Student

Book
BUSINESS
COLLEGE

Certificate II

Customer engagement

Prepare for work in a

customer engagement
environment

BSBCUE205
COURSE CODE

BSBCUE205
Prepare for work in a customer engagement environment

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents ...............................................................................................................................2
Unit of Competency .............................................................................................................................. 5
Performance Criteria............................................................................................................................. 6
Foundation Skills ................................................................................................................................... 7
Assessment Requirements .................................................................................................................... 8
Housekeeping Items ................................................................................................................................. 9
Objectives ................................................................................................................................................. 9
1. Relate own role to customer engagement operations ................................................................... 10
1.1 Identify specific customer engagement operations and relate these to the industry-wide context
................................................................................................................................................................ 11
Customer engagement operations ..................................................................................................... 11
Activity 1A ........................................................................................................................................... 12
1.2 Identify how customer contact activity contributes to the organisations goals .......................... 13
Understanding organisational goals ................................................................................................... 13
Customer orientated goals ................................................................................................................. 14
Marketing ............................................................................................................................................ 16
Activity 1B ........................................................................................................................................... 17
................................................................................................................................................................ 17
1.3 Identify personal customer engagement role and operations ...................................................... 18
Engagement roles ............................................................................................................................... 18
Personal engagement role .................................................................................................................. 19
1.4 Identify personal performance requirements and expectations in relation to organisations
customer contact objectives ................................................................................................................... 20
Personal requirements........................................................................................................................ 20
Activity 1C ........................................................................................................................................... 20
1.5 Identify the major components of the customer contact infrastructure ...................................... 21
Customer engagement infrastructure ................................................................................................ 21
Hardware ............................................................................................................................................ 21
Software .............................................................................................................................................. 22
1.6 Relate personal operations to customer engagement infrastructure ........................................... 23

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Personal operational skills .................................................................................................................. 23
Activity 1D ........................................................................................................................................... 23
2. Reflect on personal performance .................................................................................................. 24
2.1 Recognise and use available resources and support effectively ................................................... 25
Support structures .............................................................................................................................. 25
Work goals and personal goals ........................................................................................................... 25
Resources ............................................................................................................................................ 26
Activity 2A ........................................................................................................................................... 27
2.2 Operate within reporting protocols, policies and procedures of customer contact organisational
structure.................................................................................................................................................. 28
Reporting protocols ............................................................................................................................ 28
Organisation policies and procedures ................................................................................................ 28
Activity 2B ........................................................................................................................................... 29
2.3 Comply with regulatory and legislative requirements ................................................................... 30
Regulations and legislation ................................................................................................................. 30
Do Not Call Register Act ...................................................................................................................... 30
Australian Privacy Act ......................................................................................................................... 31
The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 .......................................................................................... 31
Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) ............................................................................................... 31
Activity 2C ........................................................................................................................................... 32
2.4 Identify personal performance requirements and expectations ................................................... 33
Reflective practice............................................................................................................................... 33
Identify patterns ................................................................................................................................. 34
Make changes ..................................................................................................................................... 34
Break large tasks into smaller pieces .................................................................................................. 34
Evaluating a timeline........................................................................................................................... 35
Update checklist.................................................................................................................................. 35
Activity 2D ........................................................................................................................................... 36
3. Maintain a professional approach to employment ........................................................................ 37
3.1 Display a positive and ethical approach to employment and role ................................................ 38
Have a positive outlook....................................................................................................................... 38
Ethical systems .................................................................................................................................... 38

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Unprofessional conduct ...................................................................................................................... 39
Activity 3A ........................................................................................................................................... 40
3.2 Identify realistic short and long-term career objective ................................................................. 41
Objectives............................................................................................................................................ 41
Short term targets............................................................................................................................... 41
Long term objectives........................................................................................................................... 42
3.3 Relate personal capabilities to current role and career objectives ............................................... 44
Personal capabilities ........................................................................................................................... 44
Individual and team performance ...................................................................................................... 44
Shared values ...................................................................................................................................... 45
Activity 3B ........................................................................................................................................... 45
3.4 Identify strategies for projecting a professional image in current role ......................................... 46
Professional image .............................................................................................................................. 46
Image strategies .................................................................................................................................. 46
Activity 3C ........................................................................................................................................... 47
3.5 Contribute to the promotion of the centre, organisation and its staff to customers ................... 48
Marketing policy ................................................................................................................................. 48
Promotions.......................................................................................................................................... 48
Activity 3D ........................................................................................................................................... 50
4. Participate in a workplace team.................................................................................................... 51
4.1 Identify team member roles and team structure .......................................................................... 52
Teamwork ........................................................................................................................................... 52
Addressing issues within a team ......................................................................................................... 52
4.2 Interact cooperatively with team members .................................................................................. 54
Interact cooperatively with team members ....................................................................................... 54
W.I.S.H team review ........................................................................................................................... 54
Interpersonal skills .............................................................................................................................. 55
Activity 4A ........................................................................................................................................... 55
Skills and Knowledge Activity .............................................................................................................. 56
Major Activity An opportunity to revise the unit ................................................................................. 56
References .............................................................................................................................................. 58

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Unit of Competency
Application
This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to participate in customer engagement operations,
including defining the requirements and expectations of the organisation.
It applies to individuals who perform a range of mainly routine tasks, using limited practical skills and
fundamental operational knowledge, working under direct supervision.
No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.

Unit Sector
Stakeholder Relations Customer Engagement

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Performance Criteria
Element
Elements describe the
essential outcomes.

Performance Criteria
Performance criteria describe the performance needed to
demonstrate achievement of the element.

1. Relate own role to

1.1 Identify specific customer engagement operations and relate
customer engagement
these to the industry-wide context
operations
1.2 Identify how customer contact activity contributes to the
organisations goals
1.3 Identify personal customer engagement role and operations
1.4 Identify personal performance requirements and
expectations in relation to organisations customer contact
objectives
1.5 Identify the major components of the customer engagement
infrastructure
1.6 Relate personal operations to customer engagement
infrastructure
2. Reflect on personal
performance

2.1 Recognise and use available resources and support

effectively
2.2 Operate within reporting protocols, policies and procedures
of customer contact organisational structure
2.3 Comply with regulatory and legislative requirements
2.4 Identify personal performance requirements and
expectations

3. Maintain a
professional approach
to employment

3.1 Display a positive and ethical approach to employment and

role
3.2 Identify realistic short- and long-term career objectives
3.3 Relate personal capabilities to current role and career
objectives
3.4 Identify strategies for projecting a professional image in
current role
3.5 Contribute to the promotion of the centre, organisation and
its staff to customers

4. Participate in a
workplace team

4.1 Identify team member roles and team structure

4.2 Interact cooperatively with team members

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Foundation Skills
This section describes language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills incorporated in the
performance criteria that are required for competent performance.

Skill

Performance
Criteria

Description

Reading

1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 4.1

Identifies relevant information sources to determine key

and relevant workplace information

Oral
Communication

4.1, 4.2

Articulates clearly using specific and relevant language

suitable to audience to convey requirements, and listening
and questioning techniques to confirm understanding

Navigate the
world of work

1.1-1.6, 2.1-2.4, 3.13.3, 4.1

Takes steps to develop skills and personal efficacy in work

role, with organisational support
Identifies skills used in current role and how they may
assist achievement of longer term goals
Understands nature and purpose of own role and
associated responsibilities, where it fits into the
organisational structure and how it contributes to
organisational goals and outcomes
Recognises organisational expectations and follows explicit
protocols and procedures, and legal and regulatory
requirements

Interact with
others

2.1, 4.2

Establishes connections with team members, using some

accepted practices for building rapport
Seeks to cooperate with others to achieve results in
immediate context

Get the work

done

1.1, 1.5, 3.4, 3.5

4.1

Completes routine tasks with familiar goals and outcomes

Analyses attitudes and presentation associated with
professional performance in a team

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Assessment Requirements
Performance Evidence
Evidence of the ability to:
Establish key requirements of customer engagement roles and undertake preparation for a
specific role
Perform a customer engagement role to organisational standards and expectations in
cooperation with team members

Knowledge Evidence
To complete the unit requirements safely and effectively, the individual must:

Identify customer base, company products and services

Explain standards of conduct required in a customer engagement environment
Outline industry-specific regulatory and legislative requirements
Outline operational systems used within scope of role
Identify organisational mission, business goals and standards
Explain scope of customer engagement operations
Explain own specific work role and key relationships

Assessment Conditions
Assessment must be conducted in a safe environment where evidence gathered demonstrates
consistent performance of typical activities experienced in the stakeholder relations customer
engagement field of work and include access to:
Relevant information, such as organisational policies, standard operating procedures,
performance management guidelines, role position descriptions, organisational charts
Peer and line manager feedback within an engagement centre environment.
Assessors must satisfy NVR/AQTF assessor requirements.
Links
Companion volumes available from the IBSA website: http://www.ibsa.org.au/companion_volumes http://www.ibsa.org.au/companion_volumes

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Housekeeping Items
Your trainer will inform you of the following:
Toilets and the fire exits locations
Emergency procedures
Breakout and refreshment areas
Rules - for example asking that all mobile phones are set to silent and of any security
issues
Break times and the smoking policy
Participation this is an interactive course and you should ask questions
To learn, we must all work together, listen to each other, explore new ideas, and make
mistakes
Rules for Participation:
o

Smile

Support and encourage other students

When someone is contributing, everyone else is quiet

Be patient with others who do not understand

Be on time

Only talk about the topics in class

Speak to the trainer if you have any concerns

Objectives
Discover how to relate your role to customer engagement operations
Understand how to reflect on personal performance
Learn how to maintain a professional approach to employment
Discover how to participate in a workplace team
Gain skills and knowledge required for this unit

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1. Relate own role to customer engagement operations

1.1

Identify specific customer engagement operations and relate these to the industry-wide context

1.2

Identify how customer contact activity contributes to the organisations goals

1.3

Identify personal customer engagement role and operations

1.4

Identify personal performance requirements and expectations in relation to organisations

customer contact objectives

1.5

Identify the major components of the customer engagement infrastructure

1.6

Relate personal operations to customer engagement infrastructure

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1.1 Identify specific customer engagement operations and relate these to the
industry-wide context
Customer engagement operations
Specific customer engagement operations may include:
Customer support
Collecting data
Information services
Marketing
Sales
Providing services
A combination of the above.
A contact centre will usually include one or more online call centres.
Besides the call centre, there can be other services on offer, including:
E-mail newsletters
Postal mailing of catalogues
Chat rooms
An over-the-counter customer service desk
Facebook contact
Online purchasing / sales
Website
Short Message Service (SMS).
A contact centre typically operates with the support of skilled people and appropriate technical systems,
software and telephones.
A contact centre could be in a marketing department or it could be an individual division. It will be in an
organisation which considers customer service an important part of the marketing strategy.

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Activity 1A

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1.2 Identify how customer contact activity contributes to the organisations

goals
Understanding organisational goals
An organisations goals may change over time, but their goals will always try to make a profit, or to stay
in budget. This may mean focusing on a specific area of policy, or it could mean introducing an overall
strategy that covers everything.
An organisations goals may include:
Company objectives
What directs every employees work
Mission statements
Changes and continuing improvements.
Organisational goals and objectives may have an
impact on such areas as:
Budget targets
Production targets
Reporting deadlines
Sales targets
Team and individual learning goals
Team participation.
It is very important to understand the organisations goals and how the organisations customer contact
activities helps reach those goals.
There are many benefits to having specific goals, including:
They are guidelines for what to do
They tell employees the standards of performance and evaluation
They can assist in directing employee efforts
They provide motivation for employees
They can outline or set strict parameters for planning, depending on the organisation
They can identify opportunities

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Goals show that the organisation will focus in a direction, so will not have the
resources (including time) to focus on other areas
Goals are one way to show stakeholders and government bodies that the actions of the
organisation are legitimate and can be measured.
Goal setting for new organisations is necessary for a business plan.
However, it is important to remember that having too many goals may mean that it takes attention
away from an area of policy that requires attention. It is always best to have goals which are realistic
and can be done.

Customer orientated goals

Customer support is the communication link to provide fast and consistent help to customers when they
need something. A team which is motivated and has a lot of knowledge provides this help to customers.
Customer support is when the organisation provides help to customers before, during and after a
purchase or sale.
Data collection is used for supporting a Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) system, which allows the
organisation to measure and control contacts with
customers.
Data collection often includes:
Contacting a customer by phone
Store exit surveys
Customer suggestion box a box for
customers to put some ideas they have to
improve service.
Fax, mail and email
Using an external customer information provider.

Ask yourself two questions:

o

When was the last time I received fantastic customer service and told somebody
else about it?

When was the last time I received terrible customer service and told somebody
about it?

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We often tell somebody else when we have received poor customer service. If you look in a newspaper
or online, you are more likely to read a negative news story about an organisations customer service
than a positive one. People tell bad news more than good news.
Sometimes the customer service was not too bad. When you are upset you might forget facts or even
add extra details when you tell somebody else. This may make the service we received seem much
worse than it was.
Poor customer service can have negative impacts such as:
Presents a poor corporate image
Negative stories in newspapers or on TV
People boycotting the organisation Boycotting means they tell people to stop using
that organisation.
Complaints to consumer rights bodies, which are other organisations which check to
make sure a company is doing the right thing.
Negative reviews
Being seen as unprofessional
The customer could simply walk away and take their business elsewhere.
Example:
Company A is a large supermarket chain in Australia. Company A focussed
on trying to open stores overseas. This takes a lot of time and money.
Because of this, other supermarket companies in Australia are selling their
products much cheaper. They can sell their products cheaper because they
have fewer costs. They have fewer costs because they do not need as many
staff. Now, Company A is losing a lot of business.
Company A gives customers a survey and introduces feedback boxes into
stores. From these two basic policies, they find that customers three major
concerns are:
Waiting times at checkouts
Impatient and uncooperative staff
Rising prices.

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Two of the above are customer service issues. Company A decides its goal is to reduce the waiting
times at checkouts and so Company A introduces a six step plan:
1. Train all staff members to operate the checkouts.
2. A queue cutter announcement to staff that requires all staff to go on a checkout
when there are more than three customers waiting to be served.
3. Each checkout operator will smile and make eye contact.
4. Each checkout operator will apologise to the customer for the wait.
5. The checkout operator will ask if the customer requires any help with their packing.
6. The checkout operator will ask if the customer has a store card.
We will return to this topic later to see how effective Company As strategy was.

Marketing
In the past, a customer contact centre was used to answer specific customer product questions.
Customer contact centres are now developing into marketing departments to identify cross-selling and
up-selling opportunities. Cross selling is when the employee suggests other or additional products to
the customer to buy, in addition to the product they are discussing. Upselling is when the employee
suggests more valuable versions of the product they are discussing, such as one with optional extras.
There are both advantages and disadvantages to this, such as:
Customer contact centres can create extra sales opportunities from customer calls
Marketing can encourage customers to be involved in solving their own customer
service issues
Customer service is seen as a promotional tool, making customer experiences more
about opportunities than fixing problems
The Marketing department can see customer service as a reward for the customer, not
their right
Let us go back to Company As strategy.
Company A gave more store exit surveys and found that the customers three major concerns were
now:
The hard sell of the store card at checkouts. The staff sales style was too aggressive
Checkout operators sounded like they were reading from a list
Rising prices.

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As you can see, customers were not happy with Company As effort to make a marketing opportunity
when they visited the supermarket. Company A wanted to improve customer care but the strategy
created a confusing message. It is important to have a clearly defined goal.

Activity 1B

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1.3 Identify personal customer engagement role and operations

Engagement roles
It is your duty to understand what you need to do in relation to customer operations.
Roles within an organisation can loosely be described as the following:
Backstage
Front end.
Backstage means the jobs in an organisation that do not usually contact customers, but support the
people in Front End, which are the jobs that contact customers.

Example: Consider Company A, the supermarket chain mentioned in the previous section.
Such an organisations backstage roles may consist of:
Warehouse staff
Goods receiving
Administration roles
Logistics
Cash office
Maintenance personnel
Production departments
Human resources
Managing directors
Shareholders.
Company As front end roles may consist of:
Customer services desk
General assistants
Shop floor staff:
o

Checkout operators

Customer restaurant staff

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o

Electrical help desk

Home delivery drivers

Telemarketing

Website moderators and administrators

Butchers and bakers, etc.

In an organisation like this, usually everyone should know the companys customer service policies and
procedures. That includes both backstage and front end.

Personal engagement role

If you have a role which in which you have to contact customers personally, you often have to:
Deal with customer complaints efficiently
Receive calls from customers
Understand what information the customer is asking for and
provide correct answers
Use a Call Tracking System (CTS) or Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) system
Create additional sales through good customer service
Help bridge any gaps between a failure of standards and customer
expectations
Keep close track the progress of customer contact activity and, if necessary, change
what you do to match your organisations goals.
Recognise and know how to handle abusive and assertive customers
Contact other departments or sections to solve problems
Organise and prioritise duties, etc.

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1.4 Identify personal performance requirements and expectations in relation

to organisations customer contact objectives
Personal requirements
In order to give good quality customer service, you may need to spend time developing positive
relationships with customers.
You may need to work on basic communication techniques such as:
Smiling and making eye contact
Telephone manner
Positive, open body language
Speaking clearly
Showing patience
Keeping calm if the customer becomes angry and abusive.
You must make sure that you act in a calm, polite and efficient manner with all of the customers that
you encounter.
It is your organisations responsibility to make sure that you get all the training that you need in order to
do your job successfully so that you become a customer service champion.

Activity 1C

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1.5 Identify the major components of the customer contact infrastructure

Customer engagement infrastructure
Customer engagement infrastructure may include:
Systems that distribute calls (Automatic Call Distributor)
Contact management systems
Physical contact centre environment
Information technology networks and software systems
Interactive voice recognition systems
Internet services
Service level and call data reporting systems
Security systems
Telephony equipment
Other centre-specific systems.
An Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) is a telephone facility that manages incoming calls. An ACD handles
the call depending on the phone number which called, and then follows instructions on where to direct
the call. It allows companies offering sales and service support to validate callers making outgoing
responses or calls, forward calls to the right person or department, allow callers to record messages, and
collect usage statistics.

Hardware
A typical customer contact centre would likely have hardware components, such as a Local Area
Network (LAN), desktop computers with various computer systems and software staff, an Automatic Call
Distributor (ACD), predictive dialling facilities, web integration, interactive voice response, fax on
demand, and voice logging and messaging.

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Software
Software is as important as hardware. Software normally includes various systems of Customer
Relationship Management (CRM). This has a number of benefits, such as:
It allows the operators and staff to gather information about a customer online or from
a database.
It can separate your customer information into different categories, which allows
operators to quickly and efficiently collect information by customer type.
It is very important in addressing specific functions such as telemarketing and technical
support, etc.
IVR
Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) is a telephone technology that allows interaction between callers
and a phone system to get information and put it into a database.
These different components are often connected in a single platform.
However, this will depend entirely on the organisation, the size of the operation, the budget and the
overall contact centre objectives.
What does your organisation do?
How does it relate to these suggested major component items?
How do they relate personally to the operations of customer contact?

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1.6 Relate personal operations to customer engagement infrastructure

Personal operational skills
There may be many operational skills that you will need to possess in order to use your organisations
infrastructure systems.
You may also need to remain up to date with certain training skills such as:
Keyboard skills
Computer skills
Telephone skills
Systems knowledge skills such as Microsoft, Windows Office
Written communication and documentation skills.

Activity 1D

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2. Reflect on personal performance

2.1

Recognise and use available resources and support effectively

2.2

Operate within reporting protocols, policies and procedures of customer contact

organisational structure

2.3

Comply with regulatory and legislative requirements

2.4

Identify personal performance requirements and expectations

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2.1 Recognise and use available resources and support effectively

Support structures
There may be many support structures available to you in your work environment including:
Mentors mentors are people who are more experienced than you who can help you.
Managers
Section heads and supervisors
Colleagues.
If you are struggling to achieve objectives, you should find people in your organisation to help you. It is
much better to ask for help than it is to not complete your work, which means your boss will think you
are not a good employee.
However, it is important that you must learn from people and not just allow them to complete your
tasks for you.
There are usually a number of options in your organisation to reflect on your personal performance.
These usually include:
Performance assessment and outcomes
Skills assessment relative to the tasks
Knowledge assessment and training outcomes.
Make sure that you clearly understand your work goals and objectives.
These goals and objectives should match the requirements of the job.

Work goals and personal goals

Make sure you recognise the difference between work goals and personal goals.
Work goals are those which you would need to perform as part of a team or department in your current
organisation.
Personal goals are goals which may help you outside your current job.

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The purpose of setting either work or personal goals in a business can be seen as:
Those you will wish to achieve over a period of time or within a certain set of
parameters
They can be seen as short or long term
They are often part of the job description or the organisations mission statement.
Using these, you can assess your own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
(a SWOT analysis).

Resources
There may be a number of resources available within an organisation that you could use to improve
personal performance.
Training records
Personal development plans
Yearly employment reviews
Feedback from managers and supervisors
Peer review.
To use the resources you decide are best for your circumstances efficiently and effectively may
require:
Practicing using the technology provided, especially if you are not familiar with the
methods available
Taking time to learn the correct procedures

Being realistic about how much time and energy it will take (probably more than you
think)

Using the resources only for the purpose it was designed

Not only using resources if they appear to be the only thing available in the workplace.
Consider a different approach if you think it is more appropriate
Being organised and planning for the use of all resources, especially if the review is over
a long period of time
Prioritising all your workplace actions
Finding out how to get constructive feedback, which is helpful and positive feedback
which shows you how to improve yourself or your work.

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Learning how to handle negative feedback and resolving any problems
Learning how your work performance relates to the team or others involved in your
role.

Activity 2A

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2.2 Operate within reporting protocols, policies and procedures of customer

contact organisational structure
Reporting protocols
Organisations prepare regular monitoring reports to make sure that any necessary action is taken.
Each contact centre supervisor will need to make sure that:
Appropriate arrangements are in place to manage complaint reporting procedures
Reporting follows the agreed templates
It provides suitable information for further advice to analyse complaints records and to
compile statistical data

When information is reported, it should be recorded following the corporate

procedure. This is so that it can become statistics which can be collected and reported
when the organisation needs to do so.

Organisation policies and procedures

A policy can be either:
A voluntary set of principles which show how an organisation operates, or
A compulsory set of rules which it must follow in order to comply with legislation.
Legislation means the laws of a country.
or
A Procedure is a defined step-by-step method for implementing policy or responsibility. They can be
simple or complex, but all staff must follow procedures to make sure they are following company
policies or regulations.
The customer contact centre will be given clear information on the specific job role, organisational
standards and customer care policies. This policy tells staff:
Objectives of the customer contact centre
Who is covered by this policy
Customer contact centre structure
Communication policy
Customer contact centre operations management
OHS (Operational Health and Safety).

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Organisations can show their policies to staff in a number of ways, including:
Set out in an employment agreement or contract

Posted on notice boards

Briefings or staff meetings.

Activity 2B

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2.3 Comply with regulatory and legislative requirements

Regulations and legislation
Regulatory and legislative requirements are a set of policies that an organisation must follow. They
may include:
Code of conduct how staff should behave
Do not call register
Industry-specific regulatory codes and guidelines
OHS
Quality management and assurance
Privacy act
The Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

Do Not Call Register Act

Under the Do Not Call Register Act 2006, it is illegal to make an unsolicited telemarketing call or send an
unsolicited marketing fax to a number on the register. Unsolicited means the person receives the call
with no introduction; they might not know who the company is. For example, a telemarketer working
for Company B may call peoples home phones to try to sell products. The people who received the
phone calls have never heard of Company B before. The call is a surprise to them. An unsolicited phone
call is one where a salesperson calls you although you have had no contact before with them or their
organisation
The Do Not Call Register was developed because many people were concerned that
there were so many unsolicited telemarketing calls.
The register was expanded in May 2010 to
enable all Australian emergency services and
government telephone numbers and all
Australian fax numbers to be registered. When
consumers enter their numbers on the register,
they choose not to receive certain telemarketing
calls or marketing faxes.

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Australian Privacy Act

The Australian Privacy Act protects personal privacy and regulates how personal information is
handled. For example, it covers:
How your personal information is collected (e.g. the personal information you provide
when you fill in a form)
How it is then used and disclosed
Its accuracy
How securely it is kept
Your general right to access that information.

The Competition and Consumer Act 2010

The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 is government legislation that deals with commercial dealings,
such as the transactions between retailers and their suppliers. It also covers competition regulations and
protects consumers.

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)

Organisations are required to make sure that their employees, customers and the general public are
kept healthy and safe.
OHS regulations cover such areas as:
Premises
Machinery
Materials
Working practices
Training and supervision.

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Activity 2C

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2.4 Identify personal performance requirements and expectations

Reflective practice
One way to reflect on your personal practice requirements is to write in a diary.
There may be questions that you may ask yourself, such as:
What is the purpose? What is the purpose of reflecting on my performance and keeping
notes on it?
Isn't my supervisor or HR Department supposed to be doing my review?
If I rate myself too low, do I risk getting a lower review and lower salary increase
because I didn't push for more?
If I rate myself too high, do I look like I think I am better than I really am?
Managers can't possibly remember everything
you have accomplished throughout the year as
well as you can.
When you identify your personal performance
requirements and expectations, you can give this
information to your managers for your
performance appraisal. It is a good idea to make
a list of them when you can.
You may want to include personal expectations
such as personal development, as well as
expectations from your employer.
Additional comments:
Take it seriously. Review them one by one and give yourself a score of 1-5 (5 being the
best) for each item.
At the end, divide your total by the number of items on the list and you will have a good
idea of your overall progress.

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Identify patterns
Once you have an idea of how you are progressing in your evaluation, take a step back and look at the
big picture.
Is there a pattern in how you are approaching your performance requirements and
expectations?
Are there instances or areas you are finding difficult to address?
Are there changes you can make in your workplace performance requirements?

Make changes
Firstly, can you make changes?
If possible, maybe set a timeline for addressing changes such as quarterly or annually

Break large tasks into smaller pieces

When you make and evaluate a timeline, you may see that certain large tasks look very large and
difficult.
Imagine you are writing a book. If you see that completed book in your mind the task from writing the
first word to finishing the last page may look intimidating. However, if you break a book into smaller
parts like this:
Book
Chapters
Pages
Paragraphs
Sentences
Words
Letters
You can see that each is an achievable step on the way to writing the book and the whole task seems
less scary. It is always best to break large tasks down into smaller parts and concentrate on each
individual step.

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Evaluating a timeline
When evaluating a timeline, it may be helpful to:
Evaluate both your private and your workplace time management
Evaluate both long-term and short-term effects that are in each timeline
Some of your larger goals or re-evaluations may take months to achieve so a time
frame is very important to the success of those changes
Dont forget to say clearly on your timeline where you are at the present time
Try mixing short-term goals with your larger plans, or breaking up big goals into smaller
ones which can help you set more achievable benchmarks along the way
Map your progress and compliment yourself as you achieve part way goals.

Update checklist
When you complete tasks on your timeline you might like to consider asking yourself questions such
as:
What did I learn about the task Ive completed?
Is there a way that I could have done things better?
Can I rely on you for assistance when things are difficult?
Am I involved with leading personal performance
requirements, expectations and goals?
Did you complete deliverables for this particular month or
period? (In project management, a deliverable is a product or
service that is given to your client. A deliverable usually has a
due date and is tangible, measurable and specific)
What progress and actions have I taken toward any new goals?
Did I have a management review?
What were some major problems I have overcome?
Is there a next period forecast on one or two of my performance requirements
responsibilities planned?
What do I want to accomplish next?

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Activity 2D

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3. Maintain a professional approach to employment

3.1

Display a positive and ethical approach to employment and role

3.2

Identify realistic short- and long-term career objectives

3.3

Relate personal capabilities to current role and career objectives

3.4

Identify strategies for projecting a professional image in current role

3.5

Contribute to the promotion of the centre, organisation and its staff to customers

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3.1 Display a positive and ethical approach to employment and role

Have a positive outlook
Everybody wants to enjoy their work and not feel like they are not able to progress in their job.
However, its also best to evaluate the effort that you put into your work and maintain a positive
outlook and a professional work ethic.
When things are difficult at work, you should consider:
Making a list of all the positive things your job brings you, even if its just the money
Looking at problems as challenges
Don't waste energy complaining or being negative
Being positive will make you feel better
Negative people see obstacles while positive people look
for solutions
Look to see how you could contribute to turning a situation
around and help fix the problem
Surrounding yourself with items in your workplace which
will help you feel positive
Take advantage of the organisations resources
Give yourself small rewards.

Ethical systems
Ethics are guiding values, principles and standards that help people determine how things should be
done.
In an organisation they include:
The policies, codes, management structures and processes an organisation makes in
order to encourage appropriate behaviour
A core value in workplace behaviour
Conducting ourselves ethically has great rewards and returns
Being ethical is essential to fixing problems and improving processes
Baseline measures needed to increase efficiencies
Personal guidelines to enhance strong working relationships with people.

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Hiding unethical behaviour does the opposite of these practices and slows down an individuals ability to
grow within the workplace.
Ethics applies to an employee, a self-employed person, working on a career, small or large enterprise,
professional business, company, or partnership.
Imagine how difficult it is to work with people if you are not totally sure they are honest. Making ethical
decisions is easy when the facts are clear and the choices are black and white.
But it is a different story when the situation has incomplete information, multiple points of view and
conflicting responsibility.
People often think that business and professional ethics are different to management structures and
strategic thinking.
Successful organisations always put ethical thinking into their various structures and make it part of
their planning.

Unprofessional conduct
Your employer may not define for you exactly what being professional means, but most people know
from life experience how to get labelled as unprofessional.
Common unprofessional traits are:
Finishing tasks or projects late or being unprepared
when attending meetings and spending time
gossiping at work are all obvious signs of an
unprofessional mind set
Treating colleagues with disrespect
Not observing common courtesy
Plagiarising (copying without permission) work
done by colleagues or associates
Saying one thing and then doing the complete opposite

Breaking promises regularly.

Behaving like a professional can simply mean doing what it takes to make others think of you as reliable,
respectful, and competent.
Depending on where you work and the type of job you have, being professional can take many
different forms, such as:
Competence: showing your ability to use the skills and knowledge that allow you to do
your job well

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Reliability: showing that people can rely on you to complete tasks that are assigned to
you, and doing what you say you will do. This includes showing up on time for meetings
and submitting your work on time, etc.
Honesty: make sure you are honest in your work.
Integrity: showing that you are consistent in your work and when you work with other
people
Respect for others: treating colleagues and
management with respect and making them feel part
of your professional approach
Keep updated: rather than letting your skills or
knowledge become outdated, you seek out ways of
staying current
Supporting others: share the spotlight with colleagues,
take time to show others how to do things properly,
and listen to people when necessary
Remain focused: not letting your private life needlessly
have an impact on your job, and not spending time at
work attending to personal matters
Listening skills: people want to be heard, so you give people a chance to explain their
ideas properly.

Activity 3A

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3.2 Identify realistic short and long-term career objective

Objectives
Identifying career objectives that deal with your ambitions, interests, preferences, values and aptitudes
are referred to as conceptual.
Those that fit within a specific job role or task that you set for yourself and
contain the steps needed to achieve your conceptual objective are operational
objectives.
Consider conceptual objectives as the career destination and the operational
objectives as a pathway to achieve them.
Objectives can be broken down into:
Short-term targets
Long-term objectives.

Short term targets

These are usually intermediate steps or things that you can do in a short period of time.
Your short-term targets should support your long-term objectives, so you should constantly compare
them to make sure they match.
Some examples of short-term conceptual goals may include:
Getting more responsibility in a current position
Increasing your education to make you more qualified for a new role.
Applying for a new entry-level position in your organisation with the long term
objective of management ambitions.
Your short-term operational plan would need to include the small steps of your career
that you can focus on day to day.
When it comes to actually deciding on your short term goals, make sure that they are realistic and
hopefully achievable and that they work for you.

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Long term objectives

Generally, when you consider a long term plan, it includes things you hope to accomplish in the distant
future, maybe in five years or more.
Break these down into two parts:
1. Conceptual
2. Operational
Conceptual long term objectives are general and will focus on your wants and needs, and operational
objectives are the specific steps you take to meet those wants and needs.
Conceptual objectives
Think about your long-term conceptual career objectives; they may include:
What do I enjoy doing?
What am I good at?
What characteristics of a job are important to me?
What skills do I need to have in order to achieve my
long-term objectives?
What knowledge do I need?
What industry should I focus my attention on?
In long term planning you may also consider things like:
If you want to work from home
If you want a job in a creative career
If you want to have your own business
If you want to achieve a degree or diploma.

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Operational objectives:
Long-term operational objectives may include specific information about what types of
jobs or roles will help you to achieve your conceptual targets
For example, if your conceptual objective is to work in a creative industry, then you
should set your long term operational objectives within an advertising or marketing
career
If you are already in a job role and are looking to advance your career, think about what
specific role you would like to achieve or plan for
Maybe you have also just graduated from further study and want to apply for
advancement or longer term career
improvements.

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3.3 Relate personal capabilities to current role and career objectives

Personal capabilities
These are attributes which describe the ways in which people manage themselves and their
relationships with others in the workplace, and may include:
Attitudes
Behaviour
Skills which demonstrate good practices as well as ability.
Capabilities are also those skills defined in the task or job description that each person agrees with when
they are hired.
Strategy
The organisation analyses the environment, competition, customer
needs and your own strengths and weaknesses. This usually
generates a plan that assists in determining how resources should be
distributed to reach identified goals.
Structure
Structure is how the separate parts of the organisation are all tied
together with individuals, which forms a pattern of status and
control.
This is sometimes viewed differently if the organisation is centralised
or decentralised. (A centralised organisational structure means that
decisions are often made in a central location, such as a head office or a regional office, which may be in
a different city or even a different country. A decentralised organisational structure means that
decisions are made locally by employees who generally operate in a flatter organisational structure with
more autonomy.)

Individual and team performance

When an organisation examines individual and team performances they may look at areas such as:
Protocols on how to resolve conflicts

The mix of staff members experience and capabilities. For instance, a more senior team
member surrounded by inexperienced team members will be expected to mentor and
share experience. A salesperson who does not do this has not been performing well if
this was expected, even if they have exceeded their sales targets

How different teams in the organisation are separated, perhaps by education, discipline
or work.

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The most important demographics of the staff in the organisation. Demographics
means key information about age, gender, nationality and other factors about people.
The most important selection criteria and promotion factors based on capabilities
Who the role models and mentors are
Behavioural patterns and common traits of employees, managers and the organisation
as a whole.

Shared values
Shared values are the significant meanings or central beliefs of an organisation. These values influence
its staff and stakeholders.
Also, these values often tell people the organisations attitude toward quality, financial objectives and
employees.
They may also include the values or demonstrated roles the organisation demonstrates when serving
the local community.

Activity 3B

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3.4 Identify strategies for projecting a professional image in current role

Professional image
Showing the correct professional image may involve:
How you look and dress
Commitment to customer service
Commitment to team and centre goals
How you communicate
Positive and ethical attitude.

Image strategies
It is helpful to consider what level of professionalism is appropriate for your organisation or personal
image and plan a strategy accordingly.
Elements for this may include:
Networking
Communication manner
Interpersonal skills and written skills
Demonstrating a positive mental attitude
Being confident
Being aware of body language and facial
gestures
Choosing words carefully
Using the right voice tone
Displaying a cooperative attitude to everyone you work with and with customers
Dress standards
Taking ownership of your mistakes.

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Activity 3C

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3.5 Contribute to the promotion of the centre, organisation and its staff to
customers
Marketing policy
Organisations have a number of different ways of looking at marketing and promotional policies. There
may not be a specific plan or there might be an overall organisation marketing policy.
One format of a plan may look something like this:

Market
research
Customer
service

Advertising

Sales

Promotions

Public
Relations

Promotions
Promotions are events that encourage your customers to do something. In this case, it is to use your
customer contact centre services.
Promotional activities or strategies may include:
Client days
Receptions
Promotional discounts
Product launches
Attending trade shows, conferences and other events

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Developing and giving out general promotional and informational materials
Developing and giving out samples, case studies, testimonials and other evidence of
enterprise activity
Developing displays and signs
Developing media releases, articles and media
background information
Information sessions for clients, suppliers and
stakeholders
Online information
Telephone promotions.
Your personal contribution to promotions may involve:
Staying in contact with customers regularly
Building relationships with your customers.
Asking customers if they want to be updated by e-mail on services you provide
Being a part of a customer focus groups
Suggesting ways of making it easy for your customers to navigate on your web site
Providing a section for customer feedback
Gathering details such as exit surveys
Resolving your customer questions successfully and efficiently.

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Activity 3D

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4. Participate in a workplace team

4.1

Identify team member roles and team structure

4.2

Interact cooperatively with team members

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4.1 Identify team member roles and team structure

Teamwork
A team is defined as: A small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a
common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually
accountable.
Large teams of fifty or more are usually divided into smaller teams of around five to ten members. The
reason for this is that larger numbers of people have trouble communicating effectively.
For example, a bakery team within a supermarket could be divided into:
Bakery manager
Supervisor
Bakers
Packers.

Addressing issues within a team

There are many reasons why teams are brought together to address issues. In
promoting innovation in a team environment, the first stage is to determine why they are meeting.
What do they need to discuss?
Examples may include:
Addressing particular customer feedback
Thinking about and then creating a particular project
Developing new services or products
Creating ongoing ideas within the work unit
Improving your teams ability to stay within a budget.
Improving or changing work conditions
New ideas that impact outside the workplace; perhaps in the community.

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Team members may also be brought together to raise questions such as:
How much work is involved with a specific task?
Will we get the task done on time?
Do we need to make alterations to schedules?
Does anybody in the team need training?
How can we achieve harmony within the team?
What improvements can we make?
How are we going to divide up tasks?

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4.2 Interact cooperatively with team members

Interact cooperatively with team members
Team members must have an environment in which everyone shares their knowledge. Information
sharing is an essential process because it allows team members to swap ideas and use all their
resources.

W.I.S.H team review

The W.I.S.H team review process is a way to analyse your team that gives you an accurate view of how
your team functions. This tool is very important to help your team grow and develop.
W.I.S.H. stands for:
WELL Looking at what you do WELL as a Team
IMPROVE Looking at what needs to be IMPROVED in your team.
STRATEGY What STRATEGY do you need to develop to improve your teamwork
HOW HOW are we going to implement the strategy?
The personal elements you may need to consider when implementing any strategy may consist of:
Your attitude

Your skills

Your communication

Your abilities

Your level of co-operation

Your compatibility.

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Interpersonal skills
Interpersonal skills are those which enable:

effective communication

the management of any conflict within the team, and

a common understanding of purpose and function.

These may include:

Risk taking
Helpful criticism
Objectivity
Active listening
Believe the person
Support or recognising the needs of others.
A team simply wont work without these basic skill components. The challenge for any team is to find
the correct balance between selection based on existing skills and those, which might be developed as a
result of team membership.

Activity 4A

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Skills and Knowledge Activity

Nearly there...

Major Activity An opportunity to revise the unit

At the end of your Learner Workbook, you will find an activity titled Major Activity. This is an
opportunity to revise the entire unit and allows your trainer to check your knowledge and
understanding of what you have covered.
It should take between and 1-2 hours to complete and your trainer will let you know whether they wish
for you to complete it in your own time or during session.
Once this is completed, you will have finished this unit and be ready to move onto the next, well done!

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Congratulations!

You have now finished the unit BSBCUE205 Prepare for work in a customer contact environment.

References
These suggested references are for further reading and do not necessarily represent the contents of
this learner guide:

Call Centre Management on Fast Forward: Succeeding in Today's Dynamic Customer Contact
Environment (2nd Edition) [Paperback], Brad Cleveland (Author)

The Complete Guide to Performance Appraisal [Hardcover], Dick Grote (Author)

The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role [Hardcover],
Terry L. Cooper (Author)

Just a Job?: Communication, Ethics, and Professional Life [Paperback], George Cheney (Author),
Daniel J. Lair (Author), Dean Ritz (Author), Brenden E. Kendall (Author)

Harvard Business Review on Building Better Teams [Paperback], Harvard Business Review
(Author)

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable [Hardcover], Patrick Lencioni (Author)