Keeping the Customers Satisfied

Shelly Sanders has just been promoted to supervisor of the home furnishing department of the large department store where she works. The store manager made it clear to her that her first challenge was to turn around the poor performance of the department, particularly in sales, which were below budget, and customer satisfaction. The department receives more complaints than any other in the store (although it rates about average in the chain).

Dissatisfied customers contribute to a poor reputation in the community, which translates into poor sales. Shelly decides she needs to learn about the department’s current customers and find out how they feel about purchasing from it. Her first move is to check the department’s information on repeat business. There is none.

Next, she hunts out the department’s customer suggestions and complaints records to analyse and finds a notebook of scrawled customer comments and queries- all negative. Wondering how valid the information is, but realising she probably won’t find anything better, she draws up a check sheet to break down complaints and suggestions by frequency and type. Then she transfers the data onto Pareto charts and finds that the most common cause of customer dissatisfaction is problems with the delivery of furniture customers have ordered.

On investigation, she finds that, when furniture is ordered, the manufacturer quotes a lead time, which sales staff pass on to their customers. The manufacturer is often late with delivery. In turn, manufacturers often blame their suppliers for late delivery of raw materials,

However, because the store has no tracking system, the first the staff in the furnishings department hear of a problem is when customers ring up to complain that their order is overdue and ask when they can expect delivery. The staff then have to search through back orders, check with suppliers to find out the new delivery date and ring the customer back. This is time consuming and creates ill will between customers and the store. It’s also difficult for the staff to find the time to track down late orders, since their priority is meant to be serving customers and ensuring the display area is well presented.

(Reference: Cole,K (2010).Management: theory and practice)

Based on this case study, assume you are a customer service staff and answer the following questions:

Outline the concept of internal and external customers; provide examples using this case study.

List the internal and external customer’s needs of the home furnishing department.

Outline how you will identify the customer’s needs?

Identify the causes for the customer service problem in the home furnishing department.

Provide suggestions to improve the customer service at home furnishing department.

“Quality customer service adds value”. Using this case study as an example, discuss this statement.

Develop policies and procedures to avoid any delay in delivering furniture to customers.

Explain how you will ensure customer’s requirements are met? Provide a strategy.

What lessons can you learn from this case study?