment

 In determining the costs, keep in mind the following points:
Cost of the personnel needed to work with the records. Compatibility of supplies and equipment. Advisability of
using local vendors rather than purchasing from out-of-town vendors. Possibility of discounts for quantity purchases.
Feasibility of choosing used rather than new equipment. Volume of records that can be stored within the equipment.
Lateral, shelf, or rotary equipment can house more square feet of records than can conventional drawer file cabinets in
the same square footage of floor space.
7. USE AND TRACKING
 Use of the records is a records management transaction that may need to be captured by the system to form part of the
metadata.  Records used include providing record users with search, retrieval and display tools and enforcing record access and
security transaction.  Use of the record may affect its access and disposition status.

Managing the use of records encompasses the following:-

 Identify the records system user permissions related with individuals and their positions with the organization  Identify the
access and security status of records  Identify the access rights for people external to the organization  Ensuring that only
individuals with the appropriate user classification or security rights have access to records with restricted status.  Tracking the
movement of the record to identify those who have or have had custody of it.  Ensuring that all use of the records is recorded to
an appropriate level of detail.  Reviewing the access classifications of records to ensure that they are current and still applicable.

Tracking of records
 The tracking of records usage within records systems is a security measure for organizations.  It ensures that only those users
with appropriate permissions are performing records tasks for which that have been authorized.  Tracking systems have to meet
the test of locating any record within an appropriate time period and ensuring that all movements are traceable.

8. IMPLEMENTATION OF DISPOSITION
 Disposition is the action taken with regards to records as a consequence of their appraisal and the expiration of their retention
period.
 The implementation of disposition will be effective and successful if the organization could refer to the records retention,
records inventory and destruction schedule of the organization.
a) Records retention – established policy and procedure for determining what records to keep, where to keep them and
how long to keep them.
b) Records inventory – survey conducted to find the types and volume of filed records, their location and frequency of use.
c) Records retention and destruction schedule – established timetable for maintaining records, transferring semi active
and inactive records to storage and destroying records with short term value.

The implementation of disposition is based on the three steps below: -

1/PRESERVATION –
- is an action taken to retard or prevent deterioration or damage to records or documents by control of their environment and
treatment (National Archive of Malaysia)
- Preservation strategies can include copying, conversion and migration of records.
 Copying the production of identical copy within the same type of medium (papers/microfilm/electronic).
Eg : from paper to paper, microfilm to microfilm or the production of backup copies of electronic records (which can also
be made on a different kind of electronic medium)
 Conversion involves a change of the format of the records but ensure that the record retains the primary information
(content).  Eg : microfilming of paper records, imaging, and change of character sets.
 Migrations involves a set of organized tasks designed to periodically transfer digital material from hardware/software
configuration to another, or from one generation of technology to another.
 The purpose migration is to preserve the integrity of the records and to retain the ability for clients to retrieve, display
otherwise use them.
 Migration may occur when hardware and/or software becomes obsolete or may be used to move electronic records from
one file format to another.
2/DESTRUCTION
Methods of Destruction
 The most common method of destruction includes the following:  Landfill  Incineration / Burning  Shredding  Recycling 
Destroying Microfilm  Destroying electronic records
3/TRANSFER OF CUSTODY OR OWNERSHIP RECORDS
Such a transfer of ownership or custody of records to another organization may include:
Transfer to other organizations with responsibilities for the records, Transfer to outsourced or contractor organizations,
Transfer to a storage facility, or Transfer to an archive.
If the electronic records are transferred, such issues as the following need to be considered:
 Hardware and software compatibility;  Metadata (control and contextual information);  Data documentation (technical
information on data processing and data structure);  Licensing agreements;  Standards.