I have undertaken a 2-week work- experience in a very successful large size business organization of John Lewis. The John Lewis store is the only store, which is located in the City Centre the store is also situated in the tertiary sector. As the store is situated in the city centre this means it is accessible to the entire city. John Lewis is also seen to be known as a department store because it sells anything from clothes to electrical, home to clothes etc. also the these departments are all seen to be under one roof.
The department store consists of 4 very large sized floors split up in to departments. Each floor has between 4-7 departments. The floor that I worked on was the (LG) the lower ground floor, which held 6 departments which where home-ware, toiletries, home accessories, lighting, men’s clothing, gardening and home decorating. Each department specialises in each product e. g. Home decorating- paints, wallpapers, borders, etc. Lighting department- outdoor lights, bulbs, indoor lights, wall lights etc.
John Lewis provides services, which are available to the customers there are: Customer service is important to this organisation, this is because to attract and also bring back customers in order for the business to succeed. If customers have been treated well in store they may pass the word around to there friends, relatives etc. This will draw more customers to the store. Methodology My aim is to undertake a 2-week work experience at John Lewis in order to help with my course work. The information will be collected through different methods.
I was going to collect the information by producing questionnaires, but my department manager agreed not to take this further, as some customers may not prefer to be asked questions. I will also do some observation around my department as this will improve my understanding of how customers are dealt with, as well as my own experience, which I already have, as i worked for John Lewis before. I will also need to undertake an interview with my department manager and discuss the main points which I will need to know for my course work.
Internal and external customers In the John Lewis store the internal ; external customers are seen to be as the internal are the employees in the business e. g. the staff. The external are the customers who use the store for shopping etc. The (internal customer’s) employees in John Lewis are to provide a good service to the external customers. The roles and expectations may include all the managers to co-operate with each other, in order to make a good service for the external customer’s e. g. me and you. This is shown through the organisation structure:
Organisation Structure The employers are responsible to providing good customer service shown by the store customer service standards. Every selling partner must be able to say what minimum standards are expected of them, before becoming a partner you must do a 5 hour induction which covers all aspects of customer service, health and safety etc. The offensive weapons act is also mentioned in the induction, as for the partners to be aware because it is illegal to sell knife or blade to anyone under the age of 16.
All partners must ask if in doubt for proof of identification if the customer is under the illegal age. The induction also includes a 1-hour tour around each floor in store showing the fire exit doors and what to do when the alarm sounds. Health and safety is also included in the induction, as well as the health ; safety policy. A further induction must be taken if you want to use the till as a cashier, this induction is mainly of the buttons and features which will have to be used in order to make a transaction/sale. The main customer service standards expected of all employees are:
The customers should be acknowledged within 2 minutes of entering the department, this could mean a smile to the customer of greeting by mouth. All departments should have a clear identifiable customer service manager, the manager should give help to customers when the number of customers outnumber the numbers of partners.
On each department the customer service manager can be recognised with a gold plated badge which holds customer service manager. Cashiers must use the customers name, as where the customer identifies themselves e. g. my credit card, John Lewis account card, through filling up a order form etc.
The employees normally have a 1-hour induction session at the end of every 2-3 day discussing ; correcting their job roles. The induction will normally include a half an hour video, which shows what steps to take if a customer is a suspicious type etc. The employees must also dress by their set guidelines, this is because to show respect to the customers and also to be easily identified to the customer as a partner of John Lewis.
The male selling partners must wear as it includes in the guidelines (main points): * Suits must be medium or dark grey, navy or black * Shits must be in white, ivory/cream (not yellow) or pastel blue * Jewellery can be worn but should be inconspicuous e. g. no more than one stud in each ear and no visible piercing jewellery other than in earlobs. John Lewis wants their partners to look smart to their customers, as-well as use the partners entrance, which is seen at the far back of the building as this one of the roles of customer service for all partners. Dealing with complaints
John Lewis wants to keep their customers happy and satisfied in order to do this the business must take the complaints further e. g. making the problem right through changes which may be undertook in each of the stores departments. If a complaint is not dealt with then the business will not succeed and the customers will not feel satisfied, the customers may use word of mouth to pass the bad news on to at least 9 other friends or relatives. The John Lewis store deals with complaints fully, the procedure they take when a complaint comes through to the department is shown through my diagram:
The procedure, which each department takes when a complaint is made at each department, must follow these procedures as seen above set by the business. But if its only a very miner complaint then the department can deal with it instead of going through all these procedures. Customer records John Lewis holds records of purchases made by customers, this is kept through all the following payment methods: (When these records are used they automatically update the computerised system, this way John Lewis will be able to hold up to date information on its customers. )
