REPORT ON EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE COURSE ORGANISED BY

MDS & INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FUND (IKEJA AREA OFFICE, LAGOS) ON

30TH – 31ST MARCH 2011
The course commenced with the introduction of the Industrial Training Fund Management
staffs, the facilitators and the participants from three companies namely MDS, IMHG and
DANGOTE. The training served as a refresher of the broaden knowledge on Fundamentals of
Customer Service, how to Increase Customers Satisfaction, Loyalty and Retention, Setting and
Achieving Goals, Handling Complaints and Mastering Difficult Situations, Developing wining
work Ethics and Attitude.

Fundamentals of Customer Service

Who is a customer?

Since a Customer is a king, or that person who is loyal to us as an organization or individual and
could be that person who regularly or repeatedly purchase our goods and services ( the lifeline
of our business); therefore they should be treated as the only appreciating assets which needs
to be served and managed with care. Having a closed look at the Customers gave us four types
namely:

 Internal Customers. These are colleague, immediate boss, management and share-
holder who buy our goods or services.
 External Customers. They are existing purchasers, prospects, regulatory authorities and
suppliers who enjoy our services.
 One off Customers. They are occasional customers who hardly use the
products/services
 Repeat-customers: They are the loyal, satisfied customers who know current
happenings within the Organization and form above 60% of the company’s actual
customers with good opinion about the company’s products and services.

However, since the customers wanted to buy good feelings, solution to problems and quality
service at the right price, it is necessary to :
 Increasingly be in charge of service encounter.
 Constantly seek solutions to customer complaints/ problems.
 Be unable to take quality service for granted.

Moreover, personal characteristics and qualities of a service provider required

1 Professional appearance (neatness)

2 Courteous and helpful

3 Enthusiasm and dedication

4 Friendly /helpful attitude

5 Willingness to help

6 Respect

What are the Customer expectations from us?

When relating with the customers, be aware of the following expectations from them. They are:

1 Personal characteristics and qualities

2 Communication skills

3 Technical skills

Participants or Service provider must be fully aware of the right response to all challenges from
the customers and be technical in handling difficult problems. When communicating the
customer expects us to be skillful. The following step serves as guideline.

i Don`t just hear, listen and understand.

Ii Make customer feel important and welcome.

iii Be polite and calm/patient.

iv Allow them to be in charge

v They must be appreciated.

vi Put on pleasant countenance (send positive vibes).

N.B : When delivering a service, the customer must always be put in mind

Increasing customers Satisfaction, Loyalty and Retention

These have to do with the following four steps of excellent customer service in order of their
priority. They are:

I Meeting all customers needs and expectation.

ii Satisfying or delighting the customer in order to win his /her loyalty.

iii Exceeding the customers` expectation.

iv Going extra mile even when it is not convenient.

When the steps above are orderly maintained, it is said to have reached the pyramid for the
customers.

Another method of increasing customer satisfaction is through competitive advantage. This can
be defined as existing features too difficult for competitors to replicate.

Service provider should know that the heart of competitive advantage is neither technology nor
super information system but listening to customer, understanding his/her needs or complaint
and basing business decisions on their information. This makes the customer feel important and
a true stakeholder of your company. It is understandable that the ability to learn faster than
your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.

Customer loyalty could be obtained through the method of rater.

R – Stands for reliability. This is by keeping to promises, doing things right the first time.

A – Stands for assurance. This is making the customer feel safe in dealing with you by being
thoroughly professional and ethical.

T – Stands for tangible. This describes the appearance of the goods/services provided, the
personnel appearance and the facilities available.

E – This talks about our empathy. This explains how to go extra mile for the customer.

R – This is all about our responsiveness. The ability to respond toward enquiries and complaint
professionally in a timely fashion. Since anything that strengthens our relationship with an
existing customer increases the revenue we gets from such customer, it is then necessary to:

1 Massage customers` ego in form of complaint.

2 Celebrate with them.

3 Treat them as king/queen

4 Avoid complacency

5 Create value for them.

6 Maintain a sustainable long term relationship.

How to Set and Achieve Goals

What is a Goal? This is a dream with deadline or the ongoing pursuit of a worthy objective

when accomplished. Many people fail in life not for lack of ability or brains or even courage but

simply because they never organized their energies around a goal. Goal keeps one headed in

the right direction. There are two types of Goals namely Short Term and Long term Goals.

The combinations of an accomplished short term goals formed an accomplished long term goal.

Be aware that without goal there will be no progress for an individual and any organization,

however if a particular goal was no accomplished between the stipulated period, it must not

discourage the pursuers as goals are set to be pursued to enable us not to feel relaxed since

whatever one accomplished in life is a manifestation not so much of what is done but of what is

believed deeply within oneself that is deserved.

Handling Complaints and Mastering Difficult Situations.

Martha Washington says I am still determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I
may be; for I have learnt from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery
depends on our dispositions and not upon our circumstances. It is often said , that a customer
complaint is a special gift to individual or organization especially when handled professionally
and satisfactorily. The customer who brings complaint is interested in the services rendered
but wants more improvements. Because of the interest the customer had in the service
provider, he/she will open up so as to make you know what is expected to keep the business
rolling.

Providing solutions to complaint from the customer must be done skillfully and professionally
to the satisfaction of the complainer through the following steps:

I Acknowledging the complaint promptly

ii Apologize where necessary

iii Do not take it personal and probe into it.

iv Establish stand points and obtain data

It is not expected of us to give up for complaint because the best and very profitable customers
are hard to please.

Developing Wining Work Ethics and Attitude

A write up from Williams James says, The greatest discovery of my generation is that human
being can altar his life by altering his attitude and since attitude are contagious, are yours
worth catching? It is noticeable that attitude could be developed by considering the following
factors.

1 By copying others who are deemed to be an imparted leaders positively in a given

organization or society whose character is preferred among others.

2 From a person past experience.

3 From a particular way of thinking

4 By a person reacting to a given situation in a pre-determined way

Norman Vincent says, Become a possibilitarian, no matter how dark things seem to be or
actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities, always see them for they are always there.

Furthermore, people of innovative ideas, possibilitarians according to Norman Vincent, Goal

accomplishment pursuers, result oriented with positive attitude are expected to be a group
working with one mind of achieving their set goals which in return will produce an everlasting
progress for their organization. This group of people is called a team. Their motivated act of
pursuing and accomplishing a set goal is referred to as team spirit. Therefore for success in any
organization, a team is needed where the team spirit must be activated for achievement of a
given goal.

In conclusion, with a view of corporate analysis considering Knowledge, Hardwork and Attitude,
it is mathematically proved beyond any doubt that positive attitude is very important for
corporate survival and imperative in the delivery of an excellent customer service as well as an
effective team building. The positive attitude from an oriented team will make an excellent
change while combination of excellent changes produces the required difference in goals
accomplishing. Have a look at the table below considering Knowledge, Hardwork and Attitude.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

KNOWLEDGE = 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

HARDWORK = 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

ATTITUDE = 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

Considering the above table, an excellent customer service required a positive attitude to
maintain a long term customer relationship regardless the knowledge acquired and how hard
we could work.

At the end of the training, it is observed by me that I can do all things if I put on the positive
attitude to maintain an excellent customer service which could yield a hundred percent
progress and profit oriented to MDS Logistics at large. I would like to recommend that this kind
gesture of training should be activated periodically for category of staffs and management.

Thanks to the management.

From:Babayemi Oyeniyi.

MDS Ibadan Main Depot