The company keeps these records because it can target its customers with promotions. These Records are also kept by the business in order for the selves in each department to be up to date and for orders on products. The company also holds records of products being returned to the store so 1 less order can be made for future ordering on that particular product, records are kept on refunds for security purposes. An analysis of the customer service provided by the organisation
Examples of the type of customer service used on each department are the customer must be acknowledged within 2 minutes of entering your department this can be by a smile or greeted. Each partner on each department must wear the correct clothing followed by the dressing guidelines. The customers name must be mentioned if the customers identifies themselves. The company policy is very good as if something goes wrong in a department; there are procedures to be followed.
Training is also offered for the new partners, which is a part of the policy to all new partners to have the right training for there job role. Monitoring is also part of the policy for new partners. On the departments the new partners are monitored by the manager of that job role e. g. if you are a sales man than you would be monitored by the customer service manager on that department. This is done to help the staff with improvements, which could be made, to provide a better service. Partners when answering a phone call from customers must also mention a greeting as well as your name and the department.
I think the main strength in the business is the way the staff perform to the customer e. g. in a good manner, polite etc. But on the other hand the main point for improvement would be to employ more staff on each department, as there sometimes doesn’t seem to be enough staff around when the customer needs help. So this leaves the customer with no other choice but to wait, until staff are free with other customers. This waists time for the customer as he will have to wait and also the customer and sale might be lost because of this reason.
But there is a disadvantage to this improvement as if there was more staff employed than there is already now, than the prices of products may rise to pay for these extra staff. Therefore some customers may be lost and not very many sales would be made. The other improvement, which could be made, is to have more stock of products or to order stock just before it runs out. This is because on the department I worked on gardening, lawn- mowers where most of the times out of stock. When customers wanted the product they would have had to wait of up to 2-weeks.
This put many people off the product therefore sales where lost. I think generally that the customer service is very good at John Lewis, as I was on the home decorating department a lady wanted a refund on a lawn mower that she just purchased a week ago. The lawn mower had not been used therefore she was entitled to a full refund, which she received straight away with no hesitation by the customer service manager, following the refunds procedure set out to each and every department, the lady left happy because of the service that was offered to her.
I also feel customer service is good at John Lewis as the partners address the customer in a very polite and well manner. E. g. A lady was asking for paint brushes, John a member of staff on my department pointed out to her that they would be found on the home decorating department and even showed her the way their and explained to her the different sizes of paint brushes, which where available. The woman thanked him for his help and this would always be remembered by customers as a good service and may return with friend’s etc.
John Lewis deals with complaints through its procedure. The legal constraints affecting the customer service situation on the computing department is that John Lewis can only install for you owned copies of software. Also disc/ media can not be installed for the customer if they dount belong to the customer. Also the department is not responsible for any data lost, we advise to back up your data. The other legal constraints applying to all departments in the store is products if needed to be returned, must be returned within 28 days of purchase.
Refunds or returns will not be accepted on certain items, which have been opened and used e. g. CD, DVD, Tapes etc. My experience of customer service The way I communicated with customers was in with good manner, very polite and also offering them as much information as I could. But some information or questions to answers I couldn’t give as I new nothing about the product. Therefor I explained to the customer I was on work- experience and don’t know much about the product. I then offered the customer if they wanted help from another member of staff.
I also dealt with small complaints e. g. refund wanted or exchange etc. In most cases I apologised to the customer for the faulty goods and asked them if they would prefer a full refund or an exchange. In some cases I offered the customer with a free tea or coffee voucher for apologies from the department, which the customer was happy with. I gave a refund to the customer because a refund has to be given on a faulty product. But refund can’t/ doesn’t have to be given after a purchase on the product of 28 days.
