Misunderstood Activity
Some students have difficulties understanding and applying principles of customer service. For many, the assumption made is that we just need “to be nice to people, and smile.”
The foundation of this principle is that businesses determine its own basic foundations of what customer service is, how it will be delivered, and, more importantly, how these principles are integrated into all their strategic planning, including the development and training of staff. Customer service should always be proactive instead of reactive.
I work with students to consider how they would set up a personal get-together at home for friends and new acquaintances they have met from school. Questions to considered would include:
- How do you want your guests to feel?
- What would they take into consideration to make their guests feel welcome?
- What would they do differently if they were hosting people they had never met before, What would change? What would stay the same?
It is here where students are considering their own set of principles, we can then, as a class identify why there must be consistency in how businesses determine their “customer service” as a competitive advantage.
I then use the example of airlines that were grounded during Christmas 2022 winter storm. Using news footage we explored how customer service represenatives were dealing with passengers who were understandably frustrated with the situation, and yet, the agents were not able to resolve the “weather situation.” Students are then put into groups to do role-play activities where they take turns being agents dealing with various types of customers – angry, generally patient, etc.
These two book end activities allow students to broaden their own personal understanding of customer service and then begin to see how it should be developed within organizations.
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