Customer Service

Learning Outcome 3: Understand the principles of customer service Assessment Criteria: The questions asked will help you identify and understand everything for this learning outcome. Your task is to: a) Describe how your organisation’s service offers meets customer expectations b) Explain how your organisation’s service offer is affected by financial and other resource limitations c) Identify the impact that their organisation’s service offer may have on different people in the service chain. ) Explain how customers form their expectations of the services or products e) Explain the importance of effective teamwork for the delivery of excellent customer service f) Describe how customer service can contribute to best value in a public sector or third sector organisation. g) Explain how customer service can provide a competitive advantage for a commercial organisation. h) Describe why your organisation must limit the customer service it gives to balance customer satisfaction with organisational goals, if it does. ) Explain how to deal with different customer behaviours and personalities to achieve customer satisfaction. j) Explain the importance of effective communication in the delivery of excellent customer service. k) Describe how you ensure your communication with diverse groups of customers is effective and efficient. l) Describe the importance of continuous improvement within customer service m) Outline the service offer of competitors of your organisation or any organisations offering similar services or products ) Describe the features and benefits of your organisation’s services or products that influence customer service delivery and customer satisfaction. o) Explain how your organisation balances its needs with customer expectations and needs p) Justify the ethical and value base of your organisation’s approach to customer service q) Explain how people’s behaviour when improving customer service delivery affects the success of any changes to customer expectations and needs

We are committed to high standards in our work. We will be a centre of excellence and will offer you the best relevant service we can. We will offer some services ourselves and others will be provided by experienced and high quality partners. The following list of service standards is the basis of our partnership with you. Together we will review these on a yearly basis to ensure that we continue to provide you with professional, timely and relevant services.

To deliver a comprehensive support service that strives to meet the needs and aspiration of all our customers we will focus on: • A great welcome and easy access to our services • Written information about the service we will provide to you with deadlines • Talk to you regarding the design, development and delivery of services within the Centre • Provide and assist community groups in delivering community activities and events in the Centre The following is an outline of the commitment required by us all to develop our customer partnership approach.

Together we will: • Create an environment where all are treated with honesty, dignity and respect • Listen to each other and make every effort to understand each other’s needs • Offer our services to the whole community • Take personal responsibility for what we have agreed to do • Actively participate in developing facilities and services of the highest standard • Abide by CHC’s policies and ethos • Develop a greater understanding of the needs and wants of the wider community • Respect our new centre and keep the environment to a high standard We will: Provide you with a safe, respectful and confidential service on an appointment basis only • Provide you with a professionally informed service and be clear about what we can offer • Provide a designated caseworker to access and support your individual needs • Enable you to find reasonable and considered options • Work with other agencies to ensure the best possible response to your needs • Take you complaints and suggestions seriously • Represent your views and feelings, advocating on your behalf We ask you to: Work with us in an open and productive way • Attend appointments or give notice if you are unable to • Work with us to help realise your potential • Tell people about us At CHC we believe that we can design and deliver the best support services when we proactively involve our customers in the process. Listening to our Customers’ views and recommendations is vital to the process of finding the most effective ways of supporting them to meet their goals. CHC will endeavour to respond positively to all suggestions and reviews within the limits of our resources.

We currently use several methods of involving our customers: Informing We strive to ensure that customers have accurate information on our services, as well as what they can expect from CHC. We use several methods, in order to maximise accessibility. – Customer induction – Newsletters – Website – Service leaflets Consulting We actively seek the opinions of our customers about the quality of CHC services, as well as their assistance in designing new services. Customer feedback is collated, discussed at our staff meetings and the results reported to customers.