Address Customer Needs Essay

Task 1: The first customer contact transaction discussed in the Task 1 is when the customer drops in the shop to buy a particular commodity & fetches help from the sales personnel. This is an incident which happened in one of the leading clothing store i.e. Marks & Spencer’s. The customer contact was in person. The duration of the entire transaction was 15 minutes. The customer was unable to fetch a product which suits her requirement. Her need was to buy a pair of navy blue jeans with size 28 inches (Ramsey & Sohi, 1997). She was unable to locate the counter where in the jeans were placed. The person who was doing the customer contact was responsible to handle sales within the store. The line of work or industry they cater to is the merchandise sector. Marks & Spencer’s deals in providing its customer with high end clothes ranging from fashionable tops to formal shirts, sporty t-shirts, jeggings, leggings, skirts, knee length dresses, party wear clothes & lingerie. Yes, there is evidence that, the sales person was prepared for such type of transaction. It is seen that, the sales person deals with such type of transactions every day. Therefore, he has ways to sort out the things & satisfy the needs of the customer. The evidence which was seen in this particular situation was that, he accompanied the customer till the rack where in 28 waist size jeans were kept. He was there with the customer all through her buying process. The listening skills of the sales person were up to the mark. He did his bit to sort out the things at his part. The sales personnel was both listening as well as questioning the customer in order to know the needs of the customer in a well defined manner. The sales person asked the customer the right kind of questions such as the waist size, preferable color, pattern of the pair of jeans, etc. See more: Analysis of Starbucks coffee company employees essay This shows that, the sales person was able to stimulate the thoughts of the customer & provide solutions for the same. In case of this situation, the non verbal communications which were looked upon from the sales person were appropriate to the current problem. In case of this situation some of the nonverbal communications which were used by the sales person were use of his arms, facial expressions, maintaining eye contact with the customers to show case high levels of interest, body movements & postures, etc  (Ramsey & Sohi, 1997). The sort of language which was used by the sales person was apt according to the problems faced by the customer. The customer believed it to be suitable as the sales person was able to resolve the problems in the best possible manner. The customers did not ask for any type of clarification as the language by the sales personal was quite simple to understand & comprehend. There was no different way of talking to the other customers within the store. The sales person used a simple way of knowing the needs of the customers. The sales person communicated with the customer & tried to take feedback from them which helped him to know the needs of the customer in a better manner. No, there was no conflict between the salesperson & the customer. Yes, the salesperson was able to understand the needs of the customer. The tools & techniques used to express empathy with the needs of the customer were done by maintaining fair eye contact, practice empathetic listening, etc. In the end, the need of the customer was satisfied. The customer was happy while moving out of the store. The need of the customer was to buy a 28 waist size navy blue pair of jeans. Initially she was unable to locate the rack which consisted of 28 waist sized jeans. This lead to a problem & the salesperson identified the same to satisfy the needs of the customer (Martin, 2006). The second customer contact transaction discussed in Task 1 refers to a sales call done in a call centre. The customer contact was done over the phone. The duration of the customer contact over the phone was for approximately 7-10mins. The duration of the customer transaction totally depends upon the product or service rendered to the customer. The expert providing the information over the phone would be referred to as the sales & support team who will push the levels of sales. The line of work or industry they are in is the banking industry that provides the financial services to its clients. Yes, there is evidence that the salesperson had prepared for the transaction. The way with which the sales person has been talking to the client portrays the way he has been handling such situations in the past (Ramsey & Sohi, 1997). The listening skills of the sales person were quite empathetic. The sales person cross questioned the client & tried to judge the requirements of the client. The sales personnel used the possible information to tell about the services being offered by him & its usefulness to the client in the near future. Since, it was a sales call carried over phone non verbal  communication techniques could not be observed. The language used by the sales person was a bit complex. The client asked for reconfirmations & clarifications in terms of the meaning of the words, etc. The sales person used the RATER Model to identify the needs of the customer (Martin, 2006). The needs of the customer were divided amongst various categories such as reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy & responsiveness. There was an agreement amongst the salesperson & the customer. The sales person handled the argument in a very tactful manner. The sales person understood the needs of the customer but was unable to convince the client on certain points. The sales person acted as a patient listener which portrays that he was empathetic towards the needs of the customer. The customer was not fully satisfied with the service provided by the sales person. The type of information which was provided by the sales person to the client was the fair view of all the financial services offered by the same. The information provided was appropriate which helped to identify the own needs of the client. In order to satisfy the needs of the customer either the sales personnel should have forwarded the call to the senior sales person or an in depth analysis of the financial services should have been provided to the client (Jane, 2013). Task2: Collect three different instruments or tools used to collect feedback from customers. Attach screenshots of these instruments in your answer. In a simple report, answer the following questions about each of the three instruments or tools. The three instruments or tools used to collect feedback from customers have been discussed in this section of the report. * Crowd Sound: 1. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the customer? The information which Crowd Sound collects from the customer is in form of a productive dialogue. The dialogue takes into consideration a brief conversation upon the product or service opted for. It is one of the easiest ways to communicate with the customers in order to know their suggestions regarding the product or service. The portal will constantly benefit the organization with the introduction of new ideas, improvements within the existing products, etc. 2. What information does the  instrument or tool collect about the way the organization/product/service satisfied their needs? The information collected by Crowd Sound with respect to a particular product or service is in the form of suggestions or comments produced by the users. This information would help the service provider to moderate its products or services based upon the needs of the customers. 3. In what ways does the instrument or tool allow the customer to provide feedback about the organization/product/service? Crowd Sound has been referred to as an instrument or a tool to collect feedback from its users. The tool collects information in form of vote, suggestions with the help of a customizable widget. This tool is one of the easiest ways to gather feedback regarding on a company’s website or intranet. 4. Overall, is the instrument or tool an effective method of collecting up-to-date and relevant feedback? If yes, why? If no, then what suggestions would you make for improvements? The instrument i.e. Crowd Sound is an effective method of collecting up to date and relevant feedback. This is because, the users of this site has a convenient way to send in their suggestions, feedback, etc. The suggestions are collected in a systematic manner and are moved from one bucket to another. It is the only instrument which provides features such as suggestions, moderation, feedbacks and iPhone compatibility. * Ideaffect 1. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the customer? Ideaffect will provide the customers a portal to share their views, post suggestions & provides feedback about a given product or service. 2. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the way the organization/product/service satisfied their needs? Ideaffect refers to a feedback community where in the users can log in post their suggestions regarding a particular product or service. Ideaffect integrates the website with a particular website through an embeddable feedback widget tab. 3. In what ways does the instrument or tool allow the customer to provide feedback about the organization/product/service? The ways with which Ideaffect allows the customer to provide feedback about the  organization or product or service can be seen with the help of a feedback widget tab attached along the website, page ratings, and single sign on the public API & domain aliasing. 4. Overall, is the instrument or tool an effective method of collecting up-to-date and relevant feedback? If yes, why? If no, then what suggestions would you make for improvements? The tool i.e. Ideaffect is an effective method of collecting an up to date and relevant feedback. This is because of the various features attached to it. Some of the features attached along this portal are single sign on & public API, a dedicated feedback website, feedback widget for the concerned website and page ratings. With the help of this tool, the customer will be able to customize the design, embed the widgets & moderate the SSL connections. * User Voice 1. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the customer? Ser Voice would be referred to as a feedback tool which would help to gather feedback by the users in a well defined manner. The interested parties then can use the information to get answers, share ideas & learn from its mistakes. Some of the features attached along this tool are ongoing discussions, simple sign up, integration with face book (Ioana, n.d). 2. What information does the instrument or tool collect about the way the organization/product/service satisfied their needs? The information which is being collected by this tool is to provide an actionable idea as to how to improve the product (Gregory, 2010). User Voice provides a structured forum to its users for voting a particular product or service. 3. In what ways does the instrument or tool allow the customer to provide feedback about the organization/product/service? The various ways with which the tool i.e. User voice allows the customer to provide feedback about the product or service is with the help of feedback forums (which allows the users to post blogs, suggestions, etc), providing support systems, etc (Buleen, 2013). User Voice provides a support system which allows the users share stories as well as understands the customer’s blog. All this is done by building a tool which connects the customers with what is important & what does he want. 4. Overall, is the instrument or tool an effective method of collecting  up-to-date and relevant feedback? If yes, why? If no, then what suggestions would you make for improvements? The instrument i.e. User Voice is an effective method of collecting an up to date as well as relevant feedback. It delights its customers with the help of customer support. A help desk was launched in the year 2011 which made it one of the powerful portals to collect the information & provide a solution for the issue. References Buleen, C 2013, Body Language Sales Tips, viewed on 8th January 2013, . Gregory, A 2010, 10 Customer Feedback Tools to Help You Improve Your Client Relationships, viewed on 5th January 2013 . Ioana, B n.d., â€Å"THE USE OF READING NONVERBAL MESSAGES FROM CUSTOMERS†, University of Bacau Faculty of Economic Sciences. Jane, M 2013, Customer Empathy, viewed on 8th January 2013, . Martin, S 2006, Heavy Hitter Selling: How Successful Salespeople Use Language and Intuition to Persuade Customers to Buy, John Wiley & Sons, US. Ramsey, R & Sohi, R 1997, â€Å"Listening to Your Customers: The Impact of Perceived Salesperson Listening Behavior on Relationship Outcomes†, RESEARCH NOTE.