Introduction to the Customer Service

Framework
Slide 1: Introduction to the Customer Service
Framework
Slide 2: Course Overview
An organization’s customer service framework is essential for providing great products and services to its customers.
As a supply chain professional, you should understand the customer service framework for your organization. It helps
you recognize the importance of customer service to your organization as well as the essential contribution you can
make when working with your customers. Every organization has a different customer service framework, and it is
important to identify the typical aspects of such a framework. This includes the elements needed to ensure that
customers’ needs and expectations are identified, met, and if possible, exceeded.

Slide 3: Course Objectives

After completing this course, you should be able to:

Identify how core, augmented, and excellent levels of service are perceived by customers.
Identify the strategic importance of excellent service in building and enhancing a company’s reputation and
brand.
Identify the main components of an effective customer service strategy as part of a company’s customer
service framework.
Recognize how relationships with customers are effectively managed through customer-focused service
providers and processes.

Slide 4: Lesson 1: Identify the Levels of Customer

Service
Slide 5: Lesson Introduction
Customers choose products from companies that provide excellent service. We all have personal experience of both
poor and excellent services, but the question is what exactly determines the level of service. To be successful, it is
important for companies to understand the different levels of service required by a business-to-business (B2B)
customer or a business-to-consumer (B2C) customer.

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

Identify the fundamental elements of customer service.

Identify the key service characteristics that an organization delivering services to its customers should be
aware of.
Identify the different levels of service that customers experience.
Identify the key components of service excellence.
Recognize the distinctive experiences that B2B customers expect from the service provider.
List the methods of measuring customer satisfaction.
Recognize gap analysis as a tool to measure customer satisfaction.

Slide 6: What Does Customer Service Comprise?

Customer service is what an organization does to meet customer expectations and ensure customer satisfaction. The
actual customer services may vary from one situation to another. The particular combination of services that is
delivered to customers depends on a number of factors:

The core product or service being delivered

The organization delivering the service
The individual delivering the service
The customer receiving the service
The specific stage of the customer relationship or point in a customer transaction
The service channel being used, such as face-to-face, web chat, or telephone

Service is provided at various stages during a customer’s relationship with an organization. In addition, service is
provided at different points during a customer transaction, such as before, during, and after a purchase. In some
cases, if a service is being provided to an internal customer, this could be before, during, or after the task. The
service might be provided by different means—by a person, such as a customer orders assistant or a logistics
operator, or by automated systems, such as websites or automated telephone response systems.

Slide 7: Service Characteristics

When a customer orders a product or a service, he or she expects to receive it with the right specifications, in the
right quality, at the right destination, and at the right time.

Service characteristics are the elements that make up the service provided to customers and can be categorized into
elements—reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness—which are well-established requirements
for an organization that delivers services to its customers.

Customer-focused organizations define their service personality by identifying the specific service characteristics they
provide. Service personality is an identifiable set of service characteristics that defines how one company’s service
provision is different from that of its competitors. Customers can then recognize the specific service personality
offered by the organization they are dealing with. A passion for customer service and going the extra mile not only
makes the experience of working with customers enjoyable but also leads to increased customer loyalty. Loyal
customers, in turn, lead to business success.

Slide 8: Levels of Service

Introduction
Customers’ expectations are rising rapidly as global competition increases. Whether they are individuals or partner
organizations, customers expect the highest levels of service.

Core Service
Core service describes the basic service characteristics that you need to provide to customers. While core service
might satisfy customers, it is unlikely to do so for long.

For example, a no-frills airline offers the lowest-priced tickets in the market. Although it provides the core service at
the lowest price—by cutting back on in-flight meals and entertainment—competition from other airlines offering the
same core service will soon encourage it to develop ways of exceeding customers’ expectations beyond its low-price
strategy.

Augmented Service
Augmented service refers to meeting and trying to exceed customers’ expectations every time a customer interaction
takes place.
For example, a car dealership renovated its showrooms and implemented a customer service training program for its
sales and administrative staff. This gave it an edge over other local dealerships, and it was able to increase its share
of the local new car market by attracting and keeping customers.

Excellent Service
Excellent service is what a customer-focused organization aims for. This means your organization is maximizing its
chances of being the market leader, constantly innovating to find new ways of exceeding customer expectations.

For example, the owner of a successful London restaurant, located in the theater district of the city, is a theater fan
himself. He adorns the inside of the restaurant with props from local theaters to give diners a unique atmosphere. In
addition, the owner runs a highly effective training and coaching system for his staff, enabling them to give customers
great service as well as great food. Customers from all over the world come back every time they visit London or go
to the theater. It has become a market leader through its innovative delivery of excellent customer service.

The Market Leader Gap

The market leader gap shows the difference in service levels between an organization that is meeting and sometimes
exceeding customers’ expectations—augmented service—and one that constantly innovates to find new ways of
delighting customers—excellent service. Filling the gap is often achieved by delivering services that competitors have
not even thought of yet.

Slide 9: Key Components of Service Excellence

Introduction
Once the customers have experienced excellent service, they will demand it in future. An organization needs to have
five critical components in place in order to provide service excellence.

Service Personality
The organization has a well-defined personality that defines the way it delivers service and interacts with its
customers.

Service Culture
There is a culture embodied in the organization’s people that focuses on providing excellent service to both internal
and external customers. Leaders and managers are committed to the service culture. They communicate the
organization’s vision, values, and continuous improvement methods to employees. Employees understand their own
role in supporting the service culture.

Committed Staff
Employees are well-motivated, have a can-do attitude, enjoy working as a team, and support their internal
customers. Professional relationships exist throughout the organization, with high levels of trust, openness, and a no-
blame culture, which encourages continuous improvement.

Customer-Focused Systems
Systems and processes are designed around customers, whether internal or external. There are six fundamental
systems: communication systems; systems for listening to customers and employees; training systems; appraisal,
reward, and recognition systems; performance measurement systems; and service recovery systems.

Easy to Do Business With

If the other components are in place, they lead to really positive results for customers—they will find the organization
easy to do business with.

Slide 10: What B2B and B2C Customers Expect

Research shows that B2B customers have high expectations of the people they deal with. The subject matter
expertise of the service provider is the topmost priority of these customers. In addition, they consider professionalism
—which includes qualities such as flexibility, integrity, reliability, responsiveness, respectfulness, and fairness—as a
critical attribute.

B2B customers tend to have different expectations from B2C customers because the nature of the relationships is
different. In B2C, although customers develop loyalty toward particular companies’ brands, it is not similar to the two-
way business relationship that exists in B2B. B2B relationships are frequently based on contracts, partnerships, or
alliances between the customer and the supplier.

B2C customers are primarily concerned about the price of the product, its reliability and quality, and the level of
service provided. Purchasing from a supplier with an attractive and identifiable brand is also desirable. In contrast,
many B2B relationships imply a wider and more complex set of customer expectations, reflecting the need of the
customer for a relationship that is reliable and profitable in the longer term.

To understand and meet B2B customers’ expectations, six key actions should be taken to improve the business
relationship and build customer loyalty:

Go the extra mile.

Increase the amount of client contact.
Build the business relationship.
Build a social relationship.
Reflect on partnerships and how they are likely to change.
Review organizational structures and key positions.

Slide 11: Measuring Customer Satisfaction

To find out whether your customers are satisfied—and to what degree—it is essential to have clear and effective
measurement methods.

Some of the methods of measuring customer satisfaction are:

Focus-group interviews.
Customer evaluation interviews by telephone.
Feedback from social media.
Informal feedback from discussions with customers.
Information from service recovery processes, such as information from complaints showing where breakdowns
occurred and what could be done to improve services.
Customer satisfaction questionnaires.

It is important to base customer satisfaction measures on the customer’s actual experiences and perceptions.
Relying solely on customers’ responses to closed questions set by the organization does not provide a sufficiently
accurate picture of the positive and negative interactions experienced by the customer. A complete picture should be
sought, using methods such as customer journey mapping, where each of the key transactions on the customer’s
journey is checked for a positive or negative experience.

Slide 12: Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Gap

Analysis Tools
Gap analysis enables organizations to measure their customer satisfaction ratings against a set of service
characteristics. Some of the measures of gap analysis are:
 Reliability—The ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.
Assurance—The competence of employees and their ability to convey knowledge and confidence.
Tangibles—The physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials.
Empathy—The care and personal attention the organization provides to its customers.
Responsiveness—The willingness to help customers and provide prompt service.

Gap analysis uses interviews or questionnaires to capture employees’ views on customer expectations. These are
compared to the views of customers on the service they actually receive. The differences or gaps identify where the
organization needs to improve. In a similar way, the expectations of managers and staff can be compared, showing
the gaps between the planned provision of customer service and the service that is actually delivered. Gaps could
lead to staff training, perhaps to resolve customer service problems more quickly, or to bring staff closer to their
customers.

The gap analysis tool uses performance scores to measure customer satisfaction, and these scores can be used to
benchmark performance.

Slide 13: Check Your Understanding

Slide 14: Lesson Summary
An effective customer service framework forms the basis of a successful organization. The key elements that
contribute to excellent customer service are reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness. Today’s
customers expect the highest levels of service, which can be categorized under core, augmented, and excellent
services. Organizations employ various tools to measure and improve the level of customer satisfaction, as they
realize that is critical to their continued success.

After completing this lesson, you should now be able to:

Identify the fundamental elements of customer service.

Identify the key service characteristics that an organization delivering services to its customers should be
aware of.
Identify the different levels of service that customers experience.
Identify the key components of service excellence.
Recognize the distinctive experiences that B2B customers expect from the service provider.
List the methods of measuring customer satisfaction.
Recognize gap analysis as a tool to measure customer satisfaction.

Slide 15: Lesson 2: Identify the Effect of Customer

Service on a Company’s Brand
Slide 16: Lesson Introduction
Successful businesses recognize the enormous impact that customer service quality has on their bottom line. By
understanding the links between employees, service, customer value, and profitability, you will be able to plan where
you and your team can contribute to service excellence and, ultimately, the success of your organization.

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

Define the service profit chain and its relevance to business success.
Identify how companies are considering service excellence as a high priority.
Recognize how service excellence integrates with companies’ other strategic objectives.
Recognize the risks of failing to focus on customer service.
Identify the different ways in which you can maintain your organization’s focus on customers.

Slide 17: The Service Profit Chain

The service profit chain links employee capability and productivity to customer satisfaction and loyalty, and thereby to
the profit and growth of a business. This means an organization can achieve financial success by focusing on its
internal customer service and internal processes as a way to satisfy customers. If an organization gets it right for its
internal customers, they will deliver great service to their external customers.

The service profit chain allows managers and employees to focus on internal results so they can meet and exceed
external customers’ expectations. This establishes a great reputation for the organization in the eyes of its
customers, which in turn leads to business success. The organization’s customer service strategy ensures that
employees are valued by managers and colleagues. They are given the support and opportunity to develop the skills
they need to deliver excellent service to customers.

Slide 18: Service Excellence as a Strategic Priority

Research shows that 78% of consumers believe it is very important to look up information about the reputation of a
business for its service standards before deciding to interact or do business with them. When purchasing online, up
to 90% of those decisions are informed by reading online reviews. Customers increasingly expect higher levels of
service, and large organizations recognize that it is as essential to deliver excellent customer service as it is to pay
good dividends to shareholders and to capture market share in a competitive market. Customer service has matured
to the point where it represents one of the very highest priorities in the boardroom.

However, precisely because customers want to receive service as good as the very best they have already
experienced, there tends to be a gap between the service that customers expect and what they actually experience.
Consequently, delivering the highest standard of service is not always simple and straightforward. The constantly
rising expectations of customers combined with the difficulty many companies experience in successfully
implementing their service improvement plans means that service excellence stays constantly at or near the top of
the agenda when identifying corporate objectives.

Slide 19: Service Excellence and Other Objectives

It is essential for companies to raise their service to a level of excellence and integrate customer service objectives
with the companies’ other strategic objectives, such as profit, market share, and growth.

Companies could justifiably ask, “Do we need a separate strategy for customer service, or can the achievement of
service-related objectives be included in overall strategic planning?” The answer is that a customer service strategy
should not be entirely separate from companies’ other strategies. Rather, it should integrate with all the businesses’
top-level plans.

However, it can be useful for a company to consider, discuss, and then publish its plan for customer service as a
distinct exercise; communicate to managers, employees, and other stakeholders the need to pay particular attention
to service standards; and focus more on the customer experience than in the past. Whether separate or integrated,
the customer service strategy describes what the business will do in order to meet its objectives and become
excellent at customer service.

Slide 20: Failing to Concentrate on Customer Service

An organization cannot afford to lose its customers. It is expensive and time-consuming to find new customers. It can
cost five times as much to get a new customer as compared to the ongoing cost of keeping an existing customer.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few ways to lose customers:

Overcomplicating processes for customers

Service not meeting a customer’s expectations
Showing a lack of interest in customers
Lacking a service personality and a passion for customer service
Failing to listen to customers
Resolving a customer’s problem poorly or slowly
Competitors’ having better services, products, or prices
 Not making customers feel special or valued

It is important to remember that the same principles apply to internal customers. If you lose the trust or confidence of
your colleagues—your internal customers—then you are damaging that strong linkage between excellent internal
service and excellent external customer service.

Slide 21: Maintaining a Customer Focus

Introduction
When you operate your processes, ensure that you focus on the customer. Processes support your provision of great
services and products to the customer.

The Service Experience

The service experience is the customer’s own, direct experience of the service processes that an organization
operates. It helps to look at things from the customer’s point of view.

Keeping Up Customer Focus

Maintaining your customer focus is not always easy. However, it is still important, because it is easy to lose credibility
in the eyes of the customer. You could end up damaging your reputation and losing a loyal customer.

Maintain Customer Focus in All Communication Channels

Maintain your organization’s customer focus through all the communication channels you use to interact with your
customers:

Face-to-face
By telephone
Through your website
By e-mail

Be Aware of the Customer Mindset

When you interact with your customers, be aware of their possible mindsets. A customer who is in the middle of a
service recovery process, for instance, may be aggressive, frustrated, or resistant to your suggestions. A customer
who is calling to order a new item may be excited or eager to chat.

Avoid Personality Clashes

Some people simply do not get on with one another. They can take an instant dislike to each other, or the other
person might be a reminder of a disliked character from the past. Psychologists call this transference, a situation
where the attributes of a previous relationship are transferred to a current relationship. A common example relates to
authority figures. In the case of a personality clash, the key is to stay calm and not allow yourself to be baited or
drawn into the conflict. Remember, your reputation and your company’s are at stake.

Slide 22: Check Your Understanding

Slide 23: Lesson Summary
The service profit chain plays a key role in business success by establishing relationships between employee
capability, employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability. Giving high priority to service excellence and
integrating it with the organization’s strategic objectives can go a long way in bringing success to your organization.
At the same time, it is important to understand and mitigate the risks related to failing to focus on your customers.
After completing this lesson, you should now be able to:

Define the service profit chain and its relevance to business success.
Identify how companies are considering service excellence as a high priority.
Recognize how service excellence integrates with companies’ other strategic objectives.
Recognize the risks of failing to focus on customer service.
Identify the different ways in which you can maintain your organization’s focus on customers.

Slide 24: Lesson 3: Identify the Effective Customer

Service Strategy Components
Slide 25: Lesson Introduction
The only guaranteed method for a business to build a loyal base of customers is to deliver consistently excellent
service to customers. However, without a clear and effective strategy, that will not happen.

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

Recognize the importance of a customer service strategy.

Determine the key components of a customer service strategy.
Describe how to put the strategy components into place.

Slide 26: Purpose of a Customer Service Strategy

Some of your customers may be key, high-value partners with whom your organization has held successful, long-
standing relationships. There is no room for complacency regarding these long-standing partners. Even what appear
to be the strongest relationships are not safe from competitors. Your organization undoubtedly faces stiff competition
from others who are constantly looking to find new ways to exceed customers’ expectations. Without an effective
customer service strategy, your key partners could be tempted away by competitors’ offers of better and more
innovative customer service. The customer service strategy is not simply an internal plan that is cascaded through a
business. It is also your organization’s plan for gaining a winning advantage over its competitors.

Slide 27: Components of a Customer Service Strategy

Introduction
Customer service strategy generally comprises five components: corporate objectives, environment, service concept,
performance objectives, and operation.

Corporate Objectives
Since the customer service strategy is the statement of what will be done to meet corporate objectives, those
objectives should be clearly stated. The objectives themselves not only provide the starting point for the strategy but
also act to motivate the organization’s people around a common sense of purpose. It is clearly very important that the
corporate objectives are made real for all employees, and through discussion, work allocation, and target setting,
everyone can recognize their own contribution toward achieving the objectives.

Environment
Because businesses have to compete or meet regulatory objectives, the external environment in which they operate
needs to be understood. Changing external factors, such as the economy, the competitive landscape, legislation, and
consumer needs, all need to be assessed when developing a strategy. For customer service, in particular, the
changing wants, needs, and expectations of customers represent an important part of the environment.
Service Concept
The service concept, which everyone in the business needs to be committed to, and which customers also need to
recognize and find attractive, helps the organization to focus on the value it provides to customers. A service concept
that is distinctive from competitors can provide that value, but it must be achievable and capable of being delivered
day-to-day.

Performance Objectives
Well-thought-out performance objectives are vital. They translate the strategy into activities on the ground, enabling
teams and individuals to focus on the services they provide day to day, confident that, if they achieve these
objectives, it will help the business to be successful.

Operation
At the customer interface, it is people, processes, and technology that are used to deliver excellent service to
customers, so these resources must be consistently deployed in the right combination and at the right times to
achieve the strategy’s aims. Businesses that spend time and effort refining their processes and ensuring that
employees can apply them successfully have a great chance of making the strategy a reality.

Slide 28: Communicating the Customer Service

Strategy
Customer-focused organizations use a range of different tools to put their customer service strategy into place. One
way to implement and communicate the service concept is to use a credo. A credo is a great way of letting
employees know about customer service and of guiding professionals in their work with customers.

For example, great service happens when:

I own customer service.

I serve my internal colleagues better.
I deeply understand my customers’ needs.
I proactively provide solutions that add mutual value.
I am happy and able.
I make it happen.

Slide 29: Check Your Understanding

Slide 30: Lesson Summary
An organization’s customer service strategy plays a dominant role in gaining a winning advantage over its
competitors. The key components of a customer service strategy are corporate objectives, corporate values,
environment, service concept, performance objectives, and operation.

After completing this lesson, you should now be able to:

Recognize the importance of a customer service strategy.

Determine the key components of a customer service strategy.
Describe how to put the strategy components into place.

Slide 31: Lesson 4: Recognize the Role of Customer

Focus
Slide 32: Lesson Introduction
A customer-focused team places customers at the heart of its day-to-day activities. By adopting the right processes
and having an understanding of customers’ expectations, it is possible to deliver excellent service to customers every
time.

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

Identify the need for skilled and motivated staff when delivering excellent external and internal customer
service.
Identify the different pressures that many professionals face when acting as service providers.
Identify the multiple roles a supply chain professional plays while interacting with a customer.
Recognize the importance of having effective processes in place.
List the benefits and guidelines for working in teams to simplify service for customers.
Recognize the importance of having a committed team.

Slide 33: Customer-Focused Service Providers

To deliver excellent service to external customers, including B2B customers, it is important that the organization’s
employees be focused on their customers. With customer focus, all the team’s activities are designed around
providing the best possible service to customers. Without this explicit customer focus, it is too easy for customer
service to be relegated to secondary importance and be overridden by other internal, organization-based priorities.

Customer-focused service providers require well-thought-out systems and processes that have been designed to
make it as simple and straightforward as possible for the customer to complete their business. In addition, employees
must be sufficiently skilled and knowledgeable to perform the processes effectively while being aware of the need to
listen and become close to their customers.

Slide 34: Pressure on Service Providers

Service providers are individuals who deal directly with customers face-to-face, on the telephone, or through the
Internet. Delivering 24/7 high-level service is challenging. For many service providers, this may be a rewarding,
fulfilling, and enjoyable task. For others, maintaining that intense relationship with customers can be tough.

Many service providers face dual pressures: pressure to perform and meet targets within the organization
(organizational pressures) and pressure from their customers (customer pressures).

Organizational pressures may result from trying to:

Complete a task.
Comply with processes.
Manage within existing resources.
Meet targets.
Achieve high performance (as measured by reward and appraisal systems).

Customer pressures may result from trying to:

Meet and exceed customer expectations.

Manage busy and intense customer contact.
Deal with customers who do not know all the processes.
Deal with customers’ problems and difficult situations.

Given the dual pressures, service providers need to cope with issues, such as:

Staying motivated.
Being clear on their roles and responsibilities.
Maintaining good relationships with both internal and external customers.
Managing stress.

Slide 35: Multiple Customer-Facing Roles

A supply chain professional plays multiple roles while interacting with a customer. Some roles may be captured in his
or her job description, whereas others are part of the unpredictable mix of service characteristics that customers
expect from time to time.

These roles can include:

Order taker—The frontline staff that forms the interface between the external customer and the organization.
Advice giver—The customer often looks for his or her valuable knowledge and advice as to what is particularly
good or what is not worth purchasing.
Image maker—As a service provider, he or she delivers the brand, especially in a B2B organization.
Service deliverer—The customer-facing staff that may be the first and final point of contact for customers.
Problem solver—Most often, the most effective point of service recovery is at the point of delivery. Many
informal problems and complaints are dealt with here.
Trainer and coach—Customer-facing employees must be able to deal with both competent and less competent
customers, and sometimes inexperienced customers. Many customers need confidence building and coaching
to ensure a good service experience.

Slide 36: Customer-Focused Processes

For an organization that provides excellent service to its customers, processes are critical. An effective process—
designed and delivered in the right way—helps ensure that effective services are delivered consistently to customers.
An organization needs effective processes in order to handle customer transactions. This includes dealing with both
internal and external customers. Processes are also important to guide employees when they use or interact with
resources, such as technology, materials, and other equipment.

For example, a sales representative in a B2B organization who is taking orders from customers might perform a
number of processes in a range of situations. These might include:

What specific questions to ask when seeking information from customers.

How to deal with uncertainties or unpredictable queries from customers.
How to check product availability.
What to do if a product is not available.
How to place and record orders.
What the product lead times are.
How to find out about new or unavailable items for which customers are requesting information.

Slide 37: Delivering Seamless Service

Introduction
The supply chain process spans most of the business functions, for example, sales, marketing, and finance. Those
involved in the supply chain not only work in teams in their own area of expertise but also work in teams with people
from other business disciplines. Buyers, for example, working in the sourcing function of your supply chain might
need to work not only with the marketing team and a retail customer to introduce a new product but also with the
finance and human resources teams.

Benefits of Working as a Team to Simplify Service for Customers

In order to work effectively as a team, that is, operating in an integrated way, you must recognize the benefits of
working as a team.

Team synergy—The skills and experience of the team working in unison are greater than the sum of its parts.
This can produce a more effective response to demands for innovation and customer service.
Team communication—As teams work together to develop clear goals and to improve the processes that they
use, they also tend to develop better communication, which allows them to respond more effectively to
customer needs.
 Building trust in the team—As team members work together—overcoming challenges, finding new ways to do
things, and solving problems—people tend to build trust in one another, and in others’ skills and knowledge.
Motivated teams—The team working closely together leads not only to high performance delivering excellent
service but also to teams in which individuals enjoy their work and become highly motivated. This is a route to
a great service personality and to going the extra mile for customers.

Guidelines for Working in Teams to Simplify Customer Service

It is essential to provide a seamless service not only to your external customers but also to your internal customers.

There are a few guidelines to keep in mind to deliver a seamless service:

Keep your processes flexible.

Review the processes in your team and improve them if you can.
Use technology and a customer relation management (CRM) system to make customer data centrally
recorded and therefore accessible by everyone.
Don’t pass customers to others if you can deal with their requests yourself.
Make your website functions as seamless as possible for customers.

Slide 38: Finely Tuned Teams

Customer focus demands committed teams that place customer service at the heart of their work. Ensuring that the
team is working effectively, with everyone understanding their individual role and contribution to the team’s overall
objectives, is the best guarantee of a committed team. Professionals need to be fully involved in the team. A sense of
involvement, shared objectives, and mutual support will keep them highly motivated.

A committed team has real benefits for an organization, its employees, and its customers. It:

Allows everyone to pull together, both for the organization and for the customer.
Ensures better knowledge of others’ job roles.
Promotes enjoyment of working with and supporting others.
Encourages increased involvement, job satisfaction, and motivation.
Supports excellent service for internal customers.
Promotes collaboration to meet deadlines or to solve problems.
Ensures better communication between people, functions, and departments.

Slide 39: Check Your Understanding

Slide 40: Lesson Summary
To deliver excellent service to customers, service providers should focus on their customers. This requires the
employees to be sufficiently skilled and knowledgeable to effectively solve the problems of their customers. To keep
the employee motivated and work effectively, it is important that everyone work as a team and understand the
benefits of working as a team.

After completing this lesson, you should now be able to:

Identify the need for skilled and motivated staff when delivering excellent external and internal customer
service.
Identify the different pressures that many professionals face when acting as service providers.
Identify the multiple roles a supply chain professional plays while interacting with a customer.
Recognize the importance of having effective processes in place.
List the benefits and guidelines for working in teams to simplify service for customers.
Recognize the importance of having a committed team.

Slide 41: Course Summary

The customer service framework plays a vital role in the success of a company. It helps you identify the importance
of customer service and how you can help the organization by serving its customers in the best possible way. As a
supply chain professional, you should always keep customers as the first priority and use your skills to provide them
excellent service. A happy and satisfied customer is a sure sign of success for all businesses. To be successful, you
should understand the customer service framework, which includes the elements needed to ensure that customers’
needs and expectations are identified, met, and if possible, exceeded.

After completing this course, you should now be able to:

Identify how core, augmented, and excellent levels of service are perceived by customers.
Recognize the strategic importance of excellent service in building and enhancing a company’s reputation and
brand.
Identify the main components of an effective customer service strategy as part of a company’s customer
service framework.
Recognize how relationships with customers are effectively managed through customer-focused service
providers and processes.