Customer Service Program Summary PDF

Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program - Summary 1. Explain the importance of creating a formal customer service plan. A formal customer service plan is essential if managers are to achieve the service goals that they set for their operations. Man...

Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program - Summary 1. Explain the importance of creating a formal customer service plan. A formal customer service plan is essential if managers are to achieve the service goals that they set for their operations. Managers develop effective customer service plans when they identify the standards they wish to achieve in the key areas of products, employees, facilities, and safety and security. After standards have been identified, managers’ customer service plans address how proper staffing will impact their operations’ ability to achieve the standards. Finally, an effective customer service plan addresses the important issue of how managers can monitor their success in achieving the service standards they have established, and the steps they will take if the operation falls short of meeting its service standards goals. Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program - Summary 2. Describe the four main areas for which service standards must be established. Managers establishing service standards do so in four key areas: products, employees, facilities, and safety and security. Product-related standards address the use of standardized recipes as well as tasks and accompaniments such as condiments and utensils related to serving menu items. Employee-related standards address how employees will treat guests from their pre-arrival through departure. Facility-related standards focus primarily on those areas managers can control, including lighting and sound levels and room temperatures. Safety- and security-related standards concentrate on guests’ and employees’ personal safety and property security, and are first addressed by the use of safety audits that identify threats to safety. Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program - Summary 2. Describe the four main areas for which service standards must be established continued… Managers also establish standards related to public health concerns and facility safety using emergency planning. Finally, managers establish security standards to safeguard the property of guests, employees, and the business against theft. Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program - Summary 3. Summarize the steps managers take when implementing customer service standards. Managers who have completed customer service plans that establish their service-related standards will have addressed the key areas of product, employee, facility, and safety- and security- related standards. The effective implementation of these standards is a multistep process that begins with committing the standards to writing. Next, the standards must be communicated to all affected employees. Finally, managers must take great care to staff their operations in a way that permits employees the time needed to achieve the identified standards. Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program - Summary 4. Identify the staffing-related procedures managers use to achieve their service standards. Staffing is the management task that addresses recruiting and selecting employees, training and coaching them to know and maintain the operation’s standards, and then scheduling the correct number of employees needed to ensure service standards are met. Employee selection begins with the effective recruiting of job candidates. After they are hired, employees must be trained in all of the service standards applicable to their jobs. Managers ensure service standards are consistently met by continually coaching employees in the ways their jobs are to be done. Finally, managers must schedule the number of employees needed to stay within their budgets while still achieving all the service- related standards needed to ensure high-quality customer service. Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program - Summary 5. Explain the process managers use to monitor service standards. When monitoring product-related service standards, managers perform a number of important tasks. To meet product-related standards, managers ensure that standardized recipes are in use, hold regularly scheduled tasting sessions, and inspect menu items as they are plated and delivered to guests. They also circulate in the dining room during meal periods to ask guests about the quality of their menu selections and respond to feedback as it is received. Managers monitor employee-related standards by observing staff performance, identifying any staff deficiencies, and making corrections as needed. When monitoring facility-related service standards, managers observe ambience including lighting, sound, and temperature. Then they identify if standards are met, and implement solutions when they are not. Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program - Summary 5. Explain the process managers use to monitor service standards continued… When monitoring safety- and security-related service standards, managers continually inspect their operations, authorize needed facility repairs, and ensure all employees follow the rules and procedures related to the safe operation of their businesses. Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program Key Terms: Coaching Praise and encouragement offered by managers to those employees who are achieving the operation’s service standards. Condiment An edible item that enhances the flavor of food, such as ketchup. Customer service plan The well-thought-out and systematic identification and recording of exactly what must be done to provide high-quality customer service. Decibel A measurement of sound. Emergency plan A plan that identifies a threat to the safety or security of a property, as well as the property’s planned response to it. Facilities The grounds, building, equipment, and furnishings that combine to make up an operation’s physical environment. Foot-candle A measurement of light. HVAC An industry term for an operation’s heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system. Chapter 3 Designing and Implementing an Effective Customer Service Program Key Terms continued: Mission statement A written reminder to employees about the purpose and goals of a company, to develop their service standard expectations. Reasonable care A legal concept that identifies the amount of care a reasonably prudent person would exercise in a specific situation. Recruiting The search for persons who are potentially interested in an operation’s vacant positions. Safety audit A formal and detailed examination of an operation’s areas of potential threats to guest safety. Screening The process of reviewing the skills, experience, attitudes, and backgrounds of applicants to make a selection decision. Standardized recipe A set of instructions to produce and serve a food or beverage item that will help ensure that quality and quantity standards will be consistently met.