Customer Care And Service

customer care and service

 

main aims of the unit

The main aim of this unit is to introduce learners to the key aspects of customer care and provide the knowledge and skills necessary for understanding how to provide customer care and service in the hospitality business environment.

 

learning outcomes for the unit

Upon successful completion of the course students will be able to:

• Appreciate the application of customer care and service strategies in different hospitality and tourism organisations
• Explain the management systems and policies needed for effective customer care and service.
• Provide an account of how staff attitudes, awareness and training contribute to planned customer care and service systems.
• Describe methods of obtaining customer opinion and how the results are used to improve customer care and service within an organisation.
• Explain the major ethical issues which arise when dealing with customers
• Describe the approaches used to develop an effective customer focus

Learning and teaching methods/strategies used to enable the achievement of learning outcomes:

Learning takes place on a number of levels through lectures, class discussion including problem review and analysis. Formal lectures provide a foundation of information on which the student builds through directed learning and self managed learning outside of the class. The students are actively encouraged to form study groups to discuss course material which fosters a greater depth learning experience.

 

entry requirements

• Certificate in Tourism and Hospitality
• An approved Certificate or Diploma in a relevant area of study
• An approved training or vocational certificate in the area of hospitality and/or tourism

Relevant experience is taken into consideration for students 21 years of age and over who have not completed any formal qualifications.

 

Exemptions

Exemptions are on a subject-for-subject basis and may be awarded at the discretion of the awarding body provided applicants already possess a relevant qualification at an appropriate academic level.

 

main topics of study

introduction to customer care

• Service in a competitive environment
• Changing nature of customer service
• Customer retention
• Personal versus material service
• Contact centres
• The internet
• Social networking
• Customer relationship management
• Service/value chain
  
  

listening to customers

• Monitoring complaints and compliments
• Value of listening to customers
• Monitoring customer satisfaction
• Measuring customer loyalty
• Recognising achievement
• Canvassing the views of other stakeholders
• Best practice benchmarking
  
  

Empowerment, Ownership and the Internal Customer

• Marketing service strategy
• Service recovery and empowerment
• Employee engagement
• Internal customer needs
• Process improvement
• Standards and charters
• Service-level agreements
• Suggestion schemes
  
  

 Training and Development for Customer Service

• Importance of training and development in customer service
• Training and development objectives
• Training and development for managers
• Customer service training for front line and support staff
  
  

Recognition, Reward and Sustaining Customer Focus

• Motivation
• Performance management
• Developing a reward and recognition scheme
• Problems in sustaining customer focus
• Developing a communication strategy
• Effective internal communications
• Developing a maintenance strategy
• Reviewing progress
• Reinforcement
  
  

indicative reading for this unit

main text

Customer Care Excellence: How to Create an Effective Customer Focus

S. Cook 6th edition (Kogan Page)

alternative text and further reading

Effective Customer Care P. Wellington (Kogan Page)

 

guideline for teaching and learning time

(10 HOURS PER CREDIT)

50 hours - lectures / seminars / tutorials / workshops:

Tutorial support includes feedback on assignments and may vary by college according to local needs and wishes.

50 hours - directed learning:

Advance reading and preparation / Class preparation / Background reading / Group study / Portfolio / Diary etc

100 hours - self managed learning:

Working through the course text and completing assignments as required will take up the bulk of the learning time. In addition students are expected to engage with the tutor and other students and to undertake further reading using the web and/or libraries.

 

assessment methods

Final Examination: 70%

Coursework: 30%