How to Improve Customer Services by Communicative Skills.docx

1、How to Improve Customer Services by Communicative SkillsHow to Improve Customer Services by Communicative SkillsIntroductionI used to work with GSN Property Services Co., Ltd., where I was hired as a customer service supervisor for two years GSN is a German-invested Property Services Co., Ltd. and h

2、as been operating successfully in China since 1996. It provides a wide range of services, including property services management, project management, equipment management, property assessment and consulting services. The company enjoys a very good reputationAt the beginning, the chairman of the esta

3、tes committee of Old Villa Compound Elite Garden asked us to temporarily take over the compound for three months as their residents were not satisfied with services provided by their former services company. In order to expand businesses in Shanghai, our company intended to take over the compound no

4、t just for 3 months, but for good. Actually several companies had made a bid for taking over the garden, so we knew we would be replaced by one of them if we failed to satisfy the needs of our customers. It became very urgent for us to solve all kinds of remaining problems to satisfy the needs of ou

5、r customers.As a customer service supervisor, I was asked to do a research project on how to satisfy our customers wants and needs. The research project matters a great deal to the company, because it is of vital importance to whether we could take over the garden for good. I spent some time investi

6、gating and collecting relevant information and materials. I focused on three aspects, namely, concept of customer service, importance of customer service and ways to improve customer service. Finally, I draw the conclusion that our staff members communicative skills, including their oral English abi

7、lity and interpersonal skills are decisive factors.The goal of my research project is to upgrade our service level by improving communicative skills of our staff members in order to make it possible for our company to establish harmonious business relations with the Old Villa and to build up closer

8、relationships with the residents in the Garden. Accordingly, it was urgent for the staff to have full understanding of our customers first and to enhance oral English skills, interpersonal skills and management skills so as to be able to deal with problems of the customers more efficiently.I did the

9、 research and carried out the project from Jan 26th, to Jan 29th 2011 , exactly four weeks. We first distributed questionnaires (See the Appendix) and made customer surveys to know the weaknesses in the customer service. From the results of the Questionnaires and surveys, I knew that our customers e

10、xpected our staff to be able to communicate with them before we could solve their problems. For that purpose, my colleagues and I had a brainstorm meeting. Then I designed a training program after I had a discussion with our professional consultants. We decided to begin with improving the oral Engli

11、sh of our staff and their everyday behaviors as we learned that staff in the former services company failed to communicate with the owners, which led to the dissatisfaction of the owners. Actually, all our staff members were able to speak a little English. The difficulty was that they were poor in s

12、ome technical terms or some specific expressions. I collected some phrases and expressions and compiled them into a handbook. I had the book recorded (of course, native voice) and asked the staff members to listen to the recording over and over again. We spent an hour each day in the third week of m

13、y project implementation, practicing oral English together. I acted as an owner and asked them various questions. In addition, we also asked our staff members to think of something else that we might be asked about, and discussed satisfactory answers together. Contrasted with the statistics of custo

14、mer satisfaction one month before, our training program proved to be a success since the degree of our customer satisfaction was raised to a great extent. We finally succeeded in taking over the garden.2. Project Rationale and Project Hypothesis2.1 Project RationaleSince what I did was aiming to imp

15、rove our customer services, I spent some time investigating and searching for relevant information and materials as theoretical bases. I focused on three aspects, namely, concept of customer service, importance of customer service and ways to improve customer service. Benson Smith and Tony Rutiglian

16、o said (2003) “to solve clients problems can win their trust”. What they have said sets a higher customer service standard and also gives us directions or advice on how to provide good customer service. To get to know customers opinions about service, Practical Business Project and Proposal Design (

17、John Hilton,2001) states many specific methods, such as group discussion, customer survey, and questionnaires for research. World Class English For Business (The open University and British Council, 2001) provides other methods, for example, face-to-face interviews, follow-up surveys, telephone inte

18、rviews, and so on. English Business Report Writing (Chang Yutian 2003) introduces many ways on how to get data and design questionnaires. Practical Project Design (Gu Yueguo, 2002) provides a series of processes from the design of a project, to presenting project report and to assessment.All these g

19、ave me enlightenment when I was doing my research project. Generally speaking, customer service is a complex system. It includes two important factors: one is the customers relationship with the staff members of the service company and the other is the companys service to customers. The two factors

20、are based on timely and efficient mutual communication and understanding. Accordingly, it requires that service workers be able to speak good English to assure timely and efficient mutual communication and understanding because we are serving international customers.2.2 Project HypothesisAs is known

21、 to all, customer service workers are on the front line since they face customers every day. Therefore, their professional knowledge, behaviors and performances represent the image of the company. It is not deniable that, in todays market-oriented economy, one of the most powerful weapons for the se

22、rvice industry to win the market is to provide excellent customer service. The customers are our most vital assets to some extent. Before we could attract more loyal customers, the Elite Garden management office should understand the fact, should face the customer service with a new attitude and pay

23、 great attention to employees communicative abilities. As I see it, training is one of the necessary and efficient methods to improve employees communicative abilities in various aspects. The first is basic training. The training project enables employees to know our services, our systems and proced

24、ures and efficient ways to communicate with the customers. The second is competitive skills training aiming to advance the staffs performance, which are called “soft skills”, including oral English abilities and interpersonal skills, our attitude toward our customers or customer awareness. Oral Engl

25、ish abilities and interpersonal skills are a key element in customer service. Customers are more demanding than ever, as they have the right to demand good services. The employees ability in directly dealing with customers is a valuable component. Thereby, it is essential to improve customer service

26、 workers knowledge and communicative skills. Only a customer service worker who is knowledgeable, efficient and friendly can win complete satisfaction from his customers who just want to get exactly what they pay for. In a word, it is hypothesized that if we should successfully train our service wor

27、kers in their professional knowledge, oral English abilities, interpersonal skills and professional ethics, my colleagues could efficiently communicate with our customers and fully satisfy our customers needs, and we would completely take over the Old Villa Compound Elite Garden and for good.3. Prob

28、lem Analysis3.1 Financial Problem AnalysisAmong all the 106 households, only 35 gave us management fees the first month we were there. We should have had an income of 99906.74 yuan that month, but actually we received only 32150.82 yuan. That is to say, what we received was only one third of what we

29、 should have got.GSN Elite Garden branch was located in the Garden, and we had to pay for the rent, which cost 1200 per month. We recruited two new staff members, which means more money should be allocated for payment. The sum of money for payment to all the fifteen staff members in the Garden amoun

30、ted to about 45000 yuan, Thirty percent of the whole income was to be submitted to the head office of the company. More things that needed money were waiting to be done. It was obvious that the income could not balance expenditure the first month we were there.3.2 Human Resources Problem AnalysisIn

31、the Elite Garden branch, we had 15 people altogether. Of the 15 of us, one was the manager, one was the customer service supervisor and assistant manager, four were customer service workers, one was the maintenance supervisor, one was the head of the guards and seven guards. We had only four of the

32、staff members, who dealt with daily customer service duties, and 2 of them were green-hand, who graduated from vocational colleges in 2009. The reason why does the company recruit young and inexperienced service workers is that we need to keep down the cost with the expansion of the business in Shan

33、ghai. As the two young men had just graduated with no experience in the customer services industry, they had many problems in communicating with the customers. Even though they had passed CET-4, they still were not able to communicate with our foreign residents very well. Besides, they did not have enough professional knowledge to deal w